IAT 410 Game Concept Nordic Fury

Stefan Dalen Kelvin Leung Satbir Rai Jason Bergunder Howard Zhang Overview

Our game is a two dimensional (possibly 2.5D) side-scrolling platformer game. The character moves across the stages, destroying the obstacles and enemies present.

Player progression in both the story and enemies slain will affect the appearance of the character, the types of enemies encountered, and the theme of the levels.

The goal is to complete the levels without dying and with as many points as possible, which can be gained by killing zombies and achieving combos.

Our game could be classified as hack-n-slash/platformer for the mobile device. The mobile platform works in it favor with the level design, since people often only play mobile games for a few minutes.

The unique aspect of our game is that it takes the automatic movement found in some other mobile games and combines it with the hack-n-slash genre. Player Description

With our video game concept, we envision that the target audience will be males between the ages of 14 and 23.

The art style and simplicity of the controls should make the game fairly easy to grasp for any age. However, the difficulty of the game should appeal more to the older gamer.

The specific gamer types which our video game would appeal to are probably the Daredevil and Achiever types.

Daredevil: the pace of the game increases as the player gains score multipliers, quickly making the game about reflexes and not about thinking critically.

Achiever: completing the different tiers of avatar and difficulty levels would likely be the appealing aspect of this game. Gameplay and Structure

Since the platform of choice will be mobile devices, we will thus have one button on each side of the screen for game actions, and if needed can use the internal gyro sensors for additional control. This will keep the controls of the game as simple as possible.

Based on our storyline, the protagonist gains power as he progresses through the campaign and levels. In terms of our game, this translates into new (temporary) avatars for the protagonist and increased score multipliers.

The game world is designed to feel like an apocalyptic setting which the protagonist is situated in. To do this, we plan to pair the game with rundown environments and broken spaces. Prototyping

We plan to draw out sketches of the main character (and his multiple forms), enemy designs, and environmental and level designs. A storyboard and a flipbook animation may also help with envisioning how the characters may move.

We will draw the sprites using pixel art or create them with vectors. A color scheme could also be established in the art to help set the tone and the atmosphere of our game.

Once we do some sketches, we will turn them into silhouettes and ask some friends what they think the characters are. If we have drawn successful character designs, the people we ask should have some idea as to whether or not the characters are some sort of enemy, a hero, etc.

We will be using a 2D compatible game engine to develop the game such as Unity or Flash. Before implementing actual characters we will use primitives to test our code. Mechanics Core Mechanics: - Constantly side-scrolling level (will be either 2D or 2.5D) - Player attacks and combos (touch screen virtual button pushes) - Player jumping (touch screen gestures)

Secondary Mechanics: - 3 hit points, lost upon running into enemies, making mistakes in combinations, etc. - Score multiplier, when the player reaches a certain amount of points received without losing life or dying, the character will change his appearance to indicate an increased score multiplier. Larger multipliers will give the character more substance in flesh and muscles, making him more intimidating. Eventually, reaching a maximum multiplier that makes the appearance of the character god-like. - Checkpoints, when the player dies, they will respawn at the beginning of the level or at a certain point depending on difficulty. - Combos, at certain points in the level (mini-boss, quicktime event, instances) the player will be prompted to quickly follow instructions using the mobile devices touch screen to continue past the obstacle. Problems Justification

Our team’s design concept is based off of games like The platformer genre on mobiles is already a very Line Runner or Robot Unicorn Attack, however, our successful formula, and our design is unique in the fact design features combat mechanics and a variety of that the character transforms, reflecting how well the enemy/level designs. It is an easy to understand genre player is doing, giving them feedback in an interesting of game, making it very simple to pick up and play. way that does not break immersion. Problems

Potential Problems: - The mobile game market is quite saturated with platformers, the game must be exceptional in some aspects. - In terms of art, the game may not be as friendly to certain sections of the market. - Difficulty that is not overly frustrating while also providing a moderate challenge and satisfaction.

Potential Risks: - Aspects of our game have been done before in other mobile games, albeit in a different manner and without certain mechanics. - We will need to come up with a storytelling method that will fit the game, since it is unlikely we will be able to create cutscenes.

Other Considerations: - We realize that when playing platformer games, sometimes users may get bored or fatigued without any changes in the gameplay. - Certain levels would leave our Viking character without a main weapon, and the user would be placed in control of a greater deity in order to protect the Viking (which would be controlled by AI for the level). - We plan to grant the player new attacks or abilities as they progress through the levels. This would keep each level feeling fresh and a bit different. There would also be various level designs. - Regarding the graphics for our game, we intend to create most of the graphics using either Illustrator (to make vectors) or manually drawing out sprite art. For our backgrounds, we plan to make them with multiple layers, which will allow us to later import these layers into a game engine and make a pretty parallax scrolling effect. Nordic Fury is a 2D or 2.5D (like BattleToads & Double Conclusion Dragon) automatic-side scrolling platformer game that incorporates a reflex-based combat system. Similar to Robot Unicorn Attack, Nordic Fury will be fast-paced.

Following other games from the same genre and platforming, Nordic Fury levels will be short and easily repeatable for the users to attempt to beat their high scores and try out different weapons.