Tail of the Rat CIS 487 Design Documentation 12 15 2006 Pat Handy Michael Alf 2 Michael Manard 3 Table of Contents Section Topic Game Mechanics Overview Camera User Interface Design Replaying and Saving Control Summary Game Play Details Cut Scenes Story Telling Level Summary Artificial Intelligence Opponent AI Player Detection Motion Special Actions Combat Non player Characters Puzzles and Traps Game Elements Items Character Bible Page 3 3 3 3 6 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 10 Story Overview Storyboard Background Plot Summary Game Progression Setting Introduction Flowchart Level and Scene Details Lessons Learned 12 14 16 16 16 16 17 18 4 Bibliography 18 5 Game Mechanics The following topics discuss the general mechanics of the game Tail of the Rat The Adventures of Ricky Rat Overview The basic premise of the action adventure game Tail of the Rat is to assume the character Ricky Rat and battle various foes in attempts to free the jailed citizens of cheese town The player is awarded weapons that are used to thwart foes while navigating through maze like levels There are three levels in Tail of the Rat all with the same goal kill the level boss and open the jail cell containing the citizens of Cheesetown Items can obtained from defeated bosses that enhance game play as well and progress the game story Additionally Tail of the Rat was designed to be similar in game play to the popular game The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo gaming console Camera The entire duration of game play in Tail of the Rat consist of a camera overhead view of each level The isometric topdown camera allows the game to act as a continuous side scroller There is no visible horizon in this camera view Since the entire level is not visible on the screen the smooth scrolling action occurs when a player reaches the bounds of the viewable area on the screen This action reveals more of the level map to the player The level is said to move with the player rather than the player moves with the world This transition is applied to up down left and right movements until the player reaches the edges of a level where the side scrolling halts Additionally it is important to note that the game is best played at the default full screen mode where the entire output is consumed with the game user interface User Interface Design In Tail of the Rat there are two major user interfaces The main menu and the main game interface The main menu allows the user to start a new game or quit an existing game Moreover the main menu serves as a pause screen where a player may temporally suspend game play and subsequently return to the game 6 There are two options on the main menu o Start Begins a new game of Tail of the Rat or returns the user to their current game if a new game has already been started o Quit Exits the game Tail of the Rat Additionally it is important to note the Game Over screen that indicated that the player has failed the game and does not require user input The main user interface of the game is displayed to the user during game play There are several components of the main game user interface 7 o Life Meter As indicated by the word Life and the red cells directly to the right of the word The life meter indicates the amount of HP a player currently has One HP point is equal to one red cell When all HP is exhausted no red cells the player has died and must begin a new game o Item Indicators Directly right of the life meter are the item indicators The item indicators include the player s current weapon the player s bonus item and the status of the level key The current weapon equipped is the sword as shown by the sword icon shown below The player may elect to use either the magic shoes or the bow and arrow which is shown to the user with either of the icons shown below that appear to the right of the equipped weapon icon Finally there is a key status icon that appears as an outline if the player has not obtained the level key and a solid yellow color if they have Sword Icon Bow and Arrow Icon Magic Shoes Icon Key Status Icon o Dialog Component The dialog component is displayed to the user in the lower portion of the screen and is used to convey story messages to the user The dialog component is activated when the player triggers certain events such as confronting a level boss or starting a new level 8 o Level Component The level component basically comprises the entire screen It contains the player Ricky Rat and enemies both solders and bosses and the level map The level map is comprised of tangible and intangible patches of the level representing objects Objects such as trees and bricks are tangible and the player can not travel through them Objects such as dirt and grass are considered intangible and the player may freely travel through them Replaying and Saving Tail of the Rat has great replay value however there is no means provided by the game for saving Each time a gamer wishes to play Tail of the Rat they must start a new game Additionally the player may start a new instance of the game after dying by selecting start from the main menu Control Summary In Tail of the Rat the player assumes the character Ricky Rat with the following controls Up Key Move Ricky Rat in the up direction Down Key Move Ricky Rat in the down direction Left Key Move Ricky Rat in the left direction Right Key Move Ricky Rat in the right direction A Key Attack with primary weapon sword Z Key Attack with the secondary weapon bow and arrow if equipped Spacebar Toggle equipped bonus item Bow and shoes Game Play Details The overall objective of Tail of the Rat is to free the imprisoned citizens of Cheesetown Basically to achieve this the player must battle their way through swarms of enemy soldiers using the provided weapons The levels add difficulty to the game with their maze like structures Ultimately the player will navigate to a final chamber of each level where the player faces of with a level boss If the boss is defeated a key is dropped that the player must use to open the jail cell continuing the citizens of Cheesetown Once the citizens are free the player advances to the next level Once all three levels have been completed the player wins the game This all must be done without the player dying The player may regain health by obtaining cheese items that are dropped at random from defeated soldiers Moreover as the game progresses the 9 opponents become much greater obstacles taking more hits and posing greater threats Luckily Ricky will
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