Group Blake Farrugia Mohammad Rahmani Nick Smith Matt Smudz Tony Tahmouch 3D Game Project Homebound CIS 487 587 Professor Maxim Overview Homebound is a Torque developed stealth based action strategy game for the PC The game centers on the character Redmond Waters as he tries to escape the Whaletoe Institute for the Criminally Insane He is currently a patient at this institute but a series of events allows him to break out of his cell and attempt to return to his idealized version of home Redmond has been held here long and perceives all in his way as hostile guards Redmond must successfully circumvent any guards that cross his path to exit the asylum The wards contain pieces of Redmond s journal which explain his trials and the inner workings of his mental facilities leaving it up to the player to decide whether Redmond is truly going back home Game Mechanics Overview This section will detail the mechanics of the game such as enemies dropped items and objectives This game was developed primarily in Torque Game Engine Advanced 1 7 with some level design assistance from Valve s Hammer editor a choice made due to some of the shared experience held with the editor and its compatibility with Torque s interior DIF format Torque handled all other matters of development from texture mapping to scripting Camera Position The camera position is chosen as first person to put players into Redmond s eye Thirdperson camera views were felt to give the player too much visual information and lower the difficulty The first person view also enhances the sense of immersion and makes the player feel as though they inhabit Redmond s body All sensory information Redmond has is given to the player no more no less Camera stays at first person so any splash screens of storyline fill the player s vision User Interface Design The user interface design begins with the main menu The user is greeted with a custom splash screen that allows them to play the game and exit the game It also mentions the keyboard controls The only other items of user interface are the journals littered about the levels which display a picture in the player s main field of vision Splash screens in the introduction and final screen after Redmond escapes are also displayed as a supplement to the journals and serve to give the story setup and conclusion The in game HUD is deliberately minimal in order to enhance the sense of total immersion into the game world Since no GUI items provide distraction the player has no choice but to focus on Redmond s predicament Additionally since the player has no health level or ammo there is little need to clutter the UI with such items Replaying and Saving There is no way to save a particular game s progress Once the player is caught by a guard the player is sent back to the starting point in the level Thus the game provides a checkpoint system rather than a save system The advantage of not allowing the player to save at any point means more is at stake when they play the game and adds to the intensity of the experience It also eliminates the ability to repeatedly use trial and error to make it through the level thus increasing the challenge Replay value is added through multiple paths to the player s given goal and guard patrols to create a unique experience to find all journals and escape Control Summary Controls follow standard FPS convention since the mid 1990 s with Half Life The following describes our control set Directional WASD In order Forward Left Backward Right Space Jump Menu Escape End Game Menu Mouse interact with menu items exit game and adjust in game view The player has no particular need to jump as there is no vertical scaling in the levels However it adds some extra control to the game and gives a slightly greater sense of freedom Game Play Details The game places the player into the role of Redmond Waters in his journey to escape his insane asylum The game play is stealth based and mainly involves the evasion of the guards The player should not interact with any non player characters lest he get caught escaping and be returned to his cell Guards patrol the grounds so the player must use his wits and hide whenever the guards are running past Along the way journal entries that have been removed from Redmond s person are scattered across the hospital grounds probably due to inept guards carrying around the files The files are noted with his doctors thoughts on Redmond s mannerisms and general health at the time but Redmond does not trust these thoughts anymore He decides that he needs to leave the asylum to be with his daughter once again Fig 1 Journal Example Areas in the level are blocked off with walls or cell doors but perceptive players will be able to find alternative ways around them This may bypass any journals the player may wish to see though therefore encouraging the player to explore every possible area Each level is a maze of twists and turns even more so when being chased by guards Guards can be tricked and lost though if the player gets completely out of the guard s sight Once the guard catches the player the player is sent back to the starting point of the level while the guards and their paths are reset for another run through the level Cut Scenes and Storytelling No cut scenes are present in the game and story is an almost completely secondary objective The player is not forced to find and study the points of story littering the asylum but some players enjoy story as a driving force to their games so the team decided to compensate for this Story is presented to the player by a splash screen of text from Redmond declaring that he is taking the opportunity to escape while it is open to him Redmond Waters has been in an insane asylum for a decade s time unbeknownst to the player He begins acting strangely after a large dose of an antipsychotic drug Phenothiazine and does not wish to be in the asylum anymore so he decides to escape while calmly retorting to every notion of This is a bad idea Redmond that he is returning home to see his daughter Gracie Players who choose to find every journal will uncover that Redmond somehow lost custody over Gracie due to his mental problems which eventually caused him to become violent and landed him in the Institute The story is only told through the journals that Redmond finds to remind himself of what was taken from him Each journal speaks more about the doctors treating Redmond as well as himself The game runs through two levels
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