Pran Mukherjee CIS 587 Assignment 4 Game Design Document Countdown to Elimination 1 Pran Mukherjee CIS 587 Assignment 4 Game Design Document Countdown to Elimination Table Of Contents 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 1 GAME STORY ABSTRACT 1 2 GAME PLAY ROCK PAPER SCISSORS 1 3 GAME APPEARANCE 2 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION 2 1 PRODUCTION TEAM AND SCHEDULE 2 2 TARGET AUDIENCE 2 3 HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO PLAY 2 4 PRODUCTION TOOLS 3 GAME SPECIFICATION 3 1 WHAT IS THE GAME LIKE TO PLAY 3 2 GAME FLOW AND SCREENSHOT 6 3 3 SUMMARY OF THE STORY LINE 4 DESIGN SPECIFICATION 4 1 DATA STRUCTURES AND GAME OBJECTS 4 2 ALGORITHMS 4 2 1 Counters and Thresholds 9 4 2 2 Torpedo Tracking 10 4 2 3 Enemy Spawning 11 4 2 4 Fighter Groups 12 4 2 5 Floater Energy Reflection 13 4 2 6 Powerups 13 5 USER GUIDE 15 5 1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 15 5 2 INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS 15 5 3 HOW TO PLAY THE GAME 15 5 3 1 Your Mission 15 5 3 2 Keyboard Controls 15 5 3 3 Game Statistics and Scoring 15 5 3 3 1 Weapon Types and Upgrades 16 5 3 3 2 EnemyTypes 16 i Pran Mukherjee CIS 587 Assignment 4 Game Design Document Countdown to Elimination 1 Executive Summary This space warfare game is called Countdown to Elimination The premise is simple wave after wave of alien spacecraft are trying to destroy the Earth You must stop them Due to violent content this game is targeted at the 10 and above bracket The action will be quick requiring good reflexes and games will be short enough that one can play for a few minutes or hours per session without feeling like it s a waste of time Each level will get faster and tougher as well so accomplishment may not be based solely on score Level reached especially at higher levels is worth keeping track of 1 1 Game Story Abstract In 2257 Voyager V was launched Its pre programmed itinerary crossed paths with a hostile alien species that followed it home Now they re coming to destroy Earth as possible future competition Their scouts followed the probe back to Earth unfortunately not finding any other species on the way to divert their attention Upon finding the Sol system all but one of the scouts about faced and returned home for the battle fleet That one unlucky scout was killed and its shield generator was scavenged for your ship Luckily they didn t take into account the differing drive capacities of their fleet so it came in piecemeal which allows the valiant defenders of the planet you a chance to destroy as many as possible The longer you can hold out the more colony ships can escape Earth for other systems allowing the species to continue 1 2 Game Play This is a fairly standard space shoot em up The player controls a spacecraft armed initially with a plasma spray the best technology Earth is capable of Defenses include the ship s automatic repair facility and a captured alien deflector shield As the player engages and defeats enemies some of them will leave modular power ups that enhance the power of the cannon and shield and even add new weapons There are three weapon types plasma spray laser cannon and homing torpedoes These will each be best used against one of the three enemy types in a rock paper scissors paradigm The enemy types are 1 small fast unarmed and weak group kamikaze fighters 2 large slow strongly shielded Hiveships that shoot back ii Pran Mukherjee CIS 587 Assignment 4 Game Design Document Countdown to Elimination 3 small slow unarmed floaters that reflect energy attacks 70 of the time The plasma spray is meant for killing groups of fighters quickly the laser for dealing massive damage to single targets like the Hiveships and the torpedoes a non energy weapon hunt down and kill the floaters Shield power ups just give a lump sum increase to their damage soak capacity Each level has a limited number of enemies This amount increases per level The enemy whose score beats a certain threshold drops a powerup There are bonus points for killing entire groups of fighters The shape of the game changes as levels advance At first the fighters are the primary threat but eventually they are replaced by the Hiveships which grow more deadly at later levels The floaters maintain their basic defensive property which can be very dangerous at any level There is no victory condition This is Earth s Countdown to Elimination and the only goal is to keep the enemy away from the planet as long as possible to allow the colony ships time to flee 1 3 Game Appearance I used a fairly standard 2D top down format with a fixed starscape as the background because the player waits for the enemy to come to him Player and enemy movement within the visible playing screen area will be relative to the fixed background The player can t leave via any edge and vertical motion will be within a limited area The enemy fighters can go wherever they want though the Hiveships and floaters hang back for the most part Text markups are along the top and bottom edges of the screen area They indicate game level weapon levels and reserves remaining lives hull and shield points and score The active weapon is in red and if shield or hull points go below a critical threshold they flash red as well Text will come up in the middle of the screen to indicate level up free life bonus and game over and killing an entire fighter group will drop a fading text indicator of the group bonus A screenshot is in the Game Specification section below iii Pran Mukherjee CIS 587 Assignment 4 Game Design Document Countdown to Elimination 2 Product Specification 2 1 Production Team and Schedule I am the only developer for this product However I owe thanks to my friend Derek Nylen for letting me bounce ideas off him during the design Also Dave Morris Justin Wojdacki Len Smith and Derek Nylen helped with the playtesting I started the design around the beginning of November and did most of the coding over two weeks in late November and early December Beta testing balance tweaks and a few additional features took another week or so This will be done by December 19th for the game fair 2 2 Target Audience The game is intended primarily for teens and adults It requires a certain level of manual dexterity Controls are the arrow keys for movement left control for attacks space bar and number keys for weapon toggle selection The challenge is using all of them simultaneously 2 3 How Long Does It Take To Play Games last as long as a player can make them Each level should take about 25 minutes Later levels take longer because there are more enemies to fight There are no save
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