Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 Abstract of Game Story 1 Game Play and Appearance 1 Development Specification 2 Product Specification 3 Production Team 3 Target Audience 3 Game Play 3 Production Tools 4 Game Specification 4 What is it like to play the game 4 Interface Mockup 5 Summary of Story Line 6 Story Board 6 Character Bible 7 Flowcharting 9 Level or Scenes Outline 9 0 Executive Summary Abstract of Game Story E Thello is a strategy board game played on a computer It is based on a real board game called Othello Othello is a registered trademark of Tsukuda Original licensed by Anjar Company copyright 1973 1990 Pressman Toy Corporation E Thello just like Othello is a game played by two players with the objective to occupy as many cells on a grid board as possible It s a game that takes a minute to learn a life time to master E Thello offers four different built in challengers representing the levels of difficulty that a human player can play against The built in challengers listed in order of easiest to most difficult are Dubya Bush Cheech and Chong Iron Mike Tyson and Slick Willy Clinton A different prize is offered to the human player every time he she wins over a built in challenger Game Play and Appearance This game is played on a 8x8 grid on a green board The grid s columns are referenced by letters and the rows by numbers a particular cell on the grid will have the reference number letter i e 4 a The game starts with two white disks and two black disks placed diagonally in the center of the game The object of the game is to occupy more grid cells than the opponent with disks of one s color The game ends when all the grid cells are occupied or both opponents don t have any more legal moves to make The two opponents alternate turns and they are allowed one move per turn If a player can t make any legal moves he she will have to pass and the opponent will get another consecutive turn A player can only make a move according to a set of rules the rules official rules of the game are Only two players can play this game at the same time There is a total of 64 disks that both players share The disks are black on one side and white on the other The player with the black disks always moves first Quoted from the Othello game manual 1 A player occupies a new cell by placing his her piece so that an opponent s piece or a row of opponent s pieces is flanked by his her pieces Then all the opponent pieces between the player s pieces are turned over to become his her color If a legal move is possible the player cannot pass If no legal move is available the player has to forfeit his her turn and pass When all the cells on the board are occupied or both players cannot make any more legal moves the disks on the board are counted and the player with the higher number of disks wins Development Specification Since this game doesn t use a complicated level graphic manipulation Visual Basic will be the chosen development tool The development spec is split into three categories 1 The AI the game s AI will rely heavily on a search algorithm and cell precedence The game offers four levels of AI The differentiating factor among the different levels is the depth of the search algorithm The depths will vary from one level deep easiest to four levels deep hardest The search algorithm will look for the move that maximizes the computer s options and minimizes the human players options but it should also take in consideration the cell s precedence i e corners will have the highest precedence the cell diagonally adjacent to a corner a lowest precedence 2 The UI the UI will be split into three areas the game board the game s controls and the current game s stats o The game board should capture the same look and feel as the original board game in order to gave the human player a sense of familiarity Hence the colors used were exactly the same as the ones used in the board game Othello green for the board black and white for the disks Moreover when a human player is challenging the AI the AI s level is represented by the face of the corresponding computer player The UI will also present a prize box that will display the appropriate prize if the human player wins The prize box should not make the screen look cluttered 2 o The game s options area displays the game s options mode difficulty level etc and the game s controls cancel game start a new game Those options and controls will be displayed on a separate side of the screen and will be represented via radio buttons and push buttons o The game s stats are represented with a list box that contains a history of players moves The stats area also displays the number of disks of each color on the board 3 Turn handling and validation A process is created to set validate a player s turn and move After every move this process will lookup all the valid moves and stores them in an array of valid moves Then it compares the human player s move against them or it passes the array to the AI so it can decide the best move to make It will also use a flag that it toggles to keep track of which player is to move next Product Specification Production Team This game is designed by Jamal El Mokadem Jamal will also write the code test the game design the pictures used and record the sound files Target Audience This game is designed to appeal to anyone over the age of eight that enjoys a mental challenge Anyone that enjoys chess or checkers will definitely enjoy this game Due to the nature of some prizes an parental control switch is added to change the prize nature from adult to minor Game Play The player starts the game by first setting the game parameters default is provided by the game One player or two players mode Difficulty level four levels If playing against the PC select own color 3 The player with the black disks always moves first Next the players alternate moves until the complete board is filled or no more moves are possible Then all disks are counted and the player with the most disks on the board wins If the human player is playing against a computer player he she will get a prize or penalty relative to a win or a loss This game relies heavily on strategy The ability to compute several moves ahead of time is an essential skill that the human player needs to master guarantee a win The following is a list of tips that might help win a given game Occupying …
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