Functional design
The purpose of this document is to provide a comprehensive outline of the functional design considerations for the game development project. It aims to establish a clear understanding of the game's requirements, features, and overall functionality to guide the development process effectively.
This document convers the functional aspect of the game, including game design, mechanics, features and more which can all be found below.
We decided to not target a super specific demographic/group since we believe the game we are making is able to be played by people from young to old. from gamers to people who dont game alot.
This sections includes information about the project itself, information about the client, nessicary requirements and what we want to achieve with our game via objectives.
The project came from the game studio Paladin Game Studios. One of the 3 clients for the exam, they are known for their games with simple artstyle and unique gameplay. They strive to create games that are available for a wide audiance, have positive impacts on people and are not afraid to against the norm.
Paladins is searching for new innovative game ideas that emphesises a positive message. For this reason they want to create a Uplifting, Co-operative, local multiplayer game. the idea is to have people play at the tip of their seat and that the gameplay invites the players to cooperate with each other to reach a common goal. The game needs to hold up the uplifting values of Paladins and thus should have a positive setting simular to "Overcooked" or "Moving Out" rather than something violent like "Diablo" or "Call of Duty"
The requirements previously mentioned aswell as other additional requirements are listed as followed:
- Positive setting for game concept
- Cooperative local multiplayer: Coop local multiplayer where working together is the key to success
- Game should be able to be run on PC
- Players should be able to use controllers/gamepads
- Minimum of 2 players: The amount of players can be as high as we want but should atleast have 2 players as a minimum
- Competition is non-exclusive: using a mimimum of 2 players the gameplay could also include some competition between players. for example having a 2V2 format
- Atleast 1 new element that makes the game unique in current day market
Some bonus points are:
- Physics-based gameplay: This is because it fits nicely in Paladin's portfolio
- Game should be accesable to a large audiance
As stated before Paladin studios has obvious objectives it wants with its games. we want to achieve the same goals they strife to achieve with their games.
We want our game to be a light-hearted experience that is not only for a small group of people but a large audience. it should be a game that is easy to pick up and fun to play with other people and should encourage cooperative play.
Our game idea is to have a jungle-themed dungeon crawler game that uses lights as the puzzle mechanic where 2 players need to solve puzzles using lights in various ways to get treasure at the end. the players need to work together as rooms are split up into 2 sections where the players are seperated and need to work together to solve the puzzle. with this approach we can reinforce teamwork for the players.
The unique selling point is that we have unique puzzles ideas where the players need to use lights to solve the puzzle. they also are in 2 different sections split up so they need to communicate and help each other across the glass that is in the middle of the room dividing them.
We decided to start with a small game scope initially and allow it to be extended in the future if need be. This is to make sure we have enough time to create a smaller yet polished game where we can reserve time for polishing
The Gameplay flow consist of a start menu followed by two game levels ( puzzles ) after you press play, once you finish both levels you will recieve an end game screen and be send back to the main menu. It is also possible to lose once you lose the player is then being send back to the main menu and can try from the start again. We made a flowchart below to visualize the game loop of our puzzle game.
The gameplay flow will be as follows:
- Players will que up and start the game
- Players spawn in a starting area and can proceed into the dungeon
- Players now need to solve a puzzle
- Once completed they can enter a hallway. the game will only progress once all players step into the hallway
- This loop continues until the players reach the vault where they will be awarded treasure
We have several puzzles where light is used to solve it. most of them are also a shared puzzle where the players are split up into 2 sections with a glass wall in between them.
Puzzle 1: Lights/Shadow
This puzzle is about having a light on one side of the room and a wall with a outline on the other side. The idea is to move pillars where with the pillars you can create a shadow. each pillar has just a piece of the image thats needed to complete so you have to figure out how to oriente the pillars in such a way that it makes a complete image. Both players have different pillars they need to move on their side of the room so they need to work together to make a complete image:
Puzzle 2: Lights matching
This puzzle is all about communication between the players and working together. For this puzzle, there will be a set of buttons in both rooms. The goal is for all the buttons to be turned on. The catch is that by pressing one button, you also affect other buttons. The buttons will be toggled in the sense that by pressing one, the affected buttons will either turn off or on.
Puzzle 3: Pressure plates
For this puzzle the goal was to make it tricky for the players. The goal for the players is to complete a sequence together by stepping on the correct pressure plates in order. Each side of the room has different pressure plates that don't show the icon on it at first. The player then has to shine the light on the tile for them to see what icon is on the plate. This can also become more challenging by using either timers.
Puzzle 4: Pillars Puzzle
For the pillar puzzle The goal for the players to redirect a light to one point. To redirect light both players have to turn pillars that will change the direction of a beam of light. The way this can become challenging is by adding obstacles to block the beam and force the players to work together by bouncing the beam from one half of the room to the other half.