In correlation to the planning and concepting post I wrote earlier in my blog, I have been set the task
of creating a document that gives technical outlines and plans for a made up game of my choice. It should feature professional specifications for how the elements in the game should be built. Ultimately it should resemble the sort of design document that a professional team of games designers refer back too to create every asset of the game.
The overall outcome of planning for a game is the creation of a design document, an overview of varying depth, outlining what it is about the project you aim to achieve or obtain as an outcome and also how you're going to go about doing it. It would most likely be split into separate documents for each area of the game, one for art direction, one for sound, one for story etc. The design document is normally invaluable to me when I'm making game assets, if i didn't have it I wouldn't have anything to refer back to, to keep the things I'm creating tied together by the predetermined genre, style and budgets.
So here is my example design document based around a non-existent game, as a sort of guideline and personal practice for my final major project in the 3rd year.
Jurassic Games
Design Document
Personal aims: I hope to create an original type of game that hasn't been produced and reproduced multiple times but with a different title. A game that evokes emotions and allows you to emerge yourself rather than being detached and playing with glazed over eyes. Within the game, i want to focus on ambience, atmosphere and mood. As these will be the main contributors to the games genre and unique enjoyability. I will be happy with the execution of the game if i am able to watch someone become relaxed while playing, because for me that's what games should do, give you a break from the constraints and stress of real life.
General Outline: It is a survival game set in a Jurassic era environment. You play as a customisable character of your choice, as the characters personality and sex have no influence on the game. It is primarily a game driven by an unravelling story, exploration and the environment around you. Speech and character relationships don't play a big part in the game.
of creating a document that gives technical outlines and plans for a made up game of my choice. It should feature professional specifications for how the elements in the game should be built. Ultimately it should resemble the sort of design document that a professional team of games designers refer back too to create every asset of the game.
The overall outcome of planning for a game is the creation of a design document, an overview of varying depth, outlining what it is about the project you aim to achieve or obtain as an outcome and also how you're going to go about doing it. It would most likely be split into separate documents for each area of the game, one for art direction, one for sound, one for story etc. The design document is normally invaluable to me when I'm making game assets, if i didn't have it I wouldn't have anything to refer back to, to keep the things I'm creating tied together by the predetermined genre, style and budgets.
So here is my example design document based around a non-existent game, as a sort of guideline and personal practice for my final major project in the 3rd year.
Jurassic Games
Design Document
Personal aims: I hope to create an original type of game that hasn't been produced and reproduced multiple times but with a different title. A game that evokes emotions and allows you to emerge yourself rather than being detached and playing with glazed over eyes. Within the game, i want to focus on ambience, atmosphere and mood. As these will be the main contributors to the games genre and unique enjoyability. I will be happy with the execution of the game if i am able to watch someone become relaxed while playing, because for me that's what games should do, give you a break from the constraints and stress of real life.
General Outline: It is a survival game set in a Jurassic era environment. You play as a customisable character of your choice, as the characters personality and sex have no influence on the game. It is primarily a game driven by an unravelling story, exploration and the environment around you. Speech and character relationships don't play a big part in the game.
The story: The back story features a few different settings in time, but the storyline the player plays through only features 2. The back story starts in America in the year 2366 the year in which the time machine was invented. Created for government use and only capable of going back in time, not forward. This enabled the government to go back before World War III, to retrieve important and historic artifacts lost in the catastrophic War. Later in the year 2380, with space travel now being available to the common man, the American government couldn't resist the financial opportunities of time travel and produced more of the machines with the addition of incognito entry and exit technology (invisibility). The machines were sold to other non hostile countries such as China and Australia and used for supervised and safe tours back in time for the rich and famous. The tours only went to educational and iconic points in history, that caused little to no disruption to the event.
After a few years this became a common activity for the people who could easily afford it, those who could barely afford it had saved for years to experience it once before they died, and those who knew they would never be able to afford it wanted it more than ever. So much so that in the year 2384 the common man wouldn't take no for an answer and revolted against their governments in an attempt to get the machines for themselves. They failed. This cycle happened for over 10 years across the world. The low wealth fighting for their right to experience life like everyone else, and the frustrated but never worn down governments fighting back time after time. Until the arrival of the year 2400, in which the American government sought change. Realising the inevitability of this revolt being endless, the government decided the only action to take was to rule with an iron fist and reinstate order, and order came in the form of violence. The government wanted to show the untamable mob of low wealth Americans that there was only two outcomes, peace or death, but of course mass murder wouldn't go unnoticed. So the American government came up with another method of scaring the mob into submission. They kidnapped 50 rioters at random and made it known publicly what was about to happen. These 50 people would all be placed in the time machines and sent back to 21st century London, with no food or water, no sense of direction and little knowledge of that time period. They were then told that if they didn't get to the landmark 'Big Ben' by dawn, the time machine would leave without them, condemning them to live the rest of their lives in that point in time. This caused outrage amongst the common man, with everyone waiting with bated breath to see if all the captives would make it back through the time machine, and to the leaders of governments surprise, all captives did make it back. This made the mob of now raging low wealth Americans feel invincible as the governments attempt of restoring power had failed, and they continued to revolt against the government
. 
However, hours later the Chinese government caught word of Americas attempt to restore power and tried the same technique, only they weren't so kind to their captives. The Chinese government were desperate to restore order, they had already resulted to slaughtering the obvious leaders of the up raw, but the Chinese rioters weren't scared of death anymore. It was no longer a fight for use of the time machines, it was a fight for equality for the common man, and that was the same for all the rioters around the world. Subsequently the Chinese government forced 50 rioters into a time machine just as Americas government did. However this time machine was going to a large island in the Jurassic era, with the given instructions to reach the North coast before dawn, where a time machine would be waiting for those who survive. None of the 50 captives made it back. The Chinese rioters went silent, they had finally witnessed a fate worse than death. The Chinese government had been driven to the point of desperation and the need for power had taken over. The time machine challenges became a regular occurrence for those rioters who wouldn't conform to the governments orders and the once harmless time machine had been given a new life. A weapon to restore order.
The concept of restoring order with the time machine quickly spread to other countries as they had become just as desperate and power hungary as China. After many years of the time machine survival challenges taking place to keep the people in fear, it had almost become a game to the twisted, heartless governments, and in the 2410... it did. No longer was it necessary for them to carry on this irrational solution to keeping the peace but it had become a tradition now. Every year there is a new survival game, not always in the same time period, not always for the same amount of time but always carefully selected to present dangers and challenges. The government leaders say it commemorates the triumph and success of never failing to rule the people, but really it is evolved Colosseum fighting, purely for entertainment. Even the high wealth and mid wealth residents get involved in the games, placing bets, setting up cameras in the designated time periods and even helping with the selection process. The low wealth were no longer needed in this evolved society, they were mearly contestants to choose from. We never lost our animalistic traits, we dispose of those not necessary to us and cheer as we watch them fight to survive.
This is where the main story starts, in the year 2419. 9 years of the time machine survival challenges have taken place and this year you (the player) have been selected to compete. The time machine has spawned you up a tree, which you've fallen straight out of and hit your head on the lushes Jurassic ground. The player enters the game environment just after designing their character. They're reunited with their customised character to see him/her lying unconscious on the ground. Subsequent to hitting your head after the fall the character your playing as has no memory of why they are placed in this strange and unfamiliar environment, and are completely unaware that they are in a competition to fight for their life. This lack of knowledge is the same for the person playing as well. The fact your placed straight into the game with no knowledge of a back story or prelude is an essential part of the game, and the fact the character you've created has no memory of why they're there is a key aspect of the game play and storyline. It means both player and character unravel the story, encounter the NPCs (other contestants fighting for survival) and experience the plot twists, at the same time. Which gives the game a curious angle to play from. From example You don't know why these random people you encounter are trying to kill you, so you try to kill them first, and then later in the game when you find more clues as to why you're there and you realise that the people you have just killed were just scared civilians you once shared a street with, It evokes emotion through both character and player. There is a lot of moral choices to make in the game, as you have the fate of other people lives in your hands.
The games storyline is structured so that you're never 100% you understand what's actually happening here. An element of the game that suggests the storyline will be flashbacks and your character remembering snippets of visions, such as the time machine door closing or being pulled away from your family. Which constantly makes the player ponder in their own mind what could have happened. Of course the truth is revealed to the player eventually though. As you find notes, maps with directions to the shore, and eventually finding and interacting with NPC's that don't want to kill you, you find out why you're placed in this strange environment, who placed you here and more importantly how you escape. Then, given the assumption you manage to find the time machine in time, you will return to 25th century America, with your crafted weapons and the option to lead dinosaurs into the time machine and go buck wild on the people who sent you there.
Specifications and Information: The Game will be
released for PC, PS4 and XBOX ONE. It is targeted at
the mature older player and due to the violence in
the game will be rated 16+. The game will be in the
same genre bracket as leading open world RPG games
such as Grand Theft Auto and Elder Scrolls. It will
run off the next gen CryEngine-4 which boasts fully
flexible time of day cycles, procedural GPGPU
weather and is ideal for simulating living
environments such as wind blowing through the grass
and trees. All things that will be constantly used
in the Jurassic game environments, and all things
that we saw working beautifully in games like Far Cry
and Crysis that used CryEngine-3.
Main assets: The game has many specific assets to be
created in order for the environment and storyline
to correspond with one another, but here are the
main assets to be created first for the initial
games test.
The lead Character
Function:
- Both sex's must be able to adopt interchangeable
body textures. i.e Skin colour, eye colour, hair
colour.
- Both sex's must be able to adopt interchangeable
clothing assets (Basic ones for character creation
at the start, and more intricate ones that can be
crafted later in the game)
- Both characters must have a rigged biped structure
allowing them to perform acts like climbing,
jumping, chopping, swinging a sword etc.
Tri budget:
- 10,000 tris each for both a Male and Female
character.
- The clothing assets must range from between 200-
1000 tris per outfit.
Texture budget:
- 1024x1024 - 32 bit, used for all maps for naked
bodies. Maps Will include alphas for hair.
- Alpha channels used for body decals such as
freckles and scars, on a separate 512x512 texture
sheet.
- 512x512 - 32 bit, used for all maps for different
outfits. Maps will include alphas for floaty
materials such as tassels or ripped clothes.
- Alpha channels used for clothing decals such as
dirt, wear and tear, logo's and blood, on a separate
512x512 texture sheet.
A famished Male NPC/competitor
Function:
- Needs to be be rigged and able to engage in
combat.
- Has to be readable as being a famished male.
- Needs to have an animated face capable of
interacting in speech.
- Utilizes LOD's for when he's out of focus in the
distance.
Tri budget:
- 2,000 tris for the malnourished body.
- 250 tris for tattered clothes (Must allow room on
his back for reholstering of bow).
Texture budget:
- 1024x1024 - 32 bit, used for all maps.
Incorporating both body and clothes textures in the
same map.
A Mountain Bike
Function:
- Randomly placed in the Jurassic world by the
government to make the games more interesting and
competitive for the viewers.
- When found can be used to traverse across the
landscape quicker and also used to evade dinosaur
attacks. So it needs to be simple and believable to
ride.
- Can become unrideable if it's damaged to much, and
features separate damage LODS for the main frame,
back wheel and front wheel.
Tri budget:
- 2,000 tris for each LOD model created with
different deformations of geometry showing damage.
Texture budget:
- 512x512 - 24 bit, used for all maps, for the clean
body of the bike.
- Alpha channels used for grime decals such as rust,
snow on the wheels or mud splatters. On a 256x256
separate texture sheet.
The rain forest environment you start the game in
Function:
- It must have at least 2 vines, 1 branch and 1 pile
of rocks in it for the player to build their first
axe.
- It must have at least 2 harvestable trees in it, so
the player can build a campfire to survive their
first night.
- It needs to give some harmless indication of the
time period the games set in. Terradactiles fly
over, small herbivore dinosaurs scatter away into
the bracken as you wake up.
- It needs to have a fruit tree in it for the player
to find and harvest to realise restoring hunger is a
key aspect of the game.
Tri budget:
- 200 tris for a small Gymnosperm tree, i.e.
Conifer's
- 300 tris for a large Araucariaceae tree
- 500 tris for varying undergrowth plants such as
small ferns and bracken
- 200 tris for a Cycad tree
- 100 tris for a pile of rocks
- 100 tris for vines
- 150 tris for a small Ginko tree bearing fruit
- 1200 tris for 3 small Albertadromeus dinosaurs
Texture budget:
- 1024x1024 32 bit, used for all maps, for all the
trees and their leaves.
- 512x512 32 bit, used for all maps, for all the
undergrowth plants, vines and rocks.
- 512x512 24 bit, used for all maps, for the small
Albertadromeus dinosaurs.
An axe and fire pit:
Function:
- The axe is used in correlation with the beginning
tutorial to show how to harvest wood and craft
tools.
- The fire pit is also used in correlation with the
beginning tutorial to show how to create light at
night and scare of the critters.
- The fire pit must utilize the CryEngines fire
effects to show how it dies down over time and needs
re stoked
Tri budget:
- 200 tris for the axe (must show the vine, rock and
branch it has been crafted out off)
- 400 tris for a fire pit.
Texture budget:
- 1024x1024 32 bit, used for all maps, for the axe
and space for the rest of the tools when they're
added.
- 1024x1024 32 bit, used for all maps, for the fire
pit and other camp assets when they're added.
So that was my brief Design Documentation for 'The Jurassic Games' idea i came up with. I could have waffled on for a lot longer as it is actually an idea I've had in my head for a while now, but i think it would be detailed enough for a game designer such as myself to get started on and get to a point of pre pre aplha testing.
added.
- 1024x1024 32 bit, used for all maps, for the fire
pit and other camp assets when they're added.
So that was my brief Design Documentation for 'The Jurassic Games' idea i came up with. I could have waffled on for a lot longer as it is actually an idea I've had in my head for a while now, but i think it would be detailed enough for a game designer such as myself to get started on and get to a point of pre pre aplha testing.
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