Hey,
this week we did a summary of the mind map we worked on last week.
Basicaly we took every ideas from the mind map, and wrote them on a Word file. By doing this, we added new ideas on the way and fixed some other that caused logic problems etc...
This is still a draft but it's already 5 pages long, which is a good start for the final game design document. We still have to define a lot of part of the game such as the power of the hero would have access to, the name of the main characters and add some concept art (going to be hard I think since no one in the team have good drawing skills).
Then, we started to go more in detail about the storyline and the main cut-scenes that would be included in the game.
This is what we have got in the end:
Background Story:
I add a new document for story paths, it could be great to summarize the different choices of the history and consequences. -> That’s a good idea.
The game starts on a breaking news speaking of strange events and bloody murders. The camera moves away from the TV and you end up in a police station. The hero (who is a police inspector) talks with a colleague about these events. It is responsible for the investigation of the murders and goes on a crime scene. The hypothesis of demons is not an option, we think more like a butcher or a psychopath.
The hero returns home one night and witnesses the execution of his wife. The demon fled, explaining that the Devil has plans for him.
Main character is a normal guy who’s wife was murdered. He sells his soul to the Devil to get her back to life.
The Devil then makes the main character to do jobs for him. Mainly finding souls that have escaped from Hell onto Earth. (Maybe the opposite, something like opening portals to let the demons travel to earth? The quests for the angel/god might then be to kill the demons coming to earth) Yea, but the devil’s intentions would still have to be to manage evil rather than doing evil. The demons on the other hand *are* evil. So the devil still has some sort of morality, but he goes along the lines of “the ends justifies the means”, so he doesn’t care that the demons have their fun, so long as the jobs are done. Has to occasionally assert his authority when demons try to undermine him.
The Devil gives a new power every task (or every so often). These powers are to help defeat the escaped souls, but The Devil has to build his trust with him gradually throughout the story.
There is also a conflict going on between heaven and hell. The main character will start to be contacted by angels with optional jobs to do for them.
There are rogue angels in heaven who are trying to take over God’s power over Earth.
The player then has control over the way the story goes. There are moral decisions to be made that affect the character’s karma, which affects his relationship with the devil and with God/the angels. This can greatly affect game-play and story outcome.
Setting:
Starts in the modern world as it is now. Through the story, the world may start to become almost post-apocalyptic looking, depending on how the player plays the game (If he did quests for the devil then the world should look post-apocalyptic because of the portals he opened everywhere on earth).
There will be moments where the player goes to heaven and hell. Heaven will be clean with a white look and feel, and it will appear to expand in all directions endlessly. Hell will be quite the opposite. Dark and red, there will be flames in places, maybe with blood stains over the walls and floor. It will be closed in, and quite claustrophobic in places. Unlike heaven where there will be basically no inside areas, it will all be inside. Maybe with people being tortured in horrible ways. Like fire pits, furnaces, etc.
Main Characters:
Hero - Hero archetype
A guy who starts normal,he has a wife. Once he signed the pacts, the devil give him power to help him in his tasks. From the start, this power start to consume the hero’s good side little by little. Depending on the player choice, the hero will try to control his badness or to let it take over and lose all humanity.
Someone has played Max Payne? I vaguely know the story. The beginning is very similar to ours. The temperament of Max Payne could correspond to that of our hero. His reaction to the death of his wife, for example.
Hero’s Wife - Herald
Gets killed at the start of the story (gets sent to hell by a demon? -> would stop the later possibility that she wants to stay in heaven +1), but is brought back to life by the devil. At the price of the hero’s soul.
1- Her role after her resurrection? Maybe to try and convince the character to stop doing wrong things, at certain points.
If the hero succumbs to evil, he kills her for the ultimate quest (a sort of test of fidelity) for the devil. +1
good one. this could be a sort of message that if you do bad things, you should be ready to accept the consequences. (so it would be a non-optional thing at that point?) - If he refuses to kill her, devil does (great idea) and hero goes rogue ? After that angels come back to him saying "we'd tell you the devil is evil" and he join them at this point.
It would make sense to use advanced NPC emotions for this game, as The Jim described during the lecture.
2- Maybe she should not be brought back to life by the devil at the beginning. (The hero must first make his quests for the devil in order to respect their agreement, then the war broke out, the angels draw the hero, saying that the devil has never had the intention to resurrect his wife. It can be an excuse to join the angels.)
She is brought back to life by God at the end (good end), or by the powerful hero himself (bad end). +1
However on the bad end, if the hero is corrupted by evil, he has nothing to do with his wife and so she simply does not rise again. In this way the original purpose of the story is not reached, it allows to emphasize the bad side end. Or he could resurrect her and she just comes as a zombie.
Devil - Mentor at start and may continue through the game depending on player’s choices
A tall man, looks like he’s in his 50s/60s. Wears a suit and tie, has a smile on usually and has a very intimidating attitude, yet he remains sarcastic and humorous. He can also get angry, and when he does, you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him. His eyes glow red and intense heat emits from him. The player will see his true appearance only at the end of the story.
- Examples of this type of character: TV show “Reaper”. Film “Bedazzled” (female version of this character)
God - Think he can be Herald at the end of the game.
maybe not a character for the most part, just a part to the story?
We have very little information about him was until we learn that he was trapped. When hero is recruited by the angels, he wonders about him and his role in the battle but the angels are very vague about him.
Demons - Shadow
Basically the army force of The Devil.
But they don’t play by any rules. Sometimes get on devil’s nerves. The Devil occasionally has to make examples of demons to assert his authority over them.
Maybe a head demon, or Demon General, or something, who is like a mini-boss.
Yea, he could be like on the devil’s side from the start, but you slowly start to see him getting annoyed at how much attention is being given to the hero, and he starts wanting his own way with everything.
(example I can think of: Gulliver’s Travels. The general for the army gets pissed off at Gulliver’s attention so he tries to impress, but he takes it too far and becomes an enemy).
Angels - Herald (but player has choice to go with that) Becomes mentor if player decides to take that path
Try to help bring the hero into the light.
For each good actions, the angels wings start to glow more, otherwise for bad actions, their wings start to darken. It’s a way for god to detect trusted angels.
Similar to Demon General and Head Archangel; God’s most trusted angel and powerful too (those with the most glowing wings).
Rogue Angels - Shape-shifter
Higher order of angels, they claim to have God's instructions and use their position to the angels "basic" obey them. Archangels?
Angel on the left could be the leader of the archangels. Asserts authority over the other archangels “in the name of the Lord”. Similar role to the Demon General.
Game-play:
Since using the 3rd person camera, there will be a lock system on targets to help the player taking down his opponents.
Single player campaign, single player endless mode, multi-player endless mode (co-op and competitive).
Destructible environments is a key feature. Each fight have to be epic, with the power of the hero, the fighting scene should really be destroyed at the end of the fight.
^like, blast a guy into the wall and it leaves a nice big hole -> yep
The appearance of the hero will change according to his choice during the story.
Player can punch and kick.
Player will build an inventory of powers (3 at a time can be equipped).
Example fighting move: Kick enemy to the ground, charge up a powerful fireball while enemy cannot distract. Blast the enemy for a quicker kill than many less powerful fireballs or kicks/punches.
The player can also use his transformation which grant him more powerful skills but for a limited time only.
Suggestion : “Finish” moves as cut scene or quick time events. (Like God of war, dismemberment and killing bloody).
Addition: Maybe combo moves which do a finish move if certain attacks are used in sequence, and if the enemy has very low health.
Powers can be equipped by opening the inventory (which pauses the game) and choosing the powers. Player needs energy to use these powers. Energy can be recharged by killing enemies and sucking their souls. Sucking souls also increases the hero’s badness and so affects the way he’ll react throughout the story.
Endless mode will have rounds/waves of enemies you have to kill. It goes on forever until you die. The goal is to get the most amount of rounds completed.
In campaign, the player will have moral choices which affect the jobs that have to be done, and affects the outcome of the story.
Technology:
The game will use one of the most photo-realistic game engine that’s out nowadays: the Cry Engine 3. It should be available on all platforms PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
This engine allows good destruction for the environments and good physic without having to worry about sacrificing the visual quality.
Artwork:
Photo-realistic graphics.
Lighting is important to set the atmosphere.
Gorey.
Poster - Picture of the hero, with one side of his face being evil looking, and the other a more angelic/good look.
Both cities should be on the background, like the way his face is split into a good side and an evil side.
On the side with his evil face, there should be a peaceful city.
On the side with his good face, there should be a destroyed city.
Why not combine the face of evil and the city destroyed, and face good / city in peace?
^zactly +1
Music:
The music would fit the current atmosphere of the game. Depending on how the player is playing and what part of the story he is at, it could range from a relaxed/calm feeling, to a possibly dark or creepy feeling.
Exciting music for the bosses. Music that keeps your heart racing and keeps you clung onto the game. Realistic sound effects in-game.
Cut-scenes:
The game starts:
Breaking news speaking of strange events and bloody murders. The camera moves away from the TV and you end up in a police station.
The hero (who is a police inspector) talks with a colleague about these events. It is responsible for the investigation of the murders and goes on a crime scene.
Intro:
To get the right emotional response, the hero could be bringing flowers home. He’d be happy, and then the murder would have a big impact. - Emotional elevator, it’s a good idea. Bringing flowers for wedding anniversary? Flowers maybe in a vase. At the moment of realisation, the game shows the floor, and the vase falling and smashing on it in slow motion, with happy sweet music. The kind of music that is sweet yet tragic.
-Yea, if you’ve seen the trailer for Dead Island, it has emotional stuff like that. Exactly.
I add a new document for story paths, it could be great to summarize the different choices of the history and consequences. -> That’s a good idea.
The game starts on a breaking news speaking of strange events and bloody murders. The camera moves away from the TV and you end up in a police station. The hero (who is a police inspector) talks with a colleague about these events. It is responsible for the investigation of the murders and goes on a crime scene. The hypothesis of demons is not an option, we think more like a butcher or a psychopath.
The hero returns home one night and witnesses the execution of his wife. The demon fled, explaining that the Devil has plans for him.
Main character is a normal guy who’s wife was murdered. He sells his soul to the Devil to get her back to life.
The Devil then makes the main character to do jobs for him. Mainly finding souls that have escaped from Hell onto Earth. (Maybe the opposite, something like opening portals to let the demons travel to earth? The quests for the angel/god might then be to kill the demons coming to earth) Yea, but the devil’s intentions would still have to be to manage evil rather than doing evil. The demons on the other hand *are* evil. So the devil still has some sort of morality, but he goes along the lines of “the ends justifies the means”, so he doesn’t care that the demons have their fun, so long as the jobs are done. Has to occasionally assert his authority when demons try to undermine him.
The Devil gives a new power every task (or every so often). These powers are to help defeat the escaped souls, but The Devil has to build his trust with him gradually throughout the story.
There is also a conflict going on between heaven and hell. The main character will start to be contacted by angels with optional jobs to do for them.
There are rogue angels in heaven who are trying to take over God’s power over Earth.
The player then has control over the way the story goes. There are moral decisions to be made that affect the character’s karma, which affects his relationship with the devil and with God/the angels. This can greatly affect game-play and story outcome.
Setting:
Starts in the modern world as it is now. Through the story, the world may start to become almost post-apocalyptic looking, depending on how the player plays the game (If he did quests for the devil then the world should look post-apocalyptic because of the portals he opened everywhere on earth).
There will be moments where the player goes to heaven and hell. Heaven will be clean with a white look and feel, and it will appear to expand in all directions endlessly. Hell will be quite the opposite. Dark and red, there will be flames in places, maybe with blood stains over the walls and floor. It will be closed in, and quite claustrophobic in places. Unlike heaven where there will be basically no inside areas, it will all be inside. Maybe with people being tortured in horrible ways. Like fire pits, furnaces, etc.
Main Characters:
Hero - Hero archetype
A guy who starts normal,he has a wife. Once he signed the pacts, the devil give him power to help him in his tasks. From the start, this power start to consume the hero’s good side little by little. Depending on the player choice, the hero will try to control his badness or to let it take over and lose all humanity.
Someone has played Max Payne? I vaguely know the story. The beginning is very similar to ours. The temperament of Max Payne could correspond to that of our hero. His reaction to the death of his wife, for example.
Hero’s Wife - Herald
Gets killed at the start of the story (gets sent to hell by a demon? -> would stop the later possibility that she wants to stay in heaven +1), but is brought back to life by the devil. At the price of the hero’s soul.
1- Her role after her resurrection? Maybe to try and convince the character to stop doing wrong things, at certain points.
If the hero succumbs to evil, he kills her for the ultimate quest (a sort of test of fidelity) for the devil. +1
good one. this could be a sort of message that if you do bad things, you should be ready to accept the consequences. (so it would be a non-optional thing at that point?) - If he refuses to kill her, devil does (great idea) and hero goes rogue ? After that angels come back to him saying "we'd tell you the devil is evil" and he join them at this point.
It would make sense to use advanced NPC emotions for this game, as The Jim described during the lecture.
2- Maybe she should not be brought back to life by the devil at the beginning. (The hero must first make his quests for the devil in order to respect their agreement, then the war broke out, the angels draw the hero, saying that the devil has never had the intention to resurrect his wife. It can be an excuse to join the angels.)
She is brought back to life by God at the end (good end), or by the powerful hero himself (bad end). +1
However on the bad end, if the hero is corrupted by evil, he has nothing to do with his wife and so she simply does not rise again. In this way the original purpose of the story is not reached, it allows to emphasize the bad side end. Or he could resurrect her and she just comes as a zombie.
Devil - Mentor at start and may continue through the game depending on player’s choices
A tall man, looks like he’s in his 50s/60s. Wears a suit and tie, has a smile on usually and has a very intimidating attitude, yet he remains sarcastic and humorous. He can also get angry, and when he does, you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him. His eyes glow red and intense heat emits from him. The player will see his true appearance only at the end of the story.
- Examples of this type of character: TV show “Reaper”. Film “Bedazzled” (female version of this character)
God - Think he can be Herald at the end of the game.
maybe not a character for the most part, just a part to the story?
We have very little information about him was until we learn that he was trapped. When hero is recruited by the angels, he wonders about him and his role in the battle but the angels are very vague about him.
Demons - Shadow
Basically the army force of The Devil.
But they don’t play by any rules. Sometimes get on devil’s nerves. The Devil occasionally has to make examples of demons to assert his authority over them.
Maybe a head demon, or Demon General, or something, who is like a mini-boss.
Yea, he could be like on the devil’s side from the start, but you slowly start to see him getting annoyed at how much attention is being given to the hero, and he starts wanting his own way with everything.
(example I can think of: Gulliver’s Travels. The general for the army gets pissed off at Gulliver’s attention so he tries to impress, but he takes it too far and becomes an enemy).
Angels - Herald (but player has choice to go with that) Becomes mentor if player decides to take that path
Try to help bring the hero into the light.
For each good actions, the angels wings start to glow more, otherwise for bad actions, their wings start to darken. It’s a way for god to detect trusted angels.
Similar to Demon General and Head Archangel; God’s most trusted angel and powerful too (those with the most glowing wings).
Rogue Angels - Shape-shifter
Higher order of angels, they claim to have God's instructions and use their position to the angels "basic" obey them. Archangels?
Angel on the left could be the leader of the archangels. Asserts authority over the other archangels “in the name of the Lord”. Similar role to the Demon General.
Game-play:
Since using the 3rd person camera, there will be a lock system on targets to help the player taking down his opponents.
Single player campaign, single player endless mode, multi-player endless mode (co-op and competitive).
Destructible environments is a key feature. Each fight have to be epic, with the power of the hero, the fighting scene should really be destroyed at the end of the fight.
^like, blast a guy into the wall and it leaves a nice big hole -> yep
The appearance of the hero will change according to his choice during the story.
Player can punch and kick.
Player will build an inventory of powers (3 at a time can be equipped).
Example fighting move: Kick enemy to the ground, charge up a powerful fireball while enemy cannot distract. Blast the enemy for a quicker kill than many less powerful fireballs or kicks/punches.
The player can also use his transformation which grant him more powerful skills but for a limited time only.
Suggestion : “Finish” moves as cut scene or quick time events. (Like God of war, dismemberment and killing bloody).
Addition: Maybe combo moves which do a finish move if certain attacks are used in sequence, and if the enemy has very low health.
Powers can be equipped by opening the inventory (which pauses the game) and choosing the powers. Player needs energy to use these powers. Energy can be recharged by killing enemies and sucking their souls. Sucking souls also increases the hero’s badness and so affects the way he’ll react throughout the story.
Endless mode will have rounds/waves of enemies you have to kill. It goes on forever until you die. The goal is to get the most amount of rounds completed.
In campaign, the player will have moral choices which affect the jobs that have to be done, and affects the outcome of the story.
Technology:
The game will use one of the most photo-realistic game engine that’s out nowadays: the Cry Engine 3. It should be available on all platforms PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
This engine allows good destruction for the environments and good physic without having to worry about sacrificing the visual quality.
Artwork:
Photo-realistic graphics.
Lighting is important to set the atmosphere.
Gorey.
Poster - Picture of the hero, with one side of his face being evil looking, and the other a more angelic/good look.
Both cities should be on the background, like the way his face is split into a good side and an evil side.
On the side with his evil face, there should be a peaceful city.
On the side with his good face, there should be a destroyed city.
Why not combine the face of evil and the city destroyed, and face good / city in peace?
^zactly +1
Music:
The music would fit the current atmosphere of the game. Depending on how the player is playing and what part of the story he is at, it could range from a relaxed/calm feeling, to a possibly dark or creepy feeling.
Exciting music for the bosses. Music that keeps your heart racing and keeps you clung onto the game. Realistic sound effects in-game.
Cut-scenes:
The game starts:
Breaking news speaking of strange events and bloody murders. The camera moves away from the TV and you end up in a police station.
The hero (who is a police inspector) talks with a colleague about these events. It is responsible for the investigation of the murders and goes on a crime scene.
Intro:
To get the right emotional response, the hero could be bringing flowers home. He’d be happy, and then the murder would have a big impact. - Emotional elevator, it’s a good idea. Bringing flowers for wedding anniversary? Flowers maybe in a vase. At the moment of realisation, the game shows the floor, and the vase falling and smashing on it in slow motion, with happy sweet music. The kind of music that is sweet yet tragic.
-Yea, if you’ve seen the trailer for Dead Island, it has emotional stuff like that. Exactly.
That's it for this week.
