Michi's Adventure Document for the concept jam!

WHAT'S THE GAME ABOUT?:

The game is about an archaeologist cat looking for an ancient relic in the depths of the cat's temple, to reach the place, our protagonist will have to go through multiple puzzles that will test the player in different ways. 

PRODUCTION PLAN

• In the PROTOTYPE stage we will start making all the mechanisms planned out on this document and test them, some of them may be gone in the end result. At the end of the week we will have a working prototype level (no art) with a simulation of a "dungeon". Plus we are going to start looking for audio for the game.
• In the PRODUCTION stage , we will be polishing the whole mechanics, building the all the dungeons and cutscenes that we need. 
• In the RELEASE stage we will be fixing bugs, and bringing these game as much joy and passion as possible!.

GAME MECHANICS

Player Controls:

• J - Interact.
• WASD - Movement.
• TAB - Pause.
• K - Hard reset.

The main objective of the player in each room is to activate the KEY MECHANISM that will open the door to the next room, this can happen by multiple ways.

GAMEPLAY

The game is focused on puzzle solving, and to facilitate the workflow of level design we divided it in different "components" which form a single level.

DUNGEON

Each "level" is represented as a dungeon, this spaces contains different puzzles which theme is linked with the element they represent, additionally the color palette will shift depending the element.

ROOM

The room is where the puzzle is, whenever the player uses the "Hard reset" buttons, he is going to return to the entrance of the room, resetting everything in the way.

MECHANISMS

Main tool of the game, the mechanisms WILL be designed to fit any dungeon and be as versatile as possible. For more information keep reading!.

BIG DOOR

Special door that requires the 4 keys of the previous dungeons, once opened, the player will have to face one last level and acquire the relic.

KEY

Main object of the game, the objective of the player is to take this object to the dungeon entrance where the big door is, this is not going to be the same in every dungeon thought! each one will add its own "essence" to the key by making it a challenge to take the key to the place!.

MECHANISMS 101

In this section we are going to talk about all the possible mechanisms the whole game can contain. This are not tied to a specific one.

ACTIVATORS:

Main Object in the room, its function is to call linked objects to be "activated". This activators come in different shapes and forms: 

• Buttons: Can be pressed by the player, some can remain pressed even when the player walks out of it.
• Unique button: Special button that require an specific object to be placed there.
• Multiple button system: System of buttons that require to be pressed at the same time.
• Targets: Special mechanism for a projectile based puzzle, whenever it receives "damage" from a projectile, it will call any linked object.
• Timed object: Component that will call the "deactivate" or "activate" function from the activator in an interval of time.

ACTIVABLES:

Object that requires an input from an activator to do its function.

• Door: Simple door that require a an input from an activator to open or close.
• Moving wall: It moves whenever the input is received.

OTHERS:

• Throwers: Mechanism that creates a temporal wall, which can damage the player or destroy an object that is following the player (Like a key!)
• Launcher: Mechanisms that shoots out dangerous projectiles that can hit the player or any object in its way.
• Ballista: Special mechanism that launches a key orb, this will move in a direction until it hits with a non desirable wall (and be destroyed) or with another mechanism that changes its behavior.
• Moving Platform: A moving platform.
• Pushable box: A pushable box.

CONCEPT ART:

References are stored in this Pinterest board

CHARACTER CONCEPT

Character concept and different color palettes.

ENVIRONMENT