Design
Daredivers is a co-operative survival game where up to four divers are entering a deep-sea location to collect artifacts via submersible. They will be pursued by the creatures of the deep and must avoid perishing to them, while also maintaining their oxygen level as well. The players will bring their artifacts to the submersible to claim rewards after a completion.
Daredivers is a co-operative survival game.
Daredivers is derived from the co-operative survival horror games such as Lethal Company (Zeekerss 2023), Phasmophobia (Kinetic Games 2020), Content Warning (Landfall Publishing 2024), and will play similar to those games.
The game will use Unity 2022 as the game engine. It will also use GitHub for version control.
The game will have an art style similar to Apico (TNgineers 2023), Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine 2016), and Terraria (ReLogic 2011). It will primarily be pixel art in a 2D game.
The game will be designed with the following color palette in mind.
The diver is able to move left and right. They will have a fixed speed that seems to be slow due to the underwater setting and the assumption of pressure from the water. They are able to jump.
Divers will have a limited supply of oxygen to traverse the sea. If this depletes to 0, divers will die. Recovering oxygen is done by entering the submersible or by entering pockets of space sparsely placed around the map. It is lost naturally exploring the stage of an expedition, to contact with enemies or a hazard. This is a fixed value. There is also a maximum value of oxygen which can be permanently damaged.
Divers may encounter artifacts during their sea expedition. These are collectable items needed to fulfill a quota. Divers must meet this limit in order to successfully complete a stage. They must collect as many as they can within a certain time limit. Artifacts have different ratings: common, rare, legendary. The artifact rarity will affect the reward at the end of the stage. Figure 4 shows a player attempting to acquire an artifact.
Every stage of an expedition will have a timer. This will detail the duration that divers have to explore the stage before the submersible will leave with any remaining members on board.
All maps of stages will be covered in darkness. Light can be used to combat the dark, emanated from the submersible and the divers. From the divers, it is a small aura by default.
The submersible is the entry and exit point for a stage. Players enter a stage by the submersible and must return before the timer in order to leave. This submersible is affected by upgrades purchased during the lobby by persistent upgrades, and stores the purchased items made with the temporary currency.
Divers will find obstacles in their path in the form of some traversing enemy. They will have unique abilities of harm for each creature and that attack will deplete the oxygen of the diver. Each enemy will usually inhabit a unique behavior. Contact with these enemies will cause damage to oxygen.
One possible enemy is the anglerfish. It can emit light that can confuse divers into thinking that they are friendly. In contact with a diver, they will do damage that will deplete their oxygen. Divers could avoid damage by standing still in its presence until it exits out of sight.
Another enemy is a squid. They may lie in wait to ambush the player and blind them temporarily with ink. The ink will dissipate after a brief amount of time to return to a normal screen.
One enemy to assail the divers is the jellyfish. When contacting a player, they will temporarily stun the player for a few seconds before leaving quickly to another location on the map.
A shark is a possible enemy of the divers that they will face. They may charge at the divers to strike at them, but only in straight lanes. Contact with a shark may deal a great amount of permanent damage to their oxygen tank. . They can also destroy environments during a charge.
Pirates may appear in a feature of a map, such as a ruin or a shipwreck, in the form of a submersible and attempt to stifle player progress in claiming artifacts. They field opposing divers to attack the players or take the artifacts themselves, and they are easily identified. Players can retaliate from the submersible, which can attack the pirate submersible and defeat them. Artifacts that pirates have collected will be dropped upon defeat. As they are divers, they may face the same tribulations as a player diver would.
Octopus may be present in a stage in a map as an enemy. The octopus, alongside the normal method of damage, may also latch onto a player diver. They will restrain movement and suppress light, causing difficulty for a diver to progress. While the restrained player can free themselves, it is a process expedited quickly with another player to assist.
A lionfish can appear as an enemy whose defining function is to poison divers. Poisoned divers will be unable to restore stamina and will lose oxygen faster unless they find a method to recover from poison such as an antidote.
Emotes are the primary method of communication between divers. They will have a list of emotes to choose from, and each will be unique between each one. The meaning of the emotes are the responsibility of the player to deduce.
Aside from enemies, hazards may be present in stages to become physical obstacles to the divers. They can make navigation difficult. They may have different means of negatively affecting a diver such as slowing speed or draining oxygen quicker.
Sea mines can be present which will usually be encased in destructible environments or laying about the stage. Any contact with an object will cause it to explode, and divers who sustain damage from the explosion will take permanent damage to their oxygen tank.
Seaweed is an environmental hazard that can stifle movement and light of a player diver, as well as enemy divers. Sea creatures are not affected by the movement penalty. They can be destroyed by the player. 2.9.3 Pirates Submersible A pirate submersible may be present in a feature of a map. They may launch missiles at the players, and possibly deploy pirate divers to take artifacts for themselves and attack player divers. After collecting a certain amount of artifacts, the pirate submersible will leave the feature with the artifacts now permanently unobtainable. The player submersible may be able to destroy the pirate submersible with their armaments, should the ship be upgraded appropriately.
Divers will only have a limited number of slots to carry items. Once they have reached their maximum, they cannot pick up anymore items until they deposit them.
Divers have a limited amount of stamina to swim swiftly away from dangers. This replenishes slowly over time, but is quickly expended.
Harpooner - carries a harpoon Porter - has more inventory slots… Demolitionist - can break into sealed areas with underwater explosives Ship Captain - can move the ship?
Can be converted into a form of skill points that can upgrade the abilities of each class, improves class individualism.
Items may be purchased in between stages of an expedition. They are one-time use will be readily available during a stage in the submersible.
A flashlight item is an example of one such item which will increase the aura light emitted from a diver.
Currency is divided into two categories, where one is temporary upgrades and the other is persistent currency.
Temporary currency, represented as a green dollar, is procured by the turning in of artifacts during a stage. They expire during the end of an expedition. When a stage is completed, the host of the lobby is able to purchase upgrades and items that benefit the team. Non-host players can vote for items but only the host confirms the purchase.
Persistent currency, represented by a gear, is procured by the collection of artifacts similar to 2.14.1 but at a decreased rate. This currency does not expire at the end of an expedition. At the lobby, the host of the lobby can purchase upgrades that permanently modify the session. This currency cannot be used to supplement purchases made with temporary currency for items.
Maps are the playground of the game. It is where the players, the sea creatures, the artifacts, appear. They are not consistent maps, and each stage will feature a different map - though with similar features. It will be a procedural generated map structure for each stage of a map.
Upgrades are permanent modifiers that affect a submersible to activate new talents or provide bonuses. Purchased in the hub area, the host picks the upgrade to purchase while other players can vote on what the host should pick but not pick themselves. It will be shown what the upgrade will use, and the cost - whose currency to expend is the permanent currency.
Certain elements of the environment can be destroyed by the player and the enemies under certain conditions; it is often explosives for player divers. They are marked with a slightly white shine about them (modify?). Sharks, when charging, will be able to destroy these elements instantaneously. The missiles from the pirate submersible can destroy the environment as well. Not all of the environment can be destroyed.
The objective of the game is to collect as many artifacts as possible in a time frame while surviving the hazards of a stage during the sea expedition. Divers will have multiple quotas to fulfill during an expedition, completed during entering a stage.
The divers will be harassed by the deep sea creatures that will hinder their approach. Environmental hazards may be present to become obstacles for players to bypass or surge through. They also have a limited supply of oxygen that decreases constantly.
The HUD or Heads up Display will show all the important information in each level. It will display their oxygen level, their inventory slot, oxygen level, and stamina. Figure 3 provides an instance of a HUD.
The main menu will have the options to play the game, enter the settings menu, or quit the game. Figure 1 shows an example.
Players can wait for other players to join their game in a multiplayer setting. All players must ‘ready up’ before the game begins. Figure 2 shows an example.
The pause screen produces an overlay that allows the player to resume their game, access their settings, or quit the currently lobby during an expedition. Time is paused when the player is alone, but not when there are more than one. Figure 5 is an example of the pause screen.
The settings screen allows players to modify the game as allowed to what suits them best, such as volume, and key bindings. A mock-up of the settings can be found in Figure 6.
This screen is encountered when a diver perishes during a stage from running out of oxygen. Figure 7 has a sample of the death screen.