Design
{Sea Game} 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.
{Sea Game} is a co-operative survival game.
{Sea Game} 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 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.
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. 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.
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.
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. Each enemy will usually inhabit a unique behavior.
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. They are a race occurrence, but they can instantly kill on contact with a diver.
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.
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.
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.
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.