Love Entity

My very own incremental game. Heavily Based on AdVenture Capitalist and Cookie Clicker.

Google Play, trailer.

Game Design Document

1. Overall Vision

   • Write a short paragraph explaining the game Love Entity is a love-themed incremental game. The player manages the incremental gains of love by clicking and taking care of other various assets to earn as much love as possible. Ascension points give the player the option to begin anew with a bonus further increasing accumulation of love.

   • Describe the genre This is a single-player incremental game.

   • What is the target audience? The game is appropriate for all ages and is simple enough to be enjoyed by casual gamers. The target platform is Android phones, the game will also be available for free on desktop.

   • Why play this game? This game is slow-paced with gameplay sessions only meant to be a few minutes long. The game has a high incentive and also actively encourages recurring play. A variety of background images and visual effects will be used for visual interest.

2. Mechanics: the rules of the game world

   • What are the character's goals? The short term goals are to be able to afford the basic love generating resources by gathering enough love by clicking the big heart. Medium-term goals are to acquire all generative resources and manage them. The long-term goal is to earn the highest possible loves, preferably by ascension points which add replay value to the game.

   • What abilities does the character have? The player will be able to choose between two kinds of love generations: clicking the big heart or managing the auto generative assets.

   • What obstacles or difficulties will the character face? Expensive auto generative assets, unlocks, upgrades and ascension points will not be available until the player has earned enough love. Surpassing this obstacle requires the accumulation and strategic generation of love. The game will also play by itself, meaning that it might be best not to play and wait while love builds up by itself.

   • What items can the character obtain The player may buy various upgrades with the currencies available to be able to gain even more love. Timewarp is available to purchase with rainbow hearts, which will spawn randomly around the big heart and must be clicked upon, some will be falling others will have wings and move unpredictably. This will be a work in progress

   • What resources must be managed? The main currency is love, the goal of the game is to gain as much as possible. There will also be rainbow hearts that can buy timewarps. Lastly, acquiring ascension points may permanently give a percent love-gain bonus at the cost of beginning anew. Additional currencies are a work in progress.

   • Describe the game-world environment. The main region of the screen will feature a big clickable heart when scrolling downwards auto generative assets will reveal themselves. The game also features a static burger menu button at the bottom center of the screen, which will show a menu. Statically on the top of the screen, the player's resources are displayed.

3. Dynamics: the interaction between the player and the game mechanics

   • What hardware is required by the game? Android devices will be required to have a functional touch screen. Desktop will mainly be mouse clicking, but some keyboard shortcuts may be available. The control scheme will be available through exploration only.

   • What type of proficiency will the player need to develop to become proficient at the game? The player needs to figure out how to most productively secure love. The generative asset's gains will be linear but the costs will not be, meaning that at some point repeatedly buying a generative asset over another will not be most efficient.

   • What gameplay data is displayed during the game? Always at the top of the screen, the total amount of love, rainbow hearts, and ascension points will be shown. The visibility of the two latter depends on the progression of the game.

   • What menus, screens, or overlays will there be? The bottom burger menu features:

     • Unlocks: which shows next bonus unlocks
     • Upgrades: Which shows available purchasable upgrades for the auto generative assets.
     • Ascension: Shows available ascension points and current accumulation

     Other UI choices and menu mechanics are a work in progress.

   • How does the player interact with the game at the software level? There is no pause button. There will be a mute button for audio. The player may only quit the game by the operating system's controls.

4. Aesthetics: the visual, audio, narrative, and psychological aspects of the game

   • Describe the style and feel of the game. The game has a dark-themed space look, with a bright and colorful queer accent feel to it. The big heart will be shaped as a galaxy-heart and the UI will feature space like graphics. Meanwhile, the auto generative resources, unlocks and managers will feature queer people, flags and information.

   • Does the game use pixel art, line art, or realistic graphics? The graphics will be in a pixel art style.

   • What style of background music, ambient sounds will the game use? The game will feature background music, ambient music, and various effects for different buttons.

   • What is the relevant backstory for the game? The background story is that the player is a love entity, who's goal is to love the whole universe. This will be prevalent with the intro video, the general theme, and the ascension points.

   • What emotional state(s) does the game try to provoke? A sense of satisfaction by seeing the love number go up. A sense of compassion when managing the auto generative resources, as they are queer-themed. And a sense of thankful, curious and optimistic feelings layed out by the overall composition.

   • What makes the game fun? Exploring and optimising the core mechanics of generating big numbers, and achieving the highest score possible. Also the satisfaction of knowing when playing again the game has progressed.

5. Development

   • List the team members and their roles, responsibilities, and skills.
     This project will be completed individually; graphics and audio will be obtained from third-party websites that make their assets available under the Creative Commons license, and so the main task will be programming and creating some graphics.

   • What equipment is needed for this project?
     A computer (with keyboard, mouse, and speakers) and internet access will be necessary to complete this project.

   • What are the tasks that need to be accomplished to create this game?
     This project will use a simple Kanban board hosted on the project's GitHub page. The main sequence of steps to complete this project is as follows:

     • Setting up a project scaffold
     • Programming game mechanics and UI
     • Creating and obtaining graphical assets
     • Obtaining audio assets
     • Polishing
     • Deployment

   • What points in the development process are suitable for playtesting?
     The main points for playtesting are when the basic game mechanics of the level screen are implemented, and when it is visualised. The questions that will be asked are:

     • Is the gameplay and UI understandable?
     • Is the gameplay interesting?
     • How do the controls feel?
     • How is the pace of the game?
     • Are there any improvement suggestions?

   • What are the plans for publication? This game will be made available for free on desktop or possibly available for purchase on Steam. It will be deployed on the Google Play store for 10-15 NOK and advertised to various indie game-portal websites (LibGDX, r/incremental_games). Gameplay images and a video will be posted and marketed via social media.