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Game Design Document
The executive summary:
- A fantasy/sci-fi game similar in gameplay to Adventure of Link but with spiritual inspirations drawn from Super Mario World, Metroid and Elden Ring with a focus on exploration, swordplay and action adventure elements.
A very brief description of the theme and setting of the game:
- In an isolated fantasy world with a buried technological past, a guard stumbles upon an ancient existential threat facing their world.
A few bullet points introducing the main features:
- Fast paced timing-based swordplay
- Large overworld maps with lots of nooks and crannies
- Rich levels full of secrets
- Lively towns with interesting NPCs
- A streamlined but satisfying leveling up system
- Weapons, abilities and power-ups that are discovered throughout your journey
- Enemies and bosses with detailed background lore
Farmer 1: An injured farmer NPC in the opening area near Town 1 who will ask the player to go into his fields to find out what is ruining his crops. Giver of Side Quest 1.
Judgelord 1: Judgelord of County 1. Will play an early role in the Main Quest.
Judgelord Boarheart: Judgelord Boarheart is a Holy Judge of the Church of Galungawa and one of the nine Judges presiding over the Sheriffs of the various counties of Wudragar. They are the highest political and religious figures in the land, formally called Judgelords. Boarheart believes himself to be the true incarnation of the Boarheart of ancient legend and sees it as his duty and purpose to reform the traditions of the church and the laws of the land in his image. He is ultimately deranged and obsessed with divine power such that he begins to see himself as a prophet of Galungawa and writes an entirely new volume of the Divine Teachings himself. This creates a political divide in the land of Wudragar wherein some people embrace his new teachings and others don’t, even amidst the nine Judgelords. Lord Boarheart and his supporters form a splinter branch of the Church of Galungawa as well as a new political party to challenge the church’s ancient traditions. He will appear as a late game boss after it's been established that the player's goals do not align with the goals of his new order.
Old Friend 1: An NPC found on his deathbed who will mention an old friend of his with whom he wishes he could have one last interaction. Giver of Side Quest: Old Friends.
Old Friend 2: An NPC that will be found by the player lying in a meadow waiting to be taken by the earth. He will tell the player that living is inherently selfish and for him to exist other things must die, so the only path to true selflessness is to lie right here in the forest floor until he dies and is recycled by the forest. See Side Quest: Old Friends.
Sheriff 1: I don't have any name or characterization for Sheriff of Town1 yet but I want them to be an interesting character, may base them on an old boss of mine or something since I want to make it feel like you're on the job.
Trading Card Guy: The creator of the popular trading card series, Spirits of Ylgwyl. See Trading Card Quests.
- Side Quest 1: Involves Farmer 1 and takes place in the opening demo area in a farm stage somewhere near Town 1. When the player speaks to Farmer 1, they will be told that while tending to the crops he was attacked by some kind of monster he'd never seen before and was injured, disabling him from working on the farm. He will ask the player for a bandage for his wounds which can be easily bought in Town 1 or found nearby. When the player gives him the bandage, Farmer 1 will thank them and then proceed to tell them that the crops have been unhealthy and the fields have been dry and there hasn't been enough for his livestock to eat and if it keeps going this way he's worried his harvest will be poor and his family and and other villagers relying on his harvest could go hungry. The player will enter the fields through a gate at the far right side of the farm stage. There will be a number of landlice running amok in the fields. Some of them are small, quick and aggressive and others are fully pregnant and draining the soil of nutrients. The player must destroy all the landlice in the stage and then return to speak to Farmer 1. He will comment on how this may be an ongoing problem that is getting worse as of recently, warning the player that others have claimed to experience similar troubles and while he was skeptical at first he's now a believer. He will then thank the player for their help and give them some sort of reward (haven't decided exactly what yet). When the player returns to Farm 1, Farmer 1 will be back out in the fields working and may have an additional interaction available for the player.
- Old Friends: This side quest will involve two NPCs who are old friends. Old Friend 1 is on his deathbed and would very much like to have one final interaction with the other. Old Friend 2 is healthy but is lying on the ground with the intent to selflessly die and give himself back to the forest. It may be implied or stated that neither one is aware of the other's situation as they haven't seen each other in a very long time. If the player speaks to Old Friend 1 he will state that he wishes he could see Old Friend 2 again because he has something he'd very much like to give him. The player will then be given the Sealed Jar key item, which is an apparently empty jar that is sealed tightly. The player will be told by Old Friend 1 not to open the jar as its contents are for Old Friend 2 only. At this point Old Friend 1 will die, later becoming a skeleton. If the player speaks to Old Friend 2 after obtaining the Sealed Jar, the player may be prompted to mention the jar which will trigger a dialogue where Old Friend 2 expresses sadness at the loss of his dear friend and is given the jar which he will open and react in disgust at the putrid smell that has escaped the jar. This will trigger a paradigm shift in Old Friend 2 and he will stand up and blink and look around and decide that he now wants to live and that he has come around to believing that he can do more good with his life than his death. Old Friend 2 might now give the player a reward or a new quest. Should the player miss this side quest then after a certain threshold in the game both Old Friends will be dead separately and the quest and its rewards will become inaccessible and Old Friend 1 will already be a skeleton and Old Friend 2 will be a tree.
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Any side quest involving a collectible trading card. In the land of Wudragar there is a line of collectable trading cards tentatively titled Spirits of Ylgwyl that’s extremely popular among children, nerds, merchants and collectors. There are a total of 81 unique cards to collect throughout the game, some of them being extremely common and others being extremely rare. These cards could be traded with NPCs who are fellow collectors. These simple trade opportunities might exist all over the world with some rare cards only being obtainable through specific quests or trade sequences.
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Trading Card Quest 1: This will be the side quest that introduces the concept of the Collectable Trading Cards that may be found throughout the land of Wudragar. There are a couple of small holding cells in the Sherriff's Station in Town 1 that contain some local drunks and ruffians. One of them is in jail for simply trading Spirits of Ylgwyl cards, which have been banned by the church so that any adult caught with them in their possession will be arrested and sent to jail to await trial by Holy Judgement. If the player speaks to him he will show disdain for having been arrested for simply enjoying some harmless fun. (Still working on this idea)
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Trading Card Story Quest: Canonically, Spirits of Ylgwyl is considered offensive heretical material by the Church of Galungawa and has been recently publicly banned. The trading cards were created by an NPC named Trading Card Guy who has gone into hiding as he has been labeled a heretic and is wanted by the church. Because of the church’s condemnation of Spirits of Ylgwyl there is a bit of a Satanic Panic surrounding the cards with many NPCs seeing them as a bad thing. Nevertheless, many NPCs still collect them, trade them and may buy or sell them. If the player completes certain quests and defeats certain bosses they may be able to ‘reform’ the church and get the cards unbanned and lift the bounty on Trading Card Guy which may unlock a number of rare cards and may reveal Trading Card Guy's full story, unlocking a final super rare card. It might also be possible for the player to arrest Trading Card Guy and turn him into the church and collect the bounty themselves but that would shut off access to the final rare card and any other rewards or quests that may come from Trading Card Guy.
The game opens with the Player character starting his/her first day of work as the new Deputy of Town 1. They will meet their new boss, the Sheriff 1 of Town 1, who will give them a brief 'training session' to explain controls, make them feel like it's their first day on the job and give them a general sense of their objective which is to patrol their jurisdiction looking for anything out of place and helping citizens in need, then they'll be set loose into the initial tutorial sector of the map where there will be a few points of interest within the region to go to such as an old ruined temple, a rocky area with a cave, some forests and a farm or two. They are now free to explore any of these areas including Town 1 but will be told it's not within their jurisdiction if they attempt to leave the County (tutorial area) at this point.
Going to the ruined temple will reveal some Deputy guards that tell the player they're not permitted to set foot in the temple and they have to get written authorization from the County Judgelord to be allowed to enter. Judgelord 1 will be found in Town 1 in a church or civic building. The Player gets an audience with Judgelord 1 but is laughed at and harshly denied access to the old temple since it's their first day of work (as very few people are allowed access to any ancient structure). This introduces the character Judgelord 1 and will also trigger a sudden event in town. When the player leaves the civic building there will be a disturbance in town that distracts and leads the player back to the ruined temple where we find that the guards are missing and one is fatally wounded so there's nothing stopping the player from entering. If you talk to the dying guard he tells you the other guards followed something into the temple depths.
The player enters the temple and we find that it is Dungeon 1, where we will find our first ability and our first boss. Upon entering the temple, the player may talk to another dying guard who says they wounded it but couldn't kill it. The player will follow the path into the dark unseen depths of the dungeon, eventually falling into an area that there is no way to jump back out of, forcing the player to keep following the path down. At the end of the path the player will find a strange technological altar that imbues them with a High Jump ability. This will allow the player to jump into the boss area where we find the boss snacking on fellow soldiers. The player must defeat the monster which will be some kind of hideous demonic beast that appears wounded in some way and isn't too hard to kill but isn't super easy either. Upon defeating the monster the player may talk to one final dying soldier injured on the floor who will grunt with his last breath to tell the player to seek the cave in the west before dying and being impossible to speak to again. The player must use the High Jump to escape the dungeon and return to the overworld.
Now that the player has High Jump the rocky region to the west is now accessible. If the player heads into this region they will find Cave 1. Entering this cave will lead you deep into a cavern with lots of gaps and chasms in the pitch darkness, so not only will this cavern make good use of your new High Jump ability, but you’ll also need a lantern to proceed. The lantern can be purchased in Town 1 so if the player hasn’t bought it yet on their own then they’ll need to return to Town 1 and do so and then return to Cave 1.
Once the player works their way through the dark caverns of Cave 1 it will open up into a ruined subterranean structure, Dungeon 2, which will be slightly trickier and more dangerous than Dungeon 1. The player must navigate Dungeon 2 where they will find the Mysterious Sword which will help them defeat the boss of Dungeon 2.
This is now information relevant to in-game enemy behavior and stats. For deeper enemy lore and backstory information, see Enemy Lore.
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Adderlily: A carnivorous vine. Adderlilies are stationary enemies which may spit poison and will snap at the player if they get too close.
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Landlouse: Landlice will run back and forth occasionally jumping at the player. They are a common enemy. They may hatch from a landlouse egg.
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Landlouse (Pregnant): A mature variety of landlice. They are stationary enemies that are bouncy upon collision with the player and will cause knockback but no loss of health as a direct result of collision with the pregnant landlouse itself. They may be difficult to jump over due to their size and bounciness. A pregnant landlouse will lob a landlouse egg every few seconds. The tossed eggs may hit the player while airborne, causing damage. After they land they will behave as standard landlouse eggs, hatching after a few seconds. Pregnant landlice will drop two to three final eggs when they are destroyed.
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Landlouse Egg: Has no abilities on its own but may be rolled or tossed around and may cause damage if in motion. A few seconds after it appears on screen a landlouse egg will hatch and spawn a landlouse which will then start behaving as a normal landlouse. A landlouse egg may be destroyed by the player before hatching, killing the landlouse inside before it spawns.
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Outlaw: Human enemies who come in many varieties. They will swordfight using mechanics similar to the player's.
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Scuttler: Scuttlers are found in dark caves. Their LOS is shorter than the length of the player's focused lantern light but longer than the radius of the standard lamplight circle, so they may suddenly appear from the darkness and surprise the player if they're not remembering to focus their lamplight periodically.
I want to simulate the idea of the hardship of travel while the player traverses the overworld. The EN meter will be a yellow meter that drops very gradually as the player walks around the overworld. While in the overworld the EN meter represents the long term endurance (henceforth referred to as Endurance) of the player character. If the player isn't moving then time 'stands still' and the Endurance meter doesn't drop, but for every unit of distance the player travels, a respective amount of Endurance is lost. When the player enters a side-scrolling level, the EN meter effectively becomes a much snappier, lighter yellow meter which represents short term combat stamina (henceforth referred to as Stamina). The Stamina meter drops and recovers quickly when the player performs attacks. The higher Endurance the player has when they search an overworld map node, the more Stamina they will have upon entering that stage. As the EN meter is restored by consumables or permanently upgraded by level-ups, both Endurance and Stamina are extended respectively as they are both represented by the EN meter. If the Stamina meter hits the bottom of the EN meter the player will become fatigued, lengthening attack recovery time and forcing the player to wait for the EN meter to recharge fully before returning to normal. The Stamina meter will turn a dull color while it is recharging and is 'fully recharged' when it reaches the top of the EN bar, turning fully light yellow again. A yellow, green or orange item must be consumed or the player must rest at an inn or campsite to restore the EN meter to its maximum, thus restoring both Endurance and Stamina (EN) to maximum.
Seeing the gradient sky system made me start thinking of a way to properly utilize that feature. I was originally against the idea of a clock because I didn't want the game to have too many 'real time' aspects to it outside of combat and platforming but I've rethought that and here is my idea for a day / night system that isn't too 'real time':
The day / night clock is only active while the player is in the overworld and in motion, same as the Endurance meter. As the player moves, the clock will also move. It would be represented by a color changing light filter on the overworld that indicates a changing time of day. It may also be represented by a small clock graphic in the inventory screen or perhaps optionally displayed on the HUD. Time will not be moving while in a side scrolling stage but time of day could theoretically determine or affect a number of variables upon entering side scrolling stages such as sky color, dark filter opacity, enemy spawns, NPC spawns, shop hours, quest events and item drops.
To save the game the player must stop and sleep somewhere. This is usually done at inns or campsites but may also be done in certain special locations as well. Sleeping at inns or campsites may also allow the player to choose the time of day.
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Campsites: Campsites are stationed by church guards similar to the player character and are official military stops. They are small side-scrolling areas found in levels or entered via an overworld node that will have tents where the player may sleep for free, which saves the game and restores the player's EN meter. Campsites may also have a shop with Foods and Cures and a taxi service that can be used as a form of fast travel to get between campsites (for a fee).
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Inns: Inns are found in towns and cities and allow the player to sleep in a comfortable bed for a price, which saves the game and restores ALL meters.
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Special Locations: These places are unique locations where the player may sleep and save the game. They may be an NPC's house or any other odd or unique location where we may allow the player to save the game.
Player progression will come in several forms, including:
- an EXP based leveling system where each enemy destroyed gives the player a fixed amount of EXP and the amount of EXP needed to level up increases with each level up. Upon each level up the player will be allowed to choose to upgrade one of four stats: HP, ATK, DEF, or EN.
- Upgrading HP adds to the maximum hit point value the character has
- Upgrading ATK increases base attack stat across all weapons including projectiles and magic
- Upgrading DEF increases base character defense stat
- Upgrading EN increases Endurance and Stamina
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A weapon leveling system calculated separately from the character leveling system that multiplies the base attack stat of the sword and bow individually. For example, killing enemies with the sword will accumulate 'Sword EXP' and will eventually lead to a 'Sword Weapon Level Up' which will multiply damage done only with the sword, whereas killing enemies with the bow will accumulate 'Bow EXP' leading to a 'Bow Weapon Level Up' which will multiply damage done only by the bow. This will hopefully encourage the player to use both their sword and bow often.
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The player will find physical sword, bow, shield and armor upgrades throughout the world that will add to ATK and DEF stats separately from the standard character or weapon leveling systems and may also increase physical stats such as sword reach, arrow speed, etc. This type of upgrade might include finding a new sword or shield, upgrading a sword, shield or armor at a blacksmith or something, finding a new bow or bow accessory, etc.
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The player's blue MP meter, which runs out when using magical attacks or abilities, is the only standard meter that doesn't upgrade with level ups. The MP meter instead upgrades with power up items found in the world called 'Magic Expansions' (not that, but something better than that). They are actually ancient technological devices that work with the player character's metabolism to create magical energy (which is canonically why eating certain foods can restore MP meter). Magic Expansions may be found anywhere in nooks and crannies of the world on ancient tech altars and function similarly to Metroid power ups such as energy tanks or missile expansions.
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Gaining physical magical abilities such as High Jump or obtaining items such as the Whip may give the player access to new areas. Additionally, defeating certain bosses, solving certain puzzles or riddles, completing certain levels, and engaging with certain NPC interactions are all situations that may trigger events or environmental changes that allow the player to reach previously inaccessible areas. This is how objectives may be gatekept in situations where we want things to be done in a certain order, such as storyline or side quest progression.
These are one time use items that are dropped or found on the ground and provide a benefit instantly upon collision with the player. They are perishable items usually dropped by enemies, trees or boxes and barrels that the player destroys. They may also appear when searching the overworld. They are color coded such that red items restore HP, yellow items restore EN and blue items restore MP. Non-primary colored items (orange, purple, green) will replenish multiple meters.
Red Apple: Restores small-medium amount of HP upon collision. Found on trees, sometimes dropped by enemies.
Rare Steak: Restores large amount of HP upon collision. Dropped by large beast / animal type enemies.
Red Lobster: Restores large amount of HP upon collision. Dropped by enemies or found in watery areas.
Yellow Apple: Restores small-medium amount of EN upon collision. Found on trees, sometimes dropped by enemies.
Goldenberry: Restores small amount of EN upon collision. Found on small shrubs.
Blueberry: Restores small amount of MP upon collision. Found on small shrubs. Sometimes dropped by enemies.
Blue Shrooms: Restores small-medium amount of MP upon collision. Found on the ground beneath trees or cliffs.
Blue Lobster: Restores large amount of MP upon collision. Dropped by enemies or found in watery areas.
Orange Carrot: Restores small-medium amount of HP and EN upon collision. Found on the ground.
Orange Yam: Restores medium amount of HP and EN upon collision. Found on the ground.
Green Apple: Restores small-medium amount of EN and MP upon collision. Found on trees, sometimes dropped by enemies.
Purple Plum: Restores small-medium amount of MP and HP. Found on shrubs, sometimes dropped by enemies.
These are items that are stored up to a certain quantity and can be used at any time from the inventory screen. They are non-perishable items usually purchased in shops, given as quest rewards or found in chests or when searching the overworld. Color coding applies to these items as well.
Foods
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Jerky: Restores HP, EN, MP (brown)
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Pickled Beets: Restores HP (red)
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Plum Preserves: Restores MP, HP (purple)
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Blueberry Jam: Restores MP (blue)
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Pickles: Restores EN, MP (green)
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Golden Honey: Restores EN (yellow)
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Pumpkin Marmalade: Restores HP, EN (orange)
Meds
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Bandage: Cures bleed status ailment
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Antitoxin: Cures poisoned status ailment
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Elixir: Cures sick status ailment
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Icebalm: Cures burn status ailment
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Mineral Water: Cures heatstroke status ailment
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Fire Water: Cures frostbite status ailment
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Snake Oil: Cures all status ailments
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Armstrong Tonic: Temporarily raises attack stat
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Ironflesh Tincture: Temporarily raises defense stat
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Deputy Sword: The initial sword the player begins the game with. Equips to dominant hand. Standard issue sword used by guards working under the Sheriffs. Ordinary sword with no special powers or abilities, deals baseline damage.
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Deputy Shield: Initial shield the player begins the game with. Equips to non-dominant hand. Can be upgraded, provides base defense points and blocks low level enemy collisions if raised in front of player character.
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Lantern: Casts an aura of light around player in a dark area. Can be raised in the same manner as the shield to project a long, narrow beam of light out in front of player. Equips to non-dominant hand so it may be used instead of shield, sacrificing defense for light. May be purchased in Town1, will be needed to navigate dark caves safely.
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Mysterious Sword: Is found in Dungeon2 in the opening area. Can have upgrades and magical abilities added to it. Replaces the Deputy Sword, deals slightly higher base damage and has upgradeable attack power. Is actually an ancient multi tool device.
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Whip: Will be available to purchase in towns / shops outside the opening tutorial area. Equips to dominant hand. Does damage to enemies, may stun some enemies, and can be used to swing across gaps and chasms.
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Bow: Will be available to purchase in towns / shops outside the opening tutorial area. Requires both hands.
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Fishing Rod: Will be available to purchase in towns. Requires both hands to wield, may not be available in the demo.
Magic Powers are found as one-of-a-kind power ups in the world. They are acquired at ancient magic tech altars and imbue the Mysterious Sword with offensive abilities that can be toggled on or off and consume MP when used.
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Fire Slash: Imbues slash attack with a short range projectile flame spread that inflicts burn damage.
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Volley Slash: Imbues slash with projectile magic essence that will fall back toward the direction from which it was fired after reaching its max distance. If struck again and again by the player the magic essence will continue to volley, potentially doing damage to enemies until the player misses (unless indefinite volleying proves to be OP or something, then it may reach some maximum number of volleys and despawn).
Abilities are found as one-of-a-kind power up items in the world. They are acquired at ancient magic tech altars but do not consume MP when used.
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High Jump: The first main powerup the player receives in the game, found in Dungeon1 in the opening area and becomes the standard jump for the rest of the game. Allows the player to jump 3 tiles.
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Double Jump: Is found later, not sure when yet but most likely after the tutorial. Gives player the ability to perform an additional jump in mid-air.
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Destruct: Imbues the Mysterious Sword with the power to break certain blocks. Most likely found post-tutorial.
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Super-Destruct: Imbues the Mysterious Sword with the power to break certain ancient magic tech blocks. Found post-tutorial.
Items given or traded by NPCs, ancient or magical items used to solve puzzles or riddles, possibly actual keys to unlock specific doors, (possibly) books that contain lore, collectable trading cards.
Quest Items:
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Sealed Jar: Quest item pertaining to 'Old Friends' side quest
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Trading Card Book: An inventory item given to the player upon receiving their first trading card. The Trading Card Book will show up in the inventory as a key item. When clicked on it will expand into a 9 x 9 grid with spaces for 81 unique cards. Duplicate cards can be stacked up to 16 like any other inventory item.
Collectable Trading Cards:
This trading card system will provide a lot of semi-generalized collectables that provide unique interactions and trade opportunities with NPCs all over the world to give the player more ways to connect with NPCs and discover their personalities.
- Woodragoon (Green plant type Dragoon Spirit)
- Grumbleseed (Green plant type Imp Spirit)
- Thundragoon (Yellow electric type Dragoon Spirit)
- Hydragoon (Blue water type Dragoon Spirit)
- Phaedragoon (Pink magic type Dragoon Spirit)
The game will have a very basic character creator when the player starts a new game. It will be a limited creator that gives the player a few simple aesthetic decisions that have no real physical impact on gameplay but are intended to give the player just a little bit of customization to enhance immersion and relatability.
- Name: The player must give a name of their choosing to the player character.
- Gender: The player may choose a gender for the character. This does not affect the player sprite or gameplay in any way as the character is always fully armored and NPCs always address the player as a soldier so gendered language could reasonably never be used to refer to the player character. This is strictly for the player's own psychological satisfaction, immersion, etc. and only appears as a small male or female symbol in the status screen.
- Skin Color: The player may choose from wide pallet of skin colors. This will change the player character's appearance in-game but will not have any physical affect beyond that. Otherwise strictly for immersion and cultivating the feeling that the player can put themselves into the journey.
- Dominant Hand: The player may choose whether the character is left handed or right handed. This will have the affect of mirroring the player sprite and mechanics in gameplay. This change will also show up in the inventory affecting the sword, whip, shield and lamp.
It would be ideal if the game has a decent variety of accessibility options to make it as playable as possible for as many players as possible. It isn't necessary that these things make it into the demo.
- Color Blindness Mode: Since the game relies on color-coded items so heavily I'd like to look into having this be an option to provide the best experience possible to people with color blindness.
- Scalable HUD: HUD and dialogue boxes should possibly be scalable to some degree for readability.
- Custom HUD: May allow the player to choose the color of their text and menu boxes.
- Music Volume: Standard slider allowing player to turn music up and down.
- SFX Volume: Standard slider allowing player to turn sound effects up and down.
- Default Controls: The default control scheme if the player is playing with a controller.
- Classic Controls: A possible control scheme option set up to play more like an old NES game.
- Default Keyboard Mouse Controls: Default control scheme if the player is playing with a keyboard/mouse setup.
- Custom Controls: Allows the player to map their own custom control scheme with keyboard/mouse or controller setup.
The game will have an overworld map that functions as a hub world to go between side-scrolling stages. The player will walk around on the map in a simple top-down 8-directional setup that won't require any real physics. There will be a number of interesting features visible on the map. The player will have the ability to press the Action Button to choose to interface with or 'Search' map nodes. More eye-catching and individualized land features might generally indicate larger or more intricate stages while simple repetitive features may indicate nothing at all. Interacting with different map nodes by pressing the Action Button while colliding with said node may trigger any of the following events:
- The player is prompted to enter a side-scrolling stage (dungeon, cave, town, etc.)
- The player is teleported into a combat side-scrolling stage (lairs)
- The player is shown a text prompt or NPC interaction right there on the map
- The player finds an item
- Nothing is found
- Perhaps a small sound (like a little 'tch tch') to indicate that a 'search' has taken place.
There may also sometimes be a boss enemy on the map that can teleport the player into a combat side-scrolling level upon collision. These enemies would be very specifically placed and mostly stationary unless approached at which point they may give chase but give up quickly if the player leaves their range, giving the player a fair shake at avoiding these battles. These enemies are NOT random pop-up battles, and there are NO pop-up enemies in this game except for those which are not random and are the result of an elective button press or which make sure to give the player fair chase.
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Towns: Towns are friendly stages found in the overworld. Towns may be made up of multiple map nodes and may be entered at different nodes which will cause the player to be spawned in different areas of town. For example searching the westernmost map node in Town 1 will spawn the player in Town 1 West (town1W), whereas searching the easternmost map node would spawn the player in Town 1 East (town1E), and likewise entering one of the middle nodes would put the player in Town 1 Central (town1C). Towns contain a variety of NPCs and structures. A structure may be entered by interacting with its door.
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Structures: Structures include houses and other friendly buildings. They have a unique interior perspective differing from other stages and may have multiple rooms, basements and backyards. Some structures may even contain secret entrances to dungeons or caves.
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Campsites: Campsites are stationed by church guards and are official military stops. They are small friendly areas found within larger hostile stages or sometimes entered from the map via an overworld Campsite node. Campsites contain tents where the player may sleep for free, which saves the game and restores the player's EN meter. Campsites may also have a shop with Foods and Cures and a taxi service that can be used as a form of fast travel to get between campsites (for a fee).
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Dungeons: Dungeons are stages with an ancient architectural aesthetic and a mini-boss or boss at the end. They may contain riddles, puzzles, or labyrinth features and may also be home to numerous enemies. There will usually be some item, ability or power-up to be found inside of a dungeon.
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Caves: Caves are stages with a theme of darkness. The player will need a lantern to navigate caves, with cave stages being centered around utilizing the lantern to spot escape routes, enemies, chasms and treasures. Caves may have multiple entrances and exits, sometimes interconnecting areas of the overworld map. Some caves are deeply explorable and may be full of ancient treasures or even secret dungeon entrances.
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Forests: When searching certain forested nodes on the overworld map, the player may be prompted to enter a forest level. They are wild, sometimes dark stages populated by numerous animals and enemies. Some forest stages may be eerie and spooky while others are pretty and whimsical. The trees may hide all sorts of resources and secrets.
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Prairies: Prairies are standard grassy green stages that may be hostile or semi-hostile. They usually contain a variety of low to mid level enemies. Sometimes NPCs and Structures may be found in prairie stages. They may also contain entrances to hidden caves, dungeons and other types of more dangerous stages.
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Lairs: Lairs are one-shot stages that disappear upon completion. They may come in a few varieties such as bandit hideouts or monster nests. When the player presses the Action Button to search a lair map node they will be instantly teleported into the stage with no confirmation prompt. Lairs are crawling with enemies and contain a boss or mini-boss.
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Boss Stages: Boss Stages are a unique type of small stage where the player will fight a mini-boss or boss. Usually found at the end of a Dungeon or Lair.
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Overworld Boss Stages: An Overworld Boss Stage is a rare type of Boss Stage that appears as a mobile enemy sprite on the overworld map. Overworld Bosses will guard one map node and have a small range of sight and movement wherein they will give chase if the player enters said range but will give up quickly and return to their designated node if the player gets out of their range. They will instantly teleport the player into the Boss Stage UPON COLLISION with said sprite, which is why they may be avoided with some being easier to avoid than others.
Initially, the game will release as a digital PC/Mac standalone version available through common retailers such as Steam, GOG, etc.,.
Could add console support (through e-stores, perhaps no physical release?) in the future.
Consider the following engines: Unity 3D
For project management use JIRA. Use Github for storing code and assets.
TBD properly in Technical Design Document.