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starmaid edited this page Jun 6, 2025 · 3 revisions

Plan

This is the development plan for the game. I am ignoring github issues for now because I'm the only one working on it, and I can work from a list just fine.

The final goal is to distribute on Itch.io for friends and stuff. Not for money or anything, but it will be nice to get out there. If I don't use commercial assets till the end, could get money out of it?

Vertical Slice

Playtest and proof of concept.

  • One Location
  • One GameMode
  • One Plane
  • Three weapons
  • Main menu: Start + Quit
  • Basic sounds
  • Copyrighted synthwave music. IDGAF

Tasks

These things still have to be done to get to a vertical slice that makes me happy

  1. Rework the graphics completely. This game needs to be a demonstration of my graphics programming skills.

    • Screen effects
      • fuzz and haze
      • bloom
    • Geometry shaders
      • dynamic gradients on geometry
      • weird lighting stuff maybe, get the material properties to look 'right'
    • Better particle effects
      • ship engine trail
      • bullets
      • damaged ship effect
    • redo sky
      • either settle colors better on unreals sky or make our own
      • add clouds, lopoly instanced geometry
    • redo ground
      • add a lopoly ocean material
      • add one tree model. just one. fewest polygons as possible
      • grass-forest-snow
      • add pipeline models
      • maybe wildfire effect
    • add postprocessing effect on events
      • something on laser fire
      • something on damage take
      • something on boost
      • something on low ground proximity
      • something on death

  2. Limit the combat

    • Add an altitude height and instant explosion death above it

      this one is due to "relatavistic railgun" that can hit you above [arbitrary altitude]

    • lock higher speeds behind a boost button

Minimum Viable Product

I would be comfortable saying this is 'Done' and this includes polished assets and sounds etc.

  • Two limited-scope locations

    • Town at the base of the mountains
    • Inland City

  • Two gamemodes

    • DEFEND: Destroy all attacking enemies
    • ATTACK: Destroy priority target and escape

  • Four missions:

    One of each type on each map.

  • Five Planes

    These will be shared by you and the enemy. They will have slightly different stats.

  • Three weapons

    • Cannon
    • Tracking Missile
    • Railgun

    There will be no upgrades.

  • Main menu

    This is a single, basic menu for entering the game, selecing a mission, and selecting a plane.

    For the MVP, there are no saved games. You have access to every plane and every mission

  • Controls are not able to be changed

  • Two graphics modes, HIGH and LOW

    This one is subject to change. If the lowest power PC I am aiming for can play the high graphics, this is not needed.

  • Basic sounds

  • Maybe still copyrighted music?

The Ultimate Version

  • Single, massive map with 10 named locations

    I want the user to actually have to fly between locations. This may be supplemented with a fast travel, but I feel like that would make the world much cooler.

  • More gamemodes

    • DEFEND: Destroy all attacking enemies.
    • ATTACK: Destroy priority target and escape.
    • DELIVER: Go from one location to another without dying.
    • RECON: View something and return to the starting location.
    • ESCORT: Protect friendlies while in transit

  • Story-driven missions

    I don't know how long the game would be. 20 missions? Maybe a 10 hour playtime?

  • More planes

    Ten maybe?

  • Seven weapons

    • Cannon (1,2,3)
    • Tracking Missile (1,2,3)
    • Railgun (Its always an instakill)

  • Main Menu

    Saved game that you progress and unlock. Select loadout. Start Missions in order. Stylized menu UI

  • Controls can be rebound

  • Actual graphics settings

  • Good sounds

  • 👀 Original music???

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