Game Development Task 1 Game design Proposal

23 September 2024- 10 October 2024

WANG ZILONG(0361141)

Game development | Bachelor of Design in Creative Media | Taylor's University

Task 1: Game Proposal & Presentation

Introduction

Game Overview

Game Name: "Tribal Quest" Type: Breakthrough / Simple Puzzle Game Target Platform: PC, Mobile Devices Target Audience: Players who like easy, fun and adventurous games, suitable for all ages (over 6 years old) Game Background: The game is set in a mysterious and colorful primitive tribal world. Players will play the role of a young tribal warrior. In order to save their homeland on the verge of famine, they will embark on a fantasy journey, crossing forests, valleys, caves and other scenes, collecting food and coins, while avoiding various traps and traps.

Core Concept

The core of the game revolves around "adventure and collection". Players need to collect core items such as food and coins by jumping, climbing and avoiding obstacles in different levels. At the same time, each level has a unique challenge mechanism and trap design to encourage players to explore and try.

Gameplay

1. World Design

The game is divided into multiple levels.

Forest Secret: The dense jungle is full of vines and moving wooden platforms.

Ancient ruins: Hidden mechanisms and moving stone sculptures constitute puzzle elements.

Each chapter has a unique visual style and background music, allowing players to experience a different adventure atmosphere.

2. Player Characters

The protagonist is a young tribal warrior named "Tuka".

Core Abilities:

Jumping: Players can perform single and double jumps to cross obstacles.

Climbing: You can grab vines or the edge of the platform to climb to a higher place.

Rolling: Roll through low passages or avoid attacks.

3. Core Gameplay

Prop Collection:

Food: Such as fruits and prey, collect a certain amount to pass the level.

Coins: Used to count the player's technical ability between levels.

Mechanisms and Obstacles:

Moving platforms, spike traps, falling boulders, etc. require players to operate accurately.

Chasing mechanisms are introduced in some levels, such as being chased by wild beasts, to increase tension.

Simple puzzles:

Players need to trigger mechanisms or push stones to open passages.

Game Mechanics

1. Simple and Intuitive Controls

Use the three main buttons for left and right movement, jump and interaction, which is suitable for novice players.

Provide a smooth physics engine to ensure the feel of jumping and rolling.

2. Gradually increasing difficulty

The initial levels are mainly teaching-oriented, gradually introducing new obstacles and mechanisms.

The last level of each chapter contains a "mini-boss challenge", such as avoiding large mechanisms or completing time-limited tasks.

3. Collect and grow

Unlock equipment and skills:

Buy tribal amulets by collecting coins, increase jumping height or increase speed.

Unlock special abilities, such as gliding in the sky or attracting surrounding coins.

Flowchart

Artistic style

Visual design

Overall style: Bright, saturated tones combined with a cartoon-like art style, suitable for players of all ages.

Scene design:

Forest: Vibrant green vegetation with dynamic light and shadow effects, such as sunlight shining through leaves.

Ancient ruins: Stone sculptures covered with moss and mysterious rune glowing effects.

Character design

The protagonist Tuka:

The appearance design is inspired by primitive tribal warriors, with simple but recognizable clothing, such as feather-decorated headbands and light leather armor.

Rich expressions, able to convey emotions (such as surprise, joy) through exaggerated facial animations.

Hostile creatures:

Wild beasts, insects, and even mysterious tribal guardians are all designed in a semi-realistic, semi-cartoon style.

NPCs:

In each chapter, friendly tribal elders or animal companions are set up to provide clues or tasks for players.

Proposal Slide

Reflection

While conceiving the game "Tribal Quest", I realized that a successful game needs a clear core concept. I chose "adventure and collection" as the core because it is a gameplay that is both simple and can attract a wide range of players.

Challenge: When initially setting the core concept, I needed to consider how to balance the relationship between "easy to get started" and "keeping players interested".

Gains: By setting interesting goals (such as collecting food and coins) and gradually increasing the difficulty, I learned how to make the core gameplay both intuitive and attractive.

Character design is a key part of game development. Tuka's image gradually developed from a vague concept in the early stage to a character with a unique identity and skills. In this process, I realized that character design should not only be beautiful, but also serve the gameplay.

Challenge: How to make the character's abilities (such as jumping, climbing, rolling) closely integrated with the game mechanics, while giving the character personality and story background.

Gains: I enhanced the interaction and immersion between players and characters by designing a skill growth system for Tuka (such as unlocking gliding or coin absorption).

Level design gave me a deeper understanding of the structure and rhythm of the game. Each level needs to be different in terms of visuals and mechanics, and it is also necessary to ensure that players can experience a sense of accomplishment in the challenge.

Challenge: The most difficult thing is to design the difficulty curve. How can beginners quickly master the game while providing enough challenges for advanced players?

Gains: By gradually introducing new mechanisms (such as moving platforms and vine climbing in the forest level) and adding chasing and puzzle elements in the later stage, I learned how to effectively guide players and keep them fresh.

When designing game mechanics, I constantly think about the needs of target users. In order to make the game suitable for all ages, I chose simple and intuitive operations and designed a growth system that allows players to unlock new abilities through collection.

Challenge: The needs of players of different age groups vary greatly. How to balance them?

Gains: By positioning the game as a "relaxed and fun adventure game", I learned how to identify the target users and design an easy-to-accept game experience for them.

Although this task was mainly completed by myself, I realized the importance of teamwork when simulating the entire game development process. For example:

Challenges: It is not easy to integrate art, programming, level design and other aspects into an overall plan.

Gains: Through project planning (such as completing concept design, development and testing in stages), I learned how to develop a realistic schedule and set clear development goals.

After completing the game proposal, I also had some ideas for the future expansion of the game, such as adding multiplayer cooperation mode or competitive gameplay.

This made me realize that game development is not only a short-term task, but also a long-term iterative process. Every version update needs to start from the player experience, and continuously optimize and innovate.

Through this task, I not only learned how to build a complete game proposal, but also have a deeper understanding of each link of game development. From concept design to character shaping, to the development of levels and mechanisms, each step made me realize the logic and creativity behind game design.

The biggest gain: In-depth thinking on "how to let players experience immersive adventures".

Future improvements: I hope to collect more feedback from potential players in future designs, so that the game can be closer to player needs.

This assignment has made me more passionate about game development. It has also given me a clearer understanding of my own abilities and shortcomings, and has pointed out the direction for future study and practice.