Title: Destructor Overview: Destructor Is A Multiplayer, Turn-Based Strategy Game For The Android
Title: Destructor Overview: Destructor Is A Multiplayer, Turn-Based Strategy Game For The Android
Title: Destructor Overview: Destructor Is A Multiplayer, Turn-Based Strategy Game For The Android
for the Android and iOS platforms, as well as PC and consoles. The focus of the game is to spread your territory across the board and to specific targets by strategically destroying your own hex tiles to conquer new ones. There are a variety of different game modes to choose from, each offering a different take on the principle mechanic. You can go head-to-head against multiple players that are either local or online. Platforms: Destructor will be available on PC, Xbox, PS3, Wii, DS, and mobile (Android, iOS, Phone 7). Destructor is able to target almost any platform because of its minimal graphical and computational requirements, as well as minimal interface interaction. While Destructor will be multi-platform, the mobile platform is what the design will target first, so that everything in the game can be built to conform to that lowest common denominator. This will make going multi-platform easier because it is generally easier to scale up than to scale down good art. The same can be said for much of the programming. Appeal/Target Audience: Destructor models itself after classic strategy boardgames (such as Chess, Othello, Risk) in terms of visual representation, game pace, and social interactions. One of the main audiences that Destructor will target, are those people who find it comfortable to be around boardgames. Being turnbased, Destructor can play out in an asynchronous manner similar to play-by-mail Chess, or Words with Friends. Asynchronous play is important for appealing to
casual gamers that don't have a lot of concurrent free time. The game is set-up to appeal to people who wish to play a relaxed game with friends and strangers, but can still be enjoyed by people that wish to play an entire match in one sitting. Art Style: The camera perspective will be Top-down, as if playing the game on a table in real life. The style will be simple descriptive graphics that can scale well from a mobile phone to a TV screen. There won't be much more than just color on the hex tiles, except maybe some light vegetation. The interface will use flat simple colors for text and menu boxes, similar to the Windows Metro style. The purpose for this minimalism is to enable speedy interactions with the game, and to keep system requirements as low as possible. The main purpose for this design is also to work well on the mobile platform, which is the baseline platform. Technology: Destructor will utilize the Unity 3d game engine for development. Unity is ideal because of its multi-platform capabilities (PC, consoles, and mobile), and because of its ease of use. Photoshop will be needed for art assets. As a developer, we will need access to a multitude of different test phones and console SDKs for testing purposes. Obviously, I will also need a high-end PC for each team member. Gameplay: In Destructor, players destroy hex tiles that they own in order to capture adjacent spaces that are either neutral or owned by other players. There are three stages in a tile's life: neutral, captured, and destroyed. Neutral tiles get captured, captured tiles get destroyed or captured again, destroyed tiles turn into neutral tiles again when an adjacent tile is destroyed. The main form of gameplay would be the multiplayer battles. Players would face each other online in different kinds of Destructor matches. The type of match would be determined by whoever
starts the game as host. These can be team or free-for-all matches. Some of the different ways to play the game: Deathmatch - Players try to wipe-out the enemy by carefully destroying tiles. Numbers Game - Owned hex tiles have a number that grows with each turn they aren't destroyed. Whoever reaches a certain number, wins; alternatively, whoever has the highest number at the end of a certain time, wins. Another way to express the idea of growth over time, would be to have the value of a tile be represented by plant growth. A space could start as a neutral sand, then grow short grass, long grass, flowers, bushes, etc. This could provide an emotional motivation for higher numbers.
The plants that grow to represent tiles owned longer could also be used in other game modes purely as decoration, but this will probably be left as a bonus feature disabled by default . Tower Defense - Certain tiles spawn as tower pieces, they wouldn't do anything by themselves, but need to be captured in order to win. The number of towers available and the number needed to win, as well as how long the towers must be held can all be variable (for example: 4 towers, 100% of towers needed to win, must hold for 2 turns).
Users can also choose to have power-ups in the game or not. This feature would be the only source of randomness during play. Randomness in a strategy game will always give a boost to inexperienced players, but I also think the element of chance can add fun for all players. Power-ups can randomly spawn on neutral tiles (a hex not owned by any player), and would award a random Power-up when capturing that tile. Power-ups would be like a card in a player's hand that they can choose to use at any time. Example power-ups would be: Chain Reaction When the player destroys a tile, they can choose any captured tile to also be destroyed. This allows players to do twice the amount of damage in one turn. Road Block Player can choose a particular block to be invulnerable to capture for one turn. This would be a card that lets a player protect a space before someone attacks it. Games tend to benefit when players have the opportunity to defensively nullify some actions. Directionals players can aim which way they will capture tiles by choosing a straight line and capturing all tiles in that direction equal to the number of adjacent tiles that could have been captured. This allows for more strategic movement, especially in objective-based play.
Orange = tiles ordinarily captured. Black = tiles actually captured using Directional. Story: There is no story, but the subtext of the gameplay can still be interpreted into different contexts. The whole game revolves around the idea that destruction breeds creation. The act of taking over a hex and then destroying it to springboard on to another tile can be viewed in the same way a parasitic virus infects a host and then replicates itself until the host burst and spreads the virus. Players become lifeforms struggling for dominance in a limited area. World: The board is the entirety of the game-world. Players should be entertained just by looking at the board as it changes. The board can be seen as an everchanging grouping of colors, particularly when more than two people play at once. The fauna that grows to represent higher values in Numbers Game also somewhat brings the world to life. Characters: The player can be seen as a character in their story of playing the game. I want the players to feel motivated by competition; that should arise as players become better at the game and want to play better opponents. To that end, match -making based on player skill will allow people to hone their skills on better opponents as they win more games, and a friends list will let people compete with their friends and relatives for supremacy. Controls/Interface: The interface is going to be slightly different for each platform, but still relatively similar across each one. The main menu will have
options for Online Quick Match, Local Area Network, Pass'nPlay (hot seat), and Options. These will all be nice big buttons that show up well on a small screen. The game screen while playing would be just a view of the board. Any power-ups the player has available will displayed in a side bar. For mobile, the touchscreen is obviously the main interface. Players can use their finger to select which hexagon tile they want to manipulate, then just tap that space again to destroy it, or select a power-up to use on it. The double tap is an effective way to make sure the player doesn't accidentally make the wrong move. Scrolling across the map can be done by holding a finger down in one place and then dragging it in the desired direction. The PC will have a similar control scheme, where the mouse just replaces touching and scrolling can be done with the WASD or arrow keys. On consoles, the cursor will have to always be selecting a tile, and the user just scrolls with the analog stick. Sound: Sound will not be a major element of the game. A soundtrack for background music can be provided for players, but its inclusion would be irrelevant to the game. This is another decision that comes down on the side of minimalism. Less arbitrary content means a smaller digital footprint, as well as less costly development. Reference Games: Mario Kart, Galcon Fusion, Risk Factions, Othello .
Clearly, Destructor is inspired by other territory capturing games. Originally, I was thinking of Galcon Fusion, and thought what if when I played this game I had to destroy my planet to capture a new planet. Othello inspired my thinking about using simple capturing mechanics. Mario Kart and Risk: Factions gave me ideas as far as using power-ups to spice up the gameplay with variety. Development Team: 1 artist, 2 game programmers,1 network programmer, and 1 designer/producer. This is a fairly small team because there aren't a lot of art assets, nor many complicated game systems to create. The artist would obviously need to be proficient in Photoshop or other drawing tools. I specifically want a networking expert on the team because multiplayer is incredibly essential to the project. The programmers and the designer would all need to know how to use Unity. Doing the game in Unity relieves some of the burden of porting the game to other platforms. Schedule/Benchmarks: I would like the game to be developed in around 6 months, with possibly an additional 2 months for testing. I believe in playing games as soon as possible, so a physical prototype should be thrown together immediately to start testing any ideas. The first playable prototype in Unity should be available within weeks of production. From there, the game would need to have every game
mode and most features complete within 4 months. All artwork for tiles and menus should be completed by this time. The next two months would focus on fixing every bug, making the game work on every platform, and implementing all features and art in the game. After all that would come an additional two months of testing and polishing. This additional two months also serves to act as a buffer of time should development slip past any deadlines. Budget: I make the assumption that my team mates are competitively paid employees; therefore, I took some average salary figures from the Game Developer Magazine Tenth Annual Salary Survey to make cost predicitions. I would have a payroll of about 187,500 dollars for paying all five core team members for eight months of work at a wage of $50,000 a year. If 12 testers were hired to do 6 hours of work for 4 days a week for 8 weeks at minimum wage, that would cost about $17,000. Hiring someone to run the testing for 2 months should cost about $6,000, assuming that person would make around $40,000 a year. Purchasing a Unity Pro Team License, with Android and iOS packages, costs exactly $5,000(unity3d.com). Photoshop is $1,300 (adobe.com). 12 test phones at $300 equals $3,600. 5 highend PCs at $1,200 each equals $6,000. So, without taking into account any office space for the team, the production of Destructor is going cost at least around $230,000. Most digital stores take around a 30% cut, some take less but not many and not by much. So, the total sales would need to be closer to $330,000 to break even.
Citations: "Tenth Annual Salary Survey." Game Developer Magazine Fall 2011: 23-30.
Gdmag.com. Web. 02 Apr. 2012. <http://www.gdmag.com/issue/2011/CareerGuide>. Game Images: http://www.galcon.com/fusion/images/fusion-pink-green.jpg http://www.emuparadise.me/fup/up/39946-Mario_Kart_64_%28Europe%29-2.jpg http://gamescrafters.berkeley.edu/games/i/othello/othello_03.jpg http://webvassets.ea.com/Assets/Richmedia/Image/Screenshots/riskfactionsscreen5_656x369. jpg?cb=1328823888