Team Alpha

• Fiction/Narrative

• (Current): The player character has been cursed by an evil god to run forever.
  • They start off as simple person who is attacked by the evil god and cursed. They now have to chase the evil god to get revenge and undo the curse.
  • The curse causes the person’s heart to slowly stop when they are not moving. In order to keep a steady beat the person must run fast.
  • Each stage has a mini-boss who is the minion of the evil god. (We will try to focus on getting one boss and stage done well)

• Aesthetics/Style/Mood

• (Current): Medieval Fantasy - Similar to Hollow Knight, cute artstyle but dark atmosphere.
  • Art style: Simple, cartoony style: Low-poly or pixel-art
  • Animation: Fast and fluid, make motion feel fun
  • Music & Sound: Ambient, mellow and calm, but also foreboding (feeling that an ominous presence is watching) 

From https://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/ps4/hollow_knight_voidheart_edition

• Gameplay/Mechanics/Genre

• Genre: 2D/Isometric Platformer - Player moves a character across obstacles to accomplish a goal. The level will be presented in stages (i.e. each level is done separately with some type of hub world connecting them).
• Mechanics #1 (Core): A life bar that decreases whenever the player is not moving fast enough. We hope this mechanic will keep the player engaged and on their toes.
  • Players can only slow down for only a few seconds
  • Inspired by Move or Die’s core mechanic
• Mechanics #2: Level is designed to slow you down. For example, levels may have a “sand trap”, which will show down the player to a crawl, which will cause the player’s life points to decrease.
• Mechanics #3: Currency (from enemies or hidden pathways) to purchase new abilities
• Mechanics #4: Checkpoints at intermediate points throughout level to save progress if player dies
• Mechanics #5: Physics based movement (e.g. conservation of momentum)

From https://www.mmogames.com/game/move-or-die/

• Ideal Player
  • Someone who wants a single player platforming challenge
  • They play fast-paced platformer games such as Move or Die, Calabalt, and N++
  • Will likely focus their attention on core gameplay mechanics over story or spectacles (i.e. they may be more likely to criticize/praise bad/good mechanics)
  • Likely watches or does speedruns of other games