Game Design Document

Pendulum

What is Pendulum

Pendulum is a 2D Side scrolling platformer with visuals and gameplay based off other Platformers such as Super Mario Bros and Crawl. We aim to target people of any age and/or interests to play. For gameplay the objective is simple, to get to the end of each level. There will be obstacles and enemies blocking the path so players will have to overcome these challenges in order to beat the game.

Progression

In terms of progression, I plan on having items such as weapons, armour, spells and potions in order to cater to as many different playstyles as possible.

GUI

The GUI is planned on being extremely simple with Health, Mana and equipped items. I plan on it being as simple as possible so that it isn’t too distracting from the gameplay side of things as I want to create an immersive experience.

Mechanics

Mechanics for this game include; walking, jumping, spellcasting, Health management, Near precision platforming and more. The rules of the game are; If your health reaches 0 you die. Falling off the main platform will set your health to 0. You win by reaching the end of the level. You cannot cast spells whilst your mana is at 0. Killing enemies recovers some mana. Each enemy will have a unique weapon/ armour/ spell that they have a chance to drop upon death.

Combat

Combat will consist of Either melee attacks or Spellcasting depending on your playstyle melee will do a lot more damage than spellcasting but with the requirement that you must get close in order to do that damage. Spellcasting is lower damage and reliant on mana to function. However, it means that you can do damage at a safe distance.

Physics

Physics are going to be what people expect when they play a platformer, so people don’t have to adjust too much to the physics when they play.

Game Elements

For the general them of the world I have chosen a pre apocalyptic setting where it looks like the world is ending but people are still trying to keep everything as normal.

Story

The main aim of the game is to traverse the wastelands left after wars in order to stop a scientist who will stop at nothing to find a cure to the biological weapons dropped during wars years ago. I plan on there being different endings to this game; You do as your told and kill the scientist. The world is doomed to fall to disease but the scientists experiments come to an end, One where you spare the scientist and team up with them in order find a cure to the diseases and third you abandon your quest in order to survive the apocalypse.

I have chosen these to be the endings as it fits with the look and feel of the game. I don’t plan on there being a ‘good’ ending to this game.

Characters

The characters in this game consist of; the main character, The scientist, and people afflicted with disease. The main character is immune to the disease and personally affected by the scientist out for revenge. The scientist is passionate about their work will stop at nothing in order to find a cure. The people who can get the disease become mindless and will attack everything in sight including each other.

Locations

I plan on there being 3 different location that the game can take place in. The city, The war zone and the caves. The city will be the area that the player will start in. The war zone just outside the city is next and this is where the infection is the worse so this area will have more enemies than any other stage. Finally, the caves, this is where the scientist will reside. This area will be filled with less enemies but the enemies that are here will be more advanced than any other level. Each location will have many bosses throughout its level and a bigger one before the transition between areas. The locations will be visually different as well as having different music and sound effects making each area feel different.

Level Design

I plan on ramping up the difficulty of the level design as the player progresses through the game. Where the first levels will be quite easy the later levels may be challenging to even experienced players of other platformers. I will do this by making obstacles appear in more inconvenient places as well as showing the player where combat is going to take place less. However, I will always make it easy to see when a boss fight is starting with audio cues and visual differences. Some bosses might have unique music, and styles for their specific arenas.