Game Design Document
Benchmark 1
Introduction
This document describes a game called Twin, which is designed to be a 2D puzzle platformer. The game will employ sprite-based animation, tiled backgrounds, collision detection, physics, basic AI, side scrolling & gravity, efficient memory management, render threading, and more basic 2D game techniques.
Technology
Twin will be developed for web browsers using the Wolfie2D game engine, which is a game engine developed by Joe Weaver and Richard McKenna for developing 2D games. WebGL will be used as the underlying rendering technology. Audacity, Chiptone and Petaporon will be used for the creation of music and sound effects, and Adobe Photoshop and Piskell will be used for the creation of the game’s artwork.
Backstory
Twin is a game about a fractured person, a soul and body separated from each other, trying to find each other again. It’s a game about a person finding themself, and navigating the quite literal obstacles in their quest to find themselves again. You play as Gray, and you simultaneously control both their physical body in the real world and their soul in the Realm of Lost Souls. When Gray moves, so too does their soul, and various objectives and obstructions stand in your way on your quest to be whole once more. You will jump, fly, and crawl through puzzle after puzzle in your search for wholeness, and many obstacles will stand in your way as you navigate through the twin worlds.
As Gray’s body descends from Earth to the Realm of Souls, their soul attempts to fly out of it and escape so that they might finally be reunited once more.
Objective
The objective of Twin is to reunite your character’s physical body with its soul. This is accomplished by moving through a series of levels, and reaching each level’s goal with both your physical body and soul at the same time. After that, you will be brought one step closer to reuniting with your body as you progress through the levels.
Gameplay
The game will play as a platformer, with the character(s) being able to move left and right, jump, (and where the soul falls at a slower rate, the body can double jump). You, the player, control two characters with linked movement, and must navigate through challenging levels and complicated puzzles with both bodies at once. Due to the fact that both characters move in the exact same way but on different maps, the main bulk of the challenge is ensuring that both characters reach their objective. Collision will likely be the backbone of the strategies employed in order to ensure they both reach their objective as the soul and body move independently towards different objectives with different terrain features. Across the levels, there may be interactables such as levers, buttons or other such objects which activate doors, switches and buttons for either character.
Controls
This game will be played using a keyboard, and the graphical user interface will be navigated using a mouse. Once started, use the following:
- [A] - Move Left
- [D] - Move Right
- [←] - Move Left (same as [A])
- [→] - Move Right (same as [D])
- [SPACE] - Jump / Double Jump
- [Esc] - This pauses the game and presents a pop-up window to the player, asking them to continue when they are ready. If a game is not in progress, [Esc] does nothing.
In addition, game physics will vary slightly between the Body and the Soul, as the Soul will have a lower rate of descent whereas the Body will accelerate downwards at a regular acceleration, however, has the capability to double jump.
Graphical User Interface
Here are the wireframes for the game.
Splash Screen
A simple screen will be presented, that just contains the game’s logo and one sentence of cool descriptive text. It will then fade out and reveal the Main Menu after a few seconds. Users will also be able to press [Esc] to skip this sequence and go straight to the main menu.
The splash screen will contain a graphic that intrigues the player in the real game. It may also contain the game logo .
Main Menu Screen
The main menu will contain buttons to move to the Controls, Help, and Level Selection Screens. It will also have a button to allow the user to start a new game. Upon starting a new game, the screen will fade out and fade in to Level 1.
Controls Screen
This screen will display the controls of the game, in a similar manner to the controls setup listed above.
Help Screen
This screen will list the developers of the game, as well as a link to contact us if the player has any questions or concerns.
The user can scroll through the help screen
Level Selection Screen
This screen will show the player which levels are currently unlocked, which they can then click on to play directly from the main menu. It will also show levels the user has not accessed yet, but these will not be clickable. Upon clicking an accessible level, the screen will fade out and fade in to the respective level.
In-Game GUI
These are the 2 In-Game GUI screens (gameplay screen & pause screen).
Gameplay Screen
Pause Screen
Artwork
The artwork will all be done in pixel art, with a heavy theme on mysticality and uncanny valley-esque vibes in the Realm of Souls whereas the real world is mundane and normal. As a result, the Realm of Souls will be filled with bright and unnatural colors, strange shapes and other such obstacles whereas the mundane world will largely be composed of simple shapes, earthy, natural colors and normal hues. As the levels progress, the ‘real world’ would grow more and more uncanny and ethereal as the body descends through the levels of reality to reach the Realm of Souls, whereas the uncanny valley-esque Realm of Souls would grow more and more normal until they end up in the middle plane and meet each other at last, whereupon their sprite would unify and turn into a single being.
Assets will need to be created for Gray’s body, Gray’s soul, obstructions, floors, walls, level backgrounds and more.
Sound Effects
Sound effects will be created for:
- Soul/Body movement and interactions with terrain objects
- Portals through the Realm of Souls, i.e. end-stage transfers
- Interactables such as levers, buttons and doors.
- Death for both the Soul/Body via spike traps and the like.
Music
Original music will be created for this game.
Twin Logo
