2 - Planning

Hi again!

There has been a lot of progress in the last month, but in this post I'll only be covering the current plan for the game.

The work I discussed in the last post was mostly the steps I took as I found my feet in Unity. At this stage I have decided to move into a pre-production and concept testing phase in order to get my assets working before combining them in a level.

The Plan So Far

A post apocalypse themed hide-and-seek game, in which the player must complete objectives around the map while avoiding a flying enemy that hunts for them. The game will be heavily shrouded by fog, so the player will rely on announcements from the enemy to determine what the enemy is doing, where it is, and when it is safe to move freely.

Player Control

The player will control a character from a third person perspective with an orbital camera. The player will not be able to jump as there will be no need for them to move up such a large step, and it is not a movement that would fit in the situation. They will be able to move more quickly by holding shift.

Basic Gameplay

The player will follow a basic story and move between locations to complete locations while a flying enemy will hunts for them. The game will have very limited visibility, so the player will rely on announcements from the enemy to determine what the enemy is doing, where it is, and when it is safe to move freely. There will be 'safe' structures in which the player can hide, but they will be forced to move into the open in order to progress in the game.

Sound and Visual Effects

The level will be shrouded in a thick fog effect that obscures the enemy from the players sight. Because of this, the player will have to listen to the enemy's broadcasts and try to decipher its 'language' to learn what it is currently doing and roughly where it is in relation to the player. The broadcasts from the enemy will trigger when the enemy decides to move to a new location, becomes alerted to the player, or is actively hunting the player. The broadcasts will become very sparse when close to the player to increase tension and the potential for a scare when the player is spotted.

Gameplay Mechanics

The enemy will emit a 'sphere of vision', similar to a field of view but in all directions simultaneously. When the player is in this sphere, the enemy will enter an 'Alert' state, which will cause it to stop moving and pause all actions, as if it has sensed something and is trying to see if it can spot what it sensed. When the enemy is Alerted, the player will have a chance of being spotted that increases until they find cover, move out of the sphere, or they are spotted.

If I can, I'd like to add a mechanic where the player will have less chance of being spotted if they are stationary or moving very slowly, and running will dramatically speed up the rate at which the players chance of being spotted increases.

A cover system will enable the player to hide behind walls and structures when out in the open to attempt to remain unnoticed by the enemy. When in cover, the player will be obscured to the enemy as long as the enemy is very close to the player or the enemy is on the right side of the cover.

User Interface

The UI will be minimal, showing as little as possible:

• A bar for how much energy the player has, indicating how long they can run for

• A compass in the bottom left of the screen showing the area of the next objective location (the player will have to search for the objective as they get closer).

• The generic name of the current location (Village, Forest, Large House)

• Pop-up messages that become much smaller static messages by the compass to inform the player of the current objective.

As the player nears objects that they can interact with, a floating tag will appear close to it to indicate what it is and how they interact with it.

Summary

So thats the plan. I'm sure the scope of the plan will change as I move forward with the project, but this gives me something solid to work towards. In the next post (which will be up on the 8th) I'll discuss some work I've done on the characters, including their movement, animation and audio.

See you next time!