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LUMINANC Game Design Document Nathan M. Nash 1/29/11

Table of Contents

Overview - Game...................................................01 - World / Environment............................01 - Mechanics...........................................01 - User Interface......................................03 -Camera.................................................04 -Win/Lose Conditions.............................05 Concept Art - Mood board.........................................06 - Character Design................................07 -Larvae -Rogue Ant -Spider - Item design.........................................10 - Level Design.......................................13 -Block types -Level 1 -Level 2 -Level 3 -Screen-shot mockup Writing - Plot......................................................25 - Story board..........................................26 Code -Block Classes.......................................27 -Block Placement...................................28 -Health...................................................28

OVERVIEW

Overview | 01

Game Luminance is a single player puzzle plat-former style video game with relaxed, casual play You play as an ant larvae who was being moved by a caravan of worker ants transporting eggs to a new ant colony. You we’re accidentally dropped by an ant, and now must work your way through an abandoned colony to your new home.

Gameplay Mechanics To control the player character you must click once on the screen where you want the larvae to roll, wait for the player character to roll there and then click again to move to the next point.

Gameplay Mechanics Cont’d Movement speed of the player is determined by the type of block that they are traversing over. If a player is on a wet rock they will roll faster than they would on normal rock. If the players is on wet dirt (mud) the player will move slower than if they are on dirt. The player character has light or “Luminance” emitting from it, and the light diminishes over time unless it is restored by a item. Once the light completely diminishes the Player Character will slowly begin to die. Larvae will be able to replenish his Luminance by obtaining, “luminescence”.

Overview | 02

World & Environment The world of Luminance is a deserted ant colony where deadly spiders have moved in to make traps for unsuspecting prey, and where rogue ants have stayed behind to make their own trouble. Environment types for levels include stone causeways made slippery with water, and water from streams that have burst into the anthill. Dusty stalagmite mazes with rogue ants, and crystalline caverns where spiders lay in wait.

Environment Mechanics ROCK SLIDES / CRUMBLING BLOCKS / WIND LIFTS Rock-slides are events that can trigger the lose condition if the Larvae is hit by a falling rock. A Rock-slide will occur at an area as indicated on the level design layouts in the Concept Art Section. Generally the presence of a rock-slide is foreshadowed by a Rogue Ant. Crumbling blocks are block types that will break away underneath the player as they roll over them, if a player falls through a crumbling block, and there isn’t solid ground beneath, it will trigger a lose condition. Wind lifts are areas where the player has to use an air elevator to get to an area of the level that is higher up than they are. Wind lifts are one way passages.

Overview | 03

Enemy Mechanics ENEMY MECHANICS The enemy mechanics in Luminance will be very simple. The Rogue Ant will play an idle animation and sit in a single place. And for the Spider, it will simply slide up and down on its string with a delay in between each “attack”. If the Spider successfully attacks the Larvae it will pick it up, this causes a lose condition and the player will respawn at the beginning of a level.

User Interface MOVEMENT - Mouse based Interactions Mouse 1 - Click on destination -Player Character rolls towards destination and stops (as physics permits) -Click on the next destination E -Use key -Interaction with switches levers and other objects that may need activation METERS Luminance is controlled by meters represented by a bar in game as a GUI layer. The bar will shrink in width from right to left as time progresses.

Overview | 04

Camera The camera originates behind and over head the character in a two-thirds view. Players will be able to have restricted control over the position of the camera. Based on how close the camera is to certain objects their rendering will become slightly transparent to allow the player to easily view what is in the environment without obstruction. Players control the camera using the right mouse button, clicking and holding it down to control the cameras position.

Win & Lose Conditions WIN CONDITION The win condition in Luminance is achieved once you have navigated fully through all of the levels and arrived at the new ant colony. When a player wins the ending cinematic plays and the game rolls to credits. LOSE CONDITION Players lose if they fall through unstable ground, run out of luminance, get hit by rock slides or a grabbed by spiders. When a player loses they start over at the beginning of the level they are currently on.

Section | 00 Overview | 05

Sound Header AMBIENCE Luminance is a single player puzzle plat-former style video game with relaxed, casual play and a terrific environment. The environments in Luminance will rely on ambient sounds to create a believable atmosphere. In level one you make your way through dirt floor tunnels with bioluminescent mushrooms and wind tunnels. One set of sound effects will be of Larvae rolling over top the dirt, and the other will be wind wailing through the tunnel.

Three Questions What Experience do I want the player to have? I want the player to feel as though they are disoriented and lost within a large and persistent underground ant colony. This will be accomplished by limiting the field of view that players have around them via their luminance. What is essential to that experience? The thing that is most essential to this experience is proper lighting and sound design. How can my game capture that essence? My game can capture that essence by placing the player in a dynamically light and shadowed environment with and entrancing sound design.

CONCEPT ART

Section 00 | 06 Concept| Art

World Header& Environment Luminance single player puzzle plat-former style video game with relaxed, casual The stylesisinathis mood board are representative of the environments that play and will a terrific environment. players experience in the abandoned ant colony.

In the top left there is a cave with partial illumination from bioluminescent mushrooms which will provide a nice contrast with the Luminance coming from the Player Character. On the right there is a cave where moss has formed upon the rocks and water has made the causeways slippery. Levels in the ant colony will be block based where there are different types of physic effects based on the type of block that the Player Character rolls over. Examples of block types include; dirt, stone, crystal, wet stone, wet dirt, and wet crystal. As well as broken blocks for non-wet block types. Since the ant colony has been abandoned unwanted pests and predators have moved in including spiders and rogue ants.

Concept Section Art | 07 00

Header Character Design Luminance is a single player puzzle plat-former style video game with relaxed, casual LARVAE play and a terrific environment.

Larvae is the protagonist and the main Player Character in Luminance. Larvae is an ant undergoing gestation. Before Larvae’s trip to the new ant colony he was given a protective shell and a supply of Luminance to sustain him throughout the journey. Luminance is an energy source that sustains an ant larvae and as a side effect gives off a glow and illuminates objects around it. When many ant larvae are in their shells they give off a very bright glow. Since Luminance is a temporary energy source an ant larvae will die if left alone do the luminance dissipating. The larvae inside the shell stays upright even as it is rolling, and even has its own independent “squirming” animations.

Concept Section |Art 00 | 08

Header Character Design Cont’d Luminance is a single player puzzle plat-former style video game with relaxed, casual ROGUE play and aANT terrific environment.

Rogue ants are not necessarily enemies since you are of the same species but they can cause hazards to occur which will affect your ability to escape from the abandoned ant colony. Examples of hazardous events include rock slides and flooding.

Concept Section Art | 00 09

Header Character Design Cont’d Luminance SPIDERS is a single player puzzle plat-former style video game with relaxed, casual play and a terrific environment. Spiders are lethal enemies that will attempt to trap and kill Larvae as well as any other rogue ants that have stayed behind. Spiders like to use cobwebs as traps and will often place them under unstable ground. These enemies will also attempt to drop down from the ceiling and lunge at the Larvae. Spiders cannot be killed, therefore the Player Character needs to avoid them.

Section Concept| Art 00 | 10

Header Item Design BIOLUMINESCENT Luminance is a single MUSHROOMS player puzzle plat-former style video game with relaxed, casual play and a terrific environment. Luminescence is an depleting energy source that keeps the Larvae alive, as well as act as a light source. Luminescence can be sustained be collecting if from mushrooms which produce it as a pollen. There are three types of mushrooms; small, medium and large.

Concept Section Art || 00 11

Level Design Header BLOCK TYPES Luminance is a single player puzzle plat-former style video game with relaxed, casual play and a terrific environment. STONE BLOCK DIRT BLOCK Dirt blocks have a slightly dampened friction and become hazardous when wet due to becoming muddy. Wet dirt blocks can slow the Larvae down and even get it stuck.

Stone blocks have normalized friction however they are a bit bumpy making them slightly difficult to roll across, take caution when rolling near unguarded ledges.

Section 00 | 12 Concept| Art

Level Header Design Cont’d Luminance is a single player puzzle plat-former style video game with relaxed, casual QUARTZ BLOCK play and a terrific environment. Quartz blocks are special block types that only appear in the crystalline chamber. The have slightly less friction than normal. Quartz blocks have a special property that allows them to reflect and refract Luminance increasing the intensity of the light making it more difficult to see.

Concept Art | 13

Level 1 Level 1 (working title) is where Larvae’s adventure begins. Rolling ashore after drifting in an underground river, Larvae enters a dark and cramped tunnel, with bioluminescent mushrooms scattered about. Rustling of a Rogue Ant can be heard as well as the harrowing cries of an insect trapped by a Spider web. The obstacles in this level are broken blocks and cobwebs.

Concept Art | 14

Concept Art | 15

Concept Art | 16

Concept Art | 17

Concept Section |Art 00 | 18

Header Luminance is a single player puzzle plat-former style video game with relaxed, casual play and a terrific environment.

Section | Art 00 | 19 Concept

Header Level 2 Luminance single player puzzle plat-former videobioluminescent game with relaxed, casual Level 2 is inisa awide cavern with a giant waterfall style and large mushrooms. play waterfall and a terrific environment. The has caused the pathway to become unstable making it a perfect place for a spider to weave a large web.

Concept Art | 20

Concept Art | 21

Level 3 Level 3 is a large cavern full of Quartz crystals and blocks, it is very bright and luminescent. Hazards include rock slides spiders and broken blocks.

Concept Art | 22

Concept Art | 24

“Screenshot” Mockup A concept for what the game will actually look like with the luminance interface, lighting and shadows.

WRITING

Writing | 25

Plot Luminance is a puzzle/plat former title in which the player controls a glowing shell like ball through mazes and other pitfalls inside a dark cave. The “shell like ball” in actuality is a semi-translucent egg or casing around an ant larva. The synopsis of the story is that worker ants are carrying the queen’s eggs from one end of the colony to another, and during the move one egg was accidentally dropped and must make its way back to the rest of the other eggs. Where part of the challenge comes in is that the ant egg requires light to survive, this light emanates from inside of the egg and shines out lighting the path around you leading you to the end of each challenge. Your light however is a depleting energy and if you don’t complete the challenge before it runs out the radius of the light will continually shrink making your surroundings harder to see and also causing the ant larvae to die.

Writing | 26

Story Board

Section | 00

Header Luminance is a single player puzzle plat-former style video game with relaxed, casual play and a terrific environment.

CODE

Code | 27

Pseudo-code This will be the typical scaffold for creating block types. There will be a generic block with fields such as width, height and depth as well as different block types that extend the generic one and have their own unique fields.

public class Block(){ public void Block() { } public void update() { } public void create() { } } public class Stone extends Block(){ public void Stone() { } ... } public class Crystal extends Block(){ public void Stone() { } ... } public class Dirt extends Block(){ public void Stone() { } ... }

Code | 28

Pseudo-code cont’d The below code will control how the level is populated with the different block types that are in the game. Each block type is an object that has its own specific properties. var level = new Array(5); level[0] = Stone; level[1] = Dirt; level[2] = Crystal; level[3] = WetStone; level[4] = Mud; level[5] = WetCrystal PLAYER HEALTH Player health/luminance is determined by this block of code essentially the players Luminance level is being updated every second and then being drawn onto the screen as a GUI layer. public class PlayerHealth() { public void PlayerHealth() { } public void Timer() { } public void update() { } public void draw() { } }