Game Design Document (GDD)

Dark Tales of Literature

(Working Title)

Version (1.0)

Created (17/12/2015)

Last Updated

Table of contents:

1: Project Overview

1.1    Summary

Making and educational game for teenagers.

1.2    Basic Concept (no backstory)

Player goes through each story as a character within that novel and has to collect tokens to prove they have played whole story.

1.3    Core Gameplay

Teaching students the stories. 

1.4    Genre

Victorian Horror / gothic style.

1.5    Target Audience

Teenagers (16+)

2: Game Overview

2.1   Overview

Play through the stories of Frankenstein, Jekyll & Hyde, and A Christmas Carol. Helping English literature students interact with these stories.

2.2   Story

Three stories within three levels. Level 1, Frankenstein, Level 2, Jekyll & Hyde Level 3, A Christmas Carol.

2.3   Character

Level 1-Igor, Dr Frankenstein, The Monster. Level 2-Mr Uterson, Dr Jekyll, Mr Hyde. Level 3-Rat.

2.4   Environment

Level 1, dark, eerie, Laboratory. Level 2, crime scenes of Mr Hyde. Level 3 a rat’s view of a Christmas carol, set in the 1800’s.

2.5   Level Overview(s)

Level 1, Frankenstein. Level 2, Jekyll & Hyde. Level 3, A Christmas Carol.

3: Gameplay

2.6   Combat

Story, NA. Multiplayer, melee, ranged/guns.

2.7   Abilities

Igor, stealth. Dr Frankenstein, puzzle solving, calm monster. The Monster, strength. Mr Uterson, puzzle solving. Dr Jekyll, potion brewing, turns into Hyde. Mr Hyde, strength, wall climbing, fear spread, turn into Jekyll.

2.8   Score

Time, Collectables, Detection

2.9   Power-ups

Level 1-Health, number of matches. Level 2-Clues, potions. Level 3-Health, jump boost.

4: Menu Layout

2.10   Colour Scheme

Shades of yellow.

2.11   Title Screens

Main Title menu, shades of yellow in background, title of game, top of screen. New game, Continue, Select level, Exit game. 

2.12   Tutorial screen

NA, learn controls as you go.

2.13   Credits Screen

Black background, thanks for playing, list of people involved in creation of game.

2.14   Game Win Screen

End of each level, music plays, game blurs out, score menu fades in. (?)

2.15   Game Over Screen

Black background, Game Over in red text, play again / Quit options.  

2.16   High Score Table

End of each level, list of objectives percentage of completion. Multiplayer mode, same.

2.17   Level Select Screen

Icons for each level, select a level to open the menu for that level.

5: Game Layout

2.18   Camera Set up

Level 1 third person, over shoulder. Level 2 first person, POV. Level 3 side view plat former.

2.19   Game Controls

Level 1, W,A,S,D to move, Space Bar to jump, C to light candle. B to blow, out candle. Level 2, W,A,S,D to move. Right click to inspect, Left click to examine / pick up.

2.20   Game Mode(s)

Story / Multiplayer.  

2.21   Player Count

Single player, unlockable multiplayer up to 5/6

2.22   Hours of Gameplay

All together about 10-15 hours (give or take)

Analysis on Chosen Demographic

My chosen demographic or target audience is 16+ teenagers. The interests of teenagers within the 16+ age range varies quite a bit which makes this difficult. However, most teenagers enjoy horror games such as Amnesia, Alien Isolation and the FNAF series (Five Nights At Freddy's). So that therefore shall be the theme/genre of my game, horror.

Why play horror-themed video games? Acording to http://www.iflscience.com/technology/how-horror-games-give-us-fright-we-re-looking: They provide a means to indulge in the pleasure of frightening ourselves. Freakish, monstrous characters programmed to challenge and destroy the player, which gratifies the fear-induced thrill-seeking that drives gamers to immerse themselves in such virtual worlds.

Acording to http://www.pewinternet.org/2008/09/16/teens-video-games-and-civics/: 99% of boys and 94% of girls play video games. However younger teen boys are the most likely to play games than girls. Older girls are the least “enthusiastic” players of video games, some 65% of daily gamers are male; 35% are female. 

A large majority of horror games have a Pegi rating of 18 or 18+, however game are not only rated on how scary they are but also the rest of the content. and horror games like Outlast and The Evil Within contain more then a few swear words. My game, being an educational game and being as acurate to the stories as possible, there won't be a lot of cuse words if any at all.

my game consitst of 3 different stories; Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and A Christmas Caral. I first learned of these stories from BBC Bitesize. here is the link, http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/subjects/zckw2hv.

Analysis of Educational Games

Educational games are games that are designed to help people to learn about certain subjects, or assist them in learning a skill as they play. Subjects could include English, Maths, history, culture etc. Game types include board games, card games, and computer games.

There are several games which have an educational theme such as Valiant Harts, Happy Wheels, Amnesia, Super Mario Maker and Farming simulator. Most (if not all) educational games can be bought or played for free on a PC (computer) but these games can also be for the Wii U, Phone and/or Tablet and PlayStation (1-3).

The most common devise used to play educational games nowadays would be mobile devises (tablets and phones), used mostly by children. The games I mentioned previous mostly consist of puzzles and one being a how to, however, educational games aimed for a younger audience would mostly involve school subjects such as English, Maths and spelling.

After researching (for ages) I came across a British book and app publisher called Nosy Crow (company name). Nosy made a succession of beautiful fairy-tale apps, all of which encourage reading for children. The Jack and the Beanstalk game app was apparently their best effort yet, blending storytelling and light gaming, which is voice narrated by children.

At a guess I would say that either CBeebies or Pepper Pig’s paint box would be the most popular educational games for this Christmas, simply because they are at the top of the app store. 

Moodboard on English literature.

Moodboard on Horror games.

This is a mind-map of my game idea.

This concept art shows part of a level in the game I'm designing. The theme for this game is horror, therefore the art style is dark and slightly sinister. The point of view for the player will be in third person because I felt that it adds to that chilling vibe given by the scary atmosphere of the game. To make the scary atmosphere, I made it so the only light source is the candle in your hands. This idea was inspired by a game called The Never-ending Nightmare, which itself was inspired by the lead designer, Matt Gilgenbach's personal struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression, I feel that this relates to my own struggles with my autism; the darkness and the monsters in the dark representing the world that I live in which is very complicated for me to feel a part of. The Never-ending Nightmare is all pencil drawn with no colour, except for a candle which is one of the only things in colour. I believe that I have done a good job with this piece of concept, I plan to draw other scenes and levels using similar if not the same art style.

This is my design of the Frankenstein Monster in proportion of size to the playable character. I've designed him/it to be a chimera, a creature made up of multiple parts, in this case dead bodies.

This is the colour palette I used to create my design.

This is an attempt at a possible alternate camera angle for my game.

Thanks to some suggestions, I desided that my original idea was too big so I narrowed it down to only one story rather than three. This is a bit of concept shows the new idea for my game, which will be focusing only on A Christmas Carol now and not Jekyll & Hyde or Frankenstein. The new idea is a little different; you play as a rat, and the story of A Christmas Carol is happening in the background. As this bit of concept shows, there will be the occasional 'hole in the wall' that will trigger a cut-scene showing only a little bit of the story. There is also a Valiant Hearts like style of game-play; it will be a relatively easy puzzle game with two different sets of collectable items; Story type and Fact type. The story type tell little snip-its of the story of A Christmas Carol. The fact type tells the player more about the Victorian era and the aurther; Charles Dickens himself. The camera angle will be a side view plat-former.

Layout plan of game menu, level and characters.

Initial sketches related to my project.

Research into Pegi age rating. 

Gantt chart to track progress

Initial sketches of game ideas