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Especially noteworthy things (clarifications, details of importance and ideas) from the designer are marked in red.
h1. 1. Theme
As the butler in a haunted hotel your job is to keep the ghosty visitors happy!
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When all deliveries are made in time the action stops and a infoscreen containing the level stats appears. Windston does a cheesy victory dance in the game screen as particle confetti rains down from the top of the screen.
>>Producer comments: Does winston dance in infoscreen or? in the game screen? more specific design
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If the timer is allowed to reach zero the "game over"-overlay appears. The overlay is basicly just a large "game over" text. A player is given the choise of either retrying the level or exiting to the main menu.
Noteworthy things about items:
-The next item will not appear until the item the player currently posesses has been delivered. This way it is always a
Colored Bags
There are three different colored bags in total: Red, green and blue.
The bags appear one at a time. The spawn location for the bags is on the center of the reception desk in the lobby.
The bags appear in random order. A new bag appears only after the previous bag has been succesfully delivered to a door.
Noteworthy things about bags:
-The next item will not appear until the item the player currently posesses has been delivered. This way it is always a surprise which color the surprise which color the next item is going to be.
-Once an item has been picked up there is no way to drop it. The only way to get rid of an item is to deliver it to the appropriate door.
-There can be only one item in the item slot at a given time.
Colored Bags
There are three different colored bags in total. The bags appear one at a time. The spawn location for the bags is on the center of the reception desk in the lobby. The bags appear in random order. A new bag appears only after the previous bag has been succesfully delivered to a doordoor.
-There can be only one item in the item slot at a given time.
Note
(It is possible to have more different colored bags in the future but for now three bags is enough. The challenge is gradually created not by increasing bags but by increasing NPCs, obstacles and more challenging rooms overall. This way the player never spends too much time on one level to become too frustrated. The action should be kept fresh all the time.)
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State 1: Winston is in idle stance, hostile NPC is just about to touch him.
State 2: Winston is hit and is flying backwards through the air.
State 3: Winston is on the ground, knocked out.
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There is no concept of health in the game so Winston can never die. The only way to fail the game is to allow the timer reach zero.
Noteworthy:
The wandering ghost is an exceptional NPC. Instead of knocking Winston unconscious it kicks him around the level or can even throw him all the way to the rose bush (beginning location of the level). The behavior of this particular NPC is explained in detail later in this document.
7. Controls
Winston is controlled entirely by keyboard.
Left: Moves Winston left
Right: Moves Winston Right
Up: Jump
Space: Action key - Talk to friendly NPCs etc.( Note: at this stage there's no use for an action key but it may be implemented later on)
8. Mechanics
Game world physics
Collision handling
9.The Level
Levels in the game consist of different shaped rooms (for now only two basic shapes are used for the rooms)
Rooms
Room type 1
Standard sized room. Can contain 4 doors but only one obstacle and one NPC at max. See "level wireframe".
Room type 2
A long corridor filled with different colored doors. The long corridor is usually rich with obstacles and hostile NPCs. See "level wireframe".
The Lobby
The lobby is always positioned at the bottom-left corner of the screen. The lobby is the location where the player returns time after time to fetch pick up his next item. Thus the lobby has a central part in gameplay its significance must be underlined visually so that it always "pops out".
Level wireframe
Wireframe model of the first level. Solid foundations are white. Doorways that Winston can walk through are marked in blue.
Game world measurements
In the game world everything is proportioned by the dimensions of the player character.
Level design for Level 1
10. Means of transportation
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