Butler! Hotel Winsto Game Trouble (workname)
Design Document v1.2
Teemu Huhtiniemi
19.4.2010
Especially noteworthy things (clarifications, details of importance and ideas) from the designer are marked in red.
Producer comments added to page 18.4.2010
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As the butler in a haunted hotel your job is to keep the ghosty visitors happy!
2. Backstory
The background story is presented right at the beginning of the game before the player enters the main menu. The story is presented in storybook -like slides - very much like in the very beginning of the intro sequence for Super Mario Galaxy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2BQeRLbC8g). A full illustrated script of the intro sequence is to be added...
Deep in the backwoods lies a small town of Wyrmavia. Despite their undeniably peculiar customs the folk of Wyrmavia are kind and peace loving people.
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However all hope is not yet lost! The local hotel owner - a peculiar man named Bruno McMaggot comes up with an idea.
McMaggot: "Listen Winston, I've been thinking of this whole ghost problem..."
Winston the butler: "Yes sir?"
McMaggot: "I just might have a solution!"
McMaggot: "You do know that the hotel business hasn't exacly been flourishing these days and we are knee deep in debt, right?
Winston the butler: "Yes... I'm afraid we are, sir."
McMaggot: "And because of those ghoulish creatures outside no one dares to enter this town anymore. Which means we might not have any new customers in a long while, right?"
Winston the butler: "I'm afraid so, sir."
McMaggot: "Well I just realized something! I say we offer those ghosty creatures a bed and breakfast! Think about it! They must have been wandering around the land of the dead for a good while now. They must be dead tired, right? Ha ha!"
Somewhat surprisingly McMaggot's plan is a success and the halls of the hotel are quickly populated with all kinds of undead folk. Dreaming of the fame and wealth his undeniably brilliant plan is going to bring along to him, McMaggott grins happily.
McMaggot: "I knew even the undead couldn't resist a free buffet!"
What McMaggot didn't know is that the undead can be quite grumpy and demanding customers. Winston the butler needs to work a lot more than a few extra shifts to keep the new ghosty inhabitants happy.
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Elements on pre-action infoscreen:
Level name and number
for example "Level 1 : "The adventure begins!"
Objective
Info text explaining the objective of the level (same as illustrated in "core cycle". Usually unchanged)
Keys
Info text explaining the ingame movement and action keys. The controls may also be
explained via pictures.
Best time
The highest time the level has been beaten
Pressing any key leaves the overlay infoscreen and the game is set in motion.
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This infoscreen is displayed when the player succesfully completes a level.
Elements on the infoscreen:
Large text
"Level clear!"
Level time
The time the player had left in the timer when the level ended.
Best time
If the broke the best time record there will be a text congratulating the player.
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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 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.
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.)
5. Rewarding the player
In order to uphold fun and enjoyably game experience the game rewards the player periodically for accomplishing certain tasks.
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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.
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Levels in the game consist of different shaped rooms (only two basic shapes are used for the rooms for now)
Rooms
Room type 1
Standard sized room. Can contain 4 doors but only one obstacle and one NPC at max. See "level wireframe".
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The in-game HUD elements are positioned at top and bottom of the screen. The positioning of separate elements is illustrated in the screen below. 
Timer ( CORE )
Position: Top of screen, center
Displays the time left to complete the level
Item slot ( CORE )
Position: Top of screen, right
Displays the item the player is currently carrying
Amount of objects left ( CORE )
Position: Bottom of screen, left
Displays the amount of objects the player has left to deliver in the current level
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Possessed cabinets are the simplest form of enemies found in the game. A possessed cabinet jumps up and down in regular intervals. The speed, regularity and height of their jumps may change from cabinet to cabinet. In the later levels the cabinets act more unexpectedly and may change their speed, jump regularity and jump height at any given time.
The Wanderer 
The wanderers are grumpy ghosts that insist on pestering Winston whenever they can. A wanderer can fly anywhere in the level - even through walls and floors. The Wanderers have no advanced AI. They simply move from one screen side to the other, much akin to the "ball" in the classic Pong -game.
Wanderers may randomly appear out of nowhere at any given time. They fly around the screen for 20-30 seconds before fading away. In the later tougher levels the wanderers may be there from the very beginning of the level and never disappear.
Ghost dog 
The ghost dog runs back and forth the hotel corridors. When encountering a wall or other obstacle the ghost dog changes its direction of movement.
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Similar to the regular ghost dog but can jump forward at random times.
Noteworthy:
Even though the ghost dogs can move freely along the corridors they cannot enter elevators or jump off balconies.Crawling Zombie
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Positive power-ups
Hourglass
Adds 30 seconds more The hourglass is a positive power-up that adds 15 seconds of additional time to the level timer. This power-up is activated instantly when touched by the player. Time increase is communicated to the player by displaying spawning a floating clock symbol with the text "TIME +3015" written on after it. This symbol is spawned slightly above the point where player picked up the power-up. The On pickup the time is instantly added to the timer. A blue particle glow (lasting for 2 sec) appears behind the timer to underline the change.
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