Game Design Document - TheRealCatherine/Dumuzid GitHub Wiki

Dumuzid by You're Perfect Studio

Overview

Theme / Setting / Genre

  • Dumuzid is a first-person action/RPG/maze runner with some horror themes that takes place in the ancient Mesopotamian underworld (also known as Irkalla). The player will play as the god Dumuzid the Shepherd as he attempts to leave Irkalla following the events described in the Sumerian story The Descent of Inanna.

Core Gameplay Mechanics Brief

  • Gameplay is inspired by the Atari 2600 game SecretQuest
  • Each level is a maze, the player must locate a password in one room, give it in a second room, and then exit through a gate to the next level
  • Life depleats at a constant rate in addition to player damage by enemies
  • Magic increases slightly at a constant rate (very slowly)
  • Attacking enemies uses magic
  • Enemies drop health and magic recharge items
  • Creating save games uses magic (tentative)
  • Non-violent play will be possible but due to the maze structure, health constantly depleting, and potentially agressive enemies will use a different skill set than violent play.

Targeted platforms

  • Windows/Linux
  • Mac (TBD)
  • Atari VCS
  • Android (lower priority)
  • Really any platform than we can get on

Monetization model (Brief/Document)

  • Dumuzid will be sold as a traditional stand alone game without ads, micro-transactions, or user data collection.
  • Sales will primarily be through platform-specific channels (ie Steam, Play Store, etc.)
  • A free version of the first level (a demo version) may be made available (TBD)
  • Patreon subscriptions (subscribers receive various benefits such as ealy test versions, unused assets)

Project Scope

Time

  • While we are not under strict time constraints we aim to have at least a playable demo of the first couple levels ready for the launch of the Atari VCS console (expected Summer of 2019)
  • Estimated development time is 1-3 years depending on team cohesion, team size, investments, and other factors

Development Costs

  • Development costs will be kept to a minimum. Some contributors are volunteers and others are on a share-based profit sharing system (to be described in another document).
  • Fixed costs: GitHub $25/mo(+$9/user if more than 5 users), Unreal royalties depending on sales, Marketplace assets, Business start up costs (when possible)

Team

  • The core team currently consists of the co-founders of You're Perfect Studio, Catherine and Katrina.
  • Our team will grow and shrink over time. People are free to join and leave at any time.
  • Many team members will be students
  • Team will generally be culturally, racially, ethnically, sexually, and otherwise diverse.
  • Team member roles may change over time as the team size changes or as individual interestes change. As co-founders of You're Perfect Studio Catherine and Katrina will act as project managers on this project.
  • You're Perfect Studio is an uncorporated, unafilliated loose-knit collection of professionals working together under agreement and is not currently a legal entity. This wil be reevaluated as revenues and team size change.

Influences (Brief)

SecretQuest

  • SecretQuest was the last game made for the Atari 2600 console.
  • High level gameplay mechanics are very similar, fight monsters to get power ups, find codes to open gate to the next level.
  • Level layouts where possible directly influenced by SecretQuest maps

The Descent of Inanna

  • The Descent of Inanna is a Mesopotamian story about the goddess of love, fertility, and war Inanna.
  • In this story she condemns her husband Dumuzid to take her place in the underworld.
  • Dumuzid's sister agrees to take his place and now Dumuzid can leave - but he must go through the maze to exit.

Project Description

The elevator Pitch

  • Dumuzid is a first person action/adventure/mazerunner influenced by SecretQuest, the last Atari 2600 game released. It tells an original story based on ancient Sumerian mythology and features an option for non-violent gameplay. Experts in Mesopotamian literature, language, and culture are being consulted during the design and implementation.

Project Description (Brief):

Project Description (Detailed)

What sets this project apart?

  • Original story
  • Heavily researched Sumerian themes
  • Mechanics influenced by an Atari 2600 game
  • Hopeful timing coinciding with Atari VCS console launch
  • Many assets will be released under CC0 (public domain) licenses during development
  • Some time after release all original assets will be released under CC0 or BSD licenses.

Core Gameplay Mechanics (Detailed)

There are 8 levels

  • Just like in SecretQuest there will be 8 levels
  • According to Mesopotamian mythology there are 7 gates in the underworld that one must pass through
  • Each level will exist between these gates

Each level is a maze

  • In early or otherwise easy levels the rooms should look identical or nearly identical to increase player disorientation
  • No in-game map will be provided (may be an option on super easy mode? TBD)

Each level is a different theme

  • The first level will take place inside of a structure that, according to our story, influenced the design of the Ishtar Gate
  • The second level will take place outside of The Great City of the Dead (but still in the underworld).
  • Ideas for level themes include forest, mountains, river, caves

Level rewards

  • The player will start off naked or nearly naked and be given his Shepher staff at the start and will have an item returned to him at each gate by Namtar, the god of Fate (this parallels an important part of the Descent of Inanna)
  • New items will allow the player abilities such as running, sneaking, blocking, saving their game
  • Players may recieve health or magic bonuses for playing in certain styles (ie non-violent but TBD) in order to ensure they have a fair chance at the next level since they didn't get any power ups in the previous level

One monster per room

  • Each room will have one monster or type of monster (ie it may have one demon or a small group of spiders)
  • Monsthers will stay in their rooms
  • Monsters will not respawn

Killing monsters

  • Killing the last (or only) monster in a room will drop a health or magic regen item
  • Some drop a 1x item and some drop a 4x (or 4 1x regen items)
  • (TBD) a random monster in rooms with multiple monsters will be the 'boss' and killing that one will clear the room
  • Some monsters may get more aggressive toward violent-route players or more passive toward non-violent players

Player health

  • Player health will degenerate at a constant rate. The player is in the underworld so while he was bathed in the Water of Life at the beginning, his life is slowly draining away.
  • The player will start with enough life to complete the first level non-violently assuming they do not get very lost in the maze
  • Enemy attacks cause damage to player health

Player magic

  • Player magic will very slowly increase at a constant rate
  • All attacks (even mellee) will deplete player magic
  • Save games will be available anywhere but will use magic
  • If the player attacks and their magic level is not sufficent they will do damage if its a melee attack, but 1/100th normal or some other extremely low number

Save Games

  • Player will be able to save anywhere
  • Saving depletes player magic (amount TBD)
  • Saves only available after completing the first level
  • Item given at the beginning of Level 2 allows save game
  • Player will start level 2 with at least enough magic to save (perhaps not guaranteed on hard mode?)

Speed run timer

  • A speed run timer will be available
  • It will only track time when the user has control and will track level time and overall time separately
  • Optionally have game write times to a text file during play that can be monitored by streaming overlays for integration

Non-Violent gameplay

  • Uerers will be able to choose to simply avoid monsters by running, sneaking, etc. rather than attacking
  • This turns the game into more of a timed maze like game with hazards that have different avoidance stratagies
  • Users will have the option of voluntary or forced non-violence
  • In voluntairy non-violence the player can attack monsters and simply chooses not to (and may receive rewards at end of level for non-violent play)
  • In forced non-violence the player has no attack moves
  • Early levels will feature relatively tame creatures like non agressive spiders or rats that keep to themselves
  • Later levels will feature skeletons, troubled souls, demons, etc.

Timed exit

  • Users must locate a code in each level of increasing complexity
  • This code (TBD) will be a cuneiform symbol or series of symbols
  • They must give this/these symbol(s) to the gatekeeper who waits in one room of the maze
  • Once given correctly, the player will have a very short window of time to escape
  • In all levels once the player has given the code all remaining monsters will vanish
  • In some levels there may be a hazard such as rising water or flames that will consume the player if they do not escape in time

Boss battles

  • There are currently no plans for "boss battles" though this may change as development progresses

Story and Gameplay

Story

Ishtar has sentenced her husband, Dumuzid to take her place in Irkalla following the events described in The Descent of Inanna. Dumuzid's sister, Geshtinanna has volunteered to take Dumuzid's place in Irkalla for half of the year so that he may reunite with Ishtar and bring fertility back to the earth following the winter.

Dumuzid begins in an ornate room in which rains shimmering irrescent water and the floor is flooded. He has been bathed in the water of life and is now alive again, after having been dead all winter. He stands naked (or wearing only a loincloth) and somewhat dissoriented.

He exits this room to find himself on a long processional walkway. The atmosphere and lighting are unnatural and unsetteling. The scale of eerything is huge.

A large closed (and unopenable) gate stands one end, it leads to the Great City of the Dead and the Palace of Ereshkigal - and on the other end lies a gatehouse made of Lapis Lazuli. Within the context of our story, the Babylonion Ishtar Gate will have been inspired by this gate - from tales of the very few that have ever come back from Irkalla.

He is being approached by two people. One an older, haggard looking man and one a beautiful young woman. The young woman identifies herself as his sister and explains that she is there to take his place. She says that she was able to bring his shepherd staff along with her on the journey to return it to him to help him on the coming journey. It's dangerous to go alone, afterall.

The man directs Dumuzid to the blue gatehouse and informs him that he is alive in the underworld and that his life will be draining away the longer he spends here.

Here the player can practice moving and swinging their weapon and get a feel for how their life and magic work. There should be some innocuous things the player can hit like pottery to get a feel for attacking.

Dumuzid will then enter the large cube part of the Gate and now he is a big blue box that is bigger on the inside. The gate behind him closes. It is dark but his eyes adjust quickly.

The first room is rather peaceful, though dark. Light spills over the floor from a fire pit in the middle of the room creating a pattern remniscent of dancing sun rays as it passes through the arched ring around the fire pit.

The walls are made of beautiful lapis and gold, the structure is as old as the earth but is well maintained. The ceiling and floors are polished obsidian reflecting the scant light with a distion.

As Dumuzid moves through the room the lights cast his shadow on the walls from a low angle - it catches him by surprise and he thinks something around him is moving.

Slowly he makes his way to the doorway on the other side of the room, it is a hallway leading to another room. Walking into this next room, Dumuzid feels like something is wrong, this room is identical to the last except there is a hallway on either side.

Moving forward into the next room reveals yet another identical room - however this one contains something moving that is more than his shadow! A very large spider is walking slowly toward him - he could manuver around it or attack it, that choice is up to the player. Another hallway stands on the other side of this room. This hallway leads to yet another identical room but this one with a different creature and instead of a hallway on either side, this one has a hallway on right wall instead of the far wall.

Should Dumuzid kill any creatures they will drop life or magic regeneration items and the room will stay cleared for the duration of the player's time in the level.

As Dumuzid makes his way through these rooms he may come across a room that is otherwise empty but contains a symbol carved into stone. In another room he will find a large, locked gate similar to the one in the first room. And in yet another he will find the old man from the walkway - this is Namtar, the god of Fate and gatekeeper in the underworld. He will question Dumuzid about the password to open the gate and Dumuzid must respond with the correct symbol.

Namtar will respond that the way has been cleared but that he must leave quickly. All of the enemies have vanished and fire pits have now become raging cauldrons, their fires speading to cover the entire room and their light blinding to look at directly.

Dumuzid must now find his way back to the gate before being engulfed in flame. After stepping through the gate he now finds himself outside of the city. Namtar stands at the gate and returns to Dumuzi his robes saying only that this is the way of Irkalla. The robes allow Dumuzid to save his game though it takes magic to do so. Now having completed the first level the user may save their game (if they have the magic for it) and continue on through the second level maze, outside of the gatehouse.

Assets Needed

2D

Logos and promotional

  • Logos
  • Banners
  • Memes

Textures/Materials

  • Wall, floors, ceilings for each level's room template (TBD)
  • Body art for main character (tatoos/brands) (TBD)
  • Items (TBD)
  • Monsters (TBD)
  • Props (TBD)

3D

Dumuzid the Shepherd

  • Head features based on Desmond model
  • Naked and/or loincloth model
  • Clothed model (clothing should be appropriate for a god that was a shepherd - such as very nice robes or fine leather perhaps with gold or silver accents. Research into this is still pending)

Namtar, god of Fate

Option 1
  • Old, gray, haggard
  • aloof - he plays the part and says his lines but he already knows the outcome so he does not share the players enthusiasm for escaping from the underworld
  • Reference: Man of La Mancha
  • Reference: King Haggard: 1, 2, 3 4
Option 2
  • Muscular
  • Soldier like

Monsters

  • TBD
  • Underworld creatures, heavy emphasis on spirits, skeletons, and demons
  • May include bugs, rodents (TBD)

Sound

Music

  • TBD - a local dark ambient EDM artist is preparing a sample to evaluate, other options may be explored

Sound List (Player)

	- Character Movement Sound List
		- Example 1
		- Example 2
  • etc. - Character Hit / Collision Sound list
  • Example 1 - Example 2
  • etc. - Character on Injured / Death sound list - Example 1 - Example 2 - etc.

Code

- Character Scripts (Player Pawn/Player Controller)
- Ambient Scripts (Runs in the background)
- Example

NPC Scripts

- Example
- etc.

Animation

- Environment Animations 
	- Example
	- etc.
- Character Animations 
	- Player
  • Example
  • etc. - NPC - Example - etc.

Schedule

Founding

  • Studio and project founded Wednesday, June 13 2018

TBD

September 1st, 2018

  • Functional level 1 prototype
  • Should include combat, health, magic, basic speed run timer
  • May include Marketplace assets and placeholders
  • Should have very basic AI that will just move the enemies around and attack only if the player comes too close (bonus points: enemies get more agressive toward agressive players)
  • No intro sequence yet
  • code location, entering, and evacuation should work
  • voluntairy non-violent play option should work
  • sounds for attacks, items, monsters (may be placeholder)

June 12, 2019

  • First level demo complete
  • Should include reasonably final versions of combat, monsters, items
  • Should include an intro sequence
  • should include reasonably final music and sound effects
  • At least one more level fully functional beyond the first
  • Save game support not necessary yet