Introduction

My final goal with this project is to make a small, functioning first-person stealth shooter. This FPS would take place in a dockyard late at night, with the main goal in the game being to take out the enemies through any means necessary. I would like to include a functioning enemy AI that can detect and shoot the player, a gun that can shoot and kill the enemy AI, and a hiding mechanic where the enemy AI cannot detect the player. I do some stretch goals if I can complete these mechanics quickly, with accessibility being something I would like to work on if I have enough time. One of my stretch goals will be to make a Mac build of my game in addition to a Windows build. Although it is not required, it would be interesting to see if my game could run on a different type of computer. I have a MacBook at home, so it's of no inconvenience to me.

The main USPs of my game will be the gameplay loop and low-poly graphics. The gameplay loop I would like to have will be fun and fair, with the player being able to play either stealthily or aggressively. The low-poly graphics will be good so that nearly any PC can install and play the game with no optimisation issues.

Since I will be making a first-person stealth shooter, I decided to look for similar games and their USPs. I thought what better place to start than with one of the most iconic game series, Metal Gear Solid.

Metal Gear Solid

The Metal Gear Solid games that inspired me the most were Snake Eater, Guns of the Patriots, and Ground Zeroes/The Phantom Pain. One of the main USPs of Metal Gear Solid, especially in the series post Snake Eater, is the open 3D areas allowing players to complete objectives in any way they want. However, with my limited time, I would only have time to implement two ways to complete the game.

MGS5's peak player count on Steam was 91,195. High player count shows interest in the series, although it's already a major franchise by that point, so of course people are interested in MGS.

Splinter Cell

Another iconic stealth game I looked at was Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. I liked the stealth mechanics present in Splinter Cell, particularly in Chaos Theory. Enemies are smart and aware of where Fisher is, and although I might not be able to have intelligent AI in my vertical slice, I would like to at least make some progress with the enemy AI to the point that it's fun.

Chaos theory sold 2.5 million copies on release, showing the demand and interest people had in the games. The game was a critical and financial success, with praise for visuals and audio production, something I can consider including in my game.

I also found inspiration in Perfect Dark and GoldenEye 007. The gameplay present in these games is something I would like to go for, especially during the combat phase as well.

The overall asset theme I will be going for is low-poly. I was pointed towards a good asset pack called the Everything Library from a game made in 2017 called Everything. There is a furnishings pack which contains 297 meshes, including shipping containers, so I would like to include some of these in my game.

The age rating I will be going for is PEGI 18. This will be due to the player killing the enemy AI, and also, some blood spills from the dead enemies if the player chooses to kill.