Golem Mancer Game Design Document

Game Design Document for GolemMancer

Title: GolemMancer

Developers: Ikhan Games

Date: July 5th 2024

Table of Contents

1. Game Overview

Build giant Golem's and send them out to retake the kingdom from invading monster armies. Construct golems at your camp, selecting different sizes and varieties of golem, the clay material, then fill it with ingrediants boosts various stats or adds skills. Up to three can be dispatched to the battle field where they advance side-scroller style, where they fight past hordes of enemies, artillary, towers, forts, and environmental hazards.

Casual Gamers, casual stragetgy gamers.

PC

2. Gameplay

Golem Building: Layed out like a classic RPG, the player moves around a small camp interacting with various stations to build Golems to use in combat. As the game progresses new stations and new functionality unlocks allowing the player devise deeper strategies andbuild more complex Golem and Golem teams. Players can also interact with NPC's in this area

Field Combat: Players can deploy Golems into the field and control them and utilize skills the Golems have. The field is configured into levels and areas. Levels have different themes, and every level is divided into several areas. Players take one area at a time while the enemies continually build fortifications and try to advace in a kind of reverse tug-of-war. Players can view certain aspects of areas in advance like length, environmental hazards, and some enemy details.

Within menus mostly mouse controls with keyboard as a backup and for hotkeys. When in the camp area used for building Golems WASD and arrow key controls will be primary (potentially point an click movement for the player character).

• Story Mode: Sets players thought a structured story along levels in a linear order.


• Endurance Mode: An endless game mode that gradually increases in difficulty along randomized level orders.

• Main Menu: Options for a New Game, Loaging, Settings, Credits, and Exit.


• Save Slots: Navigate to a specific save game.


• Camp: The players war camp, houses all the UI menus associated with creating Golems.


• Field: Area progress bar, the actual battlefield graphics, and panels for managing the individual Golems.


• Map: A GUI that shows which level the players is, the area, and data about the level and area.

3. Story and Characters

After three undred years of peace the Monster armies have resurged. The kindgom turns to a champion of the last war; the Golem Mancer. A powerful witch but wacky and obsessive about her trade. She has been vacationing since the last war and is napping in the dilapidated ruins of her laboratory. Spurred into the war by the prospect of building new Golems.

With the Kingdom's Expeditionary Forces to aid her what ensues is zany comedy revolving around the Golem Mancers obsession with all things Golem and her odd world views.

• The Golemancer: A zany witch specialising in animating giant Golems. Moddled after Zim (Invader Zim), Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter series), and sterotypical pointed hat witches.


• Knight: The kingdoms expeditionary force. They travel with the Golem Mancer support her and are a foil for her golem mania in dialog sequences.

4. World and Level Design

The game is divided into several levels of different biomes that reach from the verdant plains of the inner Kingdom to the monsters volcanic domains. Each level is divided into several areas compriosed of nodes and hazards. Nodes are hardpoints along the length of the area where enemies will build forts and towers. Hazards are obstacles that effect the Golems, knight, and enemies. For example Golems will travel slower though swamp lands, can be injured by overhangs, etc.

Constructing golems takes time and enemies will continually try to retake ground by moving forward one node at a time. If all the nodes in a level are fortefied the player will have to retreat to the previous area or level.

• Nodes: Fixed positions where enemies will buidl their forts and towers. These act as spawners when the level is running.


• Hazards: Hazards are objects along an area that effect or interact with the entities (Golems, knights, enemies).


• Spawners: Spawners are invisible nodes that deploy a fixed number of enemies at the begining of combat.


• Entrance: The area entrance (off camera) spawns the Golems and Knights.


• Exit: The area exit (off camera) ends the level when a Golem crosses it.

5. Art and Aesthetics

Pixel art all around. Given the number of Golems variant I will probably assemble their animations and convert them to a pixel style.

• Golem Mancer (Camp): A sprite with a big hat


• Golem Mancer (Portrait): Clade in a pointed hat with a Golem doll in the brim. She has a a devious smile and frantic enery to her apperance.


• Knights (Camp): Sprites clade in white & grey armor some with helmets.


• Knights (Portrait): Named NPC's have their own portaits.


• Knights (Field): In the field knight sprites are very small and un detailed to accomidate their numbers.


• Enemies: Enemies are small and only have a few varients, they are defined more by color than type.


• Fort & Artillary: Forst and artillary are stationary and more detailed, they need several forms to indicate damage and destroyed entities.


• Golems: Golems have many variants in terms of size and color, and have a visual theme to make them easier to identify at a glance.


• Camp: With backgrounds determined by the current level, the remaining assets are mostly static. The camp features a large tent with with several desk and work stations inside.


• Field: Skybox, backgrounds, foregrounds, and environmental obejcects both static and dynamic ones.

6. Audio

Not sure what the sound of the game should be. I like the idea of using the same chords with different intrumentations depending on the level.

I will need a variety of sound FX for the golems; walking, using attacks, taking heavy blows from artillary. Knight and enemies will generate meelee "noises" as they clash. There will as be artillary noises, mixed ambiant noises, and UI sounds.

Not Applicable

7. Technical Specifications

Unity

• PC:
  
  
  
  • Minimum: T.B.D
  
  
  • Recommended: T.B.D
  
  
  
  

This will be the largest most intricate project to date so just a few highlight of challenges I'm looking forward to are;

• Effect shaders


• Golem Animation


• Persistant enemy AI


• Entity pools for enemy entities


• Animating Golems in an asset pipeline


• Cutscenes/Unity Event systems


• RPG style tile system


• Hight number of interconnected Menus


• ...and so on and so on

8. Production Plan

• Pre-Production: _ weeks (Concept, design, planning)


• Production: _ weeks (Development, asset creation)


• Testing: _ weeks (QA, bug fixing, polishing)


• Launch: _ weeks (Release prep, release)

• Estimated total: $0.00 (T.B.D)


• Sources: Self-funded.

Solo Development

9. Marketing Plan

T.B.D

T.B.D