Trashers Game Design Document

Game Design Document for Trashers

Title: Trashers

Developers: Ikhan Games

Date: July 7th, 2024

Table of Contents

1. Game Overview

Game Concept:

Construct a factory that processes trash and garbage back into usable resources for export. Lay conveyor belts, construct processing machines, train staff, expand your processing plant, bid on contracts. Manage backlogs, overflows, and tough materials to recycle.

Target Audience:

Gamers with an interest in the topic of recycling and factory builder games.

Platform:

PC

2. Gameplay

Core Mechanics:

Bid on contracts for trash and waste from various sources; local government, old municipal dumps, commercial operations, and wider garbage and recycling operations. Build trash processing, recycling, and sorting machines and link them together with belts. Take mixed piles of trash and run them through your plant to turn them into useful resources you can sell. Use your limited staff, retrain them to get access to more advanced techniques and machinery. Expand your plant and break down garbage more thoroughly.

Controls:

Mouse and keyboard. I'll stick to the familiar controls from other staples of the genre like Factorio and Sim City.

Story Mode:

After the Owner rips off the company and disappears, the employees take over the company and elect the player to become the GM. Use the few remaining machines and get the processing plant back on its feet.

User Interface (UI):

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


• Save Menu: Navigate to a specific save game.


• Factory: A sprawling factory floor where the player can build their recycling workflows. To separate this from other factory builders, I want to lift the belts up vertically and make the machines large to give the plant a sense of scale.


• Upgrade Menu: A simple visual representation of the various upgrades the player can enact to improve their plant.


• Contract Menu: Displays the player's current, past, and pending contracts. This displays important information like the rate of incoming trash and the current stockpile held outside the plant waiting for processing.

3. Story and Characters

Narrative:

After the recycling plant Owner absconds with the company's assets and disappears, the employees negotiate a company buy-out and elect the player to become the new General Manager. With some funds, the plant's sole contract with the local government, and a few machines, the player must put the company back on its feet.

Characters:

Each of the plant's staff is a character that also acts as the method by which upgrades are enacted. Each staff member has a potential specialty like robotics, safety, power management, etc.

4. World and Level Design

Level Layouts:

The factory floor has no distinctive attributes like fixed machines. The plant normally begins as a square floor plan and the player can purchase expansions in all directions.

5. Art and Aesthetics

Art Style:

Pixel art for the main factory floor and all the menus and GUI with vector graphics.

Character and Environment Art:

• Staff*: Simple static portraits that change as the player upgrades their skills.


• Warehouse: A large warehouse complex, concrete floors with corrugates steel walls.


• Equipment: Large industrial looking machines based loosely on real world counterparts.


• Trash: A few varieties of loose pile.

6. Audio

Music:

Undetermined.

Sound Effects:

• Atmospheric noise for the general factory floor


• Office background noise for certain menus like contracts menu.


• Specific machine noises for the processing machines on the factory floor

Voice Acting:

Not Applicable

7. Technical Specifications

Engine:

Unity

Hardware Requirements:

• PC:
  
  
  
  • Minimum:
  
  
  • Recommended:
  
  
  
  

Technical Challenges:

Conveyors in Unity

Managing large number of entities via object pooling

8. Production Plan

Development Timeline:

• Pre-Production: 4 weeks (Research, concept, design, planning)


• Production: 30 (Development, asset creation)


• Testing: 6 (QA, bug fixing, polishing)


• Launch: 2 (Release prep, release)

Budget:

• Estimated total: $0.00


• Sources: Self-funded.

Team:

Solo Development

9. Marketing Plan

Market Analysis:

Factory builder enthusiast.

Marketing Strategy:

Not Applicable