Game concept

237 days ago by F e z

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Working title:

Super Survival

Concept statement:

The year is 2050, and humans face threat of destruction by legions of robotic drones. In Super Survival, use your powers to make a valiant last stand before all is lost!

Genre/category:

I haven’t heard a consistent term for this type of game, but “wave survival” seems to fit – the player must survive an ever-increasing swarm of enemies.

Concept creation process:

The concept for this game was primarily created through considering differences influences and weaving them together in a way that felt right .

There were two main influences for this game. The first was “superheroes”, and specifically, superpowers. As a kid, I would often play games with kids in the playground where we would pretend to have superpowers. However, I’ve never really been able to find a videogame that captured that feeling of being able to play around with cool superpowers in the way that I imagined it as a kid. So the idea for a game that is basically just a playground for superpowers (while melting robots) felt like a good direction.

As far as more specific gameplay goes, creating a ‘wave survival’ game seemed like a natural fit for this playground feel that I’m going for. It allows for an environment in which the player is free to try using their abilities in different ways.

The game in this genre that has influenced me the most -

Devil Daggers

Devil daggers is a game about surviving a continuous assault of demonic creatures. The goal is to stay alive as long as possible.

The tactile feel and skill-based gameplay of Devil Daggers are something I hope to draw inspiration from, but specifically the general formula of: stay alive in the face of an ever-increasing horde of enemies is the gameplay loop I am going for.

In Devil Daggers there are a small number of movement/combat options available to the player, however all of these options feel fun and polished. For instance, apart from moving and jumping, there are only two buttons used in the game - the mouse buttons, which can perform 3 different kinds of attacks. Likewise, in Super Survival the goal is to have a small set of superpowers which feel fun to use and complement the gameplay, rather than a large number of powers that are are poorly balanced and polished.

Audience and competitive analysis:

Primarily, the audience that this game is for is anyone who thinks having superpowers seems like a fun idea. As the main draw of the game is playing with the different superpowers, ‘Super Survival’ is intended for a casual audience.

When I was at school, the kids that were into playing pretend superhero games were mostly young boys, and so this game leans towards targeting a male demographic, however I hold the belief that flying around and melting robots is by no means exclusively fun for a particular gender.

Game treatment:

Features

You control a superman-esque character, with powers such as flight, laser-vision and super-strength.
The game takes place in a 2D arena, where different enemies pose unique challenges to player, which reward you for using your powers in unique ways.
Use your abilities to survive as long as possible against the onslaught of enemies and get a high score!

Concept art:

Aesthetically, I aim to draw from an older comic book/cartoon superhero look. In the images below, clear outlines and distinct colours help things ‘pop out’ visually. These visual characteristics mean that everything is clearly distinguishable from one another, which is ideal for gameplay in which there may be a lot of action going on on the screen at any one time.