Poppy's Nightmare
IGRA STUDIOS
15-10-2017
Game Design Document draft 2
Alejandro Pomares
Asier Bilbao
Cover Page
High-level concept
2D Side-scrolling Cute' Em Up-Bullet Hell game that occurs inside a little girl's nightmare in which the player must help her defeat the terrors that she will face with different weapons.
Gameplay summary
Poppy's Nightmare occurs in a nightmare, divided in different levels. Each level will have it's own world, filled with unique enemies and a final boss that the player will have to defeat in order to go to the next level. For this, the player has access to three different weapons, a mini-gun like weapon, a piercing weapon and a explosive weapon, each one with its pros and cons. The player will have a special ability for each weapon, which has uses that can be recovered by damaging enemies. The weapons can also be upgraded by collecting special items.
The final objective is to defeat all the scary monsters that the player will encounter, and get to the final boss and defeat it, finally completing the game and saving the girl from her nightmares.
Unique selling points
- Don't let the child-like enviroment fool you, this game IS a Bullet Hell.
- Cool and flashy animations will keep you visually entertained.
- It is subtle, but a story is told behind all the shooting, so keep your eyes opened.
Sense-Pleasure
We want the player to truly enjoy the characters and environment, that they feel rewarded every time they shoot and kill an enemy. For that, we will have very colorful and flashy to keep the players engaged and attentive to the screen.
Narrative
All of this shooting is just facade. We want to tell a story about a little girl and her struggles against her own nightmares, and for that, we want to use all the visual elements that we have to our disposal, mostly the backgrounds and the bosses.
and convey the feelings of the main character to the player visually and through the various elements of the gameplay; at the end of the game, the player should feel happy or relieved that he/she was able to help the main character to achieve her goal.
Challenge
For the challenge, enemies and bosses will make the player struggle. Each world will have enemies with different patterns that the player will have to deal with in order to advance. At the end of each level, the player will have a face off with a unique boss, which will test the player's skills.
Of course, that's not everything. Dying is punished; you will lose the upgrades of your current weapon, and if you lose all of your lives, you will have to restart the current level.
Core Mechanics
MOVEMENT
We have 8-way directional movement.
The core mechanics of the game are moving, switching from the 3 weapons that the main character has and shooting.
KEYBOARD
For this we will use the arrows to move. For the 3 weapons we will be using numbers 1, 2, 3. And finally to shoot we will be using the A button.
To shoot the ultimate press S key.
CONTROLLER
Joystick or Arrows = move the player
X, Square, Circle = abilities
Triangle = Ultimate
R1 = shoot
Secondary Mechanics
In the secondary mechanics of the game we have initially some improvements of the main abilities.
First of all we have 3 abilities, that will have 3 ultimate shots. This ultimate shots will have a charge bar that will be charging up during the game while killing enemies.
This ultimate bar is neutral, so once is charged, you may use the ultimate with the weapon you wish. You can charge the ultimate bar 3 times.
Then we have an improvement for those 3 main abilities. There will be 4 levels for each weapon. There is a unique upgrade power-up to pick, the weapon you have at the moment you pick it will be the one to be upgraded. During the game you will pick up upgrades that the enemies will drop. If you have a weapon fully upgraded and you try to get the upgrade anyway with that weapon selected you will just ignore the upgrade without affecting in anything, but it will remain in the same place there for you to pick with another weapon.
- Basic attack (Crayons)
Level 1 (2 front shots)
Level 2 (2 front shots, 1 diagonals)
Level 3 (3 front shots, 1 diagonals)
Level 4 (3 front shots, 2 diagonals)
ULTIMATE (Rain of crayons)
- Laser Ray (Rainbow)
Level 1 (1 ray)
Level 2 (2 rays)
Level 3 (3 rays)
Level 4 (4 rays)
ULTIMATE (7 rays)
- Bubble
Level 1 (standard bubble, max charge as image)
Level 2 (standard bubble, max charge bigger so more max damage)
Level 3 (Bubble that when impact will divide in 2 little bubbles)
Level 4 (Bubble that when impact will divide in 4 little bubbles)
ULTIMATE (A big bubble surrounds you for some seconds protecting you from damage and dealing damage when hitting enemies)
Then we have the health. We will have 5 lives all game through. Once you are hit by and enemy you loose one life. When you defeat a boss you gain 1 life.
There will also be a life power-up that you can obtain while playing:
Life: Some enemies will drop a life power-up where you will obtain 1 heart when picking it up.
Movement
Poppy has a 8-way directional movement, which means that she can move to any direction that a 2D game let's you.
The keyboard controls are:
A to move left
W to move up
S to move down
D to move right
Weapons
Poppy has three different weapons at her disposal. All of them can be upgraded up to three times. Upgrades are found through all levels, and they are carried between levels. Also all of them have a special ability.
The first one is the BASIC GUN
The basic gun is an all around weapon. It shoot a small projectile with medium damage and fast rate of fire, that is destroyed after colliding with an enemy, or when it's out of the field of view. The upgrades increase the number of bullets that Poppy can shoot.
Level 0:
Level 1:
Level 2:
Level 3:
The second one is the BUBBLE GUN
The bubble gun is a powerful but slow weapon. It shoots a circular projectile with high damage but slow rate of fire, it deals tons of damage. It has an unique property: when it collides with an enemy, it explodes and divides in more bubbles that deal less damage, which means that increases it's overall damage. Further upgrades increase the size of the bubble, and the quantity of bubbles that is created when collided.
Level 0:
Level 1:
Level 2:
Level 3:
The third one is the LASER GUN
The laser gun shoots a long but thin piercing projectile that deals low damage, but it's very fast. Further upgrades increase the damage and increase the area that the projectile damages.
As said before, all weapons have a special ability. It's uses are limited and are shared between the weapons. The player starts with 3 uses, but can get more by collecting a special item.
Level 0:
Level 1:
Level 2:
Level 3:
The special ability of the BASIC GUN
Poppy invokes a rain of crayons that falls from the sky, dealing small damage per bullet, but a lot of them are created.
The special ability of the BUBBLE GUN
Poppy creates a bubble shield around her, making her invincible during a period of time. It also damages all enemies that she collides with.
The special ability of the LASER GUN
Poppy shoots a big laser that stays for a short period of time, damaging all enemies that it's contact with it.
Health
HEALTH
The player has limited lives. They start with 5, which is also the maximum, but if they lose lives, the player can gain them back by collecting special items.
If the player loses a live, they lose all upgrades of the CURRENT weapon, that is, if the player currently is using a level 2 Basic Gun, but also has a level 3 Bubble and Laser Gun, if it's hit, they lose the upgrades of the Basic Gun, but not of the other two.
Also after being hit, Poppy is briefly immune to all damage, which let's the player re-position more easily.
If the player loses all of his lives, they have to restart the current level from the beginning without any upgrades.
Game World Description
Along the game the player will progress through different scenarios, with transitions between them, which will give the effect of big long level.
The game has a total of four different levels. Levels will have their own unique enemies, but their position and behavior will always be the same.
The first one is the PARK
The park is filled with enemies that have a park theme, like dogs, flowers, insects and such.
- Flower that will open and throw bullets in a cone trajectory.
- Flower that will follow you and shoot in your direction.
- Flying dogs, they will advance in a straight line while shooting forward.
- Birds, that will appear mostly on V formations and also will accompany bigger enemies. They shoot slowly forward.
- Wasps: They will create a choreography to disturb you, they will give you points if you destroy them.
- Flying squirrels: You will see them gliding on the top and after a second they will boost in the direction you where.
- Pigeons: they will fly on top of you mostly and will dropping balls from the sky that you just avoid.
- Big fat caterpillar with small wings that will move slowly, but will have a lot of life and will shoot slow shots, but with great size bullets.
- Jetpack frog
- Squirrels that will appear on top of trees and will throw acorns to you.
The final boss of this is stage will be a pair of big angry dogs.
The second one is the WOODS
While in the woods, the weather will be getting worse, which will invoke weather themed enemies, like angry clouds or small tornadoes.
The final boss of this is stage will be a big thunderstorm.
The third one is the CAVE
The cave is dark and wet, which will be filled with a lot of insects-like enemies (mostly spiders).
The final boss of this is stage will be a big thunderstorm.
The fourth and last one is the CEMETERY
The cemetery will be shadowy, filled with scary enemies, like ghosts and spooky scary skeletons.
The final fake boss will be a big ghost.
The true final boss will appear after killing the fake one which will be the physical embodiment of the darkness.
Sense-Pleasure
One of the main visual aesthetics must be sense-pleasure. The game shows a very powerful art side, added to the great amount of visual effects and animations that the game will have. So the player will play not only for the game mechanics, but also because of the visual effects of the game.
Challenge
The game is a bullet hell, so we have to play with the choreographies and shoots of the enemies. We will show very interesting combos and choreographies that the player will learn and feel attracted to.
Character Designs
This is Poppy, our main character.
She will make use of different weapons to shoot, but her dress will remain the same.
World designs
We will be playing with colors and different scenarios to give the sensation that the girl is suffering and getting into a nightmare.
The world will have several layers, to create parallax so the player feels more confortable playing the game as It will look more realistic and visually attractive for him.
LEVEL 1 TRANSITION ROUGH
