Design Document

The following is an explanation of the game which we have handed out at a presentation. It allows us to explain the game without having to post up our design document, as that is a constant work in progress.

Void

Void is a third person action exploration game that integrates three unique environments each with their own physical character state.

Characters

There are three different states to the character (neutral, heavy and floating), each one allowing the player to progress through the spaces.

Environments

Anemone Sea

This space is designed to optimise game-play for the characters neutral state to advance through the area. It is populated with orange pads that sit on top of a bed of sea anemones, which undulate similar to the waves of the sea.

Emerald Cavern

The state change the character obtains within this space increases its size and weight allowing it to push heavy rocks and take advantage of its weight to drop from a height onto bounce-pads that propel the character to a pre-defined location. This area is constructed from rocks and crystals giving it a more solid feel. The space provides contrast between the dark open expanse of the cavern and the emerald illumination produced by the crystal plates.

Shimmering Towers

It uses the floating state change which involves the player manoeuvring in-between pillars projected by air currents that will force the character up or down. The avatar slowly descends downwards towards an underlying mist which hides a sea of anemones.

The Reef

The final space it is a culmination of the previous three environments, layering the mechanics of each physical state and interlaying them into a single playable space. In turn optimising the environment to produce a spectacle of contrast, scale, colour and pacing. This allows us to create a diverse meaningful play that can increase the difficulty curve of the game due to the multilayered facets of the environment interactions that have been previously established.

You can also download this as a .pdf which also had the Void logo on it here

Character Boards

The following images are of the character in its three states, along with a comparison of all three of them.

Beacon Chamber

The following images are of the beacons which the character is produced from at the start of the game. These beacons are also utilised when being re-born from a checkpoint.

Anemone Sea

These images are of the Anemone Sea, which is the first space that the player will encounter.

Emerald Cavern

These following images are of the Emerald Cavern, this is the second space that the player will traverse through.

Shimmering Towers

These images are of Shimmering Towers, which is the third space the player will progress through.

The Reef

The following images are of The Reef which is the final space in the game, which combines everything that player has previously played through.

The images up at the moment show ways for the character to progress through the area.

Interactions

The following YouTube video is a playlist of all the interactions which have had animatics created for them, so that we have a record of how the assets and the characters interact with each other.

Dress Assets

The following images are of assets that will populate the spaces to add variation to the levels.