Video Game Production Notes
Basic Principles
Character Control
With a 2D world interactively speaking, the player outside of special conditions moves in a Left or Right, Up or Down sort of control scheme following basic gravity mechanics outside of situational conditions such as water.
[A] Key will allow the avatar on screen to move Left across the screen.
[D] Key will allow the avatar on screen to move Right across the screen.
[W] Key will perform a jump or ascension tool relative to the function of the environment. (Air you jump, Water you swim up, etc)
[S] Key will only perform a function in conditional states such as water for moving downward.
Land movement should be sharp with little to no drift. Non grounded movement should follow effects such as momentum and drag.
Projectile (or melee) weapon must be Equipped/Unequipped with the [Q] Key.
Unequipped weapons allow the player to (maybe) move faster and interact with the world (such as opening doors or talking to npcs).
Weapons Equipped will cause the mouse cursor to function as a targeting direction. Limitations of projectile function Pending.
Conversation between Avatar and npcs will require weapons to be unequipped and pressing the [E] or âuseâ key to begin conversation.
Conversations will follow a similar style to Fallout 4 where a brief description of 4 optional texts can be said and will result in the npc responding to each choice, branching as complex as the interaction needs to be with that particular npc.
* Another game that uses these near universal 2D controls: Outland *
The Trial we will be building follows some very distinct and possibly tight constants.
Entering a boat (E) will allow the player to guide said Boat across the otherworldly chasm using the [A] and [D] Keys. Pressing [E] will eject the player at the boats location. Opening a door on the other side will have the player step through and appear back at the beginning. (This may be optional).
Entering the chasm will result in the avatar entering a swimming state, and will cause movement to be affected in a similar manner. Naturally since the âparticle fieldâ will not actually be water, there is no oxygen resource.
Destroyed boats/ships pepper the players view as they are ominously suspended in the Particle Air. These serve as hard objects that block both player and serpent from moving, however they need to be capable of breaking as well.(Possibly slightly movable with only large impacts moving them?)
Finally we have the Serpent, who moves primarily with his Head and the body follows almost lagging behind in location, for some examples of worm like enemies, I can think of no better game than Terraria and its corruption enemies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpwhaEIfhcE
âBegining at 1:55 showing off worm like movementâ
The Serpent would follow a reactive pattern of movements, responding to player actions in a macro scale. Your position and movements are not as important as how you are dealing with the serpent. These will be further explained in the completion methods.
COMPLETION METHOD 1: Aggression
This method is blindingly straight forward, the beast blocks your way, so remove it. In this we challenge the serpent directly, equipping your weapon and using the aforementioned aiming methods to fire/stab at the serpent.
Whilst numbers can of course be juggled, a simple baseline for this battle would be, head-shots are the only attack that hurts our enormous adversary and dealing a total of 25 direct hits will cause our enemy to submit/die/be defeated.
On the flip side of things, the player can die in a measly 10 hits from any source, the serpent will try to lower the players hp by either firing contact damage projectiles from its mouth or by biting (ramming) the player.
Should the Serpent be 10 shots from death, his attacks will now shatter boats.
Defeating the monster this way will fast forward the player to the bottom of the chasm.
COMPLETION METHOD 2: Avoidance
The goal of this method is self explanatory, to get past the serpent without being spotted.
The best way to go about this method is to have the player âuseâ [E] key them self into a ship/boat to âhideâ. Hidden players cannot fire, move, or even really do much of anything. Pressing [E] Key again will eject the player from hiding.
The Serpent will often make a warning sound when it is coming as it patrols the chasm vertically, meaning movement outside of these moments is the key to descending.
Once Âź of the way down the chasm, the player will find less boats to hide in and the serpent will arrive more frequently.
Being outside a hiding place while the serpent is patrolling will cause the serpent to attack, failing the Avoidance method. Once aggressive the player will no longer be able to hide in boats.
COMPLETION METHOD 3: Dive
Perhaps the most risky and challenging method though also the fastest and most rewarding. A player with an unequipped weapon may attempt to enter a full dive by holding/pressing the [Space] Key, this will cause them to lose the ability to move up or down however they retain the ability to move Left and Right.
Should a player begin a Dive, the Serpent will (possibly change entity) begin chasing the player mostly off-screen with just itâs head visible in pursuit.
While in the upper 50% of the Chasm, the players boat/ship saviors are now your biggest threat, diving into a boat/ship will cause it to break but damage the player for 1hp (out of 10).
After entering the lower 50% of the Chasm, the Serpent will add to your challenges by attacking with indicated/telegraphed cone-like bite attacks. (or projectiles).
Reaching the bottom will result in the Serpent pulling up to avoid hitting the ground, and the player will simply land.
COMPLETION METHOD 4: Ride
One of the more quirky ways to complete the trial, the player must as the name suggests, ride the serpent to the bottom (like a badass).
Firstly, the player must initiate combat with the serpent, forfeiting other less confrontational methods. Then when the player is about to be rammed by the serpent they may unequip their weapon and attempt to press the [E] Key right before impact. This will enter a âGod of Warâ style quick time event where the player must press a sequence of pop-up buttons correctly and quickly to stay on, the more you get right, the faster and harder they get. The number of correctly pressed buttons will take you a related distance down the Chasm on the head of the serpent, once that distance is reached, the serpent will smash you off (perhaps by ramming a chasm wall).
Reaching the bottom (or near it) will cause the serpent to retreat up the Chasm, and the player to safely drop down to the bottom.
COMPLETION METHOD 5: Pacifist
Easily the safest option though by far not the easiest, the player attempts to confront the serpent verbally and surpass it without the need for violence.
Borrowing from the previously mentioned method of communication with NPCs, the player will navigate a conversational path with the great creature in order to trick/convince/win-over the serpent and allow the player to descend uncontested.
This method is initiated by the player entering the Particle Field with their weapon unequipped. The player must then (not dive) move down towards the serpent, upon contact they must stop moving down past the serpent and wait for it to speak to them.
Initial contact is rough, threatening, and indicative of possible combat. However the golden rule is the player must ignore these threats, not equip their weapon, and wait for the serpent to decide to talk to you.
COMPLETION METHOD 6: Unorthodox
Sadly some additional art work refused to upload.
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