TIM BENITEZ
HELLO I'M TIM
I LOVE CREATING GAMES
Bone Combat
This assignment had me trying taking someone else's weapon system and adding on more elements that would make a game. Here's what I had to add.
Premise
Bone Combat is a First Person Shooter like no other with a unique weapon system and extremely fast paced combat to go along with it. The story takes place in the distant future in a world called Theia, where the world is covered in a perpetual overcast. Coming from another dimension called Earth, humans have invaded Theia. They came through a mystic portal and started attacking the people on Theia. The Earth humans believe that all the evil in their world comes from Theia so it must be destroyed. The people of Theia must then rise up to defend their world or be subject to death. The story will revolve around four young vigilantes who choose to fight against the earth humans. I say earth humans because the people on Theia call themselves humans too. There's Piks, the character the player takes control of. Piks enjoys a good fight and an even better time with the ladies. He's cocky and a bit of a loud mouth, but he certainly can back it up with his skills. Tracy is the techie girl of the bunch. She has designed equipment used for navigation. She also is quite good with a weapon. Tracy usually keeps to herself. McMaff is a big, deadly, and smart beast. He is definitely the brains of the group and leads his team to success just about every time. And then there's the seductive and sassy Kenga. Yeah, we know where her skills lie. She's actually an expert weapons craftsman, or uh craftswoman, and makes all the many weapons for the team. While the player will play as Piks, the other characters will come along for each mission for support. The game will focus on a variety of weapons and not on variety of character and that is why only one is playable. The supporting characters are given to drive the story.
The game will be broken up in levels which will be called missions. The player is to complete them in succession until he reaches the end of the game. Each level will have a briefing for the mission and then the player is able to select the weapons he wishes to start the mission with. Throughout the level there will be checkpoints where the player can restock or change his weapon supply. The player will then play through the level, battling enemies and platforming until he reaches the end of the level or completes certain objectives. There will be various types of levels the player will play through and those will be elaborated further down on this document. Some levels will end with a boss fight at the end. After the player completes a level he will be shown how well he did and will receive rewards. Story scenes will come in between each level, and the process will start all over again with the next level.
This game will be developed exclusively for the PlayStation 4. The system is designed more as a gaming machine and many gamers are more excited for this system than any other system on the market right now The PlayStation 4 also offers higher processing power than other systems which offers less restrictions on development.
Features
-Unique Weapons:
The weapons on Theia are not your everyday weapons you see in the real world. These weapons come as injections that, when applied, transform the user's body into the weapon. If you want to use a machine gun, there's an injection for that. Inject that sucker and your arm and it will turn into a machine gun. The weapons are all organic and shoot things out of the human body such as bones and blood. The science behind keeping bones in the operators body is that each injection gives the operator lightning fast healing abilities. So if an operator shoots a bone a new bone is generated in its place right away and completely restored in a split second. Each bone is solidified into a steal before it shoots out and this process happens at the speed of light. Each weapon does not have an ammo clip so if the player needs more ammunition, then another injection needs to be applied. The player can equip four different injections at a time and can hold up to three of each type. These injections are kept on Piks belt. Again, there will be checkpoints through out the mission where the player can restock or rearrange his supply. Each injection can be upgraded like a real world weapon with things like a better scope or different barrel. To add these features chemicals will be added to the injection for a particular weapon. Only certain chemicals are compatible with certain injections so the player can't just add any barrel chemical to a weapon. These upgrades can be made in shell menus in between levels. Not many games, if any, offer the human body as a weapon like this weapons system and will offer something new to the gaming community. Especially the FPS gaming community.
High Mobility Play
The game will feature fast gameplay where the player will be running and gunning through the levels. There will be some sections for taking cover but the majority of the battles will be on the move, but don't mistake them for being on rails. The player will have full control of his character. Enemies will get increasingly faster as the game progresses which will force the player to attack and move to be successful. With the rise in popularity of Parkour, the player will be able to do some techniques in that discipline, such as wall running, vaulting over obstacles, sliding under obstacles to get to the enemy, away from the enemy, or to complete any other objectives for that level. There will be upgrades to this mobility as well and will come in different forms. The player can obtain an upgrade to run faster, climb faster, or jump higher. The player can also get an ability to perform a light speed dash to avoid enemy fire. Too many shooter games pit players into an area where they must take cover and shoot back at the enemy or if they are required to move around than the avatar character moves too slow. The highly mobile gameplay will give the player a lot of excitement as they can storm into enemy territory and take them all out.
-Different Types of Levels
There will be three types of levels through out the game such as; one path to the end, multiple paths to the end, and battlefield. The one path to the end stages will feature one set course to get to the end of the level while fighting enemies along the way. The multiple paths stages will feature a course like the one path stages where the player must get from point A to point B but with different paths to get there. The battlefield levels will feature a large open area in which players will battle enemies that enter into the battlefield. In these levels the player will be able to move anywhere on the map. So the purpose on these maps is to complete objectives and not get from one point to the other. Before each mission there will be a briefing so the player can select what weapons he wants to equip and know what kind of level he's about to play. It will outline all the objectives for the level so the player can complete it successfully. The point A to point B levels will be missions where the player must go to a certain location in the story. Say they need to get from a bunker to a forward operation base, these levels will be for events like that. For the battlefield levels there will be different objectives for each level. Some battlefield levels will have assets to protect or there may be bombs to place. Those are just a few examples that will take place in battlefield levels. With the different types of levels throughout the game each level will feel fresh and new, giving a great sense of variety as the player progresses through the story. The levels will vary in scenery from city scape to rural areas.
-Unique enemies
Enemies will not always be your run of the mill fire back enemies. While there are some troops that will just take cover and shoot at the player, there will also be enemies that do things like fly and attack from the air. Some enemies may be as mobile as Piks and will charge at him or his friends while shooting. There will be unique bosses and some will have specific weak spots to attack. Having the various types of enemies will help break up the monotony of standard shooter game enemies that take cover and shoot from there. Those kinds enemies feel like targets and not much else. Also, this will help the player learn how to use their environment, in which they will need to move around in. Like if the player needs to quickly get to the top of a tower to better take out the enemy he can, and probably should, do that. The enemies will progress throughout the game in mobility and ability, meaning the enemies will start out as cover and peak type troops and then become the high flying and running enemies. This is not only to give the game a sense of increased difficulty, but also to show progression of story. Enemies will start to learn Piks abilities and adapt to his battle style. Even though the game is usually fast paced there will be some calm spots. Enemies will usually come in waves which will increase in difficulty throughout the stage. The waves will give players a short rest in between battles in a level.
-Vast Multiplayer Experiences
Muiltplayer will offer online and local play. Where the player is able to compete with each other in a deathmatch, a team deathmatch, capture the flag, and many more matches. Maps for multiplayer will be some levels from the campaign mode and some will be only playable through multiplayer. Players will also be able to trade weapons that they've customized with each other. There will be many different types of weapon combinations to do this. With a unique weapons system and fast mobile combat, multiplayer may feel different than other first person shooters. All the means of equipping weapons will apply in multiplayer just as the apply in the campaign mode. The player is also able to set preset loadouts. Up to five load outs can be switched out in the middle of matches and player will start with the new selection after they respawn. The one injection that the player is using when defeated will be dropped along side the dead body for any other player to pick up use.
Audio
Each stage will feature a variety of music types in each section of the level. Whenever there is any calmness, the music will be an eerie ambient tune as this is because of the nature of the weapons and the look of the atmosphere. Battles will feature either orchestrated with opera like vocals, heavy metal, or a combination of both. The type of battle music will be determined by who the enemy is and the situation. The same principle outlined above for music, will apply to cut scenes as well. The battle music will have quick exciting tempos so the player has the feeling to fight hard and fast. While all the weapons are organic, the sounds of weapons fire from firearms will be in the game accompanied by the tearing of flesh to demonstrate bone or blood shooting out of the human body. The humans from earth are going to use regular real world type weapons with a futuristic look, so the sounds of those will be familiar to FPS gamers or people that use firearms. This will show that the enemy humans are actually from our world. Voices will be given to characters and enemy AI. Through out the levels the player will hear the enemy give battle commands and Piks will have dialog will the other supporting characters throughout the missions. This will give the game more life instead of just shooting enemies down. Cut scenes will of course have dialog with voice work in them. Piks will have voice work so the player can get a feel of his personality.
Visual
Despite my quick cartoon like sketches, the visuals will have realistic shading, slightly realistic looking character models, and will have a gritty look. They character models may have slightly exaggerated proportions. There will be little color as most of the colors will be unsaturated. This is because the lighting in the game will give a feeling of perpetual doom and gloom. Overcast will always be in the sky so lighting will not bring out a lot of color in objects. Therefore, there will not be much contrast in the shading when outside because of the overcast, but greater contrast in shade will occur if there is a light in the darkness like at night time or in a dark room. The only colors than will be bright and saturated are the color of blood and the color of the liquid in the injection capsules. The saturated colors of the liquid and blood are more of a stylistic approach. Textures will be rich and detailed as well to give a sense of realism.
Progression
This game will start off easier at first so the player can feel like they're good enough to progress through with the game. There will be four difficulties to select from for those that think they are so good at first person shooters and can start harder right off the bat. Each difficulty will of course increase in its own rite. Each level will either have waves of enemies or a constant flow of enemies. If the enemies come in waves, then each wave will increase in difficulty with enemy quantity or will have different enemy types that are stronger with each wave. If the enemies come continuously, then the increase will be the same as in waves, there just will not be any rest period. These types of levels will be shorter so that the player doesn't feel too overwhelmed. Besides, there's always the pause button if they need a break in these levels. At the end of each level a results screen will calculate all aspects of the player's performance such as accuracy, speed, damage taken and some others. With these findings the player will be rewarded with points to use to buy new weapon injections and other upgrades to weapons and player abilities. Other player abilities may include faster running and even high jumps. The better the result the higher the reward. So while the difficulty increases, the player's armament and skills increase. This will cause a good balance in between the upgrades and the difficulty as weapons can get stronger as the game gets harder. And to touch on health, the player will have a health bar which will automatically regenerate due to the healing power of the injections.
Bone Combat will be ready in a couple of years. I hope you're excited.
References:
Park picture under visuals
Ammerman, C. (n d). overcast park. photo.net. Retrieved Nov 16, 2013. from http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=10915510