Game Concept

Terminal Samurai » Devlog

1 year ago by Yunttraz

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Game Concept Devlog of

Terminal Samurai (Working Title)

By Louis Reay-Smith (552768)

Concept statement:

Play the role of a Samurai fighting to survive against a seemingly endless horde of enemies.

Taking down many opponents with a single slash but cut one down; and two bigger, faster foes will be there to take revenge for their fallen ally.

But they’re not the only ones getting stronger. With every assailant put to rest you come closer to awakening your forgotten techniques. Slice harder, dash further, become nothing more than a blur.

The potential for your power seems never ending, but as is your list of enemies.

How long can you last!?

Genre:

Terminal Samurai is to be a 2D action rogue-like with potential for it to involve factors of a bullet hell depending on how it plays within development.

2D, as I envision it with a top-down display and a single plain for the game to be contained within.

Action, as I’m aiming to make it feel incredibly fast paced constant fighting with little down time.

Rogue-like, as I want the player to have too constantly evolve and play different builds with each run to figure out how far they can take it. But on defeat they’ll have to start all over again and rethink their strategy.

Bullet hell, depending on how it feels during development but I want the player to feel like they’re in a constant wild dash to survive and one wrong move will spell disaster. I plan to accomplishing this by filling their screen projectiles to dodge will moving from enemy to enemy but if it is too overwhelming for the play it may be cut or toned down.

Concept creation Process:

The initial idea for this game came from a segment of a YouTube video, I’ve include a link to the clip below

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxQY5cRFGlcK2grcLv1Go9E-XEiQCvavS1

Another piece of inspiration came to me while I was playing the game “Akane” by Ludic Studios pictured here

As much as I enjoyed this game it felt as if it was missing an important gameplay mechanic that for me personally would lead to much higher replay-ability and enjoyment. That mechanic being randomized power up choice paths per run such as is seen in the “Binding of Issac” by Edmund McMillen, pictured below or “Vampire Survivors” by Poncle.

With this addition of this mechanic the aim is allow the game to be picked up very easily for new players, while allowing those who put the time in to experiment with different builds to express their heightened skill and experience.

An important aspect of the game that must be thoroughly tested is the scaling of the enemies in regard to the scaling of the player. Scale too quickly and the game will feel too difficult and unfair resulting in it feeling unfun. But on the opposing side if the enemies scale too slowly the game will become too easy and unfun, removing the feeling of wanting to experiment with different builds and removing the feeling of “One more round, I’m close to breaking my high score I can feel it” Which is the exact emotion that I’m aiming to hit with this game.

Audience and competitive analysis:

Terminal samurai will be targeted toward casual semi-competitive players, who are a fan of fast paced action-packed roguelikes. There will be no real competitive aspect out side of bragging rights to friends as I don’t intend to add an online high score board. However score will be counted and stored on an internal score board so players can back up their claims of skills to their friends and colleges.

While I do want players either old or new to be able to jump straight in and spend a couple hours playing I also want players to be able have a quick round for whenever they have a spare couple minutes like when waiting for Ian to troubleshoot whatever common issue he runs into during his lecture.

In terms of fans for the aesthetics of the game I’m hoping to entice those who are interested in small indie 2D pixel art games taking place in golden fields or those who love lone samurai’s, and their impossible task of single handedly taking on an entire army of foes.

Terminal samurai will be suitable for individuals 15 and up, this is because to achieve my artistic vision of a golden peaceful landscape being desecrated and painted red by excessive violence and senseless death I will need to include vast amounts of blood and gore. Because of this I expect Terminal Samurai to receive an advisory category of at least mature (M) from the Australian Government.

Game Treatment and Concept Art:

Story

The story of this game is that you’re a samurai from a bygone era, fleeing from your past and the crimes that you and your now slain brothers in arms committed. You seek peace and forgiveness yet bring only war and bloodshed where ever you go.

I do not intend for this game to be a story game and will therefore be leaving most story telling elements out; however, I will be including small sections of story for the player to unravel themselves such as a quote from your past whenever you level up. I also intend for a story to be told via the enemies you face; farmers, to law enforcers.

All story will be up to the player to interpret themselves or completely ignore.

Level Design

For this game I only plan on there being one map or level that the player respawns in every time they start a new attempt. For the level I’m aiming to create a serene and beautiful wheat field during the golden hours of the day. Similar to what I have attached below except in with a bird’s eye camera view and in a pixel-art art style

Source:

https://wallpapersden.com/windmill-on-wheat-field-at-sunset-wallpaper/1920x1080202149/

As the player progresses, I want the map to transform, becoming darker. Reasons being that, one, night approaches and two, the metaphor surrounding encroaching darkness.

Another transformation I would like to include is the wheat being cut down revealing barren ground like shown in the clip from the Concept creation Process and like the picture shown below.

Source:

https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxQY5cRFGlcK2grcLv1Go9E-XEiQCvavS1

The final transformation the map will go through as the player progresses is for the blood to stain the ground slowly painting a nice golden peaceful landscape into a horrific bloody hellscape, the reasoning behind this is similar to the encroaching darkness reasoning mentioned above.

Player

The player will take the role of a nameless samurai. Age and gender will be left up to interpretation of the player. No player customization is currently planned and the design I’m aiming for is pictured below.

source:https://www.reddit.com/r/PixelArt/comments/byznke/oc_samurai/

Enemies

For the enemies I want their designs to be unique from other enemy types making them easy to differentiate and interpret the combat mechanic tied to them. However for enemies of the same type I want them to all look very similar if not the same. Multiple clones of the same enemy can appear and will charge the player all independently.

Enemy types

Farmer

Source:http://pixelartmaker.com/art/7cd14a6dc5d7495

The first tier of enemy you will encounter. A simple, weak and widespread enemy type. Common.

Behavior

Farmers will simply run at the player and attack them once close enough, they will die in one hit and have no ability besides usually spawning in hoards.

Bull

Source: https://www.dreamstime.com/vector-pixel-art-bull-vector-pixel-art-bull-isolated-...

The second tier of enemy you will encounter once a score preset is reached. Also simple, yet more durable usually requiring two hits from the player. Uncommon.

Behavior

Bulls will spawn at the edge of the map, once see-able by the player they will charge up and sprint at the player, easy to dodge and not dealing significant damage but knocking them back potentially into a hoard of other enemies and slowing the player for a short duration. Once a attack is completed they will charge up another.

Wildlife Hunter

Source:https://piq.codeus.net/picture/168156/RotMG-Archer

The third tier of enemy you will encounter, vulnerable but attacks from range with a bow and arrow. Becomes common.

Behavior

Hunters will approach the player till within they are viewable to the player and then start firing arrows with a charge up time between each shot. These arrows can be hit out of the air or dodged as they have a travel time.

Town guard

Source: https://www.redbubble.com/people/kenji893/works/22398558-faraam-knight-pixel-art

The third tier of enemy, they are durable yet slow due to the heavy armor they wear but also hit hard due to their heavy weapons and combat training. Rare but becomes common over time.

Behavior

Town guard act similarly to farmers charging the player however they are slower but can take a couple hits before dying, they also have a larger attack range and hit for more damage.

Rival samurai

The final tier of enemy, they durable and fast hitting for large damage. Rare

Behavior

Rival samurai will spawn at the edge of the map, approach until they are in view of the player, then after a brief charge up, sprint at the player dealing large damage and briefly stunning both if they hit, before charging up another attack.

Controls

Movement: The player can move in eight directions via the WASD keys, they can also perform a small forward dash with a cooldown by pressing the spacebar.

Attacking: The player can slash in a cone in front of them by left clicking.

Blocking: The player can perform a Block with a cooldown by right clicking giving them a small amount of invulnerability frames.

Gameplay

On start the player spawns in a field. Progressively stronger enemies will start spawning along the edge of the map. As the game progresses spawn rates will ramp up. When the player slays an enemy, they will be awarded points depending on what enemy they slew. When a score threshold is reached the player will level up and be given an option to choose a skill, these skills can include a larger attack cone, a rechargeable shield that prevents one damage, further dashes, dash now deals damage and more.

The player has a hp bar that goes down on hit and once depleted the game will end.

Background Audio

The game will start with only the sound of wind chimes in the background, however once enemies start spawning, a fast-paced shogun era inspired background theme will take over, something along the lines of https://youtu.be/va8yY_P7kxk?t=1061 though a final choice has not been made.

References

YouTube videos:

RISE (ft. The Glitch Mob, Mako, and The Word Alive) | Worlds 2018 - League of Legends,

League of Legends,

Sep 26, 2018

Viewed : 26/08/2022

Art referenced (in order of appearance) :

Akane game screenshot,

Ludic Studios

10/09/2018

Viewed : 20/08/2022

Binding of Issac game screenshot