Underland is getting UX'd up!

So... just got off the blower with my friend, Joost, who wants to use Underland (working title!) as a basis for a UX project he's working on.

The first steps of which will be to develop personas so we can explore core functionality and interaction design.

Obviously nothing's set in stone - I just really like the idea of a) being able to support his UX project by giving him something to focus on; and b) a bunch of strangers sitting round talking about Underland!  :-)

Now if I can only get another 500,000 people doing that!

pilch out!

p.s. On a completely separate note, I'm not overly enamoured with the name Underland, nor its original predecessor - Dread Pirate Booty.  Currently I'm in favour of going with something a little more prosaic like:  What Shape the Night Brings.

What I'd really like however is some suggestions.  So hit up the comments with any ideas you have.  As always, bonus points will be awarded!  :-) 

If you like this idea...

Please follow and spread the word!  Tell your friends about it.  Post links to it on your Facebook and Twitter.  We're really excited about this project but need support before we can make it a reality.  This means we need your help.  

Bonus points will be awarded!  :-)

Epic Boss fights with physics!

As I'll address in more detail in another post, we're going to create personalities in Underland.  Creatures that become a Bane of the protagonist because they killed the player's physical form and forced them into spectral.  Or entities that managed to flee from battle - only to regroup, toughen up and ambush you later.

For these guys, and indeed other guys, we want to present multiple ways to kill things, not just stab it, bash it or shoot it.

And this is where the environment comes in.  And the player's grappling hook.

Employing physics we'll be providing players with the ability to topple pillars onto beasts, pinning them in place.  Or wrangle a great serpent or wyrm and ride it, inching your way closer to its soft spot, Shadow of the Colossus style.

This won't be a game of pre-set animations and whittling down hit points.  It will involve getting to know your enemies' weaknesses and using the environment to your advantage.

Giving people something to do when they're not playing...

Part of the idea of the Companion App, is to enable players to be still be involved in the game even when they're not in front of their PC / console.

Features like, reading in-game texts, crafting and frequenting the Auction House are all things that can be done outside of the main game.  Meaning when players are travelling about in RL - on a bus, or wherever, they can prepare for the next time they're ready and able to play.

I for one, despite being a fan of well-written fantasy, often find the act of reading quest descriptions and other narrative elements of RPGs a bit boring.

The Companion App goes a little way to solve this.  The idea here is to present the players with an option to revisit or read up on narrative outside of the actual game.  And prepare them for future adventuring.

With Underline we want to create a rich and immersive world where clues on how to defeat certain monsters or specific entities can be gleaned from myriad places.  But you don't really want to force the player to read stuff unless they want to.  So we intend to provide alternative options for surfacing this information.

Furthermore we want to build this notion into gameplay.  So what you read in the Companion App, and maybe what you highlight within that text actually become features identifiable on your map or radar. For example, you find an ancient text which describes the weaknesses of some creatures, you learn that Trolls are allergic to a certain type of mushroom.  This mushroom - once mere background decoration subsequently becomes something you can track on your radar (as if you're looking out for it / actively searching for it) and becomes something you can harvest from the environment.

Going forward we'll obviously going to create a whole section on features for the Companion App.  But right now its just about capturing the ideas.

As always let us know what you think.  What features would you make available in a Companion App, or offline?

What do you love/hate in RPGs?

What I mean by this are features.  Gameplay or game mechanics.  Not narrative events or characters specific to certain RPGs.

So, as a starter for ten I'd suggest co op is a great feature for an RPG. 

For me I always harken back to the best times of my pen & paper roleplaying games.  And that was almost always about co op.  Even when the party was divisive and split down the middle and one half waged war with the other.  (Which reminds me of a story I might share in a later post) - it was always about players discussing their next moves and then embarking on a quest together.  So co op is something we aim for here.

Another great feature was Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system.  This provided some truly memorable moments for me, playing that game:

          "Oi!  Man filth!  I killed you before...."

And then the intense satisfaction of besting an opponent which has killed you repeatedly. Nothing quite like it.  And they say genius steals, so we've wholesale borrowed this system, massaged it to suit our purposes, and Underland will present its equivalent - which we call the Bane system.  Except, obviously, we do things a little differently.  And virtually any creature can become a Bane of the protagonist in our game.  Because we want to capture those moments that engage a player.  When an enemy slips through your fingers, learns from your mistakes, and ambushes you later.  Taunts you.  Steals from you.  And then you eventually out smart that sonofa, and crush its skull beneath your boots.

For years, as a games designer, I used to think that game play was the pinnacle of game design.  It's what you allowed your player to do that was important.  How you extended and evolved a genre by applying a new feature.  But it is not that.

Don't  get me wrong.  All that is important.  But it's emotional engagement that is the pinnacle of game design.  If you can get your player to love, hate, be furious in (temporary) defeat, bring tears to their eyes and fist pump the air when they ultimately succeed. These are the moments that define a game.  These are the moments that stay with you as a player.

Gameplay and game mechanics support them.  But it is emotional engagement which captures the heart and mind and rewards the player.  It is for these reasons gamers invest time and money.  And this is what we strive for with Underland.  We want you to tell stories around the water-cooler and down the pub, and salivate for the next time you log on.

So what features in other RPGs have you loved and/or hated?

What's made a game for you, and what's broken a game for you.

I could fill pages with this stuff.  But I want to hear from you.

Please.

There, I said please!  :-)

Memorials in Games

On a side note, one of the things I truly love about games is there capacity to become (arguably) eternal memorials to those that have died.

World of Warcraft has done this well, with a number of memorials to friends and loved ones of the developers.

I have had the great misfortune of experiencing two friends 'pass'.  One in a motorcycle accident (Jed Hicks) and another from 'misadventure' - which is pretty fitting for an RPG. :-) (Keith Morgans) ...Keith would certainly appreciate the irony anyway.

This game will definitely include memorials to both.

Deeply missed, forever loved.

pilch out.

p.s. Yes the Designer in Chief has a soft spot.  

What's coming... aiming for a prototype

Just to explain, what you're going to get, eventually, from this blog, is updates regarding our coding, graphics, audio and gameplay / game mechanics development streams.  We'll be showing you works in progress (WIPs) including demos, screenshots, example audio files for VO and SFX and everything else you'd expect from game development.  But I wanted this blog to capture everything.  From initial concept to business strategy so you guys get insight into every decision made.

I also wanted it to become a point of discussion, and a point of involvement.  A place where we can touch base with the public and essentially, to an extent, collaborate on something. Share ideas and feedback.  And head toward the admiral pursuit of User Generated Content (UGC).  Giving those willing a chance to actually contribute.

But for now, we have no code, no graphics, no audio.  Just concepts and plans.  Our next step is to secure money so we can develop a prototype.

The prototype as I see it would involve getting the basics working. Generating environment from geo-location, time and weather.

This is step one.

Step two would probably involve basic movement of the player controlled entity.

But in order to do this we need money.  And in order to secure that money we need a following.  So if you like the idea.  Please follow and share and spread the word.

We'll really appreciate your support.

Thanks.

p.s. anyone helping out at this point will get Hall of Fame recognition.  That's all we can offer right now.  Some funky title and our undying love and admiration.

Undying... now that might be a good alternative title for the game....

That, or perhaps: My Work Is Not Yet Done (a nod to Thomas Ligotti).

Underland Needs You!

Got an idea for Underland?  Well let's hear it!  Don't be shy. Stick your suggestions in the comments field below. Great games require collaboration, and we'd love to hear your thoughts. And don't forget to follow and share! Spread the word! - I'm hoping that last bit works like a Jedi Mind Trick.  :-)

Sample Dialogue for Dread Pirate Booty - extracts from the Game Design Document

Underland will use a significant amount of spoken dialogue, or voice over (VO).  Arguably more than Fallout 4 because the last thing we want is our own Preston informing the player that another wretched settlement needs their help.

We'll also be using a CMS to frequently update the game to keep dialogue fresh.

Here's a brief sample of some of the dialogue as it currently stands (this post will be expanded in the future).

"I mets this pirate once, claims he was an assassin from an ancient order.  What a load of bullfish.  He knew some lovely songs though." - (tongue-in-cheek reference to Black Flag)

"Ayes gonna open ye up!" - (said to both chests and notable enemies)

"What treasures have ye hidden in ye chest!" - (said only to notable enemies)

"Aaarr Polly, never have I seen such a sight. 'Cept fer ye on ye wedding night!" - (said when finding notable treasure or locations)

"Aaarr Pol, almost as pretty as ye!" - (said when finding fine treasure)

"Shiver me timbers, Pol.  Absolutely no idea what it means, but shiver 'em anyways."

Body Swapping / Shape Stealing - extracts from the Game Design Document

BODY SWAPPING / SHAPE STEALING

When the protagonist’s current physical form reaches -10 HP (a nod to D&D) the body dies and the spirit detaches.

The spirit is immune to virtually all forms of attack and is merely repelled or displaced by others.  i.e. a spirit can be caused to flee - which means it drifts swiftly away from the direction of the ‘attack’ for a pre-determined period of time (a counter is visible) during this time the player may move up and down only.  Or a skilled enemy may be able to teleport the spirit to a random location - this can be quite far away in some cases!

A detached spirit may inhabit or possess any other ‘open’ or in other words, 'accessible' creature type (some creatures, like ghosts, are ‘closed’, i.e. they can never be possessed as they have no physical form in which the spirit can reside).

There are restrictions to possession of body-swapping or shape stealing as it is sometimes called.  The level of the creature MUST be less than the level of the protagonist.  This is the penalty conferred to ‘death’, i.e. you cannot possess a more powerful creature than yourself.  Also the time it takes to possess a new shape is one minute minus 10 seconds per level difference.  So a 10th level protagonist possessing a 6th level mermaid will take 20 seconds to complete the possession - during which time they are vulnerable and effectively stunned.  The only action they can take is to abort the attempt and move on.

Being in spirit form has many additional effects.  The protagonist is invisible to most creatures, and may induce temporary fear in others.

Additionally, a spirit may pass through certain barriers and may flip switches and levers, move objects and generally interact with the environment to a limited capacity.  This capacity is determined by an ‘ectoplasm’ meter.  This slowly builds up over time and is consumed when interacting with the physical plane.  A spirit can even ‘shove’ creatures, pushing them off precipices or on to traps.

The spirit form has its own upgrade path which may make the ectoplasm pool larger, recharge rate faster, or confer immunities or resistances to certain attacks or even allow the advanced protagonist to attack from spirit form, or detach at will.

Creatures, Entities & Personalities - extracts from the Game Design Document

CREATURES & ENTITIES

The denizens of the Underland are rich and varied, each with skills particular to their form.

A complete list of creatures and their skills and statistics is included in the appendix: Denizens of the Underland.  Here’s a sample:

• Monkeys - can use some weapons, pistols and rapiers!  They also can wear hats.  Because who doesn’t like monkeys in hats?
• Deep Ones (a la Cthulhu) - humanoid (can thus don pirate gear - a nod to Pirates of the Caribbean), breath underwater
• Angel Fish - breath underwater, ignored by most large creatures, food for some others (pluses to Holy damage - joke re ‘angel’)
• Puffer Fish - breath underwater, poisonous, can ascend quickly in water
• Old fashioned Soldiers - humanoid, equipped with musket and sabre
• Sailors - humanoid, equipped with knife or pistol or sword
• Other pirates - humanoid, equipped with pistol and/or cutlass
• Skeletal Humans - skeletal versions of the above, no breath (can move underwater, unaffected by gas, cannot swim), cause fear in normal humans (fight or flight)
• Zombies - undead versions of the above (nod to Pirates of the Caribbean), similar to skeletons in abilities, cause humans they kill to turn and rise as more zombies
• Squid - breath underwater, grapple / bind attack / ink defense (good for drowning non-aquatic enemies)
• Octopus - similar to squid but with camouflage ability too!
• Mermaids - breath underwater, charm and sleep spells
• Rats - stealthy
• Dogs - can charm some men (man’s best friend) / detect spirits (will bark when a spirit is nearby
• Cats - stealthy, often ignored / detect spirits (will hiss when a spirit is nearby (chance to flee)
• Ghosts - cannot be possessed (as they themselves are a spirit), icy touch, slow and cold damage, induce fear in certain others, cause dogs to bark and cats to flee
• Shades - shadow like creatures that debuff living characters and can repel / repulse the ghost form

PERSONALITIES

The game also includes certain notable NPCs that may be friendly, hostile or indifferent to Booty.  They are found wandering the Underland from time to time, or certain events may attract them. Again this is a sample list:

• Old Sea Salt - An old man, talks in cryptic riddles which may provide useful information if correctly deciphered.  Friendly.  But Insane.  Can be slain and possessed!
• Bill Hook - Booty’s nemesis and arch-rival.  Another cursed spirit bound to the body of a pirate.  Only ever appears in pirate form.  Can be slain but not possessed - his body rots on the spot into foul gases and bugs.  But he will reappear as his spirit drifts off, finds another human and morphs into Bill Hook again!

The Protagonist and the Companion - extracts from the Game Design Document

THE PROTAGONIST - THE DREAD PIRATE BOOTY

Despite the game’s body-swapping feature, the main character is that of the Dread Pirate Booty.

As a pirate the character has several core features, all of which are craftable with upgrade paths. They are:

• Pirate Hat
• Eye-patch
• Cutlass
• Musket-pistol
• Hook hand
• Peg-leg
• Gold-tooth (special)
• Neckerchief (special)
• Pretty Polly parrot

Any humanoid shape the player inhabits (soldiers, skeletons etc.) can equip these pirate parts.  Known as Pirate Gear. (So you can be a skeletal pirate! Very Pirates of the Caribbean!)

Booty also has a spectral chest which contains all the treasure he finds, so that even if he dies, he can access the items he has previously found.

PRETTY POLLY PARROT

Pretty Polly is Booty’s companion.  Just as he is the spirit of the Dread Pirate Roberts, Pretty Polly is the spirit of his wife, cursed and bound to the form of a parrot.

Pretty Polly also has an upgrade path and is computer controlled but performs many beneficial (and a few not so) actions:

• Attract Booty’s attention to interesting objects.
• Attack some enemies
• Defend Booty
• Pull switches
• Reveal secrets
• Spot hidden objects

All functions can be upgraded so the player can choose to mould their Polly into a desirable companion.

Content Updates, Platform, Seeds, Auction House - extracts from the Game Design Document

CONTENT UPDATES

The game will be built to utilise a universal content management system (CMS - akin to those used to manage content rich websites) in this way, additional content can easily be added to the game in quick, regular updates.

Appealing to the modding community this CMS will be leveraged and exposed to the community to enable non-staff to produce (ratified) content.

User generated content (UGC) will go through a strict appraisal system to ensure quality, and contributors will be rewarded with unique Achievements, potentially in-game currency and possibly immortalised in the game world.

This achieves several things:

1. UGC is a proven tool to build community
2. Top contributors can be recruited if required
3. This provides a low-cost method of producing additional content

PLATFORM

Dread Pirate Booty will be built in Unity for PC and major consoles.

There will also be a companion mobile app which will allow users to perform simple functions in the game, like crafting, visiting the auction house, and acquiring ‘seeds’.

SEEDS

Seeds are optional starting locations.  They can only be derived from visiting an actual real-world location and placing a marker.

Seeds provide players with the opportunity to start their game from a location other than their actual, real-world locale.

• The ability to create seeds will possibly be an IAP.
• Players may earn tokens in-game to occasionally create a new seed other than by IAP.
• Seeds will be tradeable on the Auction House

In this way, players can create seeds and sell them to other players to enable someone to say, play as if they’re in New York, or Sydney.

Similarly, a player may go on holiday and create a seed at Narita airport in Japan, so when they arrive back home they can log-in and play with Narita as their starting location and experience the catacombs of the Japanese Underland.

AUCTION HOUSE

An Auction House will be available to players possibly via a one-time IAP (providing them with a Trader’s Licence).

The Auction House will allow players to buy and sell items they have found or crafted in-game.

Core features, gameplay - extracts from the Game Design Document

CORE FEATURES

• The exploration of catacombs based on the actual real-world environment the player inhabits - where the streets and buildings become the caverns and content of the world to explore.
• The game ‘sniffs’ the real-world location via IP and allows the player then to wander anywhere, using the open source, Open Maps (.org) to provide base content.  In this way players may wander far and wide from their actual location.
• Real-world time and weather is also captured to further augment the environment.  Play at night and the catacombs will be dark, play when it’s raining and the catacombs will be flooded.

GAMEPLAY

• Being a spirit, Dread Pirate Booty cannot be killed, the body they possess might die in combat, but this merely releases the spirit and the player may continue to ghost form until it finds another body to possess.  In this way virtually ANY creature in the game may ultimately be taken over and used.  Thus the player can be a pirate, or a soldier, or a dog, or a rat or an eel.
• Every creature has particular innate skills.  So a player may decide to possess a fish in order to navigate a series of flooded caverns, or take the form of a rat to slip past a tough enemy unseen.  In this way the game provides a unique puzzle solving element to the gameplay whereby there might be several different ways to bypass the possibly tricky, procedurally generated levels.
• The game will use physics to allow players to knock over objects, create barricades, cause train reactions or explosions.
• The game also incorporates a 2D free-running element (a la original Prince of Persia) and a grappling hook to facilitate negotiating the vertical drops that might be present.
• The game also uses a Shadow of Mordor style Nemesis combat system (the Bane system, see appendix) which allows key enemies to develop over time.
• Complex, progressive upgrade paths exist for skills, spirit form and key pieces of equipment, enabling players to develop their characters in myriad interesting ways which expose additional aspects of gameplay (i.e. the grappling hook skill can be upgraded to target objects and entities and drag them toward the player, rather than to be merely used for climbing, swinging and rappelling…)
• DPB is at its heart a game of exploration and character development.  A player may find themselves initially pitched against seemingly unbeatable opponents, but a few choice skills later, may see you not only defeat that minotaur, but steal its shape and go on a rampage!
• Day / Night Cycle.  To further augment the aspect of time, the game presents a Day / Night Cycle which has a palpable effect on the denizens of the Underworld.  Some of the particularly nasty entities only spawn at night.  Additionally, virtually all entities become more hostile and more powerful and night, effectively ‘mutating’ into more evil versions of their daytime selves.  Adding to the nightmare.  The Prefix NIGHTMARE is added to most creatures during the Night Cycle illustrating the fact they are tougher and more hostile.

Much of the rich content of big-budget RPGs is actually quite achievable in a lower-budget 2D title. Much of the expense of producing a game like World of Warcraft or Shadow of Mordor comes from the huge, open 3D world and its inhabitants and objects.

Stripping this back to 2D and procedurally generating the environment makes it possible to create an RPG which is as rich in content and detail as its big brothers, but affordable and more accessible to those with lower-end devices.

The aim of this project is to create an immersive world that is every bit as enthralling as the AAA titles, but which can be made for a fraction of the cost.  And procedural generation provides for longevity of play.  A game to capture people’s imagination, passion for exploration, love of character progression and a title they are happy to play frequently, and for a long time - providing good value for money.

Concept, Genre, Scenario - extracts from the Game Design Document

Okay, so for the next few posts I'll be providing extracts from the Game Design Document (GDD).  The GDD is a living document - i.e. a work-in-progress in and of itself.  I've mentioned some of the high level stuff already, in previous posts, so apologies for any repetition.  I just thought you might find it interesting to see the first draft GDD, and so we can see how things change over the course of the actual development.

So, without further ado, the opening page of the document:

CONCEPT

Cursed to forever search for buried treasure, the spirit of the Dread Pirate Bartholomew ‘Booty’ Roberts roams the catacombs of the The Under - a nightmarish realm hidden beneath our very streets.

GENRE

Dread Pirate Booty is a rich, physics-based 2D platformer / RPG which uses geo-location, real world time & weather to procedurally generate environments based on the player’s actual location - turning real-world streets into the catacombs the character traverses.

It has been designed to be as rich and immersive as any RPG, with detailed, cogent, equipment, crafting and skill / character progression.  But in a beautifully illustrated 2D environment to keep the game build affordable.

Procedural generation in this way affords players the opportunity to experience their real-world location like never before.  And journey to other parts of the world all from the comfort of their chair.

This project is an attempt to capture the essence of the best RPGs and the pen & paper games they were based on, utilising clever, procedurally generated content to provide an ongoing gaming experience players can enjoy for months or even years.

Dread Pirate Booty is likely to include in-game purchases. Freemium or possibly Paymium.

SCENARIO

Players take the role of the spirit of the historical figure - The Dread Pirate Roberts - known affectionately as Booty to us.  A factual figure immortalised in cult fiction such as The Princess Bride.

The Background to Underland

The concept for Underland started out as a pirate game.  The reason for this was simple.  A friend of mine wanted to make a game and had purchased an 8-bit pirate-themed graphic pack.

I wanted to make a procedurally generated RPG, so I took the pirate theme and hinged the backstory on that.

For this reason the original working title for this project was: Dread Pirate Booty.

The idea of being 'forever cursed' to hunt for buried treasure is because, aside from sail the seven seas, buried treasure is pretty much the standard pirate trope.  X marks the spot and all that.

So I did a bit of research. 

It turns out that the Dread Pirate Roberts referenced in (the excellent) The Princess Bride, was based on a real pirate - Bartholomew Roberts.  We gave Bart the nickname Booty, because, as the Beastie Boys said: what's another name for pirate treasure? Mmm, I think it's booty!

And obviously booty also means ass, and we all like a bit of ass.  Wait!  What?  Where did that come from?

Anyway, moving on swiftly.

So, the game is intended to be PC / console, with a companion mobile app - we'll come to all this later when I basically copy the Game Design Document onto this blog in chunks.

It's also ultimately going to be co op with perhaps a small amount of PVP in it.  In some situations additional players will be able to play monsters pitted against the main players - which should be fun! And in other cases we may afford players to come across other players if they happen to be journeying around the same real world location.  But we'll go into this later, too.

A pirate backstory informs the design of the game a little.  People expect pirates to possess certain equipment.

So this is what we did:

As a pirate you have the following:

1. A pirate hat
2. An eye-patch
3. A hook (for your off hand)
4. A cutlass
5. A peg-leg
6. A parrot
7. A treasure chest

Each of these can be crafted, enchanted and upgraded in particular ways.  They form the essence of your character, but most can only be used whilst Booty (the protagonist) is in humanoid form.  You can't have eel with a peg-leg!

All of these bestow certain abilities on the protagonist, and there are different versions of each, making the full set of pirate gear extremely versatile in combination.

For example, one type of eye-patch projects light like a lantern, a different version highlights items of interest in the environment, traps and switches and the like.

The last two items are somewhat different.

We decided we wanted to inject the parrot with some personality, so we decided to make it your girlfriend.  Wait!  Cursed to be bound to the shape of a parrot.  Of course her name is Polly.

Pretty Polly has her own upgrade path, and can be pretty (if you excuse the pun) useful in most situations.  Upgrades for Pol consist of the ability to collect small valuable items, draw attention to certain environmental content (levers et al), and even attack certain foes. However, she is also insanely jealous of any other attractive females, and will act with extreme hostility when she comes across them - sometimes drawing Booty into danger. She has a particular hatred for mermaids!

The treasure chest is where Booty stores everything he finds.  It is an arcane item in its own right, and can materialise out of thin air whenever Booty needs it.  Items he collects are automatically stored in the chest.

Okay, so that's the backstory in brief, as I said, more detail on that later.  Going forward we are likely to create alternative starting personas to provide players with a choice of base character.