Monday, December 05, 2005

Design Decisions

Design Decisions

This is an updated list of all the design decisions that need to be made.

  • The Boss Level ~ Should this be an actual big boss with lots of guns and whistles or should the level have lots of small/normal enemies but with some game play restrictions. Restrictions could include: no shields, No extra weapons, no missiles, time limit, game speed change (faster), blur or movement restricted or a speed limit so your ship is slow to move.
  • Game modes ~ A quick skirmish mode where add-ons, bonuses and upgrades are dropped from destroyed ships and / or a career mode where upgrades must be bought and the game follows a story line.
  • Scroll Type ~ Should the space game be a:
    * Left to right scrolller - Like R-Type
    * Bottom to Top scroller - Like Xenon
    * A more 3d perspective, facing the back of the ship but allow it to go up the y axis and across the X axis.
  • a Menu system ~ Should it be a simple 2d menu or a fancy 3d menu. Must take into consideration the menu will stay loaded into memory.
    Perhaps have 2 menus; one in-game menu (resume game, end game, Save game, options,etc.) that can be brought up when in the game and another more elaborate main menu (start game, options, load game, movies, Quit, etc) which will be loaded and unloaded as required.
    Decided
    Two menus will be used: one 3d Main menu and a lighter 2d in-game menu.
    (Updated 2/Dec/05)
  • Scripting ~ Should scripting be implemented from the start? This would allow the mesh objects to have their transformations (size, pos, etc) to be done via script, which would make it easier to change to different meshes. It would also be of great benefit during the cinematics as a script could be written for each one, allowing for easy creation and user exapansion packs. It may also provide some benefit to the computer AI.
    Allowing for any plugins or scripting would greatly complicate matters. One would have to consider what objects those classes can see as well as accomodating for how they can interact with each other. It will not be acceptable to expect all plugins to be installed on a pc. What would happen if it's not?
    Scripting could be implemented at a later date via a plugin, assuming a plugin architecture is adopted.
    (Updated: 2/Dec/05)
  • Story telling - How should the story be told? Start at the end and then flashback to the beginning? Break the story into chapters? Have no breaks in the game and just tell the story continuously?
    At the moment I'm tending towards having chapters - personal preference. I like the idea of having a summary of your accomplishments and progres at the end of a "section".
    (Updated 5/Dec/05)

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