Dorm Escape — One Button Game Prototype

Game Title: Dorm Escape

Overview:

• Dorm Escape is a game where players have to escape from a heavily guarded dorm building filled with security, traps, and natural predators.
• I got this idea from my experience at a Korean boarding school that was located near a mountain. I have memories of avoiding the dorm security with my friends to stay up watching movies or ordering fried chicken.

The Concept:

• You wake up in the middle of the night. You are extremely famished so you decide to recruit a few friends to escape the dorms and get fried chicken. You have to recruit one friend from each of the floors avoiding the guards and other obstacles.
• Once you escape the dorm building and get through the mountains, you can find salvation at a local fried chicken joint.

Audience:

• The main players of this game would be young adults burdened by academic pressure as well as adults who have gone through similar experiences(either at school or work).
• I want to give people of all ages a walk down memory lane where small missions like this brought so much excitement and a sense of accomplishment.

Rules:

• Once you are on your floor, you have to go down several floors until you reach the entrance/exit.
• Each floor has either guards, puddles, unstable flooring, etc
• Your job is to move past all these obstacles without getting caught or making too much noise.
• At the end of each floor/hallway is a friend waiting for you to pick them up.
• Once you pick up one friend, you have a chain of people behind you. Each time a person joins, it gets increasingly harder for you to get to the destination.

Gameplay:

• Basically since this is a one button game, most of the actions a player can have are limited to one per level or floor.
• The character would be in a continuous walking motion and the button can trigger them to stop, jump, or hit according to the objective of each level.
• For example, on a level where there are puddles on the ground, the player has to jump across the puddles in order to not make any noise. On a level where there are guards walking back and forth, the player must duck/hide when near.
• At the end of each hallway a friend is waiting. Approaching him/her will automatically have them join the team.

Internal Economy:

• Basically there will be fatigue levels. Once you start you will automatically have ⅓ of the full energy level.
• By eating small snacks along the way, you can fill the levels up.
• Encountering obstacles will deduct your energy levels.
• By having more people in your team, energy levels will deplete quicker.

Game Balance:

• Positive Feedback: Partaking in any treats will raise your health.
• Negative Feedback: Coming in contact with an enemy will decrease your health by a few points.
• Adjusting the Game’s Difficulty: You can adjust difficulty by reverting back to the floor you were at last before having depleted your energy levels. In the normal gameplay, you would revert back to the top floor of the building.

Victory and Defeat Conditions:

• To win the game, you must pass through all the levels and get your character and friends to the fried chicken joint.
• Although you may be able to exit the dorm building, you still have to pass through the wild terrain outside that is teeming with creatures such as snakes and spiders.
• If your energy levels deplete before you reach the destination, you revert back to the top floor of the dorm building.

Storyboard: