Concept Document for Villainous Contraptions
A game of questionable morals and physics
Team: Katherine Liu, Fiona Hall-Zazueta, Melody Yang, Pao Thao, Lucy Zhu, Nantanick Tantivasadakarn
Welcome to Super City, where heroes and villains constantly battle for control. It’s a delicate balance and one you’re uniquely situated to take advantage of. As an ex-engineer contracted by villains to create traps for their heroic adversaries, you’re set up for some high payouts, but you’ll have to be careful: villains like their traps to work. How far are you willing to compromise your morals in your construction of villainous contraptions?
Synopsis
Note: Not sure of names yet, so using [Character Role] in several places.
In this game you play as a minor villain in the generic, comic-book setting of Super City. You’ve gained some renown as the designer of the trap that killed [Superhero 1], who’d been a thorn in the side of the city’s villains for a long time. Now the commissions for traps are rolling in, specifically traps designed for [Superhero 2], a hero with abilities suspiciously similar to [Superhero 1]’s.
Throughout the game players will receive commissions from various villains in an attempt to create a trap which will successfully kill [Superhero 2]. The commission by each villain and the outcome of each trap will give the player a little more information about [Superhero 2] and their relationship to [Superhero 1].
For example, the villainous chemist Nick Arsen wants you to design a trap using his toxic concoctions, and is able to supply some information on which poisons [Superhero 2] may be strong and weak against. The player will use this information to choose how deadly to make their trap — constructed with the provided components — leading to changes in their relationship with the city’s villains as well as with [Superhero 2].
Traps
Because we have such limited time for development, we plan to limit ourselves to 2 trap commissions: enough for players to vary their choices in how they treat [Superhero 2], but few enough that we can actually develop them. In each level there will be four possible outcomes: 0 (No damage to [Superhero 2]), 1 (Minor damage to [Superhero 2]), 3 (Moderate damage to [Superhero 2]) and 4 (Severe-Deadly damage to [Superhero 2]).
Nick Arsen, the chemist, will supply specific poisons and information about [Superhero 2]’s weaknesses and strengths to them. The mechanic of this level will be about varying [Superhero 2]’s exposure to each poison, leading to one of the four outcomes listed above.
There is the opportunity to trigger a narrative flashback when completing level 1.
Nel Arsen, the weapons expert, will supply explosives and weapons, along with information about [Superhero 2]’s weaknesses and strengths against each. The mechanic of this level will be about choosing/determining which weapons to employ against [Superhero 2], once again leading to one of the four outcomes listed above.
The sum of the player’s outcomes will determine which of four possible endings they receive. (Note: These, along with the narrative flashback, are currently loosely outlined. Part of our development will be writing dialogue and creating visuals for these 5 scenes.)
Tone
In this game, we want players to make a choice between outright villainy and trying to maintain some level of morality. There’s something fun about playing a pure evil character, but depending on how much players want to play as themselves, embracing [Superhero 2]’s murder should feel uncomfortable.
The feelings we hope to evoke are:
Corrupt. Players begin the game as a rising star in the world of villainy. Embracing it means money, power and fame. We want players to feel pulled in both directions: towards a high score and more of the same, and towards morality and discovering more about [Superhero 2].
Triumphant. Victory speeches are a common trope for both heroes and villains. True to our genre, we want players to feel accomplishment and pride as they work through the narrative, whichever moral direction they might choose.
Tense. Despite the generally light-hearted direction of our game, we do want to create tension. The possibility of death should be present right from the beginning: we know that [Superhero 1] just died, killed by the player themself with one of their traps. The tone of the villains and [Superhero 2] should communicate that the player is in a delicate position, especially if they’re trying to maintain their morals, and that they could easily wind up killed by either side. In the good ending(s) we also expect relief.
Playing the Villain
Coming into this project our team members had the common ground of wanting to create a game in the superhero genre. We think that playing a villain in this genre will provide an interesting and unique spin on it, as well as providing an opportunity to explore a hero ([Superhero 2]) character from a novel angle.
Setting
While we toyed with a few setting ideas where heroes and villains could thrive (from steampunk to cyberpunk), we ultimately settled on a classic DC Comics-esque superhero setting, drawing inspiration from slightly grittier storylines/characters such as Batman.
This is a setting where cheesy language and visuals (things like punny villain names) are expected to be mingled with stories that are both violent and genuinely touching, which is what we hope to achieve. We are capitalizing on familiar tropes of the genre such as overly complicated traps and narrow escapes.
To achieve this, we will pay particular attention to our color scheme, general art-style, and language, in order to evoke our source material as strongly as possible within reason giving the limited time.
Gameplay
At its heart, Villainous Contraptions is a puzzle game. The puzzle you solve is both logical and moral: how much damage can you do and how much damage do you want to do to [Superhero 2]?
Sensitive to both scope and usability, our mechanics are going to be simple. Players will be provided components which they can drag and drop in different set locations on the screen in order to affect [Superhero 2] in certain ways. Once the players are satisfied with their trap design, they set it irrevocably into motion and cannot interfere until it has completed its purpose and they receive one of the four outcomes discussed in the “Traps” section.
Interspersed with the drag and drop puzzle element of the game will be narrative scenes which reveal more to the player about [Superhero 2]. These will be in a more visual-novel style interface, with detailed character art and pre-written dialogue. These scenes will be absent of direct opportunities player interaction and will serve solely to advance the narrative as a result of their prior actions.
Tone References
As mentioned, the main inspirations for this game are classic superhero stories such as Batman. We also explored a variety of existing games to inform our ideas for game mechanics, aesthetics, and puzzle design:
Design Challenges and Work-Back Schedule
This is an ambitious game. In order to complete it in the time we have, we have constructed a work-back schedule for each core component: Tech, Art, and Story.
Game Narrative/Play Progression: Menu → Intro → Nick Arsen Commission → Puzzle 1 → Puzzle 1 Outcome → (Optional) Flashback → Nel Arsen Commission → Puzzle 2 → True Ending | Good Ending | Bad Ending 1 | Bad Ending 2 → (Optional) Menu to Restart
(Each date lists official submissions due and what team-specific checkpoints should be complete)
June 4th
Final Submission Due.
- Medium Write-up Complete.
- Final Experience/Walk-Through Video Edited and Complete.
June 2nd
- Game Complete. Final play/stress-tests done. No more work on game from this point forward!
- Assets/character designs updated if desired
- Grammar and inconsistencies corrected
May 28th
Checkpoint #3 Due. (This should include the version from May 26th unless Puzzle 2 code is completely bug free.)
- Code for Puzzle 2.
- Code for Nel Arsen Trigger and Progression.
- Code for Ending Trigger and Progression.
- Code for Restart (should be simple).
- True Ending
- Bad Ending 2
- True Ending
- Bad Ending 2
May 26th
- Code for Menu
- Code for Intro Trigger and Progression
- Code for Nick Arsen Trigger and Progression
- Code for Flashback Trigger and Progression
- Save Isolated Version with Intro through Flashback for submission for Checkpoint #3!
- Design for Puzzle 2.
- Nel Arsen
- Weapon Assets
- Puzzle 2 Background
- Nel Arsen Commission
- Good Ending
- Bad Ending 1
May 21st
Checkpoint #2 Due. **Good time for a norms discussion and team member feedback.**
- Code for Puzzle 1
- Code for Puzzle 1 Outcome.
- Save Isolated Version with Puzzle 1 for submission for Checkpoint #2
- Flashback
- Good Ending
- Bad Ending 1
- Menu
- Flashback
May 19th
- Intro
- Menu
- Nick Arsen
- Poison Assets
- Puzzle 1 Background
- Puzzle 1 Outcome
- Intro
- Nick Arsen Commission
- Puzzle 1 Outcome
May 14th
- Design for Puzzle 1
- Unity (version 2018.2.9f1) Installed and Configured
- Github Desktop Installed and Configured (Repo Cloned, etc.)
- Selection of Art Style and Tools + Concept Sketches for Characters, Assets, and Backgrounds
- Refined plot outlines for Intro, Nick Arsen Commission, Puzzle 1 Outcome, Flashback, Nel Arsen Commission, True Ending, Good Ending, Bad Ending 1, Bad Ending 2
