Annoy: Roommate Simulator Prototype
Game Design Document Written by: Ashley Friedland, Dee Hu, Millicent Wong, and Zeyao Li
Overview
Theme
You are living in a student dorm, sharing a room with your roommate. You get annoyed by him everyday, because he puts googly eyes on everything that he can. So it’s time to take revenge and piss off your roommate. There is no “win or lose” in the game; can you piss off your roommate before time runs out?
Genre
Role-playing; Casual game; Adventure
Gameplay Mode
You only need a mouse to control the character. Left click can make the character move forward. Right-click to trigger your object action (prototype is set to jump). Move the mouse to change the moving direction of the view.
You will possess an object in the dorm every morning randomly. You should explore the room and find objects that can interact with to annoy the roommate.
Your roommate has an annoyance meter. Every time the character makes interaction with other objects to piss off your roommate, the meter increases. Try to reach the highest point of the meter as fast as possible. Once you reach the highest point, you will restart the game for a new task.
Different interactions will increase the meter differently. Some interactions may just make small changes. If you cannot find another interaction to trigger the meter for a while, the bar will be decreased (your roommate will calm down as time passes).
Setting
Each level has a maximum 2 minutes playing time. If you fail to piss off your roommate, you will automatically restart the game and go to the next day.
There are 7 levels in the game, represents 7 days in a week.
The final score will be based on the speed you piss off your roommate, and how many days in a week that you successfully take revenge.
Challenges
Each level, the location of the objects is slightly different. Your roommate’s location is also different.
You will be assigned to different objects on a different level.
Core Features in the Game
In general, there are only two actions that are relevant to the game. One is to move around your character, the other one is to interact with other objects. We want to create an addictive game experience, we decide to simplify the features in the game and reduce the learning cost of the game.
Moving around is one of the core features in the game. The player moves the mouse to change to moving direction of the character. Once the player left clicks the mouse, it moves towards the direction. There is a UI that presents the direction that the character towards (like a compass).
Not every object in the dorm room can be interacted with. The player should figure out check different places in the room and various objects to see what is the best way to use the character to piss off the roommate. For example: If a kettle moves closer to the laptop, it can pour the boiled water on the laptop. If it moves to the edge of the table, it will fall on the ground and make noise.
Game Mechanics
Data and algorithms used
- Randomizer: every level the player will be assigned to a different object. This requires the system to randomize the objects. Also the object’s location in the room will be slightly random in different levels
- Scoring System: How does the bar increase or decrease based on the timing and the interaction? How does the final score count?
- Collision and Trigger Actors: What’s the feedback of each collision? Will it trigger an animation of the character, or will it keep still.
- Actions (i.e., what does the player need to do to tackle the challenges)
Internal Economy
- There is no lives in the game. Refer to the fifth and the last rule, the player will skip the level if they did not finish the game in 2 minutes.
- Refer to the 3rd and 4th rule, the annoyance meter is one of the important internal economy in the game.
- Refer to the last rule: the final score will be based on the speed of taking revenge and how many days that you succeed the level.
- Refer to the 3rd and 4th rule. The annoyance meter will be increased when the character triggered the interaction. It will be decreased if the character could not find a new interaction to piss off the roommate for a while.
Game Balance
Positive feedback
Once the meter reaches the highest point, your roommate will make an intense reaction, and scream in the room (with a funny animation). You will go to the next day (level).
Negative feedback
If you fail to piss off your roommate in 2 minutes, nothing will happen on your roommate, you will go to the next day, until you finish the entire week.
Adjusting the game’s difficulty
There is no adjustment of game difficulties. As what we described above, the location of your character and other objects will be changed in different levels.
Victory Conditions
Refer to the last rule: There is no way to win the game, the final score is calculated by the time you finish the level and the number of days that you succeed the level.
No losing in the game :)
Business Case
Market research
- 同学上天吗 — A simple game based on WeChat mini program. It only has one action to throw your classmate to the sky, and hold it when he drops down. It is super addictive and fun to play.
- “Accounting” — A VR game that we explored in the game lab session. The level design of the game outstands. Also the game has a really developed aesthetic.
- “Getting Over It” — It has a super weird game concept, but the game developer makes it super addictive to the player. The character is in a cauldron and needs to use a pickaxe to keep moving forward.
Revenue streams
Cheap single-purchase PC/Mac game with a model similar to “I am Bread.” We will advertise it with internet virality and generate additional revenue through the options to purchase more levels/game modes. Game can also be ported to mobile, VR, and Switch.
Version 1.0
What We Have Achieved
We made basically all the core functions in unreal engine, including:
The randomizer of the game
The basic collision:
The damaging system (scoring system):
We made the roommate character:
Basic decoration of the room, including the furniture models, the lighting setup, and the texture of the objects in the room:
Sound and Video is attached in the game:
Project Scope
Game Time Scale: 5 Weeks
- Week 1 Ideation and Research
- Week 2 Design Prototype and Assign Task
- Week 3–5 Game Development and Playtest
Team Size & Role : 4 people
- Ashley: Programming, HUD, Sound Design
- Dee: Programming, Level Design, Project Management
- Millie: Object Design and Editing, Concept Design, Writer
- Zeyao: Programming, Level Design, Stage and Light Design
What’s next
- So far we have 2 objects that the player can play in the room, in the future we want to add more objects.
- We will polish the UI for the game after. The UI (meters) at the moment is replaced by just numbers.
- A better model design — right now we pulled out the model from google poly, which is definitely a good resource for the low-poly aesthetic. However, it causes trouble for some collisions, since the model is made as a whole piece, so the interaction between the player and the objects in the room are less.
- Animation can also be developed in the future — for example, the roommate will have a reaction when the play annoys him. Pen and cactus can also be animated when it moves.
