Dorm Simulator — Game Design Document

Overview:

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. One day when you wake up, you find out that you become an object in the room. All you need to do is to take revenge and piss off your roommate. There is no “win or lose” in the game. The score is based on the speed that you can piss off your roommate.

Rules:

• You only need mouse to control the character. Left click can make the character move towards the direction of the view. Right click to trigger the action with other objects that the character encounters. Move the mouse to change the moving direction of the view.
• You will be assigned randomly to an object every morning. You should explore the room and find objects that can interact with to torture 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 to the highest point, you will go to the next morning 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).
• Each level has maximum 2 minutes playing time. If you did not piss off your roommate, you will automatically fail the day and go to the next day.
  There are 7 levels in the game, represents 7 days in a week.
• The final score will based on the speed you piss off your roommate, and how many days in a week that you successfully take revenge.

Gameplay Mode:

Setting:

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 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 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)

• Refer to the first rule and the core features

Internal Economy:

Define the lives, ammo, money, health points, etc., in the game

• 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.

How are they produced or obtained?

• 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

• Currently there’s no adjustment of game difficulties. As what I described above, the location of your character and other objects will be changed in different levels.

Victory Conditions:

How do you win the game? If there is no way to win the game, what is the player trying to accomplish?

• 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.

How do you lose the game? (if applicable)

• No lose in the game :)

Storyboard and Interface Design:

Reference:

Accounting
[To be added…]

Business Case:

What other games out there are like this (i.e., 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 is fantastic. 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 additive to the player. The character with physical disability needs to use axe to keep moving forward.