Game Design Document Example

Introduction

In One Sentence

Collect goo by popping Schwamps before they explode and cover your view.

Abstract

Schwamp is a classical high-score puzzle game where you have to pop Gooy little creatures that appear on screen before they explode in your face. Schwamps appear quickly and you have to decide whether to merge them before popping for combo points, or if they will explode before you manage to pop them. The Schwamps have several different colors and merging different colors will prove lethal.

The name comes from the German Schwamm meaning sponge.

Target Platform

The target platform is the GP2X and Wiz hand-held consoles with a tactile touch screen. Also, the iPhone could be considered although some testing is required as the finger on the touch screen usually covers a lot of view area.

Target Audience

The core players are casual gamers looking for a quick game of fun at a moderate pace. Ages 25 and up. Hard-core teenage gamers will most likely not find it appealing.

Game Mechanics

The game is about clearing the screen for Schwamps before they explode and cover the view. The goo from the Schwamps is collected to advance to the next level.

Winning and Loosing Conditions

Should the player fill up the Schwamp bar he passes the level. If the view is sufficiently cluttered with exploded Schwamps, the game is over. This clutter needs to be tweaked appropriately.

Scoring

Each level has a list of the best players on that level. Players are ranked by two factors, speed of completing the level, and points scored on the level. Combining same-color Schwamps increases points for popping said Schwamp at an exponential rate for each merger. This to promote merging instead of simply popping. Points are also awarded for finishing within a certain time limit defined by the level designer. There is a worst time where has more time passed, no points are awarded, and a best time where completing before said time will yield full time-points. Finishing anywhere between these two time limits gives a linear interpolation of the points between the two times. These points are added to the total score for each level.

Score is reset between levels and the progression is unlocking new levels by completing the previous.

Player Controls

The player clicks on a Schwamp to have it pop into goo droplets, which fall (without collision with other Schwamps) to the bottom of the screen into the tract that guides them into the Schwamp bar on the right of the screen.

The player can also drag Schwamps around. Upon releasing a dragging Schwamp it comes to a halt again, i.e. the player cannot send the Schwamp floating around.

The player can clean the view by dragging a normal sponge as if he was wiping the screen clean. See special features below.

Schwamps

The Schwamps are wobbly creatures of various sizes floating very slowly around the screen. The floating is so slow that it can take several seconds before two Schwamps float into each other. The closer a Schwamp is to exploding the more it will shake erratically. This functions as a signal to the player. If Schwamps of different colors get to close to each other they will explode sooner, i.e. their internal timer counts faster when close to other colors, proportional to the distance between them. The bigger the Schwamp, the faster this timer also counts (see Merge Schwamps below.) Schwamps appear on the screen where there is room for them. So no Schwamp will directly appear on top of another Schwamp causing "an accident." Should there be no room for a Schwamp that Schwamp is skipped, and timers are still reset for next Schwamp to appear.

Goo

The goo comes from popped Schwamps. It falls with gravity to the bottom and enters the tract, where they start rolling into the Schwamp bar pushing the rest of the goo further up. To complete a level, the Schwamp bar has to be filled up with goo to a marker defined by that level.

Schwamp Bar

The Schwamp bar collects all the goo which has come from popping Schwamps. There is a marker on the Schwamp bar indicating how much goo is needed to pass the level.

Special Features

Sponge

Sometimes a normal sponge pops up. This sponge can be dragged around to clean the screen from exploded Schwamps that have cluttered the view. I.e. this will help you clean up the mess should you have "dropped your guard for a second" and not manage to pop Schwamps before they exploded covering the player's view. This is the player's only way to recover, i.e. there are no extra lives. The sponge disappears after a predefined amount of time for that level. See Levels below.

Merge Schwamps

Schwamps of the same color can be merged into larger Schwamps. This gives in total more goo then popping them individually. But it requires they are on screen longer so the player risks having them explode in his face before managing to merge them. There is also an added risk of touching one of the other-colored Schwamps, in which case both will explode in your face. When merging Schwamps, the new Schwamp's internal explosion timer is set to the larger of the two, and will count down faster, the bigger the Schwamp (speed to be tweaked.)

Levels

The levels consist of randomly generated Schwamps based on some defined parameters for each level. These parameters are:

• How much goo is needed to pass the level. This is indicated as a marker on the Schwamp bar
• How much time it takes a Schwamp to explode
• Worst-time, at which point player get's no time-bonus for completing
• Best-time, completing faster then this time player receives maximum time-bonus
• maximum time-bonus. How many points are awarded should player complete within best-time
• Which colors are on this level
• Probability mass function (pmf) for first appearing Schwamp color
• Pmf for next Schwamp color given previous Schwamp color
• Which sizes Schwamps are on the level
• Pmf for Schwamp size appearing
• Probability of a normal sponge appearing
• Duration of a normal sponge, should it appear

These parameters should be enough to create a variety of levels, as well as a variety of types of levels, i.e. from quickly appearing tiny schwamps that explode right away to slower levels where you can merge Schwamps to get more combo points, etc.

(The levels themselves are not described in this document. If you feel this should be done, go ahead and add them.)

Storyboard

Dragging to merge Schwamps of same color into bigger Schwamps before popping.

	Schwamps of various colors floating around.
	Click…
	… and Drag Schwamp.
	Merge with other Schwamps of same color to make a bigger Schwamp.
	Make sure not to collide with other colors as different color Schwamps too close to each other will explode.
	Click…
	… and release to pop Schwamp.
	Schwamp-goo falls to the bottom and collects in the Schwamp bar.

Older Concept Art

	Game screen with Schwamp-o-meter on the right and funnel at the bottom to collect the gooie mass that comes from popping the Schwamp.
	A Schwamp appears.
	Player pops Schwamp with stylus.
	Schwamp dissolves into gooy liquid and gets collected in the Schwamp bar.
	Two Schwamps have appeared. The upper Schwamp has not been popped for a longer period of time and is about to explode.
	The Schwamp explodes and clutters parts of the player's view.
	A sponge appears to rescue the player. These appear at random intervals.
	The player can use the sponge to wipe clean the screen before other Schwamps explodes.

Game Screens

A list of the game screens. Notice there is no help screen, as this should be the first level as an in-game tutorial.

• Intro
• Main menu
• Level select
• In-game
• Enter high-score
• High-score
• Credits (when exiting game)

Flow

The player can at any point return to the menu, but for simplicity, this is not figured in the figure above.

Visual Style

The Schwamps are wobbly jelly like colorful creatures with eyes to give them a cute personality. The eyes will make them appear to be aware of their surrounding environment. E.g. should a neighboring Schwamp be popped, their attention will be focused on this Schwamp, and maybe even watch in dismay as the goo falls to the bottom of the screen. The level consists of a cold-steel rail/tract/funnel which will collect the goo, and the poor creatures are to be collected inside this dirty glass and steel container. For extra empathy, the eyes will also be contained within the steel-container. The eyes will have a "help me i'm trapped" or "why me?" look.

Concept Art

Audio Style

Cartoony sounds!

Assets

• main-menu music
• in-game music
• level selection music
• high-score music

• level start jingle
• game-over jingle

• menu select item click
• Popping sound
• Exploding sound (Schwamp exploding)
• Droplets landing
• Sucked into Schwamp bar
• Schwamp speech (in non-existing language in a high-pitched cartoony voice)
  • merging
  • random rant. A couple of varying words said at random times
  • scared (one was popped close by)
  • close to exploding cry