Chapter II
Defining the Game
I am sure you have heard it before, "You must know what your game is going to actually do before you start programming." Good documentation before you start programming will save you and your team many headaches later on. What we want to get is get some general documentation for things like professions, statistics for each profession, level descriptions, etc. The statistics may change after you start testing game and find that a certain profession is too powerful or something like that, but we still want to have a general idea of what the game, level, professions, weapons , etc will do.
Trust me! Game documentation is not a myth! I know some of us think it is. I have started scripting games before with out documenting them before because I though I was too cool, but always regretted it later. For example, I wrote a RTS example game called Mage Rage once without documenting it first. I found myself going in circles trying to get it to work and it ended up being a poor-coded example. I got into a lot of coding traps because I was lazy and did not document properly.
In this chapter I am going to attempt to show you how I would document a game before I start coding . I always find that I forgot something or need to add something later, but this documentation was almost entirely done before I started programming. I won't start programming until I am comfortable with my documentation. So I am not just saying, "Do it", I am attempting to show you how I try to do game documentation.
Note: Game documentation for a real game would actually be much more detailed. Usually game documentation has at least 4 stages:
1) Outline - A general description of what game will do.
2) Requirements - Describes specifically what can be done by player , NPC's, items, etc.
3) Design - This specifies what scripts, models, hardware, ect. will be used to make stage 2 descriptions happen.
4) Testing - What test will be done to assure game is working properly.
This tutorial documentation is basically stages 1 & 2.
So let's define what the game will be like for this tutorial.
Game Name:
Biosphere IV - Lunar Mania
Game Type:
Biosphere IV will be a multiplayer shooter, where the players try to kill each other. Score is based on number of kills and hit damage. The view will be a 3rd Person Chase camera. The player will choose from 3 possible professions; Nuclear Scientist, Biological Scientist, and Operations Officer. Each profession will have different skills. Also, each profession can use only a certain weapon which is equipped after he selects his profession. A player must pick-up ammunition power-ups specific to his weapon to get more ammunition and must rest or pick-up lunar candy to regenerate health.
Description:
The year is 2025. A group of scientist and other specialist (which you are a member of) have volunteered for Biosphere IV, the first non-earth biosphere experiment. After several years of preparation, a small team has been selected and sent to Biosphere IV via the International Space Station. Biosphere IV has been constructed on the moon over several years using robots.
The team actually arrived on the moon two years ago. Everything was going well until about 3 months ago, when the team started showing signs of what scientist on earth now call Lunar Psychosis Disorder, or LPD.
Team members started hallucinating that other members of the team were possessed by strange alien entities. One of the team members took the lunar shuttle from the launch area and was last seen flying towards Venus. The Earth Space Agency (ESA) was sending another lunar shuttle from the space station to retrieve the team, when it ran into some old space debri and broke apart.
The situation was now getting serious. The rocket that was being launched with the last emergency lunar shuttle exploded on the launch pad in Russia. The team members, who were all now suffering from advanced LPD were now starting to kill each other and Biosphere IV is in a state of pure chaos.
So you find yourself stuck on Biosphere IV, lunatics around every corner trying to kill you. Are you the only sane one? Can you survive?
Target Specifications:
Players: 1-4 (A6.3 Commercial), 1-32 (A6.3 Pro)
Window 98/ME/2000/XP
Pentium III 450 or better
128 MB RAM
Direct 3D compatible video card
DirectX compatible sound device
56k connection or better.
Level 1: Biosphere IV
Biosphere IV is a located on the moon. It self-contained, self-renewing sphere that uses a biological chain to create fresh air and food sources. Energy sources include nuclear and solar. Bots are used for maintaining plant life and repairing the biosphere. A central computer keeps track of biosphere's status and tells team and bots what problems may exist.
Non-Useable Items:
Walls: Keeping the level simple.
Useable Items:
Lunar_Candy:
Lunar Candy heals a player. Adds Health when picked up to Max_Health.
Ammunition_Packs:
Used_Nuclear_Fuel: Ammunition for Nuclear Rod.
Photosynthesis_Jelly: Ammunition for Photosythesis Emulator.
SR-45b Ammunition Cartridge: Ammunition for Compression Rifle.
Skills:
Player_Number:
The player's number that owns this entity, it will equal 1 through number_of_players.
Lunar_Psychosis_Rating (Score):
The score of this player. The higher his score, the more kills and more psychotic he is.
Profession:
Profession of the player. Professions include nuclear scientist, biological scientist, or operations officer.
Speed:
The base speed in which a player moves. The <Shift> key is for running, but slowly reduces health due to exhaustion.
Health:
Current health of player. Can increase Health with Lunar_Candy or Rest.
Max_Health:
Max health of player.
Armor_Class:
Armor class of player. For a player to actually do damage after he hits, he rolls a 20 sided dice, if player's ((die_roll + my.Attack_Bonus) >= enemy_entity.Armor_Class) he does damage to enemy.
Weapon:
What weapon a player is using. The player will be assigned a weapon at game start depending on his Profession. He does not have to pick up his weapon from level.
Ammunition_Remaining:
Amount of ammunition this player has remaining. He must pick up ammunition packs for his type of weapon to replenish.
Player Professions:
Nuclear Scientist:
Experts on nuclear science. Have the ability to use nuclear rods to attack with Radiation Beams.
Speed: 11, Max Health: 50, Armor_Class: 4, Weapon: Nuclear Rod.
Biological Scientist:
Plant and organic specialist. Use Biosphere IV plant life to attack with Petri-Dishes shot from a Photosynthesis Emulator.
Speed: 12, Max Health: 75, Armor_Class: 6, Weapon: Photosynthesis Emulator.
Operations Officer:
Operations officers fly shuttles and provide minimal security. They attack with conventional XSR-45a Compression Rifles using SR-45b ammunition cartridges.
Speed: 13, Max Health: 100, Armor_Class: 8, Weapon: Compression Rifle.
Weapons and Ammunition:
Nuclear Rod:
Nuclear scientists use nuclear rods to shoot a radiation beam.
Ammunition: Spent Nuclear Fuel.
Speed: 40, Lifespan 165 (range), Damage: 2d18.
Photosynthesis Emulator:
Biological scientists use photosynthesis emulators to shoot petri-dishes.
Ammunition: Photosynthesis Jelly.
Speed: 40, Lifespan 85 (range), Damage: 2d13.
Compression Rifle:
Operations officers use compression rifles to shoot bullets.
Ammunition: SR-45b Ammunition Cartridges.
Speed: 40, Lifespan 105 (range), Damage: 2d8.
Health Regeneration:
To regenerate health points a player must Rest (not move) or pick-up Lunar Candy.
Previous Page Contents Next Page