RISE: Game Design Proposal

RISE

            RISE is the story of Roman, an average guy who decides that one day he doesn't want to be average.  The first thing he tries to do is kill his boss.  Roman want to kill his boss because for ten years. Roman worked for him and in those 10 years nothing came from the job.  But little does Roman know that his boss is also a mob king.  When Roman sets out to the mansion where his boss lives, he is surprised to see it heavily guarded.  Roman must now go through the guards and kill the man who made his life miserable for the past ten years.  To get to his boss, Roman must use strategy to eliminate the enemies before he can fulfill his wish of murdering his boss. 

            The left and right arrow keys move Roman horizontally, while the up arrow key will allow Roman to jump.  The space bar will make Roman attack his enemies.  IF Roman doesn't have a weapon of any sort, then pressing space bar will allow Roman to tackle his enemy.  When Roman does have a weapon, pressing space bar will allow Roman to use that weapon.    

            To appeal to a gamer, a game must be visually pleasing.  Aesthetics are important to a game designer in the way that they can captivate the gamer, and make him/her want to play the game multiple times.  The aesthetics for a game can be made specifically for the genre of the game, or for what type of audience the game is targeting.  For example, if a game is targeting children, then it would make sense for that game to have bright colors that might appeal to children.   For RISE, I plan on using just minimalistic colors, mostly black, white, and gray.  I want RISE to feel arcade-like, and since many arcade games didn't implement a lot of colors to their games, I believe using just minimalistic colors will help RISE be arcade-like. 

            Sound is also an important aspect for a game; because it makes the player better experience the game.  A gamer doesn't rely much on his sense of touch when playing a game, so to make up for that lost sense, the sound effects of a game come in.  For RISE, I would want to have good background music.  Since the game is an action game, it would make sense to put some kind of action themed background music.  Noise effects will also be included when a character interacts with an object or enemy objects.  Since the enemy will have gun, when they shoot their guns a bullet sound effect might be played.

            Game mechanics are the core of what a game truly is.  They are the skeleton of a game, and when aesthetics, story, and technology are taken away, only the mechanics of a game are left.  Game mechanics include space, objects, actions, rules, and skills.  Space would include what dimension it is, whether it is discrete or continuous, and if it has bounded areas which may or may not connect.  For RISE, the space would be two-dimensional and be continuous.  It also would include different areas, or levels, that are connected with each other.  To move to the next level, a player would have to complete the current level.  Objects include anything that can be manipulated in a game, like a character.  Each object can have a attribute, and an attribute can be static or dynamic.  A static attribute would be color and a dynamic attribute would be movement.  RISE objects would include the antagonist, enemy characters, and props included for level designs.  Actions ask the question “What can the player do?”  In RISE, the antagonist can move around, run left or right, jump and attack enemies.  The enemy objects just walk left or right, and when they the spot the antagonist, they start shooting bullets.  Rules add goals to a game.  Without rules, a game would be not exciting.  Games have a lot of rules, but the most important rule is what the object of the game is. In RISE, the player's goal is to defeat the enemies, and kill the boss at the end of the game.   Defeating enemies in each level would be a short term goal, while defeating the boss at the end would be considered a long term goal.  The mechanic of skill focuses more on the player than the game.  A game should require the player to exercise a skill, or certain skills.  Skills include physical skills, mental skills, and social skills.  RISE will include mental skills as the player is required to observe the movements of the enemy and plan his attacks according to those movements.

            Technology is the medium of a game designer's game.  Technology used for RISE primarily comes from GameMaker.   GameMaker allows for the creation of simple or complex games, that are up to date with today's expectations.  Of course, RISE won't be a top notch game, for it would take month to make a very good game.  What GameMaker can do is allow for the making of games such as Pac-Man.  GameMaker has limitations, but it's up to the designer to work within those limitations and make his/her game good, and maybe even produce a wonderful game.

            The characters in RISE will consist of Roman, guards, and one boss.  Roman will look like an average person and will wear black. Since the game will be arcade-style, every character will have a pixelated look.  Roman's outfit will probably be black pants and a black shirt.

            The enemies/guards will be slightly larger than Roman.  They will all have the same uniform, but there will different types of guards.  In the beginning level/levels, the guards will carry either no weapons, or just a police baton.  As the player progresses through the game, the guards will become more dangerous, and will be equipped with better weapons. 

            There will be only one boss in RISE, and Roman will confront him in the last level.  The boss will be a large sprite, and will be wearing a suit.  In addition to that, the boss will be carrying a weapon, unknown for now, that will make defeating him quite a challenge.