Story and Gameplay

There is a boy called Jimmy and him and his family went to the reptile house. He wondered off and accidentally got locked into the reptile house. The game is set in a reptile house. It is dark so the character has a lantern to light his way around the house.

The aim of the game is to get the boy (your character) out of the reptile house by finding the lost key whilst avoiding the deadly snakes and plants. There are various different snakes in different parts of the reptile house, making it hard to avoid them with the limited light you have. There are lots of plants on the walls of the reptile house which when you touch them your health bar goes down.

The reptile house is made up of different paths leading to dead ends and doors. You can only see the ring of light that surrounds the character given off by the lantern he is carrying. Timing is key as the snakes move from left to right so you have to wait for the right moment to try and pass the snakes without dying.

The stages of the game are the boy tries to find his way out of the reptile house. The house appears like a maze so it is more difficult to navigate his way around. The aim of the game is to retrieve the key that will unlock the door leading him onto the next level.

The setting of the game is supposed to be scary and spooky. When its dark the game looks more scary and more within the theme than when its lit up.

Game flow

As the player gets onto higher levels the game gets harder. The snakes increase their speed making it a lot harder to get past them.

The whole point of the game is to find and retrieve the key that gets Jimmy out of the reptile house. The key is hidden in the maze somewhere and the player has to find it without being killed by the snakes or hurt by the plants.

As the levels get harder the light given off by the lantern the character is holding gets dimmer and smaller making it more difficult to see where they are going. This also makes it harder for the player to play because it is really difficult to see where the snakes are until you get really close to them. This means that the characters life is more in danger because hitting the snake is more of a possibility.

Because the pace of the snakes get faster with each level it means the player has to be more patient in waiting for the right moment to pass the snake unharmed.

In a way the key is the only point system we have in the game. If you find the key you move onto the next level. There are no

existing objects the player can collect like points because the main point of the game is to find the key with a little damage to the character as possible.

Characters and controls The player can control the character called Jimmy. He has been locked in

a reptile house accidentally. The player has to help Jimmy get out of the reptile house safely by dodging past the venomous snakes. Another threat to Jimmy is the plants that decline his health. The player will need to be patient and careful in order to reach the next level which will be harder and more of a struggle.

The player is able to move the character round the maze by pressing the arrows. The left arrow moves the character left, the right

arrow moves the character right and the up and down arrows move him up and down.

The only real difference in the game is when you reach the next level. The snake number increases making it harder to survive through out the game. Another big difference us that when you reach higher levels the ring of light that the lantern gives off will get smaller. This makes it a lot harder to see where your going.

Through out the game the character (Jimmy) can get his health decreased. By touched the plants his health will deteriorate making it more difficult to reach the end of the level.

Main Gameplay Concepts

If we are talking in terms of gameplay the gameplay is guide this young boy to safety whilst avoiding the dangers set out in the game.

The game will be marketed as a platform, role playing game. Although I believe we could market this not to young children, but more of the 16 - 24 year old range.

The gameplay is broken up into 10 levels. Each increase in difficulty as you move through the game. How they increase in difficulty is that the light on your oil lamp gets darker as you run are running out of oil. On the the last level you only have 2 mins to complete the level before you run out of oil and if you do you get eaten by snakes.

The gameplay is intelligently designed to get harder as it goes along. However from looking at the interface you wouldn’t think that a game like this would be so hard. Thats where this game sets itself apart from other games.

Platform Specific Features

The game was originally designed for iPad & iPhone cross compatibility. With this in mind we made a

directional arrow pad for the touch screen on both platforms. We discovered that the speed of gameplay, required from the player, is a lot faster to get past the snakes as they move faster than some people think. We didn’t want to make the game that difficult so we decided to make this playable on the computer platform only.

We removed the arrow pads after this as they took up room on the Heads-Up-Display. Even playing this game on the computer is hard enough, so playing on a mobile device would make it very hard indeed.

This early prototype version of the game shows the directional key pad in the bottom left hand corner of the heads up display.

Baring in mind players would of had to press buttons simultaneously to get passed snakes the keypad will be difficult to control

Game World

The gameplay takes place within a reptile house. The 10 different levels represent the 10 different rooms within the reptile house. The different rooms will be the same in functionality, meaning that they will all enclose reptiles/snakes. However the design

of the rooms will change in that. They will all look different.

The 10 levels will harder with the addiction of more complex maze designs. The levels as they progress will contain more corners more walls, more dead ends. The snakes will also get faster in their cycles. The story is that our character Jimmy is lost in this reptile house and he has to navigate the 10 rooms in order to escape where his parents are waiting for him. The levels make up part of the story of his re-uniting. The following flow chart illustrates how a player navigates and completes a level. As the actual game mechanics you use don’t change through the game this chart can be used to describe the basic formula for how you progress through. Another thing that will factor throughout the game is the use of oil. The longer you take to complete a level the more oil you will use. This will leave you with less oil to navigate the next level. This is just another mechanic which is designed to speed up gameplay and force the player into competing at a better pace. If you have the ability to work well under pressure then this will aid you in completing the game but if you don’t then you will find this very hard. The idea is for it also to get more scary as you get through the game.

Interface

We wanted to go for a nice polished look for our game. We wanted to create something that was reminiscent of animated cartoons. This would give the game a bold look to make it stand out more.

The images above show some of the art assets that we used for our game. We liked the cartoon aspect of it. It makes the game look more appealing. We were inspired by the look of Fez & Super Meat Boy. That style we thought was the look of a professional game. We wanted to emulate that.The following flow chart illustrate how one would navigate through the interface.

Interface Part 2

We chose to have the arrow key pad (left,right,up & down) as the way to control the character. We had this because to the new generation of video games. The directional keypad is now the standard way of controlling the directional movement.

The old way of controlling actors in video game characters, WASD, we believe has been replaced due to the more simple and more literal arrow keys. With the introduction of the joystick into computer games, they experienced a mass increase in popularity. However, when the time came to make video games more portable, game designers wanted to to keep the same simplistic controls of pushing a joystick in the direction you wanted to go. With this in mind they went with the directional keypad as arrow key as they are understood by a wider audience of people from many age ranges. This was to keep the momentum going in line with the increase in video game popularity.

I wanted to create the soundtrack and FX from scratch no samples, just me and a software synth. I thought the transposition of the snake bite sample would fit the gameplay yet still remain original and understandable.The main ambient track you hear whilst in gameplay is a 48 bar piece of ambient electronic music which I wrote with a synth called MASSIVE. The resulting music is chilling and deep, so in that respect I followed the brief to the letter. I drew influence from Noisia’s music for the video game Devil May Cry.

The feedback we received for our alpha test, seemed to to show no signs of any problems with the controls. They all in-fact found the controls quite easy and self explanatory. The way the player interfaces with the game is all fairly, easy and was designed so that people with even just a basic level of knowledge of video games can just jump straight in and play. So in that respect the difficulty aspect does not come from the interfacing aspect or controls but simply through making the level design as hard as possible.

Mechanics & Power-ups

The game is 2D, played from a top-down or aerial view of a portion of the reptile house, in which only a small portion of the screen is visible around Jimmy due to the light from his lantern. Jimmy must navigate through the different rooms of the reptile house. As Jimmy reaches near the boundaries of the map, the camera moves with Jimmy to avoid Jimmy leaving the boundaries of the screen.

Jimmy can move on the X and Y axis at one set speed and the circle of light from the lantern moves around with him. A number of snakes are found around the map, moving back and forth along either the X and Y axises, never changing their movement pattern or their speed. The poisonous plants are scattered around the map and are purposely positioned to make it harder to navigate through the corridors. They do not move.

You must dodge the snakes by timing when to move whilst the snake moves in it’s loop. You lose 50% of your life if you fail to dodge the snake, so 2 failed dodges will cause you to die and to start again. Plants are easier to dodge as they do not move, but there is usually little space between the plant and the corridor walls, so you must still be careful when moving past them. Each time you hit a plant, 25% of your life is reduced so if you fail to dodge 4 plants, or maybe you hit a snake and then hit 2 plants, you will die and start again.

The exit doors initial state is locked, so if Jimmy finds the door without the key, Jimmy cannot pass through to the next level. You must pick up the key found within the reptile house to unlock the door and to progress through to the next level.

The longer Jimmy spends trying to find his way out, the oil in his lantern slowly runs out, meaning the circle of light it provides grows smaller. However, oil can be found throughout the map that will replenish the oil in Jimmy’s lantern, causing the circle of light to grow.

Through in-app purchases, you will be able to buy a number of power-ups:

- Skip Level- Turn lights on (temporarily)

Enemies & Bosses

There are a 2 main enemies in Snake Escape, the poisonous snakes and the poisonous plants, both have the ability to kill you. There is one “super enemy” that appears in the last level, the Python.

- The Snakes

The snakes are the more deadliest of the 2 enemies. 2 hits of a snake

will kill Jimmy and reset the game, as one hit reduces Jimmy’s life by 50%. Snakes move along one axis only, either the X or Y axis. they move 3 times slower than Jimmy, allowing Jimmy to be able to dodge them.- The Plants

The poisonous plants may seem less threatening, but if you are not careful, they will drain your life by 25% each time you touch them. The plants are intentionally positioned in narrow corridors so Jimmy must be careful when moving past them.- The Python

The Python is the “super Enemy” that only appears on the last level of the game (the last level is the Python enclosure). The Python is twice the size of a normal snake, and twice as fast. One hit from the Python will kill you. The Python’s movement patterns vary, which make them harder to dodge.

Cutscenes, Bonus Material, and Comps

There are cutscenes at the end of each level. They allow you to either return to the main menu, level select or start the next level. The menu screen at the start of the game will also allow you to select a level. There will be a small animation as to how Jimmy became stuck within a reptile house at night, also at the end of the last level, a small animation will show Jimmy reunited with his family.

Bonus material will be available through in-app purchases. If you are stuck on a level, you will be able to skip it for a small fee. You will also be able to buy a special power-up that when you activate it, the lights in the reptile house turn on for 3 seconds, allowing you to have a good look at the design of the maze to help get through it, also to reveal the location of the key. DLC may be available as well, such as new maps or even new enemies.

The competitors for Snake Escape will be games which fall under both the horror genre and the puzzle genre. The target age range will be 7 - 18 years old, as the cartoon style graphics and the horror aspect of the game isn’t very graphic young people from the ages of 7 will be able to play. However, the scariness of the game may attract people up to 18 years old.