Sample Design Doc:
This item was a personal
favourite, and actually managed to make it into the game. The basic concept was
that, with a little luck and a lot of skill, the player could clear a large
group of enemies with a single projectile. I would be lying if I didn’t say
that the movie ‘Runaway’ wasn’t a big inspiration for this…
“The new Seeing Eye Bullet from SmartProducts
Inc. is a revolutionary breakthrough, combining the best of miniature camera
technology with modern micro-propulsion projectile developments! This ingenious
combination allows a single user to eliminate multiple targets with just one
bullet, steering it from a remote unit, economically saving valuable lead
resources and eliminating the wasteful trend in using 1 or more bullets for a
single target! Just think, where other bullets merely travel in one direction,
or, at best, home into a single target, the S.E.B will clear an entire room in
just one shot! Amazing! Buy a box today!”
Outline: The SEB is a special item (a
controllable bullet that can hit multiple targets in a row) that is triggered
at various points during the game, if the player has found any. If they do not
find or receive any SEB’s then they will merely have to go through any special
sequences without the aid of the special item – making it more difficult but by
no means impossible.
How the Bullet will work: The SEB is controlled with
normal flying-vehicle controls, with the exception that speed is not
user-controllable. The player, when he fires the bullet, will get a ¾ screen
view from the bullet’s camera. The bullet will fly at a constant rate (but the
gameplay will be in a slight slow-motion mode – we’ve tested this in the engine
with good results), and the player must try to eliminate or incapacitate all
the enemies hiding in an area using just the yaw and pitch controls. If the
bullet hits a non-meat obstacle (a wall, door, staircase, vehicle etc.) then
the camera and control systems will be rendered useless and the gameplay is
over.
After
all the enemies have been eliminated or the bullet incapacitated, the view
returns to it’s usual position behind the player slowly (zooming back up and
then down.)
*An
idea - it would be great to show a real-time replay of what the bullet did
while the player character model feverishly waggles the joystick attached to
his Toolgun. Perhaps a few cinematic shots of the various kills? Might be a
little much.
The following is a chart of
the S.E.B’s Behaviours and the associated Tunable Variables for each.
|
B E H A V I O U R |
V A R I A B L E S |
D E S C R I P T I O N |
Steering
|
•
Turn radius •
Response |
The Turn Radius will determine the turn radius-to-speed ratio. The speed is set as a variable by the designer (see below) but is unalterable by the player. Response is a variable that will allow us to tune the speed of response, or lag, in the steering column. As the SEB is a miniature vehicle, the steering should be pretty tight. |
Speed
|
•
Speed |
Speed controls how fast the SEB will travel once it is fired. Speed is a constant variable, set by the lead designer for every instance of this item in the game. |
Range
|
•
Range |
Range determines how far the bullet can travel away from the player before the image is lost and control returns to the player character. Several meters before the bullet hits the cut-off range, the screen will start to show heavy static, an indication that the player is flying it too far away. Once out of critical ranger the screen goes blank and the player it brought back to normal mode. |
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Designer: Ed Byrne