Untitled Document

INTRODUCTION

This document describes a game called "Kevin Maritato's Exaggerated Adventure: Based Loosely on a Poor Interpretation of Supposedly True Events", which will be a simple, 2D side-scroller. The game will employ sprite-based animation, tiled backgrounds, collision detection, physics, AI, side scrolling & gravity, efficient memory management, render threading, and more basic 2D game techniques.

TECHNOLOGY

Kevin Maritato's Exaggerated Adventure will be developed for the Windows Platform using a custom game engine developed by Kevin Maritato, based on the McKilla's Gorilla game engine, which is a bare-bones engine developed by Richard McKenna for rapid prototyping 2D games. DirectX will be used as the underlying rendering technology. Artwork will mostly borrowed, and what is created originally will be brutally simple, and so we'll simply use MS Paint.

BACK STORY

The date is February 25, 2008. The time is 1:25pm. Kevin Maritato, an ordinary student at Stony Brook Uniersity, has just finished his physics lab, and is waiting for the TA to sign the data that he has collected, so that he can go, and get lunch before his next class. Just as Kevin gets to the front of the line, the lab head runs up to the door. He tells tells the TA to lock the door, not to let anyone but him in, and to keep everyone away from the windows. Lockdown has been initiated. Checking his phone, Kevin sees that he has a text message, saying that an armed man has stolen a slice of pizza from the SAC, and fled toward Harriman Hall, which the Physics building is attached to. Knowing that he won't have time to eat before his next class if the suspect is not caught quickly, Kevin grabs a fire extinguisher, the closest thing to a weapon that he can find in the room (perfect for delivering a blinding blast of carbondyoxide to the face, or a hefty blow to the back of the head), and leaves the lab through the air ducts, determined to apprehend the thief himself and end this madness.

OBJECTIVE

Kevin only has fifteen minutes to complete his task. After that, the suspect will escape into the woods, and the police will have to shut down the campus for hours before they call off the search, which would leave Kevin with no time before his next class. He must, therefore, hurry through the Physics building, and Harriman Hall, which is attached, in pursuit of the suspect.

He will have to dodge security forces, who will return him to a safe "locked down" room, and fight the pizza theif's heavily armed minions on the way, using only his fire extinguisher, and his wits.

Once Kevin reaches the end of the game, if time has not run out, he will face the thief in one final confrontation.

GAMEPLAY

The game will work like a side scroller, with Kevin able to run left and right, and jump onto platforms and other surfaces such that we may scroll up and down. He can also crouch, and use the fire extinguisher to blind enemies, and security units, and in a melee attack against enemies.

Along the way, Kevin will find safe rooms, where his health and ammo will be fully restored. The first safe room will be the room where Kevin starts.

There will be several security units patrolling each area. It is there job to return students to safe areas of the campus. If Kevin moves into a security unit's line of sight (the area directly infront of the unit, shown by a yellow triangle), he will be returned to the last safe room that he reached, and he will be fully healed and restocked. He will not lose a life for this. Kevin can blind security units with the fire extinguisher's spray to avoid being seen by them.

Kevin will also encounter several types of enemies, minions of the pizza thief, in the game. Some will use melee attacks. These will run at Kevin to attack him. Others will attack Kevin from a range. Some of these will patrol an area, and others will not move. Kevin can blind enemies with the fire extinguisher's spray to prevent them from attacking him. He can also use a melee attack to knock them out (permanently).

When Kevin is hit by an enemy attack, his HP will decrease. If Kevin's HP reaches zero, he will be returned to the last safe room that he reached, and lose a life.

Kevin also has an ammo bar. This allows Kevin to use the spray attack on the fire extinguisher. If Kevin does not have any ammo lefft on the ammo bar, he will not be able to use the spray attack.

Kevin will find several types of items in the game. First aide kits will restore Kevin's health. Spare fire extinguishers, stored in boxes, will restore Kevin's ammo. Kevin can also collect pizza slices in the game. When he collects one hundred of these, he will earn an extra life. Kevin will also recieve and extra life instantly when he finds a whole pizza.

If Kevin reaches the end of the game before the timer, which is set for fifteen minutes when the game begins, reaches zero, he will have to fight the pizza thief. In order to win this battle, Kevin must hit the pizza thief enough times to bring the Boss' HP bar to zero. If Kevin does this, then the player wins the game, and the amount of time that the player had left will be recorded. If Kevin dies when he has zero extra lives, or if the timer reaches zero before Kevin reaches the end of the game, then the game is over, and the player loses. If the player loses, they will be returned to the main menu, so that they can play again.

CONTROLS

This game will be played using both a keyboard and mouse. The mouse will be used only for the game menu, however. Once started, use the following:

Z- Fire extinguisher spray
X - Melee attack
LEFT-ARROW - Move Left
RIGHT-ARROW - Move Right
Down-ARROW - Crouch.
SPACE - Jump
Enter- This pauses the game and presents a message, stating that the game is paused. If the game is paused, Enter unpauses the game. If a game is not in progress, Enter does nothing.

GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

As far as the GUI is concerned, if we consider

Splash Screen - The splash screen GUI simply presents a game logo and a Start button for the user to press when they are ready to play. Upon pressing it, some text will appear, on a black background, explaining the backstory of the game. The message "Press Enter to continue," will appear at the bottom of the screen. When Enter is pressed, the game will begin.

In-Game Menu - While the game is in progress, we'll always have a game menu that allows the player to select from the following options:
- Pause Game - This button is deactivated when a game is not in progress. If pressed, it will produce the same effect as the Enter key.
- Display Controls - If pressed, the game will display an info screen that includes a description of all game controls.
- Best Times - If pressed, the game will display an info screen with the fastest times for clearing the level.
- About - If pressed, the game will display an info screen with information about the game author.
- Exit - If pressed, the game will pause, if the game was in progress, and the game program will open a window, asking if the player really wants to exit the game. If they click yes, then the game will exit. If they click no, then the game will continue.

In-Game GUI - Once a game starts, the screen will fade in, to show Kevin in the Physics Lab. An animation will play, in which Kevin picks up the fire extinguisher next to him. The game will then begin. While playing the following will be displayed at all times:
- Time Remaining
- Number of pizza slices collected
- Number of lives remaining
- HP bar
- Ammo bar
In addition, at the end of the game, the time remaining counter will freeze, and a Boss' HP bar will appear, for the final boss fight.

ARTWORK

All artwork in the game will be original. The following needs to be created:

Kevin Maritato- Requires animations for:
- Walking Right
- Walking Left
- Jumping Right
- Jumping Left
- Jumping Up
- Crouching
- Using a Melee Attack
- Spraying the Fire Extinguisher
- Taking Damage
- Dying

Security Units - Borrowed artwork. Requires animations for:
- Walking Right
- Walking Left
- Catching Kevin
- Being blinded
Enemy Units - Borrowed artwork. The different types of enemies will vary slightly in their appearance, most likely based on color. Requires animations for:
- Walking Right
- Walking Left
- Jumping up
- Jumping left
- Jumping right
- Shooting ranged weapons
- Using a melee attack
- Being blinded
- Taking damage
- Dying

Pizza Thief- Borrowed artwork. Requires animations for:
- Walking Right
- Walking Left
- Jumping up
- Jumping left
- Jumping right
- Crouching
- Shooting ranged weapons
- Using a melee attack
- Being blinded
- Taking damage
- Dying

Power Ups and Items - These will be first aide symbols for health, boxes for ammo, pizza slices as collectable items, and whole pizzas as extra lives. These will use borrowed artwork.
Ceiling, Floor, & Wall Tiles - The campus will have multiple rooms with platforms to jump onto and off of. We'll use simple tiles for all walkable/collidable surfaces. These tiles will have to clearly define where the walkable surface is. The image on the tiles will vary for each area, and the artwork will be borrowed.