Game Design Document
By Genís Bayó and Lucas García
Cover of "Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara" (Capcom, 1996)
Our goal is to create a fighting game based, in some way, on the arcade game Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow over Mystara. We will use its art and ambientation to provide a gameplay experience that reminds of the legendary role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons.
We want to make a fun, dynamic and fast paced game that you can play with your friends, while beating the hell up of them and showcasing your skills, which screams... “Fighting game!”. To make it unique, though, we also wanted to make it accessible to newcomers, so that anyone can grab a controller and have a good time.
Every single mechanic must be cohesive with the rest in order to provide the best possible combat experience.
Our game must be accessible and simple enough so that a new player can win some matches after playing 3 or 4 times against an experienced one.
Ryu preforming a Hadouken from "Street Fighter 2 series" (Capcom, 1991)
Street Fighter 2. A tree can’t grow without roots. We will keep in mind this classic game in order to develop our very own character mechanics and movesets.
Cover of "Battlerite" (Stunlock Studios, 2016)
Battlerite. Thanks to its upgrading mechanic, each Battlerite round feels different and fresh, since it grants the option to adapt to the particular matches and oponents' playstyles. We will use an item-based system inspired on Battlerite’s, so that our game provides the same feel to our players.
It’s been a hell of a ride. Mercenaries, monsters, smelly tavern fights, poorly rewarded quests, losing the rest of your party… everything just to get to this goddamn treasure. Oh, and save the world from a basically inevitable destruction, of course! The only thing between you and your objectives are Synn, lord of the dragons, and this dude who dares to claim sharing your same goals. Show them who is the real boss here!
Artwork of the Fighter from "Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara" (Capcom, 1996)"
It’s been three days since the war started. The battlefield is covered in blood, and not even the slightest piece of land is safe from holding a knight’s dead body.
The thrill of battle is kept alive by the unmistakable sound of blades clashing in the frenzy of combat. Of a combat. Of a man. Of a hero. The last few standing forces attack coordinately, to set the slaughter into an end. One firm, blunt blow of a sword devastates the attackers, and they all fall against the ground, as their lives slowly perish away.
The Warrior, covered in blood, falls on his knees. He can’t help to notice the boiling-red river of blood that stands in front of him, feeding off the soldiers from both factions. One of them manages to whisper a last breath of words.
-Why did you not succumb? The Warrior, about to lose consciousness, mumbles:
-For honor…- he thrusts his sword into the blood river, as he leans on it.
-And glory.
Artwork of the Mage from "Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara" (Capcom, 1996)"
I was eleven years old. My sister and I were harvesting the few vegetables that had managed to grow that year when the orcs arrived. There were dozens of them, and they were armed and hungry. Everyone started panicking. I ran as fast as I could, while holding my sister’s hand, but she was too slow. An orc who was riding a huge boar grabbed her by her leg. My sister, who still had her sickle, stabbed the orc’s abdomen with it, who immediately let her go, making her roll on the floor for several meters before stopping, unconscious. The orc was furious. He dismounted, and approached my sister. He then raised his axe, and right when he was going to deal the killing blow… he was pierced by a lightning. The sky was clear. There wasn’t a single lonely cloud; it hadn’t rained for months. But there it was. An orc being struck by a lightning. More of them were coming. As I started running towards my sister, I hit something. An invisible wall, that didn’t let me advance. I looked around, and every single villager was covered in what seemed to be some sort of wind barrier. Then, he appeared, out of nowhere. He was wearing quirky robes, and a huge hat. He walked up to the middle of the village, drawing attention from all the orcs, who immediately started charging against him. He raised his arms, and whispered something. The last thing I remember was seeing a rain of igneous rocks, falling from the sky and slaughtering the orc tribe.
The next day, the mysterious mage summoned rain, and our vegetation magically grew, healthier and stronger than ever. We offered him all the rewards we could afford, but he only accepted an old book one of the villagers’ family had had for hundreds of years. Then, just as he appeared, he vanished.
Artwork of the Thief from "Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara" (Capcom, 1996)"
It's a cold night in the forest. All anyone can hear are the slight, quiet whistlings of the tree leaves dancing to a calm, sweet breeze, and the hushed murmurs of a group of mercenaries, conversing around a bonfire about what they will spend their generous reward on after they successfully escort the suspicious, but nevertheless wealthy dealer.
One of them stands up, it's time to guard shift. He then walks all the way to the back of the carriage, but his fellow is not there. It's too dark to see anything... anything except for a dim light he can't help to notice. It's coming from the chariot, where the priceless mercancy is supposed to be. He checks his surroundings; nothing. No one is there. Driven by curiosity, he carefully proceeds to open the curtain, just to reveal the lying corpses of the dealer and his partner. Bewildered, he runs back to the bonfire, to alarm the other mercenaries... but no one is there either. The last thing he sees is a blurred shadow, and the last thing he hears is the slight, quiet whistling of a knife’s blade.
Artwork of the Cleric from "Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara" (Capcom, 1996)
The baby is crying, and the whole village is on fire.
The baby is crying, but his mother isn’t moving.
One of the pirates finds him.
-Check this out guys! Looks like I found a new lil’ pal here! ...What’s up with all that noise up there?
With the baby on his arms, he goes upstairs. As he peeks through the door, he sees a bloodcurdling figure, so big it looks like a bear, surrounded by four fellow tripulants, and holding a mace of the size of a cannonball. Before he can say anything, he feels an oppression on his chest. The huge beast is looking at him with ferocious eyes. As he tries to draw his gun, the beast rapidly reacts. With a faster mace swing than what anyone would have expected, it takes down two of the pirates. It slams it against the floor, causing the other two to fall down. The pirate has now his gun in hand. Stunned, he desperately shoots. The bullet hits, but the beast still stands. The pirate takes a closer look, and sees how the monstrous man has what seem to be bullet wounds and saber slashes all over his body. With the baby still in his left hand, he starts running. He has to run. What is this monster? He goes back downstairs. He’s almost there, the door’s still open. He gets one feet out of the humble house, as he smiles... but he falls flat. The mace makes a tremulous noise as it crashes against the floor.
The Paladin goes downstairs, and picks the baby up, who’s crying got even louder with the sound the mace made. He puts him back in the cradle, and kneels in front of his mother’s dead body. After a blinding flash of light, the baby stops crying.
-What’s wrong, sweetheart? She says.
Ryu defeating Ken, from "Street Fighter 2 series" (Capcom, 1991)
This is the only kind of combat our game will dispose of. Players will confront each other in one-on-one duels until someone’s Health Points (HP) reach 0 or a certain time limit is exceeded.
Profile picture of the Twitter Account "Best of 5"
1vs1 matches will be best of 3 based. Whichever player first extinguishes their opponent’s HP, or the healthier one after the time ends, wins the round. Whoever wins 2 rounds, wins the encounter. If both players’ HP reach 0, the match results into a tie, and they both get a round. If both players win 3 rounds due to a tie, they fight again until someone wins a round and, therefore, the match.
Both players can pick the same character.
Scheme done with the art of "Street Fighter 2 series" (Capcom, 1991)
The player will be able to move left, right, crouch and jump (backwards, upwards or forward). Characters are unable to move while crouching, but they still can block and attack.
Scheme done with the art of "Skullgirls (Reverge Labs, 2012)
Characters will always face their opponent, which means that their front and back “sides” constantly change depending on their position. Moves are always directed towards the direction the character is facing.
Screenshots of "Street Fighter 2 series" (Capcom, 1991)
Blocking is performed by moving back (standing block) or down + back (crouching block) while an attack is being performed at a certain distance.
Some attacks must be blocked either while standing (overheads) or crouching (lows), and some of them can be blocked either way (mids). If an attack is blocked, it deals considerably reduced damage.
Chun Li and Ryu fighting from "Street Fighter 2 series" (Capcom, 1991)
When a character is knocked down, it first remains in the air, in a state where it can still be hit (juggle state). When it hits the ground, it remains laying there for a moment and then stands up, being unable to neither attack nor be attacked during the process.
To avoid infinite combos, characters can not enter juggle state again if it's already active.
The super gauge is a bar filled by both attacking and being attacked. If an attack connects, more “super points” are received, lowered on blocked attacks. Once the super gauge is completely filled, the character’s super move can be used.
We will now describe all the non-basic movement actions. Most of them consist of attacks that harm the player, but they can also have other purposes.
Screenshot of "Skullgirls (Reverge Labs, 2012)
Basic attacks have no special properties. They usually consist of punches, kicks and weapon strikes. The player can execute either light or heavy basic attacks; heavier attacks being slower, wider, dealing more damage and having a longer hitstun (more on that later), and lighter attacks being faster but narrower, dealing a lower amount of damage and having a shorter hitstun. In our game, attacks change depending on the characters’ state (idling, jumping or crouching). Considering each character has a heavy and a light attack, this gives us a total of 6 basic attacks per character.
Regardless of being heavy or light, all attacks share the same properties:
Picture of a magnifying glass and a book
Startup: Amount of frames in which the attack comes out once the player executes it.
Active frames: Amount of frames in which the attack’s hitbox remains active.
Hitstun: Amount of frames in which the opponent can’t move if they got hit.
Blockstun: Amount of frames in which the opponent can’t move if they have blocked the attack.
Pushhit: Distance that the opponent is moved when they get hit.
Pushblock: Distance that the opponent is moved when they block.
Recovery: Amount of frames in which the player can’t move once the active frames are over.
Knockdown: Indicates whether or not the opponent is knocked down by the attack.
Low/Mid/Overhead: Indicates if the attack hits Low, Mid or Overhead.
Range: How far the attack reaches.
Damage: Amount of life that the opponent loses if the attack hits him.
Special moves are what really make characters unique. They can consist of a wide variety of actions: tackles, projectiles, defensive moves (counter attacks), special movements (dashes, double jumps... ), etc.
Since each character has two special attacks, which also change depending on the state, they have a total of 6 special moves. They share some properties with Basic Attacks, but since they are so unique there’s no use in describing them all here. Therefore, they will be further explained in the movelists section.
Guile and Sagat fighting from "Street Fighter 2 series" (Capcom, 1991)
Grabs are close range attacks that can not be blocked. Their main purpose is to be able to punish opponents who use block too much. They always knock the enemy down, but their recovery prevent the player from being able to attack while the enemy is airborne.
Beowulf preforming a super from "Skullgirls (Reverge Labs, 2012)
Supers can only be performed when the super gauge is filled. They are really powerful moves, and every character has its own.
Canceling means starting a move during the recovery time of another one (if it’s an attack, it must have connected first, even if it has been blocked), resulting on the recovery animation of the previous one getting skipped. Not all moves are cancelable, though. In our game, all basic attacks can be canceled into special moves, and both basic attacks and special moves can be canceled into super ones.
This can lead to unavoidable combinations of attacks (combos) or other strategies.
Combat between Luigi and Bowser in "Super Smash Bros 4" (Nintendo, 2014)
The camera will zoom in up to a minimum distance and zoom out up to a maximum one, depending on the separation of the players.
DISCLAIMER: All the sprites used to produce the attack examples in the "Character Mechanics" section are from "Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara" (Capcom, 1996)"
In this part of the document, all the movesets for the different characters will be explained with detail. Attack properties (startup, recovery, damage, range…) will not be put with 100% accuracy, as it’s not possible to know them without testing the game first; but numbers from 1-6 (where 1 is really low and 6 is really high) will represent the values of the different properties. The red boxes in the attack examples are the colliders that should be used for the respective attacks.
Due to similar reasons, characters' stat values will be decided later on in the development process.
The Warrior is the most balanced character in what moveset refers. He can play both an offensive and/or zoning game, thanks to his solid heavy attacks and projectile.
Move speed: 4 Jump speed: 4 Jump arc: Average Life: 5
Standing light attack
Standing heavy attack
Crouching light attack
Crouching heavy attack
Jumping light attack
Jumping heavy attack
Standing special 1, Dagger throw: The Warrior throws a dagger. While it is in the scree, no other dagger can be thrown; and if it collides with another projectile both of them will disappear (unless it is a Mage's fireball, in which case only the dagger will). Comes out fast, travels fast and recovers fast, but doesn’t do much damage.
Standing special 2, Bladestorm: The Warrior starts spinning with his sword, while traveling forward, avoiding all kinds of projectiles and dealing massive damage, but starts and recovers slowly. It hits multiple times
Crouching special 1, Charge: A tackle with the sword that travels more distance than the “Standing special 2”, has less recovery and leaves the opponent airborne to follow up with other attacks.
Crouching special 2, Swordyuken: An invincible upper slash with the sword that can be used as an anti air. If blocked, it can be severely punished.
Jumping special 1, Glory fall: A dive kick that modifies the expected jump trajectory.
Jumping special 2, Cross slash: A jump stab whose hitbox is behind the Warrior, useful to cross the opponent while airborne and forcing them to quickly change the guard.
Thirst for blood: The Warrior tackles forward with the sword really quickly. If the attack connects, an animation will start in which he will deliver several, powerful blows.
The Mage is the zoning character. He moves slow and has few options up close, but excels from the distance. His playstyle is based around keeping his enemy away with long ranged attacks
Move speed: 2 Jump speed: 2 Jump arc: Wide Life: 4
Standing light attack
Standing heavy attack
Crouching light attack
Crouching heavy attack
Jumping light attack
Jumping heavy attack
Standing special 1, Fireball: A fireball that does considerable damage and travels slow enough to be followed up with pressure after using it.
Standing special 2, Pillar of flames: A pillar of flames that will come out at a certain distance. If blocked it will leave the Mage at advantage (high blockstun).
Crouching special 1, Lightning bolt: A lightning bolt directed upwards diagonally intended to be used as an anti air or combo extender.
Crouching special 2, Arcane seal: Places an arcane symbol on the ground, which can be detonated by using the same input. The explosion will hit if the enemy is in contact with the ground as well.
Jumping special 1, Dive-fireball: A fireball similar to the one that is thrown in the standing special 1, but it travels diagonally and it pushes the Mage backwards.
Jumping special 2, Double jump: A double jump.
Apocalypsis: A rain of meteors that affects both lanes.
The Rogue is the offense based character. She is not capable of playing a zoning game but has lots of tools to open up the defenses of the opponent, and once she gets in, she has really good pressure up close.
Move speed: 6 Jump speed: 5 Jump arc: Narrow Life: 3
Standing light attack
Standing heavy attack
Crouching light attack
Crouching heavy attack It is a slide that moves the character forward
Jumping light attack
Jumping heavy attack
Standing special 1, Fetch it: A knife is thrown in the air, which follows a narrow parabolic trajectory. It is a useful tool to pressure, as the Rogue can keep attacking but the opponent has to keep in mind where the knife is falling.
Standing special 2, Sword dance: This is a Rekka move, which consists of 3 different consecutive strikes. The player has to press the special three times with the correct timing in order to perform each phase of the chain.
The first part is similar to the standing heavy attack, but it moves the Rogue a bit forward. The second part is an overhead move, and the third one is a powerful kick that knocks down the opponent. These moves should be able to naturally combo.
Last but not least, the player can cancel any of the Rekka's individual moves into any other of his specials.
Crouching special 1, Roll: An evasive maneuver that travels forward and grants invincibility, but does not deal any damage.
Crouching special 2, Cross kick: A grounded dash at the end of which the Rogue performs a kick. If it has crossed the opponent, the kick will be directed towards them anyways.
Jumping special 1, Arrow shot: An arrow shot that travels diagonally with a wide angle respect to the ground. If thrown from the maximum height, the Rogue should still be able to airdash after it.
Jumping special 2, Airdash: An airdash.
Death's dance: A power up mode in which the Rogue is faster and has a reduced recovery time on her moves.
The Paladin is a heavy style support character. He has good defensive options and abilities that allow him to help his teammate more than any other character, but has a hard time opening up the opponent.
Move speed: 2 Jump speed: 3 Jump arc: Average Life: 6
Standing light attack Far reaching
Standing heavy attack Can be used as a reliable anti air
Crouching light attack Far reaching
Crouching heavy attack Should come out fast and have low range
Jumping light attack
Jumping heavy attack
Standing special 1, Boomacerang: A mace throw that will behave like a boomerang, beign able to hit when it's traveling fordward or when it's returning back, but not both. It will always travel the same distance before coming back.
Standing special 2, Holy mark: A counter move, in which the character will enter a defensive stance and then, if attacked, counter attack. If he is not attacked during the counter state he can be punished. The character can be grabbed while in the counter state.
If the counter is successful, the opponent will be marked, and if the Paladin or his ally hit the opponent while marked, the attacker will be healed.
Crouching special 1, Charge of faith: A tackle with the shield that can bypass projectiles if timed correctly. It does not travel much distance but it has not much recovery either and provides a favorable knockdown.
Crouching special 2, Ground slam: A heavy hit against the floor that is punishable if blocked up close but not if spaced correctly. If it hits the enemy it should launch them into the air, which should allow the Paladin to confirm Boomacerang or Charge of faith.
Jumping special 1, Sacred light: An air projectile that travels horizontally and slowly. It should only be thrown from the highest point of the jump's arc.
Jumping special 2, Air slam: A vertical slam into the ground that knocks the opponent. It should have a lot of recovery, but also enough blockstun in order for it to be safe on block.
Last stand: The Paladin can heal his ally or himself at the cost of his super gauge, which will slowly decay upon use. If he performs a quarter circle forward motion, the Paladin starts a channeling which can last until the gauge is over and heals himself. On the other hand, if he does it backwards, he can heal his ally. If the ally is dead and the Paladin has all the super gauge, he will instantly revive his ally with 20% of his total life instead. Any source of damage will interrupt the channeling.
Teemo from "League of Legends" (Riot, 2009) artwork, by Tvonn9 on DeviantArt
At the beginning of each match, players can choose one of two items that improve their character's abilities.
Plate helm: Allows you to cancel your divekick by pressing the Special Button again.
The dragon Slayer: You can now throw three daggers at the same time, and they still deal damage upon being blocked.
Wizard hat: You can charge your Fireball, resulting in a bigger and faster one that also deals more damage, even when being blocked.
Elemental staff: After using Fireball, you can cast a second, slower one.
Thief hood: After using Airdash backwards, gain 1 second of invisibility.
Storm dagger: Gain a short boost of movement speed upon using Roll.
Holy crown: Catching your mace grants a quickly decaying shield.
Purifying mace: Using your super grants you a quickly decaying shield.
Players will use an Xbox controller. The default controls will be the following:
Monetization plan: The game would feature a pay-to-play monetization model, and it would be quite affordable so that our target audience is encouraged to buy it. We would also release some purchasable DLC’s with new characters for the roaster.