A warlord and his men tears through your once peaceful village and kidnaps the village elders. As the swordsman of the village, it's your duty to rescue the elders. A swordsman is calm and level-headed, but your mother is one of the elders kidnapped so you are filled with rage and vengeance. You must fight your way along the path to the warlord's camp defeating lowly grunts and their captains. Your journey will require you to make impactful decisions that affect your sanity.
This will be a third person hack and slash game.
A warlord and his army are rampaging through the Valley of Tolo subjugating villages to their rule. As expected, they tore through the main character's village, setting houses ablaze and kidnapping the village elders to ensure cooperation. The main character's mother is one of the elders. The player will be introduced to the backstory by an intro cutscene showing the village on fire and invaders ready to attack. The player will have to defend the village as the main character and fend off the invaders and one captain in a tutorial like level. Soon after defeating the straggling invaders and captain, the full backstory of the invasion in the Valley of Tolo and the kidnapped village elders (including the mother) is revealed through dialog from one of the village members. Following the path outside the village will lead the player to the warlord.
After the tutorial scene, it will mark the start of the player's journey to traverse along the path, find the warlord, defeat him, and rescue your mother and the village elders. The player must follow the path and defeat small satellite warlord camps along the way. Each satellite camp has a captain in charge of a small battalion of grunt warriors. At the end of the path, the player will find the warlord's main camp where the warlord himself resides along with the captured village elders.
The end story will depend on the player's actions throughout the game. If the player has chosen to kill the captains before and the warlord, then after rescuing the village elders, the main character is feared among your village and the mother is saddened by the fact that she no longer recognizes the main character because they have lost themselves.
If the player has chosen to spare the captains before and the warlord, then after rescuing the village elders the warlord makes a desperate attempt to save himself by severely wounding the mother and trying to escape only to be subdued by the captains that have been spared. The main character spends the last moments of the game talking to the dying mother and she expresses admiration and pride for the main character to stick with being a "good", morally just warrior.
Psy Shang - The main character the player will control. He is the magical swordsman tasked to defend his village in the Valley of Tolo. When the invaders kidnapped his village elders including his mother he vows to rescue them by defeating the warlord and soldiers! Captain Gun di (Tutorial Captain) - He was left in charge of burning the village houses. He is the first captain Psy Shang encounters in the village, not very adept at melee combat, and is quickly defeated. He can either be spared or killed. If he is spared he runs away form the village. Captain Gun Sho (First Captain) - He is the first captain Psy Shang encounters along the path in the first satellite Warlord camp. Captain Gun Ho (Second Captain) - He is the second captain Psy Shang encounters along the path in the second satellite Warlord camp. Warlord Gun Val Li Do - He is the Warlord who is in charge of the invaders and kidnapped the village elders and Psy's mother Grunt Warrior - Infantry melee unit for the invaders. Grunt warriors are the footsoldiers and are commanded by a captain. Grunt Archer - Specialized infantry units that are trained to shoot arrows. Grunt Archers are a special unit in that they are only present in the Warlord's main camp
The player must follow the path to the Warlord's main camp defeating Captains along the way in satellite camps. Along the path the player may randomly encounter grunt warrior patrols. There will be two satellite camps each with grunt warriors and captains. Grunt Warrior Patrols - A group of 4 Grunt Warriors randomly patrolling along the path. The player must defeat all 4 to continue on from the counter. Grunt Warrior Outer Satellite Camp Guards - A group of 8 Grunt Warriors at the entrance of a camp. Grunt Warrior Inner Satellite Camp Guards - A group of 12 Grunt Warriors at the inner quarters of the camp protecting the captain's quarters. Captain Encounter - At every camp after defeating the Outer and Inner Camp guards, there will be a captain. This essentially a mini boss battle with grunt warriors joining in every so often. At the end, the player will have a choice to kill or spare the captain. Grunt Archer and Warrior Outer Warlord Camp Guards - At the entrance of the Warlord's main camp there will be 4 archers and 8 warriors guarding the entrance to the main camp Grunt Warrior Inner Warlord Camp Guards - In the inner warlord camp, there will be 4 waves of 12 grunt warriors and 4 grunt archers and the player must defeat all the waves. Warlord Encounter - The final boss fight for the main character. There will be 2 different boss fight phases. The first is similar melee combat with the captains. After the first phase, the player will choose either to spare or kill the warlord.
- If Warlord is spared, the Warlord severely wounds your mother and you must defeat him and additional Warlord grunts. Any Captains you spared will help you during the second phase
- If the Warlord is killed, then there will 4 massive waves of grunt warriors + any captains you spared will have to be defeated
The setting takes place in a valley like region called Valley of Tolo. There are lots of pastoral scenery with trees, rivers, flowers, etc. There will be one gravel/beaten down linear path that takes the main character from their village to the satellite camps and to the warlord's main camp.
There will be a menu with "Play" and "Settings" buttons. When the "Play" button is selected the player is loaded into the last save point.
If this is the first time, then the intro cutscene will play panning over the burning village ending with the player about to be attacked by grunt warriors. There will be tooltips showing how the player can attack. After defeating the grunt warriors, the play will be introduced to the Tutorial Captain and defeat them. Then they will be introduced to the choice of sparing or killing showing their actions can have consequences.
When the game ends, the credits scene will play out and then the player can choose to restart the game over again or continue to play in the world defeating random encounters in an "open-world" style.
Fighting and combat will mostly be melee with the exception of the grunt archers.
- Grunt Warriors will have one basic melee attack.
- Grunt Archers will have one basic ranged attack.
At a high level, the player will have three quick attacks, one charged attack, and a block. The player will also have a "Psycho/Sane meter" keeping track of the player's decisions to Spare/Kill Captains and Warlord. When performing an attack there will be debuffs applied to enemies hit and buffs applied to the player depending on the "Psycho/Sane Meter".
- (Spare the Tutorial Captain) Blocking successful attacks gains a temporary shield for the player
- (Kill the Tutorial Captain) Charge attack charges faster and affects multiple enemies
- (Spare First Captain) The quick attacks apply lifesteal for the player, gaining some percent of health
- (Kill First Captain) The quick attacks apply a burn effect to enemies
- (Spare Second Captain) While charging up an attack, the player cannot be interrupted and the damage received during charge up is expelled in an area of effect after the charge attack is executed
- (Kill Second Captain) Blocking an attack now stuns an enemy temporarily
- (Spare Warlord) Every third attack on an enemy unleashes a powerful knockback effect and stunning enemies in a short area
- (Kill Warlord) Every third attack on an enemy unleashes a powerful flurry of quick attacks from the player in a short area, applying a burn effect, and heals the player
Tutorial Captain will have
- a basic melee attack
- a basic block.
First Captain will have
- 3 basic quick attacks
- Basic charge attack
- a block that knocks the player back and stuns when successfully parrying an attack
Second captain will have:
- 3 basic quick attacks
- basic block
- an unstoppable charge attack that deals damage in an area of effect applying burn.
Warlord will have:
- 3 quick attacks
- a charge attack that deals damage in an area and knocks the player back- a block that knocks the player back and stuns them
- The warlord's third quick attack can knock back the player and stun them.
Quick attacks refer to just three different phases of swing a sword. The final quick attack deals more damage and should apply any buffs/debuffs.
Charged attack requires a "charge up" time that can be interrupted. After a set delay, the charge attack is released and the damage depends on how long the charge attack was charged up for.
For most of the game, the player can walk around and explore.
When the player encounters a patrol or a fight, they are "locked" into a fight mode and cannot escape from a certain boundary. The player must either defeat the enemies or be defeated. This similar mechanic to random encounters and fights in the Yakuza game series.
The player will have a straightforward linear path.
- Defeat the Tutorial Captain and grunts
- Follow the path
- Defeat first satellite outer camp guards
- Defeat first satellite inner camp guards
- Defeat first captain
- Follow the path
- Defeat second satellite outer camp guards
- Defeat second satellite inner camp guards
- Defeat second captain
- Defeat Warlord main camp outer guards
- Defeat Warlord main camp inner guards
- Defeat Warlord first phase
- Defeat Warlord second phase
When Random Encounters are started,
- Enter fight phase
- The player is killed
- Restart at last savepoint/checkpoint
- The player defeats the enemies
- Exit fight phase
- Player object
- Sword
- Captain object
- Warlord object
- Enemies
- Grunt Warriors/Grunt archers
- Village elders and mother
- Arrow projectile
- WASD - Standard movement (or D-Pad)
- Mouse - look around/move camera (or Joystick)
- Rapid Left click - Execute quick attacks
- Hold left click - Execute charge attack
- Right click - block
- Escape - Pause/unpause
The entire game takes place in a valley with pastoral scenery with trees, a rivers, flowers, and one gravel/beaten down path. There will slight fog and bloom for aesthetic views. Along the path there will be two satellite camps with wooden walls and inside, tents and living quarters. The final warlord camp will have more fortified wooden (or stone) walls.
In the introduction, the player must defeat 4 grunt warriors about to attack. Then the player must defeat the Tutorial Captain.
The player must then follow the path outside the village to the Warlord's main camp.
When the player encounters a satellite camp, then the player must first defeat the camp outer guards, defeat the camp inner guards, and defeat the Captain.
When the player encounters the final Warlord main camp, the player must defeat the camp outer guards, defeat the camp inner guards, defeat first phase of Warlord boss battle, and defeat second phase of Warlord boss battle.
The style will be cartoonish/low poly look. Lots of green in the scenery. Attack animations will be vibrant and have cartoonish particle effects.
Assets will be found online. We have generic RPG characters for the grunts and would need five unique character assets for the main character, captains and Warlord. Here is a site I found with some free low poly assets https://quaternius.com/index.html
I can also buy a Japanese asset pack that I was originally planning to have the game look like. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/polygon-samurai-low-poly-3d-art-by-synty-89551#reviews
Music is important to set the mood of the game and keep the levels interesting. In the intro scene, there should be ominous music. Fight scenes should have energetic intense music. While exploring, there should be calm relaxing music. If there is an emotional scene like the ending of Psy Shang's mother dying, there should be sad/emotional music.
Additionally there should be appropriate sound effects for melee attacks and abilities for a satisfying experience.
I will try to find royalty free music on YouTube and other sites.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UTVEPeRi8mzUwuQ5h-bb6twU-ZMG552riPGn5JxSzV8/edit?usp=sharing
- Main Character controls
- Main Character skills
- Melee Combat system
- Kill/Spare system
- Captains
- Warlord
- First Phase
- Second Phase
- Grunts: Warriors and Archers
- Basic environment
- Game control flow implemented
- Captain special abilities
- Warlord special abilities
- Satellite camps
- Warlord Camp
- Village intro/tutorial scene
- Checkpoints
- Fight mode
- Basic UI
- Story and dialog introduced
- Basic endscenes
- Polish combat system
- Polish skills for Main Character/Warlord/Captain
- Polish any needed issues
- Ending cutscenes/story
- Polish UI
- Polished environment
- Polished fight mode
- Polished ability skills
- Polish any needed issues
- Polish environment
- Polish enemies
- Polish ending cutscenes
- Polish any needed issues
Later stages are unclear right now but I aim to have minimum functionality in the prototypes, receive feedback, and then polish/fix issues in the Alpha and Beta to have a full game by Goldmaster where final polishing is done