Pulling Strings Concept

Working Title: Pulling Strings

Concept statement: A band of spiders will follow their dreams to become rock n roll legends, however not everyone in the forest is a fan. Strum and slam your guitar and ward off these stage crashers and insure you spot in rock history.

Genre: Arcade shoot ‘em up

Concept process: This game is based on Space Invaders (1978) style shoot ‘em ups with extra enemies coming in from the sides. The player will be a spider with a guitar fighting off creatures trying to stop their band's perfomence. The concept of a spider playing a guitar came about when I was listening through my interests until I mixed rock music with spider-based characters like Spider-Man ('Amazing Fantasy', 1962). With this I chose to make the setting in the forest but with a modern twist where the bug world is like a smaller human world but made of nature. The cast being primarily made of bugs was inspired by the game Hollow Knight (2017) and would allow for simple designs, the art style would resemble schoolbook sketches which would be easy to draw while also giving a unique and nostalgic style. Earlier levels would have slower moving enemies like worms coming from the sides and butterflies from the top but would later become faster creatures at later levels like birds while introducing hazards on the stage. The idea for combat is to ward off flying enemies with soundwaves from the player's guitar and slam the guitar down on grounded enemies.   

Audience and competitive analysis: The target Audience would be for a casual audience who like single player arcade-like games and don't mind a challenge. The game would provide a level based system which increases in difficulty and progresses the story every level. It will have an art style similar to a sketch which may bring in younger audiences but also give some nostalgic vibes to older audiences. The concept may be more interesting for male audiences but I can try to adjust the art style to have more cute or expressive looking characters. Its story will be told visually through title cards so the story can be told regardless of a persons literacy skills. 

Game treatment and concept art: 

level 1 will be a basic flat stage where worms will squirm in slowly from the sides while butterflies float in from the sky. This level will teach the basics of the game.

Level 2 will have a slope with beetles rolling through and wasps who move faster than the butterflies. I may switch levels two and three depending on how the player moves on this level.

Level 3 is a sandy area where termites will build nests which you have to break with the slam attack and moths speed up over time.

Level 4 is a water level where the player jumps from lily pad to lily pad as a large frog pulls them down and leaves smaller frogs on which have to be hit off.  Dragonflies are the flying enemies for this level and will move differently from other flying enemies as they will move in a zig-zag motion. 

Level 5 is a boss fight against a giant bird who has several attacks such as shooting seeds, slashing with its claws and creating winds to move the player. As the bosses health lowers the stage will change.

Style: Looks like a high school sketch inspired by old flash games such as fancy pants adventures (2006). This style will allow me to make my own assets faster without having to focus on consistency as character's animations will purposely look rough. I decided to be messy with the colouring of characters and colouring outside the lines as to make it look more like a drawing made by someone young and I think it complements the rock theme as it can be seen as being loud visually while doing something different from the colouring of the stage which will remain inside the outline. 

Story:

The game starts with a menu featuring the band hanging out, when the game starts the band is about to perform while some devious shadows in the background being the worms and butterflies.

After level 1 the band sets up on a wooden stage with Beatles and wasps watching from atop a hill. 

After level 2 the band sets up with a moth paying some termites in wood to disrupt the performance.

After level 3 the spiders are ready to play while dragonflies bring in a hungry frog on a leash.

After level 4 the spiders play on a big stage but wake up a sleeping bird far above them.

After level 5 it shows the band standing together in front of a statue of themselves.

Combat: There are two primary attacks, soundwaves and slam. Sound Waves are used to drive away flying enemies and stun grounded ones, this attack is aimed with the mouse which will be shown in game as a crosshair and fired with a left click. The slam knocks grounded enemies back into the crowd; it has a medium reach as it is launched from a string and is activated with a button, it may be space or down. The player will have the ability to jump. The player has a limited number of super attacks per level which when activated clears the screen of all enemies. Defeated enemies will have lightning bolts come off their bodies during impact with the player or with the player's attacks and will get launched offstage with stars above their heads.   

Multiple difficulties: I may include multiple difficulties as well as an endless mode. Higher difficulties would lower the  player's health and increase the enemies' frequency while also increasing the amount of hits they can take. The endless mode would spawn enemies who would get faster and the game goes on, this mode would include a timer and score. A level select would also be included if someone wishes to start at a stage they already reached. 

Sound: The sounds needed are a strum for the guitar, a slam sound and a sound for defeated enemies. The music for the game would be rock instrumentals which matched the theme of the stage. The final boss would also have its own sounds, bird sounds and for attacks.

Settings:  The settings feature a sliding bar for the volume of the sound and one for the music. A mute button for both sound and music would also be present.

References:

Hollow Knight. (2017). PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox one [Game]. Adelaide, South Australia : Team Cherry

The Fancy Pants  Adventure. (2006) PC [Game]. America : Armor Games

Space Invaders. (1978)  Arcade [Game] Japan : Taito

Stan Lee, Steve Ditko. 'Amazing Fantasy #15' (1962). Amazing Fantasy, 10 August