Overview

Working Title: Fly or Fall

Concept Statement

You are a winged man escaping prison. Run or fly through various levels and environments. Don’t get shot down by the enemy minions as you are escaping or fly too close to the sun!

Genre

Platformer: the game will be made of small levels where the player must move between two points.

Concept Creation Process

Platformers were a good source of inspiration and a good model for my game because of their simple concept (move from point A to B, collect points, kill enemies, etc.). Since the genre is well-known, a platformer with intuitive controls would hopefully be easy to understand. However, I wanted a novel element to my game. For this, I took inspiration from Greek mythology. One of the more well-known Greek myths is that of Icarus and Daedalus, the son and father who escape from prison with wings made by Daedalus. Icarus ignored Daedalus’ warning to not fly too close to the sun lest the wax in his wings melt. His wings broke and Icarus fell to his death. This is where I got the idea of a flying player character and the setting.

The Fall of Icarus (Gowy, 1635–1637) gave me much inspiration

I was also inspired by the different levels of Sonic the Hedgehog. Each level looks like a different environment, making the game feel less repetitive. This is also a good way to make the game more enjoyable and is paired with slightly different level design for a good contrast between levels. I do want to explore using the background and environment to give more depth to the various parts of the game. Recreating a classical aesthetic is something that I am interested in.

An example of the varying level design in Sonic the Hedgehog™ Classic (SEGA, n.d.)

Since the protagonist could fly, I couldn’t simply have enemies that could only deal damage on the ground. There are many games where enemies use projectiles to deal damage to the player, but I was particularly inspired by the enemy skeletons of Minecraft because they use arrows as a weapon instead of shooting projectiles from their body. Having enemies with arrows would be keeping with a classical theme.

I was considering implementing a timer for the game, but have chosen against it because I don’t want to add another pressure to players while they are exploring levels and interacting with enemies.

Audience and Competitive Analysis

The intended audience of this game is casual players. This is because platforms in general require less learned skill than games from other genres, leading to their broad appeal. Platformers also lend themselves to causal play because they are not very fast-paced. I want Fly or Fall to be a game that is both novel but is also easy to grasp. The target age group is children and teens. This is due to the game not containing mature themes or being centred on violence. The game is supposed to be easy to begin with and have a slow learning curve, so children are able to play the game.

Fly or Fall borrows from other games and concepts. Although the idea is a novel spin on the platformer genre, it will still bear some similarities with other platformers. Games such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario are still played today due to their easy-to-learn gameplay. (The reason for their relative lack of popularity is due to the wider range of games available nowadays.) Other platformers such as Clive for Canberra (Emu War Games, n.d.) quickly peaked before dying out, partly due to its repetitive gameplay and lack of replay ability, but perhaps also due to its satirical graphics which bore little relevance after the 2019 federal election. I will get around this by trying to keep to a consistent aesthetic with some quality.

Game Treatment

The player starts the game in a room leading to a courtyard with no exit. Text in the background will introduce the player to the controls. The player will need to fly out of the courtyard (from left to right) to proceed. After this, there will be some obstacles in the air that will force the player to move closer to the Sun, introducing him to its danger: lowering the durability of the player’s wings. The following levels will introduce him to enemies. Enemies further on will be able to reach further into the air and with more accuracy. This, along with more complex level design later, will make the game more difficult for the player. There may possibly be player ability to fight the enemies in the later levels to counter their increased power.

The levels in the game will be split into a few main zones:

• The prison
• The Castle
• The Town
• The Sea

Emu War Games. (n.d.). Clive palmer: The humble meme. Android Apps on Google Play. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emuwargames.humblemememerchant

Gowy, J. P. (n.d.). The fall of icarus [Image]. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gowy-icaro-prado.jpg

SEGA. (n.d.). Sonic the hedgehog™ classic. Android Apps on Google Play. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sega.sonic1p