Flight - Game Design Document

A Game For PC and Macintosh
Copyright 2011 Duo Cat

Parlin Chan • Cecilia Irvine • Brittany Long • Luke Petrolekas • Jamie Tucker Flight – Game Design Document • 2.8.2011

From decades of war and pollution the Earth has become a deso-
late wasteland. No plants grow, and the air is thick with toxins.
Humans and most life have long since become extinct. Except for
one...

Game Overview
Pitch

As the player you patrol the barren wastelands of what is left of
this world. Your last mission in life is to bring the environment back
from the brink of destruction.


Game Overview The basic concept of this game is to offer the player an experience
to enjoy the experience of flight without the weight and demands of
Basic Concept mechanized aviation. Isolating the player and giving her the sense of
agency and capability to create change to return the planet to its natu-
ral habitat, correcting the errors of the past, most especially untethered
industrialization and the military-industrial complex.

Story The back story in the game is the Earth has been ravaged by pollution and
decay, brought about by industrialization, war and environmental neglect.
The player assumes control over Inua, the last human on the planet, who
must bring peace to the land and correct the errors of humanity by restoring
the ecosystem of the Earth so that the land can once again prosper.

The objective of the game will be introduced by overlaying text at the begin-
ning of the game, allowing the player to begin the game without the interfer-
ence of a cut scene.

The end result will be a land untainted by humankind and the remnants of
civilization overgrown by plants and inhabited by animals. The land will be
happy and abundant with life. At the end of the game when all your life force
is spent you leave Earth to exist on a higher plane.


Game Overview The tone of the game is designed to be a primarily relaxed expe-
rience, however in later levels architecture and geometry, along
Tone with enemies, will complicate the plot by introducing through
visual imagery how this imagined humanity collapsed from its own
industrialization; that is to say that the world will become more
dark and repressed.

Objective The objective of the game is to clear the planet of all the pollution
and pollution inducing agents in order to replenish the health of
the planet and return it to what it was prior to the existence of the
human race. To do so, Inua must spread out her very soul across
the land by gliding close to the Earth and nearly brushing the veg-
etation below. The particles absorb the toxins from the Earth and
destroy them, at the cost of Inua’s vitality. The only way to replen-
ish Inua’s vitality is to reach for the skies and to glide, high up in
the sky, beyond the clouds. Above the ever present clouds lies a
sea of tranquility. It is here that Inua finds her peace of mind and
the clear blue sky.


The Player is a young girl in her
mid-to-late-teens, named Inua, set
on a long and solo journey to heal
the polluted lands of Earth. She
has the power to convert her life
force into a healing essence that
allows the ravaged land and plants
to flourish, while chasing away the
pollution.
Game Overview
Character The name Inua comes from the
Inuit concept of ‘soul,’ similar to
manna. “For arctic people, human
and animals are equal - All life has
the same kind of soul or ‘life es-
sence’ (Inua).” (http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Inua)


After powering up (or booting), is there a title screen, what does it
look like, is there an options screen, what are the choices, is there
an animated sequence, can it be bypassed and how...

Upon boot, the title screen appears.

Gameplay
Walkthrough


When the game starts, the player is immediately thrust into the
game: the player must take immediate control of the glider that
faces a downward slope and attempt to put the glider into level
flight. Once the glider has reached level flight, the player will be
informed briefly of the goal and some brief back story which will
introduce the motivation for the goal. The text will also act as a
brief tutor, guiding the player through the controls.

In the tutorial, the player will be conditioned to perform the heal-
Gameplay ing action with the sound of subtle chimes, and a feedback loop
Walkthrough will be established associating the toxic areas with brown areas
of the coverage map and green areas with revitalized areas. To
encourage flight, healing can only be performed in the area
above the clouds. To reach the area, the player must hover over a
thermal, which if taken to the top, will take the player above the
clouds. The player also uses the thermal as an elevator, returing
Inua to a higher position, allowing the player to reach farther to
reach areas.

In the tutorial, the player will also learn about what items he as
available at his disposal to assist this process.


Opponents, such as predators and human machines of war, are
added to increase the difficulty of the game as the player pro-
ceeds to higher levels. The opponent will attempt to disrupt Inua
from following the path. If Inua comes into contact with the op-
ponent, her life force is reduced. The opponents are randomly
placed in the level. The only way she can get through them is
to fire laser at
the opponent,
which defeat it.
Gameplay Another type of
A.I. opponents are
environment, such
as wind and rain,
are added to slow
Inua down. They
do not reduce
her life force and
might affect cer-
tain ability that
Inua has.


Levels are constrained to a large boxed environment. For practi-
cality of setting limits the first level will be a mountain valley. With
the ceiling constrained by the altitude the air-vehicle is able to at-
tain. There is a heavy blanket of clouds above the landscape that
the player must punch through to be able to recharge their Life
Force Meter.

Example of a Level and Po-
Gameplay tential gameplay pattern.
Level Design The Player switches between
climbing for altitude and div-
ing towards the ground dis-
persing their Life Force.


The player will have two meters to monitor: the life force meter at the bot-
tom of the screen, and the coverage map. The life force meter will appear
when Inua heals the Earth and when she is up in the clouds recharging. The
coverage map will inform the player what areas of the map are complete and
which are still toxic. When the coverage map is clear of residual toxins, the
level is complete.

Game Interface
Camera and HUD

The game will be rendered as a one player 3D game viewed in third person.
The player will be situated in front of the camera, on her glider. The camera
will rotate slightly depending on the directional input from the controller to
give better sight to where the Player is flying.


The Player controls the glider’s altitude and direction by using the
arrow keys. The glider is in constant motion and the player cannot
directly control the speed. Two buttons are used for controlling
the Life Force of the player. By pressing Control on PC, Command
on Mac, and B on the
Microsoft 360 USB
controller, the player is
able to toggle their Life
Force dispensing on or
Game Interface off. The player’s attack,
Controls the Life Force LASER
is accessed by press-
ing the space bar and
the A button on the
controller. The menu is
accessable by pressing
Enter on the keyboard
and Start on the con-
troller.


Game Interface
Screen Flow


Flight - Game Design Document

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Flight - Game Design Document