# Alien's Journey: Escape - Game Design Document

### By Team B
André Lima, [e-mail]
Bernardo Moreira, [e-mail]
Bernardo Santos, [e-mail]
Carlos Albuquerque, [e-mail]
Cláudia Mamede, [e-mail]
Johannes Niermann, [e-mail]
Sofia Monteiro, [e-mail]

## Introduction

This Game Design Document was developed exclusively for the game Alien's Journey: Escape, which is being developed by the above meantioned team.
It aims to explain and present the key aspects of the mentioned game's design and record relevant information regarding the development and the ideas behind the game. It is also a mean of communicating our idea, mechanics and decisions, both between the team and with other stakeholders (supervisors, publishers, users, etc.).
Therefore, this document is subject to Copyright and can not be used by third parties without previous consent from the team.

## Index

1. [Story](#Story) - story overview
1. [Character](#Character) - character information on abilities and items
1. [Concept Art](#Concept-Art) - gallery of concept art created for the game
1. [Game Engine](#Game-Engine) - game engine and technical information
1. [Game Interface](#Game-Interface) - game interface description and examples
1. [Game Level Design](#Game-Level-Design) - game level design concepts and analysis
1. [Game World](#Game-World) - game world description
1. [Project Management](#Project-Management) - project management practices
1. [Project Plan](#Project-Plan) - project plan
1. [Test Plan](#Test-Plan) - plan for tests and quality assurance

___
## Story
An Alien wakes up inside a cryo chamber in Area 51. It does not know where he is or what is happening, but it is conscious and able to move. Weird thing... It should have been completely dormant so the scientists could make some experiments. They are looking for a way to make use of the Alien's skin: a hard material, but still quite malleable, that could be of great military use.

The Alien can see through the icy glass and prepares for a breakthrough. It starts moving slowly to warm up his muscles while remaining unnoticed by the scientists in the room. Suddenly, with a strong and piercing punch, the Alien breaks the chamber and escapes that icy environment. Its body quickly warms up in response to the huge alarm one of the scientists fired. It can sense strong footsteps and metallic sounds across the walls, the facility soldiers are being deployed to neutralize the Alien.

Quite curiously, the Alien does not remember what happened before awaking up imprisoned. Some experiment might have wiped its memory in a futile effort to understand the cerebral activity of an extra terrestrial being. Why are humans always so intrusive? Why can not they just accept that there are different beings and coexist happily? Certainly there must be reports about the Alien's capture, somewhere in this huge facilities crawling with soldiers.

The scientists are running away as fast as they can. The Alien did not seem aggressive at first, but as the soldiers shot it something changed... It seems to be in a limbo between becoming complete evil, and killing everyone, or just surviving the soldiers to find a way out. The Alien manages to take down a guard with a strong kick and quickly understands how to handle his assault rifle.

After sweeping the first underground level in search of some clue, some remnant of his memory, it enters an elevator to the second underground level, where it finds an incomplete report on a big metallic flying machine. The Alien briefly remembered it was flying its ship before being captured. That is its way out, the Alien must find out where its spaceship is stored to escape. I wonder if it does have some sort of telepathic connection to the ship, you never know with these alienist beings.

The Alien's journey is just starting. The first goal: to escape Area 51. Where is the Alien from? Why did it get arrested? The answers are somewhere inside the facilities. Are you ready to step into the Alien's shoes and survive human efforts to stop you? Will you be able to uncover every secret lying around Area 51? We will see...

___
## Character

<img style="float: right;" src="https://i.imgur.com/V83mwc7.png">

### Our player, Alien

Alien is an extraterrestrial who was searching for new adventures and other ways of living. He was flying over the Earth, when, accidentally, caught Area 51 scientists' attention. He was captured, sedated, and used for researches. (Un)fortunately, one of those experiments went wrong and Alien was able to break its capsule. He now has to balance its emotions and try to escape, using its superpowers and the weapons he finds along the way. He must avoid killing innocent scientists due to its moral conduct. Its main goal is to get to its spaceship, defeating the soldiers that secure the building, and try to stop him from being successful.
Alien is super smart and a quick learner so he will easily learn how to shoot, how to open doors, and its gut feeling will guide him to Area 51's exit.

### Powerups
* **Hearth**: give it extra points of life (20 at the moment, but subject to change)
* **Invencible**: make it invincible for 5 seconds

### Mechanics
**Movement**: The player is free to walk around in both levels. The Alien can run in all directions (using arrows or keys WASD), and the movement is continuous. He should dodge obstacles in order to move faster. He is able to wall-run: it occurs when the player runs along a straight wall while in contact with it; he will be accelerated to a speed that is greater than normally attainable. The player can also make a regular jump or jump off the wall (key SPACE) to reach some platforms. Moving is important not only to perform other actions but also to run away from the enemies.

**Shoot**: The player can collect up to 4 weapons (key E), drop them (key Q), and switch between them (using scroll wheel). He can shoot soldiers and scientists (mouse left-click). After killing a soldier, the Alien can collect his weapon as well. The player can also reload his weapon if he has enough ammo (key R).

**Melee**: The player can kick other characters if they are in close range (mouse right-click).

**Skin color**: The Alien starts the game with a white-blue color. Along the way, he will find scientists and the player should decide whether to kill them or not. The Alien will be moving fast, so it takes skill to kill the soldiers and avoid the scientists. If the Alien kills half of the level's scientists, its color will change to black-red.

**Other interactions w/ level**: The player can unlock doors and activate other actions (key E); in both cases, the Alien will receive feedback (the control panels of the tables will switch colors). While exploring the levels, the player will also activate/deactivate doors that will automatically open/close along the way.

<br><br>

<img style="float: left; margin-right: 3rem;" src="https://i.imgur.com/cXVgTwm.png">

### The scientist
Scientists are under pressure and should report new information about life outside Earth as soon as possible. After capturing the Alien, they tried to extract as much data as possible without causing him any harm, but they failed to conclude the investigations. Some government orders stated that the Alien should be kept hostage until new information was received, so they had to lock Area 51 to prevent an escape. Scientists are smart, but they are not good with weapons, so the only thing they can do is run away.

### Abilities
Scientists can be in 3 different states:
* **Working**: if the Alien is far away from them
* **Terrified**: if they are in the same room as the Alien
* **Running**: is they are near the Alien

<br><br><br><br><br>

<img style="float: right;" src="https://i.imgur.com/W53QANG.png">

### The soldiers
Special forces soldiers, ruthless killers trained to show no mercy. They follow orders without questions and they were told to secure Area 51 and capture the Alien, dead or alive. The soldiers don't care about what's around them, and their only focus is the Alien.

### Abilities
Soldiers have 3 different states:
* **Patrolling**: if the Alien is far away from them
* **Chasing**: if the Alien is near them
* **Attack**: they can shoot the Alien or if he is too near, they can perform a melee attack

<br><br>

___
## Concept Art

A showcase of some of the game's artwork is presented below. Everything that you see here was drawn and developed by Sofia, the team's awesome 3D modeller!

### Game cover
### Shaders used to make the star background
### General composition of the scenery

### Character Design: The Alien
### Artwork and concept
### Model outline
### Alien Head and Chest Details
### Alien Evil Colors
### Alien Armature

### Character Design: The Soldier
### Artwork and concept
### Structure and seams
### Texture
### Armature

### Character Design: The Scientist
### Artwork and concept
### Structure and seams
### Texture
### Armature

### Level Design: Level One (Underground labs)
### Beginning of the level where the Alien escapes
### Main corridors
### Wall run tutorial room
### Other lab rooms
### Study rooms
### Map
### Material assignment to substitute the textures
### Face orientation as not to show transparencies in the game

### Level Design: Level Two (The Hangar)
### Corridor entrance to the hangar
### General view of the hangar
### Lower floor viewpoint
### Terminal to activate the Ship
### Escape
### Map
### Material assignment to substitute the textures
### Face orientation as not to show transparencies in the game

### Asset Design: Heal pick up / Invencibility Pick up

### Left: Health / Right: invencibility

___
## Game Engine
The game engine chosen to develop the project was __Unity__. The team chose this among all other possibilities not only because it is a beginner friendly game engine with tons of resources available online, but also because all four of the team's developers had experience with it.

### Sound Integration
To make the sound integration easier, we opted to use FMOD and its FMOD for Unity package. This allowed us to quickly implement almost every sound in just a few clicks. Some of the sounds were implemented directly through the FMOD Unity component's, while others were controlled programatically (e.g. the footsteps whose frequency depends on the speed of the player).

The sounds used were either recorded, downloaded samples or synthesized. Some were also edited using Ableton and Cakewalk before being imported into FMOD. It was in FMOD that more effects were applied to the sound events (e.g. looping, randomization and parameterization).

### Animation Integration
Animation integration was made through Unity's built-in animator. The models were exported along side the animations to `.fbx` and then imported to Unity where we further configured them. We made use of animation events and blend trees for a more fluid experience.

The models were developed using Blender and animated through Mixamo's online platform.

___
## Game Interface

The user interface in _Alien's Journey: Escape_ is simple and intuitive.

### Menus and Screens
The __Main Menu__ is the first place where the user is met with an interface. In order to capture the player's interest, we decided to use a flashy image as a background for this menu. When it comes to options, the player can choose among the following:
- Play: start playing the game
- Options: opens the __Options Menu__
- Quit: quit the game


The __Pause Menu__ is shown to the player when he pauses the game, and present three choices to the player:
- Resume: resumes the game
- Options: opens the __Options Menu__
- Back To Menu: discard the current progress and return to the __Main Menu__


The __Options Menu__ is accessed either from the __Main Menu__ or the __Pause Menu__, it allows the player to tweak:
- Music Volume
- Sound Effects Volume
- Mouse Sensitivity


The __Death Screen__ is displayed when the player dies and it offers two choices:
- Respawn: player respawns at the beginning of the current level
- Back To Menu: discard the current progress and return to the __Main Menu__


### In-Game Interface
While playing the following information is presented to the player:
- HP: the amount of health points the player has
- Weapons List: what weapons the player is carrying
- Equipped Weapon
- Name: name of the currently equipped weapon
- Clip: number of rounds the player has in the clip
- Ammo: number of extra rounds the player has
- Horizontal and Vertical Speeds


When the player picks up a power-up, the GUI also shows the power-up's icon while the effects are active.


If the player takes any damage, the borders of the screen will turn red in order to give him feedback.


During the game the player has to interact with two control modules, and even though we added some visual cues, we still decided to display a very short text telling the player how to interact with this objects.


___
## Game Level Design

In this section we explain the rationale behind some of the level design decisions. We also try to point out some of the most relevant aspects of the levels that may pass unnoticed.

### Level 1

<p align="center">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/VVEgRxn.png" alt="Level 1 design"/>
</p>

The first level works as a fluid tutorial. While it does not tell the player directly what he needs to do, it guides the player to explore some of the mechanics of the game.
The level portrays the basement floor of Area 51. It consists of 4 big rooms and an elevator that allows access to the next level. Rooms are connected through a couple of corridors. The Alien begins its journey in the main room, where it meets several scientists. There is a weapon lying around so the player can fight the soldiers in the first corridor.
The red line on the figure above represents a locked door. The player can only progress through the level if they complete the wall running tutorial. This way we indirectly force the player to practice this movement mechanic. The wall running room looks like this:

<p align="center">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/B27hMJG.png" alt="Wall run room"/>
</p>

Jumping is not enough to get on top of the first ramp. Therefore, the player has the chance to practice wall running in this initial obstacle. Afterwards, we decided to make the second platform a bit shorter to force the player to jump while wall running. This also allows the player to try out air movement, in which they can control and even accelerate while in mid-air.
Once the player activates the red lighted console (behind the soldier in the picture above), the door is unlocked and gives access to the rest of the level. The remaining doors of this level open automatically to make the military base feel futuristic.
The remaining two rooms are merely exploratory, each containing a soldier and some scientists. In these rooms, there might be some weapons and even collectable lore (which we did not implement for this prototype) to incentivize exploration. The elevator, which is the player's goal in this level, is playing music to catch the player's attention and provide an audio clue to where the player is supposed to go. This music can be listened when the player gets to the elevator corridor.

### Transition between levels (cutscene)
A cutscene was created for the transition between levels. The Alien enters the elevator and his position remains fixed while the cameras travel around its body to show the Alien's entire structure. The elevator soundtrack is happy and light to give the player a small break from all the tension of the game.
The elevator includes a mirror, not only to feel more authentic, but also to show the Alien's current colors (it can be either normal or evil)


### Last level

<p align="center">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/PTeRlEY.png" alt="Level 2 design"/>
</p>

We decided to implement the first and last levels for this prototype to provide a small tutorial and then a more complete experience of what the game would feel like.
The last level pictures the exterior of Area 51. There are several empty warehouses to make the space more authentic. However, the player can only play inside the one with its spaceship. To ensure that, we created an invisible wall between the warehouse and the crane.
This level is wider and more open to allow the player to explore different possibilities to traverse it and take down the enemies.

<p align="center">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/JdF90Cz.png" alt="Level 2 main room"/>
</p>

The goal of the player is to escape, so it has to find a way to activate the Alien's spaceship. This can be accomplished by activating the control panels at the left of the ship (in the image it appears above the ship). If the player gets close to the panels, he or she will either be prompted to clear the room first (i.e. to kill all soldiers in the hangar) or, if the player has already done so, to press *E* to activate the spaceship and escape.
Note that the player is never required to kill the scientists, as that represents part of the morality system in place.

___
## Game World

The game takes place in Area 51, a highly classified United States Air Force facility in Nevada. We chose this location because of the well known conspiracies that extra terrestrial events were handled in Area 51. It was actually part of our original idea behind the game: we wanted something goofy and old, so after some iterations we ended up picking up the conspiracies behind Area 51 as the basis of our game.

Being an advanced research facility, it includes a lot of electronic elements and metallic touches which give it that characteristic modern and high-tech feel. The doors, the control panels, the wall patterns, all of it is trying to make the place feel futuristic, appropriate for the science fiction theme of the game.

Most of the levels are actually underground, so we chose a somewhat dark and mysterious environment. There are just enough lights to make it playable and easy to perceive, but the whole ambient, including the ambient sounds with some random instrument noises, is intended to make the player uncomfortable and out of home, just like the Alien they are playing as.

An imprisoned Alien makes all the sense in this scenario. Furthermore, the Alien is a sort of a metaphor: it is a living being that got into trouble and is being punished for it, but has no idea how it got there. Sometimes in life we can also feel lost and punished without even understanding why. Just like the Alien, we must also escape such a position by fighting our way towards our goals and objectives.

We want the game to be a deep and uplifting experience, with strong moments of reflection. We intend to accomplish it using three different storytelling mechanics:
1. Flashbacks cut scenes - the story starts *in media res*, so past episodes will be played as flashback cut scenes when the alien finds some information regarding its past;
2. Inner thoughts dialogue - the Alien feels lost and is trying to make sense of this new reality; the dialogue lets the Alien express its feelings and give some indirect tips to the player regarding the level orientation;
3. Collectible reports - there are a lot of documents spread around Area 51, some of there are collectable and contain some parts of the lore of the game, both from the Alien and existing staff on the facilities.

Unfortunately, due to lack of time, we were not able to implement these mechanics.

By combining all of these aspects, we hope the game is successful and enjoyable as a complete experience that only video games can accomplish.

___
## Project Management

The project has to be carried out with limited resources.
Regarding human resources, we have available:
* 4 game developers
* 1 art expert and 3D modeller
* 2 sound designers

As this is just a prototype, our budget is null. Therefore, we have to implement things as best as we can without spending money.
Interestingly enough, we have already surpassed the budget. We payed 5$ for more space in Git LFS. This service allowed us to use git to share bigger files and still handle them appropriately. By the time we ran out of space in the free tier of Git LFS, we were already too deep in development and with a lot of assets integrated there, so we chose to pay for an extension rather than refactoring and rethinking our big file upload strategy.

From an initial risk analysis, we identified the following risks to the success of the project:
* Coordination and communication between developers and the art/sound teams;
* Inexperience in integration of 3D models and animations in Unity;
* Responsibility overlap on the level design area, which may lead to inconsistent ideas and outcomes;
* Late deadline of the project, which may lead to low prioritization of the project in favour of other courses.

The above listed risks must be carefully managed to ensure the project is successful.

Some important milestones regarding the project are:
| Date | Description | Deliverables |
| :--: | :---------: | :----------- |
| May, 26th | Intermediate Presentation | No deliverables. Just to present the game's first level, mechanics and art. |
| June, 17th | Game Submission | Game, source code and a marketing video. To be submitted in both Moodle and itch.io. |
| June, 18th | Final Presentation | Final presentation of the game using a complete prototype. A slideshow has to be prepared as support for our explanations. |
| June, 25th | Documentation Submission | Project documentation and improved video (if needed). To be submitted in Moodle. |

A detailed plan for the project is presented in the *Project Plan* section of this document.

___
## Project Plan
To help us organize our work, we developed a simple project plan with goals for each week:

<table>
<tr>
<th>Start</th>
<th>End</th>
<th>Developement</th>
<th>3D Modelling</th>
<th>Sound Design</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>05/04</td>
<td>19/04</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Simple enemy AI: follow player and patrolling</li>
<li>Basic player movement</li>
<li>First animation tests</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Test model and simple animations</li>
<li>Concept art for main character</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">N.A.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>19/04</td>
<td>03/05</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Enemy/Player shooting mechanics: attach weapons to player (melee and fire), reload</li>
<li>Finish enemy AI: shoot player</li>
<li>Player movement enhancements: b-hopping and wall running</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Concept art for soldiers and scientists</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>FMOD integration</li>
<ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>03/05</td>
<td>17/05</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Enemy/Player shooting mechanics: switch weapons, pick/drop, shooting animation</li>
<li>Implement health points for enemies and player</li>
<li>Basic GUI</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Main character model and animations</li>
<li>Level design</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Ambient Sounds</li>
<li>Footsteps</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17/05</td>
<td>31/05</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Main character model and animations</li>
<li>Power-up system</li>
<li>Enemy model and animations</li>
<li>Weapon stats and models</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>First level model</li>
<li>Soldier model and animations</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Weapon shooting sounds</li>
<li>Main soundtrack</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>31/05</td>
<td>14/06</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>First Level</li>
<li>Main, Pause, Options and Death menus</li>
<li>Scientist AI</li>
<li>Scientist model and animations</li>
<li>Second Level</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Scientist model and animations</li>
<li>Second level model</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Main-menu music</li>
<li>Elevator music</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14/06</td>
<td>17/06</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Finish second level</li>
<li>Transition between levels</li>
<li>Place weapons, enemies, scientists and power-ups throughout the levels</li>
<li>Weapon stats balancing</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Animation tweaks</li>
<ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Sound tweaks</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

___
## Test Plan

Due to the small budget and time available to develop the prototype, there is no formalized test plan.
Nevertheless, there are some rules to ensure the quality of code and assets:
* Every pull request must be approved by 2 different persons before being merged;
* To approve a pull request, one must review the changed code and playtest the game to ensure the result is as intended;
* Every pull request's description should include steps for testing the corresponding feature in-game;
* The integrated 3D models have to be reviewed by the art director through playtesting;
* The sounds, after integrated by the developers, should be validated by the sound team through playtesting.

In addition, before delivering the project, every member of the team should complete a playthrough of the prototype to ensure all the pieces fit well together and the game feels good.

By meeting all these conditions, we will ensure the quality of our prototype.