# Glimpse of an Age GDD
### Games Production Pipeline
### Games Art BA(HONS) L5
### Rhys Burgess, Ethan Jennings, Josh Davies, Gabriel
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(Title/start screen, by Rhys Burgess)

## Contents

* Game Goals
* Target Market
* Story Overview
* Game Controls
* Technological requirements
* Front end of the game
* Cutscene description
* Title/start screen
* Loading screen
* Game camera(s)
* HUD system
* Game Characters
* Player skills
* Player inventory tools
* Upgrades/Power-ups/state modifiers
* Health
* Rewards and economy
* Universal game mechanics
* Game levels
* General enemy rules
* Level - specific enemies
* Bosses
* Non - player characters

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## Game Goals

- Fight against the forces of fate and time itself as John is swashed throughout the ages of Human history, trying to get back to his one true love... his cat Pickle!
- From medieval England, feudal Japan, and the space age, you take on rogue-like melee combat against location-specific enemies, while constantly being mocked for your time-spanning simple name.
- Find out who the stranger was who gave you those strange cat treats that gave Pickle time powers.

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## Target Market
- Target Rating – Pegi 12 (16 – 22)
- It is this rating as this category includes violence towards fantasy characters or non-realistic violence towards human-like characters, sexual innuendo or posturing, mild bad language and/or gambling.
- This makes it comfortable for us to portray our characters who will be partaking in fantasy melee violence.
- Target Systems – PC, Xbox, PS, Switch 
- We chose this as we think this game could be easily transferable to each platform.

---

## Story Overview

### Plot
- John Smith, he is an average guy, with an average job, certaintly an average name, and an extremely cute cat called pickle. 
- On his way home John is stopped by an old man who gives him a flyer for free cat treats for a new pet store opening in town. John decides to go on the way home to get these free treats, why not!
- He walks into a seemingly dingy, totally non suspiscious, building where he is greeted by the same man with the promised treats. When he gets home, he gives pickle the treats, puring in satisfaction.
- Later that same night, John is stired awake by a mysterious light. He goes downstairs to find that pickle is glowing!
- Pickle seem restless, John approaches him and tries to pet and comfort pickle, but instead triggers something.
- Pickle opens a massive portal behind them, consuming them both!
- When John awakes, he is in another time... another era.
- He must survive these hostile times as Pickle recharges his new found temporal abilities to try and get them back home to the present, and find out who really gave John those mysterious treats and why.

### Beginning, Ending & Locations
#### Opening
The games opens in small and short contained linear environemnt in which they, as John, are on their way home from a non-descript job. This is where you are approached by the mysterious man who hands out the flyer for the free cat treets.

Taken to a cutscene location in which you are given the treets in the dingy suspicious building, which is an old pet store.
Secondary cutscene location of Johns home in which he gives Pickle the treets.
Navigatable home location when you learn of Pickles powers and are sucked back in time. Reccurring location.
Put straight into a tutorial era stage.

#### Mid-Game/Between Game Runs Location, 'VOID'
When John 'Dies' (or uses his last *rewind*), he is transported into a space between space, called 'Void'. This acts as the main hub for the player to upgrade Pickle and his powers to assist and relax between runs. This location is a version of Johns home thats fragmented and floating in a white void, in which throughout the game can be decorated through earned currency (*Temporal Energy*) by completing game runs.
When John is ready, Pickle is waiting with another portal in which john can use to progress and start a run.

Game era locations include;
* Egyptian
* Feudal Japan
* Viking
* Medieval England
* The Roman Empire
* Martian Space Age

#### Ending
The games story progression takes inspiration from 'Hades', in which once each era has been completed in a run, the player is able to return to the present but only for a limited amount of time. Then they will be able to return to different locations such as the dingy pet store where john received the treats to look for clues.

The True ending, finding out who the mysterious man with the treats is, you discover that it was never a man at all... but multiple cats in a trench coat!
*Time cats*, they gave you the treats to make Pickle one of them, traveling through the eras was all a test, not for John but for Pickle, to see if he was worthy of continuing the *Time Cat* lineage.
Player has the option, as the character of Pickle, to then choose whether to go with the *Time Cats* or to stay with John.

---

## Game Controls

- PC
- WASD to move
- Cursor to aim
- Left click - Attack
- Right click - Dash
- Q - Ability 1
- E - Ability 2
- Esc - Open Pause Menu
- Tab - Opens inventory
- Z - Interact
- Menu controlled using mouse

- Xbox
- Left Joystick to move
- Right Joystick to aim
- RB - Attack
- LB - Dash
- X - Ability 1
- Y - Ability 2
- Pause - Open Pause Menu
- A - Opens inventory
- B - interact
- Menu controlled using left joystick and A

- PS
- Left Joystick to move
- Right Joystick to aim
- R1 - Attack
- L1 - Dash
- Square - Ability 1
- Triangle - Ability 2
- Pause - Open Pause Menu
- X - Opens inventory
- Circle - Interact
- Menu controlled using Left joystick and Square

- Mobile
- Left Joystick to move
- Right Joystick to aim
- Button 1 - Attack
- Button 2 - Dash
- Button 3 - Ability 1
- Button 4 - Ability 2
- Pause - Open Pause Menu
- Inv icon - Opens inventory
- Tap Screen - Interact
- Menu is controlled using finger

## Technological requirements

* PC minimum requirements
* CPU SPEED: Dual Core 2.4 GHz
* RAM: 4 GB
* OS: Windows 7 SP1
* VIDEO CARD: 1GB VRAM / DirectX 10+ support
* FREE DISK SPACE: 15 GB
* DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 1 GB
* PC Recommended Requirements
* CPU SPEED: Dual Core 3.0 GHz+
* RAM: 8 GB
* OS: Windows 7 SP1
* VIDEO CARD: 2GB VRAM / DirectX 10+ support
* FREE DISK SPACE: 20 GB
* DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2 GB

## Front end of the game

When 'Glimpse of an age' is loaded and played on any supporting platform, a short credits screen will be shown, indicating the publishing company and our own company logo.
We intend for our game to be self published, therefore publishing and company credits will be shared.

(Studio name & logo, by Rhys Burgess)

A short legal screen will also be shown to make clear our ownership of 'glimpse of an age', through trademarks and intellectual property. As such,
player will be requied to agree to an end-user licence agreement (EULA), which players must agree to a use agreement, terms of use, and the rights of our company as a publisher of the game such as right to ban or take legal action if cheats or illegal modding of the game are sold without consent or permission of us as publisher.

From the title screen there will be a selected 'credits' tab in which associated licensors in partnership with our company and game product. For example if we decide to make a Pickle plush in collaboration with a plush toy company.
This screen will also include any third party software manufacturers that we will be working with in order to optimise our game to other platforms such as mobile and PC, in which graphics and processing may need to be downgraded or options for up-scaling on more powerful systems such as PCs.

## Cutscene description

Cutscenes used will be in-game\in-engine cutscenes, in which the scenes will be from the in-game graphics engine, allowing for a smoother gameplay experience were gameplay will flow into the cutscenes.
These cutscenes and transitions involve the player being able to move and control the character from not being able to and the cutscene script takes over, moving the character automatically.

Cutscenes will be exclusively at the beggining of the game and after the multiple ending of runs in which the player is looking for clues for who gave him the cat treats.

### First Beginning cutscene overview

* Where the game begins when playing for the first time
* Character, 'John Smith', leaves his nameless job and walks down the street on his way home.
* A flyer flies into his face offering free cats treats at a new pet store opening, he decided to go.
* Cuts to john entering the new pet store, which is really just a dingy old pet store building.
* Strange hooded figure approaches, acknowledging the flyer john holds, "Here for the treats are we? Congrats! your the first to come!"
* Johns skeptical feeling turns to ignorant excitement for being the first 'customer'.
* He reveives the promised cat treats and then the mysterious figure is startled by a falling plant of wood and flees, john acknowleges the figures strangness and strugges it off as anxiety.
##### (Concept by Josh Davies)

### Second beginning cutscene

After the player being able to roam around Johns home and feeding Pickle the cat treats, the cutscene starts when the player is prompted to go to bed for the night.
* John is awakened by loud meowing coming from pickle, and gets up to go investigate
* He sees a strange blue-ish glow coming from downstairs where the meowing is also coming from
* John sees Pickle glowing and pulsing, he approaches to investigate if Pickle is okay
* Pickle then unintentionally opens a time vortex that pulls both of them inside, leading to the main gameplay starting and the end of the intro sequence, starting the tutorial level.
##### (Concept by Josh Davies)
### Ending Cutscene

Once the player has completed the game loop five times and explored around for clues before being pulled back to the 'Void' hub space by Pickle, the ending of the game sees John find the location of the mysterious hooded figure who gave him the cat treats.
* John now has the location of the hooded figure and goes to track them down while he can.
* He and Pickle find the figure in a secret room of a cat cafe.
* When cronfonted the figure explains that they were testing Pickle this whole time to see if they were worthy, and the romoves their trench coat.
* The figure is revealed to be multiple cats in a trench coat, 'The Time Cats'.
* Pickle is found to be worthy to become one of them and continue their lineage.
* He is then prompted with a choice; to either leave to go with the time cats or stay with john, this is a player decided choice. Choosing to stay with John still allows him to become one of the time cats, he just gets to live with john! and the other choice to join the cats means he just gets to live in the cat cafe with the other time cats and offers john a job to workt here! (a false moral decision making question for the player, each is a happy ending).
##### (Concept by Josh Davies)

## Title/start screen

Once the Studio and legal opening screens aree shown, the main title/start screen is appears for the player, the title being the games name, "Glimpse of an Age".
This is the main screen in which the player will come to when they load the game to player where they can start a new game, load their save file, enter the game settings and veiw the game credits.

(Title/start screen, by Rhys Burgess)

### Menu Selection Options

Secleting 'New game' on the menu immediately beings the game from a new save file, allowing the player to begin playing the game and the intro cutscene. Once 'new game' has been selected, returning to the title screen this selection will be changed to 'continue game', a new game can be started from the 'save files' selection.
'save files' will include additional information such as the number of the save file (1,2,3 etc), the time elapsed of play time in each save file, and the last player location.

The 'settings' option allows for players to adjust aspects of the game from sound to visual effects intensities.

The 'credits' options plays the development credits for the game and associated member credits for each aspect of the games development.

### Settings Menu

within the options menu includes:
* Sound
* Main volume (adjustable bar)
* Music volume (adjustable bar)
* SFX Volume (adjustable bar)
* Ambiant sound volume (adjustable bar)
* Language
* English
* French
* Spanish
* Etc.
* Controls
* List of control binds
* Option to change control binds
* Controller vibration (on/off)
* Screen
* Subtitles
* Screen shake (on/off)
* SFX Flashes (on/off)
* Damage numbers (on/off)
* Run time (on/off)
* Contrast level (adjustable bar)

The player can interact with each selection through the controls of:

* Console - left/right controller stick
* PC - mouse cursor
* Mobile - Touch screen

## Loading screen

Loading screens vary depending on the location they are loading into, such as each era location and the Void hub location.

For example, the loading screen for the 'Feudal Japan' era will have stylings and visual indicators that relate to that specific era. This loading screen (which can be seen in the exaple bellow) for this era will firstly include the era location that the player is loading in/back into with an accompanying stylised font that matches the time periods traditional style as much as possible. The background of this loading screen as mentioned includes stylings and traditional themes which again relate to he time period of feudal japan, such as the notable red and gold colour pallet which is closely tied to the time period of the era, as well as traditional designs, one that we have used is the traditional japanese art style painting designs of clouds which allow for a repeating pattern use for the background.

To indicate that the game is correctly loading while within the loading screens, located in the bottom right of the screen will be three (3) bouncing dots which will act as a visual indicator of the game laoding. Next to this indicator is a small cat head silhouette (representing Pickle) which will fill to indicate the loading progress.

*(Example Loading screen for Feudal Japan era, by Rhys Burgess)*

Other eras such as 'Ancient Eygpt' will include similar stylings such as hieroglyphs and similar iconography relating to the time period, along with an accurate translations of the era names in hieroglyphs (and other ears related written languages) under the era title on the loading screen.

*(Example Loading screen for Ancient Egypt era, by Rhys Burgess)*

The 'Roman Empire' era loading screen takes traditional roman architectural features such as a large use of white marbel and granite materials, as well as tiled floor patterns which were common in public roman spaces and high ranking officials homes. Also including bellow the era title a Latin translation of 'the roman empire' which was the most commonly used language during the time.

*(Example Loading screen for Roman Empire era, by Rhys Burgess)*

The 'Viking' era loading screen takes inspiration from viking stone wall murals, using white chalk to document or display information and stories, while also making use of the nordic written runic language (Anglo-saxon specifically), along with a translation of 'viking' in this language above the era title.

*(Example Loading screen for Viking era, by Rhys Burgess)*

## Game camera(s)

#### 2.5D Isometric


## HUD system

*(Art by Ethan Jennings)*

## Game Characters

- 'John Smith'
- Main character & playable character for the player.
- John is a little gullible in personality and some things go over his head, including the thought process of getting free cat treats in a dingy ominous pet store from a mysterious figure.
- John is the loving owner of 'Pickle' his pet cat, who he only wants the best for and takes care of the best he can, including giving him free mysterious cat treats.
- John works with Pickle and his newly found powers in order to get back to the present day by upgrading Pickles time powers until he has control over them.

*(Art by Ethan Jennings)*

* 'Pickle'
* Secondary non-playable character.
* Johns pet cat who gains time powers from mysterious cat treats, given to him by john.
* Pickle has a loving and energetic personality, but has a hard time coping with his new time powers and trying to control them.
* Wants to help john survive through the different ages by assisting with his powers i.e time freeze, rewinds (Johns lives).

*(Art by Ethan Jennings)*

* 'Mysterious figure/Time cats'
* The mysterious hooded figure whom gives john the strange cat treats.
* Find out in the games ending that its is not a he/she, but a group of cats in a trench coat, The Time Cats, who have been testing Pickle to see if he is worthy of his time powers, by helping his owner john, and become one of them.

## Player skills

- Attack
- Dash
- Use ability 1
- Use ability 2

## Player Inventory tools

### Available Weapons, Rarities & Stats

Player combat involves primarily melee based attack styles, and therefore most weapons in 'Glimpse of and Age are melee based weaponry for players to use.

Weapons have different rareties and sub-stats, this allows for gameplay and runs to be unique and different everytime you play, allowing for great replayability and multiple combat styles depending on the weapon and its randomly generated sub-stats.

#### Weapon Rarities include:
* Common
* Uncommon
* Rare
* Epic
* Legendary
* Mythic

Each level of weapon rarity determines how many sub-stats that weapon has, and increases its lethality.

#### Each sub-stat for each rarity:
* Common - 0 sub-stats
* Uncommon - 1 sub-stats
* Rare - 2 sub-stats
* Epic - 3 sub-stats
* Legendary - 4 sub-stats

The Mythic rarity is separate from the rest, this is a rarity for one specific weapon from each Era. Each one of these unique weapons don't have any changing sub-stats, but a set of specific sub-stats and attack style that links to that Era and weapon. There will be one Mythic weapon for each era location, and can only be used in their defined era.

#### Sub-stats, Intrinsic stats & purchasing stats

Sub-stats are what make each weapon and run feel different everytime you play. These are essentially buffs and/or status effects that that can change your game play and fighting style.
Each sub-stat increases its overall affect and/or damage based on the rarity of the weapon it is on.

Throughout a playthrough the player will encounter blacksmiths, which are a type of merchant NPC, from which they can upgrade their current weapons to a higher rarity using the 'Gold' currency.
When upgrading a weapons rarity you more inportantly also upgrade it sub-stats to scale with that rarity.
Or if the player is unhappy with their current substats, they can reroll the sub-stats on their weapon at a Blacksmith which will be randomised, again using the 'Gold' currency.

Throughout a playthrough a player can also encounter another NPC, a Merchant. These merchants can sell weapons to the player as well as specific sub-stats that be forged onto their weapon at a Blacksmith, using the 'Gold' currency.

Sub-stats can also be intrinsic on certain weapons regardless of rarity, for example a common rarity dagger will have an intrinsic bleed sub-stat. Intrinsic sub-stats will also scale depending on the weapons rarity as well, increasing its lethality.

#### Mythic Weapons for each Era:
* Egyptian - **khopesh**

*(khopesh art by Ethan)*

* Feudal Japan - **Katana**

*(Katana art by Ethan)*

* Viking - **Great battle axe**

*(Great Axe art by Ethan)*

* Medieval England - **Long sword**

*(Long Sword art by Ethan)*

* Roman Empire - **Centurion**
* Martian Space Age - **Ray gun**

(Ray gun art by Gabriel)

Each Mythic weapon is closely related to each era they are based in, for example the Egyptian khopesh, which is a sickle shaped sword which evolved from the battle axe. The inside curve of the weapon could be used to trap an opponent's arm, or to pull an opponent's shield out of the way. As a result, lighter shielded enemies are more common in this game era, and so the Khopesh would greatly help the player through this stage.

Each Mythic weapon has its own specific 'Sub-stat sets' (SSS) and attack style, making them powerful one of a kind items that are strong in their respected eras, and being powerful comes at the cost of being hard to get.

One Mythic weapon is even more unique than the others, The Ray Gun, this is from the Martian Space age era set far into the future and one of the most difficult stages. As a unique design element having this eras mythic weapon being the only gun in the game seemed appropriate considering the era it is set in, as well as adding a completely different playstyle for them to master.

Mythic Weapon unique Sub-Stat Sets (SSS):

* Khopesh
* 'Sheild smash' - destroys the sheilds of sheild weilding enemies.
* 'Expose' - Deal bonus damage to enemies with destroyed shields.
* 'Bleed' - Attacks cause a bleed DOT (damage over time) affect on enemies.
* 'Heavy weight' - Increased chance of breaking a enemies blocking stance (80% chance).
* 'Disarm' - Increased chance of disarming an enemy of their weapon (80& chance).

* Katana
* 'Honor' - When only one enemy is near you (15 metres) gain increased damage (10%)
* 'Vampiric' - Bleed effects on you instead heal you small amounts.
* 'Swift' - Increased movement speed (20%).
* 'Quick step' - Back damage to enemies is increased directly after dashing (15% for 2 seconds).
* 'Form' - Attack in a 3 hit combo style.
* Great Battle Axe
* 'Heavy handed' - Heavy attacks dealy increased damage (15%).
* 'Battle axe' - Hold heavy attach button for a charged heavy overhead attack.
* 'Swinging reach' - Light attacks can hit multiple targets (up to 5)
* 'Heavy hitter' - Slower movement speed (10%).
* 'Frontal assult' - Increased damage when attacking enemies front on (15%).
* Longsword
* 'Knightly guard' - Increased guard/block duration (6 seconds)
* 'Smooth grip' - Increased damage after blocking an attack (15% for 3 seconds)
* 'Double edged' - Heavy attacks inflict double bleed damage (x2)
* 'Hilt taker' - Take reduced damage (5%)
* 'Medieval knight' - After 5 consecutive light attacks, the 6th will turn into a thrusting strike.

## Upgrades/Power- ups/state modifiers
In glimpse of an age john is able to be upgraded and buffed in different ways, this is through permanent upgrades to pickle purchased by Temporal Energy and in game upgrades which will be through upgrading and changing your weapons from merchants and blacksmiths.

### Permanent Character upgrades
These will all be purchased with Temporal Energy
- Rewind Time
- Starting - Gain 50% health - 100
- lvl 1 - Gain 75% health - Cost 500
- lvl 2 - Gain 100% health - Cost 1500

- Rewind Time Uses
- Starting - 1 - Cost 100
- lvl 1 - 2 - Cost 500
- lvl 2 - 3 - Cost 1000
- lvl 3 - 4 - Cost 3000
- First chest rarity upgrade
- Starting - Common 80%, Uncommon 20%
- lvl 1 - Common 75%, Uncommon 20%, Rare 4%, Epic 1% - Cost 150
- lvl 2 - Common 60%, Uncommon 30%, Rare 7%, Epic 3% - Cost 250
- lvl 3 - Common 55%, Uncommon 30%, Rare 10%, Epic 4%, Legendary 1% - Cost 500
- lvl 4 - Common 30%, Uncommon 40%, Rare 20%, Epic 7%, Legendary 3% - Cost 1000
- lvl 5 - Common 10%, Uncommon 40%, Rare 30%, Epic 15%, Legendary 5% - Cost 1500

- Starting Health
- Starting - 100HP
- lvl 1 - 150HP - Cost 150
- lvl 2 - 200HP - Cost 500
- lvl 3 - 250HP - Cost 1000
## Health

- 100 base health
- Health can be replenished
- Buying from merchants
- From chests found in the dungeon
- healing fountains
- upgrades
- After your health has dropped to 0 john dies and goes back to the starting area
- Upgrades will allow the user to rewind time back and gain some health back instead of dying allowing them to carry on with the game.

## Rewards and economy
### Currency
- Gold - This currency is used in game to buy items from merchants and blacksmiths. Gold is reset after every run and only remains/is usable through each run. Gold was used in most time periods as a form of currency an therefore is a stale form of currency.
- Temporal Energy - This will be used to upgrade pickle to unlock more permanent upgrades. This can be purchased through merchants and finishing era bosses and challanges. Can also be used to purchase cosmetics the void hub space.
- Pickle points - This is the premium currency for the game and can be accessed through microtransactions or earned from weekly and daily challanges, these will be used for cosmetic purchases for John and Pickle.

*(Gold currency icon, by Rhys Burgess)*

*(Temporal Energy currency icon, by Rhys Burgess)*

*(Pickle Points currency icon, by Rhys Burgess)*

## Universal game mechanics
- breakable Crates
- Explosive barrels
- Chests
- Portals
## Game levels
* Egyptian
* Feudal Japan
* Viking
* Medieval England
* The Roman Empire
* Martian Space Age



## General enemy rules
- Enemies will increase in difficulty through each era
- increased health
- increased damage
- more attacks
- more enemies
## Level - specific enemies
* Egyptian - Mummies,
* Feudal Japan - Samurai
* Viking
* Medieval England
* The Roman Empire
* Martian Space Age - Splicer, Shocker, Wraith, Brute


## Bosses
* Egyptian - Mummies,
* Feudal Japan - Samurai
* Viking
* Medieval England
* The Roman Empire
* Martian Space Age - Martian Controller


## Non - player characters
- Guard
- Monk
- Hunter
- Merchant!