My Projects

 

Miss McAlpin Goes to Washington

Game Design Document

by Kerri McAlpin

 

INTRODUCTION

This document describes a game called "Miss McAlpin Goes to Washington", which is designed to be a simple, 2D side-scroller. The game will employ various features that we learn during the next few weeks including sprite-based animation, tiled backgrounds, collision detection, physics, AI, side scrolling & gravity, efficient memory management, render threading, and more basic 2D game techniques.

 

TECHNOLOGY

Miss McAlpin Goes to Washington will be developed for the Windows Platform using a currently unnamed game engine, based largely on McKilla's Gorilla game engine, which is a bare-bones engine developed by Richard McKenna for rapid prototyping 2D games. DirectX will be used as the underlying rendering technology. Artwork will most likely use MS Paint.

 

BACK STORY

 Kerri is a young aspiring politician with virtually no campaign experience.  Help Kerri get to the top by going door-to-door to meet her constituents and raise money to run her campaign, or  nudge her into corruption by raising money from lobbyists (and pocketing some money as well). 

 

OBJECTIVE

Deal with constituents, activists, lobbyists, and other politicians appropriately according to your goals.  Raise enough money either from citizens, big-business lobbyists, and/or corrupt politicians in order to fund Kerri's campaign.  Once enough money is made, use it as you see fit to get Kerri elected.  No matter what you do, make sure Kerri's approval rating stays above 55% or she's out of a job (and it'll be your fault)!

 

GAMEPLAY

The game will work like a side scroller, with Kerri able to run left and right, and jump up or down onto platforms and other surfaces such that we may scroll up and down.

 

For the fundraising levels, there are different benefits depending on the sources from which you decide to get your money.  Raising money from constituents is the most time consuming (if you decide to spend the time to chat with them; more on that later), and you don't get as much money from them as you might from other sources.  However, raising money from constituents gives you the biggest boost to your approval rating.  Similarly, taking money from big-business lobbyists and corrupt politicians have a negative effect on your approval rating, but it is less time consuming to get money from these sources, in addition to there being a little something in it for you.  For simplicity's sake, there are two separate financial accounts -- your campaign account and your personal checking account.  Sources/Effects for fundraising are as follows:

Source of funds

 

In addition, there will be activists milling about.  They will not give you any money; they just want to bully you and complain.  When they near you, they will hit you with their picketing signs in an attempt to get you to do what they want.  Wield your pen to use your magnificent public speaking skills and convince them to leave you alone.  The more constituents that you choose to chat with during your fundraising, the higher your speaking competency will be, and the more quickly and effectively you will be able to shoo the activists.  Activists will prey on the weaker candidate, so the lower your speaking competency is, the more likely it is that you will be plagued by activists.

 

CONTROLS

This game will be played using both a keyboard and mouse. Once started, use the following:

• A - Move Left
• D - Move Right
• LEFT-ARROW - Move Left (same as A)
• RIGHT-ARROW - Move Right (same as D)
• SPACE - Jump
• Z - Wield Pen of Diplomacy (only for when dealing with constituents or activists) 
• ESC - This pauses the game and presents a pop-up window to the player asking them to continue when they are ready. If a game is not in progress, ESC does nothing.
• 
  

GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

As far as the GUI is concerned, if we consider

• Splash Screen - The splash screen GUI simply presents a game logo and a Start button for the user to press when they are ready to play. Upon pressing it, a brief scripted sequence is played explaining a little about Kerri and the back story for the game. While playing the message "Press ESC to Skip" should be displayed at the bottom of the screen. If pressed, the game should immediately start.
• In-Game Menu - While the game is in progress, we'll always have a game menu that allows the player to select from the following options:
  • New Game - If a game is in progress, first we'll pop up a dialog to make sure the user really wants to quit the current game. If we conclude the user really wants to start a game, then the game state is reset and begun.
  • Pause Game - This button is deactivated when a game is not in progress. If pressed, it will produce the same effect as the ESC key.
  • Display Controls - If pressed, the game will display an info screen that includes a description of all game controls.
  • About - If pressed, the game will display an info screen with information about the game author.
  • Exit - If pressed, the game program will exit.

• In-Game GUI - Once a game starts, a 5-4-3-2-1-Begin sequence is counted down and displayed for the player to see. At Begin, you may start going door-to-door.  At all times the following information will be displayed:
  • Time Remaining
  • Hit Points
  • Money in Personal Account
  • Money Raised
  • Money Raised by Opponent(s)
  • Approval Rating
  • Level of Speaking Efficacy
  • Party Affiliation
  • 
    

ARTWORK

All artwork in the game will be original. The following needs to be created:

• Kerri:
  • Walking Right
  • Walking Left
  • Jumping Right
  • Jumping Left
  • Jumping Up
  • Collide With Floor at high speed
  • Taking Damage
  • Wielding pen
  • Victory
  • Loss

• Constituents, Lobbyists, and Politicians - sprites, each require animations for:
  • Walking Right
  • Walking Left

• Activists - sprites, each require animations for: 
  • Walking right
  • Walking left
  • Attacking
  • Taking Damage
  • Giving up

• Ceiling, Floor, & Wall Tiles - The game world will have multiple floors and platforms to jump onto and off of. We'll use simple tiles for all walkable/collidable surfaces. These tiles will have to clearly define where the walkable surface is. We'll use straight, dark grey, slightly grooved walking surfaces.
• Chamber Background Tiles - For non-collidable tiles that will go in the background of the chamber, we'll just use a black and white tile set arranged in some pattern.