Grave Mistakes

Concept Statement

Balance your dwindling supply of ammo with the growing need to upgrade your arsenal in this fast-paced wave-based zombie shoot ‘em up. Can you survive until help arrives?

Genre/Category

• 2D Platformer - The game takes place in 2D space, from the side perspective where the player moves over flat platforms.
• Wave Defense - The majority of the game will be spent defending from undead attackers over the course of many waves.
• Shoot 'Em Up/Shooter - The player is tasked to deal with this threat through 2D shooter gameplay, where the player's character on screen aims towards the mouse position.

Concept Creation Process

This game was a result of subtractive and mashup design, taking a lot of inspiration from games created during the Flash era, such as The Last Stand (The Last Stand 2007) and Thing Thing Arena (Thing Thing Arena 2006). The core mechanics of the game also borrow heavily from Rounds, a fast-paced multiplayer 2D platforming shooter (Rounds 2021).

I felt that I could draw inspiration from the Flash games of these times as a lot of them were fairly simple projects, given the limitations of the engine. There were many wave-based games created during this time, and I enjoyed a lot of them. One that always stuck out to me was The Last Stand, a game where the player must defend from behind a barricade from ever increasing hordes of zombies over the course of many nights. 

This type of gameplay served as the initial inspiration for the kind of game that I would eventually decide on making. I felt I didn't want to make a stripped down clone of this game, and instead take inspiration from other games as well to make something more original. The Last Stand is fun, but it's a fairly slow game with limited movement. I wanted to take inspiration from a game favoured by my friends and I, "Rounds". We play this game often, both in person and online as it's a quick and engaging way for hectic multiplayer fun. The main inspiration I took from this game was the fast paced movement, minus a lot of the more advanced mechanics, and it's card based upgrade system.

Much of what is present in these games will not be necessary for the intended scope of my game. Aspects such as the level of content present in each game, and many mechanics like survivor NPCs and barricade defense in The Last Stand, or shields, unique powerups, destructible environments, and multiplayer in Rounds will stripped away to focus on the core mechanics that will be present in my game.

Audience & Competitive Analysis

This game's target audience will be established gamers looking for a fast-paced but casual shooter, reminiscent of the Flash days. This game is not meant to be marketed towards those looking for hundreds of hours of deep mechanical skill development, or storyline progression. Ideally, those who play this game will be drawn to it for it's ease of access and fast transition into active gameplay. As the intention for this game is to have a relatively short gameplay loop (~30m for a full game), it is intended for gamers to play as a casual experience during downtime. For example, gamers may choose to play this game before work or school, or in between games that require more commitment, like a competitive shooter or an RPG.

This game's competitors will likely be other semi-casual games that require low commitment but provide decent engagement. Games such as Bloons TD6 (Bloons TD6 2018), Vampire Survivors (Vampire Survivors 2022), and Rounds itself are good examples of potential competition, as they all are fairly casual round or wave based games.

Game Treatment/Concept Art

Setting

The player’s character has recently purchased a house located in a secluded forest, which unbeknownst to them, has also been built near an abandoned, haunted graveyard. Because of their remote location the character lives far away from civilization, rarely seeing other humans.

The world exists in modern day, with all things present in reality being available. However, due to the character’s remote location, the house itself should be depicted as dilapidated and old, with less modern conveniences. The house is home to a workshop which will serve as the basis for how the player upgrades their weapons and creates ammo within the gameplay.

Story

The player has recently purchased their dream getaway, an old house in the middle of the woods. Upon arriving, the nearby mountain pass that serves as the only way of getting to the house has a landslide, and they are blocked in. This serves as the reason for why the player must stay in the area while they wait for help to arrive.

Shortly after, the player gets a call from their real estate agent, explaining what has happened, and that help will arrive in twenty days. They also mention, only now, that nearby to the property is an old abandoned graveyard, with rumours that it is haunted and that the dead rise at night. This introduction is shown to the player via a short cutscene.

What the real estate agent said was true, and the player must survive each night by fending off waves of zombies and other undead using the weapons they find and upgrade along the way. Once the player has held out long enough for help to arrive, they are rescued via helicopter in another short cutscene. However, the player is given a choice of whether to stay or leave. If they choose to leave, the helicopter flies off with them, off the map. If they choose to stay, they are left behind as the helicopter flies off, and endless mode begins.

Graphics

• 2D Pixel art
• Side-on Perspective
• Darker colour palette (most of the game will take place at night)
• Avoids overly dreary themes, game is meant to be fun and casual

Game Mechanics

Core Gameplay Loop

A full game will consist of twenty "waves" of increasing difficulty, with an optional endless mode after this. A wave will be where the majority of gameplay occurs, followed by the card selection process after a wave is complete. A wave consists of defending yourself and your home against a sequence of enemies spawned from the graveyard nearby. Once the player has defeated every enemy for that wave, it ends and the player is taken to the card selection screen where they may spend the resources they have earned on randomly generated upgrades for their currently available weapons. Once finished, the player starts the next wave.

Waves

The first twenty waves that define the main game will be balanced by hand, with the help of user testing. After this, endless mode can be activated, and will be based on a yet to be decided curve that will define the difficulty of each wave as an increasing number of each zombie type. This part of the game will be far less balanced, and will likely require a lot more skill and luck to get further.

Enemies

There will be four enemy types present in the game:

•  a standard zombie that serves as a baseline for other zombie types
• a fast zombie with a tendency to run past the player
• a strong zombie
• a flying vampire bat

An enemy's default behaviour will be to move towards the player's house. If the player is in range of an enemy however, they will choose to path towards them instead, with the intention of colliding with the player to damage them. An exception to this is that fast zombies will often path directly towards the player's house, forcing them to disengage the pack to chase them down.

When an enemy is killed, they drop some scrap. Scrap is essentially currency, and is used to create ammo and upgrade weapons.

Gun Upgrading

In between rounds, including in endless mode, the player will be shown a limited choice of randomly generated upgrades to choose from. Upgrades cost some amount of scrap, and affect the stats of a single weapon. Ideally, the player will have collected enough scrap over the course of a wave to perform one or more upgrades.

Ammo Crafting

The other use for scrap will be to craft ammo at the player's home workshop. Each weapon will require it's own ammo, and each ammo type will cost a different amount of scrap. It will be up to the player, and their level of skill, to decide how much they will need to spend on ammo throughout a wave, while ensuring that they have enough scrap spare to upgrade their weapons at the end of the round.

Player

The player will be able to use their keyboard to move left and right, as well as jump, reload and interact with their ammo station at home. The player will use their mouse to aim and shoot. The player’s speed will be significantly faster than the normal zombie, and just faster than the fast zombie. 

The player will have a finite pool of health, and being hit by a zombie will subtract an amount of health based on the type of zombie. Alongside this, they will also be knocked back by some distance, and be invulnerable for a short period of time. If the player's health reaches zero, they die and the game ends.

Weapons/Shooting

The player will have access to three guns in total, listed below in the order they are unlocked:

• Shotgun
• Automatic Rifle
• Rocket Launcher

Each gun will have it's own stats like fire rate, ammo capacity, reload time, and damage. These stats will be what are modified when the player chooses upgrades between waves. Some weapons will likely model their projectiles with GameObjects like the rocket launcher, but others like the rifle and shotgun may rely on ray-casting instead.

References

Bloons TD6 2018, Video Game, Ninja Kiwi, 18 December, accessed 15 April 2024, <https://store.steampowered.com/app/960090/Bloons_TD_6/>.

Rounds 2021, Video Game, Landfall, 2 April, accessed 15 April 2024, <https://store.steampowered.com/app/1557740/ROUNDS/>.

Tripnfelt 2009, Graveyard at night, Image, accessed 16 April 2024, <https://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/41609.htm>.

The Last Stand 2007, Video Game, ConArtists, 28 November, accessed 15 April 2024, <https://armorgames.com/play/269/the-last-stand>.

Thing Thing Arena 2006, Video Game, Weasel, 12 February, accessed 15 April 2024, <https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/295040>.

Vampire Survivors 2022, Video Game, poncie, 21 October, accessed 15 April 2024, <https://store.steampowered.com/app/1794680/Vampire_Survivors/>.