Design Documents

The Misunderstanding

Characters

Luna:

Luna is a Witch who has lived within the village for over a year now as she has continously been getting along with all of the people and participates in various events to help out others, and she has always been a large inspiration for the younger kids in the village. 

Her species has had a bad word within the past, as they used to be wicked in tricking humans into their dirty work but now, witches seem much more rare to come across and Luna stumbled upon the village one by waking up and not knowing where she was.

The people of the village never knew that she was a witch until she saved a precious and valuable pot from falling to the ground and breaking by using the extraordinary psychic powers that she had and was unaware of. The village was amazing and then she received even more love than she already had.

Luna was originally from the Star Clan, A peaceful witch tribe who dwelled deep within the forest creating miracles and medicine that was mysteriously sent across the land.

Concept:

This is a concept drawing of what I would like Luna to look like. She always uses a very kind expression, wears a cloak decorated in stars and has long, blonde messy hair.

Inspiration:

Little Witch Academia - Diana

Diana's design inspired me because she always has a cool and confident look which I thought made the character look amazing and easily likable. Her hair also has a wavy design which I think suits the character well and I think that the clothes she is wearing suit the theme of something similar of what I would like Luna to wear within my game.

Magic:

Magic is a cat that lies within Luna's hat. He meets Luna partway through the story, where they become partners and help each-other along the way. Luna noticed a cat suffering behind a bushy area, so Luna used the last of her magic in attempt to heal the hurt cat. In a result, Luna created a pact with the cat and became one without knowing.

Magic has a deep and powerful aura lying inside of him that is charged up over a period of time and can be used once the user's and caster's bond is high enough. Magic will stay within Luna's hat for most of the time he stays silent and doesn't make a single sound.


Concept:

This is a concept drawing that I came up with for Magic. As you can see, I want the design to stay rather simplistic as I think it fits really well with the theme of my game and I also want Magic to have black fur and bright yellow eyes.

Inspiration:

Nichijou - Sakamoto

I adore the design of Sakamoto since the design itself is so simplistic but I think it looks so good and it would fit well with the theme and other characters in my game. I would like my cat to be fully black/ grey since I believe that the types of cat such as that relate to witches themselves and the cats themselves seem full of wisdom and mystery.

NTS4B

This is a robot unit created by the NKNWN corporation. An unknown cooperation who has set a bunch of units to capture Luna. The robot itself is created from the strongest metallic alloys and it also uses barrier technology to create a barrier in its field of view to protect itself. It can absorb a lot of damage but only protects half of the body.

The unit fires a laser-like beam towards a target which multiplies in damage the longer it stays on the target. Once it stops, the damage is reset back to 0. The NTS4B Unit can only move very slowly when using its weapon due to the energy consumption it takes from the system.

Concept:

NPC (Non Player Characters)

Within my game, I plan to have various NPC's along the way of the game. Some NPC's could be very useful to the player by giving the player large hints of what to do and hidden secrets and then others could sell goods that could help the player travel through the forest more easily and safely.

Villagers

The Villagers within the village will say random things about the village when you talk to them. I plan to have them there to fill in for the story and just to be present within the village to give the village a very happy and friendly look.

Golden Leaf

The Golden Leaf is a leaf that sparkles in gold and it allows you to save your progress whenever you approach and talk to it. The lead will appear in various locations across the forest so you don't have to keep travelling all the way back to save your process.

Concept:

Shop

I plan to have shops planted across the forest so that the player has access to items that can help them progress such as healing and attack boosting potions. The player would earn currency by defeating the hidden monsters of the forest.


Setting

The setting of my game will be located in a rural area in a small and local village. The architecture will look very basic using British brick-like buildings and houses with lots of greenery and quiet surroundings. This is where the beginning of the game will take place but then you will proceed into the depths of the forest located next to the village.

In the village, I would like there to be various semi-detached houses that all look very similar using the brick style, a bridge that crosses over to the other side of the village and a small river that flows through the village.

Concept: 

Inspiration:

This is an image of Wiltshire in England. I think that the building look very stylish and traditionally British which I think would suit the theme for my game and I like how peaceful it seems in that area.

Forest

The Forest in my game will be very large and easy to lose your surroundings. I would like there to be different paths within my game which could lead you into the right direction but if you choose the wrong path, you end up going in a circle and ending back up to where you originally came from.

There will be a mysterious lake within the forest where you find your cat companion, Magic. The area around the lake is very quiet, if not too quiet that it seems rather sinister.


Concept:

Here is one of the concept drawings that I came up with for my forest. 

Lost Cave

The lost cave is a cave that is found within the forest. The place where it is located seems very strange as it is located in the middle of nowhere in the forest. Within the cave, you can find various types of items and wild enemies that will attack the player.

At the end of this cave, you will also face a powerful boss that requires you to be a high enough level to take on. After defeating the boss, you receive a key item for the game, which you will need to progress further in the story later on.

Objects & Items

In my game, there will be plenty of items that the player can obtain and regularity use to help them progress through the game. Some items will be visible on display with the character and some will be hidden because it is stored in the bag that she carries. For example:

• Healing Potions
• Strength Potions
• Defense Potions
• Book of Spells
• Gems
• Crystals
• Witches Broom
• Witches Wand

This is only a list of a small percentage of items that I plan to eventually implement into my game.

Concept:

In this concept, you can see that I created a range of different items that I plan to implement into my game.

Interface & Perspective

Concept:

In this image, I have created a concept of what I plan the UI to look like. I would like a lot of information placed on the screen so that the player can easily access it without any troubles as you can see various information that is extremely useful such as health, mana charge, level, experience and boss health. Also, you can see that I plan to make my game in a 2D side scroller style which I think would be fairly effective for a game of my genre.

Inspiration:

Super Mario

Shovel Knight

Shantae and the Pirate's curse

Rabi Ribi

Story

There was a small, quiet and peaceful village that was located somewhere within the countryside. Everyone laughed and enjoyed their lives alongside Luna, the lost witch. It was a bright and lovely day, where the sun shone brighter than ever and birds chirped in a rhythmic melody when Luna was happily skipping to the shop to buy various groceries from the shop at the corner of the village. She wandered around the shop thinking about what to buy and which items would need back at home. 

It took a while, but she finally got everything she needed and wandered back outside, humming a cheerful tune. As soon as she stepped outside, she could smell something that she wouldn't usually smell and she could hear faint noises within the distance. Luna slowly opened her eyes to see complete destruction; fire spread across from building to building and a fellow member of the village came running towards her, with the look a complete panic combined with hatred painted on their face. They rose their arm towards Luna and screamed "IT WAS HER, THE WITCH!".

Luna froze, dropping the fresh groceries that were obtained from the shop moments ago. Her body began to move on its own, as she was being chased by somebody who was once so fond of herself and she ended up within the forest that was said to have never of been explored. Full of confusion and sadness, she knew that she had to continue in the path that she began and figure out a way to regain the trust of the village once again.

Storyboard

This storyboard is very rough as you can see, as the only purpose for this was to display my story using simple images that the player can understand simply just by observing. I have also included text below to define what is actually happening in case the reader misunderstands and gets the incorrect idea.

FMV

The opening FMV will highly rely on the storyboard located above. I think that it would be a perfect way to start my game as it would get the player hyped into action and it puts them right in the middle of the story/ adventure of Luna. I like the way that I plan to do this because the player will know absolutely nothing about Luna when they begin to play the game besides what would have been shown within this FMV. It will leave the player wanting to know more about Luna's past and herself being the only witch within the village.

In this FMV, I plan to use various music and sound effects to enhance the story as it pulls out the watchers emotions when things go from joyful within the village to mysterious and fast-paced when Luna is being chased into the forest.

Market Research

I am aiming my game at an audience who enjoys 2D pixel platformer games and who are above the age of 12 and above. This is because I have gathered lots of inspiration for my game idea from other video games and my idea contains some visual \aspects that may not be suitable for people under the age of 12 such as violence and aggressive actions.

People who have played games such as Super Mario, Rabi-Ribi, Shovel knight and Shantae and the Pirate's curse should hopefully enjoy playing through my game as there will be very similar aspects within the games such as art styles, mechanics, boss battles and power-ups.

Target Platform

I think that PC would be one of the greatest options for due to the wide user-base of players and it's a great place for people to browse and play different indie games. It would also be very beneficial due to the fact that it would be very simple to port and upload as the mechanics on my game were developed on the PC anyway, which means that the amount of bugs in the final version of my game will be small and able to be patched in a small amount of time. The controls will all be the same as I originally intended them to be as well because it was created and published both on PC using a keyboard as controls.

In the future, I plan to port my game to handheld consoles as I think that these types of games are fluent and convenient as I know that a lot of the popular Pixel-Styled have been very successful such as the Pokemon Franchise and The Legend of Zelda. It's convenient to play an RPG styled story game whenever you have spare time whether you're at home or out and it's really entertaining to continue to story and learn new things about the characters.