“Erik the Red, Blue, Green and Yellow”
-When your enemies fly high and your IQ sinks low.-
by Erik Williams
INTRODUCTION
This document outlines the game “Erik the Red, Green, Blue and Yellow”, by Erik Williams. It is designed to be a 2D side-scroller that makes use of sprite-based animation, tiled backgrounds, collision detection, physics, AI, side-scrolling and gravity, memory management, render threading and other 2D game techniques.
TECHNOLOGY
Erik the Red, Green, Blue and Yellow will be developed for the Windows Platform using a unique game engine based off of a design by Richard McKenna, which is a bare-bones engine for rapid prototyping 2D games. DirectX will be used as the underlying rendering technology. XACT will be used for all music and sound effects management. Artwork will be brutally simple, and so we'll simply use MS Paint.
BACK STORY
The game focuses on the adventure of Erik the viking who, as many would argue, is quite the barbarian. For many years Erik was considered a hero among his people as he traveled the globe on what would seem to be an unending conquest of land and people. That all ended though when he received a message one day from is cousin Odin. It was in this message that Erik realized that he was a moron. A nincompoop. Nearly retarded. As such, Erik refused to accept this and of course Odin, being the jerk that he is, just couldn’t be right. So Erik sets off the teach Odin a lesson, not knowing of the obstacles that lay before him...
OBJECTIVE
The primary goal for Erik is to find Odin and beat the smug right out of him. Unfortunately, Odin as left many an obstacle in Erik’s path, so he must use his strength as well as a little intelligence to make his way to Odin. He will be faced by many enemies, but he can’t simply just destroy them - he is going to have learn how to adapt to his surroundings in order to make his way through the trials and tribulations devised by Odin and finally knock him down a few notches!
GAMEPLAY
In this game, Erik has two forms, with one being himself. While still human, he “is” a hulking barbarian, so his ability to destroy his enemies is quite stunning. Unfortunately for Erik, this form is incapable of taking advantage of his surroundings, and so he is going to need a little something extra to make it to Odin. This results in his second form: a giant super viking. Now we’re talkin’. In this mode, enemies are no longer enemies, but instead are more like play things. Additionally, it is in this form that Erik can take advantage of his surroundings, but in order to transform he will have to destroy many enemies to fill up his power gauge. While in giant super viking form, Erik is able to pick up his enemies and eat them, though not quite so gracefully. Biting off the head of an enemy (or however else he wants to eat them) will grant Erik the strengths and weaknesses of that enemy.
Red enemies will allow Erik to spit fire in order to hit faraway targets.
Blue enemies will grant Erik the ability to make bounding leaps.
Green enemies make Erik heavy and thus immune to strong gusts of wind.
Yellow enemies cause Erik to run extremely fast.
By taking advantage of these abilities, Erik will be capable of solving the physical puzzles that lay before him. Unfortunately, Erik will not be able to stay in his giant super viking form forever. He will eventually revert back to his normal form, and so he will have to vanquish many enemies until he has enough power to transform again.
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
V - Swing sword, spit fire, throw held enemy (giant only)
B - Grab an enemy (giant only)
N - Eat held enemy (giant only)
• 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 Erik 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 and the user pauses the game, we'll 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.
◦ 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 the game starts, the following will be displayed at all times:
◦ Power gauge
◦ Current attribute (giant only)
◦ Health
ARTWORK
Erik
Small Erik and giant super viking Erik
Moving Erik
Getting hurt
Dying
Winning
Throwing an enemy
Jumping
Spitting fire
Swinging sword
Enemies
Red enemy - standard enemy, but spits fire
Blue enemy - standard enemy with small wings
Green enemy - standard enemy with helmet
Yellow enemy - more sleek, thin enemy
Environment
Spikes
Standard platforms (some moving)
Outdoor backdrop
Falling objects (fire, blocks, spikes)
Gusts of wind (pretty much just moving clouds)
Pits of lava
Definitely a few more obstacles
SOUND EFFECTS
Walking
Jumping
Sword Swinging
Impact with an enemy (punching)
Fire spitting
Transforming
Dying
Throwing enemies
Victory music
MUSIC
The game with have standard action/adventure game music when Erik is in his normal form, but when he becomes a giant super viking, the music will shift to some kind of crazy death metal