Pre-Planning
Before starting my project, I decided to make a Gantt Chart to separate and plan each task I need to complete within the provided deadlines.
The FMP has students pick whether they want to focus on Mechanics, Animation and VFX and Enviromental Storytelling. I have chosen to mainly focus on Mechanics and Gameplay with that being 75%-80% of my focus, 15%-20% will be going to animation and VFX and the rest will be going into Enviromental art.
Since my main focus for this project is mechanics, I am going to need to spend a lot of my time during this project working on that aspect where a lot of the time I will spend my time on the base game as well as spending some more time on the research, planning and reflection portions of the unit.
Overview
Tower of Heaven is a fast paced platformer set in the giant, mysterious tower Torngrad that connects a dystopian city to a rumoured paradise, your father ran the tower and now its your time to do so too, with your custom equiped boots you feel ready, as you step into the Tower, that could change the rest of your life.
ToH is a fast paced procedurally generated time trials platformer where the player has to make their way through several rooms and floors, hitting levers to open up the further rooms. Run, walljump and navigate through the rooms as you dodge the incoming guardians who are not so kind to trespassers..
Target Audience
Having already spoken about my target audience in my research and my proposal, I still think that this game would be inteded for players between 13-35 who enjoy the platformer genre where the game will be intended for PC users.
See my audience research section in my research
Contingency Plan
I am aware that the idea for my game for my final project is quite ambitious and will require me to spend a lot of time on each stage of my project to make everything I plan to create the actual game. My main focus is going to be on the actual movement system part of the game instead of the style and level design. I am also planning on adding functional procedural generation along with a list of entities that interacts with the procedural generation in an applicable manner, as well as the potential of adding persistent data using the tools that Unity provides. I have no idea how much time implicating the persistent data will take as I have not had any experience with it so by the end of the project it might not be implemented to keep a player’s data for repetitive gameplay, however I am going to be focusing the most on the movement system and the level design within the game before getting started with anything else.
Software and Hardware
Tower of Heaven will be available on PC on start, this is due to a couple reasons, namely time constraits being that that I probably will not be able to import controller controls in time for the FMP to be done, another is just the ease of use that I think it will be easier if I made the game to just be able to run on PC due it just being easier in the steps of development. I have also chosen to use the Unity Engine for this game as Unity is generally very known for being an accessible engine with the additional notes that a lot of previous small indie games (which also are platformers) were made in Unity. Another thing about Unity and why I chose it is that, in my opinion, C# is a much easier language to use C++ and is more accessible for smaller projects like this one.
Graphics, Art and UI
In-Game UI
I am going to be using timers in my game to keep track of the time trial as the player makes their way through all of the different rooms, timers are a very key feature of my game as they let the player know how much time they have left before having to go quicker and quicker to reach the end before the time runs out. When the timer runs out a lot of games tend to add another entity that chases the player which I might add but I am also thinking of just killing the player off as the timer ends as I think at least that the 2 minutes – 3 minutes (to be decided) is ample time for the player to make it.
The Death Wish timer from A Hat in Time from the Seal the Deal DLC which added more customisation options hidden behind Death Wish contracts which are hard challenges of previous maps that the player has went through.
This is the original timer from grace which also displays text when the player is inside of the saferooms and when the player starts a run.
Here, I sketched some ideas for different customisable designs that might make it to the main game as timers that the player has that tells them how much time they have left.
Technically, the possibilities for this can be endless as the only actual requirement is that the its big enough for the player to notice it on their screen as well as simply showing the time its supposed to display. The actual object that the time is kept within can be anything, it could even be an hourglass with a small screen digitally displaying the time or a cartoon pig drawing that has a screen on its side with the timer counting down.
I have decided to not give the player any health bar as I plan on making all of the entities be forgiving and made in a way where they can be easily countered or dodged but will kill the player in only 1 hit if the player doesn’t deal with the enemy in the correct way. This was more of a gameplay solution but a side-effect to this is the fact that I don’t actually have to worry about keeping health variables and creating a healthbar that the game interacts with.
Floor Selection
Another idea that I am purely toying with and might not do is adding either animations or letting the player choose what level of the tower they would start on for extra points / cash.
An animation such as that might be similar to that from Splatoon 3’s Side Order DLC
(Image from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n4PO7l4tL0 Splatoon 3 side order expansion overview trailer)
I was also thinking of adding a floor selection map similar to the phase transitions from Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion Escape route.
However, I don’t know how being able to choose the starting floor would impact the gameplay loop of having to climb the tower all over again. It could be a selection screen between more different towers or levels are introduced as a future potential update to the game for a public release, it would also allow the player to go into a tutorial that teaches them the very basics of the movement system in the game.
I made a very rough sketch of an idea on how the tower would look like from a 2d design point and how the floor selection menu would look like if it were to be implemented.
Start/End game states
Every time the player would step out of the elevators which act as Saferooms between the different floors, a sound effect would play and small stylised text could appear saying “God Speed” or “Good luck” or “Keep Running”, just something for the player to look at as a message from the game to keep going.
For the end state – black srceen and then the main menu which shows who killed the player
Elavator
With the elavator I had in mind I did think of adding some npcs in the elavator that might have a bit of dialogue and maybe adding a shop system? I don’t know how I would do it but the idea of a shop system in the elevators is possible.
This is the elevator from Splatoon 3: Side Order DLC, the main transport hub within it, the player gets upgrades and ascends up the floors in a roguelike fashion.
These are the saferooms from Grace, very similar small confined space like an elavator with frantic writings on the walls.
The elevators that I am planning on having in my game between each set of rooms (probably ranging between 10-30 rooms per elevator) are going to be pretty small and are going to act more as a menu and transition screen rather than anything.
Going along with the possibility of upgrades and shops (similar to a roguelike) I sketched out what the elevator menu might look like, the VFX would include slight swaying meanwhile the SFX would most likely be the mechanical movement of an elevator lightly accompanied by calming jazz music that elevators would normally have – a comedic contrast between slow and calming jazz and a fast paced game.
Ray might be a placeholder name – or it wont be; who knows.
Characters and Colour Palettes
For the characters, the definite character and the main character (placeholder name) “John Tower” is going to be very simple to draw, he won’t have a lot of defining features to make him generally really easy to draw for both my own purposes when it will come to the production stage of drawing different animations for him but also to make him particularly stand out within the entire rest of the style of the game. He will be small and actually won’t have much animations or features and he will basically be more of a blob with eyes, this is to distinguish that he is the main character and will make him easier to see throughout all of the different levels if the player’s eyes get distracted and need to find him again.
For the design of the character, I will be taking very small inspiration from Your Only Move Is Hustle (YOMI Hustle / YOMIH) and keep the main character design very minimal but iconic in its own style. This choice is to keep a very stylised visual but to also to maximise time for myself to code and to spend little, but very effective time in design and artistic direction.
I used coolors.co to create a palette that might fit the protagonist of the game.
I also decided to create additional extra colour palettes for potential additional npcs that the player might find across the way, other runners similar to him that are just taking a quick break across their own personal runs to the tower.
Coolors.co for colour palettes – create one for Ray the shopkeeper, and some extra colour palettes for possible additional npcs?? and also colour palette the level design – go for dark browns and light browns, almost copper, a real steampunk theme to it.
Guardians
The guardians will be the characters that provide an additional level of difficulty – each guardian will be gradually introduced as the player progresses further and each guardian will have to be interacted with individually. Story-wise, these guardians are created by the tower itself and are in charge of sending the “trespassers” back to the very beginning at the base of the tower as a detergent system.
These guardians will vary in shapes and sizes and design but will keep a very similar vibe and aesthetic, sharing a very similar colour palette to both eachother and the tower that they reside in.
I decided to draw rough sketch ideas for the different guardians of the tower as well as little lore entries for each of them written by a mysterious “-C.” they talk about experiences and ways to avoid them in character. Potential idea for an npc to meet in game..
Setting and Story
I am planning on making the whole game and setting very steampunk themed and coloured and everything ran by integrated and complex gear mechanisms that would be a main power source of the tower itself as it would be self-sustaining. I made a general palette that would fit the sort of style that I am thinking of with the tower itself.
my main inspirations for this specific setting would be The Great Contraption from Soulwinder as I mentioned in my proposal, a massive tower that powers the entire city of zale with mechanical tension that turns gears that span across the entire city. The tower will be similar, however on a very much scaled down operation.
Another main big-tower inspiration would be the Splatoon 3: Side Order DLC, Spire of Order
Because I don’t have a working capture card, I wasn’t able to grab any screenshots myself but I have played this DLC which is a rougelike about climbing a massive gauntlet-like tower with an elevator that can only go up 1 level at a time until the player reaches the very top of it.
This is a rough sketch of what my tower will look like – its designed to look somewhat ancient in architecture but will also be different from a majority of the cities surrounding it. Instead of a massive platform in the shape of a cog and a clock at the top, there will just be a massive platform at the top that will greet the runners who make it up the entire tower.
I sketched a couple of example rooms that the game could include or at least something in similar design – The stars represent items that need to be interacted with (by the player simply touching them) to open the door to enter into the next room where the process is repeated. All of this while having to dodge and interact with different guardians and their rules.
2 Sides of civilisation – A paradise city where people live luxuriously without any cares in the world where they live as free as they can, no laws but common human decency and everybody respects it – and a dystopian, povertous cyberpunk city where people slave away for mere scraps, inflation at a permanent all time high and nobody is earning enough to live in any sort of luxury. The main story plot is that the player is one of those people within the dystopian civilisation where once a year, the “Tower to Heaven” opens its doors and only allows within itself 1000 “Runners” which are selected out of people who willingly volunteered – this system was setup in order to prevent events where more than 1000 people would try and get inside of the tower. The runners are put into the tower and can pick whatever way they want as there are so many small rooms and convoluted doors – almost as if the tower organises the rooms randomly with its complex, mysterious and ancient mechanisms. To the runners? It all seems like its 1 straight road for them and yet the tower is actively cycling different rooms between all of the 1000 runners inside of the tower – and the clockwork guardians don’t take specifically well to “trespassers” and will attempt to attack and kill any players running the tower, ultimately sending them back to the very base of the tower, no matter how far they got. To the first 10 to make it to the very top of the tower? Freedom. A new chance at truly living, whatever they want to do, a chance to live among the highest of society? a chance to freely roam the world and experience things they never did before? A guaranteed wish, given to them as their reward for being the best of the chosen to run the tower. To those that didn’t make it? Well, good luck turning around where ever you were in the tower in an attempt to make it back down..
“You are an Inventor in the dystopian city of , you work with scraps of metal and the remnants of gadgets that fall from the sky appear throughout the city, your father made it up the tower and you want to follow and be with him. You volunteer and are selected. Before the day of entering the tower, you manage to create a trusty pair of Running Shoes which will be your main hope within the tower. Capable of dashing, wall kicking as well as fitted with enough propel boost to parry the clockwork guardians. As you enter the tower , ready to make your way up to the rumoured heaven-like paradise of .
Audio
Music:
For my music, I want to have a very energetic track having including possibly even metal guitar and the feel of metal along with high speed “Breakcore” drumming. I want the music to make the player get their adrenaline pumping and I want them to feel that feeling of time pressure and that they have to run for their lives. I personally condone the use of Generative AI in any of my works and therefore I am going to be attempting to make a very small soundtrack for the game – a lot of themes will be getting reused on different levels but that is something that can be changed with time.
SFX:
For the sound effects in my game, they won’t play that big of a role in the game, only to add some further volume and add a little bit of realism into the game where the player can hear the player walking on the floor, I’m going to be adding sound effects such as walking on stone, a small hopping sound for when the player jumps as well as a landing sound which is going to be similar to walking and also a sliding sound for when the player might be doing that.
