Death and Glory

Concept Statement

The player must survive against waves of enemies to get a high score. The more waves they do consecutively the better score they can get. They can use their score to level up their character and must balance the progression of levelling up and completing waves to get. They can only record their score when they willingly end the run.

Genre

The genre will be a top-down action game with light RPG elements. The top-down view will give players a better perspective on the game. They will be able to see where enemies are coming from in the moment and plant their movements accordingly. There will be obstacles in the level that the player can use to their advantage, so the top-down view gives them the ability to navigate this easily as well. The RPG elements will be a simple leveling system to improve some aspects of the players combat abilities. This is to lend some degree of customisation for the player so that they can play more to their own strength.

Influences

The game is mostly a mashup of some ideas.

Darkest dungeon (https://store.steampowered.com/app/262060/Darkest_Dungeon/) is an influence though not through its direct mechanics. As DD progresses the levels get much harder and it can become challenging to complete the associated quests. If the player gets into a tight spot, they must decide whether they will cut their losses and leave or push on and try to complete the quests and get the full reward at the risk of losing a lot more. In Death and Glory the player will get an increased multiplier to their score for completing waves in succession. As more enemies spawn and become stronger the player will need to weigh up whether or not they will risk losing a run for more points.

Another slight influence is the CRPG Age of Decadence (https://store.steampowered.com/app/230070/The_Age_of_Decadence/), specifically one of the games endings for the player (the game has a lot of endings). One of the players main quests is to find a lost temple. When they find they find an evil god that is bad news for humanity. They player can leave and pretend they never found it and let later generations deal with it, attempt to fight it which is very difficult or blow up the temple killing themselves and the god. The ending for the third option basically says that everyone assumes the player failed to find the temple and died pathetically in the desert somewhere, which is pretty dark considering the sacrifice you make for them. I like the idea that no one knows what happens to you if you don’t tell them of your achievements, hence in Death and Glory the player must leave the dungeon in order to save their high-score. It doesn’t matter if the die on wave 5 or 50 if they don’t make it out to tell anyone

Exanima (https://store.steampowered.com/app/362490/Exanima/) is another slight influence. It has an arena mode where the player can fight endless battles with NPCs until they die or get bored and stop. You can also buy equipment and level up various characters in a safe arena between matches. I will have a safe zone in the game that when the player leaves the dungeon they lose their multipliers from consecutive rounds but recover all their health and can level up. It’s also effectively top down though it is 3D and the camera can be adjusted within limits.

Target Audience

The main audience will be people who like dark fantasy as well as horde fighting games. The dark fantasy fans will want to play it due to its setting and themes. For people who like games where you fight off hordes/waves of enemies it will be something that they can pick up and play as well as having the added challenge of only being able to save a score by ending the run. This will give them an extra challenge as they can get better at the game and be able to figure out how to play the game efficiently to get higher scores.

Treatment

You are a warrior who has learnt of an unholy dungeon that supposedly holds a great power for those who can reach its centre. You will fight of hordes of enemies and gain the strength to continue on by leveling your character, but you must sacrifice some of your score to do so. Balance the progression of your character with the score you gain to to give yourself a fighting chance. Buy bombs and potions to give yourself an edge. Will you ever make it to the end? Will you flee the dungeon and escape with your life knowing that you have reached your limit, or will you push onwards to death and glory?