Game Concept

KIT109 Assignment 2: Game Concept Document

Matthew Makaryn, 511633

Working Title: Noiromancy

Concept Statement

Journey through wondrous platformer puzzles in this grand adventure starring Knight, as they set off on their quest to save their partner in detective work, Mage! Sharp steel, sharp wits, and spell slinging make for a powerful force for mystery solving, but if Knight ever hopes to find their closest friend again, they’ll need your help to recover magical clues and make daring leaps, both logical and physical!

Genre

Noiromancy will be a 2D platformer in a broad, high fantasy setting with a lighthearted tone. There will be puzzles to solve with a wide, smoothly accessible and combo-able moveset. The player’s moveset will expand as they complete levels, and new levels will demand the player use different combinations of moves.

Concept Creation and Influences

I’ve been replaying Shovel Knight recently. I love 2D platformers in general, and Shovel Knight is an excellent example in my opinion. To me, its strengths lie in tight controls, light hearted and funny theming, and a wide, progressively unlockable moveset. This is displayed particularly excellently in this speedrun (IGN, 2020) at approximately 22 minutes, wherein two unlockable moves are combod rapidly in an unexpected and creative way. However, I noted in my own playing that the quick-swap feature for these moves is rather clunky, and requires some practice to get used to. 

I wish to remedy this by making all 12 moves available to the player with minimal hand movement. The D-Pad/WASD will control movement, and the face buttons/arrow keys will control special moves, with two other buttons being specified as “modifiers” that can be held to change which moves the face buttons/arrow keys control, allowing for rapid access to the entire moveset. 

I had the idea for mixing a detective story and a tropey fantasy world. Particularly, I thought it appropriate that the new moves the player gains over the course of the game could be new magical spells. Further, I’ve also wanted to do something with the idea of a hero going on a journey and saving someone not because they are in love, but because they have a deep and important friendship. I thought this framing device could work well, but was unsure of how “clues” could be presented on where to go next. 

It occurred to me that it would make sense for the clues to be left behind by the person the hero is trying to save. Thus it occurred to me that these clues would be obtained at the end of levels. This reminded me of how the player would need to gain a new magic power each level, and so I thought that the clue could also be the new magic power, in the form of a spell scroll.

Finally, taking inspiration from Psychonauts 2’s power, the Mental Connection (Double Fine Productions, 2021) (Seen in this video at approximately 2:50), which allows the player to grapple hook between ideas to join them together, and Shovel Knight: Spectre of Torment’s demo stages for new powers, I decided that the linking together of information from a new clue could be presented as a platforming mini-level, wherein the clue that you gained new information from could also hold the spell that you use to jump between ideas. 

Audience and Competitive Analysis

The intended audience for this project is a casual, all-gender, broad-age demographic. People who enjoy games and have played games before, but play games at their own pace and for introspectively driven joy, rather than joy driven by external factors such as outperforming someone else. It is intended that the game have some elements for “completionists” to enjoy, such as hard to reach optional collectables, but that the main focus will be on an enjoyable primary gameplay loop and interesting new levels. It is intended that the levels not be too long, and that players will spend a varying amount of time with the game in any given play session. With short levels, progress is less focussed on getting through one long level, and more focussed on getting a little bit better each time. This will appeal to more casual audiences who do not have the time set aside to engage with video games for long stretches of time, while not blockading the progress of more dedicated audiences.

In terms of similarity to other games, Noiromancy aims to stand out not by any one mechanic or movement that it has that other platformers do not. In fact, Noiromancy will in many ways be very similar to other games in the genre. Noiromancy instead aims to stand out by tight, refined controls that are able to be accessed easily in rapid succession. 

There have been several successful 2D platformers released in recent years, despite the drop in the amount of these games being made. Shovel Knight has sold over 2.5 million copies over its 7 year life and development cycle (Bailey, 2019), Celeste has sold over 1 million copies since its release in 2018 (Celeste Has Nearly Sold a Million Copies, No Plans For a Sequel & Why Chapter 9 Is Free | NintendoSoup, 2019), and Ori and the Will of the Wisps has sold over 2 million copies since 2020 (Biazzo, 2020). 

Game Treatment and Concept Art

You are Knight, a by-the-books detective in a high fantasy world. Your closest friend and trusted partner Mage has always handled the more abstract parts of your work together, and with your strong arm and sharpened steel, you made a potent duo indeed. But all is not well! Mage hasn’t shown up to work today, and no one has seen them around! You hurriedly rush to their home, and find almost nothing out of place, save for a single spell scroll. Reading what little arcane script you’ve learnt from Mage, you learn how to leap into the air many times your own height, and you vow to find Mage soon, so that this spell can rest safely in their spellbook once again.

Over the course of your adventure, you will discover more spells, always expanding your repertoire of moves and discovering exactly how you like to blend them together. And you’ll need to blend them together to leap and weave through your adventure. Each spell you discover will also hold a clue, and you’ll need to delve into Knight’s mind to join together ideas and realise what to do next!

All your spells will flow smoothly into one another, from speed boosts to curved jumps to conjuring platforms mid-air. You’ll need them all to find Mage, and before you know it, they’ll be as second nature as swinging your sword-arm or donning your armor.

Here we can see some selected concept art. Firstly, we have some concept art for Knight, Mage, and a spell scroll. Note that the focus is intended to be on stylisation over strict detail, such as in the minimal detail in Knight’s armor, the round and broad shapes of Mage, and the lack of text or symbols on the spell scroll. 

(Self-made concept art)

This focus on stylisation over precise detail will also be applied to the world at large. It is the intent of this project that if something is cool and fits a fantasy and/or detective story trope, then it should be eligible to put in without deeper consideration. This project is not focussed on the impacts of magic on the world’s economy, nor on how the average person in this world lives their life. The intended focus is on a fun, stylised presentation. 

Continuing with presentation, this project aims to have a distinct theme for each level, such as (for example): Ice level, forest level, dungeon level, etc, etc. Each level should have visual elements unique to it that immediately sell the player on the theme, such as in the following screenshot of an ice level from Super Mario Bros. 3. 

(Ice world from Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario Wiki, 2021)

Finally, we can see a broad concept for a level that doubles as a metaphorical representation of Knight linking concepts together upon finding a new clue. These levels will be designed specifically to be impossible to complete without the use of the newest ability obtained by the player, and thus they will serve as a way for the player to get a feel for the new ability.

(Self-made concept art)

References

Bailey, D., 2019. Shovel Knight has sold over 2.5 million copies and had over 25 cameos. [online] PCGamesN. Available at: <https: www.pcgamesn.com="" shovel-knight="" sales#:~:text="Shovel%20Knight%20has%20sold%202.5%20million%20copies%20across%20all%20platforms%20since%20launch."> [Accessed 27 August 2021]. </https:>

NintendoSoup. 2019. Celeste Has Nearly Sold a Million Copies, No Plans For a Sequel & Why Chapter 9 Is Free | NintendoSoup. [online] Available at: <https: nintendosoup.com="" celeste-has-nearly-sold-a-million-copies-no-plans-for-a-sequel-why-chapter-9-is-free=""> [Accessed 27 August 2021]. </https:>

Biazzo, J., 2020. Ori and the Will of the Wisps Sold Over 2 Million Copies - Gameranx. [online] Gameranx. Available at: <https: gameranx.com="" updates="" id="" 202848="" article="" 2-million-ori-will-wisps-sold-detailed-xbox=""> [Accessed 27 August 2021]. </https:>

IGN, 2020. Shovel Knight Developers React to 42 Minute Speedrun. [video] Available at: <

> [Accessed 27 August 2021]. Double Fine Productions, 2021.

. [video] Available at: <

> [Accessed 27 August 2021].

Mario Wiki, 2021. Ice land from Super Mario Bros. 3. [image] Available at: <https: www.mariowiki.com="" ice_land=""> [Accessed 29 August 2021].</https:>