Anthony Walsh

Contents

            Abstract

            Platform

            Unique Selling Points

Game Mechanics
            Controls

  Scoring

            Win/Lose Conditions

            Level Design

Characters

            Rufus

            Charles

            Fiona

            Chuck Norris

Visual Style

                Game Screens

                                -Character Selection Screen

                                -Instructions Screen

                                -Gameplay Screen

                Visual Assets

Audio Style

                Audio Assets

Introduction

An Arcade style Game with exploding bovines.

Abstract-

BoomBoomBulls is a basic arcade game where the goal is to avoid the exploding bulls and collect the bonuses which give additional points or help the player in some way.

Target Audience-

Portable device owners.

Platform –

Scratch.

Unique Selling Points-

A simple to use and understand game.

Light hearted and amusing.

An array of characters each of which appeals to a different demographic.

Simple, minimalist controls.

 

Game Mechanics

Controls-

The controls for the game are relatively simple. Character selection is done with the mouse, after which the key board < and > keys are used to control character movement along the x-axis (there is no y-axis movement) and the characters “special move” is deployed by using the spacebar. Instruction screen scrolling is done using the up and down arrow keys.

Scoring-

Scoring for the game is based around successful avoidance of enemies and collection of bonuses. Bonuses are awarded points as follows: Chilli = 1000, Pinhata = 2000, Sombrero = 3000. Enemy avoidance points are awarded as follows: Regular enemy = 100, Oil enemy = 200, Nitro enemy = 500, destroying a regular enemy with a special move = 500.

Win and Lose Conditions-

Win Conditions are not existent in this game, rather the intention is to get a high score.

Lose Conditions are when the player fails to avoid an enemy four times (not taking into account health bonuses), the health bar will reflect how many more hits the player can take. When the health bar reaches zero the game will display a game over screen.

Level Design-

As this is an arcade game and due to the structure of the game there are not multiple levels. Rather the platform on    which the game is played has been designed to be visually pleasing with an array of bright colours and is clearly divided into five "lanes". See screenshot below:

Characters

Rufus- A black male bull, angry facial expression. Special move is to fire a bullet.

Charlie- A white male teen bull, dressed with a satchel, joyous facial expression. Special move is to throw a paper plane.

Fiona- A pink female bull. Special move is to blow a kiss.

Chuck Norris- Was initially intended to be an unlockable character but coding this in Scratch proved to be too complex as such is simply another playable character. Special move is to “throw” a fist.

 

Visual Style

The visual style of this game largely lies somewhere between 8-bit and cartoon, leaning more towards the cartoon side of things. Bright colours play a prevalent role in the overall look of the game with very few dull or pastel colours featuring. The character selection and instruction screens will be sky blue with large easily definable shapes, on mouse-over these shapes change colour, again for ease of definition.

The game screen, which is what the user will be spending most of their time looking at, can be simply divided into three parts, or “lanes”, which will each have a combination of enemies and bonuses travelling up them towards the players character.

Both enemies and bonuses will be brightly coloured with enemies a bright red, so they can be easily distinguished from bonuses and easily identified.

Assets-

·         Characters

o   Rufus

o   Charles

o   Fiona

o   Chuck Norris

·         Bull Enemy

    Oil Bull Enemy

    Nitro Bull Enemy

·         Exploded Bull Enemy

    Exploded Nitro Bull Enemy

·         Bonuses

o   Pinhata (additional points)

o   Sombrero (additional points)

o   Chilli (additional points)

o   Slow Down Time Symbol

o   Invincibility Symbol

o   Health Boost Symbol

·         Instruction Screen

·         Character Selection Screen

·         Game Background Screen

·         Special ability symbols

o   Fist

o   Kiss

o   Paper Plane

o   Bullet

·         Bonus Collected Animation

·         Points Added Animation

·         A countdown animation for when the player has selected their character, to give them time to prepare themselves before the game starts.

·         A health bar

 

Audio Style

The overarching musical feel of this game is that of Latin music. Some upbeat Latin American or Spanish music will play on a loop at a low volume throughout the time the player is viewing the gameplay screen.

Additionally sounds will be played upon character selection, bonus collection and enemies exploding as well as when the player gets hit by an enemy or dies.

 Assets-

·         At least two upbeat Latin songs

·         A “pop” noise for when the player mouse-overs something at the character selection screen

·         A short vocal piece for each of the characters when they are selected at the character selection screen.

·         A “beep” noise for when each of the countdown numbers displays before the player starts the gameplay.

·         An explosion noise for when an enemy is destroyed

·         A “moo” noise for when the enemies appear

·         A noise for each of the special abilities, respectively

·         A “tinkling” noise for when a bonus is collected

·         A crowd cheering noise, which will play randomly when the character avoids an enemy

·         A noise for when the character gets hit