Game Description/Features:
C.E.L. is a different take on the RPG genre that does a few things different than normal RPGs have been known to do for years and years. Some of the main features include:
Rider Battle System – The battle system of C.E.L. where just brining an enemies health down to 0 isn’t enough, all enemies must be finished off with a finishing move, which adds extra strategy in combat.
Grid Movement System – This is the overworld more or less of C.E.L. instead of being a free roam RPG where players move from one town to the next, C.E.L. takes out some of the annoyances and uses a grid for all the maps, and players move along and explore, and by doing this players know exactly what they can and can’t explore and they should be able to plan their strategy out better. It also will help to save time, so the game doesn’t have pointless segments where the player has to wonder around not knowing where or what to do.
Streamlined Menu System – By integrating the device the main character uses into the game into the menus as well, it adds an extra level of detail along with being able to integrate menus to easily be accessed.
Purpose/Application:
The purpose of the game is really all about creating a RPG that is different. With all of the features C.E.L. has along with the witty light hearted story, C.E.L. is to be used by gamers as a break from the normal generic RPG or as a RPG that has brought in fresh new ideas.
Premise/High concept:
The player takes control of a group of heroes who are given superhuman abilities though finding a power glove that uses their phones to power the abilities. Finding the gloves has brought them into a secret war that they are now stuck in and must fight to save the world.
Genre:
Role Playing Game
Platform:
The platform that will be primarily targeted will be the PC, because with the tools we are using it is the easiest to publish for the computer. Though the Xbox 360 can be a secondary platform due to how XNA allows putting games on the Xbox 360 market place.
Audience/market:
An audience obviously targeted is people who play Role Playing Games. The age range for that usually falls into teen or higher. However with how the plot is set up and with a number of ideas in the game, fans of Tokusatsu, which to quote wikipeida: “Tokusatsu (特撮?) is a Japanese term that describes any live-action film or television drama that usually features superheroes and makes considerable use of special effects (tokusatsu literally translates as “special effects”).” Is another market this game targets. To give an example the Viewtiful Joe games do a parody the Tokusatsu genre.
Rating:
The expected ESRB rating that is being planned for is T because of violence, language, and maybe mature/suggested themes.
Time Interval:
While in the overworld map portion, the game takes place in real time where the player controls the main character and leads him thought the maze. Once the player enters combat the game switches to turn based gameplay.
Backstory:
The game takes place in the future where a device has been made that when a phone inserted into the device the phone is granted superpowers that the user can then use. While not known to the majority of the population, a secret war has started between the people who have run across the devices. As the battles went on between each other fighting or domination over how the devices should be used, one side had somehow found a way to get viruses to fight for them. It is when this starts the main hero finds his device and is thrown into fray. He must go forth and battle his enemies and save his world from utter destruction. Our hero, Dio, travels with two companions, Shep and Tess, to stop those who would do harm. They must stop an evil organization, the organization called P4R4S0L, (Parasol).
Character Descriptions:
Dio – Is the main character of sorts, and the game starts off with him finding his glove device which lets him use his Cyborg phone to gain superpowers. He then is quickly found by Shep and Tess who fill him in on the situation and he then joins them on their journey to bring down P4R4S0L.
Shep – One of the two people who found Dio right when he acquired his power. Not much is known about Shep other than he use to work for P4R4S0L and have had his glove device that uses his GL phone since the beginning. Shep often plays the role of the smart one in the group and is the calmest of the three. Though it seems there is more to Shep that meets to eye, as some of it starts to show as the group gets closer to P4R4S0L.
Tess – One of the two people who found Dio right when he acquired his power. Tess joined up with Shep not long after he quit P4RS0L. Tess with her glove device that uses her horizon phone has proved to be very useful. She is the support character of the group and keeps Shep and Dio healed in battle.
Comparative Analysis:
Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor – This game is like C.E.L. because it uses the same type of systems. The style of the games are also alike as they both are based off of Japanese ideas. With this C.E.L. will be enough like Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor where it might draw in fans from this game. Some of the negatives is that the market for the game is not very big to begin with, so getting around that becomes important, also the speed of the gameplay. Devil Survivor plays somewhat slow, which is something C.E.L. is trying not to do.
Magna Carta 2 – This game is like C.E.L. because they fall into the same genre RPG. There is not much in terms of gameplay that are between them, but being that the RPG genre is large and most people who play them play different RPG games. With this, Magna Carta 2 has sort of the same style as C.E.L. does. So people who like how Magna Carta 2 was done might move on to check out C.E.L., even though it is different in most areas.
Persona – This game is very much like C.E.L. It uses a modulated dungeon crawler system, which is like the system in C.E.L. and then it switches to a battle system again very much like C.E.L. when fights happen. This will help the audience be able to move from Persona to C.E.L. easily since the games will play somewhat alike. Also since there are not many games like Persona it will make C.E.L. one of the only games to move on to, once people finish Persona. Some of the negatives it could get is that Persona moves very slow at the start and it is not the easiest game to understand. It will take some work to streamline C.E.L. so it does not have those problems.
Rules:
Number of Players: 1
Age Range:
Since C.E.L. is going for a T rating, the age rage will be from 13 up, hoping to hit all ages above 13.
Approximate Play Time:
Since C.E.L. is an RPG it will be a longer game, though it will be broken up into episodes and each one will take around 5-6 hours to beat.
Victory Condition:
The victory condition normally is just getting from point A to point B, the path to get to point B is full of enemies and various obstacles. Each level might have a slightly different goal in mind and have some unique twist, as a whole though beating each stage is getting to the exit.
Loss condition:
The only real way to lose in the game is to have the player controlled party be defeated.
Gameplay:
The gameplay can be broken down into 3 different segments that are then repeated to make the game. The first segment is a cut scene that sets up the level that is about to be played and reveals more of the story to the player. After the cut scene is finished the level starts where the player pawn is put into the area the player must travel though to get to the goal to beat the stage. The third segment is when the player pawn meets any type of enemy pawn, when this happens the game switches over to the battle system, where the player has to defeat the enemies to go back to the level and continue to make their way to the end of the stage.
Challenges:
There are a number of challenges that the player will have to get past to move the game forward. First of all there is the level itself that the player will have to make their way though, as levels play out as a sort of maze, where it will take some time for players to reach the end. The other main challenge the player will have to face is the enemies that are within the stage. There will also be some paths where the enemies will be stronger, but in return will open up a shorter path or help out the player in some way. Then in some levels right near the end of the level there will be bosses that the players will have to face, that will require some strategies from the player for them to be able to win.
Strategies:
One big strategy that the player just master to do well in C.E.L. is the finishing moves, the player must decide which finishing move to use. The player needs to weigh the options of working to get the enemies HP to 0 and use a cheap finishing move, or to raise their finishing points (FP) to use stronger finishing moves so the player doesn’t have to bring the enemy HP down to 0.
Another strategy the player will have to use is what path to take in each level. Each level plays out like a maze and there are multiple paths to get to the end of the level. Each path has its own pros and cons the player must weigh.
Theory:
How game balance will be kept is though what enemies would have to be destroyed. There will be a number of enemies that the player will have to defeat, which will make sure the player gains enough experience points to be somewhere around the same level as the enemies as the game moves on. Though there are also not a ton of enemies so that the player could over level and be able to breeze though the game. In battle the gameplay is mostly balanced where the players choices will decide if the player will win or not. Though due to the AI and the luck stat, there is some luck that comes into play, but not enough to make the game unfair in anyway.
Perspective:
The setting of the game mostly takes place in a futuristic city and the levels of the game will show that, and show the different parts of the city as the game progresses. In the level the perspective will be a 3rd person aerial/isometric style where the camera follows the player pawn. In the battle screen it follows the same type of 3rd person aerial/isometric perspective, the main difference being that the camera oversees the battle and is not behind the main character.
User Interface:
The main interface the game will use is a menu system which is portrayed with a phone. This will show up in combat when commands are given to the party, in the status screens where the player upgrades the party stats, and other areas such as that. In the level portion there isn’t much of an interface, other than quick reference of the party’s stats such as HP.
Audio:
The biggest part of audio will be in the cut scenes of the game because they shall be voice acted. For the other parts of the game there will be background music, done with a futuristic tone to go with the setting of the game. Sound effects will also be in the battles, and a number of voice clips will be in the battles as well where the name of the attack is announced before it is use, and in other situations like that.
Art Assets:
These are some early art assets and concepts of what will be included in the final product. They will undoubtedly be improved upon during development of CEL:
Our main character, Dio and his phone:
Enemy Pawn:
Boss Pawn:
Enemy:
Summary:
In the end C.E.L. is a streamlined RPG to take away a lot of the grind and slow parts that the genera is known for. It also has gameplay features to make the gameplay of RPGs seem fresh again. The battle system adds new strategy in with enemies that are destroyed by finishing moves rather than just bringing their HP below 0. Then how the levels work make sure the players are in the right direction by being contained, but also give freedom by having multiple paths to reach the end. Some future updates that might be made would be just an overall expansion. Since the game is short already for being an RPG it plays well to be an episodic series, where each game moves along the plot further, and can add in a number of features, characters, and so on.