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The Darkest Plague: insights on the development of an action adventure game

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The Darkest Plague: insights on the development of an action adventure game

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Content The Darkest Plague
Insights on the development of an action adventure game
by
Juan Sebastian Baracaldo Angel
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
(INTERACTIVE MEDIA)
May 2022
Copyright 2022 Juan Sebastian Baracaldo Angel
Table of Contents
Table of figures.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…iii
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…iv
Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………1
Chapter 2: Game Design………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………1
2.1 Experience Goals……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..1
2.2 Combat Mechanics………………………………………………………………………………………………………..2
2.3 Art Direction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5
2.4 Game Structure………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8
Chapter 3: Previous Art…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8
Chapter 4: Game Production…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..10
4.1 Initial Scope vs Current Scope…………………………………………………………………………………10
4.2 Early Prototypes……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..11
4.3 Current State…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..13
4.4 Next Steps………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..14
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..14
ii
Table of Figures
Figure 1: Early UI Scheme……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3
Figure 2: A chained fast attack upon pressing the “X” button several times in a row…..4
Figure 3: Game controls for an Xbox One Controller…………………………………………………………………..5
Figure 4: The Doctor concept art iterations by Ethan Lee……………………………………………………….6
Figure 5: SteamPunk / Victorian Environment Megapack by Leartes Studios………………..7
Figure 6: Steampunk Character by Jerome Pourchier………………………………………………………………7
Figure 7: Screenshots from Dark Souls III and Bloodborne……………………………………………………..9
Figure 8: Screenshots from Alice Madness Returns……………………………………………………………………9
Figure 9: Screenshots from Bioshock……………………………………………………………………………………………. 10
Figure 10: Early prototype for The Darkest Plague……………………………………………………………………..12
Figure 11: Storyboard frames for the game’s introduction……………………………………………………...13
iii
Abstract
This paper explores the Design and Development of “The Darkest Plague”, an action
adventure game that serves as a Master thesis project developed by Sebastian
Baracaldo for the Interactive Media division at the University of Southern California
iv
Chapter 1: Introduction
The Darkest Plague is a 3rd person action adventure game that explores the
concept of madness & surreality. It is being developed by a team of 11 people. My
name is Sebastian Baracaldo and I am the game director of the game. This has been
a really long and thoughtful development that has gone through many different
changes & constant scope re-evaluations. In this paper I am going to explore the
process, insights and plans for the future of the game
We will begin by exploring the Game Design of the game, following up with related
previous art. Afterwards, we will talk about the development process of the game
and finish with the next steps that are going to be taken in the development of the
game.
Chapter 2: Game Design
In this section we will explore the Game Design of the Darkest Plague as intended.
Later on we will compare this to the current state of the game, so we can analyze the
next steps that have to be taken in order to improve the player’s experience.
2.1 Experience Goals
As soon as we started this project it was crucial to clearly define experience
goals so that every decision we made would make sense. These were not permanent,
and could evolve so that they made sense with the project’s evolving vision. The
current experience goals we defined are the following:
1
● COMBAT: Each action performed during combat is meaningful.
● EXPLORATION: The player will feel intrigued to keep exploring the
world and the story.
● SURREAL: Experience the transformation of reality into surreality.
● MADNESS: We are inside the head of a mad person.
Having this in mind, let’s explore the other aspects of the game design, starting with
the game mechanics.
2.2 Combat Mechanics
Our first experience goal is about combat, and this is because the main mechanic of
our game is centered around action combat. Please keep in mind that we will be
referring to both the player and enemy AI as “actors”.
We have two main elements that support the combat mechanics. The first one is a
health system. Whenever an actor takes damage from an attack, its health bar
depletes. If it reaches 0, the unit dies. In the case of the player this means game over
2
.
Figure 1: Early UI Scheme.
The second key element is an stamina system. Every actor uses a certain amount of
stamina in order to execute a key activity, such as attacking, dodging or blocking.
Stamina quickly regenerates over time whenever an actor is not taking an action.
Now we will explore these actions, starting with attacks, focusing on those of the
player. There are two different types of attacks, fast attacks and a strong attack. The
strong attack is executed whenever the player presses the “Y” Button on an Xbox
Controller. This attack is slow but powerful and can’t be chained with other attacks
until it finishes its animation. This will drain a lot of stamina upon being executed.
On the other hand, there are the quick attacks that are more versatile, but lack
damage in contrast. If a player presses the “X” button several times in a row, this will
trigger a chained attack, executing different attack animations one after the other.
Stamina will be drained upon each small attack that is executed.
3
Figure 2: A chained fast attack upon pressing the “X” button several times in a row.
Finally, the other action the player can take is dodging, this will drain some stamina
for its execution and will cancel any ongoing attack animation. During the dodge
animation the player will have a couple invulnerability frames.
There is another action that only the enemy AI can take and is blocking. Only a
strong attack from the player will break the block, leaving the enemy stunned and
without stamina for a couple of seconds.
This takes us to the staggering mechanic. Upon taking damage, an actor will cancel
its current animation if the incoming damage is greater than a threshold, forcing
them to play a stagger animation.
Finally, to reduce the player’s learning curve the control mapping on an Xbox One
controller will try to follow the conventions from other games in the industry, such as
The Witcher 3. The final control mapping is the one shown on the next illustration.
4
.
Figure 3: Game controls for an Xbox One Controller.
2.3 Art Direction
The art direction for this game is heavily inspired by Steampunk and Surreal
aesthetics. Both the characters and the world will reflect these. Also, we decided that
all the characters will wear masks, so that we wouldn’t have to invest resources on
animating them. This fits perfectly with our Steampunk aesthetics
5
Our main character is a Steampunk plague doctor. During the game, he will start
hallucinating because of a malfunction of its mask, causing the world and enemies
to be distorted.
We had several iterations of concept art for creating this character. The first iterations
explored the shape and weaponry of the Doctor. We finally settled down on a scythe
for a weapon, as it represents death in some cultures. We also got rid of any cape
elements as these would potentially create additional problems during
development.
Figure 4: The Doctor concept art iterations by Ethan Lee.
Now, because we didn’t have many resources to create custom assets from scratch,
we had to acquire some assets from the Unreal Engine Marketplace.
For the environment we needed a high quality Steampunk environment.
SteamPunk / Victorian Environment Megapack (Modular) and Victorian Decayed
Alley Environment by Leartes Studios, were a perfect fit, as they clearly illustrated the
aesthetics we were searching for.
6
Figure 5: SteamPunk / Victorian Environment Megapack by Leartes Studios
For the enemy models we used Steampunk Character by Jerome Pourchier as it also
fitted our aesthetics and desired quality level. Keep in mind that this character used
the standard UE4 rigg, which made the process easier.
Figure 6: Steampunk Character by Jerome Pourchier
7
2.4 Game Structure
The game is divided into three main sections. An introductory cinematic,
gameplay, and the ending. The introduction serves as context for the player. It is
composed of 2D illustrations accompanied by music and sound effects.
The gameplay section is composed of a linear level, where the player will fight its way
through several enemies. Audio recordings will play as the player progresses through
the level. This will be the main way to deliver narrative throughout this section. There
are some environmental storytelling elements that help achieve this objective as
well.
Finally, upon the player reaching the final destination a to be continued screen will
appear and credits will roll.
Chapter 3: Previous Art
The first video games that come to mind when we talk about related media
are the “Souls” games developed by Fromsoftware. Dark Souls, Bloodborne and
Elden ring are some of them. These games are important because their combat is
really well tuned, and is one of the most iconic action combat systems that exists
nowadays. This heavily inspired the combat system in The Darkest Plague, while
removing some of the high difficulty that the “Souls games” often impose.
8
Additionally, this game has surreal enemies that inspired some of the art created for
the game.
Figure 7: Screenshots from Dark Souls III and Bloodborne
Another video game that is relevant to this game is Alice Madness Returns, because
it has elements of surrealism and madness. This will help us understand how to
create surreal environments in a game. It also has action combat, but it tends more
towards hack and slash, which is not something that interests us for this project.
Figure 8: Screenshots from Alice Madness Returns
Finally, the Bioshock Series from 2K are important to this project, because these
game series are one of the most famous games that incorporated the Steampunk
aesthetics into gameplay.
9
Figure 9: Screenshots from Bioshock
Chapter 4: Game Production
In this section we will explore the actual game production of the game,
starting with the initial scope, following up with the first prototypes and current state
of the game. Finally we will talk about the next steps for the production of the
Darkest Plague.
4.1 Initial Scope vs Current Scope
At the beginning of the project the scope was much broader than what it is
right now. The game had three sections. The first section was the introductory
cinematic, the second section was composed of three gameplay sections. Gameplay
part 1: The overworld, Gameplay Part 2: The Underworld and Gameplay Part 3: Boss
Battle. And finally we would have a final cinematic followed up with the credits.
During the development process we had to scope down and ask ourselves which
parts of the game were the most important to develop first.
As soon as we found ourselves struggling with accomplishing the initial scope, the
first part we got rid of was the boss battle, as it implied developing a lot of content
10
without necessarily having a high pay off, compared to developing the other two
sections of gameplay.
After continuing the development process, we realized we had to cut down more
content to be able to make it. The next parts that had to be cut down were the
gameplay part 2 and the final cinematic. We realized that it was more important to
establish the tone of the game in the first minutes and be able to leave it as a to be
continued story than to develop the later part of the game and give resolution to a
conflict that would make no sense to the player.
Additionally, the intro cinematic quality has been scoped down as well. Initially we
were thinking of having full color on the illustrations. However, it is possible that we
will sacrifice this in order to finish the introductory cinematic on time.
4.2 Early Prototypes
The first thing we wanted to prototype and develop was the combat, as this is
the key game feature of our game. We centered our efforts in being able to develop
a combat system that made the player feel that each action taken was meaningful.
We also experimented with the scythe animations for the main character, as well as
potential weapons and AI patterns for the enemies.
11
Figure 10: Early prototype for The Darkest Plague
Another aspect that was really important in these early prototypes was working on
the third person camera and figuring out the fine tuning.
Finally, exploring how surrealism would look in the game was another of the early
goals of the prototypes. By using shaders and post processing effects we were able
to test out this feel and look that we wanted, without necessarily investing a lot of
resources on creating assets from scratch. We also tested some of the mechanisms
that would allow us to do storytelling in the future, such as subtitles and voice over.
Thanks to these prototypes and playtesting we were able to improve the game,
addressing early on its main weaknesses.
12
4.3 Current State
One of the weakest aspects from the early prototypes was the lack of
storytelling. So we decided to ramp up on working on these, as they are key
elements to our game. Because of this, the first thing we decided to work on was the
narrative. On one hand we worked on the introduction sequence, so that we could
have some idea of what information the player would have as soon as the game
starts.
Figure 11: Storyboard frames for the game’s introduction.
On the other hand we worked on delivering the narrative through gameplay. We
decided to record and spread audio recordings throughout the level in order to
13
explore how to deliver the narrative. We are also working on the level design,
environmental storytelling and short in game cinematics so that these make sense.
Additionally, we are adding updated game models as well, including both the
custom model for the doctor, and the Steampunk soldier from the asset store.
We are also constantly adjusting the combat, as this is one of the most important
parts of the game.
4.4 Next Steps
Next up in our timeline we will have a lot of polishing and filling in the missing
content. For starters we will need to give special attention to the main character
model, as the process of modeling and texturing it has taken more time than initially
expected. We will also have to continually test and adjust the level design, combat
mechanics and enemy AI.
Another key aspect that we will be working on is updating the voice recordings
based on feedback, as well as hiring professional voice actors to do these voice overs.
Finally, we will consider constantly changing the game’s scope as needed, so that
the final product is as high quality as possible, even if this means that we will need to
make it shorter.
Bibliography
1. SteamPunk / Victorian Environment Megapack (Modular) by Leartes Studios.
(n.d.). Unreal Engine Marketplace. Retrieved March 17, 2022, from
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/steampunk-victor
ian-megapack
14
2. Steampunk Character by Jerome Pourchier. (n.d.). Unreal Engine
Marketplace. Retrieved March 17, 2022, from
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/steampunk-char
acter
3. Products from Fromsoftware. (n.d.). Fromsoftware Website. Retrieved March 17,
2022, from https://www.fromsoftware.jp/ww/products.html
4. Alice Madness Returns. (n.d.). Electronic Arts. Retrieved March 17, 2022, from
https://www.ea.com/games/alice/alice-madness-returns
5. BioShock: The Collection - 2K. (n.d.). 2K Website. Retrieved March 17, 2022, from
https://2k.com/en-US/game/bioshock-the-collection/
6. The Witcher 3 Official Website. (n.d.). The Witcher 3 Official Website. Retrieved
March 17, 2022, from https://thewitcher.com/en/witcher3
15

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Asset Metadata

Creator Baracaldo Angel, Juan Sebastian (author)

Core Title The Darkest Plague: insights on the development of an action adventure game

School School of Cinematic Arts

Degree Master of Fine Arts

Degree Program Interactive Media

Degree Conferral Date 2022-05

Publication Date 04/16/2022

Defense Date 04/15/2022

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag action,adventure,OAI-PMH Harvest,steampunk,Unreal Engine,video games

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Bilson, Danny (committee chair), Fullerton, Tracy (committee member), Nealen, Andy (committee member)

Creator Email baracald@usc.edu,seb_baracaldo@hotmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC110964825

Unique identifier UC110964825

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Baracaldo Angel, Juan Sebastian

Type texts

Source 20220416-usctheses-batch-926 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

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Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu