Blockrush - Game Treatment

7/27/2019 Blockrush - Game Treatment

1/20


2/20

Rush to the top in this fast paced, compeve, 2d-plaormer,

where success lies in your own momentum and construcon creavity


3/20III

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Game Scope ..................................................................................... 3

Blockrushing 101 .............................................................................. 4

OVERVIEWBlockrush Vision ............................................................................... 1

The Plaorming Audience................................................................ 2

Controls............................................................................................ 2

The Essence of Blockrush .................................................................. 3

Core mechanics ...........................................................................4

GAME DESIGN

Rushing Expanded............................................................................ 7

Supporng mechanics ...................................................................7

A Rushers Guide to the Galaxy......................................................... 9

Advanced taccs..........................................................................9

Harmonic Low Poly Minimalism........................................................ 10

Inspiraonal Collage ........................................................................ 11

Blockrush Gameplay Examples ......................................................... 12

The Story of the Valley of Goo........................................................... 13

The Blockrushers .............................................................................. 13

THE WORLD OF BLOCKRUSH

THE TEAM BEHIND THE PROTOTYPEDesigners & Arsts ........................................................................... 14

TRANSCENDING THE SCREENBlockrush by extension ..................................................................... 15

SUMMARYClosing thoughts............................................................................... 16

USPs ................................................................................................ 16

MARKETING & SALESCashing in on Blockrush .................................................................... 15
http://-/?-http://-/?-http://-/?-http://-/?-http://-/?-http://-/?-http://-/?-http://-/?-


4/201

Blockrush is a fast paced plaormer where players compete in an ever upwards expanding

world. The players are threatened by a constantly rising black goo engulng everything inits path. In order to escape the goo the players embark on a journey starng in lush forest

environments expanding all the way up into outer space.

Blockrush is played like a normal 2d plaormer with the addion of being able to build your

own structures to reach higher secons. This is done through geometrical shapes (blocks)

randomly produced (Tetris style!), which can be placed simultaneously as one is plaorming.

Besides placing blocks, players can also use these shapes as ammunion to re against their

opponent and halt their velocity. Its also important to counter your opponents shoong of

blocks as not to lose momentum yourself.

Blockrush is just about this feeling of momentum and ow. The game is tailored to favor

constant movement and the gameplay shines brightest when the player aains this feeling

of owing moon. When a player maliciously cracks a smile while ruining another players

construcon, is also a moment where Blockrush shows o its good side.

Blockrush features both a single-player & mulplayer experience but the objecves in both

modes are similar: Avoid the black Goo chasing from below and reach the next level secon.

A level secon is a specic area where players (e.g. in mulplayer) are situated unl one of

them are the rst to reach the next secon at the top of the screen and scores a point. Think

along the lines of NES classic Ice Climbers, where it changes scenery once the players reach

the top end of the monitor.

Blockrushs gameplay could be described asIce Climbers meets Lile Big Planet with a touch

ofTetris.

Blockrush Vision:

OVERVIEW


5/20

Audience: Experienced male players, 10-30 years old

Genre: Construcon plaormer

Plaorm: Steam PC / Mac & Web

Technology: Unity 3d

Game pad

Keyboard & Mouse

2

Controls:

Blockrush is a creaon made mainly with the more experienced plaorm player in mind.

What we are referring to is the gaming audience enjoying games like Super Meat Boy & Braid

- plaorm games with a twist.

The learning curve of the controls is rather steep but on the other hand quite short as to not

completely alienate the more casual players. Other elements such as frequent and forgiving

checkpoints are also there to counter frustraon of players generally. The typical Blockrush

player is a 10-30 year old male, waing for his plaorming passion to be rekindled by new

ways to traverse a 2d environment.

These players will primarily play in hour long sessions over network and local mulplayer will

extend the session by an hour or so. Once a player reaches a certain secon it will become

available as a checkpoint for later sessions. The gamer will regularly come back to experience

new levels and evolve their blockrushing skills.

The Plaorming Audience:


6/20

GAME DESIGNGame Scope:

The general idea of Blockrushs scope is to be easily maintained and exible, in accordance

we have made the pipeline streamlined for easy asset and level creaon.

Our aim for the game is to feature 100+ levels / level secons in each game mode of single

player and mulplayer. The idea is for these levels to have a lot of replay value since every

game session will dier depending on the player style and the unpredictability of the physicsand randomizaon of the blocks at hand.

An short but descripve tutorial will also be available to play through.

The core art assets in Blockrush are the characters, level secon plaorms and the dierent

kinds of blocks. Due to the limited amount of necessary assets it will result in an extensive

producon me to ll the game world with enriching but not essenal assets.

This setup could with some tweaking potenally be suited for random generated levels

providing even more variaon and replayability.

Blockrush is intended to be and indie tle released on Steam with mulplayer capabilies

over network. The two core game modes along with the amount of levels rst intended can

be released and retailed as a starng bundle to be expanded on later through DLC:s with

new:

Level secons -Addional levels with new level design layouts

World themes - New seng, e.g. start in a volcano or winter landscape

Building blocks - More various shapes to build with

Specic level blocks - Level blocks with dierent behavior e.g. bouncy or slippery

Game modes - Co-op, Puzzle (limited block amount), Challenge, Time trial etc.

Characters - Customizable characters, new skins

The Essence of Blockrush(Player experience)

MomentumCompeon

UnpredictabilityMul-tasking

Precision

Skill rewarding

Minimalisc & colorful world

Intensity

Malicious Delight

3


7/20


8/20

Building:

The player have the ability to place blocks in a set area around the players avatar. The player

have to build their towers and construcons in order to vercally traverse the environment.

The building blocks have physics. This means that player will have to plan ahead whilst theyare creang their structures, as well as making the gameplay dynamic and variated.

The players ability to build blocks is visualized by a block indicator. This is a transparent

green representaon of the next block. The player moves this indicator freely inside a set

area around the character, using the right-joysck (Xbox) or the mouse-movement. The

block indicator can also be rotated in 5 degree increments with the le or right bumper

(Xbox), or the scroll wheel of the mouse.

If the block indicator is colliding with something or the player have triggered the spam

funconality, the block indicator will turn red. The player will now be unable to place blocks.

This is unl the indicator is moved to a placeable area or the spam trigger cools down.

Green block indicator

Build area

The block indicator represents a solid block of equal shape

Correct type of construcon Not so much

Placeable blockNot placeable block

5


9/20

Shoong:

When holding down the shoot buon (Le trigger with Xbox - right mouse buon with PC),

the game will calculate the angle from which the block is located in relaon to the player.

When releasing the shoot buon, it will launch a block in the opposite angle from the player,

with a force depending on a charge level.

The charge level is calculated by mulplying a default value by how long a player has pressed

the buon (and by how much the trigger is pressed on a Xbox controller).

This feature is key in the mulplayer mode when it is used to destroy the other players

blocks / structures.

Block indicator angle

determines shoot direcon

Spawns a block with

applied force

Arc is determined

by charge force

Block indicator shakes

when charging

Blocks will expand out of the

block indicator when red

The block is rotangwhile airborne

Levels:

The game is divided into safety levels and are represented in a number of ways, all

relang to the environment. For instance; if player reaches a twig, it gains collision and will

give the player new solid ground to build on (and scores a point in MP).

New level secon providing new solid ground

Current level secon

6


10/20

Help blocks:

The level secons is inhabited by help blocks. Help blocks can be used to speed up the play-

ers vercal progression on each level. They also give a variaon to the gameplay and mixes

up the gameplay and the general ow of the game.

There are two kinds of help blocks. Solid blocks and semi-solid blocks. These blocks have the

same properes as the blocks placed by the player but they are stac and indestrucble.

In addion, semi-solid blocks have no collision with the player. They do however, collide with

the blocks placed by the players, therefore they can be used as support for the players own

construcons.

Solid help block Semi-solid help block Solid player block placed on

top of semi-solid help block

Rushing Expanded:(Supporng mechanics)

Shue acon:

Shue is an acon available to the player by the press of a buon (X-buon on Xbox - F on

keyboard - or the Middle mouse buon). Normally a player will get a new block indicator

every me a block is laid out and thus get access to a new block/shape. However, the playercan manually randomize the block indicator to get access to a new block as well.

Shuing results in a new shape available for the player

7


11/20

Destroy acon:

Earlier it was explained how the block indicator changes color to red while intersecng other

objects. If the other object is one of the players own blocks it can be deleted from the world

by pressing the Destroy buon. (B-buon on Xbox - X-key on keyboard

Hovering over one of the players own block Destroy acon deletes the intersecng shapes

Bomb blocks:

Bomb blocks are available both as randomly produced blocks for the player to use as well as

stac objects in the environment that are acvated by taking hits from other bombs or blocks.

A bomb appearing in the players inventory can be placed or shot in the same manner as

normal building blocks with the excepon that they explode aer a number of seconds.

The explosion will force blocks and players away from the center point of the blast.

Stac bomb block Delay Explosion force

Level specic blocks:

In the dierent level areas of Blockrush there are various level specic blocks.

In space for example, there are low-gravity blocks which are dierenated from normal

blocks in their oaty behavior.

8


12/20


13/20

THE WORLD OF BLOCKRUSH

Harmonic Low Poly Minimalism:

Blockrush features a completely unique art style. The game is minimalisc yet rich in content

with a lot of depth to the world.

The art style in Blockrush was inially intended for mobile plaorms. We wanted to create

something unique, visually interesng, with a playful vibe without being childish. Another

objecve was to tailor the art style to not take a lot of power to render, regardless of

plaorm.

We were inspired by a lot of dierent low polygon art styles where the focus were on sharp

forms and a harmonic play with colors over otherwise monochrome faces.

It is key to bring out the dierence between the for- and background when making a 2d-

plaormer. We had to be careful not to bring too much individual detail on objects if theproduct was to be played on a mobile plaorm, as rst intended.

Forest

Sky

Space

10


14/20

Inspiraonal Collage:

The original and most prominent inspiraon came from a short animated lm called

Between Bears.

The collage also show our visual interest of games such as Guacamelee (in terms of a

color palee), Journey (minimalisc style), Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (basic

shapes and low object detail).

The rest is a selecon of low poly art styles with appropriate color schemes.

11


15/20

Blockrush Gameplay Examples:

12


16/20

The Story of the Valley of Goo:

The game starts in a harmonic forest valley. Birds are singing and the animals are thriving.

The peace is disturbed when the valley starts to become ooded by a mysterious black goo,

devastang everything it touches. In the deeps of the black goo also lurks an enty known as

the Goo sh, eang everything risking geng inside its range.

The player takes the role of a seemingly careless character that have to race against the ood

upwards (and a menacing neighbor). Meanwhile an enormous black tower from which the

goo is coming, is constantly in the players sight.

Blockrush takes the player on a journey starng in a forest expanding all the way out into

outer space. The back story of the black tower in the far distance will become more

apparent as the player makes progress. What is the black tower and why is it ooding the

world?

The Blockrushers:

The main characters are two rival neighbors constantly arguing about pey things. By theme the Goo starts ooding their home in the forest, one of them accidentally destroys the

house next door.

This is the prelude to a feud of epic proporons, making nemeses out of neighbors.

PhilPlayer One

StanleyPlayer Two

13


17/20

THE TEAM BEHIND THE PROTOTYPEBlockrush was made by a group of talented and dedicated students ofFuturegames as a

proof of concept for Fatshark over the course ofseven weeks. The technology used was

the Unity engine and the inial guidelines was to create a build and break type of game.

Anders BergmanDesigner

Game design, scripng, level design, game balancing & project lead

Claes FornellDesigner

Game design, level design, game balancing & scripng

Johan LithvallArst

Overall visual style, character design, look dev & general 3d assets

Bjrn KjerrgrenArst

Shaders, environment art, parcles, interface assets & general 3d assets

Oscar HglundArst

Animaon, rigging, UI design, & & general 3d assets

Simon KarlssonDesigner

Sound design

Vincente GranssonExternal composer

Soundtrack

14
http://www.oscarhoglund.com/http://cargocollective.com/lithvallhttp://www.claesfornell.com/http://www.anders-bergman.com/


18/20

TRANSCENDING THE SCREEN:Despite the friendly art style, Blockrush is all about compeve gameplay. The player strives

to reach new levels as fast as possible. They can either play by themselves in single player,

racing against the aggressive goo, facing harder and harder levels as they beat their own

records. Or play against a friend in mulplayer, engaging in intense bales chaocallythrowing blocks at their opponent whilst striving to maintain their own ow.

The player is constantly rewarded each me they reach a new level and are faced with a new

fun level to conquer. To accomplish an as fun experience as possible the levels are made in a

way to always challenge players just enough to keep them capvated.

The seng of the Blockrush universe, with the devastang black goo, intoxicang the forest

and the planet, is also there as a reminder to what were doing to our on planet in real life.

Were constantly making choices to pollute our environment and trying to outrun the

consequences, just like the blockrushers.

MARKETING & SALES:Steam is our intended primary plaorm and were aiming at a pricing in the span of 10-15.

Due to Blockrushs paral similarity to other successful plaorm games we think the game

would be a good candidate for indie bundles. This would up the games buzz and reputaon,

along with sales; in addion to the revenue for the stand alone release on Steam.

To be able to reach out to as wide an audi-

ence of gamers as possible with a limited

markeng budget, we are going to set specic

guerilla and viral markeng taccs in moon

once the game is closing in on release.

Other potenal opons is to release a down

scaled web version of the game for free on

Facebook or sites like Indiegames.org to at-tract a larger user base and refer to a

premium edion with reasonable pricing.

15


19/20

SUMMARYBy combining the unique, low poly art style with a gameplay rewarding momentum and

spicing the usual plaorm elements with simultaneous block creaon, you get a prey darn

good recipe!

Blockrushs existence is movated by our passion for precision plaorm games, along with a

strong community of gamers nding their way back to this genre that ourished throughout

the 90s. Games like Super Meat Boy, Braid, Limbo & Fez has made a producon like

Blockrush not only possible but also economically jusable by providing a large and loyal

target audience who will embrace the Blockrush experience.

Classic 2d plaorming with a twist

Clean and unique low poly art style in sync with a harmonic color palee

Experience uid, high velocity plaorming and chaoc variaon

Be creave in your block building and wreck others structures

USPs:

16


20/20

Blockrush - Game Treatment

Documents

Transcript of Blockrush - Game Treatment