Concept Document: Skyline

8/7/2019 Concept Document: Skyline

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SKYLINE

TAGLINE

"Design the face of a city."

HIGH CONCEPT

Skyline is a streamlined and "casual" city management game for the iPad

that emphasizes the beauty of the city's skyline through a side camera view

and distinctive art style. Players balance industrial, commercial, and

residential buildings in ways unique from other city-building

gamesunobstructed views keep residents happy and a well organized

skyline brings in tourism money. Since there is no overhead view, players

are given a sense of their whole city through four different view directions.

The game begins in the early 20th century just as skyscrapers have been

invented and ends 200 years later with futuristic buildings. Every few

decades new building types are unlocked. A time-lapse option provides

players with the ability to view their city's skyline grow and change over the

years. There is no explicit goal or winning condition, but the game will end

after 200 years have elapsed. The only loss condition is bankruptcy. The

self-directed and implied goal is to create a functioning and aesthetically

pleasing city.

TARGET MARKET

Skyline will appeal to people who are put off by the complexity of city

management games but would enjoy a really accessible game that they can

spend 5-30 minutes at a time with. The hardcore city sim player will also be

attracted to this new take on a familiar genre. The intuitive touch controls

also make it a fun game for parents and their young children to play

together.


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KEY FEATURES

Drag-and-Drop Construction

Placing buildings on the skyline is simple enough for a young child to grasp.

Tap the building browser button then scroll through it until the desirablebuilding is found. Drag it on to the city and a ghost outline will appear, which

can be moved horizontally or stretched vertically with simple touch and drag

controls. Double tapping will cycle the building backward through the layers

of the skyline so it can be positioned right in front or obscured in the

background. Once the desired height and position has been set it is marked

for construction by tapping a "build" button. Cranes will then appear and

spend approximately a minute real-time building it. Double tapping an

already constructed building brings up a menu that allows it to be marked

for demolition or conversion into another type. The entire city is built thisway, without any indirect "zoning" or construction of roads and utilities.

Zoning Balance

Just as in SimCity, the player must delicately balance Industrial,

Commercial, and Residential growth. Rather than zoning and letting

buildings construct themselves, every single skyscraper is hand-picked and

placed by the player. Industrial buildings are required to be placed on the

two closest foreground layers and have a negative impact on residential

growth/happiness. Residential apartment buildings and condos require

unobstructed views and proximity to the foreground water or park for the

greatest happiness, and are negatively affected by being too close to

industrial buildings and too far away from commercial ones. Commercial

buildings generate the most tax income when concentrated together (the

downtown core). Distance between buildings is determined by both

horizontal space and the layers they each occupy. A residential building's

view of the foreground, and therefore its "happiness", is determined by the

percentage of floors that the player can see, or in other words are not

hidden behind other buildings. The player is rewarded for proper and

efficient building placement with money from tax income that can be used to

purchase additional buildings.


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Landmark Buildings

Meeting certain goals such as a high resident happiness, achieving a certain

density of construction, or gentrifying an industrial waterfront will reward the

player by unlocking unique landmark buildings. These can be constructed for

a huge bonus to tourism revenue if placed in an unobstructed position ormade to dominate the skyline (ie. no adjacent buildings of a similarly

impressive height). Landmark buildings include but are not limited to:

museums, unique skyscrapers, opera houses/theatres, and stadiums.

Tourism

A city with a nicely balanced skyline with modern, tall buildings, little

pollution from industrial smokestacks, landmark buildings, and a high

resident happiness rating will draw tourists. High tourism will bring in

additional money at the end of each game year and unlock new buildingtypes such as hotels and conference centres.

Seasons, Weather, Day/Night

Different weather effects will occur from time to time. Snow, lightning

storms, fog, aurora borealis, etc. These will add visual flair to the skyline

and have no effect on the city stats or growth. There will also be a day/night

toggle that the player can switch between at will. Viewing a skyline at night

will be completely different than during the day as buildings will be defined

by window lights, rooftop spotlights, blinking radio tower beacons, etc.

Time-Lapse

Players can choose to view a time-lapse animation of their city from its

beginning whenever they please. In normal play, one year of game time is

equivalent to one minute of real-time. This is compressed to one second for

the time-lapse. Seasons will fly by, buildings constructed and torn down in

seconds, and so on. This lets players get a sense of just how much their city

has evolved (or deteriorated). Players will be able to set a music track from

their personal libraries to be played during the time-lapse video. The video

can then be easily uploaded to Youtube and shared through email, Twitter,

or Facebook from within the game.


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Urban Decay

Players will be penalized with urban decay for failing to properly balance the

various building types (for example, placing apartments too close to the

pollution and noise of industry). Residents will leave for the suburbs, office

space will be vacant, and industry will stagnateall of which means less taxmoney to spend on new buildings. Urban decay will be visually depicted with

elements like broken and boarded up windows in warehouses and large "for

lease" signs on buildings. Players can recover from urban decay by

condemning poorly placed buildings and trying a new layout. If the player

goes bankrupt the city is granted a stimulus package of extra cash which can

be used to rebuild. If the city goes bankrupt due to urban decay twice in the

span of 50 game years, the game is over.

GoalsLong-Term: The only explicit goal is to make a city that can thrive for the full

two centuries. Even that is not necessary, as a player may decide to try and

build a thriving city and see what it would look like if it collapsed into urban

decay. There is no single way to "win".

Mid-Term: There are optional goals that lead to new buildings being

unlocked. A high population milestone will unlock bigger and better

apartment buildings, high tourism leads to hotels and airports, and high

commerce allows factories to be gentrified and converted to high-priced lofts

and condos. Players may also impose their own goals on a game session,

such as creating a beautiful residential waterfront, or accurately replicating a

famous city's skyline. There would be no in-game reward, just player

satisfaction (amplified through the ability to share images or time-lapse

videos of the city that has been created through social networks).


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CONTROLS

Tap

Open/Select interface elements such as buttons.

Drag (touch, hold, drag, and release in any direction)

Place building by dragging its image from the Building Browser menuto the game view.

Adjust building outline height by grabbing "handle" on roof and pullingup to increase number of floors.

Double Tap (two taps in quick succession)

On planned building: Cycle outline through layers

On built building: Bring up Action Menu

Swipe (a quick horizontal drag across the screen with one finger)

Scroll view left or right

Two-finger Swipe (a swipe with index and middle fingers)

Change camera facing direction (North, South, East, West)


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CAMERA

The camera is a fixed height side view. The player can track (scroll) the

camera left and right a limited distance by swiping on the screen. There

would be a parallax effect between the foreground, buildings, and skybackground. Each city has 4 different camera positions corresponding with

directions on the compass. These can be switched between at any time using

a two-finger swipe to get a new angle on the city. Each city therefore has 4

skylines, though a building visible from one view will not necessarily be

visible from other angles.

VISUAL STYLE

Skyline is 2D and uses an illustration style that seems like it might belong ina magazine or on a postcard. The buildings have no illusion of depth, but

nonetheless manage to "pop" from the background through their strong

shapes and colours. The foreground elements at the bottom of the screen

are slightly more detailed than the buildings and will animate to change with

the seasons and weather.

Reference image showing camera angle andvisual style


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COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Competitor Title Features Skyline Features Response

Civilization Revolution

(iPad)

1. "Wonders" special

buildings with huge

bonus

2. Technology tree

3. Many different

civilizations to choose

from

1. "Landmark"

buildings

2. New buildings are

unlocked by meeting

certain goals or at

specific years.

3. City templates that

affect weather

patterns and

foreground (ie. island,

river, mountain, etc)

1. Very similar

feature

2. Unlocking buildings

by meeting goals is

more rewarding than

waiting X turns

3. No restrictions on

style of building allow

players to personalize

their city as they wish

SimCity Societies 1. No zoning, directly

place buildings

2. 10 different

"societies" or themes

(Cyberpunk, haunted,

small town, etc)

3. "Social energies"

change look of city

1. Directly place

buildings

2. Wide variety of

building types

3. Failing cities will

have run-down

buildings and other

indicators of urban

decay

1. Very similar

feature

2. Themes are

imposed by the player

through self-directed

play

3. The look of the city

is determined by

placement and

management of

buildings

Cities XL 1. Gameplay

Extension

ModulesThemed

areas that extend the

city such as a beach

or ski resort

2. Wide variety of

transport

management options

3. Resident social

classes (workers,

executives, elite)

1. A large selection of

foreground elements

(ie. docks, beach,

park, canal, etc.)

2. No transport

management at all.

3. Different classes of

buildings (ie. high

class condo and low-

class residential

projects)

1. The need for

constant building

renewal keeps the

skyline fresh

2. Detailed traffic

management has

been cut to focus on

core experience

3. Social classes are

represented through

the variety of

buildings, not

individuals


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CONTACT

Michel McBride-Charpentier

[email protected](604)836-0397

Portfolio: http://www.bigapple3am.com

Concept Document: Skyline

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