Game Concept

Concept Statement 

Secret agent double-o-seven must climb to the top of the world’s tallest tree to stop the ancient race of Big Foot completing their plans of world domination via a mind domination device. 

Genre 

Platformer 

Concept Creation / Influences 

The initial concept was supplied by a friend as a random suggestion; “Tree Climbing Simulator”. Something about this stuck, but there seemed room for an even more absurdist twist that would sound like something that was thrown out of a writer's room for being too ‘silly’. This is intended to give it a feel akin to a bizarre cartoon that makes no sense when summarized out loud. 

The main concept is that of climbing a tree; hazardous, and likely to go wrong quickly with a single misstep. This creates an inherent level of tension and accomplishment with any form of progression. Depending on the difficulty of movement, there’s also an element of ‘rage’ games that are intended to be frustrating, however the hope is that it won’t reach that level of difficulty and be more satisfying. The main influence for this was Jump King, which has a focus on difficult jumps with no mid-air control, and a large risk of falling and losing (at the very least) a large chunk of progress.

The art-style itself should reflect the light-hearted and silly nature of the situation.

Combat is intended to be a constant process of measuring what equipment would be best to keep hold of, depending on the situation, and the players playstyle preference. This is primarily pulled from the game Deadbolt, where weapons are picked up and discarded as they are used due to a limited number of uses, forcing the player to adapt. 

Audience / Competitive Analysis 

The primary audience would be those looking for a quick experience with a moderate level of concentration required. The intended skill ceiling won’t be particularly high but supply enough difficulty to allow for a decent level of rhythm to be built between the player and the game.

Game Treatment 

You are a secret agent climbing a tree to destroy the mind-control device designed by an ancient race of cryptids, fighting through a multitude of monsters that wish to stop your progress. 

The actual game itself would be a form of infinite platformer, with no actual end-goal other than attempting to climb as high as possible while dealing with difficult platforming and steadily increasing stream of enemies. There will be small “beats” of story elements at certain levels of progression, but the actual game-play itself will continue infinitely (until most likely reaching some ridiculous game engine limit).

Stylistically the game will be composed of a simplistic pixel art, with blocky designs that convey basic concepts with little fine-grain detail. There are only a few thousand examples of usage of this style, but character design can be narrowed down to games with more ‘lanky/thin’ characters, such as Deadbolt, and Gods Will Be Watching. 

Done right, this can both be relatively simple to create, look quite satisfying, and require minimal artistic ability. Rather important considering the timeframe of development. 

Movement tech in both directions will be quite distinct from each other. 

Jumping will comprise of a charged leap forwards at around a 45-degree angle, the level of charge being conveyed through the state of the characters animation. The player will have no control over the angle of the jump once it has started, meaning you must get it right! 
Horizontal movement will be relatively slow and controlled, with almost no acceleration or deceleration period. We are climbing a tree after all, don’t want to make it too easy to run or slide off the edge, but it still being a potential risk helps add to the tension. 
Dodging will provide a small window of invincibility and have a small cooldown to both prevent abuse and potentially enforce a sense of ‘rhythm’ to combat. 
Additionally, as there are going to be enemies capable of attacking the player in a variety of ways, there’s a need for the player to both attack and defend. Offence will include a variety of weapons that are picked up as you progress that have a limit amount of ammunition to force cycling of strategies. This will further be enforced by limiting the number of weapons that can be carried at once, possibly as low as only two. Defenses will only comprise of the existing movement tech, the dodge providing a small window of invisibility.