Harrowing Concept Devlog Assignment 2

 Game Development Document: Harrowing

Concept Statement

Harrowing is a bossfight simulator between the player character and their monster-like opponent, requiring the player to weave between attacks and look for opportunities to strike in order to achieve victory.

Genre

This game idea does not quite fit into any particular genre that well. The best I would describe it as would be an action platformer game, as the player needs to platform through the boss arena, and the bossfight itself covers the action part. I can’t really describe it as a boss rush game since there is only one boss, and I can’t describe it as a metroidvania since well, it isn’t one. 

Concept creation process

The main inspiration for this concept are the pantheons of Hollow Knight, which I have been replaying recently. In Hollow Knight, there are pantheons containing rematches of all the game's boss fights, of which the final boss is called “absolute radiance”. I love these boss battles and really wanted to make just a singular bossfight for a game instead of just making a basic shooter game or pacman clone. As such, my idea was to take the absolute radiance fight, strip down a lot of the knight's utility and movement, dumb down the graphics, simplify the game systems and change the boss into my own interpretation of the fight. This falls under subtractive design, in which the main idea I wanted to focus on was that of a bossfight. Of course, there is a high chance this is completely impossible to do within 5 weeks, so another option is for the boss to instead be a simple floating boss that shoots projectiles at the player, which would be lame but much quicker to make. If time allows, there would also be a simple menu option allowing the player to nerf parts of the fight to add replayability, similar again to how Hollow Knight has the bindings for the pantheons. These would be damage, dash cooldown and total health. 

Audience and Competitive Analysis

As the game takes heavy inspiration from Hollow Knight and its boss fights, these players are the main demographic for this game

Caters to players who:

• Like a challenge in their games
• Like variance in the difficulty of their games
• Like to master or get skillful and games
• Enjoy 2d side scrolling style games and movement
• Enjoy quick easy to pick up easy to put down games
• Have played hollow knight or similar metroidvanias before
• Enjoy boss rushes or boss fights in games

• Hardcore gamers would enjoy more due to the optional challenge, although casual players can enjoy it as well due to being able to complete it quickly and without too much hassle.
• Does not cater to specific age range, although older people would probably be less likely to take interest in it
• As this will be free to play, I don’t believe it caters to any specific demographics or cultures, although the spider-like appearance of the boss could maybe give problems for people with severe arachnophobia? Naturally, it will only be accessible to PC players so unfortunately console players are excluded from the possible audience for this game
• Completionists might enjoy the game because of the replayability and reward giving if the bindings are implemented into the game. Also caters to them with the reward of mastering a boss fight. At the very least, I thoroughly enjoyed mastering the boss fights to the point of being able to no-hit them in Hollow Knight, and I imagine similar people might see the appeal of doing that in Harrowing. 

The game is similar to its main source of inspiration, however the main point of difference and originality is that of the bosses design and moveset, as this is what will set it apart from the bosses of Hollow Knight.

Game treatment and concept art

Player Role

• Move around the screen, running left and right, dashing, jumping and falling.
• Attacking in the direction they are facing. This may apply backwards knockback depending on how easy that is to implement
• Click on UI buttons, at the menu, and once the boss attempt is finished

This is all the player needs to be able to do in the game.

Brief description of game

In Harrowing, you awake in an empty arena to find yourself pitted against a massive hostile monster and armed with only a sword. You must make use of the abilities you have and the environment you're in to evade its attacks and defeat it before it kills you. That is all the story required for this game, although a little more could be added if the project was developed further. Examples would be you and the monster acknowledging your past fights, being trapped in an endless dance to the death, or being aware that someone is watching them fight for their entertainment.

Key features

Running - The player can move at a constant speed left or right, while in the air or on the ground. There is no acceleration or stopping time. 

Dashing - The player character can dash left or right. This dash moves at a constant speed, and will stop the player’s gravity if they are falling, allowing them to have consistency in their dash and how they maneuver themselves. 

Jumping - the player will be able to jump and double jump, letting them reach platforms, position themselves ideally for boss attacks and reach the boss in order to hit them. 

Platforms - the arena will have 3 platforms in it, the main floor and 2 floating platforms on either side. This gives the player space to move around and vantage points to utilize in their fight.

Sword attacks - the player can choose to swing their sword in 4 directions, up down left and right and will swing in the direction they are facing, in a similar method to how Hollow Knight does it. If time allows, I would like the sword attacks to knock the player back, as this not only lets players pogo the boss, but makes them think about when to attack, as mindlessly attacking might push them into a boss attack.

Boss - The boss is a giant spider-like figure that looms above the player as they fight, it will position itself either in the middle of the arena, or above either of the side platforms. 

Boss attacks - the boss will have a couple of attacks, some relating to its four arms and some relating to its mouth. The mouth attacks are mostly going to be circular wave attacks, for instance rotating laser beams that appear from the mouth of the boss, or waves of projectiles that it spits out. The arms will most likely be stomp attacks directly aimed at the player position.

Concept art:

• The original player and boss design ideas would be far too difficult to animate in such a timeframe
• A two legged version of the boss could still be utilized if the four legged version is too screen cluttering

Art featuring the different sprites of the player depending on their movement, the look of the 4 legged boss and the blocky art style. Also details player attacks and potential boss attacks

This is an image of the colour palette / colour tone I wanted the game to be. Dark grays and black for the boss and light grays and white for the player, with the environment having some faded blues. 

If the four different arms are actually implemented, then their designs draw inspiration from one of Terraria’s bosses, Skeletron Prime, which also features four arms that have unique designs and attacks to them.

An Image of the Skeletron Prime boss, from Terraria

5 weeks, week 1 - player arena, jumping, camera tracking, dashing, week 2 boss design, 1 attack, week 3 player attacks, collisions and health, week 4 menus, health bar, ui and more bossfight, week 5 polish, more attacks

The Absolute Radiance Boss fight from Hollow Knight.

This fight is the main source of inspiration for the game, and many key elements of Harrowing can be seen in the fight: 3 boss teleport areas, player movement mechanics, giant boss looming over the player, large middle platform for the player to fight on.

Controller support could be added if I have the time, allowing for more accommodation of players' play style.

References

Hollow Knight (VoidHeart edition). 2017. PC [Game]. Team Cherry

Terraria (standard edition). 2011. PC [Game]. Re-Logic