2D Survival Horror Game
Hey Guys, I have just started working on a 2D game called Jenny's Reunion. Below are some design images and sprites for the game. Id love to be able to post updates and mini-super mini blogs as this forum is full of bright and smart gamers that could contribute alot of interesting arguments and ideas, that would therefore benefit the game design. The images you see before your sparkling twinkle eyes are the games protaganist. Her name is Alice
Artwork By Armando Elizondo
Some sprites for your viewing pleasure
Sprite Art by Durwin Au
Story
1974 Orwell Abby Boarding School
The group looked on at the strange student standing alone in the Dinning Hall.
They couldn't believe this Girl was for real, Her name was Jenny people had said.
She was always afraid, some said she had creepy powers.
The group are introduced to her when Jenny tries to befriend them.
They take this as an opportunity to play a cruel joke on Jenny.
They ask her to join their after dark party and meet up with her in the abandoned section of the school.
Forcing her to partake in a Ouija Board, the view finder spells out Reunion.
Suddenly Jenny becomes truely distured as the rest of the group take it as an opportunity to laugh at her.
She runs away, slowly becoming concerned the Group start looking for her in order to apologize.
Alice (one of the group members) sees Jenny alone above the great oak tree that shadows the courtyard.
She climbs the tree and tries to persuade Jenny to come down, Jenny is too disturbed to communicate with,
all of a sudden she grabs Alice and says "There is nothing any of us can do, you are responsible for this,
we are doomed to die forever", Alice is scared and pushes Jenny away, as Jenny is pushed she loses her gripping on
the Tree and falls. Jennys scarf gets attached to one of the branches of the Tree, resulting in her braking her neck.
Alice looks down in shock.
1984
They had forgotten about that terrible night.
Alice is involved in a car accident, the last thing she rembers is seeing a Ghostly Girl stand looking at her from her
Hospital bed, Alice closes her eyes.
When she awakens she is in a building remenisant to Maxwell Boarding school but different to what she recalls, the rooms
are morphed, the atmosphere is unwordly.
As she struggles to find a way out of this nightmarish school she soon discovers others are in this place also.
Her old school friends are trapped with her and running for their lives against pure evil.
Can she survive in a place full of these abnormal stalkers that first for her blood.
Can she discover what really happened to Jenny?.
How the game works:
As the player investigates the Boarding School they will have to solve various puzzles, collect various keys in order
to progress through the game. As they do this they will come into contact with various characters some will be other
Victums in the house that you will work together with in order to survive.
Another will be evil stalkers that hunt them down during this process.
Alice has many options which she can use at her disposal, from hiding inside lockers, under tables and beds or even staying
out of the Stalkers sight. Certain items can be equipted also for attacking the Stalkers but unlike other Survival Horror
games where your character is trained in Combat, Alice is a normal women with little combat ability, so therefore it is
advised you only attack when the moment arises otherwise Alice could find herself dead quite easily.
It isn't just Stalkers Alice has to be afraid of it is also a house full of unspeakable death traps situated all around
the School.
Systems:
Energy System:
When Alice uses Energy for example when she runs or pushes a heavy object this slowly decreases her Energy.
If Alice's Energy Level is low she won't be able to perform certain tasks without resting to restore her Energy.
Fear System:
When Alice is feeling calm her fear level will be low, while she is like this she is more able to explore areas.
To react more level headed to situations and examine items.
If Alice gets frightened her Fear level will gradually rise, the closer she is to the thing that is scaring her
the more likely she is to get scared quicker.
If Alice reaches a high level of fear she will become manic and become more agile and faster but less sutle and less
accurate in her abilities.
Alice has a Calm animation for when she is calm and a different set of animations to correspond with when she is Manic.
Damage System:
Unlike a health bar the Damage System is much simpler.
It takes the notion from Baseball 3 strikes and your out.
Basically if Alice takes an attack from one of the killers it will either be 1 of 3 attacks:
Full Attack = 3 Strikes - Instant death,
Semi Attack = 2 Strikes - Alice will be unable to stand up and can only crawl to safety,
Light Attack = 1 Stikes - Alice will appear damaged meaning her movements will be slower
Similar to Resident Evil 2 as far as animations will display this instead of a number showing how many lifes you have left.
Movement System:
This allows Alice to perform all her movements such as Running, Crouch/Crawl, walking, idle animations, pick up item movements
Similar to resident evil or haunting ground.
Inventory System:
This will display a map of the area with the players current location, it will have selection for
Items, Special Items, Files, Save etc.
Hiding System:
When Alice is being chased by a Stalker she can hide from them using many devices such as closets etc..
Through doing this she can evade the Stalkers and either stay away from them or suprise them with an attack.
Attack System:
Alice can attack a Stalker when they are open to an attack, in order to be accurate she has to charge her attack
before using it, this takes time and stamina.
Shock System:
Alice will be paralysed by Fear if she is suprised by rapidly taping the action button Alice can become normal again.
Push object System:
Just like in the Resident Evil games, you can use this to push objects against doors to stop Stalkers from entering etc.
Press against objects/walls:
Similar to Metal Gear Solid, where the player can lean up against a solid object and walk left or right along that object.
Hunt System:
If a Stalker appears or sees the player they will persistantly hunt them down and try and attack them.
If the player is hiding from the Stalker, the Stalker will do things like check for where the player could be hiding
It will attempt to search for the player.
Objects:
A system to make objects be used as hiding points from the Stalkers vision, such as if Alice was hiding behind
an object.
Quick Time Event System:
QTE system that asks the player to press a certain combonation of buttons at certain times in order to result in
an action. This is mostly used if a Stalker and the Player are in combat or if the Player is having to run from the Stalker
but at the same time use the enviroment around them to escape ie, jumping over something or evading attacks.
Similar to Shenmue or Resident Evil 4.
Save and Load System:
A system that lets you save at any time in the game and also load up a previous exsisting game file from the menu options.
Shadow System:
The Shadows will be used to express the hauntings of Jenny as she watches over Alice through out the game.
Text System:
Similar to most adventure games where Text is being written as the voice actors are talking
Team System:
Through your encounters with other characters that are stuck in the nightmare with you,
Choices will come up similar to Dino Crisis and Resident Evil 3.
For example you will have to choose which Team Member to work with, in order to make a reasonable choice the player will have to determine factors such as these:
1. Can I trust the plan or is the other option more realistic
2. Can I risk depending on this person even though their plan is realistic
3. How selfish is my decision and what will the effects be by choosing it
Depending on which characters you work with will result in differences in the games outcome and storyline.
Working as a Team:
Similar to forbidden Siren you will be able to control your team members by using direct commands such as Hide, Bait, Run, Follow me.
You will also be able to work together to get pass obstacles that might block a single players way, using each other to get across a high wall for example.
Each "sub" character has a special ability or thing about them which you can also command them to use.
Working as a Team you will have a greater chance to get a shot in on an enemy by using each other to bait the stalker into a good place to launch an attack, the disadvantage to attacking stalkers as a team is that hiding places will become less stable due to two of you needing to hide without being seen.
Extremely Rough Stalker Concept:
Apologies for the Hell of a long post.
Id love to hear what everyone thinks so far
Thanks for Reading,
HTD
Hey Guys, I have just started working on a 2D game called Jenny's Reunion. Below are some design images and sprites for the game. Id love to be able to post updates and mini-super mini blogs as this forum is full of bright and smart gamers that could contribute alot of interesting arguments and ideas, that would therefore benefit the game design. The images you see before your sparkling twinkle eyes are the games protaganist. Her name is Alice
Artwork By Armando Elizondo
Some sprites for your viewing pleasure
Sprite Art by Durwin Au
Story
1974 Orwell Abby Boarding School
The group looked on at the strange student standing alone in the Dinning Hall.
They couldn't believe this Girl was for real, Her name was Jenny people had said.
She was always afraid, some said she had creepy powers.
The group are introduced to her when Jenny tries to befriend them.
They take this as an opportunity to play a cruel joke on Jenny.
They ask her to join their after dark party and meet up with her in the abandoned section of the school.
Forcing her to partake in a Ouija Board, the view finder spells out Reunion.
Suddenly Jenny becomes truely distured as the rest of the group take it as an opportunity to laugh at her.
She runs away, slowly becoming concerned the Group start looking for her in order to apologize.
Alice (one of the group members) sees Jenny alone above the great oak tree that shadows the courtyard.
She climbs the tree and tries to persuade Jenny to come down, Jenny is too disturbed to communicate with,
all of a sudden she grabs Alice and says "There is nothing any of us can do, you are responsible for this,
we are doomed to die forever", Alice is scared and pushes Jenny away, as Jenny is pushed she loses her gripping on
the Tree and falls. Jennys scarf gets attached to one of the branches of the Tree, resulting in her braking her neck.
Alice looks down in shock.
1984
They had forgotten about that terrible night.
Alice is involved in a car accident, the last thing she rembers is seeing a Ghostly Girl stand looking at her from her
Hospital bed, Alice closes her eyes.
When she awakens she is in a building remenisant to Maxwell Boarding school but different to what she recalls, the rooms
are morphed, the atmosphere is unwordly.
As she struggles to find a way out of this nightmarish school she soon discovers others are in this place also.
Her old school friends are trapped with her and running for their lives against pure evil.
Can she survive in a place full of these abnormal stalkers that first for her blood.
Can she discover what really happened to Jenny?.
How the game works:
As the player investigates the Boarding School they will have to solve various puzzles, collect various keys in order
to progress through the game. As they do this they will come into contact with various characters some will be other
Victums in the house that you will work together with in order to survive.
Another will be evil stalkers that hunt them down during this process.
Alice has many options which she can use at her disposal, from hiding inside lockers, under tables and beds or even staying
out of the Stalkers sight. Certain items can be equipted also for attacking the Stalkers but unlike other Survival Horror
games where your character is trained in Combat, Alice is a normal women with little combat ability, so therefore it is
advised you only attack when the moment arises otherwise Alice could find herself dead quite easily.
It isn't just Stalkers Alice has to be afraid of it is also a house full of unspeakable death traps situated all around
the School.
Systems:
Energy System:
When Alice uses Energy for example when she runs or pushes a heavy object this slowly decreases her Energy.
If Alice's Energy Level is low she won't be able to perform certain tasks without resting to restore her Energy.
Fear System:
When Alice is feeling calm her fear level will be low, while she is like this she is more able to explore areas.
To react more level headed to situations and examine items.
If Alice gets frightened her Fear level will gradually rise, the closer she is to the thing that is scaring her
the more likely she is to get scared quicker.
If Alice reaches a high level of fear she will become manic and become more agile and faster but less sutle and less
accurate in her abilities.
Alice has a Calm animation for when she is calm and a different set of animations to correspond with when she is Manic.
Damage System:
Unlike a health bar the Damage System is much simpler.
It takes the notion from Baseball 3 strikes and your out.
Basically if Alice takes an attack from one of the killers it will either be 1 of 3 attacks:
Full Attack = 3 Strikes - Instant death,
Semi Attack = 2 Strikes - Alice will be unable to stand up and can only crawl to safety,
Light Attack = 1 Stikes - Alice will appear damaged meaning her movements will be slower
Similar to Resident Evil 2 as far as animations will display this instead of a number showing how many lifes you have left.
Movement System:
This allows Alice to perform all her movements such as Running, Crouch/Crawl, walking, idle animations, pick up item movements
Similar to resident evil or haunting ground.
Inventory System:
This will display a map of the area with the players current location, it will have selection for
Items, Special Items, Files, Save etc.
Hiding System:
When Alice is being chased by a Stalker she can hide from them using many devices such as closets etc..
Through doing this she can evade the Stalkers and either stay away from them or suprise them with an attack.
Attack System:
Alice can attack a Stalker when they are open to an attack, in order to be accurate she has to charge her attack
before using it, this takes time and stamina.
Shock System:
Alice will be paralysed by Fear if she is suprised by rapidly taping the action button Alice can become normal again.
Push object System:
Just like in the Resident Evil games, you can use this to push objects against doors to stop Stalkers from entering etc.
Press against objects/walls:
Similar to Metal Gear Solid, where the player can lean up against a solid object and walk left or right along that object.
Hunt System:
If a Stalker appears or sees the player they will persistantly hunt them down and try and attack them.
If the player is hiding from the Stalker, the Stalker will do things like check for where the player could be hiding
It will attempt to search for the player.
Objects:
A system to make objects be used as hiding points from the Stalkers vision, such as if Alice was hiding behind
an object.
Quick Time Event System:
QTE system that asks the player to press a certain combonation of buttons at certain times in order to result in
an action. This is mostly used if a Stalker and the Player are in combat or if the Player is having to run from the Stalker
but at the same time use the enviroment around them to escape ie, jumping over something or evading attacks.
Similar to Shenmue or Resident Evil 4.
Save and Load System:
A system that lets you save at any time in the game and also load up a previous exsisting game file from the menu options.
Shadow System:
The Shadows will be used to express the hauntings of Jenny as she watches over Alice through out the game.
Text System:
Similar to most adventure games where Text is being written as the voice actors are talking
Team System:
Through your encounters with other characters that are stuck in the nightmare with you,
Choices will come up similar to Dino Crisis and Resident Evil 3.
For example you will have to choose which Team Member to work with, in order to make a reasonable choice the player will have to determine factors such as these:
1. Can I trust the plan or is the other option more realistic
2. Can I risk depending on this person even though their plan is realistic
3. How selfish is my decision and what will the effects be by choosing it
Depending on which characters you work with will result in differences in the games outcome and storyline.
Working as a Team:
Similar to forbidden Siren you will be able to control your team members by using direct commands such as Hide, Bait, Run, Follow me.
You will also be able to work together to get pass obstacles that might block a single players way, using each other to get across a high wall for example.
Each "sub" character has a special ability or thing about them which you can also command them to use.
Working as a Team you will have a greater chance to get a shot in on an enemy by using each other to bait the stalker into a good place to launch an attack, the disadvantage to attacking stalkers as a team is that hiding places will become less stable due to two of you needing to hide without being seen.
Extremely Rough Stalker Concept:
Apologies for the Hell of a long post.
Id love to hear what everyone thinks so far
Thanks for Reading,
HTD
As I might have said before each of the killers AI will be slightly tweaked to express their own individual styles of hunting.
For example Baby (above sketch a few posts back) will be similar to the original clock tower stalker barrows, he will hide in the darkness and shock the player chasing them and confusing them almost leading them into places that the player doesn't want to be.
While Bulk/Glutton will be a more hands on Killer bursting through walls etc... Hes kind of my Abobo of this game (I always knew Double Dragon gave an impact to my psyche more than I would have ever thought possible dang).
Any Questions, requests anything just post and I'll reply.
Thanks
HTD
"The first one is a pretty basic design of an 18 century priest, as for the other two I did more of a creative twist on the basic concept.
For the heads I kept the doll face concept in mind and played with it four different ways, the last one being an odd ball and more creepy mask type.
The 1 and 3 one I played with the idea of the neck being show as muscle tissue while the skin is either pulled back or non present"
Armando Elizondo
The inspiration for his weapon is similar to wolverine or what Jigsaw uses to slit Danny Glovers throat in Saw.
This way Baby is much more versatile and stealthy than Glutton/Bulk due to being able to execute his weapon on demand giving his hands freedom to use.
Glutton:
I took my inspiration from Banes body type I have always loved how a guy so big can be so dangerous and I hope we have succeeded in giving that impression with him.
His weapon is now much more nastier and I am really happy with the results.
So for the Baby character I really would appreciate some feedback.
Thanks for reading Guys,
HTD
Glutton
Hope you like them Guys
HTD