Game Concept
Abandoned Kingdom
A destroyed, haunted landscape of stone walkways and ominous red skies will greet you in this intensely fuelled action adventure/JRPG experience. Can you make it to the middle of the kingdom?
Genre - Action Adventure / JRPG
Abandoned Kingdom is a concept stemming from a love for both roguelike gameplay and JRPG gameplay. I believe, in the modern climate, roguelikes are becoming an increasingly popular genre due to their endless replayability. However, I believe their inherit gameplay
qualities, which typically originate from old school Zeldas, can at times feel shallow and repetitive. Abandoned Kingdom came into existence due to the curious idea of combining the RNG elements of roguelikes, whilst having a duality of gameplay, swapping between classic action-adventure combat and JRPG turn based combat.
The main games I've drawn inspiration from are:
- A Link To The Past for its Action Adventure gameplay elements and world. The very simple gameplay of classic top down Zeldas has proven to still work in the modern gaming climate, being the basis for a lot of roguelikes.
- The Final Fantasy franchise for its turn-based combat and RPG elements. I believe no other franchise does JRPG quite as well as Final Fantasy. Its turn-based combat is methodical and well thought out, as well as the stat based RPG elements, from better gear to classes, make it heavily replayable and very complex.
- The Binding of Isaac for its use of items/powerups. The Binding of Isaac is my favourite roguelike, having an item system which allows for extremely satisfying and enjoyable synergies. This makes for a game with immense replayability, whilst still being fundamentally simple.
- Borderlands for its take on procedural generated gear. Whilst not ludicrously complex, the weapon generation in Borderlands adds a nuance to the entire series. This is something I believe should be done in more games, especially in different genres.
- Dark Souls for its tone, storytelling, art style and general theme. Dark Souls has built a massive following for many reasons. The world building is done through gameplay, which makes for more immersive environments. Both the graphics and art style itself are very memorable, and sports loads of enemies and environments that are creatively sound.
Audience
Abandoned Kingdom is designed to appeal across multiple groups of gamers, from those who like fast-paced action gameplay, roleplaying elements, atmospheric design, difficulty and lore -based story telling. The main demographic spans both casual and hardcore gamers. The action-adventure gameplay segments, whilst simpler in nature, are generally appealing to the masses. The JRPG turn based gameplay segments usually appeal more to hardcore gamers. This isn’t always the case (i.e. Pokémon), but the system's JRPGs put into place are often complex and somewhat off-putting for a very casual individual. With Abandoned Kingdom, both gameplay systems will be streamlined, intuitive and offer mechanical depth, allowing for a casual to enjoy the surface level content whilst having the option to delve into the complexity.
Abandoned Kingdom's darker themes and moody tones make it appealing to a mature audience. However, the game won't possess things such as gore and coarse language, meaning a younger audience won’t be put off. In respect to similar games on the market, Abandoned Kingdom will fall into a perfect midground, where its aesthetic, gameplay and style can be appreciated by all genders and ages. Due to the simple controls and clear visuals, impaired gamers will not struggle to access Abandoned Kingdom.
Game Treatment
As the player, you wake up in one of nine spawn points, located around the outer edges of the kingdom. The ultimate goal is to traverse to the middle of the kingdom. Along the way, you'll encounter various mobs, randomly generated loot, bosses and lore. Each spawn point has its own path through the mazy kingdom, linking up with other paths, allowing for more loot collection. As you explore deeper into the kingdom, enemies will grow stronger, and boss encounters will start to rage.
Duality of Combat
You are presented with two uniquely different combat systems; a traditional JRPG turn based combat system for mobs, and a classic top-down action-adventure gameplay system for bosses. This has been chosen as turn based combat works well with general mobbing and world exploration, however it fails to capture the spectacle of bosses. By combining both, a gameplay system can be achieved where stat based RPG elements and intense bullet hell scenarios can play out in unity.
Cross over exists between each system; If you are wielding a weapon in one system, it'll also be in use in the other. In turn-based situations, each weapon will grant you a set of optional moves, whilst in action-adventure situations, each weapon will grant a different base attack. Weapons are located in chests and pertain random statistics. The arsenal contains a variation in order to keep gameplay fresh. The map isn't randomized, but your spawn point and loot are, meaning you'll get to experience different weapons and paths each time you play.
Weapons evolve once levelled a certain number of times, developing a unique elemental type. These elements are:
Fire - Applies tick damage via fire to certain enemy types.
Shock - Applies a randomly timed, large damage attack to every enemy type.
Light - Enemies will randomly miss their turn. In action-adventure situation, enemies will be slowed down.
Dark - Has a chance to apply a debuff, causing enemies to take more damage.
Poison - Applies low tick damage via poison to every enemy type.
Spectral - Has a chance to apply a debuff, causing enemies to deal less damage.
Note - (unless specified, each element will achieve the same effect regardless of current combat system)
You'll be granted a random element type for the weapon once levelled appropriately. This is to add variety to the gameplay, allowing the player to experience different aspects of the combat systems. Each element will be balanced so that none will be over or under powered.
Above ^ (Concept art for weapons, including a poison, fire and shock sword, as well as a bow, a mace and an axe)
The map is open to you from the very start. You'll spawn in one of nine different starting points, located at the edges of the kingdom. From this point on, the only limitation to exploration is boss battles. You are free to explore, engage in turn-based combat, find chest with improved loot, and delve deeper into the kingdom. Once you reach a boss battle, it must be beaten in order to progress further. The ultimate goal is to beat the final boss located at the centre of the kingdom.
Above ^ (Very early concept art for the map. The final product will feature finer details. Smaller rooms exist within the bigger rooms portayed)
You'll be tasked with taking down randomly chosen enemies in the turn-based combat battles. You possess both health and AP, which will be refilled once a battle is complete, or can optionally be refilled using consumables. XP will be rewarded to the currently held weapon. To increase your total health and AP, pieces of armour are scattered through the map in separate chests to weapons. There will be roughly 3 boss rooms standing between you and the middle, if you chose to follow a conventional and fast path to the centre. There’s a selection of 5 different bosses. Once you enter a boss room, one of these bosses will be selected at random, and scaled based on how deep said boss room is in the kingdom.
The five different bosses are:
Leviathan - A bug like demon who summons swarms of insects to hunt you.
Enika - An ominous queen who emerges from the dark and hides in the shadows.
Thunder - Demi God of the sky, who rains lighting and whirlwinds on you.
Warden - A heavily armoured guard who stands tall, towering over you.
Imp - The prince of fire, who burns everything in his path.
The final boss, the Beastwalker, is located in the middle of the kingdom. This boss will have two different phases; One in which you fight a great demon, and one in which you fight a player like enemy, representing yourself. You’ll have the choice of playing an optional training mode, which specifically allows you to experiment and improve in the action-adventure combat style. This as be chosen as you’ll experience more turn based combat throughout the game, not preparing you for the challenge of bosses.
Above ^ (Concept art for The Warden)
Abandoned Kingdom plays out via 'runs', in which if you die, the run will end. Whilst the baseline goal is to complete a run, the game will constantly be timing you, unless in the pause menu. You're incentivised to try and beat the game as quick as possible. Once a run has been complete, the subsequent run will be more challenging. This extra challenge will keep stacking until you die, in which difficulty returns to normal. A leaderboard will exist for both quickest completion times, and most games won in a row.
Story
Abandoned Kingdom is set in the world between Heaven and Hell, named Haven. The ruler of Haven, Vongaurd, was the decider of whether an individual would receive eternal suffering or pleasure. Vongaurd sat patiently in The Chamber, located at the centre of Havens most powerful stronghold. One day, a great, shapeshifting demon, who went by the name Beastwalker, infiltrated Haven. The Beastwalker killed Vongaurd, sending the world of Haven into chaos. No longer could the souls of the dead be judged, being left to linger for all eternity. You, the player, are sent from the Heavens to investigate the stronghold, now known as the Abandoned Kingdom. Throughout each run, you'll have the option of discovering the lore behind Haven, which will teach you about the world, the bosses, and what caused the Beastwalker to infiltrate.
The game never directly conveys this information to you, and the option to learn the story and lore is entirely up to your exploration abilities and curiosity. From NPCs to books to little details in the environment, if something offers lore, you'll be able to interact with it, displaying fragments of the story. This is done as I believe not every player is interested in a story heavy game; many would prefer gameplay be the forefront. However, having a compelling story can make a good game great, and add value to the world that’s been created. This is why gameplay-based story telling has been chosen. You have been given the choice to learn, as opposed to being forced to. This approach also adds more replayability, as there is a high chance you'll not discover all the interactable lore objects in one run.
References
Games that influenced project
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_A_Link_to_the_Past
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Binding_of_Isaac_(video_game)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderlands_(series)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Souls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon
Games that influenced concept art
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