CS 679: Computer Game Technology

Instructor: Professor Chenney

Team Name: Whirlybirds

Team Members: Jacob Duffy, Ross Tredinnick,

David Leonard, Sonny Thao

Game Design Documentation

Player’s Objective:

The player is to pilot a helicopter on various missions. Initial missions will include dog-fights with other aircraft, avoiding enemy antiaircraft fire, destroying land targets, etc. The missions will take place under different conditions and landscapes. Both land and sea missions will be available, in addition to night time and poor visibility missions. There will be no fixed order for mission completion; however a final “boss” mission will only be available when all others are completed.

Rules of the Game:

1.) Game play will be seen from a third person perspective.

2.) Enemy aircrafts and land vehicles will fire their weapons at the player to prevent the player from accomplishing their mission.

3.) The helicopter is equipped with missiles and machine guns to defend itself from enemy aircrafts and land vehicles.

4.) The helicopter’s damage status is monitored and if it exceeds a certain level, the helicopter will crash and or explode.

5.) Money will be dispensed for successful missions. The money may be used to upgrade the helicopter’s speed and weapons or to repair its damages. A player with insufficient funds to repair a 100% damaged aircraft will lose the game.

6.) The game’s environment will have set boundaries that will stop the player from advancing forward once they have reached these boundaries.

AI

The game will employ path-finding and decision tree based AI which will be used for the enemy aircraft. The AI will be sufficient to provide a realistic helicopter fighting feel, yet not so impossibly good that every shot fired will hit the player. Fast and simple AI will be used for enemy fire, such that the enemy shots in the player’s general direction.

Environmental Looks:

Terrain will consist of height-mapped, multi-textured land, water, trees and buildings. Some maps will be primarily land based, while others will be ocean maps with small islands. Atmospheric effects will enhance the visual appeal of the game, and the weather conditions will be variable.

Save/Load:

Categories that will be saved/loaded:

1.) The player’s name.

2.) The game levels the player has completed.

3.) The level of upgrades for the helicopter’s weapons and speed.

4.) The player’s total amount of money when they last played.

5.) The helicopter’s damage level when the player last played.

6.) Total player time, which can be tabulated in an arcade style top 10 fastest times.