Mendenhall 1

Ryan Mendenhall

Professor Adam Brackin

ATEC 3352

29 October 2010

Deliverable 2

Title

abyss (əˈbɪs) — n 1. a very deep or unfathomable gorge or chasm 2. anything that appears to be

endless or immeasurably deep, such as time, despair, or shame 3. hell or the infernal regions conceived

of as a bottomless pit

The definition of Abyss describes the basic concept of our game. A “descent into madness” themed

psychological thriller, the game is based around the descent into the abandoned ruins of an old

government facility located on a dead planet.

Game Overview(Focus)

The focus of the game is to create a experience mainly affected by immersive environment design and

creative design. We will only be featuring basic first person shooter game play, but this is to get the

consumer to feel a part of the game.

Target Platform

PC, with possible console releases in the years after the original release. Though only PC is planned

for now.

Appeal/Target Audience

Ages 17 – 30. Primarily gamers attracted to first person shooter story based games. The gamers will

most likely be fans of companies such as Bioware, Valve (Half Life series), iD Software. Marketing

plans will candor to this age group using such television channels such as Comedy Central, G4 and

Cartoon Network.
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Art Style

A realistic take on the futuristic science-fiction theme. This is blended with a post-apocalyptic theme

to give the facility a dead, corroded feeling. As the player continues their descent, the levels actually

become less realistically decayed and transition to a cleaner look. But a larger amount of player

“hallucinations” happen, morphing the environment into twisted versions of it's previous self. Many of

the “hallucinations” are meant to psychologically unnerve the player.

Concept art and early renders with daily updates can be found on www.ryanimate.com/blog/

Technology

The project is organized into three parts. The cinematic trailer, the art design, and the programming.

The trailer will require a version of Autodesk Maya 2010, and a desktop with at least a Intel i7

processor and a 512mb video card. The trailer will be rendered in Maya's built in Mental Ray renderer.

The art design is going to require the same computer and Autodesk Maya, with a copy of Adobe

Photoshop CS5 for texturing uses. The animation and modeling will all be done in Maya. The

programming is going to require a computer of about the same specifications. Since a original game

engine is being created in DirectX10, no engine costs apply.

Gameplay

The game will be organized into 5 levels, each featuring a unique two types of enemies (changing each

level) and a boss at the end of each environment. The basic enemies will have ranged weapons and

will hide behind sections in the environment. Each boss fight will feature a different strategy, such as

moving platforms, turning off force fields, etc. The player will have a wide range of weapons they can

use, each of which has a completely unique look and a specific firing strategy. These will be unlocked

as the player completes objectives, though 5 weapons will be available to the player immediately.

Characters
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Jack Vegni – protagonist, former Head of Security of Facility MK6. Age 42. Jack's roll as Head of

Security was appointed to him by The Conglomerate upon their creation in 2350. He led the

evacuation of the facilities and has now been sent back to retrieve lost weapon blueprints and to

investigate what happened to the remaining scientists.

Victor Harrigan – antagonist, former Head Scientist of Weapons Development in MK6. When The

Conglomerate decided to shut down MK6, Harrigan refused to evacuate with the group. He was

somehow able to convince his entire cabinet of colleagues to remain behind with him and to continue

to finish their current project.

World

A dark, almost dystopic world, the entirety of the game takes place within Facility MK6, a research

facility created by The Conglomerate, one of two warring factions based on Earth. The facility was

meant to be completely hidden from the Leoginhaurre, their opposing faction. Because of failing

resources on Earth, The Conglomerate pulled the plug on the facility in 2356, depending on the Head

of Security, Jack Vegni to effectively evacuate all personal and return to Earth. The facility was

abandoned with the exception of a small group of scientists the refused to leave. The game takes place

15 years later in a return to dead planet. The facility has decayed without maintenance upkeep and

makeshift shelters have been made by it's inhabitants. The five levels will have different themes from

each other. The first level is Maintenance/Entrance and has noticeably decayed and rusted since the

evacuation. It twists through several sewer systems and finally exits into the Residential Area. The

Residential Area is dark, eerily quiet and looks to be in moderate condition. It has the look of a rushed

exit, with belongings scattered everywhere. The next level is Medical, where more drastic

hallucinations begin to happen. Since they are modeled into the environment, they are apart of the

world itself. Medical contains large offices and checkup rooms. Medical has a large scale of contrast,

switching between brightly lit rooms to almost pitch black areas. This eventually feeds into the
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Transportation level, which is a series of tunnels where underground trains would move the facilities

occupants from Medical to the Laboratory. Since the trains are no longer functional, the player must

traverse the dark tunnels (similar to Metro 2033). The last level is the Science Level, which is a series

of laboratories eventually leading the the large hall in which the final boss fight takes place.

Story

Former Head of Security Jack Vegni has been sent by the Conglomerate, a massive warring faction

remaining on Earth, to investigate the abandoned Facility MK6. MK6 was left in a haste when the

Conglomerate made the decision to pull it's remaining available resources back to Earth to compensate

for lost forces in the war against the Leoginhaurre. Dr. Victor Harrigan and his large team of scientists

made the decision to remain behind and continue to finish their final project. Jack refused the orders to

execute any one that refused the evacuation. Because of his extended knowledge of the facility

because of his time as Head of Security, and to spite him for refusing the order, Jack has been sent back

15 years later to find lost weapons blueprints of Dr. Harrigan's design and to investigate the fate of the

lost scientists. Upon returning, Jack soon finds that it's remaining inhabitants have been driven insane

by Harrigan's powerful weapon. Jack must venture through the dark, decayed structure of Facility

MK6, fighting his way to Harrigan to put a end to it all.

Controls/Interface

Because of it's PC release, the game will use the keyboard and mouse, with no current gamepad

support.

Movement Controls – Uses traditional WASD movement.

Aiming controls – Mouse

Shoot- Mouse 1

Aim- Mouse 2

Activate Button – E
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Menu - Esc

The interface will be relatively simple as to not take away from how immersive the game is. The

bottom left will contain a minimalist health bar while the bottom right will state what weapon you are

using and your current amount of ammo. Players will be able to view the current objective from the

menu by pressing Escape.

Sound

The cinematic trailer will feature one voice actor and a orchestral trailer piece. Extra sound effects will

be done in the freeware version of Frooty Loops.

The game will feature mostly ambient sounds, such as machinery working in the walls. These will also

be done in Frooty Loops, as well as heart beat sound effects for added suspense.

Reference Games

Gameplay:

• Bioshock – 2K Games

• Half Life Saga – Valve Software

• F.E.A.R. - Sierra

Level Design:

• Mass Effect 2 - Bioware

Development Team

Ryan Mendenhall – Cinematic trailer, environment design, character design, animation, rigging,

lighting and texturing. Will also be doing sound design.

Jeffrey Allain – All programming, such as console coding, level structure, creation of the lighting

utility, and the game engine in DirectX10.

Schedule/Benchmarks
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General schedule:

May 1st, 2011: ALPHA Product, including:

• fully coded console

• fully coded level structure with 3 of the 5 levels completely modeled and textured

• lighting utility complete, with a playable alpha version of the game

November 5th, 2011

• game engine fully completed

• early stages of beta with at least 10 game testers

• fully finished 5 levels (modeled, textured and lit)

• Begin testing reliability of the game

May 15th, 2012

• Release date

Individual schedule:

Ryan Mendenhall:

• January 1st 2011: Cinematic trailer fully rendered and edited

• February 1st: First level fully completed. Cinematic trailer sound completed and trailer is

released to the general public.

• March 1st: Second level fully completed

• April 1st: Third Level fully completed.

• May 1st: 3 bosses and 6 general enemies fully modeled, textured and rigged.

• June 1st: Fourth level fully modeled, first level completely lit in lighting utility.

• July 1st: Fourth level fully textured, second level completely lit
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• August 1st: Fifth Level textured and modeled

• September 1st: Third and Fourth Levels completely lit, begin reviewing and tweaking earlier

levels for increased performance.

• October 1st: Fifth level completely lit, characters fully animated and weapons modeled and

textured.

• November 5th: Begin testing reliability

• November 2011 - May 15th 2012 – work with game testers to improve performance and fix

bugs

Budget

Development Costs

• Developer Salaries

1. Ryan Mendenhall - $41,000

2. Jeffrey Allain - $40,000

• Voice Acting

1. Cinematic trailer - $1,000 w/ $500 for several in game lines

• Music and Orchestra

1. Cinematic music – Audiomachine – Estimated Costs ~$500

Marketing and Promotions

• TV Advertisements:

1. Cinematic trailer 30 second edited TV spot - ~$100,000

• Print Advertisements: None currently planned

• Events and Launch Parties:

1. Launch party for testers and family – ~$2000

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Works Cited:

Bioshock. Version 1.1. 04 December 2007. 2K Games. 01 November 2010.

Half-Life 1. Version 1.1.1.0. 19 September 2001. Valve Corporation. 01 November 2010.

Half-Life 2. Version 1.0.0.0 Build 4216. 24 May 2010. Valve Corporation. 01 November 2010.

F.E.A.R. Version 1.08. 20 October 2006. Vivendi Universal. 01 November 2010.

Mass Effect 2. Version 1.02. 16 June 2010. Electronic Arts. 01 November 2010.