Armorer Game Design Document

Game Design Document for Armorer

Title: Armorer

Developers: Ikhan Games

Date: September 9th, 2024

Table of Contents

1. Game Overview

You after a night of drinking, the god of the forge casts his hammer down to earth inadvertently striking a mortal, the player. One thing leads to another and the player character takes on their new role as a blacksmith, equipped with a divine hammer. Increasing their skills, crafting increasingly complex armor, weapons, and tools through a set of mini-games, and managing the expanding blacksmithing responsibilities;

• Shop: Sell produced goods in bulk or sell specialized products.


• Contracts: Craft and sell unlimited or limited time products for characters with more specialized needs (lots of homages and parody opportunities here).


• Story: Plot-related contracts that gradually introduce new techniques or push the story forward.


• Missions: Cultivate, collect, salvage rare resources & knowledge the player can hire & commission heroes, adventurers, or mercenaries to go out in exchange for money, gear, or the promise of gear.

Gamers who appreciate retro aesthetics, pixel art, and crafting, with a love for detailed, immersive, and nostalgic gameplay experiences.

PC

2. Gameplay

The blacksmithing is conducted through sets of mini-games. As the player levels up these specific games, they take note of the player's proficiency, and eventually the player can skip them all together and use their baseline effectiveness.

Running a blacksmithing shop to conduct everything from selling tools weapon and armors to fulfilling contracts, both at the individual client level and for the kingdom, which are usually done in bulk. Eventually going up to becoming the chief outfitter, where the player gets to decide What he builds for the kingdom's military.

Getting materials involves purchasing them locally or setting up contracts with paid mercenaries gold, or adventurers who will bring back loot for you to use as ingredients.

Smithing itself makes use of a variety of mini-games that expand and become more elaborate as the player progresses to more sophisticated blacksmithing techniques.

Mouse and Keyboard

• Story Mode: The games primary story


• Mini-games: Play the various mini-games in isolation


• Gallery: View the collectable and craftable objects

• Main Menu: Options for a New Game, Loading, Settings, Credits, and Exit.


• World Map: An over-world map for monitoring the progress of mercenaries and adventurers.


• Smithy: The workshop containing the players blacksmithing equipment and where the mini-games take place.


• Shop: The Smithy's storefront where wares can be sold and commissions accepted.

3. Story and Characters

After a night of drunken carousing, the God of the forge, belligerently casts his hammer down to the earth where it strikes a mortal giving them amnesia, not really knowing what to make of it, and believing themselves to be a blacksmith, they claim the hammer. The player character takes on their new role as a blacksmith and goes up in the hierarchy of blacksmiths in the kingdom. First as a freelancer right there in the little village, building nails and horseshoes. On to a journeyman, join the guild, etc.

Moving around the kingdom to different regions in need of blacksmithing, building their skills, building the reputation, acquiring a shop, apprentices, new skills, and new role roles within the kingdom. Players will be drafting into outfitting. Making weapons and armor for adventurers and knights alike, eventually becoming one of the contractors who outfits the knights of the realm.

• Blacksmith: The player character, an amnesiac blacksmith


• Adventurers: The assorted freelance fighters of the kingdom are available for the player to sponsor.


• Mercenaries: The assorted freelance warriors available for hire by the player.


• Customers: Named and unnamed NPC that make purchases from the players storefront, including commissions.


• Magistrates: The liaison to the kingdom's soldiers and knight; facilitating outfitting contracts and general contracts.

4. World and Level Design

A fantasy medieval world with monsters, magical weapons, and all the staples of fantasy worlds. The player gradually works there way from the rural outskirts of the Kingdom to the capital and become gradually more aware of the goings on of the kingdom and the larger game world.

Each stage of the game comes with the basic UI and the player has access to the smithy and later the blacksmith shop storefront. The UI stores a few bits of key information like the amount of gold on hand, materials, etc.

The Mini-games utilize their own Interfaces depending on their individual needs. The mini-games feature the blacksmith performing whatever task the mini-game stands in for.

5. Art and Aesthetics

Pixel art for the majority of the art assets with a low resolution for the world map.

• The NPC and the player are simple RPG style sprites in period dress.


• The smithy, the storefront, and all the auxiliary locations are grungy medieval brick and mortar buildings.


• Mini-games are blacksmith themed with glowing metal and furnace flames.

6. Audio

Medieval and fantasy mixed music, slow tempos to match the tempo of mini-games.

• I'll need sound effects for blacksmithing


• General ambient noise for the shopfront, villages, and cities


• Basic effects for menus

Not Applicable

7. Technical Specifications

Unity

• PC:
  
  
  
  • Minimum: T.B.D
  
  
  • Recommended: T.B.D
  
  
  
  

• All the mini games and handling their respective progression systems.


• Generating things like contracts and commissions

8. Production Plan

T.B.D

• Pre-Production: 2 weeks (Concept, design, planning)


• Production: 8 weeks (Development, asset creation)


• Testing: 2 weeks (QA, bug fixing, polishing)


• Launch: 3 weeks (Release prep, release)

• Estimated total: $0.00 (T.B.D)


• Sources: Self-funded.

Solo Development

9. Marketing Plan

Enjoys of medieval fantasy and pixel art crafting games

T.B.D