Design Log
Title: Catacombs of the Lost
Concept:
Catacombs of the lost is a dungeon-crawler where the player character ventures through procedurally generated floors of a dungeon where they will face common fantasy trope opponents: goblins, trolls, etc. The hero will be armed with a sword and a shield, where they can attack monsters and block attacks. As the player adventures through the dungeon, they will pick up items which can drastically influence the way the game is played. These can be effects that are activated in an ‘item slot’, or they can be bonuses that are permanently attached to the player.
Genre:
Action-RPG, Dungeon Crawler
Concept Creation:
My first instinct when prompted to design a game was to make a top-down dungeon crawler. My primary source of inspiration is earlier Zelda titles, specifically A Link to the Past. The player is given a sword and a shield, and they are to begin their quest to save a princess. One aspect I stripped away to find a game concept I like is the progression. Zelda games, especially early on, tended to bar the players progression through items. Depending on the entry in the series, Link was barred from progressing the story until he had acquired certain items, which would allow the player to traverse terrain, move objects or teleport. For example: In ‘The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’, the player couldn’t enter the forest temple until they had found the ‘hookshot’. There are many examples just in that one game, but I feel a smaller scale game (like the one I am intending to make) would be much easier to play and be slightly less linear overall if the player had a clear goal and progressed forward, without needing to backtrack.
Removing these items from the game mean that power-ups are no longer necessary, therefore the player would have no real incentive to pick them up. My next idea was to try to replicate what other similar games are doing. Passive item pickups that massively alter how the game is played. Lately, I have played the recent expansion to The Binding of Isaac, which is a game that I believe popularized this style of game. Another recent comparison would be Supergiant Games’ ‘Hades’, a game where the power-ups stacked and synergized so well that it really felt as if the choices the player made were extremely meaningful, and that the fun and difficulty of the game was in their hands.
When designing some basic power-ups, I thought about what would look appealing to the player. Some games would have the player pick up items that simply increase a stat, but these can start to feel frustrating, as their effect wouldn’t represent itself in a satisfying way. One of my basic ideas for an item like this is a small pistol that would override the default melee attack with a longer-ranged attack that would have a small recharge between shots. The player sees the character now hold a gun and can fire at range.
Audience and Competitive Analysis:
Catacombs of the Lost would have similar mechanics to a few popular games that were released recently. It would have an item system very similar to “The Binding of Isaac’ and ‘Hades’, but also adopt a similar multi-weapon system found in ‘Dead Cells’. Though the game’s core is mostly borrowed parts from successful titles, its appeal would be in the combination of them.
Ideally, the game would appeal to a younger age range, not having any heavy themes but having mechanics that are tough but fair that make the player feel good and as if they are improving. I would aim for 12-25-year-olds to play the game. I don’t believe there is any reason to appeal to any one gender and have so far been unable to find much research that says otherwise.
I believe that, all going well, this game concept would be a perfect fit for the current market. Below are a few examples of similar such games and their impact on the game market.
Entry 1: ‘Hades’
Developer/Producer: Supergiant Games
Release year: 2020
Current retail price: AU $35.95 (Steam)
Special Notes:
- Sold 1 million copies just 3 days out of early access [1]
- As an indie game, was published onto the Nintendo store during early access.
- Was nominated for Game of the Year at The Game Awards, won the same category at the British Academy Games Awards. Won awards for sound design, music, level design and art direction. [2]
- Estimated player base of ~2 million users. [3]
Entry 2: ‘The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth/Repentance’
Developer: Edmund McMillan / Nicalis Inc.
Publisher: Nicalis Inc.
Release year: 2021
Current retail price: AU $19.99+*
Special Notes:
- Originally created as a flash game, the Binding of Isaac was later redesigned and had multiple expansions released for it. The most recent expansion being ‘Repentance’.
- Estimates from sites such as PlayTracker and SteamSpy state the game is owned by around 4 million users. [4] [5]
*Base game retails at $19.99, expansions are $15.00, $14.00 and $21.00.
I have chosen these two games to compare it to because of the nature of their publishing. They are both ‘indie’ games, though ‘The Binding of Isaac’ was eventually supported in its publishing through Nicalis. Though the concept has more in common with classic dungeon crawlers like ‘The Legend of Zelda’, it would not accurately represent how games of a smaller perform in the current market.
Game Treatment:
You are a fallen warrior resurrected by a necromancer’s magic. An instinct drives you to delve into the Catacombs of the Lost to destroy their magic and claim your place again in the afterlife.
Things you will experience while frolicking through the Catacombs:
- Challenging and skill-based combat mechanics
- Pickups and items that drastically impact the player’s experience
- Fantastical enemies and boss fights
- A light-hearted story, discovered through old diaries
- Originally composed music
- Classic 16-bit artwork
The game begins at the very top of the catacombs, where the player ventures in. They are immediately confronted with the most basic denizens of the underground – goblins. Once these enemies are defeated, the player is then given a choice of where to go next. They will venture through rooms until they face off against a more elite monster type. For example, the first floor is protected by ‘The Goblin King’. When he is defeated, the player character character is thrown to the next layer of the catacombs.
Along the way, certain rooms on each floor contain relics that the player can pick up. These can be items from the ancient world like spears and bows, or items from the far future like the bag of rubber bands, or even a hoverboard!
These items can give you passive power-ups or be used in battle to get the upper hand. Items change the character and their attacks in different ways, which can stack with each other, so the more the merrier!
The chosen art style of the game is a modern rendition of a 16-bit game. It meshes well with the setting and genre of the game, and allows for a less-is-more approach to graphic design, where the player is able to easily distinguish what is bad for them (enemy projectiles, explosions) and what is good (passive power-ups, health pickups).
Below is a basic overview of the story:
In an alternate reality, an ancient evil has been awoken deep in the Catacombs of the Lost, a burial ground for nameless soldiers who fell in a war long since forgotten. The player takes command of ‘The Hero’, an untitled warrior brought back to life by the same magic they seek to destroy. This magic is courtesy of the Grand Necromancer.
Though set in a late medieval period, rifts caused by the over-abundance of dark magic cause artifacts from the past and future to appear in the crypt, whose power can only be wielded by one bound to the same magic.
The hero awakes in a shallow grave behind the Catacombs, where they bear their arms and begin their manic descent into the depths…
References:
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades_(video_game)
3 https://playtracker.net/insight/game/43896
4 https://playtracker.net/insight/game/1621
5 https://steamspy.com/app/250900
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