YetAnotherVampireSurvivorsClone

README

Game Design Document: Proof of Concept

1. Game Overview

Game Title:

Tentative Name

Genre:

Roguelike, Bullet Hell, Action

Target Platform:

PC / Web

Game Summary:

A survival action game where the player fights off endless waves of enemies, auto-attacking with weapons while collecting power-ups and leveling up to survive as long as possible.

Unique Selling Points (USP):

• Procedurally generated enemies.
• Auto-attack mechanics without direct player input.
• Increasing difficulty and scaling enemies.

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2. Game Mechanics

Core Mechanics:

• Player Movement: The player moves using WASD or arrow keys.
• Auto-Attack: The player’s weapon attacks enemies automatically at regular intervals.
• Enemy Behavior: Enemies constantly spawn and move towards the player, attacking when in range.
• Health and Death: The player and enemies have health points. When the player’s health reaches 0, the game is over.

Weapons and Abilities:

Weapons:

1. Sword Slash:

   • Description: A short-range melee weapon that attacks in an arc in front of the player.
   • Attack Pattern: Sweeps in a 90-degree arc, dealing damage to all enemies in range.
   • Cooldown: 0.8 seconds.
   • Upgrade Path: Can increase the arc size and attack speed with upgrades.

2. Magic Orb:

   • Description: A ranged weapon that fires a homing projectile at the nearest enemy.
   • Attack Pattern: The orb seeks the nearest enemy within a short radius and explodes on impact.
   • Cooldown: 1.5 seconds.
   • Upgrade Path: Increases orb speed and adds chain lightning effect when upgraded.

Abilities:

1. Dash:

   • Description: The player can quickly dash in the current movement direction, temporarily becoming invincible to avoid enemies or projectiles.
   • Cooldown: 3 seconds.
   • Upgrade Path: Reduces cooldown and adds damage to enemies in the dash path.

2. Time Slow:

   • Description: Slows down time for 5 seconds, reducing enemy speed by 50% while allowing the player to move and attack normally.
   • Cooldown: 15 seconds.
   • Upgrade Path: Increases the duration of the time slow effect or makes enemies take increased damage during the slow.

3. Energy Shield:

   • Description: Grants a temporary shield that absorbs damage for 8 seconds.
   • Cooldown: 20 seconds.
   • Upgrade Path: Increases shield duration or adds a reflective damage effect, causing enemies that hit the shield to take damage.

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3. Game World

Level Design:

The game is played in a top-down 2D field with no boundaries. Enemies spawn from the edges of the screen and move towards the player.

Environment:

• Background: Simple static background, such as a flat terrain or dark void.
• Obstacles: Could add trees, rocks, or other simple obstacles that the player and enemies must avoid or navigate around.

Spawn Points:

• Enemy Spawn: Enemies spawn randomly at the edges of the screen, entering from all directions.

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4. Game Progression

Difficulty Scaling:

• Wave System: Enemies spawn in waves, and each wave introduces more enemies or tougher ones.
• Time-Based Scaling: As the player survives longer, enemy health and numbers increase progressively.
• Experience and Leveling: Killing enemies grants experience points. Upon leveling up, the player can choose a stat to upgrade or unlock a new ability.

Win/Loss Conditions:

• Victory: Not applicable (infinite gameplay).
• Defeat: The game ends when the player’s health reaches 0.

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5. User Interface (UI)

HUD (Heads-Up Display):

• Health Bar: Shows the player’s current health.
• Experience Bar: Shows progress toward the next level.
• Ability Cooldowns: Displays the cooldown timers for equipped abilities.
• Score: Keeps track of how many enemies have been killed or time survived.

Menus:

• Main Menu: Start, Options, Exit.
• Pause Menu: Resume, Options, Exit.

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6. Technical Design

Graphics:

For a proof of concept, you can stick with basic 2D graphics using simple shapes or sprites:

• Player: A colored rectangle or a simple sprite.
• Enemies: Different colored shapes representing different enemy types.

Controls:

• Movement: WASD or arrow keys to move the player character.
• Abilities: Mapped to specific keys like Space for Dash, Q for Time Slow, and E for Energy Shield.
• Pause: P key pauses the game.

Sound:

• Music: Optional background music to add atmosphere.
• Sound Effects: Simple sound effects for player attacks, enemy hits, and power-up pickups.

Tools & Libraries:

• Engine: Raylib with Go for development.
• Version Control: Git.
• Graphics: Placeholder graphics made using simple shapes or tools like Aseprite (if sprites are used).

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7. Timeline and Milestones

Milestones:

• Week 1:
  • Setup game loop and basic player movement.
  • Implement basic enemy spawning and movement.
• Week 2:
  • Add auto-attack system and basic power-ups.
  • Implement basic UI elements (health bar, experience, ability cooldowns).
• Week 3:
  • Add enemy variations and simple difficulty scaling.
  • Test and polish gameplay mechanics.

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8. Conclusion

Proof of Concept Goal:

The goal is to develop a working prototype of a survival-based game with basic movement, enemy spawning, auto-attacks, and leveling mechanics. The focus is on core gameplay, with placeholder graphics and minimal polish, to validate the fun and replayability of the game idea.