Game Design Document

by Steven Zabolotny and Kelvin Tsai

INTRODUCTION

“MalwareTypes” is a 2D, top-down typing and strategic defense game designed to test a player’s reaction time and touch typing ability. The game will employ moving text, tiled backgrounds, and animated sprites, as well as collision detection, AI pathfinding, and efficient memory management.

TECHNOLOGY

MalwareTypes will be developed for modern web browsers using the Phaser game engine for JavaScript. Phaser will be used for rendering artwork, the physics system, and audio management. Artwork will be drawn in GIMP and the Tiled map editor.

BACK STORY

The player controls a computer security system tasked with defending its host from various malicious attacks. Unfortunately the host exists on an unsecure network, and is especially vulnerable from random external threats. The player must detect and prevent these threats from damaging the system, and may deploy additional automated defenses to assist them.

OBJECTIVE

The player’s objective is to accumulate as many points as possible. Points are granted for each threat that is eliminated before the game is over, which occurs when the player’s “firewall” is destroyed by attacks that make it through the defense system. At the end of the game additional points will be granted for the time that the player lasted, their average typing speed, and their typing accuracy.

GAMEPLAY

The game will be viewed from a top-down perspective, with attacks approaching from the left side of the screen towards the player’s immovable firewall on the right. These attacks can be eliminated by typing out words as they appear on the screen. In addition to points, defeating attacks also grants resources that can be used to build automated defenses that can help the player. These resources will be expressed in computer terminology, such as CPU, Memory, or Disk. Different resources can be used to construct different buildings.

The malware threats will come in waves that become increasingly difficult as the game goes on, with harder-to-type words and more enemies per wave. Any enemy that manages to make it all the way past the player and into the firewall will deal some damage. Certain enemies may have special abilities or characteristics, such as requiring multiple words to kill, moving faster, or hiding their word after a certain point. In addition, some attacks will have special effects upon dealing damage, such as locking down the player’s ability to type for a few seconds, stealing some of their resources, or spawning additional enemies.

The game will end when the firewall is completely destroyed; the player’s final score will be calculated and used to determine whether they may advance to the next level, or if they are on the final level, the score will be added to a leaderboard.

Defenses will include turrets that help slow down the movement speed of enemies, weaken their special abilities, or periodically recover some firewall health. Another type of defense would be traps, which are placed on the ground and consumed after one use to “damage” the enemies, represented by removing some of the letters needed to be typed. A third type of defense would be walls, which can be placed to reroute the enemies, forcing them onto traps or less efficient paths. Walls cannot be used to completely block the enemies from making a path to the firewall.

CONTROLS

This game will naturally be played mostly on the keyboard, though the mouse can be used to interact with the user interface. Once started, use the following:

• Keyboard letter keys - Target a threat’s word and type it to defeat it.
• Mouse - Click on a defense to deploy, if the player has the resources to construct it
• Keyboard number keys - Can also be used to quickly select a defense to deploy
• TAB - Toggles the visibility of some elements the in-game GUI to allow the player to see more of the screen
• ESC - This pauses the game and presents a pop-up window to the player asking them to continue when they are ready.

GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

• Splash Screen - The splash screen will display when the game first launches; it will include the game logo and some of the game sprites. After a couple of seconds, or when the user clicks on the screen, the main menu will be brought up.
• Main Menu - This menu will provide the following buttons:
• Level Select - This button will bring the player to a screen with each of the levels available to play. Locked levels will not be selectable, but will display the score the player must beat to unlock them.
• Display Controls - If pressed, the game will display an info screen that includes a description of all game controls.
• Leaderboards - If pressed, the game will display an info screen with the highest scores as well as other statistics, such as a playthrough’s typing speed, accuracy, and time.
• Credits - If pressed, the game will display an info screen with information about the game authors.
• Exit - If pressed, the game program will exit.
• In-Game GUI - When the game first begins, the playing field will be empty except for the firewall on the right. The firewall health will be displayed on the top of the screen. The bottom left of the screen will show current statistics such as score and typing speed and accuracy, and the player’s currently available resources. The bottom right will have a box with the defenses that the player can build. The bottom part of the screen can be toggled on and off using TAB, allowing the user to see more of the screen. Enemies will begin to spawn from the left side of the screen and move towards the right side, where the firewall is.

Splash

Main Menu

Level Select

Controls

Help

In-Game

ARTWORK

All artwork in the game will be original. The following needs to be created:

• Malware Enemies - a simple representation of a “malware”, which would likely be a colored blob. Larger or more complex blobs indicate more powerful enemies. Malware will be color-coded with vibrant display colors to easily distinguish their effects. Each malware will require animations for:
• Walking
• Dying
• Attacking
• Level Tiles - each level will be a set of tiles, with the malware spawning in one or more spawn points on the left side of the screen, and the firewall being on the right side of the screen. The screen will never be too tall to fit vertically, but can scroll horizontally from left to right, which is automatically controlled by centering on the right-most malware. Certain tiles represent impassable terrain which the malware will path around.
• Spawn points - a portal
• Firewall - a literal wall of tiles, red representing fire
• Defenses - each defense will be a tile representing that defense. Walls will be an impassable tile. Each defense will also have an image representing it which will be used to selected it in the defense building box
• Turrets
• Traps
• Walls

SOUND EFFECTS

All sound effects will be original. Sounds must be made to coincide with each of the following events:

• Malware spawning
• Malware dying
• Malware attacking the firewall
• Construction of a defense
• Turret shooting
• Trap activating
• Start of a new wave
• Level start
• Level end

MUSIC

Original game music will composed, to play while the game is in progress.