Game Development - Task 1: Game Design Document
23/04/2025 - 14/04/2025 / Week 1 - Week 4
Velicia Raquel Dewi Setiawan | 0369188 | Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Game Development
JUMPLINK:
- Lecture
- Instruction
- Task 1: Game Design Document
- Feedback
- Reflection
1. LECTURE
2. INSTRUCTION
3. TASK 1: GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT
We started the project by forming teams of three, and I teamed up with two friends from the same major (UI/UX):
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Kong Ga Wai (0359692)
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Velicia Raquel Dewi Setiawan (0369188)
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Tracy Angeline Tio (0362222)
At first, my idea was about a forgotten character left behind in a game the developer never finished. It’s a 2D platformer where the world is glitchy, falling apart, and full of old files and broken systems. You play as Subject-00, a character who wasn’t meant to be part of the final game, but somehow remains. As you explore, you uncover why the creator gave up and what’s left behind.
During our group presentation, Miss liked my concept the most, but with a couple of changes, changing the storyline to fit Gawa's OC that's going to be the player sprite.
1. Final Game – Left Behind
2. Game Idea and Goal
Left Behind is a 2D platformer where the player becomes Maythem, an AI stuck inside a scrapped game. Your job is to explore the glitchy world and fix it, bit by bit — bringing back broken enemies, restoring characters, and reactivating forgotten areas.
The twist: you can render things into existence. Sketches slowly turn into living beings or full environments. Maythem can manipulate the code and complete what was left unfinished.
3. Gameplay Objectives and Inspirations
The goal is to restore what’s left — from corrupted NPCs to half-drawn enemies — while uncovering the story behind the abandoned project.
Inspiration sources:
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| Fig 3.1 Inspirations Week 4 17/05/2025 |
4. Game Flow & Controls
You control Maythem using basic keyboard inputs — walking, jumping, attacking, and interacting with the world. There’s only one long level, but it has multiple layers:
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You wake up and learn how to move.
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You meet an NPC who hints at what’s broken.
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You discover you can "color in" enemies to transform them.
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You find a generator puzzle and solve it.
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You reach the final boss and choose your ending.
5. Characters and Creatures
Maythem (Main Character)
A rogue AI who wasn’t supposed to exist — now free to move around and change things inside the system. He’s seen as a bug or a virus, but he’s clever and curious. He doesn’t talk much but pays attention to the world around him.
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| Fig 3.2 Maythem Week 4 17/05/2025 |
Enemies
We designed three enemies in total, one for each phase of the level. I drew the first two, while Gawai came up with the boss design. Each enemy starts as a sketch and becomes fully animated once you interact with them. The designs were inspired by the eerie and abstract style of Lobotomy Corporation.
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| Fig 3.3 Enemies Week 4 17/05/2025 |
NPCs
The creator appears at the end, but is mentioned all throughout the game through developer notes and in Maythem’s comments. Other NPCs include two digital workers — Mao and Sildrate.
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| Fig 3.4 Npcs Week 4 17/05/2025 |
6. Visual Direction & UI
We’re going for a 2D anime/cartoon art style, using frame-by-frame hand-drawn animations. The environment looks unfinished at the start — dull colors, sketchy assets — and gets more polished as you progress.
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| Fig 3.4 Visual Direction Week 4 17/05/2025 |
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UI Plan:
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Start screen with Play, Credits, and Quit
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In-game HUD:
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Top left: Health bar and current objective
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Top right: Pause menu with settings, notes, and quit
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Bottom center: Dialogue bar
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6. Final Submission
4. Feedback
Week 2:
- Ms. Mia suggested to try using Unity 6 if possible since it has more features, and some of them might not be available in the older versions.
Week 3:
- She said Idea 2 was interesting and had a unique concept. But for the puzzle part and story, she told us to make it clearer , like what kind of puzzle we want to do later (typing, drag-and-drop, etc.).
5. Reflection
1. Experience
This project was fun but also really tough. I started with my own game idea, but we had to change parts to fit the group direction. Still, I’m glad we kept the “unfinished game” theme. I helped with enemy designs, animation tests, and some planning and it made me realise how much work even one small feature takes.
2. Observation
Working in a group taught me that things don’t always go as planned. We had to change the story to fit Gawa’s OC, and figuring out how to make everyone’s ideas fit took a lot of back and forth. Animating was also harder than I thought, small mistakes really stand out.
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