This document describes a game called "HenDex", which is designed to be a simple, 2D side-scroller. The game will employ sprite-based animation, tiled backgrounds, collision detection, physics, AI, side scrolling & gravity, efficient memory management, render threading, and more basic 2D game techniques. The game is designed to show competence with the above technologies and to make an interesting 2D side-scroller.
“HenDex” will be created for the Windows platform using Microsoft Visual Studio/ C++. The rendering technology that this game will be implemented with is DirectX. XACT will be the primary program that will deal with sound effects.
Dex, a solo guitar player, has been summoned from his home world of Musicton in order to help save the world of Octavion. Dex’s world is a land of musicians, a word scarcely heard of in the Octavion domain, for music has a magical property that many people are afraid to master on the world of Octavion, for the King of Octavion forbids anyone to sue this magic and considers it treason against his kingdom. However one day a magical musical musician comes down to the planet and begins to cause chaos within the world of Octavion. Dex was summoned by the King of Octavion in order to conquer the musical sorcerer.
Dex’s task is to navigate through the world of Octavion and pick up the songs from the ancient past of this planet in order to become a musical sorcerer and to defeat the evil musician. There will be enemies that are magically enhanced in order to stop Dex from achieving his goal. Dex will be able to use the songs in order to cast spells and gain the advantage in this world. Dex will need to be clever, for if the musician is able to compose the song of destruction the world of Octavion and become its new King. In every level Dex will have a time limit in order to get a piece of the song of protection, but if Dex runs out of time at any level, the evil one will complete and song of destruction.
This will have the basic features of a side-scroller. The mode will be top/down and you can move up, right, down and left. Dex will be able to go into compose mode where he can play songs that he has learned so far and enhance his abilities i.e. fireballs, super speed, etc… While in compose mode, the time will slow down for the enemies while the player plays his chords combinations. The enemies will be able to have the same attacks and will play the same songs. There will be additional features that will include, projectiles and sound waves will bounce of walls and secret songs will be available for the player to figure it out, and enemies will synchronize with each other to combine attacks like a band attack.
Speaker Blob Enemies: These enemies will be little blobs with amplifiers in them. These enemies will be able to joust spikes outside of them when their amplifier vibrates.
Walking Fender Enemies: These enemies will have two amplifiers inside their bodies and will have more of a physical form. They will have the two abilities that will be similar to the Dex’s abilities. The color of amplifier will represent the ability that the creature can use.
Witch Enemies: These enemies will have three amplifiers inside their bodies. They will be like little witches running around and will have more intelligence then the above creatures. They will also be able to use three different abilities and their speakers will show what abilities they have. However witches amps vibrate for shorter periods of time then the above creatures, giving Dex less time to counter.
Wizard Enemies: These enemies are the strongest and they can have four or more amps inside their bodies and thus they will have power that will rival Dex and their HP and Ai will be much greater than the previous enemies.
Arrow Keys: Move
A: C Chord
S: G Chord
D: A Chord
F: D Chord
G: E Chord
T: Attack Power
E: Music Mode
ESC: This pauses the game and presents a pop-up window to the player asking them to continue when they are ready. If a game is not in progress, ESC does nothing.
Splash Screen- A game logo awaits as the player turns on the game and it blinks. The player will have to press start to begin a new game. The player will then see the introduction the story line of Dex being invited to come to the world of Octavion. Some dialogue will be shown between the King and Dex. This will be able to be skipped.
In game menu- if the user presses start and small menu will pop up. This menu will feature options such as:
-Return to Game: Returns you to the current game
-New Game: starts a new game
-Game Controls: shows all the controls
-About: shows information about where the game came from
-Help: Shows the story and what your task is
-Exit: quits the game
In-Game GUI: There will be an HP bar for Dex and these needs to be watched constantly and Dex will have guitar energy that will be able to determine what spells Dex can cast, when Dex uses a spell his energy bar will turn into a spell bar that will tell the player how long the spell will last. Dex will have guitar on his back and when he goes into guitar mode, a music staff will appear and the corresponding notes/chords will be shown. If the sequence is correct then the cong sequence will play.
We intend all the artwork to be original.
Dex- will need to be created and the following animations will be associated with him:
-walking right
-walking left
-walking up, down
-shooting projectiles
-animated sequences for songs being played
-certain attributes may need additional character animation.
Speaker Blob-will need to be created and the following animations will be associated with it:
-walking right
-walking left
-walking down, right.
-sending vibration attacks.
Walking Fender enemies- will need to be created and the following animations will be associated with it:
-walking right, left
-walking up, down.
-animations for two attacks, individual for each enemy
Witch enemies- will need to be created and the following animations will be associated with it:
-walking right, left
-walking up, down
-animations for three attacks, individual for each enemy
Wizard Enemies:
-walking right, left
-walking up, down
-animations for four or more attacks, individual for each enemy.
Floor and Wall Tiles: These will be colored in a way to show the player what can be walked on or will stop them from moving.
Background patterns: Will most likely be a designed image that will stay on the background depending on the area.
Sound effects may be original or already created sounds. We will need sound effects for:
-Music Notes: C, G, A, D, E Chords
-Programmed sequences of notes and chords
-failure song composure
-enemy growling
-level music
-Introduction music
-fire attack
-ice attack
-healing song
-lighting attack
-speed enhance
-defense increase