Game Treatment

Mae Celine Chan

Abstract

Mae is a game about growing up too fast and losing the open-mindedness and magic people had as a child. Mae's world switches from something magical to dead and dark in an instant. She is a young girl slowly edging onto adulthood. Everyone else in the town is almost brain-dead/mechanical like - pretty much lifeless as their life revolves only around work and money. Not used to the industrial orientated city, and seeing the state everyone else is in, she ventures on a journey with Mylo - her childhood spirit - against Bunk the mayor who leeches off people's imagination to power his own companies. Time is running short, can Mae save the town before she fully reaches adulthood? The objective of the game is to lead Mae through the large city - filled with obstacles and enemies - to the mayors building. It is a narrative platformer with a small amount of action incorporated to help Mae on her journey.

Background Story

Mae lived in a small town with her family. She was a bubbly child who loved to spend her time outdoors with neighbours and her childhood spirit Mylo. Due to a change in her parent's jobs the whole family moved to the CBD. The state of the city has only been getting worse since with increased security and patrols and it's affecting her as well. Mylo begs her to stop the mayor from leeching any more from them before it's too late.

As Mae get's attacked by Bunk's men, she slowly fades as her imagination is being leeched. Despite being a lazy youngster who doesn't know much about her new town, she gains confidence after a little persuasion from Mylo.

Appearance

The setting is a modern day industrialized city. Similar to the game art from Limbo, it will be mostly monochrome with a light background and dark foreground. A light grungy texture will be applied to the background as well to achieve an aesthetic, dark, glum mood to fit with the storyline. You start off in her hometown - a bright colourful place with no grungy texture. Then you move onto the next level - an old apartment in a industrialized city. You traverse through multiple similar grungy/dead towns until you reach the end where imagination is restored and the dullness lifts from the town.

Characters

Mae: The character you play as - her goal is to stop Bunk from worsening the town and making it go back to the way it was.

Mylo: Mae's childhood imaginary spirit - who's aiding Mae to stop Bunk from leeching any more life from people. He's in a bit of a rush as Mae is growing up and slowly losing her inner child which would cause him to disappear.

Bunk - the Mayor of the town who leeches off people's negativity and imagination to fuel his own businesses. He wants to keep he town the way it is now.

Game Flow

As the game progresses - there will be more high leveled enemies the closer she gets to Bunk. However Mae learns to cope with the increased difficulty.

She has a life bar which can increase depending on which path she takes. There will be recovery items along the way.

Level Summary

There will be 5 main levels and depending on which path you take, you will be taken to different areas of the city, each with a different layout and setting. The further the game progresses, the more difficult. The first level is more of an introductory level - getting used to controls and mechanics of the game. This level is when Mae is still living in her hometown which is to show the contrast between the past and present - the industrial city. Each level will end with a door(s) which leads to the next world.

On the third level there are two choices - bottom and top - each leading to a different setting.

Target Audience

This game is child friendly and is also suitable for older audiences. However, to understand the value of the game, the player would have to be older than 13 as that is the age when childhood has ended and when they will start experiencing stress, conformity with social norms, and money problems.

Platform Specific Features and Software specification This is a narrative platform game created with Game Maker played only on PC. It will be a straightforward platformer with no minigames or cut-scenes. The controls will be Keyboard only, no mouse.

Mechanics and Power-ups

Mechanics will be simple as it is a simple platformer - using the arrow keys for movement, space for jumping and enter for confirming a selection. There are life points disguised as bows scattered throughout the world.

Enemies

The enemies are the patrols/security - scouting for anyone who still has their inner-child/imaginative mind. They have the design of a human with the head of a TV - showing they are watched and reported back to Bunk and they only do as Bunk bids. When Mae comes in contact with these androids, she can either avoid them or attack them. If she touches them without killing them then she will lose a life point and fade. Bunk is the main enemy which is to be defeated at the end. His design is a simple businessman.