Game Design Document
Artistic style
Because the game is narrative focused and driven, aesthetics play a major part to keep players immersed. Taking the fantasy aspect of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare, the setting of the game would be a magical forest. The overall art style would lean towards semi-realism rather than complete realism for consistency with the fantasy theme. To ensure the game is not just a retelling of Shakespeare's play, the characters would not be dressed in olden day clothing, nor will the language be spoken in proper traditional English to add more of a modern feel. In fact there is no time period set in this game, it could be future, present or past as this game is set in a forest which has no indication of a specific time period making it seem more surreal and dreamlike.
Due to the setting of the game, the colour palette for the background would mainly consist of blue and green hues which are more desaturated for the characters in the foreground to stand out. It has not been decided yet how many levels or chapters there are but most backgrounds in mind will have a enchanted forest look with vines, bridges, rivers and glowing lights if its night time. The background of the menu would be simple but something iconic to the game like a certain setting where something happened or a specific item/symbol. The menu would consist of three options - Play, Options, Quit. The font style would be clean cut instead of the linked vintage style as it is proven difficult to read. As the player selects the tabs, the different tabs would change colour and have a pointer which is controlled by the up and down keys.
To help players stay immersed, the controls will not be visible on screen but just on keyboard with tutorials on the commands before the real game begins. Like most games, the health bar and point system will be on the upper corners of the screen and dialogue will be shown on the bottom with a text box. One or two cut scenes would play to help clarify and drive the story forward.
The characters would diverge from realism and be more stylized to help them stand out and therefore be easier to control. This will mean harsher outlining and flatter shading as well as a lighter and possibly more saturated colour palette however the colours would still match the background to make sure both foreground and background are not completely separate. The clothing would be unique and clean to not overcomplicate the screen so players can easily focus on their task at hand.
Soft eerie or dreamy music would be played in the background as the character progresses through the game. When said character encounters enemies, a more intense eerie theme would be played. When a text box pops up from talking to other characters a small sound would be played as well as when the character is injured, dies or collects a flower. There can also be talking gibberish sound effects when conversing with characters.
Here are some possible looks for the art style and layout (Hollow knight, Still Here, Pavillion, Samorost 3)
Additional Ideas and Possibilities
Depending on the time we have, we decided to have two main characters - giving the player the choice to choose between the girl or the boy, both trying to find each other but with diffe rent storylines. The original story was of a girl and a boy who wandered into the forest owned by the king of fairies. Not only did they enter without permission but they captured one of his fairies, angering the king and causing him to capture the girl as punishment and tricked her with magic to fall in love with the king instead. The king tells him after 7 days, the girl can no longer return to her old self regardless of any cures. Heartbroken that the girl doesn't recognize the boy as her lover anymore, the boy sets out to find her and a cure to return her to her usual self. A generous fairy told him of a flower which can cure the alignment which is only found in the forest. With this set on him mind, he ventures through dangers and difficult decisions to reunite with his lover and defeat the king. Sacrifices will be made.
Enemies that you fight are the fairies. Under the bridges there will be the appearance of trolls or goblins.
You can either defeat the King of Fairies or just leave. The game can end with you reuniting and escaping the forest with your beloved or they succumb to the king's spell and stay trapped forever.
Now that there are two possible choices of characters - the story will just switch around for the other. For example, if the boy was chosen as the main character then the girl will be capture, if the girl was chosen as the player's choice, then the boy will be captured. Both characters have different abilities and choices presented to them throughout the game which can lead to two possible endings.
The helper (fairy) can help the player move obstacles and heal and fight.
The point system will increase or decrease depending on the choices the player makes. Coins/ points will be in the form of flowers (the cure). You could be asked questions or make choices that move you back in the game or forward - like a board game. A timer - counted in days - can also be put on the top of the screen to show how many days the character has left before they're irreversible. The timer would not be the real time but the game time.
As you progress through the game you can also collect pieces of a map (last picture shown above) which points you in the correct direction to the Fairy king's castle. The pages could look like book pages so it seems like bits of a play. However this feature would require the use of the mouse.
Here's a link to the group discussion about the game
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RinlPRkSf9KAgDaWYhL89OGoJbFb2fTnCAWjVjg50IE