The player is a lady warrior who uses rope weapons to defeat enemies. The rope is made out of silk. The player will fight in arenas against humanoid enemies. They will also fight huge titans by platforming on the titans and the environment around them. Titan fights are giant set pieces. The player will attempt to disable the titan by attaching an infinite silk rope that comes out of their magic bag to key points on the titan. Eventually the Titan will be wrapped up. Once the titan is disabled the player “purifies” them restoring them to their former glory and freeing them from the control of the bad guy.

Genre

Character Action Platformer.

Audience

Fans of Shadow of the Colossus, Devil May Cry, Prince of Persia, or Bayonetta.

Unique Selling Points

Two distinct modes of play that mesh well between each other via a well mapped control scheme. A unique setting (Persian or Arabian). Innovative Combat mechanics. A unique spin on the shadow of the colossus formula.

Back in the times of yore there was an ancient evil. This evil was called Ahriman. Ahriman was powerful that no single god could stop him. However 6 of the weaker gods banded together into a council, a pantheon if you will and drove him back, draining him of his strength until he was all but defeated. In one last desperate act Ahriman expelled his soul and possessed one of the council unbeknownst to the other five. Seeing the benefit of cooperation the council was upheld even after Ahriman was “defeated.” During this time of prosperity Ahriman secretly plotted his revenge against those who had wronged him, and after centuries of preparation Ahriman revealed his scheme to the council enslaving each of them to his will. This betrayal brings a dark time on the people of our story.

Ash’ra is the last remaining priestess of the Silk Guardians, the rest of her sisters has been wiped out by stone incarnations of the enslaved gods, which were in the form of titans. All but the high priestess, Ash’ra’s master Pad’ua were killed. Pad’ua was gravely injured however and used her last remaining power to inhabit the temples most treasured artifact: The silken bag. Pad’ua uses her life force to enhance the magical properties of the silk the bag creates and affords Ash’ra more control over the silk. Ash’ra must now venture forth on a holy quest to purify the enslaved gods through their physical embodiments. Once purified Ahriman’s control of that god is relinquished. She must do this by encasing them in the holy cloth that the silken bag creates. To do this however, Ash’ra must venture forth into the desert, lands unknown, and fight the god’s servants and then the gods themselves. The fate of the planet lies in her hands.

The Player Character

Ash’rah is a strong warrior priestess who is tasked with the protection of the world against great evil. She is the last of a noble line of protectors. The priestess order called the silk guardians.

The Foe (Shadow)

Ahriman is the biggest evil out there however Ash’ra cannot reach him. Her influence only extends to the things on the physical which Ahriman is not. The enslaved gods and their minions oppose Ash’ra via physical force. Ash’ra will have to kill the minions to get to the gods and purify them so that they are no longer under Ahriman’s control.

Other Characters

Ash’ra’s master Pad’ua can speak to her through the magic bag. Pad’ua is not truly dead, she has just taken on a different form via soul transference. Other than Pad’ua and maybe the gods there will be no other speaking characters in the game.

Story Vehicles

Hieroglyphs. Magic artifacts that contain the story? Pad’ua could absorb the information and narrate it to Ash’ra while painting a picture of the story with silk.

Players will switch between two main modes of gameplay. Combat and platforming. The combat section will be in arenas versus a group of enemies. The combat will focus on player mastery of the inherent systems and will change little from beginning to end. The player may face different enemies along the way but they will fight them with the same base skillset. The platforming sections will be how the players traverse from one key area to another. The titan battles will be where those two styles of play come closer together. The player will have to platform around the titan to tie them up with silk. While they are trying to platform enemies will get in their way and interfere with them. The titan fights are meant to be giant set pieces that the player interacts with in set ways.

Player Character Actions

Run, Wall Run, Climb, Fight, Swing using silk, Let out silk behind them, pin silk, tie up enemies (Potential pacifist bonus for subduing enemies without killing them, as the enemies are doing this against their will, however any pacifist option should be much more challenging to accomplish).

Wallrun

The player can run along walls to cover gaps they could not normally with a jump. They will also be able to wall run on the titans however its very high risk because if the titans move to much the player will fall off while wall running.

Pin Silk

The player’s will try to tie up titans to purify them by pinning silk to them. Once the player pin’s silk to the first key point in the titan silk will start flowing behind them and can be used in a couple ways. They can pin to a non important point to “save” their progress. If the player falls they just have to grab the silk and they can climb or swing back to a point without falling all the way to the ground.

Let Out Silk

While the player is swinging from silk or is in the process of tying a titan they can hold down the left trigger to grip the silk more or less tightly. By default when the trigger is not pulled the silk comes out freely. The player wouldn’t want to this when they need more leeway (For example if they pull the left trigger while wall running they’d run out of silk and get yanked to a stop. However if the player just jumped out in space and wanted to swing they would want to hit left trigger. This mechanic also allows players to naturally control their descent if they are clinging from a rope.

Climb

If the player pushes A while next to a climbable area (vines) they will jump onto the vines and get into a climbing state. Pressing B while in a climbing state will cause the player to drop down. If the player is below a grabbable ledge they will automatically latch onto it and climb up. Think Darksiders for climbing.

Player Character End Goal:

To purify all of the gods of the council so that the can once again defeat Ahriman and restore balance to the world. Purifying each god burns their insignia onto the magic bag giving it a particular extra ability. This would be themed with the god’s theme.

Enemies

When the gods were enslaved so were their minions. Each god has a set of enemy types associated with them. Their abilities and attacks would tie into their gods theme. The potential problem in this is that it doesn’t allow enemies to be repeated, however some basic enemies could be re skinned to fit the gods theme while retaining similar mechanics to give a continuity to the combat. The more difficult enemies would be the ones that are swapped out. Alternatively a story macguffin could be made up saying that the minions are controlled by Ahriman, this would lose out on the opportunity to theme enemies based on their god though.

Combat

Arena combat using 1 of 3 weapons meteor hammer, rope dart, or roped knives. The combat would have two main modes, agile and planted. Agile has some moves that can be used but doesn’t have the power behind a an attack from a strong base. Planted would open up options for the player (more control over their attacks), as well as increase the power behind them. However in the planted state the player cannot dodge attacks. They might be able to counter attacks however there should be some attacks that you need to dodge (heavy attacks) to force them out of planted mode. The goal is to make both modes of combat useful in different situations without forcing the player in either direction. Ideally the player would perform best by switching in and out of these two modes. The different weapon types change the style of combat. The meteor hammer is good for trips and strikes, while the rope dart is good for throws, and tangling the enemy. Rope knives would be a primarily lethal weapon, essentially the player throws and retrieves knives from enemies, this weapon has very little power to disable enemies and is primarily meant for damage. (The knives are optional just thought they’d be an interesting addition)

Planted Mode

In planted mode the camera zooms out to a more top down view and the player can now input directional attacks with the left stick. Different inputs will determine the type of attack that comes out. The player also has to aim the attack in the direction of an enemy. In planted mode the player is always attempting to kill or disable enemies before they reach the player because they can’t dodge and will have to leave the mode or take damage.

Stingers, Sweeps, and, Double Tap, Hold back then stinger forward, hold forward, 360.

Agile Mode

In this mode moves have momentum and the player steps into attacks. The player is much harder to hit however they have less power behind their attacks because they don’t have a good base. The player will want to use this mode while fighting enemies that are fast and hard to pin down. Camera control will function the same or similarly to how it works during platforming sections.

Meteor Hammer

Heavy weapon. The attacks are slower but crowd control better. Heavy attacks almost always knock down enemies. Heavy attacks with this weapon are particularly slow. Sweeps are particularly good at knocking down enemies however smaller enemies will always be knocked down by heavy attacks from this weapon.

Rope Dart

This weapons sits in the middle between the knives and the meteor hammer in that it is moderately fast inflicts damage and only has a few moves that crowd control. The main advantage of this weapon is that the tip can wrap around enemies for the player to grab and throw them. The player could potentially throw a grabbed enemy into a nearby enemy to knock down two at once.

Knives

In agile mode knives are a much closer form of combat (stabbing). However in planted mode the player throws knives at enemies for increased range compared to the other weapons. This weapon inflicts the most damage but has literally no ability to crowd control.

Obstacles

Pits and cliffs, the titans themselves would be platforming challenges even though they are animate.

Replayability

There could be player scores so the player could try to perfect every encounter? There are 3 weapons with different styles of play. Besides that not much replay value. Could give an achievement to the player for completing the entire game by only subduing enemies which would be a significant challenge (A pacifist run if you will).

The player would fight each titan in a different area. The change in area would change the method in which the player climbs or ties up the titan. For example if the player was fighting in a canyon that was the titan’s height it would benefit them to climb the canyon first as the canyon doesn’t move and then jump on the titan from there. Alternatively, maybe you’re fighting the titan in a plain, so you have to figure out how to tie them up without anything but the titan to climb on. Other notable environments are inside a huge cavern, under water (no idea how that would work but it would be cool), and or in the sky (if we wanna be cliche and have a bird titan). This is more of an aesthetic thing but it would be awesome to have monuments built into the cliffside.

References:

Key Locations

The temple would be a key location but unless the player is given a reason to return they wouldn’t ever bother. Besides that the key locations are the areas where the titan fights take place (the ones mentioned above).

Game Flow

The player will head out to defeat a particular titan and then the player will return to the temple and then head out in another area that was unlocked after they defeat a titan. The second option sounds cool but may push the game even closer to Shadow of the Colossus.

Interactivity

The player can pin silk to the environment and the titans. The player can attach silk to outcrops and swing on them. Besides the titans themselves the world will be pretty static.

Training

A training room where the player can learn key combos and attacks. This could be a separate level however it would be more immersive to just have it be room in the temple (this requires the world to be the second structure mention in the game flow section). Maybe something similar to the kung fu panda training room. It should also allow the player to practice platforming.

Map/Layout

To be created (probably not by me)

The general style of the game should emphasize the sense of grand adventure. They styling should be very fantasy and mystical. Realism is considerably less important to this game, especially considering the character has magic powers and fights incarnations of gods.

Character

I like the material design of this character. Something similar would be good. However the sheer amount of leather (and his body structure) makes the character feel weighty. Ideally I want the main character to feel airy or light. More use of silk in her design would be good. Also the colors on this character are too muted. I want the character to be vibrantly colored. Bright colors serve to highlight the character from her dusty surroundings as well as create visual appeal. Dark purples, scarlets, or bright oranges or yellows would be good. Don’t feel limited to those colors but they would be a good base. The character should also have a lot of cloth on the design that can move around. The cloth flowing around the character will accentuate the fluidity of their movement. Ideally I want the characters movements to look like a dance.

Enemies

I feel that enemies would generally be non-humanoid if they were gonna match the titan’s theme but don’t feel limited to that. Like the titans the enemies forms will be at least partly made out of physical materials they are possessing. They would be a mix of shadowy essence and ornately carved stone pieces or wood or mud. The god’s theme allowing. For the carved stone think midna’s helmet.

I like this image because it looks like he’s built out of building materials. Something you might build a tower out of. He’s a bit too uniform though.

I like this image because of the non uniformity of the enemy’s design.

If a titan had a nature theme this enemy design would be fitting.

The player will see their health displayed in a bar on the screen. They would also see how much energy they accumulated for their ultimate attack (Think devil trigger from devil may cry). The enemies health bars would be displayed above their heads. There could be a bar showing how close you are to subduing a titan, but the titan combat will need to be fleshed out a bit.

Menus

The only menu necessary will be a pause menu. This will contain the map and any extra bits of lore the players have found. Also the options menu and the exit button obviously.

Messaging

Cutscenes could be narrated by Pad’ua’s character after she absorbs the information in an artifact. Besides that the design of the enemies should convey their connection to their god and the environment will also evoke some of the theme and general setting.

Control Scheme (v1)

Music

The music should swell with the combat, especially the boss sequences. It should give the player a sense of grand scale and adventure. While the player is trekking through lesser populated areas of the desert the music would be a bit more wistful and lonely.

Sound Effects

Swishing silk or cloth will be a very important sound effect. Besides that weapons striking enemies or the ground will clang or thud. The titans making a huge cracking or earth shaking sound while they move. They may groan in pain or anguish while you are subduing them.