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Kahlo (Wind Age)
Age Bible
March 1, 2001
Design Goals
Synopsis
Back Story
Purpose
Number of Players
Possible Player Goals
Game Play Basics
Core Premise:
Core Setup:
Core Gameplay:
Player’s Abilities (with Creature)
Possible Playfield Attributes: TBD
Player Skills:
General Rules of Play:
Game Play Specifics
How do you start the game?
Can you choose sides?
How are the rules of the game conveyed?
How do you leave the game?
Where and how is fire distributed?
When is the flame distributed?
How does a team win?
Story
Technical Challenges
Unique
Global
Design Critical Elements
Design Goals
· Multi-player (#people in age > 30)
· Repeatable
· Variation on “Capture the Flag”
· Connection to D'ni History and City
· Unique environment twist
· Fun for spectators (can they do things/strategy)
Synopsis
Teams compete in a windswept age to bring different colored ‘flames’ to their home base. The successful team is rewarded with a brilliant pyrotechnic display.
Back Story
Purpose
In the great scheme of Parable, this is at its core an entertainment age. It’s an age where people steeped in story and plot can come relax and goof around. It’s an age people will come return to again and again to pass time, socialize and have fun. Other ages of Parable will fill people with wonder and tax the mind. Kahlo will make people smile and laugh. Nevertheless, there’s enough back-story and spectacle in Kahlo to mark it as a Cyan world. There are bits of history and prior culture scattered and hidden for the hardcore explorer to discover.
Number of Players
Max: TBD
Full: 16
Min to play game: 2
Min to explore age: 1
Although it would be fun to discover Kahlo on your own and puzzle out its purpose and history, the repeatable, skill-developing gameplay will require a minimum of two people and preferably four or more. The maximum number of players will be determined by technology. Kahlo gameplay is designed to be particularly enjoyable for numbers between 4 and 16. Observation points will allow the age to accommodate many more people in the form of spectators.
Possible Player Goals
Conqueror – Kahlo is designed from the ground up with the conqueror in mind. Repeateable enjoyable gameplay gives the conqueror an arena to hone skills, strategize and “become the best.” Players motivated by challenge, achievement, domination, control and “winning” will find Kahlo uniquely pleasing among the worlds of Parable.
Explorer – Kahlo’s unique windy environment and strange physics regarding leaping flaming goo give the explorer immediate gratification. Scattered throughout the age are historical and cultural tidbits waiting to be discovered by the hardcore explorer in the form of cave paintings, odd structures designed to take advantage of Kahlo’s wind, and a history that sheds light on a heretofore unexplored side of the D’Ni people – how they entertained themselves. Players motivated by discovery and seeing and experiencing new things will find Kahlo a wonderful and unique place.
Inquisitor – Uncovering the initial link to Kahlo from D’Ni is a job for the inquisitor. In addition, Kahlo’s tie to D’Ni history and culture, while shedding new light on the D’Ni people, will remain consistent with the Great Scheme of Parable. The unique physics of Kahlo will affirm the D’Ni’s talent for manipulating Age characteristics and their creativity. Entering the age solo and coming to the conclusion that a game can be played here will be particularly rewarding for the inquisitor. Players motivated by the gathering and discovery of knowledge regarding story and world consistency will enjoy discovering Kahlo.
Socializer – Kahlo provides a unique context for the socializer to meet new people and make new friends. As a player, socializers will enjoy the team work aspects of Kahlo gameplay. As a spectator, socializers are provided with fodder for ice-breaking and small talk. Players motivated by talking and discussing people, places and things will readily add Kahlo to their list of favorite places to hang out in.
Game Play Basics
Core Premise:
Two opposing teams compete to light their respective pyre by lighting their “torches” in the middle of playing field and successfully reaching their own pyre without having their “flame” stolen by an opponent.
Core Setup:
The game is played in a large valley, roughly 1k x 1k in size (TBD). The playfield is made up of trenches, buttes, pillars, steppes, and caves.
The highest level of this field is a rough, windy wasteland. The trenches below are sheltered from this wind.
The two teams (1-8 players per team) ride creatures that attract the plasma flame napalm to them and carry it visibly in a charged exoskeleton.
Core Gameplay:
Players race from their starting position to acquire plasma from one of the sources near the center of the playing field or to stop the opposing team from returning a “flame” to their pyre.
If a charge is carried into the windy level of the environ, the charge is released into the atmosphere and lost.
Players can pass a charge from one creature to another. Opposing players may intercept these passes and “steal the flame.”
Player’s Abilities (with Creature)
· Hover
· Float in 8 directions: forward, back, left, right and diagonals
· Turn left and right
· Jump (TBD 5ft, 10ft, 20ft) (effected by wind?)
· High Jump
· Long Jump
· Parachute drop (small cliffs/ledges)
· Hop/climb steep faces
Possible Playfield Attributes: TBD
· Retractable bridges
· Lifts
· “stepped” for platform jumping
· Wind “controllers”
Player Skills:
· Knowledge of playing field
· Ability to smoothly navigate changes in height (jumping)
· Ability to use environment to advantage (bridges, lifts, etc)
· Anticipate actions of opposing flame carrier and intercept them to steal their flame
· Ability to avoid opponents when you have a flame
· Ability to accurately pass flame to teammates without
being intercepted or losing the charge.
General Rules of Play:
· There is most likely a game in progress when a player enters the age. The new player simply dives right into the action. If no one else is in the age the player is free to explore, practice skills, or collect flame until someone else enters and chooses to thwart his progress.
· The player may pick up one flame at a time from a source.
o There may be several different colors of flame (TBD)
o His goal is then to return the flame to his pyre
o Carrying the flame had no negative effect on abilites.
o A player may steal another players flame by moving into close (5ft) proximity to it (and perhaps hitting an action button). The flame will jump to the nearby torch. There is a no-touchback time imposed so that flames don’t leap back and forth spasmodically.
· A player can extinguish their own flame by moving into a “windy area” or extinguish an opponents flame perhaps (in lieu of stealing it) by using an environmental tool (wind scoop, funnel, whatever)
· When one team puts enough flame (predetermined) in their pyre they win and the game is over. The pyres will grow throughout the game to give a sense of a team’s “score.”
Game Play Specifics
How do you start the game?
Link from the D’Ni city into “the roost.” Grab a male or female creature (eg red or blue). Jump through hole and float down to surface. Using a creature as a ‘hoverpod’ solves a number of problems, namely:
1. If the player links out while playing, the creature simply flies back to the roost.
2. The design of the creature greatly simplifies animation tasks.
3. The male and female creatures emit different excited sounds if they have the “flame” allowing players to tell which team has it.
Note: In this version the flame has evolved into more of an electric plasma, a kind of static charge that attaches visibly to the creature like an aura. Arcs and sparks or pulsates, etc.
Can you choose sides?
Yes. The roost will initially contain 16 creatures: 8 male, 8 female. We therefore cap the total number of players per instance and also the maximum number of players per team. But, we feel the players will balance themselves as they often do in current CTF games like UT and Half-Life.
How are the rules of the game conveyed?
The game of Kahlo teaches itself. Although the entire age has been designed around this game, we present it to the player simply as a unique world with strange properties. Through experimentation the player will discover that he can capture flame, pass flame, steal flame, accumulate flame in a home base, and figure out how to use the creature to jump, hop/fly through the air and climb walls they wouldn’t normally be able to climb.
How do you leave the game?
Initially, the only link back to D’Ni is in the roost. After the DRC confiscates the age, they will introduce two more linking books, one at each base.
Where and how is fire distributed?
We have several options here and need to playtest the variables:
- multiple types of flame, still only one of each at a time in play
- multiple spawn points
- each spawns a specific flame
- each spawns a random flame
- number of spawn points and flames in play vary with number of players
When is the flame distributed?
Options here too:
- a new flame appears only when someone scores
- new flames appear at regular intervals
- new flames appear at intervals based on number of players
- ‘flames’ are slowly consumed by creature/torch, then new ones appear at source
How does a team win?
We have options here too, related to the types and distribution of fire:
- accumulate a certain amount of one type of flame
- accumulate a certain amount (n >= 1) of each type of flame
A device at home base (either natural or manmade) keeps score. As flame/charge is added to the ‘pyre.’ A piece is lifted up along a natural or manmade pipe, blocking various air passages. Wind blowing through this pipe gives an auditory indicator of score while the charged slider gives visual indication.
We will allow the first person that uncovers the Kahlo linking book to investigate this age and spread the word for a short time. Soon the DRC will become involved and will confiscate the book for a time. Rumors and interest will spread during this ‘quarantine.’ The DRC will, after a short time, release the book for public consumption.
Technical Challenges
Unique
Converting current gameplay logic to work with Plasma 2.0
Animation
Gravity
High Frame Rate – outdoor environ with portals
Attaching Player to creature or vice versa
Burning Fire Jelly Plasma Smart Napalm – pathing and effect
Global
Voice (between teams, within teams, between spectators and players)
Interface Integration with rest of Parable
Game Master – prevent worst machines!
Live imager links from the Dakota Pub – persistent links to instances
Auto-reduce avatar poly count
Design Critical Elements
Player
‘Uniforms’
Torches
Animations (see gameplay doc for complete list of player abilities)
Player sounds
Creatures
Look (model, texture)
Operation
Sounds
Independent idle and return to roost behaviors
Player operated behaviors (see player abilities in Gameplay section)
The ‘Fire’
Drip/trail/texture/glow effect
Colors
Spawn locations and timing
Other things to do with fire (pass along tunnel, vine, fuse, etc.)
Cool real-time sound filters
Team bases
Flame receptacles
Gates
Base architecture
Wind organ score sounds
Endgame reward system, effects and sounds
Field
Scattered sculpture (landmarks, POI)
Wind-eroded rock
Flame spawn points
Cave ‘paintings’
Wind-powered Objet d’Art – wind indicators, landmarks, POI
Indigenous flora and fauna – wind indicators, landmarks, POI
Related and ambient sound
World Aesthetic
Landscape type, colors
Day/Night Cycle
Atmosphere
Ambient Sound
Link from D’Ni
Link to D’Ni
Roost and Observation Center
Dakota Pub
Layout
Aesthetic
Furniture
Devices (imagers, jukebox, etc)
Decorations
