Video Game Synopsis and Development Notes

Since looking at some of the most iconic video game characters and after careful consideration about genre conventions of a platformer game, I started work on a synopsis, detailing the storyline and several game play elements of my game. These can both be found below.

Synopsis –
After finding an item powerful enough to change the world almost literally, using it for the good or bad is a choice teenage nerd Wren will have to work out for himself. But when a rip in the dimensions causes an unknown force to leak into his world, sending it spiraling into paralysis and transporting him to an unknown area, he has no choice but to work on saving it.
Now stranded in an empty, desolate dimension with only an Artificially Intelligent bat like creature named ZED900 to guide him, Wren has a paralyzed world in his hands, along with the mysterious dimension bending gear, which he has no idea how to use. Eventually, using the help of insecure ZED, who is unsure of himself 99% of the time, Wren, with great difficulty learns to use this power of the gear to his advantage.
Wren must navigate between 20 very different dimensions, collecting dark dew from each, which can eventually be combined and reversed to restore the world from paralysis.
With over 20 levels of life changing gameplay, this slightly retro, slide scrolling puzzler platformer will turn your world upside down!

Development notes –
The basis of Gear Rift’s game play revolves around the player being able to turn the platforms and environments within the game, upside down.
Having a set button such as CTRL or Shift allows the player to use the power of the Gear, flipping the environment. This lets players navigate past area’s they would not have been able to get past before. An example of this would be, having a spike or something similar that the player cannot jump over, in the way. This spike reaching from the floor, does not quite reach the ceiling so there is a gap, however it is too high to jump over. Using the Gear to flip the scenery and all platforms allows the player to simply walk past the spike, which is now descending from the ceiling instead of growing from the floor. Once the player has walked past, releasing shift will return the world to normal, leaving the player the other side of the obstacle.
This game will contain no enemies. This is due to the world being in paralysis and the player along with ZED900 being the only non frozen characters in the game. Instead the player faces dangers such as pits, lava and other environmental dangers. The game has 20 main levels of varying difficulty, all must be navigated and every other level will contain a ‘dark dew’, the item required to restore planet earth, repair the rip between dimensions and send Wren back home.
This game will be largely reliant on cut scenes to tell the player of any major events that occur in the game (For example, Wren finding the gear). These will also be used to show ZED900 communicating with the character and give the audience a sense of what is really going on.
This game will be released for the PC and is aimed at retro gamers between the ages of 15 and 20. The game will have a rating of 3+ or 7+ due to containing no violence, bad language, gore ect and by having this, it will allow me to aim my game at the largest group of people.

Now I have completed this, I feel it would be a worthwhile choice to draw out design and personality sheets for my two characters, Wren and ZED900. This will help me when creating the sprites and animations for my games trailer/TV advertisement and posters.