Game Concept

Title: Apocalypse Break

Concept Statement: Imagine being stuck at school during a zombie apocalypse, no guns, weapons, or anything to save you. Run through the school battling zombies and collecting gear to make it out alive.

Genre: Apocalypse Break is a Role Play Game which progresses through a story line of a game with special tasks to complete in order to complete the game. A sub-genre of the game would definitely be survival as there is the survival aspect of not dying to the zombies and making it out alive. Another sub-genre of the game will be ARPG (Action RPG’s) which is demonstrated through the action side of the game with the killing of zombies and other various enemies.

Play Modes: The game will be a single player game with no multiplayer or online capabilities.

Concept Development: Apocalypse Break is a game in which the idea has heavy influence from Pokémon. The RPG that Pokémon delivered allowed users to play a game in which they could complete a storyline whilst having small battles and missions on the side. The games storyline aims to deliver a good game with plenty of side quests and missions to keep the users interested throughout the whole game and not being overly action packed. The balance of the genres creates a good and even game. Another game which has heavily influenced Apocalypse Break (AB) is Terraria. Terraria allowed users to immerse into a 2D survival game which has heavy influence on AB. The mix of both survival and RPG creates a great fusion of genres which is both interesting and action packed. The concept of being stuck in a school originates from an episode of Black Mirror in which 2 girls were on the run and were watching people on their television slowly turn to Zombies. The girls eventually became stuck in their house and had to fight off Zombies and escape. The scope of the game consists of a smaller basis which is where the player is the last person to be infected and everyone else in the building has been. This leading for the player to try and escape. The game will be heavily influenced from Pokémon however taking a subtractive design onto that. This will take out lots of extra work which would simply be out of the scope of this project and allow for the core content to be significantly stronger.

Audience: Apocalypse Break target audience would definitely be universal between all genders. The game would be targeting casual gamers as the gameplay is only moderately intense providing casual gamers a lot of fun without the competitiveness. Another reason casual gamers would be target audience is that it is a single player game which does not appeal to competitive players as it is an RPG. Age demographics of the game can be seen between a range of 12-30 years of age as this provides most users which are likely to pick up such game. Younger kids looking for a game which is not too intense and looking for a good story line and small in game missions to complete. Older casual gamers which are just looking to pick up a game without needing to be too serious. The story line of Apocalypse Break provides a fictitious story which any culture group can immerse themselves into. Zombie fans will be a large target audience as the basis of the game is surviving a Zombie apocalypse.

Game Treatment:

You are a school student who has survived the first ever zombie apocalypse. The school has been run over already and you’re the only one who survived. Your mission is to leave exit the school building and fight off any zombies you see. You have no weapons or defenses which means you will have to battle some zombies in fist fights till you can find some weapons. Your main goal is to not get too infected where the zombie intoxication will override your body and you will turn too. You must find medical kits to lower your intoxication and stay alive. This must all be done whilst trying to make a break for civilization outside. There will be limited health once reaching a certain level of intoxication too as your body slowly becomes weaker and more vulnerable.

Concept Art:

As seen in image 1, this picture is a good demonstration of the graphics wanting to be used along with the scale of characters within the game. Neutral colours with a more rugged texture makes it feel “dirtier”. The UI placement and overall overlay is also in a good position which will be implemented. The blood of the attacks will only be small blotches as it is not intended to be too gruesome.

As seen in image 2, the zombie will follow clean outlines with general characteristics of a zombie, being green and faded eyes. This alongside torn clothing will provide the game with a scary looking zombie. This clean outline will also turn to be rougher and more fit in with the overall game when the pixels are taken down.

 As seen in image 3, the main character would be a schoolboy who would be done through a sprite of a boy wearing a suit. This sprite sheet makes a perfect example whilst also having the right amount of quality to fit in nicely to the game.