GPD
Jan Lokvenc, 512154

Game: Become the Menace

Target Audience: Players of strategy, rpg and automation games and players that like the explore
game mechanics

Gamer Type: explorer, achiever

Target Platforms: PC

Genre: “God game“, sandbox, rpg, strategy, open world, simulator

Number of Players: 1

Projected Release Date: 202?

High Concept Statement

The planet Earth is being besieged and its people do not even know it yet. The most brilliant minds
of all the humans came together for project “Close-by” - a joint space-based operation to extract
data and samples of nearby asteroid that came from the space being the solar system. They found
more than they have bargained for – a life in space. The human, ever so curious yet careless
decided to study the alien life. Things did not work out well. The thing broke out and it was not
friendly, at first the secret military base, then the nearest city, then it went for the whole
continent. You are the thing. You have been waiting for a long time to eat. Take control of the
alien life form and shape its journey from few cells to planetary apocalypse. Adapt and evolve, you
choose the way humanity falls – may it be as a hivemind, a single giant organism or a rabid swarm.
Eat and grow, the more human prey you get, the easier it becomes to progress throughout the stages
of conquer. The whole world is but a one giant sandbox for you to become the unstoppable menace.

Core mechanics: Evolve -> Fight -> Conquer -> Progress

The game mixes aspects of older god games as Spore and newer such as WorldBox with Plague Inc:
Evolved. Player is not directly involved in the gameplay but is choosing options or using limited
abilities to influence outcomes of the game. The robustness of the trait trees and the advanced AI
for both sides should result in fun sandbox experience.

Feature Set:

·         Evolve

o   You start as a clean slate – few cells in a petri dish with very ill intent.

o   You control everything about the alien organism, whether it is hivemind, one big monster or
ravenous swarm of many

o   Very large trait tree with many exclusive options to pick

o   Every stage of evolution has specific traits to choose from

§  For example, the cellular stage has fewer but more impactful choices, than later stages

§  Create unique synergies and builds

·         Fight

o   Humans will resist and fight back

o   The traits you choose will create tools and options to fight humans

o   Hunting humans will get you biomass and biomass is the resource you need to evolve

o   Humans are AI controlled faction, but object oriented and reactive to players playstyle to
create challenge

o   The player has limited control over moment-to-moment combat encounters – no micromanagement

·         Conquer

o   Every stage has two goals – acquire enough biomass and conquer immediate area

o   Humans can and will pushback to create tension and difficulty

·         Progress

o   Multiple stages of conquer, ranging from escaping the research lab to fighting over the whole
planet

o   Each stage has specific traits for players to build upon

o   Possibility to even change game genre when advancing a stage

o   Replay value due to many varying options

Player experience goals:

·         The feeling of power -> player is the big bad guy of the story

·         The feeling of control -> player creates own builds

·         The feeling of mastery -> player can observe own creation win, knowing he figured it out

·         Being cold and calculating -> the game is not fast paced action game, rather player needs
to strategize and plan ahead

Team Roles

·         Coder + advanced AI integration specialist

·         Artists – sounds and visuals

·         Designers + testers – the main aspect of the game is the mechanics and interaction of the
mechanics, the system needs to be both, robust to give players many tools and well tested to make
sure the tools work together

The Competition

            In the recent history there was no triple A release of this kind of game, but there are
several indie Spore clones being worked on. The game has one big main hook – that is playing as the
bad guy against humans. This alone should provide a strong point to stand out.

Spore is a big inspiration in overall flow of the game with its stages and the advancement of
players species. But while spore is game about life, the game Plague Inc: Evolved has the same goal
as Become the Menace and it stands on the ability to strategize and think about the next step. In a
sort of a logical puzzle and player is searching for the perfect answer to the problem game
presents. Aspects of WorldBox are what complete this game – player is observing own creation and
judging its performance in order to come up with a plan. Player chosen traits vastly change the way
the game progresses and provide different playstyles.

Compelling aspects / USP

            The game is a blend of many different games but comes out as a very different
experience. It is not about ALL POSSIBLE the options (Spore and playing as anything), but it is
about very deep and focused pool of options. Player has both the ability to roleplay as favorite
world ending scenario from different franchises and at the same time, has the ability to purely
metagame the perfect creation.

The point of playing as the big bad should not be ignored, as it is new kind of experience.