Game Design Document

By: Unknown studios

November 26, 2015
1 Introduction
Have you ever had the feeling that what you are experiencing at the moment might be a dream, but you
can’t quite pinpoint why you feel this way? What would happen if you were stuck in this state? ”World
Wide What?” tries to explore this state of mind by leaving the player stuck in an unknown bizarre world
where it isn’t clear if this is all a dream or not. The player is dropped in an unknown future where the world
has gone and you are seemingly the only one left to fight of this bizarre apocalypse.

2 Target Audience
The target audience for this game are people between ages 13-25 and primarily people who like Pun
humor. This game consist of some really bizarre happenings and settings so some appreciation for
weirdness might be helpful for players.

3 Platform info and Controls

This game will be released solely for the PC.
The controls for the game are :
• Walking with the WASD keys.
• Shoot with the left mouse Button.
• Sprinting with the Shift key.
• And switching weapons with the number keys.
• Spacebar for the interacting with the main-base.
• Pause menu is accessible via escape button.
4 Story, characters and setting of the game
4.1 Story
The Story revolves about the player handling the unexpected madness around him, he wakes up all alone
and forgotten in a destroyed and apocalyptic world. Initially the player has no idea where he is or what
happened to him. He initially assumes that it is just the result of a drunken party the night before.
However when the player tries to find his way home he realises that the world around him has changed
for the worse and that his life might be in danger. His first priority then changes, he has to find shelter
because the night is setting in quickly.
This portion of the game will serve as a tutorial for the player, introducing the player to the gameplay
basics, mechanics and the controls.
The player then happens upon an abandoned base where he finds a diary which explains what is
happening to the world around him, and where he is. It will also serve as an extra tutorial. This base will
serve as a home for the player from now on, and will be used as a main aspect in the gameplay. The
main goal for the player will be to make sure he and his base survive!
The diary is also a central aspect of the game as it contains a sort of ”Bestiary” where the player can
find info on his enemies, initially it only contains a few enemies but the player can expand the bestiary by
killing a set amount of certain enemies. It also contains information about the various weapons.
The same kind of notebook will also be implemented for the buildings in the player's base, so that one
can always look up what the different buildings and added effects are.
Once the player has set up his base and got settled it is time to survive. will he ever wake up from his
dream, or will he ever be safe? Nobody knows.

4.2 Character
The player doesn’t have a pre-set name, instead the player can name himself. This name will show up in
the highscores.

4.3 Setting of the game

The game will be set in a post-apocalyptic setting, so civilization will be broken and wasted, there will be
no other humans. Nature will have overgrown most buildings and some might be damaged. However
there won’t be widespread destruction, it will look more like Pripyat for instance, abandoned but not
destroyed.
5 Artificial Intelligence
The AI in this game will not be individually smart but it will have more of a hive mentality. The hive as a
whole will react to the player, while the individual enemies are considered dumb. For example if the player
builds a lot of counters to a specific enemy, the system will react to that and sent more enemies of
another type.
Furthermore, the game will have a sort of dynamic difficulty, it will track how well the player is doing by
measuring statistics like:
● amount of times hit.
● accuracy.
● What kind of weapon the player is using.
● What kind of base defences the player is using.
The game will scale it’s minion’s according to these values. for instance if the player misses a lot of shots,
the system will make the enemies slightly slower to compensate. The same goes for the opposite
direction, if the player is doing really well the game will become slightly harder.
The enemies will first center their attack on your base. When hit by the player they will switch focus or if
the player comes too close to them. Some enemies however will focus on you with special attacks or
boost other enemies stats.
6 Level and environment design
There will be only one ”main” level initially, which is the world the player can move around in. This will be
the main world, which contains the player’s base, resources to gather for base-building and a lot of
enemies. This world will be represented as a sort of forest/plain type of world, with grass, trees and some
remnants of human civilization.
If there is time left during development, a second zone will be added, the city. In the city the
apocalypse will be more evident. The city will look deserted and there will be no humans except for the
player. There will be a large amount of enemies however. The city is different from the ”countryside” in the
sense that, not only will it have a lot more resources to collect, it will also feature streetlights, making it
easier to navigate at night, and it will also feature buildings, a number of which will be accessible. These
accessible buildings will have loads of monsters in cramped spaces, but also contain a treasure trove of
resources to collect.
The aim is to make both these worlds by procedural generation. This makes sure that each
play-through will feel unique, and give the game more replay-ability this way. The base and some
buildings will be always the same, although the player can choose different upgrade paths, it’s location
will stay the same. The base’s initial look will also be the same, but once the player upgrades the base,
there will be visual representations of said upgrades.
In the end we chose to put both levels in one level. The city is in the world map at a random location.
The world map is procedurally generated and will always give a different playthrough.

7 Gameplay and mechanics

7.1 Gameplay
7.1.1 Base and player
The gameplay will be very simple overall and much like a standard survival shooter, but with some extras.
The player must survive the hordes of enemies coming his and the base’s way. This enemy spawning will
not be constant, instead it will be in big ”waves” of enemies, a period in which enemy spawning is set
higher and your base will be under serious attack, so the player will have to be there to defend his base.
Between waves, there will be a downtime, during which the player can roam the world and collect
resources.
Should the base fall while the player is not there, it will mean an instant loss for the player. If the player
loses all his health this will also mean a loss for the player.
The defence of the base has to be installed to let the base survive on its own. This means the player
can roam the map more to find additional resources.

7.1.2 Notebook
The notebook found in the base serves as a game-manual of sorts. It also serves as the pause menu for
the player and it can be accessed by pressing the ”escape” key. In this notebook the player can find all
the information about all the enemies, items and buildings in-game. Because the notebook serves as a
pause menu too, it will also have a page with a option menu, and the gameplay will go on pause when the
book is accessed.

7.1.3 Shooting

Shooting will initially be very basic, with just the starting handgun. There are more guns to be obtained by
the player throughout the game. These weapons can be bought inside the player's base. The upgraded
weapons will have all kind of deadly features, such as more bullets per shot, faster bullets, and more
damage per bullet. This will help the player combat the different type of enemies. For example, fast
moving enemies might be easier to hit when you have a gun which shoots faster bullets. And the slower
enemies might be better countered if you have a gun which does a lot of damage per shot, but shoots
relatively slow.

7.1.4 Weapons
Ranged
● Pistol
Does average damage to all types of enemies. Is semi-automatic and has good accuracy.
● Shrimp Pistol
does extra damage to earth-type and stuns them temporarily. single shot low rate of fire.
● Stinger Gun
Does extra damage to wind-type, shoots fast and with low damage but poisons enemies. fully
automatic
● Weaponized eel
Does constant damage, extra effective to water-type enemies.
● Wunderwaffen
Has a selector for the damage-type can be super effective against everything. shoots automatic,
but relatively slow.
Melee weapons
● Battering Ram
High damage with knockback, but slow hits.
● Swordfish
Fast attack with medium damage but low knockback, so enemies stay close.
● Baseball Bat
A bat to hit enemies with, low damage but with high knockback, can hit fast so multiple enemies
can be knocked back..
7.1.5 Exploring
The player cannot constantly explore the world. He has to defend his base during the waves that spawn,
but there is also an additional feature called fatigue. While out and about, fatigue will slowly grow till it
has reached a maximum. A Fatigued player cannot run as well as a rested player can, you can rest and
lose all your fatigue by going to your base. Being out in the open world can give the player some great
rewards, but they do come at a greater risk.

7.2 Mechanics

7.2.1 Light
A big part of the game at night is the light mechanic. During the night the sun will go down and cloak the
world in darkness. Luckily the player has a spotlight to light the way, but visibility is greatly reduced. This
is the core-mechanic, we might expand on the feature with upgrade-able lights for the player, so his sight
is increased in the night. The base will initially be cloaked in darkness as well until the player upgrades it.
7.2.2 Resources
The collecting of resources is the one of the main objectives the player has during the game, resources
make everything work and allows the player to survive longer and strive for greater highscores. The
collection of these is very simple, they are dropped randomly all over the world, and the player has to
venture outside the ​safety of his base to retrieve these resources. Some buildings in the main-base may
also be made to automatically generate resources. These resources are called “Units”
7.2.3 Base-building
The player can build his base to better accommodate his survival. Upon arrival the base has several open
slots in which upgrades can be built. The main thing to build in your base will be turrets. Apart from
turrets, there will also be supportive buildings, such as a ”weapon” building which allows the player to get
better weapons. Another important building will be the generator, this building will generate ‘units’ for the
player to use.
The available buildings in the base are:
● Gearshack
The gearshack is the first building where you can get new guns. When unlocked you will get the shrimp
gun. The gearshack can be upgraded to the generator, gunsmith and techsmith.
● Resource generator
The generator slowly generates units for your personal use.
● Gunsmith
The gunsmith enables you to craft guns from units.
● Techsmith
The techsmith allows you to upgrade your flashlight, install base lights and upgrade your base walls
● Rock-paper-scissor turret
The rock-paper-scissor turret is the standard turret that shoots enemies at your base. It can be upgraded