Roll-a-Mole is a fast-paced action arcade game requiring hand-eye coordination skill to play. Roll-a-Mole is a fast-paced action arcade game based on eliminating waves of enemy moles and trying to last as long as you can to achieve a Highscore.
GamePlay
The player takes control of Mickey Goldmole, a hardened fighter who trains to be the best fighter in the world. The player will start off by launching Mickey into the ring and can then control Mickeys trajectory with A and D or the left and right arrow keys. Mickey will perpetually move about the ring, bouncing off the ropes and returning back in a direction respective to the angle that he collides with the ropes. The player objective is to use this momentum to eliminate invading moles who burst up through the center of the ring in a 3 by 3 grid.
By colliding with the enemy moles the player will earn points towards their highscore. There will also be special moles that, when defeated, give the player more points than the average mole. The moles appear in a random position each time within the grid but only resets a new wave once all the current wave enemies have been eliminated. The player cannot be too hasty and careless about their goal here though as the moles will poke bombs up through the holes and if the player accidentally hits one they will lose a point of health. The player will want to avoid these at all costs because after hitting a bomb three times or deplenishing all health points that the player has, the player will get a game over and will not be able to add more points to their highscore.
As for Mickey. Mickey Goldmole, NOT Goldmill. His purpose is to become the best fighter the world has ever seen in his fight challenging the current title belt holder. However, overzealous fans of the current reigning champ have rushed the ring and are now wreaking havoc. Mickey wants to defend his place he calls his second home and so he tries to defeat them all.
Target audience & platforms
My primary target for this game would be anybody from the ages of Seven and above. I believe that with the cartoonish art style and whacky premise of the game that it would be suited more towards a younger audience. Some of which may have access to smart phones or a computer. Although the game aims to be silly and fun for kids, with possibly some explosions and very, very mild violence based around the theme of the sport of boxing I think that Seven is a good age for kids to be allowed to play this game. Most kids begin boxing, martial arts or other physical sports around that age as they can see the actual point of these sports and have a very basic concept of a moral compass. With this in mind I think that kids around this age won't look at what happens in the game and try to replicate it by running full sprint into other kids, which is definitely something I wish to avoid because kids on time out can't play my game and that's not what I want.
Look and Feel
The game centers around the boxing ring within a dark arena lit up with big stage lights for the big night. The main camera will have a birds eye view of the ring, looking directly down on the action. Because of this, the games art style will be cartoony yet still retaining the usual colours you would see associated with an official boxing ring. However, this is not an official boxing ring, its within the Mole-iverse and so, the ring is sanctioned by the WMBO (World Mole Boxing Organization) and sponsored by mole related companies so any graphics or distinct markings on the ring will be modified to incorporate the small world building that the theme tries to set up. Outside of the ring, beyond the judges table and probably the first row of seats will be dark and only back light the audience with a dark blue light to show that the crowd is still there to watch the action, but with little effort I will make the surrounding area feel more full.
Story
Roll-a-Mole backstory
-You play as Mickey Goldmole, a strong fighter who wants to become the best fighter in the world.
-Mickey has been training extremely hard to get strong enough to challenge the current Champion.
-On fight night the ring is rushed by overzealous fans of the former reigning champ who Mickey just defeated.
-Mickey has to fight off the round after round of angry fans to defend himself and his belt.
-As Mickey dispatches the fans he gains respect from spectators around the world as his points begin to mount up.
-Mickey just has to see how long he can last and make a name for himself once the final bell rings.
Technical Requirements
Technical requirements for the visual aspects of the game.
By centering around the boxing ring I hope to limit the amount of assets need to give the illusion of a booked out stadium. The main camera will be overhead and only covering just beyond the action inside the ring. To achieve the visual I'm after I will need to develop and design the ring which the whole game takes place within. To make the ring seem like it is within a packed stadium I plan to use more audio and visual tricks to flesh out what the player can't see but assumes is there. Audio of a buzzing audience, sound of a bell ringing, photographer cameras clicking and some music will help add to the very limited visuals that I will apply outside of the ring. I plan to have very slightly moving images of silhouettes lined in a row to give the effect that an audience is present. I might not fully flesh out Mickeys Cornermen or the judges but I will use small, effective techniques to show that they do exist.
Heads Up Display (HUD)
In-game Heads Up Display
The games heads up display will be very minimal and will include the players score, Number of rounds they're on and a pause icon. The players score will be tucked into one of the four corners if I cannot find a way to incorporate it into environment as a judges score card. The pause button will be small and near one of the four corners. I might experiment with the round bell being the pause button so that the player clicks it to ring it and pause the round. It will have to be out of the way of the action and also in a familiar spot where the player would usually look for it to be. I twill also need to intuitively look like a pause button as well as the round bell for it to be visually and fundamentally effective. Once the player decides to come back to the action, the pause menu will disappear, the player can see all the paused action about to kick off and a three second timer counts down allowing the player to prepare to be be launched back into the controls of Mickey. To add another level of competition there will be a round counter at the top side of the ring showing what round the player has made it to. This will add more to highscores as some players will reach say 2500 points in ten rounds while better players can boast about getting 2500 points in only eight.
Mickey Goldmole
Character 1: Mickey Goldmole
Mickey Goldmole is the protagonist of the game and who the player will be controlling. There is very few states that Mickey will be in just for the basics of how the game will play. As development continues and if there is time, there could be time to add powerups that will alter Mickeys appearance and abilities. Mickey will be in Raging Mole mode and rolling to stomp out enemies. He will look mean and determined and will be ball-shaped for better aerodynamics and style points. If, or more likely when, Mickey is hurt by a bomb he will look singed, dazed and confused and possibly even losing his ball shape as he lays back in pain but he will transition back into ball shape if he has any HP (Health Points) left. Lastly, if Mickey loses and gets a game over, his corner will throw in the towel and Mickey will look defeated as he lays where he lost. Maybe he also has a few Tom & Jerry raised head bonks and bruises on his character model as well.
Enemy Characters (Mobs)
Regular Mole Enemy
The regular mole enemy that the player will encounter a lot of will be a basic model of an angry mole poking its head out of the ring floor. I might make varying faces for the regular class mole to add more polish but for the most part they will have a basic animation of them rising into view each round and then a quick animation to them being flattened with added particle effects and turning them red as they get hit.
Super Mole Enemy
The super mole enemy isn't necessarily any tougher or harder to beat than the regular mole enemy but they look meaner and are supposed to look gold or something very distinguishable that they are intuitively worth more points if defeated. However, after naming the protagonist Mickey Goldmole a reference to Mickey Goldmill, Rockys Coach in the first three Rocky Movies, I think that Goldmole will be confusing and either Mickeys name or the design of the Super Mole Enemy is up for change. The Super enemy moles will be taller and burlier than the regular moles which is one visual characteristic to insinuate more value to the player. The super moles will not affect the size of the holes they arise from however. They will have similar traits to the regular moles when defeated except the particle effect will present more of a shine or sparkle to let the player know they received more points than usual. Also they will turn a brighter colour than red when first hit to also signify something special has occurred.
Level Design
The Boxing Ring
The main level will be the boxing ring with a wave based format stylized as Boxing rounds with enemies appearing from the center of the boxing ring in a three by three grid of holes. There will be further play space of one grid surrounding the holes to allow the player more room to decide what to do next. Overall the ring will be an area of 4x4 and surrounded with the usual ropes that come with boxing rings.The ropes might be laying more so out to each side they occupy so that the camera can see them. This is subject to change if it looks off but ultimately the goal is to make the player immediately recognise the ropes and remember how they were used for rebounding off.
Global Elements
Player boundaries
The player is to stay withing the confines of the ring. There will be an invisible wall stopping them from falling over the ropes but are still allowed to interact with the ropes as intended.
Neutral objects
Things such as the corner posts to the boxing ring, the round counter, the judges score cards and the 2D background of the audience are all neutral objects that have no interaction with the player and serve only a visual purpose.
Camera View
The camera view is a forced, top down perspective showing all of the ring, the judges score cards, the round counter and some of the audience. The main camera focus will be on the action within the ring.
Technical Requirements
Main Theme Music
For the main theme music that will play during gameplay I will provide a soundtrack that suits the theme of the game which is fast paced action within a boxing ring, so some uplifting and perseverance inducing music that will drive the player would suit but it should also be able to loop for as long as the player is going.
Player Elements
Player Movement
Since the player will be rolling around the ring I think that adding a rolling sound similar to a bowling ball or a hard rock rolling across concrete or other materials would help make the player feel the mass and momentum of the character.
Game World Interaction
For certain assets the player would need to have a responding audio cue for when they interact with those game world objects. The ropes for example could have a elastic stretching sound or a classic triangle pinball bumper that sits just above the flippers. Either of these would trigger a reaction from the player, telling them how exactly their character just interacted with the ropes. Implementing this audio without it becoming overbearing for the player will be a task though, as the character will hit the ropes hundreds of times during a play session. So to not annoy the player the audio will have to be trimmed and tapered in a way that doesn't just play the same mp3 file of the same noise over and over again. Different samples will need to be taken just to add a bit of variety to the mix.
Global Elements
Global Audio effects
To add to the theme music playing, there will be the usual sound heard at many boxing events and that's the sound of the fans cheering on as the fighters go round after round. This might be embedded into the music itself or added in as an ambient sound to play while the player is bouncing around the ring. However, there will be oo's and aw's from the crowd whenever the player defeats an enemy or is hit by a bomb. Hopefully, by adding this is will make the player feel as though there is more to the surrounding area than from what little we see from the main camera.
The Bell
For each round of enemies that is defeated the round bell will sound, signalling the beginning of a new round and another wave of enemies to roll over. Depending on how fast the player dispatches the wave of enemies this will add to the variety of sounds that the player will hear during gameplay. If the towel is thrown in for the player and they get a game over the round bell will toll a KO for the player signaling their loss.
Enemies
The enemy moles have a disgruntled personality and so they will have disgruntled tones as they arrive to the ring. Whenever the player hits them they will let out a cry or whimper and the sound of the player colliding with them will sound as a smack or punch.
Super mole enemies
Super mole enemies will essentially be the same thing except with much deeper tones and grunts. The smacks and punches will be bass-ier and also sound an audio cue letting the player know that they collided with a super mole and they've been awarded more points than the usual mole would provide.
Bombs
With bombs being present on the scene the player is bound to hit them at some point as so an explosion sound effect will play if they do so. Mickey will let out a yell as he takes damage from the hit. If there is room I would also include a sound of a haymaker punch landing just to add to the effect.
Menu Fx
Main Music Theme
The main menu music could be something similar to Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" aka as the Rocky theme song. This would be ideal as it would suit the overall theme of the game and also hype the player up before they jump into the action. The music can't be the exact recording of the same song for copyright issues but something along those lines that can be looped after maybe thirty seconds will suffice. The music will have to be slightly compressed without losing any audio fidelity as to lessen file size while still supporting its purpose within the game.
