Mech Among Men - Devlog 0

Mech Among Men, is very much a place holder title but who knows if i'll come up with something better.

A succinct summary:

A 2D Tower Defense Beat em' up mech game. 

to be less succinct:

The Fluff

secondary information that'll help me in development decisions going forward

The Plot

"In the far distant future of 50XX men in towering suits of metal war among the stars. One such man finds himself on the losing side of a ship battle above a back water world in the outer reaches. His ship destroyed, his only option is to board his mech suit and hope it saves him in the fiery reentry. His fall is broken, at a cost, his once glorious mech is now but a husk. A fate he greatly regrets as the insidious nature of the other wise idyllic little feudal planet reveals itself. The great clamor made in the heavens and the man of metal's great descent has brought a dark evil back to this world, infernal beings from hell itself rise from the dark lands and all who fall in their presence are born anew to join their ranks. One by one all the great kingdoms haven fallen until but one bastion stands. With the aid of locals the man in metal rises to defend what's left."

a distant goal would be for that to be communicated in an old gba / snes style cut scene. 

The Gameplay

What is needed for an MVP

nearly everything listed is of equal importance to have a complete prototype

• Player Mech
  • Capable of using both melee and ranged weapons, all being fired without player input depending on proximity
  • special abilities that require active player input
  • can be damaged and killed, leading to a game over
  • can collect currency dropped by enemies, one for current in game use and one for upgrades
• Basic Enemies and AI
  • spawn on a wave system, a starting, middle, and ending wave with smaller spawns throughout, PVZ style
  • Enemies target priority will vary but to keep it simple at first they will target the closest enemy with the most health, prioritizing NPCs unless the players is closer. 
  • to illustrate the player's size most enemies will be quite small and to keep it simple for an mvp most or all will be melee based
  • they will keep moving left on the screen untill reaching their goal, the central object that the player is defending. likely a City's entrance.
• Player Troops and ordering
  • Player should be able to order new troops, starting with basic cheap troops
• art
  • basic 2d art from any free resource i can locate. No AI is a big rule of mine
• Upgrade Screen
  • Mech Upgrades
  • Troop Upgrades
    • unlock new troops and upgade existing ones
  • Defenses Upgrades
  • Abilitys
    • abilities can be gained from both mech and defense upgrades like catapults or a rocket array.
• Basic Save and load
  • The ability to pick up the game from where you left off and not lose upgrades. 
• Basic settings
  • audio primarily

This has been less of a design document and more of a short statement of intent, I plan to create a design document as the project finds its footing.

Mood Board

A collection of influences.