The first prototype of The Sinful Johnson.

General mood picture generated by DALL·E mini

Mobility/keep moving – Challenge (game as obstacle course)

The game is literally an obstacle course at some points, which is further enhanced by the threat of enemies following you.

The buffs – Discovery (Game as uncharted territory)

In order to pick up the buffs that the player needs and especially to not pick up “debuffs”, the player needs to make a little effort of identifying the visible buff and make a decision based on experience of whether to pick the buff up or not.

The world in despair – Sensation (Game as sense pleasure)

Disgusting and deadly-looking enemies with appropriate audio, nervous soundtrack, feeling of hopelessness – the whole world is certainly going to destroy. Is it even possible to save your own soul? Excessively bloody death animations.

The first experience - the player is greeted by an ordinary everyman in a calm everyday environment (third person), that is quickly thrown into madness. The people start to beam up into the sky in a bright pillar of light. There is confusion everywhere and some explosions after which everything goes quiet. The electricity is cut, the cars stop working. There are a few terrified people looking around cautiously. An old homeless man starts crying out loudly that the Rapture is upon us and all sinful have been condemned to death on earth. As he says it, the ground below him cracks and a huge crevice opens, through which an otherworldly being pulls him into the ground. Everyone goes into full panic mode.

The game is easy to get into – there are quite few mechanics, that are easy to learn. That being said, the way how the levels are crafted makes the game more difficult to go through. There will be levels that need several attempts to be completed. When the players die, they can start again from the beginning of the level. (if “Permadeath” mode is not active, in which case the players would have to start the whole game from the beginning) Through their failures, the players will have the chance to learn how the level is built up and what items they need to use.

The game will not have written tutorials, but there will be a safe prologue level, in which the players can try out the controls and build up their game-related knowledge and skills.

When the players reach the end of the level (a church), they are rewarded with vials of holy water. After completing the level, players are made aware of the optional achievements that they could have completed to receive the maximum amount of holy water. Completed levels can be run again to get the best results.

Holy water can be used to upgrade character traits and skills and to repent for Johnson’s sins. All skills are not upgradable in the beginning since they must first be unlocked through progression. This indicates that both the player and the character need to improve to progress in the game.

As the game progresses, the horde of enemies gets larger, and the variety of demons increases. The levels get more difficult to navigate in with more frequent environmental hazards and higher chances of falling into the abyss and/or lava. There are always sufficient items in the environment that allow the player to somehow beat the level.

The player is made aware of their progression through the dialogues between demons which indicate that the player’s efforts could indeed lead to the moment of the main character being granted passage into Heaven.

The End Game – Mr. Johnson is granted an audience with The God. The ending varies depending on how much holy water the player used to repent for the sins. The players are encouraged to replay the game to unlock other endings.

If enough was used, Mr. Johnson is accepted into Heaven.

If not quite enough was used, he gets laughed at and is thrown back down to earth again. The game ends with a dark note as he gets dragged down to hell by the demons.

If not nearly enough was used, he also gets thrown back down to earth, but the game ends with Mr. Johnson spitting on the idea of Heaven and accepting the Hell’s challenge with a menacing voice. He would like to “see the Devil try” to take him to hell.

This is a 3D horror platformer with a dynamic 3^rd person camera system - while the camera is mainly following the character, it is also often fixed in place instead. (To make some parts of the game more intense or dramatic, for example)

The world has descended into chaos after The Rapture. Through The Rapture all the proper god-fearing Christians have risen into Paradise. The playable character, Judas Johnson, has been left behind on earth for some reason. He is being chased by a horde of horrific demons released on earth, who wish to claim his soul and drag him down to hell for the rest of the eternity. It appears that the only thing he can do to save himself is to try and repent for his sins until either he is caught by the demons or eventually ascended to Heaven.

This game is built on movement – the players have no way of fighting the enemies. The only way to win is to not get caught before reaching the end of the level. Mr. Johnson is running from church to church trying to confess as much of his sins as possible. Churches act as the ends of the levels. When the church gets overrun and destroyed by demons, Mr. Judas Johnson is forced to enter the next level of trying to find an another church for a brief refuge.

For the core audience:

            Mobility/keep moving – The player is relentlessly pursued by enemies. The only way to survive is to keep moving at all times. Sometimes it is impossible to directly outrun the enemies, so the player must look for ways to swiftly avoid getting caught. There are also environmental traps and hazards to avoid.

The audience will appreciate the tension of being pursued and the very likely chance of dying, should they make a wrong move.

For the expanded audience:

            The buffs – The players are occasionally introduced to buffs that can be picked up. These buffs can, for example, ensure that the player avoids death once when taking damage. After taking damage, the buff will lose its effect. Other examples of beneficial buffs can make the player move faster or jump higher for a period of time. Not beneficial buffs can also do the opposite and make the game near impossibly hard for the buff’s duration, teaching the players to avoid blindly picking up everything. Always picking up every item in the game or not picking anything ever will both very likely result in failure.

The audience will appreciate the necessary effort needed to pick up the right items and remember their effect and visual appearance in the future. They will enjoy discovering new items.

For the mass market audience:

The world in despair – The players get to see what the world after Rapture looks like. The horrific demons have emerged – they look hideous, they move grotesquely, they make disgusting sounds. The world is crumbling in on itself, there is a sea of boiling lava visible from the crevices in the ground.

The audience will appreciate the style of the game and the chaos prevalent at every step. They will enjoy hearing weird sounds and seeing how the new environments get progressively more chaotic.

This game is for the people (age 14-40) who like 3D platformers. They want a game that is easy to learn mechanic-wise but challenging to beat as they master the mechanics. While most games like this tend to have a cute cartoonish style, The Sinful Johnson stands out with its grotesque enemies, blood, and gore. Therefore, it appeals more to people, who like the visuals of a Doom game, for example. 

The players of this game would recommend it to their friends because of its style and enjoyable difficulty. 

Because of its violence, this game is not the most viewer friendly but that depends on the viewers and the viewing environment. After recommending this game to a friend, the players can take pleasure in discussing and appreciating the game’s design with them. 

The overview

The players have an isometric view on the land that they are protecting, which is both helpful and terrifying. While they can see all the enemies very well, it also makes them feel hopeless from time to time, when they see a massive horde coming in and are not exactly sure, if they have what it takes to eliminate all foes.

Putting up defences

To defeat the incoming forces, the player can place different defences all around the land. The main defences are placed on the sides of the road that the enemies are using – they deal damage aggressively if any enemies are in their attack range. The player can also place obstacle defences on the road itself, that don’t damage the enemies but do slow them down, thus leaving them vulnerable for a longer period of time should they be in range of the main defences. Obstacle defences can be broken down by enemies.

Special power

The player has an option to use a special power once per level. It is meant for sticky situations, when successful defence feels impossible. The special power deals massive damage in a certain area of the land of player’s choice, which eliminates most enemies instantly, should they get caught in its AoE.

Resources

There are two types of resources – “bloodlust” and “golden eggs”. Bloodlust is gained through defeating enemies and can be used to put up defences or upgrade the power level of existing defences. Golden eggs serve as the health of the player and as an additional upgrading currency.

Upgrading defences

There are two ways of upgrading defences:

First is to kill enemies and gain bloodlust points. When the player has enough bloodlust, he/she can spend them to either put up new defences or upgrade the power level of existing ones, which increases the damage dealt by said defences. These actions can be performed at any time throughout the ongoing level but do not carry over to the next one.

Second is through spending golden eggs to upgrade certain characteristics of the defences. For example: additional attack type, range, base damage, obstacle defence health, firing speed etc. This can be done in-between levels and are permanent upgrades.

Golden eggs

Golden eggs serve as both the health of the player and as an upgrade currency. The Golden Goose lays a certain number of eggs between each level (and before the game). The player must have at least one egg assigned to the nest at the start of each level. The rest can be set into the nest as well for extra health points or spent on upgrades. The players must assess the situation accordingly - Do their skills allow them to benefit more from health or upgrades?

Panic Mode

Panic Mode is the last resort effort to save the losing situation. When panic mode is initiated, the Golden Goose produces a hypersonic cry, that eliminates all enemies. It additionally lays an egg into the nest and escapes the scene. Panic Mode can only be activated by paying real money or choosing to watch ads.

The game is divided into levels and the levels are divided into waves. Each wave spawns a number of enemies into the game, that start to move towards the nest of golden eggs. The player must defend the nest. If an enemy reaches the nest, he disappears with one of the eggs. If the nest is emptied, the Golden Goose spawns into the nest and destroys the rest of the ongoing wave with its rage. It is weakened for the rest of the level though, and if the next enemy reaches the nest, he slays the Goose, and the game is lost. If all enemies of all waves are destroyed before that, the level is won. Right before the Goose gets slain, the player is presented with the possibility to avoid defeat through the activation of Panic Mode.

Golden Goose is a tower defence game set in medieval times. The main character is a rich farmer, whose wealth comes from the eggs of pure gold laid by his Golden Goose. Although he has tried to keep it a secret, the word has reached great king Martéz, who fancies to cut up the goose and find out what “makes it tick”, so that he could grow his mountains of gold instead. The farmer is to defend his land, livestock and wealth at all costs.