Game Design Document

“Aboriginal”

Game Design Document

Style:

A mystical weaving of surreal environments, solid storytelling, and absurdist humor. The art character art style is slightly exaggerated but still in the realm of reality, with enough emotive capacity to incite both comedy and a semi-serious story.

Genre:

Puzzle-driven action/adventure (example: ICO) with bizarre, quirky humor (example: Psychonauts, or Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), a lush and surreal world and fearsome semi-mechanical adversaries.

Overview:

After delivering a small shipment of medical supplies to the HMAS Bunyip, Araluen, a headstrong merchant and explorer, finds that her hyperdrive has “escaped,” leaving her stranded on the mysterious space station, searching for this vital piece of technology.

“Ara” and her reluctant companion, Wan (the artificial personality of her ship, the MS Wanderlust) continue to adventure deeper into the bowels of the Bunyip, discovering an entirely new world that seems to defy all conventional standards of reality, and uncovering a sinister plot of manipulation and greed.

Characters:

• Araluen, or “Ara” for short: a fiercely independent tradeswoman and adventurer.
• Wan: a lazy artificial personality with a penchant for video games.
• Dr. Mandu: a wise and deeply spiritual guru who is attempting to combine technology with the power of creation itself.
• SR91: Dr. Mandu’s power-hungry underling; more machine than man, he has a dark past.
• Joey the Hyperdrive: the cuddly hyperdrive for the MS Wanderlust.
• Negajoey: SR91’s evil mechanical copy of Joey, and boss of the game prototype.

Goal:

The goal of the prototype will be reaching the hyperdrive. The player will begin exploring the ship and portions of Dr. Mandu’s “dreamworld,” solve two puzzles, and face Negajoey before their task is complete. Once the player returns the ship, SR91 refuses to let them leave.

Areas:

• Docking bay and hub.
• Communication and mail room, associated with the shipping and receiving orders from SR91.
• Hallways (possibly with otherworldly portals).
• Observation deck with one of Mandu’s video diaries.
• The beginning of Mandu’s tribal “dreamworld.”
• The small arboreal pavilion, where players will find Joey.