Design Document: Dracula's Castle Part 3

The Game World

Overview: The game world consists of Dracula's Castle, the adjoining manor town, and a bit of the nearby country side. Dracula's Castle is at the center of the game map, atop an imposing sheer cliff, with a winding and narrow mountain road the only way up naturally. The castle seems to tower into the sky, straining to reach the moon in the sky. The rest of the game world radiates out from this center, with the manor town broken up into four sections, with the unoriginal names of North, South, East and West, that form a ring around Castle Dracula.

Beyond that  is the wild Transylvanian wilderness, with a great variation in topography in each of the cardinal directions. To the south of town lies a dark and foreboding woods, to the west, treacherous mountain passes and steep foothills, to the north a deep and dark tributary of the Danube, and finally to the east lies a fetid marsh. Outside of a few abandoned farmsteads there is little sign of human life outside the city, a recent invasion by the Turks have driven the peasants to seek protection within the city.

The Ottomans where unsuccessful in their attacks, although they leave behind ample evidence of their passing, their siege works left in haste, abandoned encampments, their presence felt even in the city where a few catapult rounds have damaged the walls and the buildings within. Perhaps the best evidence of their presence is the bodies they left behind, fallen soldiers litter the landscape and are left to the elements, those not so lucky are impaled on gruesome pikes, a vivid warning to those who would dare challenge the Count.

The whole of the world has an oppressive sense of death and decay, the Count's corpulent form and those of his servants being only one element of the equation. The abandoned crops of the farmers rot in the field, the invading army slaughtered any pack animals it encountered and left them lying on the road, the tight quarters of the city have lead to an outbreak of some manner of illness. Throughout the weight of ages hangs off the buildings, ancient monuments can be found in the woods, most of which are some manner of burial mound or marker. There is a distinct lack of children within the city, and it really seems that there isn't now and never again will be, anything new or fresh in the region.

Day-Walkers and Night Stalkers
The world will have dynamic environments that change depending on whether it is day time or night time. In general during the day, the action is more platform and puzzle solving, and at night it is more combat focused. It is worth visiting areas twice, once in the day and again at night, to see what secrets have been unlocked.

Open the Crypt
After some basic tutorial levels the players can go pretty much anywhere they want, even directly to Dracula's lair if they so desire. Players can conquer the challenges of Dracula's Castle in any order they choose, and are encouraged to explore the world in order to gain advantages for the final fight.

Death is a Doorway
Player got themselves killed in a  tough spot? Find out too late that the area they are trying to explore is better left until later, but have already grabbed a few check-points? No worries, the player is given the option to 'return to his grave' after each death, a certain area that acts like the players home base. The player will have a few options of where to position his grave, so he can center himself near the action. From his grave he can fast travel to any checkpoint he's been to before, eliminating laborious travel times in physically moving through places they've already conquered, while making return to them to explore a snap.

Funerary Wealth
Blue orbs of  'St. Georges Fire' indicate that their is treasure nearby. This visual cue gives the player the idea to search this particular section of the map for power-ups, once the item is found the fire dissipates.

A Tour of Transylvania: The game world is broken up into three parts, the outside wilderness, the surrounding town, and Dracula's Castle. Each of these locations present unique opportunities to advance your character, but also pose a variety of dangers. A quick overview of each region and their key features follows:

The Wilderness: Outside the safety of the towns walls, dark predators stalk the shadows. This is the area where you are most in danger from enemy attacks, the areas are wide open, and there is little cover or terrain for you to maneuver with. It is recommended that your character has built up it's strength before wandering too far.

• To the South lies a dark and twisted wood, through which the initial road to Dracula's Castle leads. Staying on the path should be safe enough, although the road is ill kept and may require some skill to make your way. Straying from the highway is ill advised, dangerous animals haunt the branch choked woods and worse besides. That's not to say that those who do brave the road less traveled will come away empty handed, an abandoned farm house, and scenic glen might offer rewards to those who explore them.
• To the West dangerous mountain passes and low foothills lead thankfully away from the dark countryside of Dracula's Castle. The paths are treacherous and the inclines steep, for if it where easy to leave the area, none would live here. Braving the constant threat of avalanche might be rewarded if one was lucky enough to find a treasure strewn cave, or an isolated mountain shrine, that could greatly aide in your task.
• To the North a dark and deep tributary of the Danube snakes through the landscape. River Traders camp along the strand and sell their unusual wares miles away from the safety of civilization, seemingly unafraid of the dangers the city folk shut themselves away from. Although even the River Traders shun the ill-omened boat wrecked on a great rock in the river, claiming it to be the sleeping place of a foul beast despite the rumors of riches within. Similarly they would rather take their chances crossing the river on their boats than try their luck on the ancient bridge that transverses the river.
• Finally to the east a great marsh, full of  witch-fire and misty groves. Dangerous beasts are said to lurk within, not the least of which is the hag of a witch said to reside in a hut at it's center. Rumors of an ancient stone ruin somewhere within the bog are thought of as a cruel joke to lure would-be adventurers to their death.

The Town: Within the wooden defensive walls of the manor, the local peasants gather. At first seeking refuge from the invading Turks, now shut up in fear of the monster that stalks the land in search of blood. The constant strain of the possibility of violent attack has made the villagers paranoid and agitated, slow to trust new-comers and prone to mob violence. The city is divided into four sections North, West, East and South, each with a particularly important feature to town life.

• The North is where The Tower lies, built by order of Dracula himself. The Tower is the principle place to store criminals and prisoners of all stripes, both political and petty, with the top of the tower reserved for the most dangerous and important of prisoners. Elsewhere in the North of the city, the poorest of the poor make their homes, the  closely packed houses making them easy prey for criminals... and others.
• The West is the most upscale of the neighborhoods in Dracula's Manor, although the wealth has done little to provide for cheery architecture. Here a magnificent new Cathedral was built by order of Dracula's father on the occasion of his families pledge to the Order of the Dragon. The Cathedral has weathered the siege quite well, so it was an obvious choice of headquarters for the Knights of the Order of the Dragon whilst they are in town investigating the vampire. Also in the neighborhood, the well appointed homes of the wealthy nobles and merchants, belie dark dealings with dangerous forces.
• The East of town suffered the most from the siege, with several buildings completely destroyed. In fact the towns old church, nearly ancient even by the long reckoning of most of the residents, burned to the ground during the invasion. All that remains are charred ruins, and the graveyard of course. The locals now mostly avoid the East end, except to visit the local tavern, just within it's bounds and even that is too far to stray for all but the most committed of revelers.
• The South is where the main gate to the city opens to the road beyond. As this is the first place travelers come upon when entering the city, it is the natural place for the merchants to set up shop, hawking their wares. It is also home to the entrance to the path that leads to Dracula's Castle, although the grim stone sentinel that stands over the gate is often reason enough to drive most curious away from his demesne.

Castle Dracula: The lair of the beast himself, the Castle is the final redoubt of the terrible villain who has plagued your steps since arriving in the city. Dracula maintains several advantages on his home turf, and can seemingly set the castle itself against you. There are several important areas within the castle which are as follows:

• The dungeons, where Dracula keeps the masses of peasants he has kidnapped to feed him and his brood. There are several dangerous sentries guarding his living food larder, as well as his family vault, filled with interesting and useful items.
• The sculpture gardens are a series of interior courtyards where his third bride takes residence most of the time. On moon lit evenings she can be seen moving elegantly about amongst the disturbingly life like statues. Those who dare to sneak in and disturb her run the risk of becoming her newest statue.
• The aviary a domed bird habitat that could possibly play host to all manner of exotic birds, but as of right now only seems to be home to unnaturally large ravens. Dracula's second Bride spends her nights here amongst the birds, and she sees to it that the carrion birds eat well of their preferred meal.
• The great baths, where Dracula's first bride takes residence most of the time. The red painted walls get more and more sanguine as you approach the ladies personal bath. It is said that the Countessa bathes blood to keep young, and if you are not careful you could be put to such cosmetic use.
• Dracula's Sanctum is where the count broods as he waits for his plan to come to fruition. Heavily guarded and centrally located so as to be able to quickly call upon his servants if ever threatened, the Count is difficult to surprise and is never unprepared to do battle if it comes to that.

Travel: Players get around on foot, exploring the various paths in and around the castle. Once a player reaches a check point they can restart their exploration from that point if they die in their adventures, check points will be frequent, one in nearly each major area. If a player wishes to quickly travel to some other location, they can select a check point they've already been to on the map and fast travel there, in game it will show an animation of the player turning into a swarm of bats, and then jump cut to them reforming at the desired location.

Scale: The Scale will actually be fairly condensed, each area being one "screen" along which the camera pans across. The interior of buildings will seem larger than they aught to, to provide room for interesting and dynamic fights. In general overland travel is condensed, while giving the illusion of distance, and interiors are expanded. The whole of the game world is never more than 5 screens across, and while various screens might be pretty massive in scope, the whole world would only translate to a square mile or so in real world terms.

Objects: Objects for the most part outside of power-ups will be non-interactive bits of scenery. All items the player can't utilize in combat are pretty much permanent fixtures of the landscape. There will be the odd interactive feature in the game map, such as a spike you can throw an enemy onto, or a lever that might need to be pulled, but none of the items need their own physics or to move in any way.

Power ups float and bob a few feet off the ground, but other than that follow the in game gravity, and will not just hang in the middle of the air, unless for instance it is tied to a rope or some such.

See the objects appendix for a complete list.

Weather: The Weather in Transylvania varies between dark and overcast in the day, and mostly cloudy at night, with only small gaps for the whole of the moon to peak out of to let players know how close they are to a full moon. If we can rig it so the sky gets darker the farther along in the game he is, that's great, maybe even throwing in a dramatic thunderstorm in the end game. But alternating between grey dawn, and a dark dusk suits us just fine for our purposes.

Time: Time in Dracula's Castle will shift between day and night, time "occurs" when a player switches between screens, moving through lets say 10 screen will bring the game into night, and 10 more will bring it back to dawn. In hard and impossible modes, dying also advances the the timeline one whole day. Time is also shown by the changing of the phases of the moon in this case. If not in hard or impossible the moon just stays full the entire time for dramatic effect.