Design Document: Dracula's Castle Part 6

Single Player Game

Overview- The game is an action platformer that takes place in 13th century Transylvannia where the player fights Dracula and other vampires.

Story- Dracula infects Adelbert Zsigmond with Vampirism in an attempt to throw the vampire hnting knights, "The Order of the Dragon," off his tail while he conducts a ritual to reach the apothesis of his dark powers. Now Adelbert must battle against Dracula's minions and the vampire hunters in order to free himself of this dark curse. For more information see the Story Appendix.

Hours of Gameplay Well that's a tricky question, a player could blast through the tutorial levels, and barge his way into Dracula's chambers in as little as four hours if particualrly determined to do so. However if the player actually explores the area and gathers power-ups I'd place the total play time at around twenty to twenty-five hours depending if they go for every power up in the game.

Victory Conditions- The only condition for winning the game is the death of Dracula, and he awaits at his castle as soon as the tutorial levels are over. Whether the player gets  the good or evil ending depends soley on whether they have more good or evil points when they defeat Dracula.

Multiplayer Game

Overview- Two players play as two different vampires, one with mostly good powers and one with mostly evil powers, and are thrust into Dracula's throne room to fight it out. They can work together to take down Dracula, but the only winner is the last one standing, so the player has to decide whether to risk getting overwhelmed by Dracula's forces, or launching a surprise attack against his distracted opponent.

Maximum Number of Players- Two, having too many moving parts during the elaborate Dracula boss fight would be ill-advised, paring it down to two keeps it simple.

Online Play- Online match-making over X-Box Live and Playstation Network are likely additions, although  this feature is built with local multiplayer in mind, so you can curse out your friend, as he backstabs you right before you land the killing blow on Dracula.


Alright, that's the end of our first Design Document, the appendicies will be added to the final Google Doc that'll go up Tuesday.I made the decision to post the appendices seperately, (thus making this installment rather sparse), because that stuff isn't really of general interest to somebody who wouldn't just go ahead and read the document. I'll update this post with a link to the document first thing Tuesday, as well as post a new article. See you then.