The Power Towers
Overview
The Power Towers is a 1st or 3rd person multiplayer parkour race game. The goal is to get to the finish line before your opponents do. The course will have parkour elements to it with trap sections. Something that will make the race special is that each player will have a magic ability. There will be several elements to choose from with their own unique offensive and defensive ability.
The game's story is: God's have created towers on earth's surface. People can go inside these tower's to unlock magical abilities. These abilities can be used outside and inside the towers. People can't be harmed when participating in a race. The area surrounding the towers is mutating due to the leaking of magical powers from inside the towers. Why the gods have surfaced on Earth and is supplying their powers to humans is something that isn't known. But humans want to capture these powers and use them for their own benefit.
Gameplay Design
Inspirations
Some of the main mechanics I want to implement is the fast movement with parkour mastery, magical abilities to sabotage opponents or to boost your performance, and racing through a map against other people. Putting these features together will create a chaotic environment where 1 mistake can cost your whole run.
Neon White is one game that inspired this because of the movement and parkour features. It also provides items to be used in your run to change the gameplay.
Speed runners also inspired this game due to its racing mechanic. The goal is to bet the other players to the finish line and the gameplay heavily focuses on parkour and random abilities you receive.
Fast Movement
The gameplay will be fast paced which require the player to have quick thinking to avoid any scenario that they find themselves in.
The fast movement is based around the player's movement speed, their abilities they have to effect the environment and other players, and the course the player goes through to to reach the finish line.
*AI concept art
*AI concept art
Sabotaging
Since the goal of this game is to be the first to reach the end of the race, sabotaging other racers is a powerful mechanic. This allows for some randomness to take place which can slightly punish more skilled players and boost bad players.
*AI concept art
Ability Options
Ability Options are going to be a unique feature that each player has. There will be 2 uses for each ability: offense and defense.
The offensive ability will be used to disrupt the course for other players or directly effect other players.
The defensive ability will either cancel out someone's ability or directly benefit yourself.
*AI concept art
Creativeness
Each race course is unique from each other and every player will be different with their own magic type and abilities. Being able to adapt to each race will require some creativeness. Being able to handle different situations will determine who wins each race.
Technical Design
*AI concept art
Race
I am going to create multiple maps that are located in different regions of the world. Each course will have their own visual style and have traps reflected base off the region.
The race is going to be a start to finish and not require laps. The start will be located outside of the tower, in the mutated area surrounding the tower. The finish line will be at the top of the tower where the specific god resides.
*AI concept art
Parkour
In order to complete the race, the players will make their way through a parkour like map with varying terrain and environment specific features. Inside the tower will change the way reality work so certain moves can be executed.
Along with the course layout, each player's ability will introduce mechanics that can be used for parkour purposes. That could be propelling oneself or launching other players. They could also create or destroy terrain.
Magic Abilities
The players will be able to choose from several element types to race with: Water, Explosive, Rock, Air, Electric, and more.
The offensive ability is meant to bring change to the environment around you or to effect the other players around you. This could be destroying a part of the course or stunning someone for a brief time.
The defensive ability is meant to assist the player or to protect themselves from other players abilities. Whether its a speed boost or a protective shield.
Each ability will have a cooldown to prevent spamming but the players will be able to decrease the cooldown by collecting leaked energy that built up from the tower.
*AI concept art
*AI concept art
Ability Progression
There are going to be multiple towers scattered all over the world because each tower will have a different magic based on the region it resides in.
People will use the basic level of the tower's magic when they enter. Once they win the race inside a tower, they will unlock access to use that tower's ability inside other towers.
To increase the capabilities of a magic type and to unlock new abilities, the players need to win inside a tower they have already unlocked magic from.