Design
This is the world map for the game.
The player character is represented by the small character holding a spear in the bottom right. This map will be traversed by clearing one node and then moving to an adjacent node, but cleared nodes can be traversed freely.
The black circles represent "generic nodes" which when interacted with will load a small area for the player to walk around in. These areas will contain small interactions, such as some enemies to fight, or a traveling merchant to trade with.
The non-player icons on the other nodes represent larger areas for the player to explore. These areas will contain more substantial things - a town to provide the characters some respite, a dangerous cave leading through mountains, an abandoned castle taken over by a powerful enemy, etc. Story events, major exploration, and battles with powerful enemies will take place in these areas.
Upon interacting with a town node on the map, the player will be presented with a screen similar to this.
The player is represented by the character in the center of the screen. The player will be able to freely move throughout the town, stopping at different buildings and interacting with those living and working in the town.
The top left building, an inn, acts as a rest stop for the player's party of characters. By interacting with the building the party will be able to pay some currency to restore the health and status of all in the party.
The bottom left building, a smithy, will allow the player to buy weapons and armor to equip their party.
The top left building, a magic shop, will sell magic related items and spells. The potion stall directly next to this shop will sell potions that can heal a character's status ailments, restore health points, provide buffs, restore magic charges, etc.
The bottom right building, a church, will allow the party to revive downed (character that has reached 0 health points and cannot fight as a result) characters, bringing them back to full health.
The building directly adjacent to the church, a house, will allow for the player to interact with generic townspeople and gain some lore, tips, or on rare occasions - an item.
Upon encountering enemies in a node, the player’s party will be taken to a battle screen like this.
On the left are sprites representing each member of the player’s party, ranging in number from one (only the player) to four (three NPC allies). On the right side are the sprites representing each member of the enemy party.
A floating arrow points towards the character who is currently deciding their move, which is determined by the battle’s turn order. When a member of the player’s party is selected, an arrow is also displayed to the left of their name in the situation outliner, which displays each party member’s hit points and mana points.
To the right of the situation outliner lies the move selector, in which the player can select party members’ moves, from physical attacks to defensive prayers.
To the right of the move selector sits four quick item slots, in which consumable items such as potions or foods can be stored and utilized mid-battle.
In the second tab in the overview menu sits the party inventory.
Here lies every item that the party owns, minus ones currently held or worn by a party member. It is essentially bulk storage for storing crafting resources, consumables, unused weapons/armor, or any items the party intends to sell for gold.
By selecting any of the five sub-tabs (All, Weapons, Apparel, Consumables, Materials), inventory items can be displayed by their category, making it easier to search for a particular item.
Upon right-clicking an equippable item such as a sword or helmet, a tool-tip will be displayed with options for having a party member equip it, i.e., “Equip Steel Spear on Ally #2”.
The first tab in the overview menu is the party screen.
This screen is where the player can view each of the characters health and magic power. Next to each character there is a character picture and on the other side there is the amount of money the party currently has as well as the menu to navigate the screen.
By clicking items in the menu the player can add items to whatever character they select and then those items can be used in the middle of battle. Selecting skills and then choosing a character will bring up every skill that the character knows and a brief description of what each of them do.
Clicking equipment will bring up the current equipment for each character and shows how the equipment effects the stats of the character. Right clicking the current piece of equipment will bring up a menu to change equipment.
Selecting party will allow the player to change members of the party as well as see how many character they currently have recruited. Status will view all the status effects on each member of the party. Lastly options is where the player to go to adjust in-game (brightness and controls) settings and set the game to run how they prefer.
This is a basic shop in the game.
First the player will be greeted by a shopkeeper with a short dialog then will be able to buy from them.
The top left shows how much money the player has and will decrease each time an item or equipment is bought. The items appear on the shelves and will be displayed in the order of the icon of the item followed by the name and price of the item. Once an item is bought it will disappear from the shop.
The Resume button on the pause screen allows user to get back to the game.
The Save and Exit button allows users to save their progress that they have made in the game if they want to stop playing the game and exit out of it.
The Exit without Saving doesn't save any progress made while playing the game that way if a user is playing for fun and doesn't want to save their progress made they have a chance to exit the game without saving.
The "PLACEHOLDER" is there because that's going to be our title for our game.
The Continue button allows you to start the game where your progress was last saved.
The New Game button allows the user to start the game from the very beginning.
The Load Game button allows the user to look over all the saved progresses made by the user in the past. It allows the user to choose one saved progress from many others to play from.
The Exit button on the start screen kicks the user out from the game without any gameplay and progression.
This is the stat screen for our game.
This screen is multi-purpose, showing both the selected character's stats and attributes while also letting the player level stats of their choosing.
The left hand "Levels" section will contain a selection of levelable attributes for the player to manipulate such as strength, dexterity, faith, or endurance. The right hand "Attributes" section will reflect the character's current stats and the potential boost granted by allocated levels.
The rectangles to the right will show the currently available party members with a gold arrow being the player's cursor on which party member they would like to select. The border around the party member's rectangle will change from blue to brown to show it is the one currently on display.
At the top of the screen are the standard menu options for the player to select.