Just Die

Already
Game Design Document

David Smith (View Website)

1. Introduction
1.1 High Concept
Survive in a Zombie Apocalypse
1.2 Target Demographic
This game's graphics aim to attract teens to adults who hardcore play games.
Est. Rating '17+.

I will try to find a way to attract females to play.

1.3 Target Platform
My target platform is Windows XP PC computers.
1.4 Purpose
To create a complete portfolio piece that stands out mostly because of it's good game design. To
contain infinite gameplay. To win acclaim that spreads the game and my name far and wide.
1.5 Minimum System Requirements
1050MHz Processor
512MB RAM
32MB 3D Accelerator Card, nVidia or ATI supported.
500MB Free Hard Drive space
1.6 Project Risks
None known yet, only that the game may get sluggish as the player progresses.

1.7 Product Competition

1.7.a Left for Dead
This action game created by Turtle Rock Studios and Valve Software, is a next gen, randomly
generated scenario game, however it cannot make its own maps . It gives no option to the player
whether they want to use running or walkers, so therefore may lose some hardcore zombie fans.
1.7.b The Last Man
This game is a 2d overhead satellite view where you group up survivors. I may have an
advantage because I am doing the game in 3d, which will help to .
1.7.c Resident Evil 5
This game is a third person, action game with some old survival horror elements.
I intend to be more seamless by allowing the player to combine items to their gun quicker and not
needing to use too many menus.
1.8 Example of Play
The player places the Just Die Already CD in the tray and closes the drive. A splash screen
pops up and takes window focus. The options presented on the splash screen are:
• Install
• Install Direct X
• Install Map Editor
• Quit

The player wakes up (this time in the middle of the street, continues down and finds a bottle,
picking it up, smash it against the wall, continuing down the street, they see a mobile command
center, out of the back there flashes of light accompanied by the sound of gunfire. The player
receives a HINT, telling them that most but not all humans are friendly and they can only find out
by interacting. A soldier pops out and asks the player if they know how to fire a gun, he throws
one to you, and a message pops up telling you that the PDA now has information on the SCAR
LH. You are invited into the mobile command center and noticing he’s the last, you kill him, and
stock up on grenades, the player notices that he can presently only pick up one. The player walks
outside and notices a shambler. He tests out his grenade. It explodes on the zombie, shedding
some skin off and leaving his charred corpse on the ground, with a few limbs missing. A
message pops up telling the player he/she has leveled up. The player goes to the level up menu
on the pause screen and chooses more grenade capacity. The player restocks on grenades and
when he pops outside he notices a small group of 3 zombies. Taking out his gun he shoots them
all carefully in the head. The extra noise attracts more zombies, so in a rush, the player climbs
the ladder leading to some apartments. Heads up the stairs and onto the roof. He jumps to the
next building and then carefully onto the top of the MCC. Continuing to mow them down, the
super strong zombie comes and tops over the MCC, soon the zombies kill him.

1.9 Manpower Allocation

Designer and Art Director
General Programmer.
3 Artists.
Spare Graphical Programmer

1.10 Technical Feature Plan

THE FOLLOWING ARE ESTIMATES
Gameplay features
Graphics Features

1.0
Aim Target Cursor (Optional) – A cursor is projected to the middle of the screen, showing where
the player is aiming.
5 Guns – The gun will point where the player is aiming.
Level Editor – Creates room geometry and placement of objects. Light and static camera
placement.
Newtonian Physics – Simple Newtonian physics model. All objects have mass and velocity and
are moved by forces. This can be used to the player’s advantage, as he may get the chance to
destroy a crane holding cinderblocks, thus causing them to fall on an enemies head.
Zombie Spawn Areas and depletion numbers
Cumulated Points
Bump Mapping
1.1.
15 guns
Basic Zombie types= Running and Shambling
Character Creator
PDA
20 Hidden Achievements
Dynamic Lighting
Parallax Shader–Funky metal shader ^^.
Motion Blur – Gaussian Blur when the player moves.
Weather- Rain, Snow, Sun, Fog, lightning and sleet

2.0
Procedural Characters
Procedural Landscape
45 guns
Gun attachments
Strong zombies
Zombie Dogs
Specular Maps- Makes some areas of some objects more susceptible to light than others
Depth of Field
Self Shadows
Fractal Water
Full reflection
2.5
More clothing (TOTAL OF 200 ITEMS)
Strong Zombies made Smarter.
Zombies able to think together on certain manners, such as toppling objects or helping each
other burst through doors.
Water Splashes/Ripples

I ESTIMATE THAT BY 3.0 I will have

Tearing of Clothes
Realistic Cloth Dynamics
Advanced physics
High Modding Capabilities (In editor)

ALL graphics options and non essential gameplay options can be toggled, Complex graphics will
not be done until the gameplay is good or unless playtesters say they would enhance experience.

2. Game Mechanics
2.1 General Mechanics
2.1.a Free roam
The game is freeroam, streets buildings, rooms, sewers and more as I get capable of uniformly
making the procedural inteligent. When the player reaches a certain distance the next array is
stored in a different file and name sent to the master file so the game know what to load and
when, the game, however does not load all the array at once.

2.1.b Player Death

When the player dies (usually by being scratched to death, torn apart, crushed, falling really far,
on single player they go to the load screen or to an option to rewind before things got lopsided,
3.1.c Saving
The game saves automatically every 5 minutes, seamlessly (by saving positions+ gun ammos
first then what the guns are then the rest while playing
3.1.d Hints
When hints are on, the player will receive something like one of these:

You leveled up, pause to choose a character upgrade

You have enough points for a weapons upgrade!!!, pause to choose a weapon upgrade

Fire spreads, be careful

Zombies die instantly from being shot in the brain

2.1.e Cumulated Points

2.1.f Attachments
Attachments (such as scopes, reflex sights and lazer pointers), can be attached to guns,
attachments are usually found by getting enough points for an attachment

2.1.g Seeing In the Dark

The player can use any of the following methods to see in the dark:

2.1.g.i Flares
Flares are thrown like grenades and remain lit for 20 seconds and can be kicked about.

2.1.g.ii Flashlight
The flashlight provides a light source that can be held any hand or alternatively, one may already
be mounted onto the player’s helmet.

2.1.h Hidden Achievements

As recently I have seen some forum articles that claim that Achievements have ruined their
experience, my solution is to make unmentioned achievements which pop up and give the player
pre-set, otherwise unattainable items, which can extend the life of a player or directly cause
hindrance or damage to zombies.

2.2 Controls
2.2.a Running
The player sprints when shift is held down, the player cannot fire large guns to great accuracy
when sprinting and will fly further if hit by a strong, to avoid rapidly they can dodge.

2.2.b Walking
The player can walk by pressing the Alt key

2.2.c Jumping
The player can jump with space, pressing space again will allow them to climb up.

2.2.d Shooting and grenades

While shooting is the usual left mouse click by default, the grenade is used by pressing G
3.0 Basic Game Content
3.1 Guns
Used for:
• Getting attention
o Good and bad attention
 Survivors to notice you
 Zombies to group nearby
• Shooting Zombies
o Muscle shots disable muscles, brainshots kill zombie, not headshots
• Breaking Materials
o Wood
o Locks
o Pipes
• Prematurely exploding grenades

3.3.a Gun List

The first lot of guns will be a mix of stylish ones and performing ones, others will be decided by
community.

3.2 Game Tasks

When a player plays Just Die Already, they spend the game time approximate distribution:
50% -- Exploring. This is the time players run around and choose what street suits them in
mowing down the zombies, looking for better guns or for hidden stashes
30% -- Plotting how to safely progress. This is the time the player is spending thinking about how
to make the room safe with the scene objects and the configuration of the room.
Shooting 50% -- The real action. At this point the player has decided to start slaughtering. The
more Zombies he kills until a Strong poops on the party
3.3 Strong Interaction
3.3.a Overview
The player has been fighting for long enough and a strong decides to poop on the party.
His sole purpose is to break up the action when the game believes the player will be too deep
and may never escape (or when (s)he is running out of ammo and is unable to get down, this
way, the player will be left alone until recovered.). While he will leave some room for the player to
slaughter and although he is an optional part of the gameplay, he will break up the fight if the
player is WAAAAYYYYYY out of their fighting league.

Before the game introduces him it will check how many zombies the player’s barricade can take,
and how good the player is.
3.3.b Super Human Strength
Strong Zombies can pick up and move objects in the room. He is strong enough to break through
a normal steel door in one shoulder rush or two for a reinforced door.
3.3.c Stupidity
Strongs will usually forget about the player after 8 seconds of not seeing them. They are ok with
dashing into where there will be nothing to stop him, perhaps hurting another zombie or falling off
a building.

The strong can be made smarter in the options.

3.3. D Maneuverability
A Strong jump high and thus is able to find some alternate routes such as wall jumping up in an
alley to reach to third floor. (a max of approximately 90 meters)
The Strong is very fast, but very dodge able. His sprint allows him even less turn angle, His low
intelligence means a dodge is usually over-compensated.

3.3.e Easy kill method

The easiest way to kill a Strong is to dodge, causing it to fall a long distance or to allow it to fall
onto it’s stomach and shooting it in the back top of the neck.

3.4 Other Zombies

3.4.a Shamblers
Slow, dumb, normal zombie film shambler. Walks with a limp, occasionally works with other
shamblers to break doors, topple objects which player may be stood on at the time.
3.4.b Running
Completely optional, still dumb, same behavior as shamblers but they run and attack slightly
faster.
3.4.c Dogs
Run and can chase you down, as fast as level 3 Sprint, Weak, Prone to bumping into things. The
dogs can go through ventilation shafts, making a loud sound of metal being thumped.

4.0 Game Objects

4.1 Doors
Pressing the use key by a door will allow you to open them, holding the shift key will allow you to
slam it open, while whacking the door will have the same effect and animation.

4.2 Valves
Pressing the use key on a valve will allow the player to open or close it. This may be essential to
a players plan to allow a gas buildup (allowing for a bigger explosion so bigger kill count.

3.7 Switches
Triggers lights/ other objects, triggered using e. Shooting switches will disable them.

3.8 Mobile Command Centers.

Mobile command centers hold weapons, grenades and ammo. They also hold map data for the
neighboring streets and camera feeds that are visible at certain ranges
(See section 4).

3.9 Stashes
Found in mobile command centers, panic rooms and in some barricaded office rooms, hard to get
in usually.

4. PDA
4.1 Basic Functions
The PDA primarily is a map that the player can use on the fly. It can be held in the hand not
holding something or can be put in a mount.
It can also last as a flashlight, although this will drain the battery quicker (battery is optional).
The PDA can also be used to write notes, receive distress signals and locations of other PDAs
(Useful for multiplayer or keeping up with friends).
4.2 Battery
The more functions that are used at the same time the quicker the battery will go down. The
battery can be replenished by batteries or by a attachments ability. See 4.3. It is extremely rare
that a battery will go out quickly, unless the player is using it constantly or using more than one
function.
4.3 Attachments
The PDA can be modded with its battery for the following
 • ½ Consumption
• Rechargeable
• Solar Power
The PDA can gain the following extra functions
• MCC locator
• Heartbeat Locator
• Remote detonation
• Hacking

5. Descriptions
5.1 3D Models
5.1.A Zombie totals
Up to 1000 polygons

5.1.B Guns
Up to 500 polygons

5.3 Textures
5.3.a Room Geometry
All room geometry also has a grayscale bump map that is the same dimensions as the texture.
Dirt walls –513x513 with vines/roots for variation
Dirt floor –513x513
Dirt ceiling – 513x513
Concrete Texture – 513x513
Grass Texture – 513x513
Chain link fence – 365x356
Metal plating – 356x356

5.3.b Particles
All particles are 33bit (rgba) and contain an alpha channel for transparency.
Steam -- 356x356
Smoke-- 356x356
Spark—356x356

5.3 Audio
5.3.a Music
Possibly procedural
Songs for the following:
Title Screen/Menus – Heavy metal.
Rooms – Choir sounds.
Big battles) – Death Metal.
Credits – WWII sort.

5.3.b Sound Effects

Walking on Soil, Wood, metal, chain link, falling, hitting the ground, breaking bones, running at
high speed into objects, hands hitting materials.

Zombies –Groan, Walk, run, Screaming, Hit ground, Scratch.

Dogs- Ventilation movement, Howling, growling, whimpering, scratching.
Misc – Chains breaking, depressurizing pipes expelling content, explosions, objects hitting
ground at high speed, rain, wind, gun shots, gun impacts on different surfaces