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# Game Design Document
[Link to Game Design Document](home/Game-Design-Document)
## Introduction
- **Basic concept of the game**:
* Horror Night is a 3D first-person survival escape game. Players search for crystals as a way to escape from a dangerous hotel while avoiding patrolling monsters. Random monster patrols, dynamic pursuit mechanics, and tense game rhythm are combined to provide players with deep immersion and strategic challenges.
- **Document structure**
1. Game overview and gameplay instructions
2. Detailed design
- Core Mechanics
- Game Resources
- User Interface
3. Pre-production implementation details
4. Game design reflections and improvement suggestions
5. Appendix
## Game overview and gameplay instructions
- **Game Name**: Night of Horror
- **Game Type**: 3D First-person Perspective Survival Game
- **Platform**: PC
- **Game Concept**:
* Players wake up in a mysterious hotel and are asked to find a hidden crystal and take it to the elevator to escape. In the process, players need to avoid patrols and pursuits by monsters while using the terrain in the hotel to find the best escape route.
- **Game Audience**:
* Suitable for core players who like thrilling survival adventure games, recommended age 18 years and above.
- **Game selling points**:
1. Dynamic Monster AI: Adjust the capture strategy according to the game process to increase unpredictability and challenge.
2. Random scenes and goals: The location of the crystal may be different in each game, enhancing the playability of the game.
3. Combination of strategy and operation: players are required to make quick decisions and plan routes, which tests the player's reaction speed and environmental judgment ability.
- **Gameplay**：
* Players explore the hotel floors without alarming the monsters. After finding the randomly generated crystals, they need to reach the elevator as quickly as possible to escape. When holding the crystal, the monster will track the player in real-time, further increasing the difficulty. The open rooms in the scene provide players with shelter and detours to avoid pursuit.
- **Game Goal**：
* Short-term goal: Find the crystal and avoid being discovered by monsters.
* Long-term goal: Get to the elevator with the crystal and successfully escape from the hotel.
## Detailed design
### Core Mechanics
- **Monster Behavior**
* Spawning and Patrolling
+ Monsters spawn at specific empty object locations at the start of the game and then patrol in random paths.
* **Pursuit Logic**
+ When patrolling, the monster will detect the player based on its field of view, and once it finds the player, it will enter the pursuit mode. In pursuit mode, the monster will update the target to the player's current position in real-time. If the player enters the room or leaves the monster's field of view, the monster will stop chasing and return to patrol.
* **Dynamic Tracking**
+ After the player picks up a crystal, the monster will obtain the player's real-time location and greatly increase the pursuit speed, forcing the player to complete the goal as soon as possible.
- **Room Mechanics**
* Safe Points
+ The rooms opened in the hotel can be used as safe points to help players make monsters lose their targets when being chased (currently only effective before obtaining the crystal)
* Detour Road
+ Multiple connected rooms can be used as detours for players to escape from monster pursuit.
- **Crystal Generation**
* Crystals are randomly generated in a specific set of locations within the scene. The locations may be different in each game, which increases the fun and tension of exploration.
### Game Assets
- **Scene**
* Modeling and Materials
+ Use Blender to model the interior of the hotel, including corridors, rooms, elevators, etc. The material textures of the scene modeling use darker colors to make the game scene more terrifying, aiming to enhance the player's immersion.
- **Monster**
* Use the monster model from the Unity asset store, with basic walking (patrol) and running (chasing) animations. Subsequent plans to add personalized behaviors and more visual effects to the monster.
- **Crystal and Elevator**
* Crystal: As a key target prop, it has a simple luminous material to guide the player.
* Elevator: As the only escape exit, the player needs to take the crystal to the elevator to complete the escape.
### User Interface
- **Main interface**
* Includes "Start Game" and "Exit Game" options and the interface design is simple and intuitive.
- **Death interface**
* When the player is captured by a monster, the player's death screen is displayed, and "Restart" and "Exit Game" options are provided.
- **Victory interface**
* After the player successfully escapes, the victory screen is displayed, and "Restart" and "Exit Game" options are provided.
## Pre-production implementation details
- **Engines and Tools**
* Game engine: Unity 3D
* Modeling tool: Blender, used to create game scenes and core props (such as crystals).
* Source: Get monster models from Unity Asset Store.
- **Technical Details**
* Random Generation
+ Use empty objects in the scene as generation points, and implement random generation logic of crystals and monsters through scripts.
* **Monster AI**
+ Monster behavior is implemented based on the Unity NavMesh system, covering patrol path planning and dynamic target tracking.
+ Monsters use state machines to achieve states in different situations, such as standby state (patrol), normal pursuit state (the player has not picked up the crystal yet), and global pursuit state (the player has picked up the crystal).
## Game design reflections and improvement suggestions
- **Reflection on the core concept**
* **Player Guidance**
+ The current version lacks obvious guidance for the target location. It is recommended to add light effects or dynamic indicators in the future to reduce the possibility of players getting lost.
+ There is currently a lack of feedback on monsters discovering players. In the future, some chasing sound effects or icons can be appropriately added as prompts that the player has been discovered by the monster.
* **Scene complexity**
+ The hotel layout is relatively simple, and more connection points or unique rooms can be added to improve exploration and strategic depth.
- **Game components that can be improved**
* **Dynamic environment**
+ Add more interactive elements, such as destructible doors, hidden point traps, etc. to enhance the depth of the game.
* **Monster diversity**
+ Add different types of monsters, each with unique skills (such as faster speed, the ability to check hidden points, etc.).
* **Sound design**
+ Add monster footsteps, environmental sound effects, player action sound effects, and pursuit sound effects to further enhance the horror atmosphere.
* **Time limit**
+ Add a clearance time limit as an additional source of tension, which can be combined with the HUD to display countdown information.
## Appendix
- **Inspiration and references**
1. **Game inspiration**: Referenced from Dark Deception.
2. **Resource**: Unity Asset Store [Free Monster Model](https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/creatures/demon-horror-creature-with-weapon-247792).
- **Related design sketches**
* Preliminary sketch of the game scene
![image](uploads/5789f6c81ef208ec39aac08ce2a644a1/image.png){width=756 height=380}
* Detailed design sketch of the scene
![cc7b6b1db9e253edb19f782613df528](uploads/af61aac3f24c0005baeaeb9f25fef62b/cc7b6b1db9e253edb19f782613df528.png){width=524 height=492}
* Screenshot of the current game scene
![222fab90a1c0eb2d57b1bd0159fd5bb](uploads/f49a6b095654d410ab5537c8d9bb8f14/222fab90a1c0eb2d57b1bd0159fd5bb.png){width=470 height=468}
- **Consent Form for Playtesting**
![image](uploads/07d6877241db639487bcf4c6a3d045ae/image.png){width=710 height=478}
![image](uploads/a800a040d58a8c1b7f576708e001b4ec/image.png){width=710 height=470}
![image](uploads/632260744b2f6e752cbafdf01b3b399e/image.png){width=712 height=458}
![image](uploads/8cf5b834ece6c2c826022a24199fa02e/image.png){width=708 height=450}
![image](uploads/7b91bc25f6b10912c56fc30444020e07/image.png){width=713 height=461}
![image](uploads/ca7a9c833b0f69aca7fee08b2aa1cc27/image.png){width=716 height=461}
![image](uploads/6f789dfa73312bda0ad9ade192db03f4/image.png){width=710 height=461}
![image](uploads/1c7e615997fefc9735b0946f6f2dfcaa/image.png){width=716 height=455}
![image](uploads/889c64966a0ede353c2d69f69160f9ff/image.png){width=713 height=454}
![image](uploads/9ac044a7ed1b548794ca05b0886e7c99/image.png){width=713 height=462}
# Game Testing
[Link to Game Testing](home/Game-Testing)
## Playtesting Methodology
- **Test Method**
+ Use questionnaires to collect players' feedback on specific issues of the game experience.
+ Talk with testers to gain a deeper understanding of players' feelings during the experience and suggestions for specific issues.
- **Reason**
+ Questionnaires can quickly collect quantitative feedback on key game elements (such as gameplay, difficulty, and atmosphere), which helps to analyze and summarize the data.
+ Face-to-face conversations can help discover hidden problems that questionnaires cannot cover, such as the specific details of players' confusion or emotional reactions.
+ This combination of methods can provide strong support for optimizing game design.
## Playtesting Procedure
- **Test participant recruitment**
+ Recruitment method:
* Invite friends and classmates who have experience in escape games to participate in the test, and directly contact the target group through social channels.
+ Participants:
* A total of 10 testers were recruited to ensure the diversity and representativeness of the test sample and to facilitate the collection of sufficient feedback.
- **Test Preparation**
+ Test objectives:
* Evaluate the player's operational experience in the overall game process, including key links such as searching for treasures, avoiding monsters, and escaping from elevators.
+ Testing method:
* Transfer the game files to the testers and let them play on their own computers to obtain real personal experience data.
+ Task instructions:
* Provide a brief description of the test task to the tester, for example: "Find the crystal and escape the monster's pursuit safely."
- Test implementation
+ Session arrangement
* Introduction phase: explain the test objectives, gameplay, and precautions to the testers through documents or voice.
* Experience phase: the testers play the game on their computers.
* Feedback phase: after completing the game, the testers fill out the questionnaire and provide further feedback through text or voice conversation.
- Data collection
+ Test data recording method
* The questionnaire is used to collect players' ratings and open opinions on game scenes, gameplay, and mechanisms.
* During the conversation with players, use documents to record the questions and confusions mentioned by the testers in detail.
## Playtesting Reflection
- Test results
+ Data feedback results
* Players are generally satisfied with the game's operational experience.
* 60% of players think the game is relatively easy or too easy.
* Players' style of the game is basically in line with the game's atmosphere, but there is still room for improvement.
* 20% of players think the generation of monsters and crystals still needs to be improved.
* 80% of players think the monster's AI (monster behavior) is basically reasonable but still needs to be improved.
+ Direct feedback results
* Positive feedback
+ The game uses the design of connecting rooms to escape monsters to increase the strategy of the game, and the testers agree with this.
+ The game scene style fits the horror theme, but there is still room for improvement in lighting and atmosphere.
+ Players generally think that the gameplay is more interesting, but there are details that can be improved.
* Negative feedback
+ Unclear target guidance: For example, the game lacks clear instructions for the location of crystals and elevators, causing players to get lost in the process of searching for crystals and reaching elevators.
+ Technical issues: The bug that monsters freeze after players enter the room affects the game experience.
+ Perspective adjustment issues: Some players reported that the perspective sensitivity is too high, causing dizziness.
+ Character movement speed: Some testers hope to add a sprint function to increase the degree of freedom of operation.
- Reflection and adjustment
+ Game current optimization update
* Terrain optimization
+ Problem background:
* During the test, it was found that some players thought that the complexity of the hotel maze was insufficient and the exploration challenge was low.
+ Optimization content:
* The game scene was initially optimized, and optional forks were added to provide players with more exploration paths.
* Goal: Enhance the maze sense and exploration fun through fork design, and increase the strategic planning of players' routes.
* Monster AI optimization
+ Problem background:
* During the test, players reported that when the monster was chasing, when the player entered the safe room, the monster did not correctly reset the navigation target, resulting in freezing problems, which seriously affected the game experience.
+ Optimization content:
* Fixed the problem that the monster froze due to target reset failure in the normal pursuit state.
* Adjust logic: When the player enters the safe room, the monster immediately switches to standby mode and correctly updates the navigation target to resume patrol behavior.
* Goal: Ensure that the monster behavior logic is smooth and enhances the player's tension and immersion experience.
* Speed ​​optimization
+ Problem background:
* The player's initial movement speed is too slow, which reduces the tension when escaping the monster's pursuit and affects the overall game experience.
* Some players reported that the threat of monster pursuit is insufficient, and it is recommended to increase the monster's movement speed.
+ Optimized content:
* Increased the basic movement speed of the character, allowing players to feel a stronger sense of tension when escaping monsters.
* Increased the monster's pursuit speed, making it slightly faster than the player's movement speed, enhancing the sense of crisis and challenge of the chase scene.
* Adjusted strategy: Players need to make reasonable use of safe rooms and connected rooms to escape the monster's pursuit and avoid being quickly caught up due to speed differences.
## Prospects for the future
- Short-term goals
* Monster pursuit setting
+ Goal:
* Balance the safety of the room and the threat of monsters, and increase strategy.
+ Plan:
* Realize the setting in the global pursuit state: the room only provides a short safety time, and the monster resumes pursuit after exceeding the limit.
* Target guidance function
+ Goal:
* Reduce player confusion and guide players to complete the target task more efficiently.
+ Plan:
* Display the direction indication or distance mark of the current target (crystal, elevator) in the game scene.
* Player feedback mechanism
+ Goal:
* Improve the player's perception of the current state, and enhance the sense of immersion and tension.
+ Plan:
* When the player is discovered by the monster, trigger the prompt sound effect and visual icon.
* Time limit mechanism
+ Goal:
* Increase the challenge and encourage players to act quickly.
+ Plan:
* Add a level time countdown, and the game fails or adds additional threats after the time is exceeded.
* Balance time pressure and task difficulty to prevent players from feeling unfair or too urgent.
- Long-term goals
* Map design optimization
+ Goal:
* Enhance the complexity and maze feeling of exploration, and increase the player's sense of direction, challenge, and sense of achievement.
+ Plan:
* Add more forks, and secret passages to make the map more layered.
* Enhance scene atmosphere
+ Goal:
* Create a stronger sense of immersion and horror atmosphere through vision and hearing.
+ Plan:
* Add dim lighting and dynamic lighting effects to simulate special effects such as flashing bulbs and shadow movement.
* Introduce theme music and sound effects, such as tone changes or background sounds when monsters approach.
* Enhance scene interactivity
+ Goal:
* Enrich the gameplay and increase the fun of environmental interaction.
+ Plan:
* Introduce movable furniture or hidden mechanisms (such as pushing open bookshelves, and switching mechanisms).
* Design items or environments that trigger events, such as keys or traps to unlock doors.
* New level design
+ Goal:
* Expand game content, and improve playability and diversity.
+ Specific implementation:
* Design unique levels on different floors, and add new puzzles, monster behaviors, or scene changes on each floor to bring fresh experiences to players.
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