Game concept: Dungeons of Amaroth

Summarise the idea in one sentence

A punishing 30-minute ARPG that forces you to try a different build every playthrough.

Describe the game in 3 words

• Fast-paced
• Tense
• Exhilarating

What should players think/feel when playing?

“Holy shit, I can’t believe I just made it through that!”

What makes it fun?

Creativity: You never know which skill options you'll be presented with, creating a good build requires a combination of luck and strategy.

Tension: If you die before reaching the end, you lose your build and all of the rolls. Once it's gone, it's gone.

Genre

• Action RPG
• Rogue lite
• Fantasy

Platform

PC

Story / setting

In the Kingdom of Amaroth, those that commit the greatest and most unforgivable of crimes are exiled from the realm and subject to a unique trial of redemption, in the infamous Dungeons of Amaroth.

As a peasant, a humble member of the local townsfolk, you stand accused of a crime of great magnitude. Regardless of your guilt or innocence, you are banished from the kingdom, and must seek your redemption through the trial of the Dungeons of Amaroth - a fatal and torturous task, considered worse than death. If your body doesn't immediately perish, your mind is sure to collapse.

The scriptures say that any prisoner able to defeat the evil that roams in the dungeons will be reborn as a champion, and free to begin a new life. It is even rumoured that special powers and magical forces lay dormant in the deepest catacombs, awaiting a worthy host.

Upon entering the dungeon, you are given a choice of weapon (this represents a basic, non magical skill) and are otherwise on your own.

Good luck, prisoner, may your certain death be swift and merciful.

Core mechanic

Dungeons of Amaroth is a fast-paced and high-tension action RPG that borrows elements of the rogue lite genre to create a gameplay experience that can be fully completed in under 30-minutes, but equally promises hours of replay value and long-term progression.

The game’s structure consists of 5 levels of increasing difficulty, each with its own boss at the end, and a final boss encounter. Levels and enemies are predefined, there is no randomisation or procedural-generation. Instead, the focus is on increasing difficulty and mastering the challenges the game throws at you within each unique stage.

Each level consists of a long corridor with a collection of unique and thematically relevant enemies that the player must fight through to reach the end, at which point they will encounter the door to the boss’ lair.

Defeating the boss will allow you to claim rewards in the form of new skills and proceed to the next level. The game culminates in a larger and multi-staged final boss, which players face after defeating the 5th level boss and claiming their rewards.

Death in the standard new game playthrough is permanent and any skills unlocked are lost. Completing all 5 levels and the final boss in the standard game enables the player to save their player / build and proceed with the “Champion Mode” endgame content.

Features

Game modes summary

• Standard mode: Typical playthrough on a new game. The focus here is on surviving to the end and selecting the best combination of skills as these cannot be changed.
• Champion mode: New game +, characters are saved and permadeath is no longer a factor. Instead the focus shifts towards progressing and beating the game on higher difficulties.

Skills summary

• Active Skills: Typical base skills, mapped to a button and often involve a cooldown after use. Primarily used to deal damage, heal, set a status effect or other intentional effects the player wants to trigger during gameplay. Cannot be remapped.
• Passive Skills: Skills that are permanently operating in the background, may be associated with life steal, damage protection, stackable benefits, or more. Cannot be remapped.
• Exalted Skills / Exaltations / Exaltation Points: Buffs that augment and improve the skill. Each skill has 3 levels of increasing augmentation that must be selected/enabled linearly. Can be remapped.
• Champion Points (“Champion Mode” only): An incremental buff to the effectiveness value of an active or passive skill. Separate to exaltations, which augment the way a skill works. Champion points simply add a +10% modifier to the base effectiveness of skill. So an active skill with 3 champion points assigned to it would have x1.3 effectiveness. If it’s base damage was 10, it would now do 13. If it healed 20 HP, it would now heal 26 HP. Cannot be remapped.

Standard mode features

• Permadeath
• Skills are randomly generated from a long list of active and passive skills. Players must choose wisely based on the skills they are offered. This puts an emphasis on replaying to get the ideal “god roll” of skills, like grinding for the perfect piece of loot.
• There is no equipment / equippable loot. Everything is based in skills and upgrades awarded at the end of levels.

Standard mode dungeon level structure

• Level 1
• Level 1 boss
• Level 1 altar room
• Level 2
• Level 2 boss
• Level 2 altar room
• Level 3
• Level 3 boss
• Level 3 altar room
• Level 4
• Level 4 boss
• Level 4 altar room
• Level 5
• Level 5 boss
• Level 5 altar room
• Final boss - multistage battle
• Champion altar (Save your player and name them - unlocks Champion Mode)

Standard mode levelling up / skill system

• When you reach the end of the level, you enter a safe room with an altar, at which you are granted the choice of 4 active skill options and 4 passive skill options.
• End of level rewards summary:
• • 1 new active skill (choice of 4)
  • 1 new passive skill (choice of 4)
  • 1 exaltation point
• Rewards allocated per level end:
• • End of Level 1: 1AS, 1PS, 0EP
  • End of Level 2: 1AS, 1PS, 1EP
  • End of Level 3: 1AS, 1PS, 2EP
  • End of Level 4: 1AS, 1PS, 3EP
  • End of Level 5 (Game Complete): 1AS, 1PS, 4PA
• Total skills accumulated at end of standard game playthrough:
• • Active skills: 5
  • Passive skills: 5
  • Exaltation points: 10 (to allocate to a total 30 potential exaltations to choose from)

Endgame Summary

• Players who beat the multi-stage final boss are redeemed and they are asked "What is your name, champion?" (Dungeon Champions can choose a new name to start their life again, as they paid for their crimes with their old life and going through the dungeon)
• This named character is then saved and they can use them in “Champion Mode”, a New Game+ mode that enables running through the same dungeons but at much higher difficulty.
• This means that players will replay the base game aiming for a perfect build, a bit like loot farming, and then completing the final boss will be a suitable test of the capability of the build. Also it will make it exciting for them to have a sense of urgency about surviving with the build they planned.

Champion Mode (New game +)

• Champion Mode allows you to replay the full dungeon at a higher difficulty, whilst retaining your skills from the original standard mode playthrough.
• Champion Levels:
• • The champion level increases the difficulty to create a familiar but tougher challenge.
  • Champion Mode starts at Champion Level 1, and completing a full run gives you more Champion Points to add to your stats, as well as unlocking the next Champion Level of New Game+.
• Enemy Buffs per Champion Level:
• • Increased health (+10% x NG+ Champion Level)
  • Increased damage (+10% x NG+ Champion Level)

Input device

Mouse & Keyboard

Controls

• Point and left-click to move
• Point and right-click on an enemy to attack
• Active skills mapped to number pad 1-5 - To use an active skill, hit it’s assigned number key and then right-click at area of effect
• WASD triggers roll in either up/down/left/right direction, for instant dodge but short period of no movement when standing up again

Art direction summary

• Top-down camera at a three-quarter angle (see Hyper Light Drifter camera angle)
• Simple pixel art in dull / mute colours, with lighting effects to make everything feel dynamic
• Dark
• Pops of brightness / colour from lighting effects
• Sources of light: Torches on walls, player, skills
• Each level will have a slightly different theme and aesthetic
• Game levels progress vertically, so the player is running “up” on the their screen

Art influences

• Hyper Light Drifter
• SuperBrothers Sword & Sorcery
• Eitr

Screenshots / mood board

Music

• During levels:
• • Old school-inspired
  • Genre: Dungeon synth / ambient
  • Lo-fi
  • Example: Dark Art - Magic
  • Basically anything on this channel is fair game for inspiration: The Dungeon Synth Archives
• During boss fights:
• • More musical and fast-paced music
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past boss music-inspired (less cartoony)
  • Possibly create unique boss music for each of the 5 bosses to fit their theme
• Menu music:
• • Something slower paced and more of a sense of fantasy / wonder
  • Example: Bitter Old Wizard - Freezing Winds From Across The Lake

Sound FX

• Simple, lo-fi, 8-bit / chip sounds
• While background music in levels is slower and more ambient, sound fx will create more of a sense of action and urgency
• Sources of SFX:
• • Player movement (footsteps, rolls)
  • Player receiving damage
  • Using active skills

What does a 'minimum viable product' prototype look like?

A single short corridor with some generic enemies to fight and a total of 5 potential active and passive skills, of which the player can only have 3 selected.