[In the spirit of community, and for the sake of education, International Hobo's
Chris Bateman has provided a rare public look at an in-depth commercial
game design document. The game, here tentatively titled Fireball and
targeted for the PlayStation 2, was released for the PC by Manifesto
Games with the new title of Play With Fire.
A second document was also provided, the Fireball Field Design Guide, which can be downloaded in *.doc format here.]
Fireball
Hidama
1.
Burn It Down

Example level from Play With Fire
1.1.
Overview
Fireball is a budget game
for PS2. The player controls a ball of fire, and traverses a landscape made of
blocks of different materials. As the player sets fire to these blocks, they
grow hotter, and can set fire to more and more different types of blocks. The
fireball the player controls can also rise up in height and the hotter the
player gets, the higher they can jump in this fashion.
On each
field (level) the player has an ultimate goal of igniting the torch (brazier)
and thus clearing the field – but the torch is generally positioned at a high point and out of
reach. The player must use a combination of platform skills and dynamic
environmental features (for instance, by burning the supports under the torch
down to the ground) in order to clear the field.
Simple,
clean cut graphics and controls combine to give an easy to learn but engaging
play experience.
1.2.
Vision Statement
The player should be delivered the
following experiences:
- Effortless play originating from a simple control scheme.
- Unique experience – the only game to be based around setting fires.
- Varied solutions to the mini-puzzles as the player works out the best
places to start fires.
- Exploration of small environments.
1.3.
Branding Choices
There are two options for the brand image
for the game, and which is used depends entirely upon the needs of the choice
of the publishing partners:
·
Fireball Brand: this approach targets
impulse purchasers and is suitable for where the primary sales channels for the
game are in mass market catchment areas e.g. supermarkets. In this case, the
game packaging should draw attention to the fact that it is Easy to Play, in order to appeal to the
Casual audience, who typically finds most games are too hard to control.
·
Hidama Brand: the Hidama (Japanese for
‘fireball’ or ‘falling star’) approach is targeting the Hardcore gaming
community’s desire for new and innovative product. A Japanese sub-title for the
game serves to intrigue, and suggest that this may be an interesting and
hitherto overlooked title (such as Katamari
Damacy). The game packaging should draw attention to the games Unique Gameplay. This approach is best
suited if the publisher is expecting to sel the game primarily through
specialist game shops or online.
A hybrid approach may also be undertaken.
2. Core Gameplay
2.1.
Game Subsystems
All the play in Fireball originates from three simple to implement core subsystems:
-
Avatar concerns the player’s ability to
negotiate the landscape.
-
Temperature concerns the ignition of
blocks in the playing field, and how fire spreads between blocks.
-
Gravity concerns the collapse of objects
and blocks in the playing field as a result of fires.
We will discuss each in turn.
2.2.
Avatar
2.2.1 Overview
The player’s Avatar is a glowing ball of
fire, considered to be 1 unit in diameter. The
player’s abilities are as follows:
-
Move around the environment. The player
turns left and right, and pushes forward to move (relative controls).
- Jump up to a (relative) height
determined by the heat of the ball. The characteristics of this jump are that
the player rises rapidly up to their maximum (relative) height, and then slowly
descend.
- Burning blocks is achieved simply by
pushing into them. If the player is just hot enough to ignite a block, they
will need to push into the block for a short while to start a fire – but if
they are considerably hotter, fires will start just by them passing by.
- Slamming can be done after the player
has jumped – it causes the fireball to come crashing down to the first surface
beneath them, igniting fires quickly in a wide area of impact where they come
down. These fires are slightly hotter than the player’s default temperature.
These are all the player’s abilities.
2.2.2 Avatar Temperature
The basis of fire starting rests in a
simple system of temperature based upon colours. The avatar increases in heat
permanently when it touches a burning block that is hotter than the avatar’s
current temperature.
Colour
|
Jump Height
|
Description
|
1: Yellow
|
+2
units
|
Yellow flames; bunsen burner style
|
2: Orange
|
+4
units
|
Bright orange flames.
|
3: Red
|
+8
units
|
Glowing red with heat haze.
|
4: Blue
|
+12 units
|
Blue-white flame, like a blowtorch.
|
5: White
|
+16 units
|
Bright white glow – very bright.
|
2.3.
Controls
|
Basic Controls
|
|
|
Jump
The fireball jumps up to
its maximum height, then begins to drift slowly down towards the ground.
|
or
|
|
Slam
Crash down to ground
rapidly and then explode, igniting nearby blocks. If already on the ground,
just explodes.
|
|
|
Jump and
Top Down View
The fireball jumps, but the
camera view tilts to give a top down view. Press again to cancel top down
view. (Toggles top down view).
|
|
|
Pause/Map
|
|
|
Reset Field
Hold for 0.5 seconds to begin
the current field again
|
Advanced Controls
|
|
|
Roll Left
Move Sideways to Left i.e.
strafe left
|
|
|
Roll Right
Move Sideways to Right i.e.
strafe right
|
|
|
Turn Left
Turn 90 degrees left
|
|
|
Turn Right
Turn 90 degrees right
|
|
|
|
|
|
2.3.1 Jump Profile
The following is a description of the jump
profile for the fireball:
·
Start at any given height. This may be
the ground (0 height) or on a platform (>0 height).
·
Press Jump to begin the jump. In less
than a second, the fireball goes up in the air by +x units,
where x is determined by the current temperature.
If the player initiates jump with
Triangle, they also get a top down view, so they can judge their landing place.
·
Drifting begins immediately. The player
descends at the rate of about 1 unit per
second.
At any point, the player can use Triangle
to toggle between a top down view and a regular view.
·
Pick Target by looking at the shadow of
the fireball. This is easiest in the top down view. Regardless of lighting, the
shadow of the fireball always shows precisely where the player will land if
they press Slam.
·
Slam by pressing the appropriate
control. The fireball descends almost instantly to the shadow-point and
explodes – possibly igniting everything at this point. The slam fires are at a
temperature one higher than the avatar’s current temperature.
Note that it is not possible to jump again
once in the air – the fireball must be in contact with a block in order to
jump.
Also note that there is no quick way to
descend except for slamming.
2.3.2 Slam Profile
Whenever the player slams, they raise every
block in a 3 unit spherical radius of the
point of impact (or point of explosion if they were on the ground) up to one
higher than their current temperature. (The colour of the explosion effect
should correspond to the higher temperature).
If this temperature is high enough to
ignite a block, the block begins burning.
2.4.
The Player’s Goal
The player’s goal is always to move, burn
and melt their way around the environment in order to reach the torch – a
symbolic brazier item – which they ignite on contact.
As soon as this is done, the playing field
is cleared.
Advanced players will attempt to clear the
playing field in the shortest play time, and/or cause the biggest Chain – achieved by having
large number of blocks burning at the same time.
The player scores more for big Chains, and their score contributes to an overall
progress mechanism which unlocks new collections of levels and simple cosmetic
rewards.
2.5.
Gaining Temperature
Increasing avatar temperature is (usually)
one of the key steps the player undertakes towards their goal. To overcome
various barriers, the player must often become hotter. This is achieved by
touching a block that is burning at a higher temperature than the avatar. This
can happen:
-
If the avatar slams a material
they could not usually burn in order to ignite it. This would immediately
‘level up’ the avatar to the new temperature
- If the avatar touches a
material burning at a higher temperature. Such a block could be ignited by the
heat of other blocks the player has ignited.
Once the avatar temperature increases, it
is permanently at the higher degree for the rest of the current field.
2.6.
Chains
2.6.1 Overview
Although it is not the
player’s stated goal to get a big Chain, the game is structured to imply that
ending the level is not really victory – getting a large Chain is victory. This
allows players to find their own level of challenge… If just reaching the
brazier is challenging, the player will feel satisfied by this goal. If not,
scoring a high Chain will seem like the goal, with the brazier merely being the
end of the current field.
2.6.2 The Chain Counter
The size of the
player’s current Chain combo is displayed on the screen. This is the only text
overlaid on the screen (except when the name of a field is displayed at the
start).
The size of the current
Chain is equal to the number of blocks currently burning.
2.6.3 Font Size of the Chain Counter
The size of the text
which displays the current Chain count depends upon whether or not the Chain
number has been growing or receding. A strict rubric defines this relationship:
-
When no
blocks are burning, no Chain is displayed.
-
The first
time a block is ignited, the font size is “100%”. (All other sizes are relative
to this size). This text will remain displayed for 10 seconds, gradually fading
out if it is not ‘replaced’ with a new Chain value.
-
The next
time that the Chain value is updated (which may happen several times a second),
if the Chain value is larger, the font size should be increased by the amount
the chain is larger.
Font Size = 100 + [Chain value] percentiles
-
If the
Chain value remains the same, the font size remains the same.
-
If the
Chain value decreases, the font size decreases accordingly.
- A maximum
font size should be specified, based upon the largest size that can be
displayed without obscuring the player’s view.
If the text can only be
displayed at certain discrete sizes, then the Font Size variable should be used
to test whether or not the threshold for the next font size applies, rather
than as a direct scaling factor.
2.7.
Field Reset
The fields in Fireball often present mini-puzzles. Sometimes, these puzzles can
end up in states from which the player cannot reach the goal. For this reason,
a control is provided (Select) to quickly and easily restart the field ideally without any noticeable loading.
It is expected that normal play will
involve a fair amount of resetting.
Select must be held for at least 0.5
seconds to reset the field; this prevents the field being restarted by
accident. The pause menu will carry the text “Hold Select to reset the field.”