22.04.2025 - 07.05.2025 (Week 1-Week 4)
Gunn Joey / 0366122
Games Development / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 1: Game Design Document
Description:
Students are required to design and create their own 2D side scrolling/platformer game. The game design document serves as a blueprint for their game and will contain all the necessary information and visual references to develop the game. Sample GDD will be provided as a reference, but students are expected to research more on the matter to determine the necessary content items for their own GDD.
Requirements:
To complete all exercises to demonstrate understanding of the technical knowledge required to develop a platformer game.
Submission:
For my first ideation in Task 1, I decided to create a fishing game inspired
by my childhood. When I was in kindergarten, I often spent hours on my iPad
playing fishing games, and the enjoyment I felt has stayed with me. This
project allows me to recreate that nostalgic experience while adding my own
creative twist.
During brainstorming, my group member Ser Chen suggested adding sharks as enemies. This addition makes the gameplay more challenging and engaging, as players must catch fish while avoiding danger. Combining the relaxing elements of fishing with the thrill of evading enemies creates a more dynamic and immersive experience that can appeal to a wide range of players.
Game Concept:
Our group, consisting of Ser Chen and myself, prepared a shared Google Docs document for our first draft proposal before moving on to the presentation slides. This allowed us to organise our ideas, outline the main concept for our game SeaVive, and plan the next steps for development. The document served as a foundation for refining our gameplay vision, defining key features, and ensuring we had a clear direction before creating the visual presentation.
The main objective of SeaVive is for players to explore and survive in increasingly dangerous underwater environments, progressing from shallow reefs to deep ocean trenches. Along the way, players must collect pearls to unlock new abilities and uncover the protagonist’s true identity, catch both common and rare fish to complete level goals, and use skills such as Speed Boost and Shield strategically to overcome enemies and terrain challenges. Players must also avoid hazards like coral clusters, rocks, and sharks in order to preserve their health and ultimately complete the transformation into a mermaid, fulfilling their role as the guardian of the sea.
2. Game Mechanics
We designed SeaVive so that players control a diver who moves vertically to catch fish, collect pearls, and avoid hazards. Fish can be caught by tapping or targeting them, while pearls unlock abilities such as Speed Boost and Shield to handle dangerous situations.
We set the player’s starting health to five points, with one heart lost when colliding with coral, sharks, or other hazards. The Shield blocks one hit but has a cooldown. To complete each level, players must achieve objectives like catching fish or collecting pearls, and skills must be used strategically due to cooldown limits.
We created gameplay that requires players to observe obstacle patterns, dodge enemy attacks, and activate abilities at the right moment. Visual effects indicate when skills are active or damage is taken, while the UI displays health, skill cooldowns, and progress toward level goals.
We planned SeaVive with a colourful and fantasy-inspired underwater visual style to create an engaging and friendly atmosphere. The overall look is 2D and cartoon-like, drawing inspiration from playful art styles such as Toca Boca. Bright turquoise and blue tones will represent shallow waters, while deeper levels will transition into darker shades with glowing accents to reflect mystery and depth. The environments are filled with vibrant coral, tropical fish, and dynamic lighting effects to make the ocean feel alive. We chose a bubbly, rounded font style to match the lighthearted tone of the game, along with glossy, button-like UI elements that resemble jelly or water droplets for a tactile and appealing look.
Main Character - Diver
My group member, Ser Chen contributed to the basic information, visual and layout design, concept and purpose, game design, technical and development details, and audio. She helped refine the gameplay concept, develop the storyline, research references, and suggest new features such as adding sharks as enemies.
After consulting with Ms. Mia, we refined the game details by improving the core mechanics, defining the player’s abilities, and organising the level progression. We also added more references to strengthen the visual direction and developed the storyline in greater detail to create a clearer narrative flow. Following these adjustments, we refined the proposal for clarity and completeness, ensuring all sections were polished before submission and aligned with the project requirements.
Experience
Working on SeaVive for Task 1 was both nostalgic and exciting for me, as the game’s inspiration came from my childhood memories of playing fishing games on my iPad. Translating that simple joy into a new, more interactive survival concept challenged me to think creatively while keeping the gameplay engaging. Collaborating with Ser Chen through our shared Google Docs made the process smoother, as we could bounce ideas back and forth, refine our concept, and gradually shape it into a clear direction. The process from first ideation to the final proposal taught me how important it is to structure ideas step by step, rather than trying to perfect everything at once.
Observations
I noticed that our game idea became much stronger once we combined personal inspiration with gameplay elements that would challenge and excite players. The addition of hazards like sharks and coral, suggested during brainstorming, completely changed the pace and tone of the game, making it more dynamic. I also observed how references from old-school arcade and survival games helped us identify mechanics that work well and could be adapted to fit our theme. Feedback from Ms. Mia was valuable, as it pushed us to refine both the narrative and technical details, which improved the overall clarity of the proposal.
Findings
From this task, I learned that a well-developed game concept needs more than just a fun idea — it requires balancing creativity with structure. Researching references helped me understand how similar games maintain player engagement through difficulty scaling and skill usage. I also found that defining visual style early made it easier to keep our design consistent across characters, environments, and UI. Most importantly, I realised how beneficial it is to treat the proposal as a living document, allowing room for changes and improvements as new ideas emerge, which ultimately led to a clearer and stronger vision for SeaVive.
Gunn Joey / 0366122
Games Development / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 1: Game Design Document
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Module Information Booklet
2. Task 1
3. Feedback
4. Reflection
MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET
TASK 1
Timeframe: Week 01 – Week 05 Description:
Students are required to design and create their own 2D side scrolling/platformer game. The game design document serves as a blueprint for their game and will contain all the necessary information and visual references to develop the game. Sample GDD will be provided as a reference, but students are expected to research more on the matter to determine the necessary content items for their own GDD.
Requirements:
To complete all exercises to demonstrate understanding of the technical knowledge required to develop a platformer game.
Submission:
- Online posts in your E-portfolio as your reflective studies
- Google Doc or PDF
A. First Ideation
During brainstorming, my group member Ser Chen suggested adding sharks as enemies. This addition makes the gameplay more challenging and engaging, as players must catch fish while avoiding danger. Combining the relaxing elements of fishing with the thrill of evading enemies creates a more dynamic and immersive experience that can appeal to a wide range of players.
- A 2D underwater game where players collect smaller fish while avoiding predators and hazards. The pace increases over time, challenging players to survive and score as high as possible.
B. First Draft Proposal
1. Objectives:
2. Game Mechanics
a. Core Actions
b. Rules
c. Interactions
3. Visual Style
4. Character
- Role: Player character
- Personality: Brave, curious, and drawn to the sea
- Abilities: Swim vertically, catch fish, collect pearls, use Speed Boost and Shield
- Appearance: Starts as a diver in a bikini, gradually transforms into a glowing mermaid after collecting pearls
- Special Traits: Mermaid form has faster swimming, no oxygen limit, and stronger powers
- Role: Collectible targets for points and objectives
- Types: Common fish and rare epic fish with glowing patterns
- Behaviour: Swim from right to left at varying speeds
- Impact: Do not harm the player, serve as score and level progression elements
- Role: Enemy hazard
- Behaviour: Swim from right to left at different heights, sometimes with warning shadows before attack
- Impact: Causes the player to lose 1 HP upon contact
- Strategy: Must be avoided or countered using Speed Boost or Shield
C. Final Submission
Contribution Table:
I contributed to the basic information, visual and layout design, character and entity descriptions, technical and development sections, and audio. I brought in the original fishing game idea inspired by my childhood, defined the characters and their roles, and worked with Ser Chen to refine the concept into a complete game proposal.
FEEDBACK
REFLECTION
Working on SeaVive for Task 1 was both nostalgic and exciting for me, as the game’s inspiration came from my childhood memories of playing fishing games on my iPad. Translating that simple joy into a new, more interactive survival concept challenged me to think creatively while keeping the gameplay engaging. Collaborating with Ser Chen through our shared Google Docs made the process smoother, as we could bounce ideas back and forth, refine our concept, and gradually shape it into a clear direction. The process from first ideation to the final proposal taught me how important it is to structure ideas step by step, rather than trying to perfect everything at once.
Observations
I noticed that our game idea became much stronger once we combined personal inspiration with gameplay elements that would challenge and excite players. The addition of hazards like sharks and coral, suggested during brainstorming, completely changed the pace and tone of the game, making it more dynamic. I also observed how references from old-school arcade and survival games helped us identify mechanics that work well and could be adapted to fit our theme. Feedback from Ms. Mia was valuable, as it pushed us to refine both the narrative and technical details, which improved the overall clarity of the proposal.
Findings
From this task, I learned that a well-developed game concept needs more than just a fun idea — it requires balancing creativity with structure. Researching references helped me understand how similar games maintain player engagement through difficulty scaling and skill usage. I also found that defining visual style early made it easier to keep our design consistent across characters, environments, and UI. Most importantly, I realised how beneficial it is to treat the proposal as a living document, allowing room for changes and improvements as new ideas emerge, which ultimately led to a clearer and stronger vision for SeaVive.
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