Game Concept Devlog

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Goose Got Gun

Concept Statement

In Goose Got Gun, the player controls a goose caught in the middle of a turf war against a rival gang of ducks; their objective is to survive for as long as possible while defeating as many ducks as they can. The catch? The goose has got a gun.

Genres

Arcade: The player’s main objective is to survive against oncoming waves of enemies for a set amount of time, racking up the highest score they can manage.
Top-down Shooter: The player controls the game from a top-down, third-person perspective, using the mouse to aim at enemies and shoot them.

Concept Development

The idea of featuring a waterfowl species in the starring role came from the week 5 lecture, where a comment about documents suddenly featuring an unrelated picture of a duck was made while discussing the rubric. This gave me the idea of including a duck in my game concept devlog (see Figure 1), except it would have actual relevancy to the game. The decision to make the player character a goose rather than a duck was made because of the title – Goose Got Gun simply sounded better than any alternative titles I could come up with.

**Figure 1:** A related image of a duck. Note: From Coulthard & Raymond (2021).

On the gameplay side, the top-down shooter idea primarily stemmed from the tutorial work we have been working on during class. Between the ‘Invaderoids’ game in tutorials 2-5 and the top-down shooter featured in tutorials 8-15, a significant portion of the unit has been spent on games of this nature. I personally felt that staying within this genre for the assignment would be a good choice, as the tutorial work gave me a good understanding of what would be required for a game of this type, and how I could expand upon the ideas taught in the tutorials.

Audience and Competitive Analysis

Like the arcade experiences the game is inspired by, the target audience has a more casual skew. The game will be easy to pick up and play, and each playthrough will only last a few minutes. That being said, the game will still have appeal to more ‘hardcore’ players, as the high score-based gameplay will encourage players to put more time into the game to earn as high of a score as they possibly can. Harder levels will also be available for those seeking for a greater challenge.

The game’s main audience will likely skew younger. The bright and colourful visuals, not dissimilar to games such as Untitled Goose Game (see Figure 2), will attract younger players, as will the idea of playing as a cute goose. Despite featuring guns as a major gameplay element, the game will not feature graphic imagery in order to be as accessible as possible for all ages. Despite being outside the target age range, older players could also be interested in the game, as they may possibly find the idea of a goose wielding a gun amusing.

**Figure 2:** A screenshot of *Untitled Goose Game* from the game’s Steam page (2020). *Goose Got Gun* will use a more pixelated aesthetic, but the colours and minimalist environment design will be similar.

The main competition Goose Got Gun will face will be from titles such as the aforementioned Untitled Goose Game, due to the similarities in player characters and visual style. However, the gameplay of Goose Got Gun is entirely unique compared to other games with similar premises, which will help it stand out compared to its competitors.

Game Treatment

Backstory

You are a goose, living your life as a goose in the local lake. All is well until one day, when a rival gang of ducks attack you and the rest of your friends. The ducks have much greater numbers than you, and cause many of your friends to flee. While fighting off the ducks, however, you find an abandoned gun on the lakeside – with this weapon in your wings, your revenge against the ducks begins.

Gameplay

Goose Got Gun is an arcade-like top-down shooter, where your objective is to defeat as many ducks as possible in three minutes. You use the keyboard to move, and the mouse to aim and shoot. Defeating ducks increases your score, and players are encouraged to achieve the highest score possible. You are not invincible, however – if the ducks attack you enough and deplete your health, you lose the game and any points you’ve earned during that round.

Weapons

In order to encourage replayability, Goose Got Gun will feature multiple different types of guns to use, each with their own unique playstyles. The type of gun you use will be selected before the game begins, and cannot be changed mid-round.

Handgun: The most balanced weapon. Deals average damage and has no delay between shots – it fires as fast as you can click.
Revolver: A stronger version of the handgun. Deals significantly more damage to enemies, but has a much slower rate of fire.
Shotgun: Fires multiple strong bullets, but the spread makes it unreliable at long range.
Assault Rifle: Automatically fires as long as the mouse button is held down, but has low damage.

Enemies - the Ducks

Ducks will infinitely spawn during the game from set positions on the map, and will continuously move towards you. When a duck touches you, they will attack, dealing a set amount of damage – if they deplete all of your health, it’s game over. The only way to stop the ducks’ approach is to shoot and defeat them before they can get you. Defeating ducks awards you with points. There will be multiple types of ducks, with different behaviours and stats.

Regular ducks: average in all stats, the most common variety of duck.
Baby ducks: small and fast, but have low health and deal little damage.
Large ducks: slower than other types, but have more health.
Ranged ducks: can attack from a distance, encouraging players to stay on their toes and not just camp in one spot.
Boss ducks: significantly stronger than all other types. They only spawn after collecting a certain number of points. Defeating boss ducks will award a large number of points.

Setting and Levels

The game will feature multiple distinct levels, each with different layouts and visual identities. Each level will also be progressively more difficult than the last, encouraging players to keep coming back to the game.

Lake: The first level, with weak enemies and a simple layout.
Waterfall: Has waterfall hazards, which push you and enemies down.
Abandoned house: Has significantly limited visibility due to a lack of natural light.
Hell: The hardest level. Boss ducks can spawn like regular enemies, and one hit is all it takes to be defeated.

Visuals

The game will use custom pixelated graphics in order to emulate the aesthetic of old arcade games. The player and enemies will be represented by sprites (see Figure 3 for an example), while the world will be created from low-resolution tilesets using Unity's built-in tilemapping feature (see Figure 4 for an example tileset).