1. Student: Daniel Michael - 3103360
Instructor: Karen Blackmore
Course: INFT6303 – Computer Games Production
Assignment 1 – Games Design
HowlyLand

2. Daniel Michael Student ID: 3103360 University of Newcastle, Trimester 3, 2010
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Overview
Legman is on a mission to rescue the lost dogs in Howlyland and return them to their
owners before they are caught and destroyed by the evil Pound Spiderbots.
An action game that includes puzzle elements, you play the part of Legman, an unusual
one legged boy with segmented eyes who has to rescue the lost dogs from the evil
Spiderbots and return them to their homes in a memory matching game.
Goal
You must rescue all of the ‘Lost Dogs’ and return them to their rightful owners by
matching ‘Home to Hound’ before the Spiderbots capture and destroy them.
Challenges
&
Actions
Challenges
o Rescue dogs from being caught by Pound Spiderbots
o Return the lost dogs to their rightful homes
o Timing challenges – beat the clock and the Pound Spiderbots
o Coordination challenges
o Memory challenges
Actions
o Walking, running and jumping
o Finding lost dogs
o Catching lost dogs
o Returning lost dogs
o Avoiding pound Spiderbots
o Navigating the neighbourhood
o Finding power ups
o Matching dogs to homes through memory challenges
INFT6303 – Computer Games Production, Karen Blackmore 2

3. Daniel Michael Student ID: 3103360 University of Newcastle, Trimester 3, 2010
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Game
World
Rules
Basic rules: A player starts with three lives and loses one life for every three dogs
captured by Spiderbots. If nine dogs are captured then all lives are lost the game is
finished. Legman begins the game in Yip Yap land and must rescue three lost dogs to
progress to ‘Home to Hound’ the first memory game. Here he must match each dog to its
correct home in a memory test game. This cycle continues in three towns of increasing
difficulty (Figure 1. Game World Progression).
Legman wins by rescuing all dogs required in ‘Lost Dogs’ and returning them to their
homes in ‘Home to Hound’.
Figure 1. Game World Progression
INFT6303 – Computer Games Production, Karen Blackmore 3

4. Daniel Michael Student ID: 3103360 University of Newcastle, Trimester 3, 2010
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Perspective: ‘Lost Dogs’ is a single-player, 2D side scrolling action game (Adams &
Rollins 2007) and ‘Hound to Home’ is a Matching memory game of skill with an overhead
perspective.
Navigation: In ‘Lost Dogs’, our protagonist navigates using keyboard input - left and right
keys to move forward and backwards according to the spatial dimensionality of the 2D
environment (Adams & Rollins 2007) and the spacebar to jump.
For the puzzle element, ‘Hound to Home’ the player uses a mouse in a point and click
matching game of memory skill. Click a tile to reveal its content, and then match with the
correct home. When two tiles match they are cleared and play continues until all the tiles
are cleared. A visual clue is then revealed for the next level town.
Visual: The interface will be a cartoon based (see appendices) 2D world with simple text
instructions upon startup based on action game Adventure Quest (Rosenzweig 2010).
Depending on project scope the player could be provided greater immersion through
creative play (Adams & Rollins 2007) by giving the option to customize her avatar.
Game
World
Attributes
This project will have two functioning elements of the overall game design; an action
game based on the platform game ‘Treasure Quest’ (Rosenzweig 2010) and a puzzle
game based on ‘Matching Game’ (Rosenzweig 2010).
Graphics are original cartoon 2D creations optimized for delivery over the web via Flash.
The game world consists of three towns, each featuring an action game linked to a
puzzle game (refer Figure 1).
The look will rely on the visual elements developed from the games Treasure Quest and
Matching Game (Rosenzweig 2010) but will be customised by the hand drawn examples.
INFT6303 – Computer Games Production, Karen Blackmore 4

5. Daniel Michael Student ID: 3103360 University of Newcastle, Trimester 3, 2010
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The colour theme of the game will be based on Primary colours to emphasise the
cartoon feel most familiar to Super Mario from the Nintendo series.
The sounds and effects will be kept to a minimum to optimise performance over the web,
with key sound bites for dog barks, dog rescues, dog captures and win /lose effects.
Depending on availability a digital sounding ‘8 Bit’ soundtrack may be included to keep
the theme of vintage cartoon game.
Game
Story
Legman is our protagonist, a strange wee boy with one leg and segmented eyes who
has a deep connection with animals. Being an outcast for most of his life because of his
unusual appearance feels empathy for the lost animals and is simultaneously repulsed
by the mechanical and mean Spiderbots.
The Spiderbots invaded Howlyland from afar and are evil metallic robots with spidery
legs that seem to take great pleasure in capturing and destroying the lost dogs.
Legman is on a crusade to rescue all of the lost dogs and return them to their rightful
owners before they are captured and taken to the Pound from where they never seem to
return.
Characters
Protagonist: Legman is a born and bred native resident of Howlyland and a huge animal
lover. Legman can power himself at quite some speed for a one legged boy which is
useful when trying to escape from Spiderbots and catch dogs. He can jump as well and
can use power up objects to increase his speed. Refer appendices 1.
Enemies: Pound Spiderbots are the evil lost dogcatchers. Metallic robots with a big claw
and spidery legs, it is said that they came to Howlyland from outer space and started
INFT6303 – Computer Games Production, Karen Blackmore 5

6. Daniel Michael Student ID: 3103360 University of Newcastle, Trimester 3, 2010
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capturing lost dogs to manufacture pelts for rogue space traders. Spiderbots walk on four
legs and catch dogs with their robotic claw. Refer appendices 3.
Nonplayer Characters: Lost Dogs
Lost Dogs are the free roaming animals that live in the towns of Howlyland and at every
opportunity they love to roam the streets looking for Legman and other animals to play
with. They don’t seem to recognize the danger the Pound Spiderbots pose and you must
rally together to rescue them! Refer appendices 2.
INFT6303 – Computer Games Production, Karen Blackmore 6

7. Daniel Michael Student ID: 3103360 University of Newcastle, Trimester 3, 2010
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Appendices
1. Example of main protagonist, Legman.
INFT6303 – Computer Games Production, Karen Blackmore 7

8. Daniel Michael Student ID: 3103360 University of Newcastle, Trimester 3, 2010
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2. Nonplayer characters Lost Dogs
INFT6303 – Computer Games Production, Karen Blackmore 8

9. Daniel Michael Student ID: 3103360 University of Newcastle, Trimester 3, 2010
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3. Enemy Pound Spiderbot
INFT6303 – Computer Games Production, Karen Blackmore 9

10. Daniel Michael Student ID: 3103360 University of Newcastle, Trimester 3, 2010
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Works
Cited
Adams, E & Rollings A. (2007). Game Design and Development. (First Edition). New Jersey:
Pearson Education.
Gallo, L & Kempf H. (2010). The Art of Tim Burton. Los Angeles: Seales Publishing Inc.
Rosenzweig, G. (2010). ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming University. Indiana: Que
Publishing.
Bibliography
Adams, E. (2009). The Designer’s Notebook: the professional website of Ernest Adams.
Retrieved September 16, 2010 from:
http://www.designersnotebook.com/Home_Page/home_page.htm
Adams, E. (2006). Secrets of Interactive Storytelling. Retrieved September 14, 2010 from:
http://www.designersnotebook.com/Online_Articles/online_articles.htm
Dille, F & Zuur Platten, J. (2007). The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design.
New York: Lon Eagle Publishing Company
Rogers, S. (2010). Level Up. The Guide to Great Video Game Design. West Sussex UK: RR
Donnelley.
Rouse III, Richard. (2005). Game Design Theory & Practice (Second Edition). Texas:
Wordware Publishing.
Shneiderman, Benjamin. (2003). The Craft of Information Visualization: Readings and
Reflections. Massachusetts: Morgan Kaufman.
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