Game Concept

Title:  

Harvest Hero 

Concept Statement: 

In Harvest Hero your crops have gone rogue and it's up to you to harvest them before you become the harvest. This action-packed bullet hell rogue-lite has you fighting, farming and frying. 

Genre:  

Rogue-Lite, Bullet Hell. 

It falls under the rogue-lite genre because there will be permanent progress gained each time you attempt a run, you will not lose everything every time which is why its a rogue-lite not a rogue-like. 

It also falls under the bullet-hell genre as most enemies will shoot some sort of projectile creating chaos, projectiles everywhere and a reliance on invulnerable dodge rolls to survive.

Creation process and influences: 

Rogue-lites have become one of my favourite genres over the last few years, with titles such as Enter the Gungeon, Hades, Returnal, Vampire Survivors, The Binding of Isaac, Risk of Rain 2, Cult of the Lamb, Balatro, Slay the Spire and Cadence of Hyrule. Despite all these games being Rogue-Lites none are that similar, all these games bring something to them that makes them stand out completely against other titles in the genre. Some of the more specific aspects of these games i will be taking heavy inspiration from is Enter the Gungeon's rolling and blanks system, these work great for the bullet-hell genre. Hades permanent upgrade system, i will be implementing it quite differently but going back to the mirror and making important permanent upgrades will be a system incorporated in my game. The binding of Isaac's fixed camera and simple rooms is also a simple system that i will incorporate to make development simpler.  Rogue-lites are a very indie dominated genre, I believe that is due to the genres inherent replay-ability, the replay-ability of these systems can give many hours of play time without as much development as other genres would need for the same amount of play time. As I only have 6 weeks to make a fun game, I believe these rogue-lite systems will be the key to making a fun and replay-able game in that time. The most unique aspect of this game will be art style, I am looking to take some sort of cutesy farming art pack and turning that into this rogue-lite, this should be  from the traditional dark and gritty dungeons and monsters seen in most rogue-lites. And since I am using a farming pack and will have crop-based enemies I will incorporate a farming or cooking system as the upgrade system, a bit like Cult of the Lamb. 

Audience and Competitive analysis: 

I feel in the rogue-lite genre most of the games have visually unattractive art styles, Hades and Cult of the lamb being the only exceptions in my opinion, I want to make my game cuter and more visually appealing to attract a more casual audience as I think rogue-lites can appeal to that audience while still keeping more hardcore fans happy with a good gameplay loop and difficulty options.  I believe casual audiences will be on board as i used to also only play visually appealing games when i was more casual, i put off Enter the Gungeon, The Binding of Isaac and Vampire Survivors despite hearing good things simply because they didn't look nice. The gameplay is fine for these audiences too, the ability to progress at your own pace due to permanent upgrades means casuals can just take it slow, upgrading a little at a time while still having fun and more hardcore players can try harder and progress at a much faster pace, but in the end anyone can finish the game. The biggest competition for this game is definitely Cult of the Lamb, that game nailed its rogue-lite system while still appealing to casual audiences with its cute character designs and its animal crossing style homebase system. The selling point of my game that most others in the genre don't have is its unique art style , cute crop enemies, and very unique upgrade system in cooking the enemies you harvest. 

Game Treatment: 

A meteor has crashed in your farm overnight, you wake up the next morning to investigate and find your crops are all missing. This leads to a further search in the surrounding areas when you notice your plants are alive and dangerous. Collect the plants to cook them and upgrade your power. The game will start in your home area, this place has a cooking pot and a little farm. You return here when you die and you use the crops you have collected and make upgrades out of them, with different combinations of crops create different upgrades. Some of these basic upgrades include stuff like increased attack speed, increased walk speed, more health etc. Discovering recipes for unique upgrades will provide more interesting upgrades like unlocking the blanks system (a one time ability to clear all projectiles on screen), a double dash, charged attacks etc.

Concept Art:

Cult of the Lamb 's homebase is very cute and is intended to be a nice place to come back to, that is similar to how i intend mine to feel (without all the cult stuff).

The Root Pack from Cuphead are similar to how i want my crops to be in visual personality and charm.

This Asset Pack is likely one i will use in my game, it shows the visual style i want my environment to be. 

Massive Monster, Untitled, Cult of the Lamb Homebase, viewed 19 April 2024, <https://store.steampowered.com/app/1313140/Cult_of_the_Lamb/>

Airdeos, Therootcause, viewed 19 April 2024, <https://cuphead.fandom.com/wiki/The_Root_Pack/TCS>

Cup_Nooble, Untitled, Sprout Lands Gif, viewed 19 April 2024, <https://cupnooble.itch.io/sprout-lands-asset-pack>