Game Concept

Pagoda Rescue: Save the Master

Concept Statement:

This is a game where players move left and right, choosing the correct platforms, avoiding various traps, and ultimately reaching the bottom of the pagoda to rescue their master.

Genre Type:

Action-arcade platformer. The game combines traditional platform mechanics with unpredictable traps and procedurally generated levels, offering unique challenges with each playthrough.

Concept Creation Process:

The game is inspired by the classic arcade game NS-Shaft. It follows a subtractive design philosophy, focusing on core mechanics like movement and quick decision-making. Layers of difficulty are added through randomness, with increasing complexity as the player progresses through the levels, testing reflexes and decision-making.

Target Audience:

This game is aimed at competitive players who enjoy skill-based challenges. Pagoda Rescue: Save the Master offers fast-paced, intense gameplay with high replayability. The emotional engagement of the narrative (rescuing the master) further appeals to the target audience.

Competitive Analysis:

As minimalist and challenging platformers are popular, Pagoda Rescue: Save the Master will stand out with its Asian-inspired aesthetics and story-driven gameplay. Unlike other similar games, it emphasizes unpredictable level design, ensuring each playthrough feels unique. After all, who said there isn't a little luck in life? Features like leaderboards will attract players to repeatedly challenge themselves and their friends.

Game Treatment:

The game opens with a brief backstory: the player's master has been kidnapped and is being held at the bottom of a collapsing pagoda. The player's mission is to descend through 100 perilous floors, each filled with collapsing platforms, spikes, traps, and enemies. As the player moves downward, platforms may move, loosen, or contain traps. The situation becomes increasingly unstable, and the challenge grows tougher.

The gameplay focuses on quick reflexes and decision-making. Controls are simple: players can move left or right, and later, power-ups will be introduced to temporarily enhance abilities. Power-ups like shields or health regeneration can be found on random floors but are limited in quantity.

Game Mechanics:

Procedural Generation: Each floor is randomly generated, offering a unique experience with each playthrough. Obstacles and platform positions change, so players never know what to expect.

Increasing Difficulty: As players descend deeper, floors become more unstable. In early levels, floors may collapse slowly, but by the 50th floor, reaction time is minimal.

Power-Ups and Traps: Floors are scattered with useful power-ups and deadly traps. Power-ups provide short-term advantages (e.g., extra life, invincibility, or faster movement), while traps are designed to obstruct or kill the player outright.

Leaderboards: The game features a leaderboard system, where players can challenge the furthest floor or participate in time challenges after unlocking all floors.

Concept Art:

The art style is inspired by traditional Chinese art, with the pagoda and characters designed in pixel art but retaining intricate details. The color palette is bold, with vibrant reds, golds, and dark shadows emphasizing the danger and urgency of the descent. The background of each floor changes slightly, reflecting the player's progress from the open sky at the top to the dark underground near the bottom.

Characters are designed as fluid pixel animations, while the pagoda's platforms have detailed designs—some with cracks indicating they may collapse, others lined with spikes waiting for the player to make a mistake. Simple backgrounds feature traditional Chinese architectural elements. Power-ups are highlighted with glowing effects, while traps blend into the environment, often more subtly.