Project Charter:

 

Chopper Surfs in Space is a 3D endless runner aimed at children ages 6-8 for IOS and Ipad. There are five lanes that Chopper can surf on. By tapping left or right, Chopper switches lanes. You avoid obstacles such as meteors and space junk, and collect space coins that can be used to upgrade your character and charges. The goal is to level up by collecting charges and filling your booster bar. Leveling up will cause you to travel through hyperspace at lightyear speed, moving you to a new space quadrant where the appearance is changed slightly and the difficulty of the game increases as you surf further away from Earth.

 

The main game mechanic that sets it apart from other endless runners is the gravitational pull from planets and stars. When a planet or star approaches it will create lag, slowing down or speeding up the players movements, and forcing them to change lanes. You have three hit points, there are unlimited lives, and there is no wait time between games. Besides space coins and charges, you can also collect power ups that affect game play. Collecting a cowboy hat will give Chopper side guns and holsters. While wearing the hat the player will temporarily be able to shoot meteors and other obstacles to gain charges and coins. Donning a pair of sick sunglasses will allow Chopper to become invulnerable to all obstacles and space dangers for a short period of time, so nothing can harm you. By collecting a Santa hat and beard, Chopper will hop into a Santa sleigh and have reindeer steer the player with ease through obstacles temporarily.

 

The style for this project is a combination of saturated colours, quirky cartoon aesthetic and retro images and audio. The app also features a galactic scoreboard where players can see how they stack up against other players and can share their rank, including their overall distance surfed and longest surf time directly to social media in order to show off their scores to their friends. Scores, coins and power-ups are cumulative and are kept in the game even if the app is closed and re-entered later. This will increase the long-term playability of the game.

 

Currently online and in the App store, there aren’t any games that combine elements of past, present and future together in this way. Chopper Surfs in Space combines Prehistoric elements with the atmosphere of the space age in a way that will be fun and interesting to the youth of today. The goal of this app is to increase interest in learning about the past and the future through a cool and appealing Ankylosaurus character, an expanding and engaging space experience, and retro, 80’s inspired gaming aspects. Our other goal, of course, is to create revenue for the project.

 

This game delivers both a fun individual experience through the main game play, but can also be used socially as players can compete with their friends through their rankings, comparing their scores and racing each other to explore and navigate the environment. As well, it delivers an interesting new look at space exploration and innovation in an age-appropriate way. While the game itself does not directly aim to educate players on space and the history of the earth, it provides enough exposure that players can get excited about topics such as space innovation, paleontology, earth’s early history, gravitational forces and simple physics, as well as other things.

 

For this game, we will connect with IOS app store and it’s editors to ensure that our game is a top pick and increase the potential exposure of the app. We will also partner with an established IOS game company to facilitate a strong brand and maintain a quality gaming experience. We will also establish relationships with Youtube and Twitch personalities in order to have a series of Let’s Plays online. This will help people to see what the app is like before downloading and before deciding whether or not to make in-app purchases to further their game playing experience. We expect that this will increase the positive feedback and promotion through influential online personalities, which will result in direct promotion to the target audience.

 

This project will require a few roles to be filled in order to have a successful team. The required roles include project manager, producer, editor/content team, creative director, designer, technical lead, HTML programmer, and database administrator.

 

Game Design Document :

 

Intro: - Chopper Surfs in Space is a 3D endless runner.

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Plot: - Choppers surfs through space searching for the galaxies gnarliest space wave. He avoids meteors and space debris while collecting coins and charges to power up is booster. Planets and stars appear, pulling Chopper with their gravity, creating lag and changing his speed. Once the booster bar is is full he travels at lightspeed and reaches hyperspace, landing in a new space quadrant. There are five quadrants in total. - See flow charts in index.

 

Character Descriptions: - Chopper is the main character in the game. He is a biped Ankylosaurus dinosaur. Chopper is surfing through space searching for the gnarliest space wave in the galaxy. He enjoys putting on costumes and pretending he is a cowboy or Santa Claus. He uses his tail as a rudder to maneuver through space on his surfboard.