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Game Design Document: Minesweeper [remastered]

Game Overview

Title:

First-Person 3D Minesweeper

Genre:

Puzzle, Strategy

Platform:

PC (with potential for console and VR)

Target Audience:

Puzzle enthusiasts, strategy game fans, and players interested in supporting humanitarian causes

Vision Statement:

My remastered parody of Minesweeper aims to bring the classic puzzle experience into an immersive first-person 3D environment, combining nostalgia with modern gameplay. The game also seeks to raise awareness, education and support for real demining efforts in the world today.

Core Gameplay:

Objective:

The primary objective is to clear a 3D minefield without detonating any mines. Players use a remote with a digital screen displaying numbers, similar to classic Minesweeper, to identify the number of adjacent mines.

Game Modes:

Simulation Mode: Players play in this mode freely on randomly-generated boards, selecting a difficulty: beginner, intermediate, or expert.

Challenge Mode: Preset random-seed maps challenge every player equally and cost a wager of ‘life points’ to enter. Players start with a set amount of points, which regenerate over time. Losing a life in challenge mode results in losing life points, clearing a board results in player xp increase, earning in-game rewards, badges, additional life-points, and leaderboard ranking.

Game Mechanics:

  • Movement: Players move around the minefield in a first-person perspective.
  • Interaction: Players use a remote device to interact with the tiles. The remote displays numbers indicating how many mines are adjacent to the selected tile. The player may find scarce items on the map that can be used for throwing at suspected mine tiles (tires, debris) to attempt to detonate the tile without stepping on it. These items are destroyed upon mine hit.
  • Marking Mines: Players can mark suspected mines using the remote. Marked mines are visually distinct from unmarked tiles with realistic caution taping. Marked mines are blocking volumes for the player. The player cannot move over these spaces after they have been marked, saving them from accidental detonation.
  • Leveling System: Life points are wagered in challenge mode. XP is calculated based on earned life points and average clear time. “Easier” levels allow the player to throw more items at suspected mines, and chance of detonating when hit with an object decreases as levels increase. Detection equipment is improved as levels increase, showing larger grids on screen on the device, robotic mine clearing devices, and more real-world equipment is to be unlocked for the player as they progress through difficulties. Upon death, all leveling upgrades are lost and the player must start from the very beginning.

User Interface:

  • Heads-Up Display (HUD): The HUD is simple and includes only a flag counter and timer. The remote’s screen displays the number of adjacent mines resembling the classic game - flagged areas on screen are marked yellow with a flag, safe areas are blank, and numbers show where necessary.
  • Visual Indicators: Safe tiles, marked mines, and uncovered tiles are visually distinct on the ground as well as the remote - uncovered tiles are blank, and unknown tiles are marked with a red laser grid on the terrain surface (projection decal).

Win/Loss Conditions:

  • Winning: The player wins by uncovering all non-mine tiles.
  • Losing: The player loses by uncovering a tile containing a mine. Boom.

Game World:

Setting:

The game is set in a realistic, yet stylized environment resembling a demining zone (Level 1 largely resembling areas of northeastern Ukraine). The environment is designed to be visually large and barren to provide a sense of unease. Setting may be improved to use real terrain data from affected areas of Ukraine and Africa.

Art Style:

The art style combines realistic textures with a slight stylization to balance immersion and readability of game elements. The environment includes varied terrains, such as grassy fields, sandy deserts, and rocky landscapes – meant to resemble real places in the world where demining operations occur today.

Audio:

The game features ambient sounds to enhance immersion, including environmental sounds like wind, distant explosions, and birds. Interactive sounds provide feedback, such as a click when selecting a tile, a beep from the remote, and a distinct sound for marking mines.

Technical Requirements:

Engine:

The game is developed using Unreal Engine 5, leveraging its capabilities for realistic graphics, and leaning towards a PC-first development strategy. Some technical features of the game include the implementation of softbody physics, nanite materials, Niagara particle effects, data-driven random seed map creation.

Development Roadmap:

Phase 1: Pre-production

  • Define game mechanics and core gameplay loop.
  • Develop initial prototypes and test gameplay concepts.
  • Create concept art and define the visual style.

Phase 2: Production

  • Develop the game world and create assets.
  • Implement game mechanics and UI elements.
  • Integrate audio and visual effects.
  • Test and refine the gameplay experience.

Phase 3: Testing and Polish

  • Conduct thorough playtesting and gather feedback.
  • Optimize performance and fix bugs.
  • Polish visuals and audio for final release quality.

Phase 4: Release and Post-release

  • Launch the game on PC via Steam.
  • Provide post-launch support and updates based on player feedback.

Marketing and Community Engagement:

Promotion:

  • Create a website highlighting the game’s features, development process, and humanitarian cause.
  • Develop a trailer showcasing gameplay and the immersive experience.
  • Engage with gaming communities and puzzle enthusiasts on social media.

Partnership & Monetization:

  • Include in-game information and education on current demining efforts, potential to partner with organizations such as u24.gov.ua to raise awareness and support for the cause.
  • Life Points can be made purchasable, valuable by scarcity and regeneration speed.

Community:

  • Encourage player feedback and suggestions through forums and social media.
  • Implement community-driven features and updates to keep the game engaging and relevant.
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Luke Stilson

Technical Artist

Contact Information:

Summary:

Technical Artist with extensive experience in custom tools creation for studio art workflows, shader creation, asset optimization, and pipeline creation. Adept at bridging the gap between artists and programmers with a strong multidisciplinary background.

Top Skills:

  • Tools design for game art: Python, C#, C++, Blender/Geometry Nodes, Unreal blueprints
  • Shader design and integration: Substance, Shadergraph, UE node-based shaders, openGL/HLSL
  • Asset design and optimization: pipeline systems, visual effects, simulations, modular design tools

Experience:

OnChain Studios

Technical Artist

February 2023 - Present

  • Facilitate Cross-Team Communication: Align art and dev teams goals by shedding light on abilities and limitations, proposing solutions through practical examples, drawing from research and experience
  • Develop Tools: Create Python and C# tools for pipeline setup, performance analysis, art implementation, level-design, lookdev and rendering
  • Optimize and Prepare 3D Assets: Streamline prep and delivery workflows with OpenPype, Ayon, and custom toolsets to ensure consistency and ease of engine implementation
  • Design and Integrate Animation: Create complex animation control methods for character animation, VFX and simulations with a focus on system scalability
  • Develop gameplay and systems: Create complete experiences and games that seamlessly integrate into systems managed by the back-end dev team
  • Author and Optimize Shaders: Design and optimize shaders in Unity and create tools and methods for texture compression, channel-packing, optimization and procedural techniques
  • Design and Integrate VFX: Implement VFX and particle systems in various software for use on target platforms

Arrow International, Inc.

Lead Technical Artist

August 2020 - February 2023

  • Managed Workflows: Bridged the gap between artists and programmers, leading meetings on structure, pipeline, and organization
  • Created and Integrated Art: Converted art assets into game-ready assets, compositing EXR files, prepping rigged models, and creating assets using Blender, Maya, Substance, and Adobe tools for Unity
  • Developed Tools: Scripted and documented tools for artists and programmers to improve workflow, including Blender Python addons, Unity C# scripts, and GLSL & node-based shaders

ONEFIRE, Inc.

3D Generalist, Gameplay Programmer

July 2017 - January 2020 (on contract basis)

  • Developed Experiences: Pitch, design, create and develop AR, VR, and mobile games from start to finish using Unreal Engine and Unity with a small team
  • Implemented Game-Art: Designed props, game-ready materials, shaders and UI for Unity and Unreal
  • Modeling, Texturing, Design: Created 2D and 3D content for mobile, AR and VR games
  • Composed Audio: Created digital music and sound effects for games using various DAWs and Unity/Unreal

Float

Designer

July 2017 - February 2018

  • Created Art: Created 2D, 3D, and Vector graphic elements for a broad range of clients in mobile-learning and novel AR instructional industrial applications
  • Front-End Development: Designed UI for high-profile client websites and apps
  • Established UX: Assisted in establishing ideal user flow with regards to UI/UX
  • Maintained Content: Managed large mobile-learning content systems with CMS tools and Git

The Iona Group

Animator / Front-End Developer

July 2017 - February 2018

  • Animated Content: Created branded informative animations for various clients
  • Pitched and Executed: Designed and pitched detailed storyboarded animations to clients
  • Implemented Designs: Developed atomic web elements using Twig, SCSS and JavaScript
  • Re-Skinned Games: Implemented custom art in learning experience games, games following client branding guidelines

Education:

Bradley University

Bachelor of Science in Interactive Media, Bachelor of Science in Music

2013 - 2017

Hi, I'm Luke

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Minesweeper [remastered]

In Development

A twist on Microsoft's classic minesweeper, brought to a realistic 3D environment to bring attention to real-world de-mining operations in 2024 Ukraine.

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