Plan for Josiah Wang

Beanie, brother's birthday, PHP game - oh my, my life is a mess >.<

Been a while since I updated my .plan. I've started development on Beanie: The Bigheaded Bird. It's a little game I've had in development for about a month or so. It all started out with the guy I have as my profile piccie (the bird you see there). Here are a few excerpts from my incomplete design document:

Ability to use turn into different forms
In Beanie's World, Beanie has the ability to take a somewhat different form. This will occur when the player acquires a power-up. Changes will be either temporary or permanent. Graphically, this will be achieved by switching the shapes.

Limited 3D Interaction
Because of the 2D-Via-3D concept, the player will have the ability to perform limited 3D actions. This mainly includes jumping, flying, and the ability to switch to first-person mode to view surroundings (however, the player will not be able to move).

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The Player
The player controls Beanie, the main character of the game. Beanie is a big-headed bird who becomes lost from the group during migration.

Allies
Allies that can join Beanie in his quest include Frill the Dragonfly and Mika the Turtle. These players will help Beanie by following in a few levels and attacking nearby enemies (however, they will never stray more than 10 units away from Beanie).

Noncombatants
Various NPCs will be scattered around the game world. These will all appear as talking tissue boxes, and will all give the same hint that is applicable at the moment (controlled by a global variable). Also, various Loranians (the tiny turtle-like inhabitants of the fantasy world) are involved with the storyline. Beanie will be able to interact with some of them.

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Game World
Overview
The player travels the world in a map-type system. After finishing one mission, Beanie will have the ability to proceed to the next area.
Key Locations (note: There are three 'continents': the first contains 1-4, the second contains 2-8, the third contains 9-13)
1. Sparrow Island a basic training ground for Beanie. Few unaggressive enemies, easy difficulty, littered with power-ups for training. Contains a few cliffs to practice flying
a. Environment: Bright, happy, almost paradise-type island
b. Music: Upbeat music (think Choco music)

2. Joland Bay the first real level for Beanie. Medium amount of aggressive enemies of easy difficulty; No power-ups or cliffs.
a. Environment: Bright Island, but somewhat empty
b. Music: Obnoxious doofus music

3. Meteor Heights a mountain like level. Medium amount of aggressive enemies of easy difficulty; Few power-ups and cliffs (required to cross a wide volcano top by jumping on clouds)
a. Environment: mountain greens. Few trees
b. Music: Obnoxious doofus music; changes to a somewhat tense rhythm when player gets to volcano mouth.

4. Googa Mines a dark mine-like level. Filled with aggressive Googa Bats of medium difficulty; Faces King GaGa (king bat boss) at the end of the maze-like level.
a. Environment: dimly lit. Evidence of a recent mining expedition evident
b. Music: Funny Creepy Music.

5. Pinga Jungle a river/jungle like-level. Player starts on one part of the jungle, and must control a raft to get to the other side of the jungle, where the player will continue. Few power-ups and cliffs. Medium amount of aggressive enemies, and a few non-aggressive powerful enemies.
a. Environment: jungle-like with many trees. The river is littered with many rocks that cause Beanie to fall off the boat and lose some life. Some power-ups as well.
b. Music: Jungle music

6. Mason Rock a ravine-like level. Player must cross a large mountain ravine to reach the other side. Many power-ups (flying) and medium amount of aggressive medium enemies, as well as a few powerful enemies.
a. Environment: very rocky (sandstone?); Beanie can only walk on certain places.
b. Music: none (possibly echo?)

7. Perka Desert a desert-like level. Many aggressive medium enemies, and a medium amount of aggressive powerful enemies. Many power-ups (fighting/evasive)
a. Environment: monotonous desert. Hard for player to find way around except for very few landmarks (oasis?). Sandstorm
b. Music: (?) play a continuous wind soundtrack as well

8. Shipwreck Islands an island-like level. Medium amount of powerful aggressive enemies. Medium amount of power-ups. Faces Octofisher (a big octopus boss) in the main chamber of the ship (underwater)
a. Environment: scattered islands connected by thin strip of land in shallow water. Scattered pieces of wood, and a few recognizable pieces of a ship present for landmarks
b. Music: Upbeat/hollow music (think Choco)

9. Frozen Heights an icy-mountain level. Medium amount of powerful aggressive. Medium amount of power-ups
a. Environment: Many hills, maybe a few mountains. Littered with trials, trees, and possibly a hidden cave (special power-up?)
b. Music: High-pitched upbeat music

10. Cloud Mountain a cloud-like mountain. Beanie must make it across by jumping across many clouds. Many medium difficulty enemies (birds/vultures?). Few power-ups (flying)
a. Environment: MANY clouds; bright sunny day. Possibly a mountain-top or two for a rest or something
b. Music: none

11. Jojo Castle a castle level. Beanie must make it through many mazes and different mini-bosses to get to the next room. Many powerful enemies. Many power-ups. Beanie fights Midas (wizard king boss) at the end in a secret chamber.
a. Environment: Castle, possibly red carpet in some areas. Use stone texture
b. Music: eerie yet upbeat

12. Tipee Tower a tower-like level. Here, Beanie will progress level by level and fight many difficult mini-bosses. In the end, Beanie will re-fight the three main bosses that he already fought (King Gaga, Octofisher, Midas)
a. Environment: same as castle
b. Music: Tense

13. Magic Box - a boxed level. Here, Beanie will fight King TaTeeTata, the ultimate boss, who takes 3 forms.
a. Environment: a simple box; possibly have the walls tie-dyed and swirling?
b. Music: Tense


World Map GUI
The World Map will be loaded everytime the player starts the game up. The player will use the mouse to select which area to play. Areas that are unlocked will show up as green; locked areas show up as grey. On selecting of the areas, box will show up that shows a brief description of what's going on in the story, applicable past records, and a button to confirm that the player wants to play this level. The Map will be 3D (think Crash) with a mini-avatar of Beanie to indicate where the player stands.

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Story <- this one really needs some touching up on.

The game starts off with the resident birds of Opii migrating. Beanie however, loses his group one day because of oversleeping. While trying to find his group, he goes into a magical cloud that takes him to the land of Lorania. He is knocked out. Sage Hoot, a demi-god among the Opiis, talks to Beanie in a dream about how the Loranians are being threatened by the evil TaTeeTata, a mind controlling gelatine.
Beanie awakes, and finds himself on Sparrow Island. He fights his way through the various areas (see Gameworld section above). In the Googa Mines, he meets Frill the dragonfly, a prisoner to King Gaga. Defeating Octofisher on Shipwreck Island, Beanie meets Mika the Turtle. After finally defeating TaTeeTata, Beanie is thrown out of Lorania and appears through a cloud with his group again.

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Upgrades / Power-Ups
Power-ups can be stored in Beanie's inventory, and can be used when selected in the mini-box in the play gui. All power-ups will use the default model. The colours in parenthesis denote which skin to use.
Health Power-Up (Red, White, Blue) replenishes 50% of Beanie's maximum health.

Invisibility Power-Up (Purple, Pink, White) makes Beanie invisible to enemies for a limited time (15 seconds?) (Not effective against bosses)

Energy Power-Up (Blue, White, Light Blue) makes Beanie's energy raise 2x faster for a limited time (30 seconds?)

Invincibility Power-Up (Black, White, Grey) makes Beanie invincible to attacks for a limited time (15 seconds?) (Not effective against bosses; falling still deducts life/kills you)

Damage Power-Up (Red, White, Orange) makes Beanie's attacks 2x more effective for a limited time (30 seconds?)

Defense Power-Up (Blue, White, Orange) Beanie takes half as much damage from enemies for a limited time (30 seconds?)

Speed Power-Up (Yellow, White, Grey) makes Beanie move 2x: faster when walking, higher when jumping, and farther when flying; for a limited time (15 seconds?)

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And that ends it for my design doc. I'm planning to work on this project on and off...

In other news:

my lil bro's birthday is coming up. Seeing that a) i've never really given him a birthday present before, b) he really loves cars, and c) i'm beginning to get the hang of torque, i thought, hey, why not make a lil racing game for him? So i've begun modelling the cars and stuff...gonna put it all together prob in the coming week, and i'll have one happy lil bro

AGE - I've been working on this for a while, as some of you might know. I'm in the middle of porting over all my db calls into ADOdb, which IMO is a good library of stuff for db calls. Basically, it allows you to connect to different types of databases (like PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft Access, etc) without really needing to recode the entire thing for each. However, I'm not sure if this is the right choice. Can anyone with experience in regards to this matter help out? Mucho thanks!