The Road to Pizzocalypse begins! {Devlog - May 16th to May 25th 2023}

Pizzocalypse is a 2.5D top down mobile shooting game where you play as a badass delivery guy who has sworn to deliver the pizza to the doorstep of every hungry survivor, even if it means risking his life to do so.

The game is currently in pre-production and is being developed as a part of Gamer2Maker Game Design and Production mentorship program under the guidance of mentor Rahul Sehgal. 

The game concept pitch for Pizzacalypse was among the two of the most voted concepts during the final pitch for the G2M Falcons batch.  The students from Falcons batch volunteered for the game projects they were interested in. 

The first meeting for the development of Pizzocalypse happened on May 16th. This is a record of meetings from May 16th to May 25th 2023. 

The three games Hunter Assassin, Bullet Echo and Robbery Bob were decided as closest competitive references for Pizzocalypse. The team played the games and discussed them during the initial meetings. 

During the discussion of shooting mechanics for the game, Harish brought up the example of various approaches in the game, Splinter Cell. Everyone in the team gravitated toward the approach of tactical shooting {shooting some enemies but hiding from or avoiding others, with limited ammo} as opposed to bullet-hell or direct combat. The main game mechanic of the game was decided to be shooting and or hiding from zombies while trying to deliver the pizza to the customer. Resulting in the secondary mechanic of tactical shooting.  That makes Pizzocalypse a 2D top-down tactical shooter game.  The game Space Marshals 2 was discussed as the reference for tactical shooting combat style. 

References for top-down perspective styles were discussed and it came down to the following styles- 1. Full top-down {eg. Hunter Assassin} - this style seemed to have Low asset availability 2. Partial top-down {eg. Hellfire Pizza} This style seemed to have High asset availability. 

It was decided that the game will be played in Landscape mode instead of portrait mode. The second style would be high scope and might need an external artist. 

Alwyn volunteered to try and make partial top-down 2D art/assets like Hellfire Pizza. The possibility to use pixel art was discussed. 

We decided on Joysticks as the control scheme. With buttons for power-ups. Subhajit discussed the control scheme in detail -  each character will have one weapon and one unique ability, one dedicated button for interaction which only appears when the interaction is about to happen. He gave the reference of the game Brawl Stars. 

Harish’s suggestion to add funny dialogues/one-liners/grunts/ barks when players will perform a task/kill a zombie was well received. It fit with the absurd premise of the game. 

Prasad's GDD exercise were discussed - Gameplay related rewards, experience length, difficulty level, and secondary mechanics. 

In regard to experience time, the levels of Hunter Assassin were thought to be too short {30-40 seconds/hyper casual} while the levels for Bullet Echo and Robbery Bob were deemed a bit too slow/long {1:40-150 seconds}. Prasad discussed the possibility of keeping the experience time/average level of the game at one minute/60 seconds. Some of the teammates wanted to go for a longer experience time {2-5 minutes}. 

Approaches to rewards were discussed - Skins that give you added boost {eg. 5 percent more damage} or a combination of skins and unlockable characters. Rahul Sir suggested that we should stick to 3-4 weapons upgrades as rewards. 

 Chakradhar's idea of the possibility of expansive Day and Night Cycles were discussed. Chakradhar's ideas  about boss, type of zombies, human thugs were discussed. Levels with human thugs along with zombies was an idea that everyone liked.  Possibility of human bosses - Fat man who wants the pizzas, levels with humans enemies in addition to zombies were discussed.

Level count discussion came down to two alternatives - 6/7 levels {mix of small and big} or three big levels with multiple pizzas to deliver in specific localities, explorations, mini goals, and an end boss to defeat. Rahul Sir suggested that we should stick to 3 levels to keep the game within scope. 

Two approaches to level design were discussed- one fixed path {close quarter combat} or open area {exploration}. The possibility of combining both was discussed. 

Replayability goals were - 1 or 2 times after initial level completion. One example to increase replayability was given - collect X no. stars to unlock a location in a level. Rahul Sir suggested we should focus on replayability, even if the level count was low. 

Finally, Rahul Sir asked us to do the four questions exercise as follows. 

1. What is this game’s main mechanic?

-Shoot and/ or avoid zombies in the level to deliver pizza to its destination

 2. What is the story of this game?

-The world is infected by a zombie apocalypse, but people need their pizza. It’s your job to deliver

the pizza fresh to the clients.

 3. How do you succeed in this game mechanically?

-Complete all levels delivering the pizza without dying. The Quicker you reach the customer, the hotter the pizza, and the more tips you get. The more zombies you kill, the more your rank/respect increases.

 4. What is the success narrative of this game?

-Completed all the levels by defeating the final mega-zombie boss.

The exercise helped to define the core of our game and gave us clarity.  Stay tuned for more updates!