Sky Pirates.

Blurb:  Play as a seaplane bounty hunter on the most dangerous ocean in the world.  Take jobs from pirate gangs hunting loot or work for the ports protecting people for profit.

influences/inspiration/copywrite infrigments.

• Porko Russo (Setting) (Art)
• Windwaker (dynamic arc and gameplay context)
• Jak and Daxter (PSP) (Flight Controls) (Platforming)
• Waterworld (Setting)
• Ratchet and Clank 2 (the space combat bits) (Flight Controls)
• Indiana Jones (for ancient temple, pure platforming levels)

Gameplay: 

Game has two main game play modes, Arial combat and a FPS/Action rpg hybrid.  Missions will generally involve flying to location (either in your own time or tailing somebody, or, etc)  With an ground based level in the middle, followed by flying to the final location (to return the stolen goods/ While fighting off your pursuers/ etc).

Arial combat will be very simple (more burnout than forza) with a focus on easy controls and interesting missions and situations.  Players will have control of Thrust, Pitch and Yaw with Roll simulated during Yaw control.  A minimum flight speed will be enforced, as planes wont be able to stall and should not be able to float mid air.   Weapons will primarily be forward facing guns with bombs and missiles possible extras.

Ground Combat will blend FPS and Platforming to create interesting levels with a flow between action and puzzle solving.  The camera can be toggled by the player between FP ( Much better shooting accuracy, slower move speed, turn speed and lower jump height) and 3rd person (Poor shooting accuracy, faster movement and turn speed and improved jump).  This relationship is similar to the difference between normal play and iron sights in FPSs.

Art Style:

Game will use a combination of toon shading and watercolor effects to emulate traditional anime movies.  People complain about how they can tell which rock will blow up next or which door will open because its the cartoon one, out of place on its watercolor background.  This effect will be used to inform player which objects they can interact with and which they can't.

Story :

Good Question.  You lost your dog or something.  Or your wife died and your searching for an ancient magic to bring her back or I don't know.

Example Mission:

The Governors Daughter has been kidnapped by Nasty Sea Plane Pirates and he's offering a large reward for her return.  You get a tip on where they're hiding her and make your way there.  The guards on the dock are easy to deal with but the warehouse is locked up tight.  You climb the sea cliffs nearby and find an open skylight in the roof to drop in.

After taking out the pirate gang inside you find the girl and make your way back to your plane.  As soon as you take off pirate reinforcements are hot on your tail and you destroy them all in a daring and bloody dogfight before taking the girl home.

1. Arrive from Port after reciving mission
2. Take out pirates guarding dock (Shooting)
3. Scale Cliff to find way in (Platforming)
4. Take out pirates inside (Shooting)
5. Find Girl
6. Take Girl Back to plane and leave
7. Dogfight with pirates in planes and






This Graph Show the balance between the two types of "fun" at each point in the mission.  Both swap between high impactful peaks early in the mission with a small lull (as you take the girl back to the plane) adding impact to the final dogfight.

Higher difficultly levels may give the pirates an air guard on your approach (adding a dog fight to the beginning of the level), a couple of pirates hiding in the cliff platforming section (keeping the combat pressure on and making the platforming harder to focus on) and pirate reinforcements when you return to your plane (removing any break from combat in the entire mission.

Longer missions can provide multiple paths, some with a lot of combat and very little platforming and some requiring a lot of very carefully timed jumps but with very few enemies allowing players to play their preferred way and change the difficulty of mission through in game choices.  A completionist. may decide to enter through one path and exit by the other to collect as much loot as possible, whereas leaving by the route you already cleared would be easier and faster (especially in the case of combat).

To encourage the player to engage in multiple game play types, platforming, combat and aerial combat will all provide a variety of loot.  Enemies will drop money, weapons and ammunition in combat, platforming areas will be littered with chests containing Money, clothing and plane parts and combat will net players money from bounties and scrap metal (for plane upgrades) grated as a share from scrap collecting ships.

Game arc and Progression:

As players progress through the game they will unlock new types of landing gear for their plane. Players begin with a sea plane that can only land on water.  Some islands will have areas only accessible if you can land on an inland runaway (due to sea cliffs or impassable terrain).  Partway through the game players gain access to hybrid landing gear which enables runway landings as well as ocean landings.  The final landing type will be a jump jet system relying on rotating engines.  This will allow players to land on almost any large flat piece of land and will enable late game players to complete missions in a variety of different ways. (in the above example a player may land above the cliffs skipping steps 2 and 3).