Running head: FROM THE DREGS 1

From the Dregs

Final Capstone Project Proposal

CST 499

California State University, Monterey Bay

Hunter L. Mason

April 16, 2019

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Executive Summary

Today’s video game industry is a much different market than it was a couple of decades

ago. With the many of the larger companies trying to develop the most profitable game genres

and innovative marketing techniques, they often sacrifice essential game design steps or

intentionally avoid them to increase possible profits.

From the Dregs is a single player, fantasy themed, tactical role-playing game that

emphasizes player strategy, careful planning, and exploration. Players will be able to create a

unique character and delve through various dungeons, caverns, and other hostile environments to

gather loot, battle enemies, and enhance their character’s abilities to fit their own playstyle.

Community is extremely important to this project’s design, and player feedback will be

gathered regularly for review. During the initial development cycle, content will be added for

select players to test out so that necessary changes can be made before public builds are released.

After the initial release, regular content updates will add new features such as items, levels,

enemies, and playable heroes.

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Table of Contents

Part I 4
Introduction 4
Description 4
Goals 5
Objectives 6
Tactics-style combat. 6
Equipment and consumables. 7
Randomly generated levels. 7
Character progression and trading. 7
Persistence and character death. 8
Environmental Scan 8
Stakeholders and Community 10
Approach 11

Part II 12
Ethical Considerations 12
Legal Considerations 13

Part III 14
Budget 14
Milestones 14
Final Deliverables 15
Usability Testing and Evaluation 15
Team Members 16

References 16

Appendix A 19

Appendix B 19

Appendix C 19

Appendix D 19

Appendix E 20
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Part I

Introduction

A ​tactical role-playing game​ (TRPG) is a subgenre of the very popular ​role-playing game

(RPG) that also uses strategic elements to complement traditional RPG gameplay elements.

From the Dregs is a TRPG in which the player can create a unique character, set off on an

adventure, battle monsters, collect treasure, solve puzzles, and be rewarded for overcoming

difficult tasks. It focuses heavily on strategy, character progression, and a gameplay loop that is

easy to learn. From the Dregs has been in development over the last few months with massive

inspiration from games I enjoy playing from all different genres and there are likely others that

will enjoy a game that combines all of these design elements. While some of the systems in this

project may be similar to systems within other successful games, I’m confident that no game so

far has combined these gameplay elements to create a unique experience in this way.

Description

The first iteration of From the Dregs was a concept I thought of a few years back when

creating a prototype for a turn-based game with very simple mechanics and enemy artificial

intelligence (AI). Since then, the game has gone through three other iterations, the first of those

was a game written in the Java programming language that I abstracted from the original design.

It was far from polished, but there was a full game loop where players could battle monsters and
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enhance their character’s limited abilities within a small rectangular room. This project was

submitted as my final project for my Software Design course which I took in spring of 2018.

On the second of these iterations, I improved on the game’s overall optimization and

rewrote my existing code in the JavaScript programming language. Additionally I implemented a

leaderboard system hosted on a cloud database so that players could compete for the highest

score. During a test with a small number of individuals I found that even at this early stage in

development players would enjoy replaying the game and challenging others for high scores

even with its simple design.

Goals

In the past decade or so, game industry has become somewhat stagnant in my opinion

with many of the larger companies competing for the top spot by using morally questionable

marketing techniques and nearly all of them attempting to appeal to the majority. This is a

glaring issue because while the majority does enjoy the content produced, there is still a smaller

community of all ages that would like to see more games that favor gameplay, replayability, and

a generally unique design over expensive assets, extensive marketing, and the use of loot boxes.

By completing this project, I want to reinforce the idea that it’s possible to create a well

designed game with a small team or even a solo developed, a limited budget and minimal

resources. I think this is important for the long-term health of the game industry to create smaller

and more focused projects that appeal to more than just the masses. There are still plenty of

customers that are looking for different types of games that the larger companies avoid because

it’s not currently the most profitable.

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From the Dregs is designed for entertainment and while there are many forms of

entertainment, games are able to engage the user both physically and mentally which is unique

and something that other media cannot provide. Because of this, I believe videos games will be a

stimulating source of entertainment for decades to come. I intend to develop a game has great

replay value, each time it’s played it should feel a little different and players can experience a

unique adventure each time.

Objectives

Tactics-style combat.

This game will feature a 4-directional grid-based movement system which is designed to

keep gameplay relatively simple to understand. When in combat, the player takes turns moving

and using abilities to fight enemies. Both the player and each enemy are only be allowed a

certain number of actions each turn so caution and planning ahead will be rewarded. A feature

new to this version of the game is that enemies now have “telegraphs” that let the player know of

their intended action during the next turn. This mechanic allows for the player to find patterns in

enemy attacks, deal with multiple enemies at once, and generally find the most optimal move for

a given situation. Each enemy type will have its own unique set of abilities, behavior, and items.

The player can learn how to deal with each type of enemy by observing the various telegraphs

they may have. Rare enemies may have an unknown telegraph which usually indicates some sort

of dangerous ability for the player to watch out for.

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Equipment and consumables.

As the player adventures, they will find items such as armor, weapons, potions, and

treasures. Weapons, when equipped will allow the player to use a set of combat abilities, these

are different from their character’s innate abilities and are unique to each weapon. Armor will

generally grant defensive bonuses, but they will also sometimes grant the use of unique combat

abilities as well. Various consumable items can be used to recover health in battle, cure poison,

bandage wounds, or even allow the player escape in an emergency.

Randomly generated levels.

The levels that the player traverses will be randomly generated within parameters set for

that given biome. The enemies, items, and appearance of each level will depend on the biome in

which it exists. Players should experience a different overall layout each time they enter or

re-enter that area. To progress to the next level, a player must find a specific key hidden within

the level which can be used to open the lock on the exit door.

Character progression and trading.

As the player defeats enemies and finds loot throughout the game, they will acquire

currency. This currency can be used at the shop to buy items and even increase the player

character’s attributes. Currency can be acquired by selling unwanted items to a shop. Increasing

attributes determines a character’s combat effectiveness and also what weapons and armor they

can equip. The main attributes are strength, dexterity, intelligence, and constitution. Strength

determines the effectiveness of heavy weapons and armor, dexterity determines the effectiveness
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of quick weapons and mobility, intelligence determines the effectiveness of spells, and

constitution represents the player’s maximum health and healing received by spells or

consumables.

Persistence and character death.

When a player is defeated, they will drop all of the currency they are carrying and then be

returned to the starting hub of the game. When the player re-enters the level they were last

defeated, a container hidden in the level will contain the currency that was previously dropped.

Once a player has entered a level, they cannot leave unless they find the exit, are defeated, or use

a potion to return to the starting area. The reason for this mechanic is to encourage players to

make strategic decisions and plan ahead when setting off into the next area of the game. With

limited healing options and knowing that death means the loss of all currency, players should try

to be careful with which enemy encounters they choose to take on and minimize losses during

each engagement. Players who are mindful may notice that there is an potion sold by the vendor

in the starting area that allows them to return to the starting area safely if the player is not in

combat.

Environmental Scan

The largest inspirations for this project are TRPG’s like the ​Fire Emblem​ series, though I

did borrow a lot of design elements from games such as ​Divinity: Original Sin II​, ​Dark Souls​,

and ​Slay the Spire.​ There are aspects of each of these game series which I think are very well

done and should be expressed more and experimented with, even in other genres.
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Slay the Spire is ​roguelike​ card game that emphasizes planning ahead and making the

best of a bad situation. Healing in Slay the Sprite is not easy to come across and most of the time

when given the opportunity to heal, the player must choose between upgrading their cards or

healing their character. Choosing healing over upgrading cards can have immediate rewards

because the player may be able to survive the next few encounters, however the long term effects

of choosing healing over upgrading a card will probably not appear until later on when the

player’s cards are too weak to defeat strong enemies. In this way, Slay the Spire encourages

players to plan ahead and minimize their losses in each battle.

One aspect in particular that is extremely important in Slay the Spire is the fact that when

the player is in combat with enemies, icons will appear above each of them that indicates what

they will try to do on their next turn. This way the player can make an educated decision on how

to handle the situation in the most efficient way possible. Sometimes this doesn’t always work

out, but when it does there is something extremely rewarding about a plan coming together.

Desctructoid author Marzano describes the gameplay of Slay the Spire, “There's just the right

amount of strategy and luck involved where it keeps you on your toes” (Marzano, 2019). I plan

to incorporate my own take on this design choice in my project because I believe it’s less

common than it should be in video games.

Dark Souls is an action role-playing game in a dark fantasy themed world that focuses

heavily on has amazing level design and interesting enemy encounters. While it’s common for

this game to be labeled as a difficult game, that’s not entirely true and the reason for it seeming

overly-difficult at times is usually due to lack of patience and willingness to learn how each

encounter works. Fextralife author unclebartek explains how Dark Souls is actually a learning
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experience and an exercise in patience, “From Software’s sublime game design strategy makes a

point to reward methodical play as opposed to demanding pure skill. None of the core mechanics

demand physical dexterity; they simply demand patience” (unclebartek, 2016). Every enemy has

a set number of moves it can do and after observing and learning the possible attacks they can

use, it becomes much easier to handle the encounter and doing so will probably feel very

rewarding. It’s important for games to nudge players in the right direction and give them the

tools to succeed, but then let them try different things to see what works and what doesn’t.

Stakeholders and Community

The main stakeholders in this project will be the end users and the community as a whole.

For this reason, it’s important that information about the project’s development is as transparent

as possible and user feedback is crucial. During the development cycle, a small focus group of

players will be able to play a smaller level and then fill out a Google form to collect feedback.

Additionally, a few select players will be asked to either record themselves playing the game, or

join a video conference while as they play through the various test levels. Having a history of

what a player does when they first get into the game is extremely important feedback because it

allows for changes to be made before the project’s release. If players are having trouble

navigating the UI or figuring out how to use certain items, that is probably an indication that they

should be redesigned in a more intuitive way. Players should not need to be explicitly shown or

told how to do everything in the game, but at the start it may be necessary to place text hints in

the form of signs or items within the game that will hopefully not break the gameplay flow as the

player is learning.
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Approach

Many of the objectives in this project have been already completed since the total

development cycle goes back a few months, but the following is what’s planned for the

remainder of the development cycle. The Agile approach will be taken towards completing this

project with each sprint lasting a week. The first, third, and fifth sprints will be used to add new

features and essential gameplay elements. At the end of those sprints, players will be able to test

the game and leave feedback. During the second, fourth, and sixth sprints, most of the time will

be spent analyzing player feedback and making adjustments to current systems as needed. The

new features to be added are mostly in the form of content such as new enemy types, additional

spells, new items, and more level templates for the randomizer.

● Week 1:​ Design test level. Add new features.

● Week 2: ​Gather and analyze player feedback. Make changes accordingly.

● Week 3: ​Add new features. Make changes to test level emphasizing new features.

● Week 4:​ Gather and analyze player feedback. Make changes accordingly.

● Week 5: ​Add new features. Make changes to test level emphasizing new features.

● Week 6: ​Gather and analyze player feedback. Make changes accordingly.

● Week 7: ​Add new features if needed.

● Week 8: ​Clean up source code and documentation.

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Part II

Ethical Considerations

From the Dregs will be free for download upon completion of the capstone course. This

does not mean that the final version of From the Dregs will be free, and depending on the

community’s reception, this project may eventually require funding in which case the funding

would go towards adding more features. In late summer of this year, I will begin reaching out to

various publishers, investors, and fans of the project for funding. While the goal is to reach a

large amount of players, the initial price of the project may not be able to stay free. In the case

that this happens, I would like to keep the initial price of the game to a minimum so players

around the world can have access, but still allow myself the resources to keep creating future

updates. If the game turns out to be free, then additional updates will most likely have a fee,

however, if the game has an upfront cost, then the additional updates will probably be free. This

project will never utilize a microtransaction store or randomized rewards in exchange for real

currency as I believe these marketing tactics are predatory.

From the Dregs currently runs with minimal requirements for a video game and as the

project expands, I would like to keep requirements to a minimum so that many players can

experience it. While only the Windows operating system is supported for ease of development,

there are plans for a Linux and Mac release as well as in the later future, iOS and Android.

Mobile games don’t have the best reputation in terms of marketing and for this reason, the two

latter platforms will still follow the same marketing model as the other platforms. Just because a

game is on a mobile device doesn’t make it any more ethical to inject predatory marketing tactics
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such as loot boxes and microtransactions; From the Dregs will steer clear of these marketing

trends.

There are no current plans for storing using data, however a leaderboard may eventually

be added to the game which will require the storage of user data. In the case that a leaderboard

feature is added, user data will be store as securely as possible in a way where only the owner of

the data will have access and any user data stored on remote servers will be encrypted. The

privacy of a user’s data is extremely important and it will never be distributed.

Legal Considerations

All image assets used in From the Dregs are either created by myself or are royalty free

assets I’ve purchased. All code used in From the Dregs was created by myself, this will only

change in the case where the project receives additional funding, some features may be

outsourced or developed by additional members of the development team should it expand.

The primary font face used in this project is ​Roboto Condensed​ designed by Christian

Robertson, and it available under the Apache License, Version 2.0, for more information about

this license see ​Appendix B​. The documentation for From the Dregs is was generated using

Doxygen​, created by Dimitri van Heesch and is available under the GNU General Public

License, for more information about this license see ​Appendix C​.

The project is being developed using the Unity game engine with the Personal Edition

which states that this project can be sold commercially as long as it does not receive $100,000 or

more combined annual revenue and funding. Receiving this amount of annual funding or revenue

are extremely unlikely, but in the case where annual funding or revenue exceeds $100,000 the
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Unity plan will be upgraded to the Plus plan which allows a maximum of $200,000 annual. See

Appendix D​ for more information on subscription plans for the Unity game engine.

Part III

Budget

One of the goals of this project is to create a fun game with limited resources, money is

one of these resources and it will be carefully budgeted. So far, all software used is free except

for the Unity engine which only becomes a paid subscription if the project beings making over

$100,000 annual. The assets were almost all created for free except for some of the scenery and

character images, these were paid for and are royalty free. Looking further into development, if

the game receives funding the money will be carefully budgeted into improving the overall

quality of the project. This means more ambitious features, a full soundtrack, cleaner animations,

and more. As of now, there isn’t a whole lot of resources that need to be budgeted except for

time, this resources is covered in more detail below.

Milestones

In between each milestone, there will be a length of 2 to 3 days of user testing to assure

quality and make changes to the new features as needed.

1. Create 5 unique enemy types for players to battle.

2. Create a playable dungeon for users to test.

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3. Design the Mage and Rogue starting classes.

4. Create a full scale dungeon with a boss enemy at the end.

5. Release a stable Windows version and host the download on the project website.

6. Host the project documentation on the project website.

Final Deliverables

The final deliverables for this project will include the game client, a launcher for the

game which will handle any updates and installation, documentation of the game’s code, and a

website where all of this can accessed. While the project could be completed with just the game

client itself, having a platform where players can continue to see update information is very

important for testing and growing a player-base and long term growth of this game will greatly

benefit from having a hub dedicated to it. Looking into the future, a Wiki dedicated to the game

would be very useful and if time allows, this is an additional feature that both players and

developers could contribute to.

Usability Testing and Evaluation

Usability testing is one of the most important elements of this project’s development.

Testers will work closely with the developer and provide feedback through audio, video, and

surveys after each test cycle. To make this as easy as possible for testers, the landing website will

include a section for sign-ups and upon completion, testers will be added to a mailing list so that

they can be notified when a new version of the game is available. Additionally, there is an

installation guide on the website that includes images and a text tutorial on how to install the
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game launcher. The game launcher handles all updating and will retrieve the latest build once it

has been published. The latest updates can also be viewed on the website in text format on the

patch notes page that contains an entire history of all updates made to the game client.

During each test cycle a new survey is added to the website for users to fill out after

completing their test session. Each survey will have questions regarding the latest build of the

game so changes that need to be made during the next cycle can be documented and then acted

upon. All testers are encouraged to complete a survey, but some testers can opt into sharing their

experience through a video recording or screen-share service. This extra information is very

useful because it allows a developer to see how people are playing the game, what choices are

made, where they get stuck, and more. A link to the official website for this project can be found

in ​Appendix E​.

Team Members

Hunter Mason

References

Tactical role-playing game. (2019, April 3). ​Wikipedia.​ Retrieved April 6, 2019, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_role-playing_game
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Role-playing game. (2019, April 5). ​Wikipedia.​ Retrieved April 6, 2019, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_video_game

Fire Emblem. (2019, March 10). ​Wikipedia​. Retrieved April 6, 2019, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem

Divinity: Original Sin II. (2019, April 5). ​Wikipedia​. Retrieved April 6, 2019, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity:_Original_Sin_II

Dark Souls. (2019, April 3). ​Wikipedia.​ Retrieved April 6, 2019, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Souls

Slay the Spire. (2019, March 19). ​Wikipedia.​ Retrieved April 6, 2019, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slay_the_Spire

Marzano, A. (2019, January 23). ​Slay the Spire has Left Early Access and it’s Still one of the

Best Games I’ve Played in Years.​ Retrieved April 9, 2019, from

https://www.destructoid.com/slay-the-spire-has-left-early-access-and-it-s-still-one-of-the-

best-games-i-ve-played-in-years-539966.phtml
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unclebartek. (2016, April 13). ​Why Dark Souls’ Notorious Difficulty is Largely a Myth​.

Retrieved April 9, 2019, from

https://fextralife.com/why-dark-souls-notorious-difficulty-is-largely-a-myth/

Robertson, C. ​Google Fonts.​ Retrieved April 16, 2019, from

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto+Condensed

Heesch, D. (2019, March 24). ​Doxygen.​ Retrieved April 16, 2019, from ​http://www.doxygen.nl/
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Appendix A

From the Dregs Documentation

The official From the Dregs project documentation can be found at

https://hmason55.github.io/FTD/documentation/​.

Appendix B

Apache License, Version 2.0

The official and most current Apache license can be found at

https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Appendix C

GNU General Public License, Version 2.0

The GNU General Public License can be found at

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Appendix D

Unity Subscription Plans

Available subscription plans for the Unity game engine can be found at

https://store.unity.com/compare-plans
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Appendix E

From the Dregs Website

The official website for From the Dregs, containing tester sign-up, tutorials, patch notes, and

more.

https://hmason55.github.io/FTD/