Game Design Document for Reia

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Overview

This section outlines the purpose of the document, the target audience, and the concept statement of the game Reia.
  1. Name of Project: Reia
  2. Purpose of the Document: This document outlines the design of Reia, an open-source action adventure RPG. It details the game's concept, mechanics, world, story, technical aspects, production plan, and more. This document serves as a guide for development and a reference point for anyone interested in the game's design.
  3. Concept Statement: Reia is an open-source action adventure RPG where players explore a vast online world, complete quests, battle using spirits and power-enhancing soulstones, create their own player-owned islands, explore a massive infinite city, and more.
  4. Target Audience: People who enjoy action RPGs with online multiplayer elements, open world exploration, and deep character customization. The game is designed to be accessible to both casual and hardcore gamers, with a focus on community involvement and creativity.

Game Concept Design

This section details the genre, target audience, unique selling points, overall vision, and core gameplay loop of Reia.

Target & Genre

  1. Genre: Action Adventure RPG (MMORPG)
  2. Target Audience: PC gamers who enjoy action RPGs with online multiplayer elements, open world exploration, and deep character customization. Mobile and console players will also be a secondary target audience. And cozy gamers who enjoy crafting, gathering, and building their own spaces will be a tertiary target audience.
  3. Unique Selling Points:
    • Open-source development model allowing for community contribution.
    • Deep character customization with spirits, soulstones, and skill trees.
    • Player-owned islands and a massive, ever-expanding infinite city.
    • Crafting and gathering to create potions, food, gear, spellstones, and more.
  4. Overall Vision and Goals:
    • Create a vibrant and engaging online world that fosters community and player creativity.
    • Offer deep and rewarding character progression that keeps players engaged for long play sessions.
    • Foster a collaborative development environment where the community can contribute to the game's growth.

Gameplay

  1. Core Gameplay Loop: Explore the world, complete quests, battle enemies, collect resources, craft items, progress your character, and socialize with other players.
  2. Objectives: Complete quests, defeat challenging enemies, explore dungeons, and uncover the lore of the Reia's world.
  3. Progression: Gain experience by playing the game naturally to level up your character / items, unlock new skills and abilities with mastery over time included, and acquire powerful equipment.

Story (details to be added later)

  1. Main Story
  2. Quests
  3. Mini-Quests
  4. Lore

Art Direction and References

This section describes the visual and audio style of the game, including character and environment design, animation style, color palette, user interface (UI) design, sound effects, and music.

Visual Style (details to be added later)

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Character Design (details to be added later)

Reia Character Design Notes

Reia is the main character of the game. She's one of the four recently created Ethereals. Read more about her on the lore page for Ethereals.

Personality and Traits: Curious, brave, and empathetic. Reia has a strong sense of justice and a desire to help others. She is also highly intelligent and resourceful. She's kind and compassionate to those who live the world she created.

Physical Appearance: Reia has a toned build with long, braided hair that glows with a soft, ethereal light. She has bright, expressive eyes and a warm smile. Her clothing is practical yet stylish, designed for adventure. She has a pendant on her sash near her hip. Inside of it is a star representing her symbol. This same symbol appears 3 times on her necklace and once at the end of her hair braid.

Her outfit is a mid-length dress with a high slit on one side for mobility. The dress is adorned with gold clips on the sides and she has a light shawl draped over her shoulders. Her dress also curves and tapers off at the ends.

She wears wedges that lace up just above her ankles with stockings up to her mid-thigh. The wedges have a slight heel for style but are still practical. On the back of the wedges is her symbol along with some extra designs. The overall color palette is white with a subtle mix of all of the elements (fire, water, earth, air, light, dark) with an ombré design. And gold accents for jewelry.

Abilities and Powers: Reia isn't particularly strong with any one speicific element. However, she has a natural affinity for all elements, allowing her to adapt to various situations. Her mastery over using multiple abilities allows her to combine elements in creative ways, making her strong in a unique way.

Urik Character Design Notes

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Tacitus Character Design Notes

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??? Character Design Notes

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Environment Design (details to be added later)

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Animation Style (details to be added later)

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Color Palette (details to be added later)

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User Interface (UI) Design (details to be added later)

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Audio Design (details to be added later)

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Sound Effects (details to be added later)

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Music (details to be added later)

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Detailed Game Design

This section dives deeper into the specific mechanics of the game, including combat, inventory, crafting, player-owned islands, the infinite city, PvP, economy, and player-made content.

Combat (details to be added later)

  1. Spirits
  2. Soulstones
  3. Passive and Skill Tree

Inventory & Gear (details to be added later)

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Crafting and Gathering (details to be added later)

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Player-Owned Island (POI)

  1. Players can customize their own island.
  2. Build structures to harvest resources.
  3. Hire NPCs or players to...

Infinite City

  1. Dangers
  2. Sharing or Selling Maps
  3. Risks and Rewards

PvP (details to be added later)

  1. Governining Cities and War

Economy (details to be added later)

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Player-Made Content (details to be added later)

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Technical Design

This section outlines the technical aspects of the game's development, including the game engine, graphics rendering, scripting languages, web programming, data handling, and specifications and scope.

Game Programming

  1. Game Engine: The Godot Game Engine (v4.5+).
  2. Graphics Rendering: Vulkan & Direct3D 12 support for both high-performance graphics and old GPUs. OpenGL ES 3.0 support web (HTML5) platforms and all companion releases.
  3. Programming Languages: GDScript for high-level programming, Rust through gdext for more performance.
  4. Shader Languages: GDShader/GLSL.
  5. Localization: Godot's built-in translation system.
  6. Networking: Sustenet, our custom networking solution built in Rust.

Web Programming

  1. Frontend: SvelteKit & Tailwind CSS for optimizations and SEO. Paraglide for i18n translations.
  2. Backend: Vercel with Supabase for user authentication and storage. It'll also link with Turso to load specific user data.

Data Handling

  1. Authentication: Turso through Rust handles all OpenID Connect (OIDC) auths for Steam / Epic Games / other platforms and also email / password signups. This gets linked to a Supabase account to be used on the website.
  2. Online Database: Turso with Rust for authentication and core game data.
  3. Offline Support: Turso with Rust enables seamless online and offline play.

Specs & Scope

  1. Target Platforms: PC, Mobile support, and a heavy focus on Console ports later. The companion app will be a trimmed down 2D version of the game with a focus on crafting, gathering, and social features. It'll also have combat, but it'll be more casual and less intensive than the main game. This app is available on all platforms, including web (HTML5).
  2. Team Size: Core Team and community contributors.
  3. Project Timeline: We're aiming for an alpha release around May 2026. If it takes longer, we'll postpone to reach our goal properly for the following year. But we want the release to be in May for a Kickstarter.

Production Design

This section covers the plans for marketing, monetization, platform availability, funding, and the overall production timeline.
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Marketing (details to be added later)

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Monetization (details to be added later)

  1. How will the game make money? Premium purchase? F2P? How do you justify this within the design?

The game will be free to play on all platforms. However, there will be optional paid content such as cosmetics, expansions, and a premium membership that offers quality of life features and early access to new content. This approach allows us to keep the game accessible to everyone while still generating revenue to support ongoing development and server costs. This content can still be accessed without paying money. If a friend has the content unlocked, in most cases, you can use it as well without paying.

Platforms

  1. PC (Windows / Mac / Linux)
  2. Mobile (iOS / Android)
  3. Web (HTML5)
  4. Console (PS5 / XBOX / Nintendo Switch)

The plan is to make the game accessible on multiple platforms, ensuring a wide reach and engagement from various user bases. There's a strong focus on PC support. Mobile comes second, and console comes third. The companion app is uniform across all platforms. The role of the companion app is to allow players to engage with the game world in a more casual and social manner, focusing on crafting, gathering, and light combat. It serves as a complement to the main game, providing a different experience. You'll be able to manage things about your account and character throug the companion app.

Funding (details to be added later)

  1. Self-funded: We went this route to stay true to the purpose of this project. To provide something everyone loves without changing it up for profits. And if we run out of money, that's okay. The project doesn't magically die.
  2. Crowdfunded: We want to allow the community to support the game as well. Their support goes straight into things that will obviously get a return. Payments to contributors through our Open Collective and server costs as well.

Production Plan (details to be added later)

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