Wagons Co aims to be that little niggle that creeps into your head when the world slows for a couple of precious moments. Did that nice guy O’Brian and his family make it or did they end up eating each other in the frozen mountains. The goal is to create an addictive emotionally engaging experience that will hook the player to actually be invested in their own Wagon Train business.

Set in a Loony Tunes inspired version of America’s famous Wild West, Wagons Co combines elements from management/expansion and tower defence games and builds on Supercells established style and strengths. The player will begin and build a company transporting people to the frontier in the west. Players can expand their company and have the option join with other players to form conglomerates or become an underhanded varmint, sabotage their operations.

To become successful in the wagon train business the player will need to understand the needs of sustenance and security for their customers and balance risk and reward for a uniquely emotional experience. Building the securest wagons, employing the ‘rootinist tootinist’ gunmen, breeding the strongest horses and selecting the most suitable route will ensure those looking to seek their fortune on the frontier of the new world reach their new life.

Platform

Mobile gaming has become one of the most popular and convenient ways to play games. The market has grown rapidly over a few short years with the development of affordable and accessible tablets and smartphones as well as the development of free to play game models. Developing games for this platform can be very lucrative for smaller companies keeping development costs down and; if successful, return high.

Audience

Wagons Co is designed first and foremost to be played on Android or IOS tablets and smartphones ideal for modern life. Whether spare 5 minutes while on the bus or waiting in a queue or a longer session when relaxing at home, Wagons Co gameplay caters to all lifestyles.

The target demographic for the game is both male and female aged 18-70. Early adopters will be the people who enjoy resource management games already and are looking for a new experiences. The core audience Wagons Co is aimed at is the ‘post-core’ people who love playing games but cannot find the time to devote any more than 5 -10 minutes a day.

Customer zero is early 30’s, comfortably employed with a family to raise. Having spent most of their youth playing games they have bought the new Sim City when it was released but have only had the opportunity to play it for half an hour since then. If they could take it with them on the commute to work they would have a striving metropolis by now.

Current Market

The target market for Wagons Co has thousands of options with what to do for that spare 5 minutes. In reality, this game is competing with not just other games but also the likes of Facebook, Kindle, Twitter and the internet as a whole all competing for the moment a person’s mind can wander.

Both Google Play for Android and the App Store for Apple there are thousands of games and apps available some with fees, some free. The most successful of these are simple yet addictive games based on core loops of gameplay.

Aesthetics

Art Style

Wagons Co will continue the aesthetic influence from the Super Nintendo era role playing games that influenced Supercell’s previous games ‘Hay day’ and ‘Clash of Clans’. Isometric type camera position with a simple zoom mechanism gets the most from the 3D environment.

Colour palette

Bright but not garish for characters, they will also be colour coded for ease of recognition. Buildings and landscape will be slightly more pastel.

Characters and structures take heavy influence from the Warner Brothers ‘Loony Toons’ cartoons. Character models will be influenced by the body proportions of Yosemite Sam and Uncle Pecos from a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

Audio

Sound effects will again take inspiration from classic cartoons like ‘Loony Toons’ and ‘Tom and Jerry’.

The soundtrack will be very minimal will take influence from the music of Ennio Morricone work in ‘Fist Full of Dollars’ and will also incorporate a ’Jaw Harp’ and slow Banjo.

Some voice work will be used for when the Character ‘Gilhoolie’ pops on screen. Trope phases suitable to the character will be used to convey happiness disappointment and confusion. For example ‘Yee haw”, “Dang nabit” and “What in tarnation?”

Player Interface

Interaction with the game is done through the touchscreen interface.

Tap to select items or enter menus

Swipe/drag to move items

Notifications: advise of updates on wagon trains

Story

The game begins with the player being left a sum of money, a rickety old ranch and land in their long lost Uncle Zebadiah’s will. Introduced to your uncle’s friend Gilhoolie, he explains the small print of the will, that you start a wagon company to transport people to the frontier He explains that the business is quite cut throat and there many rival companies who may try to sabotage the operation and some who will join forces with you.

During the game characters and families will speak to the player telling humorous or tragic tails, offering advice, extra incentives and bonuses for meeting certain demands. This puts a face to the customers you are sending out in the wild frontier.

Characters

The concept below is Gilhoolie, he serves to give the game a face and will be the character that guides the player through the tutorial and is there to offer help, advice and comic relief. He is based on the concept of the eccentric frontiersman of the Wild West. Each facet of the ranch would have its own unique character, for instance Sally the Smith or Willy the Wrangler. Other characters would be a base model with various features and clothes that could be interchanged to create different characters.

Social

Player can link accounts to Facebook and Google +

Building on clash of clans existing strengths. Wagons Co has an in game chat room where players can ask for and offer advice, advertise to merge companies and chat.

Leader boards and league tables

Updated to the players device advising of completion of an expedition or unit upgrade.

Player Vs Player

Part of the game play is to sabotage and ambush other companies’ wagon trains.

The player sending the expedition only gets an update when the wagon train arrives at its destination or is destroyed in an ambush. It is their job to properly equip the wagons and set the formation for the best defence.

The player initiating the ambush sets their units along the path like a tower defence game in order to destroy the incoming wagons.

With experience and points awarded for successful ambushes or defences. Wagons Co has league tables to keep track of how well the player is doing.

Special events

During holidays special event will take place to mark the occasion. A snow theme for winter, a spooky theme for Halloween. This would add novelty to the aesthetics and also offer unique items and story options.

Other special events will have bonuses for certain destinations PVP based will also be added to retain and entice players back to the game.

Future development could use the same base gameplay but it would be driving cattle instead of wagons.

Resources

As a resource management game there are 6 main resources

Wood:

Harvested in game.

Used to build and upgrade buildings and Wagons

Metal:

Bought at market and later mined on ranch.

Used to build and upgrade wagons

Bucks:

Earned through successfully getting customers to their destination and doing Ambushes.

Used to buy horses, Provisions and hire ranch hands and gunslingers

Beans:

Grown on the ranch or bought at the market.

Used to feed people while on the wagon trail

Cloth:

For to build Upgraded wagons

Gold:

Premium Currency can be found in game or bought through the games market for real money.

Used to speed up building of buildings or units or used to buy safe passage to the destination.

Base Gameplay

Player gain experience by completing tasks and building/upgrading units. This goes toward the player’s level. This in turn unlocks new units, upgrades and options. Max level would be level 50.

Players begin with a rickety house in an area of land that can be named by the player. The character Gilhoolie’s tutorial takes the player through

· The resources and how they work

· How to harvest wood

· Build a storage barn and work shed

· Buy horses and hire ranch hands in the market.

The Ranch

In order to progress the player must build and upgrade various buildings. Upgrades will allow better capacity and access to unit upgrades

Office: to access market, plan routes and unlock destination

Barns: to store Provisions and wagons

· Houses: for the ranch hands and gunslingers.

· Work sheds: to build wagons

· Corral: for the horses

· Waiting room: for travellers to await transport

· Shooting range: to train/level up gunslingers

Units

Wagons

The work shed and wood is used to build and upgrade wagons. The first type of wagon the player has access to is the basic open top wagon. As they level up and upgrade the work shed they get access to larger wagons that can take more damage before being destroyed, hold more people, equip them with Shot Gunners and later Gatling Guns.

Gunslingers

The base Gunslinger unit carries one pistol and can be hired through the market .The player has the option of building a Shooting Range that allows for units to be trained. When part of an expedition the gunslingers will be horse mounted and on foot when part of an ambush. Units are colour coded and have varying amounts of health. If a unit has taken damage it can be rested for a period to restore it to full health. If a unit dies it can no longer be used and can be replaced.

Lvl 1 Single Pistol Gunslinger (Red waistcoat)

Horse mounted. Minimum damage per shot, slow fire rate. Health level 1.

Lvl 2 Duel Pistol Gunslinger (Blue waistcoat)

Horse Mounted. Minimum damage per shot, faster fire rate. Health level 2.

Lvl 3 Rifleman (Black Duster) or Shot Gunners (Brown Duster)

Player chooses specialisation. Horse or wagon mounted. Heavy damage, slow fire rate. Health level 3.

Lvl 4 Marksmen (Green Duster) or Demolition (Purple Duster)

Marksmen have longer range and faster fire rate. Health level 4 Demolition can use or disarm TNT. TNT can be thrown at short range for heavy area of effect damage but can be destroyed early by a defending Marksmen.

The Drifters (Stripped poncho)

Gunslingers cannot be trained and can only be hired with Gold (Premium Currency) once the player reaches level 15. 1 Unit can also be awarded to player every 5 levels Only one can be employed at a time. Uses powerful pistols, heavy damage and fast rate of fire. Health level 4

Wagon/Ambush gameplay

Defence

When sending out a wagon train the player first selects the destination. Each destination has two routes, one faster and one safer. At later levels more destinations can become available.

After selecting the route the player is presented with a screen with which to arrange a formation. Wagons always travel single file but the mounted gunslingers can be organised around them to try and get the most effective defence. The player will also be presented with an estimate of the minimum Provisions needed and asked to choose how much to allocate over the minimum. The more damage the wagons take the more provisions are used up. This may result in the Wagon train not reaching its destination due to starvation.

Attack

When attacking the player is presented with a map of the ambush area. Units can be placed along the road in any formation. Placing units on high ground adds a range bonus. If the ambush is successful the attacking player is rewarded with Experience, Money, Provisions and surviving units are returned to the Ranch

Core Gameplay loop

In a typical session the player will

· Receive update and rewards of previous expedition

· Collect harvested wood

· Build/upgrade building and units

· Breed horses

· Buy Provisions

· Hire more gunslingers

· Set wagon train formation, Provisions and route

· Organise and play ambush mini game

Monetisation

Actions like building/upgrading buildings or units takes real time. As the building/units upgrade level rises so does the time taken to complete the job.

The played will be able to use the premium currency (Gold) to complete the job instantly.

· Gold can be used to buy safe passage to a destination, stopping any ambushes.

· Gold can be used to buy units of the other resources, Provisions, Wood Money.

· Gold can be used to buy vanity items like costumes for Gunslingers and seasonal decorations for the Ranch

Premium currency packs

500 Gold - £1.99

1200 Gold - £4.99

2500 Gold - £9.99

7500 Gold - £24.99

15000 Gold - £44.99

Tech requirements

To complete this project the team consists of

1 Designer

2 Artists

1 Audio

2 Programmers

To create Wagons Co we will be using

Adobe Flash http://www.adobe.com/support/flash/downloads.html

Adobe PhotoShop http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop.html

Autodesk 3Ds Max http://www.autodesk.co.uk/products/autodesk-3ds-max/overview

Marmalade SDK https://www.madewithmarmalade.com/shop

The Player will require

A tablet or smartphone supporting iOS 5 or Android 4.1.2

WiFi or mobile network connectivity.

Production Schedule

Development for this project will be chunked into blocks.

· Preproduction

· Production

· Soft Launch

· Global Launch with Rolling Updates

With this model the roles of the development team can multitask during the times when their part is done. After preproduction the artists and audio, pick up marketing duties along with any tweaks or re do’s of art and audio assets as necessary.

To keep track of progress and any problems that arise the team will meet every Monday morning. At that meeting we will discuss the requirements for that week.

Team reviews and crit sessions will happen every second Friday. At that meeting we will review the work that has been done. Identify anything that is lacking and plan resolutions for problems.

Marketing Plan

£75,000 allotted to marketing campaign

The first stage of the marketing relies on assistance from Supercell themselves. Utilising their current resources and channels to get the word around in their existing community.

Second stage is social media shortly before release. Buying advert space on Facebook and YouTube Channels.

Buying or being gifted space on Supercells existing Games.

Arrange attendance at Dare in Dundee’s Caird Hall during the summer to demo the game.

Image links

http://yosemitesamquotes.com/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2132940/Lone-Ranger-filmmakers-weave-magic-create-Wild-West-town-desert.html

Martin Carver Docs and Doodles

Projects

Wagons Co GDD

Mission Statement