Beats & Bolts

Art: Mayan Ma (Team Lead), Hedy Fu, Justine Magbitang, Jessica Patel

Computer Science: Dylan Hollohan, Jordan Lin, Joseph Yan, Jessica Zhai

Music: Andrew Gosse, Dinitha Vithanage

Genre: rhythm-based action

Players: singleplayer

Input: controller 

Platform: PC

Elevator Pitch

Beats & Bolts is a rhythm-based action game set in a railway factory during the Industrial Revolution. Play as a worker who is trying to get his job back after recently being replaced by machines, all while abiding to the rhythmic rule of the factory. Your goal is to sneak in and battle against the central machine that is taking control in order to save the factory.

Backstory

Due to recent advancements in automation, the protagonist learns that his manufacturing job at a railway factory had since been taken over by machines. Curious about why he was replaced, the protagonist sneaks into the factory only to discover that the entire workplace is now under a strict rhythm of clanging metal and humming machines as the assembly line is in production. He stumbles upon a previous co-worker who attempted to sneak in too, was caught, and imprisoned, warning the protagonist to ALWAYS follow the rhythm. Upon realizing the cruel takeover of the machines, the protagonist must make his way into the heart of the factory, take down the Central Machine,  and save his fellow workers from the rule of the rhythm.

Mechanics

The main mechanic is that the player must move and attack on beat with the rhythm of the background music. There will also be visual indicators to help the player stay on beat. Moving and attacking are separate inputs, and players don’t need to move or attack on every beat. 

The movement in the game will be constrained to grids for clarity and simplicity. In the boss fight, the boss will generally attack the area that the player is in, but with faulty precision. The idea is that the boss can only pinpoint the player’s exact location if the player does not move to the rhythm that all the other machines follow. If they do, then they blend in and the boss struggles to locate them—this is the basis for the mechanic of the player having to move on beat. If the player attempts to move but is off beat, the boss will be able to locate the player and its next attack will be more precise, making it more challenging for the player to dodge. 

Railway Roundhouse at Changhua Railway Station. Tyler Cottenie (2023). https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2023/02/17/2003794505 

The game map will feature a hallway that introduces the mechanics to the player. It leads to the boss room, which is a circular zone. The game is set in 3rd person and the camera will be fixed on the boss as the player moves around the circular play area. The boss room will be set up in a 3D arena of radial segments in the layout of a radial roundhouse. The segments will be further divided into a grid like system with visual cues by lighting up areas where the boss is about to attack. 

To keep the gameplay interesting, the boss will have different phases with different attack patterns. Whenever the boss switches phases, there will be a temporary moment of relief so that the player has time to rest. This prevents the gameplay from being too taxing on the player’s focus.  While all the details of the boss phases have not been decided, some ideas for boss attacks include:

• Screws, nuts, bolts, or other metallic scrap fall off the boss and fall on the player. There will be some visual indicator that shows which tiles these projectiles will hit, forcing the player to move out of the way.
• Zone control attacks that make large areas dangerous, effectively restraining the play area temporarily.
• Environmental hazards that make certain tiles or clusters of tiles dangerous.
• A homing attack/very precise attack as punishment for the players moving off beat.

The player primarily damages the boss by hitting it with a wrench (melee attack). Throughout the boss fights, there will be moments where the boss stops attacking and exposes some sort of weak point. This presents a fleeting opportunity that the player must make the most of to deal as much damage as possible. However, there is still a level of technique involved here, since the player must attack on beat. If they don’t, their attack won’t go off. 

As the boss progresses through its phases, it becomes more and more disassembled and so the attacks will become more erratic. The type of attacks will also be more focused on firing bits and pieces to communicate the idea that the machine is falling apart and is becoming more desperate in its attempts to stop the protagonist.

The player’s movements and attacks will play notes that contribute to constructing the melody of the song. This will be iterated throughout the semester to ensure that the design of the notes sounds pleasing. When offbeat inputs are pressed, dissonant notes will play instead. 

Selling Points

What makes Beats & Bolts interesting is that as a hybrid genre, it combines the action and combat found in a typical boss rush-style game, with having to keep with the rhythm of the factory.  It also features a unique visual style with the patent drawing aesthetic that we want to achieve using shaders. Additionally, we are aiming for a largely diegetic soundscape where percussion elements will be based on player movements, attack patterns, and the environment itself. Lastly, this game tackles the theme of rapid innovation and technology, along with the fears that come with it. This is through our industrial revolution setting and the narrative of machines taking over human jobs, which we think are themes that are quite relevant to today.

Similar Games and References

We are inspired by the gameplay of other rhythm-based action games such as Crypt of the Necrodancer (Fig. 1), in which players move and attack to the beat of the song, as well as No Straight Roads (Fig. 2), which for some boss fights feature a 360° boss fight area in a circular arena. 

Our mood board showcases our visual inspirations. While it is a 3D game, we would like to use textures and shaders to recreate a technical sketch aesthetic, emulating the look of patents and blueprint sketches. Bendy and the Ink Machine (Fig. 3) is an example of this, where all the assets are made to resemble ink drawings (Fig. 4-6).

Fig. 1: Crypt of the NecroDancer

Fig. 2: No Straight Roads

Fig. 3: Bendy and the Ink Machine

Fig. 4: Industrial Revolution Factory

Fig. 5: Technical Sketch

Fig. 6: Sketch of Industrial Revolution Machine

Early Sketches

Character Designs

Boss Designs

Prop Design

Environment Design

Flow Charts and Interfaces

Flow Chart of Interfaces/Game Screens

Flow Chart of Boss Fight

User Interface Elements & Beat Timing UI

Feedback

The strongest part of our pitch was the visual art style and the sound design, which is why we will continue with the stylistic and thematic direction we were going for: sketchy industrial revolution designs. In terms of the art, Adam suggested that we go for a more anthropomorphized boss design to separate it from the rest of the factory props or machinery. Therefore, we plan on exploring more animalistic characteristics for the monsters (clear arms or insect/crustacean-like features) that aren't too human-like to prevent players from forming sympathy for the machine. This is due to the “man versus machine” theme of our game. It was also noted that the audio was beautiful and different, but the inspiration of Gamelan Gong Kebyar should be treated with respect so that it does not sound like random metallic clanging noises to a Western audience. To clarify on this point, this was a loose inspiration for the use of metals to create music. However, to avoid the complications regarding appropriation, we will avoid using this as inspiration and instead focus purely on machine and metal sounds.

The theme for the industrial revolution provides a unique perspective for gameplay, but it is so broad that it was recommended to us that we should narrow it down. Especially since there was a lot of inhumane work environments, child labour, capitalistic intentions, etc. Therefore, we wanted to focus on specifically “man versus machine“—the fear of machines taking over our jobs, which reflects the modern attitude towards AI.

The most feedback and criticism we received was for the mechanics and the relation to the theme. Our mechanics were vague and it was hard to picture due to no visuals for the actual gameplay. They especially felt it was vague when we described the game to be a rhythm game where the character moves and attacks to the beat. Does the character only move to the beat? What kind of attacks are there specifically? We needed to decide the thematic relevance and the exact nature of attacks. The same kind of feedback applies to the boss’ attacks and how it will be in time with the music. We had a meeting after the critique to really flesh out the narrative and mechanics until we all had a shared, clear vision for what the gameplay looked like.