Octopus Kingdom: Blow the submarines away
Overview
Working Title
Octopus Kingdom: Blow the submarines away
Concept Statement
In "Octopus Kingdom: Blow the submarines away," players control Bob, a resourceful octopus guardian, defending the underwater kingdom of the Blop kingdom from human submarine invaders seeking to exploit the ocean's resources. Using Bob's eight tentacles, players must navigate complex underwater environments, sabotage enemy vessels, and rally sea creatures to protect their threatened home.
Genre or Category of Game
Action-Adventure
Concept Creation Process and Influences
The concept for 'Octopus Kingdom: Blow the submarines away' was inspired by the invaderoids game I was doing for the tutorials in my gaming unit. I am not much of a gamer myself, just took the gaming unit out of curosity as an elective since I was exploring differect sectors of IT other than my major. While doing the tutorials, I really enjoyed the attack of invaderoids game and was thinking of a game similar to that. Moreover I had a passion for marine biology; it's creatures and it's ecosystems. Hence while I was thinking about a game concept, while looking outside my bedroom window over Derwent river, the idea to subvert traditional gaming narratives by positioning humans as antagonists and an undersea creature as the hero hit me all of a sudden. This perspective shift creates an opportunity to explore environmental themes while delivering unique gameplay mechanics.
The game leverages the octopus's natural abilities, including camouflage, flexibility, intelligence, and multiple limb control to create distinctive gameplay. I was also inspired by the documentary "My Octopus Teacher" which highlighted the remarkable intelligence and adaptability of octopuses.
For octopuses physical traits and upgrading its skills, I've taken inspiration from the game "Maneater" where it uses a growth development system to attack human beings. But the concept might be a bit too complicated for me to implement.
The visual aesthetic combines the vibrant coral reef settings of "Finding Nemo" with the more mysterious deep-sea elements seen in "Subnautica." This contrast allows for diverse level designs ranging from colorful reefs to the eerily beautiful and isolated deep sea trenches.
Audience and Competitive Analysis
The primary target audience includes:
- Adventure game enthusiasts aged 10-25 who enjoy unique protagonists and environments
- Environmentally conscious gamers interested in ecological themes
- Casual to mid-core gamers looking for accessible yet strategic gameplay
Based on market analysis, underwater-themed games like "Subnautica" (over 5 million copies sold) and "Abzû" have demonstrated commercial viability, particularly when they offer distinctive gameplay experiences. The growing interest in environmental themes and nature documentaries also suggests a receptive audience for a game that explores marine life and conservation issues.
Current competitors include:
- "Subnautica": Focuses on survival and exploration from a human perspective
- "Maneater": Provides predatory shark-based gameplay
'Octopus Kingdom: Blow the submarines away' differentiates itself through its unique protagonist, tentacle-based mechanics, and the reverse perspective of defending an underwater civilization. Unlike many games that position sea creatures as threats or resources, this game showa them as heroes.
Game Treatment and Concept Art
World and Setting
Blop is a resourceful underwater kingdom comprised of diverse marine biomes. The main hub is the Grand Reef, where octopuses and other sea creatures have established a sophisticated society using natural elements and salvaged human objects. Biomes have a very vital surrounding like the Kelp Forest, Thermal Vents, Deep Trench, and many more each with distinct visual identities, challenges, and allied sea creatures.
The world runs on bioluminescent energy harvested from deep-sea creatures and thermal vents—the same energy source that has attracted human submarines to invade their waters. The game's visual style combines realistic underwater physics with different capturing animations.
Main Character and Abilities
Bob is a Giant Pacific Octopus with distinctive ring patterns that intensify when using special abilities. As the recently appointed Guardian of Blop, Bob possesses exceptional intelligence even among octopuses. And it goes 'Blop blop' everytime he shoots a submarine.
Bob's core abilities include:
- Tentacle Control: Each tentacle can be directed independently for creative combat approaches. Tentacles will also release the ink clouds to blow up the submarines.
- Camouflage: Blend into environments to avoid detection
- Jet Propulsion: Quick burst movements for escaping or traversing areas rapidly
- Ink Cloud: Creates a special kind of ink cloud which would destroy a submarine instantly.
- Object Manipulation: Carry and use environmental items as tools or weapons
As players progress, they unlock enhanced abilities like extended camouflage duration, improved ink cloud potency, and many more.
Gameplay Mechanics
The core gameplay revolves around strategic use of Bob's natural abilities:
Tentacle Control System: Players manage Bob's eight tentacles using a combination of trigger buttons and analog sticks. Different tentacles can perform different actions simultaneously (e.g., holding onto a hiding spot while manipulating an object).
Stealth and Sabotage: Rather than direct combat, players can also disable submarine systems,cut communication lines, and create diversions. The emphasis is on outsmarting rather than overpowering enemies.
Alliance Building: Throughout the game, players recruit various sea creatures by completing side quests. These allies provide special assistance during missions.
Resource Management: Bob must manage oxygen levels and energy reserves when using special abilities, adding tactical considerations to gameplay.
Narrative Arc
The game begins with the first submarine invasion disrupting a sacred Blop Ceremony. As other guardians are captured or scattered, Bob must step up despite being the newest and least experienced guardian.
The story progresses through the following acts:
- Attack - Sudden attack of humans on their kingdom while the ongoing sacred ceremony
- Discovery - Uncovering the humans' true motives (harvesting bioluminescent energy)
- Defense - Defending the human invasion and protecting the Blop kingdom.
Mission structures vary from infiltration operations to rescue missions to defensive scenarios where Bob must protect vulnerable areas of the Blop kimgdom from submarine attacks.
Art Direction
The visual design balances realism with readability. While underwater physics and environments reflect real-world oceanic zones, characters have slightly exaggerated features for making it more interesting and interactive.
Color palettes shift between biomes:
- Warm oranges and reds in Thermal Vents
- Cool blues and purples in Deep Trench
- Shifting greens and golds in Kelp Forest
- Vibrant multicolor patterns for corals and other background components
- Submarines will be millitary based with colours ranging from greyish green to dark ash or navy blue.
Sound and Music
Audio design will use a combination of realistic underwater sounds .Bob's movements produce subtle swishing sounds, while tentacle interactions with the environment provide tactile audio feedback. And Bob the Octopus will go 'blop blop' each time it shoots a submarine.
Technical Considerations
The game will be developed initially for PC and console platforms leveraging its water simulation capabilities and physics system to create believable tentacle movements and underwater environments using the Unity Hub. The control scheme will be designed to make complex tentacle interactions intuitive through progressive skill building and optional assist features.
Comments
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Overall a cool idea -- I like the idea of the bioluminescent energy being what fuels their society but also attracts the humans, and I agree that having the humans be the antagonists is a neat perspective shift.
There are a lot of components to the described game, that make me feel like scope will be an issue in terms of getting all of this done in the time available. Particularly each one of the abilities the octopus have are really enough for a single game in this unit due to their complexity, and so having 5 of them may be time consuming. In addition it sounds like a lot of different levels each with different graphics are planned, and on top of all of this there appears to be a social system (alliance building), resource management, and stealth. Again each of those systems is enough to comprise a whole game for this unit if done well.
I encourage you to prioritise what is needed for a "Vertical slice" that shows off the core idea of the game, and what will net the most marks for assignment 3 (read the rubric). Things that feel easy to cut are the stealth aspect (difficult to balance, and not needed if there is already standard combat), alliance building, camouflage (unclear how you will implement this without shaders), object manipulation (this might feel under-cooked if there aren't enough items and variation to this). However you might have a different prioritisation/opinion and thats fine.
Finally the tentacle control sounds complicated given that there are only two sticks available to a player, and I can't quite visualize how the other tentacles would be controlled by just a trigger or button alone. This may need to be simplified to avoid being confusing or frustrating for the player -- you should definitely prototype this first to see if the player movement you have in mind is actually fun/feasible.