MSTU 4039 Final Project
1 Overview
Game Concept 1.1
This game will center around playing the ancient Royal Game of Ur. Players will learn the rules of the Royal Game of Ur while they talk to an NPC of a merchant in the ancient city of Nineveh.
Target Audience 1.2
This game is intended for students to learn about ancient history through experiencing games from that time period.
2 Gameplay
Mechanics 2.1
The Royal Game of Ur is an ancient two-player racing dice game with light strategy elements. The goal of the game is to get all of one’s pieces to the end of the track first by rolling four four-sided dice. Each die has two painted sides and two blank ones. This gives each die a 50/50 chance of allowing one space of movement. A roll could result in anywhere from zero to four spaces of movement for a selected player piece.
The board is divided down the middle into areas controlled by each player. The first four tiles of each player’s path are “safe,” but once pieces move into one of the eight squares of the middle path, players can knock an opponent’s pieces off the board. A removed piece will have to start all over. The end of the board has two final safe spaces for each player’s piece, and an exact die roll for the remaining spaces is needed for the piece to come off the board and be scored. While movement is determined entirely by the luck of the dice, which piece the player moves is a choice. A piece can only end its movement in an empty space or a space containing an opposing piece. This can potentially create “traffic jams” if a player chooses to spread out their movement over multiple pieces.
3 Story
Character 3.1
The original Royal Game of Ur has no narrative, but this demonstration of the game has a simple story where the player is playing a friendly game against a merchant in ancient Nineveh. While the game was originally developed in Ur, it was played throughout Mesopotamia over thousands of years.
4 Interface
HUD 4.1
The interface during the game will be limited to the display of the dice rolls and the panel displaying the character dialog.
Menus 4.2
On the main menu, players will be able to choose to start a new game or quit the game.
In the game, a pause menu will allow players to continue playing or quit to the main menu.
Controls 4.3
Players will be able to click on the pieces to move them. They will not be asked to confirm the move. Clicking will just move the piece if it can legally be moved.
The camera is fixed and won’t be movable by the player.
Art 4.4
The game uses low poly 3D graphics to create the impression of playing the game in an ancient marketplace.
Audio 4.5
The game has audio to give the impression of an ancient marketplace with ancient Middle Eastern music and crowd noises.