Tagline

Slay the trolls. Gain the glory. Become a legend.

Concept Statement

The game I am proposing will be an action-adventure RPG in which players are tasked with hunting a variety of trolls to save the people of a kingdom. However, the main goal is not saving the people but rather attaining glory to get the bards to write of their exploits in songs. They must slay the wildlife and trolls that stand in their way of fighting the Troll captains and claiming as much glory as possible.

Description

The game will take place in a fantasy world infested with trolls that threaten many of the inhabitants of the realm. The land is in a time of turmoil, as the King has declared that the troll threat has become dangerous enough that special troll hunters from a far-off land must be brought in to fend off the trolls. This land is also a land of music where many of the inhabitants of the towns and cities are also bards, even if they are blacksmiths, warriors, cooks, or other occupations. The player character is one of these hunters and after being attacked by trolls and being the only surviving member of their crew, they will make it to the beginning town and the game will officially start. The character will be helped by many along the way, but the main allies that help will be the shopkeepers who sell you items, the warriors you can recruit to help you, and the spellcasters who can bestow powerful boons upon you. The main characters who assist the player are Yarlic, a young mage who survives a Troll attack on his magic college, Guard Captain Vildrid, the captain of the guard in the first town the player encounters who then follows the player throughout the game, and Syrio Ellminster, a bard who seeks to give the player advice and help them attain glory. Trolls are the adversaries of the game but the ones in charge of the army of trolls are the Captains and the Troll King, who serve as the main adversaries and the ones that the player must slay to save the kingdom. The combat of the game will generally occur outside of the towns, with the player hunting down trolls to acquire honor. The combat will be based around some sort of timing system (such as blocking or dodging at the right time) with different NPC’s either giving you boons or physically assisting you in battle. Towns will serve as a reprieve from the horrors of the outside world as well as a place to converse with NPCs, progress questlines, and speak to the numerous bards of the land to have them write ballads of your feats. The honor that the player acquires throughout the game will be used to purchase the different song services of bards and help the player achieve the game’s main goal. The player will move through towns as they level up, with both the main quests and side quests requiring the player to move to different towns and other locations outside of towns, such as caves or destroyed structures. Players will level up as the game goes on and the enemies and NPCs will generally increase in level as they go through the game, although it will be possible for a player to become over-leveled if they stay in an area for too long. The player’s motivation will generally be to unravel the secrets of the world and garner some glory for slaying the trolls threatening the realm.

Competition

I think the biggest competitor to the game I propose is the Witcher series, manly the third game, as it has a similar idea in you being a monster hunter tasked with slaying monsters and saving the people, with a deeper story being presented in the game. However, there are a few distinguishing factors that differentiate the game I’ve proposed from the Witcher series, with the main one being the mechanic of trading glory to bards for them to write songs about you. Another major difference between the games is that the Witcher has a whole host of monsters to fight and hunt, whereas this game will mostly focus on fighting trolls. There may be some other enemies, but trolls will be the focus of the game. Building off that, the Witcher generally features the same type of enemies and some bosses from time to time, whereas many of the trolls in this game will be named, have unique abilities, and function differently from each other with some exceptions. The fourth difference is that the Witcher mainly focuses on