Hello Everyone!

My name is Kevin Estes, I am the designer for Same Day Delivery. My main roles during the production of this game are fully fleshing out and designing all aspects of the game and assisting my team with creating the best possible experience for players. I will be writing more posts like this one every couple of weeks, so you will hopefully be able to see more into our development process and how it goes throughout the semester.

Same Day Delivery is a fast-paced, sci-fi, delivery driver racing game in which you play as Sheldon, a skinny, nervous alien who works as a delivery driver for "Amazerg". You must drive around town to different houses and quickly drop off all packages before time runs out to avoid getting fired. This game hopes to merge the fast driving and drop-offs of Crazy Taxi with the goofy, cartoony atmosphere of Very Very Valet.

The game will take on a "cartooned realism" art style that is reminiscent of Fortnite, with correctly proportioned buildings and objects, but slightly rounder with texturing that looks more like clay. In order to go more in-depth with the overall idea of Same Day Delivery, I will be splitting up the gameplay into 3 major sections: Driving, Delivering, and The Map, and talk about each one separately.

Driving

Considering the large distances you must cover to get to different houses, players will not be able to succeed without their trusty delivery van. With movement that is less precise but much faster, players will spend most of the game in the van racing from house to house and avoiding obstacles. Obstacles include a wide variety of things, such as speed bumps, road signs, fences, and even alien pedestrians. The speed reductions from plowing through things will be minor, allowing players more of a choice between being a safe driver or a crazed lunatic. As mentioned earlier, driving will be fast and smooth, with just enough control to make turns while keeping it difficult to avoid every obstacle. You will constantly be following a green beacon that shines from the target house, and once you make it, you will be able to deliver the goods.

Delivering

After finally making it to a house, Sheldon must now run the package up to the door. While this will take significantly less time than the drive, we still want it to be a fun and unique part of the gameplay. Players will have much more precise movement with Sheldon, allowing them to easily snag a package and run it up to the porch, but we will have many other factors to spice up the quick delivery. These things include different-sized packages that affect Sheldon's movement, special packages that might blow up or slow you down, alien dogs who severely dislike Sheldon, and the ability to throw packages for players with good aim to score style points. After each delivery, you will receive score points based on how fast the delivery was, and Zerg Coins to spend at the employee upgrade shop. Once Sheldon has successfully dropped off all packages, the workday will be complete and players will be able to start the next one.

The Level

Although on an alien planet, the map will greatly resemble a typical city with bits and pieces of sci-fi technology mixed in. There will be different sections of the city with different layouts, such as suburban neighborhoods vs business districts. The whole city will be filled with small details and will give off the feeling of a nice, cozy town with a lot to see during your deliveries. With so many level designers, we plan on having a rather large city, allowing you to play multiple times and still find something new. From curvy streets and large houses to straight, grid streets with tiny buildings packed in, our town will be divided into unique sections with different characteristics.

There will be many smaller mechanics in Same Day Delivery, but these are the big 3, and if we are able to nail these down perfectly, we will be set up to make an amazing game that is easy to learn, and hard to master, with numerous upgrade options and other decisions enticing players to have multiple playthroughs.

That is all for this first designer blog, I am excited to continue working on Same Day Delivery and see more of what my amazing teammates can do. Soon we will also conduct playtests for our game, so future posts will contain statistics and notes involving who played, what they liked and disliked, and how we will change our task prioritization to better the experience for players. I can't wait to see how far we get by the next sprint, I'll see you all then!

Thank you,

Kevin Estes - Game Designer