GDD (Game Design Document)
The Toy Box is a role playing game in which a group of friends go into a gigantic toy store that has recently settled in town at the request of the main character’s little sister, when the group goes in they find themselves surrounded by shelves filled with toys and games for all ages and some incredible displays but there is no one inside; the group goes to explore the store separately. Zero (the player character) goes with their little sister, Sophie, and they find a table with an incredible display of puppets and stuffed animals in a circus scene. While looking at it they hear someone behind them and before being able to see anything are both transported to another place, they've been sent into the world they were just looking at.
In Toy Box, players will travel through the four zones of the world, each of these zones will have a different theme. While exploring the world, players will find many different characters, some friendly and some not, while trying to get all of their group back together and get back to the real world.
The main game pillars of the game are:
Following the story is the way you can progress in the game, to get to the end of the game is to finish the story.
Every level gives you the opportunity to explore in order to find things or see what else is there
Many different characters with their own stories to tell
In order to progress, players will have to fight to get to to different places
The game will be seen from a 2D RPG view (top down view of the map, side view of the characters). Played with a keyboard or a gamepad.
- Controls: WASD keys
- Save/Load: When the player talks to the Weird Wizard Man he saves the game. The player can load the game in the start menu
Tutorial. The first place the player finds after entering the Toy Box
Description: The level starts in the entrance of the town, in the bottom left, trees on one side and houses with closed doors on the other, Zero is confused about what happened. They find the Weird Wizard who saves the game, when asked any question he gives a vague answer, he tells Zero to go to the park and disappears.
Going to the park, the player finds Sophie and three kids. Zero and Sophie fight the kids, the wizard appears to give the player a tutorial and after the battle, Sophie joins the party.
If the player goes to the market after getting Sophie and tries to get something from a stall, Sophie will try to steal something. This triggers a fight with an angry shopkeeper for stealing. The player will be banned from shopping in the market, and going there starts a fight until they give a specific item to the stall owner at the entrance.
After that, going back into the town to the plaza, they’ll see a group of dolls gathered there watching someone do publicity for the circus. After the person finishes the speech, who looks slightly less toy-like than the rest of the people in the town, they go to the player to introduce themselves. Imp talks to the siblings and answers a couple of questions as they can, but saying too much makes them go back to their show persona and tells the siblings to get tickets and find them, they’ll give them special seats. After this, they go away to the entrance of the circus.
If the player goes to the circus entrance, they will find a line of toys from the town who all have tickets and a ticket stall that says sold out. Sophie steals someone’s ticket.
Going back to the line after this, Imp will find Zero and Sophie and bring them to the front of the line and into the circus.
Objectives: Grab specific items. Fight the angry stall owner. Find Sophie. Get tickets to the circus. Enter the circus
Enemies: Park kid, Angry shopkeeper, Little clown
Items: Rope
Characters: Zero, Weird Wizard Man, Imp, Sophie, park kids, town’s toys, shopkeeper
Music and SFX: -
Reference to BGM and SFX: -
World 1, level 1. After entering the circus.
Description: Zero and Sophie enter the circus and watch the show, they are approached by the wizard who watches with them and turns their attention towards the backstage door, saying that going in there might help them get to their other friends. The siblings hide and wait until everyone is gone.
They go toward the door and find a number pad with six numbers to fill. The numbers can be found in papers around the stage and seats. Into the door there is a hall that changes colors as it progresses and they get to the changing rooms. Players can grab stuff there and they have to put the colored boxes in the order of the colors on the hall to open the door. After getting everything in place only a hook appears in the door, Imp comes from behind and asks what they’re doing and tells them to get out. After a lot of convincing, Imp uses their string to pull the hook and open the door. They go away murmuring about how they are going to get in trouble for this.
Into the doors there are two rooms that have almost the same objects inside, the player needs to flip the switches so that the second room mirrors the first so the door opens. In the next room there is just the wizard and the stairs to the next room, the wizard is eager. Objectives: Hide until the end of the show. Open the door using the number pad. Put the correct colored boxes in the line. Make the switches and objects in the second room mirror the first one. Go downstairs to the next level
Enemies: Marionettes, Stuffed animals
Items: Hand mirror (3), fuse
Characters: Zero, Sophie, Imp, Weird Wizard Man
Music and SFX: -
Reference to BGM and SFX: -
World 1, level 2. After going down stairs from the first level
Description: In this level there starts to be a lot of hand imagery and more pulleys are visible but there still is a lot of circus stuff around. After going downstairs, Zero and Sophie find themselves in a room with a square in the middle and a bunch of little squares scattered around, the player must put the pieces together to form a hand symbol and the door to the next room opens up.
In this room there are some columns and statues that have to be pushed into place, the two biggest ones are impossible to push and after inspecting them a few times Imp appears again. They look different, like their face has been replaced by a mask and they have more strings than before, they go from begging the siblings to get away from the circus to encouraging them forward. They help pull the objects to a place they can be pushed but seems horrified to have done it just after it. They run away again. The player finishes pushing and the door is open.
In the next room there is a laser going from one side to the other, a crystal in the middle and two eyes in the upper wall. Using the mirrors that can be found in the previous level, the player has to move where the laser goes toward so it hits both of the eyes. After finishing this puzzle the next door opens.
There’s a hall, the wizard is there and tells you to be careful, but not to worry, he’ll make sure to get you back if you aren’t and gives you a healing orb. A scream is heard from the other room.
There is nothing in this room except for a surprise box in the center of it. The player winds up the box and out of it comes Imp, but they’re completely changed, they start attacking, the battle against Harlequin Box starts. The battle is won when all the strings on Imp are cut off, the player can choose to save Imp using the healing orb which gets them back to how they were at the beginning or leaving them there. Regardless of the decision, before going to the next level, Imp talks about how there is a portal that can get the group to other places, maybe they can find their friends, maybe they can get out of this wretched place.
The player pushes the box and there is a ladder to the next zone.
Objectives: Put together the pieces to open the door. Push/pull the statues to the right place to open the door. Make the laser hit the eyes to open the door. Defeat Harlequin Box.
Enemies: Marionettes, Stuffed animals, Hand puppets, Harlequin Box
Items: Fuse, healing orb
Characters: Zero, Sophie, Imp, Weird Wizard Man
Music and SFX: -
Reference to BGM y SFX: -
Every character has a purpose in the learning process of the player, as well as giving the player information about their relationships between the other characters, the player and themselves.
Each one of the friends of the main character is meant to teach how the correspondent world and its enemies will work, and the mechanics that you should learn in order to defeat and survive in the correspondent world without forgetting the ones that you were taught in the ones before.
Before meeting the friends of the main character, the player will be introduced to the Weird Wizard Man that will guide the player at the beginning of the game and explain how to save the game.
Sophie appears before the first world, playing in the town. She will be the first member to enter the party, which will help the player understand how the combat works, how each character has its own attributes and skills depending on its personality and how can they be used. She will also introduce you to games (such as Hide and Seek) to show you that there would be some activities taking place in the game apart from combat.
Imp is one of the bosses that will appear in the game when is later turned into the Harlequin Box, in the first world, and will introduce to the player one of the problems of the game: humans that stay too much in the Toy world will turn into toys. This idea will be introduced at the beginning to explain to the player why is it so important to get out and find the others as soon as possible.
Ashley will appear in the second world. The main objective of this character is to teach you how to fight better and learn combos and new skills to fight and to defend. Because of her personality, she will get the player in loads of trouble, making combats inevitable, and this will help the player be more comfortable and more confident with their fighting and dodging skills.
Gabriel is the fourth human character and will appear in the third world. Because of his well-known intelligence and temper, he will teach the player how to solve very complicated puzzles and levels in order to continue the game by putting them in contact with puzzles and giving them clues if they fail to solve them a fixed number of times. This clues will be given with dialogue without stating the solution of the puzzle.
Johnny is the last character of the friend group to be introduced, and so the final boss. It would conclude the story by revealing the last part of the plot, and will encourage the player to understand their combos and ways to fight in order to defeat him.
Character name: Zero
Description: Curly haired brunette with a green cap, a purple jacket, a green and black striped shirt, jeans and sneakers.
Image:
Concept: Very chill, usually goes with the flow. Cares a lot about their friends and little sister. The player character
Encounter: At the beginning of the game
Abilities: Escaping (in-battle: flee from most enemies)
Weapons: Yo-yo (2-3 base damage)
Base Hp: 20
Character name: Sophie
Description: Little blond human girl who wears a broken pink dress dirty of sand and mud and a wooden sword in hand. She is younger than the rest of the characters
Image:
Concept: Energetic and imaginative. She loves playing pretend and will come up with stories about absolutely anything and might put herself in any role in these games. Zero’s little sister, she’ll often end up hanging out with her older sibling and their friends when their parents are at work. She’s the first person to join the party, after a game of hide and seek.
Encounter: She’s in the toy shop with Zero and friends, they get separated when sent to the toy world but find each other again in the town (tutorial level)
Abilities: Stealing (in-battle: take and use a random item or coins from an enemy)
Weapons: Wooden sword (4 base damage)
Base Hp: 15
Character name: Ashley
Description: Red-haired human girl with lots of freckles wearing a broken leather jacket, a green shirt, patched jeans and dirty boats.
Concept: Headstrong and stubborn, she has always been the kind of person to go head first into any situation, regardless of if it might get her in trouble. The main enabler of most bad ideas in the group and quick to defend her friends when things start going south
Encounter: She is one of the friends that enters the shop with the protagonist, after getting separated the player will find her again early in the exploration of the second world.
Abilities: Fighting and Defending
Weapons: Hammer
Character name: Gabriel
Description: Black haired boy always with an irritated face wearing a gray sweater, gray pants and sneakers. Concept: Rational and easily irritated, he likes whatever it resembles to reality and loves giving you facts of why you are wrong and why he is correct. He hates fantasy, fiction. Good at solving puzzles and has lots of knowledge, so better ask him when you do not know how to continue.
Encounter: He is one of the friends that enters the shop with the protagonist, after getting separated the player will find him again early in the exploration of the third world.
Abilities: Problem Solving
Weapons: Wizard Staff
Character name: Johnny
Description: Describe the detailed physical appearance of the character, if it is human or alien, clothes, etc.
Concept: A cocky and impulsive scoundrel. He loves taking risks whenever there is something in it for him, as small as it may be, but his success rate is rather low. Although he is not the brightest one of the bunch, the confidence he has on his half-baked schemes is something to be admired, as well as his ability to talk himself out of consequences for his own actions.
Encounter: He is one of the friends that enters the shop with the protagonist, after getting separated the player will find him again at the end of the fourth world. However, since he is the last friend to be found, enough time has passed for him to have turned into a toy, but he is not just a toy, he is the final boss of the 4th world.
Abilities: Bargaining
Weapons: Gun
Character name: Imp
Description: Originally a human but now part toy, dressed like a harlequin. Gets more toy elements and more strings every time they appear (clown make-up, change of proportions, constant smile). After joining the party they go back to how they were at the first meeting, some of the strings still hanging from their wrists
Image:
Concept: A showman, a flirt and incredibly lonely; Imp has been in the Toy Box for a few years by the time the player shows up and is very excited about the possibility of other humans to talk to (even if they are not quite human anymore). Imp joined the circus because they wanted to be on stage and when they figured out what was going on behind the scenes they were already too tangled up to get out on their own. They’ll try to get Zero and Sophi out before they get tangled up too but, since that’s not what the leader wants, Imp ends up with more strings that control them and slowly loses themselves to the circus hivemind until they transform into Harlequin box and the player either helps them cut their strings or kills them.
Encounter: They first appear in the town, subtly trying to tell you that there is something wrong in the circus while also inviting you in. Imp appears in every level after that and is the mid boss for the circus zone at the end of Circus lv.2. They can be brought into your party after the fight.
Abilities: Pulling
Weapons: Whip
Character name: Weird Wizard Man (Name purposefully ambiguous)
Description: His appearance does not match any of the 4 world aesthetics. He is an old unkempt man with a bushy gray beard, wizard hat, colored nose, bathrobe, tie, casio watch and slippers.
Image:
Concept: An erratic and joyful individual found since the very beginning, that acts somewhat as a guide for the characters, but with vague and sometimes purposefully misleading instructions. Very chaotic and quippy, but with something off about him.
Encounter: He appears at the very beginning, and then he can be encountered periodically, as talking to him is the only way to save the game, and he can be asked for help whenever the characters are stuck.
Name: Park kids
Description: Some kids in the park that want to play a game but won’t let Sophie join unless she gets a team of her own. They look like rag dolls.
Image:
Encounter: Town, park, playing with Sophie
Abilities: Cry (When on 2-1 hp stops the battle before they can lose)
Weapons: Slingshot (1-3 damage)
Hp: 15
Items: TBD
Name: Angry shopkeeper
Description: Angry after the player tried to steal from them, you should't take what isn't yours
Image:
Encounter: Town, market, after Sophie tries to steal
Abilities: Keeper (Immune to being stolen from (2 damage if tried))
Weapons: Broom (4 damage)
Hp: 23
Items: TBD
Name: Little clown
Description: One of the circus performers, has decided bothering you is really funny.
Image:
Encounter: Town, plaza and circus entrance
Abilities: Surprise box (used every 2 rounds): at random can do any of 3 things
Confetti cannon (2 damage to all party)
Pie (2 damage, unable to move next round)
Fist (4-5 damage)
Weapons: Headbutt (2 damage)
Hp: 18
Items: TBD
Name: Harlequin box
Description: Imp transformed against their will, they have tens of strings in order to control them and is trapped inside a box until it’s winded. No face, just two theater masks they change in the battle. Full harlequin getup.
Encounter: At the end of Circus lv.2, mid boss
Abilities: TBD
Weapons: TBD
Items: TBD
Name: The puppet master
Description: Godlike entity that controls every single inhabitant of the circus world. He only appears when there is complete darkness, and what is visible are its eyes, its mouth and its several six-fingered hands.
Encounter: At Circus lv.4 after the puzzle
Abilities: TBD
Weapons: TBD
Items: TBD
Beginning of The Town
Z: Wha-?
Where-?
I was just
…
huh?
What just happened?
???: Oooh, someone new has come to play
(Player goes forwards and finds W, interaction)
Z: What?
W: Welcome traveler, come, come, I don’t bite
(Options: -What is this place? -Where are my friends? -Who are you?)
What is this place?
W: oh this, this is- is an adventurer’s dream
A curious thing really, so strange and fun
Where are my friends?
W: Friends, oh well if you look for them, surely, they’ll be somewhere, hehehe. Just have to wait and see
I’m sure they’re having a nice time wherever they are
Who are you?
W: me? Nobody important, just… a friendly face for travelers all around here
Z: I need to go
W: hey, HEY, not so fast. You haven’t even saved yet
Z: sav- what?
W: save you the trouble of starting over, we don’t want that, no no
Hmm, you look like you should go up to the park
Z: What are you even-
W: Who knows, maybe something important is waiting you there
Safe travels Zero
Z: How do you-
(Wizard disappears)
Z: … weird old man
Entering the park
S: But that’s not fair! It’s three against one! One of you has to join my team!
K1: No, we don’t
K3: It’s in the rules!
K2: It doesn’t matter how many people are in each team just that it’s less than the number of fingers,
K1+K3: mhm
S: I’ll find someone and then you’ll see
No-one can beat the warrior princess!!
(Sophie notices Zero)
S: Zero!
Zero, Zero, Zero, Zero, can you pleeeeease come play this game with me
Those kids are being mean, they won’t split so they’re just all going against me and it’s not FAIR
So, play
(Options -Yes -No)
yes
Z: Oook, but just one round and we go find everyone else
S: Yay! Just one win and then we go find everyone else!
Z: Wait, that’s not-
Battle against the kids starts
no
Z: No Sophie, we need to go find where the others are and try to go back home
S: Oh
Well, you do that and I’ll keep playing here,
See ya!
(interact with Sophie to get the choice again)
In the battle against the kids
Z: What are we even supposed to be doing?
W: Oooh, do our adventurers need some help?
S: Wizard man!
Z: You know this guy?
S: Yeah! He told me to wait at the park cause you were gonna come looking for me
Z: Huh
W: Well then, do the great heroes need a tutorial now
(Option -Yes -No)
no:
W: Oh, braving it on your own, uhuhuhu
Good luck on the battlefield (disappears)
yes:
W: Oh, wonderful (explanation of the battle system)
(One of the kids is low on health)
K: Wah, this isn’t fun anymore, I want my mom
WAAAAH
Battle ends
S: Really, they just go, like that. That’s no fun
Z: They’re just cowards, don’t worry too much about them Sophie. Let's go
In the market
Interaction with a stall
Z: Let’s get some stuff
A: Hey, you there. You can’t just take that
Angry Shopkeeper battle starts
After the battle
A: Bah, get out of here. And don’t come back until you can replace what you stole!
After getting out of the market
Z: Well, that went great...
?: Attention everyone! I have a great announcement for you today!
Z: What-?
S: Someone’s at the plaza. Let’s go see!
Go to the plaza, interact with the crowd
I: Hello my friends, is fantastic to see all of you getting here so quickly
As you all know, today we are having a show in our beloved circus. The greatest and most spectacular one yet
But! That’s not all, as today we’re choosing a couple of lucky onlookers to join us at the show, isn’t that exciting?
I know, I know, I too hate that so few of you get to join us in these extra special events. But it wouldn’t be so special otherwise now, would it?
I wish you all the best of luck and don’t forget to get your tickets, I heard we’re about to run out
I hope to see you all later in the show
S: We HAVE to go there
Z: I don’t know, we should be looking for the others now
S: Please, please, pleaaaase! It’ll be so much fun!
Z: I-
I: Well, you two look new here
S: You’re the one that was talking in the plaza! See Zero, they’re talking to us, now we HAVE to go to the show
I: You sure do it’s the best around here!
But, before that, if you don’t mind me asking. Where did you come from? It’s not every day we get new people here
(Options -Tell the truth -Lie)
Truth
Z: We’re from the real world, outside of the box
I: So, I was right, You’re human too
Lie
Z: Oh just, you know, around. From outside, the forest and stuff
S: Yeah, we bite! Grrr
I: chuckles sure, sure
You’re definitely from outside… out of the Toy Box that is
Z: I- We- no
I: Don’t worry, I won’t tell. We humans should look out for each other in here
S: Wait, you’re not a toy?
I: Well, I’m not quite… sure, anymore, it’s been a long while and being here… it changes you.
…
But, yes, I came from the real world too
(pause)
Well now, if you want, maybe I can help you with some stuff, surely you have questions
(Options: -Ask about your friends -Ask about getting out -Changes you?)
ask about your friends
Z: We weren’t alone, before we got here, we had three friends with us. Do you have any idea where they could be?
I: So, they’re not in the circus, I can tell you that for sure.
I’ve heard some rumors, about how the Toy Box is much, much bigger than what I know of it
Other… sections of the world and ways to get there. That wizard talks about them sometimes, portals or something similar
I’ve never seen one, so it could only be...
Never mind
ask about getting out
Z: You have any idea how to get out if this place
I: No clue, take any direction and go straight, you’ll find a wall eventually and then it goes and goes and never ends
Maybe if…
No
changes you?
Z: Changes you?
I: huh?
Z: You said being here changes you. Is it like, an amount of time or… what did you mean by that?
I: Ah, yeah, no it’s not time, it’d be too… predictable I guess
No, sometimes, things happen.
You take something,
you make a deal,
you die
You can come back from those but, you’re not the same
…
Don’t worry too much about it, it's not as bad as it sounds
: …
S: So, about those tickets?
I: oh, I don’t th-
I don-
I-
…
I don’t have tickets with me at the moment dear, but if you get some I will make sure you get the best seats to see our wonderful show
I have to go now, duty calls. Until next time
(Imp leaves)
Z: That was… something
S: What are you waiting for, let’s get those tickets!!!
Battle against the little clown can start at random after the one with the kids when walking
Z: What?
S: Who are you?