GDD Trial
Prototype Docs
Trial Edition
Brief Description
What is this?
This is a condensed Game Design Document (GDD Trial) for Elderon. I created it specifically as a design portfolio piece to show how I approach game design, systems, and player experience (UX). Instead of a massive, 200-page document meant for a full production team, this is a quick-read version. It strips away the day-to-day production details and focuses on the core pillars and mechanics, so you can understand the vision in just a few minutes.
About the Game
Elderon is a dark, mature open-world action RPG inspired by Slavic mythology. The goal is simple: survive and guide the protagonist through a harsh, unforgiving world driven by a branching narrative where your choices actually matter.
The World: It's an open world, but I wanted its boundaries to feel organic. Instead of invisible walls, you get blocked by actual terrain — huge mountain ranges, deep canyons, or open water.
Inspirations: Mostly The Witcher 3, the Gothic series, God of War, and the gritty vibe of Game of Thrones.
Key Design Principles
Historical Realism & Slavic Atmosphere
I'm leaning heavily into historical realities and Slavic folklore, using magic as an additional layer on top of a believable world. I want cultural authenticity without letting it get in the way of fun. I'm also deliberately avoiding tedious micro-management, such as the strict hunger systems found in Kingdom Come, to keep the gameplay smooth and rewarding.
Dual Gameplay Areas (The Road and The Wilderness)
The world is divided into two distinct layers:
The Road & Quests: Traveling along main paths, visiting settlements, and following the main narrative and side stories.
The Wilderness & Survival: Leaving the beaten path and entering dangerous areas where planning, hunting, and survival mechanics come into play. This is an optional, more challenging layer that you can explore whenever you want.
Progression & Consequences
Choices actually matter here. Through the narrative and character progression, the world reacts to what you do, leading to real consequences that affect both the story and gameplay.
Target Audience & Market Positioning
Target Audience & Mature Tone
Elderon is built strictly for adults (18+), targeting fans of deep, story-driven RPGs and atmospheric dark fantasy. The mature tone includes visceral combat, blood, difficult moral choices, profanity, and raw themes around human nature. These elements aren't there for cheap shock value - they help create an authentic, gritty world that draws players into the atmosphere of Slavic folklore.
Market Positioning & Progressive Wilderness Threat
Taking inspiration from games like The Witcher 3 and Gothic, our main unique selling point (USP) is the combination of a branching, narrative-heavy story with a genuinely dangerous wilderness ecosystem. The further off the beaten path you go, the more dangerous it becomes. Early on, encountering a bear could mean certain death, so you'll need to plan your routes and avoid fights. As you level up, gain experience, and acquire better gear, you gradually gain the ability to hunt or face these apex threats—all without getting bogged down by unnecessary micro-management.
Gameplay Mechanics
Core Gameplay Loop
The game moves dynamically between safe settlements and dangerous, untamed wilderness:
Narrative & Preparation (Settlements & The Road): You progress through the main and side stories, talk to characters in towns, restock your gear, and plan your routes.
Travel & Exploration: Moving through the world means uncovering secrets, encountering random events, and deciding whether to risk leaving the safe path.
Wilderness Challenge: Venturing deep into the wild introduces a tougher survival and hunting layer. You have to plan your approach, sneak past major threats, or risk taking them on.
Reward & Unique Progression: Completing quests and surviving in the wild provides resources and progression. Some missions also reward you with something tied directly to that story, such as a rare combat technique or a unique potion recipe.
Combat, Controls & Threat Management
Controls & Combo Progression: Built for PC (WASD + mouse) and PS5 (full gamepad support). As your character levels up and learns new skills, you unlock more advanced combinations of strikes and spells, giving you a clear sense of becoming more capable in combat.
Gritty & Unforgiving Combat: Fights are direct and demanding. Since you can't heal during combat, preparation is essential. Upgrading your armor and weapons, brewing protective elixirs such as stone-skin potions, or unlocking auto-dodge in the skill tree can make a major difference. These advantages won't win fights for you, but they can give you a fighting chance.
Bounded Level Scaling: Enemies have their own level caps and only scale with you up to a certain point. For example, a basic bandit capped at levels 1 - 6 stops scaling once you out-level them. This creates a clear sense of becoming stronger over time.
Respect for the World & Wilderness: Early on, encountering an apex predator like a bear in the woods can mean certain death. You're forced to use stealth and avoid fights until your character is ready.
Economic Balance & Consequences
Controlled Economy: The economy stays tight - you'll never have an endless supply of gold. Money and resources remain scarce and valuable, so you have to think carefully before spending on gear, repairs, or potions.
World Interactions (NPCs): The world reacts to your actions, including strict rules for dealing with NPCs. Attack someone in a settlement, for example, and you'll have to deal with the consequences. This helps make the world feel alive and responsive.
Character Progression
Ability Evolution: Your character grows through experience earned from combat, exploration, and surviving in the wilderness.
Unlocking Capabilities: Leveling up unlocks new combat tactics, better gear, and essential skills that make it possible to survive the harsher parts of the world.
Survival Logistics & Food System
No Combat Healing & The Role of Food: Food in the game does not serve to heal or restore health (neither during combat nor outside of it). Naturally, the question arises: if it doesn't heal, what is its purpose? The answer relies on four pillars:
Trade & Economy: Food serves as a fully-fledged trade good—it can be purchased from merchants or sold for profit.
Survival & Automatic Satiety: Food is essential for the character's functioning. Emphasizing realism while ensuring the game remains fun, I avoid tedious micro-management—the character automatically consumes provisions from the inventory, replenishing a hidden satiety meter (the player does not need to manually pull provisions from inventory and feed the character). In the absence of food, the character first gives voice lines ("I'm hungry", "I could use a bite"), and prolonged starvation brings negative effects: exhaustion, inability to sprint, loss of consciousness, and ultimately death.
Fast Travel Fuel: Food acts as a logistical resource enabling quick movement across the map. For example: you open the map, click a distant point (e.g., another settlement), and if the inventory lacks sufficient supplies, a prompt appears: "You cannot reach this destination because you lack sufficient supplies in your inventory. Do you want to set out anyway?".
Resource Availability: Negative consequences of hunger will be rare. The game world offers plenty of opportunities to acquire provisions—through hunting, gathering (e.g., berries), searching fallen enemies, or purchasing from merchants.
Food Immersion & The Game World: Provisions actively build atmosphere and world-living beyond pure mechanics:
Food physically exists in the world—it is consumed by NPCs (e.g., during feasts in taverns) as well as the character.
Provisions and feasts regularly appear in cutscenes.
In the idle phase (when the player puts down the controller/mouse without pausing the game), after some time the character reaches for a snack, e.g., bites an apple.
Upon loading a save game (save/load), the character can often be found finishing a meal by a dying campfire.
Food Types, Automatic Consumption & Excess Spoiling: All provisions are divided into three main categories:
Perishable food (e.g., bread): Short freshness shelf-life.
Transferring resources (e.g., raw meat): Resources subject to automatic transformation in the inventory into permanently preserved food (the main preservation process is drying, e.g., raw meat turns into dried meat).
Stable food (e.g., nuts, dried fish, dried fruit): Stable, non-spoilable provisions forming a safe baseline for the road.
When the automatic feeding mechanism replenishes satiety, perishable food is consumed first to prevent waste. If the player accumulates an excessive amount of perishable products (e.g., 13 loaves of bread) and fails to use or sell them in time, the excess spoils and is permanently removed from the inventory.
World & Lore
Open World & Terrain Architecture
True Open World: Elderon offers a fully open world for players to explore.
Natural Boundaries & Wilderness Rules: There are no invisible walls cutting off the map. Boundaries are shaped by the geography itself, mainly dense, dark, and untamed primeval forests. The deeper you venture into the woods, the greater the danger, with more aggressive enemies and lethal hazards.
Zonal Threat System: To help players navigate this dangerous environment, the world is divided into clear threat zones. Staying on the roads keeps you relatively safe, while leaving the path or venturing deep into the forest requires serious preparation.
Setting & Historical Context
The Birth of Statehood: The game is set in a gritty, grounded early medieval era when large kingdoms have not yet emerged. Instead, early states are forming from fractured tribal communities, gradually claiming territory from the surrounding wilderness.
Cultural Authenticity: Daily life, architecture, social structures, and folklore are heavily inspired by real Slavic history and traditions.
A Fresh Approach to Fantasy and Mythology
Exploring Slavic Mythology: While Greek and Norse mythology dominate much of popular culture, Elderon explores lesser-known Slavic mythology to offer something different.
An Alternative to Tolkien - esque Fantasy: I'm moving away from familiar fantasy tropes such as standard elves, hobbits, and classic dwarves. Elderon offers a different take on dark fantasy, rooted in European and Eastern European folklore.
Magic and the Supernatural
Subtle & Mysterious Fantasy: Magic, curses, and mythical creatures are not everyday occurrences. They are rare, dangerous, and deeply connected to folk beliefs.
The Sense of the Unknown: The supernatural adds a dangerous layer to an otherwise believable world. Encounters with spirits, ancient entities, or rare supernatural phenomena should create a genuine sense of awe and dread.
Atmosphere and Tone
A Grasping, Unforgiving World: The atmosphere is built around tension, superstition, and the constant conflict between fragile human settlements and primeval nature. Choices matter, and survival depends on preparation, resilience, and respect for the unknown.
Art & Visual Style
Color Palette & Aesthetics
Gritty & Muted Tones: I'm avoiding bright, highly saturated colors. The visual style relies on earthy tones, muted greens, grays, and browns, broken up by bloody accents and the warm, flickering light of campfires.
Material Realism: The focus is on authentic textures such as weathered wood, rough wool, rusted iron, and mud covering armor and paths.
User Interface (UI / UX)
Minimalism & Immersion: The interface is clean and stays out of the way to keep you focused on the game world. HUD elements appear only when needed, such as during combat or gear management.
Diegetic Elements: Whenever possible, information is integrated into the game world - for example, equipment wear can be shown directly on the character model, while maps and notes can be designed to look like period manuscripts.
World & Bestiary Design
A Tangible, Muddy World: Locations, from makeshift villages to deep wilderness, should feel lived-in, authentic, and shaped by the constant struggle to survive.
The Dread of the Unknown (Bestiary): Human enemies and mythic creatures are designed with a raw, grounded feel. Folklore monsters should be unsettling precisely because they blend naturally into the wilderness, avoiding exaggerated or cartoon-like designs.
Narrative & Quests
Plot Hook
The world has always had its share of magic, but something has recently started to turn it foul. A dark force is spreading through the environment, driving neutral creatures and spirits wild while allowing new, sinister forces, such as rogue witches, to disrupt the natural balance. The main story revolves around the protagonist's personal secret, which is directly connected to this growing corruption.
Storytelling & Dialogues
Non-linear narrative full of morally ambiguous choices, multi-stage quests requiring investigation, and in-depth conversations with motivated NPCs.
Audio & Music Design
Soundtrack & Inspirations
The primary inspiration for the soundtrack is the uncompromising musical approach seen in The Witcher 3, building a unique "Slavic denseness" using ethnic instruments (hurdy-gurdy, drums, archaic wind instruments).
Sound Design
Environmental realism playing a critical mechanical role in survival (listening to forest noises).
Business Model
Monetization & Post-Launch
Traditional premium model (Buy-to-Play, PC/PS5) with no microtransactions, followed by substantial story-driven DLC expansions.
Summary & Next Steps
Vision Summary
Filling a market gap with Slavic dark fantasy focused on uncompromising survival.
Trial Goals
Validating core systems on a selected slice of the game and preparing a representative demo for players and partners.
Next Steps
Content expansion, control optimization, and Alpha production.
I am crafting a world where every player's choice carries real weight. ElderMan is a return to roots, where survival is a brutal, Slavic lesson in humility
Arkadiusz
Game Designer & Director
