User:MaxiBash/Pizza Tower Design Document

The design document, opened up in a Word processor.

Pizza Tower Design Document is the name of an 81 page Google Document created and written by McPig. The document details a set of rules, playtester notes, todos, various concepts, raw thoughts and bits of info going into great detail about levels, bosses, achievement, and more from certain time periods of the game's development. The document has notes dating back to the release of the Rework build from September 2021 all the way to December 2022, when playtesting had already been moved to Steam. A copy of the document was leaked by a member from Cheesed Up on August 20th, 2023. Little over an hour later, the document was privated by McPig.

This page lists the entirety of the document, adding approximate timestamps with improved grammar, interpunction and formatting to better suit the wiki. A copy of the original document can be found here.

Some things of note for this page:

Everything written in plain text is written by McPig or quoted from another member of Tour de Pizza.

Everything written in purple are additional notes not written by McPig, and is only there to provide more context.

Additional headings that don't exist in the original document are present on this page to ease readability.

Patreon Discontinuation Announcement Draft

The very beginning of the document features the Patreon closure text. This announcement had some slight wording changes before being published in #the-announcements.

Thank you all for supporting the game over the years. The game is finally close to being finished and funding is no longer needed. We are shutting down the pledging but all of those who donated this month will still get their rewards. Here is how the patron rewards will be handled near the game’s release:

Names in the credit will be your patron display name, change it now if you want another name.
The game is releasing on steam, keys will be sent to you through mail near release.
Pizzasonas are in the game! If yours hasn’t been done yet, you should ping me (McPig) on the discord in the #pizzasona channel.

September/November 2021 (Rework notes)

Design Philosophy for levels and rules to respect

Each level needs to introduce a new mechanic and feel like they have a unique layout.
Levels need to be about the length of the first world levels.
The mechanics need to either focus on platforming or fighting enemies, anything else should be in a very small dose.
All mechanics should be used to their full potential.
All levels need to flow smoothly from section to section, there shouldn't be anything stopping the player if they know how to proceed.
Every level should be adapted to the combo system and P-rank (which is essentially a lot of enemies, and a clear way through the points).
The game’s difficulty should be performative rather than really challenging in any way, more about getting the best rank rather than simply beating the level.
The escape sequence should introduce escape enemies and escape points in a new and meaningful way.
Levels should have a bunch of tileset variations to make sections look distinct.
Each level should have 3 secrets that are activated or found in an out of order or odd way.
I should write down any smart or creative use of the current mechanics before implementing them.

What can be done to improve the levels?

I think there’s an issue where enemies and mechanics are too far apart from each other, and there’s too much wide empty spaces. The levels feel empty as a result.
Levels need more use out of their mechanics throughout the level.
More enemies placement, it can be clever and have a unique setup.
Levels need to be creative with the current assets rather than be creative with entirely new assets.

What's missing?

Complete level tweaking to make the level design better and make more use out of the current mechanics.
Mechanics are all in place but will need slight tweaking.
Levels need more tileset and background variations.
Levels need to be P-rankable, have more enemies and need to have their secret set.
Bosses have a blueprint but need to just be finished.
Hub world also has a blueprint, needs to be done.
Game intro and ending cutscenes.
Character dialogues.
Playable Noise sprites and gameplay.
Sound effects and music needs to be done (this should be the very last thing we do I think even if it’s important, I think we will have an idea on how the game should sound when it’s basically done).
Coop post-release?
Vigilante Mode post-release?

Specific Issues that should be fixed

Enemies spawning in the escape sequence seems a bit abrupt, it would be better if you could tell where enemies will spawn (like a little shining light).

Q4 2021/April 2022

Intro

The opening cutscene would start with Peppino sleeping in his own shed, until disaster strikes, where the Pizza Tower suddenly appears, with Pizzaface dragging Peppino inside against his will. With the door slammed shut, Peppino has nothing else to do than to progress in the tower.

Concept Art	Description
	Peppino sleeping, with a view of the outside world. La La La La [one day...] (italian music)
	Peppino waking up, as the Pizza Tower has risen. AAAH! AAAAHAAAH!! 666
	Pizzaface dragging Peppino into the Pizza Tower. AAA AAAAA AAAAH! 666
	Peppino getting locked inside of the Pizza Tower. klang [infernal screams stops]

Ending

The ending, similarly seen in the final game, would involve Peppino, Gustavo and all previous boss characters (which at this point had a different lineup) all running to the exit, as the screen fades to white when going through the gate. After that, Peppino's entire adventure was revealed to be a dream with many layers to it.

Concept Art	Description
	Peppino, Gustavo and the rest of the bosses running to the exit. Emergency Exit The more you go down the more characters starts following you.
	Peppino going through the exit door. Final slow fade to white at the end of exit...
	Peppino waking up, realizing it was all a dream. Ending (after exit) La La La La (italian music)
	Peppino laughing with relief. La La La La HAHAHAHA (italian music)
	A view of a book. The Noise appears in the window, revealing this wasn't a dream after all.
	The book closing itself, revealing the game to be a tale.
	A view of a TV with the book in it.
	The TV turning off.
	A zoom out on Brick, showing his brain.
	Another zoom out on Brick.
	Brick in a void.
	An in-between frame of Brick turning into a pizza.
	A shot of the pizza that Brick turned in to. The end