Knight of the Air - KOTA Windows game

1. Introduction
Knights of the Air (in the following KOTA) is a shoot em' up game set into the First World War and within this topic it deals with air warfare. With the development of this game we would like to show the gamers some important locations of the war, most successful pilots and maybe the most exciting technical inventions, the first generation of fighter airplanes.

2. Gameplay
The game environment is in 3D but the gameplay is carried out in 2D. Player can see the airplane from bird's eye view while flying only to the main directions (left, right, forward, backward). Scores, number of lives and other conditions of the airplane can be constantly tracked on the screen.
The gamer can collect different power-ups on several places of the battlefield to acquire extras (extra life, better weapon, shields, etc.

3. Planned levels
3.1 Italy, Asiago - 10.06.1917.

- Playable pilot: József Kiss of Ittebe (Hungarian)
- Flyable airplane: Albatros DIII.
- Enemy force: Italy
- Boss fight : Caproni heavy bomber
- Award: René Fonck (French)

3.2 Russian Empire, Dvinsk - 29.07.1916.

- Playable pilot: Alexander Kazakov
- Flyable airplane: Neuport 17
- Enemy force: German Empire
- Boss fight: Armored train

3.3 Adriatic Sea, Otranto - 15.05.1917.

- Playable pilots: Francesco Baracca (Italian) or René Fonck (French)
- Flyable airplanes: Spad VII., XIII.
- Enemy forces: fleets of Austria-Hungary and German Empire
- Boss fight: Battleship

3.4 France, Villers-Bretonneux - 06.04.1918.

- Playable pilot: Manfred von Richthofen
- Flyable airplane: F o k k e r DRI.
- Enemy force: United Kingdom
- Award: Edward Mannock (British)

3.4. German South-West Africa, Windhoek - May of 1915.

- Playable pilots: Eddie Rickenbacker (USA) vagy Edward Mannock (British)
- Flyable airplanes: Spad XIII or SE.5a
- Enemy force: German Empore
- Boss fight: Fortress

4. Game elements
One of the most important aspects throughout the designing and developing process of different buildings, landmarks and vehicles is to maintain the typical characteristics of the locations and armies. Accordingly, the buildings on the Italian battlefield match in style with the architectural marks of the area, and the paint of hostile aircrafts as well.

Throughout the gameplay obtainable extras have an important role. They can be divided into five different groups:
- weapons: those extras belong here which change the current weapons. One must be careful when using them because it can happen that we bump into a weaker element than our present weapon.
- extra weapons: those extras belong here which provide a more devastating force than the traditional weapons (rocket, pulse, lightning, flamethrower) but with limited ammunition.
- defence: those extras belong here which improve the surviving skills of the player's aircraft, such as varied shields.
- resource: those extras belong here which provide some kind of resource, such as extra life, fuel, avoinding turret over-heating and repair.
- hidden: those extras belong here that are not revealed until the player bumps into them. The extra feature which he gets is random: it can be a weaker weapon or an extra life as well.

5. Fighting style
On the five locations, beside the hardships of the gameplay, the player has to make different decisions: he can have mercy on his enemies, can complete a mission in stealthy mode, etc. As a reward of his decisions he can get new aircrafts or playable characters, such as the French pilot master René Fonck, or the most effective pilot of RAF, Edward Mannock who had 61 air victories.