I feel I have developed a very conceptual game which fulfils the brief by having core mechanics which are heavily influenced by my initial research and by being very innovative in the ideas, themes and visuals. As the brief stated, through my innovation, I have chosen a strongly non-commercial stance. I feel the game may still have a decent appeal to a wide ranging audience of mainly 16+ but not the mass market of published titles, especially on the Wii from which I have gained most information during the research. This is due to the politically incorrect and insensitive subject matter; while still tame in comparison to many published titles, may offend. I do however think the offensive themes have an intelligent grounding, engaging and teasing the user, rather than being outright abrasive. The confrontational and miasmic visuals also lend to the individual feel but may risk seizures in photosensitive users. As such a warning of offense and to those sensitive to effects such as strobe lighting will be placed on the website which will host the game.
I feel that I have completed far more than I set out to, while the theme and intentions from my original outline have been realised. To enhance the experience, I would develop the RPG elements further, with more statistics to improve, add more enemies, make the levels longer, add more minigames as ranging attacks and perhaps move into 3D, to realise the possibilities of disorientating effects. As it is, I believe this playable section of the game matches the criteria of the brief, having been built upon design principles gathered from research and by innovating within those aspects of play.
Sunday, 17 May 2009
11 - 11.05.09 - Sound
With the visuals complete, I added sounds to reinforce actions such as on buttons, and with appropriate music when you are in the levels, enter a fight, enter a boss fight, when you die or complete a fight. I have kept the music and sound effects as eerie and obscure as possible to mirror the visual style of the game. I feel using a cuckoo clock, the ‘loony tunes’ theme and wild west confrontation music reflects the insane and humorous element which I’m trying to bring to the experience.
10 - 04.05.09 - Game Interface
As the game has expanded far beyond my original intention, the flash file has become quite crowded! As it appears in the brief, I feel navigation is a significant feature to refine.
While the HUD changes slightly from level to level, I have kept the interface clean and simple throughout, with consistent sizes, layouts and fonts. The in-game inventory is laid out clearly, with obvious buttons and information and the main menu system is simple and straightforward. I spent some time making a detailed carousel for the level screen, where you cycle through which ‘psychotic episode’ to engage in. I have tried to make an intuitive interface, using skills from the previous Designing for the User brief, as while the game is purposely intended to challenge and disorientate visually, I don’t want the player to become frustrated with navigation.
While the HUD changes slightly from level to level, I have kept the interface clean and simple throughout, with consistent sizes, layouts and fonts. The in-game inventory is laid out clearly, with obvious buttons and information and the main menu system is simple and straightforward. I spent some time making a detailed carousel for the level screen, where you cycle through which ‘psychotic episode’ to engage in. I have tried to make an intuitive interface, using skills from the previous Designing for the User brief, as while the game is purposely intended to challenge and disorientate visually, I don’t want the player to become frustrated with navigation.
9 - 27.04.09 - Level Three
A week later and the game has two individual levels and I have decided to create a third. This will make the game three times longer than I originally intended and should really enhance the experience.
The third and final level of this demo is perhaps the most conceptual. ‘Hectic Narcoleptic’ sees the player assume the role of a motorist, racing as they forgot to set the VRC to record their favourite show, who intermittently falls asleep at the wheel. The player begins with zero ‘dammige’ and 100 ‘peace of mind’. By colliding with randomly generating trees on the verge at the top of the screen, the ‘dammige’ will increase until it reaches 100 at which the player will lose the game. Other objects on the road marked ‘innocent’ will increase ‘dammige’ and decrease ‘peace of mind’ the latter of which will also fail the game, if it reaches zero. Experience from fights can be spent on repairing the vehicle and replacing the characters peace of mind in the inventory. To vary the visual quality again, I have gone for a very psychological theme inspired by idea of ‘text-adventure’ games. Here, the assets are all basic shapes with a simple shadow and repetitive colours. What sets them apart from one another is that they each bear a label, explaining what they are. The main player-character for example, is a grey rectangle with the text; ‘and ordinary-looking car’. Other elements such as ‘freshly mown grass’ on the verge or obstacles on the road being ‘innocent’ or ‘danger’ continue the theme, which challenges the player in a very new and rarer way for a game, by engaging their imagination. While some imagination may be required to aid the suspension of disbelief in a game, to accept the less than photorealistic graphics as reality for example, here the illusion is purposely obliterated thus asking the player to invent the visuals subconsciously. The title ‘freshly mown grass’ for example may invoke varied memories and even nostalgic feelings, covering several senses. Even if the user cannot see past the simplistically styled graphics, they have a unique aesthetic with flashes of colours for objects of interest. The opponents continue this theme, being entitled ‘a terrifying monster’, ‘a cute but surprisingly violent creature’ and possibly the most thought provoking; ‘an invisible monster’. The battle screen background is entirely white, save for the simple line of text ‘the most beautiful landscape you have ever seen’ with ‘a terrifying boss’ being the enemy. As this is a later level, the screen is more cluttered and the enemies move at a greater pace, to be more challenging. The narcolepsy mechanic makes navigation hazardous, resulting in the car swerving off into innocents, enemies or damage causing objects. The direction is randomly generated from several options and so should never feel repetitive and a display is visible on the HUD to tell the player when the character is awake or asleep and the direction of the car when swerving uncontrollably.
The third and final level of this demo is perhaps the most conceptual. ‘Hectic Narcoleptic’ sees the player assume the role of a motorist, racing as they forgot to set the VRC to record their favourite show, who intermittently falls asleep at the wheel. The player begins with zero ‘dammige’ and 100 ‘peace of mind’. By colliding with randomly generating trees on the verge at the top of the screen, the ‘dammige’ will increase until it reaches 100 at which the player will lose the game. Other objects on the road marked ‘innocent’ will increase ‘dammige’ and decrease ‘peace of mind’ the latter of which will also fail the game, if it reaches zero. Experience from fights can be spent on repairing the vehicle and replacing the characters peace of mind in the inventory. To vary the visual quality again, I have gone for a very psychological theme inspired by idea of ‘text-adventure’ games. Here, the assets are all basic shapes with a simple shadow and repetitive colours. What sets them apart from one another is that they each bear a label, explaining what they are. The main player-character for example, is a grey rectangle with the text; ‘and ordinary-looking car’. Other elements such as ‘freshly mown grass’ on the verge or obstacles on the road being ‘innocent’ or ‘danger’ continue the theme, which challenges the player in a very new and rarer way for a game, by engaging their imagination. While some imagination may be required to aid the suspension of disbelief in a game, to accept the less than photorealistic graphics as reality for example, here the illusion is purposely obliterated thus asking the player to invent the visuals subconsciously. The title ‘freshly mown grass’ for example may invoke varied memories and even nostalgic feelings, covering several senses. Even if the user cannot see past the simplistically styled graphics, they have a unique aesthetic with flashes of colours for objects of interest. The opponents continue this theme, being entitled ‘a terrifying monster’, ‘a cute but surprisingly violent creature’ and possibly the most thought provoking; ‘an invisible monster’. The battle screen background is entirely white, save for the simple line of text ‘the most beautiful landscape you have ever seen’ with ‘a terrifying boss’ being the enemy. As this is a later level, the screen is more cluttered and the enemies move at a greater pace, to be more challenging. The narcolepsy mechanic makes navigation hazardous, resulting in the car swerving off into innocents, enemies or damage causing objects. The direction is randomly generated from several options and so should never feel repetitive and a display is visible on the HUD to tell the player when the character is awake or asleep and the direction of the car when swerving uncontrollably.
8 - 20.04.09 - Level Two
I have completed an entire level and what my tutor and I agreed was a suitable section to submit for the whole brief, weeks before the deadline. As such I have decided to develop an entirely new level continuing the theme while bringing new visuals and styles of play to the game.
The second drug induced nightmare ‘Tourette’s Regrets’ sees the player take control of a paranoid ‘recycle bin’ windows icon trying to delete offensive office emails before their employer discovers them. An enhanced windows taskbar grounds the screen, with off-putting messages and an inventory button. The background green sky image is a homage to one of the default windows XP desktop backgrounds, which spins round wildly, disorientating the player. The opponents are zip files, containing compressed enemies, which when collided with will trigger a combat sequence. The layout is similar to the previous level, but with an intensely confrontation pixellated animation in the background to continue the computerised theme. The special attack has been removed to create a greater challenge and the enemies are a .setup file, .exe file or bluescreen. The final boss is a redscreen, with a comedic message on it to replace the error report, and challenging the player with greater health and attack. I feel these enemy concepts are entertaining as they play on computer/internet humour which should appeal to gamers and are quite original. Different to the previous level, a flying windows update icon provides a new resource; ‘om nom’. By colliding with this icon and increasing the ‘om nom’ score, the player can upgrade their speed, which will improve their performance and control over the player character considerably.
The second drug induced nightmare ‘Tourette’s Regrets’ sees the player take control of a paranoid ‘recycle bin’ windows icon trying to delete offensive office emails before their employer discovers them. An enhanced windows taskbar grounds the screen, with off-putting messages and an inventory button. The background green sky image is a homage to one of the default windows XP desktop backgrounds, which spins round wildly, disorientating the player. The opponents are zip files, containing compressed enemies, which when collided with will trigger a combat sequence. The layout is similar to the previous level, but with an intensely confrontation pixellated animation in the background to continue the computerised theme. The special attack has been removed to create a greater challenge and the enemies are a .setup file, .exe file or bluescreen. The final boss is a redscreen, with a comedic message on it to replace the error report, and challenging the player with greater health and attack. I feel these enemy concepts are entertaining as they play on computer/internet humour which should appeal to gamers and are quite original. Different to the previous level, a flying windows update icon provides a new resource; ‘om nom’. By colliding with this icon and increasing the ‘om nom’ score, the player can upgrade their speed, which will improve their performance and control over the player character considerably.
7 - 23.03.09 - Boss
Looking at the current level, it lacks a final goal or objective. I considered adding gradual visuals in the background to give the sense of level progression but instead chose to add a boss as the climax to the game.
The boss concept features a separate and significantly more powerful adversary which appears on screen after 20 seconds. This means in order to fight them and complete the level, they must avoid the onscreen opponents until the countdown is concluded, although fights will be required to raise the characters statistics to be capable of defeating each boss. The countdown clock is influenced by the ominous timer in the LOST television series, as I felt the psychological aspects of the program resonated within this project.
The boss concept features a separate and significantly more powerful adversary which appears on screen after 20 seconds. This means in order to fight them and complete the level, they must avoid the onscreen opponents until the countdown is concluded, although fights will be required to raise the characters statistics to be capable of defeating each boss. The countdown clock is influenced by the ominous timer in the LOST television series, as I felt the psychological aspects of the program resonated within this project.
6 - 16.03.09 - Rapid Development
Early development has been a lot faster than I had intended, as I got quite addicted to the concept and spent more time than I had planned. I now have the main elements of level one in place: a side-scrolling landscape with several enemies in a functioning turn-based-combat sequence. I feel that the game doesn’t currently need a minigame as the RPG sequence has been expanded.
5 - 02.03.09 - Game Mechanic
During early development, I discovered that the RPG aspects combined to make the most compelling area of the experience and so I chose to focus on them and include just one minigame as opposed to a range of them. Using new and relatively advanced code to me, I have implemented a range of variables to allow the player to gain experience, and upgrade several aspects of their character. This makes every endeavour of the user more rewarding as each battle can improve their future gaming experience. The player may increase their health, attack, speed, and other level specific abilities as well as advancing through levels every 100 experience points.
4 - 16.02.09 - Flow Theory
The ‘flow’ theory as proposed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalayi, focuses on the mental state in which a person is entirely immersed in an activity. This translates very effectively into the study of games and I have applied his ‘components of flow’ to my project.
Due to the side scrolling nature of the game and the turn based combat, the goals of the game should appear clear to the player, as a description for each mini-game will appear to guide them through.
The game will require a reasonably high level of concentration when navigating parts of a level and when completing the mini-games.
The environments and visuals should make the player feel connected with the game and create a loss of the feeling of self-consciousness in the participant.
Levels will have a set pace, as the backgrounds will be constantly moving. As such, the player’s sense of time may become distorted, with timers counting down during the levels and mini-games. As the game will be quite casual the player may not be engrossed for long periods of time on a single occasion and so their sense of time is unlikely to be distorted in that way.
The player will receive direct and immediate feedback, be it when missing a jump, completing a mini-game successfully or not, taking damage or when killing an opponent or being killed. This feedback will help influence the player in changing their approach of actions if need be.
A balance between ability level and challenge will be created by the way the mini-games are structured. Greater damage will be done to the opponent through the speed at which a player completes a challenge or the score obtained within it. Either way, a greater ability will yield higher results while the challenges will be easy enough to learn and accomplish.
By extensively controlling the ‘pill’ avatar’s movement and by completing challenges to attack an opponent, the participant will feel a sense of personal control over the activity.
Completing fight sequences or difficult navigation of the terrain will be intrinsically rewarding to the player, creating a sense of achievement.
Due to the side scrolling nature of the game and the turn based combat, the goals of the game should appear clear to the player, as a description for each mini-game will appear to guide them through.
The game will require a reasonably high level of concentration when navigating parts of a level and when completing the mini-games.
The environments and visuals should make the player feel connected with the game and create a loss of the feeling of self-consciousness in the participant.
Levels will have a set pace, as the backgrounds will be constantly moving. As such, the player’s sense of time may become distorted, with timers counting down during the levels and mini-games. As the game will be quite casual the player may not be engrossed for long periods of time on a single occasion and so their sense of time is unlikely to be distorted in that way.
The player will receive direct and immediate feedback, be it when missing a jump, completing a mini-game successfully or not, taking damage or when killing an opponent or being killed. This feedback will help influence the player in changing their approach of actions if need be.
A balance between ability level and challenge will be created by the way the mini-games are structured. Greater damage will be done to the opponent through the speed at which a player completes a challenge or the score obtained within it. Either way, a greater ability will yield higher results while the challenges will be easy enough to learn and accomplish.
By extensively controlling the ‘pill’ avatar’s movement and by completing challenges to attack an opponent, the participant will feel a sense of personal control over the activity.
Completing fight sequences or difficult navigation of the terrain will be intrinsically rewarding to the player, creating a sense of achievement.
3 - 09.02.09 - Game Concept
In my game, the user plays as a mental patient residing in a secure psychiatric facility. Their varied disorders are being tested on with a cocktail of experimental drugs (hence the title), which will induce different nightmarish hallucinations. These pills therefore represent the levels within the game, each being uniquely visually obscure and psychedelic as they reflect the shifting mental state of the patient. The levels will also focus on a different mental disorder, such a ‘Hectic Narcoleptic’ in which the player attempts certain tasks including driving with the risk of falling unconscious or ‘Bi-Polar Bare' where a flasher is assailed by conflicting mental episodes.
However, the level I shall create for this brief will be ‘OMG OCD LOL’ in which the patient enters a world of disease, pestilence and grime with a severe case of obsessive compulsive disorder. The player (represented by a ‘pill’ avatar) cleans as they go, combating the filth and detritus.
The level will primarily be a side-scroller, with locations and enemies that when encountered will launch a turn based combat screen. Here, the player will complete a range of mini-games and the more successful they are, the greater the damage they will do to their opponents. To reflect the themes of the game, the patient’s weapons are all cleaning equipment, each of which will have a different mini-game to complete as their attack. The mini-games will range from mouse gesturing (a technique that I will need to research), timing button presses, and pressing correct key sequences.
However, the level I shall create for this brief will be ‘OMG OCD LOL’ in which the patient enters a world of disease, pestilence and grime with a severe case of obsessive compulsive disorder. The player (represented by a ‘pill’ avatar) cleans as they go, combating the filth and detritus.
The level will primarily be a side-scroller, with locations and enemies that when encountered will launch a turn based combat screen. Here, the player will complete a range of mini-games and the more successful they are, the greater the damage they will do to their opponents. To reflect the themes of the game, the patient’s weapons are all cleaning equipment, each of which will have a different mini-game to complete as their attack. The mini-games will range from mouse gesturing (a technique that I will need to research), timing button presses, and pressing correct key sequences.
2 - 02.02.09 - Research Review
With the research gathered, I have identified what I believe to be important elements and game mechanics which combine to make a game fun. The itemised research log will be included on my website and as part of the design document.
1 - 26.01.09 - Introduction
The first two weeks have been based around research and planning initial ideas. In response to the brief, I have decided to opt for the ‘non-commercial stance’ as mentioned as a design consideration. I agree that there is repetition within the games industry, sprouting from publisher’s pressures and unimaginative developers. As such I intend to make the project quite conceptual and innovative, while creating a playable game that has been influenced by my research.
The research comprised board, web and console games with criteria taken from sheets handed out by my tutor. Two game theorists mentioned on the sheet were entirely new to me and so I have researched them further. This has paid off hugely – not only gaining a better understanding of their principles and approaches but discovering ‘flow’ theory. This 9-step process of engagement in play is perfect for analysing my game concept and I will implement it when I am at that stage.
The research comprised board, web and console games with criteria taken from sheets handed out by my tutor. Two game theorists mentioned on the sheet were entirely new to me and so I have researched them further. This has paid off hugely – not only gaining a better understanding of their principles and approaches but discovering ‘flow’ theory. This 9-step process of engagement in play is perfect for analysing my game concept and I will implement it when I am at that stage.
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