Unit 68

At first I started to research different games on different platforms with different genres.

Game comparison

For this bit of research I am going to compare two different games from different years but with similar lineage. The two games I shall be comparing is Rayman (1995) and BattleBlock Theatre (2013).

Rayman is a 2D side scrolling platfrom game where you navigate you're way through different levels and worlds with the goal of rescuing collecting lums and rescuing the electoons. Whilst also plotting to stop Mr Dark from ruling the world. The game play is simple but very challenging which makes the game appeal to a wide audience of children and older people.

BattleBlock Theatre is also a 2D side scrolling platform game but this game has different goals and objectives. The objective is to navigate you're way through a level to collect enough jems to exit the level, once you have finished 9 levels there will be a similar level but this time round you have an allotted time to complete it.

Another comparison between the two games is the colourful and sureal art style. Which appeal to a larger audience due to younger people liking bright and interesting colours aswell as older people usually do aswell. As well as the bright and surreal art style the levels get a lot harder the further you advance. Both games do this by making the puzzles and obsticles more difficult to navigate.

Game Pitch work

This picture is the original screenshot of our original idea for the game.

After our original idea we moved onto creating a game with a similar concept but in a fantasy world and with more playable characters. The point of the game was that the royal jewels were stolen and you would play as part of the royal family or their trusted allies on the hunt to reclaim the jewels. On you're journey you will come up againts goblin thieves and wild animals. At the current moment we have planned to have four playible characters with the possibility of adding more.

We then moved on to creating a simple list of the ideas of the futher developed game. These also feature the original rough character concept drafts.

(we decided to not include the knight in the first release, we do have an idea of releasing DLC with the Knight Prince and Princess)

The main idea we had was to create a 2.5D sidescrolling platfromer. We wanted to take inspiration from some of the best games in the genre but wanted to keep it fresh and different. A way of doing this was to combine genres like hack and slash with collecting items and certain amounts of them. We also wanted to add an RPG style to the game in terms of leveling up an attack or deffense. The game will also feature multiplayer Co-op aswell as single player. We wanted to add this to add even more of a replay value to the game. Our target audience will be age 7 and up, we chose this rating after looking at the PEGI ratings and finding that 7+ was the best for our game.

Me and Gage then moved onto creating the rough script for the pitch video. When we move onto filming we will only use this as a rough guidence point if we get stuck but we will mainly be speaking in our own words.

(individual work)

After we had filmed all the pitch I moved onto drawing some concept art for the game. I started with a rough idea for the logo

Once I digitized the an idea i gave it to Gage who then went on to make an improved version on Cinema 4D and then animated it to put at the begining of the pitch. Whilst making this I realised how bad the wizards staff looked, so when I gave the image to Gage to remake in 3D I made sure that we used two swords instead of the staff.

I then moved on to creating ideas for the characters.

I started with designing the first playable character, the King.

 After sketching the king I digitised him using photoshop.

After I did that I decided to see waht the king would like in a pixel form.

I then went on to designing the secind playable character, the Queen.

I then digitised one of the sketches.

I then designed the Jester.

I then digitised one of the sketches.

And the last playable character I designed was the Wizard.

I then digitised one of the sketches.

I then designed what a basic goblin theif could look like.

I then digitised one of the sketches.

I then did the same for some of the boss goblins. When designing the rough concepts for the bosses I wanted to make sure they all looked like goblins but all had individual looks such as a large or small build. I also wanted to make sure that there weapons were all different.

I then started to digitise some of them.

Looking back at the drawings im not that impressed with them. This is because I dont see them being good enough to attract people other that the target audience to the game. Although I am pleased with the  pixel concept art I created and I do believe that those bits of concept art are the most affective.

This was the first rough draft of the pitch video. Me and Gage edited the footage we had at the time, wich wasn't too much. When we had all the footage we need, Archie started to do the editing.



I think this draft was poor and didnt really explain enough about the game. It was just us talking to the camera which is pretty boring. We also didint explain the game no where near well enough.

After gathering more footage we moved onto to our final pitch, which was mainly edited by Archie.



The pitch was then sent to three Industrial panel members to give feed back; these were the points they made.

After recieving the feedback I agree with most of it, I do feel the video although it was a major improvement from the previous video still isnt good enough to give us the slightest chance of getting funding. I feel the begining of the pitch was definately not proffesional enough due to it just starting with me speaking, I feel that the animation at the end should be moved to the begining to give a more profesional feel. I also feel that we struggled to find a way of describing the game and why it may vary from other games similar in the structured time we had and the fact the video was too long it didnt help. I feel we should of probably filmed more takes cause although it adds a realistic feel to the video at times we stuttered or didnt really know where we were going. I also believe that we may not have appelead to our target audience which we may of not made clear in the pitch. A way we could of done this would of been describing the concepts wiht more visuals and less talking. (part of this was done after initial feedback)


10 pager

In the 10 pager we initially split the pages up for different people to take part in. I selected the Enemies, playable characters, title and the game experience. I started writting the pages on a word document before transfering them aswell as what ohter people had written to the 10 page game document.

Enimies

As you advance through the games levels and worlds, you will come up against a range of different enemies. In the first area, the castle grounds you will mainly come up against goblin soldiers and thieves. At the end of the last level in the first area the boss will be a Goblin Brute leader.

The Goblin Brute leader is a fierce and blood thirsty goblin who has one goal in life, to kill anything that isn't a goblin(most of the time). The Brute is heavily armoured which means he is high in health with strong hits but slow in speed and mobility.

In the second area which is the village you will come up against some goblin thieves again as well as a few angry farm animals like chickens and sheep. At the end of the last level in the second area the boss battle will be a Goblin Farmer.

The Goblin Farmer is an overweight lazy goblin who spends its days stealing the villager farmers produce and using it to widen his belly. The Goblin Farmer wears minimal clothing (due to it not fitting) so his health. Due to his weight, he is slow and weak. That is why in his boss battle he sends out his crazed farm animals to do his work.

The third area will be the woods. In this area there will still be goblin thieves but less of them due to the amount of wild animals living in the woods such as bears and foxes. At the end of the last level of the woodland there will be another boss battle against a Goblin Hunter.  

The Goblin Hunter is a small skinny Goblin that spends his time silently stalking his prey deep in the woodlands. The Goblin Hunter is very quick and quiet on his feet and mainly attacks using his trusted bow although the lower his health gets the more wild he will become, forcing him to use his dagger to kill his prey.

The fourth area will be deep and dark caverns only inhabited by blood thirsty bats and a deranged Goblin many believe to be a myth. This Goblin has lived in the shadows for most of his life conquering his fears and thus has become BatGob.

BatGob is a crazy goblin who has isolated himself away from his own kind in order to conquer his fears. Due to a lack of social life (not that Goblins have much of a civilised one) he has donned a suit inspired by his biggest fear, Bats. BatGob will glide from ledge to ledge throwing strangely shaped daggers and knives before swooping in for strong punches and kicks.

The final area you will travel to is the Goblin Kingdom itself. Here you will have to fight your way through Goblin soldiers, villagers and thieves before coming up against the Goblin King.

The Goblin King is tall, strong and strangely intelligent for a Goblin. The Goblin King wants nothing more than a fare life for his people but believes the only way of doing this is to steal and kill there way to peace. The Goblin King holds a giant staff and at the top is the skull of what is rumoured to be the devil. His attacks are strong and rapid meaning the only way to defeat him is to outsmart him tactically.

Character sheets

Character Profile Sheet

Character Name: The King

Gender: Male

Age: 45

Marital Status: Married

Spouse: The Queen

Children: The Prince and The Princess

Hair: Brown with a ginger beard

Eyes: Black and white

Appearance: Slightly overweight wearing the finest clothing all of which is the colour red or green.

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Friends/Allies: The royal advisor, the wizard and the jester

Likes: Food, money and hunting

Health: High

Strength: Average

Speed: Average

Weapons: A big broad sword with two attacks, normal: average  heavy: slow but heavy

Background: The king came in to power very early in his life due to his parents both being murdered during a goblin invasion and due to his parents not having any other children he was put on the throne at the age of 14. Although being advised his hole life, the king has always had the mindset of if he wants or likes something its his. After meeting the woman he was to marry and have two children, she managed to change his ways but only slightly.

Character Profile Sheet



Character Name: The Queen


Gender: Female

Age: 30

Marital Status: Married

Spouse: The King

Children: The Prince and The Princess

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Black and white

Appearance: Petite woman with a long green dress with gold jewellery.

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Friends/Allies: The royal advisor, the wizard and the jester

Likes: Family and caring for others

Health: Low

Strength: Low

Speed: High

Weapons: A rapier sword with two attacks, jab: low  slice: average

Background: Before marrying the King, the Queen was one of the kingdoms healers. She would spend most of her days caring for the sick and wounded. One day the King had a fever and needed medicine and the moment they met the pair fell in love and a year later were married and had their first child, The Prince and few years later the Princess was born.

Character Profile Sheet


Character Name: The Jester

Gender: Male

Age: 24

Marital Status: Single

Hair: Short Blonde (can't be seen under his giant hat)

Eyes: Black and white

Appearance: Average weight with a purple and yellow jester costume including a matching giant hat.

Traits: Very clumsy and dumb

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Parents /Guardians: King and Queen of comedy

Friends/Allies: The royal family and the Wizard

Likes: Comedy

Health: Average

Strength: Ranged attack: weak but rapid            Melee: Strong but slow

Speed: High

Weapons: Juggling balls (Ranged) and a giant chicken leg (Melee)

Background: The man only known as "The Jester" was born into the royal family of comedy (not to mistaken with the main royal family). But due to his dumb and clumsy nature and having ruined countless comedy routines he found himself neglected by his family. In an attempt to get a fresh start the jester left his family and home in search of a new life, which lead him to the Main Kingdom. HIs first job in the kingdom was to look after the stables but one day in a strange circumstance made a fool of himself in front of the King, which then lead to the King deciding to make him his personal Jester.

Character Profile Sheet

Character Name: The Wizard

Gender: Male

Age: N/A

Marital Status: Single

Hair: Grey and white with a great big bushy beard

Eyes: Black and white

Appearance: Skinny and boney old man wearing nothing but a long dark blue robe with a matching pointy hat.

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Friends/Allies: The royal family, jester and the royal advisor

Like: Magic, reading and pipes

Health: Average

Strength: Ranged attack: high      Melee: low with a knockback effect

Speed: Low

Weapons: Wizard Staff shoots fireballs for ranged attack and for his melee he clumps the enemies on the head with it

Background: The man who is only known as "The Wizard" has been working alongside the royal family for generations and know one, even the wizard himself knows how long he has been alive for. All the wizard can truly remember is that it is his duty to work for the royal family and help advise them should they need it. The wizard seems to most people like a high, crazy old man but once they see him in combat with his magic abilities they soon learn he has talent, swell as being a high, crazy old man.


After initially creating the enemies and character sheets on word I moved onto placing mine and other peoples pages onto the template Archie intially created.

After I recieved the template I realised that the font for the main text was not easy to read considering the amount of content we had for each page, I then moved onto finding a more appropriate and readable font.

Once I had done this I started to place the pages I had written aswell as the others on to the template.

These are the character sheets.

The character concept page will be changed when I can finish creating the the Queen and Jester in an 8bit style.

Once I had done these I moved onto creating the Game Experience.

This is the whole 10 pager document. I have written four different subjects and edited them all to fit the template Archie created. After I put everythng in the template I made them all jpegs.

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10 pager evaluation (after initial deadline)

Looking back at the whole 10 page document, I am quite pleased with the outcome.  I believe the design of the document is visual pleasing and makes me interseted in what the content is. A down side to the document is that it is still not the easiest to read if the sheet isn't directly infront of you or if the image is large. Another down side is due to the amount of content we created meant that the pages are either going to be very cluttered or we will have to create even more pages if we had the font size larger than it was. I believe the colour scheme is affective in conveying a fantasy medevel environment. The colours used are the most traditional royal colurs such as red and yellow. If you know nothing about the game but look at the first page you instantly get a rough picture of what themes the game links to. I belive the document looks like it can be close to what some profesional companies could use.

Overall evaluation (after initial deadline)

In my opinion the solo work I did wheather it was part of the group or before we were put into groups was my best work. I believe because not every one in the group was eager to help or pull their own weight in the tasks which lead to me and one other having to do the work we were missing because of these people. This lead to some aspects being rushed such as parts of the pitch video due to team members not showing up when they were expected to help out, this meant that those of us who did show up had to film there scenes which meant we had less time to get the scenes correct or to edit them efectively. This was also the case when creating the other content of work for the pitch because we only really had the concept sketches I had created aswell as one or two other images. Overall I am pleased with the work I managed to produce in terms of the research and 10 page work but I do feel certain members/parts of the group let the quality of work drop.