Folliage

As I am going for a kind of jungle setting I thought it would be a good idea for coming up with some designs for some possible foliage / trees. To be honest there was'nt that great research I could find on this subject so I just got some images together and decided to just scribble some designs down very quickly, yes I drew some terrible designs but I believe I did come up with a couple of good ones, and I choss one I really liked towards the bottom, which I played around a little bit and was happy with the design.

Game Mazes

I was really for the idea of including a maze within my level, and after a discussion with the tutor he told me to look into a different variety of mazes, my idea of a maze is getting from point A to point B, getting through obstacles, and a route which can lead in a different variety of ways to reach your goal. But the further you look into it allot of games are mazes, Games for example Fable and Skyrim, you start of at point A but how you get to Point B is your own path, with plenty of twists and turns. On the other hand Pacman, that's based in a maze however you cant escape, but theres a challenge and a mission, so is completing that is the eqivillent of escaping the maze. Anyway I don't want to get too much into this but its defiantly an interesting subject which could be explored into deeper meaning.

Heres, a quick sketch I did of a Maze, To behonest thinking about it has put me off including a maze, however I quite like the design, especially the idea of a turntable which connects paths, also I have to think about the camera angle for the maze like do you go for over the top view similar to the marble game I uploaded a picture of or side, do you go for side view and so on.

Finalized Character

During a mini crit, I was given the advice to think about a character, not necessarily to go into too much detail, but this would help me with my level, as it would show me how the character would interact within the level which does make sense. So I thought it would be a good idea to let Ifraz who was focusing his project on concept art to come up with a few designs which I have mentioned before but these are the designs he came up with. The 3 below were my favorite designs out of the bunch in which he drew, however after examining the characters into more detail I grow to really like the third character down, which is the kind of turtle like character in the shell. Reasons why I chose this is firstly I thought the other two character's whilst I liked them were too humanoid for my liking, and I mentioned in my brief that a humoid is not what I wanted, as I wanted something silly and fun to play, taking influence from characters such as Sonic and Crash Bandicoot. I really liked the use of the shell aswell which can be used for great effect, My idea is that every time he changes weapon he goes in his shell and picks a new weapon and so on. For my environment I just want for this level anyway your stand ate jump and run similar to Mario game inwhich to defeat the enemies on the level you have to jump onto them. Thinking further into the franchise I would plan on including different abilities such as roll which would be good with the shell and other abilities but for now that will do. I'm also giving the character a pretty good jump as my level requires alot of jumping s o its something I have to consider and he's also quite pacy.

More Concept Ideas

Just a few more ideas I have come up with. I have decided that I am going to use the Volcano with the skulls as when asking for peoples opinions on that element of the level alot suggested they like it, I am also planning on including a boulder within the tunnel, for the character to jump over similar to donkey kong vs mario. I also am heading towards the idea of including some form of snake as they were pretty popular during the mayan times, i'm not sure as to there relevance but there was plenty of statues of them. I'm probably heading towards includind them as some kind of statue, maybe something that blows fire, that could be quite interesting. As you can tell I took one of the examples of art from the previous page and created a level, which I quite like, it could maybe do with a few touch ups but the overal design im happy with and plan on developing further, apart from that not much else to report but I do believe i'm heading down the right line.

Mayan Art And Tatoos

I thought It would be good to look at some Mayan Art, What I really like about the art is the shapes and the pattern, and how when I look at a pacific piece of art, my mind starts to think about the story behind the art, each piece to me demonstrates a exciting story. I really like the example of art second down, Ive taken huge influence from this piece into designing an idea for the level. I also like the way I could take any of these pieces of work and create a level similar to the picture. I also noticed how alot of these pieces of work have been carved into the architecture of the buildings, maybe that's something I could take influence from when designing buildings and architecture for my level. I also noticed they was some really nice mayan influenced tatoos, for example The Rock ( Dwayne Johnson ) which I have posted a picture. Has a really nice silhouette style tattoo, which has made me think about having a silhouette level and its another thing to experiment with. Just shows you how researching something such as The Rocks Tattoo can give you great research towards your video game, just shows you no research is useless.

Port Adventura ( Mayan Themed Land )

I remember visiting a Theme Park called Port Adventura which is situated in Salou, Spain. I have visited this marvelous theme park twice so this counts as 1st class research. However I have lost some of the photos from my visit so these are all images I found on the internet. They have a whole area of the theme park which Is themed to the ancient Mexican civilization. And has plenty of spectacular theming which can influence my work. What I remember very well was a attraction called Temple Del Fuego which was a Indianan Jones influenced attraction inside some Fire temple, which was brilliant but also acquired some great scenery as you can see from a image below, It has given me the idea to experiment with the idea of a kind of like fire temple on the game level, and could work well with the volcano element of the level. I think it would look great next to Mayan architecture.

Indianna Jones

Just remembered the opening scene to Indianna Jones, which Going in from my previous posts about boulders and spikes, reminded me of this, Its kind of something i'm aiming for in my game.

Stoyline For My Environment

Comeing up with a storyline was actually one of the hardest aspects I have encounted so far, I was trying too hard to come up with a really imaginitive and unique story, however I then decided to take a step back and I realised my game is aimed at the family audience, so the story has to connect with a variety of diffferent ages,thinking more towards the younger audience they have to understand the games goals and whats going on. Also added to the fact that its aimed at casual gamers, which potentially means there not as interested at the stoyline then say hardcore gamers. So I started to take a look at alot of Nintendo Wi games as thats a similar audeice I'm aiming towards and majority are very simple stories, such as Mario Galaxy which is one of the funnest games I have played recently, which is just as a simple collect all the stars to save the galaxy. I guess its a way of suggesting you dont need some oscar winning story to create a fun game, at the end of the day its the gameplay which is the most important aspect. Would you rather a game with Brilliant Gameplay and a average story of vice versa. Another quick example is the Donkey Kong franchise, ehich has simple storys such as your bannan's have been stolen, go and find them.

Anyway taking all this into consideration I have decided, taking a similar aproach, the world is in danger and you, the player have been told you are the only person that can save the world by traviling both back in time and to the future to collect a range of old artifacts which contain letters which spell a anagram which will unlock this myserious weapon which will defend the plannet from the upcoming attack from a attak from a deadly specious.

Charcter Sheet Brief For Ifraz

Brief – Character Sheet

Name: N/A

Physical Description
I want the character to be simple shapes but want him to be a wacky design, one which can be easily modified to suit a range of environments. I want the character to be loaded with a weapon depending on the environment, so yeah its pretty open as to what you design. Anything from a onion on a Skateboard.

Character Traits

I want the character to be adventurous, daring, energetic, wacky, childish, fearless, loveable, humorous, and unorthodox. He's not a thinker, more of a action type, he dose not think about the consequences. Whilst there are things he is scared of, he’s not afraid to over come these problems.

Family Background

The character has no relevant family in current time, however he meets with some of his ancestors on the levels.

Education
Has little to no Education, can barely speak and read.

Habits / Vices
He has bad and rude habits such a belching, not saying manners and picking his nose and others.

Personality
Has a very fun and caring personality, he can be immature and rude and naughty at times but deep down he is a loveable and likeable.

Dislikes
Bad weather, nights and having to go to sleep, he hates creepy crawlies, is afraid of heights and been alone.

What is their Goal?
There goal is to save the current world from disaster.

Their plan to achieve Goal
To go back in time and to the future to collect all the lost artefacts which contains letters which most be used at the end to solve the anagram.

Camera Views

Was just looking around at some 2D games from my research and the quick sketches I have designed it got me thinking about the the camera views, especially the way in how they follow you through the level and how close or far away to set them, or could you combine them depending on the aspect of the level, because I was thinking about one of my designs, which starts of as quite an open environment but then goes to an enclosed maze, I was thinking that for the outside element I want a long shot as I want the players to be be able to see plenty of the environment and I want the effect of everything overshadowing you and emphasis how big the environment, I want to create tension and that feeling like your lost. However when it got to the Maze aspect of the level I want the completely opposite effect, I want you to be enclosed and the feeling of claustrophobia, also if I showed you too much you'd be able to see too much of the maze making it alot easier to know where your heading, so towards my game i'm thinking of a contrast between 2 would work well, anyway I thought it would be a good idea to do some research on other 2D titles and the way they have set up there camera views.

I started my research by looking at the New Super Mario Bros, what I noticed was how far away the camera was, and how small Mario looked compared to the environment, it works well in the way as your playing you can see allot in the one shot, of any enemies that are preparing to attack or closing in on you, or where to make your next move. It also really emphasizes how big the world is. Also what I noticed was the way the camera followed Mario as you moved forward and also allows plenty of space for any upcoming enemies which are not quite in the shot yet, so allows you time to prepare and attack when they come into shot, which is a very good method to use. A similar method is also used for if your jumping upwards which is demonstrated around the 5 minute mark in the video. It only happens though if there's part of the levels which are above the camera view, which is something I need to consider when thinking about my gaming environment, do I want some parts of the levels above or below the camera. Also whats worth mentioning is the when Mario goes down the tube shaped things, the way it does a quick cut screen and goes to a completely different camera. I'm thinking of having a similar interaction within my game where you go down a hidden chamber to a maze, however I was thinking of having the camera follow you down instead of going to a cut screen, but its a different concept which I haven't thought of which could work just as effectively.

Game Objectives

One of the most important aspect when coming up with a game is it has to have some kind of game objection in which you have to succeed in order to complete the game and can often increase the difficulty with the dilemma of the challengers. Majority of 2D games follow the similar formula, which is you simply have to proceed through the level to the end, and maybe there's something at the end which you have to collect, for example Bananas, Crystals and so on. Sometimes there is also a boss at the end of the level, for which you have to defeat before proceeding on in the game. Beside from that there is also allot of collectibles in some of the levels, for example on the Crash Bandicoot and Mario games you have to collect Apples and Coins, and for every 100 you collect you gain a new life, and using both these games as examples you can also gain special powers for example in Mario you can fly, shoot flaming balls and the star which increases your speed and allows you to take out every enemy directly without them effecting you. I do think these powers add to the game, they have that extra depth where you can use a variety of different attributes instead of using the same powers and make the game allot more interesting. Also whats worth mentioning on Crash Bandicoot you have to collect hidden gems, which is a great idea as it also adds to the re-playable factor as you want to go back and revisit the levels in order to find all the hidden gems for example to truly complete the game 100 %. On another point allot of side scrolling games include checkpoints within the level, I don't know if i am for or against checkpoints as not having them makes the game allot more challenging however it can get very frustrating if you get towards the end of the level and you loose a life and have to start all the way from the beginning, I think its best to vary between the two depending on the size of level, I say one checkpoint towards the middle of the level is about the right approach. Offers a challenge but not too frustrating.

Thinking more towards my game, I'm going for the typical approach of you having to reach the end of the level, passing through obstacles and challengers and enemies. I like the idea of having to collect something at the end of the level, i am not sure as to what yet, but i am thinking of some kind of artifact which could tie in with the story and you have to collect on each level. I do like the idea of a mini kind of boss on each level as to build up the level to some kind of climax, and feels more like your achieving something that you having to defeat a tougth enemy to contain the artifact, instead of just walking anonymously and collecting it and finishing the level. I also like the idea of having a few hidden objects through the level,as to what they do and achieve at this moment im not sure as Id like to tie it in to the story line in more detail which is not confirmed yet. There obviously needs to be a way in which you can add lives however I feel like the whole collect 100 coins or apples has become too cliched and overused. I'm thinking towards a more initiative way. I like the idea of having to get a combo of defeating enemies without loosing lives, or even just getting away with the life's which seems to be a popular approach in many games recently, and having it save from the last checkpoint visited. Finally id like to have a few powers to add more variation into game however I think its important to know get the story and Character nailed down then I can go into this in more detail in a further blog.

Few quick Sketches

Heres just a few quick concept designs, I drew there's kind of quickly just looking at a range of images, I quite like the designs but don't wont to just settle for the first idea I like. However from the images below the image that really strikes me and one I could develop further is the volcano with the skulls at the side, I really like the idea of including a Volcano, as-well as a temple, maybe your running through the jungle before reaching the temple, dodging fire and boulders. I'd also like to research a little into Mazes, I think I got the idea when watching the Crystal Maze, the challenge in where the contestants have to go through the maze and answer a riddle which is themed to the Aztec period. I like the idea of when you get into the temple theres a maze, with sliding doors and spikes, similar to the maze in Alien vs Predator, which could look very good and provide a good challenge to the gamers.

Little Big Planet

Another great game which Is a similar style towards the game im looking at designing, what I really love about Little Big Planet is the graphical media of the game and the Designs of the level, there so fun and offer a huge arrange of different challenges, it never gets repetitive and the game play is fun to add. The availability to customize a huge amount of aspects in the games from what the character wears to even designing your own level, and if you search on youtube you can find super Mario levels which have been recreated on Little Big Planet. I think as games are getting more competitive its elements like this which allow the player more control and offers more play ability which can can create a greater impact in the game, Of cause i'm not expecting to be at the level yet where I can create a sandbox mode for players to create there own levels using elements of my level, But its an area which id like to explore maybe for a further project. Also I think having unlockables during the game is a great idea as it gives you that sense of achievement, and kind of gives you more of a motion to carry on playing the game, for example I recently Brought Mario 3D land and once I have completed the game I unlocked Luigi and A whole range of new courses, now I feel myself really motivated to complete the new levels to see if I unlock anything else which in the meantime means more Playability. So even something like once you complete the game you unlock a new outfit might be a potential idea to look towards.

Character Design

After having a quick talk with my tutor about how the project was going so far, and areas to look into when developing the game. He reccomended me to look into the character in which you play a little more before continuing, as from doing this it will help me into developing the game environment as I can design certain elements on the game level to suit the character, for example if his special attribute is jumping, then I can design the game level to focus on the challenge of jumping from ledge to ledge, or for example the Donkey Kong games, one of his attributes is he is able to swing from trees to trees, so the game designers have included vines to swing from to add both extra depth to the game and challengers.

I have not looked into characters that much so far for this project, as it was my idea for the next brief, in which to design the characters for the environment. However an idea I have is, because i am thinking of the bigger franchise picture, in which to design a whole game out of it which features many different game environments from the ice caps to Space. I'm thinking of a simple design, with very basic shapes. However I want the character to have a different attire for each level, so obviously for my level im designing at the moment I want the character to have Mayan influenced attire, also I like the idea of the character having a weapon to suite the attire in each gaming environment, for example a Spear from my mayan environment and a Ice Pick for the Ice/snow environment or something along those lines.

Heres a few Characters I have been looking at, I thought of Mr Potato (below), because firstly I think it would work well with the idea I have, and the way you could change is attire and appearance for example having different physical attributes such as eyes,mouth,ear and hair which you are able to do on the toy anyway. It also could be customized to come up with different character designs,and also fit in with the environment level, other aspects which could be customized is the clothing and weaponry. What I have found with allot of new games is that they seem to allow the players allot of freedom into come up with there own designs, for example the new WWE 12 video game is allowing players to create there own arenas, and games like Little Big Planet which ill mention in more detail in another blog post allow to to come up with your own characters and design game environments which can be then uploaded onto the internet for other players to be able to play, so potentially there is a market out there and is a great idea I believe in which to develop further.

Another range of research I thought of was the characters in Little Big Planet, I don't want to go into to much detail, as like I said I plan on writing a blog about this brilliant game, but I really like the way in which you are able to customize the character in the game, from a whole variety of different outfits, and not just a few you could come up with many different character designs on the game. I also like the aesthetic look of the character as there kind of like voodoo dolls, something which would actually link well to my Mayan game environment actually.Once again its just a simple design, however I believe the ability to customize your character is what adds huge amounts of depth.

I also thought of these 2 classic flash internet characters, weebil and bob, I just think something so simple as a character designed to egg, could actually work and could be nice animated to roll around the environment and jump, gave it a bit of attire and yeah, i am not looking into complex characters, im looking into simple humerus designs.