Task 4
09/05
Today I am starting working on a next task - the pre-production. It does not mean that my research is over; even though I have moved from the third to the fourth task I am going to keep researching. I am going to do sa I think that it will allow me to create much better concept and art.
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In addition, I would like to say that my work is up to date right now and I am following the schedule I have created at the beginning of this project. I hope that I will be able to keep it up or work even faster to have more time to evaluate my work and reflect or have more time for additional research.
My target for today is to write about my initial ideas, ideas generation and how my research has changed my concept before the end of session.
As I have written, whilst describing what Kishoutenketsu is, my game would be a platformer (such as Mario Bros. or Sonic), where the main objective is to advance to new levels and fight bosses. However, in my game players would have to push and throw objects instead of jumping on enemies.
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Initial Idea
Example
Example of a level and how a player could finish it.
Objective of this level is to open the door, however, it is too high to access. In order to open that door, a player has to push the box to the right side of the level. Then he can jump on it and open the door. Eventually, a player can use that box to access coins hidden in the upper right corner. In case of falling from the platform, player can use a lader to come back.
Even if a player make a mistake and push that box in the wrong direction, bouncy mushrooms will push them back to the initial position.
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This way player will be able to experiment as much as he wants, make mistakes and learn from them and use gained knowledge to achieve higher score.
10/05
Idea Generating
The first technique of coming up with new ideas was thinking about our problem from different angles. In order to find a solution you have to use different point of view and thing in terms of possibility ideas and practical thinking.
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Having that in mind, I thought how a random people could solve problems.
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Corporation owner would order his employees to organize and find a solution.
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Child would play around and make up new rules as time passes.
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An astronaut would train for it and take it to the space.
Those are just examples of how this technique works. Nevertheless, they are really interesting; escpecially how a child would make a game. World would be really colourful, full of interesting noises and characters. Game would be illogical but fun.
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What if I made my concept like that? Colourful world can only benefit me as it would increase game's artistic value. What if I made all characters look and act bizarre (like characters in a book Alice in the Wonderland). It would immediately interest players.
After creating my initial concept and including it on my site, I started to think about my idea more thoroughly as I was introduced to new ways of creating ideas.
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Perspective
Reversing
Another technique of coming up with new ideas is reversing everything. In order to do that you have to list all assumptions about the topic and reverse then.
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Here I changed:
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Making a game concept into not making a game.
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Being fun into not fun.
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Paid game into paying people to play it.
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Relaxing and entertaining into stressful and annoying.
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Unreal into realistic.
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When you first think about it - sounds quite ridiculous. However, they are not.
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Super Mario Maker is not a game but an environment to create own Mario levels and is really popular.
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Games like Dark Souls are really hard and serious but successful.
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I do not know any games that pay people for playing them.
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Games like Flappy Bird are ridiculously popular, even though they only irritate and infuriate everyone.
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Simulators like The Sims or Eurotrack Simulator are really popular as well.
All that shows, that reversing my idea could be really benefitial for me.
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11/05
Currently I am at the pre-production stage, focusing on generating new ideas. In order to improve my current idea and develop new one I try to use different techniques such as reversing my idea, looking at the problem from different angles and through group critique. I do so, because I believe that my current idea is not strong enough and will not let me achieve a high grade on this course. Also, I do so in order to improve my skills and learn new things that I might find useful in the future.
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Everything went good so far; I was able to find some new interesting concepts and got helpful feedback from other students. Unfortunately, I was not able to upload all scans from my sketchbook to back-up my writing nor write as much as I wanted to do. It was partially because there is a small issue with scanning documents - quality is much lower, not entire pages are scanned and some scans get lost (not sent in emails, or sent to junk or spam folders). Also, it was partially my fault, because instead of focusing on moving on with this project, I keep getting distracted (I start drawing unnecessary things after creating sketches to back-up my writing).
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Later, I found solutions to some problems.
Firstly, I re-wrote and re-drawn scans with bad quality.
Secondly, I started sending scans to both my college and personal email. This way I get all scans without them getting lost.
Thirdly, I keep focusing on the current task. I simply try to keep myself motivated to do necessary things.
As I said yesterday, reversing my idea could be beneficial for me. Today I would like to outline some reasons behind that. First of all, creating concept opposite to the initial idea might create something original, with no similar products around. However, that could create some implications; with no other concepts like mine I would be unable to compare it with other's work, thus I would make myself unable whether my idea is good or not.
Nevertheless, I would like to incorporate this technique regardless of results. It would be simply because I would either get something amazing out of it, or make a huge mistake but simply go back to the initial idea and use different approach.
As I said yesterday, reversing my idea could be beneficial for me. Today I would like to outline some reasons behind that. First of all, creating concept opposite to the initial idea might create something original, with no similar products around. However, that could create some implications; with no other concepts like mine I would be unable to compare it with other's work, thus I would make myself unable whether my idea is good or not.
Nevertheless, I would like to incorporate this technique regardless of results. It would be simply because I would either get something amazing out of it, or make a huge mistake but simply go back to the initial idea and use different approach.
Current Idea
Image above shows some rough designs for characters and platforms. I have also added some brief comments.
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Basics of this game did not change since the third task - I still want it to be a platformer. However, I have changed some aspects of it during this week. I want it to be more colourful and give players more things to do. I want them to be able to approach and solve problems using methods they choose. Players would be able to throw objects at enemies, just as I said while describing Kishoutenketsu, but they could jump on them or simply push them. This way players will have some more freedom with how they can play my game.
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In addition, I have also started thinking about the story. I did not want it to be too simple (could be boring) or too complicated (could be boring and hard to understand). Basically, there is a planet (I still do not have a name for it) full of breathtaking views and people living peacefully. One day an evil scientist appears. He is very jealous of those people and their riches and decided to build an army of robots to destroy the planet, kidnap everyone and steal rare crystals. Unfortunately for him, our main character escapes and decides to save everyone and punish scientist.
This image shows a sketch of how a level would look like. Platforms would not look like ones in a platformers like Mario but like in side-scrollers like Elsword.
As you see, in Mario games platforms are just a row flying bricks.
In Elsword platforms make sense - they do not fly but are actually engraved in the wall build on it.
I have decided to choose 'realistic' platforms over flying ones simply to make it look more logical. However, to make things more interesting my concept include different types of platforms; some of them would move and some would break. This way new opportunities are created for puzzles, fights and exploration.
Player would have to solve simple puzzles in order to proceed to next level. In this example a player has to push a box to make it fall. Player will notice that it creates waves, which moves floating boxes. Then he will use them as a bridge to go to the other side. At the same time player will learn that his enemies cannot touch water as they cannot float (robot on the left side would jump into the water to show it).
This image shows another kind of enemy - a flying robot. This enemy would be much more powerful than a regular robot, as it will not fell into water if there is nothing below. Player would have do avoid this enemy as it has very long arms, which can reach and hurt player easily. Players would have to throw exposives at them in order to destroy them.
This image shows an example of a boss fight.
Player is trapped in the water with no way to escape from the Evil Genius, who is inside his battle robot. This robot is clearly much more powerful and tough than any other robot. It will consantly try to hit player with its drills, which either hit from left or right depenind on where the player is. Each time drill misses and goes underwater, will create a lot of steam and bubbles. A player can jump on those bubbles to reach the robot and platforms on him. Robot will try to hit player regardless of where he currently is, which will end in robot hitting itself. Each time it hits itself robot will fell a little and a diode on its chest will break. When the last diode breaks, the robot will fell into the water and will be unable to work. At this point Evil Genius will catapult himself and broken robot would be used to escape from the pit.
16/05
I have finally finished writing about my idea. I found this task challenging - I do not think that I am good with expressing my ideas in words. I prefer to explain things by showing them to others, using some models or demos. When writing I do not know how to put things in an order that will not confuse people.
Also, I think that I could write some more as some sections are simply too short.
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We had a group critique last lesson, however, I could not write about it because I was too focused on other things and forgot about that. Because of that I have decided to work on it today.
Last lesson all students were put into groups of 3s or 4s. We did that in order to show our ideas to each other and ask for feedback. Today, I would like to focus on my idea and feedback from my group.
Basically, I said the same as I wrote above. I told them about the gameplay, story, mechanics and gave them examples of some levels. I think that they liked my idea.
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I was asked by them whether I decided on a specific style or not and suggested that I would like to check different artists for inspiration. They said that I should look for different artists in general to look for new styles as well as to look for concept artists to know how they show their concepts. They also suggested that should think whether I want my game 2D (what was my initial plan), 3D and 2.5D. 2.5D style means 3D objects presented as 2D ones. I found that really fascinating - it was a really great idea. I know some 2.5D games (like Elsword or newest Mario games) and they look fantastic.
They asked me whether I want to go for the retro, arcade or modern game. The answer was pretty obvious for me at that time. Now, however, I think that it still the same but having my game on the arcade machines would be a viable option.
Group Critique
Metal Slug, which is an arcade game. It means that this game is to be player at arcade machines instead of computers or consoles.
Even though I like the sound of arcade games, I am going with a modern game.
And another thing they mentioned is costumes. I really like this idea and would like to put this in my concept. However I am not sure whether there is any suitable section for things like that in the BAFTA documents.
17/05
I can mention that in the art section.
16/05
I think that costumes would be a really interesting part of the game - they could be related to tools or superpowers that player can obtain or simple be put as rewards for completing specific levels. I think that the later option could be better as players like to be rewarded for their achievements. They could use it to customise the protagonist.
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They also asked me about the price of my game - that was irrelevant in my case as there is no such section in the BAFTA brief.
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In the end, I think that this session was really helpful and allowed me to progress with the project. I am considering to do the same with another group (of fellow players instead of students).
Moodboard
I could not find anyone interested in doing group critique session. Still, I think that I might do it later if possible.
17/05
Image from https://twitter.com/shsi_
Altough trees in my concept look different, I like colours used here and shape of trunks and roots.
Espiecially the second tree, which looks like a sitting person.
I like how those trees looks - as if they were taken from a fairy tale.
I like the way light and shadows work in this picture. I also like those cold colour, which could be used for some ice-related or cave-related level. I think that this picture is a great example of how to create environments made of crystals and rock.
I like how bright colours and deep shadows work here. I also like the design of the robot. I think that I could use it as an inspiration for the final design of the boss.
I really like how many details are here - all parts of the robbot are dirty, rusty, damaged or broken and it looks really good.
I like how simple this picture is. All layers use different shade of brown accordingly to the distance from the viewer.
I like how different shades of blue and green go well together. I think that I would like to create water the same way in my design.
This image is similar to the previous one. However, this one is much colder and less lively. I like how geometrical shapes are used to create objects. I think that I could create backgrounds this way.
I really likes shades of red here as well as how fire outside is presented.
Today I have a created a moodboard in order to find some inspiration and references for art to support my concept.
This task involved researching different websites with concept art and concept art artists. I tried to find a variety of different styles, colour schemes and perpecitves. I did so to be able to see how different people tried to showcase their concepts and why it worked.
I think that I found enough different graphics that cover a range of different areas that are related to my work; trees, robots, perspective, colour schemes etc.
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I am really happy with images that I found as well as glad for finding them as they changed my point of view a little. Now I am more concerned about art than before.