Game pitch idea – 10th January, 2020
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XYz_f3hGmF4miEl0QGn1EMCMFG2TivpB/view?usp=sharing
(Link to my presentation)
When performing my pitch to my fellow class members, I was slightly nervous, however as I started explaing my idea, I began to feel relieved and was prepared to follow up with any questions if I had to respond to any. My idea was based around the theme of anti-terrorism which has been closely related to religion in the past years, so I wanted to make a change to that and restore the meaning of terrorism to be a group of people who are driving fear to the public, and the group of terrorists could be from every group in the modern world. My game idea also involved using color to show how much health you have left and where the player needs to go. I also thought about drawing more attention towards the western world which has deframed the use of word ‘terrorism’, as well I understand that I will have a lot of ethnic work to find ways past as ‘terrorism’ has been portrayed by specific groups because of global media.
Problem solving (Foreseeable problem in the development) – 13th January, 2020
One major foreeable problem that I am willing to face and take on during the development of the anti-terrorism themed shoot-em-up is the theme itself, as I know that the them will cause a lot of ethnic issues and as a team we’ll have to figure our way around that, however since the theme is my idea, I will need to make sure that we have everything to a suitable standard and that everyone is happy. One way that I have thought about that might help solve this issue, is to address each enemy as a different ethnical being, this would result in the terrorist forces being made up of multiple backgrounds and not one background that gives off an racial/facist view. Our characters and enemies, are going to be penguins, and the enemie penguins range from a selection of colors to entitle their role within the terrorist force. Grey penguins would represent young adults, who would be fast, but also weak, and the orange/red penguins would represent the adults, who are strong, but slower than the youngsters, then lastly the black penguins, who would represent the elders, who are in-between. These enemies may also bring ethnic issues due to their color, however this could easily be fixed up with the background story and main story.
Requirements of the project – 14th January, 2020
In order to design a shoot-em-up (Shmup) game, I’ll need to identify and acknowledge the key mechanics that a shmup game requires in order for the game to be at a functional stage. One of the key mechanics that I will need to introduce will be vertical and horizontal side-scrolling, which will allow the player to move about the map, and look for pick-ups and the way to move onto the next level. However, I will not only need to address the movement mechanic, as once that has been done, I will need to introduce the enemies, and this mechanic will require a range of different enemies, The additional mechanics for the enemies will be simple, however they’ll slightly differ from each other as each enemie will have a different specialties. Additional mechanics that need to be added would be the UI/HUD, as this will display health, weapons, and armor (if armor is used), this would be an important feature especially for the shmup game that I’m designing, as the player will be able to swap weapons. I will also need to look towards more top-down shmups, as they are going to be the same perspective as what I am going to be creating with my team
Referancing aspects of both researches that has been done – 14th January, 2020
Secondary research:
Over the past week, whilst researching different aspects of shoot-em-up games, I’ve found that there is many types of shoot-em-ups, such as the classic arcade shmup, and top-down shmup games. However, one thing that I have found that connects all the different perspectives is that the screen is a side-scroller, which either moves horizontally, or vertically depending on the perspective that the game is played. Shoot-em-ups also have a condition that is met by multiple enemies appearing in the level, and this leads usually to a lot of bullets/missiles being shown on screen, and this can be met by iditial weapon pick-ups that the player can get from killing enemies (Van Der Westhuizen, 2016). It is also notable that Shmups, also use a lot of color to make sure the player knows what’s friendly or what’s not friendly, these are typically shown with opposite colors such as green and red.
As well, color allows bullet color to differ also, that way the player knows that they need to avoid the enemeies bullets, and that the bullets that are heading for them are the enemies and not theirs just rebounding back towards them. Color also can be used to show emotion and events within the game, but noteably they can also represent space and time within the game as well (Tulleken, 2015).
I also did research into games that were similar, and Police Stories appeared to be the closest resemblence to how the game is planning to be designed. Police Stories, also has the concept of cops versus robbers, as it’s set as the player besieging the house as the police and elimating the enemies (Stories, 2017). And my idea was counter-terrorism which would have the player besiege an under ground bunker, and elimate terrorists as they move through, this appears similar, however my group decided to merge the idea and bring forth the concept of the counter-terrorism group being penguins, and the terrorists would also be penguins, so it would help with some ethnic issues.
Primary research:
When undergoing my primary research, I’ve found that a majority of the people that a range of people who have played shoot-em-ups, have played a wide range of shoot-em-ups so they have some strong opinions.
Legal and Ethnic issues:
When I first pitched my idea of a counter-terrorism shoot-em-up, I initially pitched the idea using real world counter-terrorism teams such as GIGN (French) and BOPE (Brazilian), these lead to the game immediately taken on many ethnic issues and it was going to be real world based when using real world forces. Upon, thinking of this idea, I knew I would have to overcome the ethnic issues, and find a way around them to either slowly fix the issue, or just confront the issue itself. My first idea that I’ve been debating about was to instead make the terrorists one ethnic group, I’d make them a terrorist organization that’s more about a group of people who are backed by the people, and are trying to send a message of fear to the earths governments, so it would unite every culture within this small terrorist group, however I didn’t choose to do this as this might also bring ethnic issues into the game, as some cultures don’t act kindly to other cultures and an example of this would be having an Israeli and Palestian working together, however that would also send a loud message to both of those countries telling them to get over their hatred for each other. My second idea was to merge with my team members pitch which was about a penguin shoot-em-up, this idea was eventually moved forward and brought forth the idea of counter-terrorism penguins, and has led us to discuss the background story for this new idea.
Context behind the graphics – 27th January, 2020
Functions of graphics
Behind the use of graphics lays three distinctive aspects, these involve informing the player of what current state the game is in, and to convey the story/theme to the player, this can also draw an appropriate audience to the game due to the graphics that belong to the game. As well, graphics are there to appeal to the player and make them want to keep playing as the graphical content is catching the players eye, this also relates to the graphics relaying your own actions when developing the game, and tells the audience a bit about yourself.
Graphics are an essential aspect in video games, and without graphics they would not be as enjoyable as they are currently. Every video game designed should be fun to play without graphics, however adding graphics to the game makes every bit of gameplay far more exciting than without graphics. Graphics can help the developers relay crucial information that they want the audience and player to see, this can be what goes on within their creative mind, or my adding graphical easter eggs, which may contain a little bit amount themselves.
The graphics portrayed within the game I have produced, enables the player to identify the hostiles easily, and figure out where they need to go in order to complete the entire game. Majority of the graphics that alert the player about the enemies is from the color, and direction of movement that comes from the enemies. The graphics that create the level have also acted as barriers that guide the player down the correct direction, which alerts the player that they can proceed onwards.
What is my team trying to achieve with our graphics?
When discussing as a group about what we’re trying to achieve with the graphics we’re designing, we want the player to the illustrated and exaggerated look towards it, and we’ve gone forth with the idea of a plastic/cartoonish look which will help with ethical issues, as well the inspiration for the cartoony idea enables us to show that we’re not just trying to obtain an older audience, but we’re trying to gain an the family audience, as we’re designing a game that is friendly for children as well.
As a group we’re trying to create a cold atmosphere so we’re using colors that give off a cold feeling, this will allow us to create the landscape/environment that we want to set the game in. As well, the initial colors of white, blue, and light grey/silver, will help us design an environment similar to the arctic and this will help us acheieve our group goals. We want the players and the audience to get a feeling of childish, and excitement whilst playing through our game, however we also want them to experience a bit of comedy as they’ll never experience a penguin using a weapon in reality, with this we’re hoping the graphics will be appealing to the audience and allow us to draw in players of all ages and cultures.
How will we be using color within the graphics?
As a team, we are going to be using cold, harsh colors such as black, white, and blues to resemble the player and the environment around the player, where as we’ll be using warm, vibrant colors such as orange, reds, and yellows to indicate what isn’t friendly, this will benefit gameplay as it will allow the player to know who they should stay clear from and what they’re allowed to stay near too. Also the colors that we use will be able to allign with the story as the colors of the enemies, will represent the state they’re within. As well, depending on the level, the colors would be slightly different, as within level 1 (Rhys’s level) the environment would primarily be cold and harsh and use a lot of blues which will resemeble an ice maze within the landscape, whereas on level 2 (My level), the environment would contain some cold harsh blues, however it would become more metallic and use silvers and greys to create a scientific environment within the icey landscaped bunker. The use of color within level 3 (Will’s level) would combine both uses of color from both level 1 and 2, this would create a bit of diversity within the game and act as the normalizer.
Destiny 2 (Bungie) 
Halo 5 (343i)
Games such as Halo 5, and Destiny 2 use color to portray their futuristic environment, and to help distinguish what enemies the player is fighting. As well their use of color also helps create unique details which creates/forms the wonderful in-game environment of these two games. Another feature of the use of color within Halo 5 and Destiny 2 is the use of color to distinguish the different variants of weapons, which is a unique way to show off the strength behind that weapon.
Context behind the audio – 14th February, 2020
Requirements of the audio
Before I can start the production of the audio for the game/level, I first have to know the requirements of the project section: Audio. Firstly, audio allows the developers to set the theme and atmosphere of the game, this allows the game devs to set the emotion and draw the attention of the audience. Since audio sets the atmosphere and theme of the game, it can also set the mood as well, and change depending on each zone the player enters, this can be used from a player walking through a flourished kingdom to entering a completely destroyed village, the kingdom would contain joyful music and potential horns to represent royalty, whilst the demolished village may play drums and violins to create a sorrow feel to the area. Not only does this have to be set by the music but even small details can have a quick charm to the audio, but it can also sprite itself and increase and decrease in speed to resemble the change within time, which can link to aging.
Audio isn’t just used for atmosphere and setting the theme, it can also be used to tell the players/audience whereabouts the game state is currently. If a game is still using alternative choices of audio that don’t properly link together then that can suggest that the game is still currently in its beta phase or post-production phase. The audio can also be the narrative storyline, and if the NPCs are not synced to the correct audio line, or if they don’t even say what they’re meant to say during their line then they may have a critical bug within the game, which can inform the players that the developers may have rushed this section within the game, and didn’t check to make sure that it works perfectly fine, this would be a critical bug within RPG games that are set around a narrative. Audio not only can show bugs or be linked together properly, but it can also be that it’s not connected to the environment, this could be a burning city with joyful music being played in the background, which would show that the developers may have little to no respect with who or what’s happening in the burning city in the distance or in the general area.
Audio usage within the game and my level design, I will be creating a background track that will set the atmosphere to resemble a covert task mission, so it will be fairly quiet but have a secret agent feel to it. In order to create this background, I’ll use a website that allows me to design my own music, this will allow me to stay far away from copy right issues, however it may limit me to how I want the audio to sound, I will also layer sound on top of each other so that the audio will be enhanced and sound much better during gameplay. I also am planning on creating sound to resemble the penguin moving, however I am going to primarily focus on the background track, as I want to make gameplay enjoyable whilst the player waits to move onto the next level.
Judes Take On Computer Game Design @ Staffordshire University 