Stakeholders

·         Venture capitalist is a speculator who makes money available for innovative projects.

·         Franchise holder, also known as franchisee, is a person who purchases the rights to use the company’s trademarked name or business model.

·         Publishers are significant stakeholders who lead from idea to available product on the market.

·         A video game producer is the person in charge of overseeing development of a video game.

·         Design team members are responsible for the designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, narrative, and characters during production stage.

·         Communities which helps with a small donated amount of money

The stakeholders of my game concept are my tutors, iPhone and Android game developers who can lead my idea to available product on the market. I am the designer of my game who is responsible for the designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, narrative, and characters during production stage. I could take money from a venture capitalist and to invest them into my idea or a community can help with a small donated amount of money.

Animation Shot

 

 The first level of the game starts with an animation which incorporates the shot above.

Health and Safety Laws

Working with visual display units (VDUs), can cause headaches and pain in the arms, wrists and fingers because of the following reasons: screen glare, poor image quality, a need for different spectacles, stress from the pace of work, anxiety about new technology, reading the screen for a long period of time, poor posture or a combination of these. To avoid potential health problems, people have to set up the workplace properly:

Working with visual display units (VDUs), can cause headaches and pain in the arms, wrists and fingers because of the following reasons: screen glare, poor image quality, a need for different spectacles, stress from the pace of work, anxiety about new technology, reading the screen for a long period of time, poor posture or a combination of these. To avoid potential health problems, people have to set up the workplace properly:

·         Adjust the chair properly and keep the forearms as horizontal as possible. The eyes keep the same height as the top of the VDU.

·         Arrange the documents, keyboard, mouse and screen in the most comfortable way. Thus, avoid making awkward eye and neck movements.

·         Adjust the desk and screen to avoid light reflections on the screen.

·         Make sure there is a space under the desk so you can move your legs freely.

·     Avoid excess pressure from the edge of your seat on the backs of your legs and knees. A footrest may be helpful, particularly for smaller users.

·     Good keyboard position is very important. A space in front of the keyboard helps the arms and wrists to rest when not keying.

·     Try to keep the wrists straight and do not overstretch the fingers during keying.

·     Sit upright and close to desk so you do not have to stretch the arm while using the mouse.

·     Support your forearm on the desk and do not grip the mouse too tightly.

·     Rest the fingers on the mouse when you do not use the mouse.

·     Do not press the buttons of the mouse too hard.

·     Adjust the contrast and brightness of the screen.

·     Make sure the screen is clean.

·     In setting up the software, make sure the size of the text is readable and the colours are set appropriately.

·     The characters on the screen have to be sharply focused and not flicker or move.

·     Do not sit in the same position for a long time. Change your posture as often as practicable.

·     Do frequent short breaks rather than fewer long breaks.

Presentation

Bibliography

http://www.bibme.org/shared/sfzfxg6gNW

Principles and conventions of interactive media and game design

 

Visual style of the game relates to the design of its world, main character, non-playable characters, feedback interface, perspectives and full motion video. Quality graphics are very important as they make the game more appealing to the user. The world of the game consists of terrain, architecture and objects. Different examples of terrain would be grass, mud, sand, water and tarmac. It is a landscape where the player moves over. Architecture includes different designs of buildings, monuments and structures within the game. Objects are all the items within the game that the main playable character or non-playable character (NPC) can interact with. It would be a flower, weapon or road sign. All of the game world elements have to match the same visual style. The main character or protagonist is any character within the game that can be controlled by the player. Non-playable character cannot be controlled by the player. They are incidental characters that create more realism in the game. Antagonist is an enemy within the game that struggle against or compete with the main character. Their visual style is equally important and contributes to the success of the game. Feedback interface gives information about the player’s current status or progress within the game. It would be the score which gives information about the player’s progress or mini map which communicates the place of the player within the game. Perspective is very important element of the designing process of the game. This is the view the player has of the game world which can be two or three dimensional. 2D perspective can also be called a scrolling view where images are sliding horizontally or vertically across a monitor or display. First-person refers to the graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the playable character. It simulates the player presence in the real or imaginary worlds.  Third-person refers to the graphical perspective rendered from a fixed distance behind or in front of the main character. This viewpoint allows the player to see precisely the protagonist of the game. Aerial viewpoint shows the player the game world from the above. Full motion video (FMV) is a pre-recorded animation which shows the action in the game. For example, the animation in Angry Birds shows to the player how to kill pigs using angry birds.

 

Gameplay is a connection between the player and the game. It defines the pattern of player’s interaction with the game. There are two different ways of interaction models in the game: avatar and omnipresence. The first model, avatar, is when the player is presented as the main character in the game. This model focuses on how the protagonist is controlled by the player and moves through the world. The second model, omnipresence, is when the player controls the whole army of characters or to be a God like. It gives the player the ability to be everywhere at the same time. Single player mode allows the player to play against the artificial intelligence of NPCs. This is the simplest mode. Multi player mode is when two or more players play together or against each other. Massive multi player online games allow a great number of people to play around the world. Narrative in the game can be presented by the graphics, text, audio, video and feedback. It tells the story of the game which is a non-linear narrative controlled by the player. When designing the game, game settings such as temporal, physical, environmental, emotional and ethical have to be taken into consideration. Physical setting refers to how the player will interact with the game. Temporal setting could be a background sound as a result of the player action. Environmental setting includes any weather condition which enhances the overall experience of the player. It has to represent the weather change as realistic as possible. Emotional setting dictates players’ emotions within the game. The designer has to take the targeted emotions into consideration and set a proper atmosphere in the game. Ethical setting includes game content which depends on the targeted audience. Mini tasks such as goals, challenges and rewards are very important for a success of a game. Challenges are built on goals. Rewards can give the player extra points or life. These mini tasks enhance the experience of the player. Rules and mechanics in the game have to be considered in advance by the designer. Thus, the game will be programmed correctly and will correspond correctly to complex interactions. The balance of the game has to be set correctly so that it is not too easy or too difficult. The player has to build its skills on easier levels of the game. Feedback is part of the feedback interface which gives different information about the player’s performance within the game. It could be a text based or video based information which reacts to the player’s actions. A flowchart gives structured information of how different game elements interact between each other. Fun and exciting design can make one game successful as well as the immersion experience which involves the player into its virtual world.

 

Game genres are based on the gameplay interaction rather than on the visual style of the game. There are different genres such as action, adventure, role-playing, puzzle and simulation.

 

There are different game platforms such as desktop computer, mobile device, television, console and online. Porting is the process of adapting an application, game, to a different computing environment. The lower the cost of porting a game to a different platform than writing it from scratch, the more portable it is said to be. The difficulty of portability depends on the differences between the two platforms and the software language they are written on. If the original authors of the game are familiar with both programming languages of the two platforms, the porting process will not be difficult. A game engine is a system of creating and developing a video game. It incorporates a software framework which helps to create the video game for different platforms. It, also, incorporates rendering engines for 2D and 3D graphics, physics engines, collision detection, animation, sound, scripting, networking etc. Unity is across-platform game engine software which is primary used for developing mobile and web games. Often, the same game engines are reused in order to create different games or to make the porting process easier.

 

Font

Old Slavonic font

 

 

I applied Old Slavonic font for the main headings in the game's layouts. Similar serif fonts are applied in Russian fairy tales' book headings. This way, I outlined cultural factors that influenced my work. Here are some examples of Russian fairy tales books with similar headings' fonts.

 

 

 

Gameplay Structure (Flowchart)

This is a simple gameplay structure for the first level which introduces to the player the main layouts of the game. The rest of the levels have the same gameplay structure.

Main Layouts of the Game

Designs

 

Main Menu

 

After the game is loaded, the main menu appears on the display. It proposes to the player three options to choose: the setting, sharing and play buttons. The setting button incorporates information such as brief overview about the game and sound settings where the player can mute the sound. The sharing button allows to the player to share the game on Facebook and Twitter or loads the trailer of the game in You Tube. The play button loads the level menu where the player can choose the first level of the game or go back to the main menu.

Level Menu

 

 

Animation shot

 

 

This is an animation shot which points to the player the targeted location of the main character. 

Level 1

 

Once the first level is loaded, the player starts solving the puzzle of the game. The first level incorporates tree buttons: pause, stacking and unstacking buttons.  

Pause Menu

 

The pause button reveals a new layout of the game which allows to the player to replay the game, go back to the level menu, mute the sound or play the animation short which reveals to the player how to interact with Russian dolls. 

 

Level Cleared

 

If the level is cleared, the level cleared layout appears. It allows to the user to replay the level, go back to the level menu or starts the next level.

Level Failed

 

If the level is failed, the level failed layout appears on the screen. It allows to the player to replay the level or go back to the level menu.

Adobe Director Coding

Interactive Animation

This is a screen shot of a Director file where I created my interactive animation. I used assets such as vector graphics and sound effects. I have designed the vector graphics in Adobe Illustrator and some of them I edited in Adobe Photoshop. The sound effect was downloaded from the Internet. I used Lingo script to create an interactive piece. It was not too easy to generate a code with Lingo script because I do not have enough experience with it. In my opinion, I relatively fast found solutions to the coding problems because of my experience in other programming languages which I gained at university and self-studying. I have used global variables, if statements and timer in my script. I have, also, learned new methods in Lingo such as intersects and point(). Now, I feel more confident in coding in Director.

My interactive animation works only in one way where you can stack and unstack only particular dolls. It introduces the right way of taking decisions, which doll and when to stack and unstack in order to gain a full amount points in the first level.

At the end, I published the interactive piece as a Macintosh and Windows Projectors.

From Sketch to Illustrator

Character design in Illustrator

Shark

Main character

Sailor

Swimmer

I created these characters in Illustrator, using my sketches. I am going to use the background,below, for my short animation. I created it, also, in Illustrator. I used this graphic design software as it creates vector graphics, which are scalable and can be used for future projects.

Background

Mood-board 

These images helped me to design the background and characters of my mobile game. I used similar colouring techniques in Illustrator such as black outline, shading effects, gradient colour and just colour. I did not use any combinations of special textures such as Mosaic Tiles, Grain or Stained Glass.

Designs of dolls

Here are designs of Russian dolls for the first level of the game. The main character has to decide which of these he will use in order to pass the level. The order of stacking is very important as when the main character leaves the island, he couldn't be able to change it. I you want to change the size of the doll, you have to tap on it.

Swimmer

Sailor

Shark

Mood-board

These images helped me to design a swimmer, sailor and shark dolls.

Dipity Timeline

Game Concept on Dipity.

Mood-boards

Mood-board 1

This images helped me to create a 2D environment of the game.

Mood-board 2

This menus from different mobile games helped me develop my own menu. 

Designs

These are sketches of the first level of my mobile game. The location of Matrioshka, the main character, will be on the biggest island. His aim is to reach the shore, using abilities of other Russian dolls on the island. The main character will have the opportunity to explore the island. He has the ability to stack into larger dolls and unstack respectively. The order of stacking is very important. When the main character leaves the island, the order cannot be changed. Once unstack, Matrioshka looses a particular ability. The threat is a sharp in the sea and having fewer points. The game emphasizes on decision making skills and strategy. There are multiple solutions for each level, which give you different points. Bublik gives extra points to the player. It is a traditional Russian  bread roll very similar to bagels.

Design of level 1

Island Design

 Boat Design

Palm Design

I have designed separately some objects of the first level in order to colour them in Photoshop and then, make them part of one background.

Menu Planning

 Mind-map 

This is a mind-map of possible intuitive symbols which can be part of the game navigation menu. I chose intuitive symbols rather than text as they conserve a space, readable across different cultures and easy to learn.

These are plans of symbols arrangement on the screen. The first one is based on Angry Birds navigation menu. The second one has a text based menu similar to the menu from the game Cut the Rope.

Plan 1

 Plan 2

Three Mobile Game Concepts 

Santas Flight

This is a short simple puzzle based game. An elf has stolen Santa’s presents. Now, Santa has to return them back. He is going to lurk to the elf’s sled and throw the presents back to his sled. The goal of Santa is to arrange the presents on his sled so that all of them can fit the carriage, unless the level fails. The player can compete with himself and increase the score as there are multiple solutions to arrange the presents. Each level of the game offers higher difficulties.

Angry Snowman

Angry Snowman throws snow balls onto the Santa’s house. Different hit parts of the house give to the snowman different points. If the house is collapsed, which is the goal of the game, the player passes to the next level. This is a puzzle based game as it emphasizes on problem solving skills such as logic and strategy. The player can compete with herself/himself and increase the score. The threat is not to destroy the Santa’s house and having fewer points. Each level provides multiple solutions and offers challenges appropriate to players of different skill levels.

Matryoshka Adventure

Matryoshka is a third person puzzle game where you play as the smallest Russian stacking doll whose name is T. Each level of the game offers different challenges to T. In order to deal with these challenges, T has to stack into other Russian dolls. Therefore, he uses their abilities. Each level provides multiple solutions and offers challenges appropriate to players of different skill levels. Choosing the right solution, it gives you more points. The threat is to not to pass the level or to gain fewer pints. Also, you can compete with yourself. Therefore, you can increase the score or to pass the level. Firstly, the player can use abilities of the biggest doll. When the player unstacks the biggest one, he/she can use the abilities of the next doll.

Matryoshka Adventure


Mood board for the Main Character

The mood board includes characters from Russian fairy tales as well as Russian national clothing. Also, there are some examples of Russian stacking dolls which incorporate different designs. These images help me to develop the design concept of the main character of my mobile game.

First Sketch of the Main Character