Reflection of Design Process

I was really happy how well my level came out at the end of the semester, my tree assets blended in really well in the level. This design blog and the questions in which we had to answer for it, made it much easier to brain storm and come up with ideas to improve my level. In the future i could do so much more with my level nut for how it is now i am satsified with it,

One thing i would change is:

More detail is my assets, if i put some extra effort in some of my assets like bump mapping them etc it would increase the over all look of my level.

In the process of building the terrain, at the start my level was to flat and bare which made my level seem really boring. So with some advice i made my level more hilly and blended in paths to make it look like a community of people lived in the area.

Level Characters

Munuss(Main Character)
Appearance:
Characteristics: Kind, Angers slowly, Sarcastic, Easy going, Strong Hearted.

Hakoo(Village Chief)
Appearence: Muscular, Old
Characteristics: Serious, Proud.

Natertain(Chiefs Son)
Appearence: Young
Characteristics: Hesintint, Shy

Interactions

Here is a layout of interactions in my level i will describe what happens in each one.

Interaction 1: Player meets village chief, and player sets out on quest to find chiefs son.

Interaction 3 (spose to be interaction 2): Player sees a fallen warrior previously sent to return chiefs son, and picks up his weapon (first weapon gained)

Interaction 4: You location son but he is being attacked, you must protect him, kill the beast then return to chief.

Interaction 5: Meet back with chief and are grants you access to the earth stone needed to go to next level.

Interaction 6: Obtain Earth Stone from Alter.

Interaction 7: Activate Earth gate and enter next level.

Game Target Audience, Genre, Platform.

The target audience i am aiming for is 15 year old +, because i would have some violence and bad lanuguae.

The genre of the game would be a thrid person shooter.

And the platform would be for xbox.

Game title is "Brave New World" as said on the menu concept

My Start Screen Idea

This is a concept i have designed for my start screen, the background image is from stargate but it shows how i would design it. i only have one button on the screen but when you select it, it will give you the option to to start a new game, load, options and settings.

Brave New World is the game of my game.

My level Screens

Here are a few screenshots of my game level

My Interface

Here is a pic i put together to show show i would set out my interface and layout for a suitible way to give the user good feed back and not taking them away from the game.

i have used a few clippings from some game screen shots to show how i want it laided out.
(Halo 3, James Cameron's Avatar the Game)

I have marked out the uses for the hud interface.

Interaction Design Questions

1: The visual and audio feedback is one of the most important things for game accessibility, both visual and audio is needed for those of disadvantage (sight and hearing disadvantages). A few examples would be if a person that had trouble hearing and had to find a beeping object in a game they would have a lot of trouble finding it, but if the beacon was flashing they would having a better chance of finding it.

2: Audio enhances they dramatically, especially games that acquire music for timing(Guitar Hero), Audio also lets the user know about game atmosphere and most important player feedback. A few examples would be in a game where you had a certain time limit to complete something as the timer gets lower the audio would go faster letting you know that your time is running out in turn making you try to finish faster.

3: I played Halo 3: ODST and i don’t think the interface compromised the fun factor of the game because the interface didn’t get in the way of my playing and would let me know when health was low and to take cover, the interface made it hard to get lost because of waypoints and a map. Some interfaces in games do compromise the game but no game that i have played lately has.But i think and nice laided out and easy to look at interface can contribute to the fun of the game.

4: Halo 3 is really good at displaying primary and secondary goal in feedback.
They show there primary goal like health, ammunition, grenades, radar all the time and there secondary goals(when you would get a pick up like active camo) a meter would appear letting you know would much you have left before it runs out. Also things like in game cinematics would contribute to immersion, story and atmosphere.

5: There are no games that i have recently played that have a bad interface tho there are a few that could be improved but changing the layout.

My Control Scheme

This is my control scheme for my game.

Here is one of my tree assests out of 3 or 4 other tree,

Here is a render of one of my assets. It is a villiger tree hut obviously un-textured

My Tree Model

Final Story Main Character, Weapon and Gameplay Inspiration

StarGate Laser Spear

Star Gate Laser Gun

Jak (Jak and Dater)

Link (Zelda)

Toan (Dark Cloud)

Sora (Kingdom Hearts)


The inspiration for my level i got from Stargate, Kingdom Hearts, Dark Cloud, Zelda and Jak and Daxter.
My Character inspiration i got from the same titles here are some pictures

My weapon design is inspired by stargate's weapons

Final Story Change

After much though in game design to after completing my level blue print i have decided to change the story again. The reason being that the gameplay and environment did not match my story and didnt feel quite right.

Some aspects are the same but you you see what i have changed in my story.

I will only jot down key story elements of my level story and you can get an idea of my story my following the progress on my level blueprint.

Pre Level Story
*You and friends go for a little adventure out your city to foredt outside
*You and friends discover ancient gate (to another world/realm/time?)
*Activate gate by mistake
*Get sucked into gate
*Wake up in other world friends are missing
* Goal find friends and try to find a way back home.

Level story is pretty much told by the level objectives below but i will give a more explained story.

Level (Objective Story)
*First you explore the map once you exit the gate region you will see two paths. On the left path
you see totem poles along the sides of the tracks you character is thinking that this may be a way to civilisation (good/bad you dont know) on the other side you will just see trees, vines etc...
(The totems point out your first waypoint)

*As you follow the totems on the left path you encounter a village. The local's are a bit agrevious towards you and know your and outsider. Some clan guards take you to the clan leaders hut.

*You tell him your story and he's gives you information about your friends but there are in the water world that is sealed off from the Earth Gate. The leader says you need the Earth Stome to unlock it, you ask for it but leader will not give it to you unless you complete a quest for him.

*You accept his quest you must find his son in the great field(which is inhabbited by beasts).
As you make your way to the fields you see the body of a fallen earth clan leader, you notice a weapon a few meters away and pick it up (Aquire you first weapon)

*You see the boy but he is about to be attacked by a earth troll. You must defeat the troll and return the boy safely back to the village.

*Clan leader thanks you and gives you the earth stone.

*You make your way to the earth gate, unlock it and enter water world

*END LEVEL.

Asset List & Level Objectives

Below are the objectives and asset list for my level.

The objectives will basicly be used to make progress in the story (obviously)

The 1st 2 objectives will be used to start the quest, you will ask about the where abouts of your friends are. The clan leader will tell you he has heard of outsiders venturing to the water village and that you have to use the "Earth Elemental Stone" to open the "Earth Gate".

To get the stone you must complete a quest for the leader (3rd objective) to retrieve the stone in return for the complete quest. Has you make way to your quest you will find your first weapon to fight enemies in the level.

You also have a risk reward mechanic in the 3rd objective:

Risk: Death, Fail Quest .

Reward: Gain first weapon, Complete Quest, Gain Earth Elemental Stone, Further Game Progress.

The last 3 objective really speak for themselves.

Level Blueprints

Below are an rough version and better colored version of my level.

I decided to do a colored layout of the map to give me a better idea of scale, colours and area size of regions on my level.

Rough sketches

Here are some quicky and rough 5 min sketches of 3 main characters in the story.

The first one which is my main character Corpral John Harper in an "A.P.P.S"

(Anti-Projectile-Peircing-Suit)...(kinda like Halo 3's ODST amour.

The Second one on the right is one of the scientist that when missing in the mysterious gate.

The Last one is the alien race whom lurk in the gate...They are extremely skilled hunters who wield Spears with laser beams on the other end. They are Brutal, Stelthly and powerful, they also have great aglity, speed and are quite smart.

Is is a rough version of my game characters and i backstory of them is in my main story for this blog!

Inspiration for new story

Here are a few game and movie titles were i got inspiration from:

Doom, James Cameron's Avatar, Stargate, Outlander, Terminator, Predator, District 9

Change of Story

I have decided to change my story because i wasnt happy with my orginal pirate story, so i changed the story to suit an FPS or an TPS game.

The central theme for my idea is sci-fi exploration so i decided to have a planet that supports human life and there are hidden secrets on it, there will be more information in the backstory below....


The year is 2068, earth is nearly depleted of resources and humaity is bringing destruction to earth because of the present WWIII the biological and mechanical warfare. (2051 - Present Day)

In the year 2036 a scientific organisation dicover an earth like planet called "Lelantos" that possibly could support human life. So they send 1000 people consisting of scientists, soldiers and construction workers, so they can build a research facility and small colony to live comfortably and safely. When the crew is up there they find the planet has everything they need to live on Lelantos, water, oxygen and maybe a food source of alien plants if not lethal. The construction workers build the small city while the soldiers stand guard and protect them and the scientists.
There are also alien creatures around them but none have seemed a threat to anyone.

9 years pass the year is 2045, there is now a small fully operational city and research facility on Lelantos, mean while back on earth elite group of soldiers from the resistant are called in to search and resuce a group of scientist that were missing for 4 days and were last reported at a ancient site they found 2 Km's from there site. The soldiers travel to Lelantos by space transport by light speed and reach the site, and spend a day and night resting, stocking up, getting intel and being briefed on there mission.

The next day they travel to the site the scientist were last heard from and they see a ancient gate(leading to another world, dimension or time??) they examine the gate but activate it by mistake sucking them in.

The world they are in is dark and snowing as there was a blizzard at the time when they wake up.

This is all i will right in this post you get the idea of whats going on :)

If i were a game developer in the 1980's my type of game i would design would be a 2d side scroller game. Slide scrolling games were the most played games back in the 80's many various title's are Mario, Sonic, Donkey etc...

I have played 3 different games from 3 different decades, Super Mario from the 80's, Zelda: Orcarina of Time from the 90's and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 from 2009.

As you can imagine since the technology for gaming consoles improve in time so do the games, so you can expect quite a difference in these 3 games. Super Mario is a classic 2d side scrolling game, it has basic game mechanics and environments, the art work is pixelated which is way back in the 80's the designer did not detail the main character mario so much because of the limitations of graphics.

In Zelda: Orcarina of Time you have an 3rd person prespective on your character, an open environment to roam, 3d object and more interaction with objects and A.I(Artificial Intelligence).
The Environment and textures of objects, buildings ,etc are more detailed than 80's game and still not outstanding compared to todays games. The good things about Super Mario and Zelda is that the story is simple and basic to play which i think make both the games fun in nowadays.

To present day games like Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2 there are more ways to move your character considering that since console evolve so do there controllers, take an Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 controller and compare it to an Nintendo 64 controller or Super Nintendo. There are alot more button's and 2 analogue sticks, which mean the gameplay will change because there are alot more precise controls because you have control of the x, y and z axis when moving and because of more buttons means more interaction with the player.

The Environments are also way more detailed because most modern day console and pc players are screaming for more detail and better graphics, CoD: MW2 also is an FPS.

Update on game idea

Instead of having an action packed FPS Pirate game i was thinking to do a adventure game based on exploring and solving puzzles. The game will be similar to Escape of Monkey Island but in First Person Perspective . I might go with this idea if you dont have to do the whole guns blasing FPS. Please comment any Ideas, thoughts or suggestions to my idea for it will help me out alot.

Cheers

Above are some pictures below of E.F.M.I(Escape from Monkey Island) to give you a better idea of what my game will be like.

One of my story ideas

One of my ideas for my first person shooter story is to have a pirate themed game because there isn't that many games based on the pirate theme and old pirate stories. A few games i know of is Escape from Monkey Island and Pirates of the Carribean. Orginally i wanted to do a sci-fi story but everything i think of has been done. Im just not sure on how well a pirate theme game would work as a FPS, it would work well as a TPS but not sure about an FPS. This is not my set story as i am still thinking of others.