Project 2: Colour and visuals

I was originally going to style my game as a very bold, colourful, cartoony way. I'm still going to keep the bold, cartoony appearance but I do not want everything to be in your face. I want certain things to stand out and capture the players attention. So what i'm going to do is have the main interactive parts in colour and the rest in black and white.

Here are some well know games what I researched and gained inspiration from:

Angry Birds



Image found at theappera.com

Limbo



Image found at trulydisturbing.com

Project 2: Inspiration

Photographs taken by myself

These Harry Potter maze games gave me inspiration for parts of the race tracks in my game where you interact with and move. With the Harry Potter games you have to move a little water droplet around the maze to the end goal. In my game I was origionally going to make it so that the player moved all the track but that couldn't work with multiplayer. Therefore I changed this.

Project 2: Character concepts and other concepts

Some of my sketches are shown below. I was trying to create the same impact as the 'Micro Maniacs' characters has. I tried to give them a bit of attitude to represent their indiviudual personalities.

 Character concepts

In the end I decided not to give all of the characters this attitude feeling because it did not suit some of them. I gave them certain human qualities and clothing but still tried to keep them looking like animals. Also I gave them bold and bright colours, and drew them in a cartoony styles as this is what seems to work well on IOS platforms.

Concepts for power-ups

I kept the appearance of the power-ups as simple as possible so that it wouldn't be too confusing when looking at them on screen. I wanted the player to be able to just pick the power-up without looking at it for ages trying to work out which one it is.

Concept of backdrop for the design document

I wanted the backdrop to be as simplistic as possible so it didn't become confusing when looking at text and other pictures.



Project 2: Character concepts

I looked at alot of different images, but the characters out of 'Micro Maniacs' gave me much inspiration. They all look like they have mischevious facial expressions and full of attitude. 

Pictures of 'Micro Maniacs' taken by myself.



These are the books that I obtained from my local library and referenced for my characters.

Pictures taken by myself.

'Mouse Care' by T.F.H publications, inc 2005
'Your First Gerbil' by Nickie Baker.
'Gerbils-A Complete Pet Owner's Manual' by Engelbert Kotter
'Hamster' by Sue Fox
'My Hamster' by Peter Fritzsche

Project 2: What my game is going to be

Most of the games I have been researching and looked at use vibrant, bold colours to make the games look more appealing and eye-catching to play. They are also very simple and quick to pick up and learn. I am starting to get some ideas now after looking at all of these games and here is what I’m thinking about doing at this stage.

• A racing/strategy game
• Camera angles are definitely not going to be behind one character. It will be like ‘Micro Machines’ where the camera is above, looking down at the track/racers
• My characters are going to be small, cute, angelic animals
• My characters will be racing in small hamster balls
• The player will not be controlling the characters directly, but will interact with them and the track itself
It will have single player and multiplayer features

Project 2: Research for Ipad, Ipod and Iphone

I find all information about IOS devices on the link below. These website are great as they give you alot of factual information/technology that is built into the IOS devices. I would have posted it on my blog personally but there is a wide variety of information on there that it would have taken absolutely ages to format and get it right.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/

http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html

http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/specs.html

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/features/

Project 2: Micro Machines and Micro Maniacs

I have got a lot of my inspiration for my game off Micro Machines and Micro Maniacs. These games offer great entertainment in one player or multiplayer. They are different to the standard racing game as they use different camera angles.

Micro Machines 2 Turbo Tournament 

I had to dig out my old saga mega drive to play 'Micro Machine 2 Turbo Tournament,' and then bring the sega back to life (not fun and very time consuming). Once I had eventually got it working I played it for a while and this is what information I gathered. 'Micro Machines 2 Turbo Tournnaments' features are that it:

• only uses a birdeye view camera
• the game play is fast, especially in the later levels
• has different vehicles like bikes, helicopters, monster trucks and cars
• has colourful, bold tracks
• has hazards on tracks that move to block or push you off course
• has great multiplayer play with a point scoring system where you have to be the last player left on the screen
• you can pick up power ups
• jumps/ramps 

Micro Machines V3

'Micro Machines V3' is on the original Playstation so I had to dig it out to see whether it worked as I also did with the sega mega drive (again not fun). 'Micro Machines V3' has pretty much all of the same core game play features as 'Micro Machines 2 Turbo Tournament,' but it's camera angle is not fixed on a straight down birdseye view and it has 3D tracks.

Micro Maniacs

'Micro Maniacs' uses the same game play elements as the 'Micro Machines' series but instead you play as little shrunken people that also race around various places. The characters in 'Micro Maniacs' can do a lot more than the cars in 'Micro Machines' like climb and grapple down ropes. They also collect power ups as they do in 'Micro Machines.'    

  All screen shots were taken by myself using my own camera whilst play testing.

Project 2:Questionnaire results and findings

After I had collected all fo the questionnaires completed by my participaints I began browsing through them in order to determine whether I could discover any clear correlations (patterns) within my findings so that I would be able to conduct an in depth analysis in order to establish a concise conclusion to support any personal views and opnions.

I received feedback from forty participants, both males and females within different age categories. (twenty males and twenty females). The quantities of participants age ranges are stated below:

Males

Six (16 and under)
Eight (17-25 years)
Four (26-40 years)
Two (41+ years)

Females

Three (16 and under)
Ten (17-25 years)
Three (26-40 years)
Four (41+ years)

I have identified that twelve out of twenty female participants would 'prefer to play on handheld devices,' whilst thirteen out of twenty male participants would 'prefer to play on consoles and pc's.' Leaving only seven male participants preferring to 'play on handheld games.' Women like to be kept active so they don't have much time to play on games on consoles. They prefer to carry around with them portable devices, which they an easily access at their own convenience. Handheld devices can easily fit in their palms and slide into their pockets or handbags. Manufacturers are not stupid. They know that if they develop a phone, for example, they can be bought in different colours and have added accessories attached to the device. Women will flock in their millions to buy the newest craze that gets released. We all know that females like small, cute devices that they can glam up with added accessories to show off to their friends. Females like to follow trends set out by celebrity role models they aspire to.

There has been a new andoid phone known as 'The HTC Rhyme,' which has been specifically designed and released for females. The developers were under the assumption that 'anything girly or sporting a Hello Kitty sticker was the best way to increase sales among women buyers. This is a phone for people who want all that smartphon has to offer but don't want to engage directly with technology.' I believe that this is absolutely true as many ladies yound and more mature don't want to use complicated handheld devices. I know this as my girlfriend and her friends like to use networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and they are all addicted to Ebay.

I have supported the theory that males like to play on consoles and pc's. There was a higher proportion who preferred t'o play consoles in comparison. Only two males 'preferred to play on pc's,' whilst the other eleven out of twenty participants 'preferred to play on consoles.' This is because males these days like to keep up to date with better, advanced technologies they can get their hands on to trial out by their selves or with friends as a sociallising network. Men like to buy the next big thing which has just been released if there has been alot of hype about it through the media for example, on the televison, in magazines or on blogging network sites. They are like kids in a candy shop.

When males use consoles such as an 'X box 360 or Playstation 3,' which was extremely popular in my results, they are given the opportunity to explore new developments. They can interat with other players online or participate in online games. I believe that not so many males like playing games on pc's because the memory capacities on them are limited. As men like to save a lot of their games on their hard drive this would mean that at some point the computer would not be able to cope with the overload so it would eventually crash. They would then have to consider getting an upgrade, which could work out expensive so it wouldn't be cost effective or decide to invest in something much better such as a console where you would choose how much memoy capacity you would like and it could always be upgraded constantly. We all know what males are like when it comes to their short attention spans they have. Therefore quick fixes are the best option so that their gaming experience will not be ruined.

I discovered that tenty out of twenty girls were casual gamers. One male stated that they were a casual gamer whilst thirteen said that they were moderate gamers and six identified that they were hardcore gamers. I stated that I believed 'females would prefer to play arcade type games' or even puzzle strategy games as they are fun to play and sometimes simple and quick. I believe that this is accurate as this is sustained within my findings.

I browsed through the Internet to provide more support to back up my theories. I realised that a study had been published by 'Sheri Pocilujko from Casual Connect Magazine, Fall 2006,' which had been downloaded from the Internet. On the publication it stated reasons why females are casual gamers. It is clear to say that casual gamers like to play short, quick games that they can play and pause easily. Sheri mentioned that if you are a stay at home mum and are actively carrying out chores and errands around the house and for other people mothers would like to be able to save and pause game play at any moment. 'You need to be able to pick it up, play 20 minutes or so, or run out the door-as opposed to a game which requires several hours of focused play to progress.' Sheri also mentioned another paramount point which I strongly agreed with. 'When you are on the go, you don't want to be penalized for leaving a game in the middle or letting it end on its own. If you are playing Solitaire, Tetris, or Checkers, it doesn't really hurt you to leave the game at a moment's notice and come back.' Women like to ply games which are simple to pick up and master. This ensures that they can be guaranteed with having enjoyed a fun gaming experience. She also went on to say 'It's the whole easy-to-learn, hard to master mantra. And if you've only fifteen minutes of play-time, you don't want to feel frustrated because it took you that long to figure out how to choose our game mode.'

A great majority of males like to play first person shooters and action packed games, whereas females don't. A lot of females like to play arcade and strategy/puzzle games, which was clearly demonstrated in my questionnaires, as they are fun to play. I believe that this is because a lot o women tend to think that realistic/first person shooters involve unnecessary violence, gruesome gore and they are utterly a waste of time.

In conclusion, I believe that focussing on female games will be a big part in making my IOS game, but I don't want to completely focus on females entirely. I will need to take females into great consideration though. My questionnaires have portrayed that males do like to play handheld games as well as females, but a greater proportion prefer to play on consoles and pc's. So therefore my aim is to make a gam which will appeal to both sexes. I not not want to feel that I will be limited.


Quotes and information for the links below have been obtained from the Internet. Any information I have used has been quoted throughout my written work.

http://casualconnect.org/content/gamedesign/pocilujko-ten.html

http://www.syn-blog.com/sync/2011/09/do-women-really-want-a-girly-phone.html

Project 2: Follow on research

I also really like strategy games and I think they work well on devices such as the iphone and ipad. So I have therefore done research on strategy games in the 'App Store.'

Crime City

This looks a visually stunning game by looking at the screen shots. From looking at the description of the game you can do all sorts from stealing cars, beating up people, doing heists to building hotels, casinos, restaurants, and more. 

TowerMadness™ HD

There has been plenty of tower defence strategy games and I believe they work really well on IOS platforms as they are a good way of getting the player to interact and touch the touch screen. 'TowerMadness TM HD' uses split screen on the iPad to play one versus one head to head.

Risk

Risk has now been put in computer game form on the iPhone and iPod touch. It is the modern day version of the board game. Risk is a hugely focused strategy game where players try to achieve world domination. Players attack one another with a roll of the dice and the game uses the same rule layout as the classic board game. I personally haven’t played the computer game or board game but I really like the look of it. I don’t think I’m going to use much of Risks format within my game as Risk use turn based mechanics where I want my game to be fast paced.

COMMAND & CONQUER™ RED ALERT™ for iPad

The ‘Command & Conquer’ franchise has been one of my favourite real time strategy games. I’ve played them on the Playstation and PC, but haven’t played it on the iPad though unfortunately. The iPad version looks like it makes really good use of the touch screen as you can zoom in and out of the battlefield setting quickly, and you are able to quickly send units into battle. Skirmish was pretty much the most enjoyable aspect of ’Command & Conquer.’ I use to play it for hours. This highlights and reinforces how multiplayer can make a game a lot more interesting and extends game play time over a larger period.

More racing games

Crash!! The most stupid raceGlow Racer : Tilt Racing 

I found this game on the ‘App store.’ It looks pretty funny and I love the title. It looks like it combines tilting action to move the character at the same time you are interacting with the screen to change the characters positions to get them through the walls approaching you. 

 

RC Racing Pro HD

 

Reckless Racing FREE

RhinoBall

RhinoBall is about the hamster out of the Disney film ‘Bolt.’ I was actually quite surprised that there isn’t a lot more hamster/mice racing games on the ‘App store.’

　
VS Racing

This game seems to be the closest I can find to the games I enjoyed playing when I was a young child (Micro Machines and Micro Maniacs). I’m amazed that there isn’t a lot more games like this on the ’App store.’ VS Racing lets you challenge your friends, Iphone against Iphone by using local wi-fi or your blue tooth.

Glow Racer : Tilt Racing

This racing game only uses the tilt mechanics built in the Iphone and Ipad. Hence the title ‘Tilt Racing.’ This is keeping things simple; sorry I know I keep saying simple but this is what I’m trying to get at, simple seems to be a key formula in making IOS games.

All information and pictures were taken from: http://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/ios/id36?mt=8