Final Major Project: March 2015

Initial ideas for project:

3d Horror game (grudge themed)
2d Dungeon crawler (Multiple rooms, level up system)
2d Sidescroller game (similar to rogue legacy)
3d Strategy game (turn based, magical themed)
3d First person shooter (similar to wizard duel idea except more action based)

Project Proposal:

Final Major Project Proposal

EDEXCEL Level 3 BTEC Extended Diploma in Interactive Design

Learner Name: 561378 Luke Irving

City of Bristol College

School Media & Art

College Green Centre,

St Georges Road

Bristol

BS1 5UA

Specialist Area: Interactive Design

Date: 05/03/2015

Section 1

Working title: 2-D Side Scroller Game (Swords & Spells)

Brief description:

I plan to create an action based sidescroller whereby a player will have to reach the end by going through various rooms, similar to a dungeon crawler, the player along the way will encounter obstacles such as enemy sprites, moving hazards and multiple paths to end goal making for a maze like game.

The theme of the game I wish to be set in fantasy with swords, magic, exotic creatures ect.

The rooms will designated different themes so for example 5 of the rooms will be a forest type zone, with a boss room different to all the past themes at the end.

What I intend to do to produce the game:

For the game I will need/want to have background music, player sprites, enemy sprites, themed rooms, magic and tools for player to use, ambient and fx sounds.

I will draw out the sprites on paper frame by frame so I can animate it later using possibly cinema 4d or a more 2d specific animation program, the drawn character sprites I will be using Photoshop to further develop and clean up the images too.

I will draw out concept environments for the various themes I intend to use as well and use either an entire backdrop for the rooms or as a base reference of how I want each room for the theme to look.

I also plan to create my own music for the game and ambient sound fx by researching into music software to produce and then use audacity to further trim and define.

Section 2 Influences, starting points and contextual references:

Influences for this game idea came from various other old school sidescroller games I have played for example sonic 1, vectorman. I personally feel my drawing is stronger than my 3d modeling and animation so I therefore believed a 2d based game would be the best option for me since I am ok to drawn animations for sprites frame by frame and the whole set up of the 2d environment, enclosed rooms in sections is easier for me to get my head around as a start for a first major game project.

The inspiration for having the world set in a fantasy environment came from my love of the final fantasy franchise and the various themes and imagery/style they employ, I want to try and recreate this but with my own take on it and having sonic 1 as one of my favourite games from childhood I believed it would be interesting to see the two and two put together, fantasy mixed with a side scroller.

Early ideas research and sources:

For inspiration for concept art for environments/character sprites-

I will look at both new age and old age artists and their work themed around my desired enviroments for my game which are forestry areas, underwater reef’s, underground mine’s, snowy mountain tops. For all of these themes I will look more into fantasy variants produced by new age concept artists. Then look at some olden age art pieces to compare to new age and see how our perceptions of fantasy have changed over the years.

I plan to use sources like deviant art, for I find it has a wide variety and content of concept artists and their artwork. Pinterest as well ill use for a look into examples of other new age art pieces relating to my desired concept themes.

For a look into the older age artists and their work I will use artcyclopedia, from a brief look at the site it seems to have a large collection of golden age artists to look at and has subject matters of fantasy themes which will be useful for comparisons.

Inspiration for concept music and ambient sound fx-

For this half of my research ill look into old style cartoons, namely Disney and research into the production of how the sounds were created and hopefully this will give me a clearer idea on how I can produce my own sounds for my project.

The music side of things ill looks for films in the fantasy genre, so stuff like avatar and lord of the rings. Hopefully this will give me a clue on atmosphere building within games and how the change in tempo can raise and lower tension.

Section 3 Intended techniques, non digital and digital processes:

Digital techniques

-photoshop (scanning in drawn concepts and developing further in terms of color and clarity, this also allows me to quickly alter my drawings without to redraw and produce multiple outcomes)

-Unity 3d (get the grips with the engines 2d aspect of game creation software so I can implement my assets gathered from Photoshop and animating software.)

Macromedia Flash (mainly for my sprites drawn I plan to take my frames developed in Photoshop and import them into flash to animate the frames together since I am familiar with the technology and is readily available)

-Audacity (taking my recorded sounds I will use this program to adjust the audio to fit my game in terms of trimming sounds down, looping of music and cutting of particularly tense moments of a song to imply, also to generally clean up the audio and get rid of any unwanted frequencies.

Non-Digital techniques

-Line Drawing (taking from my art skills learned in the past year I will sketch out my initial sprites for player character and enemies)

-Sound Technology (taking from research I will try to recreate desired sounds by using the techniques gathered from research)

Timescales:

WEEK 1	Research into concept art and sound technology for inspiration in game
WEEK 2	Draw out all sprites including player character and enemies
WEEK 3	Sketch out a base impression of each environment (forest, reef, mine, mountain)
WEEK 4	Develop the sprites drawn further on Photoshop and clear them up, also producing multiple outcomes so I have more options to choose from
WEEK 5	Develop the concept environments in Photoshop and play around further with colors and further enhance the image to give it a clearer quality
WEEK 6	Import player and enemy sprite animation frames into macromedia flash ready to simulate animation and go back to drawing board if needed
WEEK 7	Begin level design layout sketches for each room theme and the rooms themselves listing obstacle placement, enemy spawn points, player spawns, ambient sound marks and item placement for swords and spells ect
WEEK 8	Import developed environment themes (adjust proportion if needed to fit around level design layout) and build level design layout sketches into a physical game world into game engine
WEEK 9	Import animated sprites into the game engine ready for placement into game world and make tweaks where necessary. Test game in its first finished prototype and check to see it runs smoothly
WEEK 10	Record my sounds and music, adjust them in audacity and finally import them into my chosen game engine ready to match up with desired game objects

Section 4 Proposed methods of evaluation:

-Throughout my production of the game I will look over my timetable and at the end of each week I will be making mini evaluations of how that certain task for that week went and how I could improve.

-Also at the end of each week I will be asking for feedback from outside sources to comment on my work for that week so I know what works and what I need to improve on future or change then and there.

-Finally with all feedback and personal thoughts compiled I will write up a final evaluation overviewing all of knowledge I gathered and produced and personally and publicly critique my final major project game listing what works well with the game and what the game is lacking in or does not work and include what I can change to and do for the future to make the game better.

Themes/Environments:

Dark Forest
Oceanic Reef
Snowy Mountain top
Underground Mines

Thursday, 5 March 2015

Proposal

Final Major Project Proposal

EDEXCEL Level 3 BTEC Extended Diploma in Interactive Design

City of Bristol College

Specialist Area: Interactive Design

Date: 05/03/2015

Section 1

Section 2

Influences, starting points and contextual references:

Early ideas research and sources:

For inspiration for concept art for environments/character sprites-

I plan to use sources like deviant art, for I find it has a wide variety and content of concept artists and their artwork. Pinterest as well ill use for a look into examples of other new age art pieces relating to my desired concept themes.

For a look into the older age artists and their work I will use artcyclopedia, from a brief look at the site it seems to have a large collection of golden age artists to look at and has subject matters of fantasy themes which will be useful for comparisons.

Inspiration for concept music and ambient sound fx-

For this half of my research ill look into old style cartoons, namely Disney and research into the production of how the sounds were created and hopefully this will give me a clearer idea on how I can produce my own sounds for my project.

The music side of things ill looks for films in the fantasy genre, so stuff like avatar and lord of the rings. Hopefully this will give me a clue on atmosphere building within games and how the change in tempo can raise and lower tension.

Section 3

Intended techniques, non digital and digital processes:

Digital techniques

-photoshop (scanning in drawn concepts and developing further in terms of color and clarity, this also allows me to quickly alter my drawings without to redraw and produce multiple outcomes)

-Unity 3d (get the grips with the engines 2d aspect of game creation software so I can implement my assets gathered from Photoshop and animating software.)

Macromedia Flash (mainly for my sprites drawn I plan to take my frames developed in Photoshop and import them into flash to animate the frames together since I am familiar with the technology and is readily available)

-Audacity (taking my recorded sounds I will use this program to adjust the audio to fit my game in terms of trimming sounds down, looping of music and cutting of particularly tense moments of a song to imply, also to generally clean up the audio and get rid of any unwanted frequencies.

Non-Digital techniques

-Line Drawing (taking from my art skills learned in the past year I will sketch out my initial sprites for player character and enemies)

-Sound Technology (taking from research I will try to recreate desired sounds by using the techniques gathered from research)

Timescales:

WEEK 1

Research into concept art and sound technology for inspiration in game

WEEK 2

Draw out all sprites including player character and enemies

WEEK 3

Sketch out a base impression of each environment (forest, reef, mine, mountain)

WEEK 4

Develop the sprites drawn further on Photoshop and clear them up, also producing multiple outcomes so I have more options to choose from

WEEK 5

Develop the concept environments in Photoshop and play around further with colors and further enhance the image to give it a clearer quality

WEEK 6

Import player and enemy sprite animation frames into macromedia flash ready to simulate animation and go back to drawing board if needed

WEEK 7

Begin level design layout sketches for each room theme and the rooms themselves listing obstacle placement, enemy spawn points, player spawns, ambient sound marks and item placement for swords and spells ect

WEEK 8

Import developed environment themes (adjust proportion if needed to fit around level design layout) and build level design layout sketches into a physical game world into game engine

WEEK 9

Import animated sprites into the game engine ready for placement into game world and make tweaks where necessary. Test game in its first finished prototype and check to see it runs smoothly

WEEK 10

Record my sounds and music, adjust them in audacity and finally import them into my chosen game engine ready to match up with desired game objects

Section 4

Proposed methods of evaluation:

-Throughout my production of the game I will look over my timetable and at the end of each week I will be making mini evaluations of how that certain task for that week went and how I could improve.

-Also at the end of each week I will be asking for feedback from outside sources to comment on my work for that week so I know what works and what I need to improve on future or change then and there.