This was a project that I was particularly looking forward to, and anticipating, for quite a while (as soon as I had knowledge of the general concept for the project, essentially.) As the first project in which we (as students on this course) worked independently (and the second project, of the first unit overall) I began, really, during the first project, merely considering the sought of game I would like to develop (although I hadn't written anything down past a few notes.)
My initial thoughts were on developing (of course alot further) the game concept that I had envisioned, created, and 'pitched' during the interview stage, for this particular course. Whilst the idea (which I had written and produced artwork for during the summer of 2010, but had thought of from a much earlier age, yet never pursued) was something I was very much interested in, I thought it best, however, to not commit to any one idea yet, at this early stage in development; and so with this in my mind I had created an informal 'questionnaire'...
I did initially ask a variety of people, various questions concerning the types of games that they would like to play or perhaps see available on the market (if it has of yet to be created or distributed) though this 'exercise' was naturally fraught with failure, as alot of people either had no answer to the questions or perhaps were waiting for a game, that even they themselves did not know they wanted. In light of the results of this quick 'study', I inevitably returned to my original concept for a game centred around a wildlife 'simulator', that included also nature documentary aspects involved within the concept (the original, extremely rough artwork and simplistic notes to which I presented during the interview, can be seen below; all of the artwork for the interview was created without reference, except for the face of the female lioness.)
My Original 'Sketches'/Notes of My Game Concept
In the images above (which I created during February of 2010) I was very crudely 'fleshing out' my idea (a concept in which I feel there is a degree of originality to.) The first of the three digital pieces, features initial ideas concerning the 'HUD' (Heads Up Display) and user interface that the player would be viewing (the idea of the 'paw' for example, as replacing the traditional 'health bar' as seen in games was an idea I thought of early on in the design, however, I won't be including this particular idea in any further development, as I feel the concept could be better implemented in another format.) The first of the three images above (the digital painting) also sees me focusing on a particular animal (the male lion) as an example of how the game might 'feel' like to the player (of course the world's biodiversity features a huge number of animals and species variety from which to develop unique gameplay and environments around, which I feel is past of the successfulness of the game's future 'life' and replayability value, as future content is almost limitless in scope and variety.) The second digital painting above (again only the lioness' face was referenced, the rest being from my imagination, albeit crudely 'realised') was merely drawn/painted in an attempt to offer people an understanding (or a visual 'cue') as to how the game's 'atmosphere' might feel like to the player, and therefore should not be considered a 'screen-shot' type image, or an accurate portrayal concerning the 'look' of the final product. The second digital painting above also served as an initial concept 'sketch'/design of a potential African Savannah environment/level, within the game. The final of the three images above, was again, more notes concerning the overall 'setting' of the game (focusing particularly on future content releases, and the potential of this.)
Back in February of 2010 (when developing this game concept further) I was considering only a wildlife 'simulation' experience for the player, for this particular concept of mine; but it wasn't untill more recently that I began to consider implementing a documentary style 'feature' to the games gameplay mechanics...
The Proposal of my Game Idea, my Thoughts, and Initial Research
Game Layout Template:
• Working Title: Wild? (TBA)
• Game Concept: Wildlife Documentary ‘Simulation’, whereby the player takes control of an animal and its characteristics/abilities, with gameplay focused on predation and survival.
• Genre: Action, Role-play, Strategy, Simulator, ‘Free-roamer.’
• Game Elements: Combat, Chase/Dodging, Stealth, Resource-collecting.
• Game Content: Suspense, Drama, featuring habitats unique to certain species of animals, whilst featuring also a large ‘bio-diversity’ for the player to control/interact with.
• Theme: ‘Wildlife Simulator’ (in the style/format of a nature documentary.)
• Style: Realistic (with ‘room’ for re-interpretation if research demands it.)
• Game Sequence: Simulation
• Player: One to two players (strongly considering one player only, but possibilities for two players based on limit/the constraints of available technology.)
Game Reference:
• Game Taxonomy: Non-fiction, simulation game (with an element of ‘chance’ involved.)
• Player Immersion: Tactical, Strategy, ‘Physical’, Narrative, Emotional (player immersion based heavily on the ‘believability’ of the situations/events the game challenges/presents the player with, realism defined by ‘real-world’ examples/understandings of the natural world.)
• Reference: David Attenborough’s “Life” and “Planet Earth” series, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, the ‘natural world’ (encompassing wildlife and natural history etc.)
Game Technical:
• Technical Format: ‘3D’ graphics (could potentially explore 2D, based on technological limits, but unlikely to use this format, as I desire to push the boundaries/limits as to what is possible with the ‘engine’/technology available.)
• View/Angle: Third-person (camera centred behind the player.)
• Platform: iPhone? iPad? (TBA.)
• Device: Mobile, ‘hand-held’ hardware.
Game Sales:
• Consumer Group: TBA
• Payment: TBA
• Estimated Price: (Will need to ‘perform’ initial research first.)
• Device Support List: TBA
Game Atmosphere:
• Beautiful natural environments/landscape (provides contrast between potential violence in comparison to ‘background’.) Consider also weather effects and the use of lighting (the Sun/Moon will provide primary source of lighting.) Consider also potential of night and day cycles?
Gameplay:
• Essentially, the player will take control of an animal (whether that is a predator, prey, carnivore or herbivore; note, predators can also be prey to other predators.) If in fact you are a ‘top-line’ predator (‘top of the food-chain’) then ‘poaching’ will most likely be introduced as a gameplay mechanic, which could form/pose a major threat to you as the individual player (this could raise awareness in a very ‘real’ way, as the player feels the threat to their own ‘character’s’/ animal’s lives/life directly; note the possible relevance to Conservation work, or appeal to this.)
The idea behind the concept, is that you will in fact be playing as an animal (whilst keeping this as ‘faithful’ and as realistic an experience as possible.) Taking control of this said ‘animal’, the player will proceed to ‘act-out’ the events or daily life of the particular species he or she has selected, as it exists in its natural habitat (with gameplay ‘features’ centred around the reference to ‘real-world’ examples of nature.) Essentially, the ‘style’ will be in that of a wildlife documentary (the extent to which it ‘conforms’ to the design of this type of media is unclear, and will need to be developed further through research.) At this stage, I would also like to include both ‘predator’ and ‘prey’ game variants, to not only maximize the potential of the game’s idea, but also to offer the player a ‘change of pace’ both in how the game actually plays, and in the experience the player desires/chooses to have (a prevalent theme throughout this project is the idea of ‘choice’ and how this affects the games replay-ability.) If, due to time-constraints, that this isn’t possible or achievable, the game could easily accommodate expansions and future content releases (the possibilities for future content is very broad.)
Initial research will begin at the ‘Apple’ store (in the Chapelfield shopping centre) whereby I will be asking the staff questions as to the capabilities of the technology available (choosing the correct ‘product’ to suit the requirements of my idea, whilst considering also the potential ‘constraints’ my concept might have on the software available, due to the complexity of the graphics, or gameplay mechanics for example.) At this location, I intend also to take both notes, whilst testing the products on display (making note of not only games that interest me/ are available, but also how the games in question have integrated the various ‘features’ of the said product into the core gameplay mechanics; I understand already that there are going to be reservations and compromises as to what I can and cannot achieve with the technology available, so I intend to be innovative, creating ‘smart designs’ around otherwise unlikely possibilities.)
As my game will be based around a nature documentary ‘theme’ (or setting) I think it only prudent that I visit the ‘local’ Natural History Museum (housed in Norwich Castle.) From here I will begin a series of preparatory sketches (along with written notes) concerning the various animals that are on display; deciding on the potential of each in forming an enjoyable gameplay experience, along with what is possible within the parametres of the technology available. On this note, after having chosen a ‘list’ of potential animals to be featured in-game (both playable and non-playable) I will likely return to the castle to make more detailed studies (directly from observation) to inform my own work and practice upon returning.
As mentioned previously, you will in fact be playing as an animal and although you, as the player, will in all cases be ‘acting out’ the life of an animal as faithfully as possible, I am also intrigued by the possibilities of applying this to a documentary-style ‘format.’ In light of this, I intend also to study wildlife documentaries (such as the BBC’s “Planet Earth” for example) so as to implement a variety of interesting camera angles to be used in-conjuncture with gameplay (for a potential ‘hunting sequence’, for example, the in-game camera could ‘rush-forward’ from a fixed position behind the player, the predatory animal the player is controlling and reveal the ‘kill’, perhaps close-up, whilst ‘panning around’ an in-game cut-scene of the prey’s ‘final moments;’ I feel that at this stage , it is also important to start considering the target audience that I intend to market this game towards, as both ‘mature’, and ‘all-age-friendly’ versions of the game can easily be created/adapted to suit either demographic.)
From a marketing stand-point, I’ve considered also the main demographic the game could appeal to (namely those that encompass the audience for channels primarily featuring wildlife documentaries and nature programs, but also nature ‘enthusiasts’.) To this extent, I’d attempt to feature advertisements of the game in-between the ‘peak’ time-slots of similar wildlife documentaries, as a more ‘obvious’ form of marketing, though of course I would have to contact individual television stations if I were to pursue this course of action in reality (again, doing so during ‘peak times’ would ‘reach’ this specific demographic, of audiences that watch wildlife/nature documentaries.) Advocating an appeal to Conservation work could also be a possible avenue; for not only would it raise awareness as to the lives and ‘plights’ of the animals featured in the game (‘poaching’ and the inclusion of hunters is something I’m strongly considering adding as an integral element to the game’s ‘core gameplay mechanics’) but it also might prove one way of acquiring finance for the product, for licensing purposes, advertisement, or for distribution, with charitable companies such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for example. In thinking about the possibilities concerning Conservation work and appealing to this, I thought to include descriptions of each of the animals featured in the game, in a ‘bio’ section (found under the ‘extras’ menu heading) which would state such information as the current condition/estimated numbers of the animals in the world at the moment, along with possible threats that could lead to their extinction, their role in the local bio-diversity/habitat, whether or not they are an endangered species, what can be done to help improve the situation (with information on their numbers, conservation work as a whole and how you can get involved, supplying numbers and contact information etc.) Tying into this idea is also about the possible educational ‘aspects’ to the game (included also in the animal’s ‘bios’ would be things like the name of the species, it’s weight, life-span, size as related to height etc. or the amount of offspring it produces in a year, the species location etc.)
I mentioned earlier about dividing the types of gameplay featured in the game between ‘predator’ and ‘prey’ variants. Briefly discussing the differences between the two, and what I meant by this, I’ll quickly describe an example of what the herbivore or ‘prey’ gameplay could involve; gameplay would consist of the player surviving long enough in order to ‘mate’ and thus produce offspring (with the possible addition of further or extended gameplay focused around ‘providing’ for the afore-mentioned offspring.’) I mentioned ‘resource-collecting gameplay’ as a possible “Game Element” or core mechanic (examples of this birds building nests, wilderbeast reaching ‘water-holes’ or fresh grasslands/pastures.)
In terms of the game’s ‘interface’, I’ll need to consider things like a health ‘metre’ and how I would integrate this consistently with not only the other design elements, but the over-all ‘look’ and aesthetics of the game design also (a health ‘bar, or ‘life metre’ is something I want to avoid entirely, as think it’ll be far too distracting on the gameplay experience, ultimately interpreting the player’s immersion and feeling as if he or she ‘is’ this animal; finding a solution to this issue will be an important section of my research when attempting to finalise the design.) In terms of the player’s ‘health’, however, I do have the intention of making it very easy for the player to be hurt or even killed (even when chasing/confronting prey) as the slightest scratch or broken bone can spell disaster in the wild, I to want this feeling of ‘anxiety’ or ‘suspense’, every time the player catches sight of potential prey; for example, if playing as a lion, when hunting etc. these is a large risk of being wounded/killed when confronting water buffalo for example, so the player is forced to be tactical in choosing his or her ‘prey’, singling out the weak (the old, sick, or young) as you would do (if you were a lion) in the wild. The potential of this would make the gameplay very challenging indeed (to the point where possibly playing as the often perceived to be ‘unstoppable’ predator, could translate to a harder ‘mode’ or difficulty setting.) The idea of differing difficulty modes is also something to explore (predator equating to ‘hard mode’ and prey to ‘easy mode’ perhaps?) Alternatively, they could be the same, but with different ‘titles’ or headings concerning each, such as ‘Realistic/realism’ meaning ‘extreme mode’, ‘Survival of the Fittest’ as ‘hard mode’, ‘Nature v.s. Nurture’ as medium difficulty, and “Easy Prey’ or ‘Another day passed’ as easy mode (the idea that the difficulty scales with the level of ‘realism’.)
Customization involved when in ‘the character’ (‘animal’) ‘selection screen’, could consist primarily of the option between choosing either the male or female equivalent of the animal you have selected/ have the intention of playing as. Male or female gameplay would drastically differ from one another/each other; for example, if a playing as a male lion, the gameplay would centre around protecting the pride from rival males whilst also ‘patrolling;’ the territory, unless of course you played as a nomadic male lion, whereby he (the player) would attempt to ‘band together’ with other male lions, and attempt to take/ form a pride of his own. The ‘female gameplay’ (in this case the lioness) would result primarily in ‘hunting’ gameplay mechanics (stalking prey, then giving chase etc.) One difficulty actually that has arisen from this example, is the issue in how much or little to ‘censor’; for if the player has selected the ‘nomadic male lion’ option, then should the player be able to ‘kill’ infant/offspring of other animals? (As the lion would do with ‘foreign’ lion cubs when taking over a pride.) If so, this would result in a mature certificate, which might alienate an audience or potential market that would have otherwise been drawn to this game (a younger demographic.)
Potential ‘references’ informing the research behind the development of my game, would include both the use and study of notable documentary programs, following the said theme (such as the BBC’s various work in this field, along with David Attenborough’s work on “Life” and “Planet Earth”, considering also other television channels, such as “Animal Planet” or the “Discovery Channel” for example.)
Things to Consider, Further Notes, Ideas and Questions to be Answered:
• Will poaching/poachers be a threat in the game? (Think lions, elephants, gorillas and their respective habitats, the savannahs and open grass plains, and rainforest etc. and the affects these environments would have on how this threat could be perceived.)
• Will the animals (players) be able to attack humans? An example of why I think they should, is that if they are playing as a lion (a top-carnivore) the player would feel largely ‘invincible’ and un-touchable when compared to other animals present in the area (at least when in a large pride) though this would not be the case with hunters, as poaching would lead to the player being extremely vulnerable and will almost always die if trying to/attempts to confront them (the hunters.) I feel this adds another depth to the game in the form of fear (fear not of a another wild animal, but a far more unpredictable and dangerous enemy) presenting to the player this issue in a very real way (players would be made aware of just how vulnerable, even the most powerful of animals such as this, are to poaching, again, emphasizing the reality and seriousness of the situation/issue and the plight of the animal in question.) This providing another link to the conservation aspect of the game and helping to further raise awareness.
• Consider sounds and the use of music, what do wildlife documentaries use? Natural, environmental sounds (insects, weather, other animals such as birds etc.)
• Will you see tourists, or the documentary camera-men filming you in the distance? (Think land-rovers, and jeeps etc.)
• Will there be a commentary? (Official David Attenborough ‘voice-over’/narration would be an extremely effective ‘selling point’ or form of marketing. As David Attenborough is largely considered a ‘National Treasure’ in Britain/among British people, this would translate to the product very well indeed (possibly using his face/name as a form of endorsement in the advertising of the product.) Continuing with this idea, the dialogue doesn’t have to be original (if permission is sought first) you could re-use commentaries from his previous body of work to suit the scenario (although an original script and dialogue would be very interesting, though also very expensive.)
• Research into whether or not this idea has been attempted in games before and if so, whether it was successful or not and if not, why did it fail? Could this be down to an in-consistent design, or ‘wrong’/poor artistic style? Miss-marketing (e.g. the wrong target market) could also have led to this etc. (stressing the importance of understanding your audience, and ‘catering’ the game with this in mind.)
• Will I include blood?
• How realistic should the visuals be?
• Should I design/include an opening cinematic to the game?
• What is the target market? (Age I’m appealing to etc.)
• Think about the aesthetics and visual design elements of the menu and in-game ‘HUD’ (‘Heads-Up Display) making sure to keep all design elements consistent in a set/pre-determined artistic style ( that has yet to be developed) although I do believe a certain maturity or formality is an effective method in translating across the game’s seriousness (or sense of realism.)
• Think about minimalizing ‘clutter’ on the screen, whilst also thinking of innovative ways that you could integrate the animal’s ‘life bar’, and stamina etc. into the on-screen display (or ‘user-interface.’)
Possible Expansions/Future Content:
• “Africa” Edition (play as lions, elephants, crocodiles, wildebeest, baboons, gorillas, cheetah, gazelle, leopards etc.)
• “The British Isles” Edition (play as foxes, squirrels, peregrine falcons, stag/deer (human hunters a threat to these also.)
• “India” Edition (play as tigers, rhinos, monkeys etc.)
• “Amazon” Edition (play as crocodiles, monkeys, snakes such as the Anaconda, birds of paradise etc.)
• “The Skies” Edition (play as various birds from around the world, pigeons, geese, eagles such as the Golden or Bald Eagles, falcons, vultures, seagulls, perhaps also flightless birds such as penguins or the Ostrich.)
• “The Oceans” Edition (play as various sea-life from around the world (such as the Great White Shark along with less ‘obvious’ sharks also, such as the Basking Shark, the Whale Shark, Tiger Sharks, the ‘Hammer-head’ Shark etc. Include whales and their variations, such as the Blue Whale, the ‘Humpback’ Whale, Killer Whales and Sperm Whales etc. Include also seals, walrus, dolphins, tropical fish, squid, jelly-fish, Tuna etc.
• “The Arctic” Edition (play as Arctic or ‘Snow’ foxes, Polar bears, caribou, muskox. the Arctic Hare, walrus, seals, Belugas Whales, Killer Whales, narwhals, the wolf etc.)
• “The Antarctic” Edition (play as Penguins etc.)
• “The Under-growth” Edition (play as various insects, arachnids etc. tarantulas, flies, scorpions, millipedes, cock-roaches, mosquitoes etc.)
• “The Underground” Edition
• “The Forests” Edition (play as wolves, moose, Grizzly bears etc.)
• “The Deserts” Edition (both ‘cold’ and ‘hot’, play as camels, Meerkats, various snakes and reptiles etc.)
• “The Rivers” Edition (focus on fish and amphibians, along with reptiles as playable and non=playable etc.)
• “The Plains” Edition (hot, cold, and temperate variations, play as ‘wild’ horses? Etc.)
• “The Domestic” Edition? (Play as various domesticated animals in human rural and urban environments, such as the ‘house cat’, dogs, mice, rats etc.)
• “The Mountain and Plateau” Edition (play as goats, Snow Leopards etc.)
I will of course be further researching this idea, particularly researching the market as to whether this idea has been attempted in games before and if so, whether it was successful or not (or the reasons as to why it failed if in fact it had been attempted.) So far the only games I’ve seen that focus on ‘animals’, are those that require the player to build zoos for them for example, or take photographs of ‘dinosaurs’ etc. I haven’t seen any yet that focus almost entirely on the player playing as an animal in a realistic setting/environment, with little human contact (save for perhaps the occasional ‘tourist convoy’, or cameraman filming/taking photographs of you ‘in action’, in perhaps a nature reserve, though still very much in ‘the wild’, for example.)
I believe there is huge potential for this idea (you need only look at the success and popularity of nature/wildlife documentaries.) The games industry (namely digital) is very recent and is expanding at an unprecedented rate, the success of nature documentary films such as “Deep Blue”, “Earth” and “March of the Penguins” and of course wildlife documentaries as shown on television, such as “Planet Earth” (along with the very impressive/high number of views for “YouTube” videos such as the “Battle at Kruger” which ‘sports’ over fifty-million views for that video/video clip alone.) The theme of Africa (particularly African ‘big cats’ beginning with and most notably the lion) formed the initial inspiration for this game concept (the idea of playing as a lion etc. were my initial thoughts when first developing this idea in my head) only recently did I find out that “Disneynature” will be releasing a film entitled “African Cats” in 2011, this would have provided a brilliant time for releasing my own game/ product to coincide with the release date of this film, of course development of this particular game would mean that it likely wouldn’t be ready for release until after the release of “African Cats” (perhaps the success of this, and the following “Chimpanzee” film that ‘Disneynature’ are also producing for a 2012 release, might give an indicator to not only the target market I might want to reach, but also the ‘demand’/ room for my game in the market-place.)
Ideas for potential ‘game modes’ could include a human perspective (from a filmmaker’s point of view in the documentary ‘style’ etc.) A ‘mini-game’ or bonus/ extra game mode could involve the player either driving/traversing over the terrain and filming unscripted (AI driven) natural or wildlife occurrences; or, the player can ‘film’/record in-game play (such as playing as a lion hunting on the Savannah etc.) and then he/she could then go back and edit the video/film, adding music or commentary in the style of a documentary or other form of filming style etc. This feature perhaps could be described more accurately if you compare it to the “Theater” feature in “Halo 3” and “Halo: Reach”, whereby the player can record his/her gameplay, and then has the option of revisiting the ‘material’ and through the optional use of having the camera move around the three-dimensional space in ‘real-time’ (by pressing “Y” in the “Halo 3” for example) he/she could then proceed to choose new camera angles and ‘re-record’/edit the film as they fit, choosing also to take screenshots and then posting them online for others to see/enjoy them.) This entire ‘feature’ could in fact be how the main game plays if I decided that this is the best way to proceed with the idea. Replay-ability and ‘un¬¬-scripted’ (almost random, yet conforming to the rules of ‘nature’) events (which include Artificial Intelligence accurate to each specific type of animal, obviously for those non-playable) and most importantly, the ability for the player to ‘feel’ as if they are in fact ‘this’ animal, and not simply controlling an animal in a game; these are the main ‘requirements’ for my concept. ‘Hyper-realism’ in every part of the game, at this stage, is also very important to me, as I want the player to understand the danger in living as an animal in the wild, for example, playing as a lion is not just about being a ‘powerful’ creature, the player needs to ‘weigh’ the decisions he or she has before them when considering attacking prey for example, it only takes one encounter to ‘obtain’ a life-threatening wound, I want the player to see just how serious this is and that they are not simply playing as some ‘over-powered’ ‘creature’, with this ‘king of the jungle’ mentality that many people seem to have towards lions. The fact that the player can be hunted or ‘poached’ by humans, is also something I’d like to see in the game (perhaps this gameplay feature could only be found in the higher difficulty settings of the game, as this encounter would mean almost certain death for the player unless they run early on or are tactical during the situation.) I wanted to avoid the player’s being the human hunters (in any form of game-mode, type, or variant) really because I don’t want the players to feel ‘rewarded’ or any sense of achievement by this act; the main premise of the game concept is for the player to experience the natural world from the eyes of the animals living in it (with the option of being the human ‘film-maker’ through the ‘theatre’/editing suite, again this would most likely be a ‘mini-game’, or perhaps a feature separate to the main gameplay, although the player should be able to record any in-game play he or she desires.)
The ability for the player to sense ‘wind-direction’ on-screen, could be a way for he or she to begin tracking prey when in the wide-expanse of the environment they are in (obviously this would only be relevant to the species of animal you are playing, other forms of ‘tracking’ or perhaps even communication between animals concerning the use of the ‘senses’ could be altered/adapted/varied based on the animal the player is controlling.) From a prey’s ‘perspective’ (when the player is controlling a ‘prey’ animal) any sudden change in wind-direction could alert the player to an in-coming threat (the smell of a predator for example.) The use of sound as an ‘alert feature’ for avoiding danger could implemented in-game also (clever use of the HUD would need considering to avoid ‘clutter’ on-screen, and to retain realism or escapism for the player; (perhaps a ‘spidey-sense’ type of display/feature on screen as seen in the “Spiderman” franchise games, or perhaps even the vibrating of the player’s controller, could be examples of this, for the latter idea, the sensitivity of which would reflect the immediacy of potential danger, for example a predator whose seen you, and is in close proximity, might result in a very ‘large’ and erratic vibration, reflecting again, this urgency.)
The game concept (which, again, is based on my original concept that I created before, during the Summer and subsequently ‘pitched’ during the interview process) and the idea I began to seriously consider/develop over the Summer of 2010 having always had this idea and desire to play a game like this, but never had the opportunity to do so, as there weren’t any in the way that I imagined it.) The game was designed originally for the next generation consoles (or latest technology available for gaming, such as the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 platforms) but it was later adapted for this project whereby I had to constrain my ideas/ the concept in general to fit this form of media (though I steel strongly believe that the game would ‘perform’ much better on the next generation consoles for the simple fact that the game, for a start, would be much bigger, the graphics would adhere much more to the ‘realistic’ aesthetics I had in mind, along with more believable animations to the animals and most importantly, the ‘open-world’ gameplay and ‘free-roamer’ style that I had envisioned for this product.)
Initial Research
The concept was inspired by playing/seeing games such as “Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (which I only played the demo of as a child briefly in a shopping centre) and “Treasures of the Deep” (whereby you could briefly play as a shark for a level, in this example I would re-play that level for hours on end, just to feel what it was like to ‘be a shark’) when I was as a child. When growing up, I’d always buy games that let me, in some form or another, control an animal during gameplay (whether that was a flying dinosaur in the “Turok Evolution” game, taking control of a seagull in “The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker”, or even the level in “Conker’s Bad Fur Day” where you controlled a bat etc.) yet in all the examples of the games I’ve played, none of them featured this form of gameplay past a very brief ‘mini-game’ type scenario. The challenge for me is whether a game can be sustained for a long period of time, simply by simulating, essentially, the life of an animal (something I believe, if done correctly, could be not only possible, but extremely enjoyable an experience also.)
I designed the game also to be an open-ended, ‘free-roamer’ experience(in the style of games like “Grand Theft Auto” or “Red Dead Redemption” both of which are produced by “Rockstar Games”, of course my own game would feature more ‘rural’ environments, closer to that of “Red Dead Redemption” than perhaps ‘Rockstar’s’ “Grand Theft Auto” franchise.) With further research. As a gamer myself, I feel that players want to go where they want, and when they want (I personally receive much more enjoyment and satisfaction out of ‘open-world’ games, than I do from much more ‘linear’ games, I like the idea that every time I play, the game, in all its challenges and various potential scenarios, as well as the actual experience from playing the game, will be different; forming my own ‘stories’ and encounters from that experience.)
Again, with further research, I discovered a number games either on the market (or games that were planned for release, but later canceled) that I think appeal to either the sought of audiences that would play my game, or would compete with my own game in the Market place; it also very important to ‘stress’ at this point, that none of the games I’m about to mention in the following research, reflect my idea/concept in its truest form (in the way I imagine my game to be) the following paragraphs simply mention examples of games that use a similar ‘wildlife theme’, yet have implemented it entirely differently, which is why I have the incentive to create the game I want to create, something I feel isn’t available to players right now, and something I strongly believe there is a demand/market for.) I mentioned earlier a game called “Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future”, before recently researching into the game I had no previous knowledge of it, save for that one, visceral experience as a child where I played it at ‘demo-stand’, believing I was a dolphin with what felt like the entire ocean before me is something that is as real to me now as it was then (and it this feeling or experience that I want to capture at the ‘heart’ of my own game.)
"Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future" is a game where at first glance, looks like it has a nice idea (the aesthetics and graphics for its time were extremely impressive, at least I thought so as a child and still do) but the idea was, in my opinion, lost when they decided to include fantasy, science-fiction (basically fictitious) elements to the game, where I think a lot of game developers fall prey to when trying to produce a game ‘that sells’ simply on the basis that it has ‘spaceships’ or ‘explosions’; researching further I discovered that the original “Ecco the Dolphin” games (the earlier games in the series that preceded “Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future”) again, whilst not as ‘whacky’ still featured fantastical elements that made the fact that you were playing as a dolphin feel almost irrelevant, and perhaps even a ‘gimmick’, but again, this is my opinion, as the games did enjoy great popularity amongst fans. The game that I hope to create will (hopefully) be as true an experience to feeling like you are in the wild, ‘being’ that animal, as possible, and so to this extent I don’t’ want there to be any ‘levels’ or ‘bosses’ or anything like that in the traditional sense, there is nobody telling you what to do, or where to go, the challenge and enjoyment of the game is in how successful your life will be as that animal, and that ‘success’ again, really is up to you to decide (will you choose to be the dominant ‘Silver-back’ Gorilla in a troop? Or are you content with maintaining another gorilla’s position as the dominant male? As a wolf, do you seek to challenge another pack and usurp the alpha male? Playing as a male lion, do you want a pride of your own, or are you content with living the life of a nomadic lion? Female hyenas, holding a more dominant position in the group, choose whom they wish to mate with, and ultimately decided the future of the group; that power is given then to player for them to decide what to do with.)
Recently (a couple of months ago) I was playing a game (created by an independent game company) entitled “Mount & Blade: Warband” whereby similarly, there are no ‘main story lines’ or driven quests (although there are quests that you do pursue, there is nothing stopping you from simply not doing them, and trying something different.) The game literally establishes the fictitious ‘Medieval-based’ setting, and (without the guidance really of anyone) you choose to make a life for yourself (whether you desire to one day be king, become a noble and make money through taxes, or simply remain a mercenary, acquiring finances through attacking caravans etc. to increase your standing in the ‘realm’ you can also choose to get married.) Upon first playing this game I initially found it very daunting, as I was used to essentially being told ‘what to do’ (go here, go there, do this etc.) a very formulaic approach to games that I’ve noticed over the years, and rarely questioned as I’d choose ‘open-world’/’free-roamer’ games so that I could avoid the ‘main story-line’ for this very reason and pursue my own stories instead. In “Mount & Blade: Warband” you simply do as you please, and the ‘success’ or ‘failure’ of your character is judged by yourself, there is no ‘completion’ really, and the enjoyment from the game comes out of how much you put in, and are willing to work to maintain what you have established for your character (again, this style of gameplay is something I very much had in mind for my own game, for once you’re past infancy in the animal kingdom, you are usually left to ‘fend for yourself’.) On that note, I also need to consider at what ‘stages in life’ the player ‘plays through’ when controlling his or her animal, do they begin from birth? Does the player age? Will there be some record of ‘family trees’ so players can recognise relatives etc. in the wild? Again I’ll need to answer these questions.The game “Afrika” (released under the title “Hakuna Matata” in its native country of Japan) is something that I only very recently researched (having no knowledge of it before-hand when I started this document, and in fact when I began my idea and started developing it) but looking at it, it’s a game that comes extremely close to what I imagined my own game to look like from an aesthetic point of view, but other than initial appearances, it is an entirely different game (something I’d describe as having the realistic, free-roaming qualities of the game I intend to develop, but with gameplay much more akin to games like “Pokemon Snap” or perhaps more loosely, “Dead Rising.”) In the game, you essentially complete a variety of missions involved around taking pictures of the local fauna (in this case animals of the African savannah such as zebra, lions, giraffes, elephants etc.) As a wildlife photographer, it is your job to complete assignments (with the success of the player being on the ‘quality’ of his or her photographs taken.) Having watched videos of ‘Afrika’s’ gameplay, I was instantly reminded of the sort of ‘look’ or ‘feel’ I had for my own concept (which is essentially a very broad, and realistic interpretation of the African savannah, and as I’ve mentioned before, my idea was ‘spawned’ originally from the desire to play a game where you could control the life of a lion in the African plains.) The ability to traverse a wide landscape, encountering other animals at random, and in a realistic manor, is the idea behind the ‘look’ of my game, and this is partly reflected in the approach “Afrika” also took in their own game (even though again, there was no basis or even knowledge of this game whilst I was developing my own ideas.) None-the-less, I feel this game (“Afrika”) is important to my research in that it helps contextualize, or place in context some of my own thoughts and understandings as to how I want to create/approach my game.
I had a feeling when I began creating my game concept that there were many wildlife/nature/explorative games, but I knew (just off of the ‘top of my head’) that many of them were likely to be from a documentary point of view and by this I mean from the point of documenting the animal world via photography (I played a game as a child entitled “Dinosaur Safari” that again, required the player to photograph, or ‘document’ what they saw, as opposed to being in the ‘action’ as it were) it’s these self-titled ‘safari simulators’ that seem to dominate this particular market that I would likely release my own game into (yet there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of games that focuses primarily on controlling an animal in a ‘mildly realistic’ setting; games such as “Bloody Waters” which was later canceled, “Jaws Unleashed” or “Sea Monsters” all featured relatively realistic physics, but in my opinion, were far too exaggerated and influenced far too heavily by Hollywood and ‘creature feature’ type films; that ultimately harm the player’s experience, as he or she is constantly reminded that they are in fact just playing another game.) More successful games follow the “Treasures of the Deep” game concept, whereby the player takes control of a human, and simply explores the environment (often with a ‘resource collecting’ gameplay element or feature to the game) games such as “Endless Ocean” and “Aquanaut’s Holiday: Hidden Memories”, are examples of this (I’m also noticing a pattern in that many of these games are based in the oceans, appealing to the player’s curiosity for exploration and the mysterious ‘unknown’, a lot of these games seem to also be produced for the “Wii” console, and so often, in my opinion, the graphics usually suffer where they would otherwise ‘flourish’ with a greater scope for detail on the other ‘next-gen’ consoles, such as the ‘PS3 or Xbox 360’, with “Aquanauts” and “Afrika” being notable exceptions to this.)
Another game that interested me when I was younger, was “Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis”, and although the game’s main focus was for the player to construct his or her own ‘dinosaur park’ for customers to come visit (much like “Theme Park” on the PlayStation One) I was always much more interested by the “Site B” option in the game (it was basically a little bonus ‘featurette’ type extra to the game) whereby the player could ‘construct’ an island, and then once they had finished doing this, they could then populate the island with a variety of dinosaur species of their choice (this is without any cages or human visitors involved.) The fun was in watching ‘nature take its course’, and trying to strike a balance between the various creatures that you had placed to live together (through further research I discovered another game with a similar premise to this entitled “Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa”, as with “Site B”, the game challenged you to strategically create a balanced and successful habit, though now based in the African wilderness, and populate it with up to elven unique animals that were available to the player, including lions, zebra, spring hare, giraffes and hyenas etc. described as an “ecosystem simulation game”, although I haven’t actually played it, from gameplay videos and descriptions it looked to me as also being much like a ‘god game’ along the lines of “Black & White” whereby your decisions ultimately affect the world you have created.) “Venture Dinosauria” is the more recent ‘product’ of these sought of wildlife games. The last in the “Venture” series of PC games, this particular game looks heavily reminiscent of the “Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis” game I mentioned earlier, except where the building of an ecosystem was only a ‘bonus feature’ in the ‘Jurassic’ game, in “Venture Dinosauria” it becomes the premise to which the whole game is based around; I really do enjoy these sought of games, particularly due to their educational purposes in highlighting how delicate ecosystems really are, touching on the effects of global warming and erratic weather patterns resulting from this; I recently found a quote actually from a “You Tube” video concerning the “Venture Dinosauria” game, again, which highlights my own personal opinion, however, towards this genre of gaming, which is…
“I’d like to play one where you can actually be the dinosaur.”
Again with games such as “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” game on the ‘PlayStation One’, there are levels where you played as both human characters from the movie and dinosaurs, the levels where you played as the dinosaurs always interested me a lot more, it was something about escapism, playing a game where you aren’t something you are used to being (notably human) but offered a unique perspective of something different. Role playing fantasy games also see me choosing the ‘race’ that is often far removed from the ‘human’ option, I understand the need of the player to relate to his or her avatar (character) but I feel there is every opportunity to do this in a different ‘format’, taking control of an animal for example and asking the player ‘what would you do’ In its position?
The use of weather effects and weather ‘patterns’ in the game I think will also be an important feature in the affecting gameplay (along with ‘night’ and ‘day’ cycles, and seasonal changes that might affect what animals you will encounter and where, at a given time; think of the ‘wet season’ and the ‘dry season’ as seen in Africa, or the arrival of different species of birds during the Summer months etc.)
The use of music, again, is something I need to strongly consider, games such as “Aquanaut’s Holiday: hidden memories” and the original “Afrika” game feature impressive scores of music that are entirely separate from the background ‘noises’ of nature, yet tie in the experience together quite nicely.
The extent to which the game is a wildlife ‘documentary’ simulator, is still debatable really; I always envisioned a game that will follow intimately the life of an animal as realistically as possible, the ‘documentary’ influence really came in from watching wildlife documentaries and being influenced by how close you could get to that experience of understanding an animal (my game will be in every form a ‘wildlife simulator’ but because I understand that nature documentaries are designed to entertain as much as they are designed to inform, I might only have included an ‘editing’ feature, allowing the player to record his/her experiences as ‘that animal’, and transfer that footage for people to watch and enjoy. The game, however I decide to develop the concept further, will provide the player with the ability to play as various animals (his or her ‘favourite’ animals perhaps) and this gameplay mechanic, really, forms the ‘back-bone’ or core ‘asset’ of the game. I’ll also need to decide the extent to which you, as the animal, will come in contact with humans; obviously poachers will one be an element, at least this is a strong possibility that they will as modern version of many of ‘today’s natural environments or habitats, that rarely do not see the effects of humans; does this mean tourists will also feature in the game? Along with wildlife documentary ‘crew’? Will the player be able to attack and possibly kill humans? Or would this be an entirely inappropriate and miss-guided interpretation of the animal in question (I don’t want to have the effect the movie “Jaws” had on the ‘image’ of the Great White Shark but at the same time I do want players to be aware of just how dangerous some of these animals can be; a lot of ‘majesty’ and ‘awe’ by people towards animals can be found in how powerful they can be, often the drama that leads to the success of nature documentaries or clips such as the “Battle at Kruger” is often due to humanities morbid fascination with death.)
“Why does everyone want to “shoot” the animals? This isn’t a hunting game… Me, personally I would like to play a game where you had to be the animal and the challenge would be to survive.” – “gamerlayne” commenting on gameplay footage posted on Youtube of the game “Afrika.”
The quote above was the most positively ‘received’ comment out of a total of one-hundred and six comments that had been left on that particular ‘YouTube’ video. The point made in this quote is not only something that I’ve thought of from a young age when playing games, but highlights the desire for these sought of games, particularly as this wasn’t the only comment of this type I found whilst researching into ‘wildlife simulator’ type games, there were countless other comments that reflected this opinion, and the view counts for these videos speak for themselves. I looked into the ‘shooter’ type games that involved the hunting of wildlife, games such as “Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2011”; which, although clearly not intended to be viewed as ‘realistic’ in any way, feels like, at least in my opinion, not in any way really following the ‘tradition’ laid by games such as “Duck Hunter”, but more a mindless shooting frenzy, that portrays predators as nothing more than savage beasts intent on blood and slaughter (the game really could be replaced with zombies or other creatures and would play no differently in my view) again, though, I know I should be objective and so I stress again that this is purely my opinion and should in no way affect how others view the quality of the game. My initial research so far (I do intend to eventually ‘play-test’ maybe one or two of these games if possible, alongside future, on-going research, to ‘inform’ maybe my own work and compare the results to my own ideas) has culminated in possibly the most important ‘wildlife games’ of my research, in that they feature in one form or another the ability for the player to control an animal directly. To begin with, there are game such as “Wild Earth: African Safari” that feature various ‘mini-game’ scenarios (some of which allow the player to an animal during a ’whimsical’ game that will often reflect either that animal’s primary ‘ability’ or some form of action that the animal uses to survive) though in regards to the ‘main game’, the game is very much a more ‘child-oriented’ version of “Afrika”, seeing the player traverse the African savannah in the hope of taking good pictures of the wildlife.
Games such as “Wolf Quest”, “Wolf”, “Lion”, “Endless Forest” and “Web Earth Online” are the closest products on the market I’ve found so far to emulating my own game idea. Each game (in one form or another) attempts to re-create the life of an animal, usually from a wide selection of different species available to the player. The gameplay is often as realistic as possible, being primarily ‘web-based’ games however, the graphics do not reflect this sense of realism, due (to what I assume) is the constraints of the technology available (when researching further into these games, it would be useful to find out why they chose to create their games on such simple software, this is most probably due to the budget available to these ‘independent companies’, but why also then have no large game studios attempted this idea before? (Perhaps they have and I simply have to research further to discover them) and why also then are there so few games for this idea? The games I’ve just mentioned were fairly difficult to find, if it were not for a member of ‘YouTube’ who mentioned the list above in a video on the “Endless Forest” game, I would have no clue as to the existence of the other games. The games, like my own, essentially provide the player with the ability to ‘live out the life’ of the said animal. Strong similarities (compared to my own game) include the ‘realistic’ approach to the development and play style of the player, meaning that (like in my own game) the player won’t have any ‘missions’ past surviving long enough to help protect/raise the next generation (unless in fact you choose to remain nomadic of course.) In “Web Earth Online”, the player begins as an infant animal, and then proceeds to progress through into maturity and adult-hood, and, if played strategically enough, the player’s animal ‘avatar’ should reach the final stages of life and mature into ‘old-age’, before dying (this is one thing I mentioned earlier in my own notes, should in fact players be able to play the full life cycle of their individual/chosen animals? Or should the game be split up into the main ‘sections’, skipping others in favour of documenting only the most important stages of life. I do believe the satisfaction of the animal ‘making it’ from infant to adult is something that is a huge achievement in the wild, and so I would like to very much offer players of my own game, this experience.) This section of my research will be developed much further, as I do intend to ‘play-test’ some of the games mentioned above, so as to better understand perhaps what I feel is or isn’t successful (or in fact necessary) as a potential feature in my own game.
Primary Research - Visiting the 'Local' Apple Store
Having visited the Apple Store (located at Chapelfield, in Norwich city-centre) I began to test the various hand-held Apple products (predominately the latest models) that were on display, taking note of the games that particularly interested me. I also proceeded in asking a member of staff about his personal (as well as his professional) opinion on the gaming capabilities of products such as the iPhone 4, the iPad and the iPod Touch. I wanted to know in particular, if any games came close to emulating the sought of graphics as seen on next gen-consoles, of course I knew that they wouldn't be that close, being products of which their primary roles isn't necessarily gaming, but however primitive, I wanted to know of any games that attempted to render 'realistic' scenes in-game, using the software available to it's fullest extent so far. To this previous question, he replied, that of course, whilst not as sophisticated, there were some games that did in fact come close to the games as seen on consoles, particularly more so, games on the original Xbox or PS2, to which his examples were 'N.O.V.A' (a first-person shooter he likened to the Halo franchise) and 'Epic Citadel', to which he was adament that it came very close (to even some of the lower graphically 'intense' games as seen on the next generation of consoles.) Of course, I was constantly aware of the fact that I would have been talking to him as a potential customer (and he would have viewed me as such) so any 'negatives' concerning the gaming capabilities of the Apple 'hand-held'/mobile products would have been limited, to nothing more than 'sure, they may not have the same graphical capabalities or scope as next gen console games, but they come close.' To this extent, I actually have a friend who is highly knowledgable on Apple products (he is in fact a 'Specialist' employee of the Apple Store) and so I was later to e-mail him about my queries and concerns, knowing full well that he would answer truthfully and honestly concerning what the hand-held Apple products actually capable of (or not, if the case maybe) the e-mail of which I'll show and discuss later on in my research.
I've never previously owned any Apple product (which could be seen as both a disadvantage, in terms of my lack of knowledge concerning the products available, and also an advantage in terms of my open-mindedness in understanding the true 'functionality' of the Apple products, being fairely oblivious to Apple marketing and in having no biast in 'defending' a product I might have owned) to this extent, I did ask one useful question (to the Apple employee in Chapelfield) to which I recieved a useful answer. The question was concerning the actual differences (in terms of the technology used, and thus it's capabilities) between the 'hand-held' products by Apple (namely the iPhone 4, the iPad and the iPod Touch, to which I 'tested' them all in-store) to which the said employee answered (rather honestly) 'not so much.' He commented on the fact that each is obviously designed for a different purpose (one being a phone, one being music-player etc.) but that they each had the exact same processor (the 'G4 Processor') and all other componants were almost identical (namely the larger screen, and the 'High-Definition' capabilities of this, as seen in their latest portable product, the iPad, was about the only 'major' difference between them, in terms of affecting the gaming experience for each product.) I feel it's important to note also, at this point, that I approached this particular Apple employee with 'gaming' in mind, and so (as I had actually noticed when 'play-testing' the various games, often the same game on a different product) there was very little difference (if any, other than of course the high quality, and larger image available on the iPad) at all, between all of the products mentioned above. The images below reflects the (current) limits to the technology available in the form of this 'tech demo', 'Epic Citadel' (the 'game', makes use of the 'Unreal Engine 3', available from the Unreal Development Kit, or 'UDK'.)
The gaming 'experience' that I was seeking for my own game, was originally intended for the latest consoles, and so featured a high believability, and 'realism' about it, in terms of the graphics and gameplay; something of which I feel is still a very important aspect of my game, as in my opinion, the 'Afrika' game that I featured and commented on in my research above, 'drew' attention, not because of it's gameplay mechanics (to which has been largely seen before in quite afew other games) but it's stunning visuals, offering the player an emmersion 'factor' that perhaps other games do not. In keeping this in mind, when 'transferring' my original idea across from the larger console system, to a more 'modest' gaming experience in the form of Apple 'hand-held' gaming, I focused my attention on games that exuded a similar 'intention' in mind...
There were in fact many, many applications available to be played on display, in-store (for which I actually played them all, in terms of the ones that were again, available on display) and if there is one thing that is Apple is good at, and offers player's who do seek to 'game' on these Apple products, it's the sheer diversity and creativity offered in the Apple Applications 'system' that perhaps is not offered anywhere else (to this extent, there were games varying from fairly realisitic racing 'simulators', to puzzle games and games that a had no real intended 'goal', but of which the enjoyment for the player was simply from the aesthetics, a more purely 'visual' experience.) Though whilst this diversity was impressive, I quickly 'gravitated' towards games that contained the soughts of features or graphical capabilites that I would include in my own game; the list of games of which can be seen below:
- Avatar
- Nanosaur 2 (very good indeed, particularly the controls.)
- Ridge Racer Accelerated
- Epic Citadel (wasn't available to play, therefore didn't test.)
- Jet Car Stunts
- N.O.V.A (FPS, similar to Halo series.)
- Real Racing
- Tony Hawks: Pro Skater 2 (the controls were very awkward, was not impressed.)
You'll notice that in the list above that I've included alot of racing games; not only was this because of the impressive visuals (often associated with this 'genre' of gaming) but the controls were something I found particularly impressive, making use of the hardwares intuitive 'gryscrope' nanotechnology (essentially allowing the player a degree of motion-sensitivity upon interacting with the hand-held device in certain ways, namely the rotating, or 'tiliting' the device up, down, left and right.) This system of control was something I not only found very engaging (usually I avoid such 'tech' because I'm very much of the 'traditional' gamer in that I prefer a controller to motion-sensitivity, avoiding the purchase of the 'Wii' and similar products in favour of the 'Xbox 360' and controllers, for that very reason) but is something that I intend to implement in my own game. I'm considering, very strongly, giving the player the ability to change his or her method of play/control from the on-screen 'controller' type interface, as seen in games such as the 'Avatar' Application, to something more akin to 'Nanosaur 2.'
'Avatar' was the first game that I played when 'play-testing' in-store (it was something that I was eagerly anticipating, though had little confidence in its execution based on previous titles created, often very quickly, for a recently released movie I.P.) The game, however, was something I found particularly enjoyable. The use of artwork for the opening screens (in the 'Avatar' game) was a nice method of presenting quality images, with little processing power involved/needed. The camera angles, was an interesting challange I think for this game, much in the same way for games such as the original Resident Evil (which I never owned, nor played past maybe once when growing up, but I knew of it) the camera angles were fixed (due most likely to the restrictive nature of the platform, the small screen space and lack of controller) for example, the restircive space of the screen would mean that the developer has needed to 'sacrifice' giving the player the option to control the camera angle (as is often used with the right analogue stick for console controllers) and so this is something I too will need to consider when developing my own game; as there will be little 'clutter' on-screen, I would like for the player to affect the camera angle, taking screen-shots of the surrounding area whilst admiring his/her animal 'character' from different angles (as I always do in games.) Games which do not allow you to change the camera angle or 'shift' perspective (in much the same way as excluding a 'jump' feature) feels like a standard/'required' ability or aspect is missing from the game. Of all the games I played that day, however, one particularly 'stood-out' for me...
'Nanosaur 2' (one of the last games I 'play-tested', having no previous knowledge, really, of any of the games offered in the Apple Applications) and it was by far (at least for me) one of the more enjoyable of the gaming experiences (that I think I've ever had, really, from portable gaming) at least from what I played for the five or ten minutes or so I played of the demo (the re-playability, and 'sustainability' for the player's interest, could be non-existent, I have no idea) but again, for myself, simply getting to play as another creature (unfortunately with futuristic 'attatchments') was enough to get me initally hooked.) Visually, I found the game very impressive indeed and coupled with the intuitive design and use of the devices motion-sensor technology (that was both a challenging and rewardable gameplay experience, in my opinion, something remeniscent of some of the levels in the 'Turok: Evolution' game, for the Gamecube, Xbox, PS2, Gameboy Advance and later the PC) the game I felt was one of the more successful examples of this 'Apple technology', in use. My main 'gripe' with the game, however (which is something I see with almost all games that have 'nature' or wildlife as a strong/prevalent theme) is what is the necessity in strapping guns, robotic parts, lasers etc. onto everything? Is nature not interesting enough to be observed, re-created and interacted with as it exists? I feel the popularity of nature and wildlife documentaries, for example, perhaps show otherwise. The main attraction in games (in my opinion) is in the ability that they have in offering people an experience that they can't obtain (or 'in-act' safely) in real life, playing as an animal (as faithfully as possible) could offer people a perspective of nature they have never experienced before, which is the primary intentionality behind my game.)
In summary, the controls of a racing game (as seen on the platform available) is something I believe would transfer very well indeed to the movements of an animal (in much the same way a flight simulator would emulate, quite convincingly, the movements of a bird, as the the player tilts the device up and down to affect elevation and 'diving'.) The way that I envisioned this form of interactivity, in-game, (using the lion as an example) would be like a lioness, chasing down her prey, the speed would be phenomenal (think about implementing certain 'trickeries' to suggest speed or motion, as seen in the game 'Superman Returns', with the wind-resistance evident on-screen, or with 'plumes' of dust projecting up from the ground) as the player tilts the device from left or right, the animal would shift it's body-weight to counter-act the mis-balance (effectively running almost on the side of its paws, with it's body tilted much closer to the ground) in the case of a lion or lioness hunting (running at speed) the animal's tail would almost be swinging wildly from left to right (again to maintain balance at speed.) For those who do not want much 'physical' movement when playing the game, the motion sensor could be switched off, which would then result in a unique (or 'different') 'Heads Up Display' appearing on-screen (as a different interface) imitating more so a 'traditional' controller. The image below (featuring gameplay from 'Real Racer', one of the game I tested) illustrates how the player might physicall interact with the device in order to move the character (at least at high speeds.) On a completely different note, I'd also like to feature the ability for the player to control all aspects of his/her animal character's/avater's speed (from walking all the way up to a full sprint.)
In terms of which of the three 'hand-held' Apple devices I was researching into as a possible 'medium' or platform to 'house'/feature my game (the iPhone 4, the iPad and the iPod Touch being the said 'devices') it came to my attention (after having spoken to both an Apple employee in-store and a friend of mine, who also works for Apple as a 'specialist', the e-mail of which you can see below) that the 'gaming' aspect to each device was only a 'feature', and whilst marketed as a gaming platform, this was never its main 'objective' (for any of the devices.) In terms of marketing the game, the games are all downloaded and bought online (unlike the other hand-held gaming 'consoles' such as the PSP or DS, which requires the physical purchase of a specific game) which is one of its main advantages over its competitors. The price of the game also means it is likely to reach a larger audience, and, who knows, if the basic 'Apple' game design did well, then a larger version of the game could be further developed and released on one of the bigger gaming platforms.
Further Primary Research into Apple Products
Steven (the former 'colleague' that I e-mailed) is also an employee at a very large Apple Store indeed (to which his job is as a 'Specialist.') As with the e-mailing of Jake in 'Project 1' of this unit, Steven also has an extensive knowledge in the 'subject matter' concerning this particular projects overriding 'theme' and so his opinion was of value to my own reseaarch into this company that I have very little knowledge of (but actually much more so than Jake, Steven not only as a great personal enthusiasm for and interest in, Apple products, but he is also qualified and trained in the knowledge of these products, to the extent to which he can comment and talk about them in great detail.)
Steven's reply to my e-mail confirms what I suspected, in that not only are each of the latest Apple hand-held products of an almost identical 'nature', in terms of their capabilities as a gaming 'platform', but also that this particular product (or even type of gaming, especially towards the marketing and accessibility aspects of the products) is still in its infancy, and has of yet to really compete with products of a similar nature, currently on the market.
To this extent (and something actually that everyone on this particular project was aware of from the beginning) you are in fact constrained, within your own designs, as based on the limits of the technology available (and again, whilst I was aware of this before, I have a clearer idea now as to the soughts of things that would or would not be possible to achieve when creating a game for this particular 'platform', having never owned an Apple product, these 'limits' were not so clear, but I am in fact left pleasently surprised as to what is actually capable, from a function or 'feature' point of view, within an portable music player or mobile phone.)
Another observation that I found (with Steven emphasising this point also, in the screen-shot to the left) was that the more 'ambitious' titles (such 'Epic Citadel' or 'Nanosaur 2') though whilst impressive, also seemed to lose some of their 'appeal' in one form or another, as they find themseleves 'catering' to an audience that might not be the prevelent market for their products; for example, 'Epic Citadel' is a beautiful looking game (considering the platform that it's on) but where it's developers have focused on impressive visuals, the game lacks any fundemental form of gameplay, or recognised 'structure' and as I read more and more reviews about this particular game, it became more and more apparent as to who the game was in fact targeting, with most people confused as to whether to download it or not, or whether even to play it, having no knowledge of what the 'challenge' is (and in their mind, the 'point') in playing the game. In contrast, 'Nanosaur 2' is a 'fully' realised game, but caters (or appeals) more so to the 'hard-core' gamer (as also having read various reviews on this particular game, the game, apparently, is quite long, and due to the fact the game only saves your progress after the completion of each level, you are required to 'sit down and play' for quite some time.) If you look at perhaps the 'top ten' most popular game applications for Apple products, you'll find that they are dominated by very, very simple titles (such as 'Plants vs Zombies', for example) that offer the player an extremely simplisitic 'objective', aong with (often) a humours art style (with the difficulty scaling with this) that essentially is designed to be played 'on the move' (something, you would argue, as being a fairly obvious 'reqirement' when designing a particular game for a mobile phone, or portable music player) and yet there are exceptions, with some more 'serious' games (like 'Avatar', for example) that emulate the more 'sit down and play on long distance travels' etc. that is more akin to portable gaming platforms such as the 'PSP' or the 'Nintendo DS.' This makes me question the potential of my own title (for this particular genre of platforming) for I to had developed a more 'serious' title (that really was initally designed for 'next-generation' consoles) that perhaps has seen me brought across too much of what would make it a decent 'console' game (for Xbox 360, PC etc.) and perhaps, instead make it an 'untidy' or messy experience for the player where I have attempted to include to much at the expense of a solid game design. Some people could argue, 'why not just make it for a bigger console?' How I would respond to this is that I feel my game can most definitely 'inhabit' the hand-held gaming 'arena', it's an idea I feel is easily transferable to other gaming platforms, it's literally about how to achieve a balnce between impressive visuals (in what is possible that is) and a functioing game that offers, not only any enjoyable and engagin experience to the player, but something that can also facilitate that larger 'pick up and play' market (that really, Apple has marketed these products towards.)
For the 'larger' consoles, my game idea was intended to be an open-world, 'free-roamer' type experience, and so I began to briefly research companies and game developers that have been noted for this genre of gaming in the past. Rockstar (having created some of the most recognizable and celebrated 'open-world' environments) has also developed a 'Grand Theft Auto' game for the iPhone (and similar Apple products) entitled 'Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars' (a game that they also developed for the 'PlayStation Portable.')
The game sees the developer's returning to a 'top-down'/aerial view (or perspective) as was the case with the first 'GTA' game (when the technology was limited by this.) I first thought that the constraints of the technology meant that a naturally enjoyable 'free-roamer' experience (in the way that Rockstar had originally developed it for their break-through titles 'Grand Theft Auto 3' and 'Grand Theft Auto - Vice City') wasn't fully achievable in a three-dimensional environment, at least for this particular platform (the iPhone, or iPod Touch etc.) I was in fact wrong, as I found, you could argue, a 'clone' of the GTA series, produced by 'Gameloft', in the form of a game called 'Gangstar: West Coast Hustle.' I thought that this time I would include a video (as seen below) to best illustrate my point, which is that free-roaming games are possible on this platform (a style of gameplay that I desire to produce my own game within.) Whilst 'Gangstar' doesn;t feature the was detailed of graphics, it 'sacrifices' this instead for an expansive world and a high-replayability value in the form of gameplay that it offers the player (a balance between this type of gameplay and the graphics featured would be another challenge that would need adjustment within my own game in order to arrive at a necessary 'balance.')
The sequel below ('Gangstar: Miami Vindication') sees the replacement of the controls from its predecessor (above) in favour of the motion-sensor 'tilt' style of control (both varients of which I intend to include as control 'options' within my own game.) I have always been against more 'physical' or 'interactive' methods of control when playing a game (again, favouring the traditional 'controller' over this) yet the video below leads me to strongly consider this 'tilting' of the device idea as a brilliant way of realistically capturing the movement of an animal (both walking and at speed.) The way the player interacts with the camera angle (in the video above) is also something that I was very much looking for in other 'Apple' games, yet it was absent, leading me to believe that perhaps there wasn't a intuitive way of including this particular feature in this form of gaming, but again, the video above proves that wrong, and the touching of the screen to shift the camera in a 360 degree radius, would form an integral feature within my own game concept.)
The Future of Portable Gaming?
The future of gaming (in terms of 'hand-held' products) is perhaps in mobile-phone gaming, as witnessed in this prototype for a PSP mobile-phone, a consolidation of two previously seperate products (the image of which can be seen below.)
It's unfortunate that this is only a prototype, as the built-in 'controller' would prove quite an important function in the design of my own game (something that Apple will likely include in their future, when with 'gaming' as a greater 'feature' in-mind for their said products. The control system above, again, would allow for a very intuitive form of interaction when coupled with my own game idea (yet, the idea of 'tilting' the device to control gameplay, as a way of avoiding the touching of the screen, could potentially become obsolete as a result of this feature.) It seems as if there is a pattern towards 'smaller, faster, easier and more', as consumers want convenience above all else, yet not at the expense of quality (the result of which are these 'amalgamations' of various products into a single entity, with the purpose of it all working in unison, and only ever a button 'press' away.)
As I was searching for videos (online) to best illustrate this particular point, I discovered an interview of Hideo Kojima (whose best known as the creator of the 'Metal Gear Solid' series of games) commenting on his 'latest' product in the 'Metal Gear' franchise, which was a game application for the iPhone entitled 'Metal Gear Solid: Touch.'
The interviews 'topic', however, quickly became about the future of hand-held gaming, as a multi-purpose form of interaction, as various types of media occupy the same 'space.' Whilst the point seems fairly obvious (as we are seeing the effects of this now) Hideo Kojima's comment on how game designers and developers (within the future) will have to adapt, as they are going to have to compete against other forms of media, including music and videos etc. in order to retain (essentially) a sort of 'convenience' to the end-user; designing intelligent and intuitive methods of 'refining' that interactivity, in whereby eventually, the 'boundaries' between one feature and another (in 'hand-held' devices such as a mobile-phone etc.) becomes almost non-existent.
Primary Research - Initial/Preparatory Sketches (from Observation)
I made extensive use of the local natural history 'museum' (or 'department') within the Norwich castle, as a means of informing my work and as artwork to be featured in the conceptual designs and sketches (of wich will all be rough, the intention of which is to document and 'depict', both my ideas and as a form of research.)
There isn't in fact a local zoo available to sketch from (something that I would have definitely done, had I had the means to do so) and so sketching from the taxidermal examples available at the Norwich Castle 'Natural History' section, was the next best thing (though equally a very interesting process, something I did and still do enjoy doing; despite the un-forgivable circumstances by which the animals were there, the 'specimens' did offer advancments in scientific knowledge, and the privilege for people such as myself in getting close to and studying animals that would otherwise be almost impossible.)
The purpose of these studies was to not only better understand the wildlife that I desired to depict in my game, but also to decide on various 'species' (from observation) that would form interesting gameplay 'scenarios' for the player. I thought it prudent that I first study and record the subject that I intended to re-create or even use directy in my own work, for this project, and so in regards to this, this practise of drawing directly from life was hugely beneficial to me (especially as a practitioner of the arts who intends to avoid photographic reference, in favour of observational drawing, something I remain adament as a practise that truly allows you to see a subject like no other way.) The four images below were drawn by myself. The images below were created by working directly into (and solely using) pen (no pencil was used at all to create these drawings.) The drawings, again, were created by observing these animals, as they were in the musuem, and recording them with pen, onto paper; during those visits, these were the sketches that resulted...
Whilst I would have liked to have produced many more sketches, I feel that the images shown depict (whilst simplistically, granted) the idea, essentially, behind this method of working.
The 'biodiversity' on display, I found very impressive indeed (as whilst the exhibition itself isn't particularly 'large' by the standards of other museums collections, it was extremely varied in terms of the species on display; and the quality and type of specimens shown was also a great privilege to have available, especially in such a unique location.)
The animals above were chosen, and drawn (out of the selection available) based on my own personal intreague as well as what would offer an interesting or unique gameplay experience for the player. With the 'Feral Goat' and 'Argali Sheep' in the first image above, for example, what is the life of a 'Feral Goat' like? Is it interesting enough to warrant playing? What 'abilities' would it offer the player? What kind of environment does the animal live in and would this provide a unique setting to base a 'level' on? These were the types of questions that I was asking myself when considering each species that were present there. In the example mentioned the answer was no, the life of this particular animal I don't think would hold the player's interest for very long (in terms of 'catering' to a wider audience, with which this game must do if it is to be a financially 'viable' product, as well as an enjoyable and educational experience.) Lions and tigers, however, are immensly popular animals the world over (something that you can't really avoid and is undeniable and so whilst I did intend to include the more 'recognizable' of the animals from the worlds known wildlife, I did also want to include species that we have enough knowledge of to accurately depict or portray in the game, but at the same time, something that isn't particularly well known, to add intreague and again, an educational value to the player.) The predator gameplay, however, I suspect will probably be more popular than the 'prey' gameplay varient (though I suppose this depends on the animal in question and of course play-testing both versions.) The images above will change very little, but will be used in the final 'rendering' of my game concept, along with other possible design aspects such as potential 'logos' (though whilst a working title, I've decided to go with the simple word of 'Wild' for my game's name.) Again, the description of my game concept is written fairly in depth throughout this blog, and so any imagery (in the form of artwork) will be very simplistic indeed, and there to merely depict or illustrate my idea/concept in a simple, yet recognizable (and 'visual') way.
Primary Research - Play-testing of 'WolfQuest'
Before even playing the game, I was consistently aware of a ‘balance’ that needs to be achieved in these types of games (‘wildlife simulators’, a very ‘loose’ term considering how few games I’ve found like this.’) The ‘balance’, essentially (as I see it) is trying to create an enjoyable, engaging (and playable) gaming experience, whilst also to establish the ‘right amount’ of accuracy and realism (that establishes your world within a pre-defined context.) Working within a certain ‘format’ (that seems to be almost industry standard in terms of the user interface, and similar design feature) your main goal, ultimately, should be to create an enjoyable game (with the realism adding to and ‘enriching’ this experience, and not the other way around.)
There is a theory concerning realistic interpretations in computer-graphic technology and similar media, such as wax sculpture, or robotics etc. (often associated with the rendering of a realistic human, but this can be applied to animals to) known as the ‘uncanny valley.’ Essentially, the theory suggests that a human’s response to viewing something (that they understand as artificial, yet) that comes close to an almost exact likeness or photo-realistic ‘rendition’ of something, cause a huge negative response (as a viewed on a graph.) Though as the realism becomes greater and closer to the ‘real thing’ the graph quickly ‘peaks’ at the end and the person feels a positive reaction to what he or she views. Clearly, if I was developing this game on a platform whereby the technology could allow me to test this theory; I of course would need to find this ‘balance’, on the graph (my game idea to which I was originally intending to create on a ‘next-gen’ platform, or the PC etc.) However, since I am in fact developing the game for the iPhone (or similar Apple device) this won’t be a consideration, again, due to the limits of the technology available (an interesting challenge, granted, in the creating of this game, from concept to an idea that could be finished as a complete, workable product.)
To begin with, the ‘character creation’ process featured in ‘WolfQuest: Amethyst Mountain’ (as the original game, which I played, is officially titled) has you create your wolf’s appearance and attributes at the beginning of the game (you in fact begin the game as a fully grown, mature adult wolf, both male and female genders as an option.)
In contrast, I was thinking that in my game, you could perhaps choose the initial appearance of your lion cub (for example) and next to it is a generated ‘prediction’ of how he/she might look like as an adult; though the final size, strength and attributes will be ultimately decided on the individual player’s ‘play-style’; for example, as the player’s animal ages from infant to fully grown adult, if the player eats well and often, regularly sleeps (this might be an issue when playing as a lion, particularly a male lion, that spends roughly 80% of their day sleeping) and exercises (patrols/fights/hunts) often, then their lion will develop into a strong, and physically impressive ‘specimen’ (in terms of size and bulk, and will grow larger than the ‘standard’ adult lion available to the player.) Naturally the opposite is the same, if the player is unsuccessful in catching food/prey on a regular basis, sleeps very little and perhaps does not exercise enough, that player’s lion will appear weak and gaunt (and would be physically smaller than the ‘standard’ adult lion.) These changes would be subtle, and are constantly being re-evaluated/balanced (I think the positive effects should be easier to acquire and last longer than the negative effects, so the player doesn’t feel ‘cheated.’) This particular type of gameplay could be comparable to the Fable series of games, or game such as ‘Black & White’, whereby each of the player’s actions will have an effect on their avatar’s appearance. The aging process of the animal (within my game) in contrast to that seen in the ‘Wolf Quest’ game, is something also that I’ve been considering as a potential game mechanic (with the aging process within my own game perhaps ceasing once fully mature; either this or the player ‘lives on’ through their character’s young, and the ‘circle’ continues this way, as is the case with the game ‘Sims 3.’ This type of gameplay would ‘force’ or encourage the player (or give the player the incentive) to sire and take care of their own young.
Some of the ‘positives’ and ‘negatives’ (in my opinion) in which I made note of as I played the game, include the following…
The ‘positives’ (for me) included the social interactions between the wolves in-game (translating the wolves body language and sounds into a legible language, in this case English, for example) was a particularly simple, yet intuitive way for the player to engage and interact with other NPCs (besides hunting and fighting them) you do get this sense of a social ‘hierarchy’ that has become almost synonymous with the wolf, in common knowledge. The realistic manner by which the player finds food I also found particularly entertaining (whilst appreciating its fairly accurate and informative quality) as you begin the game as a lone-wolf, you are quickly made aware of the difficulty in actually hunting larger prey (such as deer etc.) which is almost all but impossible (as it would be in reality, without the aid of a ‘pack’) therefore scavenging becomes preferable over hunting. The way in which the player ‘tracks’ these sources of food is also a particularly clever design, in the form of a ‘sent-tracing’ screen-change (whereby the screen turns black and white and various colours stand-out on the screen itself, including small yellow ‘dots’ that represent another wolf’s urine ‘marks’ for their territory and boundaries, and large ‘plumes’ of purple smoke that signify prey, either dead or alive.) This feature is another example of how the game developers have taken something un-detectable by humans, and have created an intuitive system of gameplay, that ultimately doesn’t distract the player from the ‘system’ but instead further immerses him or her.
Another advantageous ‘feature’ within the game, is how the developers have ‘tackled’ the ‘health’ concept in-game. The ‘health’ of the wolf (as representative of a health ‘bar’, something I still find to be a little too generic) depletes over time (as one finds his or her character begins to ‘starve’ if food is not sought after on a fairly regular basis) I feel the speed at which it does so also isn’t an issue, as the system is rather forgiving and you often find that you don’t have to traverse too far before coming upon a bear’s kill, or similarly a small mammal such as a rabbit etc. The realism in how the ‘health’ has been implemented in the game is also made apparent in when you decide to chase down and attack larger prey. It’s a common misconception amongst people that a predator does not risk anything when attacking and killing prey, in many examples within the ‘animal kingdom’ in fact, this is simply not the case. The wolves form packs, primarily, because they intend to kill larger prey (such as deer etc.) and even doing so as a pack involves very real dangers, as a wolf could easily lose an eye or become mortally wounded from one kick or head-butt from a fully grown male stag etc. (the same can be said for lions when hunting the majority of their prey.) In this game, you can’t simply attack anything and assume it’ll go to plan (much like wolves form packs to avoid the wearing of their teeth as they share in the kill, so as to survive for future hunts) the player needs to assess the situation, primarily in terms of is this worth the inevitable loss of health in order to achieve a kill? As if this attack fails, ‘I’ll’ be left with little health left and perhaps a long distance before I can find food again. This brings be onto another feature I thought was implemented quite well within the game, the energy, or ‘stamina’ bar…
Stamina is another limiting ‘force’ imposed upon the player, but it makes for an interesting concept (not only for its realistic qualities, as all life requires energy to survive but also in terms of how it affects gameplay.) The stamina ‘bar’ (again, I feel there are better ways of implementing the user-interface for the player, beyond the industry ‘standards’ such as the ‘bar’, but none the less, the information is conveyed to the player in an accurate and simplistic manner, perhaps there is a reason why this is ‘standard’, or perhaps was, amongst older generations of game titles) is something that ‘drives’ the player forward, and affects all of his or her actions. The primary way to regain stamina (or ‘energy’) is for the player to feed, and so when preparing to travel long distances to a specific location you had in mind, like a rival pack’s territory, in search of a lone female to form a ‘family’ of your own (made that much easier by the useful ‘map’ of the ‘Yellowstone Park’ area, implemented within the game) the player must compensate for the increase in speed (I really do like the way you can increase in speed, rapidly, from a walk to sprinting, and how the initial stats you begin the game with, affect this) and so stopping to hunt for prey, or to deviate from your chosen ‘course’ or path of intent, to again, track down and locate food, in order to ‘fuel’ your character, is something that really makes you feel like you are in fact playing a wolf (having to make decisions based on your immediate ‘needs’ first, before attempting what it is you desire to ultimately do, such as begin a family for example, though the same could be said for many animals; the beauty of which is a system or set of gameplay ‘mechanics’ that can be applied to almost any animal, environment and situation.) The game also a mutiplayer option (perhaps simi
I played the game long enough to ‘test’ the features mentioned above (including also ‘tracking-down’ and interacting with other wolves, in the form of lone males or females, another realistic aspect of which (when I commented on the realism of the ‘social interactions’, is that) you must assert your dominance, attempting to ‘read’ the situation and either realise that you face a tougher male (or female) and therefore must back down and leave before you are killed, or, alternatively, risk the loss of health in the hope that you secure dominance over the other wolf.) However, there were many aspects to the game which I did not test (due to time constraints) most notably the ‘expansion’ to the game (‘WolfQuest: Slough Creek’) was something I didn’t get to experience as in order to progress to that part in the game, you must first establish a family of your own in the original game. With further research into the expansion, however, you can in fact mark your own territory, raise your own litter of pups, and even raid a local farmer’s land with the purpose of killing his livestock to find food to feed your own pups, the game is of course centred/based on a real location, with the geography and topography of the area reasonably well mapped, and accurately rendered, from what I gather through research, the rival wolf packs are also based on real packs, I know this because I have seen a few documentaries that have focused on the wolves in this region of ‘Yellowstone National Park’ in North America.)
There were a few ‘negatives’ that I had with the game (which is probably more down to the fairly low budget by which this game was created on, than anything else, nevertheless) this included small ‘gripes’ such as the limited ability to customize your wolf at the beginning of the game (along with the fact the camera proceeds to spin without your control, making it frustrating when you’re trying to view the details or changes you’ve just made to the aesthetics of your character.) The background music (something that is a lot more important to the success of the game than many people may realise) was also very repetitive, reminding the player that perhaps the gameplay was similarly so (or at least leading to a sense of boredom as the same set of music constantly loops over and over again, though I suppose it’s better than nothing, I think I’ll need to do further research into the types of sounds or music they include in nature documentaries, behind just ambient sounds are enough?) Certain gameplay ‘bugs’ such as when you find a Grizzly bear, which runs as soon as he/she spots you (which is not only un-realistic, considering this is a fully grown bear, often with a fresh kill and you’re a lone wolf but) the bear also runs at an unprecedented speed (literally far quicker than is physically impossible, for almost any animal for that manner) with the animations suitably ‘displaced’ because of it.
In summary, the game (‘WolfQuest’) started as a research project, with the ultimate aim of the game being to make the player aware of the importance of conservation and of the protection of animals (such as the wolf.) It does this by allowing the player to control the wolf, helping the player to understand the daily challenges that it faces, just to stay alive long enough to ensure the survival of the next generation. This was an idea that I also had for my own game, very early on, and whilst I have also chosen equally ‘popular’ animals for the player to control and play as, they are all endangered species.
The use of the lion as a ‘symbol’ for the advertising of my game, for example, could attract a wide audience, and once the player engages with the game, and searches through the various descriptions of the different animal species and types of animals found in the world, and not just seen in my game (within the ‘extras menu’ of the game) I could provide also ‘descriptions’ of animals that are as equally ‘under-threat’ (as animals such as wild lions and tigers etc.) if not more so, again, even if these animals aren’t playable (or feature as ‘NPCs’) within my game. Amongst these animal ‘descriptions’ (the animals basic information, height, diet, habit etc.) I would also like to include information concerning the degradation of the species in question, focusing on the cause of this, and how this could be possibly slowed or prevented altogether (offering payers information as to how they could possibly help to reserves these problems, and create a sustainable future for these animals.) I was considering also including perhaps the contact details, or forms of advertising, of certain wildlife charities or organisations that could possibly get involved with the project, this is something I would obviously have to research much further into.)
Further Sketches
Having established that the lion/lioness 'character' will be the example that I use for describing the premise behind my game (with the 'African savannah' forming the environement as a result of this) I then proceeded explore this further.
I decided that I needed more artwork to help contextualise the final concept of my game, and so from this. I produced the two digital sketches below. By observing the television screen (as I played the 'Great Plains' section of my 'Planet Earth' DVD) I then proceeded to focus particularly on the movement of the lions, before pausing the screen to draw, very quickly, and very roughly, the three digital sketches below.
Again, these sketches are extremely rough and do not reflect the quality of the final product, they will, however, be used in the final designs, as I tend to use the 'lioness drinking' image to very simply illustrate the 'animal biography' section of the 'extras menu', whilst the male lion is simply there to depict the player having begun to edit their in-game 'footage' that they recorded during a 'play-through' of the game. The later game feature (a documentary/'theatre' type experience) will likely be called something like 'documentary composite', 'create a documentary' or 'edit-suite' etc. essentially the player is taking the raw footage from their gameplay (in much the same as the 'Theater' option available in the 'Halo 3' game) and editing it to create any type of video they want (with the option of uploading music, text, imagery, any form of sound really and even their own voice to add as a commentary.
In the three images above, the second digital sketch features the design for an environment (again, which is very crudely 'established' indeed) that I drew from my imagination. I then proceeded to place the lion drawing (the image directly above 'this' body of text) onto this image, simply to further illustrate and develop on the idea that the player is moving the 'edit-suite' camera around the 'avatar' that they were playing (this feature could have possibly been illustrated more clearly had I of drawn an 'action-packed', 'kill-scene' etc. yet the documentary that I had access to (through the television) was 'Planet Earth', which, alas, did not feature such scenes past the hunting and kill of an elephant, by a large pride of lions. On this note, if you are in fact playing as a lion, particularly a lioness (if you're not playing as a male, nomadic lion) then you will most probably be within a pride; if so, this particular form of gameplay might prove to be challenging to 're-create' in terms of creating the artificial intelligence (or 'A.I.') for the other animals that you'd be hunting and interacting with; maybe the lion wasn't the best choice of animal for the iPhone Application version of the game? Though in saying this, the 'A.I.' as featured in the 'Gangstar' series of games, could be something to look into, in terms of the complexity of the artificial intelligence of the 'NPCs' (non-playable characters) within my own game.
Logo Conceptual Designs
The Final Design/Concept
Bibliography
Books:
- Piper, D., 2004. The Illustrated History Of Art. London: Bounty Books.
Introduction:
- Introductory "Game Layout Template" (the initial bullet-points and sub-headgins) is based on a format as written by Micah Hrehovcsik, the document was 'sourced' from the website - Hrehovcsik, M., n.d. Game Concept & Design Document Template. [blog] Available at: <http://student-Kmt.hKu.nl/~giel/blog/Concept/Documenten/Representatie/DesignDocTemplate_1.5.doc.> [Accessed November 2010.]
Red Dead Redemption:
- [image online] Available at: <http://www.webwallpapers.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/image_red_dead_redemption-11738-1780_0002.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://3.bp/blogspot.com/_GeOtqkH6Zn4/S-FmU4QYacI/AAAAAAAAD6E/x6LnMvIBGMc/s16000/red-dead-redemption-20100128005755740.jpg [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://cdn1.gamepro.com/screens/105685/114008-16-screenshot.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/ecco_review_01_640w.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://4playerpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/mount-and-blade-knight.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BY3H1sOjL.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://playstationlifestyle.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/6a00d8341ce76f53ef00e55491fe958833-800wi.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://ve3dmedia.ign.com/images/01/64/16435_normal.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://www.ps3blog.net/wp-content/uploads/afrika1.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/4/43677/1352801-afrika_9_super.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://tech2.in.com/media/photography/afrika_450x360.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- Quote of 'YouTube' memeber 'Kaibutsu13' commenting on an 'Venture Dinosauria' promotional video - zillatamer, 2009. Venture Dinosauria Promo For PC. [video online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kFuDPZHiXc&feature=related> [Accessed November 2010.]
- Quote of 'YouTube' member 'gamerlayne' commenting on an 'Afrika' gameplay video - 07p, 2008. Afrika Japanese Cheetah Gameplay HD. [video online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dikjnWmSRJ8&feature=related> [Accessed November 2010.]
- Apple Store, Chapelfield - [image online] Available at: <http://images.apple.com/uk/retail/images/store_photos/photo_chapelfield.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ku-iBkyLPBU/TPGeRbFcvTI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/VCkKjTB0uDE/s1600/citadel9210.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ku-iBkyLPBU/TPGeSI2P9LIAAAAAAAAAMU/ev9ly2I1Yc4/s1600/epic.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9t4mene7v9tkiJCnc_mFIfIsaxjmXfiA5Gw-h66iP4nlRt8CwwlBAFBC5-w3OpXy0X_VzIBqynTme80QmqQIrgWZ5H-bv_CWBhCr7ZfjOIweetZERyJKKv1nI2evt1yHCEl69e4d2dWE/s1600/epic_citadel_13.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gallery/2010/jul/01/iphone-gyroscope-nanotechnology#/?picture=364444253&index=0> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [images online] Available at: <http://www.sookk.org/?p=174#more-174> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://media.appspy.com/thumbs/images/screenshots/343687281_2_jpg_460x460_q85.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://static.igeneration.fr/dataimg/nanosaur2iPhone-20081020-180505.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [images online] Available at: <http://appadvice.com/appuu/2008/10/review-nanosaur-2/> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [image online] Available at: <http://appleiphonegames.blogspot.com/2009/061firemint-real-racing-game-for-iphone.html> [Accessed November 2010.]
- IP0DTECH, 2009. Gangstar (GTA) On Ipod Touch / Iphone Gameplay. [video online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5PX10ASE3E> [Accessed November 2010.]
- iHateAppz, 2010. Gangstar Miami Vindication iPhone 4 Gameplay. [video online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWcUbmwq1_Y&feature=related> [Accessed November 2010.]
PSP/Phone:
- [image online] Available at: <http://tech.uk.msn.com/features/photos.aspx?cp-documentid=155266816&page=10> [Accessed November 2010.]
- boingboingvideo, 2009. Hideo Kojima on Metal Gear Solid Touch (BB VVideo: Games ). [video online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbqAcneL9z8&feature=related> [Accessed November 2010.]
- [website] Available at: <http://www.wolfquest.org> [Accessed November 2010.]
- Planet Earth., 2006. [DVD] Produced by Alastair Fothergill. UK: BBC. (Narrated by Attenborough, D.)
- Lion paw print - [image online] Available at: <http://christophpahiltzsch.fastpage.name/freepawgifs/> [Accessed November 2010.]
- Birds photograph - [image online] Available at: <http://www.unsigneddesign.com/birds/IMG_4709.JPG> [Accessed November 2010.]
- Paw print - [image online] Available at: <http://www.beecher.will.k12.il.us/HighSchool/0022BA61-00802CE0.0/black paw print.gif> [Accessed November 2010.]
- iPhone image - [image online] Available at: <http://freesypeasy.co.uk/iphone4/images/Iphone-4G.jpg> [Accessed November 2010.]
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