Unit 61 Interactive Media Design

Unit 61 Interactive Media Design 

In this first task I will be choosing several gadgets that can ether influence my idea or is interactive, then answer a few questions on them

Gadget 1:

This device is a working mobile phone. It has been created using all recycled materials, the case has been made out of hay, the rest of the phone has been built out of older phones. The phone its self has got a 2 year life span then it will start to degrade. The components like the screen etc will be reusable so its possible to create another phone after the first one is over. The device its self requires batteries to run, however it is unlisted whether it used a socket to charge, or it just changes the batteries.
This device its self is very environmentally friendly, the case has been made out of hay, so its biodegradable, the other components like the number pad are recycled and even if the device breaks or fully decomposes, you can reuse the parts to remake another phone.

Gadget 2:

This device is a piano. It has been created out of coca cola cans some wires that are attached to the bottom of the can to an arduous then to a laptop. This device meets the brief very well, seeing as it is very environmentally friendly, it requires no batteries apart from the device your plugging it into. It is very reusable because you can just grab some other used cans if they break or need changing. Overall this hits the brief well. 
This can influence my idea a lot because taking ideas from this is making me want to build something along the lines of a game using multiple cans or something to navigate around the work, or cause led lights to light up. 


Gadget 3

The aesthetics of this device are very good. The device is very clean built and appealing to look at but it would require a lot of materials that are not so much reusable. 

This device unlike the other ones are not so much environmentally friendly. The device its self is a tetris game that uses led lights and many other components that are not very renewable. Meaning it does not hit the brief very well. However this idea can influence my idea a lot because I would like to build a working game like this but I will try mixing it with with a similar style as the piano above.

Gadget 4

Out of the devices above this is my favorite one by far. The device its self is very simple, but its very entertaining to mess around with. The overall aesthetics of the device is not very appealing, but it also sticks to the rule where the person using does not have to think before using it. It also making the person want to come back by making the device do something different each time the button is pressed. 

Does this stick the the aim of the brief? First I dont dosent relate to global warming in anyway, however it could be made out of recycled materials, apart from the leds etc. This device uses batteries to run, and can be reused to ether remake another one or used a parts for something else. Overall it does not hit the brief very well. How does this influence my idea? This device shows that very simple idea are very effective to mess around with, this makes me want to some sort of very simple game. 

Gadget 5

This is the final gadget I will be looking into. This device is mainly for insperation for my product. This is a pinball table, the overall look of the device is not very appealing to look at, the way they spice it up and make it appeal to more people is by adding subject matter to the project. The way they have done this is by adding some graphics all of the device, most pinball mechines will have this,  it to make it appeal to a certain audience. I could do something similar to this for my design. I could choose a subject matter that hits a certain target audience and put the illustrations over the prototype. This will increase the popularity of the device a lot more and just make it more appealing to look at.

Looking at this device also give me an idea of how I could change my design for the prototype. Instead of sticking to a box like design, I could change it to more like a screen with a pannel coming off the bottom with the button on it there. I could also stick with the pinball design and put it on legs so it stands up. It will take some time for me to decide on the overall look of the device, but I feel like to could look very good by changing up the design style a little.

My idea

My overall Idea of what I want to design is a game. The game is going to consist of a constant moving light passing over several led lights, the aim of the game is going to be for the player to press a button to stop the light at a certain point to gain points. The speed of the light will increase the more times they score a point, however if they hit the wrong light their score will reset and so will the speed. The led lights are going to be two different colours, so its easy to determine what is the colour to score points. The place that tracks your score will be above the leds and the button to stop the light will be below them.
How will this idea will hit the brief?
First, the overall product will be made out of mainly recycled materials, the only part that wont be recycled is the arduino. Next the device will be reusable, I will make the device so that is can be taken apart and reused. The device its self will run off of batteries, no mains will be required to charge it. This materials that it will be made out off will raise awareness of global warming.

The image above is a very basic design layout for the product I want to make. Overall I really dont like the shape of it, and I could possibly change the position of the led lights. I will also need to include an on and off button which is not displayed on the above image. Apart from that, I am really happy with the overall idea of the product just not the style of it.


Objects I will need or to salvage:

-Arduino
-Led lights (x3 green x6 red)
-Wood/Cardboard
-Calculator screen or something similar
-Resistors
-Buttons
-Switch
-1/2 AA batteries
-Breadboard

 Software skills/Electronic skills/manufacturing skills required:

For one of my prototypes I am planning on creating an interactive prototype using unity. I will need to do some simple coding/scripting and also very basic modelling to be able to achieve this. I will be planning on getting people to test out this device and I feel that this is a good way to test out any bugs with the game and also test out the usability of the device. The programme I will be using for scripting/coding will be Dreamweaver.

Paper prototype:

This is the first initial design of my product. During the design of the product I had to think a lot about the positioning of the buttons, power etc to increase the usability of the device. The power button I have decided to place it in the top left side of the product, this is because comparing it to a lot of other devices, the power button is located usually in the left side of the device. Doing this will allow the user to find the on/off button with ease rather then placing it somewhere unusual. With the button on the bottom of the device I decided to place two rather then one. The main reason for this is because of comfort while it is being held. If the button was near the center it would be awkward to hold and press the botton.

Legal, ethical and moral issues.

Before I even consider making the product I need to think about the legal, ethical and moral issues that may arise with the creation of the device.

Some of the issues that I have to look into is how it fits into the health and safety guide lines, laws etc to see if its acceptable. I think that I will need to put a small parts hazard some where on the device to warn people of a possible choking hazard. I need to also list somewhere that the device must be kept away from water. The reason for this is because the device will most likely break if placed in water and there is a possible chance of getting a shock.

This device is going to be very environmentally friendly. I am planning on making the product almost entirely out of recycle materials, I will be using LEDS gathered from devices from around my house, I will be trying to get the screen to track the score from something like a calculator or something similar to that. The container will be made from wood.
 If this device was to be produced on a larger scale that where some of the moral issues will arise. A lot, if not all of the materials will require some kind of manufacturing to produce them and can damage the environment. If I was to go ahead with the desire to build it out of wood, the product will require the chopping down of trees to gather this material. If this device was going to be produced on a larger scale I think I would need to change almost a lot if not all of the materials being used. I would change them to something like...



Cardboard Prototype:

This is my cardboard prototype. What I will be doing with this is getting someone to test it out. The main reason for this is to find out if the user can understand what the product actually is at first, also to find out if anything will need changing or moving around. I will be recording my results from this test.  

Testing the Prototype:



From the feedback I got from these questions that I asked I think are very helpfull in the future design of the project. The device its self was easily picked up, the person testing it was able to know it was a game fairly quick. This is very good becuase one rule of creating a device is for the customer to not have to think while they are using it. There was one slight problem. It took the person testing longer then I thought to find the power button , this causes me to think if I should changed the position of the button to make it more clear. I could move it to the front of the box. One thing I am very happy about is that the person testing was able to pick up on the idea of the game very fast, he was able to understand what the device was supposed to do with one or two slight differences. From his feedback I was able to understand that the device will appear to get boring fast, so I will have to change this up by adding multiple objectives or something. Also I was able to pick up that I need to change the style of it. I am planning on doing several sketches to have a better style for the device. Apart from that I am very happy with the feedback I got from this device.

Creating a working circuit:

Below is my first two circuits that I made. The first circuit is a simple led flashing. This is the very first step in the process of the game I am planning on making. What I did was change the code in the arduino, the code is:

int ledPin = 10;
void setup() {
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
delay(1000);
digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
delay(1000);
}

Under the void loop, the HIGH option affects the time that the light stays on, the LOW option affects the durration between each flash. Every 1000 I add on increases the time by 1 second.

The main reason I decided to do this was to allow me to start to use an arduino in a circuit so I can get used to editing the code to make it word. I will be using an arduino in my final product.

The next circuit is a simple on and off button that triggers the led to turn on and off. The way this circuit works is the battery at the top is connected to the positive and negative side of the breadboard. I then connected the row that the LED is on to the positive row, then placed a resistor in line with the left part of the LED. After I then placed a button in line with the left side of the resistor, then completed the circuit by attaching the button's row to the negative row. Now when the button is pressed the led lights up, when its pressed again the light goes off This circuit is currently in development and is part wat to being complete for my idea. To view the code that I used click the code edit. At this current stage I still need to make it so that when a button is pressed the lights stay on and they stop in there current position. Next I will then need to make the light bounce back and forth rather then going in one direction. After this I will need to make it calculate score when the light stops on the green section. Then finally I will need to make the speed of the lights increase every time it stops in the green section and reset if it stops in the red.  Testing the current Circuit


Some of this video might be hard to hear, so I will write the feedback here.

"Is the product interactive?"

No. I am planning on adding two/three more buttons. One will turn on and off the circuit. The other two will cause the lights to stop in there current position.

"How could the circuit be improved on?"

First, one of the lights is always on, I will need to change it to move with the circuit. Next when the lights hits the end of the LEDS it stops, I need to change it so it carries on moving. The circuit its self will need some kind of button, to make it interactive.

 "How long will it keep these age groups entertained? Between 4 and 9, Teenagers and retired people."

Seeing as the circuit at this current stage is not interactive, it will not keep the anyone entertained for very long.


              

Overall I the feedback I got was helpful in some ways. I was able to find out the my circuit have several problems like certain LEDS staying on and others not working properly. However I did not find the rest of it too useful. The main reason for this is because of it being incomplete, I will be making another video in the future of the completed circuit to get more accurite results. To answer the final question about if the product will be able to keep the certain age groups entertained. The first group between 4 and 9, I see that the younger end of the group will be bored quick of it, but the older side of this group I feel it will be able to keep their attention for a while. For the teenagers group, I feel that the device its self will be able to keep hold of their attention for a while, because of competition between friends and trying to beat your own score. Also the game its self will constantly increase in difficulty so it wont be to easy for people to play. For retired people, I think that they will lose attention very fast to the device.
 
Changing the design 

After the interim deadline the feedback I got was similar to what I had in the video. My tutors recomended that I change up the design style and try moving away from the controller approach and go for something more like a pinball table. At this stage in time they seemed to like my design idea and think it could work well. They also recomended that I do some more research into similar devices to get an idea on different aesthetics I could use for my device.

Different design.

 
This is the first design, it will probly be the most easy to make. Its similar in some ways to my first design and shares some resemblance with a pimball machine. I think out of the two I will most likely choose this design, I feel I could achieve this with the time I have left.






This is the second design, I prefer the overall look of this, however I dont think that I would be able to achieve this design seeing as I will need more materials I would not beable to get hold of in the short space of time I have left. I feel like this one is just more appealing to look at and is most likely better to play on.




After getting feedback from some people I was able to find out that they prefer the first design above. This is good news for me beacuse this will be the easier style to create and this is what I initially thought. Now I just need to finish the circuit and then start to design the final prototype.


A different Circuit

There is one problem that I am still having and thats linking the score pannel, button and the circuit all together. I cant get the button to stop the leds and keep them on. I think once I achieve this the rest will be easy. I have managed to get the arduino to be powered by a battery and also use a switch to turn the circuit on and off. One thing I manged to solve is that the led now bounces back. Its hard to explain, but before the lights would continuously go from left to right. Now it goes left and bounces back, to do this I completely changed the code.

This is the circuit at the current stage, I did not include all of the leds, or the buttons, but at this current stage I am happy with what I have. I also made a few changes, the leds will not increase in speed over time. Now it will randomly increase and slow down, this will throw the player off while playing to make it slightly different each time they play.

















Code:

int timer = 100;           // The higher the number, the slower the timing.

void setup() {
  // use a for loop to initialize each pin as an output:
  for (int thisPin = 2; thisPin < 8; thisPin++)  {
    pinMode(thisPin, OUTPUT);     
  }
}

void loop() {
  // loop from the lowest pin to the highest:
  for (int thisPin = 2; thisPin < 8; thisPin++) {
    // turn the pin on:
    digitalWrite(thisPin, HIGH); 
    delay(timer);                 
    // turn the pin off:
    digitalWrite(thisPin, LOW);   
  }

  // loop from the highest pin to the lowest:
  for (int thisPin = 7; thisPin >= 2; thisPin--) {
    // turn the pin on:
    digitalWrite(thisPin, HIGH);
    delay(timer);
    // turn the pin off:
    digitalWrite(thisPin, LOW);
  }
}


At this current stage I am slightly worried about getting the circuit to actually work. I am unable to get the button to work the way I want it to, this pretty much will make my device not work. This will make the prototype only able to be turnt off using a switch. I feel like im just going to have to try and include the button in some way even if it just stops the circuit by tuning everything off, at least it will have a little bit more interactive then before. 


Final Prototype development

This is the first stage in the creation of the container for my product. I first cut out all of the sides needed for the container. After doing that I then moved onto marking out where I want to make the cuts, this will allow me to roughtly understand how much to cut out and where to cut out. Next I cut out the first place, this is where the switch is going to go. Then I placed the switch, then attached the wires to it. The wires go from the center pin, to GND, I will then have to other wires coming from the other pins leading to the positive and negative side on the breadboard. The reason for this is because, the GND will supply the power to the circut, then the other wires are linked to the on and off button on the switch, so if its on, the wire will be attached to the positive side of the breadboard, if its off its on the negative. What I will have to do next I attach a battery into the circuit before the switch, this will make the whole circuit run off of a battery rather then the mains, like the brief stated.

For this part of the circuit, I took apart a calculator, i then used the battery holder parts then made my own battery holder. I then replaced the middle wire that was attached to the switch and connected to the GND. I placed the battery inbetween them, attached the negative side of it to the GND then connects the postive side to the middle of the switch. What this will do is supply the whole circuit with power from the battery rather then off of the mains.
Also while taking apart the calculator, I took the screen, this will be very helpfull for displaying the score for the game.
Next I will have to start to put the LEDs onto the breadboard, with the resistors and the code.

After several attemps to create the circuit, I was unable to do it. For some reason no code was able to get uploaded to my arduino. I have tryed useing allready made codes in the programme, aswell as my code and just and empty set of code. But for an unknown reason, an error message would appear as I attempted to upload it. One reason for this could be that my arduino might be broken, if its not that, then I am very unsure on what it could be.
Seeing as I could not complete the circuit, I am going to go and comeplete the container for where the rest of the components are going to go. 

This is once the front of the project was added. I make a little slit in the front of the box, this is for the score. I then would attach the wires to the rest of the circuit from behind it. Next I would have make a little rise in the container for the LEDs to sit, this would be slightly below the score display. To attach all of the components together to make the circuit would be fairly easy.

The image is where all of the components will sit. There is a lot of room to work with. To make the LEDs be close to the top I would have to make a small area for the breadboard to sit below the top.
If the code was able to work, I would then have to upload the code then the circuit would almost be complete. All I would have to do is add two buttons, link them up to the circuit. Then close of the box, but make sure I still had access to the circuit, I could do this by making another pannel to cover the bottom by make a little slit so I was able to pull it down.

The video below is all I could get to work for the circuit.

                            

This video show the LED flashing, I am able to incluide a switch into this circuit, this would power on and off the circuit. I would have to just connect GND to the center on the switch, then connect the negative side of the switch to the negative row on the breadboard, then repeat this process for the positive side.

Overall I had a lot of fun in this unit. I was very different from anything that I have done before. It was unfortunate that I was unable to complete the circuit with the device, but that problem was because of an unknown reson, ether the arduino was broken, or something else. I think that my idea for the project was stong and achieveable, I made sure that I did not create something to extream, like a car or something. This was beacause I had no experience in this topic, so choosing a easier device make it possible to create. Looking back at the final design process, I am very dissapointed with the overall outcome. I think that if I was to do it again I would need to try testing out the circuit in different ways or just completely change the code for the circuit. This was my main problem and casued the project to be incomplete. When I come across the error, I had asked several people for help including my tutor, but they were unsure on the cause of it too. I had also tryed using someone elses arduino at one point, but I still had no luck. If I had more time and the circuit was complete, I would paint the overall container of the box to make it more appealing to look at, and possably give it some subject matter.

Unit 68 - computer game design

Task 1- Game research and testing

Videos of game testing

Comparing two games.

From the list of games that I have researched above, I have decided on two games that I am going to compair together. Doing this will show me how the roots of older and newer games are very similar to one another. The two games that I am going to be comparing together first will be 'Donkey Kong Arcade' and 'Abe's Oddysee New n Tasty'.

Donkey Kong Arcade is a 2D abstract platformer game. This game was first originally released in July 1981 for the arcade. The aim of Donkey Kong is to make your way up many different platforms by climbing ladders and lifts to save the princess captured by the monkey named donkey kong. The player will have to navigate through several levels avoiding barrels that donkey kong is throwing down towards you. The player will have 3 lives through out all levels, if the player gets hits once they will be reset in the current level until they are out of lives.


Abe's oddysee New n Tasty is a remake of the original game Abes oddesee, the main difference between these two are the graphical side.  This game is an abstract, 3d, puzzle platformer, it was released July 22, 2014, at the mean time it is currently only for playstation 3 and will be released on other platforms in the near future. The aim of the game is to is to escape the facility and try to save as many people from you race as possible. This is because the the company that your work for ran out of a type of food source, so they change their recipe and include them as part of the meal. The player will have to make their way through the facility avoiding contact with the enemies and try to be as silent as possible while rescuing as many people as possible to save your race. 

Ignoring the graphical side of the game there are several similarities between them both. The objectives of both games are fairly similar, Abe's  Oddysee maybe slightly more complex but overall the players goal is to rescue someone. The games may not seem very similar at first, but this is because its covered up by many things like the story and graphics. The main reason why I am ignoring the graphical side of the game is because of the time difference between them, this is 33 years. There would have been a huge graphical improvement over this time hiding the main similarities between them. What this time gap will also show is how one game is almost a replica of the other game in terms of the objective.

Next I will be look at the level design. In donkey kong, the players view is limited, the screen does not move, its frozen. The player will always start in the bottom part of the screen and will have to work there way a series of platforms to reach the top of the screen to where the main enemy is. After reaching the top you will then be placed in the next level. The stages throughout this game are fairly similar but slightly increasing in difficulty, there is also only a couple of levels in the game.
Comparing this to Abe's Oddysee, the game is completely different in the way the level design works. The screen its self will follow the player as they move from left to right making the player be always in the near center of the screen. Another difference is that this game is not just a platformer game, its also a puzzle game, so there is a lot of back travelling required to advance further in the story.

Just using the information above, you can easily see how games of a similar genera are an almost replica. The reason why its hard to see this is because of how the graphics and story over complicate things to make this less obvious and how the level design is slightly different.





Task 2 - Game Pitch + development (my contribution) 

After we decided on a game to work on, we started to develop it more. We ended up choosing the game about the queen. What we first come up with was plat former game where you play as the queen chasing after thieves  who have stolen her jewels. We agreed to set it the game in London, and there to be many collectible items in the game with many things to unlock.

We then changed up the idea a lot until we where happy with it. We changed it up by making the world a fantasy world because it will be to have a verity in weird and different enemies to make the game look better. We also agreed on have multiple classes to choose from to give the game more of a verity
We completely changed up the overall idea of the game and I think we are happy with what we have now. The next step will be starting to produce a pitch, concept are of the characters and level design.

We then agreed on on changing the location set for the game, the main reason for this is to give the game more of a verity while playing through. We all agreed on it being a fantasy world and have the player run through multiple enviroments

This is the first stage of the pitch that I developed. This will be developed a lot more then it already is, but I need to speak with my team to agree on an art style, and also just add more information to the pitch to make it longer.
We decided to change up the pitch slightly and remove the art style and explain our own roles instead. This will allow us to get more clips of us working in the pitch.
The next step after this will be to start filming the pitch. We will need to find the perfect lighting, and also find out what would be good to look at in the film. Whether it be people drawing or just recording them talking.
One big problem is that some of our group was not in during the filming, and they also did not produce work for the pitch. This causes other people to try and fill there parts, this caused us to lack in content for it.


This is the logo that we come up with for the game, we all contributed ideas of what would be cool for the logo to include.  With this logo I am planning on creating some sort of introduction/animation to the pitch to make the logo look better.

Models that I have made for the game:

 One of the first models that I made was a sword. This took me a while to make, I am very happy with the outcome. This will be used for two things. One, when I make the animation for the logo I will be using this sword, also this will be used for the king character. I think if I was to do it again, I would change the detail on the handle to make it look a lot better, apart from that I really like the look of it.























The next model that I made was a crown, similar to the sword this will be used for two things. The animation and the king in the game. However I was not so happy with the outcome with the crown. I don't think it looks very good, there needs to be more jewels around the crown, also I think it needs more shape to it. If I was to do it again I would make the gems around the crown look like gems, rather the a coloured object. I would also reduce how shiny it is, also give it more shape.

The next thing I started to work on was the text for the title this took a very long time to make, because I had to learn a lot of new things in the programme I was using. I am very happy with the outcome of the style and the effect applied to the text. If I was do make it again I would have to experiment with more font style to see what looks the best.

Next is going to be the animation for the introduction of the pitch. This took a long time to produce, and I could have made it a lot better if I would of had more time. I would of added sound effects to make it sound a lot better, change the way the text comes in and make the models do more things.
Overall I am happy with the outcome of the animation.

After this is done I then started to edit some of the pitch.

Initial pitch


 This is the initial pitch. In this pitch we are lacking a lot of things. The first thing is that the intro is very bad, it does not entertain the viewer, it is just a black background with text over the top, it too plain. Next each titles of what the person is talking about is the same as the title, this needs to be changed to something like a little title over a part of the screen with the person talking behind it. The overall pitch is lacking a lot of content and only adding up to 1 minute and 10 seconds, this is way to short. It need to be between 3-5 minutes, this will get the overall idea of the game across more effective then it just being a minute long.
After showing the pitch to the class we had retrieved some feedback.
Good points-
The pitch felt natural

Bad points-
Needs to be a lot longer.
People did not understand the idea of the game

Overal I feel that the initial pitch was very bad, it could be improved a lot more. I will need to make an better introduction for the pitch, and also record more footage to include into it. I have agreed with my team that I will be making the inro and someone else will be editing. This will spread out the work more.

Developed Pitch.


Feedback







































Evaluation of the pitch
From the feedback we have received, I agree strongly with what they have to say. I think that we need to move the animation at the end to the start of the pitch. I also understand why the game did not sound very unique, we should explain a verity of stuff and what makes the game different from others of its genera. We will also need to cut down the pitch in length to give it more impact. Overall I can see how we could improve our pitch a lot more and this gives me an overall idea of what I could do in the future when making another pitch.
I felt like the overall process of the pitch did not go so well, my team its self was lacking in members at a lot of the development stages, so we had to alter what we were doing to try to accomplish what our overall goal was. If I was to do it next time I will set my self more time to achieve each  target, I would also comunicate throughout my team a lot more so even if they are not available to turn up they would have a basic understanding of what is expected of them. Apart from that, I am looking forward to see how the game actually turns out when we start to create it.

My contribution to the 10 page detailed document.


GAMEPLAY

The game is going to be a 2.5D plaformer, sidescrolling hack ‘n’ slash game. Meaning you will be working you way through 3D environments, but you will only be able to travel from left to right on the screen. However as you progress through the level the screen will rotate at certain points revealing more of the stage while fighting your way through level unique enemies and bosses.  

Throughout the game there will be several different areas you visit throughout the world. Within each area there is going to be five unique levels. In each of the levels you will be traveling through the zone exploring each place. The first area is going to be inside the castle of where the king and queen live. This area is going to be split down into five different zones, as you progress you will slowly start making you way towards the next area and out of the castle, which is the village. The first zone in this area is going to be the castle grounds, whiling passing through the grounds you will be fighting you way across the beautiful landscape clearing out the fleeing enemies to recover the stolen jewels. After exploring the zones of this area you will eventually hit the final place, this is the boss fight. The boss fight is set on a drawbridge and you will have to defeat the big armoured goblin brute.

The next area that you will come across is going to be the village.  This area is just outside the castle, separated by water. These zones will progressively get harder the more you advance through unlike the castle. While traveling through the village you will have to watch where you step or otherwise you will anger the farm animals making the area even more difficult.  Through out the village you will be passing things like markets and huts. Each section of the town will be split down into zones, e.g. the first zone will be huts, then it will moved to something like the market, until you reach the outskirts. The outskirts will include the farm and some animals like a sheep. Also the boss fight will take place here. The boss is going to be a fat farmer goblin.

After clearing the previous area you will advance to the forest. This area will be right in the centre of the goblin fortress and the castle. This area is the most unique from the playable areas, this is because you wont be able to see to see the obstacle directly. There could be traps set up within the floor that trigger as you pass over them causing environmental things to happen. It could be like bear traps, or falling trees, also there will be wild animal that attack you if you disrupt them. However all of the obstacles are avoidable if you can find a route around it. When you progress through the level, the forest slowly starts die, starting off as a dark greens and brown, fading to darker colours. Towards the end of the zone you will come across the hunter goblin. He will be following you throughout the zone but stop you before you enter the next zone causing the boss fight to start.

Coming closer to the end the next zone is the cave. This environment is similar in places to the forest, where environmental things happen but there will also be enemies, but you will not be able to avoid anything. Some of the environmental obstacles are like falling Stalagmites and holes. The boss at the end of this zone is called batgob, from the start of the game to this point; the difficulty would have increased a lot causing the fight to be very hard.

The final zone/areas of this game is going to be the goblin fortress. You will start of by making your way in through a dungeon in the bottom of the castle, eventually making your way towards the top of the castle to fight the final boss, the goblin king.

Throughout the game you will have a choice in the pathways you take, each of the pathways are specified in different things. For example one pathway will consist of a lot of enemies, or another pathway will consist of a jump puzzle. This allows the game to have a variety while playing through; also this will increase the replay value of the game. You can come the different pathways partway through the level rather then right at the start of a stage. We are also planning on placing fake blocks in the game, this will allow the play have to search around to find the hidden items throughout the level. The hidden places will be secret level, and also allow the player to skip harder parts of the stage. Scattered throughout the levels there will be several crown pieces, once all of the pieces are collected the player will be rewarded with many jewels.

We have decided on the game being coop/multiplayer and you will be able to play alone or with up to three friends. The jewels that each player receives will be combined and given to every player to make it fair.

The game is going to be available to download and install online through marketplaces like steam. To be able to download this it will be very straightforward, there will be a button to download it straight to a selected location with a shortcut to launch the game inside.

GAMEPLAY MECHANICS

While playing throughout the game there will be a narrator explaining many things: controls, events happening and anything else that the player might be unsure of. The narrator will be with the player throughout the whole game to keep the player entertained. He will be a royal adviser and he will be giving witty comments on everything you do, from falling of an edge to setting off traps.

The control of the game will be compatible to use with an Xbox controller and keyboard, listed below is the controls for the game:

While playing through, the player come across many hazards and obstacles that you will have to overcome, they will very depending on the area you are in. You will have the opportunity to avoid some obstacles or chooses a pathway depending on the decision you make. One of the main obstacles in this game is going to be the enemies; this will be in every area in the game ranging from difficulty the more you progress with the game. There is going to be a range of enemies you come across, from basic melee, to archers and bosses.  Some of the unique hazards in a area is going to be in the village and forest. This will consist of wild animals attacking you and many environmental effects. The player throughout these areas will have to watch where they step, stepping in a bad place will anger the animals causing them to attack, adding another hazard to the list. As well as things like bear traps and pitfalls in the surrounding area. Some of the environmental obstacles that the player will come across is falling objects, like trees and rocks. Another big obstacle that will be throughout is the player making a decision on what pathway they wish to take. Depending on the player’s skills and what they prefer to do will change this. For example if the player prefers to avoid enemies there will be a pathway that they could take based around a jumping puzzle or traps.

While traveling throughout the world the player will start to stack up on the collectable jewels scattered around, rather then just letting the player have a useless stack of gems. We have allowed them to use them as a currency for upgrading their character. This will be based around skill trees. There will be three different trees for each character each based around certain things, one will be defensive, one will be aggressive and the other will be utility. Within these trees the player will be able to upgrade things like their total health, overall speed, different attacks and powers as well as many more. This causes the player to go out and find more of the gems to achieve the strongest possible character. The player will be able to obtain these jewels by traveling through each level with them being scattered around, at the end of the stage there will be a crown jewel which will give them a chunk of gems and to also symbol the end of the level.

BUDGET AND CASH FLOW

From our kickstarter, we hope to aim for between £1,000-£3,000 as we feel that this would be suitable for the different costs that could help sustain our project and help the team split the budget evenly into different things.

With the funds we get, this will go towards different things such as

·      A game engine license for the engine we are using to be able to gain full access to the different tools available, which will be Unity - £1,000.

·      Resources from external sources if we need it such as sounds or textures - £500+.

·      Advertising to help gain popularity for the game and help us be able to make the game a reality – 500+.

·      Any profit made from this will go towards the team and if we want to port it to another platform.

We will spend time in three different stages, which is alpha, beta and full release.

Pre-production and Alpha are the main stages before a lot of development goes into the game and allows us to be able to make small prototypes and receive feedback from the team and from testers, this stage would spend around 2-3 months, this is due to the amount of pre-production we will have to do before hand and will take quite a while for us to develop a early alpha demo for people to test and give feedback.

The next stage will be production and beta which we will start developing the game a lot more and adding in the features we want such as the different characters and mechanics, this will allow us to gain more feedback from testers and from the game industry in general, this will be the longest stage of the project and will consist of roughly 3-5 months due to the amount of development this stage takes as it won’t consist of us going back to the drawing board and will consist of us doing our roles in the group and making the game we want.

The final stage will be post production and full release which will consist of the team polishing up the game and fixing any small or major bugs in the game that can stop it from playing how it was intended to be. This will be a quick stage to go through and would really consist of a month or two. Once the game is released and we are in the full release, this is when the profits will show and we can start either developing our next game or making a port to another platform such as the Wii U or XBLA.

The game itself will be free to play as this allows us to get noticed more easily and allows for a lot of feedback and criticism to change some mechanics and see what people think of the game overall.  This will also allow our company to get known also and for us to get recognized to be able to make games in the future after this game.  Profit will be made through DLC, as this will help us be able to make profit after the game and allows us to add extra content such as more characters, areas and more development to the story. We will also display ads to help make profit from displaying them. We may consider micro-transactions as an option if we choose to but we most likely won’t consider it as we don’t want players to gain power but we feel from feedback that people will not like this option and can make our company look bad.

What we did next

After we designed as a group and contributed ideas on how we want the pdf document to look. First we went on photoshop and started experimenting using textures to create a background, it did not take very long to design a good looking design page that we all agreed on. One problem we come across is the font on the page, we had to change it several times because of how hard it was to read. The reason for this is because we wanted a font that suited the style and genera of our game but it was difficult to find one that looked good and was easy to read. 
After some time of searching we managed to find a good looking font. Overall I am very happy with how the template turnt out, all I now need to do is place the content that I produced above into this template then save it as a pdf. 

THE 10 PAGE DOCUMENT

Evaluation(what have I done since the interim deadline)

Since the interim deadline I have developed my blog a lot further. The first thing that I added was the research, this was not even close to being complete before hand, so I added another game onto the list, explained both of them, then compared them both. I also added some more games to the list above, this to allow me to have a wider verity when choosing the games to compare. Next I added some more images to the pitch development and also developed the evaluation of the final pitch.  After I added all of my content that I contributed towards the 10 page document, with the completed document below it. 
My overall opinion of the unit is that I felt like it could have gone a lot better. The first part of the unit went well, when I produced the research etc. However the pitch its self did not turn out so well. We lacked content because of how certain team members communicated with each other and their overall attendance was poor. This cause the remaining members to try to fill their spot meaning more work for each person. Apart from that, I am looking forward to the actual designing process of the game.