Nautical Mind Map & Research
Mind Map
Research
Here is the research I conducted using Pinterest to generate ideas on themes I would like to use for my project.
Water on Land
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/water-land/
This is my mood board for ‘Water On Land’ all it is, is some sort of pool of water or a building on a bed of water which is out in the open with other vast surroundings, this could include stuff like water cities and castles in the middle of the ocean, I like this idea since you can develop lots of unique textures for it, like a coral covered stone block for example, a reason I wouldn’t like this is because of the extensive detail you would have to put into it as it would be a large area with lots of little detail.
Pirates/Sailors
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/piratessailor/
This is my mood board for ‘Pirates/Sailors’ I’ve collected images of characters in pirate/sailor looking attire, I like this theme since you can have lots of unique characters with vintage clothes which you wouldn’t see on a daily basis, pirates can have all sorts of looks, they don’t even have to be human. I like these pictures I’ve collected of the pirates since every single one of them has a very different design, I don’t like that these designs as they would be hard to implement in 2D pixel art.
Treasure
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/treasure/
Here is my mood board for treasure, I tried to collect as many vintage looking treasure as I could which look as if they come straight from a game or an ancient Victorian painting, this is what treasure would look like in my opinion to pirates.
Ships
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/ships/
This is my mood board for ships, this shows different angles of the ship and different ways they would be built, for example, a flying ship. I like this since the ships have lots of detail on them and they could be in ruins as well.
Underwater Ruins
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/underwater-ruins/
This is my mood board for underwater ruins, which is one of my favourite since I really like the detail in ruins since they’re really pretty and there are lots of different cracks and bumps on ruin material which you wouldn’t usually see since it
Game Genres
Today we explored different genres in games, trying to decide which one we like the best
2d Platformers
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/2d-platformer/
This is my mind map for platformer, platformers are like puzzle games but they’re usually side view and require a lot of jumping, repetition and strategy before you can reach the level, in my opinion platformers can get boring rather quickly, but the point of them is to be hard so you have to repeat the level so they have to try their best to make evey single level as different as they can. It’s hard to implement a story through platformer
2D Shooters
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/2d-shooter/
This is my mind map for the genre of 2D Shooters, 2D Shooters can be anything from doom to ace combat, to bubble shooters to Metroid, the main objective in these games is to shoot and kill something, these could easily incorporate both puzzles, platform and story into one.
2D Puzzle
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/2d-puzzle/
This is my examples for 2D puzzle games, I like 2D puzzle games as they’re simple, repetitive but stays fun throughout as the puzzles may vary and get more complicated, or it could have a timer or a certain amount of moves you can, all of this just builds up suspense and makes the game even more fun.
2D Adventure
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/2d-adventure/
These are examples of 2D Adventure games, they usually involve a large open world which you’re free to explore and a few dungeons, puzzles and items to find, these games are the best at representing the story as you have a large open world to tell this story in.
2D Turn-Based Games
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/2d-turn-based-game/
This is my mood board for 2D Turn Based games, I think these games are very good at telling the story as well but I’ve noticed in most turn-based games its mostly focused on the battling and the upgrading instead of the open world of it.
Specific Nautical Research
Trello Board
This is my Trello board for making my game inside each card is a check list of all of the little things I have to do and make to complete that card and finish up with the different parts of the game’s development.
In my opinion I think Trello is a really good website to use as it has lots of options which you can use and it works really well with organising and making sure you have everything done and don’t leave anything out of the development.
In my opinion, the cons of Trello is that it isn’t on paper and you can’t stick it on your wall in front of you as a flashing reminder!
Enemies research
Water Molecule -
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/enemy_1/
I couldn’t find much to do with water molecules which I could use for enemies but I done this research so I have an idea on what water molecules look like, and I could use this research to further develop the common water molecule boss.
Fizzy Bubble -
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/enemy_2/
Since these are weird concepts I couldn’t find much to do with the fizzy bubbles besides normal bubbles and the fizzy drink bottles, but I would use this research to figure out how I would draw and animate my fizzy bubble sprites.
Enemy Lemon & Lime -
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/enemy_3/
This research gave me the idea that this enemy lemon & lime could be an actual chopped up lemon or a chunk of lemon/lime in a chunky drink, and they need to be destroyed since the fruit chunks in drinks are disgusting.
Enemy Research
Pros: This research has helped broaden my ideas, before I done this I had no idea that the final Evil Lemon & Lime would be chunks of fruit in the drink, but now I know that is what I will be adding, and it makes more sense since actual lemon and limes are more sour, I have also come up with the ideas of the common enemies today through my research.
Cons: The research I have done isn’t exactly what I wanted as these images are very generic and don’t have the detail in them which I require.
To improve my research I will take my own images of fizzy bottles to get all of the resources and reference I need.
Asset Research
Background -
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/backgroundll/
for my background I needed some sort of dark water from top down since I wanted to make use of the enemy and player light and have a burst of light be generated every time a bullet is shot, this would create an immersive and scary feel to the game since you don’t know what you would swim up on next.
Health/NPC(s) -
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/npcs/
The Health/NPC(s) in my game would be simple fruit sprites, probably only lemon and lime, but maybe a few other fruits here and there but they would be rarer and give you more health buffs then the common lemon and lime Health/NPC(s)
Simple UI/HUD -
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/simple-ui-ideas/
Asset Research
Pros: With this research I have discovered that I want to have a moving background and to add some immersion by making it dark and every time you shoot a bullet, it would light up the map slightly from the bullet fire from both enemy and player.
Cons: I couldn’t find good ideas for the fruit assets I would use for the health, and the background images look as if they’re under the sea, and my game isn’t under the sea, it’s in a bottle, so it doesn’t have the coral reefs or the fish.
To improve my research I would search up fruit assets from games which use them.
Music research
Music -
For my game, I knew I wanted to use catchy 8-bit themes, here is a youtube playlist including all of the music which have inspired me.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAv17K8ZYs1vaFnQRlhcpk_1RTTyiSHvS
I picked these since they’re very up-beat and sound as if you’re in a boss battle, which is what I wanted to go for in my game as it builds up suspense and makes the game feel more immersive as the player your playing as most likely feels terrified.
Sound FX -
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAv17K8ZYs1sle88xKNrFUYlFlev-saCV
For my sound effects I wanted to use cute sounds which would make the game seem cute but the music would contrast with these sounds. I want to use cute sounds for Lemon and Lime and terrifying sounds for the enemies to show that we’re the good and they’re the bad.
Interactivity Research
What is Interactivity? (In Games)
Interactivity is used to describe how us (the player) experiences how we play the game, and the different aspects of the game like the story, mechanics and environment.
Examples of interactivity in games are;
- Motion Controllers - The Switch is a good example of this as in some games (e.g. Splatoon) you have tilt controls, so instead of moving your left joystick around to look behind you, you can simply move the controllers to the side.
- Virtual Reality - VR is a good example as the games immerse you by letting you put the headset over your eyes to obscure the view of the outside world and just focus on whats in front of you in the game, you can control where you’re looking by moving your head around whilst wearing the VR headset
- Augmented Reality - AR is a good example as it generates images into the real world, for example, Snapchat filters, it has face tracking on it so it can tell where your face is and it can overlay filters onto your face, it’s interactivity since there is certain games you can play where you have AR (Pokemon Go!) and you can interact with that AR.
- Controllers - Some controllers; for example the Wii controller- has a speaker on it, which can output sound from the controller when you’re near an item or got damaged etc, another example is the PS4 controller, how it has the touch pad on the top. Also vibrations.
- Motion Sensors - Kinect is a good example of this, how you can have the Kinect camera in front of you and you’re able to interact with it to play the game, dancing games is a good example of this.
- Character Customization - This is an in-game example of interactivity, because you can develop the character you play as a certain way and it will preform differently when you come to play the game, a good example of this is MMORPG’s and their classes, Skyrim is another example as you can pick your race and whatever race you pick has an impact on how you play the game.
- Weapon Customization - Like character customization, whatever weapon you pick has a different output in the game, and this is something you can pick.
- Searching the scene - Crime games have these a lot, where you have to point and click at things you think that are clues and would advance you further into the game.
What is a game mechanic?
A game mechanic is anything that the player can do in the game world, the rules for the game and it provides game-play for the player, making the game more interesting to play instead of being the same thing over and over again, usually people mix it up a bit and have multiple mechanics in the game for example;
- Moving
- Jumping
- Attacking
- Talking
- Looting
Examples of mechanics in real games
Call Of Duty
Call of duty has multiple mechanics in the games, this is to make a realistic-like war situation for the player to be immersed within, examples of the mechanics within the game include;
- Shooting mechanic - Shoot from you gun to fire bullets and kill your enemies, they can shoot back at you as well, with the shooting mechanic you can damage and put dents in the materials around you as well.
- Damage mechanic - Get damaged from the enemy fire or explosives, this mechanic will slow down your character and make the screen bloody/blurry as if you actually got shot
- Explosion mechanic - Throw dangerous explosives and blow up your surroundings.
- Looting mechanic - Pick up weapons/ammo which dead bodies have dropped or are stashed around the map
- Moving mechanic - Walk or sprint along the map.
- Objectives mechanics - Objectives set throughout the mission to keep you on track
- Kill Streak mechanics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7Ey25Z_-QE
This scene especially shows lots of mechanics to change up the mood of the FPS game, when you’re fighting Makarov, trying to grab the pistol and then trying to wrap the rope around his throat, the fighting style is similar to God Of War’s where you have to mash random buttons to progress deeper into the battle and get the upper hand, this is to build intensity since it is the final fight.
Fifa
Fifa is a football simulator, which uses mechanics like
- Scoring - Getting points every time you hit the ball into your own goal
- Team building - Building up your own perfect team so then you can play the football match with your favorite characters.
- Tactics - Different tactics you can make so you can get the score, different routes, not every game is the same.
- Buying mechanics - Buy and train footballers
- Lootbox
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrHWuy9w68U
In this gameplay, you can see a wide range of different mechanics being used, for example, below is the scoring system.
World Of Warcraft
Word Of Warcraft is an MMORPG, it has multiple mechanics which are used to make the game more exciting to play as you can carry on playing the game for hours on end
- Class system - This means that you can pick different play styles and you fight differently, you have different powers
- Race - Race is slightly different
- Questline
- Storyline
- Inventory
- Clans/Guilds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pxf4MXfq6U
What is a Mechanic Cycle?
A mechanic cycle is a mechanic which can be used over and over and can be used against you. The best example of mechanics are mechanics which are interwoven within the game.
Shooting Mechanic
The shooting mechanic isn’t that complex really, all which needs to be checked is if the button is pressed and if the player had enough ammunition, this improves the game since I think it is very simple and there isn’t any complicated buttons you need to press in sequence to shoot the gun, it is made simple because you need to shot a gun rapidly since that’s the point of a gun, there is nothing I think to improve this mechanic.
Opening Inventory/Menu Mechanic
The opening inventory mechanic looks really simple on the flow diagram, but it can be a lot more complex as there is multiple things you can do in an inventory, like save your game, go into options and optimize your options, change your gear, so on and so forth, in my opinion, a good inventory improves the game a great amount.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asnaiozGiJs
Sound Research
Diegetic
What a character can hear, for example footsteps.
- Footsteps
- Themselves/Others talking
- Ambient sounds (Wind, birds and leafs, fire crackling, rain pouring)
- Music actually playing in the scene, like a NPC playing a instrument
- Radio playing to report a mission
- Gunshots or Weapon/item sounds
- Character sounds, like jumping and breathing heavily
Digestic sounds are used to immerse the player into the game and make them feel like they’re actually in the world by using sounds, as our real world has lots of overlaying sounds
A good example of Digestic sounds in video games is: Breath Of The Wild (Switch 2017)
In Breath Of The wild, the game is trying to be as immersive as possible, and it does this in many clever ways - for example, here is a quick video I put together to explain the different digestic and non-digestic sound effects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDrq7uBFHzY&feature=youtu.be
Another example of diegetic sound is Watch Dogs as every time we get a notification
from a mission, our phone bleeps, or every time we hack something we get feedback from our phone, or when we get a call from someone, it’s a sound Aiden can hear, from his phone, another example of diegestic sound in the game is the sound of the cars, and the NPC’s talking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVXzj1Zlv-E
Non-Diegetic
Character cannot hear this and it’s only used to guide the player.
- Achievement sounds
- Power ups
- Health bar
- Treasure chests
- Notifications
- Background music to create the scene
- The music builds up when there is a boss nearby
- Controller sounds from the controllers speakers
- Narration and story telling
A good example of Digestic sounds in video games is Crash Bandicoot
a reason for this is is because of the multiple different sound effects which are made in the game to show that you’ve got a item or you’ve lost health, a video on that is here, this level is like a ‘tutorial’ level and shows you the basics on how to play the game.