Ideas Research (Week 1)
I have come up with three ideas, and I have researched into how I can make them, and how they would meet my audiences needs.
Published on September 12, 2019 by Amy Elliott
Design & Research Dev Blog College
17 min READ
Level ideas
Idea 1
What the diorama would include.
A Victorian Military base ruined by sandstorm and over taken by men with cowboy hats and horses.
British Army units posted to Bermuda from 1701 to 1977
The base itself wouldn’t have too much to signify that it was a military area, it would just be very eerie, and empty.
It would be a blockout of a deserted city.
I would have to do a level design plan, so I would draw out a huge city with many deserted buildings.
There would be a huge desert to the side and plant life is dying, almost as if it was a nuclear war zone.
Since the west inhabited the land, I was thinking of making some of the less broken down buildings into Saloons and houses.
The player would be tiny in comparison to the towering buildings, and there would be rubble and sand smoke everywhere.
Everything will have an orange tint to it, to further show it is deep in a desert.
The UI would include ammo count, objectives, maybe a mini-map, a health bar, and some graphic to display that the character has gotten injured, like a flash around the screen, or a vignette post processing effect.
What style.
The style of my game would be a target 1- player FPS game, since many of my audience (from my target audience research) likes FPS.
Links Crossbow Training (2007) Nintendo
The game wouldn’t feature blood at all, since it’s a game targeted for children, instead it would be very kid-friendly, all combat, similar to Links Crossbow Training, how you have to hit targets and beat your high score.
Or, it could be an FPS like Splatoon, where it has all the features of a normal FPS but in the game, you’re shooting at squids, and all the graphics are just coloured ink.
Splatoon 2 (2017) Nintendo
The character could be riding a horse with a crossbow or a bow in their hand or they could either have some Victorian style gun.
If we wanted more action, the targets could be monsters, or something which doesn’t really frighten a child.
How it meets your audience’s needs.
It suits my audience’s needs because the game itself isn’t the violent, you’re shooting at things which don’t produce blood so it’s just a game on how good your aim is.
It also suits it because I’m going to go for the low poly block out design, nothing huge and detailed.
I’m making this game similar to a FPS because children around that age range really like action and shooter games.
I’m also making it a huge open city game because children like to explore large areas.
Idea 2
What the diorama would include.
It would be a large western city, with a steam train running through it, each level, the steam train drops off an incrementing number of enemy monsters which you need to destroy with your crossbow/gun.
You can run through the whole city and the monsters would be everywhere, it’s your task to protect the people of the city and destroy them. the final boss is the train.
The UI would include a minimap, but there wouldn’t be enemy pointers, as I feel like that would destroy the fun, I want the player to run around the corner and then see a gigantic dinosaur. The UI would also feature ammunition and a damage effect, but not a health bar as the damage effect shows that (Similar to COD games)
The saloons dotted around the city will pull you in when you get close to the door and heal you up.
The sandstorm gets heavier the longer the monsters roam about.
You have a horse you can use (Maybe?)
What style.
The game will be low poly, blocked out city, the monsters will most likely be assets, which means they will look very out of place, being high-poly
The player too, will most likely be an asset along with the weapons and a few of the props which are dotted around.
My focus would be on the game play.
Hopefully, I was planning to go with a FPS game which has a similar feel to it as shadow of the colossus, with huge monsters which make yourself look like an ant.
How it meets your audience’s needs.
It suits my audiences needs because it would be like an FPS game, which is what every child likes at that age, but the thing is, they wouldn’t be fighting each other in an easy online battle, they would be fighting enemies which are much much bigger then them, which means they would feel like the game is an actual challenge. It wouldn’t be hard enough to make a child quit, but it would be fun to play to make the player keep playing.
I got this idea from fighting Ganon in Breath of the wild, and the bosses in Shadow Of The Colossus.
I think a good western game could be made from a boss rush.
Breath Of The Wild (2017) Nintendo
Idea 3 -
What the diorama would include.
It would include a blocked out train which moves forward, with a player on top of it, it would seem as if the train is endless as the player runs along it, perhaps to make it look like the train is moving, it could just be the background and the player is running across the top of a very long train, on a horse..? or maybe not on a horse.
The player would have to collect bottles of beer, or cowboy boots which would be displayed in a graphic in the 3D world, the camera would be at an isometric/top down view so you would only see the top of the cowboy hat as the player.
The player would have to collect these objects but also look out for branches and tunnels along the way.
The main character would always be running forward, the player only controls left and right movement.
Temple Run 2 (2013) Imangi Studios
What style.
The style of the game would be cartoony, the models would either be block outs of very detailed free-to-use assets, I was hoping I could maybe go with the style of Temple Run, since this is the type of game I’m looking to make, it’s fun, and it’s addicting to play.
Soccer Runner: Football rush! (2015) uplayonline
I want my UI to be in the same style as the theme, western, so I will be using brown colours and wood textures to make them look like the fit in with the western theme.
The sound effects and music too, will sound like they’re western, with the use of music with guitars in and banjos and a fast, up-beat tempo.
Temple Run (2011) Imangi Studios
How it meets your audience’s needs.
It meets my audience because, looking at temple run, it is a game which a lot of children have played, so I assume this type of games, if we mix in fun western guns and knives along with quirky sound effects, would catch the attention of my audience.
It’s a simple game, but they would keep playing to beat their own high score.
Subway Surfers (2012) Kiloo, SYBO Games
Agent Dash (2012) Fullfat
Proposal
Diorama or Level Title.
I think I want to choose my third idea, I don’t have a title for it though, but it will go along the lines of Western, Train, and Run.
Outline – Describe the Diorama or Level?
I want to have a train, which is really long, and there will be multiple of them, each train will be a different colour. These trains would have coins, or beers, or cowboy hats which are collectibles on the top of the trains, but of course, it isn’t going to be that easy, there will be obstacles which you have to avoid which are tree branches and tunnels, perhaps there will be other stuff as well.
My idea isn’t to have the actual train to be moving, I wanted the background to move so it looks like the train is moving but it’s not.
I also wanted the player to move forward without any input, like Temple Run, so this means I would need to only have input for the left and right keys. It would be cool if I could get it working on a phone, I’ve not worked with Unreal Engine much so I would only consider porting it to the phone if I have time left over.
I would have some western-style UI, which would be the health, and how much you’ve collected, I don’t want there to be too much UI as I don’t want that to distract the player.
How will the design and art style meet the needs of your audience?
It would attract my audience because it would use very cartoon-y sound effects, and the music would be up-beat, the reason for this is because I find it odd when games with a cartoon-low-poly art style have realistic sound effects, the only games which should have realistic sound effects should be games which have a realistic style.
My sound effects would be based off of the over-exaggerated sound effects in 50’s cartoons.
And I want to make my game have assets which are low-poly, it may be hard to find the specific models in the unreal asset store though, considering there isn’t too many free assets in there, and all the free ones are quite high-poly.
Colour scheme.
The colour scheme for my game would be browns, golds, yellows and oranges, since this game is based in a desert in western times, and that’s the colours which you see around a lot in Western pictures.
Specifics – List the assets, mechanics, etc. that you plan to include/create.
Assets
Since my game is based on top of a train, I’m going to be using this asset, even though it’s a modern train, the train itself is going to be very long, and you won’t see the steam-train front of it.
City Subway Train - Modular (2017) Dekogon Studios
This is another asset which I would like to use since it is a flat basic train cart which could be very useful for my game.
Box Car V1 - (2018) printable_models
Another asset I would like to include in my game is this pack of Landscape Backgrounds, I think they look really nice! They are quite realistic though, which does take away from my childish theme a little.
Another asset which I found which I knew would be very helpful is this bundle of Ancient Treasure, I knew this would be useful because the player could collect these and they could be the collectibles on the top of the train, there’s a few things in there which I would love to use, even though they don’t relate to the theme
Ancient Treasures (2018) Dekogon Studios
Mechanics
Since I want my game to feel very fast paced, I want to have quick decisions, like in temple run, I want something to be chasing after the main character so the player feels the threat and how they can’t make mistakes, this is the part of Temple Run and Subway Surfers which I liked, since it means each mistake you make, the enemies come closer, until you can see them chasing you from the bottom of your screen.
I also like how there are checkpoints in temple run so you know how far you’ve gone, this is similar to a post I saw on Instagram which went through level progress bars, and the fact that they’re good since it would make the player continue playing if they know they’re near the end of the level.
Research of the Final Idea
Level design maps (floor plans, side elevations, topographic).
Floor Plans
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/amy_elliott12/task-23-grid-paper/
The colours which you see in floor plans are very plain colours since there only needs to be a plan going across, not a design, the plans need to be proper and can’t have anything colourful which can distract since what the designer is meant to be focusing on is how the level is going to be completed, Usually, these plain colours can be whites, blacks, navy blues or any flat colour as long as it isn’t too saturated.
The design of these floor plans are mostly levels which are either in a whole city or a room, my level, is going to be one straight line, since it’s a free runner game, but the same principles apply with my level design since I would need to plan out where I’m going to have all of the obstacles and pickups, and when the player changes train, since it is a still level with a moving background, I can just design the level and all the obstacles straight away.
For my level design, I could do a drawing of it first, like the other drawings you see on the Pinterest board, this could be the first draft of my plan, and then I will go onto Unreal Engine and make a block-out of the level, making the train, and then having green blocks where the pickups are, and then having red blocks where the obstacles are in the level.
Block Outs
In block outs, the colours are only whites, greys and blacks, this is because block outs are meant to be very basic, they’re typically low-poly or a rough plan of what you want your levels to look like, they’re only made, much like drawings of level design, to check if the level is play-able, to test mechanics and see if they’re possible in the level, and to test new ideas
The design of these block outs, depending on what exactly you’re blocking out can range from being very basic to very detailed for a block out - For example, someone who’s blocking out a building, or a character would be on a much smaller scale then blocking out a city, so the character or the single building would have more detail in it, but it will be basic.
Whereas cities may only have blocks to indicate that there was a building there.
The end goal for every block out is to get a basic idea of how they want their level to look, Programmers, 3D Modelers and Artists usually use block outs, for example, a programmer would use it to check how functional their level is and to test out mechanics, 3D Modelers would use to check the scale of their model in comparison to their player, and artists could use it to help them with perspective and light.
Asset Choices
The colours which you can see comonally in these 3D Assets are browns, blacks, greys, reds and yellows, this is because in Western America, their houses were made out of wood, and it looks as if they didn’t bother with painting their walls
The designs of these models all have the same sort of style, wooden buildings, with a few broken, decayed wood parts, and lots of saloons.
These would only be on the edge of the screen since my game would be based on train tracks and the top of trains, I was thinking I can tilt the buildings slightly, much like 2.5d games, how the models are tilted to give the player a much better isometric display.
A Link Between Worlds (2013) Nintendo
Pick Ups
I decided to go with lots of different ideas, this is because, there is lots of things which people in Western America would have, but typically, I would say they would be drawn to anything Gold, the reason for this is because Western America was very poor, so of course they would want money, so there is lots of gold in my opinion on this board.
The design of these models are quite high-poly, some of them are more basic then the others though, I personally wouldn’t worry about how high-poly they are since they would be shrunk down quite a bit since they will only be pickups, all I need is to make sure it is clear what the model is when it’s shrunk down in size.
Mechanics
Describe the design
The mechanics which I can see from these mood boards are upgrades, character changes and missions.
I feel like these are great to have in an endless runner, since in these sorts of games, you only get as far as you can and then you die and then have to start from the beginning again, and it would be really boring if it’s the same every time, so I think the upgrades are good ideas, letting you revive or move faster for example, this would mean the player can use these and attempt to beat their high score.
Other mechanics that I can see from these games are world-wide leader boards and leader boards with you friends, these would give the player a reason to keep on playing so they can beat their friends, which in turn makes the game more competitive.
Other mechanics I can see are stuff like being able to change your character, this is useful if the player wants to play a game with a female lead for example, being able to change the main character opens the game up to a much wider audience.