The idea I picked from my ideas was a mixture of War and Legends and Robots and Ruins, and I knew that for my work I wanted to work on UI/UX, but I also added ideas through different pathways like Art and 3D.
Idea 1 - UI/UX Legends
My first idea would be UI/UX based around Legends and Ruins mixed together, in a way - Fantasy as well.
For this idea, I solely wanted to focus on the design outside of the actual gameplay, so for example, the start menu, the options menu, tutorials on how to play the game, some dialogue bars and a loading bar, and make them functional as well.
With the UI, I could create beautiful detailed bars and assets which could be put in a game, for example, I could make a start menu which is like a scroll opening up, and for the loading screen, it could be simple, and use similar assets from the game and the start screen but display tips and tutorials so the player isn’t sat looking at a useless loading screen, and for the dialogue I could display some character art alongside some creative scrolling text, I could even put in voice acting in the background for this idea, I was
Iwato kagura no kigen (岩戸神楽之起顕) – Origin of Music and Dance at the Rock Door signed by Shunsai Toshimasa (春斎年昌); Dated Meiji 20 (1887)
thinking of basing it on the legend which is Amaterasu and the Cave, I think this is a good idea since I can use light to my advantage and make a game mechanic which emits light.
Another thing I can include is something similar to Majora’s Mask’s clock system, where the player - the goddess of the moon needs to convince Amaterasu - the goddess of the sun and light to get out of the cave before 12 hours pass, in the legends, the storm goddess was the one which made Amaterasu upset and go and hide in a cave so he could be the final boss which you fight before finding the dawn goddess which is good friends
Monaghan, Patricia (1994). O Mother Sun! A New View of the Cosmic Feminine. California: The Crossing Press
with Amaterasu, which can help convince her to come out of the cave with her wonderful singing, dancing, and a mirror so the world be covered in sunlight again without no one suspecting the storm goddess being evil.
The actual game itself would be very basic, considering I would be specialising in functional UI and UX.
The art style of this game’s UI would have a light theme with soft colours, perhaps oranges, pinks and reds to represent the sun, but then once Amaterasu goes into hiding, the colour scheme of the UI would turn to dark blues and greys to represent the darkness and gloom throughout the world when the light of the sun isn’t present and the goddess of the storm is active.
The style would be based around old Japanese scrolls and art pieces where their art is made with ink - Similar to Okami’s style in a way.
The mechanics I would like to involve in this game would be a light mechanic, even though the game itself will be very basic, a light mechanic which absorbs energy could be a good idea, along with a scroll detailing the dungeon which the goddess of dawn resides in, similar to a dungeon map, and another mechanic could be a health system, I could make use of the personified goddess of the moon and have a full moon, half moon and crescent moon, this could present how much health the moon has remaining.
Idea 2 - 3D/ART Ruins
My second idea is 3D/Art, for this idea I wanted to focus more on Ruins and Religion - I would link it by doing a 3D model of a Cathedral, inspired by games like Dark Souls and Drakengard 3, but instead of making a whole cathedral I would focus on a window, with all the details in the bricks and glasswork.
I would do this because the idea can be worked on in great detail and also focus on lighting and texture maps as well, adjusting the height maps and normal maps to make the bumps of the bricks look more prominent in the model, and then you can also focus on the small designs inside the windows and if you were going to insert it into a game engine, you can insert dust particles into the light rays and make everything look realistic.
Adrian Evans Photography (2012) -Cathedral Window
I could also include the walls and the little statues which you see on the side of the windows, other things I could include in the work is the statues which you see on the side or within the design of the window, when exploring cathedrals, like Chichester Cathedral, there is sometimes engravings of peoples names or metal plates showing the history of the castle, perhaps that could be included as well, another thing which could be included could be a background, of course if you’re focusing on the design of the window, you don’t need to model trees and a background behind the window, you could take a nice picture of nature and insert it as a sky box into your scene.
Another thing you could do to link your work to even more sources is to have moss and/or plants growing up and into a smashed window this would show how worn out the window is as it could be in ruins.
The style of this one would lean toward the more realistic style as I don’t think this would look good if it were low-poly or in a cartoon style as windows tend to have delineate detail within them to show how worn it is and how it is part of the historical castle design.
The colours which would be used in this piece would be earthy tones, dark browns and dark beige, sometimes golds, this is the colours you tend to see in castles.
The golds would tend to be more rusted since castles are old, and sometimes, there could be hints of green in the castles as there could be moss and plants growing up the side of the castle, there is much you can do in this instance.
The mechanics, as I said earlier could include an animation of light source coming through the window with dust particles floating around as well as a sky box in the background which you can see through the window.
Idea 3 - 3D/Art Ruins
This idea would be based on more cartoony low-poly ruins, it focuses on 3D/Art.
My idea for this one is to have a low poly grand piano, if not a grand piano, an upright
Ross Bolleter ruined piano (www.davidkotlowy.com)
piano, but not just a piano, I was planning to have some of the keys be broken off and dusty, and on the broken keys and between some of the keys I was thinking there could be flowers and plants growing and below it, the piano could be sat on a bed of grass, with vines and moss growing up the legs of it and blending in with the detail in the wood.
The things I could include, like idea 2, is sun rays and dust particles flowing around, another thing I could include is animation of the flowers and grass swaying in the soft breeze, and in the background I could include soft piano music, with the broken piano keys playing along with the song.
The style of this piece would be low-poly, but in a good way, giving the softer vibe to the model, it wouldn’t have too much detail but it would be clear what things are, the style of the piece would be brought together by the music which plays in the background with the model, along with the simple animation.
The colours of this model will be soft and pastel to fit with the childish theme throughout the piece, and the textures of it would be very basic and won’t include height maps and normal maps which are too harsh, they will only be subtle and a tiny bit noticeable.
The mechanics of this, as mentioned earlier would include simple animation and soft music of a piano to make the atmosphere of the place feel as if you’re in a dream, the grass on the ground would fade out and the background would be a soft white with a tint of blue.
Idea 4 - UI/UX Plants
This idea would be based on the theme of Plants and I would be specialising on UI/UX.
For this idea, I wanted to play around with the idea of personified flowers and plants forgetting to keep hydrated and drinking water, similar to Idea 1, instead of making a full-blown game, I would focus on making 1 singular level/tutorial level since the tutorial could be part of UX, and just focus on making the UI look as good and functional as I can, the stuff I would be looking at making is, a start screen, a loading screen, an options screen, a tutorial menu which can always be accessed through the menu, and a HUD in-
Nintendo (2002) Super Mario Sunshine
game, some dialogue bars, and I would also be looking at making all of these animated so they look more polished.
In the UI, I could include something similar to Super Mario Sunshine, how Mario needs to find some sort of water area to fill up FLUDD, for my game, perhaps the plants need to find areas of water or rain to fill up their energy/stamina meter which can help them sprint, their pollen count (health) fills up when you’re in areas of sunshine, and the more pollen you have, the more bee companions join you, but your enemies- which are weeds, block out the sunshine and absorb all of your water, so you and your bee companions need to fight off the weeds and remember to keep hydrated, and fertilizer can help you when your health is low and there is no sunshine around. - There could also be a weather meter which could show you whether the weather is going to be sunny, windy or rainy.
With all of this, I think it would be important to include a lighting system similar to The Minish Caps’ and A Link To The Past, how the 2D games bring shade into the scene using layers, I think this would make the game look a lot more polished.
The style of this game/UI would be cute and colourful, with lots of saturated colours, it would be a 2D game with animated UI which bring out the fun of the game, it could use chatter sounds similar to Animal Crossing and cute sound effects.
The colours of this game would be a lot of greens and yellows to represent the plants and pollen, but the flowers could be bright colours, like pinks and oranges, each different flower colour representing the personality of that flower.
I would include mechanics in the game like a working options menu and a start menu, along with an easily accessible tutorial screen, the level I would be working on would be a tutorial level which would further show the working UI, another thing I would make would be a loading screen and music to go along with the UI.
Evaluate Initial Ideas
- What do you like about each idea?
- Is there anything you don’t like about the ideas?
- Which idea do you like best?
Idea 1 - UI/UX Legends
I like this idea because it has lots of potentials, it’s based on the legend Amaterasu and the Cave which hasn’t got too much information about on Google, I like this legend because it is very unique in my opinion, and I think it would be amazing to make a game out of, the game could very loosely be based on the legend and it could be given its own unique twist, I think this would be a good idea if I were focusing more on making the game and story instead of making a basic game with my sole focus on the UI as if I was focusing more on the story I could flesh it out a lot more, as the actual legend itself is rather short, I would’ve added more and expanded upon it, I also like some of the concepts in this work, like having to venture deep to find the goddess of the dawn which will help the goddess of the sun and light come out of the cave and bring light upon the world again, and that is where I would impliment a lighting system, I was thinking this game could be a platformer with Dungeons in it.
I don’t like the fact that there isn’t too much information on the legend so I won’t be able to get 100% accurate information, and the information there is on the internet about the tale is very confusing, there isn’t much media coverage on the fable, and another thing I don’t like is that I can’t think of much UI which can be implemented into a game like that, of course, I know the theme of it would be old and as a legend with scrolls and old paper but there isn’t much UI which I could think of to add.
Idea 2 - 3D/ART Ruins
I like this idea because there is so much you can do with it, you can add lots and lots of detail, and finalise the cathedral window to look realistic, you can keep adding and adding to it, and another thing I like about this is that you can use lighting and dust particles to your advantage to really make the window look realistic and aesthetic.
I don’t like the fact that it is really detailed, meaning that there would be lots and lots of concept art required to make the window, and lots of snippings and separate models which would be added to the window after being modelled separately, for example, the handles, and another thing I don’t like is that it would take ages to do and be a pain to unwrap, it’s probably too much of a stretch to do within the time we are given for this project.
Idea 3 - 3D/ART Ruins
I like this idea since it is simple and you’re able to stylise it in whatever way you desire, and as it’s not overly complicated, you can focus on the atmosphere of the piece and how it is presented and perhaps add a few more things to the model to make it stand out, I also like how it wouldn’t be too hard to texture and add detail to since it is low poly, you could instead of texture it, just use simple colours.
I don’t like that since it is low poly, you’re limited on detail, and that detail includes the texturing as well, and if you wanted to add additional little models to the project, you would need to keep them low poly as well since otherwise it wouldn’t look so great together, also there’s the fact that since there isn’t much texturing, there wouldn’t be much height maps or normal maps as low poly need to look cartoony.
Idea 4 - UI/UX Plants
I like this idea as it allows me to be as creative as I like, and I think it is a unique idea, which can be made into a full fleshed game with a good story, I also like that I can use bright saturated colours on my UI to make it stand out, another thing I like is that I can learn so much more about how to get a player involved in my game through research on how UX works. I think this project would be able to be finished in the amount of time we get given to a good standard.
I don’t have many negative things to say about this project as it’s one of my favourites out of the ones I have, one thing I would say is negative about this idea and the first idea is that since I would be working on the UI, I still need to have a functioning game behind it all which can show how the UI actually works, so I potentially need to make a game as well, which might take up most of my time unless I keep the actual game simple, which might limit my UI ideas.
Final Idea
I picked idea 4 as my final idea, I have no idea what the title for this game would be yet, but I’m sure I will think of something during production, I mainly picked this ideas as I felt that my other ideas were lacking a bit, and that idea stuck out specifically.
Story
I wouldn’t do too much story-wise within the game unless I have time to, but for the purpose of the fact that I’m going to be making speech dialogue, I have a rough story which I’m going to follow, but it is very generic considering the UI is my priority in this project.
The idea is that, these personified flowers need to remember to drink water, but the water around their town has been lacking recently, and they haven’t had much of it, so the flowers need to venture out of their comfort spot to get their water, but, the weeds and nasty plants have been surrounding and blocking off their town, not allowing any plant to exit or enter, the weeds have been absorbing the plants precious water source, but these weeds don’t think so much of the flowers and other plants, they think they’re weak, so the flowers produce as much pollen as they can to attract an army of bees and butterflies which team up with the flowers and help destroy the wall of weed blocking the flowers from their water, and as soon as they destroy the wall of weeds blocking them from the outside they’re greeted with thousands and thousands of other plants which they’ve never met before, and a thing called, fertilizer, and sheers - Basically, personified flowers and plants take over the world and kill all the weeds which people forget to rid of.
Mechanics
There is plenty of mechanics I would love to implement into my game, and I most likely won’t be able to get these fully working, but I think I can get the art implemented and polished for all of them so the games HUD looks finished, for example;
- A dialogue system
For my game I wanted to make a working dialogue system, and have the main character talk to NPCs, I think this would make the game world feel a lot more alive and help explain the narrative of what was happening in the game world as the characters would be interacting with you and addressing you by the name you set, I would make this work by making the player input their name at the beginning on the character select scene - In a way, this can also link to UX as it would be making the player feel as if they’re a character within the game because the NPCs mention the players name.
The benefits I think a dialogue system would bring the game is that it would be easier to understand how the game world works, you could have a NPC which could guide you on how to do a certain mechanic within the game - A good example of this within a game would be Ocarina of time and the scene below specifically.
Nintendo. (1998). Ocarina of Time
Another thing dialogue can achieve is the building of characters, if your game isn’t going to have voice acting, you can have the text of what they’re going to say instead, this leaves the player to imagine what their voice is going to sound like, but through skilled writing of each NPCs dialogue, you can create a NPC with character.
Dialogue is treated different ways in different games to show what character is talking, for example, some games’ dialogue would have a small name tag at the top of the text box to show the name of the character which is speaking, some games would use sound effects like a giggle or a chatter sound of that specific character speaking whilst their character model moves, some games have voice acting and just use the text as subtitles and some games would have an illustration of the character next to the text box with the text of what they’re saying inside of it.
Square Enix Co., Ltd., Square. (2003) Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
For my game, I think I like the idea of having a dialogue box with an illustration of the character drawing next to it, I think it helps show a lot more character as you can make multiple illustrations to display that characters current mood.
- Character Selection / Stat bars
Another mechanic which I think would fit perfect in my game is character selection, once the player clicks to play the game, they’re prompted to pick which character they want to play as, each character would have different statistics, for example one could have more health then the other but the other could be a heavy hitter, another reason I would implement this is because, the player can pick to be either a female or a male character and they can pick their style of battle, this would make the player more comfortable with playing the game as it is molded to their likes as they’re playing a character which links to them someway or another.
A good example of character selection in game for me would be Fire Emblem, although I wouldn’t go as far as making every single bit of the character creation adjustable I would have 6 presets which the player can pick from with different stats to suit their play style.
Intelligent Systems, Nintendo (2015) Fire Emblem Fates
I like the idea of using different statistics with each character as it increases the games replay-ability, it may be harder to play as some characters then others, which means players which are up for a challenge can try playing the hardest to play as character, the character selection can also serve as a difficulty selection as well.
The character selection would link with the dialogue system, as the dialogue would display a headshot illustration of the character which your playing as, and the NPCs will refer to you by your name and your flower name.
To make the character selection work in my 2d game I would display it as illustrations which you can flick through.
- A critical hit/miss/particle effect mechanic
I like the idea of having particle effects and text effects in-battle because it shows how well or badly the player is doing, if their attack hit the enemy or not when the enter battle, this just makes the battle seem more full of action and life, much like sound effects do as well - A good example of this would be Valkyria Chronicles, I really love how the sound effects are represented in a immature comic book vibe, another way the game represents action is through the visuals, like the white dashing lines overlay which is coming from the center, this is very overly dramatic, but I think it works really well.
Sega, Media.Vision (2018) Valkyria Chronicles 4
The benefits I think it would bring to the game is that it would make the sound effects more prominent, and give the game a more unique style, it will also make combat more illustrative and fun to play.
- A party system
For my game, I think a party system would be fun to implement, I don’t think I would be able to get this functioning but I can for sure try to, I will most likely do the art for this and put it into my game, since I think a party system makes the player more intrigued to play as they can build relationships with the other characters within the party, and they feel as if they have support throughout the entire journey, somewhat like a sidekick, examples of this include: Allies which you can summon or they just appear when you’re in bad situations, similar to Drakengard 1 or Devil May Cry 1. Or you can have members which will follow you around through the entire game and they help you defeat enemies and bosses and the story builds through your group of friends, similar to Kingdom Hearts and Ocarina of Time.
Level-5 (2018) Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom
A party system for my game would display each players pollen (health) and water (energy/stamina).
- An inventory
For my game, I believe a very simple inventory would be used, similar to the UI in this
EpicMealDev (2019-) Watashi No Mono
game which is currently being made, how it only has 4 slots and displays a simple image of the item you have equipped.
I like this idea since it is very easy to look at and understand what you have equipped, it is visually pleasing and won’t make the screen look cluttered in any way, this would fit into my game since there wouldn’t be too much to actually equip.
- A loading screen
I thought a loading screen would be a fun thing to add and would make the game look more complete.
The loading screen could display something like tips or tutorials on how to play the game, or it could display your current statistics, like Breath Of The Wilds’ loading screen.
Nintendo. (2017) Breath Of The Wild
- A start screen
Obviously if I’m making a game I would need a start screen. I wanted this start screen to captivate the player and use lots of different animations and sound effects to show off the character of the game before pressing play, the menu screen would display stuff like an settings menu, a tutorial menu, an advanced settings menu which you can access through the normal settings, an about section which will show more information on the game and a quit game section.
- A tutorial level to show off mechanics
To show off the mechanics which were implemented into the game, the start button would instantly set you into the tutorial level, which would have a few enemies to fight which can show the health and fighting mechanics, a few puddles of water to show the water bar mechanics and some NPCs to talk to which can show the dialogue mechanics.
- Water/Pollen Meter
This would be a mechanic which is similar to health and hearts in other games, Pollen represents your health, and you can get pollen through eating fertilizer and your pollen bar automatically fills up when the player goes into a puddle of water to fill up their water bar, the water bar is similar to stamina, you can sprint but it will use up the water bar, and when you have a high pollen bar, you start to attract bees and butterflies which can help you during battle.
Nintendo (2002) Super Mario Sunshine
Look/Style
The look I’m going for this game would be cutesy, but since I’m primarily focusing on UI, I would hope to make my UI look as playful as I can, the game itself won’t look too impressive unless I have time to focus on it, but the UI would use soft and rounded shapes and lots of opacity fades, I don’t think I will be going for the realistic look for my UI, or the dynamic compact look, I wanted to create a playful UI which is non-diegetic.
This Pinterest board is full of images which have concepts in them which I like, or colours and styles which I like, for example, I really like this illustration done by Lap Pun Cheung.
Lap Pun Cheung - The Departed - Cinematic Keyframes - An Adventure Awaits
Lap Pun Cheung - The Departed - Cinematic Keyframes - An Adventure Awaits
The style of it reminds me of Studio Ghiblis’ art style, and I think that art style could suit my game for the illustrations of the characters and I can use the same line weight and colours for the UI elements and assets.
For the sprites in-game I was really inspired by the soft colours used in The Minish Cap, but in my opinion, I think the colours are very saturated, and my game would use more brown tones to it.
Nintendo (2004) The Legend Of Zelda- The Minish Cap
Colour Scheme
The colour scheme I would like to use for my UI would be very nature orientated colours, like greens and browns and the occational bright colour, the idea that I got this from was Dark Cloud 2, because I like how natural the UI looks in that game.
Level-5, SIE Japan Studio (2002) Dark Cloud 2
Another game which I think uses colour really well in the UI is Ni No Kuni, I like how Ni No Kuni uses lots of opacity and soft, light browns, which give a story book feeling to the game.
Another thing I love about Ni No Kuni’s UI would be the small images and illustrations used to make it look more like a child friendly game.
Level-5, Studio Ghibli (2013) Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
The colour scheme for my entire game would be based on nature colours.
I think using colours like this will make my game and UI fit in together and look more polished, another reason I think these colours would work well is that I can add lots to the UI to make it look like its a part of nature, like leafs growing off of the UI etc, I think this colour scheme is very adaptable and neutral and will fit in well with the game no matter what environment you’re in.
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/Numpadn_Art/fmp-colour-scheme/
Peer Review on Idea
Peer Review from Roxanne Henderson-Payne
Pros: The idea is very cute <3
You have a clear idea as to what you would like to do which is great!
You’ve gone into detail when it comes to the mechanics as well as the art
Cons: Please explain the specific reason as to why you chose this idea rather than saying it stuck out, it may have been one of those moments but you will need to explain in detail why you chose it, make sure it’s clear to the examiner as to why you chose it!
How does this relate to forgotten? Nothing in the final idea told me how it related to the theme, make sure it’s clear as to how it relates to the theme!
You are very ambitious and I admire that, but I worry you will have too much to work on and will struggle, resulting in a lower grade if you can’t deliver. If you think this is in your ability and you’ll be able to do it then please go for it! But I would recommend asking Rob for his advice on this at least before going ahead with it. Remember quality over quantity! ^^
Peer Review from Robert
From both of these peer reviews, I realized that I most likely have set myself too much work to do, what I’m going to do is go through all the work I set myself and see which ones are the higher priority, eliminate some of the unnecessary ones so I have less work to do, but keep them in the back of my head just in case I get everything done and have spare time.
I also realized that I should make it clearer how my work links back to forgotten, I shall be doing this in my proposal.