Saturday, 19 March 2011

Game research

Nintendo board games:
No Nintendo video game based physical games were found apart from these games which are classic board games but with Nintendo characters to sponsor them.
This shows a gap in the market for a physical game solely based on a Nintendo video game.

Video game board games:
Here you can see that their have been some attempts in the past of board games based on video games, but not for many years and they were not all very well received such as Donkey Kong which I discussed more in Assessment 1 (plan).

I have not had to do much research about the Super Smash Bros video game because I am a massive fan and know hot it works. But I did look a lot into its imagery to base my designs on.

Where to buy Velcro:
You can see here that many games using Velcro do exist and are very successful, some classic even. But none exactly like the one I want to produce seem to exist, so this project would be filling a niche market segment.

Animation references:
You can see in these links to Pokemon card ads they use epic 3D animations to build hype about new Pokemon cards, this is what will be done in the trailer/demo sequence for this project.

Thursday, 10 March 2011

The Concept



Physical Game Concept – Super Smash Bros

video game manual: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/gameslist/manuals/Wii_Super_Smash_Brawl.pdf

The video Game (basic information)
In the game you play as a character of your choice from the Nintendo Universe such as Mario, Kirby, Link and Pikachu., and more recently Sonic the Hedgehog and Metal Gear Solid. You can play single player or up to four players. The game is a frantic fighting melee where players compete and do damage to each other, each player has a damage meter messaged as a percentage meter which can go up to a maximum of 300%. The higher the percentage the more likely you are to get knocked off the edge of the arena and lose a life. The game is for one or up to four players.

My physical game (1- 4 players)

How to play:
1. Choose game types (beginner, easy or normal) (single player or multiplayer) (team or free for all) (timed match or VS match).
2. Choose number of lives/rounds.
3. Choose character if applicable.
4. Battle.
5. Land as many attacks as you can, so your opponent will be more likely to get thrown off the stage and lose a life.
6. Calculate scores.
7. Discover winner, then play next round (start at number 4) If a winner is found (all other players have no lives), go to number 8.
8. End of Game, go back to number 1.

Information overview (how it works)
· You have a dice, cards, balls and Velcro pads to wear.
· Your throw balls at each other in an attempt to stick them to the opponent.
· The colours of the balls represent your team (red, blue, yellow and green).
· You can play single player, or multiplayer.
· Multiplayer can be all VS all or team match (just like in the game).
· So you can all throw ball at each other
· Balls represent different attacks (normal, special, smash, super smash). These are the attacks you can do in the game. The Super Smash attack is very rare and very difficult to hit the opponent with, so this will be represented by the smallest ball and there will only be one available. There will be 15 normal balls,15 special balls and 10 smash balls. Just one super smash ball which will be the smallest, so least likely to hit the opponent.
· Try to hit your opponent and dodge incoming attacks (just like in the game).
· Four different balls, different sizes, represent different attacks and worth different amounts of power. The bigger they are the less they are worth, in other words because they are easier to land the attack on the opponent you they won’t get damaged as much, just like in the game it is more difficult to land more powerful attacks on the opponent.
· Normal attacks worth: 5%, Special: 10%, Smash: 20%, Super Smash: 60%.
· In single player you can lay a matt down and aim the balls at it, you can set up a minimum distance and obstacles.
· Beginner play, balls are not worth different amounts. Easy play you don’t use player cards, Normal play you do.
· Beginner play is for younger gamers because it only involves counting up the balls at the end to see who wins or loses. Easy play involves counting up the balls and taking into account their individual value and using the dice roll, so some more luck and strategy come into play. Normal play is for older gamers who want more of a strategy experience and involves using the cards to affect your scores.
· This is the strategy aspect of the game like in the video game you choose the best character to suit you as a player.
· Each player has their own set of attributes, based on each attack type and speed.
· This affects the score at the end of the round.
· The score sheets where you work out your points at the end of each round are like the statistics you get at the end of a round in the video game.
· Each player card attributes are based on the in game characters abilities.
· You need to choose the number of lives you are going to use before you start, if you run out of lives you lose the match.
· To determine who loses a life you add up your score and then roll the dice, the score is multiplied by the number shown on the dice, the highest number loses a life. The highest number possible is 300% x 6 = 1800. Lowest is 0, if you did not get hit by any attacks.
· You can play a timed match or score match just like the video game, so you either play until the time runs out or until the balls run out.
· Each character has their own score sheet to make it easier for players to calculate scores at the end of a round.
· The game involves frantic battling but also, skill, luck and stragegy.
· Many possibilities to expand the game exist, with the possibilities of expansion packs including more characters/cards, more balls, new cards, such as item cards, and new instructions.
· On the cards the total number of stats is 6 areas filled in, but the jump attribute is worth 3 because this is the most powerful attribute.
· 1 circle is worth plus 10 points, 2 is plus 20 and 3 is plus 30. The speed squares are 1 filled in worth minus 20 points, 2 minus 30 and 3 worth minus 40. The super smash attribute if filled in is worth plus 20 points.
· The jump attribute is worth the final sub total divided by 2. The score sheet will make things a bit clearer.