Sunday, 1 May 2011

Character Attributes



These were the ten character attribute concepts that were created for testing purposes.
The key aspects to the game are the physical made artifacts (shirts, balls and dice), these character attributes and a well thought out set of instructions.
The way the game is played (the rules) is always the key to a physical type game such as this, board games or card games, it's what makes the game.
The instructions were developed while designing the game and were tweaked throughout implementation and testing. They are based very closely on the video game, but in order for it to work as a non-violent physical game, the game play mechanics had to be different. It is believed that this game is a very close rendition of the video game.
So the key part of designing this game is how it all works and plays, but another key part of this project as a whole is computer aided design and development, so a lot of care and thought has gone it to the way the game artifacts will and have been designed and created for this game, such as the cards and instructions manual. Hopefully players can see a strong relation between the physical game and the video game due to reference images, colour schemes and mechanics. This is a great way to prove that the physical game is a lot like the video game, if fans of the video game believe it is and enjoy it, which they did. The down side to this however was that people who did not know about the video game took longer to understand the physical game and were less likely to enjoy it.
At the start of this project it was believed that this game would be better received by fans of the video game just because they would be more excited by the concept, which was clear from the initial 'Lift Pitch' presentation and also in the final presentation. But this was also backed up by the play testing.

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.


Saturday, 19 February 2011

Drake Duck

The new character
My own creation can be used to support the project and make easier to demonstrate certain things using my own animation....

Wednesday, 9 February 2011

Super Smash Bros.

Video Game Play Footage


You can see here what the game is like, manic open space battling, just how I want my game to be. I want my final video to show the relation between the video game and my physical game as much as possible to help prove what I have achieved. I need to consider how to make the physical game as much like the video game as possible without it being to complex and it still being fun.

Mauro (2011) says, “Simplification means once users have a relatively brief period of experience with the software, their mental model of how the interface behaves is well formed and fully embedded. Simple does not equal engaging. It is possible to create a user interface solution that is initially perceived by users as simple. However, the challenge is to create a desire by users to continue interaction with a system over time. What makes a user interface engaging is adding more detail to the user’s mental model at just the right time.”

So adding to the complexity of the game or difficulty of the game once players are up to scratch and are coping well with the level they are already on, is how to make a fun and engaging, therefore it will be useful to have different difficulty levels for the game, this will broaden the market for the game and will allow different age groups to take part, it will help people learn how to the play the game. Different options are also good in a game so people can choose how long they plan to play, for example, choose the number of rounds depending on how long you wish to play the game.


Mauro, C, L., 2011. Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular: a cognitive teardown of the user experience. MauroNewMedia. [online] Available at: <http://www.mauronewmedia.com/blog/2011/02/why-angry-birds-is-so-successful-a-cognitive-teardown-of-the-user-experience/> [Accessed 25th April 2011].

Tuesday, 8 February 2011

Software

Programs I plan to use:
  • Gimp/Photoshop/Inkscape/Paint - Create the art for game (cards).
  • Blender - Character modelling, rigging and animation.
  • Windows Movie Maker/After Effects - Edit the video footage.
  • MS Word for the write up.
I want to improve my skills in all of these software packages in order to develop myself and my project.

I want the final video to use some animation and effects but it will be mostly a demonstration of the game hopefully more actual footage rather than a virtual representation.
The final video will be the main final article of work.

Monday, 7 February 2011

Research and Discussion

I have always enjoyed video games and board/card games. I think games that are more about skill rather than luck are more fun, but some luck is also important I think especially in board games because you usually use a dice, and some luck aspects make the game more exciting and not so thought out, the situation is always changing for example in monopoly you cant always predict your next best moves because it depends on how much money you will have unlike something like chess where the are strategies and moves that can be very planned out. In this case I think using a dice would be very appropriate for my game.

Card games like Pokemon cards are exciting because so many cards are available which is the case in many card games and it means so many future possibilities and also continuous income for the company. This is another aspect Sony talked about, how game can release new ideas that alter the rules of their games slightly and people will pay money in order to get new game pieces and rules that will change the playing environment. This is also relevant to Super Smash Bros because there are different fighting arenas in the game. Of late similar ideas have been applied to video games in the form of DLC (downloadable content) this is where you download extra parts for a game such as more maps to play on often for an additional cost, DLC has proved a very clever way of making even more money from games.

The video game and physical game markets are both very large, the video game market still continues to grow, but the board game market seems to have stagnated. Board games and card games still sell very well especially classic ones; they are still very popular, and new updated versions such as Trivial Pursuit 21st anniversary addition, and completely different versions such as Monopoly Nintendo addition are released all the time.

There are not many board game based on video games though. Pokemon cards was a very popular kids television series that also had many different types of games, they all did vary, but the basic premise was usually Pokemon battles, they also battled in arenas and is even more related to my game because there playable Pokemon characters, Pokemon items and arenas. I can look at the trading card game and others for inspiration. Card games are and have been very popular, the first successful battle card game was Magic the Gathering, but they all have similar concepts of battling and damaging your enemies health level until you defeat them.

The key difference between board/card games and video game is they tend to be more sociable, “usually the fun part of older board games was the player interaction, not the game play itself.” (Yehuda, 2008). So if you combine the exciting game play mechanics of a video game and the interaction of a board game you should have the elements for a very fun game.

It was pointed out to me that my game sounds very similar to a board game called Marvel Heroes, so I will have to look more into that game and maybe draw some inspiration from it.

Week 3

Brief

In our first lecture for this module, instead of having an ordinary lecture we had an interesting presentation given to us from a representative of Sony.

The presentation was about what game designers actually do and the industry itself. Which was relevant to the optional task they then set us, which was to design a physical game based on an existing video game.

I was very excited and keen to pursue this idea, I discussed it with my 3D character animation teacher (Steven Harris) and he seemed to like the idea, so I started to plan it out in note form. I then later discovered after chatting to my Portfolio lecturer it was possible to use this project for this assignment. Which would be killing two birds with one stone, which I was pleased about. But designing the game and researching the market may not be enough, so I may also create a short animation to promote the game.

I plan to create a physical game (e.g. board or card game) based around the popular Nintendo game Super Smash Bros.

The key to the design of the game is to capture the essence of the video game and put it across in the board game, if this is successful then the board game should be very likeable just like the video game is.

The game is an extremely frantic fast based fighting game. With many options, characters, items and levels.

Specification
  • I must research the area of physical games.
  • I must create a finished concepts of all parts of the game.
  • The game must represent parts of the video game style and mechanics.
  • A log of my work must be kept.
  • Like always the game must be tested during development and the final product by me and others to see if it works.
  • Care will be taken in the design of the game play as well as the game imagery but the game play is the most important aspect.
  • Other than the board game concept work and art, other things that can be implemented to support this project are animations which can be created from the help of such software as, Blender, After Effects, Photoshop and Windows Movie Maker. This will develop my skills in these areas and with these software packages.
  • An animation to demonstrate how the game works could be created, or an animation of an advert for the game could be created.
  • In order to promote the game further, my own original character could be created to be used in the animation and in the game concepts, this will also help avoid more copyright issues than necessary and will mean a proper character animation could be created without having to copy or find a Nintendo character model.
  • I can use the Disney style character I am also developing for my 3D character animation module.

Monday, 31 January 2011

Skills

What I hope to learn from this and associated projects:
  • Learn about physical games and how to create them.
  • Learn about game play mechanics and how they can be represented in different ways.
  • Improve my modelling and animation skills.
  • Improve my video editing skills.
  • Learn how to combine the use of programs.
  • Learn more about marketing.
  • Learn more about game design.
  • Improve my design skills.

Week 2

Initial ideas
I am not exactly sure how the game will work yet, but I know a lot of thing I think should be concluded and how it should probably work. While creating and testing the game I think I will change ideas and come up with new ones that will work better for the game. Mainly I am thinking about how the board should be, because at the moment I am thinking of two main areas of the board one for collecting power ups and things to use during play of the second part of the board which is the arena where you battle, but it may actually work better just to have the arena and not move around but have more of a traditional style battle card game, perhaps even a trading card game, because there are many other characters that could be included in the Super Smash Bros universe. Any Nintendo characters can be included, they even added Sega’s mascot Sonic to the latest instalment of the game on the Nintendo Wii. But not just the board, other game play elements will have to be developed during the creation process because that is often where the best ideas come from.

Mind Map

Monday, 24 January 2011

Week 1

Getting Started

In this module I will produce a professional piece relevant to my Gaming and Animation degree that will straight into my portfolio. I will go about it as a professional would and demonstrate attainment in technical, profesional and market knowledge.

Key areas of assignment:
  • Research
  • Specification
  • Design documentation
  • Development
  • Evaluation
Deliverables:

WEEK 5 - 21/02/11 - Ass1) Initial Research, Outline Plan and lift pitch.
Week 16 - 16/05/11 - Ass3) Presentation.
WEEK 17 - 20/05/11 - Ass2) Skills Development and Professional Issues (Blog/Logbook).
WEEK 17 - 00/05/11 - Ass3) Product, Report, and Evaluation.

Gantt Charts (time management planning)

Introduction

This is a blog to supplement my logbook......
I am creating the design for a physical game (board/card game) based on a existing video game. This is for the Sony project as well as my portfolio module.
I have chosen the game Super Smash Bros. I have chosen this game because it is one of my favourite games, it is quite unique in the way the game play works and how the scoring system works, it will be a challenge to represent it as a physical game that emulates the video game well, hopefully it will be an enjoyable and a original game too.
For this project it is not enough just to make a board game idea. Development, research and creation must be shown too, as well as more finished supporting products, such as an animation.
A finished working version of the game must be produced, no matter how rough, in order to show people how the game works.

Henry Harling
0804212/3

Professional and Entrepreneurial Portfolio
EJ330007

24th January 2011
Year 3 Semester 2