Art Style for Project Blend

Project Blend is one step closer putting together a unified vision of what they want the game to be; this week they have been split into three teams.

The game will be set in a 3D world with a restricted view; a view where the PC can move around in planes through the level, similar to Little Big Planet (2008 :Media Molecule)
The main character in the game will be a Raspberry Assassin, who will move around the planes of the level to stealth kill the enemies. There will be an emphasis on the stealth element of the game but hack n slash elements will also be implemented.


Mechanics 
One team will look into various mechanics that could be implemented into the game.

Art Style 
The game will have a real focus on fruit gore, the main level talked about so far in the obvious one, the kitchen. So each member will make a mood board to show how they think the game should look.

Setting Plot
Apart from the kitchen there is no real story or plot and in what time period will this game take place in? The team will decide what the focus of the main character is and what his / her story is, why they have to kill all the other fruits.

So each member of each of these teams will meet together, each team will then decided which ideas to incorporate into the game and which of the colours and style to adopt into the game.


My Art Vision for Project Blend 

I’m on the Art team this week so I will be looking at various games, starting with little big planet as that game, seemed to be the focus in our last meeting, then work other elements from different games art styles  into the project.

Little Big Planet

Fig. 1.1

In Little Big Planet (LBP) the main game is centered around closed levels inside of buildings (Fig 1.1) But in the levels that are created by the LBP community, there are loads of open levels. (Fig 1.2) Project Blend so far seems to be wanting to set the game inside of a kitchen. So there will be closed backgrounds in the game but otherwise like fig 1.2 there could be an image placed into the background with blur to keep the attention on the character and not the background. The focus needs to remain on the character and the three planes of movement.

Fig. 1.2

Kirby’s Epic Yarn 

Fig 2.1

The backgrounds are simple, bright, block colours that are used like LBP to keep the attention on the player. Even though the backgrounds are simple they still carry on the unique bright and wonderful art style.

Some scenes there is a lot going on in the background but this adds to the atmosphere of the level and boosts the players relationship with the location.

Fig. 2.2

But sometimes as you can see in figure 2.2. There is so much going on, that some times knowing where to look is hard. Project blend wants the focus to be on the character and his change throughout the level so this level of detail if applied will have to remain in check, so that vital character attention is not brocken.


Donkey Kong Country Returns

Donkey Kong, has a cartoony look and feel to it, with a nice rounded character style, bouncing with colour. Some of the backgrounds are close and others appear miles away, with the use of lovely painted backdrops.

I feel this game style will lend it’s self wonderfully to Project Blend.


Donkey Kong is a game where the PC moves along one plane through out the game, though there are sections where the plane is broken or sections where the barrel blaster shoot the PC to a plane in the background.


Super Mario Bros Wii 

Mario has a unique 3D on 2D style.
The main character is in 3D as is the plan he moves left and right on, and the enemies he interacts with; but the background is a single sometimes two image(s).

Usually one image that moves with the player, some levels have two where the closer items move across the background faster than the image behind the first background image.
So there are two background images and front background image and the behind background image, the front background image moves faster across the screen to give an extra layer of depth to the level without having to use more valuable and time consuming 3D models.

Fairytale Fights

Fairytale Fights is full of a vast array of colours, there is an overbearing amount of colours used in each scene; this game would be well to do back through it’s colour scheme and select one set of colours rather than all the colours of the rainbow, like the case study I wrote last week about Devil May Cry; it mainly used greys, blues, and reds, to bring on a gothic feel.
Fairytale just throws colours out everywhere and anywhere.

The actual colours themselves are very bright like you expect a fairytale colour scheme to be. This is the sort of colour I believe would suit Project Blend.

There are a few moments in this game where a killer pop up shoots on the screen. When the PC slashes an NPC in half a pop up comes up showing the killer detail of the NPC’s falling into pieces. This I feel could play a big part in Project Blend as one of the main focuses will be on the change in the PC’s state these pop ups could be used to show off the stealth kills in the game to their full, gory awesomeness!.

HomeRun in Berzerk Land

Homerun in Berzerk Land is a flash game about a PC who as the player progresses can buy the PC bigger and more badass weapons to hit the NPC with; the further the NPC goes the bigger the score.

When the PC hit’s the NPC with his weapon an animation pops up which helps heighten the action and suspense of how far this NPC will go. This animation only pops up when a critical hit is obtained, so this gives the player an extra sense of achievement.

Samurai Jack

I feel in keeping with the anger and rage of the character to show his change to the player another art style could be used over the top of the existing art style to give a MASSIVE! contrast to the rest of the game to give extra emphasis to the pop up motion movies that will give the player his creative madness through loads and loads of gore.

Bleach 

Bleach has a main character that has a character literally with a split personality he is normal but gets taken over by a mask at points in the story, this causes his personality to change and this change is apparent to the character through the use of the mask.

This gets across change excellently without having to use over the top pop up animations.
This will be great for Project blend as it will save the team loads of time in little animations, just to give the character a simple yet apparent change.

Captain Simian and the space Monkeys

The character here has a split personality, there are only a few changes but every time the character changes his personality a small visual change is enough to give the viewer what they need to know a change has occurred.



Bibliography

http://uk.gamespot.com/wii/adventure/kirbysepicyarn/video/6282158/kirbys-epic-yarn-video-review
Kirby, Background Inspiration

http://uk.gamespot.com/wii/adventure/donkeykongcountryreturns/video/6266114/donkey-kong-country-returns-power-punch-trailer
Power Punch Trailer

http://uk.ign.com/videos/2009/11/12/new-super-mario-bros-wii-nintendo-wii-review-video-review?objectid=14354229
Mario review, videos of gameplay.

http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/fairytalefights/images.html?tag=gallery_summary;image_index
Images for Fairytale Fights

http://www.kongregate.com/games/BerzerkStudio/homerun-in-berzerk-land
Game Kongregate - Homerun in Berzerk Land

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-sC3S2qeqs&feature=related
Samurai Jack

http://www.google.co.uk/images?um=1&hl=en&q=Bleach&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=G4-7TMmBOdq5jAffl7nqDg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=8&ved=0CEgQsAQwBw&biw=1392&bih=739
Images from Google for Bleach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L7DcZVyBBs
Captain Simian and the space Monkeys  - Split personality

Devil May Cry - (Short) Case Study

Disclaimer

I’ve spent absolutely hours looking for sources on various websites, I’ve been looking everywhere using all sorts of key words to try and get anything from anywhere.
The best I could get was loads of and loads of sales figures on how well the game sells and an article about the new up and coming Devil May Cry game on how to make a successful sequel.
I tried getting a copy of the game, but no where around where I live seems to sell it, it’s not even in the preowned section, it maybe because the game has been out since 2008. The Playstation network doesn’t even have a demo to download. So, turning up nothing but loose ends, the prospect of finding anything scholarly was looking grim.

So using some advise from David Dorrington, I have been looking at the following websites, including:

http://www.gametrailers.com/
http://www.gamespot.com/
http://uk.ign.com/

For all articles, trailers, reviews and video reviews; to try and get as much info from the websites as possible, about the feel, pace and atmosphere of the game. Below is all the information I found about Devil May Cry (DMC) with regards to the, feel, pace and atmosphere.


Introduction 

A project at the University of East London has been set up called Project Blend. This project, still in development, it’s going through development, by a team of students using a software program called Unity. This project is currently in the research phase of the project and all kinds of information needs to be acquired to make the game as successful as it can be. This case study will look at Devil May Cry with regards to the pace, feel and atmosphere, then relate the findings back to the project it order for the information to be useful to the development team.


Devil May Cry

The Devil May Cry (DMC) series has always been set in a gothic super natural world, with up until the latest installment had Dante, as the protagonist, DMC 4 has a man named Nero; but Dante still plays a cameo role in the new game to keep the fan boys happy.

DMC is a third person, Beat em Up, Puzzler.
Since the first game, the games fundamental mechanics have remained the same, kill a relentless onslaught of undead enemies. As the player progresses through the game each section is locked until the player beats that areas group of enemies. As the player dispatches the undead enemies red orbs are collected, these can be used to buy other moves bigger and better weapons and upgrades for weapons.
While the player attacks the enemy, after the player makes a few consecutive hits to an enemy that connect, a style meter pops up, which grades the player from D to SSS.

Screen Shot of the character Dante

The style meter measures the actions performed by the character
during combat and the amount of variety in attacks or other actions that are
performed in each battle.  The player must perform attacks to increase the style meter gauge. The style meter will rise depending on the variety of attacks that are
unleashed or dodges that are performed.


                    | STYLE LEVEL     |     RANK     |
                    |------------------------------------|
                    | Deadly!         | --> D-rank   |
                    |------------------------------------|
                    | Carnage!         | --> C-rank   |
                    |------------------------------------|
                    | Brutal!         | --> B-rank   |
                    |------------------------------------|
                    | Atomic!                | --> A-rank   |
                    |------------------------------------|
                    | Smokin'!             | --> S-rank   |
                    |------------------------------------|
                    | Smokin' Style!       | --> SS-rank  |
                    |------------------------------------|
                    | Smokin' Sick Style    | --> SSS-rank |
                    +------------------------------------+
          www.GameFaqs.com

While looking extensively at DMC, a game called Bayonetta will be used to reinforce the points raised and made while looking at DMC.
Bayonetta is also a fast pace beat em up set in a gothic setting, while fighting off undead monsters, it’s basically DMC except with a woman as a main character instead of Dante.


Feel, Pace and Atmosphere for Devil May Cry (DMC)

There are many aspects that make up the feel, pace and atmosphere of a game too numerous to mention here.
So to keep it specific and to the point I will only use the following methods to help describe the feel, pace and atmosphere:

Sounds
Coming from character (PC and weapon)
Background music
Sound Effects

Level
Colours used in levels
Layout of level
Objects within the level

Flow
The amount of NPC’s
Combo moves
Obstacles in level


Sounds

In DMC there are many different sound effects and musical scores going on at the same time, the music most of all, segues perfectly.  Take an empty house for example, there’ll be slow creepy music playing in the background, with noises reminiscent of ghosts,  then once an enemy comes adjacent to the PC, heavy, fast paced, loud music plays, to go with the flow of the change in the PC and it’s actions. (www.Gamespot.com DMC Gameplay Movie 9)
This type of musical theme helps the player, by giving constant feedback about when it’s time to relax from the busy set action pieces. This is also the case for Bayonetta, if the main character attacks an NPC, the music dynamically changes track to fit the situation.

To reinforce the gothic vibe the levels have running through them, the PC makes noises when swinging his sword and shooting his gun, almost constantly.
It’s as if to let the player know that fighting these undead enemies isn’t exactly a piece of cake. This gives a sense of fear to the player as every blow that is swapped with the enemy, is met with a grunt or a swosh of a sword.
This all adds dramatic tension to the fights to make them more of an adrenaline rush to the player, which does help with the dark gothic theme. This is similar for Bayonetta, though there is less grunting and more killer moves which is Bayonetta's own way of giving the player a different kind of tension.

A giant spiked wheel that spins over the enemy until dead.

When the PC picks up items theirs a loud almost bang noise, which has a church bell like quality to it. (www.Gamespot.com DMC Gameplay Movie 1)
This all adds to the gothic vibe to work together with the music, and sound effects from the PC to create a creepy, scary haunted mansion feel.


Level

For the colour pallet of the game theirs generally just dark grey’s, blues and red’s. These colours help to reinforce the dark gothic feel of the game as this makes things dark and erie looking. Nothing in the game, not even the interface is colourful all the colours are dark and gothic, all of which complement each other nicely.

A collection of Red's, Blue's and Grey's.

Within the specific levels of the game there is a dark gothic theme that runs throughout to keep the tone and atmosphere throughout the game. To keep this theme running through the game the rooms are massive and are modeled to look like an old mansion.

This is backed up with loads of other objects that look like they should be in the level such as long tables and huge vases and statues of women that can be smashed so that the player can obtain points to progress through the game.


Flow

DMC has a very well structured system for pacing the gameplay. Throughout the game, as the PC enters a room red bars pop up across the door the PC needs to go through to continue the campaign. These bars will stay there until all NPC’s are dispatched, which will slow the progress of the player.

This is a clever technique to stop player running past enemies and continuing to the next room as this keeps the pace the developers intended for it.

Red bars prevent players from progressing until all enemies are dispatched. 

While dispatching enemies in a room the players style meter will increase, this will encourage the player to be inventive in each room; as more points are awarded for varying their approach to each NPC.


Devil May Cry has always offered the most hardcore action, and Devil May Cry is not different: it’s a game that’s aching for you to smash things up, whether that’s the scenery, or one of the inspired selection of evil demons - IGN.UK

This helps the feel of the game as the player will feel more investment is needed in each room rather then just having to dispatch enemy units.

Certain rooms contain boxes, which can be smashed by the player, some of these boxes have hidden items in them, which can be or good use at a later stage in the game.
These boxes and vases help set the mood as part of the feng shui and add a good pace to the game, they break up the combat for the player. Before they run into the next group of enemies they get to do some exploring and see what they can find, all this extra smashing helps reinforce the beat em up mechanics and the atmosphere of the level as it helps set the gothic mood.


In Closing

Devil May Cry 4 is a quality game that is a great addition to the Devil May Cry series, it’s got some great mechanics that really make it shine and stand out from the other games. Some of the stand out bits that would be worth while considering for Project Blend are:

Colour palette
The dark gothic colours wont be of any use to the project, but the strong use of only three colours primarily throughout the game, make for an interesting colour theme.

Blood
This was mainly in Bayonetta as DMC’s blood was dark red and blended in with all the other colours of the game, but with Bayonetta, the blood stood out and heavily contrasted form the background. The Blend project could benefit from something like this with all the types of bright vibrant colours of various fruits.

Style Meter
Both DMC and Bayonetta have style meter combo bars in their games, both standing out from the rest of the interface to bring this achievement to the players attention straight away, this is a positive reinforcement mechanic for the player giving them positive feedback will be a way of keeping the comedy and light heartedness that project blend is trying to incorporate into their game.


Music

Both games have good sound tracks and sound effects, they have a good way of segueing into one another, they carefully dyamicaly blend one song into another without any gap in the music.
Keeping this sort of attention to musical detail may prove to be vital to keeping the pace; which could in turn help to keep the pace in the game Project Blend are producing.

Maybe these core mechanics could be used in Project blend with a little tweaking they could be made for the game and hopefully add some quality moments to the game.


Bibliography

http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/938686-devil-may-cry-4/faqs/51976

http://www.gametrailers.com/

http://www.gamespot.com/

http://uk.ign.com/

http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/849/849615p1.html

http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/devilmaycry4/video/6186187/devil-may-cry-4-gameplay-movie-9
- > Devil May Cry Gameplay video No.9 - Change in level music.

http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/devilmaycry4/video/6169991/devil-may-cry-4-gameplay-movie-1?tag=videos;title;12
- > Devil May Cry Gameplay Video No.1

http://uk.ign.com/videos/2009/12/21/bayonetta-playstation-3-review-video-review?objectid=14253676
- - > Bayonetta video review IGN.UK

http://uk.gamespot.com/ps3/action/bayonetta/video/6243576/bayonetta-gameplay-trailer-5?tag=videos;title;6
- > Bayonetta Gameplay Video No.6

http://uk.ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/14253676/bayonetta/images/bayonetta-screens-20091027094303546.html
- - > Bayonetta Images IGN.UK

http://uk.ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/748464/devil-may-cry-4/images/devil-may-cry-4-20071018095400417.html
- - > Devil May Cry Images. IGN.UK

Game pitch - Busting in at SEGA

Inspiration

When thinking about a game idea, I was thinking of something that would be simple for the whole team to make and at the same time challenging; so that if time allowed more levels and more complex puzzles and dimensions to the puzzles could be added.
So I was thinking of a Point and Click game the most recent of which that I have been playing is Machinarium(2009), (fig 1). This is a simple game where the player click as a part of the screen for the PC to interact with it or pick up certain objects. Machinarium’s level of beauty is breath taking and the attention to detail in the puzzles is excellent. But... this game suffers from the same problem all point and click games do. In one room you pick up certain objects and have to use them on certain things to pass, all the way to the unavoidable end.

Fig 1 

So what I was thinking was maybe like Mass Effect 2 (2010) a level of choice could be added to the game, giving the player a sense of change in the game, to make them think that what their going affects the gameplay, to add multiple endings depending on how badly the player messes up. Because in Mass effect 2 (fig 2), the player can chose what they want to say to NPC’s, this in turn affects their mood towards you, determining wether or not they will willingly! help you or not.

Fig 2

High Concept

Point and Click adventure with multiple paths leading to multiple endings.


Unique selling point

Busting in at Sega’s unique selling point is that this point and click adventure has more than one ending, depending on how you interact with the NPC’s during the game.


Story - Busting in at SEGA

Michael wants a job at SEGA but doesn’t have the same long list of qualifications that all his competitors do, but what he does have is a mad set of skills that will help him make a world class game.

So one day after applying what seemed like everywhere, while standing outside of Sega, Michael decided that something drastic had to be done.

So the game starts with Michael outside the SEGA building and the player can chose to go in through the door or window, once inside the player will have to make their way through various rooms interacting with the employees that work there to gain access to the boss for a job interview. 

When the player does click on an NPC’s their will be a chat log that pops up with multiple choices of text to chose from just like Mass Effect. Having good choices neutral choices and bad choices.
Depending on who the player does or doesn’t talk to, what the player does or doesn’t touch depends on the outcome of the game and wether or not Michael lands a job at SEGA.


Bibliography

(Amanita Design, Machinarium, 2009.)
(BioWare, Mass Effect 2, 2010.)

Hello World

Hello World

I now have a blog. Hooray!