LO4 - Analysis of current market trends.

At the moment in the app store on iOS, games similar to ours include Subway Surfers and Temple Run 2 which are 14th and 68th top games in the App Store respectively (based on the iOS app store). These games are all similar due to having either sections (or the full game consisting of) mine cart / train related features whilst being endless arcades. 

These games are similar to our concept 'Off the Rails'  having similar styles or characters, meaning we would be closely competing against them as a company to push revenue over towards our game. Even though there are many similarities in our game, we have some key differences which may push our game above the competition. These features include:

Track swapping at junctions (points) only, rather than at any point in time. 
Signals to give the user information on approaching danger, giving the user more than one way of being successful at the game.
Character as train. In comparison to our competitors, our character is actually a train rather than a human, this gives us unique traits like customisation and much more.
Our coin system 'Rail Coins' provide an effective way to change settings, revive your character, or change your train. The potential is endless... !!

For that reason we believe people who enjoy endless arcade runners will love our game, for the unique features we offer in comparison to our competitors

LO4 - Treatment | Planning Documents

-Treatment or proposal for the final game (fine detail in a document). - Kayna

The Brief

We have been asked to develop an original game idea and illustrate planning for a new game that we will pitch to professionals within the gaming industry.

Concept Idea

Our final game idea is a never ending mobile game that challenges the player to avoid obstacles. The aim is to stay on the train tracks for as long as possible without dying; otherwise the game will be over.

Target AudienceThe target audience for our game will consist of males and females between the ages of 10-20. We are aiming "Off The Rails" at people of both ethnicities and any subculture that belong to the social demographics B-E.

Key Milestones

Planning - 14/03/16(Identify target audience etc.)

Creation- 28/03/16
(create assets, identify gameplay etc.)

Finalise the presentation- 04/04/16

Pitch the presentation-   14/04/16

Equipment/Resources

Computer - to create all the pre-production documents & design visuals.

Word/Blogger- to type and store documents and material on.PowerPoint- to create pre-production documents on.
Photoshop- to design visuals and platforms.
Internet access- to save files and send them to the rest of the team.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Copyright– This enables original material such as pictures, music, literature and videos to be protected. It prevents others from using your material without the necessary permissions. It is important to gain permissions so we don't run into any legal implications within the development of our game. we will have to be careful not to infringe the copyright of games like Subway Surfers and Rail Rush.

Rating- This identifies the most suitable age for players of our game. It is based off the content of the game. The app would be rated age 3+ on iOS and Android. It wouldn’t be rated by PEGI since it is a free app and not a major console game. We plan to only include very mild violent content such as when the train crashes. Other than this, "Off The Rails" will be suitable for younger players.

Contingencies

Our work gets deleted. - Make sure everything is backed up.A member of the group isn't here. - Make sure we all have access to copies of all the work.Somebody pitches a similar idea. - Research ways to make our game more original.

LO4 - Gantt Chart

LO4 - Early Video Game Pitch - [ Boat Bashers ]

LO4 Imaginary Entity

Graham, aged 14, is all about gaming. It's a fun way for him to pass his time when he's bored at home and it's subconsciously become a part of his everyday life. Gaming has become one of his main hobbies alongside the rest of his social activities.

Whether he's gaming alone, or with his friends it has become an easy way for Graham to relax and enjoy himself. Graham and his friends play on video games together most days after school; it's become a good form of social interaction for them all. When he's not gaming he is talking to his friends about his most recent gaming experience.

Although Graham focuses a lot on gaming, he's able to pull himself away and focus on his everyday tasks. But when he’s not able to game, Graham keeps up to date with the gaming world through his weekly subscription to a gaming magazine which he spends his nights reading.

LO4 - Production Schedule for the Game

LO4 - Visual Representations of Characters / Levels / Gameplay

LO4 - Pitch presentation

On Wednesday 13th April, we (Me, Alex, Kayna, Sammie) pitched our Off the Rails presentation to Dave from Sumo Digital. This is the presentation:

The feedback we received by Dave was extremely positive and overall no criticism was presented. He showed particular interest in the games visuals (done by me) and that he could envisage the game becoming a real product. He also commented on the overall organisation of the power point being 'well presented'. 

Parts of the presentation that I performed:

- Gameplay

- Title Screen 

- Textures (tracks)

- Textures (signals)

- Budget (extra at end, not included in final powerpoint) 

LO4 - Budgeting a new game idea

LO4 - My Responsibilities & Team Roles

My Roles

In our group (Me, Alex, Kayna, Josh and Sammie), we are working on the game Off the Rails which is an iOS / Android game. The roles i have been assigned are:

Gameplay Design

Vehicle Design

Logo Design

Asset Design

Presentation of the final piece

Bits of other things to help the team

Team Roles

Treatment or proposal  for the final game. - Kayna

Competent production schedule for the final game. - Kayna

Gameplay with associated visuals. - Matt

Target audience – Moodboard, description, imaginary entity. - Kayna, Alex, Josh, Sammie

Relevant legal and/or ethical issues – PEGI rating, Copyright, Music etc.- Alex

Platform details and requirements – Justification for selection. - Alex

Examples of levels – Visuals and layouts. - Matt

Plot synopsis and characters. - Alex, Kayne

Financial breakdown of development costs - Sammie, Josh

LO4 - Choose One Game

Boat Bashers

Boat bashers is a closed world arcade game in which 4 players (or x players > 4 play AI's) battle it out in speedboats to bash into each other causing damage until only one remains. Power-ups give in games advantages to help you become the winner! Maps would be relatively big, and power ups can give players an edge over their opponents. Power ups could include: bigger boat, faster boat, boat change and much more. 

The best platform for this game would be the mobile market, with 4 player being over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, or on PC with controller/keyboard combination with split screen.

The target audience would be quite large for this type of game, as the only restricting feature of this game would be classed as 'violence' 

The genre it would fit into would be arcade.

Games thats Boat Bashers is similar to do include: Driver: Speedboat Paradise, or Riptide GP2. These games are similar to the concept idea Boat Bashers as they both involve boats and the cartoony physics i wish to pastiche. 

LO4 - Designing a game [MindMap]

L03 - Task 1 | Game Review of Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V Review

Grand Theft Auto: V (or 5) is an open world, action adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on the 17^th September 2013 for older consoles like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Furthering this the games then was re-mastered for next generation consoles such as the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 and re-released on the 18^th November 2013. This introduced many new features such as first person mode, new options in the online mode, and overall enhanced graphics. Finally the game was then brought out on the PC on the 14^th April 2015. To this day GTA V is one of the top selling games ever released, being 4^th on the ‘list of best-selling video games’ page by Wikipedia. This not only outlines the games success, but the quality of the game for such ratings.

(SPOILER WARNING – DO NOT READ UNLESS WISHING TO LEARN WHAT HAPPENS IN THE GAME)

The game has both multiplayer (called GTA Online) and campaign mode, in which you partake as three characters - Michael, Franklin and Trevor – to rob banks, steal aircraft and much more content that action seekers will love. The game uses two original characters, Michael and Trevor in its campaign which allows fans of the enterprise to relate to previous games in the Grand Theft Auto series. From the beginning of the game you play as Trevor, and Michael who are in their young stages of life and assist with the robbing of a bank which goes horribly wrong, leading to close friend Brad dying and the team splitting. After 9 years the player meets Franklin, a young coloured character and soon meets up with Michael after a repossession gone wrong scenario with Michael’s car. This then leads to a small heist with a jewellery shop and causes Trevor (now living as a drug dealer in the `rough` parts of the state) to hear that Michael is not dead, but alive. This causes Trevor to become curious, and leads to the three characters forming an alliance. During this, Michael’s family deserts him, The FIB (federal investigation bureau) catch up with the team and Trevor discovers about the death of Brad, instead of friend Michael.

This leads to the team splitting but eventually regrouping for the planning of their most dangerous plot yet, raiding the Union depository’s gold bullion reserve. The plan is set ahead and is completed successfully, and following this the three head their own ways, ceasing to work together but remaining mutual friends.

(SPOILER END)

The campaign was a brilliant plot with many twists and turns making you feel for all sides and even after the story is complete, players can still spend hours upon hours of purchasing, customising and using cars, guns, aircraft and much more; as well as exploring the state of Los Santos fully and partaking in minigames that live up to solo game’s performance, including golf, tennis, darts, and much more.

This is all without mentioning about the games multiplayers, which unlike the games outstanding campaign, does fall short as some aspects. As expected the games performance and graphics are outstanding, and this transfers to the multiplayer as well. Features like online heists demand teamwork whilst minigames like team death match or last team standing allow players to enjoy the ‘shoot ‘em up’ approach, going against everyone else. If the player doesn’t feel like doing and minigames, they can free roam the open world with everything being customisable, including the player, cars, house, garage and weapons. Players can also meet with friends and do daring stunts, like base jumping off cliffs or skyscrapers; or diving in the ocean.

Contrastingly however, the game’s multiplayer does encounter a few flaws, including the ‘must shoot everyone’ problem which occurs when players feel unsafe around others, an example of which could be placed in the scenario of two players (labelled player one and player two). If player one has the feeling player two wants to hurt player one, then player one may kill player two. This causes player two to become violent to player one which further causes an escalating war. Unfortunately many players feel like this in Grand Theft Auto: Online which in my opinion, has led to players not bonding, or becoming friends.

Regardless the online multiplayer of the game is still very good, and is amazing to say players get all the campaign as well for the $50 (~£37) price tag.

Online multiplayer has also received negative feedback due to micro-transactions being in the game, allowing players with real world money to purchase in game currency via ‘shark cards’. This would allow a player to gain better cars, apartments and guns without the need of earning them. However due to the overall good balance of combat and vehicles in the game, this wasn’t much concern to me as many players found the game to still be incredibly fun even if they weren’t driving an upgraded sports car. What’s more, the game also allows vehicles to spawn in randomly, meaning that players can still fly the expensive planes, drive expensive cars, and sail expensive boats without the need to buy them.

Upon playing the game on the PC, I immediately felt it needed to be played with a controller, as shooter games don’t feel the same without the trigger feel that a controller has. Others may have a different opinion but for this reason I felt that the game was made for console, even though the port for controller usage on the PC has become widely accepted now. The controls on both keyboard and mouse and controller were fast, responsive and smooth as expected, and in game prompts for entering vehicles (press Y to enter) made for an overall better experience. As previously mentioned the trigger for shooting guns felt good as always and vibration sensors made for a more immersive feel. However for new players who have never played a GTA game, getting used to the different button mapping for the game may be difficult (for example on many games the right analogue stick pressed in causes the player to run, however on GTA the sprint button is mapped to A [on a 360 controller]).

For none tech savvy players, the game review ends here. In my opinion the game is a brilliant addition to the GTA series and should be really considered to be bought if you haven’t already, the effort that has gone into the game can be seen when playing and aesthetically, the game is beautiful and mechanics work great. I would personally rate the game 8.8/10 for in game performance and beauty, with the only flaws being as stated earlier about the multiplayer.

For the real geek, let’s get onto benchmarking results and other advanced gameplay features. On a PC running a Nvidia GTX 760 OC 2gb, 8gb Ram and AMD FX-4130 3.8ghz computer; the game runs on high graphics setting at around 45 fps on a 1080p monitor, however with a GTX 770, the game should run on very high with no problems. The game has some artifacting in places, however this is only minor and can be dealt with quite easily by waiting for the terrain to load. The games engine runs quite well with high attention to detail on post rendering effects, and texture quality. On ultra-settings the game could be compared to real life quite significantly, and character animations run smoothly with no major out of place bone movement.

The game’s first person mode also allows for the spectating of interior views of vehicles which are rendered to significantly good detail. The only flaw for the rendering of objects, was the vehicles model structure, which on the DLC vehicles has only a plain carbon texture on the bottom of the vehicles, putting a negative view on Rockstar’s time usage with regards to the modelling of DLC vehicles.

Online mode seems to also be in-effectively coded, taking the user ~3-4 minutes to get into a networked session, compared to other games in the genre, which take only around 30 seconds to get online with friends. However this may be due to the amount of processing needed for the game to load all server-side settings and player co-ordinates, as well as terrain placement and player save data to be loaded successfully.

In conclusion, my review on GTA V with regards to benchmarking results and rendering performance causes the game to drop to a 7.8/10 due to the lack of effort seemingly gone into making the game the spick and span game it is made out to be. This along with slight artifacting can on occasion cause a player to lose a fight, even though networking latency (ping) is overall very good. In my opinion the game is still great to get if playing on a next generation or high end PC, but not so much for budget gaming PC’s or older consoles like the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Thank you for reading this review, and hopefully it has pushed potential buyers of the game to a well thought out decision. This review is all the opinion of me, so gameplay may be felt different to different players. Please take this into consideration when thinking about purchasing a game. Thank you.

Starter Task - Second Person

Second person allows the user to experience the game as if it were their own. Using words like ‘You can’ or ‘You can’t’ it provides the user with the feeling that if they own the game, their experiences would feel the same as the reviewers. It also suggests that the review feels more personal than if it wasn’t in second person

‘Forza 5 is gorgeous and smooth as butter, and it’s utterly enchanting handling makes it a joy to drive hard, but this game is more than just a rock solid technical titan for the Xbox one’.

This review would influence me to play the game by using all the games characteristics and quotations from experienced car reviewers/drivers.

L02 - Written Comparison

In reading/viewing reviews in two different media, one aspect which really stood out was the formality of both articles. In the magazine the review seemed to be shortened, leaving what some people would consider important for a game review out. However for what the magazine stated it was written with formal text, very little form of comedy and a ‘stereotypical review’. On the other hand the video review stuck with moderate formality, but also went into a lot more detail than the magazine review, providing more information about the deeper story, graphics and objective of the game.

Genre was portrayed in both media to be a horror game, which although was never stated for certain provided elaborate information on the game horror tone. Once again the magazine did this in a more concise way than the video, which went into more detail about the horror side of the game.

Target audience was never really mentioned in the magazine but through what the magazine stated in a simile (‘…is that awkward person you don’t want to talk to at any any given time’), suggesting that the game is more for the teenage variety. Console information also backs this up by being for the Xbox One, a console with the vast majority being sold to teenagers. The target audience in the video was never really mentioned either, however the video did say ‘Horror fans praised the short, experimental genre’ – suggesting through genre that horror fans will enjoy the game.

The games narrative portrays the same concept in both Medias, although worded differently. The magazine review went more into depth about the well-known character of slender saying ‘whenever slender man appears the screen goes nuts… the longer you succeed in escaping his clutches, the more frequently he’ll show up’. Similarly the online review mentions about the game based on the horror aspect, which becomes more difficult the further you get into the game.

Gameplay is where the magazine review becomes seemingly biased towards the game, not really mentioning the gameplay but masking it with ‘If you like horror and you’ve yet to have the pleasure of Slender Man’s company, his xbox one incarnation is absolutely worth its budget price tag’. This seems to be a ‘Sales tag’ for the game and doesn’t really mention much about the gameplay. The online review heavily contrasts with the magazines stating ‘A vast majority of it boils down to finding a certain number of objects whilst a increasingly dangerous enemy stalks you’. This provides the gameplay in Its literal gameplay objective stating it how it is, rather than covering it up with lines like ‘Is absolutely worth its budget price tag’.

Characters aren’t mentioned much in either review, and the main protagonist isn’t mentioned at all. Although not anonymous the articles seem to define enemy ‘Slender’ rather than yourself. The magazine gives an especially short portfolio of slender stating him to be ‘a lanky dude in a suit’.

Platforms were mentioned in both to be on the Xbox One. Stating it how it is.

Personal recommendation of the writer once again seems to be biased towards buying the game in the magazine article, saying that ‘If you like horror and you’ve yet to have the pleasure of Slender Man’s company, his xbox one incarnation is absolutely worth its budget price tag’. This (same as before) points the user to buying the game rather than mentioning anything wrong with the game. The online reviewer’s opinion more heavily critiqued the game, saying ‘Slender the arrival manages to deliver some truly impressive scares, although you’ll have to wade through the muck of repetitive tasks and unfair enemies in order to experience them. I preferred the original free version of the game…’.

L01 Business Report - Feedback sheet

Feedback sheet for business report

L01 Business Report | Rockstar Games / Rockstar North

Rockstar Games – Research

Structure

Rockstar Games is a video game development company and company created in 1998 to create ‘the most innovative and progressive interactive entertainment’ and is owned by Take-Two interactive. Based in New York City, Rockstar Games is commonly known for its AAA title Grand Theft Auto series. Rockstar Games are also commonly known to providing open world games with free play ability (no solid story line). The company comprises of several other acquired or renamed companies which have merged to create the Rockstar Brand.

Although Rockstar itself was created in New York City, the company was actually founded by English games designers Sam Houser and Dan Houser; both of whom are co-founders of the company. Rockstar games has also bought English games company BMG Interactive shortly after passing ownership to Take-Two interactive.

Platform Tech

Rockstar Games develop across multiple platforms, including games consoles Microsoft Xbox and Sony Playstation, aswell as having a huge market on the PC as well. Rockstar also have recently developed applications to run alongside their games on the mobile platform, and have also released some of their best games to the mobile platform aswell. Rockstar also have spent time developing for Apple Mac which is unusual due to the software and hardware limitations on these devices. Although Rockstar has developed multiple award winning games they are still yet to release console exclusives; in-game editor for Rockstar’s GTA V was originally thought to be only for the PC, which would have been a PC exclusive, however, due to the overwhelming success of this in game feature as a company the decision was made to release this content to gaming consoles aswell.

Game Types

Rockstar games develop across multiple different genres and game types, although most commonly they are well known across the world for their work on the Action, Drama and Freeplay genres with their award winning Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series following exactly that. Due to their popular success in their mature game development, it might come to some surprise that RockStar also have made games such as: ‘Rockstar games presents: Table Tennis’, a game developed for the Nintendo Wii console aimed at a younger audience and placed within the sports genre. The company have also developed games in the Racing, western and stealth genres as well.  

Games on multiple platforms

The majority of games created by rockstar appear over multiple platforms, mostly Xbox, Playstation (next generation and old generation) and PC. Games include all from the GTA series, Max Payne series and also the red dead redemption series. Some of rockstar’s GTA games have also now made it onto the mobile platform with the increased hardware capabilities over the past few years. The rockstar company has also taken a real step towards gaming over multiple platforms with new cloud features allowing gamers to transfer their in-game character wealth and content between consoles easily and simply.

Regulatory Bodies

Rockstar Games uses PEGI (Pan European Game Information) for it’s information board. PEGI is a games rating Information Company that states the legal age to purchase the game and could either be: 3, 7, 12, 16, or 18. Most of rockstar’s games fall under the 18 category however some of their games for (e.g) the Nintendo wii, fall under the ‘3’ category as they are aimed at younger children.

Development Software

Rockstar Games uses the RAGE (rockstar advanced game engine) which is developed by the RAGE Technology Group and was used to produce award winning games GTA V, Red dead redemption and Max Payne 3.  RAGE technology group is a company owned by rockstar san Diego and is not commercially available for other companies to use.

L01 Games Analysis | Just Cause 2

In this analysis of the game Just Cause 2, i will be commenting on different aspects of the game as well as make comments on the overall game experience.

The style of this game is a third person action shooter and the genre of the game is an action/open world genre. It shows the stylistic conventions of the genre by having a huge open world layout and shooter campaign in which you play as main character Rico who is an overpowered spy.

In comparison with other games with the same genre, Just Cause 2 did extremely well and won multiple awards. Although it was released in 2010 it still competes extremely well with newly released titles of the genre today, such as GTA V and Fallout 4.

The story being told throughout the game is that you are an agent named rico on the isle of Panau here to investigate about corrupt president baby panau. As you progress through the game you realise that what you were told is a lot worse. The story informs the gameplay by centring the single player gameplay around the story. In which you complete tasks around the world to cause ‘chaos’ which leads the unlocking of more story missions. The story uses stereotype a lot, with hatred experienced towards the corrupt president and Rico (main character) having no fear at all. The story connects to the target audience by having a near enough invincible main character with the ability to do anything.

The game was produced by Avalanche Studios on March 23^rd 2010. The use of a near enough invincible character makes the audience feel the same way. For most people this was a brilliant way for them to develop the game as no-one can become frustrated with the game, henceforth significantly improving the gameplay aspect. The overall physics engine was fantastic with Air, land and sea vehicles functioning near enough perfectly. One this that was missing though was a destruction engine, due to the lack of computing power at the time. The overall physics engine allowed enhancements to the gameplay by providing a unique method of attacking a mission, making every mission unique.   

Characters are relevant to the target audience by providing a supreme character to play as which makes the audience feel in Rico’s shoes. This appeals to the audience as it provides a character that the audience of the genre will love. The characteristics of the genre towards the characters are suggested with the ninja look and weapons mounted on Rico’s side. Overall the character feels very strong and as stated near enough invincible.

The target audience for the game just cause 2 is > 16 males who enjoy the shooting and open world genre. Indicators for this include the campaign which contains swearing that younger children might not like to hear. It also contains strong violence. The game appeals to the target audience by containing the open world approach when the player can complete the game in whatever way they want, which allows a dynamic twist to the story.
The game compares to others with similar audiences quite similar to games like GTA V or Call of Duty, due to the open world and shooting genre.

The game JC2 is available on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. And is now more suited towards the PC due to the creation of the multiplayer mod, which allows players to now enjoy the open world together.