Proposal

Final Major Project Proposal EDEXCEL Level 3 BTEC Extended Diploma in Interactive Media with Game Design
Learner Name: Elliot Fenton
City of Bristol College School Media & Art College Green Centre, St Georges Road Bristol BS1 5UA
Specialist Area: Interactive Media/Game Design
Date: 13th March 2013
Section 1 Working title: To be decided based upon completion of storyboard and characters Ideally, a working game will be the final product. This game should be under the genre of ‘2d sidescrolling platformer’. By this I mean fully functional, not a complete few-hour-long game to professional standards, but to a high standard nonetheless. I could base it upon Arcade and oldschool console classics like Super Mario and Donkey Kong Country games. Hopefully I will be able to make an original, unique game that can stand out, despite taking influences from these and more. I will use Unity as it is the engine I know the most about. I also feel that its dedicated 2D plane of working would be beneficial here: I would like my fighting game to be 2-dimensional and this particular engine would make this a lot easier to implement. My inspirations will include the games I mentioned above, but will also include games like the recent popular Arcade releases on Xbox and Playstation, for example, Supermeatboy, Scott Pilgrim, etc. These games proved that retro-style games can be, and are fun without being graphically impressive, or even too complex. With this in mind I plan on making a game that really focuses on gameplay; I do personally believe that with big budget games of recent, the main focal point has been graphical complexity – I definitely do not think this should be their priority, merely a nice addition for ‘bonus points’.
Section 2 I will try to take a lot of influence with my project, and make sure that my project only takes the best parts of each influence. For example, I will take inspiration from the platforming nature of old Mario games, or even newer Mario games (although between the two, there are virtually no differences). Overall, the game will be a side-scrolling platformer in 2D and I hope that the inspirations are seen through the final piece – I want mine to be compared to some of the greats, if possible. I am going to use the basis of old, nostalgia-inducing graphics and art styles as my general feel for the game as this is my preferred style when I personally play games. Effectively, this is me taking an influence from my own experience – using what I know to influence my choices.   My sources will include books and websites. I will mostly use websites, as they are the easiest to access for me. I will try to stay away from Wikipedia and non-official-looking websites as I can never trust what is written to be the truth. Therefore if I DO use websites, I will make sure they are legitimate, such as articles, news sites, etc. Overall I believe it is best to find the research and examples in a physical copy, but these days this seems to be harder to do. Regardless, I will try my best to find them, unless it is not possible; for example, if the research were playing through a game, I would have to use the medium the game was created on. For an Xbox arcade title, I would need to use the Xbox to get the research.
Section 3 I will be using Unity to create my game. Within Unity, there are many techniques to use, all of which are obviously digital techniques and processes, as Unity is software. My non-digital techniques or processes will be drawings, rough sketches I imagine. This is because I am not too confident in my drawing skills as it is but I will definitely need to portray what I want to end up with, in a physical copy, so a quick drawing would count as this. I would also need to draw for a storyboard, which is another thing I may need to make. In Unity I will have to use scripting, terrain creation, assets and prefabs. I will need to use Cinema 4D if I want to create prefabs, which are 3d rendered images, to a high standard.       Week 1: Research successful games of a similar genre Week 2: Create title screen and story Week 3: Draw characters and level on paper Week 4: Create level prefabs in Cinema 4D and level music in Garage Band (may carry over to week 5) Week 5: Create 3d characters in Cinema 4D and anything not finished from last week Week 6: Import characters to level, start final game Week 7: More working on final game level, script writing Week 8: Should be halfway through game by now Week 9: Finish game Week 10: Build, evaluate, hand in
Section 4 I will document my evaluation with a Word document. Within this, I will write about what went well, what didn’t go as well as planned, and what I would like to do differently if given another chance. Obviously I do not know what went well or not just yet, I will not know until it is done. So until then, I can only hope everything goes well. If all goes to plan, I will have a complete level of a side-scrolling, maybe platform-style game upon completion of this unit. This, I hope, will channel old greats of this type like Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario, and more, which will be major influences.

Story

Story – Mega Bario Siblings

Our hero, Bario Squeegee, is a retired handyman. He spent his whole life as a handyman, as it was all he could do. Now, he lives life thinking of what could have been, but little does he know that his own life is about become much more exciting…

Bario is out for a walk and sees an odd sewer pipe near his house, which he does not recognise. He had lived in his home for 30 years and had never seen this pipe, and it seemed to show up overnight.

He goes to investigate, and is sucked in; when he finally regains control of his movement, he notices something different.

This world is solely 2-dimensional! And along with this, he sees strange colourful blocks seemingly hovering above the ground, weird-looking creatures and more.

This starts off his journey into this fantastic unnamed world.

Research

This is the Research task set in the Brief. I aim to look at games of similar style, genre, or overall feel in this task. I will also look at methods of creating what I want to achieve.


The first game I looked at and analysed was the first ever game to feature the iconic Nintendo mascot, Mario. Many believe Mario's first appearance was in Mario Bros. from 1983, but it was in fact the game Donkey Kong from 1981, created for games arcades and only being available at such. It was made by Nintendo who, back then, were not well very known in the gaming industry. As they seemed to be among few creating games at this early era of gaming, they made the most of the fact that it was a new thing and they strived to be the best at it. And nobody can really argue with that.

As I had no arcade cabinet, I had to find the game online on a website. I played it on a site called classicgamesarcade.com. As expected due to its time of creation, the game was very simple, but by no means easy. This is quite an important aspect, actually: The idea that a game can be simple but still a challenge. Sometimes, there is no need to be mindbogglingly complex to a point where it's hard because you just do not know what's going on, but hard because of required skill, timing, etc.
Looking at the aesthetics, the hardware limitations were a huge part of just what could go into the game. I believe that with limitations comes more creativity in a way, as if given no limits, a game can just have anything and everything thrown in 'because it can be' - a very bad idea. However, with such limitations as the early arcade cabinets, there isn't even space for creativity, so they had to make the background very basic (just a black screen with some red lines to be the platforms, actually), but I believe the sprites, particularly of Donkey Kong, are quite nice looking despite the limitations.

The style of this game seems to be quite cartoony, which is what I'd like mine to be. I don't know if this is cartoon-like on purpose, or if that's because of the limitations of that time. It's possible that both are true - perhaps the creators, Nintendo, knew of their restrictions and aimed to create a game whose style takes full advantage of this. For a game made in 1981, it does seem to have a nice, animated cartoon sort of style which makes it seem more of a family game, which is what it was released as.

Overall, I didn't play this game for too long as to me, it's a little bit boring. I can see how it was good at its time, but as games have evolved SO MUCH since then it's all a little underwhelming in this day and age. The mechanics are there, however, and the control scheme is tight enough that if you mess up, it's only your fault and not because of slow button reactions or things like this, which may have been a problem back then.

After this, I looked at what may well be Mario's most well-known outing, in Super Mario Bros. from 1985. Only 4 years after Donkey Kong, this game is a massive step up, thanks in part to the console the game was created for: The Nintendo Entertainment System (known as the Famicom, short for Family Computer, in Japan). With its superior hardware, the game had much more potential to look a lot nicer and become a lot deeper in terms of gameplay. It is another Nintendo game and as such has been hailed as one of the best games of its time, due in part to its great looking new graphics and what I can only describe as Nintendo's hard-working efforts; their hope to create the best games at the time.

Again, I did not own the console myself so could not play the game, but I instead looked at videos based upon the game, including this one: (youtube video)
I was already aware of how this game looked, played and felt as I had played sequels and remakes which are similar in gameplay. This game was likely one of the first solid platformers for a home console, and was something of a revolution at its time. As I wrote, this was only made 4 years after Donkey Kong, and aesthetically, there is a very big difference.
From what I could see, it was again not an easy game, but still fairly simple in gameplay. Simply jump onto/over enemies, over holes, and into blocks. One important feature was the powerups from these blocks, which would add another feature to the game: a projectile attack in the form of a fireball. A mechanic was put in place whereby on being touched by an enemy you would lose the powerup and not die straight away. This was somewhat more forgiving than the previous game as it was one touch, one death. So in this way, it was made more convenient.

Looking at it in this screenshot, I don't know if Mario's sprite really matches the overall artwork. If you look at the pipes, clouds, boxes etc. you can see these dark outlines, whereas on Mario and other moving sprites, there are none. Whether this was, again, done on purpose or because of limitations... I can't really say. What I can say, however, is that despite not matching, that doesn't mean it looks bad. In fact, the contrast is quite nice to look at and it definitely helps you see exactly where you are at any time, exactly where enemies are, and more.
In my own game, I was going to have my character look slightly different to everything else similar to how it is here. In the end, I didn't stick with that idea, but it would have been an homage to this style that we see in Super Mario Bros.

The next game I researched was a game called Super Meat Boy (produced by Team Meat in 2010). This was already mentioned in my brief, I wrote that it and some other downloadable arcade games on consoles "proved that retro-style games can be fun without being graphically impressive, or even too complex".  By this, I mean that the game itself is fairly basic and perhaps unpolished, (this is not to say the game didn't have time spent on it) while still looking quite nice. It does not need complex lighting, bloom effects, anti-aliasing and such, just (mostly) bright colours, black outlines and very smooth animation.
The game focuses on the tight, solid controls and you do have a very genuine sense of control in the game. When you jump, you control EXACTLY how high you jump by holding the jump button, and you can also control exactly where you land. With this in mind, the game is purely about skill: You learn when to do which kind of jump, how things pan out if you do it a certain way, and learn from failure. Apart from one boss in particular, it is all based on your skill, how you learn the levels, and how you control the character.

I've always loved cell-shaded graphics as they really add a cartoon-like feel to games, whilst still looking really nice. Personally, I believe cell-shaded graphics are timeless and games like Super Meat Boy and Mega Man X (more on that one below) hold up even against today's high-powered graphics just on their sheer artistic style alone. 
Even lower-budget games can look impressive with this style, as Super Meat Boy proves, and I would much rather see a game in this style than a realistic, 3d-rendered style.

This is a video by Egoraptor I watched on Youtube that was speaking about what can be right or wrong about video games. It is called 'Sequelitis' but the video is not just about sequels, more about general games.
He does say what Mega Man X (1993) did right as a sequel/remake/spiritual successor to Mega Man (1987) but he speaks about general ideas, not things that are only right in the context of these games. For example, he speaks about being shown a character that your character (or, you if you are immersed by then) strives to become, and the game promises that you WILL become like that character. This sense of purpose and sense that you want to do your best to become as good as the character that was shown is what may keep you going in the game - just keep at it and you will get better, ingame and in real life, too. By this, I mean the person playing will become so much better at the game by that time, that if they started out as the character that was shown at the beginning, they wouldn't know what to do with the skills and upgrades at the time.

The video also says quite a lot about teaching the player how to play through level design, you will never have to learn immediately how to do something, you are taught as you go. In his example, an enemy will throw its weapon before you can reach it, so by the time you reach this enemy you have already learnt how he throws it and how to dodge. There is so much in this video about what Mega Man X's first level does right to teach you how to play... All with no 'controls screen' telling you which button does what, you learn yourself, and I think that makes it so much better and so much more rewarding.

This game still looks great even today thanks to its art style.

Overall, my game is sort of like a parody or culmination of other games. While it does take the best features and gameplay elements from each, it does stand as its own thing. I did look at other parody-style games or games that do not take themselves too seriously, as mine doesn't. One example is Far Cry: Blood Dragon which was an arcade download released recently (sometime mid-2013). I really enjoyed how this game takes current and modern gaming regular features like the boring tutorials you have to read through or the paid downloadable content. In doing this it is both funny on its own, but also a slight dig at the games industry as it is at the moment.
In games where the story is one of the most important aspects, I prefer a more serious, realistic approach. In a game designed purely for fun and not too much emphasis on the story, I would much rather have a silly, cartoony art style as this just accentuates on the 'fun' in my opinion.

In the game The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, there are both of these things at different times. The game is cell-shaded and made to look like a cartoon, with characters' faces and emotions portraying this perfectly. It is designed this way on purpose to show that it is not just an art style in this game, but it is the game's overall style and I really like how it works.
On the other hand, there are serious moments, for example the overall idea that one man is trying to abduct children, (this is a very simplified way of explaining) and this definitely counts as a serious theme in a not-so-serious game. The balance is good, in this way, and the characters in it really do act as if they were cartoons.

This is a screenshot from Wind Waker from 2003 on the Gamecube. Notice the cartoon expressions, the art style and the scale of the area.

This is a screenshot of the remake being made for the Wii U, expected to be released in late 2013. Notice it has been made more 3d and less cartoony, whilst still keeping the cartoon expressions that it had before. Also added is high quality lighting and shadows.

After having some people test my game and give their reactions, I have found a few things I must fix. I must fix how the character jumps, and how the character interacts with the moving platforms. I believe these can both be fixed by using the first person controller script, but this will be tough. I will have to re-do all script that is attached to the current controller, including animation, turning, audio playing and more. I should be able to do this, however, as I have some time still.

The videos are here: 

and here:                  

In my game, I had difficulty with the Character Controller script. The one I had to use is a script that cannot control how a character interacts with moving platforms, which is a big problem. My character falls through the floor when he stands on a moving platform and even if he didn't, he would be sliding on top of it like it is an ice-covered platform or something. While this could be a positive, with my level being snow-themed, it was overall too tough for most people who I asked to test it (see above for examples of people playing that part of the game and having trouble). I wanted my game to present a mild challenge, of course, but falling off or through the moving platforms is just an unfair challenge, rather than a fair test of skill.

Along with this, with that faulty character controller script, the jumping motion is not correct. Right now, you must run forward and Then hit the jump key (space) to actually go forward whilst jumping. If you want to jump from a still position, you won't go forward, so I had to fit the platforming aspects of the game around this. For example, I made it a little bit like a Sonic the Hedgehog game, whereby you must keep moving forward whilst jumping or attacking. Another example of a game like this is the recent Rayman Origins, where there are time trial-esque levels in which slowing down will get you killed. (link) This video shows that aspect well.

I should mention that this Control script I have on my character is not by choice. I did try to apply the First Person Controller scripts (from Standard Assets > Character Controllers) to my character, with the z-axis movement locked as it is a 2d game and the MouseLook script off, but this caused further implications as my character seems to have been imported incorrectly. I cannot remedy this as I used the correct import settings (and I did make sure of this) and it just seems to be an unfixable problem. Not only this, but I looked up sidescrolling tutorials like the tutorials from this user: (link). So in the end, I must make do with the only-when-moving-forward jump, and the lack of moving platforms. In the original Castlevania games, you were locked into a jump when you did it (could not alter the trajectory after you started the jump), so it is not too big of an issue, and moving platforms are, to me, an unnecessary platform type which I do not need.

Castlevania III, 1989-92.

While I set myself the task of creating a 2d platform game, mine has ended up as more of a 3d platformer locked into the 2d plane. By this, I mean all prefabs were created as 3d models and placed where I wanted them. There is a name for these games: 2.5 dimensional games.
The camera is not fully 2d, as to do this I could switch my camera to orthographic and make it completely flat, but I would not do this as it would detract from the toon style and the 3d models. See below for an example of why I would rather not switch to fully 2d (bar the models). As you will see, the game looks nicer as it is, than if it were in orthographic view, although there are a few minor graphical problems with how it is now. For example, the tree you can see in the corner looks stretched when you approach it, and only when you are next to it does it look how it should. This, I think, isn't too much of a problem as it is, like I say, minor.
Also, on another note, switching to orthographic makes the platforming slightly easier, which is a downside as my game is meant to be somewhat challenging.