Stylistic Research

While I’m constructing a game at heart, I wanted to focus largely on creating a very strong style that is recognisable as I am actually specialising in 2D artwork. I looked at two games that achieved this task successfully:

Outland

Outland is an Xbox Live Arcade title where you play as a man guided  by visions of an ancient hero who had mastered the power of light and dark to seal away two warring sisters. The gameplay itself is akin to that which I want my game to create with platforming, dodging and occasional battle taking place across 2D environments.

The Visual style is exceptional, with the character, platforms and creatures themselves being largely just a black figures, that as the game progresses get influenced by either blue or red lines that form intricate designs. These designs are like ancient drawings or patterns but also on close inspection form things like belt buckles and trouser detail of the protagonist.

The backgrounds are another area where this game’s visual style shines through. Actually constructed from flowing silhouettes layered atop each other, the background colour slowly pulsates and changes, affecting the basic silhouettes. The way they are layered and how they scroll through with the player works – and because of the simple base and focus around colours, it means that much contrasted moods can be created just by a simple hot/ cold switch.

Playing this has made me consider actions like Wall Jumping being included in the game in addition to the types of adversity the player might face – in addition to of course using simple silhouetted shapes as an integral part of the style.

(Image Sourced from: http://fronttowardsgamer.com/wp-content/uploads/Outland-Trailer-Released.jpg )

Bastion

This was very much down the other end of the spectrum as far as style was concerned – but not meaning it wasn’t as equally pleasing aesthetically as Outland. In Bastion you play as a character dubbed ‘The Kid’ by the narrator as he traverses various areas of the world that have been ruined by an event known as ‘The Calamity’.  The gameplay is an isometric action game with no platforming (so did not hold any research purpose as far as that was concerned) but one of the things that I wanted to look at was the visual style. Bastion is a vibrant game that is crystal clear but yet has a hand painted look to it. The world is constructed from a number of destroyable pots, caravans, boxes and walls – all of which are very well coloured. But one thing I noticed from the game was the heavy reuse of gaming assets but with slight hue changes and rotations. However in saying this, it took looking at the game from the design perspective to notice this, making me mentally note that this is a technique I could implement in my game should I want to quickly construct levels. However unlike bastion which has a faux 3D isometric view which it would be easy to do this, a sidescroller would be a little harder – especially if I tried the hand painted look.

(Sourced from: http://supergiantgames.com/site/wp-content/uploads/Bastion_E32011_0004.jpg )

Extra

Bunny My Honey (Yes…A children’s picture book…)

Because of the narrative of my idea in that you play as a girl moving through books, I tried to think of ways to make that more interesting, fun and vibrant – finally coming to the idea of looking at children’s picture books as inspiration, as they tell their stories largely though the visuals. Searching for different picture books lead to loads of different styles but one I settled on for how I envisioned the Tortoise and the Hare level colours would look was Anita Jeram’s: ‘’Bunny My Honey’’.

Image Sourced from: http://www.readeo.com/wp-content/uploads/Bunny_My_Honey_Cover.jpg )

After looking at all of these visual materials, I created a simple mock screenshot of how the game could look:

Ba6: Project 3 - Games as a Persuasive medium (Addiction)

Are games a Persuasive medium? Can games change the world?

This was the question posed by the latest brief and my immediate personal response is a yes. Of course, this is purely a subjective response so over the next few weeks I hope to look at a number of different sources and games in order to answer that question.

Gaming Addiction: Is it possible?

One of the first things that this task reminded me of was a BBC Panorama episode that looked at Gaming Addiction. Now as a gamer I have played games that are addictive -Games for which it has been very difficult to present a better argument against playing it than the argument that the game itself was presenting for playing it. The immersive worlds, the great stories that wouldn’t be out of place in a best-selling novel, the cinematic quality and of course the opportunity to beat a close friend – the odds are always highly stacked in the pro-playing column. However this Panorama episode looked at the serious side of addictiveness in games.

Unfortunately the episode is no longer up but a solid article summarising the key points raised in the program could be found at:

Raphael Row (2010). Can video gaming cross from innocent fun to addiction? Available from:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_9251000/9251687.stm

(23/03/2012)

Two points of interest for me from this article was the presence of Video game Addiction clinics in South Korea, whereby 12 people havd died from blood clots from sitting in front of games consoles for large periods of time (Row, 2010) and also the idea that scientific tests have converted into tried and tested game mechanics designed to keep us addicted to games:

“Adrian Hon, chief creative officer of SixToStart, said it is based on research carried out in the 1950s, when scientists discovered that rats which had been trained to feed themselves by pressing a lever would press it obsessively if the food was delivered randomly.

"People have discovered that this works on humans as well. If you give people a lever or a button to press and give them random rewards, they will press it all the time," he said.

In computer games, instead of food, players are randomly rewarded with extra lives or extra in-game features. The idea is to create a compulsion loop that keeps them wanting to play on.”

(Row 2010)

Animal Crossing - an addictive game, but maybe there is a science behind the addictive nature of the game?

Animal Crossing Screenshot. Available from:
http://guidesmedia.ign.com/guides/682878/images/acww_02_money_06.jpg
(23/03/2012)

Drawing up my own experiences, I can think of more than one occasion that this technique has been used in games. An example would be in the highly popular “Animal Crossing: Wild World” game for the Nintendo DS system. In this game, each day the player can find random items dispersed around the world. By talking to different inhabitants, they might be offered quests or rewards. And finally the items change day by day in the shop.

These things no doubt contributed to the sense of addictiveness from the game. I would play the game every day to see if there was an item I liked in the shop. Likewise, I would wander the town for hours searching for items and talking to inhabitants in the hope that I would be rewarded. The effort involved in doing these things was minimal and in the short term the rewards do seem worth the time put in. It is almost like gambling. By rewarding the player early on for a little effort, then wean them off the actual rewards, soon the gameplay time increases for a decreased amount of actual reward.

Free Online browser based games are another example, with their entire revenue stream often being related to advertising. They will implement this system and others in order to keep their stream of players high – in return meaning they can sell advertising space for higher fees. One of these other techniques for keeping a player ‘hooked’ involves giving them a certain amount of Action points.

Action points (or whatever the system is called in different games) dictate how many actions the player can execute before calling it a day/ waiting X amount of hours. Restricted play time can be an infuriating thing to deal with for a player – it makes playing the game seem more attractive and with it all of the gameplay features. The developer will take advantage of this and allow the player to purchase more points for a premium price, developing yet another revenue stream for their game. Additionally they are keeping their non-paying players interested by limiting the amount they play, thus meaning they will always have something to do in the world

Spiral Knights - Keeping the Player involved

Spiral Knights Screenshot. Available from:

 http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5146/5583388946_12e6a6e40e.jpg

(23/03/2012)

An example of this in use would be Spiral Knights, a free to play game that can be obtained via Steam. In the game the player character has a certain amount of ‘Crystal Energy’. Crystal energy is spent every time the player enters an in-game dungeon or progresses onto later levels. When the player has spent all of their Crystal Energy they cannot move further in the dungeon/ visit other dungeons, meaning they cannot play anymore.

With all of the games mechanics (earning money, levelling up, playing with friends, obtaining better items) only really accessible via exploring dungeons, unless the player has purchased points with actual money, they would have to stop playing. And one factor that will bring them back is the sense that they have unfinished business within the game world.

Overall it is really interesting to see what lengths a developer will go to in order to keep a gamer persuaded to play a game and also what they will draw upon to do so. Clearly games can persuade a gamer to play them but referring back to my initial statement; can they change the world?

As stated above the other thing that interested me about the Panorama article was the situation in South Korea, and by simply researching further, I stumbled across some startling information that no doubt proves that in some cases video games have changed the world.

In an article I found online it details some horrific deaths that have occurred as a direct result of video games, and in particular addiction. In July a 21 year old addict was found dead in his home. In 2005, a 28 year old man collapsed and subsequently died after playing for 50 hours straight after having lost his Job to his online gaming habit. The highest profile of these cases came from a couple who cared for a virtual infant while their own starved to death. The pair got two years in prison for this (Sun,C 2011). These are absolutely diabolical results of the persuasive power of games on people who cannot handle it.

(The article)

Carolyn Sun (2011) Online Cravings. Available from: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/10/16/south-korea-s-video-game-addiction.html

(23/03/2012)

Another article, this time from CNN mentions a law that has been dubbed the “Cinderella law” which has been introduced in South Korea which prohibits online gaming to players under the age of 16 from Midnight to 6am. This hopefully aims to combat this addiction, although early signs simply show gamers trying to dodge this law by connecting to Western servers.  

Jiyeon Lee (2011) South Korea Pulls plug on late-night adolescent online gamers. Available from:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/22/world/asia/south-korea-gaming/index.html

(23/03/2012)

Eliot Lefebvre (2011) South Korea puts the ‘Cinderella Law’ into effect. Available from:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/11/23/south-korea-puts-the-cinderella-law-into-effect/

(23/03/2012)

The situation in South Korea clearly demonstrates some of the worst sides to video games, especially given their persuasiveness to gamers. There have been deaths and laws to prohibit gaming, in addition to clinics being set up purely to combat addiction to gaming.

However, if there is a negative point to gaming, which this is, then surely there must be positive ways that games have inspired, persuaded and changed the world. And this will be my next point of research over the coming weeks.

Mira "Forms" Design Document Pages

Name generation

(Just some research and source material that went into the creation of my Protagonists name. As her power came from Imagination and the focus was on story worlds, I looked heavily at the two words for inspiration:)

http://translation.babylon.com/english/imagination/

Imagination Usually the making of mental pictures; but this is actually merely fancy; imagination is "one of the plastic powers of the higher Soul, the memory of preceding incarnations, which, however, disfigured by the lower Manas, yet rests always on a ground of truth" (TG 153). Imagination is therefore a creative power which, used in conjunction with will, calls forth not only creative forces, but likewise their productions. Thus it can be used for spiritualization and also for the materialization of images conceived in the mind; to bring about the results we desire, whether good or evil. It may become our master, chaining us to the illusions we have created; when, however, we can direct this power and resist its suggestions of fancy, it becomes a powerful instrument in shaping our lives and destiny.
http://www.inspirational-quotes.info/imagination.html

Fabula - Latin for play/story
fabula mirabilis - wonderful story

imagination\im*ag`i*na"tion\ (?), n. [oe. imaginacionum, f. imagination, fr. l. imaginatio. see imagine.]
1. the imagine-making power of the mind; the power to create or reproduce ideally an object of sense previously perceived; the power to call up mental imagines. our simple apprehension of corporeal objects, if present, is sense; if absent, is imagination. imagination is of three kinds: joined with belief of that which is to come; joined with memory of that which is past; and of things present, or as if they were present.
2. the representative power; the power to reconstruct or recombine the materials furnished by direct apprehension; the complex faculty usually termed the plastic or creative power; the fancy. the imagination of common language -- the productive imagination of philosophers -- is nothing but the representative process plus the process to which i would give the name of the "comparative." w. hamilton. the power of the mind to decompose its conceptions, and to recombine the elements of them at its pleasure, is called its faculty of imagination. taylor. the business of conception is to present us with an exact transcript of what we have felt or perceived. but we have moreover a power of modifying our conceptions, by combining the parts of different ones together, so as to form new wholes of our creation. i shall employ the word imagination to express this power.
3. the power to recombine the materials furnished by experience or memory, for the accomplishment of an elevated purpose; the power of conceiving and expressing the ideal. the lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact the poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, and as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name.
4. a mental image formed by the action of the imagination as a faculty; a conception; a notion.

First Week and Idea

New Project

-The first week

For the next project I will be finally focusing on stencyl in the creation of a 2D Sidescroller Action adventure platformer. For the first week of this project I spent a large period of time working out what I was going to do for the plot and how to approach the learning agreement. After some thought and inspiration I found my idea, and completed the learning agreement so I can begin on work for good.

The Idea:

You play as Mira Fabula – a young girl with an incredible imagination who works for a small group known as ‘Editors’. Editors are in charge of looking after the living universes within books and films. When a young and talented apprentice decides to use the power over these worlds to take command and rule them– Mira is asked to use her imagination to enter the worlds and save them from the perils that shouldn’t exist: Spaceships disturbing the rest of a medieval world, Dragons attacking pirate ships, etc. and bring the troublesome apprentice back into the real world. To do this she must take command of her imagination and wield fantastic powers straight from these worlds – swords and shields, capes, guns, and even a mermaid’s body.

Genre:

Action/ Adventure with possible Platforming elements

Inspirations:

(Narrative)

Source Image:

http://www.emuparadise.me/fup/up/37594-Spyro_the_Dragon_2_-_Ripto's_Rage_[NTSC-U]-1-thumb.jpg

(Accessed 20/03/2012)

The narrative is very reminiscent of old games like Spyro the Dragon or Crash Bandicoot whereby the player traversed varied and fantastic worlds, speaking to their inhabitants before solving their problems. At the end of the level they would be given a reward before progressing onwards. A grand evil genius or Tyrant was the Antagonist. Other games like Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank also emulate this narrative.

Kingdom Hearts is another game like this – where a protagonist would enter worlds unlike his own and form friendships and work with its inhabitants. These worlds were Disney based so were vibrant and friendly. Outside elements were the ‘Heartless’ and ‘Nobodies’, while the Antagonists were relative to the protagonists world – yet threatened others.

*Honourable Mention:  I feel I ought to mention a concept created by a friend on the course, Jessica Betts, when talking about my idea. While it wasn’t an influence, her concept 'Zork' involved traveling into books and abiding by each worlds conventions (having swords and shields in a medieval world, etc.) The game was a first person and after I formulated my idea, I realised the similarities between to two. However I feel that both our ideas are striving for completely different things but I thought her idea should be brought up, in case it had been a subconscious influence on the narrative.

(Style, feel and Mood)

–These are a few of the different points of reference that I am going to look at to get ideas about how to present my game, or things that are relative to the ideas I have:

Limbo

Source image : http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/microsoft/playdead/limbo/limbo610.jpg
(Accessed 20/03/2012)

When you think of silhouettes in a fluid sidescroller, the first game that normally comes to mind is the world of Limbo, where a young silhouetted child traverses a world made of simple silhouette objects, with dark but excellently lit areas. One thing that I might take from Limbo is how exceptionally simple the game objects are in comparison to the environment – perhaps a hint at how I could make mine look as smooth

Little Big Planet

Source image:

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/1840/236437-littlebigplanet_screenshot_63_super.jpg

(accessed 20/03/2012)

Little Big Planet is a staple example of a fluid platformer, and why I am looking at it is largely in relation to the unique ‘handmade’ style of the objects. You climb over platforms of cardboard, sponge, metal, ice and swing on string. It feels very Organic – like the Eden of East ending below. Maybe I could scan in various materials to use as in game items to replicate this with the ‘out of place’ elements in the world?

Apple Jack

Source Image:
http://blogs.dailyrecord.co.uk/gaming/upload/2010/08/apple_jack.jpg
(Access 20/03/2012)

An excellent sidescroller that is bright and colourful on the Xbox live ‘indie marketplace’. This game makes use of the techniques used in limbo but is much brighter in colour and has an excellent ‘mood’. The soundtrack for this game really suits it, and after researching the artist behind this game I discovered that his music is available to share and use in projects. I might email him and use his tracks in my demo.

Children’s Picture books/ Pop up books

I haven’t looked at many as of yet, but I will research and look at picture books or adaptations as inspiration for the backgrounds

Hotel Dusk

I look at hotel dusk very often for inspiration – normally when relating to narrative, but this time I am looking at it from an aesthetic perspective and this proves to be a perfect example of how I could implement the silhouetted characters into the book worlds.

Source Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHhSh4vcI7k
(Accessed 20/03/2012)

In Hotel Dusk the sprites look like cut outs hastily placed onto the screen. They are fluidly animated, yet the changing edges really feel like someone is placing several images, one on top of another, to create a flick book style animation. I think this is a really nice style and might be how the protagonist character could be animated

Eden of the East ending

Eden of the East Ending. Video sourced from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9896cYPaFf0

(Accessed 20/03/2012)

This ending really was another inspiration for me with possible styles as it is an excellently made animation that makes use of plain paper silhouettes and really plays with shadows taking the form of a real object, etc. Also making reference to the content of the anime, the character destroys missiles by pointing at them and pretending to fire a pistol using their hands. In the animation the missile is replaced by a pencil and instead of an explosion, it turns into a crumpled up piece of paper (Possible idea for how things could be destroyed in my work?)

Either way I can see this animation really influencing the execution of my concept

Outland

In a talk with tutors this game was brought up as a possible example to look at so I shall play some of it this evening to see if it could be a possible influence, posting up my thoughts afterwards.

What Next?

In the learning agreement I stated that I had planned to create a design document with characters, gameplay mechanics and narrative in the first week to accompany my demo so I will focus on working out the gameplay mechanics tomorrow, generating ideas for characters, enemies, assets and scenarios Thursday and onwards. I aim to keep to the target of completing a first draft design document before the week is out so that I can spend next week focus on teaching myself Stencyl.