First Ideas and Research

After the briefing, I immediately started brainstorming ideas. After buying an Apps magazine (www.knowyourapps.com) I started thinking into 3D games, as these seemed to be very few, but very popular. I am juggling 2 ideas at the moment, the first being a 3D RPG/Puzzle game, which would be a series of apps following a story. Games similar would be Portal, Zelda, and games such as puzzle pirates. I also liked the idea of basing the game around dreams and nightmares in some way. However, I first began thinking of themes, and times in history on which I could base my game. These were my ideas:

• Viking style, eg. Oblivion.
• Steampunk, eg. Fable.
• Space, eg. Mass Effect.
• Futuristic, eg. Portal
• Arcade, eg. Zelda, FFI.
• Historic - Egypt, Americas, Rome, Arctic eg. Assassins Creed.
• Film Noire, eg. La Noire.
• Pirates, eg. Puzzle Pirates

The idea that drew my eye the most was Pirates, as not many games are based around this. I started to expand, with the story and who the player would be playing as. I thought of it being a dark game, with the player inhabiting the life of a civilian captured by pirates. The game would be first person, with a mix of combat, quests and puzzles. The first puzzle, would be a lock pick where the player must escape from the cell. The player would live the life of this civilian, and the story unfolds of how they were captured. I liked the idea of having the character as customisable at the beginning of the game, so you can make it individual to the player. 

http://chickgeekgames.blogspot.com/2011/02/alicia-online-new-gameplay-details.html

My second idea is based around a Korean computer game called Project Alice: Alicia. It is a fast paced horse racing game, with beautiful art and customisable characters and horses. It is an online game where you race against other players or you can play single player and train up your horses. I thought this was a original idea, bringing horse racing to the populous, in a fun and 'non girly' way. I thought I could concept a similar idea, with similar art, but with different dynamics and controls and having the horses much more individual to the player and having different 'powers'. I also thought of having it as a first person game, which would make it much more immersive for the player. This is a first character concept for this idea:

Contextual Studies- Simplest Game

First and Simplest game I have ever played.

The first game I ever played was Pokemon Yellow version on gameboy, which is also one of the simplest games I have ever played. It is such an immersive and popular game because it is so genius in its gameplay and story, and after playing this I then bought the cards and all the following games because I loved it so much. I think the reason why it was so brilliant in my eyes is because it felt very individual, you could have completely different pokemon to everyone else in the world, and working to level them up and make them powerful. The storyline itself was also extremely immersive with all the towns and gyms becoming extremely well known and loved. The gameplay is also extremely extensive, as you could wander for hours just finding new pokemon, and there was also that challenge of having the best pokemon. That challenge meant I played it for hours trying to capture the rarest pokemon in the game... and failing. The general structure and gameplay of pokemon is really simple, as you get your first pokemon, you are taught how to catch pokemon, and then you just follow the main storyline where it takes you, straying off on the way if you want to. The fights are simple, with easy turn based play which is easy to get used to, but can get very frustrating, especially when the enemy has the tiniest bit of life and its trainer uses a max health potion. Overall, this game has been a success for me as it sparked my love of games and pokemon, and led me to still play pokemon games to this day, which means it had a massive impact on my gaming life.

Trap Spaces

After doing some research into the sort of traps that one would find in this area at this time, the main two that we could put on the spaces on the turntables were a rope trap, and a bear trap. These are the original concepts for each of the spaces:

After colouring, I decided to do them like the enemy squares, as the realistic background was not going to match the look of the board. These are the coloured versions:

Reward Cards, final designs.

After studying an American dollar as to get the colours and patterns correct on the notes, I coloured the R on the cards, and designed the background. I eventually finished with two designs:

1. This design clearly shows the turntable, conveying what the card does to the player (the card lets the player turn a turntable on the board.)

2. This card isn't as abstract as number 1, as looks less like a turntable. However it does work well as a design.

After discussing with the group, we all decided we liked the first design better, however we discussed that it would look more like the turntables if it had numbers on it. Therefore these are the final card designs:

Enemy Squares!

First of all, I decided on having a square rather than a pop up animal, and focus on the head rather than the whole body. This meant I could go into greater detail with the facial details. My first two designs were focused around the cougar just to get the layout of the text and positioning of the animals head.

After discussing with my group, we decided we liked the text on the first design, and the look of the animal on the second. So in my set of enemy square designs I mixed the two together:

After getting the thumbs up from the group, I went home and digitally coloured each square, keeping to my reference images for the accurate colours of each animal.

This is the final enemy squares. I changed the snakes face from the original sketch as I felt it looked a lot better this way. I chose the grey background as to give a dark feel but not make it too bold. The red text gives an element of danger to the writing, and the animal has been labelled by text as to also help teach the children what animal it is.

Reward Cards research

After getting the job of the reward cards, I immediately started looking at different card designs in games and seeing which ones were effective and those that weren't. I first looked at an old game of monopoly, and studied the chance cards.

These cards are extremely simple, with just bold words and the occasional simple drawing such as the arrow. The writing is in the centre of the card, in typed in capital letters. This makes the words bold, and jump off the card. The use of bold writing on a plain background is very effective in drawing the attention to the words, and not overcomplicating them, which is a look I used on the back of the cards.

I also looked at the cards from 'Pay Day'. These cards were all very colourful and had detailed images on them. However the text style was similar to the monopoly cards, with a white background and black text, to stand out on the card. The front of the cards also portrayed exactly what the card was, for example a post card had the look of a letter on the front of the card. This makes it easy for the cards to be identified.

After deciding on the style of my cards, I began looking at Red Dead Redemption to examine the types of rewards that were around at that time. From the game I realised the main three were:

• Poker Chips
• Hides
• Money

From this I got the idea of creating an R (for reward) out of money. This was one of my original concepts:

 From this I developed this idea:

Changes and Jobs.

So, after we decided on the new look for our game, we were all given our jobs. Our new version of our game includes:

• Turntables
• 3 packs of cards (Chance for Indian and Cowboys, and reward)
• Captives in the centre (the initial damsel idea was considered sexist, so we changed it to men)
• Enemy squares (freeze you for a go)
• Chance squares
• Reward squares
• specific areas where you collect a piece of your defense
• allocated areas for the building

The job I was given was to first research the sort of animals there would be in this area for the enemy spaces. I needed six, and finally settled on:

COUGAR:

This is my study of a cougar, which helped me realize how its face looked when it was angry. This helped me when drawing my cartoon version. 

WOLF:

This is my study of a wolf, and from this I noticed how the whole of the nose scrunches as the mouth snarls. Also, how the pupils are very small.

CATTLE:

SNAKE:

BEAR:

STAG:

I initially thought it maybe nice to have the enemies as little pop ups on the board, however this proved to be a difficult and long winded idea, so I decided just to focus on the head and have it on the square.

TEST PLAY!

This is the play test in which our prototype board was played by Jack (10 years old) and Owen (7 years old). This was the real test to see if this game appealed to our target audience, and whether they understand the rules and most importantly whether it was enjoyable. Overall it was a great success! They both enjoyed the game, and asked to play afterwards which is a good sign! Owen got a bit upset when he had a piece taken away, however talking to his parents they feel that this is the age when they have to learn they cannot win all the time. He soon got over it though, and even though Jack let him win, they both wanted to play again. Sue (their mother) also enjoyed the game and helping them play it. She said she feels it would make a really good family game, as everyone can get involved, and the children are also learning which is a plus.

Contextual Studies- Roger Caillois

Roger Caillois' game definitions
In this session we discussed Roger Caillois (1923-1978) and his definition of 'play'. Some of his work included the systematic classification of games, 'Man, Play and Games', where he stated that games create a closed, seperate space to everyday life where people can escape themselves and become someone else. He claimed there are seperate attitudes of play:

• Paedia (Greek for Children): power of improvisation and joy
• Ludus: Rule bound nature of games

He stated there are two types of game:

• Agon (Greek for conflict): games based on conflict
• Alea: games that surrender to chance, destiny.

Examples of Agon:

1. Call Of Duty
2. Dead Island
3. Racing games
4. sport games
5. Alan Wake
6. MGS
7. Portal
8. War games

Examples of Alea:

1. Fable 3
2. MGS
3. Digitalised board games
4. Pokemon
5. Portal
6. Animal crossing

He also claimed that games could be classified into how they convey the world:

• Mimicry: Imitating other peoples voices, gestures or appearences
• Ilinx-(means vertigo) destroying perception, a desire for destruction.

Examples of Mimicry:

1. RPGs
2. Sims
3. virtual life simulators

Examples of Ilinx:

1. Red Faction
2. Civilization/Tropico
3. Kula World

For a small assignment we had to challenge this idea of Caillois about play:

'A characteristic of play… is that it creates no wealth or goods, thus differing from work 

or art. At the end of the game, all can and must start over again from the same point. 

Nothing has been harvested or manufactured, no masterpiece has been created, no capital 

has accrued. Play is an occasion of pure waste: waste of time, energy, ingenuity, skill, 

and often of money… 

As for the professionals – the boxers, cyclists, jockeys, or actors who earn their living in 

the ring, track, or hippodrome or on the stage … it is clear that they are not players but 

workers. When they play, it is at some other game. (Caillois: 1962: p.5)'

This is my argument:

Caillois's statement that games and play are a waste of time can be argued strongly against. His ideas about play being of waste of time and money as nothing is gained from it are completely flawed. It is true that nothing material is gained from play, however playing a game is similar to reading, and modern games have such engrossing stories that playing them is like getting lost in a good book. Some games for children, also encourage teamwork and learning. Therefore not all play has no outcome. Children can learn a lot from play. Play also makes life a lot more enjoyable. The seriousness and intensity of life is dulled during play. A person can completely lose themselves in a game, forgetting about problems. Therefore play has qualities of escapism and enjoyment, letting the player lose themselves completely in another reality. Caillois also states that those who are professionals in play are not players but workers. However, in my opinion this is completely false as the professionals started off merely as players, so just because they are earning from it doesn't mean they no longer enjoy the game. He also states that when they play, 'it is at some other game'. I also feel this is false, as a jockey for example will still ride horses for fun, even when they are not racing.

Contextual Studies- Emotion in Games

Emotions linked to gameplay

In our first contextual studies session we had to discuss the emotions we felt while playing a game. I chose Alan Wake as this game really affected me emotionally while playing it. Above is the diagram I made to describe my feelings through the game, along with some stick men drawings to illustrate. From this we had to write a small paragraph about the emotions:

As the game begins in a dream, confusion is portrayed in the character and this is reflected in my emotion, especially when a crazy man is running at me with an axe... Fear is the main emotion I feel throughout the game, as the majority of the game consists of people appearing out of nowhere with axes. I was also  very confused though, as the story twists suddenly and then you are awake. Then I mainly felt apprehension, as I got incredibly worried something was going to jump out on me. Which meant I spent most of the time in the light (the safe area where the evil people couldn't go) not wanting to move! This is where the adrenaline kicked in. Must get to the next safe house, sprinting and avoiding all the mad people. Then, I completed the game and ended up a nervous wreck as the dark always made me feel like I was in the game again, and I was always wary of men with axes...

Popular Games Research

After our visit to Toys'R us, I decided to do some research into popular childrens games and try to see why they are popular. I first looked at the popular games for ages 3-6. I obtained the information from this source as it put together the most popular games for each age group.
www.babyzone.com


3-6 years
Candy Land 
www.hasbro.com
This game is played as children pick cards to move their gingerbread man to the matching coloured space, and the first to reach 'Candy Castle' wins. The game is very simple and easy for children to play, and since its release has become very popular among its age group. The idea is very simplistic, with a 'Snakes and Ladders' feel to it, but with unique look and bright vibrant colours. There is also a Winnie the Pooh version of the game which means it is very adaptable, meaning more and more versions can be made of the same idea.

Cranium Cariboo Island
www.toysrus.com
The creators of Cranium have created a brain challenging game for young children, making it immersive by having them explore an island discovering castles etc, and in the end opening the large treasure chest in the middle and getting a reward. The game teaches children about colours, shapes and numbers as well as letting them have fun in the process. The game is quite technical in its design, with a plastic liftable treasure chest, but the children react best to the material rewards the game gives.

Other popular 3-6 games:
Chutes and Ladders
www.hasbro.com
This game is simple and well known, with a bright colourful board to attract children and gives rewards and punishments of going up a ladder and going down a chute.

Duck Duck Goose
www.amazon.co.uk
A board game version of the popular childrens playground game. The players have to collect a specific colour of ducklings to make a nest, then the plastic mother goose is sent round the board and when it says 'goose' the players grab the adjacent duckling to see if it matches the colour they are collecting. It is a simple game, but with visual rewards of little plastic ducklings and a timed activity to get the duck makes it exciting.

Popular Adult games similar to our idea:
JAMBO! (12+)
www.boardgameratings.com
Players are traders, trading and selling tea, hide, fruits, salt, silk and trinkets to be the first to earn 60 gold. Cards are used to represent objects and items to trade as well as animals and people which can be used to hinder your opponent. This game is slightly complex, thus the age range, but it has won many awards as it is an engaging and unique game.

The Settlers of Catan (10+)
www.mayfairgames.com
Players are required to expand their colony through building settlements etc, and trading items and animals. The first player to complete 10 points wins. The game is quite complex, with lots of components and 60 minutes playing time. However, this game has been very successful with it having many expansions and different versions.

Toys'R Us!

The initial research we undertook as a group was going to toys'r us and looking at games which are in the same age group as ours. We noticed that games for our age range 7+ were a lot more advanced that we had first thought. Lego games (see left) were similar to our game as you had to collect pieces etc, and these were the same age group as ours. They are fairly complex, so we decided not to go too simple, as we don't want to bore the children. This is when Shaun had the idea of turntables on the board, to mix the gameplay up and make it a bit more competitive. We also decided that the players would be rescuing a 'damsel' from the centre of the board. What I gained from looking at these games was also the different style of art used for the different age groups. For example, lego is cartoon, but mature cartoons, whereas 3+ games (see right) have a very childish look about them.

Ideas, Research, Ideas, Testing.

The past few days of the board game project have been, hectic to say the least. Day 3, we tested our initial board design in our group to see how long the game would take to play, and whether it worked properly. 

Paper version of the board made by Robin

 The test went well but it was apparent that the game would take a long time to complete. The main things we liked were the noises spaces and the idea altogether. After this test, I drew up a quick idea for a board which was similar but had a space in the middle for the building element of the game, and this would look like a battle field. This is when we decided to have Cowboys and Indians, and have it a battle between the two. The Cowboys would be building a guard tower, and the Indians a totem pole to act as their defenses, and whoever built their defense first would win the game. After getting a thumbs up from the group, I organised with my younger cousins for them to play a prototype and see how they like it. I drew up a cardboard version with some counters and chance cards, and took it for them to play.

The totem pole

The board with pieces and cards

Close up of corner

The test went well, with both boys really enjoying the game, and wanting to play again afterwards! Jack is 10 years old and Owen is 6 years old, 7 in November. A side note on the test is that Owen is a very sensitive boy, and generally doesn't like losing at any games (he is lucky he has such a nice brother!) which is why he got a bit upset whenever he was losing or he thought he was going to lose. However, talking to Sue and Nigel (their parents) they think this is a good thing to have in a game, where the players lose pieces as it teaches children that they won't always win at games, and this is the age when they should be learning things like this. They both enjoyed making the noises after they got into the game (they both started a bit shy, but it was because I was filming it)  and after a while they both really enjoyed it, building their tower and working out which routes to take. Jack, being a lovely brother let his brother win as Owen got a bit upset when he was losing, but they both enjoyed the game thoroughly. Afterwards I asked Jack and his mum Sue a couple of questions about the game (see video), but Owen didn't want to be filmed. I asked him if he liked the game and he said yes, and i asked if he would play it again and he said he would. I asked them both if they liked the idea of having hats, and they both really liked the idea of dressing up as it gets them into their character. 

Perseverance!

Day two of our project started on a high, with the group meeting together early to discuss ideas. We had our idea of a Native American Indian game sorted, with new ideas coming onto the table such as the idea of having 2 playable characters on the board, one being an enemy and the other being a chief. The idea of this would be that players could freeze others on the board for one go by 'hopping' over them. However, we decided for children this may make the game too complicated. In the end, we decided to keep it as we had already arranged, with four tribes, with one movable player each, each with a different design. Each tribe would also have its own name and flag. We decided on Old Crow, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Wild Turkey. These would give a comedic edge to the tribes. We also arranged to have the camps contain four items:

My small concept of the camp

• A Teepee
• A Totem pole
• A horse (or some sort of animal)
• A campfire

We had also discussed having four packs of cards, one for the totem pole, one for the teepee, one for the town (miscellaneous items, horse and campfire) and chance. However, after discussing it with the group I thought it would be best to just have a pack of chance cards which were mixed, as children like the anticipation and excitement about what card they are going to get. After discussing this, I went and designed my own concept of the cards and presented them to the group. They were well received, but we decided we would each have an input to the design and I would finalize the design and put them together.

My negative chance card concept

However, we briefed Nigel on our idea and found a few flaws. We had to decide whether we either made it more complex so it appealed to adults or we made it simpler for children, as it was too complex for children but too simple for adults. After a long discussion with Nigel we decided we really like our idea, and think we could make it really good. Also, we liked the fact that no one had made a childrens game for this project before. We agreed it would be challenging but if it worked, it would be magnificent. It was just a case of doing a lot of research into children, successful childrens board games and also doing a lot of play testing with children. I offered to test the game as much as possible as I have many young relatives, and also record it. At the moment, we are all researching into popular childrens board games and what children like and with some perseverance I believe we can make our idea into some great.

Day One - Board Games Project

Day One of the board games project, we have been organised into our groups and we began brainstorming ideas. The initial idea was a card based game that was similar to 'Pokemon' but with a board and a different set of rules. We decided it had to be simple, and a game that children can play with their families.We decided to focus on 7+ age group, as we agreed that this is the typical age a child will play board games with their parents as a family on holidays such as Christmas, and we also wanted to try to make the game educational in some way. To research this type of market, we visited Toymaster toy store in the town. From this visit we ruled out the whole of our first idea due to the sheer amount of card based board games on the market already (such as Pokemon, top trumps, etc.), and because we felt, in comparison to the other family board games our idea was far too complex for our focus age group.
After this, the idea of a native American Indian based game arose, with the player having to build their camp, and the first to complete their camp was the winner. The game would be played on a board with players picking up chance cards as they go, each chance card having a different effect on their camp or others camps. We decided that we would try to aim the game at ages 7+, which meant giving the art a simplistic, cartoon look.

Rough Character concept

I also had the idea of instead of having four tribes, having two native Indian tribes and two european settlers. This would create a different look at the game, with a race to build up their camp first. However, after briefing this to the group we decided this would make it more of a team game, with the two of the same type would feel as if they are working together. 
We all decided that we would each design 2 chance cards, one positive and one negative to get ideas for the basic look of the cards, as well as carry out some research and do some general designing. Then on day two, we will all present our cards and ideas and each get our place and role within the group.