research update

1. Research
Andrew Downes

2. Existing Product
https://dead-cells.com/
Dead Cells made by Motion Twin on August 7th 2018.
This game is called dead cells as I said in my Initial plans Mood Board and Key influences the story is about a slime who takes control of a dead body in
some sort of execution chamber and it explores and fights through the levels to gain cells to buy upgrades and gain new armaments and at then of some
of the stages there are bosses it is pretty much the dark souls of pixel art except for you lose everything including all progress when you die. The maps are
set out in different biomes as it is a level based game rather than just one continuous game as you can see there is a sky city biome a city biome, a forest
biome a hell type biome and stuff of that sort and all of them are made with pixels. This something I was planning on adding into my project but making
the game feel a bit more continuous. The angle that is used is quite skewed as the game is a 2d side scroller which means that the body and head are
always on an angle to the viewer and how it would look different to a 3d game so I will either have to make my character facing on an angle or looking
straight but being able to turn. They use a lot of effects such as you can see in the image they use some glow effects on the bosses sword, also they use a
lot of fog and mist effects especially on boss levels to create those though you only really need to know how to use the pencil tool, the rubber tool, the
opacity slider and to an extent some Gaussian blur, but the really difficult part that they got spot on was the lighting and shadows but apart from that they
don’t have much in the way of effects but when it comes down to mechanics they have quite a lot such as they have attack mechanics including melee,
projectile/ranged, shield/protective and magic it also uses Red, purple and green weapons to breakdown the combat into brutality= red, purple=tactics,
green= survival etcetera , gravity mechanics, death mechanics and all sorts one in particular I like is floor boards can fall out from underneath you. As I
said the use of lighting is great keeping the map itself generally dark using colours such as grey Dark brown, dark red, blacks, dark blues and greens. and
shadowy whilst the background is using vibrant and bright colours such as orange yellow purple red blue green brown some greys and whites. The
composition of the piece has the main character in the foreground along with all the enemies, also there is a part of the map to change the shading, in the
middle of the piece was the map, the portal and some of the details from the background map, and some other things such as lever s and other mechanics
based things, in the background there is more of a map which you can’t interact with for example there is floating city the sky and the moon in the
background of one of the pictures

3. Existing Product
• costume for the main character I believe consists of medieval era Asian armour, the props will
include swords, bows, shield and magic to an extent, the location changes each level so for
example in the two example pictures in one they are in a floating city, and the other is in a forest,
there are other city scapes and forest scapes, there are some in hell. They use a lot of dark colours
for the map and parts of the background such as blacks, greys, dark greens, blues and browns also
there are small splashes of dark yellows and reds, but in a few of the maps there are some areas
using a lot of light colours such as yellows, oranges, reds, light blue and as for most of the enemies
you will encounter are usually quite light and vibrant character when it comes down to the castle at
least and as far as the font is concerned they use their own created dead cells font and I don’t know
exactly what the other font is that they use but it is used all the way through the game but I think it
is might be a slightly different version of the calibri font. This appeals to the audience because of its
unique pixel art style, its quirky but fun back story also it is something that is just in general new
and that always excites people when something new is coming out those three are the main
reasons why people would want to play the game. I decided to use this game for my product
research because I like the art style and is fairly similar to what I want ton make and the layout is
pretty much exactly what I want to do with my background having multiple layers I also like the
simplicity of the gameplay as it makes for relaxed playing and viewing. The sound effects are the
usual sort for games like this when enemies die it is a sort squishing/squelching sound, for the
achievements and gaining new weapons they use a base drum and all of the music contradicts the
visuals it is nice and relaxed music made with drums violins and piano all made with light notes/
not sharp. Also instead of using voice acting they used a sort of muffled voices as if they are trying
to talk but can’t.

4. Existing Product
Throughout the game they use a mixture of light and dark colours to give a contrast to show a fight against good and evil this is further backed in some
ways such as the bosses usually have darker armour than the main character but when it comes down to the normal enemies they have much lighter
colours than you so in some ways you are being evil to normal mobs but then there is a greater evil than you in the game. The composition they used is
interesting as they are developing the story saying that there is more to the world than just the map which your main character is on shown by the
town and cities but the best one to show this off is the floating city which granted looks like there might be a mountain or something further back but
this to me either says that they can levitate buildings or they can just build really high up in the air and the one with the clock shows how competent
the people who live there are, so I am saying that the composition makes you think you are dealing with a clever civilization or at least one that knows a
lot about structure. The lighting they use is mostly dark with with some lighter elements to it which yet again is quite good at showing an epic fight
between good and evil where you are both good and evil somehow. The props/ weapons the main character uses are mainly swords/ melee,
bows/ranged, shields/defensive, magic/close to long range attack all of this we would usually connect the main character as a bad guy or at least is very
connected with violence which is easy to see but what might be more difficult to see is that he might be a protector to someone or something. The
costume that they use for the main character is slightly odd because it looks like it is Asian armour from the medieval era, so he looks like some sort of
protector of the people from Asia kind of like a Samurai which yet again quite a few were paid off and some were just so this just takes me back to how
he can be both good and bad as the main character. The audio is quite awkward with the death sound for the normal enemies being squelching noises
like the sort of noise you would hear when you are messing around with jelly, then there is background noises such as steps and sometimes you can
hear the occasional cricket all of this amounting to the area being quiet almost abandoned, so maybe it is a ruined civilization and as for the music
which contradicts the whole game and what it is aiming to convey by having nice relaxing music in the background. For the talking all they have are
muffles and text to show what they are saying which is an interesting decision but it works with the style that they have gone for.

5. Existing Product in detail colour
analysis
• They use greens, blues and reds in general to create a sort of mist to create an eerie and mysterious feeling to the piece, also
the greens and blues are used a lot in the other backgrounds to add more of a mysterious feeling to it over all, also they usually
use these colours to create some sort of shading by adding a tint to quite a lot of the colour making the whole piece look much
darker and thus creating even more mystery also it adds a sense of a fight between good and bad which I have said multiple
times before so it kind of also creates a contrast which is easy to work with and it helps to point out certain things because of
this, it also could just be more of a stylized mechanic for the game where you pick up dust when you run. As for the water in the
screenshot it is red I think this might just be because of the people you have killed on the docks because the red has strangely
light shade of red rather than blood red it has diluted also the other great thing about that is the reflections in the water of the
piers logs holding the whole place up which might be why they decided to go with a light red as they knew that if the shading
had to be very dark then how will it stand out to the rest of the water. Also the uses of black and grey were good because they
made a massive contrast with all the other colours in the screenshot it was also mainly there for the shadow but yet again this
comes back to the quote “where there is light there must be darkness”(shadow in the case of the quote) Haruki Murakami.
They also use a lot of light colours such as red, purple, green and white to show life in its purest form so what ever the mobs are
they are going to be like humans or even more baser in their instincts, like a sort of cave man sort of thing. It is quite strange
though how the moon seems to be one of the main sources of light in the game but in some cases with the orange and purple
sky the sun must be on the same side as the way we are viewing the main character because it looks like the sun is setting at
that point, also there is an interesting contrast between the orange and purple colours not just the usual about how it is light
against the dark but it is special because it is about the dark killing off the light and taking over.

6. Existing Product Fighting
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94IsvgEFzH0
• There are many different enemies even at the beginning there are 4 or 5 different enemies. There is
the average green monster which is smaller than you and to attack they launch themselves at you,
they do average damage and have low health, they are easy to kill via ranged attacks or melee
attacks and they can’t damage you too much if you use the shield against them. The next one you
meet is the guy with the bow and arrow his attacks can’t do much damage and are easy to avoid he
is about the same size as the main character, has very low health and is easy to kill with any of the
attack forms, I don’t know whether you can block the arrows he shoots but it is easier to just dodge
the arrow. The next enemy is a red ninja looking guy who is the same height as the main character.
His attacks deal a lot of damage but are easy to dodge as long as you run at him, you can’t block his
attacks as he throws bombs at you he is long ranged but has an average amount of health, be
careful with that one and the last one that you meet in the first dungeon/ area is a purple guy who
has a massive shield which is about the same size as the main character it can block any attacks
from the front but is weak when, it doesn’t have a high attack but has a very high defense and it has
a medium health bar. The main character has low health, at the start of the game however when
you start getting through it you can get upgrades for how much damage you can take and give to
the enemies with scrolls and also throughout the game there will be new weapons to pick up but
the main types are melee, ranged, defense and magic. Then there are bosses which have tons of
health and will kill you in about three shots so they are technically the normal overpowered
enemies.

7. Existing Product Summary
• I want to be able to use similar ideas for the colour scheme to show some mystery
and also some drama at the same time and maybe that might help my story at the
same time.
• I also want to use a similar sort of layout/ composition with the character and the
enemies in the foreground, map in the middle ground and for the background
something that tells a larger story and helps the story itself along.
• I also like the pixel art style but I want to do something different with my style of
work the same goes for the animation.
• I want to use some of the fighting mechanics they use as well as some of the mobs
ideas having certain attack patterns that sort of thing.
• I also like the idea of the shadows pointing certain things out whilst trying to make
piece feel even more ominous.
• I also like the general idea it gave me that the game could be about good against
evil that sort of thing or as a larger narrative further in the background of the
story.
• I also think that my audience has a good chance of crossing over with this type of
audience.

8. Existing Product
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWufEJ1Ava0&t=25s
Hyper Light Drifter made by Heart Machine on September 6th 2018 on Nintendo also the production was funded by Patreon so that would be a reason
for audience appeal as they also got a say in what went into the game. The location/ area they are in is just another world filled with beasts and aliens
used to inhabit this world until they all died out and no one except for your character has alien technology the down side is though is that he is dying
from an unspecified disease. The angle from which you view the character is a third person view so just imagine a top down view and then angle the
camera down a bit by about 20-30 degrees and you would get the angle you are viewing the main character from. The effects used in Hyper Light Drifter
are a lot of fantastic lighting effects I mean there is the obvious stuff such as shadows but then in this production they also use a bit of feathering at the
edges of some stuff as well as using small amounts of Gaussian blur, they also used some inverted colours in a small part of the game and as usual they
also use different opacities, layers and I might be wrong but I think they also use masks as well, in this game there are two main types of mechanics
which is the fighting side of the mechanics and there is a puzzle mechanic part to this game. There isn’t much post production wise unless you mean
sound effects music and programming but most of that is being created at the same time and sometimes I think you can put them together at the same
time during the production. They use lighting really well in this game just like Dead Cells they have a lot of shading with a wide variety of colours, earthy,
dark and light being the main ones but there is one big difference between Dead Cells and Hyper Light Drifter when it comes down to lighting Dead Cells
uses darker colours predominantly where as in Hyper Light Drifter they use more light colours and with those light colours they use some glow effects
around some of the enemies and around crystals which gives off quite an eerie effect in the process. The composition is fairly hard to differentiate from
the background and the foreground as they are so close together but like the last one I think the characters and things you can interact with are in the
foreground as well as the crystals and some other attacks from other enemies, of the visuals and in the background is the map and things such as trees,
grass and lakes sort of stuff. The costume used for the character Is a sort of futuristic knight or wanderer with weird alien armour, the props used in the
game are swords bows other weapons and other objects which you can pick up like levers keys and the sort.

9. Existing products
• As I said it doesn’t really tell you where you are except for the fact aliens used to live on the planet
so I guess it is another world to ours, this could have potentially been Mars in the past as it has
water underneath the surface of the planet and so I think Mars could have had life on it way in back
in the past, but they don’t elaborate much when it comes down to the games story line. The
colours used are mainly very light vibrant colours such as pinks reds blues greens browns oranges
reds yellows and white however the game does use some dark colours such as dark brown, dark
green, dark blue, purple, vermillion, greys and black. Yet again there aren’t many fonts used in the
game except for the Hyper Light Drifter font which they made and the bigger better version of
calibri which I still can’t find out what it is. This appeals to the audience because well they funded it
in the first place and they also drew from ideas given to them by the public and so it is pretty much
a fan made game and if that isn’t good enough It has a good pixel style fairly similar to other games
but different enough to carry it off as their own design, they also have a good story in the
background of all the fighting. I decided to choose this for my product research as I really like the
art and animation style I like how the cape waves about when the character moves also the story
of both the creation and the video game story are great and as I said before hand it is something I
have to improve on. There is no speaking in the game. The music starts off quite relaxed and then
they start using sharp notes like they would in a horror game at the start of the first cut scene but
for the most part it is relaxing music until something major happens, as for the sound effects they
are mainly fighting noises, grunts of the enemy or allies and slick movement noises which I can only
describe by saying it is the sort of sound you hear when you are sharpening a knife.

10. Existing Product
• Throughout the game they use a mixture of light and dark colours showing a desperate fight for life (being the contrast and
also being quite literal to the story) in the cut scene where he is apparently supposed to be fighting off a disease, the main
character wears mainly dark clothing and armour which is to say that we would usually associate that with being the bad guy
but I think this isn’t the case as he was covered in darkness at the start which I think is the real enemy of the game. They use
lighting to make a distinct difference between most of the characters such as the only piece of light clothing is your red cape
and everything else is technically a beast out of nightmares they look like bears and can hold guns and other weapons, they
are all lighter than the main character is this because the main character doesn’t belong there so does that make the
nightmare-ish creatures right to attack you as you are in there territory well by game logic this makes a lot of sense but
anywhere else and it wouldn’t. They also use a fairly interesting composition so it is fairly difficult to tell a story from what is
happening in the background where-as Dead Cells used a different composition and angle to show the background and also
to show small snip bits of a story which means Hyper Light Drifter is trying to be open to interpretation by the player so you
have to make up your own mind on what happened. The props/ weapons that are used by the main character in the game is
a lightsaber type sword and a sort of plasma pistol and ninja moves even though the ninja moves are mainly for dodging and
jumping from area to area , there is not much of this that added to the story but for the fighting mechanic it allows you to
use melee and ranged. The costume that they used looks as if there are parts of armour such as they used braces around
the arms there are also I think maybe some greaves that they are using for this character and they are using a helmet of
some sort and I don’t think they use any chest armour or upper leg armour and I also think that the clothing is mainly Asian
based with the shoes and as for the cape it is just kind of cool, all that you can get from this is that the main character based
around some Asian clothing designs and that is really all it gives you.

11. Existing Product fighting
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Hk0s1ThEk
• At the beginning of the game the creatures look like bats crossed with bears there are two different
versions at the start being an unarmed version which has one attack which is charge as seems as the
enemy also has razor sharp claws and there is an animation for the claws after the creature has passed
to show where the claws would have landed. Then for the exact same creature there are some of them
which hold guns/ rifles which look as if they shoot some sort of plasma bullet towards the main
character which is easy to dodge and you can kill them all easily in one shot as long as you can dodge
them quite easily as well. As for the main character they use a lightsaber kind of sword as the primary
weapon at the start of the game which you can slice like the creatures can with such high velocity it
leaves a mark in the air where it would or did hit the creature and as for the other weapon the main
character carries it is a handgun that can shoot plasma bullets and kill in two shots with this weapon
where-as the lightsaber is a one shot kill at the beginning of the game.

12. Existing Product Summary
• I want to be able to use this kind of a map because it looks massive and it has
tonnes of detail to it in the background.
• I would also like to be able to use the colour scheme as it will be fairly similar to
the one I want to use as I want to use darker colours to create drama mystery and
sense of ominous feelings but this game has a lighter colour scheme than I want.
• I want to use some of the attack effects that they use such as the sword leaving a
slashing in its place once he has finished the actual swing of the sword.
• I want to be able to use the darkness as a character/ plot point within my game
as well because it might help the story telling.
• I also like how they don’t explain much or go into too much detail for anything in
the game leaving it open to interpretation.
• This is more like the art style I wanted to use for my game except that I wanted to
use a different angle for the viewer to be on so they can then see almost
everything that is going on.
• As for the animations I really like them but for two parts of my game they wouldn’t
really make sense to be included in it unless we are talking about enemies
attacking then that I will be able to use but only the charge attack.

13. Existing Product
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP8q5F6dFqQ
Valiant Hearts was a game made by Ubisoft and it was released on 24th June 2014.
This game is based on world war 1 it is a puzzle based action game for most of the game you are either in France Germany or Belgium I believe
on all different sorts of battlegrounds and at the start it shows how one of the main characters enlisted and at the end he is sent to the firing
wall . The angle in which you see the story take place is 45 degrees to the character as this game is also a 2d side scroller game so you see
everything in a lot of detail from the characters to the map to the background. The effects they used in this game aren’t really light related but
they do use a few light related effects such as simply the shading and shadows they use a few masks in certain areas of the game they also use
the opacity slider in some parts of the game and like Hyper Light Drifter, Valiant Hearts uses glow effects as well but only for gun fire and
explosions, also I like a lot of the objects which you can interact with such as pulling crates, ladders and mine carts the others if they weren’t a
part of the main story they give you facts and information on world war 1. As I said before hand they use lighting really well with all the
shading as I like it when the designer instead of adding a full shadow they just use one constant shadow just underneath the main characters
and other characters and objects throughout the world you play in also they use very dull colours most of the way through the game such as
grey and most of the colours they use have a slightly grey tint to them, it does make it look a little boring but once you get past that you are
fine. When it comes down to the composition it has quite a mixture because in the foreground they have most of the characters in the piece
and some of the objects you can interact with are there and then there are also some walls because it is a puzzle game and you have to find
your way around them. In the middle is the map in general which you can walk along and interact with certain items also some of the
characters are on this level to block you from going any further until you have completed a certain objective and yet again there are walls on
this layer as well. In the background there are some characters and usually the background has fields, silhouettes of people running and then
being gunned down tanks and all kinds of other things you would see during a war of that magnitude.

14. Existing Product
There isn’t really a main costume as there are 4 different characters you can play as 3 being soldiers from America, France and Germany so
there was the regimental dress for those guys but the French and German guys get caught multiple times and so for the French guy he is
made to be the cook and the German just loses his hat and overcoat of his regimental dress and there is a French medic who just went to the
war in a shirt trousers and carrying medical supplies in her bag. Well there aren’t many props but you can interact with a lot of the game such
as picking up items not useful for the main mission but it tells a story of world war 1 and the rest of the object you can move such as crates
and ladders things like that and you can pick up axes and keys and gas masks but the only other thing you can interact with is a dog which you
can just per from time to time. Most of the start of the game is in France and the last half of the game is in Germany. As for the colours like I
said they use a lot of different colours just all of them have a tint of grey to give off a sense of the war being an endless cycle and being kind
of worthless, but yeah they use pretty much every colour except for vibrant colours except for yellow but the colours they use the most are
black dark blue and that sort of colour. Just like all the other games in the existing products research it only has two fonts the font they made
and the one that is just better than calibri font. This has appealed to the audience as most people buying this game were expecting a game
about a world war and so any people who like history would love it also has elements of both action and puzzle so anyone who likes those
genres would love it but that is one thing that put people off the game the puzzle part but apart from all that it has a fun cartoon like drawing
and animation style to try and keep it light also there is no speaking in the game just muffles and grumbles. It also has very gripping story so
that is why people would like to buy and play the game valiant hearts. I decided to choose this for my product research because of its story
and its layout because the layout is going to be fairly similar to what I am planning on making and as for the story they tell a story without
saying a word it is also something that I need to improve on. There is very little to no music in the background of most of the game except for
the missions which are based around music and timing, but apart from that they just use noises and sound effects to cover up the silence as
seems as throughout the whole game they use gun shots and barrages of shells as in the background war is raging on and as well as having
little to no music, they have no voice acting only muffled noises which aren’t supposed to sound like words as they use images to converse
inside of the game.

15. Existing Product
• Valiant hearts uses predominantly light colours but they all have a grey tint to them making them
slightly more dull to set a dark mood/ tone for the game whilst keeping the colours fairly light. In
the terms of the lighting they use light colours because the game is more based around people
rather than the war and thus is a bit more light hearted than most other war games based in the
same era but to show that the war is still raging on they use some scenes mainly war based but
they also add a dark tint of grey to all the colours to also show that the war is going on around the
main characters. The composition they use is great because they can show how the war is going on
in the background most of the time but at some points in the game the main characters are also
involved in the healing and fighting against the other soldiers but the latter only happens in cut
scenes and also they have a few escape missions in the game as well. The costumes that are mainly
used at the start of the game is full military garb for most of the characters, but they originally
started in farmers clothing and some of them started in cooks clothing I guess it was to show how
wide of a variety of people were dragged into the war. They also use a lot of props/ interactive
objects but it is mainly a puzzle based game so it doesn’t have any direct relation to the story
except for the other random objects you can find around the map which tell you facts about the fist
world war which I guess kind of adds an educational side to the game. The locations they use are
based loosely around France Belgium and Germany where the worst of the fighting was fought in
both world war one and two. The main reason I chose this game for my research though was
because of its story telling as it is fairly dramatic most of the way through and then at the end there
is an emotional ending to it all with all the characters you play as standing by him at the firing wall
and his family and the dog standing by his grave at the end. It is a great story and I need to
somehow try to incorporate this sort of story telling into my game.

16. Existing Product Summary
• I want to be able to use the same kind of composition and angle for the main
character view to show that there is more going on in the background.
• I want to be able to use the same kind of colour scheme and add a similar kind of
tint to most of the colours.
• I also like to be able to use shadows to create make some sort of suspense and
also to highlight objects of use or new weapons.
• I want to be able to use the plot point where they use four different main
characters as I am going to have one character split into three different ones.
• I like How the story is told in general it is a dramatic piece with a little bit of
emotionality mixed in which I want to learn how to do.
• Also the costumes are a good idea to have full military uniform it creates a sense
of sorrow in quite a few cases, and other creates a sense of bravery.
• I think that this will cross over with my audience hopefully when it comes down to
the story telling.
• I think that it is also good because it shows off the wide variety of people who can
be effected by these issues.

17. Existing Product
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo-uuawy9Ok
Shovel Knight is game made by Yacht Club Games on 26th June 2014.
This game is kind of a mixture between Mario and Castlevania it is made in levels, the main game mechanic is trying to find
treasure kind of like Legend of Zelda and there are multiple enemies to fight and avoid and earn gems whilst you do it at the end of
some of the stages there are bosses to fight. The location of shovel knight well it doesn’t say where it is supposed to be but I think
it is based upon either a medieval France or Belgium but this isn’t something that is elaborated only that you are heading towards
the tower of fate. The angle of the viewer is 45 degrees to the main character as this game is a 2d side scrolling platformer , the
genres this game is also in are puzzle action adventure and action. Shovel knight doesn’t use to many effects that I know of but I
think there are some definite colour gradients but apart from that they use layers and some masks most likely to give the game a
certain tint. This game doesn’t have many mechanics either apart from the puzzles and the fighting sides of the game, when it
come down to fighting you use your shovel to either hit things above you bellow you or side to side you can dig up areas filled with
scrap and kill things to get rubies and as far as the puzzle side is concerned it is just how to get to the other end of a room filled
with spikes to get to chests apart from that, that is all you do in the game. The use of lighting is alright as there aren’t any shadows
but in the light areas it looks light and in the dark areas it looks dark that I guess is all you really need when it comes down to it but
unlike all the other games this game takes place mostly in light and vibrant areas until the end of the game where it turns dark for
a small spell of the game. The composition is the same as most old games like Mario in the foreground you have the enemies the
map the main character and everything you can interact with and in the background is the rest of the map which you can’t go to so
when it comes to layout it is kind of unoriginal but still lots of fun to look at and play. The costume is of a medieval knight and I
think they took inspiration from actual knights and added horns to try and make it seem like they are from a Norse background.

18. Existing Product
• The only prop/ weapon you need to use is the shovel however they do give you things such as
daggers and other sets of armour throughout the game. The game is either set or based around a
medieval Norse land or it is from France or Belgium. The colours they use are mainly bright colours
such as green yellow blue brown and white they also use some reds and peachy colours and they
also use oranges, however in some places as I said in the game are dark so they use greys blacks
dark brown green and red and purple. I think they only use two types of font in this game and they
are both made by the game creators for the game specifically. This would appeal to the audience
because of its simplicity also the fact at how you can walk away from the game when ever you want
makes it a really relaxed experience, I also really like the art style they went with also the story is
easy to follow when you get into it. I decided to do my product research on this because of its
layout which is going to be slightly similar to mine. I like the simple story and the art style of it. It is
also very good with its animation which is something I need to improve on. The game uses fast pace
Jazz like music for the game which kind of keeps with the timing of the gameplay, the only time this
ever stops is when you defeat a boss and it plays something from the celebration sound track for
the game. There are also a few sound effects such as picking up the gems creates a sort of sword
being pulled from its sheathe sound, and then for the destroying killing and dealing of damage
they use a sound effect which sounds like you are releasing compressed air from a small container
and they also have jumping sound effects and much more which on the whole makes the game a
bit more enjoyable also there is no speech within the game.

19. Existing Product
• This game uses extremely light and vibrant colours to make the game as light hearted and relaxed
as possible even in quite a dew of the underground and dungeon like areas use lots of light colours
with the exception of a few dark colours which I think are mainly used just to make shadows and
make the game feel a little bit more realistic. As for the lighting which I included in the colour part
of this slide I think they mainly use the dark areas to make things stand out. Quote= “If there be
light, then there is darkness”- Pythagoras and if not I have to say that it is like there is a fight
between the two showing the light side to be the winner most of the time. The composition is
interesting because the background tells another story while you are running through the level and
if not it is just a nice looking part of the map to show off skills, art styles and effects. The costumes
in the game are mainly based around knightly armour and has bits of influence from the Vikings
and the common myth that they had Viking horns in their helmets, also there are three to four
different types of armour in the game that I have seen which was for shovel knight who wore blue
armour and his nemesis wore black and red armour. The blue of the main character is to show that
he is the good guy and the guy in red and black kind of represents strife and things of that sort.
They use lots of different props/ weapons but the main character only uses one which is his blue
shovel which doesn’t really add anything to the story or the concepts that you could create for this.
The bit that I really liked about the start though is that it all started out as if it were a text based
adventure game with the occasional picture to go with the story so yet again there is a great way
show casing the story telling of the game also for each and every change of picture the angle it is
taken and also from a different place changing the shot type and background.

20. Existing Product fighting
• There are lots of different mobs/ enemies inside shovel knight one them is the red beetle which walks
around on the floor from end to end of its small part of the map so it follows a pattern if it touches you,
you lose ¼ of a heart but it is a one shot with your shovel. Then after those the next enemy you find is a
dragon which blows bubbles one of the bubbles can take ½ a heart away from you but to defeat it you just
have to jump and down on its snout about seven times and it is easy to follow. The next enemy you come
across is a skeleton with what looks like leather armour and a sword which can take 1 heart and takes two
shots to kill they stand still and don’t patrol an area so they are easy to kill. The last enemy I am going to
mention is the slime if it attacks you will lose ¼ of a heart and it takes 2 shots to kill the difficult thing
with these enemies is that they can jump around after you. As for the shovel knight he has two normal
attacks one is the dig animation which looks as if it is reused as a hitting animation and the other one
being falling onto your enemies with the shovel first both dealing one hits worth of damage and then
there are special attacks which deal a lot of damage kind of like a super power I only know one of the
others but there is one where the shovel knight spins in a circle hitting everything around him and then
there is also charge attack which yet again does masses of damage and puts them off guard.

21. Existing Product Summary
• I want to be able to use pretty much the exact same composition
with the same angle just with a bit more detail to the backgrounds
and shadow.
• I also want to use a fairly similar pixel art style because the armour
and helmet look fantastic.
• Also in the way at how I am setting up the game is going to be very
similar being the fact that I will use levels.
• I like the mechanics and the fighting of the game it is all has a sense
of simplicity to it.
• I also want to make some fast paced music like this but with just
noises and some guitar in the background.
• I also love the simplicity of it when it comes down to the whole
product especially when it comes down to the attacks and attack
patterns when it comes down to mobs and bosses.

22. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched products have?
– All of them have light and dark sections of the game, and most of the time it symbolizes something, like good and bad clashing
together.
– Most of them use a very similar layout except for Hyper Light Drifter being the main character in the foreground the map in the
middle and the background just being background art.
– They all use a wide variety of colour.
– A few of them use the same fonts
– Most of them were from my key influences as they all have something that I want to be able to do whether it be telling a story
animating or just drawing better than before.
– Most of the sound effects were fantastic and mostly abstract.
– Most of them include a dark colour scheme or a healthy mixture between the two.
– They mostly have good compositions as well.
• What aspects of the research will you include within your own production work?
• I like the idea of giving my work a colour gradient or a different colour gradient each time the level changes
• I also like the idea of having a smoke effect it makes things a bit creepier
• I like the fact at how most of them made their own font to covey things
• I also like the layout/ composition idea that most of them gave to me
• Most of them have an individual way of drawing but I think the shovel knight way is the way forward for me
• The same for the animations for shovel knight has fantastic animation
• I want to be able to use a dark colour scheme to create a sense of mystery and fore shadowing.
• I would like to make a game with a deep story based in levels.

23. Audience Research

24. Secondary Audience research
• Shovel Knight User Review
• Observation: This is a review for the game shovel knight which gives a good review for its art style animation music
and sound effects, and they also enjoyed the platformer part of the game.
• What this says about my audience: That they like the look of “retro graphics” and the old music that went with
games also worked well for the audience but what I would have said is that it is fast paced to go well with the
game play and it is relaxed enough to fit with the story and also I think that they would enjoy other Metroidvanias.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to my specific audience because of my
retro based graphics and the same sort of animation the goes with it also my game will be a 2d side scrolling
platformer so it will be the same type of gameplay.

25. Secondary Audience Research
• Shovel Knight Critic Review
• Observation: These kind of people love the old era of games with him
talking about the “NES era” and they love new games with aspects from
both. They also probably like platformer games.
• What this says about the audience: This says that they will have a great
appreciation for games mixed with classic elements such as the retro pixel
art style, the music and the composition, they also like the genre which is
called platformer which goes very well with 2d side scroller games.
• How will your product to this audience: It will use most/ a lot of the old NES
game constructs such as the composition and art style and it will also
include some ideas from more recent games such as dark souls and many
others, my game will also be a 2d side scroller.

26. Secondary Audience research
• Dead Cells User Review
• Observation: This yet again is some one who clearly likes “roguelike” games which are
action based platformers and usually 2d side scrollers. They also enjoy the art style they
used which is a form of pixel art and when he says the combat is fluent I guess he is talking
about the animation as well.
• What this says about my audience: They look for retro design in a game and would like
similar animation to go with it, they also like the unforgiving nature of the game.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: This will appeal to my audience because of
the retro design and the animation that will go along with it, also the composition will be
very similar.

27. Secondary Audience Research
• Dead Cells Critic Review
• Observation: These kind of people enjoy playing games like dark souls, blood borne and that sort of thing where
you have very low chances of staying a live the whole time you are playing, also I think that this person likes the
old retro games and maybe has a slight sense of nostalgia, towards these type of games.
• What this says about my audience: My audience likes old 2d action platformers and likes the game to have around
bouts twelve frames per second because they like the slick combat and they like to feel as if they are progressing
even though they are dying lots.
• How will your product appeal to your audience: My game will be using 2d side scrolling action platformer game
which I am hoping to get a lot of animation in to try and make the animations as slick and fast paced as possible
and there will most certainly be the dying element a lot but as for progression I thought that you would go back to
the beginning of the stage or have check points dotted round the map.

28. Secondary Audience research
• Valiant Hearts User Review
• Observation: They like good story telling, the horrible story behind the actual story and they would
like 2d side scrollers.
• What this says about my audience: My audience likes a good story with an underlying issue in the
background of the story, they will like the composition as the game I am making is a 2d side
scrolling platformer and they really enjoy music that goes well with the animation.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My audience hopefully like how I layout my game as
it is going to be fairly similar just with a few little extra added details and I also think that they will
enjoy the game play I am planning on using even though it is very different.

29. Secondary Audience Research
• Valiant Hearts Critic Review
• Observation: These people are mainly playing this game for the story and its “hand drawn graphics”
as it says that there is no challenge in the gameplay
• What this says about my Audience: My audience like the games they play to have some sort of
challenge to the games they play and they also expect at least a good quality of graphics for the
game but above all they like the story it tells.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My game will include some good quality graphics
hopefully and I need to improve my story telling methods but I have a good story in mind and most
of all there will be a challenge if the game was playable.

30. Secondary Audience Research
• Hyper Light Drifter User Review
• Observation: This kind of player is the sort of fan who plays tonnes of fallout and that sort of game. I also
think that this sort of player enjoys dark moody tones and environments. This person really enjoys the
soundtrack as well
• What this says about my audience: That they enjoy a dark game filled with mystery, a fantastic soundtrack
and a well told story.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will use a dark colour scheme to create an
ominous feeling and a sense of mystery, with hopefully a good story and a cool soundtrack.

31. Secondary Audience Research
• Hyper Light Drifter Critic Review
• Observation: These people like the games which are from the “NES era” with pixel art but the only thing that has
changed to this group is the animation as the animation used to be slower and they also enjoy the kind of music
that went with the old games such as musicals rather than dub step stuff.
• What this says about my audience: They enjoy a classic kind of music to go with the game and game play they like
pixel art with some detail and it also has a fantastic way of telling its story.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My game will include detailed pixel art hopefully and I will also try
to good story telling techniques with in my game.

32. Primary Audience research
• Observation: People definitely know their Greek Mythology and remember a lot of monsters and
god type figures.
• What this says about my audience: Gods are the ones that people remember the most when it
comes down to Greek mythology, behind that are the centaurs and joint after that is the Cerberus
and the hydra.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I will most likely use a design which is fairly similar
to Cerberus, in the background of some of the scenes I was going to have an angry god in the sky
and I won’t really use any of the other creatures I have used here.

33. Primary Audience research
• Observation: These people like weird stories
• What this says about my audience: The Iliad is about the Trojan war, the Odyssey is about a leader
from that war getting lost at sea and trying to get home, Hercules’s twelve labours are only brought
about because Hercules killed his family and Prometheus was a God that stole fire to give it to the
humans and was sentenced to have his guts pecked at by birds for eternity, but at least they know
an interesting story when they read it.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I am going to try and use similar story telling
techniques to these stories whilst trying to make the story as crude as possible and then also trying
to take out some of the colour scheme and compositions.

34. Primary Audience research
• Observation: They mainly want the same story telling techniques for each and every one.
• What this says about my audience: They mainly talk about story telling techniques and structural
parts of Greek culture and to an extent they mention monsters and gods.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My game will appeal to this audience by using a lot
of the old story telling techniques used by Homer primarily and then I probably will use some of the
structural parts of Ancient Greece and as for monsters that is a given all games need monsters/
enemies well most of the successful ones do at least.

35. Primary Audience research
• Observation: Most people think that suicide and mental illness has not been covered properly by
the media
• What this says about my audience: This pretty much says that it can conveyed in much better ways
because as quite a few of them said not all mental illness’s are crippling but can be if they are left
unchecked.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to this audience because I
am going to be using some sort of mental illness in its youth each time even when the character
changes.

36. Primary Audience research
• Observation: They want to see the person with mental health issues to be more human rather than
secluding themselves and trying to cut themselves off from humanity.
• What this says about my audience: They want to see a more human side as they have seen plenty
of people who are badly depressed and all they do is add way to much drama about it.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to my audience as the game
will revolve around a slightly depressed guy who doesn’t create too much drama around the
subject to just make it a sort of undertone to the game.
• The other thing is that 3 people skipped this question which means they either didn’t want to
answer or it is an awkward question to answer.

37. Primary Audience research
• Observation: Most of them want a sort of orchestral piece of music to mix in with the games main
parts being mythology and suicide and the run up to suicide.
• What this says about my audience: It means that they want some sort of sad soft melodic music to
go with the game as it would probably fit the best when it comes down to the things I have
mentioned.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to my audience by giving
them some sad music however I don’t know if I can also make it soft and melodic like an orchestral
piece of music.

38. Primary Audience research
• Observation: They want me to use more light colours I don’t know why though because depression
I would usually associate with dark colours.
• What this says about my audience: They prefer the lighter colours of the Greek mythology world
rather than the darker side of the depression and other mental illness’s.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to my audience because I
will be using mainly light colours with a slightly dark tint in the background, just to make all those
nice and bright colours a bit darker by using a blue or something to try and get across that it is
getting or it is dark outside.

39. Primary Audience research• What would you expect to see in a game about depression and what kind of story telling
techniques would you use to express it fully and why?
• The subject should be approached sensitively. The imagery should imply depressive themes but
shouldn't take over the entire game. There should still be some bright (but not overly bright) areas
during the game play to provide the player with some sense of contrast.
• Games which are set out in Greek mythology what would you want to see as a setting and
background which would convey a sense of dread and what kind of music to go with it and why?
• Creatures in the far distance within a dark background would imply that they are waiting to do
something to the character. Maybe something foggy/misty to give the sense of emptiness, possibly
reflecting the characters feelings? The music would benefit from being slowly paced and
appropriate for the style of game. A well-developed game should use a soundtrack style, whereas a
pixel art game would work better with chip-tune.
• What do you think that a 2D side scrolling platformer should have as a viewpoint and what other
genres do you think would fit in with this sort of game?
• I think the viewpoint should be from the character’s level. Depending on the character’s size, the
player will get a nice sense of scale between the character and buildings, objects, etc. I’d generally
associate side scrollers with games like Mario, but I assume this game will be a strong contrast from
that.

40. Primary Audience Research
• What would you expect to see in a game about depression and what kind of story telling
techniques would you use to express it fully and why?
• A dark setting should be used to convey heavier emotions, which should be reflected by the
characters. The player could even effect the relations of other characters and separate good and
bad key story points.
• Games which are set out in Greek mythology what would you want to see as a setting and
background which would convey a sense of dread and what kind of music to go with it and why?
• Greek styled crypts or tombs could be used. Depending on how fantasy themed it is you could have
a plain belonging to a Greek God.
• What do you think that a 2D side scrolling platformer should have as a viewpoint and what other
genres do you think would fit in with this sort of game?
• From the side. Sandboxes like terraria, or adventure games like shovel knight would work within
this viewpoint.

41. Primary Audience Research
• What would you expect to see in a game about depression and what kind of story telling
techniques would you use to express it fully and why?
• I would expect to see some visual representations of depression such as a shadowy figure lingering
around in the game or some more extreme things like a noose on a dead tree or being separated
from the rest of society
• Games which are set out in Greek mythology what would you want to see as a setting and
background which would convey a sense of dread and what kind of music to go with it and why?
• I would expect a empty Greek village at a twilight time of day, shadows being cast in a malformed
way and a slow paced quiet music to signify the emptiness/ how the character is alone.
• What do you think that a 2D side scrolling platformer should have as a viewpoint and what other
genres do you think would fit in with this sort of game?
• I think of a horror style of game when I imagine this being a game. I think that side scroller would
be a good idea as it limits the places that you can run, however it does eliminate a dimension of
fear as if it were to be 3d it would be more fear inducing as it feels more real.

42. Primary Audience research
• Interviews Question 1
• Observation: Two of them say it would be a good idea to to kind of make it a subtle plot point but
one of them says that it should be to the point and mainly black.
• What this says about my audience: The majority prefer subtlety and one person says that it should
be mainly dark colours.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I will be using mainly light colours to create my main
piece to go along with the subtlety side and I will add a dark tint over it to show how dark it is
during the night going with the person who is to the point.
• Interviews Question 2
• Observation: They want it to be subtle dark/ ominous, with slow music and one of them said fog which I
am going to include and another said an empty town and the same one said something about malformed
shadows both of which I am planning on using.
• What this says about my audience: They mainly want a dark and mysterious setting with lots happening in
the background.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: They will get pretty much everything they asked for except
for the plain owned by a god but apart from that everything and more.
• Interviews Question 3
• Observation: I gave them the answer for the first part which is that it should be on the same height as the
Main Character. One person said that it will help with scale. I think what the other person meant was stuff
like adventure action games. The last one said horror and that it would be good as it seems as if it is a one
way street.
• What this says about my audience: They all want very different things except for the genres as I think I can
make adventure action and horror mix in the game.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: It will have a mixture of all these things and yet again there
will probably be even more than these guys mentioned in the interview.

43. Subject Research
• Greek Mythology.
• Most settings in Greek mythology are set around the seas as most of the stories
are based on journeys and there are a bunch of Greek islands so when it comes
down to journeys you will find that most of them are across seas. There are other
locations such as Athens Sparta and other main provinces of Greece such as Beotia
and Kythera. The reason why I put up Athens and Sparta together is because they
started a war between each other that in the end killed of that part of civilization
by weakening both sides other countries broke in and started to over rule the
Greeks. Then there are other places further a field such as Troy, The Underworld
and Mount Olympus. So yeah there is a massive mixture of areas it could be set in
to fit in with some sort of Greek story. However it is most likely going to be set on
one of the bigger islands such as Mykonos or Kos as they most certainly would
have had some forests nearby and they would also have had some towns there
but I think it might be a bit of a stretch to say that they would have had a castle or
fortress there. Also the fact at how usually Greece is seen as a nice luscious area
with lots of vibrant colours it will be interesting to see it from a different point of
view where everything is darker than you would expect so pretty much just add a
darker tint to most things.

44. Subject Research
• Greek mythology themes.
• The good guy always comes home and gets what he wants
throughout lots of trials and tribulations. So we are going to throw
a curve ball at that idea and make it so everything that could go
wrong does go wrong or at least at a lot of things go wrong. The
villain could be a mixture of things such as monsters gods or people
where-as the hero is almost inevitably human. This will be the same
in my game and my enemies/ villains will be monsters that you can
actively fight against hide from or run away from them, however it
will be made very difficult to run away from the enemy. It will be
difficult to run away from the enemy because it was seen as
cowardice to run away from a fight and that would mean that
things get harder for anyone who runs away in Greek mythology
anyone who ran away would become an outcast to the rest of the
society.

45. Practical Research

46. Practical Research

47. Practical Research
• For this experiment I was trying to experiment with movement and
character creation as well as lighting and colour and I was also fairly bad at
composition before hand so I decided to do this and a background to get
more moving and also to give it a sort of composition to try and improve
on that.
• To achieve these first I decided to make the grass podium that the main
character is standing on which was a good start to the movement and
animation side to the experiment, and then to go on top of the grass
podium I made the main character which is a guy in a suit of armour who
moves up and down when he breathes, then I made the rocks to add to
the composition side of the experiment I also added the stars and the
moon for the contrast as well, then after all of that I made the fog layer
which I made about four to five separate layers for the fog and all of them
move except for one which stays the same constantly pretty much I also
used this as a chance to do some opacity work which was another effect I
used on the fog and to top it all off I added a black layer over the whole
piece to make it darker and then I lowered the opacity of that layer as well
to make it a bit lighter to make it look like a natural blue from the moon
and that is what I did to work with a different colour scheme than usual.

48. Practical Research

49. Practical Research
• For this experiment it was to try draw and create an animation for a monster or an animal so I
decided to draw a snake as there are lots of different mythologies which use snakes as monsters or
gods.
• To start I drew the outline of the head of the snake on my first attempt it was fairly poor being
around abouts the same shape but then when it came down to shading and colouring in the head
of the snake I just used something like two greens black and a peach sort of skin colour which made
it look nothing like a snake and was a disappointment but then on my second go of the colouring I
started to use all different sorts of colours being light greens dark greens greys black, orange yellow
red pink and peach and to a lesser extent I used some purples. As I said the first time was a bit of a
disappointment not just because of the head because I also drew a body for the animal, which I
thought I might just be able to salvage the drawing but I was wrong and then on the second time
around it looks fantastic because I got par of the coil into the frame as well but the issue I did have
with this is that I did it all on one layer so I couldn’t move the head and the body separately so I had
to draw most of the snakes body out of frame that also has something to do with having a bad start
point because I drew the snakes head pretty much in the middle if not a bit of to the right which
meant that I drew to the edge of the image size and then I decided to stop at that because I thought
that it probably wasn’t going to be a massive part that they miss it will just be another bend in the
body and then when it came down to colouring the top part near the head was where I put the
most attention to detail as it would look wrong otherwise and then I started to slack off toward the
end of the piece.

50. Practical Research

51. Practical research
• These are actually levels that I had created for the game and used with in the
game but this what the original idea was without any movement at all no trees
moving or bushes moving, the thing that took the most time to edit into the image
were the shadows they took about a week to do all of the shadows in all of the
levels of the game the people who are caught in traps and things were to signify
that there was no escape from the area the background was nice and easy so were
the trees but I think that I should have maybe added some more detail to them
but the bushes were quite difficult as when I did the art for the actual piece I made
it so the wind moved them and so I had to redraw all the bushes in different ways.
I made these by using Photoshop with the pencil tool first of all I would always
start with the floor/ground and then work my up just drawing and I always drew
the floor to the exact same height on each level to make sure it didn’t look
completely wrong and then after the drawing I would colour in the stuff that I had
drawn such as the trees, bushes and the ground once I had coloured all of that in
then I started to add shadows onto the bits and pieces that I had coloured in once
I had done all of that then I decided to add in a background to try and make it so
that there was no white noise anywhere near the main focus of the game and so I
just used the pencil tool to colour block some trees into the background and then
made the colour behind those to light green with the paint bucket tool.

52. Practical Research

53. Practical Research
• This experiment was of the sort of music I was going to add to my
project and I still might but this was the best piece of music I made
in beepbox just as an experiment to see whether or not I could
make any music that sounded good but also had some sort of dark
tone to it however with the old retro style of creating some dark
music was very difficult and so the only good piece of music I could
make was an uplifting piece so in effect the experiment failed but
the music is still good enough to put into my project anyway. It was
made by using an oscillation sort of effect with the sounds. I would
start at the top of each bar and then work my way up and down
until I heat the peak and the summit of each bar I used, in the
background there is one long noise which is just one part of the bar
covered to give it some sort of repetitiveness to it and also
underneath all of that there is a sort of bass layer which does the
same sort of thing the first one does but just with longer notes, and
as for the drums I just used them to create a catchy beat.

54. Bibliography

55. Bibliography
1. Andrew Downes(2019) Target Audience Research Survey, Survey Monkey
2. Charlie Davidson. (2019) Target Audience Interviews
3. Julian Wilcox.(2019) Target Audience Interviews
4. Jack Lowes.(2019) Target Audience Interviews
5. https://dead-cells.com/ (2018) dead cells game website
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94IsvgEFzH0 (2018) Youtube,
Advert
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP8q5F6dFqQ ( 2018) Youtube,
Advert
8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo-uuawy9Ok (2018) Youtube,
Advert
9. Google Images (2019) Google, Game pictures