The document analyzes several existing video games including Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Commando Rush, and Excitebike. It finds that they commonly have backgrounds that reflect the complexity of gameplay, goals of traveling between locations while overcoming obstacles, and straightforward concepts with levels and checkpoints. The analysis will take inspiration from these games by including completing levels through movement and transportation, using weapons as Commando Rush does, varying background colors and moods, and using simple animation techniques.

1. Research
Harry Allinson

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLl9XBg7wSs&t=60s
This is an image from the existing product Mario Bros (1985), which has some very interesting elements to it. Within this Mario game
it uses obstacles of death gaps that the player needs to jump over and enemies within the map that the player either needs to avoid
completely or defeat so that the player doesn’t lose any health, lose a life or cause the game to be over, which makes the game more
challenging thus more entertaining hence when the player completes a level or section of the game it feels more rewarding then if
there wasn’t any obstacles involved, which is why players feel so good when they play and complete a game because usually within a
game, especially action and puzzle game it includes elements where there is goal that needs to be met which can be hard to achieve,
which makes the player feel good when they win or complete the game because the player feels as if he has earnt the victory
through skill and determination when playing, from the outcome of the play through of the game.
The lighting within this level Mario game and the majority of the Mario levels is bright, which, along with the vibrant colors causes
the younger audience demographics to be more influenced to buy and play the game because bright and saturated colors within a
product is highly appealing to young people, probably because vibrant/bright coloration could be interpreted almost subconsciously
as somewhat of a symbolism of optimism and young people on average, oppose to the older audiences, are more optimistic which is
one of many reasons why this game was probably so popular with the younger generations, along with other developmental
elements such as maturity and psychographics which play a role in the type of audience that would be most likely to have the urge
and want to want to play this type of game.
The level’s complexity is reflected by the background of the level because the
background is pretty standard and simple and so is the level, which is a smart
implementation that is used in more challenging levels within Mario, but
within the harder levels, the background is more complex to add that touch of a
complimentary link between the background and the levels difficulty, which
makes the play through of set level more satisfying and understanding because
the correlation between what is happening within the level and the background
is understanding, and when the background is complex it also subliminally tells
the player of the game that there is probably either a new element to the
level and/or the level is more complex.
Within the game the producers of the game thought about the sound effects quite
precisely because when Mario jumps in the game, it makes a jump sound, which
strongly compliments the unearthly & cartoonish aesthetic of the Mario world
because of how electronic it Sounds and feels alongside the visual of Mario jumping.
Existing Product

3. Existing Product
Sonic the Hedgehog is a game that I be similar to mine because I will have elements of adventure,
speed running and action, which is why I have chosen this game for analysis. This section of sonic is
very interesting because it is one of the only levels in the game that sonic has to travel upwards to get
to the next stage to fight a boss in the game. The sounds within this game are similar to Mario
because of the use of negative and positive sounds used within different scenarios when the player
either does something good or bad, which tells the player if he has does something wrong, like when
the player dies or when the player gains rings or completes a level. This is an important aspect to the
game because it makes playing the game that bit more addictive hence the the positive sounds
within the game makes the player feel happy since they feel like they have been rewarded for
achieving the completion of sections of a level.
Similarly to Mario, sonic uses bright and vibrant colors for the majority of the game which appeals to
the primary audiences and makes playing the game more interesting since the coloration of the game
isn’t dull, which further makes game players more driven to play the game because the visual
appearance of the game is so visually lush and colorful.
Within Sonic it includes rings that the player can collect that are animated in a away that makes the
rings appear to spinning. This small element to the game makes the game overall more interesting to
play because not only is there the primary goal to complete a level but also there is the aspect of
collecting rings within the level so that there is a side challenge of collecting in-game point via the
collection of rings.
Along this level the player has the demand of being as efficient as possible when jumping on the
moving platforms without falling down and dying or losing a life and losing rings because the aim of
this level is get past this stage of the level so that the player can continue on to the other stages of
the level thus getting closer to the finish, which is the primary aim of the game.
The production of the animation creating the illusion that makes the overall movement of sonic look
more complex then it is because when sonic runs its just his legs spinning and when the player jumps
it’s a similar thing because its simply just sonic spinning in a ball, which is what I will be aiming to do
for my game when animating it because it can make the movement of the character within the game
look smooth yet there not a large amount of animation involved, which makes using this technique
when animating a game great because it allows the producer of the game to have more time on
other elements of the game because there isn’t too much time used up on creating overly complex
movements for the character within the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQPvA0OvR24&t=1300s

4. Commando Rush, although it isn’t a pixel game, has elements within the game that I
will use within mine because Commando Rush is an action game and uses a lot of guns
which is what I will use within my game because within my game since my game most
likely primarily be an action game. In contrast to the last two games that I have
researched, this game has animations that are quite complex, which is the main
difference between what I will make and this game because even though I will try and
make my game somewhat complex so that it is more diverse, I will not go as complex
as this game because the movement animations are too much for an animation within
Photoshop because there are limitations to what you can do, since Photoshop isn’t
designed for animation, like rotating layers, which you cant do, especially since I am
creating a pixel game in a set time constraint with a deadline.
The overall concept of the game is something that I mainly take inspiration from
because to put it simply it is an action game where the player needs to get from point a
to b whist getting through obstacles in various different terrains within the mission,
like rolling barrels, seen in the middle image and using guns to kill enemies on the way
in transportations and on foot when they are using weapons too, without dying so that
the player can fully complete the mission within the game.
The angle of the game stays consistent throughout with slight alterations of depth at
some points, which is what I will probably include within my game because altering the
angle of the game can cause potential complications and time loss, especially if I tried
to go 3D because that would be extremely hard to generate within Photoshop.
The lighting within this game is often dark, within reflects elements of the game such
as when the player injures a boss or standard character so much that, that enemy in
the game will stab himself to death so that he dies more quickly, as well as the overall
element of death and destruction seeing throughout the various visual and audible
(The sound of death and terror) aspects of the game. Although the game can be dark a
lot, there are times within the game once the player has passed a certain point of
killing people where the background transforms and transitions into a brighter and
more vibrant setting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW1eRRatW0U
Existing Product

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRgMCtaWoSU
Excitebike is a game which I will most certainly take inspiration from since it uses a vehicle, which
is what I was thinking of using within my product alongside sections of my game where the
character isn’t using one because it makes the overall experience of playing the game better
hence there is another element to the game that someone can enjoy when playing the game,
which makes the gameplay of the game have more of a diverse entertainment value which can
make playing the game more enjoyable as there is more aspects to the game.
The location of the game is standard because its just a motorbike race track within a stadium
which has the frame of the image that tracks the motorbike along when the motorbike is moving
right. As the game continues from forward from the start, the complexity of the map increases
and the difficulty of the obstacles begin to enhance, progressively overtime, which is an aspect
that I like lot because it allows the player to adapt through stages of the level so that the player
can get into the zone for the more complex stages as the game difficulty starts to ramp up
overtime as the game progresses.
The animation for the movement of the motorbike moving forward is very standard as all that
happens is that there is an shake of the bike, as the bike speeds up to create the look that the
motorbike is more realistically moving as it shakes, which is highly simple but effective as the
look that is created for the motorbike within Excitebike works well and doesn’t feel off at all
which is something that I would like to formulate within my game because it would make my
product look more professional and potentially more entertaining if I take inspiration from some
of the aspects of this game and implement then with an original twist on them into my game.
There are props used well within this game, in the form of obstacles which play a large part
within this game of increasing the difficulty as the track goes on, which is an element, which
without it would make this game just a motorbike game but the implementation of the ramps
made the game more suited a greater entertainment of a gaming experience because it made
the whole look of the game a lot less dull and boring, since as it is a race between you and the
other racers, it makes racing the other racers more intense as one slip up on an obstacle cause
cost the player the win, which creates an atmosphere of suspense and risk as the player airs over
the ramps whilst racing, which in return makes the game more fun for the player, which is what
makes a gaming product fun.
Existing Product

6. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched products have?
– Within my researched products, there is background adaptation that often reflects the maturity, style and complexity of
the game or section of a particular game, which in many cases creates a satisfying correlation between the background
and what is happing within the foreground.
– Another common feature of my researched products is that within all of the games there is a goal of traveling from one
location to another with the challenge of overcoming obstacles along the way. This element within the products that I
have researched comes in various forms, such as in bike racing, where there is a timer involved whist the player racers the
other bike riders, action where the player needs to fight off enemies whilst traveling and in action adventures where the
player would sometimes have to complete sections of the level with parkour with the challenge of killing enemies.
– Although Commando Rush was the most complex out of the games that I had researched, visually and mechanically
speaking, the games that I have researched overall all have pretty straight forward and understandable concepts with
checkpoints and various levels involved within the over arching concept.
• What aspects of the research will you include within your on work?
– A fundamental aspect that I will acquire from my researched product is that of completing a level/mission within a game
via movement (traveling), when a character runs in-game and uses transport because I feel like applying this feature to my
game will make action within the game more entertaining and diverse in terms of the increase in variety of things that a
player can do within the game.
– Action games that I have researched, like Commando Rush, include weapons, which I will include within my final product
game because I have decided that I will have action in my game thus I have thought about using guns specifically because
it spices-up the potential for a more action packed experience of gameplay, which could potentially make my final product
a more successful and fun via the outcome of the production of the video game product.
– For my final product I will use bright & vibrant colours for my background in some sections of my final product and darker
colouration in others, depending on the mood of the scene within each sect of the levels within my game.
– I will use simplistic to semi-simplest animation techniques for movements of characters and other areas in my game like
the background so that it saves me time to apply more effort to other areas of the game and also sometime, like in sonic,
using a simplistic animation can look good, so I’ve decided to use, in some parts of my production to produce the game,
simplistic elements of animation.

7. Bibliography

8. Bibliography
1. Shigeru Miyamoto. (1985) Mario
2. Shigeru Miyamoto. (1991) Sonic the Hedgehog
3. JustCoolMan. (2013) Commando Rush
4. Nintendo. (1984) Excitebike