The document discusses several games that served as inspiration for the author's top-down dungeon crawler game. It analyzes Diablo 3, Destiny 2, Realm of the Mad God (RotMG), and Path of Exile. For Diablo 3, the author aims to replicate its dark fantasy atmosphere and scary boss arenas. From Destiny 2, some ability and character designs will be borrowed. RotMG's bullet hell combat and class unlock system influence the author's gameplay. Path of Exile's in-depth skill systems and detailed environments also provide inspiration. Key commonalities across the researched games include a top-down perspective and focus on killing enemies and collecting loot with a dark color palette. The author will base character

1. Research
Your Name

2. Diablo 3
One of the main inspirations for my game is diablo 3, this is where my top down
dungeon runner idea came from. I thoroughly enjoy the way they have portrayed the
fantasy elements in a really dark way with some of the character and scene design, this
really shines through with bosses and their arenas. The atmosphere of diablo is
something that I wish to replicate in the way that it can make a scene feel scary just
based on its use of music and colours to create eerie environments. I feel that the
reason diablo does so well is partly due to it’s marketing, this is because of blizzard’s use
of high budget cinematic trailers that often feel like creepy animated short films.

3. Destiny 2
Destiny’s gameplay style is very different from what I aim to achieve with mine
however I plan to base some of the ability and character designs off of elements that
are present in the destiny universe. One of the things that I think the destiny team
are great at doing is making lighting that helps create the right atmosphere, this
shows when you look at how some of the pretty environments have blues, greens
and purples present and the scarier ones go for reds, oranges and yellows. Another
amazing part of the destiny franchise is the use of music, the development team is
the same as halo which can be heard with the often inspiring or intimidating scores
played by whole professional orchestras. Destiny is a really fast paced fps that often
involves having to deal with swarms of enemies using a range of abilities and
weapons, I aim to recreate this style from a top down perspective.

4. RotMG
Although the atmosphere of RotMG is really different to the style I’m going for, the
gameplay model is very similar to what I am aiming for. The key point I like is the bullet
hell reminiscent combat and the way that you unlock more classes by achieving certain
milestones. One thing that I feel helps this game is its simplistic style, this can often
make it feel nostalgic to the type of games a large percentage of modern gamers grew
up with. I feel the reason RotMG maintains a small but dedicated player base is its use
of a gameplay model that makes it easy to pick up and get into yet still hard to hit a skill
ceiling as this can make the game feel refreshing across multiple playthroughs.

5. Path of Exile
Path of exile is very similar in a lot of ways to the diablo franchise, however a
key element that sets it apart is it’s really in-depth skill and ability systems. I
feel that one thing PoE does really well is the ability design, which can make
the end game feel really satisfying due to the fact that your character often
feels super powerful. I also think this game does a great job on creating a range
of detailed and interesting environments, these can range from sea caves to
deserts and often contain a variety of well designed enemies.

6. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched
products have?
• The majority of the games I researched where top down ARPGs and all of the
games have a Heavy focus on killing swarms of enemies and collecting loot.
Another thing that I looked for in the games was a quite dark and moody colour
palette as this is something I plan to have in my game.
• What aspects of the research will you include
within your on work?
• When it comes to working on my own project I plan to base the character design
heavily off some of the enemies from destiny 2. I plan to base a lot of my
backgrounds and the colours I use on some of the scenery from path of exile and
diablo 3, this is because I feel that these games do a great job of using
backgrounds to set moods.

7. Bibliography

8. Bibliography
1. Blizzard Entertainment. (2012) Diablo 3.
2. Bungie. (2017) Destiny 2.
3. DECA Games. (2011) Realm of the Mad God.
4. Grinding Gear Games. (2013) Path of Exile.