Audience Research for a 2D Platformer Game

Audience Research - Survey
For the first question I asked, I thought it would be best to
get one of the main question out of the way, I did 2 surveys,
one on google forms and the other on Instagram so the end
results are an addition of both results., that being the name.
I had originally had 2 names I was going to happy with, I See
You and You. The other ones were just there to fill it out,
unfortunately one of those won, Other Side. I had originally
used this as the unofficial name until I produced something
better. Despite this I'm not going to let it stop my project
from being what it could be, I already have a plan of what
the logo could look like and how I can incorporate it into the
posters. It’s also not a massive part of the game and I think
due to its literalness it will give people an idea of what the
games about and make them more inclined to play it, which
is also why I think people liked it more, it makes it more
obvious what the games about, which makes me like it more
to be honest. Other Side got (43.4%), I See You (38.4%) You.
(29.3%) Flection (11.1%) and Reflection unfortunately got
non on either of them (0%).

For the next question I wanted to ask about level location as
the whole game is about travelling to an oracle to free your
counterpart. I produced several place ideas and left it up to
the audience to decide which sounded more interesting and
playable. From these I will chose the top 5 so I have enough
diversity and to show off what the game looks like for the
trailer. I again did 2 surveys one on Google forms and
Instagram. With 42.4% An abandoned warehouse, The
sewers 21.1%, A back alley 15.1%, The beach 14.1% and A
train station also with 14.1%. Overall, I'm pretty happy with
these results, I'll be able to make something really cool out of
these prompts, I'm glad I got the warehouse though as I
think that'll be a really fun thing to create, and the sewers
will be an amazing place for the boss fight. I'm already
planning what they'll look like in my head and I'm genuinely
excited to start. I've haven't done a lot of environment
art before so it will definitely be a test of my skills, but I think
I'll be able to do it, with the medium I'm using I'm sure I'll
find it pretty easy. I am bit disappointed I didn’t get the shop
or the street as I think I could've done a lot of detail with
those and made a really atmospheric background but in the
end I'm generally happy with the outcome.

For this question I wanted to start on character design. Firstly,
the outfit, I'm going to keep what she's wearing simple, with a
sweater, trousers and white shoes. I said in my proposal that I
wanted her to be relatable as possible to the audience so
keeping her simple is key. I picked out some basic colours and
drew them out on my iPad, I chose red, yellow, orange, light
blue, dark blue, purple, green, brown and pink. I then
uploaded this onto forms and Instagram. I'm really happy with
the results, they are really basic and easy to work with. I
originally said I was going to use 3 colours, but I don’t think I
really need 3 so I'm going with the top 2. I got red with 5 votes
which I'll be using for the top, l dark blue with 9 which will be
the colour of the trousers. The others were light blue with 5,
purple with 4, pink with 3, orange with 3, yellow with 2 and
green and brown both got 1. like I said I'm pretty happy with
the result, they allow me to keep the design simple and make
her as relatable as possible.

For this question I'm continuing the character design, this time with the
hair style. When I was designing hairstyle's, I didn’t go too extreme but
there is one that’s a bit more unique than the others. Unfortunately,
this is one I got with an astounding 49.5%. It’s a ponytail hairstyle that
has a fringe element so I might have to tweak it a little bit so it's not so
out there. I think this will neutralise it a bit more to go with the rest of
her get up. I also think having the fringe will make it harder to animate
and as I'm an amateur in animation I don’t want lots of small things to
animate that are going to make my job harder for me so although that’s
what people voted for, I don’t think I'll keep it exactly the same. I'm not
sure why 3 won but maybe its because that style is sort of trending
right now which in hindsight mightve have swayed the vote. When it
comes to the other designs, I had designed 5 more, a long down
hairstyle, a bob, a low bun, a pixie cut and a topknot. I chose these as
they're not anything crazy or special and a lot of women have these
hairstyles so it's' keeping with in the simple style I'm going for. The long
down style got 10.1%, the bob got 1% the low bun 18.2% the pixie cut
also 18.2% and the topknot got 9.1%.

The last question I wanted to ask was about the enemy design. I
mocked up 6 designs on my iPad that I thought could work for
the designs and uploaded it onto forms and Instagram. This one
was very important as it's what I'm basing the all enemies off, so
for example if I got ghosts, I would make the whole enemy base
off of ghosts, so the small enemies would be ghosts, the mini
bosses, etc. The winner of the vote was both C and E which
makes it a draw, to settle it I decided to go off of what my friends
had said as they're part of my audience, so C wins. Personally, I
wasn’t bothered which one won because I loved them all, I
thought they were all contenders and I'm happy with the result.
My original idea was to use A but after designing the others I
honestly didn’t mind which one won. The other enemies will
follow this design and I've decided the design is fit to be used for
both light and dark enemies, this is because I won't have enough
time to complete both sets of enemies and because the design
fits both realms.

Audience Research – Survey Conclusion
In conclusion my results aren't what I expected and aren't exactly what I wanted
them to be but in media that’s how things go, everything is created with the
audience in mind and you're not really going to get anywhere if you don’t follow
the current market and what people want which is unfortunate but that’s just the
way it is. This has shown me what to expect with things like pitching and idea
generation, things will have to be tweaking and revised otherwise you just aren't
going to sell what you're creating. Luckily, I'm not in over my head with the verdicts
of the votes, it's all stuff I can manage and do well at. Overall, I'm excited and
buzzing to get started on experiments and production now that I know exactly what
I'm doing with the backgrounds and the character and enemy designs.

Video Game Audiences
To start off the research I thought it would be useful to look at more general stats for videogames because
a lot of people don’t tie to one genre and like to play an array of video game. I also think it’s a good starting
point for my research and will be a good to look back at when creating my audience profile. (This
information is based mainly on data from the US.)
To do this I went on a website FinancesOnline and found an article from a woman named and Jenny Chang.
From this article I was able to find out this information:
51 Significant Video Game Demographic Statistics: 2022 Data on Age & Gender - Financesonline.com
• Its estimated there are 2.8 billion active gamers worldwide in 2021
• 38% of gamers are 18–34-year-olds.
• The average gamer is 35-44 years old.
• 59% percent of gamers are male while 41% are female.
• 71% of gamers play casual games.
• 53% play action games
• 48% play shooter games
• 54% of players aged 18+ prefer team games and 33% like multiplayer/online and single player.

Video Game Audiences Continued...
Following on from the last slide, I also looked at another website called Earnest and found an article by
Carolyn Morris posted on November 22, 2021, and it talks about videogame demographics. This is what I
found.
Video Game Demographics - How Many People Play Video Games? - Earnest
• 18–24-year-olds are more likely to buy video game related items/content.
• Men are 3 times more likely to buy things related to game than women.
• Individuals with high school diplomas or associate degrees are more likely to buy game related item
than say a doctor.
• People who make $90,000+ are less likely to buy video games than someone with lower income.
• The age range that plays video games most is 18-24 years olds at 16.3%
• 6% of women identify themselves as gamers whereas 15% of men do.
From this research I can deduce a few things like the age and gender from my audience, I also know what
job they they’ll have and their estimated income.

Platform Game Audiences
Game Audience Profiles (quanticfoundry.com)
In order to get a good idea of who my audience is I need to
know what gender they are, age range etc and to do that I've
sourced a few websites that contain the necessary
information. The first one being Quantic Foundry. On that
website they include information about a few different
games and as my project is a platform game, I choose to use
the information from a platform game, Crash Bandicoot. This
is the information from the website ( the graph is irrelevant
to my research as its part of what the websites project.)
So, from this I can deduce that my audience is mainly male,
and their average age is 23. Its also useful to know what
other games they are interested in because it gives you a
clearer idea of what they're type of game is and in this
instance all the games listed are like Crash Bandicoot, they
have a cartoon art style and are either platform games or are
similar to that genre in some way.

Audience
Profile
• Name: John
• Age: 22
• Gender: Male
• Location: New York
• Job: Delievery Driver (student studying Games Design)
• Interests: Gaming, music, driving, computers, spending times
with friends, programming and drawing.
• Lifestyle: Plays video games between lectures, works on a
night and spends his weekends either drinking with his
friends at a pub or playing Super Mario with friends.
• Values: Making online games a safe place for people.
• Challenges and goals: He wants to make a living from his
passions and make a life for him and his future family. He
also wants to work for a major AAA games company in the
programming department and maybe some day create his
own company.

Secondary Audience Reseach Conculsion
From my research ive found out some really valuble information that im going to be
able to use to cater my work to my audience as i intended. Like for example when
thinking about how long I make the trailer, ill want to keep it short as people in my
target audience are genearlly busy with either work or univerisity, so in order to
keep them attentive I want to get as much information out about the game as I can
in a short period of time. I also want the game to across as a universial game,
something that everyone can play and has something for everything one, in my
contextual statement I talked about how I wanted to include fighting (which my
audience would be inclined to like from my research) and I think doing this research
has really solidified the inclusion of that. Overall, the research has made me more
confident in what im already doing and created a new path that I can tak with my
work.

Stardew Valley
Why I'm researching it and what I hope to get out of it...
I chose to research this game as it speaks to me on a lot of levels, for example the visuals. When I produced the idea for
my project, I had initially thought, "how am I going to make this with my skill set because I'm not confident enough
in animation to create something complicated" but then I remembered the adventure project we did in the first year and
how easy I found animating with pixel art, and then I thought of Stardew Valley and how it looked, it has a unique art style
that I love, and it was something I could put my own spin on. For my own project I've taken what you can see on the slides
and made it my own, I think you can see similarities like the eyes on the enemy designs are similar to what the enemies
look like in Stardew Valley. Looking at the art style I had an initial inspiration that I've been able to bend into my own idea.
I also genuinely love the game, it's probably one of the best games I've played, its highly addictive and easy to play, which
explains its rise to popularity. Going off of that I want to research why it's so popular, what makes its different from any
other roleplaying game and how I can apply that to my own work.
From this research I hope to have gained more knowledge on:
• What inspired Eric to make the game
• How the art style was created
• Why chose the art style he chose
• Why the game is so successful
• How I can apply what I've researched to my own work

Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is a simulation and roleplaying game made by
indie game developer ConcernedApe aka Eric Barone. It came
out in 2016 and the game was made over the course of 4.5
years by only Eric, he funded the project with his wages from
working part time at a cinema. On the Stardew Valley website
it has a brief overview of the game. "You're moving to the
Valley; You've inherited your grandfather's old farm plot
in Stardew Valley. Armed with hand-me-down tools and a few
coins, you set out to begin your new life! Create the farm of
your dreams: Turn your overgrown fields into a lively and
bountiful farm! Learn to live off the land: Raise animals, go
fishing, tend to crops, craft items, or do it all! The choice is
yours. Become a part of the local community: Pelican Town is
home to over 30 residents you can befriend! Meet someone
special: With 12 townsfolk to date, you may even find
someone to start a family with! Explore vast, mysterious
caves: Encounter dangerous monsters & valuable treasures
deep underground! Customize: There are hundreds of
character & home decoration options to choose from!"

Stardew Valley – What inspired it?
What inspired Stardew Valley? According to an article
from Vulture, it was Harvest Moon, a farming
simulator similar to Stardew. Eric said he was a fan of
the series and games like it, Harvest Moon obviously
being his favourite. Although he took inspiration from
Harvest Moon, he also took the idea and enhanced it.
"While most Harvest Moon games, Barone said, end
after two in-game years of farming, he designed
Stardew Valley so people could play as long as they
want (one beta tester, he said, is five or six years —
about 400 real-world hours — into running her farm).
That allowed him to throw a boatload of options, plot
lines, and goals at players without them feeling like
they’ll be missing out by zigging instead of zagging. “I
wanted it to feel overwhelming with stuff to do, yet
you didn’t feel stressed about it,” he said. “More just
excited that you’ve got things to do.”

Stardew Valley –
Popularity
Stardew Valley is a very popular game, if you're in the
gaming community you’ve more than likely heard of it
whether you play simulation games or not. How this came
to be however was down to its publishers, Chucklefish who
gave exclusive access to personalities on Twitch the
streaming platform and YouTube. These people showed off
the game and it made people want to play it. When it came
out it was purchased 550,000 times which is unheard of for
indie games, Barone had really made an impact and had
achieved what a lot of game developers can only dream of.
The game is still in the works 6 years later with frequent
updates that bring bug fixes and new content keeping his
current players engaged and getting new people
interested. The game itself also considers what players
want like with character customisation at the start of the
game and the customisation of your house. You also have
the ability to choose your farm location. All these give a lot
of creative input to players which is expected in these
kinds of games.

Stardew Valley – Art style
The art style of Stardew Valley is unique to the game, it creates a relaxing
environment that's given the game part of its reputation. Its light and bright art
style draws you in and doesn’t disappoint when you play, it carries into the
collectables, the houses, the food and the outfits. Eric, the game developer didn’t
actually have any experience with art and said it was one of the hardest parts of
the whole game as he wanted it to be perfect. "Pixel art was something he
remembers being difficult, but he sunk hundreds of hours into getting better. His
self-belief meant Stardew Valley was high quality in every measure."
While there isn't a definitive answer to what directly inspired the art style, the art
style of pixel art comes from early arcade games like Space Invaders and The Super
Mario Brothers as that was the only graphics that existed at the time. People have
taken that aesthetic and made it something more than an arcade game, with
today's technology and graphic abilities you get games like Stardew and Terraria
that involve a lot more than pressing 2 buttons and a joystick. The game has a lot of
artistic elements from food to tiny details in the townie's rooms. The game is very
detailed and has lots to look at which makes it more interesting, if you look at the
images on the left you can see what I man. The grass is full of highlights and
different tones of green to give it life and add to the atmosphere of the game its
things like that that stand out and make you want to look at the environment. It
also helps with playability, if the items in a game look cool or appealing to person
they will play the game to be able to get it, I've done it so many times when I see
an outfit I like, I want it so ill work and play until I have it. It also inclines people to
start playing the game, if they see something that they like in the game they'll want
to buy it.

Stardew Valley – Reviews
(Steam)
• Torchwood - "Lost all of my vacation days playing this. Worth it"
• Morgan - "Fun and relaxing game. Always something to do and the updates keep it interesting. I am 72,
have tried to play other games, but they cannot compete with Stardew, so I only play Stardew. Thank
you, Concerned Ape."
• Tali - "Stardew Valley, where you wana try the game for just 5 minutes but end up playing for 9 hours"
• Talpstar - "Very easily my favourite game. It's like playing a hug."
• Serephemeral - "This game got me through a really dark place in my life. I lost my job, spouse, and
home in less than a year. I would chop wood and fish when I couldn't find the energy to do anything
else and fall asleep on the couch listening to the background music. I've put thousands of hours into
Stardew Valley. The little successes I had were the catalyst I needed to think maybe I could have little
successes again in life, too. Highly recommend. Thank you for making this game"
• trtx - "this game is dangerous i would recommend not playing it unless you want to be completely
incapacitated for the first 2 weeks you own it"

Stardew Valley - Trailer
The trailer was posted on February 26th, 2016, on Eric Barone's channel. It has 3,425,115 views as of March 4th, 2022. It has 36,000 likes
and is 3 minutes and 8 seconds.
One of the main points in the video is the start sequence, it lures you in with a black screen and text saying "You're moving into the Valley..." It
makes you question what's happening and builds anticipation. It then shows a short video of a forest in the rain. Again, its building up to the
height of the video, it is keeping you guessing and making you want to continue watching. Then the screen goes back again, and text appears
saying, "Start from nothing..." This is where it starts laying the foundations of the game, it begins to tell you what will happen. Then we finally
get a glimpse at the game in action, we see a player cutting grass. This the outcome of the build-up, we finally see the graphics in action, and
we have a good idea of what the game looks like. Showing off the visual side of the game first is a good idea because a lot of people love
graphics and will sometimes play games for that sole reason.
We then see a few scenes showing off the basics of the gameplay which another really important aspect of the game and showing it in
increments lets the viewer take it and process it, it makes it easier to read and lets them decide on whether or not they like it, we start the
premise of the game, farming. We are then introduced to another aspect of the game, animal farming. It shows videos of animals in pens,
feeding them, petting them etc. It also shows how customisable the area you live in is, each of the farms shown are completely different.
Since customisation is such a big must in games today this makes the game all the more appealing.
The next videos shows all the completely different sides of the game this includes mining, fishing, horse riding, fighting, resource gathering,
the different elements there are to farming in the game, pet ownership, interacting with the NPCs/Townies and the gameplay that comes with
that, exploring the town and the events that happen throughout the year. Displaying what is capable in the game is really important, it's clear
and doesn’t leave anything to the imagination. I feel like a lot of games and media related things do that and as cool as those types of trailers
are they don’t tell you anything about what will actually happen leaving the audience to make assumptions and have expectations. For my
own trailer I will be following the format Stardew does as is clear and makes the audience feel secure about what to expect.

Stardew Valley - Conclusion
In conclusion, from this research I have learnt a lot about the game that I didn’t know before and it has given me ideas that I can
implement into own project. It has really inspired me and will probably be the main factor I look back on when talking about the art
design and animation.
I think the most important thing I took away from this section of the research is as I've said the art style, it's always been at the forefront
of my mind when think about the art style even before the research and by doing this it has really been solidified. I'm honestly so glad I
chose to research this it's been really useful to look at all the elements of the game and now be able to use that in my game
concept/trailer. For example, with the drawings of the characters and backgrounds, I think it would be really useful to look at reference
images to get an idea of where to start with some of the drawing. I also might use the animations as references alongside other more
detailed animations so I can good idea of what it might look like in both pixel art and normal art. It's not just the project that this
research has impacted, for example, looking back into how he created the game has been really useful, it gave me an insight into what to
expect for the future with my career.
Looking at reviews on steam has been useful as well as it will give me an idea of what to do and what not to do. Like for example one of
the reviews I've featured says: "Fun and relaxing game. Always something to do and the updates keep it interesting. I am 72, have tried
to play other games, but they cannot compete with Stardew, so I only play Stardew. Thank you, Concerned Ape." This review displays
why the person liked the game, one of the most important things they say is how the game updates a lot which keeps them interested,
so this will be good for future reference if I end up making the game for real.
The trailer is also a really important piece of the research as it's what I'm doing for my product. Looking at the Stardew trailer has really
helped me to visualise what I'm going to be doing for mine, I already had the idea to do a gameplay sort of trailer as that’s what made
the most sense to me and seeing the Stardew trailer inspired me to stick with it. I think seeing the ways the trailer displays its content
will inspire me to sort of do the same, obviously it will be different content I think I just like the fact it displays all the elements of the
game, as a person who plays games, I'm going to play a game I don’t really know a lot about, if it's just a cinematic of some random thing
that has no context I'm not going to be interested. So, I'm going to apply that logic to my project and show all the main features of my
game (if I can as I might run of out time.)

Thomas Was Alone
I've chosen to research this game as it was a recommended source from a friend, we were discussing
my idea and he suggested this game as it has lots of elements that I want to include in my own
project, like for example the fact that’s it has a group element. Because I'd never heard heard of this
game before I thought it would be good challenge for myself to find out as much as I could without
relying on what I already know. It will be an interesting experience finding out all about this game and
what I can take from it and add to my own project. It will be interesting to find out more about the
game and I might even play it so I can get the full experience of what I'm researching.
From this research I hope to have gained more knowledge on:
• What the game is about
• What elements I can use for my own project
• What visuals the game uses
• What inspired it

Thomas Was Alone
Thomas Was Alone was made by Bithell Games, it was originally released in 2010 as a
flash browser game and was later released on PC and OS X in 2012. It is a single player
2D platform – puzzle game that utilises pixel art as its art style. It won a BAFTA in 2013
for Best Performer won by Danny Wallace who played the narrator, it was also
nominated best original music, best story and then was nominated NAVGRT award for
best comedy supporting. This description from the Bithell games has a more rounded
summary of the game. "Thomas Was Alone is an indie minimalist 2D platformer about
friendship and jumping and floating and anti-gravity. Guide a group of rectangles
through a series of obstacles, using their different skills together to get to the end of
each environment." On Wikipedia there is a detailed explanation of the plot which
after reading gave me a better understanding of the game because when you look on
the website and the images from the game you don’t have any idea what's going on
"Thomas Was Alone takes place within a computer mainframe, where some
unspecified "Event" has caused several artificial intelligence routines to run out of
control and gain personality. Each entity is represented by a simple coloured shape; the
game's eponymous character is a simple red rectangle. Each shape has unique abilities;
while all shapes can move left or right across platforms and perform jumps, the height
of these jumps may be limited by the shape, or they may have other abilities, such as
being able to float on water. When the player has access to two or more of these
shapes, they can freely switch between them, controlling one shape at a time."

Thomas Was Alone – YouTube Research
I was originally going to play the game, but I unfortunately don’t have any money to be able to buy the game, so instead I'm going to watch a playthrough of
the game on YouTube.
At the beginning of the story, we are introduced to Thomas, a red cube which as it was stated earlier is a computer program that becomes sentient. The game
starts with a basic level of having to go through a 'portal' onto the next level which is more of snake downwards, the narrator is also speaking during this part.
Aside from the main story, from what I have seen the game consists of multiple levels that are all different from one another, they also get more difficult as
you go. Text also appears from time to time that tell us what Thomas has learnt so far, for example the first one says, "(10 The whole 'alone' thing. (2) Portals:
they led somewhere, he had yet to work out where. (3) Thomas was absolutely fantastic at falling. He was almost as good at falling as he was at observing."
On the next level you learn how to jump, the game uses the tutorial to add to the story which I think is really smart, Thomas is learning and so are you, they
also make add comedy throughout the game which adds to the playability/enjoyment you get from playing it. Around 4 minutes into the game we meet a
second character, an orange square called Christopher. The level you meet him on you have to work together to be able to move forwards. Then you meet a
yellow line called John, and again you have to work together to get to the next level. The rest of characters are Claire, a large blue square, Laura a horizontal
pink line, James, a small green rectangle and Sarah a very small purple rectangle. Throughout the game you must use all the characters to traverse and
complete levels. You also learn about all the characters, they are surprisingly complex, it add a lot of depth to the game and allows the player to create
attachments and gain opinions about them. Like for example there a few levels where Laura and Chris are alone, and they fall in love, Chris debates telling her
and wants to wait until they are safe to tell her. they chose to add things like this in to make them more human, as that’s what they're programmed to do, it
makes you feel for the characters and make you want them to be happy, at least in this instance.
The games goes on for around 2 hours, so I wasn’t able to watch the entire thing, but I saw this comment in a video of the ending which I thought gave some
context to what happened. (the creation matrix is an enemy they had accidently jumped into) "Upon being created, Thomas was like a baby. He only desired
to explore. He didn't understand there were other AIs, so he felt the world must have been made for him. Then he meets Chris. Chris had been around for
quite a bit longer and understood the world better than Thomas. He only despised Thomas like a Senior despises a Freshman. Fast forward to when Thomas
has met everyone Thomas realizes that there must be many more AIs out there, struggling through life, just to get stuck at the beginning of another place.
This is why he and everyone else go to the creation matrix. "Thomas knew he'd never meet Nathan Fillion, or a Transformer. He'd never get to visit Gotham
City or eat at Mooby's. It didn't matter. If he and his friends jumped into the creation matrix, they could give everyone else in the simulation a chance to." This
is why after they jump in the matrix, the game is about Grey and the rest of the second generation. The buffing blocks are obviously all the first-generation
characters, but this is what Thomas wanted. A free world where anyone can do anything."

Thomas Was Alone - Inspiration
When looking for information about what inspired Mike Bithell to create Thomas Was Alone, I
found an article from theguardian titled "Thomas Was Alone: "I was motivated by jealousy"" In
it he talks about what motivated him to create videogames in the first place and why he his
game was motivated by jealousy, the whole interview isn't available but what's said in text is
pretty good for what I need from it.
As a kid, Mike Bithell wasn't allowed to play video games. Well, not the video games his friends
were playing – his parents didn't approve. Consequently, the formative gaming experiences of
this hugely successful "indie" developer were with educational titles. Except that one time his
Dad smuggled Doom into the house.
A decade or so later, Bithell has released the hit platformer Thomas Was Alone and is currently
developing his second game, Volume. We invited him into the Guardian office just as the
iPad version of Thomas was hitting the App Store and wanted to find out how this charming
title developed from a Flash game made in 24 hours to a million-selling PC
and PlayStation hit.
Along the way, Bithell tells us about the creative process, about how he managed to get Danny
Wallace to provide the voice-over for Thomas, and why he's so fascinated with Robin Hood.
He also admits that what drove him from working in a games studio toward developing his
own games was jealously. Or more precisely, jealousy over the success of indie hits like
World of Goo. "I found out about how the developers of that game had quit their jobs and
had become successful enough to do what they wanted. That sounded cool. Especially to a
junior designer. I had the arrogance that is only available to 23-year-olds..."

Thomas Was Alone – Reviews
(Steam)
• Endo99 - "Somehow I'm emotionally invested in basic shapes"
• Audreva - "Never thought a game with such a simple concept could make me so emotional. Soundtrack is insanely good"
• MeliX - "Really nice game! Even though it's simple by design, the underlying story is quite amazing. The game mechanics is also
having some variety. However, after completing half of the game it becomes a lot easier to imagine whole picture and to complete
level without much of a struggle."
• hoarder - "Thomas Was Alone is simply put a masterpiece. It manages to tell a profound and heart-touching story using the means of
coloured squares and a British narrator, which is no small feat.
The controls are simple, tight, and reliable, and moving the squares around feels snappy.
The storytelling is great, and I'll be the first to admit that I cried while playing this. I highly recommend playing this game. It's an
experience like no other."
• icecoldtanim - Beautiful game. Go for it. An experience you'll never forget. The rectangles are not just rectangles, they really connect
with you. You'll get that warm fuzzy feeling inside once you finish the game. Now downloading the amazing soundtrack. 9/10 easily
• Awakeneer - Thomas Was Alone is a truly indie gem.
In this game you guide a group of rectangles, each one with a unique skill, through dozens of puzzle-platformer levels. There's a
beautiful story about friendship and cooperation that will let you hooked on the screen. The music, composed by David Housden, is
touching and helps to create an incredible immersive feeling. Thomas Was Alone last just a few hours, but it's very enjoyable if you
like this genre. I've always seen this game on sale but never bought it until I see it in a bundle of my interest. Don't do like I did. If you
really love the concept of games as an art, you should play Thomas Was Alone right now. It's fantastic!
•
•

Thomas Was Alone - Trailer
The trailer was posted on November 15th, 2012, is 1 minute and 19 seconds and has 122,752 views as of March 7th,
2022.
The trailer features gameplay with the first part of the narration over it, it shows videos of all the character's together,
the levels, gameplay of each of the individual characters, how they interact with each other and the environment. It
also features reviews of the game throughout from other game studios and news outlets.
It doesn’t show everything but enough to get you interested, I like how simple yet impactful it was, it gets you asking,
why is Thomas alone? Who are the other shapes? Why are they shapes and generally what is happening? This game
is probably one of the best examples of having no idea what to expect when you start to play it, after seeing that
trailer you would go in blind, which makes it all the more intriguing to play.
The game from the trailer doesn’t seem that long or like it has quests like a lot of games, which is what a lot of people
like, it’s a game for a rainy day or when you need a destress, it’s a simple story that’s takes around 2 hours to play, it's
not something you need to grind at or get really into which is really appealing to some people and it definitely
deserves more attention.

Thomas Was Alone – Conclusion
In conclusion, Thomas Was Alone has helped me with the platformer game genre, it has given me a more
in-depth look into the genre and helped me understand it better. I also really liked the story enough to
research that as well by watching a YouTuber play it. From this I got a really good insight into what the
game was about and how its played, I don’t think there's any direct inspiration I'm going to take from this
but I was really interesting to see how the game played and how the levels worked, I think it was really
beneficial to look into the level design, I was able to determine how it worked and how the characters
interacted with it, this is something I'm going to take on board and use in the trailer. For example, for one
of the scenes it would be a good idea to use the environment as part of the level, like the apartment alley
way could be integrated into the back of an apartment building and I could use the window ledge as part
of the level, so the characters have to jump from ledge to ledge.
The trailer, like Stardew was one of the main part of the research for obvious reasons and looking at the
trailer was really helpful for a lot of reasons, one being that it showed the characters interacting, this is a
really important aspect of my game and being able to see that showcased was really useful to see, it
definitely gave me ideas for how my characters could interact in the trailer. Another thing that caught my
eye was the obscurity of the trailer, I know I said earlier that I don’t like that sort of stuff but in this
instance its just enough to keep me curious, I wanted to know more like, why was Thomas alone? What’s
the story going to be like? Will he be alone forever? Its that sort of thing I want to create with my game, I
want to show bits and pieces so not everything is shown and it leaves something to be desired.

Unravel Two
I chose this game because it includes the 2-player element that I want to have in my own game, and I want to have an
idea how each key element I want to include in my project works in practice. It also just looks like a fun game to
research, it's not like anything I've really seen before and like Thomas Was Alone, I have no idea what it's about and
am keen to find out more. I've heard and seen about it but I've never watched gameplay or played the game so it will
be interesting to see what it's like. Going back to the multiplayer aspect of the game, I've never seen a 2-player game
played before, it's quite a niche type of multiplayer and I want to see how I can add it to my own idea. It will also be
interesting to see what other people think of it and how the multiplayer aspect was for them, also how it differs from
the first game and do people think it’s a good sequel.
What I hope to gain from this...
• What the game is about
• How they made the 2-player aspect work
• What reviews people have about it
• What the trailer tell us
• What inspired it

Unravel Two
Unravel 2 is the sequel to Unravel, a single player platform
game that came out in 2016. Unravel Two is a 2-player
game platform game that came out in 2018 and they are
both made by EA. On EA's website they have a more
detailed description for it. "It’s a platforming adventure
game seen from a unique perspective, or two. Play as a
pair of Yarnys – small beings made of yarn and connected
by a single thread – in local co-op or as a single player. Run,
jump and swing through platforming puzzles, foster
friendship, and shed light on a world covered in shadow. "
"These mini magical beings are made of a single strand of
yarn, and they were made for an important job. Control
both Yarnys on your own, or play with a friend in local co-
op." On the website they also have text along with images
which tell you the main elements for the game. "Beware of
Danger, Dodge threats like fire, electric shocks, hungry
birds, and mysterious, shadowy monsters. "Leap Into
Danger, Swing through the air, jump up walls, swim and
catapult through the world as you chase your spark."

Unravel 2 – Inspiration
When it comes to what inspired the game the developer,
Martian Sahlin said in an interview on the game's website,
"You heard it here first: Unravel Two is a co-op game because
of all of you! We based the locations on reckless fun stuff we
did as kids, like swimming in white-water rapids or urban
exploration. It’s difficult translating real-life memories into
game locations. The most difficult thing is actually trying to
figure out how to turn gameplay geometry into something that
looks real. It's all a playground, built specifically for you, but we
want it to look like it's actual, real places. Trying to get an idea
out of your head and onto paper (then into an animation
program, then onto a game system) is tough, and it doesn’t
always turn out like you planned. But when the result is this
beautiful, it’s all worth it." they also talk about how the
backgrounds were inspired by scenery in Sweden. "The game's
backgrounds and puzzles are inspired by the landscape of
Umeå, Sweden; Sahlin drew inspiration for the game after
creating a Yarny doll out of tire wire and yarn during a family
camping trip in northern Sweden. Sahlin has elaborated, "We
live in the sticks."

Unravel 2 – Multiplayer
The multiplayer aspect of the game is what initially made me want to research it and, in this
interview, the developer talks a bit more about why he chose for it to be this way. "You went out of
your way in Unravel Two to create a game that stars two different characters. How come you
decided to do that? It was based in part on just watching people play the first game, because we
noticed that so many people played it together. Even though it was a fiercely single-player game, it
was still something that people shared . . . so we just felt that was natural to let them play
together. It’s also something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, because I like playing games
with my kids and there’s not just enough local co-op games, so I wanted to make one. And the stars
just sort of aligned on this one."
Here the interview continues. "And that informed the design? Even if I’m just sitting here playing by
myself, it’s about the relationship between the two characters? Absolutely. So, it’s kind of like –
when you’re just navigating through the world, when you’re platforming, jumping around, swinging
around, if you’re playing by yourself then you will sort of carry the other player along with you.
Then as you get the more problem-solving areas or puzzle areas, you can split apart into two and
you can work together to solve those things. It feels very natural to switch between the quick
movement and problem-solving."

Unravel 2 – Multiplayer
There is a section in the interview that I thought was really important to include as it not only
talks about the multiplayer it talks about the interactions, they have which, is also a main part
of my concept. It's really important to enable players to connect with the characters, that’s
what keeps them playing and interested in the story. "I love their little interactions that they
do. When one has solved a puzzle and the other one manages to get over to the end, they’ll
like clap and be like, “Hooray, my friend made it!” They’re clapping and they’re cheering, doing
flips and stuff, and they’re just failing miserably at doing high-fives all the time. Oh my gosh, I
haven’t actually caught that one. Yeah, they try to do it all the time and sometimes they make
it, but other times you see someone bring their hand up to do a high-five and the other one
just runs right past. “I still love you, but I’m hurt.” Exactly. It made me sad the first time when
one of them got blown out of an air vent and the other one freaked out and was like, “No, my
friend!” We put a lot of work into what we call the ‘awareness system’ to make sure that
they’re always – they’re acting like they live, like they know what’s going on around them, and
they know what’s going on with each other. They have tons of different triggers they can react
to and just like – behave like they’re real. And I think that’s really important when you’re trying
to build empathy for the character that you make them feel alive."

Unravel 2 - Trailer
The trailer starts with the ending of the 1st game, the main character being washed away
onto a shore which is where they meet the other character. Then the trailer goes into
gameplay, showing the puzzles and levels, the game itself doesn’t look like a typical
platformer, its more organic with the levels, they make it make sense for them to be
jumping up a tree for example, I find that in a lot of games paths/levels aren't that organic
and don’t look right, for example in Horizon Zero Dawn, you have to climb sometimes and
the path you have to take to take to climb is really obvious and in some places it works and
in others it really doesn’t and it doesn’t make sense why there would be a bright yellow
climbing hold in the middle of an abandoned warehouse. The music used is very good and
definitely fits the theme and vibe of the game very well, the song is by singer Aurora and is
called Queendom. The trailer shows how the two work together to complete levels and
progress which is important, they explain with text that comes on the screen with a fairy-
like-lighting effect (which I think really fits well with the theme and the effect used at the
start of the trailer.) that you play alone or with a friend. It shows a lot of example of the
gameplay which is really useful for the audience to get a good idea of what to expect.

Unravel 2 – Reviews
(Steam)
• Kvune - "Love Form bonds between us, but not to hold us back.
They're meant to save us if we fall, or help us all climb higher.
Yes, Things break beyond repair sometimes, but we can always build anew.
If our fire ever fades, it just takes a single spark to set it off again.
No Matter how dark things get, we can all help light the way.
We can make this life beautiful, for ourselves and for each other.
and we all deserve to be here, whatever shape or colour we come in" -Unravel Two Quotes-
• Sim - Amazing game with great music. The normal main challenges are done quite quickly, i could have wished for a longer story. But besides that its a great
game. Playing it on keyboard is quite strange, but with a controller everything works perfect.
• Martian - Wonderful and very cute game, me and my best friend enjoyed the story and the challenges too :3
Some challenges are very difficult and require a lot of thinking time to solve. You can play alone, but if you have a partner or friend, you can also play with
Remote Play Together.
A tiny negative for me is that an Origin account is required to start the game.
• Pyciko - WARNING: THIS GAME DOES NOT HAVE ANY FORM OF ONLINE CO-OP. Unless you can be at the same room or stream the game to your friend
via Parsec or Steam Remote etc, there is no way to play it together. I was a bit disappointed by the co-op part, but it's a good game in everything
else. Interesting locations, modern graphics, enjoyable gameplay and etc and etc. The soundtrack lines up with everything else pretty well.
• SHWAT_4 - The game is short and sweet. Definitely worth the money. You can play it as a singleplayer game but it is one of the best co-op experiences I've
ever had, right next to the likes of Portal 2, A Way Out and It Takes 2. The visuals are stunning, the music is mesmerizing and the gameplay is exhilarating. You
play as a little man of wool climbing, swinging, solving puzzles with you friend, all while avoiding getting burnt, crushed, drowned, or eaten by chicken/fish.
Your friend won't even have to buy the game, you can use Steam Remote Play Together to share it! I highly recommend this game!

Unravel 2 - Conclusion
In conclusion, researching Unravel 2 has allowed me to understand and get more
knowledge on the multiplayer aspect of my game, which is a pretty important
factor, so I'm glad I was able to get as much information as I did.
One of the main things I took away from this research is the interactions between
characters. This is a really crucial part of the game, it kind of humanises them in
way and lets the audience create connections to them and see themselves in them,
the characters are ordinary people at the end of the day and making them do
human things like falling over, having conversations and reacting to things that
happen does that. This all comes from this game, in the section about multiplayer, I
highlighted the fact that the characters in the game do that sort stuff, they don’t
speak but they have moments where they'll high-five or clap if one of them does
something. I just generally thought this would be a really good way to show the
characters bonding and growing closer over time thus allowing the audience to
connect with them.

Bibliography
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