media

1. Research
Oliver Keppie

2. Existing Product (Cuphead)
This product uses the 1930s art style I am looking to use in my game. One thing I will look into a lot from this game is
how the cut scenes in this game are done because they use mostly still images with moving backgrounds and effects.
They also have the same camera angle all of the time at a side on view when the characters walk across screen,
although most of them are looking towards the screen. The effects added in post to the cut scenes from Cuphead
have an old film grain effect to them. I think I will use this effect in my product as it will add to the authenticity of the
game. Because the cut scenes in Cuphead are mainly still images with small movement I am going to create still
images which may have some sort of main feature which will be separately animated or looped doing an action. The
lighting in the Cut Scene is made to look realistic as some shadows can be seen in the background, although there is
none on the actual animated parts of the cut scenes. The scenes have been painted separately to the actual
movement on the screen which I will try and mimic with a watercolor effect added to the background I create. The
costumes that will be used in the cut scene will have to be the same as what the fighter use in the game which will
be things such as suits, just shorts or just overalls. The locations in the cut scene will correspond to the map which
has been selected to fight in. The font will probably be an old times looking font in white with a black bar at the top
and bottom of the cut scene. I think it will attract an audience as the art style is abstract and rarely seen in video
games. I also think that their will be a group of people out there who this game will really suit as they will be fans of
1930s cartoons and the aesthetics, but will also like video games and hopefully fighting ones. This could help me in
my product as it is very similar to the game I am making. In fact it’s the only game that I can find which is quite big
and has this art style, apart from bendy and the ink machine but that’s not as big and isn't on all platforms. It can
help me with my animation style also as I think it helps act as a visual aid to exactly what I want to create.

3. Existing Product (Mortal Kombat)
This game is similar to the style of my actual gameplay
section of my animation. The game is quite dark whereas I
would like mine to be more happy meaning I would have all
of the maps well lit and not dark and dingy like they are in
Mortal Kombat. The camera angle used during the fight is
always sideways on which I am also planning to do. The
camera does move around sometimes to show finishing
moves or x-ray moves. The only post production elements on
the screen that aren't the gameplay are the health bar and
power bars. I will be using these in my game except they will
be more similar to the old-school health bars rom the older
Mortal Kombat games. The scenes are a large range of
places although they all look very fantasy whereas mine will
incorporate land marks and well known spots so the player
can tell whereabouts in the world they are fighting. I also
want my backgrounds to look less realistic. The colors used
are also very realistic whereas mine will be block colors with
more shading in the backgrounds. It makes the audience
want to buy it as it is well known for its local multiplayer and
its very violent features. The main selling point of this game
is probably the violence used as the fighters use finishing
moves etc. From this came I can learn to add some violent
features but not too much as I want it to be able to be played
by a younger audience as well. I have chosen to look into this
game mainly as mine will be a side on fighter game just like
this one.

4. Existing Product (Double King)
Double King is an animation by the artist and animator Felix Colgrave. The art style is very abstract and so is the
animation style. He mainly uses side on angles which links it with the other styles I have gathered. The lighting he uses
is usually quite realistic and the backgrounds are usually quite plain. This will look good as my loading and menu
screens style as I don’t want their backgrounds to be too big or it will be too much to look at when the player is doing
things such as selecting a character or game mode etc. The colors he uses are similar to the ones used in the 1930s
style of animation except I think they are a little more muted and faded. One thing about this product is that there is a
lot more detail and shading in the overall aesthetics than in the 1930s style. Which could be a nice contrast from the
plain and simple colors and level of detail, or it could be confusing so I will test this style as an experiment. The fonts
used in this product are all hand drawn which I will try and mimic. I think the main reason the audience keep coming
back for his animations is because nobody else has a style anything like Felix’s. The audience buy his merchandise
because the like the aesthetics of the movies he creates, which then gets transferred over to things from t-shirts, to
bed sheets. I have looked at this product instead of a few of his others because it is one of the ones that shows off his
animation style and looks the best, with a big range of fast and slow page moments resulting in a lot to look at when I
am trying to get a grip of his style. I have learnt a few big things from this film and one of the main ones is to create
lots of different layers for each body part which can be simply used to create good looking animation effects and is
really one of the main traits I will need to use, to show I have drawn inspiration from his style. Another thing which
could help me in my product is off an interview of his I watched where he said he creates the first part of the
animation first and does whatever naturally follows. This will help me get his style a bit better.

5. Existing Product
The screen angles of this vary but there are a lot of side on
shots which fits the pattern of the previous products. The use
of lighting just looks natural. The backgrounds stick to the
same style of a more detailed and watercolor style. The colors
of the main features of the animation still look the same as
many of the others although in the one I watched their was a
little shading on some of the characters. The fonts and all of
the text seen in the episodes are shown as separate images
before and after the episode itself. It will always be a still
image with music over the top and just the title screen or
name of the episode on it. One thing I noticed with the
animation is that there is a lot of looping cycles of animation
which go in time with the music. It makes the audience come
back because of the witty and quirky characters in the
episodes which mainly consist of humanized objects or
animals. It also makes people enjoy watching it because of the
music which plays a big roll in the episodes, as almost all of
the movement of the characters and surroundings go in time
with the music. I have chosen to look at this product because
the style is exactly what I am looking to use for my product so
it is best to look straight from the original source. I have learnt
that I will have to create looping animations with static
backgrounds and I will have to try and make the music a big
part of the game. I will have to create the music before I make
the game animations because I will try to make some of the
animations in time with the music.

6. Subject Research (Color Theory)
• A color palette is one of the first things that you look at in a game. It
gives you the first impressions of what the characters will be like
and also what you think about each scene and background. From
the colors of a game menu you can tell if its going to be a dark
game or a happy game. A color scheme also has to look realistic to
make the gaming experience as immersive as possible. Warmer
tones such as yellows and oranges set a mood of comfort as well as
aggression. Whereas cold and cooler tones set the mood for an
uncaring or sanitary tone. Games can use color to show off how a
character is feeling and how they are going to act during the game
and how they use their powers for example. Also as seen in all of
the 1930s cartoons and in Cuphead. The background colors are a lot
more muted than the moving objects in the foreground. This is to
show importance and allow the players to know which part of the
screen to focus on whilst playing. For example in a game called
super hot, the only objects that you need to see and use are red
whereas everything else is white.

7. Subject Research (Color Theory)
In my game I plan to use color theory in a range of places. I will use it to add meaning and
story to the characters I create. I will also use it to create an atmosphere with the
background and also connect them to certain characters to establish their nationalities etc.
I will also use it for the text for certain characters to show the tones of their speech, I
believe this will help the audience understand the situation a little better although I was
planning on having a voice over too. For example in New Super Mario Bros Wii the colors
show the tone of each character and level. The good guys are all vibrant colors which stand
out as happy amongst the mucky greens and yellows of all the villains. The maps colors
also play a roll in telling the tone. For example in world 1 the maps are made to represent
Princess Peach so the levels are all bright, sunny and jolly. This represents the bright and
colorful nature of the way peach is designed aesthetically and how her personality is.
Whereas Bowser has giant spikes on his body and red fiery hair. This is shown in his section
of maps in the game by their being lots of lava, fire and spikes. This also reflects his mood
of being angry and a bad guy. In my game I will try and create maps which match the
aesthetics of a character as well as the mood and personality that they have.

8. Subject Research (Color Theory)
From the video that I watched on YouTube it
taught me about which colors work together
well and how that can add certain tones to
characters. Whereas if you choose some more
opposing colors it can create other tones and
moods for characters and backgrounds. Some
of the main colors used can represent:
• Black- Strong or Evil
• Blue- Calm, Cool or sad
• Red- Strong or Passionate
• White- Pure or Clean
• Green- Growth and Happiness
The video said that there are two main ways
to use colors in aesthetics. The first is to
choose a color and then use the colors around
it on the wheel. For example if the main color
was red you could then choose a purple or
orange. And the second method where you
pick the opposite colors on the wheel, such as
yellow and purple or green and red.

9. Subject Research (Backgrounds)
The background of a game can be the make or break, similar to the music and color
scheme. A player will not want to play a game with mundane or unfitting backgrounds. The
backgrounds can have some sort of story behind them or they could help say more about a
character. The backgrounds can also say a lot about the upcoming events. For example in
Mario as the final battle is arriving the world becomes all fiery and volcanic. In these two
maps which I have picked from various Mortal Kombat games, you can tell that each one if
for a specific character (if you know the games characters). Also the overall theming and
mood that the dark, frosty map gives is sad and villainous which refers to the backstory of
one of the characters and his rivalry with another. Also the background has to allow
enough space for the game to take place and the characters to move around. Another
place where the background is important is in the home and loading screens of the game.
It plays a massive role here because it is shown on the whole screen and there are only
small parts which aren't backgrounds. The backgrounds early on are also very important
because it sets the mood for the rest of the game.

10. Research Analysis
What common features do the researched products have?
The products I have looked at have some similarity's, such as Cuphead and Silly Symphonies have the
same art style and color scheme. Whereas Double King has more of its own style with it. All of my
products use lighting in the same way which is just supposed to look realistic and for all the animations
at least, they use the same slightly faded color tones. In all of the products the music and sound effects
play a big part. None of the products I have looked at have speech which is understandable except for
mortal combat, so I think for my game I am going to create sound effects to act as speech. Some other
common feature which recur a lot in all of the animations are the fact that the animations use
shortcuts. Some of the ways shortcuts are used are things such as making a looping animation, making a
still image with small moving parts and also making simple small movements look more grand with
effects and moving backgrounds. Some things which were slightly different were the styles of how the
animation looks. For example Cuphead used a lot of still frames to show its cut scenes whereas Double
King used layers and moved them frame by frame. These two could be used together to make an
effective looking scene but without much movement, this could save time and allow me to put more
work into the aesthetics but the animation will still look smooth. The Mortal Kombat game doesn’t have
much in common with the animations I chose, but I think it will look good in the style and it is also my
genre of game. Cuphead slightly relates in the fact that it is a fighting game and it can be played in a
local co-op mode which Mortal Kombat can. Some technical features which are in both are the uses of
color theory. For example in Cuphead the bosses are usually more sinister colors such as black or sickly
greens, whereas the good guys have more vibrant colors. This can be seen in Mortal Kombat where the
villainous characters have more darker tones such as dark reds and greens etc. Another thing which is
seen in both games is the use of backgrounds which are related to a specific character. This helps build a
story in the game and allows the player to understand more about the characters and build a bigger
connection with them.

11. Research Analysis
What aspects of the research will you include within your own
production work?
In my own product the main thing I will be using from existing products is
the art and animation styles. This means I will also include the color
styles, meaning the muted tones and the overall palette which is used
more predominantly in these existing products. I will also use the overall
concept of Mortal Kombat as guidance for how I want to create my game.
One good thing from my research which I think will take a while to create
and to make it sound good will be the soundtrack for each section of the
game. I would like to make a good jazz soundtrack which will finish the
game and add the tone which I am looking for. It works really well in
Cuphead as it helps build up tension before and builds up speed of
gameplay and intensity during the fight. I will also try to use some of the
color theory for my game and try to make some characters look more
friendly or evil, or try and create any type of mood. I will also create
backgrounds which go with the characters from different country's
around the world.

12. Audience Research

13. Secondary Audience research (Age)
• Observation: Most games are played by teenagers and young adults.
• What this says about my audience: My audience will be people around the age of 11-20 but to be
more specific I will be aiming for 17-19 year olds. It also could mean that I have to make some
elements of my game a little toned down as I want it to appeal to larger audience and children who
may be under 14 will have to ask their parents to buy the game for them. This is because they wont
have a steady income or may not be old enough to purchase the game from a shop or online. This
could result in a loss of sales if the game is too mature as the parents may not buy it for their
children.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I will try to make it mature enough to attract older
teenagers and some adults but overall I think the game will end up being rated around a 16. this
good because it will then be able to appeal a few years above and a few below which is pretty much
all the teens. To make it appeal more to adults it will have the 1930s cartoon style which could
attract fans of the style. It will attract a younger audience because the style looks fun and playful
and it is a game you can play locally with your friends. It may also appeal to them as they like the
fighting aspect of the game. It will also appeal to a lot of gamers who enjoy learning how to play a
game, and learning combos etc. There are a lot of older gamers around the ages of 25-40 who will
enjoy the strategizing element of thinking about how you are going to tackle your next opponent,
and which characters and combos are the best. I also think that the large amount of characters will
attract a large range of players. If a viewer likes the look of one or to characters it will probably
make them check out the game in further detail.

14. Secondary Audience research (Gender)
• Observation: Most of the players who play 1 on 1 fighter type games are male. The ratio of male to
female gamers is 3:1.
• What this says about my audience: My audience will most likely be male dominated. This means
hat I will have to add certain features which will appeal to males more. It will still have females
interested which I can still appeal to by adding female characters and more feminine locations and
props etc.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I will create a large and diverse amount of
characters and locations which will appeal to both men and women. In a small survey on Gamer
FAQs, most people said they kept coming back to Mortal Kombat because they like to see the
changes made to their favorited characters and they like to play competitively with them. Another
reason people keep coming back if sometimes for the DLCs. Many comments on the survey said
that they came back for certain characters which were newly added to the game later after release.
I will add a risk and reward system so that players who enjoy collecting items will have a good time
gambling after matches to collect the best items. According to studies, most female gamers enjoy
strategy games which only very slightly falls under the category of my game. It said that female
gamers enjoy playing games that they can come back to when bored and I think my game could do
that as it is a fun multiplayer game with a large variety of gameplay options.

15. Secondary Audience research (Location)
• Observation: The main country's that people who game live are the USA, China, the UK, Japan,
France and Germany.
• What this says about my audience: My audience will be from three far points around the globe
mainly. This means that I will know to make maps and characters which can be more aimed towards
certain country’s. it also says that my audience will speak a range of languages which means I will
have to add a feature which allows a language to be picked.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I can add certain characters which are from a
specific location such as Japan which may help appeal more to players from that country. I will also
do the same with maps and in game collectable items. This may also interest players form other
country’s as they may like that country's culture or just how the looks of their character or map is
designed. I can also add subtitles in English at the bottom of the cut scene as English is probably a
language which most of these country’s will know a little of. I think that I could create some
dialogue for some characters who don’t speak English in the language of the country that they are
from, which may bring a bit more of a diverse audience to the game.

16. Secondary Audience research (Social Status)
• Observation: Most of the people who play games are in university's and will be on around £5,750-
£32,000 a year.
• What this says about my audience: That they will have some spare money to spend on games but
might not want to spend it all on one big thing. This also means that merchandise may not be the
best seller. It also tells us that they will have quite a lot of spare time so will be able to play the
game a lot.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: If they don’t have lots of money to spend on a big
game I would probably set the price around £30 instead of the usual £55 for a new game. But I
would add in game purchases because if they have a lot of time to play they will get hooked on the
game and maybe buy smaller in game purchases, which over time could build up profit. Also if they
have a lot of time on their hands they will want to play a game which has a lot of gameplay to go
through. I could make several game modes such as online, story and arcade etc. It would also be
good to maybe have a violence on and off switch which some games such as Call of Duty have. This
would mean I can make it appeal to an older audience whilst giving parents the option to turn off
violence and buy it for their kids.

17. Secondary Audience research (Other Factors)
• Observation: Most people who play games earn around $67,000-$76,000 per year (which is around
£51000-£58000) or their parents do. Most people who play fighter games plan on a console.
• What this says about my audience: My audience will have enough money to buy the games and the
systems that it runs on. This also means that if I add in game purchases such as loot boxes or other
gambling elements, people will be able to buy them. It also means my audience will be playing with
a controller which means I can add more complex movements and actions as there are more
buttons than on a tablet or mobile.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: To make it appeal to my audience I will add the
feature where if a match is won you get to roll a crate which has the loot of different rarities in it. I
will include in game purchases for these boxes so players can buy them if they want a chance of
getting better loot for a certain character or game mode etc. I will also have a small tutorial at the
beginning for Xbox players which is what I will be using as an example of a console. This will mean
that I will hit the target audience perfectly if console players see these advertisements. I could
advertise on the Xbox and PS4 homepage meaning more console players in specific would see it. I
will also try to add gameplay elements which allow the player to learn combinations with the
controller to deal greater amounts of damage against opponents.

18. Practical Research

19. Practical Research (Character Design 1930)
The reason I have chosen to do this as one of my
experiments is because I wanted to see if I could transfer
my art skill onto the computer. The first one I made was
the one on the right which in my opinion is the worst.
The reason I prefer the other two is because everything
looks a lot more professional and the overall look is
designed better. I also prefer the way the eyes have been
done. I created all of these on Illustrator by using the pain
tool and a lot of the line editor tool to make some smaller
adjustments. This has been useful because before hand I
had never used Illustrator and I didn't know how to do
simple things such as fill shapes or save palettes and
brushes. It will allow me to start with more knowledge
for when I create the characters for my final product. One
thing I will change when I design my characters in my
final product will be the colors. I think the ones I used
here are too bright and need to be more muted and a bit
more pastel.

20. Practical Research (Music)
I decided to practice creating music because I want it to play a big park in my finished game.
I made the music on garage band which I have never used on the ac before although I have
a lot of experience with it on my phone. I started to get grips on the mouse and the
keyboard and I I can play the piano I started putting some little melodies and chords
together. I think it would be easier to make a song of the genre I'm looking for if I
downloaded some of the sample packs used to create more jazz and blues type music. I
then worked out how to add effects such as reverb and echo to certain parts of the track so
I practiced adding some of those to create a different atmosphere. This practice will help
me in my product because creating music is a slow process and I don’t have ages to do it so
having a few ideas and being able to work my way around the application should shave off
a bit of time. The reason I want to spend time on the music is because it can help make or
break a game. For example in games such as Tetris the music builds up over time as the
level speeds up, it helps add more tension and stress to the player as the game speed builds
up along side the music. Another example would be in a game like Minecraft where as the
player you don’t pay much attention to the music whilst actually playing the game, but it is
a quiet and relaxing soundtrack, which gets more serious and sinister as you travel to darker
places. I think this was one of the experiments I needed to do the most because I only have
a bit of experience in creating original songs, but even when I have made them they have
not been this genre. I will probably try and create some music in the holidays at home on
my phone which can be used in the product.

21. Practical Research (Animation)The reason I wanted to practice some animation in
this style is because this is what ill be using for the cut
scene. This helped me learn a few things such as how
to make it look as if the camera is moving, and I also
wanted to practice creating things which can move to
the time of the music. I created these characters and
the top background on Illustrator although I made the
background for the bottom one on Photoshop. I did
the animation on Photoshop because this is what I
will be using for my actual product. I tried to create a
zoom in sort of drive by shot for my first experiment
although it is a little harder and more time consuming
as you cant tween the size of layers whereas you can
on flash. This means I had to edit each size and warp
of the character separately on different layers and
pick a certain one for each frame. For my second
experiment I just tweened the dots moving out of the
center to the edge. I then created the ”Cat” text on
Illustrator and added a size change effect on
premiere. I also added a green screen rising fire effect
so that it looks more like the start of a fight scene or
an introduction to a bad guy. I think these both turned
out quite well although the first wasn’t as smooth as I
would have liked.

22. Practical Research (Character Design Felix)
I wanted to try and design some of my own characters in the style of Felix because this
I have never done this before and I need to get some practice it for my product. I think
it went quite well as you can spot a few features which Felix would use in all of these.
For the one on the left I tried to add a little of the 1930s style which worked slightly
but I think these styles works a lot better separately. The middle one is his style but
with a lot less detail and I think it still works. The one on the right worked the best in
my opinion, the colors are just muted enough to not look really strong and there is a
sight sense of realism about it which makes it a little more eerie and disturbing. I also
think that with the main features being quite big and bold it would be easy to animate
in his style. His style being moving each part separately on separate layers. I think that
this will help me in my product because now I already have a little bit more knowledge
on how to create these type of characters whereas I didn’t have any before.

23. Practical Research (Game Animation)
This was probably the main thing I had to practice because I had no
idea how I was going to portray a cartoon feel and look into pixel
art. I think I managed to get to grips with it quite quickly as I
manage to use a little big of squash and stretch and the characters
look very cartoon. I started by creating a still of the character and
then pixel by pixel just started moving them down, making the legs
bend and the waist stretch out. I also added a flail or the arms and
other body parts which would get moved by the momentum of
movement. I will be using this technique and animation style for all
of my characters and movements. I will use the ones exactly shown
to the right as the characters are stood still and when they more or
perform moves I will still try to keep the bounciness and cartoon
style. I think this practice will help me in my final product because I
already know how to apply realistic but cartoon squash and stretch
to the characters. I also know how to create characters in a pixel art
style which look like 1930s cartoons. This will give me a slight
advantage and allow me to save a little time as I have to do it for my
game.

24. Bibliography

25. Bibliography
1. Cuphead. (2017). Chad Moldenhauer & Jared Moldenhauer.
2. Mortal Kombat. (1992-2019). Dan Forden.
3. Double King. (2017). Felix Colgrave.
4. Silly Symphony’s. (1929-1939). Disney.
5. Unknown. (2019). 2019 Video Game Industry Statistics, Trends & Data.
Available: https://www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/. Last
accessed 10th April 2019.
6. How to Use Color Theory in Character Design and Like, Actually Know What
You're Doing! (2017) Brookes Eggleston.
7. Earnest Operations LLC. (2019). The Demographics of Video Gaming.
Available: https://www.earnest.com/blog/the-demographics-of-video-
gaming/. Last accessed 10th April 2019.
8. Melinda Hill Sineriz. (2019). What is the Average College Student's Income.
Available: https://bizfluent.com/info-7934153-average-college-students-
income.html. Last accessed 11th April 2019.