Grace Gilbert outlines her initial plans and ideas for a 2D pixel art game design project. She considers doing an escape room game but realizes it would be too difficult visually. Her alternative ideas are a character jumping between levels, similar to Super Mario Bros, or a game like Pacman. Her mood boards and character ideas focus on aliens and space themes. Her schedule plans experimentation in the first week, research and proposal in the second, production in weeks 3-4, and evaluation in the fifth week. She cites 7 sources for research, including books, videos, and articles about platform and pixel art games.

1. Initial Plans
Grace Gilbert

2. Initial Reaction
• When I first found out we were doing game design I imagined
doing a game similar to an escape room. This is still possible
however it would be quite difficult to achieve visually especially
as we are working with a game that is 2D and we will also be
working in pixels after realising an escape game would be a
challenge I decided I wanted to create a simple idea but effective
as my knowledge of games is limited. When doing my research
and making experiments I found that I liked the idea of a
character jumping along and completing different levels, I also
liked the idea of doing something similar to Pacman as that is
challenging to make but it would be more effective than an
escape room game.

3. Mind Map

4. Mind Map

5. Mind Map

6. Mood Board
I put this alien on
my mood board
because the aliens
out of Toy Story are
what I want the
aliens in my
animation to look
like
I put in super Mario bros because the
purpose of the game to collect coins
and points etc. is what I plan to show in
my animation
I decided to include this
because this is the type
of background I am
wanting in my product
and this influenced me
because this is also
shown as pixels like mine
will be
I included these characters because
these are some ideas that I will
consider putting into my product as
this includes the color's that I want to
include as I think they work well with
each other and it looks like a
stereotypical space game
I included these as
they both are the
style of game I
want to create
similar to super
Mario bros they
use different levels
and platforms to
give the game a
dimension even
though it is 2D

7. Character
Ideas
This is an idea of what I want
the alien to look like and I
find this image helpful as it
shows you about how to
draw it and where to put the
pixels
These are some ideas of
what I want in the game for
example the spaceships is
something I would like to
incorporate into my product
I like the idea of doing an alien
that looks like the one from
Space Invaders however I think
it is bit too simple for what I
want the product to look like
I think this is the
one that I want to
go with for my
product as it works
well with my idea
of what I want to
create

8. Background
Ideas
I really like this
background idea
especially the colors
however this would be
quite hard to recreate
so I might steal a few
ideas
I like this as it is
simple and easy to
recreate however
if I was to use this
idea I would add a
few planets
I really like this idea as it is simple
but effective however to recreate
this would be a challenge as you
have to get all the pixels in the
right color and in the right place

9. Mood Board Analysis
Is there any repetition in the images you have collected? Repeated
colours/images styles/fonts/tone/mood
• In my mood boards there has been repetition of the space theme and this is because
my plan is to create a space game. The colours that are in the images seem to match
with the greens and the blue, the overall mood boards aren’t too complicated apart
from a few of the backgrounds which are complicated because they are very detailed. I
haven't included a lot of fonts and that is because I don't plan to use any as I am
working with pixels so the writing wont look good if I used fonts.
How will your mood board influence your final product?
• My mood board will definitely influence my product as I have chosen things that I want
to include in my product, for example the colours that are coming up seem to be green
and blue so this is something I will consider in my final product, The background
pictures have influenced me as I want to combine a few of the ideas such as the plane
black background with the stars but I also want to add a few planets, and with the
planets I want to use bright colours as it will contrast with the black background and I
think that will look quite effective. I also want to use the toy story alien as the character
in my product because I think the recreation of it will be challenging but possible and I
think it will work well with the rest of the product

10. Schedule
WEEK OVERALL PLAN SPECIFIC TASKS
1 Production Experiments,
Initial Response, Product
Research
 Start experimenting with Photoshop
and doing the basics
 Come up with a basic idea and develop
that
 Come up with a final idea and have
enough information to have a solid plan
and idea
2 Product Research, Proposal,
Planning
 Finish all the necessary PowerPoints
 Start writing up the final idea in detail
 Start planning when to begin drawing
the characters etc.
3 Production  Firstly create the background and the
platforms
 Then create the character and the
collectable items
 Have the animation working but no
need for sound
4 Production  Finish up all of last weeks production
and make sure the animation is
working as well as possible
 Then start on the sound and export the
animation and import into premier pro
 Finish the animation
5 Evaluation  Make sure all the animation is finished
and the product is as good as it can be
 Start evaluating the process in detail and
completing the powerpoint

11. Bibliography
• Name at least 7 sources that you plan to use in this project. These should include audience
research, books, videos/films/video games, magazines and newspaper articles etc.
1. Jenson, K. Thor (2018) Run, Jump and Climb: The complete history of platform games [Internet] Available from
https://www.geek.com/games/run-jump-and-climb-the-complete-history-of-platform-games-1748896/ Accessed
09/01/2020
2. Kay, R. (2018) The future of 2D gaming [Internet] Available from https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-11-27-the-
future-of-2d-gaming Accessed 09/01/2020
3. Matej ‘ Retro’ Jan (2016) Retronater Magazine: Pixels and Voxels the long answer
4. Namco (1980) Pacman
5. Reynolds,B. (2015) A pixel artist renounces pixel art [Internet] Available from http://www.dinofarmgames.com/a-pixel-
artist-renounces-pixel-art/ Accessed 10/01/2020
6. Summers, N. (2018) ‘Supermario Flashback’ is a stunning pixel art fan game [Internet] Available from
https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/31/super-mario-flashback-pixel-art-fan-
game/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20vc2VhcmNoP3E9c3VwZXJtYXJpbytwaXhlbCZxcz1u
JmZvcm09UUJSRSZzcD0tMSZnaGM9MSZwcT1zdXBlcm1hcmlvK3BpeGVsJnNjPTctMTYmc2s9JmN2aWQ9OTE1OUE0RTU5N
kYwNEYxN0FDN0Y0REZGNzdBNzdBQzc&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMIGUg4qLviZ0mH5ct4JY-
UsY4tFeiDG0m8LGEyfYuod8xJWkCcABiOSsG5wYWBJj_pbU9avuUw3x3pM6iUrCbqDIvpCPPapg_ZpD4PwIWlJLU8Sy-
KAiFCH9v2FgHAcn0OphKPmkJlPeUA1fJv7EzKBpYbgYpyfbT2TuMvMwex4 Accesses 10/01/2020
7. Traveller’s Tales (1995) Toy Story