The document discusses the design elements of several video games, including their color schemes, lighting, locations, and music. For Mega Man games, the color blue represents purity and peace, while darker colors are used in later games. Shadow the Hedgehog features aggressive stances and uses reds and purples to depict danger. Sonic Adventure 2 contrasts bright city levels with darker prison and desert stages, and features varied music for different characters. Super Mario Odyssey emphasizes freedom of approach over a set path to defeat Bowser.

1. Research
Thomas Battams

2. Existing Product
The Lighting of the stages is generally
quite bright, and shows off the
colourful environment around them, it
helps to bring out just how much had
been improved from the jump to the
16-Bit Era.
The Colour Scheme in the main levels are
mostly comprised of bright colours such as
Green, Blue and Yellow. This does make the
first half of the game seem really
lighthearted where Mega Man is trying to
stop Dr Wily with the help of newcomer Bass.
However in Wily’s Castle it is a lot darker,
implying that Mega Man has descended into
the unknown in order to confront his enemy,
and this darker tone in both colour and
lighting helps to set up the final
confrontation and the big reveal about Bass’
allegiance.
For the Box Art Mega Man’s stance is shown to be
quite aggressive, firing bullets towards the
approaching enemies. The colour scheme of the Box
Art is mainly Orange and Red, with only the Blue of
Mega Man himself to combat it. The Red and
Orange background is likely symbolizing how
dangerous the battle ahead would be for Mega
Man, with his Blue Palette symbolizing how he
wants to restore peace at all costs.
The colour scheme for Mega Man is almost entirely blue, as Mega Man is a franchise created in Japan, it is likely that this colour has taken on their definition
of the colour blue. For example in Japan the colour blue represents the characteristics of water, which symbolizes life and purity, this could go back to how
Mega Man was given sentience and purpose through his constant adventures in past games. Blue can also symbolize peace, calm and stability, which is the
things that Mega Man wishes to uphold, and seeks to restore every time Dr Wily starts to cause trouble. It also can mean coldness, and while in most other
games this doesn’t apply to Mega Man, this game has an exception when he tries to murder Dr Wily at the end in order to stop him once and for all, only
being stopped by the Laws of Robotics and the collapse of Wily’s Fortress, leading to Bass escaping with the mad scientist.

3. Existing Product
The colour scheme for Mega Man X is almost entirely blue, as Mega Man is a franchise created in Japan, it
is likely that this colour has taken on their definition of the colour blue. For example in Japan the colour
blue represents the characteristics of water, which symbolizes life and purity, this could go back to how
Mega Man X was the first of his kind, and how he was given complete sentience. Blue can also symbolize
peace, calm and stability, which is the things that Mega Man X wishes to uphold, and seeks to restore
every time Sigma starts to cause trouble. It also can mean coldness, which in this case would be used in
order to represent the darker series that Mega Man X is compared to the original Mega Man Games. In
the case of the Upgraded armor that Mega Man X can get later on, the colour white is mainly used, which
can be a representation of cleanliness and purity, as he is ready to uphold the values of peace and get rid
of any Mavericks that try to cause destruction and harm.
For the Box Art Mega Man X’s stance is shown
to be quite aggressive, firing bullets towards
the approaching enemies. The colour scheme
of the Box Art is mainly different shades of
blue, with white, yellow and red mixed in, and
with green and purple being used for the
enemies. With Mega Man X, his colour
scheme is mainly White and Blue, with his
Blue Outline symbolizing how he wants to
restore peace at all costs, and White Armor
symbolizing purity, and how he is trying to get
rid of the Mavericks in order to cleanse the
world of the virus that could otherwise
corrupt all of the Robotic Life on the planet.
Compared to the Classic Mega Man setting,
the setting of Mega Man X takes place
around 100 years after the original Mega
Man games in a world populated by both
humans and “Reploids”, robots capable of
thinking, feeling and growing like their
human creators. It is a darker setting
however because the concept of free will
meant that some of the Reploids ended up
turning evil, becoming “Mavericks”. The
Game follows Mega Man X and his partner
Zero, as they try and stop the leader of the
Mavericks Sigma, who wishes to being
about human extinction.
The colour scheme is a lot darker compared
to the original Mega Man games, for
example the opening stage of Mega Man X
uses a lot of purple, dark green and black.
This is used early on to show the darker
atmosphere of the X series, especially when
compared to the opening stage for Mega
Man 7, which was a lot brighter.

4. Existing Product The game is played in a Third-Person
Perspective where players take control of
Shadow as he tries to collect all seven
Chaos Emeralds in order to try and regain
his memories.
Because Shadow is allowed to use guns, this
helps to show how he is a more attacking
character when compared to others in the
genre, this can be exaggerated on the box
art with the explosion in the background, as
well as this Shadow’s posture is shown to be
quite aggressive, with him glaring towards
an unknown enemy, showing his fangs and
looking ready to attack them.
The locations can vary from
Destroyed Cities, to Military
Bases, to Outer Space
(whether it’s the Space
Colony ARK or the Black
Comet), and even goes into
Cyberspace, this gives
Shadow a lot to work with in
terms of features and
design.
The lighting in most stages is generally quite dark due to
the alien invasion being carried out by the Main
Antagonists, however there are some exceptions to this
with stages such as ‘Circus Park’ where the lighting is
really bright because of the lights decorating the theme
park, and ‘Sky Troops’ because of how the level is set in
floating ruins high above the clouds.
Because of the Darker Themes, darker colours like Red,
Purple and Black predominantly feature in the game,
especially in levels such as ‘Black Comet’ and ‘Final Haunt’.
However there are certain levels that show brighter
colours like Yellow and Blue, such as ‘Circus Park’.
For the morality system they chose Red for the Dark
Route as the colour Red can symbolize danger and
anger, something that also is reflected when Shadow
uses his Chaos Blast ability. Meanwhile for the Hero
Route they chose Blue as this can symbolize Peace, and
is reflected in Shadow’s Chaos Control ability.
As well as the various guns that Shadow can pick up, some
of the props that are useable includes Swords, Torches,
Turrets, and sometimes even buses. As well as this Shadow
can use vehicles to his advantage as well, including
Motorcycles, Air Saucers and Walkers.
The story is generally quite disjointed because of the Morality System,
however this affects where you go and who you face, for example the
Neutral Ending has Shadow confront Eggman in his ‘Lava Shelter’, the
Pure Evil Ending has Shadow battle through ‘GUN Fortress’ and destroy
humanity’s last hopes in Sonic and GUN, and the Pure Hero Ending has
Shadow and Sonic confront the Alien Overlord in his base (‘Final
Haunt’) and taking him down.

5. Existing Product
With the Prison Stages, the colour scheme is generally quite
bland and dull, mainly consisting of Grey, Black and White,
however ‘Metal Harbor’ features a lot of Blue due to the
Ocean surrounding the stage, and with ‘Green Forest’ the
name speaks for itself.
The locations in this game are quite
varied, ranging from a city based on San
Francisco, to a Desert Base, to Prison
Island, and even up into Outer Space to
the Space Colony ARK.
The game is played in a Third-Person
Perspective, playing as one of six characters,
each split into one of three gameplay styles,
the Speed Levels, the Mech Levels, and the
Treasure Hunting Levels.
During the City Levels, there is a mixture of colours
throughout the stage, with brighter colours like blue, red
and white featuring throughout the stage, which reflects
the main colours of Sonic. Meanwhile in stages like
‘Radical Highway’, Black and Red is featured
predominantly throughout the stage, this can be seen as
a contrast to Sonic’s first level ‘City Escape’, as it helps to
show how different Sonic and Shadow can be in
personality, even though they are similar in terms of
gameplay.
With the Desert Stages, the lighting is
really bright on the outside, but the
inside of the pyramid flips it around
to be an extremely dark and tense
atmosphere, this could also be a
reflection of how Eggman’s Base is
hidden within the depths of the
Pyramid, where an outsider wouldn’t
be able to notice at first glance.
In the final story the tone of the story gets really dark
when the main antagonist of the game threatens to
destroy the planet by crashing the Space Colony into the
planet, and while this does get prevented in the end, the
threat is constantly being thrown at the player throughout
this segment of the game, and can genuinely cause the
audience feel like they’re being pressured for time.
With the ARK Stages, the lighting in them are quite dark, which
helps to convey how it has been abandoned for over 50 years,
the colour scheme is mainly a mixture of blue, purple, orange,
red and gray, however there are some levels (mainly ‘Crazy
Gadget’ and ‘Lost Colony’) where green is also featured within
the colour scheme, however this was mainly for acidic traps.
The Music varies depending on which character is
being played as, for example Sonic and Shadow both
have fast paced Rock Music that goes along
perfectly with the High Speed Platforming. Knuckles
has really corny rap music that reflects his opinions
on the stages around him, Rouge has really smooth
jazz music that reflects her personality. Tails and
Eggman have similar music to Sonic and Shadow,
however it isn’t as fast paced and incorporates some
sounds in order to reflect their Mech Shooting
Gameplay Style.

6. Existing Product
This game’s design is different in that
you could essentially do what you
wanted as long as you hit the end result
of beating Bowser.
The Aim is to collect ‘Power Moons’,
there are 1,000 total however not many
of these are needed to finish the story.
Locations deviate from the classic Mario Formula, with new
locations such as New Donk City and a Ruined Kingdom.
However classic themes such as a Plains Theme, Forest
Theme, Desert Theme, Beach Theme etc. The Final Level is
also the usual Bowsers Castle Theme, however it has a
unique twist with it looking like a Japanese Temple.
The box art is quite colourful, showing off a lot of the
locations featured within the game, as well as this it shows
off the two main playable characters of the game. The
colours are all really bright and full of colour, and replacing
the ‘o’ in Mario with a globe is a nice touch that shows off
what Mario ends up doing during the events of the game.
For the most part the lighting of the game is really bright,
helping to reflect how the game is really fun and
lighthearted. However in some worlds such as the Ruined
Kingdom and Bowsers Kingdom, the lighting of the area is
a lot darker, possibly to reflect the more destroyed or evil
nature of these two areas.
With New Donk City, during the Night Time Section for the
story, the lighting and atmosphere gives it an affect that
makes the city not look out of place in an Arkham Game, it
helps to make this particular section of the game feel quite
tense.
Mario’s default costume is his classic red and blue overalls and iconic red hat,
however in this game it takes a new twist where the red hat is replaced by
Cappy, a sentient hat that Mario can use to attack and potentially control
enemies. As well as this, Mario is able to wear a ton of different costumes set to
the themes of the stages. For example he can buy a tuxedo from the City Stage,
shorts for the Beach Stage, and Scuba Gear for the Water Stage.
Within certain sections of each kingdom, there are small
sections where you are forced to traverse through an 8-bit
plain. This would be quite nostalgic for fans of Mario who
were able to experience the older Mario Games, and are now
able to experience it in a new way.

7. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched products have?
– The lighting and tone of the game changes from level to level, however some
games are overall a lot darker than others.
– There is a variety of themes within each game, and a city theme is common
within all of them.
– The Box Art for each game always has the main character on the front of it, it
also has something that reflects what the game is going to be about.
• What aspects of the research will you include within your own
production work?
– The lighting and colour scheme will generally be quite bright, however there
will be instances where the colour scheme of the game will be a lot darker in
order to fit with the themes.
– There will likely be a city theme in the game since it is a common theme
throughout all of the examples that I looked at.
– The Box Art will include the main character on it, as well as a feature of a
stage that will be on the main game itself.

8. Questionnaire Analysis

9. Audience research
• Observation: More Men answered my questionnaire than Women.
• What this says about my audience: My Target Audience is primarily
Male.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: It will appeal by
making it appeal more to the traditional male stereotype, for
example adding a lot of action orientated content into the product.

10. Audience research
• Observation: Most people who answered this are between the age of 16
and 18, with a few leaking into the 19-21 category.
• What this says about my audience: The Majority of my Target Audience
will be around the Age of 17/18.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I will try to add content
that would more suitable to people around this age. However since my
idea is supposed to be a 2D Platformer, this may end up being quite
difficult to do.

11. Audience research
• Observation: The majority of people who answered this play video games at least
multiple times a week.
• What this says about my audience: This shows that my Target Audience play
games multiple times a week, with over half of the people who answered playing
them everyday.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: This means that my product is
likely to appeal to them because of the content that it would provide them,
however a potential problem with this response is that they may like a different
game genre entirely, and not the one that I plan on making.

12. Audience research

13. Audience research
• Observation: People had said several different things that
were important to a Platformer, and the most common
were good controls, multiple characters and good level
design.
• What this says about my audience: This shows me that the
Target Audience care a lot about what goes into a
Platformer, and thus they will be expecting a high standard
of quality when it comes to the finished product.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: Good
Controls are an essential to have, and the level design will
not only be built around these controls, but also around the
several power ups used, and the characters using them.

14. Audience research

15. Audience research
• Observation: There were a lot of different level
themes suggested for the game, with the most
common themes being a City Level and a Water Level.
• What this says about my audience: That they have
varying opinions about what levels should be included
within the game, however some were more specific
then others.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: Some
of the more popular choices will be added to the
game, including the City and Water Themes, some
others would also be added in for variety.

16. Audience research
• Observation: The majority of people who answered this had said that
they preferred having both good story and good gameplay.
• What this says about my audience: That they would like an overall
balanced game that has every detail of the game be good, rather than
having one thing prioritized.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: The gameplay will be
made to be smooth and responsive, whilst making sure that the story isn’t
left out entirely.

17. Audience research
• Observation: The majority of people who answered this would prefer to
have elements of co-op in platformers.
• What this says about my audience: This shows me that my Target
Audience would like to play games with other people.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: A Co-Op mode will be
added into the game, and there will be multiple playable characters in
order to add replay ability and to also make sure that people who choose
co-op can play as different characters.

18. Audience research
• Observation: Most people want the clip of the game to be at least a
minute long, with some people wanting it over 3 minutes long.
• What this says about my audience: This shows me that my Target
Audience would like a longer video showing off some of the gameplay.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: As most people either
wanted it to be a minute long or over 3 minutes long, I am going to
compromise it by making it around 2 minutes long in order to appeal to
everyone.

19. Audience research
• Observation: Everyone who answered this questionnaire wants
unlockable items in the game.
• What this says about my audience: This shows me that my Target
Audience wants something to strive towards in the game, and this
would be achieved through unlockable items.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: As you progress
through the game, there will be some unlockable items that can be
unlocked, such as new characters, power ups, and more.

20. Audience research

21. Audience research
• Observation: Several different power ups were mentioned by
different people, and among the most common were Extra Lives,
Blasters/Guns and Health Boosts (e.g. Armour or Chug Jug from
Fortnite). However some were more creative like the Gravity
Boots in order to walk up walls and under platforms, a Hacking
Tool to turn Robotic Enemies onto your side, and a Sword that
can be charged up to fire projectiles.
• What this says about my audience: This shows me that my Target
Audience are quite creative and thus will need some creative
power ups in order to add replay ability to the game.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I am going to add
several different Power Ups from the ones provided, as well as
some of my own, some of these will be available straight away
whilst others would need to be unlocked.

22. Interviews

23. Interview 1
What do you think is essential to a Platformer and why?
There should be good level design
What Level Themes should be included and why?
I think elements that can cause the player some trouble and
difficulty when playing to the game isn't really easy.
Should there be any unlockables and if so what should they be?
There should be some unlockables because then this gives the
player something to strive for a goal and keep the player
interested to carry on.

24. Interview 1
• Observation: They think that good level design is
essential to a Platformer, they think that the game
should be difficult, and that there should be
unlockables in the game.
• What this says about my audience: This says that my
audience would like to have a difficult game that they
can be rewarded for completing or for doing certain
challenges within the game.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I will
try to make the level design interesting so that players
can have a good time trying to get to the end whilst
not being too easy.

25. Interview 2
What do you think is essential to a Platformer and why?
Fun graphics and different levels and perhaps based on a film or
TV show.
What Level Themes should be included and why?
Each level should get harder and you can change the colour
schemes etc.
Should there be any unlockables and if so what should they be?
Unlockables are good because it gives another sense of
achievement and they should perhaps be powers or hints
dependent on the game.

26. Interview 2
• Observation: They think that good graphics, multiple levels
and a good difficulty are essential to a Platformer, they’d like
different colour schemes for the themes, and that there
should be unlockables in the game.
• What this says about my audience: This says that my
audience would like to have a difficult game that they can
be rewarded for completing or for doing certain challenges
within the game, it also shows that they’d like the game to
look good as well.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I will try to
make the level design interesting so that players can have a
good time trying to get to the end whilst not being too easy.

27. Bibliography

28. Bibliography
1. Battams, T. (2018) Target Audience Research Survey (conducted on 13/4/2018)
2. Batty, Tom. (2018) Target Audience Interviews (conducted on 13/4/18)
3. Wimmer,A. (2018) Target Audience Interviews (conducted on 13/4/18)
4. Capcom (1993) Mega Man X
5. Capcom (1995) Mega Man 7
6. Nintendo (2017) Super Mario Odyssey
7. Sega (2005) Shadow the Hedgehog
8. Sega (2001) Sonic Adventure 2: Battle