The document provides details on the pre-production of a retro-style side-scrolling video game including color schemes, character designs, gameplay features, and timing. Color blue will be used for ice effects and windows. Yellow will signify fire. Character walk cycles will differ with Iceman sliding, Fire flying, and Earth digging underground. There will be upgrades and quick time events. Enemies will get stronger as the player progresses. Costumes, box art, and sound effects are also outlined.

1. Pre-Production
Jake-greenwood

2. Style sheet
Video game
The blue will be used for the ice
effected, although ice is white making
it look more blue will allow it to stand
out, blue will also be used for the
windows. The yellow will be for the
fire effect, because the colour you
would most associate with fire. The
green will be used for the grass on the
first level. Grey will be for the concrete
wall on the first and second level, for
the buildings and the corridor walls.
The brown is for the rock power. The
orange is for the super strength power
up. Blue, yellow, brown and orange
will be used for each characters
upgrade menu.
Fonts
The font will be pixelated to suit the
pixelated style of the game, this will
help the title screen and the gameplay
blend together. The reason for picking
symtext is because its pixelated look
give off a retro feel, and my video game
style is retro. The reason for picking
pixel bug font was because its quite
complex, which suits the complex
gameplay, also the font is very unique
which relates to what superhero's are.

3. I will make a different walk cycle for each character to make them more unique,
also it adds variety to the game. I think each movement animation will be three to
four layers.
Walk cycles
Ice man: His movement will be him sliding on
a sheet of ice.
Fire: His movement will be him flying.
Earth: He will dig underground and move
under the floor, so his movement is basically
teleporting.
Strength: His movement is speed running.
Features of the video game
Timing
Each fight scene in the game shouldn’t take too long, at most
it will last thirty frame, and for each power effect there
should be six or seven frames. There will be a lot of fighting
so the majority of the game is combat, and to let the
audience know that this is a console game, I will add quick
time events, which is where the player has to click certain
buttons when prompted. To do this I will have an X button
flashing so the player knows what to do.
Upgrades
There will be upgrades in
the game, and there will
be four for each character.
All the the upgrades will
be different, but their
power levels will be the
same so that the game is
balanced.

4. Video game balancing
In my video game all the play able characters have the same power
level and skill, but depending on how much the player upgrades one
character they could be way more powerful than the other
character, but this is all dependent on how you play the game.
The enemies in the game won’t be that powerful, however the
more the player progresses the more powerful the enemies get. I’ve
done this because as the player progresses his characters are going
to get more and more powerful, so to stop the game from getting
too easy, I decided to make the enemies more powerful.
So the game isn’t unbalanced but depending on how you play one
character could be overpowered, but you would sacrifice using your
other characters as they would be week compared to the enemies.

5. Timing sheet
VG features How long will it last
effects Each super power will take at
least 7 frames. So it will be
about 5 seconds.
Fight scenes The fight scenes won’t take
very long, each one will be no
longer that 15 seconds.
Running/walking Each running/walking scene
should no more than 10
seconds.
The characters costumes will be pretty simple, and will be mostly made from one colour but
with different shades. Iceman will have light blue and dark blue colours, his heir will also be
white which will make him appear wise, fire will have yellow and red colours on his costume,
and his hair will be yellow to make him appear powerful, earth will have brown and dark
brown colours, and strength will have grey and blue colours. Iceman’s costume design will
be a normal super suit, and the design on the suit, will be an upside down triangle on the
shoulders. Fire’s costume will look like fire, earths costume will have rock armor and
strengths costume will be jeans and a t-shirt.
Costume designs

6. Style sheet
Video game
I chose this image style because a side scroller show clear progression through the
game. Also these types of games are perfect for showing fights or battles, because it
mainly focuses on the character and focuses less on the background. It also keeps the
audience guessing about what's going to happen next because they can’t see ahead
of them, so it builds suspense. These types of games are always fighting games,
which is what my game will be, so the genre and style fit perfectly. There will be no
cut scenes in my video game so the whole game will have this one camera angle. It
will be a still background, so the background won’t have any animations to it, it will
just be a one layer image.

7. Style sheet
Box art
The blue will be used for the ice character,
who will be located at the front of the box
art, and blue is a bright colour so it will help
him stand out, and the colour should cover
his whole costume. The yellow and red is for
the fire character who is also located at the
front of the box art, and these colours
should cover the characters hair, eyes and
costume. The brown and the grey are for the
earth characters suit and power, these
colours should cover the characters whole
body, the grey will also be used for the
buildings that will be located in the
background, the buildings will be different
shades of grey so that they don’t all blend
together, Black will be used for the
background and bits of characters armor, but
it will be mainly used for the main bad guy’s
armor, who will be located at the top of the
image, the dark red will also be used for the
main bad guy’s armor.
Font
The reason for using symtext
is because I’m using it for my
video game title, so it’s
another way to link the two
products. The reason for
using big pixel font is for the
company name.
Image
The image will be portrait because
most box art images are portrait,
and most if not all modern day box
art designs are portrait.

8. Box art features
Characters
There will be five characters shown in the front cover, four
playable characters and one villain, he will be established as a
villain because he will been shown fighting a playable character
at the bottom of the image. The tree other characters will be
shown in a triangle formation at the middle of the page.
Background
The background will be a city, and it will be the same city that
you play in on the game. There will be a corridor background for
the two characters fighting at the bottom of the page, this will be
the same corridor that’s in the game, the reason for using the
same maps is to establish a link between the two products.

9. Time sheet (BA)
BA features How long will it last
characters Each character should take no
more that 10 minutes to
create.
Backgrounds Altogether both backgrounds
should take about 1 hour to
make.
effects The effects are small so all
together they should take no
longer than 15 minutes to
create.
There box art shouldn’t take to long to make as it’s a small add on to my
main product which is the video game. All the designs for the characters
costumes and the backgrounds will be the same as the video games
because this product is meant to promote and advertise it.

10. Layout 1
Video Game

11. Layout 2
Video Game

12. Rational for VG layouts
As you can see from my layouts I have gone with a
traditional retro style layout for my video game, the
reason for doing this is because its easy to make, and its
easier for the audience to understand what's going on in
the scene. It also appeals to an audience who prefer
classical games. As you can see in one of the layouts the
health bar is at the top, I positioned it there because its
then more noticeable to the audience, and they will
always keep an eye on it. You can see in both the layouts
the playable character comes from the left, I did this
because you read from left to right, so to show
progression to the player having there character run to
the right seems more logical.

13. Layout 1
Box Art
POWER
S
GREENJ GAMES

14. Layout 2
Box Art
POWERS
GREENJ GAMES

15. Rational for BA layouts
I tried to go for a dramatic feel, and to make it look like and
action game. As you can see in both layers the title is in the
center of the page, I did this because I believe that this is
where the audience will look first. I placed the company
logo and age rating where they would traditionally go, so
the audience will exactly where to look to see who made
the game. In the second layout I show a clear divide
between character, to show the heroes and the villains,
whilst in the first layout there is only one villain and he’s
placed above the heroes, this immediately tells the
audience that the villain is more powerful than the heroes,
so it lets the audience know that it will be a challenge to
defeat this villain.

16. Sound Effect How You Could Make
It
Running Beep Box
Swipe Beep Box
explosion Beep Box
Jumping Beep Box
Hand blast (ice) Beep Box
Hand blast (fire) Beep Box
Rock formation Beep Box
Sound effects
+ Music
I will create my own sound tracks in garage band. It will be 8/16 bit to match the
style of the game and its sound effects. I will make three soundtracks for the
three maps in the game.

17. Resources
Equipment/Software/
Costume needed
Locations needed
Computer College
Photoshop College
Premier Pro College
Garage band College
Beep box College

18. Contingency Planning
Potential Issue Solution
The computer I’m using might not work on a
particular day.
I’ll move to another computer that works.
The computer I’m on might not have the
software that I need.
I’ll move to another computer that has the
software I need.
The computer I’m using might randomly shut
down and I could lose all my work.
I’ll save my work every five to ten minutes, so if
my computer dose shut down, I won’t lose my
work.
I could end up using copy writed material. I will create everything myself.
College could be closed because of the
weather.
I’ll do the work I was soposed to do on that day
at home.
I could be ill for a day and fall behind on work. I’ll do work at home to catch up.

19. Health and Safety
Potential Issue How will the issue be
avoided?
I could get eye strain from look at the
computer screen too long
I will look away from the screen every 15
minutes.
I could get a blood clot from sitting still for too
long
I will stretch my legs and arms every 15
minutes.
Back strain I will keep a strait back when I work.
Neck pain I will stretch my neck every now and then.
I could get electrocuted when plugging in a
wire
I will either leave and ask for assistance from
the tutor, or be very courteous when doing it.
When moving my chair back to stand up, I
could end up tripping someone.
When I go to move my chair I will always check
to see if anyone's there.