The student proposes creating a pixel animation game about an old man struggling with mental illness and suicide. They will research mental health and architecture to inform the story and design. The game will feature the man fighting monster representations of depression, anxiety, and anger while exploring a small, claustrophobic world. The student aims to improve their pixel art, animation, background, and map design skills. They will evaluate their work weekly on detail, speed, and storyline, and produce a daily work diary during production.

1. Proposal
1
Centre Name and Number:
York College 48357
Student Name and Number:
Andrew Downes 352408
Project proposal title and date:
Mental
Main area of activity:
I am going to try and do pixel animation the whole way through however I am going to be creating
sound effects and music as well.
Rationale:
For each and every project I think I have done a small bit of pixel art ranging from video game to
print with all the practice I am becoming slightly faster at it also I have learnt to start the animation
at the beginning rather than half way through so it doesn’t screw anything up in the long run also
whenever you are creating a new game create the walk cycles first and the character itself so then
you know what size to make the map compared to the characters and it also helps my decision
when I got my best grades from video game the only thing that let me down were the experiments.
My last project was music video and I did a game animation in it to give me some more practice on
it, which is where I got the idea to do the walk cycle first, and then do the rest. I will be using my
skills and knowledge on pixel animation throughout the project. My skills that I am good at are
fairly limited to character and map creation both the drawing and to an extent the animation. The
bits that I really need to improve on is the background and map details so yeah both the drawing
and animation as well as the ideas need to be improved as well. I want to do the game because I
want to continue on to do things with video games as a career and as further education.
Project Concept:
The game will be a pixel animation game and it is about fighting off monsters and exploring a small
world set out, it will be small because I want to give off a sense of claustrophobia and make sure it
looks like you only have one path forward or backward and it is all based on an old man struggling
with his life. I plan on expanding it by exploring theories and other research already done on
mental illnesses, it is for myself and other people like me. So in effect my game is about an internal
struggle against depression anxiety and anger issues which we turn into monsters internally to
make it easier to fight them. I will need to do research on mental health and architecture to help my
project. It will help both the story and the design aspects of my project because I know only a little
bit about both of the subjects and will hopefully expand my horizons and help me create a more
comprehensive and enjoyable experience for the viewer. By the end of the project I am going to
have made an animation for a game about mental illness and suicide. “Everything is more beautiful
because we are doomed” Homer the Iliad. The under tones of the game is that the monsters are
just physical forms of mental illnesses which the old man has created to try and help himself
defend his mind against the mental illnesses and further undertone of that is that he wants to kill
himself because he is fed up with it all the voices and whispers telling him to end it all then you will
finally have an eternal rest.
How will the project be evaluated and reviewed:
I plan to evaluate my work on detail, speed and story line for the production and I am planning on
doing a weekly work diary for this project which will range from the typing work to the production
however during the production I will be doing a daily work diary. Also during my existing product
research I am planning to look at the aesthetics specifically and then closely followed by that the
mechanics of the piece.

2. Proposal
2

3. Proposal
3
Bibliography:
1. The Odyssey, Homer (800BC) Book
2. Drawing for fantasy artists, Socar Myles Don’t know the release date Book
3. Split, M. Night Shyamalan(January 20th 2017) Film
4. Birdman, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu(November 14th 2014) Film
5. Witcher 3 wild hunt, Projeckt red(May 19th 2015) Video Game
6. Until Dawn, Super massive games(August 28th 2015)Video Game
7. Imagine FX, Future Plc(I don’t remember the date but it was last month’s issue that gave me the idea)
Magazine
8. Edge, Future Plc(I don’t remember the issue or the date) Magazine
9. World Architecture. An Illustrated History, Paul Hamlyn (1963) Book
10. The city in History, Lewis Mumford (1961) Book
The world of the dark crystal, J.J. Llewellyn (1982) Book
Week Tasks to be Completed: Specific Tasks
1 Initial Ideas and Proposal  Pre-Proposal, Skill Audit, Mood Boards, Mood
Board analyses and key influences for initial
response as for the proposal there is the working
title, audience, rationale, project concept,
evaluation, the schedule and the bibliography.
2 Research  Existing product research, existing product
research analyses, secondary audience
research, primary audience research
3 Research  Subject research, practical research and a
bibliography
4 Pre-production & Planning  Reflection, risk assessment, Sound effect list,
Music list, Style sheet or other visual planning,
Contingency plan, Scene plan, Thorough
production schedule/ Action Plan, Budget,
resources list and a production schedule.
5 Production  Creating the characters and making their walk
cycles and movements
6 Production  Walk cycles and movements and star creating
the map
7 Production  Flesh out the map and start creating the
background
8 Production  Finish the background and then start creating the
music and sound effects
9 Evaluation  Finish creating the sound effects and music and
evaluate