1. You are required to design your own game, it must be your own
individual IP and not someone elses work
Artist Pathway = An interactive element from a game. Produce part of
an environment for your games design using a combination of 3D
Studio Max, and a games engine, either UDK, CryEngine or Unity to
allow user exploration
3. Target audience
-Core gamers
-18+ years old
-people who own consoles and gaming PC’s and are regular players, people who show an interest in events such as gamescon
and Eurogamer
- It will mostly appeal to the male audience although there will be females that will enjoy this if they enjoyed metal gear
solid and splinter cell.
- People who tend to follow a series such as Halo, Call of duty etc.
My main demographic that I am aiming for Is the O section
of the mosaic chart. More along the lines of 066 aka the
student. This type of demographic tend to follow gaming
trends and a franchise. Also the fact that students tend to
get student loans and will more than likely spend most of
their money on entertainment (Games).
In terms of the gaming community. The community I am
aiming for is the assassins creed audience. This is because
they are following a franchise and prefer stealth games,
They are core gamers and usually play on consoles which
suits the fact that I am aiming for a mostly console release.
4. Summery of content
The game content that will be put into the final version of the game will be based around a major stealth system. The game will take a large inspiration from Tom Clancy’s Splinter cell
when you are in stealth mode, turning off lights and staying in the darkness is the best way to progress. When it comes to combat however the combat system is best compared to
the game Assassins creed. The fighting system requires a number of different controls for different actions in combat. One of the buttons will initiate a parry when an enemy attacks;
from there the player is prompted to then press a random button in order to then follow up with an execution.
The story, will follow two main characters, the first is Exo. A genetically modified soldier who uses stealth to get around the level. The second character is Michael who uses third
person shooting small amounts of Freerunning to complete his tasks.
5. Platforms
The different types of platforms that it will run on will be PC’s and next generation consoles such as the ps4
and xbox one, this is because the engine I would use would be very graphics and memory intensive, it would
be a 3d photorealistic graphics, the character models would be best relatable to the quantic dream engine.
It would also have a large amount of content within the game and so would require a good amount of
memory.
6. Core gameplay mechanics
The core gameplay mechanics for my game will focus on two different styles of gameplay, the first will be stealth during the missions with Exo, so
this will be most of the time, other times there will be a third person shooting mechanic not only with Exo but with Michael as well as he comes
into contact with enemy forces he will be forced to fight.
Stealth is the biggest mechanic in the game and Exo will be the main character in the game so will have the largest role to play, the stealth
mechanic within the game will be similar to that of splinter cell where the darkness will be Exo’s greatest ally as he stalks his way through the
level.
Overall Exo will carry out his task with efficiency and without mercy, if he is given a target he will kill it, this means he isn’t afraid to get his hands
dirty is necessary, there will be a number of different types of stealth kill animation so as not to make it feel recycled and become boring, as well as
that Exo has a number of face to face combat options, Exo can utilize a number of weapons, including heavy weapons, I want the game to have
that killzone feel, where you can pick up some of the most ridiculous sized guns and shoot everything with massive explosions.
Michael’s gameplay mechanics will focus on the whole puzzle solving and 3rd person shooting mechanic, the puzzle solving mechanic will takes
inspiration from batman and heavy rain, and the third person shooting will take inspiration from Ghost recon: FS with the whole cover to cover
systems with different animation types for each.
Overall the game will have two different types of gameplay offering a variety of different missions and appeal, this also makes Exo and Michael
stand apart from each other and seem very different from themselves.
7. Unique selling point
My games unique selling point is the two types of game genre in my game for two different characters. The game will switch between the two
characters during different missions and different points of the game, the game will also use different types of game mechanics; the crime
scene investigating with Michael and the stealth based system with Exo.
I have taken inspiration from games such as Assassins creed; Splinter cell and other types of stealth based game. In terms of Michaels
mechanic the third person shooting will be based off of games such as ghost recon future soldier.
The main unique selling point is how the game I shown through the two different perspectives of the characters, Exo’s story will be more about
revenge, whereas Michael’s side will be about discovery. Exo will use his superior stealth skills and combat to go through any level he wishes,
the player has the choice to completely stealth the level, this will make Michaels mission harder but Exo's becoming more easy, but Exo can
instead go through the level destroying everything in his path, this will make Michaels levels easier but Exo's missions and overall goal will
become harder to reach seeing as he is not only facing the enemies he sent himself to kill but he will also find that MI7 will try to hunt him
down.
8. Mood boards
Visual style
The visual style that I am aiming for in
my game is to have a photorealistic
game that has a light green hue over the
gameplay. Much like battlefield uses a
blue hue I believe that using the colour
green will create a good Connection to
the game. When you ask people about
what colour relates to battlefield 3 they
will answer blue. I hope to have this
reaction with my game and associate
green with Shinobi.
This means that as I go through with my
artwork I will need to focus on green
colours and Hues when Focusing on my
art style.
9. Audio
Audio is a incredibly effective and powerful way of making a good game. I want to have a powerful soundtrack that people will remember.
The type of game that I want to tale inspiration from in terms of audio is Halo. Halo had a full orchestra of sound and this gave the player a sense of awe before even
playing.
This type of music means that the player is getting a sense of undertaking a journey or quest, maybe even a hardship before they are even playing.
While the player is playing however I want music that when being played creates an atmosphere like COD: WAW
This atmospheric music creates a sense of excitement and urgency.
10. Surveys
Next on the agenda is to find out
how popular stealth and action
games are, both from an overall
perspective and also a personal
survey I did myself.
Q1. How often do you play stealth games
a. Very often 2
b. Every now and then 3
c. Not at all 1
Q2. Do you believe that a story is
important in games
a. Yes 6
b. No 0
Q3. Do you like games that just focus on one
character
a. Yes 2
b. No I like multiple character stories 4
11. Market research
The Games that are currently on the market that I have to compete with are games such
as Splinter cell, Assassins creed and even games such as heavy rain.
Splinter cell and assassins creed all have a stealth and combat based game. They also all
have a series that loyal fans follow. They are also the two leading games in the market in
terms of the stealth based genre. Next is heavy rain which may be a competitor in terms
of the crime scene investigation mechanic. Seeing as Michael's main role is to solve the
scene and find out where Exo has gone as well as the third person shooting mechanic,
Hopefully my game would make this superior to heavy rain.
Assassins creed is currently in a franchise. And the overall Franchise has shifted massive
sales; Although the recently released AC 4 sales have gone done 60% with only
1,313,813 sales on all platforms. Compared to AC3 which had a much larger sales.
Although this is a good thing as it frees up more space in the market for a new game aka.
Mine. There is still a large following of the franchise and will be hard to win them over.
Splinter cell has also recently released Black list which made an overall sale of 2 million,
this has also been a large decrease in sales than before. Which means that both of the
main competitors are loosing a foothold on the market. This says to me that the market
is waiting for a new stealth and combat game to come along with a new story.
However another competitor heavy rain may although a couple of years old now still
poses a problem. Heavy rains sales rocketed in the massive 100 million dollars which
still is an amazing sales, this can be quite worrying as if I try to compete with these sales
I can see myself fall short.
Overall I can see my game doing very well in the market. It’s a new fresh story and idea.
It has an original storyline which has two unique storylines, the graphics will be of very
good quality and the game mechanics will be well made. I believe a market and following
will grow for this game. I can imagine the overall game sales reaching over 5 million
sales.
