Portflio-Minqi Huang by 1633666

RESUME FOR MINQI HUANG EDUCATION 2013–2017 COMMUNICATION UNIVERSITY OF CHINA ( CUC ) Major: Digital Media Arts (New Media Design)

PROJECTS 2017 Free hi!—FINAL DESIGN FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDY

1. User Interaction Design

• A mini WeChat program for foreign language learning and social communication. • Being responsible for the prototype design of all interfaces, functional interaction design, part of the work in programming etc. • Wrote final thesis.

2. User Experience Design

2015 CENTRE FOR DIGITAL MEDIA (CDM), VANCOUVER, CANADA

MY SKILLS:

3. Website Design/Scripting

• A one-month Immersive Digital Experience Academic Program • Completed a web-page game and a sports app

4. Animation

2015 WANG WANG PUBLIC ADVERTISEMENT

I CAN USE:

INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE

1. Adobe Photoshop

2017-2018 ZDPXBJ SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT Co., Ltd

2. Adobe After Effects

• Team leader of 3 students • Responsible for Storyboard making, photos processing, videos shooting.

• Interned as Software Designer for 10 months at R&D department • Responsible for interfaces designing

3. Adobe Indesign 4. Sketch

REWARDS

5. Sublime Text 2

2017 EXCELLENT AWARD

6. Unity3D 7. RPG Maker MV/XP

The Beijing Digital Media Design Contest

2015 FIRST AWARD

The Advertisement Design Competition for Financial Products held by CPIC

2015 EXCELLENT AWARD

The JinDu TV Advertisement Competition by my work, WangWang Public Advertisement

2013 EXCELLENT AWARD

XiaoBaiYang Arts Examination held by Communication University of China

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 2007-2010 CLASS SECRETARY

Gender:

Organizer of this activity, assist teachers to deal with class affairs.

D.O.B:

Description: The activity lasted for 1 week Taken care of the special children in the center

Female

May 28, 1995

E-mail:

anne-hminqi@outlook.com

2013 VOLUNTEER, CHINA REHABILITATION TRAINING CENTER

2015 VOLUNTEER, ARTS EXAMINATION HELD BY CUC

Description: The activity lasted for 1 week Assisted the teachers and Invigilator to record students’ name and scores

PERSONAL STATEMENT WHY I CHOOSE TO LEARN GAME DESIGN Frankly speaking, the story between game making and me was fun and interesting. When I was little and lived in the boarding school, my roommate who loved video games would often tell me different styles of games, which planted the first seed for me. In high school, the thought of how to make a game sparkled when I came into contact with a software named RPG Maker. It was amazing that people can make complete narrative games as long as they have conceived the plots without using any programming skills. With my passion in game design bursting, I paid close attention to its development trend and research orientation after entering university. Out of my keen hope and urgent which need to have a systematical learning in game design, I sincerely hope to join this field of study on the postgraduate stage. MY ADVANTAGEMENTS Through undergraduate study, I have established relatively complete knowledge system in digital arts and basic video editing skills, and enhanced my hands-on ability in web page programming and design. Besides, the course learning in New Media Arts, user experience analysis & interactive design has greatly improved my logic analysis and induction abilities. In particular, I have strong self-learning abilities, whereby I taught myself to use Sketch, Adobe Premiere, Dreamweaver and Sublime Text in my spare time. In addition, to conceive my own game story and master the rules and flow of game design, I studied novels, films, and anime productions, and tried out many games. In the summer vacation of my sophomore year, I went to the Centre for Digital Media (CDM) in Vancouver, Canada for a one-month Immersive Digital Experience Academic Program. During that time, I completed a webpage game and a sports app through independent creation and team-based digital media project, which gave me a clearer understanding of the importance of teamwork which was necessary for game projects. I was lucky enough to be possessed of this potential. Instead of confined myself to the campus and classrooms, I allocated quite a lot energy in contacting with the society. Since summer 2017, I interned in ZDPXBJ Science & Technology Development Co., Ltd. for nearly one year as a software designer at the R&D Department. By being responsible for interfaces designing, my simulation system software using skill has increased to a satisfied level. In the same year, I won the Excellent Award in the Beijing Digital Media Design Contest with my graduation project Free hi!, a mini WeChat program for foreign language learning and social communication. Being the team leader, I participated in every process, like the prototype design of all interfaces, functional interaction design, and some follow-up programming work. I am grateful that all these social practices have substantially enhanced my communicative ability and teamwork skills, which are both indispensable in game design projects. WHY APPLY TO YOUR PROJECT From my understanding, game is the only form integrating literature, painting, music, dancing, sculpture, drama, architecture, and film, which is the reason why I selected game design as my future occupation. United States boasts a world-leading gaming industry, following the college which has the best teachers and advanced design concepts and technologies. In addition, I have realized that teamwork is highly demand in game projects, and working with more professional persons is the best way to create a better work, even a gamer with independent production capabilities. Meanwhile, the MA game design program was focused on the importance of cooperation and practice in games work. Therefore, I was attracted by your MA game design program the first time when I studied the teaching program on your school website. I am sure I will be well suited to your curriculum and teaching methods if I can get a chance to study in your school. And I believe I will gain more mature practical experience and creative inspiration in game design principles. FUTURE PLANS Regards to future postgraduate study, I would like to deepen my understanding in operation mode of game development teams, so as to lay a solid foundation for the creation of a more rigorous game design. As for career planning, I hope to design a game better integrating fascinating story and innovative gameplay than ever before. Hopefully someday, I will create a magnificent and attractive masterpiece like the Final Fantasy series or the World of Warcraft, providing a better game world and amazing experience for the players.

PART 01: INDEPENDENT GAME DESIGN 1. PROJECT DOCUMENT: THE OUTLAND 2. COMPETITORS ANALYSIS

PART 02: CRITICAL ANALYSIS • WHERE'S MY WATER? • WORLD CONQUEROR

PART 03: OTHER WORKS • ANALYSIS OF RPG: BLACKSMITH STORY • DESIGN OF CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES • OTHER GAMES • UI DESIGN: BARTENDING APP • DRAWING SAMPLE

01-1 INDEPENDENT GAME DESIGN

THE OUTLAND

DOCUMENT CONTEXTS I. GAME DESCRIPTION

1.1 Overview 1.2 Develop Standards 1.3 World View and Background Story 1.4 Art Style 1.5 Design Ideas 1.6 Game Features

II. CORE GAMEPLAY

2.1 Function and Design of Main Interface 2.2 Battle 2.3 Basic Gameplay 2.4 Advanced Gameplay

III. GAME MODE AND LEVEL DESIGN 3.1 Level Maps 3.2 Game Goal 3.3 Level Design 3.4 Ending Branches 3.5 Save and Pause

IV. USER INTERFACE 4.1 Battle Flowchart 4.2 Mind Map 4.3 Other User Interface

V. CHARACTER DESIGN VI. NUMERICAL SYSTEM

6.1 Design of Character Attribute 6.2 Design of Monster Attributes 6.3 Battle Formula 6.4 Design of Equipment Attributes

VII. CURRENCY SYSTEM VIII. MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS

I. GAME DESCRIPTION 1.1 OVERVIEW

The Outland is a RPG in landscape mode adopting match-three puzzle as its core battle system and targeting at single players on iOS and Android platforms. In the game, the player is supposed to advance the storyline through leveling up from battles and completing main tasks. Battles in this game are conducted in the same way as turn-based match-three puzzles, where players can take control of the situation with different removal schemes. Other than that, the player can also interact with any NPC or some items in the scene to trigger events on the main or hidden storyline. During a conversation, responding in different tones will result in different contents and at the same time influence the morality of the character. With different levels of morality, the player will have different gaming experiences and eventually see different endings.

1.2 DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS

A. The development cycle of The Outland is limited to 6 months. B. The Outland is a RPG with a small amount of casual and exploratory elements. It adopts a turn-based battle mode and a match-three puzzle gameplay. It is in 2D.

1.3 WORLD VIEW AND BACKGROUND STORY

To the east of a distant border town named Helheim, there is a dense forest enveloped in heavy fog. It is said that this forest has long been called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Lostâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Countless adventurers and curious souls went on expeditions into the forest and lost touch with the rest of the world ever since. Therefore, the forest became a forbidden area where no one dares to set foot in. Occasionally, those who live in Helheim would see strange shadows through the forest fog afar, or hear the unclear cry of eccentric creatures. In order to find his younger sister Lilith who got lost when passing by Helheim, Gray and his friend Latte followed her footprints to the forbidden area. As they walked through the fog, however, they found the forest was nowhere to be found. Instead, there was an ancient ruin unknown to human. Someone appeared at the entrance of the ruin helped them by giving each of them a crystal sphere. The sphere seemed to possess some power and could dispel the eccentric creatures scattered across the ruin. To find Lilith and go back home, they became an adventure in this city of another world.

1.4 ART STYLE

Overall, The Outland takes on a 2D cartoon style with Gothic elements. Both the characters and enemies are drawn in the American cartoon style with 1:1 body proportion, creating a cute, interesting atmosphere. The game interface is clean and tidy, while the in-battle animation effect is vivid and exaggerated.

1.5 DESIGN IDEAS

This game is based on the casual gameplay of match-three puzzles and a relatively free storyline triggering mode. Characters and items able of triggering the main storyline will be prompted for the player to decide the trigger time. Within a scene, the player may explore at will without any limitation, meaning that they can defeat monsters to level up or attend to other tasks. As long as they trigger the main story line, they will be able to unlock a new scene. There are hidden tasks on every map. Hidden tasks give more equipments or items in return, and help fill in details for the main story. Such design aims to let the player explore and fight monster in their fragmentary time. Besides, leaving some parts of the story in hidden tasks also stimulates the player to look for a variety of hidden tasks, thus prolonging the life span of the game. Meanwhile, it also makes the storyline more mysterious and strengthens the player's sense of curiosity while exploring. As the story unfolds, the player will encounter more and more characters and convince them to join the team. Each character has 1 basic skill with a unique attribute and 2 more advanced skills. In battle, the player may remove a different number of basic skillâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s icons to release different character skills with corresponding effects. Moreover, a character skill can wield higher damages if its attribute is strong to the attribute of an enemy; otherwise, it can also be weak to the enemy. In view of this, it is important to strategically select team members in a battle according to the types of enemies. Designing characters of various characteristics can not only enrich the story, but also cater to the preferences of different players. Through the rotation among attributes and character-specific skills with distinct effects, players can create more varieties with different game strategies, making battle more interesting.

1.6 GAME FEATURES

In contrast to the characters and enemies with cute designs, the scenes and storyline are mysterious and suspenseful, bringing a visual and psychological contrast to players. The turn-based battle in The Outland is similar to that of match-three puzzles, which reduces difficulty of playersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; operation, making the game more casual. Meanwhile, due to the trigger of different skills by different strategies, as well as the rotation among skill types, battle in this game focuses more on the team formation and match-three tactics, which is still rather challenging. Other than that, it also contains some puzzle-solving elements. The player is required to figure out puzzles each with its own characteristics in the maps of different levels and interact with items or NPCs in the game for clues. Also, the player may trigger hidden events in many scenes to have a clearer understanding of the whole story through side quests, and then pick the most suitable answers in the dialog branches leading to the best ending.

II. CORE GAMEPLAY 2.1 FUNCTION AND DESIGN OF MAIN INTERFACE

â&#x20AC;˘ BASIC FUNCTIONS Upon entering the game, the player may control the character to move around at will. There are conspicuous paths across the scenes which lead the player to the transition point between scenes. Besides, the player may also move anywhere off the paths without roadblocks.Only one character under control (the one in the top of the character list) is shown in the scenes, and other characters are hidden. To the lower-left corner is the joyst+ick used to move the character upwards, downwards, leftwards, and rightwards. It turns transparent when the character is standing still. To the upper-left corner is the avatar of the character who is controlled by the player. After tapping it, the player can go through the attributes, skills, and equipment of every character. There is one item box to the right of the avatar, indicating the team item currently equipped. Team items fall into two categories: one gives buffs such as increasing experience gain, and the other is special items required by some scenes or tasks, such as the underwater breather. A team item takes effect the moment it is equipped. Character level is shown below the item box. All player-controlled characters share the same level and level up simultaneously; new members automatically synchronize their levels with existing characters. The upper limit of character level is 40. â&#x20AC;˘ ABOUT ITEMS AND WAY OF SELL A merchant NPC with a coin icon above its head can be found in every map. Upon clicking a merchant NPC, the player can buy items from or sell items to it.

All collected items will be shown in the item interface after the player taps on the item box, among which items currently in use will be marked with ‘equipped’. The interface can be closed by tapping anywhere outside the box. The name and function of an item will be shown in the information box below. If no item is selected, information of equipped item will be shown in the information box. If there is neither selected nor equipped item, the the information box will be empty.

Two options will appear as the player taps on an unequipped item. Without a merchant NPC in front, the ‘equip’ option appears orange and can be used to change team item by tapping; at the same time, the ‘sell’ option appears gray and does not respond to taps. With a merchant NPC in front, the "sell" option appears orange and can be used to sell items by tapping.

After the player taps on ‘sell’, a prompt will pop up asking for confirmation. The player can then tap on confirm to sell the item. Since there are only 16 item boxes, the player needs to sell unneeded items in time. New items cannot be obtained if there aren’t any empty item boxes.

• ABOUT THE MAP • • •

The large-scale map can be viewed by tapping on the map icon in the upper-right corner of the main interface.

The player can view his/her current position on the large-scale map. ( More information about the map wil be illustrated later. )

• ABOUT THE TEAM

To the lower-right is the ‘team’ button. The list of teams will unfold to the left after the button is tapped, where all the characters owned by the player are shown. The player can change team members’ position here or change the character currently under control. When the player finishes rearranging the team, the list can be hidden by tapping on the team button again. Tapping on an character’s avatar makes that avatar transparent and at the same time lights up other avatars. By then, tapping on any other avatars will make the two characters exchange positions. Characters listed in the first 3 boxes will participate in battle. A ‘Fighting’ mark can be found below their avatars. If there are only 3 characters in the list, all of them will be marked as fighting characters by default. In the upper-left corner of each character’s avatar, there is a small icon showing character’s skills’ attribute.

• ABOUT ENEMIES While moving in the scenes, the player will encounter enemies somewhere. Above the head of each enemy is its level and attribute icon. The red circle beneath the enemy indicates its threat meter, which appears when the player closes to the circle.

There are two types of enemies: One will chase the player once the latter steps into the red circle. The other will chase the player if the latter stays in the red circle for longer than 3 seconds, and stop chasing and return to its position after the player keeps out of the red circle for 1-2 second(s).

2.2 BATTLE When the player enters the battle interface, fighting characters and enemies are shown in the left, and the match-three puzzle area in the right. Battle background changes according to the scene the player is in, but only the ground is shown. \

â&#x20AC;˘ ELEMENTS ON THE LEFT SIDE In the upper-left corner of this interface, the levels, HPs, and avatar thumbnails of both parties can be found. Same as the player-controlled team, the enemy team also has a shared level, which is shown in the upper-left corner. In battle, the player-controlled characters share a red health bar showing the sum of the three characters' health points. If any character takes damage, the number of the shared health bar will decrease. When it reaches 0, the player is considered lost. Thumbnail avatars of all player-controlled characters are shown below the health bar, of which the outline color indicates the skill type of the character. For clearer visual effect, the enemy health bar is shown in orange to the right of the player's, which is also the sum of all enemy health points. Also, the thumbnail avatars and type colors are shown below the orange bar. Scores gained through removing blocks is shown in the "Score" area between the avatars of the two parties. Each time the player removes blocks, scores will be gained according to the number of blocks removed. Below the health bar of each party, there are fighting character portraits which display corresponding animation effects when the character attacks. There is a small health bar above every character's head, beside which is a type icon. The small health bar corresponds to the red bar on top in real time. If a character dies, its portrait will turn gray. Meanwhile, the animation showing it dropping to the ground will be shown. The skill icons of the dead character will also turn gray. If the character is resurrected, player actions will decrease by 1, and the character may not attack. There are also individual health bars above all the enemies, beside which are type icons. The small health bar corresponds to the orange bar on top in real time.

â&#x20AC;˘ ELEMENTS ON THE RIGHT SIDE On the right side of the screen is the operation panel. The "Round" on top shows the current round number. The middle part is the operation area which displays the three skill icons of the three fighting characters as the removable blocks. The blocks standing for each character have the same color as the outline of its thumbnail avatar. Every time the player removes a type of skill icons, the corresponding character will automatically picks a target and attack once. If there is an enemy weak to the skill type of the character, the character will automatically pick it as the target. If more than one enemy are weak to the character's skill type, the character will pick a target following the order of from left to right, and from top to bottom. If no enemy is weak to the skill type of the first attacking character and the skill about to be used is single-targeted, the character will also pick a target following the order of from left to right, and from top to bottom. In upcoming rounds, all characters will pick the target with the least health points. When an AoE skill is used, it will wield damages on all enemies, among which the one(s) weak to the skill type will receive higher damages. Each character has one unique skill type and three categories of skills, namely: general skills, advanced skills, and ultimate skills. These three categories of skills can each be triggered by removing different amounts of blocks. The "Action" shown below indicates the number of allowed player movements in this round. Each time the player acts on the panel, the number of action will decrease by 1. The initial action number in each round is 3. All combos triggered by one single removal is considered as within 1 action. Also, combos will also trigger character skills, which means they can bring bonus attack opportunities within one single action.

â&#x20AC;˘ THREE SPECIAL BATTLE ITEMS Removing blocks will not only trigger character skills, but also reveal three different battle items which can only be used as removable blocks. Details are stated as follows: Healing Fruit: restores HP after removed Herb: clears debuffs after removed Hour Glass: adds additional actions to this round after removed

2.2.1 ANIMATION EFFECTS FOR BLOCK REMOVAL

Firstly, select the fire type icon you want to move with one finger.

Slide it upwards to switch positions with the thunder type icon. Now that there are four fire type icons together, they can be removed. After that, the icon above the character using fire type skills and the crystal in its hand will be lit, meaning the character is ready to release skills.

When the fire icon blocks are removed, they will disappear in a burning animation effect (the effect is subject to the skill type), and then the corresponding character will release a fire type skill accompanied by its animation effect. Different scores are gained according to the amount of blocks removed. If 4 contiguous blocks are removed, a skill of the higher level will be triggered, and an advanced skill icon will appear 0.3 second after the blocks are removed. Meanwhile, the character will attack the enemy once with the advanced skill. When it finishes attacking, the advanced skill icon will return to its position and disappear. After that, new skill icons will fall from above to fill in the empty space. When an enemy is under attack, numbers will prompt, indicating the damage of each attack; at the same time, its health bar will be deducted accordingly. The thumbnail avatar of the enemy being attacked will turn red, and shake up and down twice while receiving damages.

â&#x20AC;˘ ABOUT ENEMIES ACTION If the player runs out of actions, enemies will begin to attack player-controlled characters. Each enemy will randomly pick one character to attack. Like stated before, if there is any character weak to the type of the attacking enemy, the enemy will attack it first. If combos are triggered by one action, the system will count the attack numbers of the character, and then add the same amount of attack numbers to the enemy before the latter attacks. Common enemies have two categories of skills, one is general skills and the other is advanced skills (bosses have special powerful ultimate skills). The choice of skills is determined by a probabilistic algorithm. Also, the skill effectiveness and health point of enemies are decided by their levels. Some enemies can add a debuff to the player-controlled character after they attack, which can be removed with items.

2.2.2 END THE BATTLE

If all of the enemy's health points reach 0, the player is considered winning. A reward of experience and gold coins will be gained, of which the former is decided by action counts, and the latter scores. If the characters' health points reach 0, the player is deemed lost. The player may then choose to try again or quit. If "Retry" is chosen, the characters will be restored to their statuses before this battle and retry from the beginning. If "Close" is chosen, the characters will be returned to their former positions with all the statuses restored. Besides, the player will lose gold coins after being defeated, the amount of which is decided by the number of remaining enemies (1 remaining enemy = 25 gold coins). In the case that there are not enough gold coins, each fighting character will lose 50% of its maximum health point, and a 50% decline in all its attributes. The duration of this debuff is decided by the number of remaining enemies (1 remaining enemy = 1 min, and so on).

2.2.3 UPGRADE AND RELEASE OF SKILLS

The player can upgrade the character skills by upgrading their crystals in the skill interface.

The character interface can be accessed through tapping on the avatar in the main interface.

This is the character interface.

â&#x20AC;˘ TOP OF THE INTERFACE

In the character interface, collected characters are shown on top.

The upper-right part displays character level, experience, and gold coins in possession. All player-controlled characters in this game share a single level and experience bar, so the level shown in here is also the current player level.

The Memo and Option buttons are shown in the upper-right corner.

â&#x20AC;˘ LEFT SIDE: CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES AND EQUIPMENTS Below them is the character information column, which shows the name, type icon, and portrait of the character. The character portrait is placed above the attributes, of which HP indicates the health points of the character, STK the attack ability, DEX the dodge ability, and DEF the defense ability. There are 3 equipment boxes below the information column of each character. The first one holds the skill crystal of the character.

Each character has one crystal of a specific type, which by default is level 0, cannot be changed, and can be upgraded. Every 2 levels the character grows, the crystal can be upgraded once with gold coins. The upper limit for crystal upgrade is level 20. â&#x20AC;˘ RIGHT SIDE: CRYSTAL AND RELATED SKILLS Information about crystal upgrade will be shown is the first box to the right of the character if the player taps on the crystal icon. The crystal and other type icons form a circle, showing the rotation among different types. The crystal owned by the character is shown in the top, to the lower right of which is the weaker type, and the lower left the stronger type. Under each of the type icons is a detailed effect information. At the bottom of the interface is the Upgrade button, which appears gray when the player has yet to meet the upgrade requirements and does not respond to taps. If the player has met an upgrade requirement, the text will appear white, and a green check will appear on its right. If all the requirements are met, the Upgrade button will turn green. Upon tapping, the player will be prompted to confirm the upgrade.

The rightmost part of the interface shows all the skills and detailed skill information of the chosen character. The level of skills is subject to that of the crystal. The advanced and ultimate skills of the character can only be unlocked when the crystal reaches certain levels. The detailed information of locked skills appears gray. Also, there is a lock beside its icon. Unlocking level of a skill is shown next to its name.

â&#x20AC;˘ CHECK THE TRIGGER REGULATION OF SKILLS

By tapping on the question mark to the right of the skill information, the player can view the release method for each skill.

Detailed explanation regarding the release of skills will be shown by tapping on the question mark.

2.2.4 EXPLANATION OF BLOCK REMOVING

Icon blocks can be removed when at least three of the same kind are in alignment. If an action caused some blocks to icons fall from above and fill in the space. The new icon block has the equal probability to be each of the three types. Trigger and release requirements of each skill is explained in the following table: No.

Name

Place & Condition

3 blocks in alignment

4 blocks in alignment

General Skill icon: fire

General Skill icon: water

General Skill icon: wood

General Skill icon: earth

Generated by default or falling from Removing blocks directly, Removing blocks directly, above; has a earth-type character in triggering 1 general earth- triggering 1 advanced earththe fighting team type skill 10 scores gained type skill 25 scores gained

General Skill icon: electric

Generated by default or falling from Removing blocks directly, Removing blocks directly, above; has an electric-type character triggering 1 general electric- triggering 1 advanced in the fighting team type skill 10 scores gained electric-type skill 25 scores gained

General Skill icon: light

Generated by default or falling from Removing blocks directly, Removing blocks directly, above; has a light-type character in triggering 1 general light- triggering 1 advanced lightthe fighting team type skill 10 scores gained type skill 25 scores gained

General Skill icon: dark

Generated by default or falling from Removing blocks directly, Removing blocks directly, above; has a dark-type character in triggering 1 general dark- triggering 1 advanced darkthe fighting team type skill 10 scores gained type skill 25 scores gained

Neutral Skill icon: advanced skill

Generated on the point of removal After it is removed with another skill block, the corresponding character i when 6 icon blocks are removed in this action. 50 scores gained alignment, in L-shaped spread, or in T-shaped spread

Generated on the point of removal After it is removed with another skill block, the corresponding character i when 6 icon blocks are removed in this action. 100 scores gained L-shaped or T-shaped spread

Neutral Skill icon: ultimate skill Healing Fruit

If the player health bar is not full, there is a 20% chance a Healing Fruit will fall down. It does not fall when the health bar is full.

It restores 40% of the It restores 80% of the maximum HP of the maximum HP of the character with the lowest health points at character with the lowest present. 25 scores gained health points at present. 10 scores gained

Herb

If any character has a debuff, there is a 20% chance a Herb will fall down. It does not fall when no one in the team is carrying a debuff.

It randomly removes the debuff on one playercontrolled character. 10 scores gained

Hour Glass

There is a 10% chance the Hour Glass It increases the amount of It increases the amount of actions in the will be generated by default or fall actions in the round by 1. round by 2. 25 scores gained from above. 10 scores gained

Generated by default or falling from Removing blocks directly, Removing blocks directly, If the above; has a fire-type character in triggering 1 general fire- triggering 1 advanced fire- advanced the fighting team type skill 10 scores gained type skill 25 scores gained skill is still locked: The Generated by default or falling from Removing blocks directly, Removing blocks directly, character above; has a water-type character in triggering 1 general water- triggering 1 advanced releases a the fighting team type skill 10 scores gained water-type skill 25 scores general skill gained with a 125% Generated by default or falling from Removing blocks directly, Removing blocks directly, damage. above; has a wood-type character in triggering 1 general wood- triggering 1 advanced woodthe fighting team type skill 10 scores gained type skill 25 scores gained

It randomly removes the debuff on two player-controlled characters. (In the case that there is only one character with debuff, Herb only takes effect on that one character.) 25 scores gained

o be removed, they will disappear where they are. The empty space will remain there for 0.3 seconds, before new skill

Removal Method and Effects 5 blocks in L-/T-shaped spread, or in alignment

6 blocks in L-/T-shaped spread

Removing blocks directly, triggering 1 ultimate fire- If the type skill, generating an advanced neutral-type skill ultimate skill icon where the removal happened 50 scores gained is still locked: The character releases a Removing blocks directly, triggering 1 ultimate watergeneral skill type skill, generating an advanced neutral-type skill with a 150% icon where the removal happened 50 scores gained damage.

Removing blocks directly, triggering 1 ultimate firetype skill, generating an advanced neutral-type skill icon where the removal happened 100 scores gained

Removing blocks directly, triggering 1 ultimate woodtype skill, generating an advanced neutral-type skill icon where the removal happened 50 scores gained

Removing blocks directly, triggering 1 ultimate wood-type skill, generating an advanced neutraltype skill icon where the removal happened 100 scores gained

Removing blocks directly, triggering 1 ultimate earthtype skill, generating an advanced neutral-type skill icon where the removal happened 50 scores gained

Removing blocks directly, triggering 1 ultimate earth-type skill, generating an advanced neutraltype skill icon where the removal happened 100 scores gained

Removing blocks directly, triggering 1 ultimate electric-type skill, generating an advanced neutraltype skill icon where the removal happened 50 scores gained

Removing blocks directly, triggering 1 ultimate electric-type skill, generating an advanced neutraltype skill icon where the removal happened 100 scores gained

Removing blocks directly, triggering 1 ultimate lighttype skill, generating an advanced neutral-type skill icon where the removal happened 50 scores gained

Removing blocks directly, triggering 1 ultimate lighttype skill, generating an advanced neutral-type skill icon where the removal happened 100 scores gained

Removing blocks directly, triggering 1 ultimate darktype skill, generating an advanced neutral-type skill icon where the removal happened 50 scores gained

Removing blocks directly, triggering 1 ultimate dark-type skill, generating an advanced neutraltype skill icon where the removal happened 100 scores gained

Removing blocks directly, triggering 1 ultimate water-type skill, generating an advanced neutraltype skill icon where the removal happened 100 scores gained

If the ultimate skill is still locked: The character releases a general skill with a 200% damage.

is allowed to attack twice, i.e., release one advanced skill of its type and then release one skill according to the amount of blocks removed in

is allowed to attack twice, i.e., release one ultimate skill of its type and then release one skill according to the amount of blocks removed in

e It restores 50% of the maximum HP for every player-controlled It restores 100% of the maximum HP for every player-controlled t character. 50 scores gained character. 100 scores gainedv

o It randomly removes the debuff on all player-controlled characters. e (In case any character is free from debuff, Herb only takes effect on h those with debuffs.) 50 scores gained e

It randomly removes the debuff on all player-controlled characters, and restores 20% of the maximum HP for every player-controlled character. (In case any character is free from debuff, Herb only takes effect on those with debuffs. The same law applies to the healing effect.) 100 scores gained

e It increases the amount of actions in the round by 2 and completely It increases the amount of actions in the round by 2 and blocks the blocks the damage from the first enemy attacking in this round. 50 damage from all enemies attacking in this round. 100 scores gained scores gained

2.2.5. LIST OF SKILLS No. Character 01

Gray

Ice

Latte

Vidar

Barry

Maria

Hel

Type Fire

Water

Earth

Wood

Electric

Light

Dark

Skills Category

Skill Name

Effect

General

Blast

Wields a damage equals to STK*110% on one enemy

Advanced

Ignition

Wields a damage equals to STK*120% on one enemy, with an additional burning of HP equals to STK*10% for two rounds)

Ultimate

Fireball

Wields a damage equals to STK*150% on all enemies

General

Snowfall

Wields a damage equals to STK*80% on one enemy, with an additional 20% pr enemy and causing it to lose an amount of HP equals to STK*10% for two rounds)

Advanced

Cure

Restores 40% of the maximum HP of the character with the lowest health points

Ultimate

Icicle

Wields a damage equals to STK*120% on all enemies, with an additional 25% pr enemy and causing it to lose an amount of HP equals to STK*10% for two rounds)

General

Crack

Wields a damage equals to STK*70% on all enemies

Advanced

Shield

Creates a shield which blocks all damages within one round, and enhances t characters by DEF*20% for 2 rounds

Ultimate

Meteor

Wields a damage equals to STK*140% on all enemies, and reduces the attack of e

General

Herb

Randomly removes the debuff on one player-controlled character, and restore its

Advanced

Venom

Summons a viper, wielding a damage equals to STK*120% on one enemy, and an it to lose an amount of HP equals to STK*10%)

Ultimate

Aroma

Removes the debuff on all player-controlled characters, and restore their HP b characters without any debuff)

General

Flash

Wields a damage equals to STK*100% on one enemy, with an additional paralyze

Advanced

Thunder

Wields a damage equals to STK*100% on all enemies, and enhances the dodg DEX*50 for 2 rounds

Ultimate

Shock

Wields a damage equals to STK*100% on all enemies, with an additional paralyze

General

Trial

Wields a damage equals to STK*80% on two enemies, and reduce their DEF by 20

Advanced

Blessing

Creates a shield for one player-controlled character with the lowest HP at present shield becomes invalid when its HP becomes 0.

Ultimate

Revelation

Blesses one player-controlled character with the lowest HP at present to resurrect of all player-controlled characters by 20% for 2 rounds.

General

Curse

Confuses one enemy (causing it to attack its allies with skills for 2 rounds)

Advanced

Evocation

Summons 1 skeleton in the front row, which attacks once in every round and att STK equals to 50% of Hel's)

Ultimate

Illusion

Causes an advanced confusion effect on all enemies (confused enemies will attac

2.2.6 ROTATION AMONG ATTIBUTES No. Relative Relation

Effects

Electric is weak to Fire

Wood is weak to Electric

When B is weak to A, character with A type will wield an additional 25% damage on B type characters, and is sure to add the debuff attached to the skill if any.

Earth is weak to Wood

Water is weak to Earth

Fire is weak to Water

Light

Dark

No particular strength or weakness

Additional effect from each level up The factor in the damage calculation equation increases by 3.5%. effect (causing the enemy to lose an amount The factor in the damage calculation equation increases by 4%; the possibility of burning effect increases by 2%. The factor in the damage calculation equation increases by 5%.

robability of frozen effect (incapacitating the The factor in the damage calculation equation increases by 2%; the possibility of frozen effect ) increases by 2%. at present.

The healing percentage increases by 3%.

robability of frozen effect (incapacitating the The factor in the damage calculation equation increases by 4%; the possibility of frozen effect ) increases by 3%. The factor in the damage calculation equation increases by 3%.

the defense abilities of all player-controlled The factor in the enhancement calculation equation increases by 4% (after the skill is upgraded to level 10, the damage-blocking effect will last for 2 rounds).

enemies by STK*20 for 3 rounds

The factors increases by 5% in the damage calculation equation, and by 1.5% in the deduction calculation equation.

s HP by 20%*its maximum HP.

The factor in the healing amount equation increases by 2%.

additional poison effect for 3 rounds (causing The factor in the damage calculation equation increases by 4%; the probability of poison effect increases by 2%.

by maximum HP*30% (only healing effect for The factor in the healing amount equation increases by 2%.

e effect (incapacitated for the round)

The factor in the damage calculation equation increases by 3%.

ge rate of all player-controlled characters by The factors increases by 4% in the damage calculation equation, and by 2.5% in the enhancement calculation equation.

e effect (incapacitated for the round)

The factor in the damage calculation equation increases by 5%.

The factors increases by 2% in the damage calculation equation, and by 1% in the deduction calculation equation.

with 40% of the character's maximum HP The The factor in the healing amount equation increases by 3%.

t with full health, and enhances the attributes The factor in the enhancement calculation equation increases by 3%. The attack of confused enemies increases by 3%.

tracts aggravation until destroyed (its HP and The factors increases by 5% in the HP calculation equation, and by 2.5% in the STK calculation equation.

ck its allies with skills for 3 rounds)

The attack of confused enemies increases by 5%.

2.3 BASIC GAMEPLAY 2.3.1 COMPLETE MAIN MISSIONS TO PROMOTE THE STORYLINE

After entering a new level, players will find a non-player character (NPC) or an object with the icon

. Players

can trigger storyline and gain main missions by tapping . In addition, once a storyline is triggered, players can view the next scene which can trigger following storylines of this level in the map, and the scene is also identified by

in the map.

The main missions of each level will illustrate missions of level clear. Players can enter the next level after completing missions. There are four to five scenes of each level, and each one is an independent map which interconnects with other scenes.

2.3.2 LEVEL UP THROUGH BATTLE TO FIGHT AGAINST MORE ADVANCED ENEMIES

With the development of storylines, players will gradually unlock more scenes, and the level, health point (HP) and damage point of enemies will improve. To defeat advanced enemies, players should level up by battle, so as to gain higher HP as well as unlock advanced equipment and items. Players can gain experience point (EXP) after completing main missions, and meanwhile, each storyline sets a boss. Players can gain EXP after winning the boss.

2.4 MORE GAMEPLAY

Find hidden missions, collect storylines and improve storyline progress. There are hidden missions in some scenes. Players can tap the big map to view trigger hints of hidden missions. Based on storyline, this series of missions will lead players to hidden scenes or tell them more dialogue contents. Therefore, players can acquire the story details which is obscure in storyline, as well as win a large number of golden coins, EXP or equipment. The storyline progress can be improved by competing this series of missions. Storyline is made up of main and hidden missions. Once a main or hidden mission is completed, its contents will be recorded in memo of character interface.

III. GAME MODE AND LEVEL DESIGN 3.1 LEVEL MAPS

When players tap the map icon at the top right corner of the main interface, they will enter this big map. The map displays level 1 to 7 which is respectively identified by blue, green, orange, yellow, purple, red and cyan. Different colors represent different attributesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the main attributes of monsters (which is the same as the attributes of characters). Each level has 4 to 6 scenes, which is represented by small blue circles and interconnected by blue dotted lines. The connected two scenes can be interconnected. The circles are originally gray, and become blue after the character reaches this scene. The character starts from the lower part of the map, then going ahead according the order of dotted lines. The dotted lines are originally dark gray, and become blue when players connect the next scene. The silver down arrow indicates the position of the character, and the position area of the map is presented in a white translucent circle. Once the scene is tapped, a message box will pop up, displaying the name of the scene, as well as names, attributes and levels of all monsters in this scene.

The orange diamond icon represents the seven hidden scenes. In these scenes, players are required to connect some NPCs or special objects to unlock scenes. Therefore, these scenes are unconnected with other scenes. When players tap the orange icon for the first time, there will be a black line to connect a certain scene, in which players can trigger hidden missions and find the methods to unlock them. There will be only a black line when the orange icon is tapped before unlocking hidden scenes. When players unlock and enter the scene, the black line will remain on the map eternally. Once tapped again, it will pop up a message box with the name of the scene and monster information. At the top left corner of the map is a portal icon. Once it is tapped, players can view the available portals. There are 1 to 3 scenes with a portal in each level. The name of the scene will appear when players activate the portal. Players can activate the portal after defeating all enemies of the scene.

The interface showed after the portal (stele) is tapped. Normal interface shows the scene name of the portals of level 1 to 7, and Hide interface displays the name of hidden scenes. The scene name with deactivated portal is displayed as “????”. If players tap the scene name which can be sent in this interface, there will be a message box about whether sent the scene name or not. If players confirm, the character will be sent directly to the position of the portal, and if players conceal, it will remain in this interface. At the bottom right is the mission icon. Once it is tapped, it will display the current mission contents. The main missions which can be triggered will be identified with icon “!”, so as to remind players of the next destination. Players can tap the button of minimize and zoom below the mission icon to adjust the size of the map. Players can view their position in the scene more clearly by enlargement.

3.2 GAME GOAL 3.2.1 DEFEATING THE FINAL BOSS

There will be a boss in the final scene of each level. Players can find the boss by following the route hinted by main missions. When players meet the boss for the first time, the main storyline will be triggered and the battle aroused. The boss will attack players not only with regular and advanced skills, but also the final skill. The final skill will be possibly triggered when HP of the boss decrease 50%. The boss carries different number of soldiers in battle. Sometimes the boss battles alone, sometimes carries 2 to 5 soldiers. Once the boss is defeated, it will not appear again. Players can clear the game after defeating 7 bosses of level 1 to 7 and completing all main missions.

3.2.2 SOLVE PUZZLES

On the way to the position of the boss, players are required to defeat some enemies or interact with some objects to figure out puzzles. â&#x20AC;˘ THE FOLLOWING TWO TYPES OF PUZZLES IN THE GAME MUST BE SOLVED: 1. Enchantment which blocks doors or channels. When doors or channels which connect scenes are blocked, players should break the enchantment by defeating all luminous enemies in the scene, otherwise players are unable to go ahead. The color of enchantment in different scenes is the same as that of scenes and enemies. 2. Deactivate Portals There is a portal surrounded by black mist in the first scene of each level and the position of the final boss. There are some monsters surrounded by black mist around the portals, and players need to defeat them to restore the function of portals. If portals are not activated, the road to the next scene will be blocked by black mist, and players are unable to go ahead. Once activated, portals can not only become the portal of this level, but also restore health and energy. â&#x20AC;˘ THE FOLLOWING PUZZLES ARE NOT REQUIRED TO BE NECESSARILY SOLVED: 3. Switches There are 1 to 2 treasure chests in each scene. Players can open the chests by stepping on the switch around the chests. Some chests are protected by enemies. In this case, players can open the chests after defeating the enemies. The state of switch can be changed by tapping. Some switches are unattended, but hidden in places where is hard to reach. 4. Traps There are some traps like throwing knives and deep holes. When walking to the traps nearby, players will trigger the traps and die (then they will return to the original area before triggering the traps). Therefore, players should be aware of the traps when moving. All traps appear circularly in certain rules. 5. Patrols Besides monsters, there are patrols showing in a fan-shaped yellow area in some scenes. The patrols are unable to trigger a battle like a monster, and players can only avoid appearing in the patrol area, otherwise they will be attacked to death (then they will return to the original position before being discovered by the patrols).

3.3 LEVEL DESIGN

After players enter a level, there will be a storyline guidance to introduce the missions and destination (the position of the final boss) of this level. Then, players can move freely in this map.

3.3.1 MAIN MISSIONS

Each chapter has a main mission, and players can automatically gain it after triggering the storyline. • ACCEPT MISSIONS: Players are not required to accept main missions, because they will automatically gain it after triggering the storyline. • COMPLETING WAY: Players can complete the main missions after defeating the final boss. Then the mission notice of the next level will appear in following storyline. • BONUS: Players can gain a large number of EXP and a piece of equipment. • STORYLINE INTRODUCTION: Gray and Latte enter the Outland and open the first level. They meet a young girl named Ice in the first scene, and the storyline is triggered after their dialogue. Chapter 1 The Underwater City Ice tells the protagonists something about this world and she is also a trapped outsider. Only by reaching the Air Temple, can they open the channel to the outside world. Controlled by human in the North Lightning City, the Outland is divided into 7 independent areas. If players want to go to other areas, they must use the portal watched by numerous gears and robot guards. Only by defeating these robot guards, can they go ahead. Ice gives the protagonists crystals as weapon and joins them. *After completing the first level, Ice follows the protagonists. Chapter 2 The Mist Forest The protagonists come to the next area, but lost in the mist forest. Then, they break into the aboriginal territory of the forest and accidentally rescue the girl Vidar in danger. They should not only help Vidar find the way to dispel the mist, but also try best to go through the dangerous marshes while moving forward. *Vidar joins the player party at this chapter. Chapter 3 The Underground Grave The third area is a hot desert, where the residents live in the underground and rely on monthly sources from city. The portal in this area is set in the unreachable desert, so the protagonists could only seek the help of the expedition team in the ground world, and thus meet the expedition member Barry. *Barry joins the player party at this chapter. Chapter 4 The Lightning City The protagonists reach the capital of this world, the Lightning City. The residents here manufacture and control robots, and own more advanced technologies. They are invited to a yearly party for outsiders and meet the host Maria. In addition, they learn that many outside people fell into this world 10 years ago for various reasons, and eventually settled down in this city. However, as they come into contact with other outsiders, they doubt the king's words and find the reason that people are forced into the world when they find the porch to the next area. *Maria joins the player party at this chapter.

Chapter 5 The Land of Abyss The protagonists escape from the capital to a gloomy ghost town. The aboriginal people here are mild tempered, but their special strength frighten the people in the city, so they can only live in this desolate area. Knowing the protagonists have opened the channels of 4 areas, they open up the channel to the next area with the help of clan leader Hel. *Hel joins the player party at this chapter. Chapter 6 The Volcanoland The Volcanoland is made up of volcanos. The portal is hidden in the tower at the center of the volcano, so the protagonists must defeat the fire dragon who watches the tower. Chapter 7 The Air Temple The protagonists finally reach the temple floating in the air and find their missing sister. They will face the creator of this world and decide whether to leave or not.

3.3.2 HIDDEN MISSIONS

Players can find hidden missions in some scenes. • TRIGGERS: 1. Items When players gain the items which can trigger hidden missions, there will be a storyline hint. Later, the place that can trigger hidden missions will be identified with “?”. When players contact the place with “?”, the hidden missions will be triggered and can be checked in mission interface. The relevant items will be recycled after completing this series of missions. 2. Rescue Players will encounter a NPC that are chased or surrounded by monsters after entering certain scenes. When players approach them, there will be a “rescue or not” option. If choosing “yes”, players will enter a battle, obliterate monsters and dialogue with a NPC, eventually triggering the hidden missions. If players choose “no”, the NPC will not appear again when players come back. 3. Special character(s) required When players dialogue with a NPC, the NPC will talk about his/her relationship between some characters and hint that he/her wants to encounter the character if possible. The hidden missions will be triggered after players gain the character and return to the dialogue with the NPC. It is important to note that there are dialogue options with different attitudes when players dialogue with the NPC. Some dialogue options with bad attitude may trigger a battle with the NPC. In this case, the NPC will disappear whether players win or not. Although the NPC will be found by players in the subsequent levels, he/she will not supply any mission again. • NOTES: The trigger scene can be checked by tapping the hidden icon on the big map. When the hidden missions are triggered, a prompt box will tell players that new missions are added into mission panel. • GOAL: Players should enter the hidden levels in the map, defeat enemies or break gears to find an object. Hidden levels are the scenes which do not connect other scenes, and will not show in the map before players entering this level. • BONUS: Players can gain more powerful items and equipment, as well as the key to return the real world.

3.3.3 MONSTER INTRODUCTION

There are 2 types of monsters with different aggro mechanism. 1. Monsters with Positive Aggro This kind of enemy has an aggro range displayed in a red circle. As long as players enter the red circle, monsters will actively chase players until out of sight (players get away from the red circle for 1 to 2 seconds). The red circle is usually hidden, and it shows when the character steps on the edge of the red circle. There will be a battle while the enemy approaches players. Once killed by players, this kind of enemies will not appear again. This kind of enemies gather in team of 2 to 5 members, keeping immobile in a certain place. The top of the monster will display its properties and ranks in red. Such enemies only appear in some scenes with gears (portals and enchantment). Players must defeat them to move forward. 2. Monsters with Passive Aggro This kind of enemies will not chase after players at the moment that players enter the red circle. However, if players stay in the red circle over 3 seconds, they will chase after players and launch a battle. This kind of enemies will reappear after players kill them. This kind of enemies gather in team of 2 to 5 members, moving regularly in a certain place. The top of the monster will display its properties and ranks in yellow.

3.3.4 SPECIAL TOPOGRAPHY

There are some areas in different levels. To reach these areas, players are required to have team equipment. For example, there are many lakes and pools in the first level and players are required to enter the underwater world. Players will be drowned without items which helps players breathe under the water. Players will encounter marshes in the Mist Forest of the second level, underground exploration in rock area of the third level, discharge area at the fourth level, poison gas at the fifth level, magma at the sixth level, and high enemy base area which needs flying items at the seventh level. When the special topography causes damages, there will be a white temporary health bar at the top of the character once entering this area. Players must leave before the health bar turns 0, or they will die. The players dying of special topography will return to the place before entering it. For example, the drowned players will return to the place before entering the water. Each item which can release topography damages cannot avoid damages, but with it, players can slow down health bar decrease and survive for a longer time in this area. The game ensures that regular players with items have enough time to complete missions in the area.

3.4 ENDING BRANCHES 3.4.1 GOOD AND EVIL MORALITY SETTING The end is predicated by state of players. Players should make choices between two icons of and when it comes to making a decision. Different option will cause the decrease or increase of good and evil morality. When good morality is greater than 0, the player is good; when evil morality is greater than 0, the player is evil; and when both are 0, the player is neutral. The initial point of both morality is 0 and the highest is 50. Two values can cancel each other out. For example, if the good morality is 10, it will decrease to 5 after gaining 5 points of evil morality, but the player is still good. If good morality is 0 or less than 5, the player will become evil after gaining 5 points of evil morality. If players select the option of good morality, players will gain higher good morality and more kind attitudes of the NPC. When good morality reaches 30, players can buy equipment at a lower price, gain more information from the NPC, and wining more bonuses after completing missions. However, evil morality will increase if players select the option of evil morality. Once evil morality increases, players will encounter more compulsive battles in the following storylines. Although players can gain more golden coins and EXP, and level up faster than that at good state, they will lose opportunities to gain more information from the NPC. In addition, when evil morality is over 30, the NPC with hidden missions will be nowhere to be seen. Vidar, Maria and Hel will have a different attitudes towards players after joining the player party. Players can check their states in memo interface.

3.4.2 DIFFERENT ENDINGS AND PREDICATION METHODS

• The player is good at the end. The player can gain a perfect end. Protagonists free all people trapped in this world, recover their memory and break the connection between this world and the outside. • The player is evil at the end. The player wins the title of the King at the end. Protagonists defeat the king and stay to control this world. • The player is neutral. The player can gain a peaceful end. Protagonists finally return their own world and forget all about this world.

3.5 SAVE AND PAUSE

The game automatically pauses when players enter the character interface or map interface, or switch from game interface without closing it. The game automatically archives when players quit the game at non-battle state. When coming back, the character will remain at the original place and state before quitting. If the players in battle quit the game, when coming back they will remain at the original place and battling state before quitting.

IV. USER INTERFACE 4.1 BATTLE FLOWCHART

4.2 MIND MAP

4.3 OTHER USER INTERFACE 4.3.1 TITLE INTERFACE

Players will firstly see the title interface after entering the game. The option “Load” is gray when players firstly enter the game, and the system will automatically archive and start game after players tap “NEW GAME”. Players can enter the system setting interface by selecting “OPTION”.

With progress bar, the “LOAD” in the title interface will light up. The game will restart by tapping “NEW GAME”, and enter the archive interface by selecting “LOAD”.

There are 3 available files in the game. If the game is archived, there will be files like File 1 and File 2 which displays level of the character, scene name that the character is located in and in-game time. File 1 is the archive of last game, below which is a button of “USING”. Players can continue the game progress by tapping the File 1. File 2 saves the previous game progress. Players can cover it with the latest game progress by selecting button “COVER”, or delete date by selecting button “DELETE”. If players want to change a file to archive the following game progress, they can tap the button “+” below the empty File 3. Then, the game progress will be saved in this file automatically.

4.3.2 MISSION INTERFACE

In the big map, players can enter the mission interface by tapping the mission icon . The mission interface displays the newly obtained main missions and all uncompleted hidden missions.

Mission list is displayed on the left side of interface, and the main mission is always listed the first. • MAIN MISSION

This is a button showing mission name, type, icon, and available level. For example, the icon of main mission is .The background of the selected mission is orange. The right information box shows the details of the selected mission. Mission name is at the top of the information box, followed by mission introduction, target, progress bar and completion bonus. After completing the main mission, players will gain the bonuses displayed in the information box. Meanwhile, the main mission will disappear from the list until players trigger and gain the next main mission. • HIDDEN MISSION All triggered and uncompleted hidden missions are displayed in the list.

This is the icon of hidden missions, and the newly acquired hidden mission shows “NEW” on the left. Hidden missions have the same introduction with that of main missions. However, when the trigger object is the NPC, it shows the avatar and dialogue contents of the NPC. After completing hidden mission, players should tap the green button to get bonuses. Then, the mission will disappear from the list. The button to get the bonuses is gray before completing missions.

4.3.3 TRADING • ITEM BUYING Players can buy team items from the merchant with a golden coin over the head. Purchasing interface will turn up after the item merchant is tapped.

There are three kinds of items, which can respectively improve the movement speed, EXP acquisition, and gold coins gaining in battle of the character. Items will be updated as the character levels up from the first, 10th, 20th, 30th, and 40th levels. Players cannot have the same item, and the acquired items will not be displayed in the store.

A confirmation interface will pop up after players tap “buy it”. If players confirm to buy, they can get the item with the decrease of gold coins, and the item will disappear from the store; if players conceal to buy, the confirmation interface will disappear and return the original state.

• EQUIPMENT BUYING There will be a small brown box over the head of equipment merchant. Players can buy equipment through tapping the merchant.

Players can buy equipment of all characters here. In the commodity display area, the equipment is divided into 2 categories, CLOTHING and BELTS. The left “CLOTHIG” shows all the clothing that the existing characters can buy. When the available clothes are over 24, there will be an icon . Tapping it, players can switch pages and view more clothing. It can be switched to the belts interface by tapping the right “BELTS” with the same setting as that of “CLOTHING”.

The commodity display area shows equipment information below including name, price, wearing effect and the character they belong to. Next, it shows the gold coins owned by players as well as the buttons of “sale” and “buy”. Each character has its own specific equipment and cannot wear other equipment which belongs to other characters. When players own a new character, the equipment that corresponds to the character will be added simultaneously. The equipment will be updated once the player increases every 5 levels. Each updating will add 1 piece of clothing and a belt with more advanced attributes.

Like purchasing items, the confirmation interface will pop up after players tap the button of “buy it”.

Players can check the owned equipment in the sale interface which pops up by tapping the button of “sell”. The button of “sell” will become a tick after being tapped by players, and the equipment can be sold by tapping again.

4.3.4 EQUIPMENT INTERFACE • • •

When players open the character interface, the diamond level-up interface will be show by default.

• CHANGE THE CLOTHINGS OF CHARACTERS Players can switch to clothing changing interface by tapping change clothes for the character.

under the attribute bar. Then, players can

As soon as players enter the interface, the CLOTHING column in the middle shows all the equipment of players, of which the non-replaceable equipment will be shown in red. If tapped, those equipment will show its detailed information, but unwearable; when players have more than 6 pieces of clothing, there will be a scroll bar which allows players to scroll to view other clothing. • CHANGE ANOTHER EQUIPMENT After players tap the clothing they want, there will be a green equipment button in the box, and the other unselected clothing will become dark. In addition, the information of the selected clothing will be displayed in the right information bar. The clothing can be changed by tapping the equipment button. The right information bar shows information of the equipment that the character wears.

• CHANGE THE BELTS OF CHARACTERS Players can switch to belt changing interface by tapping under the character. The display and changing way of belts are the same as that of clothing.

4.3.5 MEMO

Players can enter memo interface by tapping the MEMO button in character interface which displays progress of hidden missions and requirements.

• VIEW HIDDEN MISSIONS The completed hidden missions are listed on the left and the uncompleted ones identified with “???”. There are two end names at the bottom of the left list, and players must complete the hidden missions to reach these two ends. If players tap the completed hidden missions, the right side will show the name, NPC avatar, scene, contents and introduction of each storyline of hidden missions. If players tap the uncompleted hidden missions, the right interface only shows the scene of the NPC which can trigger this mission. • VIEW THE ENDINGS Players can view the requirements of 3 ends in this interface. The right interface shows the requirements of the current end, the current state and morality of the player.

4.3.6 SETTING INTERFACE

The game setting can be changed by tapping the OPTION button .

In the sound setting section, tapping “music” and “sounds” button can open/close the music and sounds, and tapping the right plus and minus can adjust the volume. Music and sounds are turned on by default when the settings are not changed, and the volume is 10. As for language setting, players can tap the language they want to use to change in-game language. The screen will become dark for 1 to 2 seconds after changing language, which represents it is switching languages. Then, all characters are displayed in the selected language including the setting page.

The bottom of the setting interface is the buttons of “Save” and “Title”. Tapping the “Title” button can make players return to the title interface, and tapping the “Save” button can open the archive interface.

The game progress can be saved automatically. If players want to keep a certain progress from being covered, it can be saved here. This interface is the same as the archive interface of the title interface, and only the “USING” button below the file 1 cannot be tapped. The empty file 3 displays “No Data”. Tapping the “+” button can save the current and the following progress in this file. Tapping the icon

at the top right corner can return the setting interface.

V. CHARACTER DESIGN • GRAY 1. Basic Setting: A 21-year-old male outsider and neophyte. Also the default characte 2. Personality and Experience: Gary is mart and confident. Although he looks like calm and impatient, he prefers to fight a quick battle to force a quick decision. He is very polite to strangers. When interacting with people who are close to him, he will show a different attitude, but he really cares about them and value friendship. His interest is sleeping, and quarrelling with Latte.

• LATTE 1. Basic Setting: A 22-year-old male outsider and neophyte. 2. Personality and Experience: Latte is calm and honest. As a college classmate and good friend of Garry, sometimes he has a headache for Gary’s temper. Most of the time Latte is nice, tolerant and friendly, so he is very popular. However, he is horrible in anger. His interest is cooking and fitness, so he is healthy.

• ICE 1. Basic Setting: A 20-year-old female outsider and neophyte. 2. Personality and Experience: Ice is decisive, bold, scrupulous and strong. However, she is a little self-centered and quiet. Therefore, you will feel tired when you first start communicating with her, but you will find her reliability and friendliness after you get used to. She likes animals, but is very afraid of insects. She fell into ruins a year ago, but survived by herself. She does not believe human in the ruins, so she has been hiding in the area away from the city, cleared the monsters in the first scene. In addition, she gets well along with all the aborigines in this area and lives by trading with them.

• VIDAR 1. Basic Setting: A 13-year-old female aborigine in the remains. She joins the player party at chapter 2. 2. Personality and Experience: Vidar is outgoing and active, but a little careless.She has lived in the forest from childhood. As outsiders fall into the remains from time to time, she is curious about them and hopes to go to their world one day.

• BARRY 1. Basic Setting: A 19-year-old male aborigine. He joins the player party at chapter 3. 2. Personality and Experience: He is a little arrogant, but good by nature. He is always shy faced with many people. As the youngest child of the King, he has lived in the Lightning City. Unsatisfied with control of his father, he gave up his identity of prince and went on adventure in the remains to find a way to unlock the seal of the remains.

• MARIA 1. Basic Setting: A female aborigine whose age is unknown. She joins the player party at chapter 4. 2. Personality and Experience: She is quite gentle, considerate and glad to help others like an older sister. As a legend in the remains, she lives at the village nearby the divine temple alone, and helps human and aborigines.

• HEL 1. Basic Setting: A female aborigine whose age is unknown. She joins the player party at chapter 5. 2. Personality and Experience: She is mischievous, crafty and suspicious, but trusts the people that she recognizes. As the leader of the Land of Abyss, she has been lived in seclusion there with clansmen and paid no attention to the outside world. She values and protects her clansmen, so she hates and retaliates all aggressors who hurt her clansmen.

VI. NUMERICAL SYSTEM 6.1 CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES 6.1.1 CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES CHARACTER

ATK

DEF

DEX (Dodge Rate)

TOTAL

GRAY

100

SIREN

100

LATTE

100

VIDAR

100

BARRY

100

MARIA

100

HEL

100

ATK

DEF

HIT RATE

TOTAL

6.1.2 MONSTER ATTRIBUTE HP MONSTER (LEVEL 1-35) ANIMAL SHAPE

150

HUMAN SHAPE

150

ELITE MONSTER (LEVEL 3-40) ANIMAL SHAPE

120

200

HUMAN SHAPE

110

200

400

BOSS (EACH LEVEL HAS ONE BOSS, AND THERE ARE 7 BOSSES IN TOTAL.) BOSS

270

6.2 ATTACK AND DEFENSE ALGORITHM • ATTACK DAMAGE of the character = ATK*skill bonus - DEF of the enemy (Attack bonus percentage of each skill is displayed in the skill list in Chapter 2.) • DAMAGE the character received = ATK of the enemy - DEF of the character • DODGE RATE of the character = (HIT RATE of the enemy - DEX of the character)/100

6.3 EQUIPMENT ATTRIBUTES CHARACTERS

HP (CLOTHING)

DEF (CLOTHING)

TOTAL (CLOTHING)

ATK (BELTS)

DEX (BELTS)

TOTAL (BELTS)

GARY

SIREN

LATTE

VIDAR

BARRY

MARIA

HEL

VII. CURRENCY SYSTEM: GOLD COINS The virtual currency for trade in this game is gold coins

Ways to obtain gold coins: battle rewards, mission rewards, treasure chest, items and equipment sales. Use of gold coins: • • • •

Upgrade skills to enhance skill release effects of characters. Buy items to gain some bonuses for the state. Bu——y equipment to improve the character attributes. Avoid the reduction of character attributes for the lack of gold coins after the failure of battle.

VIII. MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS 8.1 MUSIC

The background music combines the style of Gothic and new century, creating the synthesizing effect and a sense of mystery. Different areas have different background music in emotional expression. • • • • • • •

The music of water-based scene is sentimental. The music of fire-based scene is passionate. The music of wood-based scene is soft without synthesis. The music of earth-based scene is calm with the use of classical instruments. The music of electricity-based scene is modern with advanced electric effects. The music of dark scene has a weird atmosphere. The music of the bright scenes has a sense of sanctity.

The music in battle is exciting. The same music can be used in the battles with ordinary monsters. The background music when the player battle with the boss can be composed according to the scene, so as to display the styles of bosses of different scenes. The background music of the game is composed according to different sentiments, such as quiet, relaxing, cheerful, surprising, exciting, dangerous, angry, sentimental, sorrowful, rebellious and hopeful sentiment. Each sentiment can create a music.

8.2 SOUND EFFECTS

The overall sound effects of the game should be short, fresh, and dynamic. In addition, it should correspond to the background music.

01-2 INDEPENDENT GAME DESIGN

COMPETITORS ANALYSIS

NO.1 Witch Spring 2 WitchSpring 2 is a fairytale-style RPG on the iOS and Android platforms featuring a cute 3D art style and an innovative RPG cultivation mode. The game was developed by a Korean game company, Kiwiwalks and released in December 2016.

NO.2 Battleheart Legacy Battleheart Legacy is a 3D ARPG on the iOS and Android platforms featuring a variety of character classes and a nonlinear task system. It is developed by Mika Mobile and released in December 2013.

NO.1 WITCH SPRING 2 I. GAME DESCRIPTION 1. World View

The game is set in a world where gods coexist with humans. Since ancient times, the gods had always protected humans, lived in peace with them, and built holy springs across the world to stop miasma and monsters from disturbing nearby human villages and towns. One day, however, humans covetous of the power of gods finally summoned catastrophe. After several chiefs of the gods were assassinated, humans took control of the holy springs, declaring all the surviving gods were demons. From then on, a series of hunting raids forced the few remaining gods to hide themselves in remote mountains and forests. The story takes place several years after the catastrophe.

2. Story Background

The protagonist, Luna, is one of the gods and raised by a chief. She becomes friends with the children in a nearby human village and develops mutual love with one of the human boys. After the catastrophe, Luna and the boy, Robin, hid in a cave in the midst of a forest not far from their former homes and lived on hunting until one day Robin left without saying goodbye. In the game, players control the growth of Luna, light all the holy springs that have lost power since the disappearance of the god chiefs, defeat the evil manipulator behind the catastrophe, and eventually resolve misunderstanding between gods and humans.

II. COMPANY BACKGROUND AND OPERATION Kiwiwalks is a less prestigious company with not much information available. Their production is limited to the WitchSpring series. The praise from players after the first game was released supported the company to make the following two sequels. Among the three games, the second one has the highest quality and the richest contents. The WitchSpring series may not be wildly famous, but they do enjoy outstanding evaluations as small-sized RPG. Appannie statistics show that the global average rating of the game on AppStore is as high as 5.0 (which is the full mark). Also, the game has particularly high downloads in some Asian and European countries, ranked first once among RPGs in Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and was mostly within the top 10 of download ranks from July to November 2017 (www.appannie.com).

III. USER ANALYSIS The age grade of WitchSpring is 9+. It appeals to both young and old because of its refreshing art style, lively positive story, and easy character growth and battle systems, and its target users should be people aging from 10 to 40 who likes cute art works. Besides, the game also has a few romantic elements which particularly attracts girls, so female players will take up a higher ratio than the male ones.

IV. Game Features 1. Simple and unique growth system with SLG and RPG elements

Unlike the core gameplay of conventional RPGs, this game takes on a path similar to SLGs. Firstly, the game does not involve level or experience elements, so players do not need to level up. Instead, it offers two ways to increase attributes: one is to train with the base facilities in exchange for a small amount of character attribute enhancement; the other is to collect materials, forge items, and use them to enhance character attributes, which is also the major way of character growth. The amount of enhancement of an item is related to the difficulty in forging it. There are free materials in every map in the game for the player to collect, but more advanced materials are dropped by defeated monsters. Apart from forging items to increase character attributes, the player may also forge magic spells of various levels to enhance magic damage, or look for mentors hidden on the map to learn battle skills. The game also offers an interesting way to equip magic spells. While equipping major spells, the player may also stack two support spells for bonus equipment effects and reduction of magic point consumption, so as to enhance spell power. This innovative growth method not only is simple and friendly, but also saves much time for players who do not want to waste too much time in leveling up. Also, the game highlights a more free allocation of attributes

2. Fine, Intriguing Plots and Endings

The storyline of WitchSpring is not very long, but the plot is clear, complete, and by no means monotonous. The rhythm of storytelling is also good, for the transitions, turns, and climax of the story are all well-designed, sparing players of any dullness or boredom. Other than the main storyline centering Luna, the game also have various branch stories of different enjoyable NPCs with distinct, vivid personalities. Players who like to wander about will surely trigger many interesting hidden storylines. Moreover, the actions and choices of the protagonist will influence the outcome of the story. There are altogether 11 endings, each with its own merits. In the second playthrough, the player can take on more hidden missions, which shows the company's efforts in details.

V. WEAKNESS: UNLIMITED GROWTH Although the game has unique features in its growth mechanism, it is not well-balanced when it comes to battle. Since the game does not have an upper limit for material collection and attributes, players who likes to stack up attributes will end up having an overpowered character. On the other hand, battles in the game are mostly rather easy. Except for the powerful final bosses, enemies in the late stage do not have obvious enhancements compared with their early stage counterparts. It is therefore easy for the player to slaughter enemies, losing the intended enjoyments in the battle system. If the game can make a more detailed plan for its growth system with SLG elements, and keep a balance between player strength and enemy strength, it will be more enjoyable to play.

REFERENCE:

Appannie Statistics: https://www.appannie.com/apps/ios/app/witchspring2/app-ranking/?device=iphone&type=bestranks&date=2018-05-16

NO.2 BATTLEHEART LEGACY I. GAME DESCRIPTION 1. World View

In the kingdom where the protagonist lives, a witch named Morduim was executed after a failed attempt to usurp the throne. He then resurrected as a powerful necromancer who commanded an army of the dead to conquer the land, drifting the whole kingdom in to what was later known as the "Lich War". The kingdom remained in chaos for a long time until heroes of different classes appeared in succession and defeated Morduim and his army.

2. Story Background

The game starts in the novice village when the protagonist is leaving the village for an adventure. Perhaps it is for the sake of a better sense of immersion, the identity of the protagonist is not specified in the game. After completing several tutorial tasks, the protagonist arrives in the capital of the kingdom, and is informed that the king is posting a heavy reward for the whereabouts of the "Solar Crystal" whose 3 fragments are scattered in 3 towers. At the time, all royal knights and adventurers across the kingdom are searching for them. Having accepted the main task of finding the Crystal, the player may explore and level up at will. When the player has accumulated enough strength to go up the towers and collect the crystal fragments, the game will present an unexpected ending.

II. COMPANY BACKGROUND AND OPERATION Not much on-line information can be found about Mika Mobile. Nevertheless, their productions including Battlhear, Zombieville USA, and OMG! Pirate have all been widely liked on both iOS and Android markets. Most of their games adopt cute, US-style artwork designs, and ingenious battle systems and levels, attracting a large number of players. Although Battleheart Legacy is the sequel of Battleheart, it has much innovation in terms of game operation and gained good reputation on AppStore. Since released in 2013, the game received not only AppStore recommendations in Roleplaying, Sword and Magic, and Indie Game specials, but also the top ranks in the RPG and ACT sections in multiple countries, not to mention it ranked in top 3 among all games for several times, gaining recognition from many players. (www.appannie.com)

III. USER ANALYSIS The official age grade of Battleheart is 12+. The game targets at users aging between 12 and 40 who like classic RPGs. Without many storytelling elements, its gameplay centers in skillful battles of moderate difficulties, resulting in a rather balanced player gender ratio.

IV. GAME FEATURES 1. Abundant Class Choices and Customizable Protagonist

Apart from 5 basic classes, this game offers another 6 hidden classes which can be found through tasks or encounters. Each class has 8 active skills and 6 passive skills. Unlike conventional games, Battleheart does not ask players to choose only one class as they level up, nor does it has an upper limit for learned skills. Instead, it specifies attribute point requirements for the skills of each class, allowing the player to allocate the attributes and choose from the skills. Every time the character levels up, the player will be granted 3 attribute points to allocate to the 6 character attributes at will. Skills of different classes have different requirements on the attributes, but may also share similar ones. Skills of similar classes can be used together in perfect coordination. Consequently, it is all up to the player to decide how to build up the character's battle scheme.

2. Battle and Item Systems

The battle between characters are skill-led, meaning that skills of each class have their unique attack mode and characteristics, and can be combined in numerous ways. This is the most attractive feature of Battleheart. Likewise, the attack mode of monsters is also related to character class, and it is easy to identify and master. The item system in this game is also simple. The player does not have to purchase potions, because no matter large or small, each dungeon in the game has 5 healing potions, of which 1 can recover health points to the full. Each time the player goes in and out of a dungeon, the number of potions will restore to 5. Therefore, planning well the use of potions is also a key to successful battle. The limited healing effect of potions urges the player to resort more often to the combination scheme of skills, making battle more interesting.

3. High Freedom Degree and Dialog Tree

Battleheart does not impose mandatory main tasks for the player to complete or offer any explicit directory, so the advance of story is somewhat subjective to the player. All dungeons on the map are marked with a recommended level, but the player can go in them at any time. This is convenient for mobile gamers who only have fragmented time. Besides, dialogs in this game are also quite interesting. In addition to general inquiry messages, the player may also respond in three different tones of friendly, provoking, and angry, each leading to a different outcome of the conversation as well as different details of an event.

V. WEAKNESS: INSUFFICIENT STORYLINE Battleheart explores deeply into the aspects of freedom degree and battle system, which is probably the reason why this RPG attaches much less attention to its storyline. Without transition, the level requirement of the main task leaps directly from low to high. To make things worse, the main storyline is too simple with too few tasks to help the character grow, so the player has to grind on dungeons to level up, which can be quite boring.

REFERENCE:

Appannie Statistics: https://www.appannie.com/apps/ios/app/battleheart-legacy/app-ranking/?device=iphone&type=bestranks&date=2018-05-18

02 CRITICAL ANALYSIS ... WHERE IS MY WATER? 2 ... WORLD CONQUEROR 3

WHERE IS MY WATER? 2 Where's My Water? 2 is a puzzle game released on iOS, Android and other mobile platforms in September, 2013.

WORLD CONQUEROR 3 The World Conqueror series is a military strategy mobile game designed against the background of real historical battles, which is produced by EasyTech Company in China, released in 2015.

I. BACKGROUND

Where's My Water? 2 is a puzzle game released on iOS, Android and other mobile platforms. Its predecessor Where's My Water? was originally released in 2011, whose developer is Creature Feep, a development team owned by Disney Mobile. Disney's world-known popularity and influence pave the way for the game's popularity. Immediately after its release, it topped the list of the U.S. App Store and lasted for three weeks, and the number of downloads exceeded one million in the following month (Szalai, Georg, October 26, 2011). In the end, the success of Where's My Water? and the popularity of the protagonist, a small crocodile named Swampy, has launched a more beautiful sequel Where's My Water? 2 in September, 2013.

II. USER TARGETING

The most suitable age of this game is about 5-40 years old. As the game requires players to have certain physical common sense and logical ability, children who are too young may not be able to adapt to the later complex levels. In addition, Disney's advantage of wide audience and the fun and challenging brought by the game level design can also attract many adult players, therefore, the upper age limit can be raised appropriately. In terms of player gender, since it is a casual game for both men and women, the ratio will not be much different, presumably men to women be around 5:6.

III. ANALYSIS OF GAME CHARACTERISTICS

1. It has character and interface designs with Disney features and great animation effects.

(1) First of all, this game makes good use of Disney's brand advantage in the design of the screen. Whether Swampy's image design or the game's overall interface design both maintain Disney's cartoon style, making it immediately form its own style. The game also adds more story-like images to enrich the characters, and launches a series of animated video to finally succeed in building and promoting Disney's first game character. In addition, the game is divided into four different themes according to the role, the separate expression of which is different according to the characteristics. In the Swampy theme, for example, the player needs to manipulate the water to Swampyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bathroom to bathe it; while in the theme of Ellie, it becomes a music studio that manipulates steam to Ellie, which is used as the power of the instrument; then in the Cranky theme, what needs to be manipulated becomes the poisonous water that needs to be evaded before, which is now will be used to remove the algae from food; and the Mystery Duck theme focuses on showing the player a variety of interesting forms of rubber ducks as collections. The changes in different themes subtly enrich the game, and show the characters to the player more intuitively (Swampy enjoys being neat and tidy, Ellie loves music, etc.). (2) The game has a pretty good animation effect. I think the most distinctive feature of the game is the physical performance of the flow, which basically follows the real rules of physics, allowing players to easily predict the direction of water flow based on existing experience. The design of clearance through dredging to control the flow direction is also a great innovation. Apart from that, the elastic animation effect of the falling or splashing water, the various interesting little movements when the character is waiting or playing through, and the sound effects of the player when dredging, all of which can gain an understanding smile of the player. Steve McCaskill, designer of Pocket Gamer, has praised its visual design for it gives players the impression of "interactive comics" (Steve McCaskill, 2011-09-26).

2. Reasonable level design and high playability

(1)Gradually increased level difficulty and moderate playing through tips maintain an appropriate playability. There are ten major levels in the Swampy theme. Whenever the player passes through the next level, new elements will be added to increase the difficulty (for example, the first level only has poisonous water and machines, while the second level adds the swamp that automatically corrodes the ground, and the third level adds more dangerous bombs, etc.). At the same time, each level has 20 lower levels, and the difficulty and patterns are also upgraded step by step. Moreover, for each additional element of the game, the map design is used to give the player appropriate hints, therefore, it is not easy to get stuck.

All of these designs have increased the fluency of playing games. Reasonable difficulty design allows new players to immediately start and gradually familiarity with the rules; increasing challenges can also avoid monotony, stimulate the desire of regular players to continue, and provide more satisfaction after success. (2) Diverse playthrough methods strengthened playability. While players are trying to get through, they also need to collect ducks and other funny objects. When passing the level, players will also count the time, duck collection number and overflow rewards as bonus. This kind of design can stimulate players to repeatedly challenge the new methods to play through and a perfect score will give them a stronger sense of accomplishment, especially for those who are obsessives or like to show scores on Facebook. In addition, as long as the player collects enough rubber ducks at each level, he can unlock the next level for free, which also gives the player more motivation to think about a better way to play through.

IV. DISADVANTAGES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT 1. The way of dredging is not flexible enough.

(1) Explanation There is only one thing the player can do when playing this game: using fingers to cut through the dirt to control everything. Although this single operation reduces the learning time for the player, it brings some problems. First of all, it has higher requirements on the screen. The size of the screen is limited, while as the game becomes more difficult, more and more complex level maps will appear and require more elaborate operations. At this time, if the player's screen is too small, the operation will become very difficult, and it is easy to accidentally point to a wrong place or the road to be dug is so wide that the water cannot flow in the expected way. (2) Suggestions for improvement a. The producer can add an item that can reduce the click area in some more complicated maps, allowing the player to operate more finely. For example, a small shovel can be provided, and the road dug out by the finger after clicking will become narrower. b. An easier way: expanding the map, allowing players freely zoom in and out to suit their needs.

2. Excessive levels and overly-simple interaction modes

(1) Explanation It has been said that there is only one way to play this game which will not only cause operational obstacles at certain levels, but also easily cause aesthetic fatigue. Although the producer has designed a variety of levels to add interest, there is still only one main operational idea: earth digging-whether the player wants to control the machine, avoid the trap or get through the road, he can only realize it by digging. There are some machines that can be controlled in the later stage, while still not enough in total. Although this method can be used to attract players at the beginning, it will be felt a bit boring once the player is familiar with it. After all, no matter how well the player gets through, his interactive objects are only a few. (2) Suggestions for improvement a. Adding a suitable amount of controllable mechanisms b. Adding some optional items can produce different effects when digging. Or adding some interactions between players and characters such as interesting reactions when clicking on the characters. In short, adding some surprising elements can improve interest. DATA SOURCE: Schramm, Mike, 2011.11.07, https://www.engadget.com/2011/11/07/wheres-my-watercreator-goes-from-qa-to-hit-game-designer-at-di/ Szalai, Georg, 2011.10.26, "Walt Disney's Mobile Game Character Swampy Gets Web Series " https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/walt-disneys-mobile-game-character-253855 Steve McCaskill, 2011.09.26, "Where's My Water? Review" https://www.pocketgamer.com/articles/033723/wheres-my-water/

I. DEVELOPER BACKGROUND

The World Conqueror series is a military strategy mobile game designed against the background of real historical battles, which is produced by EasyTech Company in China, released in 2015. The games developed by EasyTech are all strategy games. The company's game making concept is "history is only a layer of skin while the core is still strategic gameplay". This concept of treating games and history has influenced many works of EasyTech, and World Conqueror is just one of them. (Lin Zhiwei, 2018.1.29)

II. USER TARGETING

The user target of World Conqueror is those about 20-40 years old and love both war and strategy games. This type of people has a certain ability to pay as well as loyalty to a style. As a distinctive military strategy game, World Conqueror can fully cater to the needs of such users and bring itself a group of real core users.

III. GAME PAYMENT MODE

EasyTech is adopting a micro-transaction strategy in terms of payment. Players can pay to increase the efficiency of the game, while no pay will also not affect the normal game experience. There are only three of the most powerful generals and medals of different levels that can be purchased directly in the game. Medals can be used to recruit or train generals, while generals can be assigned to individual battle units to add different attribute bonuses to the unit, or to participate in missions to improve headquarters attributes. In addition to the free three low level generals, all the other generals need to be recruited by the medal after upgrading their headquarters grades. Due to the few outstanding generals that can be unlocked at the early stage, it may lead to some anxious playersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; spending money to get senior generals quickly. In addition, a player who uses paid generals will not break the balance of war even though they have improved the power, which allows those who want to retain the difficulty of the game to buy it with no worry. As a token in the game, the medal is an indispensable item in the purchase or training of the generals, and it costs a lot in both the promotion rank and the upgrade skill. For example, if players want to improve their generals, they must upgrade their ranks, which spends more than 3,000 medals to arrive at the top; players also need to upgrade their generals' skills, but each skill needs to cost about 2000 medals. Therefore, the total amount of medals required for upgrade will be quite considerable, but there are not many ways to get medals for free, and the efficiency is also slow. As a result, directly purchasing medals can bring a lot of convenience to the players. In addition, as the number of medals required for the generals who are famous in history is more than that of other generals it is very tempting for players who like war history to fight alongside their favorite or admired generals. Therefore, recruiting historical famous generals may also be one of the motivations for players to buy medals. This kind of charging method allows the company to earn money and be more conscientious than some games that force players to pay, thus it is not easy to cause players to resent, which is worth learning.

IV. GAME FEATURES

1. Real war background enhancing sense of involvement

With the theme of World War I, the background of each battle in this game has its own track, including the real generals in history who can be used by players, which have enhanced the sense of authenticity when playing the game. This kind of personal participation and strategizing experience is what players who like strategy games, especially those who like the history of World War II need. In addition, although the game is based on real history, it will not limit the playersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; actions too much. Players are free to choose strategies and the generals they like, even if there is a magical plot in which an axis will help the allies to battle with their hometown. This design enhances playersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sense of involvement as the commander who can freely manipulate the battle. Although it reduces a certain sense of history, it is more interesting to play.

2. There are a variety of optional modes and gameplays.

(1) Mode 1: Military Career Mode The military mode of play is dominated by a single level. There are three battle levels: teaching, traditional and special, and the traditional battle is the main component, which needs players to occupying the enemy positions

and protecting its own positions at the same time. The traditional battle has three difficulty level and can be challenged repeatedly. The special battle is divided into four series: assault, defense, offense and annihilation, each of which can only be played once with rewards. Although the gameplay of this mode is standard, it is rich in content. Players can try a variety of methods in one level, and the design of upgrading the star level can also attract players to optimize their battle strategies. (2) Mode 2: World Conquest Mode In the conquest mode, players need to choose the country they represent and join the friendly forces to attack other countries. In this mode there are five years which need to be unlocked in turn. And each year will unlock a new world map, allowing players to go from World War II to modern times, until finally fight aliens... The rewards for this model are quite abundant, and players are free to choose their favorite countries to experience a complete world war process. This mode provides players with more freedom and makes a good combination of strategic games and highlights of the war background, thus increases the playability and attraction.

3. Novel General Growth System

In addition to being recruited or purchased, the generals can also be cultivated by the players themselves. Apart from improving the military ranks, players can also learn and upgrade various military skills by cultivating the generals. Players can choose a branch direction to upgrade related skills, which makes generals become more suitable for the playersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; own playing habits, more targeted to the enemy in the battle. It is also easier to make players have feelings with their generals, which makes them having a sense of responsibility and accomplishment.

V. WEAKNESSES AND SUGGESTIONS

1. Its lack of operating instructions is not very friendly to new players of the game.

Due to the series sequel, there is the lack of detailed operating instructions in World Conqueror 3. Except for the three teaching battle demonstrations in the beginning, there are no more guidance and tips in the game. It is not friendly enough for new players of the series. In the game, no matter the usage of the arms, the restraint of the attributes, the usage of the general growth system, or even the gameplay of the conquest mode, all lack hints and new players have to learn on their own. So if a player cannot comprehend or find the strategies himself, it is likely that he will be still unclear of the game after a few battles and lose interest in the end, which is quite a pity. Therefore, I suggest adding the system description of each mode in the main interface for players to check.

2. Monotonous General Positioning

Although I have praised the game's general growth system, I hope that the cultivated generals can be more useful for players. It is hard to accept that after making a lot of efforts in cultivating the generals, there is no difference between the cultivated and recruited generals in the end, which is likely to make players feel the cultivation is uneconomical and then give up, thus they will miss the fun of experiencing this system in the end. Therefore, I suggest separating the cultivated and recruited generals in function: To increase the influence of the cultivated generals and make them as an option before the game starts. After the selection, players can enhance the battle power of all the specific arms units instead of that of the individual units, which will make more sense in the training of targeted arms. For example, I like to use armored units when bulldozing, therefore, I choose the generals who can strengthen the armored forces in the selection process. If I choose the targeted general in the beginning, then all the armored soldiers that I invest in this game can get the corresponding battle power bonus in the game.

3. Some functions of the conquest mode are inconvenient to use.

In the conquest mode, players need to face the army of all countries on the world map, therefore, the operation will be dazzling. Especially when the player chooses a small country, the units that can be controlled may be scattered around the world, making it easy to miss a few battle units in the operation. Therefore, I suggest adding positioning function to guide players to find all the units they need to control. DATA SOURCE: Lin Zhiwei, 2018.1.29, Suzhou EasyTech Software, http://www.chuapp.com/article/284950.html

03 OTHER WORKS ...

ANALYSIS OF RPG: BLACKSMITH STORY ...

DESIGN OF CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES ... OTHER GAMES ...

UI DESIGN: BARTENDING APP ... DRAWING SAMPLE

ANALYSIS OF RPG: BLACKSMITH STORY

CONTEXTS: I. WHY IS IT RECOMMENDED BY APPLE STORE? II. GAME CONTENT ANALYSIS III. RETRO GAME MARKET IV. GAME DESIGN ANALYSIS 4.1 Story Background 4.2 Game elements and their connections 4.3 Associations between character attributes 4.4 Introduction to the Scene Art Effect

I. WHY IS IT RECOMMENDED BY APPLE STORE?

As a mobile simulation game developed by MakeBestGame, Blacksmith Story won the “Apple Outstanding New Game Recommendation”, “Apple Retro Nostalgic Game Special Recommendation” and “Apple Chinese Indie Game Recommendation” rewards in 2015. In the same year, it also won the “Best Creative Award of Cocos Game Development Competition”, all the achievements of which are undoubtedly enviable and admirable. As for the reasons why it has been repeatedly recommended, I would like to have the following points: (1) Beautiful and unique retro pixel style; (2) Interesting story content; (3) Innovative game ideas that combines simulation and role-playing. As to the App Store recommendation, the App Store game leader revealed several popular features in an interview last year, including delightful, innovative, state of the art, engaging, enabling and designed. There are also website statistics that analyze the recommendation rules of the App Store. As shown on the right picture, the most popular types of games are casual and role-playing, and the most popular theme is a cute style (http://www.chuapp.com/, 2017.1.05). According to the factors above, the characteristics of the game are analyzed in detail. First of all, from “state of the art”, “designed” and “engaging” mentioned in the interview, it can be seen that Apple officially pays attention to the game's art design, which may be influenced by Apple itself is also a design company. While the art style of Blacksmith Story is quite easy to attract players, and the classic and lovely pixel style matched with the nostalgic theme also make a good impression. Furthermore, the most special feature about Blacksmith Story is its innovative gameplay. Based on the general simulation business games, it adds a retro world view and battle elements of the Points Ranking Game (RPG), integrates a variety of game elements and breaks the rules of general business games, which innovative spirit is also favored by Apple. In addition, the time of App Store's retro game recommendation topic may also contribute to Blacksmith Story’s attract to the Apple editors.

II. GAME CONTENT ANALYSIS 1. Highlights

(1) Classic pixel style For those who like retro style and RPG games, the characters and scenes made by pixel blocks are the most memorable, and the pixelated style of Blacksmith Story perfectly restores the style of classic pixel games. Despite the non-exquisite pictures and some common problems in pixel games such as low identification of objects, it is quite a good one that pays tribute to retro games. (2) Traditional RPG background & non-traditional gameplay and plot The initial background introduction of the game tells that in a tranquil kingdom, the monster suddenly overflows and people begin to seek countermeasures. However, due to the scarcity of weapons resources, the king begins to encourage people to develop weapons. Therefore, the protagonist decides to open a glorious weapon store to provide weapons for the heroes. Then the game begins, and players need to constantly explore the weapon formula and sell forged weapons, waiting their own soldiers holding self-made weapons to fight. Although it seems that the kingdom rewards, monsters and the fight between brave warriors and monsters are very traditional RPG plot elements, the novel settings and gameplay give all the plots a new meaning, for the protagonist finally get rid of the fate of being blackmailed by non-player characters (NPCs) in this story, while begin to extort money from NPCs instead.

In a general role-playing game, no matter how the story and theme are packaged, there will still be one or a team of protagonists and they will eventually grow into a group of heroic characters despite origins, finally achieve some achievements in the story. In the game world, these protagonists are always the core of the story. NPCs may have an outstanding character or story, but in the end, they will all become the protagonist's assistant or foil rather than the hero who will challenge the final boss. Blacksmith Story, however, is completely reversed in plot. The protagonist of this game is a businessman who has never appeared in the process, nor does he go directly outside to fight with the monster. He is only responsible for recruiting workers, developing weapons and selling them to the right hero. Furthermore, He is always a bystander in the battle, who cannot influence the battle, the success or failure of will depends only on the strength of the hero and weapons. The NPCs who are ignored by the players before become heroes in this game, and they will flock to the player's store again and again to buy weapons, and then bravely enter the battle and directly promote the story. Blacksmith Story is a world supported by NPCs, which completely contradicts the general RPG standard of “the protagonist saves the world”. I think this subversive setting is not only a gameplay innovation, but also a reflection and reform of the past traditional plot routines. As people pay more attention to the team work in modern society, the developer may be more inclined to write a story like “everyone is involved in putting their own strength to fight a huge dragon” instead of “saving the world by the emergence and growth of a certain hero.” Therefore, the NPC heroes in the game will enter the battle no matter their attributes are strong or weak, and the protagonist may just be a character who wants to make war money but also contributes to the battle in his own way. No one in this game is superfluous and everyone can be a hero. This may be the spirit that the developer wants to convey. (3) Game system with hidden mysteries From the gameplay point of view, the game itself includes material collection, formula synthesis, weapon synthesis, trading, turn-based battle, reward missions, arena, etc., and there is a text adventure mini-game hidden in the vault, which is completely beyond my expectation. Furthermore, players can not only get rich rewards, but also see more plot clues in the vault game, in which the pure form of dialogue adventure also pays tribute to previous games. In addition, Blacksmith Story may leave players an impression that “I am invincible as long as I have enough heroes”. However, the fact is that the game's battle system is quite fastidious. Different monsters have different weaknesses, and they can be easily defeated with the corresponding weapons; different heroes require different weapons, some seem to have poor effects while can be used for heroes with special effects. All of these can be studied seriously by players, which are not as simple as they look, and can greatly increase the playability of the game. (4) Game design filled with memes In Blacksmith Story, players can often see some strange but funny items and dialogues. In addition to the common swords, sticks, axes, etc., the forged weapons will also suddenly appear as ridiculous ones such as feather dusters, pillows, benches and bricks, and even some have special effects (bricks and benches have an additional stun effect, for example, which is very realistic). In casual NPC conversations, there will often appear dry humor such as "the so-called loneliness is just shopping on one’s own" besides providing fighting with the monster and forged weapon clues. Apart from that, although the names and images of the in-game NPC heroes seem to be randomly designed, some of them will occasionally make people feel familiar and even cause doubt of their source of settings. The NPCs who paddle in the lounge often express some dialogues like the surprising in-jokes in movies during their reading or chatting. Memes I have currently found are from: Detective Comics, Robin Hood in the Green Woods, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, One Piece, Lord of the Rings, Saint Seiya, Dragon Ball, Oedipus, Final Fantasy 7, Die Neue These, Das Kapital, How the Steel Was Tempered, Les Miserables, Harry Potter, etc. It can be seen that the game designer not only has a lot of hobbies, but attentively add memes when developing the game. These memes and spoofs have added much fun in the game for me, a player who enjoys trying new things.

2. Weaknesses

(1) Lack of growth system for simulating business games No matter how outstanding the RPG style of Blacksmith Story is, it is still essentially a simulation business game, while lacking the general growth system. In addition to the increase in employees and the creation of forging workshop, the player-owned stores have no other changes, without being expanded or renovated, and it is a pity that players cannot visually see the growth of their stores. Therefore, I hope that the developer add more required features of simulation business games to make Blacksmith Story more attractive. (2) Few plots and maps Besides the opening scene, there is no similar propulsive plot in the following story, and players can only guess the world view of the game from random conversations. Although this setting provides a suspense, after all, it is not a puzzle game and too little information will only makes players feel the lack of sense of involvement of the game world. In addition, there are not many open scenes in the game. There are only eight main maps in the game including the vault, and the commonly used are in the weapon store, plaza, fair and monster fighting, which are relatively monotonous. If there are more open maps during the progressively developing plot with clues, the shaping of the game world may be more complete. Taking the production team of Blacksmith Story into account, as a small team of fewer than 10 people, it is very remarkable that they have written the copywriting in the case of such a relatively complicated system. What I hope is that they can make the story more complete in the end. (3) Obscure forging clues The tips on the weapon formula in the game is inadequate and randomly appear in the NPC dialogue. In addition to swords, hammers and other conventional weapons that can be guessed by the rules of the previous synthesis, sheer chance quite often plays an important part in other formula, especially for non-conventional weapons like party flags and iron chains, which are difficult to directly guess the materials they need. Although the forging machine in the game also has the function of giving the formula, it is difficult to synthesize the weapon that one needs. Therefore, before forging weapons, I will always check the forging strategy to be assured, while this will also lose some fun of exploration. It will be easier for the player to study the formula if the game provides more synthesisrelated hints or rules. (4) Duplicate weapon attributes and excessive useless materials There are many forging formulas in the game, the weapons attributes of different materials, however, are quite similar and even completely duplicated. If one wants to make weapons with better attributes, he can only use rare materials with low collection ratio. However, there is a problem that since the weapons in the game are mostly fast consumables, it is uneconomical to use a lot of rare materials to make them. As a result, there are not many weapons that can be made in large quantities by the players to improve the heroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s overall battle power, making many materials that have no chance to be used become waste. Unless it is for the desire to collect, the player will not spend effort to make too many weapons that cannot be used. Therefore, if the developer can add more changes or enhancements to the weapon attributes, there will be a better gameplay. (5) Excessive but monotonous battle levels There are totally 160 levels of Blacksmith Story, which is a quite large number. Although I understand the developer's intention to extend the player's game time, it is really easy to feel aesthetic fatigue for the cumbersome levels of the game with an automatic battle system that cannot create too many changes in battle. In order to guide the player to experience the game more deeply, I think it may be more effective to increase the difficulty and changes of each level than to increase the levels, which may lose some players who like to play through without thinking, however, it will increase the willingness of those who are interested in forging weapons and battle systems, in which way the story will start more quickly and get more popularity of the players who are really interested in the game.

III. RETRO GAME MARKET

1. Why are retro games becoming popular at present?

With the development of the game industry, more and more retro games are gradually returning to people's field of vision. “Retro games can get me back to my childhood. Retro games are an art. Those games are simple but exciting, and you will never get bored.” It is a quote from Davide Convertino, a retro game lover. (Bloomberg, 2017.8.22). The games in the past have no exquisite picture effects, and those who are interesting only rely on their content to attract players, making them more connotative and attractive than many “white elephant” games. Meanwhile, people who played the game in the past have grown up, and the classic games have become their childhood memory. They are no longer children and have more powerful purchasing capacity, which can naturally make a big market. Moreover, since it is more convenient to reproduce the classic games than to develop new games, why not make retro games which can not only meet the needs of the regular players but also save time and effort?

2. Prospect

Drew Steimel, owner of an e-commerce retro game company called DKOldies, says that he sold $3 million in retro games in 2016, while when he first started selling retro games on eBay, he could only sell a few hundred dollars a year. “We have been making retro games for 13 years and can feel the growth of this market every year.” “When I started the business, the main customers were in their thirties and just for experiencing the feeling of the past. Now Nintendo has become our competitor and they will re-release the previous games, which will only make the retro game market bigger and bigger. Our customers of all ages are growing especially in the twenties the fastest.” (Bloomberg, Drew Steimel, 2017.8.22) The retro games are always potential and will make people who love classics more fanatical especially for the combination of existing new technologies with the past excellent scripts or game modes. From the madness of worldwide players caused by the re-release of Final Fantasy 7 and the sequel of Shenmue in 2015, and the Ready Player One that has just been shown with great praise, we can see that the excellent games of the past have left a profound impression on the players. Therefore, as long as developers can learn to make good use the advantages and features of those old games, there will be a certain number of players who are willing to buy.

3. My Retro Game Theme

The past game types that I really like are role-playing and adventure games. Whether it is the fascinating stories, excellent characters and delicate emotions of the early Final Fantasy or The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, or great works with excellent atmospheres, plots and explorations such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill are all very attractive for me. Therefore, I am more inclined to role-playing and exploration games. In terms of materials, I will refer to the West magic theme of Dungeons & Dragons for role-playing games (RPG); and the suspense and horror theme for exploration games. I choose Dungeons & Dragons for its rich available resources, what’s more, the earliest RPG game is just originated from this Tabletop Role-playing game (TRPG), which makes the biggest success, and the rulebook has been released the fourth edition since 1974. Whether from its rules of the world, the background of the plot or the setting of various elements and monsters, it can be recognized perfect, and even the famous Planescape: Torment and Neverwinter Nights series have referred to its rule. Therefore, choosing this theme can save a lot of troubles in building the game world and its familiar settings are more acceptable to players. As for the suspense and horror theme, it is because most of the puzzle games I have played have suspenseful, horrible and other elements that are easily to make me excited. This kind of games are not only easy to push the development of the plot, but also easy to give players more psychological impact to strengthen the sense of involvement. Many classic adventure games (AVG) also have thriller elements such as zombies, room escapes, tomb adventures, abandoned towns, desert island expeditions, etc. In addition, my interest in this topic will make it easier in the making process.

IV. GAME DESIGN ANALYSIS 4.1 Story Background

The world view of the game mention above talks about a tranquil kingdom is suddenly invaded by a large number of monsters, and people have to forge more weapons to fight against them. The protagonist of the game used to be a hero and finds business opportunities and decides to open a weapon store after learning that the king will heavily reward people who develop weapons. The main storyline of the game is very simple-as the player is a weapon store owner, he could only observe the world from the perspective of a merchant. His main task is to collect the materials and study the formula of weapons, then sell them to the heroes and watch their fighting against the monsters outside the wall one by one. When there is no battle, the protagonist can listen to the passing pedestrians’ talking about the monsters or weapons, as well as some trivial information of the kingdom, or just some meaningless chats. In this way, the process of selling weapons and fighting against monsters is cycled and finally the heroes will defeat the last monster Red Dragon King. However, after being defeated, the huge monster will smash into the volcano and the volcanic eruption will trigger an earthquake in the whole kingdom, causing the protagonist’s unfortunately falling off the cliff and loss of memory, then the game will be over and the player can choose to start a new round. All the above is the whole story of Blacksmith Story. In addition, the NPC in the game will occasionally discuss the topic about the wise, and the vault plot seems to give hints of some past stories, as well as the exploration of the map behind will provide chances to the player to save somebody, while all of these are just simply introduced and the player cannot see what the wise man has done in the past, how the treasury is built and why the person in the forest is caught by the monster for the game has not provided more clues on these plots. Therefore, I can only guess that the author wants to indicate there is a much more complicated story behind the Blacksmith Story by these hints, while it has not been made for a while.

4.2 Game elements and their connections 1. Characters

There are four kinds of characters in the game, namely: heroes, employees, NPCs and monsters. Heroes are the target that the player sells weapons to; employees are heroes that the player obtains through recruitment; NPCs either provide the player with transaction or release tasks, or simply passes by; monsters are the player's battle object.

2. Materials, weapons, coins and Orbs

The materials in the game are necessary for the forging weapons; the weapons are the necessity to start the battle; the coins are mainly used to unlock role positions and to recruit heroes; the Orbs are the token in the game that can replace the coin, and be used quickly to complete weapons’ development and forging, and to ring the bell to summon more heroes or buy gift packs. Weapons need to be forged with materials, which are mainly obtained from the mining pit and the exploration scene, both requiring the player’s distribution of employees and coins cost to increase the upper limit of material collection. In the mining scene, there is a probability of obtaining coins and Orbs; while in the exploration scene, there is a probability of encountering battle, and being rewarded by materials and coins after the battle success. Before forging weapons, the protagonist needs to develop the formula with a forging machine, which must be placed with three materials to open. There is also a “luck” option, which is that after the coins’ consumption, the system will automatically select the materials needed for a correct formula and will be obtained after a certain time. After getting the weapon formula, the protagonist can assign employees to build weapons at the workshop, which also needs to consume corresponding materials and take a certain amount of time. In addition, the number of workshops needs to be repaired with coins or Orbs. The completed weapon can be distributed to employees who need to fight or sold to heroes at the counter to gain gold coins. Actually selling weapons is the main way to get coins in the game. In addition, the materials, coins and Orbs can also be traded on the market. There are four NPCs in the market scene who allow the player to sell different goods with equivalent exchange for coins, or randomly obtain the coins, Orbs and materials by giving alms to beggars on the market.

Players can also donate materials and weapons to acquire coins and Orbs in the kingdom mission interface released by the NPC. Furthermore, there are also three kingdom missions of difficulty, which can be challenged to get materials, coins and Orbs after defeating specific monsters, the three rewards can also be obtained in the kingdom vault of the exploration mailbox. In addition to the above methods, Orbs can also be directly purchased by using a successful waste synthesis or an exclusive collector. In addition, all the positions in the store, the kingdom missions and the arena battles that are opened later require the participation of employees, and the attributes of the employees will affect their performance in each scene. As at the beginning, the game will only give the player three low-level employees. Therefore, it is essential to spend coins or Orbs to recruit excellent employees.

3. Levels and grades

Before the battle begins, the player can assign weapons according to the characteristics of the heroesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; attributes. The weapon attributes and skills together with the hero adaptations are also the focus of the game battle system by fighting against the monsters. Heroes who have bought weapons will automatically gather in the square scene, where players can check the information of monsters and heroes, adjust the position of heroes and click the soldier NPCs at the square to directly enter the battle level outside the city wall. All battles in the game are automatic and the player can only adjust speed or manually release certain specific skills. After each battleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success, the player will receive materials and weapon formula as rewards, and enter the next level which will also be upgraded one by one. As the level increases, the player will encounter more and more powerful monsters as well as gradually unlock more elements, such as getting more weapon formulas, workshops and exploring scenes to get more powerful materials and weapons to open the rest room rooftop scene. There are a total of 160 levels in the game, which means that the player can get up to the 160th level. After that, the player can open a new round and keep all the gained coins, Orbs, formulas and materials.

4.3 Associations between character attributes 1. Hero Attributes

Each hero has four main attributes that will affect his ability to fight and operate. (1) Power It corresponds to the hero's attack power- damage per second, which means that the higher the power is, the more damage the monster causes, and the higher the damage bonus by the equipped weapons. (2) Agility It corresponds to the heroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attack speed, hit and dodge rate in battle, which also makes a certain bonus on the weapon's damage per second attribute; it also corresponds to the mining and collection capacity values of an employee. The higher the value, the faster the material is collected. (3) Wisdom When a hero gets a weapon with a skill, this attribute will affect the success rate and skill effect of the skill release; it also corresponds to the sales ability value of an employee, which can directly affect the price of weapons. (4) Physical Strength It corresponds to the hero's life value and also corresponds to the forging ability value of an employee, which will directly affect the forging time. (5) Attached Attributes of Weapons The attributes that heroes can obtain from equipped weapons are mainly armor break and critical rate. Armor break corresponds to the ability to destroy the armor of monsters, while the critical rate represents the probability of triggering a critical attack in battle, and will increase the physical damage by 50%. (6) Hero Qualities The hero is divided into four qualities, which are distinguished by color and they are gray, green, blue and purple from weak to strong.In front of each hero's name, there is a title that tells the quality of the hero and can directly indicate which of the above four attributes is the highest.

2. Monster Attributes

(1) Life value/maximum life value: it refers to the blood volume of the monster, equivalent to that of the hero. (2) Armor corresponds to the ability of the monster to reduce damage on the hero. Some monsters with stronger armor require heroes to be equipped with armor break skill, otherwise the hero's damage value will become very low.

3. Skills

Sometimes weapons, heroes, and monsters have their own skills and each of them has five levels. The higher the level is, the more chance that the skill will be triggered. The hero's wisdom attribute can also increase the probability of triggering the skill. .

4.4 Introduction to the Scene Art Effect 1. Scene Effect

The picture style of this game is pure pixel that draws on the advantages of general pixel games and also has obvious disadvantages. (1) Strength The style is distinctive and nostalgic, allowing the player to focus on the gameplay rather than the screen. (2) Weaknesses The image quality is poor. First of all, the shadow effect is rough, and the background has no layering and threedimensionality. Although the drawing of general items and scenes is relatively clear, it is not easy to understand that of the smaller item icons and even some items can only be recognized by their names and the introductions with rough details. In addition, some interactive parts of the game background, such as the mail box and the fighting spirit collector are a bit small, making it inconvenient to click; and some interactive icons without dynamic effects cannot be clearly distinguished from other backgrounds, thus players may not find whether they are clickable with no introduction.

2. Action Effect

Although the character actions in the game are simple, they have achieved the expected level. The meaning of the actions of both the heroes and the monsters can be easily understood, and all the actions provide the unique lovely feeling of pixel games. I believe it will achieve more successes if more details can be added to make the actions smoother on the basis of current level with some weapon or skill effects.

DATA RESOURCE:

“What kinds of games that App Store likes to recommend?”, 2017.1.05 http://www.ifanr.com/app/771147?utm_source=zaker&utm_medium=specialpage&utm_ campaign=biz “Japan has set off a wave of retro games”, Bloomberg, 2017.8.22 http://www.rttswitch.com/6224.html

DESIGN OF CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES 1. Classes and Primary Attributes CLASS

STRENGTH STAMINA

HEALTH

INTELLECT AGILITY

TOTAL UNUSED ATTRIBUTE POINTS POINTS

RANKS OF ATTRIBUTES

WARRIOR

KNIGHT

ASSASSIN

MAGE

PRIEST

VERY HIGH = 10 + 6 HIGH = 10 + 4 RELATIVELY HIGH = 10 + 2 RELATIVELY LOW = 10 - 2 LOW = 10 - 4 VERY LOW = 10-6

2. Secondary Attributes CLASS

PHYSICAL ATTACKS

MAGIC ATTACKS

HEALTH POINTS

MAGIC POINTS

PHYSICAL MAGIC CRITICAL DEFENSE DEFENSE

ATTACK SPEED

BLOCK

TOTAL

WARRIOR

600

40 (10%)

20 (5%)

500

KNIGHT

960

840

20 (5%)

500

ASSASSIN

112

480

240

48 (12%)

128

28 (7%)

500

MAGE

128

360

960

48 (12%)

8 (2%)

500

PRIEST

720

960

28 (7%)

16 (4%)

500

CLASS

CLASS DESCRIPTION

WARRIOR

A balanced class; Can be cultivated freely by the player

KNIGHT

A support class with the strongest survival ability; Skills centering in control; Low damages

ASSASSIN

A class with the highest physical attack; Both the high attack speed and the high physical attack ensure its physical attack ability. Follows the stealth, flee, and one shot kill method; Low survival ability

MAGE

A class with the highest magic attack; Low attack speed, but can wield a huge amount of magic damages with skills; Has AoE skills; Major damage-wielding class; Low survival ability

PRIEST

A support class with a relatively high survival ability; Skills centering in healing; Low damages

3. Conversion formula between primary and secondary attributes • Physical Attack: 8 * Strength; Magic Attack: 8 * Intellect • Health Point: 60 * Health; Magic Point: 60 * Stamina • Physical Defense: 4 * Health; Magic Defense: 4 * Stamina • Critical: 2 * (Intellect + Agility); Critical Rate = Critical * 0.25% • Attack Speed: 8 * Agility • Block: 2 * Strength; Block Rate = Block * 0.25%

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UI DESIGN: BARTENDING APP This is a software that users can study how to produce cocktail. Users can add wine into the glass by tapping wine of the list. The screen not only shows the mixing effect, but also alcohol percentage, sweetness, and percentage of each wine.

DRAWING SAMPLE

Though I havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t learned professional painting, I would draw something like this for fun.

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