Martin O’Dea (collab with Andy Foster)
SPECS
OUGD603
Brief
Tone of voice: Nostalgic, sarcastic, funny
BACKGROUND
List of Influences: Super Meat Boy Binding of Isaac Braid Bit Trip Runner/Beat Super Mega Worm Fez lostwinds Wario Ware Inc. 3D Dot Game Hero Zelda - Link to the past/Minish Cap Okami Pokemon
Indie Video games rose to popularity in 2008. Thanks to services such as Steam Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network, low to mid budget video games are becoming extremely successful. Concise Brief: Propose and design the opening stage of a new independent video game. This should give an indication of how the game will look and feel: Settings, characters, animation, music and user interface should all be considered elements. BRIEF You have the opportunity to propose and design the early stages of a new independent video game to be sold through suitable digital platforms. You should propose the concept and mechanics, as well as developing an appropriate visual style for the game. Consider key characters and their environments. How will the player interact with them? Give an indication of the over aching plot and how dialogue could be handled throughout the game. You should also show how these designs could be applied to a national promotion campaign.
Storyline: Specs follows the exploits of Oli, a young boy from Land Lane, as he persues his postman, Tom Snap, across the vast game world. Equiped with his magic glasses, Oli is able to transform into any of the game’s residents and make use of their abilities in order to progress further and retrieve his parcel. Along his journey, Oli will encounter a wide variety of the game’s characters who have also fallen foul of Tom’s clumsiness.
CONCEPT We want to create a game that is nostalgic but mindful of the developments which have been made in current indie games, which try to push old mechanics into the modern era. We will consider the graphical style of the game, and how the branding and characters can be applied across a publicity campaign. The deliverables will be combined into a pitch which should make the game elements clear to prospective developers. DELIVERABLES Style guideline publication Brand - Logo, colour scheme, typography Characters - Design and animation of the requested sample characters UX elements - user menus, icons and dialogue interaction. Promotion
Martin O’Dea (collab with Andy Foster)
SPECS
OUGD603
Research Activities Research is thoroughly collated in our research booklet (Can be found in shared submission folder) To understand the context, audience and particular visual language of video games, we had to picked apart popular Indie releases to asses their strengths, weaknesses, mechanics, characters and visual style. To collate this research, we produced a research booklet which covers our investigation into the following topics: GAME ANALYSIS INTRO ANIMATIONS USER EXPERIENCE TYPOGRAPHY MAPS CHARACTER DESIGN DISTRIBUTION PLATFORMS This research process gave us a much greater understanding of the visual elements needed to create a successful Indie video game, and helped to contextualise the work we would be producing. From this we were able to break down the necessary outcomes which would have to be designed to create an effective and realistic video game pitch.
Martin O’Dea (collab with Andy Foster)
SPECS
OUGD603
Custom Typeface and logo While Andy worked on building the set of stylised characters for the game, I designed and developed a custom pixel typeface to use throughout the game. In my research, I had looked at the construction of classic and modern pixel typefaces and experimented with grid paper until I had something that was gave a twist to the classic formats. This was an interesting and new way of working for me, as I had to work within the confines of the 7 x 5 pixel character grid to keep everything consistent, and this meant that tiny changes could have huge effects on tone and legibility. I created a set of letters, characters and numbers that would cover most use cases within the game. I also made an adaptive dialogue box inspired by game-boy era interface graphics, including the specs glasses as corner details and a simple white highlight for the surround. I created the logo for the game through a simple typesetting of the title using this custom type, and including the glasses matched to the same pixel grid.
Martin O’Dea (collab with Andy Foster)
SPECS
OUGD603
UI Design and in-game HUD (Can be found on labeled CD or at (vimeo.com/78468611) Based on research into user interface and typography in indie and retro games, I designed an adaptive menu interface which would cycle between different characters and change colour to match their outfit. I used the custom typeface I had produced to make all of the menu options. I wanted to play on the importance of glasses to the plot by including an out of focus effect to inactive options. Moving up and down would shift the dialogue box and put the text back in focus. I also create the Heads-up Display (below) to show information to the player during the game. This included the health indicator (shown in the specs glasses), money and transformation time left (represented by a wick that burns down). These three consistent UI elements would always be shown on screen.
Martin O’Dea (collab with Andy Foster)
SPECS
OUGD603
Level Construction: Levels are made up 20x20 sprite blocks, which are created in illustrator. There are 3 floor blocks that comprise the platform of the game. The center of which is a gradient between the colours used for the top and bottom of the blocks. There are 3 different types of blocks below ground. Each of these is slightly darker than the one above. Depth is created by using the darkest colour in the block above to create a shadow, giving the map a 3D appearance. Levels are constructed in entirety in Photoshop using a snap-to-grid feature and smart objects, so if changes are made to one block they apply to the whole level. In total we constructed 3 example levels for our style guide and animation.
Martin O’Dea (collab with Andy Foster)
SPECS
OUGD603
Distribution Platforms As the game would be digitally distributed, we created promotional banners for the three largest platforms - Steam, PSN and Xbox live. We felt that was important to show how they could be featured on each of the platform’s dashboards and help contextualise the game in a consumer-facing manor.
Martin O’Dea (collab with Andy Foster)
SPECS
OUGD603
Outcomes - Promotional Pack (Can be found in shared Submission folder) From our research, we found that game conferences were very important to the process of bringing an independent video game to market. They proved vital points to create interest from the public and other developers and even attract funding. This environment featured heavily in Indie Game The Movie, and we felt it was import to consider this additional context for our work. As part of this, we designed and produced a promotional pack, with a custom folder that could be distributed. This contains our style guide, research booklet and specs paper glasses as worn by the protagonist of the game.
Martin O’Dea (collab with Andy Foster)
SPECS
OUGD603
Style Guide: (Can be found in shared Submission folder) To present all of the design elements which we have both created for the project we produced a 26-page style guide. We designed this to be simple and thorough enough that it could be handed to a developer and they would have everything they need to make Specs a working video game. In it we present: Character Concept Art Final Characters Character Movement Level Artwork Level Construction Completed Level Artwork Custom Typeface Application of Typography UX/UI Design In-Game HUD Blur Mechanic Distribution Platforms
Martin O’Dea (collab with Andy Foster)
SPECS
OUGD603
Animation (Can be found on labeled CD or at (vimeo.com/78468611) The animation was made to showcase the design elements we had created in a way that simulates actual gameplay. This helps to give our project an immediate visual context and allows us to communicate the core components and visual structure of the game clearly, in a short amount of time. This has been designed to support the style guide in aiding an outside company should they wish to move forward and develop the game.
Martin O’Dea (collab with Andy Foster)
SPECS
OUGD603