PRODUCTION GAMES PRE-PRODUCTION WORKSHOP ELISA VANUCCINNI JOSH BAILING DYLAN CHRISTIE
BRIEF We were provided with a brief, by our client Alastair Hebson. We were asked to develop a game that is designed from the ground up to take full advantage of VR (Virtual Reality) or LBE (Location Based Entertainment) environment. Overall, we were given complete creative freedom as to what our game would be, however there were a few stipulations: • The game must be designed to suit short play times. • The game must be built with a wide variety of players in mind, including players new to VR, and VR veterans, as well as a wide age range. • The game must feature very minimal movement due to the negative effect this can have on players new to VR. • There should be a focus on easy to understand gameplay mechanics so the game can be very easily picked up and interacted with. • The game should not be a game that is designed for other platforms that is just capable of being ported to VR. • The game should follow an arcade style of gameplay, consisting of repeatable rounds last anywhere from a few to ten minutes at maximum.
RESEARCH To begin with, we started by researching VR games in a general scope along with the other disciplines within our group. We looked at what is popular now, and any distinguishing properties they have that we should consider during development of our concepts. Some important things we looked into and discovered were that a lot of VR games tend to use visual styles that are simplistic and often stylised. This is usually due to the fact that VR games are comparatively more demanding on the hardware in comparison to typical monitor based games. This makes hyper-realistic graphics less attainable within VR as the processing power requirement is very high. Due to the fact that we are a small team working with no budget, we came to the conclusion that highly stylised graphics would be an effective avenue to pursue due to the shorter development time needed, and the ease of implementation as well as the lower performance cost. Heavily stylised visuals also tend to have more mass-appeal and can appeal to a wide age range.
RESEARCH CONTINUED We spent considerable time looking into stylised games. Since we had decided to explore the avenue of heavy stylisation, we explored popular games that are known for simple and iconic styles. Both VR and non-VR games were considered in our references. We also took interest in low poly modelling styles, both due to their retro appeal and the lower processing requirements, which meet two criteria we have established for our game. Some games we used as strong references include: • The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker • Animal Crossing (New leaf/New Horizons) • Witch it • Borderlands
Electronauts (2018)
CONCEPTUALISATION During our initial meetings in the group, we developed 3 starting ideas to prepare for a group presentation 1. Space Turret Shooter
A first person simulator experience in which the player controls a turret in a space ship, which moves with the player takes advantage of the environment by offering a fully interactable cockpit.
2. First Person Tower Defense/Shooter
A first person experience where the player views the game like a game board and has to physically place elements similar to a tower defense game, taking advantage of a 360% environment.
3. Mail Sorting Office
A first person simulator experience in which the player assumes the role of a sorting office worker, where mail and parcels are thrown at the player at an overwhelming rate, which the player has to sort into the right pidgeon hole dependant on the colour and symbol on the stamp.
Core mechanics proposal: After some dileberation, a core mechanic was proposed by one of our designers. The mechanic in many iterations revolved around the idea of having objects thrown towards the player that have to be sorted into the appropriate tube by catching and throwing. Additional elements were considered such as mixing colours together by holding two objects, one in each hand, and merging them together to create secondary and potentially tertiary colours to add difficulty. This idea was popular within the group and could be applied in different ways to each of our proposals with differing amounts of modification.
MOODBOARD 1 : T
TOWER DEFENCE
MOODBOARD 2 : [n
needs moodboard]