Task 4
Produce detailed research specific to your chosen Final Major Project
idea. This research must include:
·
Technical code analysis of relevant media products
that have influenced your own Final Major Project idea
Analysis of any websites,
books and journals that you have researched to help you form your Final Major
Project idea Primary Research:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WW57MJN
Analysis of Results:
* The majority of people prefer the gameplay of a game to anything else, with the audio, developer and artwork scoring high as well.
* The majority of people prefer 2D adventure games, whilst fighting and RPG are very popular too.
* Bad graphics and poor depth perception of a game are also some points made which cause people to go off and dislike certain 2D games. We will need to address these elements by spending more time on the art and ensuring it looks nice, as well as works with the game.
Secondary Research:
PC Gamer Magazine:
After reading this article on Hotline Miami 2, I have had some ideas as to what I can do with the final product. Part of our game will be set from a top-down view of the world, and this game has given me the idea of creating the main player so that he follows and looks at the mouse cursor. This will mean that the mouse will play as part of the control system and could be a nice thing to create with sword-swinging mechanics. I have also been looking at the art style and have been thinking of using a similar structure to this games, but with less detail in some areas.
This article was rather interesting as it was about sprite-based games created by Lucas arts. The main thing I liked about this article was the images as looking at the art styles of these old games has given me ideas as to sprites I could create for my games and how I could make them as well as different styles. Take the lighting effects for example in the lava image above. I like how the lighting slowly drifts to orange the further away the object is from the light source. This sort of technique could be useful for when I am creating lava sprites or fiery areas for my game.
Shovel Knight - Page 105 - MARCH 2015 Edition PC Gamer
The main focus of my game will be a 2D plat-former, like Shovel Knight. I have read this article as well as played the game and quite like the physics and game-play of Shovel Knight. I am thinking that the 2D plat-former will play out like Shovel knight, but I am thinking of having the player as a wizard and not a knight. This game has been really useful in terms of research and I really like the overall art style to it.
Nuclear Throne - Pages 102-103 - MARCH 2015 Edition PC Gamer
Nuclear throne is quite an interesting 2D shoot-em-up and seems to be packed with gund and explosions. What I mainly like about this game from the article is that it seems to be a game you win with skill. I would like to implement something like this into our final game even though this could be quite hard to do. Another thing I like is the kind of arcade-styled theme the game has as you rack up tonnes of kills as you try to survive; it reminds me a lot of the old game Asteroids where you have to survive from lots of meteors and space ships.