this video is good research for producing graphics as it teaches you some rules on how to create good pixel art that looks professional a few of the things they go over in the video are that you should try not to mix styles e.g: if one of you characters are outlined byt the rest of them are not it can look strange and that if you have detailed characters you should have a detailed background
PIXEL ART TIPS FROM A PROFESSIONAL ARTIST – TIPS & TRICKS
In-text: (Pixel Art Tips from a Professional Artist – Tips & Tricks, 2021)
Your Bibliography: YouTube. 2021. Pixel Art Tips From A Professional Artist – Tips & Tricks. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/cdoWiJANr_U> [Accessed 13 January 2021].
this video is good research as it teaches some things that are not told in the first video because in the first video blocking is talked about but not how one would do it in part of the video you are told about blocking and how to do it
HOW TO DRAW PIXEL ART | TUTORIAL
In-text: (How To Draw Pixel Art | Tutorial, 2018)
Your Bibliography: YouTube. 2018. How To Draw Pixel Art | Tutorial. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/ED8EGP0ceQk> [Accessed 19 January 2018].
this video is good for research because it teaches pixel art on more of a beginner level and gives you tips on what you should do if you are just starting out one of the tips it gives is start with a shape that is similar to what you are trying to make ,e.g: use a circle to make an apple, and erase the parts that you can get rid of another thing he gives a tip on is that it is a good idea to use 16 bit to create your sprites
PIXEL ART TIPS FOR NON-ARTIST BEGINNERS
In-text: (PIXEL ART Tips for NON-ARTIST Beginners, 2019)
Your Bibliography: YouTube. 2019. PIXEL ART Tips For NON-ARTIST Beginners. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/p1t0keLufMw> [Accessed 6 November 2019].
this video is good for research and talks about how to make good outlines for pixel art one of his rules is don’t make outlines that are thick in places and if there is outline where too many pixels are touching each other try and remove them so the outline becomes thinner and when creating something round try and keep a patter with the outline and don’t have something that breaks the pattern like two pixels directly next to each other in a straight line when making something round
BEGINNER PIXEL ART TUTORIAL – A COMPLETE GUIDE
In-text: (Beginner Pixel Art Tutorial – A Complete Guide, 2020)
Your Bibliography: YouTube. 2020. Beginner Pixel Art Tutorial – A Complete Guide. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/o_EKrg2fIuc> [Accessed 7 March 2020].
I feel like doing this research was helpful and will effect the decisions I make when creating my graphics for example I will try to keep all the art in the same style and if I do outlines for the art I will do it for the rest of the game another thin I have learnt that I will use I will also try and use the tip of starting with a shape and sculpting from it another skill I will use I learnt from the video is blocking out which is useful as now I know not to focus too much detail on one part of the sprite before finishing the rest and start with the basic shape and colour of the sprite and move on from there
this is my mood board I have made for the character design in my game I have chosen some of these images because they go for a similar feel as what I want in my game for example I have used a lot of images of power armour from fallout as the player avatar in my game is a robot and I wanted to go for the same heavy look and feel as power armour and the enemies they fight will be aliens so i have used lots of images of jackals and elites from halo as I like the designs and wanted to go for a similar style of alien
Reference images:
this is a picture of the heretic from halo 2 anniversary which i will use to give me ideas of alien designs
this is the x01 power armour from the fallout games and although it is not a robot it has given me some good ideas as the kind of design I want to do is a large robot
this is a picture of new Alexandria from halo reach which is a futuristic city which is the type of environment I want to do for the game
here is another picture of new Alexandria from a different angle which give a better view of the buildings and the designs on it
this is the T60 power armour which is another image I am going to use to help create a large heavy robot design
I feel this research was helpful and will and effect the making of my game as it will help me in designing the sprite for the player and the enemies and go for a similar as what I would like to do with my game like a heavy robot style and the style of alien
Audio:
Reference Sounds:
The sound in this video is the jetpack in halo reach I like this sound and will use it as a reference sound for the jumping in my game as the jumping is supposed to be rocket boots although if I were to use a sound like this it would have to be a shorter version that ends sooner as it would only be for a short boost as it is the jumping sound
HALO REACH JET PACK
In-text: (Halo Reach Jet Pack, 2016)
Your Bibliography: You Tube. 2016. Halo Reach Jet Pack. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/ImLlADBgDVE> [Accessed 28 February 2021].
The sound in this reference is the halo 3 Jackal I think this sound will be a good reference for the sounds for the aliens as I think sounds like these would fit them well the thing I think I would change about this kind of sound is the speed to make the aliens sound a bit more aggressive
HALO 3 JACKAL SOUNDS
In-text: (Halo 3 Jackal sounds, 2020)
Your Bibliography: You Tube. 2020. Halo 3 Jackal sounds. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/5-1j8lq9GyY> [Accessed 28 February 2021].
This sound reference is power armour walk sound from fallout 4 I think this sound will be a good reference for the walking in my game as it is the sound of heavy footsteps and the player in my game is a large robot things I would change about this kind of sound would be the speed as this is audio of walking slowly in the power armour another thing is the walking sound in my game would be louder
FALLOUT 4 POWER ARMOR SOUNDS (SLOW WALK)
In-text: (Fallout 4 Power Armor Sounds (Slow Walk), 2018)
Your Bibliography: You Tube. 2018. Fallout 4 Power Armor Sounds (Slow Walk). [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/y-bnzgfy72o> [Accessed 28 February 2021].
I think this research was helpful in helping me to envision what type of sounds I want to have in my game and will help me in creating and sourcing my own sounds for my game so I think this work was very good to do and very worthwhile and has helped me greatly with the sound effects for my game
this video is good for research as it tells me how the sounds in halo 3 were made one interesting thing it talks about is how the sounds were made for the Spiker gun as they didn’t want it to sound just like a normal gun so they used clamp and an axe and hit them together to make the sound. although most of the sounds for my game will be found from a library this video is good research
MAKING HALO 3 AUDIO
In-text: (Making Halo 3 Audio, 2020)
Your Bibliography: YouTube. 2020. Making Halo 3 Audio. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/ODXEEkd1xnw> [Accessed 19 February 2020].
this video is good research about sound design and how it can add to a game and clarify and reinforce what you are doing for example when an ability charges up and can also be used to alert a player to an enemy or if damage is dealt to you
SO YOU WANNA MAKE GAMES?? | EPISODE 8: SOUND DESIGN
In-text: (So You Wanna Make Games?? | Episode 8: Sound Design, 2018)
Your Bibliography: You Tube. 2018. So You Wanna Make Games?? | Episode 8: Sound Design. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/KcorIwJscFA> [Accessed 23 Feb 2021].
in this video the sound design in half-life is talked about in the first half of the video directional sound is talked about but this will not be too important to me as my game is 2d but around the 4:40 mark in the video he begins to talk about how ambient sound is used to set the mood in the game which shows different types of sounds can really help establish the mood or scene
HOW TO MAKE SOUNDS FOR VIDEO GAMES || WAVEFORM
In-text: (How To Make Sounds For Video Games || Waveform, 2018)
Your Bibliography: You Tube. 2018. How To Make Sounds For Video Games || Waveform. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/aucpH8LYvnE> [Accessed 23 Feb 2021].
SOUND DESIGN IN GAMES: HALF LIFE
In-text: (Sound Design in Games: Half Life, 2018)
Your Bibliography: You Tube. 2018. Sound Design in Games: Half Life. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/p_1-p3uuOns> [Accessed 23 Feb 2021]
this video talks about a man creating ambient noise for a server room in a game and the process he goes through whilst creating it he first he talks about collecting the sounds he needs and keeping them in a folder so he doesn’t lose them then he talks about if he finds a sound bad he duplicates it edits one and keeps the other the same to compare the two and repeats the process until it sounds good and then saves it so he is committed to the direction of the design
How is sound used in platformers
Sonic uses the limited sound hardware of the megadrive to create the very recognisable sounds of sonic one reason the sound design for sonic is good is the music for example in the first level the music is fast which mirrors the gameplay as it is quite a fast game another thing sonics sound design does well is the sounds of the level such as collecting rings as the iconic sound re-enforces that what you are doing then there is also the sound of defeating the enemy which is a “poof” sound that re-enforces that the enemy is defeated
Donkey Kong country uses the snes’ limited hardware to create iconic sounds one reason the sound design is good is the music because it is iconic and sets a cheery mood another thing that is good is the noises for collecting bananas because you can recognise it as a collecting sound but is different enough to other games another good sound was good and could be identified as the barrel and re-enforced that you are doing something
Super Mario world uses the limited hardware of the snes to create recognisable sounds such as the coin collect sound which is different to other Mario games coin sounds but still quite iconic another iconic sound would be Mario’s jumping sound another recognizable sound would be when Mario spins
What I found from my questionnaire:
I found out mechanics people like in a platformer one answer was that they liked when unlockable abilities were available in a game such as double jump and dash this will influence my game as it made me think about adding a double jump mechanic but it would be hard to have it as an unlockable as the demo is only one level long
another answer for this question was that someone liked when a platformer has special movement options like double jump or dash this made me think that I should put a double jump in my game as it is something people would enjoy
I also found what people disliked in platformers one answer to this question was that a person did not like low intensity this has influenced the design of my level as I will make the level difficult whilst still being fair and enjoyable I will do this by making the enemies plentiful but they will be easy to kill
another answer to this question was that someone did not like in platformers when you could not run quickly this has influenced me in the making of my game as I will make the player character relatively quick as people would enjoy it
another person answered that they don’t like when a game does not have varying jump height I think adding varying jump height to my game would be difficult but I will keep it in mind as something people enjoy in a platformer
for the next question I asked people what they thought key components of a platformer were but I did not get much useful information from this question as most people said either jumping/ movement or platforms
another question I asked is what are some of your favourite platformers and what do they do well one answer I got was the Mario games as they have good level layout to help in the creation of my game I could look at some Mario levels to see what they do well and try and incorporate that into my game
another answer I got was games like Horace and Celeste and what people said was good about them was story even though my game is a one level long demo so it would be hard to tell a good story it is something worth considering as something players enjoy
next I asked people their opinions on enhanced movement such as dashing all the answers I got were positive about enhanced movement was they should only be done if the basic movements in the game are perfect such as moving and jumping this influenced the creation of my game as I will try to get movement right before I add any enhanced movement
another question I asked was what themes people like in platform games most answers were mixed such as fantasy, steampunk and present day but one answer i found that stuck out was sci fi
Making this survey and seeing the results will definitely help me in the development of my game as it has shown me what people enjoy to see and what people do not want to see will help me to choose what to put in my game as I will not put things people do not want to see so I would not put that in my game and what to put in my game such as the things people do enjoy
Overlords new mansion published by saantandre and published on 31/05/2019
It has the normal mechanics of a platformer such as jumping am moving but it also has an extra movement mechanic which is dashing it also has platforms that crumble beneath you if you stand on them for too long bouncing platforms that you can use to overcome obstacles in the level and conveyer belts that send you in the direction they are facing
The game was quite fun to play as navigating the obsticles were interesting with them bieng themed around a different obsticle each time
the game was not very difficult but resulted in a few deaths each time
There were tutorial books that taught you how to use some of the mechanics and telling you what new obstacles do
| Author | Overlord’s Mansion |
| Article title: | Overlord’s New Mansion by saantonandre |
| Website title: | itch.io |
| URL: | https://saantonandre.itch.io/overlord |
Platformer was published by raistVling and published on 19/11/2020
it has the normal mechanics of a platformer such as jumping and moving but it also has a sprint mechanic the allows you to run faster and jump further it also has an axe attack you can use on the enemies
the game was fun to play because of the sprinting mechanic but there wasn’t much that set it apart from other games
| Article title: | Platformer by raistVling |
| Website title: | itch.io |
| URL: | https://raistvling.itch.io/platformer |
Super Bernie world was published by Eniko and published on 9/4/2020
it has all the normal mechanics of a platformer such as jumping and moving but there aren’t many other mechanics that are different to other platformers but it had power ups
The game was very fun to play
The game was easy
the game was interesting because It was made to get people to vote for Bernie Sanders
| Author | Super World |
| Article title: | Super Bernie World by Eniko |
| Website title: | itch.io |
| URL: | https://eniko.itch.io/superbernieworld |
Super Mario Bros was made by Nintendo 13/8/1985
it has all the normal mechanics of a platformer such as jumping and moving but there aren’t many other mechanics that are different to other platformers but it had power ups but that is because it is one of the early platformers
The game was very fun to play
The game was kind of easy
Venceremos was published by clxrffdman and published on 3/1/2021
it has the normal mechanics of a platformer such as jumping and moving but also has shooting and the enimies also shoot at you so it makes for interesting gameplay although the platforming was strange as you could not jump very high
the game was fun to play
the game was difficult
Venceremos by clxrffdman, David Sound Wizard, bwang13sr
This primary research was very helpful and let me see what other platformers have done well to help me decide with ideas on what to do well i played many games such as super Bernie world and overlords new mansion
secondary research history of platformers:
| Article title: | History of platform games: 9 steps of genre evolution |
| Website title: | Redbull.com |
| URL: | https://www.redbull.com/in-en/evolution-of-platformers |
this source tells us about the history of platformers and tells us first about the single screen era and talks about space panic which was an arcade game in the 1980’s there was no jumping but the player could fall and climb ladders but was limited to a single screen
In 1981 Nintendo released Donkey Kong which some say is the first true platformer the player would control jump man and jumped over barrels to the end of the level and scaled ladders on a single screen
This games success resulted into a new franchise resulted in a with donkey Kong Jr
It also talks about the side scrolling era and the game Jumpbug which was a game that came out in 1981 you played as a bouncing car and jumped from platform to platform on a scrolling screen when the ColecoVision released in 1983 it featured quest for tires which featured scrolling levels and other titles like pac land 1984 which had parallax scrolling
in 1985 super Mario was released it added side scrolling levels many foes but the limited power of the NES only allowed for horizontal scrolling
| Article title: | Platform game |
| Website title: | En.wikipedia.org |
| URL: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_game#:~:text=Platform%20games%20originated%20in%20the,between%20platforms%20rather%20than%20jumping |
this website talks about a lot of the same stuff as what I have previously covered such as the evolution of single screen to scrolling screen but also talks about second generation side scrollers when 16 bit home consoles were released and in 1989 Sega released Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle that same year Capcom released strider which could scroll in multiple directions and let the player summon AI that helped them to fight enemies in the same year Sega released Shadow Dancer that featured an AI dog that helped fight enemies and followed the player around. in 1991 Takeru released Cocoron for the Famicom introduced true character customization, allowing players to build a character from a toy box filled with spare parts that same year the SNES was released along with super mario world this same year Sonic the Hedgehog witch featured huge levels that scrolled effortlessly
notable new platformers:
| Author | Steven Wright |
| Article title: | The best platform games on PC |
| Website title: | PCGamesN |
| URL: | https://www.pcgamesn.com/best-platform-games |
this website talks about good recent platformers available for pc one game it talks about is limbo it says that it is an indie platformer that is monochrome (black and white) and has puzzles in and relies on common sense and good reflexes
another game it talks about is super meat boy which is a difficult game were you are only given a jump and a grab and navigate through obstacle full levels and has many homages to older platformers
another game it talks about is Celeste the game is difficult and centres around the struggles of the main character Madeline who battles mental health issues
another game it talks about is hollow knight a metroidvainia and promotes ceaseless exploration to find maps of each area in the game and you are not given a health bar for any enemy so it becomes harder to gage how weak an enemy is
and goes on to talk about many other platformers
Secondary research level design:
| Website title: | Youtube.com |
| URL: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBmIkEvEBtA&ab_channel=GameMaker%27sToolkit |
Super Mario 3D world’s level design teaches you mechnics by letting you try them out in a safe area then letting you progress to a harder area with the same mechanic that is a not in a safe bit of the level and then a bit with a twist and then the level concludes
It is very useful as it tells us how to design levels that can teach mechanics to the player without a tutorial
Colour in games: https://youtu.be/z67OKKsZljg
in this video how colour is used in films in games is discussed it talks about in firewatch the colour of golden orange is used for the landscape and yellow green trees with a red sky which indicates a new beginning
| Article title: | The Importance of Colors in Game Design – Bishop Games |
| Website title: | Bishop Games |
| URL: | https://bishopgames.com/importance-colors-game-design/#:~:text=In%20video%20games%2C%20the%20color,to%20nail%20your%20color%20schemes. |
this website tells us about the link between colour and level design and that in the game Lightfall about how the background is a mysterious blue and that supernatural objects you come across are bright colours
| Article title: | Color in Video Games: How to Choose a Palette |
| Website title: | Kongregate Developers |
| URL: | https://blog.kongregate.com/color-in-video-games-how-to-choose-a-palette/ |
This website talks about why colour schemes are important because its sets the tone and ambience for the game and depends on the experience you are trying to make and/or the story you are trying to tell
| Article title: | Color in games: An in-depth look at one of game design’s most useful tools |
| Website title: | Gamasutra.com |
| URL: | https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/HermanTulleken/20150729/249761/Color_in_games_An_indepth_look_at_one_of_game_designs_most_useful_tools.php |
This website talks about how colour is used to identify things in games as power ups will be bright colours so they stand out from the background and can easily identify them as a power up This website also goes on to talk about things like how colour is used for branding for example in blue and orange is recognisable as the colours of portal and the bright red of mirrors edge
This research about colour in games has helped me because it will help me in choosing what colours to use in my game e.g. bright colours for my power ups and what colours to use for the player and enemies and will help me choose the correct colours to really set the scene
Doug's Game Blog 