Case Studies (additional info)

Look & Feel

We often hear young kids love Disneyland, cartoon and toys. Why do kids love all these?  Kids tend to have the space for imagination. Their imagination is very strong and the best part is that their imagination does not relate to logic and reality. It is always good to have interesting and fun elements around them. I intend to create an imaginary environment for this game application for young kids. The advantage of diverting from reality is to attract the kids to play the application.

Reference
The Real Reason Children Love Fantasy - http://www.slate.com/id/2132725/


Examples

Machinarium
This is a rundown city which has a lot of interesting machinery. The whole idea of the look and feel in this game is rusty, metallic place populated by robots. Plus, everything in the world operates using steam.

Ilomilo
The world in this game is very unique and it relies on pure imagination. The look and feel of this game is stylized. The application might look simple but it is successful to attract a lot of gamers out there especially among young children.

Little Big Planet 2
This game is also one of the popular puzzle games. The look and feel in the game is very unique. This game is stylized. The mood for the game is cheerful. The application has powerful creation tools for the characters.

Emotion/Mood

The mood for the whole application will be cheerful. So, the color studies will mostly consist of bright colors for the whole application. There will be hot and cold color on certain level. The hot color will be applied onto the machines. While cold colors will be the cool areas.

Examples
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Wall-e

 

Portal 2

Space and Form
The application environment design would be interior. The main level will be recycle center. The recycle center will be split into 3 levels which is trash dump area, trash sorting area, and recycle process area.

Example
Robots

This will be the example of the recycle process area. Everything in the level will be fill with machine that process individual products. The machines are big and the player will need to explore around it.

This is an example are for the research center. However, the place will be filled with piles of trash as props. The space of this trash dump area will be big enough to store a lot of trash. It is a size of a warehouse.

Wall-e

This is an example for the recycle center. The space within will either fill with trash or creates that stores sorted materials. The total area of the recycle center will be as big as a factory and a warehouse.

Taken from http://www.illustrationsource.com/stock/image/432956/conveyor-belt-in-factory/?&results_per_page=1&detail=TRUE&page=27

This is an example for the level in one of the area. The conveyor belts in the factory will send all the separated trash to the process area. In this level, the space will be crowded with belts going in all direction.


Interaction

List of interactions

Navigation
It will be simple navigation, WASD for keyboard and left analog stick for the gamepad. For the camera navigation, use the mouse or right analog stick for the gamepad.

Pick up items

There will be proximity for the item and the player will need to approach the highlighted item to pick it up. The player will need to press the action key, E for the keyboard or X for the gamepad so that the robot will pick up the item. The item will be visible after pick up.

Collect items

There will be proximity for the item and the player will need to approach the highlighted item to collect. The player will need to go near the object and the item will disappear. There will be indication that the robot had pick up the item.

Throw/put items

Items that the player had pick up such as trash will need to be separated into their categories. To do that, the player will have to go near the proximity of each recycle bins and the player will need to press the action key to throw or put the item down.

Push & pull objects

Taken from http://static.computergames.ro/cg/assassin/images5/machinarium/machinarium013.jpg

The objects that need to be pushed or pulled, the player will need to press R button or Square button so that the robot is ready to push or pull the item. The object will stick to the robot and it will move according to the robot movement.

Interact with NPC

Taken from http://themacgamer.com/wp-content/gallery/machinarium/Umbrella-2.png

The player will only need to go near to the NPC and press the action key, E for the keyboard or X for the gamepad so that the robot will interact with the NPC.

Puzzle Solving

There will be various puzzles solving such as unlocking the door, clear the jam in the machine, and more. After the player press the action key towards the puzzle, the camera will zoom in or out and focus to the puzzle. Then the player will need to solve it.

Turn on switch

Sometimes, there are things that need to turn the power on or off so that the player can proceed with the task or game. The player will need to press the action key, E for the keyboard or X for the gamepad to switch on or off for the switches.


Input & Output Device

DualShock 2 Controller – G-SHARK

Taken from http://www.g-shark.com.my/prod_detail.asp?id=2407&category=-%3E181-%3E

This input device is a replica from PlayStation 2 controller. It is manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment around year 2000. It has a USB male port to connect into PC. It also has two analog sticks and also supports 2 additional buttons, L3 and R3 like PS2 controller. Another choice of input device will be keyboard and mouse. However it is ideal to use the gamepad to play the game compare to keyboard and mouse. The output device will be desktop monitor. Speaker for audio.

Controls
Left Analog stick button to control the movement of the character
Right Analog stick button to rotate the camera.
Triangle, Square, Circle and Cross Button are for interaction.