Maths Maze Game

GAMES DESIGN (MATHS MAZE GAME)

CUSTOMER

What does the customer want?

The customer wants a working maze game that enables the player to revise GCSE maths whilst playing.

What does the design brief say?

Create a Maze game for the students to play that also helps them develop their mathematics skills.

The main character of this game ‘Brainbox’ has to move from level to level solving increasing difficult maths based problems. Each level should show a different maths problem and the level of the maths problem should be GCSE grade C Mathematics.

Who is the target audience?

The target audience is children who are taking Maths GCSE and need to revise, this game allows them to have fun playing a game whilst also learning maths skills in order to make them get a C.

DEVELOPMENT

What sprites do we need?

I will need to make a main character (brainbox) that gets through the maze, monsters to stop the maze being so easy, walls to stop the main character just going anywhere, collectables with maths answers on them.

What sounds do we need?

A sound for when character wins a round.

How many levels do we want?

About 5-10 levels.

What other elements do we want?

I want to be able to include maths into the maze game.

MANAGEMENT

What do we want to do by the end of this session?

In this session I want to look at a few sprites and start to create my main character (Brainbox).

How long do we have to create this game?

We have about 4 weeks to create this game.

How can we break down the tasks to make the game?

I can create the game, in smaller stages in order to make each step simple. 

Unit 78 - Exercise

Unit 78 - Exercise

What is copyright law?

A legal right for work to be solely owned by the author. Copyright became public law in October 1976, taking effect in January 1978. Penalties for Copyright infringement vary from $250 to $150,000 for every infringing copy. However, if the court deems the infringement willingly, higher damages could be awarded.

What is libel?

The Oxford dictionary definition of Libel is “A false publication that is damaging to a person’s reputation”

How are female characters represented in video games?

Female characters are portrayed very badly in computer games. Not for the fact they are portrayed as evil but more for the fact that females are portrayed as sexual objects. When a female is in a game they usual don't have many clothes on and have a lot of their body on show. For example Lara Croft from Tomb Raider was highly criticized for not wearing many clothes, in the original games, later on in the series Lara begin to wear more and more clothes. As time has progressed there is less sexual representation of females in computer games.

 

 

 

 

 

Computer Game Graphics

Computer Game Graphics Recap

What are computer game graphics?

 

Computer game graphics are the way a game is displayed. A game could be presented in various ways. For example, a game could be made in a first/third-person, top-down, side-scrolling or simply 2D or 3D. There are also techniques that can be used such as: the lighting and shadows of objects, the animations of objects and maybe a heads up display.

 

 

What is Graphics Specification?

 

Client Needs


Audience


Thumbnail Sketching

Thumbnails are images that are of a smaller size than the original image. They allow more images to be displayed on a page. Search engines use image thumbnails to display more search results of the page.

Visual Style

Photorealism - Games that are designed to be as realistic as possible, whether fictional or non-fictional. Photorealism is difficult and time-consuming to create, and takes a lot of skill to get the textures and scaling of the world to look realistic.

Notable games that use photorealism include all of the Call Of Duty games, as well as the many Rockstar games.

 

Cel-Shaded - Designed to look like it was drawn by hand, and is used to represent a cartoon or comic book. Cel-shaded is primarily used by Japanese developers, in games such as Yu-Gi-Oh! and the Dragon Ball Z series.

 

Exaggerated - Games which are loosely based on Photorealism, but the style is modified, giving the graphics an overdone look. The graphics of the game can make it seem like it is not a serious game, because the characters are outrageously muscular, or features are not proportional, for example: large eyes. Japanese game developers also exaggerate the hair on their characters in anime games, such as Tekken.

 

Abstract -Games that use geometrical shapes and lines to create a unique visual style. Abstract does not take much skill to create compared to other styles. Abstract games can use both bright colours for fast-paced action, whilst others might use softer colours, which makes the player feel relaxed. An example of an Abstract art style designed game is Geometry Wars.

 

Military - Usually designed from first person perspective, military games simulate the physics and looks of a battlefield in a war. Characters are designed to look like soldiers, whether present, historic or futuristic. Medal of Honor is a Military game, set in Historic wars, and the more recent conflicts.

 

 

Composition

In the visual styles, in particular graphic design composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art, as distinct from the subject of a work. It can also be thought of as the organization of the elements of art according to the principles of art. The term composition means 'putting together,' and can apply to any work of art, from music to writing to photography, that is arranged or put together using conscious thought

 

Typography

 

Technical considerations

Compression - Files can be compressed into smaller folders using ZipFile, which allows several different files to be placed into a small folder, which requires to be unzipped before any of the contents can be accessed. This feature makes sharing files through the internet or through a file sharing program, such as an FTP much quicker and simpler.

Optimisation - Optimizing an image file consists of saving the image as a suitable graphic
compression format. Saving an image as a PNG will reduce the file size without losing any data, therefore the photo file has been optimized.

File naming conventions - When you have multiple versions of a file, such as an object, different file names will be helpful in identifying which file name corresponds to each version. For example, a first draft of the main characters might be named "Main character V1.0" and a later version might have a slightly larger number in the name such as "Main character V1.11" because there are 11 different versions.

Unit 1: Moodboard and Storyboard

Mood Board

 

Storyboard

 

Budget

If I created my game at home I would need to set a budget. This is because I would need to buy all of the programs and software needed or order to develop the game. These programs would include Photoshop, Game Maker and a PC capable of creating these games. Adobe Photoshop costs around £330. Game Maker costs around £560. For the PC capable of creating these games would most likely cost over £1000. The budget would probably be around £2000. This would enable me to work at home on making this game so that the deadline could become a lot shorter. Plus I would have more time making things more perfect outside of college.

 

Facilities/Hardware/Software/Personnel	Cost
Game Maker	Free as part of SLC - Real life cost about £500
Photoshop	Free as part of SLC – Real life cost about £250
Paint	Free at SLC – Real life cost is also free on every windows based computer
Artist	£150 per day
Musician	£150 per day
PC	Upwards of £800
Modeller	£150 per day

 

Health and Safety Check

PAT Test	This is a test given to every electrical appliance to say it is a tested product and is safe to use.
No liquid near PC.	You don’t want no liquid near PC’s as it could damage a very expensive PC.

 

 

 

 

 

Contingency plan

What can go wrong	How to avoid
Loss of data	Back up the files multiple times to stop the risk of losing a document.
Electrical Fire hazard	There is a slight risk of a there being a fire when there are electrical wires around. To prevent this I will have to make sure the wires are fine and compact and tidy.

Clearances

Example of a Contract

 

Callan’s Platform Game Contract

By signing this contract I agree to comply with the necessary work hours allotted for myself to do the work for _________. If I breech this contract _________, will not have to pay you money that was originally planned in order for myself to do the work.

Signed Employee_________________________________________________________

Signed Emoyer___________________________________________________________

Date___________________________________________________________________

 

When I am creating my game if I use an image off of Google I will need to check whether these have been copyrighted. If so I wont be able to use that image as it will be illegal and I could be prosecuted if I did so. However I could ask for permission to use the image and acceptance may be granted. If I was professionally publishing this game for people to pay and play this game I would check if the game meets the rules and regulations for the PEGI rating given, so that it is appropriate for everybody to play. Due to copyright you can not use published songs for sound without permission. Therefore free options are a better solution. For instance Audio Blocks is a website where you can sign and get non-copyrighted sounds so that it is legal. At this moment in I do not need a PEGI rating, however if was creating the game professionally and I sold it for money to people I would need to give it a PEGI rating.