Design

The brief I have been given for my game was pretty much an open brief, which means I have a wider range of the things I am able to base my game on. However, there are a few requirements; I have to complete and export a 2D video game containing original and finalised graphical assets and original and finalised sound assets. The game is to be created using the GameSalad engine and the game is to be designed for play on the iPad. The target audience for this game has to be between the ages of 13 and 30 years old with no restriction on gender.

A Summary of My Game Design

Title: Archie the Archaeologist

Format: iPad

Genre: Side scroller adventure (platform) game. The game will feature the ability to run, jump and collect things, these features are very much associated with the side scroller platform games.

Story: Archie wants to become the greatest archaeologist ever, so he sets off in search of 6 different relics that were thought to be lost.

Gameplay: The main character will be able to move left, right and jump in order to collect things and avoid obstacles. There will be a left, right and jump button. As the different levels progress the character will encounter some difficulties, those being the different obstacles that will occur, such as traps and physics puzzles.

Narrative Genre: Adventure, the game will be set in 6 different places, ranging from the pyramids, to shipwrecks and Ancient Rome.

Ideas

Mindmap of Inital Ideas

I created a mind map and around it I thought and wrote about 5 different game ideas, they were; A side scroller adventure game, a side scroller horror game, a side scroller shooter game, a beat ‘em up game and a 2D football game. The basic ideas of each game were wrote down and the 2 that I thought were the best games (side scroller adventure game and side scroller horror game), I made another mind map and expanded and developed the idea further.

Mindmap of Side Scroller Adventure Platform Game

I developed the side scroller adventure (platform) game, describing the setting, the obstacles, the character, the art style and the plot. The main character will be an archaeologist, who dreams of becoming the greatest archaeologist ever, so he goes in search of famous relics that are supposed to be hidden or lost. There will be 6 different caves with 6 different relics in which the archaeologist will explore, the caves will have different obstacles in them which will try and hinder his search. The obstacles will include; spikes on the floor, stepping stones, rolling boulders, fire, poison darts and disappearing floors. The art style of the game will be cartoon like. The plot of the game is that the archaeologist goes on his journey to find the relics in 6 different caves and he will encounter different obstacles along his journey, he also has to collect a certain amount of Aztec coins in each cave to be able to get the hidden relic.

Mindmap of Side Scroller Horror Game

I also developed the side scroller horror game; again I described the setting, art style, character and plot. The plot of the game is that a police officer is trapped in a warehouse by a crazed murderer, he wakes up at the top of the warehouse and has to make his way through the warehouse collecting things to help him escape. The main character will be a police officer and the setting of the game will be a warehouse, in the warehouse there will be 20 different rooms, 15 of those contain objects that help him escape the warehouse, 10 of the rooms will also contain a mutant that you can choose to either kill or avoid. The art style of this game will be pixelated.

Archie the Archaeologist – Summary of the Game

The idea that I have decided to make into a game is the side scroller adventure (platform) game. The name of the game will be “Archie the Archaeologist” and the format that the game will be played and designed for is the iPad. The genre of the game will be a side scroller adventure platform game, the game will feature the ability to jump over things or onto things, run and collect things, and these features are very much associated with the side scroller platform games. The story of the game is that Archie wants to become the world’s greatest archaeologist ever and in order to do this he has to collect 6 very special relics (artifacts) that were thought to be lost. Within the game there will be a left and right button, a jump button; this will allow the character to navigate through the different worlds trying to avoid different obstacles that occur throughout the levels and collecting artifacts. The obstacles of which the character will have to avoid are rolling boulders, fire, poison arrows, spikes, disappearing floors and moving blocks. The relics (artifacts) that Archie has to find are a Musashi’s Samurai Sword, Poseidon’s Trident, Mars the God of War’s helmet, Excalibur, a golden scarab beetle and an Aztec Obsidian knife/  The game takes place in 6 different places, Feudal Japan, a Greek Shipwreck, Rome, Medieval Britain, inside a pyramid and an aztec cave.

 

I originally intended to make 6 different levels for my game but due to time constraints the game will be released as a demo version which includes 3 levels.

Back Story of Archie

Archie has always been interested in history and myths, he spent all his school days reading books about the various mythological creatures and God’s. His mother and father were both archaeoligsts, they were both obsessed with finding mythological things and had dedicated their lives to researching and finding different mythological artifacts. After years of searching they finally found one of the artifacts, but on their way to get the artifact, their plane crashed and they were both tragically killed. Since that day Archie has made it his goal and dedicated his entire life to searching for those artifacts, he managed to find his parents research and is now on his way to get those artifacts.