The Ideas
For the final project I have to decide upon a project to undertake, prepare for and develop. During this phase we’ve had about a month and a bit to come up with a solid idea and proposal for what that is. I set out to start the first week by deciding on what my idea would be and end it on the creation of a milestone. By the end of week two I’d aimed to create my project proposal for review by my course leader to see if he thinks it’s a firm idea and I have understood the edge cases.
Before planning ideas of what to do for my final project I first revisited my previous semester’s work in which I researched a design topic to use as a basis for my project. My area of interest that I studied was that of relaxation and how video games can help aid and promote de-stressing and relaxation amongst users of them. In this research, I discovered a lot about what various effects games have on their users and the ideal types of genre’s that help to promote these effects in users. The results were surprising and whilst there are a wide variety of games that can have an effect I noted and boiled my ideas into two key areas that would be of interest to develop and provide a solid and workable base to develop an idea around and I came to two main ideas.
Idea #1: The Fishing Game
On the one side, I had an idea for a relaxing fishing game in which the player would be responsible for looking after their house by cleaning it up over time whilst also fishing in various locales whereby they could then take these fish home, name and care for them or sell them to make profit. The aim of this game would be a core loop based around fishing and collecting of animals to care for in the hopes of helping users relax.
Whilst I like the idea of this one its scope seems incredibly large. There are several systems to implement for this and making sure the game has a solid progression to keep the player engaged whilst retaining use of the core fishing mechanic could be quite hard. I’m interested, but I’m unsure as to if this is truly the best idea for me.
Idea #2: The SHMUP
On the other side, the idea was to create an action shoot em up with some rhythmic gameplay elements such as timing based firing patterns and environmental reactions to music. The aim of this would be to feed into the concept of de-stressing and relaxing through the use of music and focusing on a simple but engaged task such as that of shooting enemies, collecting items and dodging bullets. The core game loop would consist of a simple and easy to play grind that would allow players to progress through the game at the pace they choose and keep the gameplay engaging but consistent.
The idea for creating relaxation through action came to be in part because of Nick Popovich’s talk on the Concept of Home In Games in which tells of how games such as Destiny and Fortnite can be relaxing and engaging given their player freedom and consistency which allows someone to play for a brief period and come back as and when they please at their own pace. I wanted to try a potential portion of this experience in the form of an action-oriented game whilst also combinging other areas from my research such as that of energetic music and actions leading to positive emotions and helping create a sense of relaxation. (Sharman, L. and Dingle, G. 2015)
For these reasons, the shmup idea won as my preferred ambition for the project as it allows me to look at areas such as level design, game balance and emotional experience as well as a narrative. It seems an interesting piece to both challenge myself and engage in.
So with these ideas I now need to try and come up with what my project is going to be and what I’m wanting to get from it. Stay Tuned!
Click to see Bibliography
- Sharman, L. and Dingle, G. (2015). Extreme Metal Music and Anger Processing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9.