P5 Context

prototype (interactive):

why certain mechanics / gameplay elements make a good platformer:

smooth controls: smooth controls are needed in a platformer because if a game doesn’t have smooth controls new players might not want to play the game because it doesn’t have good controls, it might hinder the gameplay experience for some people.

Power ups: power ups usually make the gameplay experience for some people more fun, sometimes power ups in video games give the player new mechanics to work with, or sometimes power ups help the player if they are stuck on a certain part of the level they are playing, so overall powers ups are usually needed in platforming games to make them more entertaining and interesting to the player.

Platforms: of course, a platforming game needs platforms to make it a platformer, but a good platformer needs to have a good way of putting platforms into a game, making the experience the most fun for the player.

Levels: most platformers use the level formula because it works for that gameplay style, having the level formula works also because it usually saves between levels and that benefits the player in many ways, especially if they were struggling.

Enemies: in a platformer enemies are a given, because of the way it gives platformers an extra challenge, and having enemy variety is really fun to the player as well because it gives a new challenge to the player whenever they first encounter this new enemy, which can be enjoyable and could be difficult as well.

Appealing mechanics of gameplay in certain platformers:

Good world design: a platformer needs good world design because it usually intrigues the player (in a good way) and is also a nice thing for the player to look at while they are playing through the game.

Exploration: it is good for a platformer to have exploration because it gives players an extra challenge to search for hidden collectables or other things (power ups etc..) having exploration in a platforming game is also good because its just extra content for a game as well which is things player really want most of the time.

Upgrades: upgrades are really good in platforming games because it gives the player a feeling of accomplishment and achievement because it gives the player a power up that stays there forever, and it shows how the player has evolved through the gameplay of the platformer.

Example games: games like super mario, celeste, donkey kong country and many more platformers all have some of these mechanics which makes them really good platforming games. The reason why I have noted them here because they are very good examples of how to introduce mechanics into a game and also let the player figure out how to use these mechanics, for example celeste introduces their mechanics in a way where the player figures them out themselves and that works so well in platformers because platformer usually base whole levels of new mechanics.

graphics (visual):

Graphical conventions of platform games:

Pixel art, pixel art was originally used in old video games like on the nes or snes, because of the limitations of the hardware, but now pixel art is usually only used in indie games. It’s primarily, used in indie games because it’s a simpler form of an art style, and doesn’t cost as much to make as say AAA high performance realism graphics. For example: celeste, the game celeste uses pixel art, and it looks very simple but the art style is still beautiful, the way the sprites move in that game is amazing as well, it’s so fluent and works incredibly well with the pixelated art style. The point I am making is that celeste, doesn’t need advanced graphics to be good looking.

Hand drawn, hand drawn animation is not that much used in video games, but when It is, it usually looks amazing and adds so much charm and character to a game, a big example of hand drawn animation is cup head: cup head started out not using hand drawn animation and the developers of the game (which is surprisingly an indie company) thought it didn’t look right so they started to hand draw the sprites for the game and thought it looked really good. And after a long development the game looks fantastic, the game is worth playing entirely for the art style. The game tries to replicate 1930s American animation, and captures it perfectly.

3d graphics, 3d graphics are usually used in AAA platformer games, and usually look good, but don’t really look different to other games that use the same style, for example: the new super Mario bros series, the new super Mario series has been using the same art style since 2006, and of course looks different through each game but, that’s only because of the hardware of the consoles they were released on, so that’s why some people might feel the 3d graphics in 2d platformers feel boring because the new super Mario bros series has used that style of graphics for years and not changed them.

Why I have chosen the pixel art style:

I have chosen the pixelated art style because it is quite simple to use. In a similar way indie games, I do not have the budget, time or skill to do highly advanced graphic, because my art skills aren’t that high either. Also another reason why I have used the pixel art style is because I also need to have animations in my game. So it would be extremely hard to have a advanced graphics and also have animations. Also using piskel to make my pixelated sprites was useful as well, because you can easily animate your sprites in piskel as well.

What I have considered with representation:

One thing I thought about, was that I could have made my main character female, at first I was thinking about making my character female but, in my opinion it was harder for me to design, for example: if my character was to have longer hair it would have been harder to actually draw in pixel art, and also it would be quite hard to also animate as well, so giving my character a simpler design is a lot easier to design, and also extremely easier to animate. Another thing I considered the representation of the future in my game and the representation of society. In my game it will have a steampunk society which could be quite controversial to represent society in a bad way, or in a different way because it might offend people. But in my opinion, I believe many other games represent society in a negative way, so I don’t think people should be offended by the representation of society in my game.

sound (audio):

Audio conventions of platform games?

Usually in platforming games they are normally quite cartoony and simplistic, so the audio must suit that style of the theme, and also must suit the actual gameplay of the game. In platforming games the music and sound effects need to suit the gameplay and mood of the game, if the game is upbeat and happy, for example: in the game Super Mario Bros the music is very catchy and upbeat, with the music being upbeat and happy, its sets the mood of the game and fits the actual gameplay of jumping around and platforming very well. same as the sound effects in Mario games as well, another example from Mario games could be when you pick up coins in the game, it makes a very high pitch noise to let the player know that they have picked up a coin, it is also quite short (the audio clip of picking up a coin), so that the sound effect, doesn’t affect the background music.

Another platforming game that has good sound effects that suits the style is sonic the hedgehog. Sonic the hedgehog has very exaggerated and over the top sound effects, which really suits the cartoony look to the game, an example of this could be: when you slide in the game, when sonic slides in the game he comes to a stop after running really fast, this sound effect is important, because it’s the sound that plays when the player stops moving, giving the player an indication that they have stopped.   

My aims with the chosen style of audio?

When choosing the style of my  audio I had a couple aims/intentions: One of my aims are to make the audio fit the style of my game, when choosing/ making my audio I will keep in mind that it needs to fit the theme of my game, so I will have to pick sounds that sound futuristic and steampunk-like also maybe, slightly Victorian seeing as though steampunk takes a lot from the Victorian era as well so I will have to take that into account as well. another one of my aims will be to make the audio fit the gameplay of my game, so my game has quite mature but cartoony animations in my game, so maybe take inspiration from games like dusk/ doom because they are also quite gory games, and doom has also got some comical death animations as well.

representation?

When choosing my audio/ making it, I had to consider the representation of the sound in my game. I will have to think about how I will represent the steampunk style music of my game, and also the Victorian style and how I will represent it and the music of that age because my game will have to have Victorian/ steampunk style music, because the steampunk theme is set after the Victorian era, (because of the industrial revolution).