I have finished! Self Evaluation.

Self Evaluation
BA4 Game Design Document

For our project we were given a choice of games to recreate how we wanted. Instinctively me and my partner Liam both went straight for ‘The Portopia Serial Murder Case’ on the SNES. We both decided on this as it was the most unusual game of the bunch and really jumped out as us. We could create a well thought out, narrative driven detective game with our own twist, something that hasn't been experimented with much. We knew that this game may not be one of the popular choices, giving us a chance to be unique in our idea. After we looked at the original game, ideas began to flow, and we ended up deciding on a thriller type investigation game in a graphic novel style. My first thoughts were, what will keep people playing our game? The first idea that came to mind was horror. Everyone loves to be scared, and this aspect of gameplay keeps the player immersed in the world. The narrative flowed naturally from this. We conducted research into real life horror stories, looked into cults and decided on a narrative which was both believable and horrific. We decided to push the boundaries of horror and make our game as dark and disturbing as we could. A game that would make people want to finish the narrative and be the hero.

 In our project I was the role of Concept Artist, as well as helping out with bits of the written work. After we planned out our idea, I was happy we were going for a graphic novel style as it suited my drawing style. I began work on characters and locations and the work seemed to flow, as I really loved the characters I was creating. After writing the character biographies I could really imagine how they were going to look, and this made the drawings so much easier to complete.

The design process I went through was tough, as I began with the easy drawings, characters etc, but was then left with the harder stuff to complete like environments. However I would not put anything in the final document that wasn’t perfect, and although this caused a lot of angry tantrums at my computer, it worked in my favor as I am 100 percent happy with all the artwork I submitted into the final document. I thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with the art style through the use of colour and lighting, and if I had more time I would have completed much more artwork. I am going to continue working on art for this idea anyway, as it is stretching my art skills to the limits, which is a positive experience as it is helping me improve.

Our final document came out really well, and I am extremely proud of all of the artwork I submitted into it. Working with Liam Gallagher-Vaes we have put together an extremely well thought out design document, which we are both proud of and enjoyed doing.

497 words of goodness. 

I am quite sad this project is over. I really enjoyed it. 

New Artwork

This is the storyboard I put together in the form of a graphic novel.

 We had to change Shaun to San, as he needed to be Japanese. I also had to give him mirrored glasses as to not give away that he has yellow eyes.

The Kasumi family also had to be redone Japanese, and below are all 3 family members.

This image shows how doors glow yellow in the game when the player must enter them.

House design and Floorplans

 Here are the drawings for the Kasumi house and an extra area.
The Barn is an example of an extra area on the Kasumi land.

This is the Kasumi house, (Helianthus House) as well as floor plan.

More Artwork

This is a generic cultist. They all wear the same robes when part of the cult meetings. When a member is possessed the members mouth is sewn shut as to ensure the demon does not escape. The cultists skin slowly peels away while they are possessed, meaning the longer they have been under the demons control, the less human they look. To free the member, the cultist mouth must be un-stitched so that the demon can escape.

Below is an example of the evidence the player collects in the tutorial house. A torn photo, a knife and a note. The glowing knife is an example of what objects will look like in game when they can be interacted with.

This is the Kasumi Family who live at Helianthus house. They are Hana, Maddy, Light and Shadow.

Below is the office space that Jason inhabits while staying at the Kasumi family house. He has a small room at the top of the house with a tiny window. He has a desk, a shelf and a bed. The desk is used to look over evidence and to use the laptop for research. The shelf contains all the evidence the player has collected. The player can also use the walls to piece together notes and photos. There is also a floor plan of the house the player can interact with. The bed is where Jason can sleep to either advance to the day or save the game. The bed is also where Jason awakens if he blacks out.

PSN and PC Icons

Here are our ideas for the icon of our game. This will be on PSN and for the PC icon on steam.

Gameplay drawings

 Here is the gameplay pictures for our game, showing the third person view with the cross hair. This is the room in the daylight.

This image illustrates how the surroundings change at nighttime.

The below image shows what happens to the screen when Jason is near to blacking out. The screen gets blurrier until it is just darkness and Jason awakens in his bed.

We wanted the player to be able to know when it was going to get dark as to either investigate a certain area or hide. This watch has a sun that spins around in the day until night and the moon appears underneath.

The player can also get different objects out of Jasons utility belt. The player scrolls across the pockets to get what they need. He has a radio to talk to his partner, as well as a torch and whatever he picks up.

This is the players first person view when Jason is looking over evidence.

Case for our game

Here is a mock up case for our game, what it would look like on a case. As we decided it will be digitally sold we decided this would be the icon on the Xbox marketplace. I am also working on some icons for the PSN etc.

I decided to go for a very Japanese look to follow the theme and setting of our game, having the Japanese translation of the title underneath. The symbol in the centre is the Cults symbol in the game. The Japanese letters stand for 'Sunflower' in the centre.

Just one of those days..

We finally have our headings for our design document! These are below, along with Character biographies.

Overview

·      Key Points

·      Goals     

·      Unique Selling point

Gameplay

·      How the game is played

·      HUD

·      Evidence

·      Narrative based

Narrative

·      Overview of whole narrative

·      Tutorial narrative

·      Different endings

·      Use of Dreams and evidence

Characters

·      Jason

·      Susan

·      Lily

·      Shaun

·      Cult members

·      The Kasumi Family

Locations and Environments

·      The opening house

·      The Kasumi Family home

·      Your office

·      Flashbacks and dreams

Experience

·      Use of colour in the game

Impact the player has on the game as a whole 

Character Biographies 

Characters

Jason (playable character)

Jason is a 35 year old detective. He has short black hair, and has a very scruffy face, covered in stubble. He lives alone in a small apartment, after going through a tough divorce. Before, he was living with his wife Susan and daughter Lily. He is able to see his daughter at the weekends and barely see’s his ex wife at all. Although his life seems pathetic, Jason refuses to show it. In or out of his job he continues to work on his personal appearance, wearing neat expensive suits he knows he can barely afford to keep clean and pretends his life is perfect. He is however in secret suffering from deep depression. He is always happy to help the surrounding world he cares about, which is why he joined the Osaka Police Force, working his way up the ladder to a detective, working alongside his new partner Shaun.

Shaun (sidekick/helper)

Shaun is Jason fellow detective and best friend. He is 37. He joined the OPF (Osaka Police Force) at 25, during his first year as a police officer he stopped a bank robbery. In the process, he was attacked by a knife armed robber and earned a scar across his lip. He became quite a celebrity after that. The injury he gained made him think about his future. This is when he decided to become a detective. As the job he eventually acquired, he threw away all the police officer fame and became a button torn, scruffy haired casual person. His charismatic personality never left him though. Unexpected events lead Jason into his midst, making him his partner. Shaun welcomed him with open arms and they have been best friends ever since. Jason being 2 years younger than Shaun, he treated Jason like a little brother.

Susan

Susan is Jason’s ex wife. She is two years younger than Jason at the age of 33. She has medium length dark brown hair that she always has tied back into a bun. She always dresses smartly, to constantly look presentable. During the early years of her marriage she was always happy. However, due to recent events regarding her divorce with Jason she has recently become more protective and paranoid with Jason, as well as herself. Despite everything she still cares for him. She is now always on edge, but can’t give it away too much to avoid worrying her daughter Lily.

  

Lily

Lily is Jason and Susan’s 7 year old daughter. She has short brown hair like her mother and wears a black band across her head. She always dresses in pretty dresses, which her mum treats her to, when she has done well at school and helping at home. She is caught up in the middle of their divorce and is not given the opportunity to speak out for herself. She denies that her dream of a happy family has gone, and continues to try and keep her mums spirit up by always smiling and enjoying herself. In school, everyone is aware of what her parents are going through and bully her for it. Coming home with new bruises on her face nearly every day, her paranoid mother has been forced to keep moving schools. Not having a lot of money she can’t afford private schools for Lily, so she has to make do with public schools. Despite all the hardships, Lily still remains in denial of a life of sadness and pain, which she believe her mother is going through, even though she denies to admit it, because she reckons Lily is too young to fully understand. One of her best days in her week is going to see her dad at the weekend. Although Susan isn’t always too keen seeing Jason, she has to keep up appearances for Lily’s sake.

OK, So we have all of our headings for our design document, and all the art has been decided. Now I just have to do it. Easier said than done, but after 3 attempts here is the sketch outline for Jason.

This is the final study for Jason, which we will use on his biography page.

Here is Susans image for the design document.

This is Lilys picture for her page.

And finally, the one that was the most annoying to get right, Shaun.

We finally have a title!

We finally decided to go for a title which is similar to the Portopia serial Murder case. This is our final title:

'The Osaka Case of Helianthus Annuus'

Basically, Osaka is where our game will be set and the Cult which the case is investigating is called Helianthus Annuus, which is latin for Sunflower.

Our game will also be for PSN and XBOX Live and Steam, as well as for the PS Vita and on the App store. We chose this as we want our game to have episodes, chapters where the player must buy the next chapter to continue the story. We also feel that players are more inclined to buy games on the console itself as all they have to do is download and play, it is very accessible. 

Shaun Digital Painting

This is a character concept digital painting for the character Shaun. I wanted to give Shaun a dark, sinister side, and also test out the art style on a character.

Digital Painting, Final Art Style

This is the first digital painting I have completed for our game, to help us determine what art style we want to go for. We knew that we were going for a graphic novel style, so thick lines, and we also decided on going for black and white with one colour standing out, to give a totally unique feel to the art style. This is the opening scene in the game where Jason finds his ex wife and daughter dead on an investigation.

Progress Images:

This is the final four images I came up with, each with different colours used to give a different feel.

In the end this is the final image I created.

I decided not to have the black border as I like the unfinished surrounding it has to it. For the art style we have decided to go for this style, bold lines as well as drawn scruffy lines, and strong lighting. We really love the water colour look to the image, and this is something we would love to see in our games art style. We have decided to keep the colour yellow in colour in our game as its connotations fit perfectly into the theme of our narrative. The connotations of the colour yellow are conflicting ones, as on one hand it connotes happiness, and on the other connotes cowardice and deceit. It is also the colour used for hazard signs and warnings. Also, yellow ribbons were worn as a sign of hope as women waited for their loved ones to return from war. They are also still used nowadays to welcome home loved ones. This is perfect for our story, as it is centered around deceit and the importance of family and loved ones.

Final Character Drawings

This is Jason, our main character. Jason is 35 years old and lives in a small apartment by himself, and occasionally has his daughter at the weekends. He has a scruffy but neat look about his appearance and always dresses smartly. He has short black hair, with stubble around his face. Jason is a happy person despite the circumstances but there is a deep sadness behind the surface which he tries to hide. He is always happy to help people, which is why he joined the police force with Shaun.

This is Susan, Jasons Ex-wife. She is 2 years younger than Jason, aged 33. She has medium length dark brown hair which she almost always ties into a bun. She always dresses smartly, and always looks presentable. Susan used to be a happy person but has recently become more and more paranoid about Jason, as well as life. She is a nervous person now, always on edge.

This is Lily, she is 7 years old and the child of Susan and Jason. She is caught up in the middle of a divorce but always has a smile on her face. She has short brown hair, in which she wears a black band across her head. She is always dressed in pretty dresses which her mum buys for her. She is a happy, friendly child and is always happy to see her Dad.

This is Shaun, he is Jason's partner and best friend. Shaun is aged 37, and joined the police force with Jason. He is quite scruffy and has short blonde hair. He dresses casually even for work, and has a scar across his lip from an early police fight. He has a very laid back and charismatic personality. 

Narrative, opening scene

Game Concept Story

Opening Scene

Character (Jason) is on his way to work listening to a voicemail from his ex-wife Susan, talking about their divorce, and regarding access to his daughter Lilly. Jason receives a call from his work partner Shaun about a house he must investigate.

Game play (Tutorial)

Jason arrives at the house. He meets his partner Shaun and two officers who are already at the scene. From a general perspective the house looks perfectly normal. Jason) is able to ask Shaun and the officers a selection of questions, to gain a better insight on what happened at the house. When Jason enters the house he can see messages and symbols surrounding the infrastructure. He is able to free roam the house to look for clues, in order to advance the story. This gives the player practice to how the game’s mechanics are going to function. Jason has to find a series of items for use of exploring further or to obtain as evidence. He finds a toy box in a children’s room downstairs. It requires a specially shaped key to open.  He searches around the room and finds a loose floorboard. He removes the board and finds a necklace. It appears to have some form of cult symbol attached. He looks over at the toy box again and notices that the key to unlock it matches the symbol on the necklace. He slots the necklace in the shaped slot on the box and unlocks it. The wall behind the box moves to reveal a hidden passageway. Before Jason can enter the room a disturbed cultist falls at the player’s feet screaming. The disturbed cultist is covered in scratches, his clothes are torn and blood stained.  He runs off. Feeling needless to chase after the cultist the player continues his investigation and enters the secret doorway. A spiral staircase lit with candles twists deep down into what appears to be a bottomless abyss. He looks at the walls around him and notices there are blood drawn symbols, dead flesh and scratch marks embedded in the wall. He reaches the bottom of the stairs, and is drowned in darkness. At the far end of the room there is a loud shudder. A flicker of light then appears, the light grows until it illuminates the entire room, revealing a massacre of dead bodies. He steps around the bodies to what appears to be an alter in the center of the room. He finds a journal on top of it. The player is able to flick through the book, to look for clues. A photo falls out, and lands by his feet. He picks up the picture. It is a picture of his ex wife Susan and his daughter Lily arm in arm with a strange man wearing a necklace similar to the one he found in the floorboards. The photo triggers a flashback to the night the photo is dated of Susan going out for the evening and taking Lily with her. He puts the book down on the alter and looks up to the other end of the room. He see’s three ruined bodies fixed to the wall. He doesn’t make out their identity until he is staring them in the eye. It was Susan and Lily, with the strange man he saw with them in the photo. The necklace is hanging from his slit neck. He gets a positive match on the symbol by comparing it with the one he obtained from the floorboards. As Jason continues to examine the bodies a strange hooded person sneaks up behind in and hits him round the back of the head, knocking him out.

Jason wakes up a week later in hospital. Shaun is sitting across from him. Jason is suffering from some form of amnesia and has no recollection of what happened in the house a week ago. Shaun tells him they were investigating a lead on a murder case, and they were sent to the house to look for clues. The search lead them into the basement. Nothing was found in there either, apart from a journal of some kind. Jason had pocketed it without Shaun noticing. The power suddenly went out. Jason forgot his flash light, so he tried to retrace his footsteps but tripped over something and knocked his head. Shaun leaves the hospital, leaving Jason with his possessions to tend to in the meantime. Sifting through his pockets he comes across the journal he picked up. Having no memory of picking the book up, he flicks through it and finds the same picture he previously discovered. It triggers a flash back of a row between him and Susan an hour before she took Lily and left the house, to attend the cult meeting. This gave Jason a burst of knowledge, remembering the scene in the basement. Eager to re discover what he remembers to returns to the abandoned house and navigates back to basement. Totally the opposite of what he was expecting there was nothing other than exactly what Shaun told him. A couple of boxes and a battered up coffee table. Jason wasn't convinced so he uses his UV flashlight to look for signs of blood. He finds no traces what so ever. Shaun arrives in the basement, asking Jason what he is doing back. Nothing ever happened in the house. Was it all a dream? Illusion? Some form of cultist spell his wife had cast on him before the divorce?

First pieces of Artwork

As we decided to go for a graphic novel style to our game, I began work on the characters. This is the art style I will exploring a lot throughout the project to find the exact type we want to go for.

Cult Research

Cult Research

http://www.elistmania.com/juice/10_of_the_world_s_most_bizarre_cults/

Additional link and cult to check out:

Jonestown

listuerse.com/2007/09/15/top_10_cults/ 

Ordo Templi Orientis

Also known as the Order of the Temple of the East and Order of Oriental Templers, is a fraternal international and religious group which was created in the beginning of the 20th century. Aleister Crowley, an English author and a known Satanist occultist is one of the most renowned members of the order.

Initially the cult was anticipated to be modeled after and connected to Freemasonry, a form of a Gnostic Order, however, under the headship of Aleister Crowley; O.T.O has been documented around the Law of Thelma as its fundamental religious principal. This law is expressed as “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law” and “Love is the law, love under will”. These laws for the cult were promulgated in 1904 with the dictation of The Book of the Law.

The O.T.O is well known for practicing Black Magic. The creepy cult is branded to include sexual rituals that are both heterosexual and homosexual in nature. Many of the practices that O.T.O teaches are related to magical orders which enlighten the system of Masonic style of sexual magic. However, the O.T.O still restricts access to its “inner secrets”. The controversial book,Secret Rituals of the O.T.O, was withdrawn from print by the publisher after receiving a threat of legal action by the O.T.O. Nevertheless, as there has been a growing interest in the writings of Aleister Crowley, his work has been reprinted due to which various new societies have come into existence and have modeled themselves as the new generation of O.T.O.

Aghori

The Aghori or Aghouri is a Hindu cult that is considered to have split off from the Kapalika order in the fourteenth century AD. Many Hindus condemn the Aghorias non-Hindu due to their cannibalistic rituals. The streets of northern Indian cities are littered with followers of this cult carrying a kapala, which is a cup made from a skull! These bizarre people will eat anything from rotten food to animal faeces. In order to achieve the highest citadel of enlightenment, the Aghori will perform horrendously crude rituals. The finality of their rituals is attained from eating the decaying flesh of a human. 

According to Hindu mythology and practiced beliefs, everything emanates from “Brahman". Therefore, there is no evil. The Aghori believe everything to be god itself and to abandon anything would be equivalent of abandoning god. This is the bizarre philosophy followed by theAghori Babas.

The roots of the Aghori date back to ancient times. An Aghori ascetic who went by the name of Kinaram is responsible for the present-day rituals and beliefs of the cult. Since the Aghori worship lord Shiva with all their fervor, they believe that Kinaram was a reincarnation of lord Shiva.

The Aghori cult dwells on cremation grounds, daubing themselves with the ashes of the corpses and eating from a cranial begging bowl or a kapala. Many Aghori opt to roam around baring all. This is their representation of their detachment from the ways of life that normal people abide by. A strong belief which surrounds them is that by doing so they are above and beyond the normal worldly emotions of human beings.

The Body of Christ

The Body of Christ is a diminutive authoritarian group that focuses on “direct revelation” and not the Bible for its direction. As of late this cult has been in the news as two children have died pointlessly. Samuel, the ten month old baby of the founder’s son, Jacques, died of malnutrition. The little baby was not fed, because the cult believed that they were going to get a sign from God to feed him. The other child who died was Jeremiah, son of Rebecca Corneau. The baby died shortly after the mother gave birth. The reason for the death of the baby has been attributed to the lack of medical care provided.

Ten years ago, Dennis Mingo a former member of the cult, left the group. He gave a diary to the police in which he described the deaths of the two babies in depth. Regardless of the effort the police has put into finding the bodies of the children, they have remained to be unsuccessful.

The cult denounces the “seven systems” of a conventional society. These primarily, include: education, government, banking, religion, medicine, science and entertainment. The members of the group have consistently denied any cooperation with civil and governmental authorities. They have also refused any forms of legal counsel. They have constantly been refusing to assert their primary constitutional right against self-incrimination. This bizarre cult expects that the world will soon erupt in outrageous violence and turmoil, and that they alone will be the sole survivors of the disaster that they predict.

Ideas and feedback

Feedback & Ideas

After brainstorming ideas , we had a sheet of notes to take to our feedback session. The concept itself is solid, but there were a number of plot holes in our understanding of how to construct a solid/believable  narrative.

In a nutshell we want to design a point and click third person perspective horror crime game.

You play as a detective called Jason Ross going through a difficult divorce, with a daughter, Lilly stuck in the middle. One night, Susan, his ex wife and Lilly go out for the evening and don't return that night. The next morning Jason gets a call from his partner, Shaun requesting him to attend an investigation. When arriving at the scene, he finds that the mystery, him and Shaun must solve is more complicated than first anticipated.

Here is a tidier version of the page scanned below:

• Cult based murder/narrative (investigation horror genre)
• Horror elements (Amnesia, Silent Hill, Alan Wake)
• Flash backs activated when interacting with objects/clues found in the game (e.g. picks up a photograph, activates a flashback. Flashback visuals disoriented and grainy
• Visuals: Dark, creepy (makes it harder to find things, intimidating atmosphere, environment changes day and night; during the day everything is normal but at night new objects/clues appear and out of the ordinary events occur. Crackdown 2, zombie freaks come out at night and hide in the day. Minecraft: All the monsters: creepers, zombies and spiders come out at night.
• Settings: Family mansion, modern home (suburbia), dungeon, castle, generic working class house (makes it realistic and relatable) to the audience.
• Investigation: Missing people, supernatural murder
• Crime is a setup for the detectives
• Character memory loss
• Player can choose gender/back story of their character (all back stories are pre made; like Mass Effect)
• Game's initial story perhaps isn't about solving the actual crime. Could be detective trying to find himself and start a fresh life. Makes player feel empathy for the character and have a personal/relatable connection (LA Noire; personal flashbacks).
• Back story is the same for either gender player chooses
• Family character
• Child kidnapped by cult family
• Personal vendetta
• Personal kidnapping linked to the case
• Dark, gritty, deep story - makes it scary
• Daemonic cult/supernatural
• Human Sacrifice (The Wicker man movie 2006)
•  Third/first person point and click (Amnesia game play)
• Detectives partner could be possessed by the cult, undercover cultist. Possible kidnapper
• South episode: City Sushi; character has multiple personalities. Partner could have multiple personalities and be behind the whole crime. The Walking Dead: Main characters best friend betrays him by sleeping with his wife.
• Detectives wife has a secret back story, she hides everything from him and their family lives in a false reality.
• Sin City: Has a series of short stories in a random order that interlink and come together at the end. Keeps the audience guessing. The art style is mostly black and white, only revealing the bright colours: greens, red, yellows.

As a sum up we were told to investigate in depth to cults, work on character profiles and work on a solid narrative, covering every aspect possible regarding characters back stories, plot twists, continuity and make it convincing in a realistic sense. Research into other supernatural crime films, games and TV shows. It is important to gain an understanding of how other games, TV shows and films were able to express the horror/crime genre so well and become successful. E.g. The X files, CSI, Alan Wake (examples of a film, TV show and game).