⋅─⊱✧✧✧⊰─⋅
Concept art mood board:
The focus of art design will be less on detail on more on simplicity, contrast and isolated colour pallets.
⋅─⊱✧✧✧⊰─⋅
Concept art:
Start of game concept art:
There is a very strong contrast between light and dark at the start of the game. I experimented a bit with the design on the left, I wasn’t sure how much detail to add to the shapes to show the player what things are supposed to be. Maybe I can slowly add these details throughout the game as I focus on making the word lighter. While this was just supposed to be concept art, it also kind of depicts how the game might start. A firefly flutters over and turns on the light, sending the player on their journey. This level is set in the cupboard, which would act as a tutorial stage for the player. The environment involves hooks, hangers and clothes, things that could be found in a cupboard.
Light concepts:
While working on my late game environment concept art, I decided to play around with light colours and style. I asked a few of my peers what their opinions were on the colours and they gave me some interesting feedback:
- “Maybe the different light colours could resemble something, e.g. a power up, or danger.”
- “I like the colour variation, especially with the phone colour being blue.”
- “Maybe certain lights could harm the player.”
- “Maybe the player could use a mirror to create paths with light.”
I don’t want to add power ups or another potential threat to the player to avoid over complicating the game, however the mirror idea inspired me to use a mirror in one of my puzzles. I think I will keep the light colour variation, but I will only use 2 colours per room to avoid complicating the games visual style. I will also only use the variant where it make sense, e.g. blue light comes from tech, and to break up chunks of light where necessary.
For this concept, I will stick with version 2.
Mid/end of game concept art:
This concept art shows the addition of details to the level. The player can now see that the main character was an artist, and learn a bit more about their life. The only issue with this level is its not very clear which route the player would take, but as its just a art concept, I don’t think it matters too much. I also might stick to the bold light and dark contrast, and eliminate some of the details to avoid confusion. The light in the levels change in the following ways:
- The phone light turns off after 5 seconds, unless the player jumps on it to reactive it
- The candle light is permanent
- The lamp must be turned on at the switch
- The small computer light flashes on and off, so the player must time when they use it
- The monitor light turns on when the player lands on the keyboard.
I want the light interactions to make sense – dependent on the light source they come from.
⋅─⊱✧✧✧⊰─⋅
Platforms and controls analysis:
I think this game could work on a variety of platforms (console, PC, mobile, iPad, Switch and similar handheld consoles.) However I think it would be best to focus on one to begin with in order to optimise how the controls feel for the player. It would also be good to try out a platform that gives the largest variety of people access to the game, as I believe this game would be appealing to a large and diverse market of players. Pretty much everyone has a phone, and many people own iPads, so I believe these would be the best platforms to start with. I also think it will inspire more people at exhibitions to continue playing Torchlight after the event as they could have easy access to it, meaning it may pay off in the future. I’m also not entirely sure that console players would bother playing my games, as consoles are usually marketed to player who enjoy games of a greater scale and production quality. If I feel like branching out later, I can.
The only issue with choosing to go with a mobile platform is I would have to adjust gameplay to fit the controls. My initial plan was to have player movement with one hand and item interaction with the other. While it would be easy to convert my gameplay to mobile controls, I am worried the game might lose the idea and challenge that made it unique. I could try some user testing later on in development to see which controls + Platforms players prefer.
Mobile Controls:
There are some options with controls, I could either have onscreen controls where players press buttons to jump or move, or have no visible controls and just have movement based on touch, e.g.:
- Movement (Left and right) – Hold down left or right
- Jump (Up) – Tap
- Jump (up and to left or right) – Tap and then hold down left or right
- Interact with objects – Press on object, hold and drag, then release
- Interact with lights – Tap on interactable, or approach with character
This method may cause some issues, as some controls overlap and may be confusing to the player if they can’t see how to interact with something. I think it may be better to have some visible controls, such as:
- Movement (Left and right) – Hold and drag onscreen joystick
- Jump (Up) – Press jump button
- Jump (up and to left or right) – Press jump button and hold and drag onscreen joystick
- Interact with objects – Press on object, hold and drag it, then release
- Interact with lights – Tap on interactable, or approach with character
I would only need to have the joystick on the left and jump button on the right, all the other controls can be invisible. The minimal visual controls and their positioning should make gameplay relatively simple, and feel comfortable for the player.
It is important to consider the accessibility of the controls as well. I believe these controls take into consideration the following guidelines:
- Ensure interactive elements / virtual controls are large and well spaced, particularly on small or touch screens
- Ensure that all areas of the user interface can be accessed using the same input method as the gameplay
- I would have the gameplay settings button visible to tap on screen.
- Ensure controls are as simple as possible, or provide a simpler alternative
I will assess what other accessibility guidelines I can implement into the game at a later date.
Console Controls:
I decided not to go for console as my platform when considering the controls.
- Movement (Left and right) – Move left joystick
- Jump (Up) – Press X
- Jump (up and to left or right) – Press X and move left joystick
- Interact with objects – Move right joystick to select object, hold left trigger to grab, move with joystick and release to drop
- Interact with lights – Move right joystick to select light, press left trigger to interact
These controls would differ from my original idea, as I can’t use the right hand to only control the player as then the player wouldn’t be able to jump at the same time as move. I want to use X as the jump button to keep the controls simple and easy to understand, however alternating hands to control items may be more confusing than I intend. I think the mobile controls would provide a better overall experience for the player, and I’m not sure that my game would get a very good reception on console anyway.
PC Controls:
Fireboy and Watergirl was a big inspiration for my game (the player controls two players with each hand), so it would make sense for me to analyse how they executed gameplay in a simple way.
Watergirl is controlled with just the A,W and D keys ( A is left, W is jump and D is right) and Fireboy is controlled using the arrow keys ( Left arrow is left, Up arrow is jump and Right arrow is right). These controls are very simple to understand and use, but the difficulty comes with using them simultaneously while also completing puzzles. The mouse is used to pause the game and interact with the UI.
My controls on PC could look something like this:
- Movement (Left) – Left arrow key
- Movement (Right) – Right arrow key
- Jump (Up) – Up arrow key
- Jump (up and to left or right) – Combination of up arrow key and movement keys.
- Select objects – A to cycle through objects left, D to cycle through to the right.
- Interact with objects – press S to grab object, move object left or right with A + D keys, Press S again to release.
- Interact with lights – A to cycle through lights to the left, D to cycle through to the right, press S to interact.
While I tried to make the controls as simple as possible, I still feel like the might be a big confusing. Cycling through objects might look a bit weird during gameplay, and having to use the A+D keys to cycle through but also move items may be confusing.
Summary:
Overall, I think I will stick to Mobile and iPad as my platforms, however I would like to do some user testing at a later date to see players opinions on controls and whether they prefer a different platform for gameplay.
Platform: Mobile and iPad
Controls:
- Movement (Left and right) – Hold and drag onscreen joystick
- Jump (Up) – Press jump button
- Jump (up and to left or right) – Press jump button and hold and drag onscreen joystick
- Interact with objects – Press on object, hold and drag it, then release
- Interact with lights – Tap on interactable, or approach with character
⋅─⊱✧✧✧⊰─⋅
Paper prototype (version 1):
I made this prototype to test out my rules and level progression. More info on this prototype is in next weeks post.
⋅─⊱✧✧✧⊰─⋅
Presentation:
⋅─⊱✧✧✧⊰─⋅
Next post:
Previous post:
⋅─⊱✧✧✧⊰─⋅
Reply