Research and inspiration

MAP DESIGN

I have looked into map design so I can base it to my board game. there are many ways to design a map which depends on the Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity.

Contrast- the aim is not to have a similar design and colour so it wont confuse other people about the layout. Contrast can be used to draw the attention of the person's eyes to a certain area of the map by having different depth of colours. So each design needs to be distinctive; colours which includes tone and saturation, Symbols on what they represent, Lettering, the use of typeface, weight, colour and style.

Repetition- to make a map look complete and professional it is necessary repeating themes, colours, shapes, textures, lettering. This make the map whole. It also joins objects or areas of similar attributes together, also if its separated by a large map distances.

Alignment- creating a map, you have to think about alignment where the eyes can easily track and flow through the map which would be pleasing to the readers. Visual connections between map elements are reinforced by aligning edges.

Proximity- related items should be placed together to create grouped elements. this logical groupings will hell organise map objects and will also show the structure of the map.

These are some some map samples that I can use to inspire me for my design.

I like to keep my map simple with less detail as possible or it will distract players to play the game. I have to keep in mind to use minimal colour palate or it will confuse them. I prefer the map designs which are more blocky because it is very simple. I will experiment on different styles and see which fit the best. I preferably think that top flat view map is suited for my game more than a slanted view point because it takes up most of the space of the game, unless it is used for a mobile phone app which players want a longer game play or just generally a big map.

To help myself with the layout create a map, I have looked at google maps for inspiration, I have picked this specifically because of its blocky design which suits my game map and it is easy to understand. it has a professional look to it aswell

I have looked into Jeremy Vile's work because I am interested in his character design, his characters are so quirky, and fun looking, they look more like doodles which fits my game because it is based on doodles. The colours are very simple and can target ages 8 and older. Its graphic design is very good because it keeps the eye wondering. This can tie in my map design aswell because it is very clean, no unnecessary details needed. He has used minimal colours to stay with the theme especially looking at the green poster. The green is showing more of the good of the environment, showing nature, trees and animals.  

I have also looked at his Tshirt designs because, it could relate to my future work where I have to think about promoting my game by selling tshirts, posters, toys just like angry birds merchandise. My aim will be having a memorable design of my character, map and game just like the Iconic games like Mario, Sonic, Donkey Kong, Angry birds etc...

                 

This is an interesting game well known in my country called Carrom board, basically, it is played just like billiards, the aim is to hit the white piece to bounce off other colours to the pot to win, except, it is played by flicking it with your finger. This idea can be used for my board game except, I will need a room sized board to create my board game because of its quest like story, the Aim is to eliminate all the enemies to win. I will experiment on making this when I got the time especially when I am working on other live briefs. 

If we didnt have the carrom board, we usually play it on a table with coins. The aim of the game is to knock out the other persons coin off the table. It is a very fun game, I always played it when I was young, we usually call it coin game :D

This is another interesting game which was inspired from carrom. it is also a flicking game but with a foot ball twist, just like in the video, the aim is to flick your piece to the ball scoring it to the goal. I can use the idea of having the main player, flicking his piece to a main ball to attack the enemy piece.

SS1: My Plan and Research

In this project, I have quite alot of different things to acheive in this project. I will not have enough time to make my game into a game App on phones or tablets but I will be creating a board game.

I will have to look into Game Principles that would help me improve my game idea basics, learning its flaws, cause and effect, art style, sturctures, etc... Concept art, board game design structures will be created.

As soon as I am all set and ready, I will be building the board game and have people test it out and ask feedbacks. improvements will be made near the end of the week of building it.

As soon as the game is complete, I will be filming people playing the final product and make a simulation. I will be adding 2D character animation interacting with the footage and there will be scenes with 3D layout of the board game. If I have extra time I would be making a game trailer.

When creating a game, I should be thinking about:

Pieces- Elements that seem as though they might make sense as markers to be moved around on the board or as score keeping devices.

*The game itself must have the board game itself, pens with different colours (black, red, blue, green) this could be a multi-coloured pen or erasable marker. and a calculator to estimate the scores and life points.

Patterns- Are there combinations of things in the content that seem to go together? Are there combinations of things that when put together become something else or take on some additional meaning?

*There are combinations of using different kind of weapons which can be unlocked by walking over it or defeating the enemy. some of these upgrades the weapons strength and might cause effect to either the player or enemy like boosting health or decreases health every turn.

Paths- Map, are the progressions of events in the content that could be thought of as paths? is there a physical place in the content that one can move around in?

*The map could be anything the designer wants it to be on the board game, but if this was an App, players can design it their own way. Once the player unlocks a weapon, it upgrades the HP and makes the other stages a bit harder to play by having strong enemies and harder maps with traps.

Probabilities- Do some things in the content happen by chance or happen outside the control of some on dealing with that content?

*The hero only gets to move and dodge, but the villain cant, Both can use different kind of attacks depending on what design of weapons they got and upgrades.

Prizes- What valuable is in the content area? what do people strive for or try to acquire?

In the map there are visible areas where you can unlock weapons, all you need is to walk over them, this will give you a better weapon damage and effect to kill enemies. Other way to unlock weapons is to eliminate a stage boss and you unlock its power effect and attack.

Principles- What general statements can you make about how the world of this content works? What IF-THEN statements can you make that relate one content element to another?

*In my game design, I plan to make it a 2 player game, the hero and the villian. but this could also be a 2 heroes vs 1 villain for the board game. If i developed this into an App, I could make it 1 v 1, 1 v computer, 2 v 1 or 2 v computer. this could be an awesome coop game online to play with friends and could be a turned based game like "Draw something" 

During my research, I came across this useful principle of a board game structure movements

Content Structure	Game Structure
Movement Through Space or Time	Movement Along a Path
Journeys, Quests Finding something lost Making a discovery Proceduresgetting a degree Processesdigestion, making laws, designing a course, photosynthesis
Obstacles	Blocks on the Path
Physicalmountains, rivers Bureaucratic getting a visa, filling out applications (You can make getting past the obstacle contingent on a specific dice throw or possession of a particular card)
Shortcuts & Setbacks	Jumping Several Squares
Jumping ahead  Marrying into money. Hiring someone instead of doing it yourself. Getting an early promotion. Moving backward Stock market crash Getting fired Getting divorced
Decisions, Choices	Branching Paths
Go to college or start to work? Get married or stay single? Launch a new product line, buy a company that already makes the product, or focus on your other products? Go to the peace conference or continue to wage war?
Varying Risk	Risky Paths
Some choices lead to a chain of events that are more risky than others. For example, deciding to invest in stocks versus putting your money in CD's.	If one path is meant to be riskier than another, put more squares on it that require turning over a card that describes an undesirable event. Or more squares that might send the player back to square 1. To compensate for this enhanced risk, make the path shorter, or let it also contain more squares that lead to the opportunity for desirable things to happen.
Elements with Differing Power	Pieces with Differing Power
People with differing political clout Countries with differing military or economic power	Chess: some pieces can move in more directions or over a greater distance. Backgammon: two pieces together cannot be captured, but one piece alone can be hit by an opposing piece.
Goals, Prizes	Valuable Pieces, End Squares
Interim goals and prizes: Money, quality of life improvements, votes, popularity. End goals: Treasures, a corner office, a peaceful prosperous life.	Interim or gradually acquired prizes can be represented as play money or tokens that look like valuable things. End goals translate to the final stop in a race game.
Changing Conditions	Changing Board
Pre- and post-revolution. Suddenly the rules change. Stock market shifts from bull market to bear. Your ally becomes your adversary. The climate shifts and suddenly it's difficult to be a carnivorous, 50 ton lizard.	Build a two-layer board with a number of holes in both layers. To simulate changing conditions, rotate the upper layer so that some former holes are now covered up and new holes are uncovered. Othello: pieces are white on one side and black on the other. When a row of white pieces has a black piece on each end of the row, they are flipped over and become black, which affects other pieces nearby.
Mathematical Relationships	Lookup Tables
If you raise the price of your product from $40 to $50, your sales will decline by 10% to 25%.	Rule book, telling what to do based on a given roll of the dice or other conditions.
Random or Uncontrolled Events	Randomizers
Things that are out of the player's control or which are practically unpredictable such as.... weather daily stock price changes the behavior of other people	Use a spinner as part of the board or as a separate piece. Chance cards that are read when you land on a chance square. Dice (can be 6, 10, 12, or 20 sided) Lottery results from the newspaper or TV. (used in a Mario Seabra simulation played at several sites simultaneously... the lottery numbers were used to set up the initial conditions of the game so that all players were operating under the same conditions.)

Here are some favourite artist research I've made and composited on Photoshop

JIM DINE

   

I have researched about Jim Dine because he is one of my favourite artists, I love his sketches, it has a grungy feel to it which looks modern an natural. I love his mark making which is very expressive and shows depth and contrast of the objects he is drawing/ Painting. I sometimes sketch the same way he does because it looks very loose and free, very good for rough sketches to get my idea down. Maybe during the animation, I might add some grungy effect on the background of my trailer to add details to it.

DAVID FOLDVARI

I have chosen to research about David Foldvari because I liked the use of type merging with the illustrations which shows movement through out the image. It would be amazing to have the text animated coming out of the illustrations, this would be ideal for title sequence and key words for my game trailer. I also love the use of minimal colours which fits well with my game design. I wanted minimal colours so it is easy to identify the players movement on the game with a completely different colour.