Reflective Essay

I feel as if this unit has went very well.

First of all, the research section of this unit was very easy to do as there is a wealth of information on what makes an iconic videogame character available on the internet.  All it really took was a quick Google search in order to get the information that I needed. Most of the information was about cartoony mascots, but thankfully I was able to find information on more realistic characters too, proving that you don’t need to go through the ‘cartoon mascot’ route in order to create a character that is memorable and iconic in their own right. I am rather happy with the characters I had picked because they are some of the most iconic characters that gaming has to over, and Solid Snake even fits the sneaking and stealth element that Shiny Money requested for their game. Not only that, but I am rather proud that I was able to find out what made a bad iconic character; being able to describe what elements can lead to a character to being irritating and disliked, or even ironically being an ‘icon’ of bad characters. This is an aspect that I think many others would over look, so I’m proud that I was able to discuss it.

I think that my research on the videogame companies was serviceable. Though I struggled while into smaller game companies within the UK that were notable enough to mention, I decided that it would be satisfactory enough to just mention “Team Meat” because they’re an indie company consisting of two people who still managed to create a very successful. But of course I had to mention Sega and Nintendo as they have what many consider the most iconic game characters of all: Sonic and Mario. Overall I am very pleased with this section; I believe that I was able to keep bringing it back to iconic characters rather than just giving you a basic history of the companies. If I could change anything about this, I would’ve made sure to start my research earlier in order to make it more detailed and maybe write about more companies.

When it came to what sort of characters we should make and what sort of gameplay the game should have, me and my teammate (Eamon) decided that the game should be a platformer. Not only due to its high popularity. But because we felt as if it would best be suited to the games universe and we felt as if we could fit in the requested stealth mechanic that way.

Not only did we manage to meet all deadlines that were set, but we were also able to create not only a detailed proposal that explained the characters, their selling points, what sort of world the game took place in and what genre it fell under. The pitch also went well I think, we both read out the slides, keeping them short, precise and to the point.  When we spoke we were both very clear, taking turns in which slides we read out aloud. However when asked questions, I found that I tended to answer them even when Eamon was doing his slides, but I did this because I wrote the PowerPoint so I had a clearer idea of what the answer was. This pitch made me realize how important time management is. Some pitches are supposed to only be 1 minute long, while others can be up to 5 or even 10 minutes. I think that our pitch was a good enough length, though I struggled to ensure that it wasn't either too long or too short. Now I know now important time managing is.

As for how my illustrated synopsis went, I feel as its fit for the purpose. I felt a little uncomfortable with how similar it was to the power point that was created, however it does fit the needed criteria. Overall I am very pleased with it. 

However, if I could change anything I would’ve gotten all the characters planned out from the beginning. We had a little bit of trouble at times coming up with characters, their backstories etc. I should have gotten those all sorted out at the beginning rather than just work them out as we go along. But still, I am pleased with the characters that we created.

In conclusion, I feel as if we did very well in this unit. I hit all the targets I felt as if I was required to hit, and I met all criteria that I needed to meet.

Illustrated Synopsis

Main Character:

The protagonist is ‘Kid’, a young boy who’s around 6-7 years old who has been put under a curse by his evil granny (The witch). The curse has robbed him of his ability to sleep and he has set out on a quest to cure himself of his affliction, otherwise he’ll be doomed to cleaning his grannies house for all eternity. Due to his lack of sleep Kid often hallucinates, the world around him warping and turning into something else entirely. He’s a relatable character to kids his age and adults will want to protect him from the dangers he’ll face on his quest, and fondly remember back when they had the same sort of naïve, innocent mind-set that kid has.  Kid often makes sarcastic quips and humorous observations to what’s happening around him. 

 

The Primary Antagonist:

he Primary Antagonist to the story is the Wicked Witch. She’s a short, ugly old lady with white grey hair and evil red eyes.  Her wand is her best friend and is rarely seen without it. Like all witches she has a malicious cackle. She cursed kid because he wanted to stay up past his bedtime, and because she figured he can spend more time cleaning her house if he didn’t sleep anymore. She has strong magical powers, and can fly using a broom. 

 

The game also has two secondary antagonists:

Ogre – The witches pet, and makes him chase down Kid so he can bring him back to her. He’s Tall, fat, strong, smelly, slow and dim-witted. He also has a club that he’s never seen without. Ogre adores witch and wants to bring back to earn her affection. He’s a bit of a ‘Big loveable oaf’.

 

Fairy – A little Fairy that kid runs into during his adventure. Fairy pretends to help Kid at first; however he’s actually trying to trick kid for his own agenda.  He wants to shrink kid down so he can steal his clothes, thus meaning he won’t be naked anymore, and he won’t need to keep focusing on creating a magical aura around him to hide his nakedness. He considers himself a jokester, but Kid actually thinks he’s very annoying.

 

 

Gameplay:

The gameplay in this title will be a platformer in the same vain as Super Mario Bros. Kid will have to jump from platform to platform, collect power ups and defeat enemies by jumping on their heads. Due to Kids lack of sleep, the world warps and changes around him: The following is an example of how what different sorts of levels this can lead him to explore. For example, a simple school hallway can turn into an enchanted forest. There can be some minor hack n’ slash elements with Kid being able to use a baseball bat to fend off enemies.

 

 

Requested Stealth Element:

The requested Stealth element will come from Ogre. Being a big dumb creature he often falls asleep, meaning that Kid is going to have to tiptoe by him to avoid waking him up, and hiding in shadows whenever he does wake up

Reward for the player:

The player gets to progress to more stages, experiencing there imaginative design and they get to see how the story folds out. They get to see what happens to Kid, the other antagonists in the game, and overall get to experience a very well designed and crafted platforming adventure.

The kids must complete small puzzles on his quest in order to progress through the game. This will unlock hidden areas with bonus content.

At the end of each level the character will find a chest. This chest will reveal either the magic milk potion that will help him sleep or a dud potion I.E an energy drink. This is the driving force behind the game idea.

 

Tag Line:

“The Greatest adventure to ever happen after bedtime!”

Proposal

Original Thought

Our idea revolves around the fact our character finds in extremely hard to sleep and embarks on a quest in order to cure himself of his affliction. We believe this has not been done before in the gaming industry. The fact the idea is new we believe will differentiate us from the crowd.

 Gaming Elements

Adventure – The kid will need to adventure around his granny’s house to complete his quest of finding the potion. He may also leave his house to visit his school or the forest behind his grannies house. Kid may also be shrunk during the game, this will let us create new unique adventures for Kid to explore.

Action – During the game the kid will need to defeat the Ogre, Fairy and Witch, this is the action aspect of our game. He will also need to complete some puzzles to defeat the Fairy.  The Ogre will be the hardest physical antagonist Kid will need to defeat while Witch will add a magical aspect to the action. Having multiple dimensions to our fighting mechanics will help develop the players interest in our characters.

Stealth – The kid will need to be stealthy during gameplay to complete his task. If he does not he will face stronger opponents. One scene will see the Kid sneak past a sleeping Ogre. If he wakes the Ogre up he will have a hard fight on his hands.

Characters 

Kid – The protagonist in the game, he is deprived of sleep. This has left him delirious and craving for sleep. He has undertaken a quest for a magical milk potion that will help him sleep. During his adventure he will keep the player amused with quips designed for adults, much like the Simpsons series.

Witch – The witch is the antagonist. She has placed the kid under her spell to keep him awake forever. She wants to keep him awake so he will help her complete her task of cleaning her house. Her best friend is a wand she has had for over 100 years, she never leaves it down for anything.
 

Ogre – The ogre is the witches pet, usually fending off postmen and debt collectors. He has now been giving the task of capturing Kid and bringing to the witch to clean every room from top to bottom. He Is as strong as an Ox, but he lacks enough brain cells to be much harm. Ogre is also very smelly so keep our distance or you may be sick

 Fairy – The kid meets a fairy which he believes will help him to defeat the witch and ogre though he soon realises the fairy has deceived him, leading him into a trap. Fairies true intentions are to shrink Kid down and steal his pyjamas. Fairy is naked though he keeps his modesty by conjuring a mystical fog, this take valuable magic powers which are not ever lasting so it is best he gets Kids pyjamas

Story

The kid is very tired but his granny (the witch) will not let him sleep until he helps her clean her house. He is so tired and delirious he believes she has put him under a spell to keep him awake. He believes he is on a quest for a magical milky potion that will counteract the spell and help him sleep. He has to search a series of chests to find the potion, each chest contacting either an energy drink, prune juice or the potion. If he finds the Red Bull he his given a boost in energy , the prune juice gives him flatulence while the milk potion helps him sleep.

Along the way he face three enemies. The ogre will be the physical fight/stealth the will face during the game, the fairy will be the puzzle aspect and the

Game Rewards

The player gets to progress to more stages, experiencing there imaginative design and they get to see how the story folds out. They get to see what happens to Kid, the other antagonists in the game, and overall get to experience a very well designed and crafted platforming adventure.

The kids must complete small puzzles on his quest in order to progress through the game. This will unlock hidden areas with bonus content.

At the end of each level the character will find a chest. This chest will reveal either the magic milk potion that will help him sleep or a dud potion I.E an energy drink. This is the driving force behind the game idea.

Red Bull – If Kid finds a can of Red Bull he will be instantly revitalise, his bags under his eyes vanishing, he can also walk faster, jump higher and throw further. This will take Kid away from his goal of sleeping but will help him on his quest.

Prune juice -  Prune juice will give Kid unbelievable flatulence which he can use against his enemies.

Milk – Milk is his ultimate goal, this will help him achieve his ultimate goal of sleeping.

Style

As many other iconic characters in history, we have decided to create a platform style game. We plan on reinventing the platform genre by adding new dynamic features that have never been done before. During the game the player will face enemies which he will need to defeat in order to progress. He will be able to collect some weapons to help him on his way. These include:

Teddy Bear – This will be the weakest weapon the kid can collect during the game. This will only defeat small enemies or take multiple attacks on large enemies.

Water pistol – The water pistol will be stronger than the teddybear and have a larger range. It will kill large enemies in one hit but require two for armoured enemies.

Baseball Bat – The baseball bat will defeat armoured enemies in one hit.

Genre
Our game idea falls under the platform genre. We also feel it has a puzzler and adventure element to it, although it will feel predominantly platformer in nature. There will also be comedic tones and elements in the game to keep it light hearted much like The Simpsons series they will include adult overtones that go over children's heads.

Audience

We believe this game will appeal to a wide age range, the platform nature of the game will appeal to older gamers as it has similarities to the Mario franchise. We also feel younger gamers will be attracted to the colourful visual style of the game. During our research we learnt that both male and female gamers will be interested in our genre. We also found that 35% of parents play games with their children, as we believe our game will appeal to both adults and children we are planning on taking advantage of this fact. We plan on including slight adult humour much like the Simpsons, this will be done in the form of sarcastic quips about his surroundings. We feel this give Kid a Bart Simpsons feel which will help make him an iconic character.

As Kid is a child this will help his appeal towards children, They wil feel attached to Kid like a friend, as such this will urge young players to help him through his quest. Older players will feel a like Kid is their son and care for him during his troubled time ahead. 

Why you think this is good idea

We believe that this is a good idea because it’s a unique idea. The character of ‘kid’ is someone that you don’t usually see in videogames and he will resonate with audiences both young and old. Kids will be able to project themselves onto kid and pretend that they’re embarking on an adventure, while adults will enjoy Kids sarcastic sense of humour, be nostalgic about how they too used too want to stay up past their bedtime, and also want to protect him throughout his journey. Overall it’s just a creative idea that will stand out within the games market, its ideas are unique, funny, and the premise behind the gameplay should appeal to gamers both young and old.

Feelings about the Pitch

I feel as if the pitch went really well. We were able to deliver our presentation in a concise, and comprehensible manner. We kept it short, yet still delivered a decent amount of information to ensure that people will have a clear idea for what the game, and characters will be about. My main goal when creating the powerpoint was to keep it condense and straight to the point. I wanted to ensure that our ideas were presented clearly, but not ramble on about details for too long.

This pitch made me realize how important time management is. Some pitches are supposed to only be 1 minute long, while others can be up to 5 or even 10 minutes. I think that our pitch was a good enough length, though I struggled to ensure that it wasn't either too long or too short. Now I know now important time managing is.

Overall I am pleased with how the Pitch turned out.

The Pitch

Company Research

To get a better idea of how realistic Shiny Money Entertainments goals are, I think that it’s important to look into what other companies have been doing in regards to their own iconic characters. It should show that Shiny Money Entertainments goals are very realistic.

First of all, Nintendo has their own set of Iconic characters. Characters like Link, Mario, Luigi, Zelda, Kirby, Pikachu etc are all characters that are well known within the videogame community. These characters have all withstood the test of time, having existed since the 1980s. The fact that Mario is still a household name to this day is a testament to how good Nintendo are at making mascot characters, and maintaining their image throughout the years. Not only do these characters make their games the more iconic, but the player can get a good idea of what to expect when they purchase the game. With Mario the player can tell that the game they’ll be playing will be happy, quirky and have a variety of creative levels. Then with Link in the Legend of Zelda games the player will get the impression that they’ll be taking part in an adventure.

Another example of a company that uses mascots to maintain strong brand recognition would be Sega, much like how people associate Nintendo with Mario, people associate Sega with Sonic the Hedgehog, a character that they created in order to compete with Nintendo in the console wars of the 90’s. Like Nintendo, Sega used an iconic character in order to promote their gaming console. Sonic the Hedgehog was considered the “killer app” and the main reason why people bought the Sega Megadrive (aside from the increased graphical power, which was also showed off in Sonics 16bit design). Much like Nintendo mascots, Segas mascots also give you a good idea of the sort of gameplay they’ll be taking part in. With Sonic the Hedgehog for example, the player will get the impression that Sonic has an attitude due to his design, and that they will be running and that speed will be a main factor of the game due to the shoes that sonic has.

However, it’s not just big multi-million companies that can make use of a mascot character. Smaller companies and development houses can also use iconic characters to their benefit. I think that the indie development team Team Meat, the development team that created the hit indie title “Super Meat Boy”. Super Meat Boy was their first commercial title and therefore served as a bit of a mascot for the indie dev team. Their character “Meat Boy” and iconic antagonist “Dr. Fetus” sets the tone of the game perfectly, and that being a crude, crass game with dark humour. The characters in Super Meat Boy also had a distant artstyle, setting them apart from many other games on the indie marketplace.

As you can see from the above, having an iconic character can be very beneficial to your company due to it creating a strong brand recognition which can help sale games, and also communicate what your game will be about.

Examples of Iconic Characters - Bubsy, how your "iconic character" can go wrong.

Having a mascot character for your game can help significantly boost its sales due to strong brand recognition. However it is very easy to accidentally create a  mascot character that is visually unappealing, annoying, bland or just seeming like a knock-off of another existing mascot trying to just capitalize on their success. Here we will be looking at Bubsy.

Bubsy is a very infamous mascot who has a history of being criticized as a Sonic the Hedgehog knockoff both in the gameplay of his games (Bubsy 1 + 2 had him moving very quickly) and in design (the large feet and shape of the eyes are very sonic-like). However Bubsy wasn't just hated because he was a "knockoff", Bubsy was created in an era where most mascots tried to appeal to kids by having an "attitude" and being "cool", "radical",  and whatever other word from the nineties that describes a one liner spewing character.

In the games Bubsy never shut up, constant sound clips bombarded the player in his irritating, ear piercing voice, and due to the limited technology of the consoles at the time they couldn't have a lot of voice clips for Bubsy, so players had to listen to the same few one liners over and over again in the same low quality digitized voice.

Not only this but the games were also very low quality. The controls were sloppy and Bubsy 3D is very infamously unplayable.

In an attempt to keep Bubsy relevant (and possibly to ride off the success of the Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario Bros cartoon spinoffs) the creators of Bubsy tried to get him his own cartoon, however only the pilot episode was created and the series was never picked up. Those who have seen the pilot generally review it low due to how annoying Bubsy is and how non-nonsensical his world is.

All of these factors have lead to Bubsy being considered one of the most terrible game mascots of all time. He was over marketed and shoved into everyone faces in the hopes that his games would overtake Sonic and Marios in popularity. However in the end this just made people resent Bubsy, and a mascot character who makes an audience resent him has failed as a mascot.

Ironically one of Buby's catchphrases is "What could possibly go wrong?", and as we see there is a LOT that can go wrong when it comes to making an 'iconic mascot' for your franchise.