Research

WHAT IS A GENRE?

In video games, genres are a way to classify and categorize primarily different types of gameplay styles. Unlike something like a book genre, game genres are usually independent of the game's story or setting. For example, science-fiction books are known primarily for taking place in some kind of distant future and dealing with hypothetical, futuristic and scientific concepts such as time or space travel, but a first person shooter game, no matter where or when it takes place and no matter the story it tells, will always be a first person shooter.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR GAMES TO FALL INTO GENRES?

A genre defines how a game is played, fundamentally. Without a genre, a game likely wouldn't be anything at all, and it'd be difficult to create something with its own totally unique, never-before-seen, unclassified gameplay style in today's age. But besides that, settling on a specific genre label is an important part of defining and fleshing out the idea and aim of a game. It also plays an important role in the game's marketing, how it's seen by potential players and consumed by players, and narrowing down, finding, and reaching a target audience.

TYPES OF GENRES

There are many different genres in the modern day games industry. Many of which have seen gradual evolution through the years and have been defied many times. These include genres like Action, Adventure, RPG (Role-Playing Game), Simulation, Strategy, Horror, Puzzle. It'd be inconvenient to talk about all of them, so I'll be going over RPGs, Platformers, and Visual Novels/Interactive Fiction.

RPGs (ROLE-PLAYING GAMES)

A Role-Playing Game, or RPG for short, is a game genre that allows a player to assume the role of a character – or characters, usually presented in the form of a party – in an immersive, fictional setting. The gameplay will typically have a very large focus on story-telling, complex characters, and a strong narrative, and will typically have the player proceed through the game, levelling up and developing their character(s), engaging in combat, taking on different quests, and solving puzzles as they draw closer to the story's conclusion. The genre has its roots in similarly named Tabletop Role-Playing Games, like Dungeons & Dragons, and is a sort of digital equivalent. Due to this, an abundance of RPGs are themed around and are set in traditional fantasy and high fantasy worlds.

The genre also has its own subcategories. Subgenres such as Turn-Based RPGs, featuring slower paced, less reaction-time-demanding combat that takes things one turn at a time, Action-Based RPGs, that features more action-heavy, demanding, real-time combat, and Roguelikes, which are characterized typically as dungeon-crawlers with procedurally generated levels. People often also categorize RPGs with broader terms that refer to the region they were developed in, JRPGs (Japanese Role-Playing Games) and Western RPGs.

Here are some examples of these.

Turn-Based RPGs

Action-Based RPGs

JRPGs

Western RPGs

Genre Deconstruction Example - UNDERTALE and Moon: Remix RPG Adventure

UNDERTALE and its inspiration, Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, to me, are particularly notable examples of meta RPGs which defy and deconstruct the genre and its tropes and conventions. UNDERTALE is likely the most notable or popular of the two despite having come after and having taken much influence from Moon: Remix RPG Adventure. Regardless, I'll be taking about the earlier game first.

Moon: Remix RPG Adventure initially begins in a game-within-a-game, 10 minutes of a young protagonist named Boy playing an RPG called "Moon". This fake game is a parody of traditional JRPGs, with a generic fantasy backstory featuring a Hero which the Boy skips over before the player can read it. Eventually, as the player controls the Hero of this game-within-a-game, the Boy is sent to bed by his mother. But as he does so, the television turns back on, and he's sucked into the game's world. This is when the real game begins. You play as the Boy, as it's revealed that the Hero of this fictional game has left behind a path of destruction, killing innocent creatures and looting homes, initially portrayed as typical RPG heroics. You must progress through this game undoing these damages. Without going too in depth into the game, the player must save the souls of the creatures as they encounter their bodies left behind by the Hero, which, along with engaging in the daily lives of the world's citizens and helping with their struggles, will level up the player's "Love". 

The game subverts RPG tropes painting traditional RPG heroics in a different light, asking the question "isn't it odd that these heroes go around these worlds slaughtering their inhabitants, breaking into the homes of citizens and looting them?"

UNDERTALE asks a similar question. Among its many classic RPG inspirations, UNDERTALE takes a lot of base inspiration from Moon: Remix RPG Adventure. As the game's tagline states, it is an RPG where you don't have to hurt anybody. The game's characters, the so-called "Monsters", imprisoned under a mountain by the human race for an initially vague reason, are portrayed as real people with depth. They have lives, history, struggles, dreams. It is later revealed the Monsters are victims of a cycle of oppression from the human race, having stood no chance against the stronger and less compassionate biology of the humans in the unjust and senseless war preceding their imprisonment. The game gives you the choice. Do you spare the monsters you face, befriending them, finding out about their lives and their struggles, saving them, or do you play the role of the traditional RPG hero, defeating every monster you see to increase EXP (Known as Execution Points) and LV, (known as LOVE or Level of Violence), wiping out this race of Monsters and perpetuating the cycle of oppression, becoming the bad guy?

PLATFORMERS

A Platformer is a game genre, typically classified as a subgenre to an action game, that allows a player to assume control of a character, moving them between points of a level or environment through primarily running and jumping. These environments are characterized by their often obstacle course like design that works with the player's movement, featuring uneven terrain, hazards such as bottomless pits or enemies, and, as the name suggest, platforms. The genre is quite a flexible one, with a very simple definition that's able to be interpreted and bent in many ways. As such, it has a few of its own subgenres, such as Metroidvanias, Beat 'Em Up Platformers, and Run & Guns. Though often times platformers are associated with 2D side scrollers, platformers can and have been depicted in 3D, and even isometrically.

In certain cases, platformer games will also include puzzle solving elements, alongside their more movement focused, obstacle course design. I personally believe this helps remove some of the monotony of the genre's very general definition, and developers will often get very creative when designing more puzzle-focused platformer games. In my personal experience, a majority of the 3D platformers I've played prefer to focus more on puzzle design, especially ones which lean towards a more open-world style.

Here are some examples of different platformers.

2D Platformers

3D Platformers

VISUAL NOVELS

A Visual Novel, categorized as Interactive Fiction, is a game genre that focuses primarily on telling a story, as the name suggests. They are unique for their minimal gameplay, and as such, are occasionally not categorized as games. These games typically consist of graphics depicting some sort of scene, usually simplistic with reusable character portraits and backgrounds, and text, whether it be character dialogue or narration. The player will proceed through this story text by text as if reading a book, sometimes being prompted to make a choice which may affect the narrative and events. Typically, visual novels will have more than one ending and branching storylines, which this aforementioned small bit of interactivity can influence. Of course, not all visual novels have this level of interactivity, and some visual novels incorporate higher levels of interactivity, adding more aspects of gameplay to it. Because of the nature of visual novels, it's possible to combine it with different genres, such as RPG and Visual Novel hybrids.

Here are some examples of different visual novels.

Visual Novels

WHAT DOES MY GAME FALL INTO?

As mentioned in my proposal, the game's primary genre would be Platformer. To narrow down a more specific categorization, it's worth looking into the games which influenced my project's gameplay.

Super Mario Maker, while having a primarily Platformer mode where you play other people's courses, is less of a traditional game and more of a sandbox level editor. Though it is my project's main inspiration, core-gameplay-loop-wise, they are night and day. The game's secondary influence, however, has a lot more similar of a gameplay loop, mixing creative DIY aspects into the game and its narrative.

Scribblenauts

Scribblenauts is a series of games developed primarily by 5th Cell, who have previously released games such as Drawn To Life (which I recall briefly considering as an influence for the older iteration of this project back in 2022). The series had its first release in 2009 for the Nintendo DS, simply known as Scribblenauts, with the fitting catchphrase "Write Anything, Solve Everything." This was followed a year later by a sequel, Super Scribblenauts, also on the Nintendo DS.

The main objective of this series and its entries, save for its 6th, involves leading the main character, Maxwell, and solving puzzles utilizing his magical notebook. Anything written into this notebook comes to life, and so throughout the game, the player will have to summon different objects, items, or creatures to solve different problems and puzzles and collect "Starites". The game's wide vocabulary allows for the player to come up with different, creative solutions to the problems they're faced with. Starting from the second game, the notebook also allows you to append adjectives to different objects from the game's vocabulary, which will modify that object's properties accordingly. This further expands the mechanic's creative potential.

Scribblenauts is described as a Emergent Puzzle Action Platform game. Most of these labels are fairly self explanatory. I went into platformers in detail above, puzzle games are simply games with heavy puzzle and problem solving aspects, and while I haven't gone into action, it describes a game with a focus on physical challenges, testing the player's mental dexterity, reaction time, and hand-eye coordination. The label that confused me, though, is Emergent. I haven't heard of a label like this before, and looking into it, it seems less like a concrete genre and more of a descriptor of something which can come about through a certain game's design. Regardless, it's important I go into it.

Emergent Gameplay

Emergent gameplay describes unique, creative situations and ideas that, whether intentionally or not, emerge over time through how the players interact with the game and its mechanics. For a notable example, speedrunning, the act of beating a game as fast as possible, has required people within communities to come up with unique, elaborate, innovative ways to take advantage of different games' mechanics, gameplay, and bugs to cut down on their time. This counts as Emergent gameplay.

Sometimes, Emergent gameplay is intentional. The developers will specifically design a game in a certain way that encourages the player to come up with their own unique and creative solutions and interactions to achieve a goal, providing them with a simple yet exploitable framework to work with. Intentional Emergent gameplay can come in different forms, and can vary in importance. Some games may be built entirely around it, while some may allow the player to either follow a simple, intended path, or to think outside the box and follow their own. It can even come in the form of the Emergent narrative, where a game with no set, or non-linear story structure allows the player to shape the game's narrative as they play.

Of course, Emergent gameplay can also be unintentional. I've seen a lot of cases of unintentional Emergent gameplay over the years, perhaps more than intentional Emergent gameplay. Like mentioned above with speedrunning, one example of unintentional Emergent gameplay comes from the exploitation of different glitches and bugs. The exploitation of these quirks can lead to the creation of community-wide strategies. There's a few notable cases of this in shooter game communities specifically, and of course, the speedrunning community. In a different example, some players enjoy changing the objective and creating their own. Making a sort of game out of a game. I've personally seen this in the Super Mario 64 community, where they have taken the game and created their own minigames like the "Green Demon Challenge", which has the player going through the game avoiding the extra life mushroom powerups which chase the player.

Conclusion - My Game's Genre

With this in mind, I feel I can better classify my game.

It's good to take into account what the game might be beyond the demo I develop for this FEP. As it stands, the puzzles I want to include in the demo are very straight forward and don't require much creative thinking. Both to make the programming process simple and manageable within the timeframe and because of the level's purpose as a first level and tutorial, getting the player used to the mechanics without throwing them in the deep end. As such, I don't believe you'd quite be able to class the gameplay in the demo as "Emergent", as the puzzles would have one set solution and if the player can't follow that set solution, then the puzzle won't be solved. 

Regardless, beyond the demo and in a hypothetical full game, I'd want the puzzles to progressively become more complex and require either more complicated solutions, or call for the player to come to their own in some way. The game is about painting, so it's important that the player is encouraged to get creative. The puzzles would be made with a certain limit in mind, though, making sure the game stays, at its core, a platformer, and doesn't veer to close to sandbox game territory.

For the full game, I'd say it's safe to classify it as an Emergent Puzzle Platform, similar to Scribblenauts. That's what the game would be at its core, and what it'd be advertised as. While it borrows certain aspects from different genres, such as being relatively story-driven with regular cutscenes formatted in a similar way to a Visual Novel, these elements aren't important enough to make it into the game's classification.

Technically, you might be able to append Level Editor to this classification. The Level Editing aspect is a central gimmick to the game's concept after all. However, I feel this'd be deceptive. You wouldn't be able to make or edit entire levels. The Level Editing aspect is used as a limited, creative puzzle solving mechanic which ties into the narrative and works with the game's primary Platformer genre, while Super Mario Maker, which is classed as Level Editor, is primarily a free-reign Level Editing tool with additional traditional platforming elements. My game's Level Editing mechanics would be advertised much differently.

GOOGLE FORMS

To kick off research, I've planned to create a survey to narrow down a target audience as well as assist me in figuring out the scope of this project. As I mentioned in my proposal, this project is a complete remake of a project I made back in 2022, for a level design assignment in my first year of college. Since then, I've grown significantly as an artist and developer, and I think a project remake like this will go a long way to show that. A lot of aspects of the original project I feel are a little outdated and don't meet my ideal vision for the game. And though there is some research done, it is very rough and very little, having been so long ago now. This survey will help me sort of start fresh in terms of research, and help me to do it properly this time.

I already have a strong vision for what I want this survey to be, and I've had it since I began work on my proposal.

I decided to go for a similar format to my last year's FMP. A quick explanation on what the survey's about and how it'll help me, and some basic info on the game. I wanted to include some part encouraging the respondent to answer as honestly as possible, specifically because of one of the questions I want to ask in the survey.

This question asks the respondent if they'd be interested in playing this kind of game. With this question, I'm afraid people will sort of suck up to me to "be nice", and say yes automatically. But this question isn't there to make me feel good about myself. It's to figure out what kind of demographic is and isn't interested in a game like this, finding some kind of common theme from other questions which ask what kind of person the respondent is.

That aside, these are the questions I'm starting with. Simple questions meant to figure out what kind of person the respondent is, like I said previously. This survey is a starting point for many different points of research. It'll help me with target audience research, researching into different games and building up new, fresh ideas, and it'll help me work on and plan out important aspects of the game.

Here's that question I mentioned earlier. I wrote up a quick summary for the game, going into its story, setting, and briefly into the main mechanic. I know it's inevitable that some people will suck up to me and misunderstand the point of this question, so I added a 3rd "Maybe" option as a fallback. The second question shown in the screenshot is sort of another fallback, but also so I can gauge more specific opinions on the game's concept.

And here's the second section of the form. I've had this part planned to an exact. I dug out some old 2022 mock-up screenshots to illustrate the main mechanic, and then elaborated on it in detail. Here, I ask for feedback and criticism. What I can improve on with the mechanic. PAINT MODE is the most important part of the game itself, being its central mechanic. It's one of the things I won't scrap if I can help it, and under pressure, would instead scrap things around it to make sure that I at least have time to get something down for it. As such, I'd like to start prioritize working on it and figuring out how I can change and improve it for this remake. Then, I ask if the concept reminded the respondent of any specific game. Like I explain under the question itself, I want to use this information so I can gather a fresh set of ideas and build on the feedback I gather on the PAINT MODE mechanic.

Finally, the last question simply asks for feedback overall. On the concept, anything the respondent might wish to add. This one is a less important question, but still feels necessary to have. Regardless, I'm hoping to get something good from this.

I'm launching this survey the same day, and I'm sending it to my in-college friend circle, the Microsoft Teams for the course, and certain online friend circles through Discord, especially ones which are also aiming to take on game design as a career. I'll be taking responses until I get around 20, much like last year.

RESULTS

As of today, I'm closing the survey with 21 responses. Like I said last time, I sent the survey to my in-college friend circle, the Microsoft Teams for the course, and certain online friend circles through Discord. One of my friends also offered to spread the survey to his own course. I've briefly skimmed through responses as they came through, and I have to say the responses to the survey seem very promising. I'll be compiling them and jotting down some of my initial thoughts.

SUMMARY

To start this off, I'll quickly summarize the responses as they're shown in the "summary" tab on Google Forms. I'll accompany certain images with some quick notes if I feel the need to.

1. Age Range?

2. Preferred Game Genre(s)?

3. Favourite Game(s)?

4. Preferred Style?

5. Would You Be Interested In This Type Of Game?

6. Additional Thoughts On The Concept?

7. PAINT MODE Mechanic - Feedback

8. Is There Any Game(s) This Concept Reminds You Of?

9. Finally, Is There Any Feedback Overall?

Of course, here are all the answers compiled in a spreadsheet, as provided in Google Forms.

COMPILATION

Now, I'll compile some conclusions I can make from these responses, starting off with the first section.

Section 1, or everything before the PAINT MODE feedback questions, will aid me in further target audience research, so it's important to get it out of the way first.

With the age range question, while it was definitely necessary, I didn't quite take into account that a majority of respondents are my age or college age, so most people were in the 17-18 range. This does, unfortunately, make it difficult to apply to my research, and so I'll have to look into age demographics mostly independently during secondary research.

For genres, I'll quickly compile them right now.

Genres - Overall

Platformers - 9 picks TOTAL. 2 picks 2D and 1 pick 3D. 1 pick METROIDVANIA

RPG/Story-Rich - 6 picks.

Shooters - 3 picks TOTAL. 1 pick FPS, 1 pick MOVEMENT, 1 pick HERO.

Beat'em Up/Hack & Slash - 2 picks TOTAL. 1 pick BEAT 'EM UP and 1 pick HACK & SLASH.

Horror - 4 picks TOTAL. 1 pick PSYCHOLOGICAL.

Simulation - 3 picks TOTAL. 1 pick CONSTRUCTION & MANAGEMENT. 1 pick FARM/LIFE.

Adventure - 3 picks.

Action - 2 picks.

Sandbox - 2 picks.

Survival - 2 picks.

Puzzle - 2 picks.

Roguelike - 2 picks.

Tower Defence - 1 pick.

Point & Click - 1 pick.

Rhythm - 1 pick.

A majority of people picked Platformers as their one preferred genre or as one of their preferred genres. In second place is RPG or "Story-Rich" games. I'll keep this in mind.

Like I expected, most people picked "Yes" when asked if they'd be interested in a game like this. While I can't get an exact read on every single person who signed this form, I find it hard to believe that everyone would be interested in playing a pink pastel cutesy platformer game about painting and drawing. This is why I included a "Maybe" option, and also a 1-5 rating question. I knew going into it that some people would interpret the question as me wanting to feel better about myself rather than me trying to gauge what kind of people would or wouldn't play the game. Admittedly, it's infuriating to have to establish what is essentially a "beating around the bush" option to increase the chance that I'll get more honest answers, but whatever works, and for what it's worth, it did work out in a way.

Those Who Picked "YES" & Rated 4-5  - Style

2D Illustrated, Realism - 1 pick.

2D Illustrated, Stylized - 6 picks.

2D Pixel Art, Detail/Realism - 0 picks.

2D Pixel Art, Stylized - 4 picks.

3D Style, Detail/Realism - 0 picks.

3D Style, Stylized - 4 picks.

A majority of people who said they were interested in a game like this prefer stylized 2D illustration as an art style. Interestingly, this seems to track considering the theme of the game. Sharing second place are both stylized 2D pixel art and stylized 3D. Overall, stylized art directions seem to be the preferred for those who'd be interested in this kind of game.

Those Who Picked "YES" & Rated 4-5  - Genre

Platformers - 8 picks TOTAL. 2 picks 2D and 1 pick 3D. 1 pick METROIDVANIA

RPG/Story-Rich - 3 picks.

Shooters - 2 picks TOTAL. 1 pick FPS, 1 pick HERO.

Beat'em Up/Hack & Slash - 2 picks TOTAL. 1 pick BEAT 'EM UP and 1 pick HACK & SLASH.

Horror - 3 picks TOTAL. 1 pick PSYCHOLOGICAL.

Simulation - 2 picks TOTAL. 1 pick CONSTRUCTION & MANAGEMENT.

Adventure - 3 picks.

Action - 1 pick.

Sandbox - 2 picks.

Survival - 1 pick.

Puzzle - 1 pick.

Roguelike - 1 pick.

Tower Defence - 0 picks.

Point & Click - 1 pick.

Rhythm - 0 picks.

I won't need to do this one again for "MAYBE", anything not counted here but counted in the overall genre tally is a "MAYBE". Anyway, the majority vote is on Platformers. That's not surprising. It's to be expected that people who like platformers would be interested in playing a platformer. RPG/Story-Rich is still in second place, but this time shared with Horror and Adventure. I don't think Horror would exactly fit this kind of game, but considering the gimmick with the art direction and how each world would be themed differently, I think a light Horror themed world in a hypothetical full game wouldn't be out of the question.

Those Who Picked "YES" & Rated 4-5  - Common Favourite Games

Minecraft - 3 picks. 

Hollow Knight - 3 picks. 

Sonic Series - 2 picks. 

Mario Series - 2 picks. 

Slime Rancher - 2 picks. 

Pizza Tower - 2 picks. 

Resident Evil - 2 picks. 

I chose not to include every single game here, just ones that reappear between responses. Regardless, I might still look into other games that stick out to me in later research. Resident Evil is a funny outlier here to me. The Sonic and Mario series make perfect sense, especially the latter, as someone specified Paper Mario. Hollow Knight, though darker than my game, is still somewhat similar and expected in some ways. Pizza Tower is a fun, wacky indie platformer. Minecraft is a creativity-heavy sandbox game. Slime Rancher has a cute, colorful, cartoony aesthetic. Resident Evil on the other hand, is a dark and gritty horror series. Anyway, I'll keep this in mind.

I'll just briefly go over the "MAYBE" picks.

Those Who Picked "MAYBE" & Rated 4-3  - Style

2D Illustrated, Realism - 1 pick, on account of 1 person liking everything 2D.

2D Illustrated, Stylized - 2 picks.

2D Pixel Art, Detail/Realism - 1 pick, on account of 1 person liking everything 2D.

2D Pixel Art, Stylized - 3 picks.

3D Style, Detail/Realism - 1 pick.

3D Style, Stylized - 3 picks.

Though there are generally a lot less answers on "MAYBE", Stylized 2D Illustration finds itself in the number 2 spot this time, with only 2 picks. Stylized Pixel Art and Stylized 3D Art still shares the same amount of picks, this time only 3 each. Notably, one person chose Detailed 3D Art as their preferred style, whereas no one in "YES" did. Not surprised about that.

There are much less common favourite games. In fact, there's only one game which appeared more than once. I think I can afford to list every option this time.

Those Who Picked "MAYBE" & Rated 4-3  - Favourite Games

Deltarune (2X)

Ultrakill

Warframe

Minecraft

OSU

In Stars and Time

Pokemon

Dandy's World

Overwatch

Cookie Run

Binding of Isaac

Sonic Riders

Hollow Knight

Spyro the Dragon

Plants vs. Zombies

Stardew Valley

Monster Hunter Worlds

Monster Care Simulator

Most of these seem to track. There are a couple common choices between this and those who picked "YES", but that's to be expected.

I won't be totally ignoring everything listed in "MAYBE". It may be useful to take into account certain things here, especially since "MAYBE" doesn't necessarily mean a "NO", and looking at certain other choices and preferences makes it clear that some people could potentially still be convinced into a game like this.

I'll go into target audience in detail in a future section. Right now, a rough conclusion can be drawn. This game seems to be favoured amongst Platformer players who enjoy unique and stylized art directions, perhaps artists, who may be partial to a fun, colourful, creative aesthetics and themes.

Onto the second section of the form. This is less focused on target audience, and more on feedback on currently existing concepts. This could still influence target audience research in some way, but that isn't the primary focus.

To start off, I'll first round up some common points of feedback in the PAINT MODE feedback question, and then anything that sticks out to me in specific.

Common Points Of Feedback - PAINT MODE

1. Common consensus is that it's overall a fun and unique mechanic, and that its open ended nature has a lot of potential for use in creative ways. I'll expand on this further down.

2. A few people seem to talk about the key that sends you into PAINT MODE. Some ask to change the key as a whole, some people ask for the ability to rebind the key.

3. A few people mentioned the way materials are presented. Some suggest that the Material Search tab as it is may prove inconvenient and overwhelming, and some suggest a more visual display for the materials, like a list or an inventory. Semi unrelated, but someone asked if the player needs to unlock new materials.

4. Some criticisms on the PAINT MODE speak on how the gameplay loop may become repetitive if other things aren't explored. Some speak of additional mechanics to the mode itself that may come with time, or different mechanics or features as a whole. Some speak of specific PAINT MODE challenges such as restricted puzzles or optional puzzles which allow for the discovery of secrets and going beyond.

5. There are a couple of responses that mention physics-based challenges or mechanics in specific. How the game could utilize that with its central mechanic.

The feedback I got for this was really good. A lot of very valid points and criticisms were made, and I'm glad that a majority of answers didn't revolve around "it's good" or anything like that. Back when I was still taking responses, just looking through the summary as each answer came in gave me ideas.

I'll briefly go over some responses which stuck out to me specifically.

Points Of Interest - PAINT MODE

Conclusion

For starters, I think the overall concept of PAINT MODE will stay the same. That is a given. I never intended to overhaul it on a fundamental basis. However, a lot of things will change, and some of these changes would take affect in a hypothetical full game.

I won't be changing the PAINT MODE trigger key. That is, on default, staying as Z. Z is the global confirmation key, and it makes sense for the PAINT MODE trigger to share that. However, I will attempt to add a feature that allows you to rebind the game's keys, including the PAINT MODE trigger. I'm not sure if I'll separate the global confirmation key and the PAINT MODE trigger in these keybind settings, but I want to at least include a way to customize your keybinds.

On the feedback regarding the presentation of materials, I agree. As it stands, Material Search would be an inconvenient and overwhelming decision, both for the potential players and for me as the programmer. I want this game to be simple and digestible, yet somewhat challenging. I realize that the Notebook mechanic in Scribblenauts, which the Material Search takes from, likely works better for that kind of game than it would in something like Super Mario Maker. I'll be presenting materials in a sort of list, specifically ones which you currently have unlocked, and potentially relegating the search mechanic into a smaller feature where it may make more sense. I already have some kind of idea on how this could look visually.

This applies more to a hypothetical full game, and could be presented in the form of concept art or mockup screenshots. Beyond PAINT MODE, I feel it'd be good if different mechanics are introduced over time which interpret different facets of artistic processes or mediums into game mechanics. PAINT MODE represents painting, and translates that into a game mechanic through a sort of Super Mario Maker inspired level editor. Other mechanics could include the use of stencils and collages, varnish, glaze or tempera, paint thinner, black light painting, tools like palette knives, and more. Maybe even an additional interpretation of just painting. Overall, I want the game to represent art more.

The demo's puzzles would be very simple, but over the course of the hypothetical full game would become more complex and allow the player to come to their own unique solutions. In the demo level I'm making, there would be at least one optional puzzle that leads to a secret. In the full game, these side puzzles could also lead to certain unlockable materials. Of course, I also intend to restrict certain puzzles to further add a level of problem solving to the mechanic.

The hypothetical full game could potentially incorporate physics into certain puzzles. I'm not sure how or to what extent. Though water based physics were mentioned, I can't think of any way that might work, and so it'd likely just be gravity and weight based physics puzzles.

What Games Are Similar To This Concept?

I asked this question to gauge any potential new points of inspiration and reference besides my original Scribblenauts and Super Mario Maker. A bunch of people did just end up repeating my already existing inspirations, but I got a pretty good range from this.

And a game I heard from someone in person rather than through survey results...

I intend to look further in depth into the gameplay of some of these games in later research, alongside general aesthetic research.

This should wrap up this part of research. There are a few things in the general feedback, but I don't feel them too important to mention seperately. They're majority either just compliments or things already addressed. I'll be taking brief looks as I go into further development, though.

TRELLO

To keep track of my work and priorities, I put together a Trello board as I've done in the past, and as I mentioned in my proposal. This time, however, I want to put some extra effort into properly organising it. While my past uses of Trello haven't necessarily had many issues, there are always improvements to be made.

Trello is a site, or application, that allows the user to create Kanban-style boards, keeping track of projects efficiently through the use of a sort of card-based, column-based to-do list system. It's used very often, to the point where I had seen and heard of it even prior to taking on game development, and has been praised for its accessibility, simplicity, and ease of use. And to that, I agree. It's been my go to project management tool when it comes to larger-scale projects, and I'll likely expand to smaller-scale projects as I leave college.

Here is my current Trello board.

Instead of labelling by work type (such as Spritework, Programming), I went with labelling by priority level and which week the work is supposed to be done by, as per the proposal's weekly time planner. I also included an additional label to mark work as behind or overdue. Though, for organization purposes, I did prefix every task with the phase of development it belongs to, as is shown above.

The TO-DO list goes far down. I broke down everything mentioned on the time planner into individual tasks to include on here, as well as some additional things that I have either kept vague or haven't mentioned all together. The latter might be something I end up doing more of in the future, if I find I haven't included something I should have or haven't broken things down enough. Priorities aren't final, either. I'll be changing them as I go along. As an example, the further the TO-DO list goes down, the lower the tasks are on the priority list.

This Trello board is fairly standard when it comes to Trello boards. It has everything you'd expect. A TO-DO list, an IN PROGRESS list, and a DONE list. Additionally, there's also a SCRAPPED board so I can keep track of anything I've had to take out for the sake of the project's development. It's my hope that this list will stay mostly empty. 

This is what I've been following with most Trello boards I've made in the past. This time, however, I decided to create a FEEDBACK/IN REVIEW list. Certain tasks will be put through this before being marked as DONE if I wish to gather some feedback on it and get in some quick polish before I can call it final.

TARGET AUDIENCE

To figure a target audience, I'll be using a mix of the information I gathered earlier through primary research, especially the survey, as well as some secondary research. I'll be narrowing down a target audience that I personally want to appeal to and gathering different information to find out what makes the most sense. 

To quickly summarise, the target audience refers to a specifically defined audience and group of people that a game developer intends to cater and appeal to in different ways. Figuring out a target audience is an important step in the early stages of game development, and is typically one of the first things addressed. It'll make sure your game has aim and is going somewhere, that your game will reach the right people that'll derive the most value and engagement from it.

I'll be touching on Demographics and Psychographics first, then addressing the topic of PEGI ratings outside of the age group I'll be catering to, and then I'll be finishing off by compiling everything I've gathered concisely and my conclusion.

DEMOGRAPHICS

To quickly explain what demographic means in this context, demographic describes different traits and factors about an audience that are less social or personal aspects like character, referring more to things such as age, gender, income, location. These factors are very important in target audience. An older person might lean towards a strategy or puzzle game rather than something fast paced. Certain content restrictions in different regions may make it difficult for a game find an audience there, and beyond content restrictions, the culture of different regions plays a big part as well.

DEMOGRAPHICS - AGE

Because of the nature of this project, it'd be a waste of time to go over anything besides age as I couldn't feasibly apply anything from that.

In my target audience survey, I included a question about age range. This wasn't very well thought out, admittedly, as a majority of people answering would be college age, so naturally, a majority of results fall within the 17-18 range. This won't be conclusive on its own. Instead of using my survey results directly, I'll be looking into my game's themes and tone to start off, as well as different games with similar themes and tone, including games picked apart from the survey results.

To get it out of the way, the game's themes include Painting, Art in general, Fantasy mostly leaning towards subthemes like Accidental Travel/Isekai and Cute Fantasy, Puzzle, and perhaps Cartoon.

In tone, the game is very light-hearted, fun and cute. It's intended to be very digestible and approachable, with fairly simple and easy-ish gameplay and avoiding going too deep into any complicated topics, the most being art block and burnout. The main art direction itself is very cute, cartoony, and pastel, and certain aspects would incorporate a childlike hand-drawn aesthetic similar to Yoshi's Island.

With that being said, the target age should seem fairly obvious from this alone. I'll be going over some different games with similar themes and tone to further cement that.

Kirby: Canvas Curse

Kirby: Canvas Curse, released in 2005 as a Platformer game on the Nintendo DS, is a game that was suggested to me through the survey I ran earlier. It fits under the themes of Art and Fantasy, likely more under the subtheme Cute Fantasy. Gameplay wise, this game is pretty different from my project, asides from the painting theme, as it relies more on the use of a sort of pinball momentum built up from the drawing mechanic rather than the traditional use of directional buttons to control the main character as is standard of the platformer genre. In art direction and tone, however, it's very in-line with what I'm wanting to achieve.

As is usual of the Kirby franchise, the tone of the game is cute, fun, childlike, soft. The music and sound design have a very cute, juvenile, and playful quality to them, and the game's art direction is very bright, colourful, and cartoony. In this game, however, the environmental art especially takes on a sort of quality that gives it a very handmade, painted or hand drawn feel, adding to the artistic themes of the game, and generally working very well with the overall tone of the Kirby franchise.

Now for the age rating of the game. From what I've shown so far, it should be fairly easy to assume, similarly to my own project. Instead of just touching on the local rating system, I'll be going over others.

Under the United States, Mexico and Canada ESRB, Kirby: Canvas Curse is rated E for Everyone, with no additional descriptors. The site describes the E for Everyone label as:

"Content is generally suitable for all ages. May contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language."

Under the local, or European PEGI, Kirby: Canvas Curse is rated PEGI 3, with no additional descriptors. The site describes the PEGI 3 label as:

"The content of games with a PEGI 3 rating is considered suitable for all age groups. The game should not contain any sounds or pictures that are likely to frighten young children. A very mild form of violence (in a comical context or a childlike setting) is acceptable. No bad language should be heard."

Under the Japanese CERO, Kirby: Canvas Curse is rated CERO ALL, with no additional descriptors. Though this particular rating was discontinued in 2006, the site describes current equivalent, CERO A, as:

"Expressions and content subjected to age-specific limitation are not included in the game, thereby being suitable for all ages."

Of course, beyond age content ratings, it's commonly considered that Kirby's target audience, the audience the developers specifically cater to, is children. It does have a large audience amongst older demographics, as well, and it should be noted that in an interview, it was mentioned that Kirby games are developed to be enjoyable for any kind of person regardless of age, gender, background, or experience, and this definitely shows, and I believe is a mindset integral to the success and longevity of the franchise. Regardless, like a lot of these franchises published by or associated with Nintendo, the audience definitely does lean towards younger people.

Super Scribblenauts

Super Scribblenauts, released in 2010 as a Puzzle Platformer game on the Nintendo DS, is a game that, alongside the rest of the franchise, inspired the central mechanic of my project. Technically, it was the Scribblenauts Unlimited entry in the franchise which inspired me, but I'll be going over Super Scribblenauts as it was the first game in the series to include the adjectives feature. It fits under the theme of Fantasy. Gameplay wise, it's somewhat different from my game, but in a way, closer than Kirby: Canvas Curse. It doesn't quite play as a traditional platformer in the same way as my game does, but its spontaneous emergent puzzle segments inspired my game's central PAINT MODE mechanic. In art direction, it has a very handmade feel to it, but in a much different way to what I'm planning to do. 

It's cute, cartoony and fun, with bold outlines and simplistic cel-shading, but rather than looking particularly hand drawn or painted, it has a sort of arts and crafts feel to it. Many elements are reminiscent of paper cut-outs. Characters and other creatures are depicted segmented, each moving part made to look separate and connected together by brads/brass fasteners, like paper cut-outs put together to create an articulate paper puppet, and this feel is enhanced by the way they're animated. Certain other aspects, for example, also appear to be hooked up by strings. The UI has a sort of arts and crafts feel as well, in some areas more than others. Considering the game revolves around the use of a magical notebook, this DIY and arts and crafts based art direction focusing on paper cut-outs is very fitting, and compliments the games well.

Now for the age rating of the game. Initially, before looking into this game's age rating, I assumed it'd be just the same as Kirby: Canvas Curse. It's been a while since I've played Scribblenauts, so I've forgotten that these games do depict a little more violence than something like Kirby: Canvas Curse. Like last time, I'll be touching on more than one rating system.

Under the United States, Mexico and Canada ESRB, Super Scribblenauts is rated E10+ for Everyone 10+, with the descriptors Cartoon Violence and Comic Mischief. The site describes the E10+ for Everyone 10+ label as:

"Content is generally suitable for ages 10 and up. May contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language and/or minimal suggestive themes."

Under the local, or European PEGI, Super Scribblenauts is rated PEGI 12, with the descriptor Violence. The site describes the PEGI 12 label as:

"Video games that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy characters or non-realistic violence towards human-like characters would fall in this age category. Sexual innuendo or sexual posturing can be present, while any bad language in this category must be mild."

Under the Japanese CERO, Super Scribblenauts is rated CERO B, with the descriptors Violence and Crime. The site describes the CERO B label as:

"Expressions and content suitable only to 12 year olds and above are included in the game."

Since these ratings are accompanied with descriptors, it's worth going into them as well.

The ESRB Cartoon Violence descriptor has since been discontinued, so I'll be going into Fantasy Violence instead. The ESRB site describes its Fantasy Violence and Comic Mischief descriptors, in that order, as: 

"Violent actions of a fantasy nature, involving human or non-human characters in situations easily distinguishable from real life"

and

"Depictions or dialogue involving slapstick or suggestive humor"

The PEGI site describes its Violence descriptor as: 

"The game contains depictions of violence. In games rated PEGI 7 this can only be non-realistic or non-detailed violence. Games rated PEGI 12 can include violence in a fantasy environment or non-realistic violence towards human-like characters, whereas games rated PEGI 16 or 18 have increasingly more realistic-looking violence.​"

The CERO site does not have any descriptions for its content descriptors, simply showing their icons. 

Overall, though ratings doesn't necessarily equal the target audience, I'd say 10+ sums it up fairly well. With the game's simplicity, ease of access, cute and cartoony charm, and relatively inoffensive content, it's pretty safe to say that this game does aim towards a younger audience. However, as the ratings state, it's not recommended for audiences under double digits because of the somewhat violent or otherwise mature content in the game. I believe the game is targeted more towards a tween audience and above, the older it gets the more dependent on other factors like character.

Conclusion

Overall, I'm wanting to target this game towards primarily a younger audience. While I don't believe the content in this game will exceed or maybe even reach a PEGI 12, leaving it available for younger ages, I'll be targeting this game towards tweens and above, perhaps just slightly younger than tween. The game won't be very difficult so younger audiences will be able to access it just fine, but things may become challenging later on in a hypothetical full game to make sure that the balance between fun and challenge doesn't lean too far into fun, and to keep the player engaged overall. Considering the game's tone, older audiences past a certain point may lose or keep interest in a game like this dependent on their character, and there's also the puzzle-solving and creativity aspect that may end up appealing to older audiences, and the potential for a nostalgia factor because of the game's pixel art style. Though I said I wouldn't be taking the age results from my survey too much into account, it does tell me that the game does have an audience among people in their late teens and above. Certain jokes and references made in this game may also end up appealing to certain audiences in their teens and above, not to say that they'd be particularly vulgar or unsuitable for younger audiences.

PSYCHOGRAPHICS

To quickly explain what psychographics means in this context, psychographic describes different traits and factors about an audience that, unlike demographics, relate more to a person's psychological characteristics and personality rather than their circumstances, referring to things like their values, interests, personality, lifestyle. These factors, too, are very important parts of target audience research. When it comes to interests, it's obvious how that can play an important role. Someone who's into sports or sports games will obviously gravitate towards something like FIFA, rather than a puzzle game, and someone into fantasy narratives will obviously gravitate towards things like RPGs, high fantasy games with a large story focus. A competitive player will obviously value competition, and so they'll find themselves gravitating towards multiplayer competitive games like shooters. Someone with a busy schedule and lifestyle might gravitate towards lower maintenance games like Candy Crush, so on.

PSYCHOGRAPHICS - INTERESTS

Unlike demographics, I'll be going over more than one topic here, as I feel it's more relevant to the production. I'll also be able to use my survey results more often here.

A majority of my survey was focused on interest. Admittedly, I should have not only gone more in-depth into interests besides just genres and video games. While this'll apply more to this one, it can also be used throughout everything I intend to cover in psychographics.

As established, this game is a Emergent Puzzle Platform with themes of Art, Cute Fantasy and Accidental Travel/Isekai. The mechanics and puzzles of the game focus very heavily on the art theme and the narrative's heavy art focus, trying to turn different aspects in artistic processes, particularly painting and drawing, into gameplay mechanics in the context of a traditional 2D platformer.

Now I can get on to what this means.

Of course, in terms of genre, I feel it's obvious. In the survey results, a majority of people who said that they would be interested in playing a game like my concept also chose "Platformer" as their favourite genre. In second place is "RPG/Story Rich" and "Horror". While I can't appeal to Horror, Platformer as a dominant choice works out, and the game would have a narrative told throughout cutscenes and textbox dialogue akin to an RPG, which would somewhat appeal to fans of RPGs/Story Rich games. Interestingly, "Puzzle" is one of the least favoured genres. Whether this is just out of actual preference or because of people simply not thinking too much on it, I'm not sure I can factor this, as one of the game's main focuses is on its emergent puzzle aspect.

I should probably also mention that a majority of respondents who said they'd be interested in a concept like my game said that they prefer stylized art styles, such as stylized pixel art and general stylized 2D illustration, with stylized 3D tied with stylized pixel art.

In the survey, I also asked for the respondent's favourite games. Looking at the answers I got from the people who said they'd be interested in a game like this, I'd say I'm reaching the right audience. A majority of people chose "Minecraft", tied with "Hollow Knight" at the same amount of votes. I'll be breaking these two down first.

Minecraft

Minecraft, released in 2011 as a Sandbox Survival game on PC and later ported across different consoles and platforms, is an extremely popular 3D Fantasy pixel art/voxel style game, known widely even beyond regular gamers. It's currently considered the best-selling game of all time, an impressive feat for its roots as an indie game. The gameplay is very simple. It's nonlinear and hardly has a concrete narrative, placing you in a procedurally generated, nigh-infinite open world with no real objective. The game's central gimmick is about mining, crafting, and building. Worlds are made up of blocks, which the player can destroy and build on similarly to LEGO, and if the player gathers certain resources, they're able to put them together and craft something new.

The game allows you to choose between two primary game modes. The Survival mode, as the name suggests, throws you into these worlds with the simple aim being to survive. You can take damage and die upon reaching zero health points. Unless the player has chosen the Hardcore sub-mode, this death is temporary. You must gather resources, manage statistics such as hunger, typically build or find shelter, and fend off hostile enemies in combat in order to survive. Breaking blocks will take a certain amount of time depending on which block it is, ranging from taking less than a second to destroy just by hand alone, to being nigh-impossible to destroy without the use of certain tools past a certain tier, which the player must reach by crafting using the materials they gather. The game's other mode, Creative mode, places you in the same open world setting, but allows you free reign. The player is given access to infinite resources, won't take damage or die, and has the ability to move freely through flight. Unlike survival, all blocks are destroyed in an instant without the use of tools, and won't drop any resources upon destruction. There isn't any need to craft anything as the player has free access to every item the game offers. 

With no objective, the player is encouraged to get creative and go about their world in any way they please. This focus on creativity has cultivated a massive community based on user-generated-content, including modifications and addons, multiplayer servers, maps, fan works such as animations and parodies, and more.

Gameplay wise, Minecraft couldn't be further from my game, but it's very important to talk about because of that aforementioned association with creativity. A large amount of the community is made up of creatives. Artists, world builders, animators, programmers and designers, the works. People who appreciate the open aspect of Minecraft, the creativity it encourages, within the bounds of the base game and even beyond through modification. My game is made by an artist and creative, and is made with art in mind. Though my game isn't a sandbox, it too would encourage a certain level of creativity.

Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight, released in 2017 as a Metroidvania on PC and later ported across different consoles and platforms, is a game I've heard a lot about from friends, and wasn't too surprised to find amongst my survey's responses. It's an indie game with humble roots, having initially been concepted as part of a Game Jam. I won't go as in-depth into it as I did with Minecraft, as I feel the gameplay specifics aren't relevant enough in this case. Simply, Hollow Knight is a Fantasy 2D Metroidvania, a sub-genre of the Platformer based around action and exploration, and based on a mix of the gameplay from the games Metroid and Castlevania, where it gets its name. The gameplay in a Metroidvania typically consists of large and interconnected levels or maps that allow the player's free exploration and platforming. Certain areas or elements of the level will carry certain requirements for the player to meet to be unlocked, or certain obstacles will prove unable to be surpassed without a certain item or advancement. Sometimes, these come in the form of secret paths, shortcuts, etc. The level designs encourage heavy exploration, experimentation, as well as backtracking. They are sort of like open world platformers. The game's overall tone and atmosphere is a bit darker, more mysterious than mine, and it has a rich story and narrative that the player uncovers as they play. Unlike Hollow Knight, my game overall plays a lot more like a traditional platformer, with its own self contained and mostly linear levels. While the difference in their atmosphere and tone is night and day, fans of Hollow Knight might enjoy a game like Repainted because of the similarly story-driven platformer-like gameplay, the slightly more exploration or less linear level design I'd imagine Repainted would begin to take on beyond the first level I'm producing for the demo, and also, potentially, for their roots as independent projects.

Conclusion

The rest of the games listed more than once are pretty straight forward and aren't worth their own sections, things like the Mario series or the Sonic series, which are fun and colourful platformers aimed towards mostly younger audiences. I think my conclusion for target audience interests is simply, fans of Platformers and puzzles, artists and creatives, and perhaps fans of indie games. Additionally, people who like stylized pixel art and generally stylized 2D art might gravitate to a game like this, which would pride itself on its approach to 2D art with each world presented in a vastly different style.

PSYCHOGRAPHICS - VALUES

Now, onto values. In psychographics, or at least in the case of video games, values will refer to what a player values in gameplay. This is typically covered by Bartle's taxonomy of player types. The Bartle's taxonomy of player types is a quadrant created by Richard Bartle that classifies different player types and gameplay styles into 4 different sort of characters: Killers, Achievers, Socializers, and Explorers. I'll be briefly explaining what these classifications mean.

A Killer will approach games with a focus on powergaming — a term that describes the act of playing a game with little consideration for any aspect besides maximizing your power or progress — and generally eclipsing others in any way possible, whether that be in singleplayer combat, often singleplayer online competition such as speedrunning or general leaderboards, or in multiplayer competitive gameplay.

An Achiever will approach games with a focus on completionism. Simply having a game that can be beaten appeals to these players in some way. They prefer to play through a game thoroughly and to its last drop, 100%ing the games they play when possible, making the most of what it has to offer, making great efforts to achieve even insignificant and cosmetic feats and rewards. You can often find Achievers partaking in things such achievement/trophy hunting. In multiplayer scenarios, they'll often enjoy the sort of competitive or boastful aspect that this brings, being at the top and receiving praise. In a way, they're sort of like Killers, but for every aspect of a game rather than power.

A Socializer will approach games with a focus on socialization, like the name suggests. Often times, this player type will gravitate towards multiplayer games, but they can find appeal in singleplayer gameplay as well, such as through extensive, well written dialogue trees or through online communities and things like streaming. They play games with the aim of interacting with primarily other players, meeting new people and building relations and kinship. Like I said, they flourish in multiplayer, online environments, and because of their nature, they'll often have a close dynamic with the other player types and sometimes even aid them.

An Explorer will approach games with a focus on immersion and, as the name suggests, exploration. Rather than powering through the game like a Killer would, they like to take the scenic route, so to speak, finding enjoyment in exploring and discovering new areas or secrets at their own pace with a displeasure for anything that might stop them from doing so, such as certain missions or time restrictions. Some Explorers enjoy going beyond, digging up secrets or easter eggs the developer might have left in for players like them or unintended glitches and bugs. Their primary goal is to become totally immersed in the world, through not only world exploration, but through paying close attention to the story and to small details, and so even if they don't play as thoroughly as the Achiever in some aspects, they'll often take more from the experience.

With that said, I can get into how my game would appeal to each player type. This is less data based, and more what I'm hoping to achieve from the gameplay. 

My Game's Appeal

For starters, the game itself would not appeal to Socializers. Though the full game would have dialogue, it's a linear story with no branching paths or actual player to NPC communication. Socializers may find enjoyment through certain out-of-game social aspects, however.

There isn't much in the game for Killers in terms of acquiring power in powergaming, they may find enjoyment in certain aspects such as speedrunning and leaderboard related competition. In a full game, there'd be a fair opportunity to power through the game, but it wouldn't be a focus as the game is supposed to be played with care and consideration.

There would be quite a bit to be found for Achievers. Even in the small demo I'm planning to make, I plan to include little secret rewards beyond the beaten path which would encourage completionism, and in a hypothetical full game, this would only be expanded upon. One aspect that would appeal to Achievers are hidden collectables similar to Star Coins from the Super Mario series, of which there'd be three of hidden in each level and wouldn't majorly affect your gaming experience, but would act as a reward for completionism. Additionally, I'm sure that in a hypothetical full game, there'd be some kind of achievements or trophy system at some point.

In a similar way to Achievers, there'd be quite a bit to be found for Explorers, as well. The game is meant to be played thoroughly and with consideration. Though it wouldn't feature some large open space to explore like an Open World game, the levels could vary in size and could feature alternate areas that lead to secrets or ways to progress. There'd be a certain focus on necessary exploration which would work together with the puzzles and mechanics, and I'd be lying if I said that I, myself, don't enjoy a game with super elaborate hidden segments or funny easter eggs that require an immense knowledge of the game to find, so things like that would likely be factored in if I were to continue production past the first level.

Conclusion

In conclusion, here's a simple list, in order, of what player types the game appeals to the most or the least.

1. Explorers

2. Achievers

3. Killers

4. Socializers

It appeals to Explorers and Achievers the most, with Killers being a very small, tertiary focus and Socializers being unable to be accounted for.

AGE RATINGS

This section will be fairly short, as I only need to go over the age ratings, how they work, and then considering how my game, in final, might be looked at by a rating board. This time, I'll only be covering the local rating board, PEGI, or Pan-European Game Information, rather than ESRB and CERO.

To start off this section, I'll be listing off each age rating as is described on the PEGI website.

PEGI 3

"The content of games with a PEGI 3 rating is considered suitable for all age groups. The game should not contain any sounds or pictures that are likely to frighten young children. A very mild form of violence (in a comical context or a childlike setting) is acceptable. No bad language should be heard."

PEGI 7

"Game content with scenes or sounds that can possibly be frightening to younger children should fall in this category. Very mild forms of violence (implied, non-detailed, or non-realistic violence) are acceptable for a game with a PEGI 7 rating."

PEGI 12

"Video games that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy characters or non-realistic violence towards human-like characters would fall in this age category. Sexual innuendo or sexual posturing can be present, while any bad language in this category must be mild."

PEGI 16

"This rating is applied once the depiction of violence (or sexual activity) reaches a stage that looks the same as would be expected in real life. The use of bad language in games with a PEGI 16 rating can be more extreme, while the use of tobacco, alcohol or illegal drugs can also be present."

PEGI 18

"The adult classification is applied when the level of violence reaches a stage where it becomes a depiction of gross violence, apparently motiveless killing, or violence towards defenceless characters. The glamorisation of the use of illegal drugs and of the simulation of gambling, and explicit sexual activity should also fall into this age category."

And on to the content descriptors.

Violence

"The game contains depictions of violence. In games rated PEGI 7 this can only be non-realistic or non-detailed violence. Games rated PEGI 12 can include violence in a fantasy environment or non-realistic violence towards human-like characters, whereas games rated PEGI 16 or 18 have increasingly more realistic-looking violence.​"

Bad Language

"The game contains bad language. This descriptor can be found on games with a PEGI 12 (mild swearing), PEGI 16 (e.g. sexual expletives or blasphemy) or PEGI 18 rating (e.g. sexual expletives or blasphemy)."

Fear/Horror

"This descriptor may appear as 'Fear' on games with a PEGI 7 if it contains pictures or sounds that may be frightening or scary to young children, or as 'Horror' on higher-rated games that contain moderate (PEGI 12) or intense and sustained (PEGI 16) horror sequences or disturbing images (not necessarily including violent content)."

Gambling

"The game contains elements that encourage or teach gambling. These simulations of gambling refer to games of chance that are normally carried out in casinos or gambling halls. Some older titles can be found with PEGI 12 or PEGI 16, but PEGI changed the criteria for this classification in 2020, which made that new games with this sort of content are always PEGI 18."

Sex

"This content descriptor can accompany a PEGI 12 rating if the game includes sexual posturing or innuendo, a PEGI 16 rating if there is erotic nudity or sexual intercourse without visible genitals or a PEGI 18 rating if there is explicit sexual activity in the game. Depictions of nudity in a non-sexual context do not require a specific age rating, and this descriptor would not be necessary."

Drugs

"The game refers to or depicts the use of illegal drugs, alcohol or tobacco. Games with this content descriptor are always PEGI 16 or PEGI 18."

Discrimination

"The game contains depictions of ethnic, religious, nationalistic or other stereotypes likely to encourage hatred. This content is always restricted to a PEGI 18 rating (and likely to infringe national criminal laws)."

In-Game Purchases

"The game offers players the option to purchase digital goods or services with real-world currency. Such purchases include additional content (bonus levels, outfits, surprise items, music), but also upgrades (e.g. to disable ads), subscriptions to updates, virtual coins and other forms of in-game currency."

Paid Random Items

"This content descriptor is sometimes accompanied by an additional notice if the in-game purchases include random items (like loot boxes or card packs). Paid random items comprise all in-game offers where players don't know exactly what they are getting prior to the purchase. They can be purchased directly with real money and/or exchanged for an in-game virtual currency. Depending on the game, these items may be purely cosmetic or they may have functional value. The notice is always displayed underneath or near the age label and content descriptors."

With this, the obvious choice would be to consider the content in my game on my own and then attempt to find a best match within the PEGI rating system. However, reading through the PEGI site, I discovered they have a particular way that they go about the pre-release verification process.

On the "How we rate games" page of the PEGI website, steps 1 and 2 of the "Using the traditional method of pre-release verification" section state:

There is some kind of questionnaire that publishers or developers are given to assess the content in a game, and that is then assigned a rough age rating. Seeing this, I wanted to see if this questionnaire was available anywhere publicly. Though I considered this would likely be considered a confidential document, it didn't quite feel like anything sensitive enough to not have been released.

A quick search revealed that, potentially, at some point, there WAS a public PDF file containing this questionnaire somewhere on the PEGI site at some point. However, any links that would have taken me there now lead to a page not found screen. Trying to find an archive, I came across a public PDF file labelled as the PEGI questionnaire that, interestingly, seems to be part of a Rhodes Avenue Primary School site. Sure enough, it does appear to be the questionnaire, and a look back at the now-redacted PEGI site link using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine (which I should have used in the first place) confirms that.

Now that I have the questionnaire, I'll be looking through it and ticking anything that applies. I'm not sure if this questionnaire is very accurate to their current standards, but it shouldn't be different enough that I won't get an accurate rough idea for what my game's age rating would be. Here is the questionnaire.

Now, looking through this, of course, any question above the PEGI 12 rating were out of the picture. I labelled every question that applied to my game in green, and any question that I wasn't too sure on in yellow. I'll be going over those now. It should be mentioned that I'm doing this with the hypothetical full game in mind, though I don't imagine the demo and a full game would be very different in content like this.

And the ones I wasn't so sure about:

I wasn't too sure on these specifically as, while I imagine Question 23 somewhat applies as the full game would include certain scenes where the main character is hit, punch, blown back by something or someone, I'm not exactly sure where that stands. For Question 34, I simply don't know if I'd include something like that or not, so it's better I don't take that into consideration.

PEGI 7 takes the lead with the most questions that apply to my game, potentially with a Violence content descriptor as well. Looking at other games rather PEGI 7 with Violence in franchises of similar tone to mine, primarily the Super Mario series, taking games such as Super Mario Brothership into consideration:

I feel it's safe to say that PEGI 7 with the content descriptor Violence would be an accurate rating for the game. In the case of the demo, however, I believe a PEGI 3 would apply more, as I imagine the more violent aspects would kick in later on in the game.

CONCLUSION

To conclude, I'll gather everything I've come to into a concise summary of my game's target audience.

Repainted: New Canvas is aimed at audiences from around 8 years of age to 14 and above, with a cute fantasy tone akin to that of popular Nintendo franchises like Kirby, simple yet somewhat challenging emergent puzzle-focused gameplay fit for unexperienced and experienced gamers, and an overarching narrative treated seriously enough to keep from seeming too childish for certain older audiences, but presented in a digestible, fun, comical way. With primary themes of Art and Painting, the processes that go into it, the common struggles of an artist, and an overall focus on a gimmicky art direction, artists, creatives and people who enjoy art, especially stylized art, may enjoy a game like this. Being an emergent puzzle-based platformer, fans of those particular genres and gameplay styles might also find enjoyment in this game. Generally, fans of games like Super Mario Maker, Scribblenauts, Minecraft, and classic platformers like Mario and Sonic will find appeal in this, and of course, fans of indie games and those who might feel a certain nostalgia from the retro-styled, Kirby-like graphics. The game primarily aims to cater Explorer and Achiever type players, with gameplay that would demand thinking and paying close attention, encourage exploration both necessary or optional, and plenty of different elements which encourage completionism. Finally, the game would be rated approximately PEGI 7 with the additional content descriptor Violence, containing typical platformer, non-detailed, fantasy enemy to player interactions varying in severity and realism but overall never exceeding what would be considered cartoony and slapstick very far, and especially never veering into very realistic depictions of suffering and injury or blood and gore.