Embedded Files
PEGI ratings.
The target audience will be focused on around 12+ with violence and gore being limited as a condition for the target audience to be well suited. For the audience to be comfortable with the game's environment, we will use scenery that is adventurous and not overwhelming whilst also having features that compliment the audience greatly for entertainment purposes. The target audience being 12 will allow the game to fit with the pegi age rating system and will also fit with the game's violence.
The target audience's demographics will be an important feature to acknowledge with the construction of the models and levels being heavily affected by the specific demographics
For the main demographics, the game will be focused on males aged between 12 and 16 as well as being from an average income household. With this being considered collectively, the game will have vibrant colours to appeal to the audience as well as appropriate models and events that don't overwhelm the audience. To appeal to the demographics of the audience, we will have a highly saturated theme with colours like bright neon to make the game more appealing but will also have appropriate models which don't offend PEGI's age rating which may make the game inappropriate, an example which may make the game not acceptable for the 12+ audience could be lots of gore and bad language.
The game could be published on itch.io when in the final stages of development and will have controller inputs for controller compatibility. This means that the game will be accessible to the audience if they have a personal computer, which will also be a demographic incorporated into the design's of the level.
Since the game will be a top down shooter, we will need environments that are open to allow the camera to utilise the scenery and allow the player to see the essential aspects of the scene. Additionally, the camera may have collision issues with the environment which will require tweaking with custom collisions to ensure the camera doesn't have issues in game.
To ensure this is completed within the busy schedule, we will have a member of the team working on map collisions independently whilst other members work on game mechanics and models within Unreal Engine and Maya.
I have also searched up many methods of creating a movement system for top down games with the Unreal Engine's default top down setting. This extensive research will provide the foundation of the game with the W A S D movement system and basic enemy wave spawns. The movement and enemy system have already been prototyped and can be used for the main mechanics of the game, meaning the camera and level maps are the main priority since these systems will need more alterations then the movement and enemy systems.
Jake Seward's research on the target audience.
After playing Dead ops arcade, I have composed a list of mechanics that could be adapted into Ghoul Gauntlet's design. These mechanics are great for the creation of the game since they are easy to make and will improve entertainment and engagement for the players. Yellow highlight means that the mechanic will be definitely considered and the blue highlight suggests that it may be added later in development if time allows.
Player moves character with WASD
Weapon doesn't need to reload and shoots towards mouse cursor
Player can pick up items dropped from some enemies
Player gets score with each kill
Teleporters spawn after enemies are defeated
This simple top down zombie game has similar designs to the concepts for Ghoul Gauntlet. The main menu is very simple and the mechanic of the gun shooting where the cursor is facing is excellent for the development of Ghoul Gauntlet.
The amount of levels needed within unreal engine will be 3 with the maximum amount being 4 if a main menu is created near the end of the development phase. All 4 of these levels will be partially imported from the Unreal Engine store and will then be altered to be suitable for the top down genre.
Level 1: the first level will be the arena which is a free asset that will be taken from the Unreal store. The map will have added collisions
Level 2: the second level will also be a map from the unreal store which will represent a Japanese village.
Level 3: The final playable level will be based off a Egyptian desert town with modifications to fit the top-down camera
Level 4 (Optional): The fourth level will be the main menu for the game and will be done after the other levels as it is not the main focus for the production team.
Making The Last of Us Part II's Best Level (youtube.com)
Within the level's design, the statue has a hue effect on its back to draw the player to it and promote the theory of interactivity within the level. Additionally, Joel also says dialogue that alludes the statue's interactivity. This could be adapted into Ghoul Gauntlet's level design by having areas more lit up to make the path more visible without making the scene appear linear.
When player progresses far, unloads previous parts of the level to free up memory. This makes the game optimized and allows the game to run better to improve the experience for the player.
Level clevilly transitions between a state of peace to a more unsettling atmosphere. This allows the player to adjust to the game's controls and "vibe" before getting into conflict. This will be available to adapt into Ghoul Gauntlet's design with the main menu being the peace before the player gets into the main game which will have conflicts early into the level. When the combat level loads, we may also add text or effects to allow the player to acknowledge the danger of the level so they aren't thrown "into the deep end" near the start of the game.
The level design team took about 2 years to create the level shown with lots of iterations that needed fundamentals to be re done about 25 times. For Ghoul Gauntlet's level design, we will be using already existing maps and adding extra models and features to them. To implement iteration into the level, we should test the level's layout every week multiple times to ensure that the camera placement and border collisions are functioning sufficiently.
For the first basic models, naughty dog used low poly block meshes to map out the level before creating the high poly models. This is beneficial as it allows the team to create a basic map and provide a foundation for the modelling team to create high poly models from.
AI within the project could be used to help guide the player with AI speech. For example, when the player loads up a level or finishes a level, the AI voice could give them a short dialogue to allow the player to confirm the level's progression and also get a prompt to help locate the exit of the level. https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/ is a website that allows users to input text and pick a voice to read the text, which could be useful if we want AI voice within the game.
The questionnaire was answered by 6 people with only 2 of which have played Dead-ops Arcade (The game that will be most similar to Ghoul Gauntlet) but all of the attendants have played Among us which will be useful to take note of. From these results, we can determine that top-down camera that follows the player will be beneficial rather then a frozen camera which can be seen in games like Bloons tower defence.
From all 6 answers, we can see that 83% of people enjoy action/adventure the most. This means the game will benefit the audience with lots of action with events / interactive elements to engage the players and promote the action theme.
With these results, we can see that the majority of the audience prefer cartoonish art styles rather then realistic and horror. We will take this into consideration by having a neon and hue scene that will not be very realistic styled to make the art style more suitable.
When asked their preferred input for top-down games, people are split between mouse and keyboard and controller for their most suitable input. This will be taken into consideration because it will allow players to play the game on their suited input by having the game's interactions being adapted for controller compatibility as well as mouse and keyboard.
The audience also like to engage in single player games the most from the results of the questionnaire. This will be integrated into Ghoul Gauntlet by having the game be a single player experience.
The audience we're split between endless and achievable endings to the game's system. To compliment these results, we will have a system that makes the main game endless but will also have an Easter egg ending if the player chooses to pursue it.
For future forms, half of the community would like to be informed so their will be applicants that are interested in the game's development. Within the production timeslots, we will need to create a questionnaire that doesn't intervene with the development of the main level in Unreal Engine 5.
Dead Ops Arcade is a game inside of call of duty: black ops, that many people have played by completing the Easter egg to unlock it. There are lots of negative reviews of the product with the main deterrent being the repetitive feel that it brings. Many people may counter argue that "tradition zombies" is repetitive but the traditional feel has many interactive elements such as the mystery box, perks and multiple weapons and Easter eggs. These interactive elements engage the player and make the game less repetitive which is what Dead Ops Arcade lacks and thus makes the reviews to seem negative.
Ghoul Gauntlet will have lots of interactive features such as enemies, weapons, pickups and teleports to make the scene less tedious to ensure a intriguing environment for the player. The reviews also suggest that Dead Ops Arcade is different to traditional zombies and makes the player excited to try this new experience but lacks engagement due to its lack of interactivity and originality later on in the game.
Basic level overview
The game is a top-down shooter style and will be vibrant and cartoonish. The player will start on an arena based level with enemies spawning on the level that the player has to kill. Once the player kills all enemies, a teleporter spawns and the player travels to the Japanese village level. Once the player completes that level, they will teleport to the final level - the Egyptian village. The player can choose to teleport and finish the level or face off against the endless hordes of Ghouls. The level may also have a main menu that has a garage has its background if there is time at the end.
For the camera placement, I studied League Of Legends and how it uses the top down camera by having it far away so it doesn't interact with other collisions whilst being close enough to give the element of surprise if an enemy appeared near them. I incorporated this design into Ghoul Gauntlet's camera angles to give these benefits to the player.
For the main menu screen, I looked at Unturned and examined the placement of the camera; the camera is placed inside a small garage with buttons over the top that the player can click to interact with. I adapted this into my level by having a camera inside a furbished garage i got from the unreal store. This was then improved by creating a main menu widget and options widget that the player could interact with.
For the main mechanics of Ghoul Gauntlet, I examined the "How to create A top down shooter in unreal engine 5" video as shown above. The video went into detail as making the movement system WASD as well as creating the basic enemy AI, basic weapon projectile system and the camera adjustments needed.
For the camera to be adjusted to a similar angle and range as the League Of Legends camera, we can add a spring arm to the viewport and attach it to the camera which can then be extended to fit the top down camera that we would like in Ghoul Gauntlet. This is exactly what I did to create the camera system that can be seen in the game.
In the tutorial we can see how the blueprints make the zombie enemy become destroyed when hit by the projectile. I adjusted this into Ghoul Gauntlet by changing the projectile to do damage instead of an instant kill but also destroying the projectile so it doesn't travel through and project damage to actor behind it.
This is my adapted version which makes the projectile destroy itself when overlapping and also after 1 second of it spawning via LMB when the player clicks.
Jake Seward's research into USPs.
For our Unique Selling Point, we focused on having multiple game mechanics to promote interactivity. We will also have multiple ways that the enemy can be defeated with methods such as pistols, grenades, and the nuke. Additionally, the game will have 2 types of AIs that are weak to different damage types so this will make the player have to use different damage methods to eliminate these threats.
Having multiple interactive elements in the game will make the environment less defined and allow the player to combat enemies with different methods, making the game more ambiguous and action-packed.
Many games, such as COD's Dead Ops Arcade, feel tedious as the level lasts a long time with the same features each level. In Ghoul Gauntlet, I will make the game only several maps long but with a sufficient amount of interactive elements to make the game exciting whilst not being so long as to become tedious.
Another selling point of the game is the top-down camera and the horde shooter theme. The top down camera added to this theme is a rare sight for most games which will make this game revolutionary to the horde shooter theme. Since this has not been seen very commonly, we will have a great opportunity to create an engaging game with the interactive features to keep audience's engaged to make the unique selling point stand out effectively.
The nuke being activated by the player as a wave ender is also a new idea that has not been seen by many horde shooters which will be a great selling point to highlight the game.
These selling points are all unique and will help to make the game revolutionary to the top down theme. This will help create a brand new experience for players which will make the game feel new and exciting, making the player want to dive into the experience.
Their may be copyright issues if the game was to be published onto sites such as steam or itch.io. For example, the menu music that will be used has been created with no royalties so it can be used wherever. If, for example, I wanted to use the doom soundtrack instead I would have to research the copyright laws attached and directly message the creators of the sound for permission. If I did not follow the laws and published the game anyway, I could face fines as a form of punishment since I did not comply with the copyright laws which protect a person or company from the unlawful use of their works. The copyright law is applied to a person's works when it is created, it does not need to be verified by a government. If I wanted to protect an idea of mine, I could get a pattent which protects a person's works and ideas. However, I also have to acknowledge other people's patents to ensure that I follow them legally and don't violate them.
For a few of the maps, I will use assets from Unreal engine's store. This will include 4 maps which I may alter slightly but will undoubtedly NOT be my own works other then a few alterations. The maps will be:
After these levels, there will be a custom map made by Jake Seward (look at Map made by Jake Seward for more)
The levels will also have props made by Luke Lawton (look at Props made by Luke Lawton for more)
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse