After making my game, and adding relevant text, i started to have a few problems, the main one being with text. When i exported my flash movie all the text was jumbled and all over the place. This was very frustrating as i didn't understand why this was happening.

After speaking with friends i found out what the problem was. Because i was using a downloaded font, there wasn't enough memory to play every letter, especially because my game is mainly text base.

test

I decided to produce a test example of my game, to see how i was going to make my game. The example went really well, and it sort of gave me an idea.

Now that i had an idea, i needed to map out my whole game and the questions that i was going to ask

Moodbars

Here are the mood bars that will change throughout the game depending on the questions and decisions you as a player make.

E.g if you decide not to help anybody with their homework you mood will decrease as you will not be making no friends. Therefore it is a good idea to try and help everyone and get all the question correct.

Creating the Game

Before making my game, i needed to know what pages would go to what, so i created a map.

My game is going to consist of lots of buttons. The user will given a series of options to choose from, meaning there will be a lot of pages to do.

I need to make a page for every available option, so no matter what button the player clicks on, it will lead to another page.

I have drawn a tree of my game to show how it would work. This did take a while as i needed to show which what button would lead to what.

As you progress through the game, you are marked on how many question you get right, and how many people you decide to help.

The more people you help the more likely you are going to gain friends and your mood will increase. I added this on my tree of the game, so that i could see how the player would progress through the game

Completed Character

These are all the characters that will feature in my game, i have coloured them in using photoshop and illustrator, this gives them quite a good effect. I think that the characters will contrast nicely with the background.

Now that i have all my characters finished i will start piecing the game together.

All characters

Different Areas of the game

Below are different sections of the game that i have created in photoshop/ illustrator. These will be the backgrounds for the game. The Characters will be placed on top of them.

Molly's new house

Molly's bedroom

The Classroom

School Libary

The Hallway

Intro to my game - Photoshop/Illustator

To produce the animation for the start of my game, i needed to create the animation first by sketching my plan that i drew on the previous post. I created separate images so that they could each be animated separately. e.g The mother and daughter are separate from the car.

I scanned in the sketched and then edited them in photoshop and illustrator. I want the characters to look sketched therefore i tried to keep close to my original sketches, and also make the pencil lines visible. I think that this looks quite nice, and isn't the usual style you see within flash games.

Intro to my game - Sketches

To make people understand my game before they play it, there will be a short intro explaining the situation.

The intro will start with the girl explaining that she's moving home, and that she didn't fit in well, i think that i am going to use a voiceover for this, so that people wont have to read.

The animation will then move onto a screen shot of the new house, with Molly and her mum stood outside it. This is the basic intro to the game, the next scene will be in the girls bedroom the next morning (Her first day at school)
Once your character has got up, she will finally explain what your task is. which is fit in at the new school and make lots of new friends.

Faces and expressions

These are the facial expressions that i have edited in illustrator.. These could be used through out my game for different characters!

Character Design Continued..

At the start of the game, you will be a geek. Therefore i needed ideas for a geeky look as well as a prom queen look.

The Hairstyles below could all be used to represent a geek!

Below are various drawings of facial expressions. My plain is to use simple images throughout the game to show animation.

These hairstyles could all be used for the prom Queen look.

FINAL! Thats FINAL game idea

Now that i have changed my game so many times, i am now panicking about having enough time to complete my game. Here is now my FINAL game idea.

I am keeping the idea about making the character gain friends, meaning her mood increases, i needed to a story or a reason for the character to be doing this?.. Therefor i came up with quite an exciting storyline.

Your are Molly, a class geek. She has moved homes to a knew school, as she didn't get on with people in her old school. You are now starting fresh, new home, new school, new start. The aim of the game is to make your friend popular by making as many friends as possible. At the end of the game, if you have made enough friends your character will become prom Queen.

Character design

There is going to be a main character within this game, along with other people that you meet throughout the game.

The character needs to appeal to a younger audience, as well as look stylish.

Below are some hairstyles that could work well, i maybe could have the option of changing the characters hair from day to day, or depending on which task they are doing.

I also drew some sketches of how the character could look, i want my character to look simple, but visually attractive. So simple body parts, but good hair and clothing. I think that this could work well. Im still deciding wether or not i want to have a cartoon in a real life background. I think i could make an interesting game all designed in illustrator. It would also look more stylish.

Development

I spoke to Trever about my game idea, he gave me more ideas to think about for my game.

My game is basically going to be a day in a life as me, who whatever you want to be.

The aim of the game would be to get the best out of your day by choosing a selection of options throughout your day.

E.g. You will have a set of tasks to do in a day at certain time. You will start off in the morning, you will have the option if you want your character to get up and get ready, or to stay in bed longer. If you decide to let your character stay in bed, it will be late for other tasks, such as having breakfast. You will be able to decide if your character still wants breakfast, if she does they will be late for other tasks, but if she doesn't have breakfast this will put the character in a bad mood for the day. These are the decisions that you will have to make.

Idea 1

This storyboard shows how the game may look. You start off by naming your character and picking were you want to live.

The game would start in the bedroom as this would be the morning, straight away your asked wether you want to waker your character up. The next image shows the kitchen. When playing the game you could go through a selection of rooms depending on what task you are doing.

Idea 2

This is another storyboard again showing how the game could work. You start of with a short animation showing how the character and thats she's sleeping. Down the side of the screen is your phone which could contain your friends, and a task sheet, showing tasks you need to complete throughout the day.

The aim of the game could be about being successful and having lots of friends. Therefore you could loose friends by making bad decisions. E.g if you are late to meet your friends, this would result in you loosing a friend, and also missing out on whatever they did.

The game could get more complex, there could be more players, e.g it could be online. This game has great potential.

Research: Moodboards

Bedroom

Girls bedroom: I decided to look at different areas that people would visit throughout there day. From producing a diary i know what things i do each day, and what objects i come across.

This first mood board is looking at a girls typical bedroom, and what you may come across.

The bedroom will be one of the most important rooms. Your bedroom says a lot about you, as it shows what kind of person you

are. People do a lot in there bedrooms, the main one is sleep. From this mood board a came across a lot of things to consider within the bedroom.

Bedroom

Bed

Decorations (curtains, theme etc)

Laptop/ computer

Camera

Stereo

Wardrobe/ Clothes

Belongings - Objects teddies etc.

Alarm Clock

Decisions to make in the bedroom:

What time to get up?

Time you go to sleep?

What to wear?

Kitchen and Bathroom

The next area which is visited quite a lot is the kitchen and bathroom, again there a lot of things that you would do in these areas.

Kitchen

Surfaces

Food

Cooker

Washing machine

Pots and pans

Decorations/theme

Decisions to make in the kitchen:

What to eat?

Wether to clean up?

Clean your clothes?

Bathroom

Sink

Toothbrush/paste

Shower

Toilet

Bath

Cleaning products

Decisions to make in the bathroom:

When to clean your teeth and have a wash?

Wether to shower or bath?

Going to the toilet?

Living/ Dining room

A lot can happen in these rooms too. Living and dining rooms are communal areas, therefore everyone who lives in the house will visit theme. Quite a few events happen in these rooms happen to.

Living room/ Dining room

Table and chairs

TV

Sofa

Rug

Bean bags

Games console

Decorations

Decisions to make in the Living/ Dining room:

Watch tv?

Who to speak to?

Wether to take a rest?

Eat your food?

Outdoors

You don't live in your house all the time, there are other activities outdoors. There are a lot of objects and people you will come across outdoors, leaving you with lots of decisions to make, which will affect your mood.

Outdoors

Your house

Landscape

Shops

School/ University

Nightlife

Transport

Sports and Hobbies

Decisions to make outdoors?

Were to go?

People you meet?

Wether to go to work etc?

What happens if you don't meet friends?

Research

I really like the idea were cartoons are put in the real world. I think that this could work quite well in my game. I could use images and then animate characters on top of them.

I want my game to basically be a day about a day in a life as me. I user will have to make certain decisions which will affect what happens in the rest of the day. E.g If the user decides to make me get up later, i will then miss my breakfast and be in a mood all day.

Research: Games that i used to play

I decided to go back to the drawing bored. I need to get away from my sheep idea, therefore brainstorming about rounding up games isn't the way to go. After speaking with mike again, i was asked what games i used to play when i was younger, and what interest me.

When i was younger i always enjoyed playing adventure games, i enjoyed games were you had full control of the character, and you could customise objects. E.g The Sims - I enjoyed decorating and creating different buildings, and dressing up the characters.

From this i thought about doing a first person game, were the user controls the character. I will brain storm this idea.

I think using photo's and cartoon imagery could work well. I shell experiment.

After another meeting with mike, I have decided to change the idea behind my game, as you can see there are already lots of sheep games around on the internet. All have the same idea, you have to round the sheep into the pen, wether its with the keyboard or mouse.

I am going to keep the same idea of rounding some objects into an area, wether it may be children into a class room? I shell brainstorm more ideas.

My sheep

I am definatley going ahead with the sheep game. My game will be done from a birds eye view. I did this image which could be used as the opening screen maybe. I want my sheep to look very cartoonish, therefore i will go for this style. I am now goin to do some more images in Illustrator/Photoshop of the sheep from a birdseye view.

Meeting with mike

After showing mike my game idea's, i have decided to develop my sheep game.

   The aim of the game is to round all the sheep into the pen. You are the dog, and have to run around the field stopping the sheep from running away.

At the moment the game seems pretty simple. I am now going to develop this idea further. 

Maybe the dog has to round all the sheep with red collars, by separating them from the collarless sheep.

Or maybe the sheep could blow up after a certain amount of time.

I need to think about a scoring system and how much time you have to complete the task.

I will also create character profiles, which will also help generate ideas.

Final Idea

Development of ideas

Ideas

For this game, i thought about having a timer. The player would have to complete a series of tasks in a selected amount of time.
For this idea i thought about the player being a child, that has to complete different tasks throughout the day. In this level you have to find the childs school uniform intime for the school bus.

Here is a view game ideas that i created, to help generate more ideas. I particually like the birds-eye view game. I think that this would work well for a game were you have to move around different areas. E.g a town.
The game in the top left looks to much like mario, therefore i wont be using that idea.

This game reminds me of subway. The player would need a good memory to play ths game. The aim of the game is to remember what each customer has ordered, and make sure that they get the correct food.
The levels could get harder by increasing the amount each customer orders.

Mind Maps - Research