History of Nintendo

Nintendo started as a card company in 1889. The business produced and marketed playing cards called Hanafuda (flower cards) and became very popular. With high demand, assistants were hired to mass produce cards. Nintendo continues to manufacture playing cards in Japan and has its own “Nintendo Cup” tournament.

In around 1956, the dominating playing card manufacturer, which was in the US, only had a small office. Nintendo visited and realised the limitations of playing cards and had gained access to Disney characters and put them on cards to boost sales.

During this time the Nintendo Card Co. was renamed to Nintendo Co and the company expanded. Nintendo set up a taxi company, a love hotel chain, TV network, a food company selling instant rice and noodles, and several other things. These all eventually failed though and after 1964 Tokyo Olympics, playing card sales dropped also and Nintendo’s stock prices went down and down.

Nintendo then moved into Japanese toys and had a maintenance engineer become a product developer in the new “Nintendo Games” department.  With success in with toys and focus being shifted to family entertainment, Nintendo started to try and cater for the emerging arcade scene. Nintendo’s new market now became electronics.

Nintendo began to produce hardware for the colour TV. Nintendo launched FamiCom or Family Computer known outside Japan as the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES. This video game console had many popular titles one most importantly being Super Mario Bros, one of the best-selling video games of all time.

After the NES, the Game Boy handheld game console was being developed, and then also came the Super Nintendo Entertainment System or SNES/Super Famicom. The SNES stepped forward from the NES being 8-bit 3^rd generation to 16-bit 4^th generation.

In hand held development from the Game Boy, came a smaller version, the Game Boy Pocket and then Game Boy Color. Game Boy led with strong demand of the different handheld games they released such as the Poke’mon games.

From the SNES, the next home console was the Nintendo 64, featuring many things such as 3D capabilities, multiplayer of 4 players, analog stick controllers, Rumble Pak for vibration feedback to the controller. This device became then to eventually be an industry standard.

Back to handheld, after the Game Boy Color came Game Boy Advanced which had similar specifications to SNES. Then the Game Boy Advance SP with lit up flip screen, introduced rechargeable built-in batteries.

Following the SNES came the GameCube, which was first for Nintendo to utilise optical discs instead of cartridges, then the Nintendo Wii, which uses motion sensing controllers and online capabilities.

The Nintendo DS handheld then had a double screen feature and then with DSi and DSi XL, came with a camera and expanded screen. Next up then in the DS series was the 3DS which had autostereoscopy to produce a stereoscopic three-dimensional effect without the need to wear glasses.

Nintendo now has the handheld audience and in-home entertainment they cater for and is strong in the market against competitors such as Mircosoft and Sony.

Narrative Structure of 2 Films

Worksheet – Narrative Structure of 2 Films

Using the 10 points to list the similarities, i.e., they share the same recipe/structure in making the film.

Movie 1: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen	Movie 2 : WALL-E
1.     Equilibrium Before the cube sliver projecting onto Sam’s mind, Sam Witwicky the protagonist, is living a routine everyday life and continuing studies.	Before EVE landed, WALL-E led a routine everyday life as a working cleaning robot on an post-apocolyptic earth.
2.     Disturbance A sliver from the cube in the first movie puts information into the protagonist’s mind provoking enemies to pursue him thus breaking his normal everyday life.	Another robot lands on the empty earth and interrupts WALL-E from his everyday clean-up and causes a break from his norm.
3.     Protagonist Sam Witwicky becomes the center target of attention for the characters in the movie as enemies pursue him and allies defend him.	WALL-E sets out on a journey following EVE and we see how WALL-E is affected by her coming to earth.
4.     Plan Sam needs to find out what the symbols in his head mean and why the enemy wants it before they decide to annihilate everyone. He follows clues and has to hide from everyone that may want to turn him in.	WALL-E and EVE become fugitives forcing them to hide and the computer on the mother-ship tries to hide that there is life re-growing on earth. They need to alert the human captain and protect the plant so they can activate the ship’s hyperjump back to earth.
5.     Obstacle The Decepticons and people trying to turn Sam in can stop him from achieving his goal.	The mothership computer and guard robots try to stop EVE and WALL-E from alerting the news about earth and getting there.
6.     Complications -The autobot leader, the good guys, Optimus Prime dies -The Matrix Key they finally find crumbles to dust -Sam comes close to death and goes into limbo during the conflict	-The ship computer has different motives than what the people want -The plant is vital information to authorize getting back to earth -WALL-E gets severally damaged protecting the plant
7.     Timeout -Sam and his girlfriend Mikaela through the battle and almost losing each other come closer as they tell each other they love each other.	-Once WALL-E is damaged, EVE starts to show worry and feelings about him and is upset he isn’t the same once he is repaired
8.     Crisis Autobots and Decepticons battle it out as autobots want to defend the humans and earth where as the Decepticons don’t and want the Sun’s energy.	The ship computer turns against the captain’s orders, starts a mutiny, and attacks WALL-E protecting the plant. EVE and the captain try to stop the computer.
9.     Climax Optimus is resurrected with the reforged key and is upgraded with extra parts to make him capable to defeat the enemy. The Fallen is defeated and the other Decepticons flee.	The captain disables the computer and they head for Earth, that is also the only place EVE knows there is parts to fix WALL-E.
10.   Resolution Earth is safe and the Autobots continue working with the soldiers and Sam returns to his college studies.	Earth is ready to be repopulated and WALL-E and EVE reunite helping the humans and other robots restore Earth’s environment

Munchkin experience

Munchkins is a parody game of Dungeons and Dragons (which I've also never played before) where you use cards and roll dice to fight monsters as a team with others or working against each other to see who becomes the highest level first.

The game seemed a bit complex at first to be done on cards, but it seemed to work out, although we had to do a lot of reading at first to understand what was going on. We played to what we thought was the correct way of playing it and it seemed fun, but in now a days, it looks like a bit of an outdated way of playing games. I think a better similar experience could be achieved digitally much more easily, but as one of the players did say, well it could be a fun game to play drunk or something haha.

Defining Fun..

Fun to me in relation to games is a game that I can really immerse myself in and escape reality and all other thoughts that are clogging my head and just focus on the entertainment that is present before me.

I really enjoy my single-player games, mostly platformers and adventure games. There are single-player games with a great story I can get lost in and anticipate a sequel so strongly just to know what happens next in the story. Single-player games can really give me a fun experience and its like playing in a movie.

I also play MMO's a lot also and I think because when playing with other people and especially friends, it just makes the experience that much more memorable. The longest game I would have played is World of Warcraft, a massive online game with many places to explore and fight and survive whether you adventure alone or with friends. The dungeon content within this game is where groups of up to 5 or 40 players at a time! all come together to strategise, put character strengths together and take down enemy bosses. These dungeons fights could never be done alone and when your in the heat of a battle focusing and co-ordinating with friends and other people online in your group, there is an adrenaline! And once you take out that boss, it is a great victory. That for me is where a lot of fun can be had, and shared! :)

GDD, Game Design Document

 

Design Document for:

          Ars Aranium

Run, Gun, Survive

An iPhone game.

All work Copyright ©2011

Written by Charles Sonny Mifsud 3822101

Version # 1.00

Friday, October 21, 2011
Table of Contents

Ars Aranium_____________________________________________________________ 1

Game Overview__________________________________________________________________ 4

Philosophy, Game Design Goals_______________________________________________________ 4

Philosophical point #1___________________________________________________________ 4

Philosophical point #2___________________________________________________________ 4

Philosophical point #3___________________________________________________________ 4

Common Questions________________________________________________________________ 4

What is the game?______________________________________________________________ 4

Why create this game?___________________________________________________________ 4

Where does the game take place?__________________________________________________ 4

What do I control?_______________________________________________________________ 5

How many characters do I control?__________________________________________________ 5

What is the main focus?__________________________________________________________ 5

What’s different?_______________________________________________________________ 5

Feature Set_____________________________________________________________________ 6

General Features_________________________________________________________________ 6

Multiplayer Features______________________________________________________________ 6

Downloadable Content_____________________________________________________________ 6

Gameplay________________________________________________________________________ 6

The Game World________________________________________________________________ 7

Overview________________________________________________________________________ 7

Environments and Monsters________________________________________________________ 7

The Physical World________________________________________________________________ 7

Overview______________________________________________________________________ 7

Key Locations__________________________________________________________________ 7

Travel________________________________________________________________________ 7

Scale_________________________________________________________________________ 7

Weather______________________________________________________________________ 7

Camera_________________________________________________________________________ 7

Overview______________________________________________________________________ 7

Camera Detail #1_______________________________________________________________ 8

Camera Detail #2_______________________________________________________________ 8

Example Map Layout #1____________________________________________________________ 8

Game Characters_______________________________________________________________ 9

Overview________________________________________________________________________ 9

Creating a Character______________________________________________________________ 9

Enemies and Monsters_____________________________________________________________ 9

User Interface________________________________________________________________ 10

Overview_______________________________________________________________________ 10

Menu Interface__________________________________________________________________ 10

Gameplay Interface_______________________________________________________________ 10

Weapons_______________________________________________________________________ 11

Overview_______________________________________________________________________ 11

Primary Weapons:________________________________________________________________ 11

Secondary Weapons:______________________________________________________________ 11

Upgrades:______________________________________________________________________ 11

Single-Player Game____________________________________________________________ 12

Overview_______________________________________________________________________ 12

Story_________________________________________________________________________ 12

Hours of Gameplay_______________________________________________________________ 12

Victory Conditions_______________________________________________________________ 12

Multiplayer Game______________________________________________________________ 13

Overview_______________________________________________________________________ 13

Max Players____________________________________________________________________ 13

Servers________________________________________________________________________ 13

Customization___________________________________________________________________ 13

Internet_______________________________________________________________________ 13

Saving and Loading_______________________________________________________________ 13

Character Design______________________________________________________________ 14

Overview_______________________________________________________________________ 14

Character______________________________________________________________________ 14

Musical Scores and Sound Effects____________________________________________ 15

Overview_______________________________________________________________________ 15

 

Game Overview

Philosophy, Game Design Goals

Philosophical point #1

                This game is trying to give the iPhone and users a game that you can jump in and have some quick survival action. I’m trying to achieve a game with plenty of on and off play value where you can play a round or match and leave your progress and comeback very easily. You can play for hours and have fun, or play for a few minutes in a single round if you have a limited amount of spare time. Fun gameplay with a visually enjoyable experience, make for a happy gamer.

               

Philosophical point #2

                The game will run on iPhone. This is for the game is a small action game starting off and able to reach an audience much easier as a phone application. The game is to be easily accessible to users.

               

Philosophical point #3

                Soft graphics and visuals easy on the eye that looks attractive to the player that doesn’t give them a headache at the same time!

Common Questions

What is the game?

Run and gun live action survival game. It is set on various planets and different locations giving different visual environments. The game will get longevity from character customisation and building, level-up systems, wave by wave game modes, and multiplayer modes.

Why create this game?

                There are other games that only touches on what I’m trying give. Collaborating what others have done, and putting all the good parts together with a bit of my own touch, I believe a very entertaining fun game can be made. I’ve always had a lot of fun playing similar game modes to this, and have a lot of fun doing co-operative survival.

Where does the game take place?

                The game takes place in a fictional galaxy that is full of planets with different assorted forms of dangerous life forms and precious resources and minerals. Each planet will have different characteristics, such as jungles, deserts, swamps, snow, rocks and lava.

Describe the world that your game takes place in.  Simple as that.  Help frame it in the reader’s mind by spending a few sentences on it here.  You can go into lengthy detail later in a section solely dedicated to describing the world.  Remember that we want to keep this part of the design light and readable.

 

 

What do I control?

               

                The player is in control of a single action hero. This hero can plant AI targeting objects such as artillery turrets but is mostly focused on the main hero and archetype chosen.

How many characters do I control?

                One character is controlled per player.

What is the main focus?

                The main objective is to travel from planet to planet and gather resources needed to survive and rebuild and power a new civilization. This is all the while combating the planet’s environment, creatures, and others trying to take resources.

What’s different?

This takes a run and gun gameplay and pairs it with survival and RPG mechanics while also incorporating strategy, tactics and multiplayer gameplay. Level-up mechanic and customisation is there, with depth, but not so much that it is troublesome and confusing to the player, just enough to keep each player somewhat different and to suit a play style a player may choose. A player can do customisation or if they just want to play, can stick with the standard layouts and character builds. This gives a choice of more in-depth gameplay or quick simple action.

Feature Set

General Features

Different Planets and Environments to explore

Customisable Characters

Role-playing Life action shooter

Retina graphics

Multiplayer Features

Competitive or Team play

Easy to find a game

Easy to find your friends and set up quick games

Can chat over Instant Messenger system

Downloadable Content

Get bonus levels

Get bonus visual character customisation

Gameplay

Survival Action Run and Gun

Strategy and Tactics to Survive

Base Defense

Level-up customisation system

Visual character customisation system

Play single-player mode or skirmish multiplayer with friends

The Game World

Overview

                The game worlds are different to each planet and have different characteristics for each. Therefore a player must adjust to each environment and decide on tactics depending on where they are and what enemies that might combat on that terrain.

Environments and Monsters

                Each planet will have its own environment and monsters with different characteristics. For the environment, for example snow terrain will slow movement speed and hot molten rock planets will have terrain that deals damage to the player from extreme heat. Monsters will have different advantages depending where the player is and has to play smart to combat the enemy.

               

The Physical World

Overview

                Describe an overview of the physical world.  Then start talking about the components of the physical world below in each paragraph.

The following describes the key components of the physical world.

Key Locations

                There is the main harvesting point the players are looking for on each planet, and other small enemy camps while in the exploring phase.

Travel

                The player traverses the planet on foot with fellow marines.

Scale

                Exploration is more of a small maze. Sections of the map just have a small group of enemies and one is the main harvest point. Otherwise there are a few winding paths and directions to take but map is still relatively small being an iPhone application.

Weather

                Weather in the game is depending on the planet, other than visuals, snow and sandstorm can slow players, while hot molten rock can damage players.

Camera

Overview

The camera will be of a top view and follow the player while they explore looking for a harvest point. Once a harvest point is found and harvesting has begun, the camera will be locked onto the main location while a player stays and defends. The player then moves freely around the screen while the camera is stationary.

Camera Detail #1

                The camera will be locked onto the player while exploring, with the player’s character locked in the center.

Camera Detail #2

                When harvesting and defending the camera is locked onto location and the player moves freely within those bounds defending the harvest site.

The World Layout

Example Map Layout #1

Players start at the landing zone and explore to find the harvest zone. Map is dynamic and layouts change when visiting different planets. After explore phase, action is focused on the harvest zone.

Game Characters

Overview

                Space Marines trained to endure harsh environments and combat various creatures and monsters.

                Enemies are creatures found on the various planets within the game. Depending on what environment they are native to, they will have different ways on combating the player.

Creating a Character

                Characters are created by first choosing a type whether it be Strength, Agility or Intelligence. From then on, characters get experience from completing levels and completing objects and taking out enemies. Experience can then be used to add bonus abilities and stat points to the character depending on what type attribute is first chosen. With gold earned also from killing enemies and completing objectives, players can buy weapons and items to use during missions.

Enemies and Monsters

                Players try to defeat incoming waves of enemies that have different abilities and attributes depending on the planet the player is in. Enemies may be agile but with less health, or slower but do a lot more damage and have a large amount of health. Certain waves may also have single special boss enemies that are a lot more difficult than the normal enemies from the standard waves.

User Interface

Overview

                Example interface designs of menu and gameplay below.

Menu Interface

Gameplay Interface

In the top left is character class symbol, eg fist for strength, along with green health bar and blue energy bar. Gold and Aranium gathered is shown top right.

Bottom left is character movement touch circle, right red circle is action button for interaction, and right bigger circle aims and fires in the direction pointing.

Weapons

Overview

                Weapons have base starting attributes that with character customisation can be modified to give eg. Faster firing rates, better accuracy, more ammo, better reload times.

Primary Weapons:

                Strong Slow Close Range Shotgun

                Average Fast Medium Range Machine Gun

               

                Single-Shot Slow Long Range SniperRifle

Secondary Weapons:

                Strong Slow Medium Range Handgun

                Weak Fast Medium Range Handgun

                Single-Shot Ice slowing grenade

                Single-Shot Fire damage over time grenade

Upgrades:

                Weapon upgrades start from rank 1 going onto rank 5. As a user gets more experience using a weapon, their specialty for that weapon increases and increases the rank. Rank up provides players with bonus stats like accuracy, faster reload, and faster fire.

Single-Player Game

Overview

                The player decides which planet to go to depending on what is unlocked, more unlock from completing objectives. The player lands on selected planet and searches for a harvest point. Once the harvest point is found, a machine is setup that the player has to defend while it harvests and attracts waves of incoming enemies.

               

In this mode, NPCs will replace what could be other players controlling a similar character as you. NPCs will follow and assist the player depending on what actions they perform and decisions they make. They will automatically position themselves at a harvest site and help the player defend and fend off enemies with gun fire.    

Story

                In a fictional galaxy where after great wars resources are scarce, advanced technology is used to travel to different planets to gather resources to hopefully one day rebuild a broken civilization. Space Marines are sent on missions to combat the environments and enemies they provoke while trying to gather the powerful resource of the galaxy, crystal minerals called Ars Aranium. Story plays a small part in this game; it is more focused towards gameplay and action.

Hours of Gameplay

                Because gameplay is split into rounds of missions, players can go on end traversing different planets or play single rounds for a short amount of time. Gameplay hours is made to be really flexible so players can play when they want and how much they want.

Victory Conditions

                Successfully complete the objective of gathering resources and surviving from waves of enemies trying to stop you. Be the last ones standing after a harvest.

Multiplayer Game

Overview

                Multiplayer works a lot the same as single player. In this mode other players will replace NPCs and players can co-ordinate and strategize on how to tackle each mission.

Max Players

                A max of 4 players can be on a team on a mission co-operating at one time and a maximum of 2 teams versing each other in competitive play.

Servers

                Client-server is used to play multiplayer. This way no players get advantages from things such as from latency by being the host of a game.

Customization

                With character customisation, teams can decide what approach to take for each mission depending on character builds, what can work effectively as a team. For example, what weapons to use as a primary/secondary, and player archetypes, strength, agility and intelligence.

Internet

                Phone internet connection or from WiFi connected to an internet accessible network.

Saving and Loading

                Characters and rewards are saved between each mission after successfully completing a mission or from defeat. Loading of characters will be chosen while first entering the game mode before finding other players to play with.

Character Design

Overview

                Example of how character is looking as a layout.

Character

Character colour can be customised.

Musical Scores and Sound Effects

Overview

                Background music is to be played without lyrics. During gameplay it is try to get players pumped up for fast paced action. In interface menus music is to be slow paced and encourage players to think and relax between the action sequences.

Sound effects from weapon fire to creature noise is to be crisp and let the player know what is happening and give an action feel.