Design Document updated

Design Document for finished game.

Click to open PDF

Finished Game: What Alan did...

Though this may need tweaking, here is what I have done overall:

- Attended all meetings/discussions, organised certain meetings too

- Produced the first idea of the game involving sushi and Japanese influences

- Drew possible designs for Mokuyoyo and other characters (Will then illustrated)

- All game audio, composed soundtracks, character voices, sound effects

- Sourced multiple Japanese inspiration (film, TV shows, games, anime, humour, text)

- translated the final english text to japanese for the billboards

- Construction of 'lose' sequence and cutscene at the start of the game

A summary of what I have done - Sandy

This is just a quick summary of what I have done over the course of this project.

Within the early stages we brainstormed and collarborated to produce a number of different ideas and concepts for our game.
We then split into our roles and started on our decided final idea.

I was given a more management type role so I started on the design document and wrote up a basic brief schedule for us to follow in order to have the game completed for the deadline.

We worked together to sort out our storyline and the finer details of our game.

I helped Will at the early stages of the game production with some elements of the game scripting in order to get the canon following the mouse and for the ammo to fire on the mouse click. Later on in the game I also helped to try and understand and concieve a way to set up a way to "score" the game and how the player would know how well they had done.

Later on towards the end of the game I set up an html page and directory structure for the game and also used java script to make sure that the game would open in a new browser window at a set size.

summary

hello!

here is a summary of my part in the creation of this game..

- Provided input into the game concept and the development of the game through attending meetings

- Produced all the final illustrations used throughout the game

- Produced all of the animation in the game play and cut scenes

- Ended up doing a lot of coding (with help from david) when it needed to be completed close to the deadline

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This Week: Completed Tasks

Here is a brash list of what I did,

Alan:

This week I:

recorded vocal recordings for the game's cutscene.

co-designed cutscene (layout)

designed the lose scene (layout)

finished soundtracks and all sound effects

final stages!

so the deadline it tomorrow!!
the game has come together in leaps and bounds today (again thanks to david!)

I animated all the destruction of the buildings and the bombs that the monster fires and now they are working in the game. the last few bits of code will be finished tomorrow, that being the city health bar and the craft spinning out of control when hit with debris from the explosions.

also I put few of the sounds in that Alan had collected and its sounding really good!

take a look at the (almost finished) working copy HERE

Title Page... COMPLETE! Instruction Page... COMPLETE!

Title Page:

Instruction Page:
The instruction page was created to be as simple as possible and get the point across really fast. The use of opacity of Mokoyoyo's ship expresses movement, repeating graphics to show continuity and less text keeping the user as engaged as possible all add to the success of the design.

Alan

Title Screen...

With the help of Will's graphic design, I have started to construct the first elements of the title screen. Like many game packaging, images taken from the game or even exaggerated are printed on the cases or title sequences. Here is an image of what I have constructed so far...

Gameplay music...

The in game music has been completed with many different layers including sirens, explosions, electronic beats and screams! Using SoundTrack Pro, the contruction also allowed me to pan the stereo sound left or right to create a more impressive soundscape, very subtle though.

Click on to hear the clip: http://alan.clickgarden.net/finalgameplay.mp3

Cutscene Development

We have now decided that I (Alan) will be putting together the cutscene in software called 'Comic Life' by Plasq. It allows onself to produce a fantastic and stylistic approach. Will will be drawing the graphics to make sure it is consistent with the rest of the project too.

We have also decided that it will be a scrollable cutscene comic strip, a more unique take on setting the user's expectation...

the monster moving

ok so i've put the monster in and got him doing 4 movements now...
(with lots of help from David might i add!)

walking, firing(well sort of), roaring and the reaction to being hit by sushi.

theres a few glitches at the moment, but it seems the end is near with the coding!!

take a look at the working copy by going to the 'here is the game' link on the side bar and please fill in the feedback form if you havent already.

only the destruction

What is left to complete?

I've been looking over what is left to complete to get the game finished and have come up with a brief list.

Game Assets

Monster - This is of course a very important part of the game but it is also that we get it right as it will play an important part of the game. We need to get it into the game and then sort out the hit mechanics so that a hit brings down the monster health bar in the top right of the screen.

Ground - We need to decide what will be at the bottom of the screen. We have a few ideas but we're swaying towards have some rubble. This will reinforce the idea that the monster has been destroying the city already and that you(playing as the sushi chef) are the cities last hope.

Cut Scene - We have story boarded the Start cutscene but we need to finalise the end cut scenes for both a win and a lose result. We then of course have to get these animated in flash.

Sound - We have started on sound and music production and have menu music ready. We're working on game music which we need to complete asap. We also need to sort out basic sound effects for the game which should include at a minimum: Menu clicks,Canon firing, Monster hits, City Destruction, Selecting Sushi from conveyer belt we also need to sort out environmental background sounds.

sushi sushi sushi!

We've managed to get the sushi conveyer belt working with yummy plates of nigiri and maki that are able to be fired out of the cannon!

the monster is missing out of this working copy though as we are tweaking it

take a look at the new sushi HERE

User Feedback

We've recieved user feedback already, which is great.

They've been added to the comments on the "Feedback" post.

You can find them http://gametimez.blogspot.com/2008/04/feedback.html

Title music 1.0...

Yay! Here is a song I made in GarageBand, which took quite a while, as finding suitable theme music was a challenge!

It was a blend of two pieces of music named 'Asian Gamalan' and 'Rock Drums no. 5'.


Title Music

Introduction cutscene storyboard 1.0...

Sticking to the the lovely game design document, I have drawn out a storyboard for it.

As agreed it will portray Mukoyoyo as a depressed underperforming restaurant worker at a sushi bar. His boss always calls him names and constantly puts him down all the time. The storyboard speaks for itself...

Design document updated

The design document has been updated.

It is now on version 2.0 and includes all changes up to and including 14th of April 2008.

To view the pdf file click here: Design Document Version 2.0

Feedback

I've made up a short survey so that anyone who wants can leave us feedback on our game.

If you want to leave feedback but haven't recieved an email from us then please just copy and paste the following questions into an email then answer them and send the email to sandy.legge@googlemail.com please make the subject line of the email "Sushi Wars - Development Feedback"


1.Are you male or female?
2.How old are you?
3.How many hours do you use a computer a day on average?
4.How long do you spend surfing the internet a day on average?

5.Do you play computer games?
6.Do you play games on the internet?
7.Do you play games consoles? e.g.,Wii, PS2 XBOX
8.What gaming platforms do you own?
9.What type of games do you enjoy the most? e.g., Shootem-ups, Puzzle,RPG..etc
10.If you own more than 1 type of gaming platform, which do you play most?

11.What is the first thing that you notice about “Sushi Wars”?
12.What do you think of the interface?
13.What do you think of the graphics?
14.Did you understand how to control the spaceship?
15.Did you understand what you were meant to be doing?
16.What improvements do you think could be made?
17.What three words do you think describe the game?

Thank you for taking the time to fill in our survey. This information will be used to further develop the game.

update!

I've managed to put almost all the graphics into flash and animate some of them, we're getting a couple of vital bits of code today which should hopefully see the game in its full working order. The last piece of animation to put in is the monster and its path of destruction!

take a look at the working copy here

Sounds and Ting...

Everything is pulling together and I think we are on target with thanks to Sandy and Will's hard work on coding the elements together!

I've found a website, which features free downloads for your own projects and in our case; a game. I am in the process of capturing Japanese themed sound effects and music through Audio Hijack, which will play a key element in extracting audio for our game.

http://www.grsites.com/sounds/

I also remembered that I have a copy of 'Bishi Bashi Special' stashed somewhere in my house. A Playstation game made by Konami, it a collection of fast paced minigames with a Japanese theme. Plenty of strange noises and sound effects that echo certain aspects of Japanese culture such as food, sport and leisure! I will be getting a Edirol and extracting MANY MANY sounds from this game and indeed be crediting the creators at the end of this project.

The joy!

Everything coming together

Over the holidays we've all been working on our specific areas of the game.

I've been working out what we need to do and when in order to make sure we get it ready in time.

Our target for this week is to have a working, if basic version of the game by Thursday.

I've also helped out Will with some of the coding to get the canon turning properly and also to allow the player to choose their ammo type.

I've been working up the graphics this week, gonna get them into flash and moving soon but heres a preview




Also ive been playing this game, its really addictive and kind of similar to our origional idea..

Audio Hijack Pro

With my new revised role as a 'Sound Researcher' for the group...

I have just purchased a copy of 'Audio Hijack Pro' by 'Rogue Amoeba'! (http://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/).

To simply put it, Audio Hijack captures the audio outputting through your sound card into a data file. You can capture your Skype phone calls, sound bites from DVDs and even sound sources from the internet like YouTube!

Why will this play a big role in our game? Well because of the nature of the game's cultural background, finding 'found sounds' that are related to Japanese comedy and their culture in general is proving difficult indeed. So I have begun to the search for materials that I can personally capture myself.

There are plenty of programs on YouTube, DVDs I own and other materials I shall be working with very soon in order to create as authentic audio experience for our game as possible.

More later...

game navigation flow chart

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character profiles so far

ok so the character designs are coming together now. hopefully starting to look more professional. the monster isnt finalised yet and there is still the visuals for Katashi to come.


MUKOYOYO

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SEX: MALE
AGE: 19
LIKES: PREPARING SUSHI
DISLIKES: HIS BOSS, KATASHI
HOMETOWN: TOKYO

Mukoyoyo (the hero of the game!) is a young sushi chef, he is a gifted and hard working chef but his boss Katashi is always putting him down and never gives him a chance to show his true skills. Mukoyoyo takes great pride in his skill for making delicious sushi and takes it very seriously. He lives on his own in a dingy high rise flat, where he spends most of is time perfecting sushi making skills and trying new dishes to impress Katashi.

Although Mukoyoyo often obeys his boss and comes across as a shy individual, he does not lack courage when it is needed and this leads him to his destiny of saving Tokyo


THE ALIEN MONSTER!



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SEX: ASEXUAL
AGE: 19000 EARTH YEARS
LIKES: DESTRUCTION
DISLIKES: SUSHI
HOMETOWN: UNKOWN

The alien monster, is an organic wrecking ball for an alien planet. It has been grown in an egg which has been sent to earth to destroy everything, creating a blank canvas for alien collonisation. It has been engineered to resist any kind of human attack, but there is one thing that the alien planet did not consider. That being sushi, which the monster is allergic to. The monster is a remorseless creature whose only purpose in life is do destroy anything and everything.

Interface... finalized?

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Here is a rough sketch of the possible main interface. You may also notice that I have added a new conditional idea regarding the sushi selection. Like many 'shoot-em-ups', if you choose the better weapon it tends to be slower in re-loading ammunition! So I thought that the better the sushi (weapon) the slower it travels to hit the monster... but the damage will be far greater!

Protagonist possible influences...

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Boy howdy!

I was browsing through sh*t loads of bookmarks in Safari when I stopped and clicked on Sanrio website; creator of the 'Hello Kitty' franchise!

The simple clean lines, neat features and quirky personalities in some way reflect on Mokuyoyo's himself. The penguin character is called 'Badtz-Maru' I believe; totally hilarious design!

Moving through the website, each character has its own page showing their favorite hobbies, things they eat and all things kaiawe (cute).

http://www.sanrio.com/

The narrative

In the not so distant future is where our story begins. sky scrapers tower over modern Tokyo as futuristic hovering crafts whiz by (think Bladerunner)

We follow the story of Mukoyoyo, who is a young sushi chef from Tokyo, Japan. He strives to impress his boss the master sushi chef Katashi, who is constantly putting Mukoyoyo down and condemning his skills. Mukoyoyo is constantly trying to prove himself, but little does he know he will get the chance to sooner than he thinks.

After a huge argument with his boss, Mukoyoyo is kicked out of Katashi's sushi restaurant and is told by Katashi that he will never make sushi in Tokyo again! Mukoyoyo makes his way home in the pouring rain with his head lowered in shame and defeat.

Meanwhile on the other side of the town there is a commotion happening, a large egg shaped ufo has crash landed into the street, a crowd has formed to investigate while the police turn up and cordon off the area. As the crowd look on in awe the object starts to move progressively more violently, the egg shaped object then blasts open shattering into pieces causing a huge cloud of gas to form. Before the cloud has time to clear tentacles start to rapidly emerge and grab innocent bystanders.

Back on his way home Mukoyoyo starts to hear screams around him and sees people running and hiding, confused Mukoyoyo looks up to see what the crowds are running from. When he looks up he sees a giant one eyed purple monster creating a path of destruction through the city. He sees the monster heading for Katashi's restaurant, the monster smashes the building up and devours its contents. Mukoyoyo looks on in shock and slight amusement at Katashi's misfortune. However seconds later the alien monster recoils and vomits up what he has just eaten. Mukoyoyo then realises that the monster must be allergic to sushi, and so he takes the initiative and steps up to the job of saving Tokyo and possibly the world from the alien threat!

Mukoyoyo runs to his hover craft and here is were the player takes control, firing sushi at the monster to save the city from destruction.


On successfully completing the game, Mukoyoyo becomes the most famous sushi chef in all of Tokyo and with Katashi's restaurant destroyed Mukoyoyo hires Katashi as a dish cleaner for Mukoyoyo's new sushi restaurant.


character profiles to come!

also i cant stop playing this game, so simple and cute yet addictive!
character influences ahoy!

Project Schedule

Here is the new revised schedule written by Sandy:

Week 7 13-03-08
Team: Final designs for graphics decided.
Will: Game mechanics tweaked inline with what appeared in testing.
Sandy: Make up list of all assets needed for game.
Alan: Write brief and basic back story.

Week 8 20-03-08
Team: Brainstorm and develop back story.
Will: Design of graphics allocated from assets.
Sandy: Design of graphics allocated from assets.
Alan: Storyboard cut scenes.

Currently we're slightly behind. Other weeks to follow!

more moving things!

ok so the monster is moving now, and so is the cannon. although the cannon needs some tweaking :/

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE WORKING COPY

watch out for full character profiles in the next post!

Character Development

After getting a feel for the game last week, I have progressed in drawing concept art of our characters for the game. Mokoyoyo, buildings and enemy ideas are as follows:



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Wasabi Sushi and Bento

www.wasabi.uk.com is a great promo website fro their lovely food! I've taken a few screen shots of their drawings of sushi and plan to trace them in Illustrator later. Watch this space!



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I Wasa Lobbed By True Men...

Scouring YouTube for excellent material to be used in our game has been very amusing! There are plenty of different examples of Japanese comedy games and shows on how to learn english. Here is one that stood out the most!



If you click on the 'menu' button in the bottom right corner of the video, there are numerous examples of things that will influence the humour of the project!

We plan to use small edits from such clips, edit them and add them to the cutscenes of the game. We'll see how this will work out soon...

moving character

I've got the character moving now, pretty simple to do. now its time to figure out how to get it to fire things and direct the cannon!

you can view the game so far HERE

Building Conceptz...

Alas! Illustrator still scares me, but I've managed to draw a few buildings and write some fake/real Japanese/Chinese characters with the aid of my new graphic tablet! Great fun indeed!

Angry Turtle

Havn't managed much this week as I've been very busy with other work and comitments. Here is a quick concept of a possible monster.

Mood Swingz

Here is our complete mood board modeled by Willis! We all used magazine cuttings, sweet wrappers, print outs and drawings.

Click:

Design Doc, Presentation + Mood Board

We met again yesterday to do the mood board and discuss how the presentation would work. We have now finalized the first draft of the design document and you can download it here and we also have our presentation up to download here.

I drew up a quick sketch of how we're thinking the game will look, it's a very crude version which we are mainly using as a platform to figure out the layout of the screen.



We have yet to design a concept for the monsters in the game but the ideas were that they will be stylized versions of Godzilla and Gamera, here are a couple of pictures for reference..





The mood board will be finished tonight and we will post a picture up when it is complete.

Japanese Comic Culture

Just a few images from Japanese culture. Notably manga and robotics.


This is a robot alien cat.


I think this picture highlights the differences in Japanese and western illustration.


A Sony designed robot.

Finally! Ideas!

During our meeting this morning, all our initial ideas began to merge and evolve! We started with sushi eating robots, to conveyor-belts feeding people and we left with a joint idea of a sushi war, where the player must protect a city from monsters using and creating sushi for his weapon! Haha! Oh the joys!

Design Documentation Meeting

Today we met as a group in the Keyworth Centre to discuss and finalise our game design and ideas.

The topics which we covered mainly were.

Game Design and Concept
Characters and graphics
Scoring systems

We also allocated which parts of the Design Documentation we would each complete.

We planned another meeting on the 12-02-08 to produce a mood broad and plan our presentation for the 14-02-08.

Sushi Ting

Totally forgot to post! But I had the fantaastic idea of sushi eating and Japanese culture infused with robots and technology.

A robot could move along, like the Apple Catcher game, eating parts of the sushi with the outcome of a final stack which would be judged by the head chef with a final score!

If one does not get a better grade, you cannot progress to the next level! So collecting, previewing, result and progression.

We'll see... BWAH!

Keeping it interesting

I think we should try to inject as much humour as possible. The game is never going to be ground breaking but if it is enjoyable to play through sound effects and graphic goodness then I think that will keep the average player interested for a longer time.

I remember playing a lot of games on www.miniclip.com which were humorous. The Bush and Blair dancing and workouts flash games are some that come to mind.

I had a thought about a word game where you have to collect letters then make words with the letters that you manage to catch. I like he robot game idea where you can collect parts and then this effects how your robot will fight in the end battle. e.g. you could collect more body parts to give yourself more hit points/health or more arm parts to give yourself better attacks. I also think that levels are important as this give the user something to play the game for. I always find it more satisfying if your aiming for the next level.

I'm not sure how much work is required in flash to make these ideas happen though so that may be something that we need to look into.

addictive flash games.

I decided to think back to some of the flash games i used to play a few years ago when i was super bored.

I used to frequent a site called Addictinggames and would spend hours searching for and playing flash games.

some of my favourites were bookworm

bookworm is kind of like scrabble, you have to make words out of the letters provided and just like scrabble you earn more points for certain letters and the length of the word. I think the reason this game is so addictive is because it can go on for so long, there is no time limit and it isn't easy to lose. its just nice and easy to play, a puzzler that doesn't require too much thought.

next is Bejeweled. Another simple puzzle game which now comes on most mobile phones. Bejeweled has a faster pace than bookworm, so it is a lot more engrossing. Bejeweled more often than not distracted me from msn conversations or whatever else I was doing online unlike bookworm which was just kept on the background just incase I got bore of everything else.


finally, I used to spend the most time playing Insane Aquarium. Insane aquarium is such a clever game were the user has to maintain a tank full of fish that excrete money, as the game progesses there becomes a threat from aliens and the reward for each level is a new creature that stays in your tank to help you complete the next level. this game requires the players full attention as there is so much going on at once that you can't afford to take your eyes off it. every action in this game are all done by the click of the mouse and so it is easily accessible to any player (who can use a mouse). For me, what makes this game so sucessful is the fast pacing and the constant reward and it never gets too frustrating, this coupled with the cute aniamtion/graphics and the satisfying sound effects are probably what keeps me playing this game for hours.


Out of all these games that i used to play online, i think insane aquarium seems most like the apple catch game that we've been given. There is a dropping motion of the items and the static background and the moving characters (even though they are not controllable). I'm beginging to see how the apple catch game can be turned into something as addictive as insane aquarium now.

ps. Sandy and Alan, what do you think of these games? (particularly insane aquarium!? i was thinking we could do something similar but with robots,)