Unit 68 - Computer game design

Game research and testing (game table)

This was a table created to compare various game releases, The structure was left blank due to lack of knowledge of what to write there.

So what if we were to compare two games from different times? Let's take System Shock and Bioshock for example. I never personally played system shock but I have played a fair bit of Bioshock and System shock was the predecessor of Bioshock, before it became a franchise. Bioshock is listed in the grid above, and as we know, is a first person shooter set in an underwater city known as Rapture. It focuses on two elements, combat, and story. System shock focuses on the same sorts of things, taking you through an interesting story while giving you fun gameplay and combat.

Bioshock in-game

So lets look at what Bioshock does differently to many other games of its genre. For one, it adds the use of a mechanic called plasmids. Plasmids are powers you can obtain by utilising a substance named Adam, which can rewrite your genetic code. Powers can include the ability to freeze your enemies, Fire flames at them, telekinesis, and even being able to fire bees from your hand. Combined with conventional weaponry, you are able to take down larger enemies along with numerous other smaller enemies. This combat mechanic means you need to simultaneously manage ammo and eve, combining the right weapon with the right plasmid to counter a particular scenario. If you're being chased by multiple enemies, you may want to freeze a few enemies and shotgun the few active ones to thin their numbers and temporarily disable each group so you can deal with them individually.

System shock in-game

In system shock, Most of the base elements are the same. You play in first person, you are given weapons, but no plasmids. The feel is very similar to bioshock, being enclosed in tight corridors and having no way of escaping. I cannot say as much about system shock due to not having played it before, however I can give basic similarities and differences.

Both system shock and Bioshock are set in inescapable areas. System shock is in space, and Bioshock is in an underwater city. Despite this radical difference in location, the enclosed, empty feel remains. Everything alive out there is trying to kill you, Bar big Daddies and little sisters in Bioshock. And even then, you have to kill big daddies. Both games include weaponry of their own sort. And overall, they're both very similar games, with only a few differences.

So how has time made these two games different? One of the most noticeable aspects is the graphics. Look at the two pictures above. The system shock screenshot is what the game looks like to play. Bioshock, as is quite clear, is the graphically superior game. But since when have graphics made a game? There are a few other things that time has used to differentiate the two. System shock has a very different control scheme to Bioshock. Whereas Bioshock had a basic control scheme of moving the mouse to look around and using WSAD to move, System Shock worked very differently. For one, instead of WSAD to move, it was SXZC. As far as I know, no other games have done this. Instead of just moving the mouse to move, it was R to look upwards, F to centre your view, and V to look down. A was to look left and D was to look right.

The control scheme for both games are very different, with Bioshock taking up the scheme more people nowadays are accustom to due to ease of use. System Shock using a control scheme of a very unusual nature, which isn't so easy to use.

The storytelling in both is intriguing. Bioshock taking an approach of having someone guide you over the radio, and a few audio logs you can listen to should you find them, giving you information about the plot and what's happened there in the past. System shock does something similar. Acquiring log disks and reading e-mails allows you to put the pieces together and work out what's going on. There are no other friendly NPCs to interact with, whereas in Bioshock, you will meet the occasional friendly person. Though one very noticeable theme, is I have yet to actually stand in the same room as someone friendly. You'll see them through glass, hear them on the radio, but never actually go up to them before they either turn against you or die. This creates a very distinctive feeling of isolation, there is hope out there communicating with you, but you only ever see what you're up against. System shock does this as well, making sure you never genuinely meet anyone friendly.

These two games are very similar in their execution, their environments, and their story-telling. So because of the more intuitive control scheme, and just improved game in general, Bioshock would have to be superior to me. I cannot say for sure due to only having played one, but from what I can see, system shock is still a very good game.

Game pitch and development (Everything I've done)

The first thing we did was focus on looking at other games to take pointers. The game tried, was a simple flash game "Fireboy and Icegirl." A local multiplayer game focused on co-op. Or you could just
be weird and play it on your own controlling different characters. The video below shows me and Alex's experience with the game:


We'd had a look at how one game worked, now it was time to try our luck at actually designing a game and pitching it for kickstarter. Our task was to design a complete game and create almost a trailer for it, promoting it and making people want to donate to it. Concept art was drawn and 3D modelling was used to place various structures in the environment of the game we'd made.

The game my group decided to make, was one I'd partially designed last year. Now we were taking it further, still in unity. But this time with an actual story in mind and new design choices. We named the game "Archives" and our company; "Node Interactive" Then got to work thinking of ideas for the various mechanics of the game. The basic concept was essentially a maze puzzle game. You'd interact with devices in the maze to partially take control of the maze and move walls, open doors, replace traps etc. The story, was a little more complicated.

Essentially, two alien races had been feuding for centuries, and one day, a ship transporting intelligence crash lands on earth. A defence mechanism activates and the ship blends in with its surroundings, becoming a pyramid. The inside of the ship starts building the ultimate security system so one day its owners will come to collect it and it will remain safe in the meantime. The mechanism; a maze, built inside the ship, is where the entire game will take place.

The kick starter pitch below was put together by me with graphics and edits created specifically for the game and company. The title is correct, this was draft 4 of the pitch, the first wasn't created by me, the second wasn't used, the third was the original trailer we showed to the class, and the 4th, seen below was the final version.


This pitch was then sent off to an industrial panel, in which they would judge the game itself, along with the pitch. The following are the comments we received:


Other things in the group were designed by me, the logo for the game was created with various static effects and a font downloaded from Dafont. I added a pulse effect a slight 3D curve, and the effect was done! The Node Interactive logo itself was about the same sort of thing. Different colours, a different custom font, and a few small changes to the way the static worked, adding in a double behind to give the logo a kind of atmosphere. Things designed by me can in fact be seen in the video. For example, I designed the concept for the glove, sketching it out and going over it in pen. This was just a concept but the drawing itself can be seen below.

Overall in the group I helped a little with concept art, but mainly focused on designing the graphics for the logo and putting together the pitch, 3 times. I designed several things and even added two pages to a 10 page assessment of the game. I focused on explaining "Gameplay" and "Gameplay Mechanics." These can be seen below:

The above page, as you can see focuses on explaining the various gameplay mechanics for our game. The picture you see was taken directly from in-game footage, and depicts a Node found within the maze. I wrote this page explaining the way Nodes worked in our game, how they could be used to access the maze, and the glove that can be used to interact with various different elements of the map. This is just one of the two pages I worked on for the overall 10 page project.

The second page I worked on just focused on gameplay itself. I explain alot of the story here, touching on why certain things play as they do. For example, I mention the fact that this maze looks like an ancient temple, and that the reason for this is because the spaceship it's set inside has blended to its surroundings. This gives the whole game a particular feel as you walk through sandstone corridors and glimpse various paintings on the wall.