Prototype Content of Legend of Heroes - Research Paper Example

Legend of Heroes Student Name: Student ID: Game type: 2D Declaration I declare that this work is my own original work and that all sources used are duly acknowledged. I also declare that this work has not been submitted earlier by any person for a degree award in any institution. 1. Introduction This paper describes the content of a game, Legend of Heroes, which was developed in assignment two. It includes description of the content provided and reason for chosing the content, details of how the content was produced, and description of how the game content is viewed or utilized. 2. Game Content Description a) Game content The game content is described in three aspects: logic, visual assets, and audio assets. i) Logic The game will use a time-based game logic consistently in the code. Although it is more complex than a frame-based logic, the time-based game logic will be more useful for the game. The time-based logic allows objects to be updated based on the actual time spent (Zirkle and Hogue (2009, p.65), consequently enhancing accuracy even when there are lags. Although the time-based game logic requires more code to achieve the desired result when compared to frame-based logic, its advantage of accuracy makes it prefferable for the online gaming platform. The time-based logic will be used consistently in code of the game (in graphics and logic codes) to allow harmony and synchronization. Zirkle and Hogue (2009, p.67) have warned that mixing time-based game logic and frame-based game logic often results in unpleasant effects. ii) The audio assets The audio assets include the voice-over, music, and sound effects in the game. Voice-over will be used at various stages of the game to provide narration of the game main events or story. A voice-over narration of the story upon which the game is based will be included at the begining of the game to introduce the concept of the game. Voice-overs will also be strategically included at various phases of the game. Voice acting will add life to the game and personality to its characters (Bethke, 2003, p.49). The background music will be classical. It will be wisely chose to characterize an environment of the olden days empires in Europe that can be categorized as the kings palace, the peasants life, and the environment of the soldeirs. Sounds will be tweaked to produce effects of various objects and aspects. For instance, the voices of the four actors will be represented with unique sound effects. The rougue character will speak in a voice that typically depicts an evil person. A priest, a warrior, and a king will also be characterized by unique speech sounds. The sound of the king, for instance, will highlight command and rulership. On the other hand,a priest’s voice will represent humility, kindess, and submission to a superior being. A worrior speech will be characterically be made of short statements and will display obedience to orders. The sound effects will also be used to highlight a servant’s speech. The game will have sound effects to replicate a fighting or a war environment. Unique sound effects will highlight swords fights and arrow shots, soldiers matching, running and other aspects of war and fighting. Sound effect will also include clicking of swords. Beeps and click sounds will be used to highlight various occurences such as change of levels, scoring, and wrong entries by a user. Dolby sound will play at the beginning and termination of the game. The beginning of the game include loading the game and starting the game. Termination of the game include quiting the current game and quiting to the operating system. iii) The visual assets The physical environment of the game will be characterized by 2D graphics, lighting and texturing. The 2D graphics will be used to create backgrounds, skyboxes and game envronment. The game characters will be modelled using sprites, which are two dimensional (2D) animation. The choice of the 2D images is motivated by the need to minimize the requirements of the computer and network. For instannce, a third dimension (3D) game engine would definitely require high specifications than a 2D game engine (Zirkle & Hogue, 2009, p. 97). Texture will be added to graphics and game objecrt to produce appropriate visual effects. It will involve adding colour, tone and gradient to graphics to generate various visual effects. Lighting will also be used in conjuction with sounds to induce the appropriate emotions and moods. Cinematics or cut-scenes will be utilized for a number of reasons, including introduction of the game, highlighting of the game plot, and presentation of the character build-up. They will also highlight the atmosphere as well as offer clues and background information of the game. These cinematics will be full motion video (FMV). b) Production of the game content The production of the game content will involve pre-production, production and the post-production phases. i) Pre-production phase The pre-production phase is mainly a planning stage of the game content. It will involve creating a schedule, plan and budget to guide production of the game content. The initial documents will be generated in this phase. Appropriate documentation that describes the budget estimates, schedules, and tasks will be produced. The documentation will include the concept and pitch documents (Bates, 2004, p. 37), which are basically a summary of the selling points of the game and a comprehensive description of the game respectively. The pre-production will also be characterised by the process’ finer details. The questions who, what, when and how will be answered in this phase. The technology or platform to be used and asset needs are established and described here. The resources and reference materials to use for developing the content will also be established at this phase. The workflow is described. The personnel to do the work, time plan, the approach of developing the content , and the resource to be used are defined. Reference materials will help in developing goal, clues, motivation and direction. The reference material will be gathered from the internet through search engines. A number of software will be utilized in this phase. Microsoft project will help in planning and organization of the game content. A website building software, Dreamweaver, will be used to develop the platform of the game or rather the website. The storage and organization of the game content is vital. Both audio and visual files will be stored in a database in a structured manner. ii) Production phase The production phase will involve the the actual creation of the game content. It is the pahse where game logic, visual assets, and ausion content will be developed. The plans, tasks, and schedules will be implemented at this phase. The production of the game content will be more or less like the process of producing motion pictures. The appearance, lighting, shots duration, and photographic aspects. iii) Post-production phase The post-production phase will involve mainly maintenance of the game content. At this stage, the game will be in use. The faults or bugs present in the game that were not detected during the testing stage will be fixed at this stage. If bugs are identified, the maintenance team will provides solutions through patches of code. The post-production phase will also involve asssment of the game performance, use, and acceptability. The success or failure of the game will be used as a basis for development of further games. c) Viewing or using the game content The game content will be used a network platform. A website will be used to provide a user interface. Therefore, a user must have a computing device, or more specifically, a computer with the high computing power. Appropriate plugins will provide the necessary support to browsers to support displya of 2D motion graphics. Summary This report has provided description of the game content including reasons for chosing the content, details of how the content was produced, and description of how the game content is utilized. The content includes time-based game logic, visual asset and audio assets. The production of content involves three phases. Pre-preproduction is mainly planning and results in documentation. During production phase, the plan, schedules and tasks established at phase one are executed. The post-production involves maintenance and bug fixing through software patches. The game content is viewed or used through a website using appropriate browsers and plugins. Reference list Bates, B 2004. Game Design. (2nd edn.). Florence, Kentucky: Thomson Course Technology. Benedetti, R. L 2002. From concept to screen: an overview of film and television production. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon. Bethke, E 2003. Game development and production. Texas: Wordware Publishing, Inc.. Zirkle, P & Hogue, J 2009. IPhone Game Development: Developing 2D & 3D Games in Objective-C. Sebastopol, California: O'Reilly Media, Inc. Read More