Story Objective

The player 'Manifest' must gain knowledge from a mysterious organisation which intend to lead to the end of the world, or an 'Ultimate Absolution' brought by from a powerful extra terrestrial race.

 

Mains Antagonists

Goredome

Born as Gordon, a troubled person born with a unique nervous system, due to this he feels no physical pain. Goredome has a form of Body Dismorphic Disorder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_dysmorphic_disorder) and an obsession to body modification and surgery, this is the reason for the knives surgically attatched to his hands and the armour crafted to his flesh. Due to many jobs working for 'The Pupeteer' (below) he has sustained many gruesome and permentant injuries, mainly to his face and jaw. Goredome cares not for the pain of others, this derides from his inability to understand the concept of pain, because of this he is a mindless agent of gore.


The Puppeteer 

A master of his field, the Puppeteer was once reguarded as the best psycologist in the world. He became a well known name in theatre where he perfomed his shows of magic, suggestion and hypnosis. His performances caused unrest in the public for their dark and forceful nature. He recieved an official ban from the profession for abusing his audience physically and mentally. The pupeteer then began to work his way back up the social order by working the public on the streets, by invading peoples minds he gained influence. He has a divine understanding of his own mind and so is able to use the full potential of his mentality and physicality such as releasing the mental restriction on his muscles. He developed a gold mask that enhance his facial expression in order to invade the minds of his targets more promenantly. During his research he discoved the exsistence of a race of extra terestrial beings and how to communicate with them through his thoughts. The race recognised his knowledge of himself and others and treated him as the leader of humanity (which they created). The pupeteer was growing tired of the dull exsistence of humanity, knowing that the Race would return to earth to assess their creations (mainly humanity) he decided to create havoc and evil so humanity would start again after the Race had destroyed them. He also hoped to use his influence to convince the race to let him join them as the supreme human specimen.


'The Race'

An ancient race of beings who created all life of planet earth from their own DNA strands (not all life in the universe). This mysterious race plan to return to earth to return to earth to asses their creations and create 'a new equilibrium' depending on their assessment.

High Concept Development

• Game Structure- Sandbox (Level sections), A flow between level sections for certain missions but free roam and freedom of choice between, this takes place in a large city, and a natural environment


• Single or multiplayer- Single


• Realism or Abstraction - Realism (with obvious supernatural elements), this is set in a parralel tangent of the real world.


• Is it a 2D or 3D game title- 3D 'Journey' style graphics


• Remember to think about the platform(s) it will be released on- Downloadable Ps3 title


• Perspectives - 3rd person, Becomes 1st person in 'Look' option and in cutscenes


• Real world to game world - Manifest can interact with objects such as car in a similar way to real world. He also walks and climbs aswell as immitate real world creatures.


• Goals - To discover the truth of the mysterious organisation and prevent the end of the world

• Objectives - Learn about life and expand abilities, gain knowledge and infiltrate and destroy mission objectives

• Mechanics - Extrordinary free running and destruction aswell as low profile actions such as blending and interacting with the environment


• Secrets- Hidden 'Nature' sections that gain experience and knowledge- rare animals and biological constructs 


• Achievements - Find all Nature sections and unlock more abilities


• Start to develop an identity for your main character or characters - think of 3 positive character traits, 3 negative traits and if relevant, (more for games with a heavy narrative element)try to find character traits based on someone in popular culture or history

Early Game Concepts

Questions to ask yourself - Early Game Concepts

• Can you describe your game in one paragraph
• Can you summarise the story (backstory)?
• Does it fit a genre?
• What is the USP?
• Who is the target audience? Define them as closely as you can
• What makes your game fun?

Please also create a detailed spider diagram with these questions

You should start to sketch some early character designs

Manifest Econtra

• Manifest Econtra is a 3rd person free roam game (with level based sections) for a next-gen console. Manifest is a one of a kind creature who is the personification of 'Life', he is able to shape shift on an extreme scale. Players can scan, absorb and/or transform into any human or animal sized creature in the game. As manifest learns about the earth the more he can upgrade new abilities and skills, both metamorphic and real world skills such as carjacking. The graphic style is metallic and organic. This is a story driven game with high and low profile gameplay such as over the top free roaming and destruction, and also life imitation and stealth options such as mimicking a key person or animal. Most weaknesses Manifest deals with are moral decisions that affect his cells and the creatures he absorbs, however he is a force of nature and is near unbeatable ( which is a lot of fun for players).
• Manifest is a creature of no physical boundaries. He comes to earth not knowing who or what he is. His awesome power and ability to transform and create organic structures can either make or break humanity. As the apocalypse draws nearer at the hands of a mysterious organisation, It's down to Manifest to learn, adapt and discover a purpose for itself with the help of a human man who he unintentionally absorbs and can contact.
• This is an action game with horror elements
• Manifest is a game of complete freedom as a human, animal or monstrously powerful creature. A wide range of abilities in all 3 forms are available and a rich interesting story keeps players interested alongside a wide free roam environment.
• The target audience is aged above 18, involves those who enjoy an atmospherically varied game and is aimed at those who enjoy an interesting and revealing story full of gore and playing as a powerful anti-hero. 
• This game is varied and full of choice story elements. The game is a rich and interactive sandbox in which you control a intruiging and imensely powerful character who personifies the amazing phenomenon of life, against a mysterious organisation lead by a contrasting force. The story is interesting and cutting edge, the gameplay is full of player choice and reveals new options of gameplay as the player progresses.

"Manifest"- 

man·i·fest

    [man-uh-fest]  Show IPA

adjective

1.

readily perceived by the eye or the understanding; evident;obvious; apparent; plain: a manifest error.

2.

Psychoanalysis . of or pertaining to conscious feelings, ideas,and impulses that contain repressed psychic material: themanifest content of a dream as opposed to the latent content that itconceals.

-I named him this because he is able to change his form almost Limitlessly to embody his emotions or his thoughts, and both of these things are child-like and thus unconstrained and dangerous, he is completely instinctual on a natural level.

Econtra- E-con-tra

• Latin word for 'against' or 'opposite'

-This is because he is an opposing force to return balance to a ruined world 

Quite simply, Manifest embodies "Life"...

Dead Space review

Gamespot rating- 9.0

IGN rating- 8.7

The first installment of the popular Dead Space franchise puts up a suspense-filled, atmospheric gore-fest of a fight to become the leader in the next-gen horror experience. Dead Space follows the protagonist Isaac Clarke (A futuristic Sci-fi Engineer) aboard a dark space colony where he discovers disturbing truths and nightmarish creatures. The Game is widely thought to draw inspiration from a wide span of Sci-Fi horror such as ‘Alien’ and uses some similar aspects as the game : Resident Evil such as the ‘over the shoulder’ player view to install a sense of intimate claustrophobia.  

The suspense Dead Space creates is largely down to the sound-scape, layers of orchestral-based suspense music filled with high quality digetic sounds; this penetrating, surrounding sound is highly immersive and includes the signature silence of outer space scenes and heavy footsteps as Isaac ventures deeper into the depths of the dark space station.

This primary game paves the way for a long and engaging franchise. Many story elements and mysteries intruige the player and many subtle touches capture the gaming magic that is hard to describe. The USG Ishimura space colony is forever abstractly personified by the traces of previous human inhabitants and the mysteries of what they were up to. The dark scenery hides creatures very well and introduces franchise-identifying concepts such as vents containing crawling Necromorphs, other concepts include the zero-gravity sections.

A widely praised element of Dead Space is the scarce ammunition and health packs which further pushes forward the dread and panic so many love this game for. The reload times also add toward the panic. Some mechanics such as ‘stasis’, which slows enemies in a cloud of blue, really give Dead Space its Identity. Stasis also is grounded in reality as characters in the game world use the technology for hyper-sleep in space and engineering. Having far-fetched elements in games, for me, is a turn off and I applaud this game for staying on the right side of science fiction. This game definitely stands out from the rest and is the first game in a long time I have played and instantly thought ‘this is a classic’. To state the obvious, Dead Space is terrifying, EA have however made sure that they have the right audience for this game. EA include a lot of gore into this game which can’t be avoidably not referred to as ‘cool’, thus this game will be played by those over 18 and will get praised unto the next generation along with later installments of the franchise.

Dead Space has many elements of an action game, such as the large arsenal of varying weapons complete with upgrades, upgradeable armour and combat mechanics such as the ‘stasis’ module which allows the player to freeze an enemy in mid air, however the game maintains the survival horror genre throughout. I praise the graphics for the textures, mainly highlighting the metal of the spacecraft to create an ‘industrial’, futuristic feel. The plot rarely matters to a player when a game is this cool, but the Dead space story is intriguing, disturbing and mysterious, it’s definitely not a standard shoot-em-up, it will keep you engaged even on the second play-through. Dead space constantly shocks and surprises

Super Mario Bros (Nintendo Entertainment System) Review

This 1985 classic is...well...a classic. A new mario game nowadays comes alongside the launch of a new Nintendo console and has become Nintendos trademark character. The simple idea of a plumber is taken to abstract levels through this game and makes an everyday normality become fantasy. The notion of this is quite desireable in popular culture within the last 100 years. The success of Mario (and Luigi) in my opinion spawns from the simple design starting point that has clearly snowballed into something epic, also the archetype story narrative speaks to a mass audience on a very basic level, It is a story (particularly for us working class) about aspiration and fantasy. A plumber saving a Princess from a Monster (Bowser) is a brilliant notion no matter how many times it is told. Mario seeps into popular culture like not much else. Not many people look blank when you talk about an Italian Plumber Clambering over a rainbow fighting flying turtles.

Some bugs/cheats in Mario also make the game very playable and socially interesting. In a way I think that this element of fun is missing from many games today. I remember how excited my friends and I were after we figured out how to make Mario move behind the traversable bricks and how to enter the famous ‘minus world’. Even in later games of the franchise this was still present, in Mario 64 for example if you stood in a certain spot Mario would suddenly warp to another part of the level. This did give the game some identity and made it definitively a ‘game’.

The power-up items in this game are another achetype linked to the Mario franchise. The various ‘Caps’ (hats) activate different power-ups such as projectile fireballs and momentary flight. These also affect health. Mario begins as a small version of himself, then the player must collect a mushroom item to become full-size, then different powerups are available. However if Mario takes damage he reverts back one step, if he takes damage in his smaller state: Game Over. This is a simple HP design and gives the player the satisfaction of feeling powerful and gaining the benefits of success.

This was a great game for multiplayer and encouraged co-operation. This was an early example of games teaching life skills and encouraging them. This is one of the many positive aspects of gaming that produce a healthy real-world outcome and Mario is responsible for refining some of these things.

The soundtrack is another famous aspect of this game (they keep on coming don’t they!), the instantly recognizable looping, retro 8-bit style theme music causes an instant mental link to the game when heard. This loop plays in the background as gameplay is going on, this makes the player associate the great game with the music, so when heard they would want to re-play the game.

Super Mario Bros is the best selling Mario game (due to other console versions on top of the NES) and the Second best selling game of all time.

Game Comparrisons

Sonic the Hedgehog
Vs
Prototype

The original Arcade classic 'Sonic the Hedgehog' pushed the boundaries of the sega genesis/megadrive. And also was amoung some traversal games that spawned later games with fast paced free-running. The element of fun in sonic comes from the visual spectacle and fast placed gameplay, the ammount of variety happening on the screen produces a 'buzz' for players. In this way it is much like 'Prototype' (but for a much more mature audience). Sonic was one of the pioneering action adventure games and influenced many generations to come. The traversal of multi-level scenery was a satisfying challenge for players much like later games such as Prototype in a 3D free-roam environment. However the combat in Sonic the Hedgehog ranges from basic to almost non-exsistent and involves spinning into enemies or jumping on their heads. However this gives the character of sonic a certain charm and character and makes players want to succeed in smiting enemies this way. Combat in Prototype is far more advanced due to the capabilities of modern technology. Although, Sonic the Hedgehog only had a controller made up of a D-pad and two buttons whereas Prototype has a fully fledged ps3/ xbox controller. Sonic makes the best of this by assigning basic archetypal moves.

Research- Games played