Research

Introduction

The topics that I will be researching for my game are tower defence games, Art style, the great wall of china and weaponry. All of these things will help me develop and improve my game.

Tower Defence Games 

There’s many different types of tower defence game that all work differently. So this means I need to decide what type of tower defence game I want to do. The main types of tower defence game that I could do are the enemies have a set path, enemies do not have a set path or the player sets enemy path. All of these different types of tower defence games have very different game play. So choosing the right one will be important to the game play of my game. I also got some feedback saying that I should look into creating a 3D instead of a 2D game.

The game play is focused on the open field approach, which means that the creeps don’t move along distinct paths, but instead you have to use towers to herd them in the direction you want. I also like the idea of having special abilities the player can use for the same currency. But I would like to have a fully working game before I implement these extras to my game.

This game follows the set path approach to a tower defence game so you have to stop them by placing your towers along the set paths. This would work well for creating set levels and to ramp up difficultly when the player gets to high levels. I also like the background details added to this level as it makes it more interesting for the player to play levels.

In this game the player first draws their own path to the end of the level. but the player has limited paths so that they cant cheat. This style of tower defence game is more of an interesting idea but I do not think that I could because it would very difficult to balance and create this system in game. This is also an interesting way to do a 3D style of tower defence game.

Overall, I have decided to do the set path approach as its I think I could do it and it would be easier to create more difficult levels later on. I also created a survey to ask people various different things relating to my game. This helped me get a good idea of what would and would not work. As you can see I asked people what their favourite tower defence game was. This helped me get a good idea of what style of tower defence people liked. I found that most games listed had set levels this helped me to decide to make a set level tower defence game.

I am sticking with the idea of up-gradable turrets and spending currency to place these turrets. After looking at some more 3D tower defence games I have decided to create a 3D tower defence game instead of a 2D game. I got some feedback that also suggested that I should create a 3D tower defence game instead of a 2D as they thought it would work better. It may be a bit harder to create the assets for my game but I think it will work well with a tower defence game and my arts style.

Camera angle 

As I have decided to create a 3D game instead of a 2D game I need to think about the angle of the camera in my game. The camera angle is very important to my game as its how the game will be played. So it is important to have one that works well with the game.

This camera angle is side on so that it shows the players all of the action. If I were to have my game based around this angle then i would show off the end goal being the wall. A problem with this style is that the background detail gets in the way of the enemies and makes it hard for the player to see whats going on.

This camera angle is from a more elevated angle compared to the previous on this allows the player to see more of the game and background detail. I like this camera angle as it will display my game and look good.

Overall, I have decided to go with a higher up angled camera angle as I think it will show off my game better. It will also fit with the simplistic style of the game by having a elevated set camera angle. I could have done a free move camera but I thought that would take up too much time as I would have to make the camera run smoothly. But if I were to do this project again without the time constraint I would have put this feature in my game.

Audio

To research audio for my game I looked at games in a similar genre and style of my game. Because my game has a simplistic and colourful style I looked especially into games that were the same as my game. I found that most of these games had a upbeat music as background for their game. I also found that this style of music worked really well with the game. Another thing I found was that these games had sound effects but the music was a lot louder compared to them. I could add in sound effects for when the turrets hit the enemy. I could also get a sound effect for when an a enemy reaches the wall. This sound will be loud so the player is alerted to them reaching the wall. This alert could be like a siren so it dose not fit with the game and it stands out to the player.

To get my sound effects I could use some copyright free sounds from various different websites. This means that I don’t have to waste time creating my own sound effects or get in trouble for using copyrighted sounds.

Mechanics 

Some mechanics I want to add to my game would be very time consuming. So I may not get round to do them all. If I were to do this project again I would make sure that I had extra time for these interesting mechanics. I think these mechanics would improve the overall quality of my game and make it more entertaining to play.

One mechanic I would like to add to my game would be a verity of different enemies that would come on different random waves. This would change up the repetitive game play and add some more challenge to my game. Another mechanic I would like to add to my game would be special power ups that the player could pay using in game currency. These could do a verity of different things such as slowing enemies or killing them all. Another mechanic I would like to add would be an upgrade system to my turrets. This would allow players to increase the stats for existing  turrets.

Overall, I would like to add these mechanics to my game if I have enough time. These mechanics would defiantly improve the overall quality of my game and improve the game play. However I didn’t leave much time to code these mechanics and they would be hard to code. But I may be able to implement a few of these mechanics and if I were to do this project again I would dedicate more time to mechanic implementation.

Art Style

Art styles are important to a game as its what players will remember your game for. This can help a game to be more unique and stand out from other games in its genre. Examples of game art styles include realistic, cartoon and pixel art. These are styles are what makes games unique so its key that I choose the right one for my game.

Here are some Images of games with different art styles that I could use in my game. Some art style would be harder to do than others. If I were to do a realistic style it wouldn’t be as good as the images shown but it would look more realistic than other art styles. I also like the 3D pixel art style as its simple while still looking appealing to players.

In my survey I asked what peoples favourite art style was. This helped me get an idea of what could be popular in my game. From my results I found that the realistic art style was most popular. But this art style would be quite difficult to do and I would have to spend more time on the textures and concept art than I would like as I am focusing on game design. So the pixel art style is simple and would help me stay on track while still doing a art style that fits my game. It was also the second most chose option of my survey which shows that its a popular style.

I also looked at different pixel art styles I could do in my game and found the voxel art style would look good for my game as a simplistic but interesting art style. This style also looks really good for a small simple game like mine. This style would also be quite easy to create assets for and I do not have to texture them as they just need to be coloured.

History

The game I am creating is based on the great wall of china. So some things in my game should be historically accurate for the time period. Although I will have to make up some things to make the game play better. But I should be able to add enough historical elements to make the game true to the time period.

The great wall of china was built from 770 to 476 BC. It was created to prevent invasion and protect their silk trade. The wall was also continued by different rulers to prevent the same thing in other places. The ruler who decided to connect the walls was the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, to protect his newly founded Qin dynasty  .My game will focus on different parts of the wall being invaded by the nomadic tribes. The nomads in my game are the enemies that will try to break through the wall. the goal of the enemies is to get through the players defences and reach the wall to destroy it. The job of the player is to create defences to hold them off.

The great wall of china also had an integrated defence system with watchtowers for surveillance, beacon towers for communications etc. For my game I could have some of these defence systems in the game or just to add some detail and historical accuracy to the wall. They also had towers on the wall where they could shoot arrows at incoming attackers. I could incorporate some of these defences as special abilities that the player could use. But I want the base game down before I add extras to it. Although there was no defences in front of the wall I will have to add some to make the game playable. I will also make the wall in game look like it dose in real life in the pixel style. Adding these features will make the game more historically accurate but keep the elements that make it a game.

Here are some examples of weaponry they had at the time. I can use some of these weapons for what the enemies in my game will use. I can also keep some historical accuracy in my game. The large crossbow I can use as a turret that the player can put down to defend the wall. They also had bows at the time but I could not find any bows that they would have used. I could also have different enemies use different weapons and depending on the weapon they have they could have more health or do more damage. This helps me to add a bit of verity to my game as without it the player is just fighting the same enemy over and over again.

The main enemy of the game are the invading nomadic tribes such as the mongols and the Turics. These will be the enemies of my game that will follow the path to the wall and destroy it. I aim to have a verity of enemy types that will have different speeds and health bars. A way I can make the enemies faster is by having them on horseback as these tribes actually used horses a lot in battle. So it would make sense for some of them to use it. Although these enemy types are one of the later things I would add to my game if I had enough time.

Evaluation

Overall, my research has helped me decide on the style and general design on my game. I found my research to be very useful as I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the idea for my game. But the research helped me to come up with a good design for it. It was also very helpful to get feedback on my ideas before I implemented them into my game. This helped me to massively improve the idea for my game. I also found that by researching other tower defence games it helped me to improve my mechanics and add to the game. Some features I want to add to my game I will have to wait till I finished my base game.

It was also very important to me that I kept some historical accuracy in my game. As the game is set in 770 to 476 BC and I felt it wouldn’t make sense if I completely changed the weapons and other things. Especially because the game is for a set time period and it would not fit the requirements. The methods I used to research my game turned out to be effective when researching my game.