Video Game Rules

Something that I havent really talked about are the game itself. Although I am creating an environment for a game I still need to know as much detail about it as possible.

What are the rules and objectives for this game?

Objectives - The main aim of the game which I am creating an environment for is to get from point A too B. Players take control of one of four possible powerful Roman figures(Caesar, Nero etc). The players start off at the bottom of the board which is the Plebeian level and have to work their way up to the emperors level which results in the player winning the game.

Rules - At the start of the game players must roll a dice by clicking on the interactive dice. Like most board games, the player who rolls the highest on the dice goes first.

Another rule which I have added into the game is the consequences of landing on another player. If for example player 1 rolls a six which puts them on the same space as player 2, player 2 must then roll a dice. The number they roll is the number of spaces they need to move back down the board.

Cards - At the start of the game each player must pick a card from a deck of shuffled cards. The card must be used at the start or end of each players go and then must be discarded into a different pack. When the card has been used, the players must then pick a new one from the top of the deck.
These cards can give players an advantage or a disadvantage. For example; A player may use a card which advances them a certain amount of spaces or they might have a card which moves all players back a certain amount.

Environment Layout

Just a quick post with a couple of images that I have been using as a basis for a floor plan. The top view of the image on the left shows an ancient Roman city at the bottom of a spirally mountains. 

The image on the right is a more defined sketch of a floor plan which shows a similar mountain but with a square board for the base. The square board is an idea which I decided to include to my design when I discovered that the ancient Romans liked to play drafts and chess.

Silhouettes

In previous projects I started to experiment with silhouettes. After my minor project I found that this method of design really helps when trying to come up with ideas.

By using different types of brushes in photoshop I have put together several images which are helping me come up with even more ideas.

Art Research - Borderlands

Borderlands is one of my all time favourite video games. The game is a first person shooter(FPS) which has certain RPG elements such as; character building, free roaming and questing.

These components of the game lead to the company Gearbox dubbing it a role playing shooter.

One of the things that I love about this game is the setting and more specificly the art style. Borderlands is set in a mysterious stylised world called 'Pandora'.

If you look at these images you can really tell that they use a cel - shaded/ toon art style. These textures are done in a cel shaded style but have been overllayed with a dirty and grimey texture.

Concept Sketches

For design purposes I have created a number of drawings which will help me get a visual idea of what my environment may look like. These drawings in particular are of different Roman buildings.

When creating these sketches I looked at my reference images and tried to imagine a particular style which I could see myself using when it came to the production stage. By now I know what art style I would like to be using. I also have decided that the game environment that I will be creating will be for either a handheld or a mobile device(Ipad,DS etc) which will have an effect on how the models geometry looks.

More sketches above and below which are loosely inspired by ancient Roman architecture. 

Ancient Roman - Insula

In the Ancient Roman times they used to build apartments housing for the lower and middle classes of people. These apartments were called Insula. 

Insulae were lived in by large families. Most of these apartments were separated into two sections, living quarters in the upstairs of the apartments and shops and businesses on the bottom. Although most Insulae look the same, it was very common for them to have a specific name, usually which referred to the family member that owned the building. 

Although these apartment buildings helped reduce a the number of homeless people on the streets of Rome, they were far from ideal. 

These houses were originally made of wood and about three or four storeys high. However these large buildings became massive fire hazards and were eventually built using bricks and concrete. Most of these apartments on the upper levels did not have any kind of heating, latrines or running water. However apartments on the bottom floors were much more expensive than upper floor apartments because they were easy to access, had latrines and also had running water. 

Apartment housing would be extremely noisy because of the two hundred people on average living in each block and the businesses which were at the bottom. The rooms also had windows without glass which the citizens would throw household waste and human excrement onto the streets beneath them. 

Above an below are lots of examples of ancient Roman Insulae. These are my visual references which will help me throughout the project. 

Research - Toy Soldiers

Toy Soldiers is an action/strategy video game which was released as an arcade title for the Xbox live dashboard. The game was developed by a company called Signal Studios.

Players take control of one of two armies on a world war one model diorama(three dimensional model environment) which consists of plastic and wooden landscapes.

One of the things that I really like about this game is the location in which the diorama is set. For example; the diorama has been put in childrens bedrooms, lounges, and librarys, surrounded by objects such as tables,  dressers, reading lamps and other house hold items which are sometimes visible in the background. 

This gives the player the impression that they are playing an old Wargame. It reminds me of when I was a child and I used to line all of my soldiers up and play with them.

The reason that I have chosen to look at the this particular game is because of its design and setting. One of the things that I have been thinking about doing with my game is creating a similar setting for my game to be placed into. In particular, when playing the game it starts off as a mid shot of the environment which the game has been put in. The example above shows the diorama inside of a games chest and on top of a table which gives the player the impression that its a board/wargame which is about to be played by someone.