Game Concept [UPDATED?]

Assignment 2 -- Game Concept DevLog -- Dropbox

Overview – 194 / 400 Words

Working Title = ‘Trench Warfare’

Concept Statement

Trench Warfare is a fast-paced morbidly themed wartime experience that mimics and emphasizes the real-life combat scenarios of trench warfare throughout the early 20^th century. Become enthralled in the unique pixelated sprite design and conquer your foes!

Genre (Or Category) of Game

Trench Warfare fits partly between the ‘Western Role-Playing Game (RPG)’ and ‘Action’ genres. This is due to the fact that there will be some minimal dialog and atmospheric elements to satisfy the RPG attribute, as-well as scaled combat battles which require reaction time and hand eye coordination, which justifies the action inclusivity.

Alternative genres such as ‘shooter’, ‘horror’ and ‘platformer’ were also considered, as Trench Warfare does borrow minimal elements from these genres.

Concept / Development Creation Process

This game predominately takes the form of a mashup, taking multiple stories, characters, and event experiences from a mix of other games and popular entertainment. As opposed to an anti-game or subtractive design. This game mashup has multiple development influences, (Discussed later in concept art below) some of which, however, have been listed here and include:

• Development Influences

Ashwell., S, 2008, Warfare 1917                 -                              M2H, 2019, Tannenberg

Target Audience and competitive analysis – 262 / 400 Words

Target customer, competition, and unique selling point(s)

• Target Customer

The substantial target audience for Trench Warfare, based off multiple sources with overwhelming evidence suggest that the primary demographic for Action / Role Playing Games is a male, between the ages of 18-24 (Clement., J, 2021) (2021, Women in Video Games).

It is also important to note that while role-playing-games do often include a high ratio of female gamers, Trench Warfare is an action-packed RPG, which focuses unsurprisingly around wartime elements, which drastically shifts this player demographic presumption from female to male.

• Game Competition

Similar gaming titles such as Warfare 1917 and earlier editions of company of heroes may be considered competition, however, this game aims to adapt on the action-packed experiences one may find in standard competitive titles in the form of unique role-playing content.

This will be evident in character dialog and player choices with each playthrough, all of which will have an effect on the outcome of the game and are not present in the titles listed here as competition.

• Unique Selling Points
• Setting

Trench Warfare has some unique selling points that may be attributed, primarily in the visual representation of game elements and scenery. As this title is made using pixel art, it is the intent that all combat, sprite, and animations are handled in this manner.

This is a substantial differentiating factor as conventional action-packed war games tend to prefer higher resolution sprites and images for use in assets.

Game Treatment and Concept Art – 436 / 1000 Words

Treatment

As mentioned initially from the game statement, virtually every level will be set in a dark morbid landscape of textures, events and sounds. The appearance and vocabulary of the protagonist will also fit this description.

                Included in the setting assets are barbed wire, trenches craters among other details. These realistically immersive components hope to attract the player to continue the game and experience the detail to greater effect.

• Game World
• Mechanics Overview

Each game ‘world’ will be set in a separate battle scene scenario. Likely all ranging from famous incidents that took place throughout the first world war.

Although, because of the simplistic nature of many early era battlefields, there is vast room for fictional improvisation, such as un-historical settings with mixed weaponry and faction alliances.

All of which would be considered if the scope were to grow further.

Currently, player mechanics will be controlled primarily through WASD keys with the arrow keys as an alternative mechanism of movement. There will be a small inventory of items that may be used, and are accessed through the number keys (1-9 etc).

Depending on the eventual scale of the final project, some distinctive vehicle and grenade mechanics may be implemented. These would likely take the form of additional keys, such as ‘Q’ and ‘E’ for steering or ‘G’ for calculating distance velocity of projectiles etc.

Other movement options are also on the horizon, actions such as proning or crouching, with the ‘ctrl’ and ‘C’ keys respectively, may also be considered.

Movement such as ‘stealthing’, or slowing down movement from walking, is also a potential addition, with the character moving slower with a button press (Likely the ‘shift’ key, as seen in the Counter Strike series).

Conceptualization

• Concept art
• Detail

As discussed briefly above under development influences, concept art for Trench Warfare will be made through pixelated sprites. With many specific decorations and NPC’s taking forms from inspiration assets already in circulation.

Some of which has been included below:

Rusty, 2017, French Pixelated Soldier – Pixelartmaker, 2021, Pixel Gas Mask

Katarn., L, 2014, ‘Frtiz’

Fritz was an unsuccessful Kickstarter title in 2014, and is where much of the practical aesthetic inspiration for Trench Warfare was drawn from.

The art for the game is intended to range between 32–64-pixels for sprites and decorations. The objective of this is to allow the characters and objects to possess an adequate amount of detail while not requiring tremendous detail per sprite, as one may find in sprites with a lower pixel density.

However, lower detailed sprites may be critically considered at later stages of development, if necessary, as a fallback option.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_and_video_games

Rusty, 2017, French Pixel Soldier, [Accessed 29th August 2021], Available at: https://zombie-phoenix.tumblr.com/post/158301033731/french-soldier-my-gf-was-doing-pixel-art-and-i

Pixelartmaker, 2021, Pixel Gas Mask, [Accessed 29th August 2021], Available at: http://pixelartmaker.com/art/3e04c2e14c1d3f1

Katarn., L, 2014, ‘Frtiz’, [Accessed 29th August 2021], Available at: http://angryjoeshow.com/ajsa/forums/topic/22008-fritz-a-video-game-about-world-war-one-pc-and-linux-unsuccessful/

Ashwell., S, 2008, Warfare 1917, [Accessed 29th August 2021], Available at: https://heterogenoustasks.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/warfare-1917/

M2H, 2019, Tannenberg, [Accessed 29th August 2021], Available at: https://www.macgamestore.com/product/10250/WW1-Game-Series/

Wikipedia, 2021, Women in Video Games, [Accessed 29th August 2021], Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_and_video_games

Clement., J, 2021, Distribution of video gamers in the United States in 2021, by age group, [Accessed 29th August 2021], Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/189582/age-of-us-video-game-players/