Context & Research
Walking Simulator Review (Firewatch)
The study diamond is a four-step approach. Try to apply it to a walking simulator game (of your choosing) in the following way:
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What effects does the game experience have on you? What does it make you feel or think about?
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Which techniques are used by the developers? In this case, think about any narrative and any imagery used.
- The Developers build up the start of the game with
making the music creepier and the text changing overtime, they also start adding scenery in overtime increasing the dramatic effect.
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Are there any aspects about the context that need to be considered? This could include who created the game, where it was created, when and under what circumstances, as well as your relationship with its context.
- The game Firewatch was made by Campo Santo which was made on the 9th of February in 2016.
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Ask yourself about the meaning of the walking simulator – what you think the game is about, and whether it might be trying to convey any messages.
- The definition of Firewatch is for the character (player) escaping his reality and running away from his issues and does a good job about this with the scenery and story telling.
Task
For my Final Project we were tasked to recreate a walking simulator game whether focusing on the mechanics of the game or more of the modelling and visual sides of the game. Below are my ideas I tasked to myself of what I could of make. I chose the environment detail part as it goes well with my strengths.
Brainstorm of my map Ideas
This is my brainstorm for my ideas I will use some of these ideas as a guide for me to choose what type of walking simulator I want to make and enjoy making.
Idea #1 American Rodeo Bar.
You are a cowboy your wife has been killed mysteriously you have to figure out who killed your wife and how you will go through old buildings.
Idea #2 Abandoned Hospital.
You are a biologist wondering why a hospital has been abandoned you have to figure out the secrets of what the hospital holds to win the game. In the game you will go through a few rooms with objects blocking your path you will pick up items to help escape or to help with the story aka, a note, clipboard and more. The reason the hospital broke down was because of a Virus outbreak causing everyone in the hospital to start dying and it was very contagious the virus we don't know if someone made it or if it came from natural sources.
Idea #3 Train Station
You are a citizen late at night waiting for your train to arrive. You observe the scenery and wonder why your train is late lights flickering lighting up the station.
Chosen Idea:
I chose the abandoned hospital Idea because I had more of an idea of what I wanted to do and I thought it would be way more creepier and more interesting than the other ideas I could of possibly done like the Rodeo bar and Train station, I won't make the abandoned hospital have interactable items I want to focus more on the environmental detail part of it as I think it would be better for me and to save time due to me missing a few lessons which was very vital to my project. So for my final project I will be recreating an abandoned hospital for my (walking simulator) and I will focus on the visual side of it.
SWOT Analysis & Contingency Plan
Moodboard
This is my moodboard for my hospital idea I will use some of these pictures as a guide for me to build my map and give me several different ideas for example usually the hallways in abandoned hospitals are narrow because of objects blocking the paths and everything is out of control
Research
The Evil Within (Horror, Action)
For my research I am going to look at a few games representing Abandoned places on how they displayed it differently to each other and how it looks in real life, I am also going to use references of abandoned hospitals in real life to further expand my ideas. I have already thought of a game with An abandoned hospital inside of it (The Evil Within) I am already basing some of my models on some of the assets inside of the hospital such as Sofa's and probably the reception desk. In the evil within the Beacon Mental Hospital has bright coloured walls for the interior which a lot of abandoned places in real life also have. The lighting of the evil within is what makes it a lot better due to it showing you where to go as its a sort of guide for you throughout the game.
Ideas of assets I can make from The Evil Within, I would create the chairs in the image below as it will cover lots of space and it's a nice wooden texture to add to the hospital to make it less modern, and I would also use the infrastructure of the building.
Outlast (Horror, Survival)
Outlast is a survivor horror game where you are only equipped with a camera the player has to ration their camera batteries or risk being completely blind. The infrastructure of Outlasts buildings are completely different compared to The Evil Within.
From outlast I like the lighting so I would like to add a soft tone/dark colour to my game as it would work well with an abandoned hospital vibe, however I haven't really played around with lighting so I don't know yet.
Sources:
Beacon Mental Hospital | The Evil Within Wiki | Fandom
In the video this guy shows an abandoned hospital which had ripped wallpaper lots of trash everywhere (cardboard boxes, plastic items, glass jars and many more). The hospital was worn down with broken things everywhere pipes were exposed everything was in a horrendous condition.
From this video I have gathered multiple Ideas I could include within my project, for example the ripped wallpaper and the cardboard boxes around everywhere this could give some extra depth to my level.
Peer Review Feedback
Feedback
For my feedback I added a production log and I added my proposal form onto my website and I am trying to keep my website as easy to navigate through while making it look more appealing for the reader while scrolling through the website.
Audience Data
Stanley Parable
Stanley Parable is a game where the player is playing a character known as Stanley throughout the game there is a narrator that guides/says what you are doing throughout the game and also help you understand what you are seeing the game is a good walking simulator with a bit of comedy which has positive reviews 97% of people liked the game on google. Audience Data is a good way to find out who you are presenting the game too whether it be teenagers, kids or adults and the regions they come from. My game is quite similar to the game Stanley Parable I aim to target for mainly a male audience for example in the Screenshot below it shows that around 80% of the audience is male compared to the 20% of females I also want to to target people that come from the USA, and Europe. Ways I could target my audience is by having infrastructure that are like real life buildings. For my marketing I would like to get Twitch streamers to test out my game for the Stanley Parable lots of people were watching from twitch or coming from the steam community website as well as twitter this would be mainly targeting a younger audience.
