Bubble Ride a Postmortem and My Transition from an Artist to a Game Designer
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Bubble Ride A postmortem and my transition from an artist to a game designer. Muhammad Adnan Master of Arts Thesis 2016 | Media Lab Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture Bubble Ride A postmortem and my transition from an artist to a game designer. Muhammad Adnan Master of Arts Thesis 2016 | Media Lab Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture Aalto University, P.O. BOX 11000, 00076 AALTO www.aalto.fi Master of Arts thesis abstract Author Muhammad Adnan Title of thesis Bubble Ride – A postmortem and my transition from an artist to a game designer. Department Media Degree programme Master of Arts, New Media Year 2016 Number of pages 64 Language English Abstract This thesis project is a reflection of my first game as a game designer, which was entitled Bubble Ride. The game was developed during my time at a company called Xacti Oy, and the team developing this project consisted of 6 persons (myself included). The game was developed for young adults and children, and was designed as a casual game. In this thesis, I will compare the role of game designer to that of a game artist, and discuss how the workflow of game art is different than game design. I was responsible to define the basic gameplay mechanics; game elements, game art and UI design. Below is the Download link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bubble-ride/id662029890?mt=8 Keywords Game Design, Game Production, Game Art, Postmortem, Finnish Game Development Acknowledgements I would like to take a moment to thank the team at Xacti for making this possible, as well as the cool kids who took part in the game testing sessions. I’m also grateful to Teemu Kivikangas, Minna Eloranta, and Janne Piekkola for providing useful information during the interviews. Ava Grayson and Teemu Vilén, thank you guys for making it possible. Miikka Junnila, a big thank you for looking out for me and advising me in the process of writing this paper. Index 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 2. SHORT OVERVIEW ON CASUAL MOBILE GAMES ....................................... 4 3. ART, GAME ART AND GAME DESIGN ............................................................ 5 3.1 INTERVIEWS FROM FORMER GAME ARTISTS .......................................................................... 10 4. DESIGN .............................................................................................................. 14 4.1 GAME IDEA .................................................................................................................................. 14 4.2 INITIAL DESIGN .......................................................................................................................... 16 4.3 STORY .......................................................................................................................................... 17 4.4 GAMEPLAY ................................................................................................................................... 18 4.5 MECHANICS ................................................................................................................................ 19 4.6 GOAL AND PROGRESSION ......................................................................................................... 21 4.7 CAMERA AND CONTROL ............................................................................................................ 21 4.8 PLANNING FUTURE UPDATES ................................................................................................... 23 4.8.1 ADDING MONETIZATION ........................................................................................................... 24 5. PREPRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 25 5.1 LIMITATIONS AND CONSTRAINTS ............................................................................................ 26 5.2 CHOOSING THE TECHNOLOGY .................................................................................................. 27 5.3 PROTOTYPING ............................................................................................................................. 30 6. PRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 32 6.1 ART STYLE ................................................................................................................................... 32 6.1.1 CHARACTER DESIGN .................................................................................................................. 35 6.1.2 BACKGROUND DESIGN .............................................................................................................. 36 6.2 USER INTERFACE ........................................................................................................................ 39 6.2.1 SCREEN FLOW ......................................................................................................................... 41 6.3 LEVEL DESIGN ............................................................................................................................ 42 6.3.1 LEVEL PROGRESSION ........................................................................................................................... 43 6.3.2 SCORE SYSTEM AND EQUATIONS ...................................................................................................... 44 6.3.3 LEVEL ELEMENTS ................................................................................................................................... 46 6.3.4 LEVEL THEMES SUGGESTIONS .......................................................................................................... 49 6.4 OUTSOURCING ............................................................................................................................ 49 6.5 GAME TESTING ........................................................................................................................... 50 6.5.1 OBSERVATIONS DURING PLAY TESTING ......................................................................................... 50 6.5.2 FEEDBACK FROM TESTERS .................................................................................................................. 51 6.5.3 USING TESTING RESULTS FOR FURTHER PLANNING .................................................................. 51 6.6 LAUNCH ....................................................................................................................................... 52 6.7 LEARNING OUTCOME ................................................................................................................. 52 7. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................... 56 8. REFERENCES ..................................................................................................... 60 9. APPENDIX .......................................................................................................... 64 List of tables Table 1. Game Artists/Designers interviewee's info. ........................................................................ 11 Table 2. Levels from 1 to 10. ........................................................................................................................ 44 Table 3. Actions used in scoring system. ................................................................................................ 45 Table 4. Scoring system formulas .............................................................................................................. 46 Table 5. Testers info. ........................................................................................................................................ 52 List of figures Figure 1. 3D character and 2D environment design. .......................................................................... 7 Figure 2. 2D character designs, painted one on left, vector on right. ......................................... 7 Figure 3. Border (Installation) 2012 Left. I’m Happy (2’ x 1.5’ ink on canvas) 2010 Right. ................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Figure 4. Untitled (2.5’ x 2.5’mixed media on canvas) 2005 Left, Untitled (4’ x 3’ mixed media on canvas) 2005 Right. .............................................................................................................. 8 Figure 5. .................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Figure 6. Bubble Bobble Gameplay screenshot. ................................................................................. 15 Figure 7. Puzzle Bubble Gameplay screenshot. .................................................................................. 16 Figure 8. Story sketch Bubble Ride. .......................................................................................................... 18 Figure 9. Basic game flow. ............................................................................................................................ 19 Figure 10. Basic interaction. ......................................................................................................................... 20 Figure 11. Scrollable camera example. ..................................................................................................