I haven't posted for a while but since my last post i have been working on collecting all my research together and been doing a lot of concept work, i have been looking at bats and been trying to design my main character Ronin with the look of a bat. I have done pages of face designs but haven't yet come up with a concept. I will upload my sketches with my next post

I have also gone onto designing a character called the Oracle, he is a fortune teller who can tell fortunes with his nose. In the game the character Ronin will have to visit this Oracle to perform tasks and find out about himself.
For the Oracles design i used a character that i developed when i was very young, and have always wanted to use in an idea. The images that are shown are early designs and since they were drawn i have altered the characters clothing and body slightly.

These are very early thoughts as to what my landscape and character may look like, these will probably change through the design process.

The basic story for my game is about a bat like creature named Ronin (early name), who wakes up on the side of a cliff having no memory of who he is, what species he is, or how he ended up in that situation. I hope to create a very likable character that the player can sympathize with to make the game a better playing experience. I want the beginning to have the same feel as 28 Days Later's beginning scene when the main character is completely in the dark about whats happened as he wonders through London.

After the character wakes up at the beginning of the game the player will follow Ronin on his journey across the world meeting many different species and performing missions for characters in exchange for information on who he is. One of these characters that Ronin will meet is a character named the Oracle who is a weird hermit who lives in the wilderness and can tell peoples fortunes with his nose, this character is very mysterious and very likable but not much background information will be given to the player which will add more intrigue to the character. The Oracle might be a secret playable character after the main story completion. From doing tasks and meeting other weird species Ronin will gradually find out what species he is and why he woke up half dead with Amnesia.

The game will be a platform/adventure game with elements of stealth mixed in, Ronin will have the ability to stealth past any enemy, so if the player wants to be sneaky or go massacre everyone they can. One concept that hasn't been done to a great extent in any games which will be the main game play point is that the player has the choice whether to kill or spare anyone in the game even enemies. If the character approaches an enemy without alerting that enemy the player will have a choice whether to knock out or kill that enemy. The more characters that the player kills will give the character a larger chance of something bad happening to him later in the game and maybe having Ronin die at the end of the story. If the character is likeable to the player and the player can sympathize with him it might encourage the player to do good in the game to save the character.

getting the idea together

Since we were given the brief for this years project i have been just trying to get the ideas for my game concrete before the hand in of the learning agreement next week so i know what im goin to be working on over the next months. I have been working out the basic gameplay elements, what research i must do, storyline, characters, and the world of the game.

I have been researching the work of Lorne Lanning, the creator of the Oddworld games, and his thoughts on the game industry and what makes a great game. I want to design a very stylised heavily character driven game and story, and as all Oddworld games are very character based i thought i i could draw alot of knowledge from Lanning's views on game, story and character design.
I was looking at the difference between the games Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell. They both come from the same genre, they both have similar main characters, but the reason i beleive Metal Gear is a better game is because it has a fuller story but more importantly has great character development. Splinter Cell's hero has little to no personality, which makes the game much less interesting. This is why i feel that a game with great characters can increase the players connection to the story.
This is something that i wish to bring to my idea

The Beginning

Hi this is Matt and this is my first post for my game blog, i am studying for my third year in games art and design, and this is basically gonna be my diary for my games project this year. My game's title is Lost in Nowhere and in the future i will be using this blog to display all the 2D, 3D concept and final work, and all the other research and thoughts that i will work on for my game idea.