FMP – Designing for children – What to do

Research

There is a major difference  between designing products for children and adults,  This means for my FMP, I need to make sure that I design the product  toward the correct demographic, which are children. So what do I need to do with the design to make it friendly and appealing to the younger audience. Well by drimlike.com, they state that due to children not being able to read well, or have difficulty reading, use short paragraphs. This can apply to the early stages of my game when teaching a user how to play the game. using simple instructions within the game will be a must to make this game easy to learn and understand, not just for children, but for older consumers too. Another major point stated is navigation, which should be simple and easy for a child to use, this can apply to the menu system to the game. This will mean that I can not have complicated menu systems within the game.  Another few points is that children are not patient, and will not keep playing or interact with something that takes to long to load or takes to long. So this means I need to make sure that each level in the game is able to load quickly and each of the levels do not take to long to complete. the next point is to keep the product interesting for children and this can be done by making the product look fun, by using simple sounds and animations to keep them interested.

Another site timbuktu.me also add some extra rules. “Don’t underestimate your audience”. Which means don’t treat them lessers to anyone else, you want to make them feel like they know what to do and they are smart. another rule is to respect the parents, this means make sure that the product is appropriate, as they say “Would you want your own kids to buy things online every time they grab the ipad?”, even though I can not designing the product for an ipad or to have in-app purchases, but it makes you think that, if you are a parents, would you find this product suitable for a child to play?.

Next is to look at what type of colour scheme that I need to use to make the game most desirable for a child. By childsmindinnovation.com, “colour is a big part of their world. The playful, visually stimulating variations of ‘reflected light’ that we see as ‘colour’ provides a dose of happy energy like that of a child”.  “young kids are drawn to it and desire playful interaction with it”. So by this designing a product aimed towards children should always have a lot of bright colours, as they are naturally drawn to it.

So what have I learned from this?

I have learned that I need to make sure that the game is simple for a child to use, this can be done by making instructions simple to read and understand, this can also extend to making the designs the visuals of the games to also be simple, to make the world within the game easy to understand. This will also mean that I will need to show what the goal of each level is in a simple manner, I plan on doing this by showing what needs to be done within the first few levels (which will be tutorial based). Next is to make the levels not last too long, so the a child does not lose interest, make the levels short and fun, and reward the child for completing the level, making it a more enjoyable experience. The menu system of the game must also be simple so that a child is able to play the game without help from a parent. Finally the colour scheme of the game should be colourful, as colour indicates fun. I will be making the world of the game look like papercraft, using different colour paper and a animated world (using small and simple animations).

FMP – Animation and Animatics: Plan

I am planning to start working on the animations and animatics early for this project. I am not planning to create any character animations within 3DS Max or any other 3D program for a while though. What I am planning to do is to learn the fundamentals of motion for animations by doing 2D based animations first.

First thing that I am going to do is create very simple animations, such as a rotating cube using the animation feature which is in Photoshop. I will also create a rotating cube within 3DS Max and render it out as a reference for the creation. What I am planning to do with these animations is to work out how the major points of an object move, such as an example with the cube, how each of the corners will move within a 3D space using 2D animation methods. The reason for doing this is so when I get to the more complicated animations and animatics, I will be able to work out how the object or character will move, by the major points of the object.

After I have created a few basic animations, I will start doing character based animations within 2D, which I will be starting of by recreating fight scenes from films and cartoons (using as a reference) to learn how to make the motion look more realistic. These will be done by creating stick-man animations which will be fast to produce and if done right, can have great motion which can teach me how to make more realistic motion within objects and characters.

next step is to start creating animatics for possible movements to be used within my game. The way that I am currently planning to do this is to record myself doing these movements to the best of my ability, or using an object to recreate the motion that I am after, placing the video in the background, and draw out points on each of the major movements within the video, and draw lines and circles to draw out a mannequin like character. This will be done for side and front views of the movement. The plan is that I will be able to use these animatics to create the motion within 3D animation using 3D animation software which will look professional and fun to watch. I do plan to edit the final movements slightly to make them look more powerful and fluid if need be.

I am planning to complete all of this within 4 weeks.

Learning and Research – Unreal Engine 4 : Post 3 – Current progress and plan

Current Progress

Over the last day, I have finally been able to get morph targets to work within Unreal Engine 4 by creating it within 3DS Max. I figured out the problem being was that I had to set the FBX file to 2014 within the setting before the export as the default 2011 FBX type, for some reason does not support morph targets. The result is having the morph within the game editor, and being able to change the shape of the object; but I still have not worked out how to get the morph targets to work within a running game.

I have also started to learn BluePrints, I have decided to try and find tutorials that will aid me when creating my Final Major Project game. Within the tutorial that I found, it taught me how to make a object move from one point to another  using the BluePrints system. This will help me when creating my game as I will want to have moving platforms, doors, gates and etc. throughout my game.

What I need to work on and learn

The next tutorial that I want to find is how to make an object move around using the direction keys on the keyboard, as I feel like I learn better from making something or doing something from stratch.  After, I will have to try and learn how to make the object jump. At this point, these are the most important goals as without them, I will not be able to make this game. Once I have learned how to do these task, I will then create the first early version of the level, as these will be the only mechanics that I will need at this point.

Learning and Research – Unreal Engine 4 : Post 2 – Ideas

I have had a look at the example 3D side scroller that is included within Unreal Engine 4 (4.9.2); and the first thing I think I need to change a lot compared to this example is how the camera is used. Within the example, the camera is very static and it feels like that it is too close to the character, making it hard to see the environment around, especially when jumping. So one of my major goals over the next few weeks is to learn and create a camera system that is less static to the character, is able to move back and forth, and also able to rotate pointing towards the character.

With the character movements within the example, I feel that what is given is a great start for what I want to produce in my final version of the game, all I will need to change is how quickly the character can move and maybe try to add a double jump mechanic within the game.

Finally, after looking at what I be working with, I think that it will take a few weeks or maybe just over a month to get a very basic version of the first introduction level (which will be teaching the user how to move the character around). I feel once I have made this though, the production of the levels will be developed a lot faster.

Learning and Research – Unreal Engine 4 : Post 1

First goal

I am starting to learn and gather research into the Unreal Engine 4. I am planning to learn and understand how the Blueprints system works, so that I am able to create the first early version of my games mechanics. What I need to learn is how to make an object move about in two axis within a 3D space, which will include moving left and right and jumping. I also want to make all of the physical movements to be what I am after within the final version of the game. At this point, I am not planning on making a level to be completed, just working movement mechanics for the character.

I am also going to test out how the camera could work with the character, and how to make it move smoothly with the character without being a static movement. I will do this as part of learning how to make the basic movements. This will also include basic models which I could create within 3DS Max to create foreground and background objects to fill the space to help test out the camera and camera angles.

Second goal

I would like to start working on basic gameplay mechanics and further the movement mechanics for the character. This will include some game play aspects such as basic level design and basic puzzle solving (this could include moving an physics object to a position so the character is able to jump high enough to reach higher ground). This will be the first steps to create the first level of the game, and would be used as a basis of all future levels.

I will do update post of my progress over the next week showcasing what task I have completed and any tast that I am struggling with.