Research For My Theme

What was your theme?

My theme was based on Puzzle games and educational games. I took inspiration from a lot of portable games to create the concept drawings for my pictures. I tried to make everything as colourful as possible as I felt it fits with the theme of 2D drawings. A lot of older, classic games have a very bright colour scheme, which really made the art style pop out, even if the graphics weren’t that amazing. Something like Tetris uses its colour scheme to make the different objects pop out at you, because the different pieces are supposed to stand out from each other, while another game like Donkey Kong contrasts its black background with bright pink walkways.

My game is portable, so I should be looking at Nintendo games from the 80s as part of my theme instead of modern games that are on the next gen console for the most part. The reasoning behind this is the comparison in graphics that classic Nintendo games and portables offer, due to the limited graphics that a mobile phone or portable device can have in comparison to a next gen console.

A lot of the Nintendo DS games that were released during the mid-2000s are a good reference for how games can both look and function when working on a portable device, especially with the amount of touch-screen games that are available on phones at the moment. Big Brain Academy was available on the Nintendo DS, and it allowed you to highlight and answer questions that you wanted to by clicking on them, which cut out a lot of the hassle that would have possibly been in the game had it opted for a scroll through the menus system.

Games that are available on touch-screen phones at the moment take full advantage of this, with a game like Clash of Clans having everything completely controllable from the touch-screen. Clash of Clans takes this to such an extent to the point where you can’t even download the game on phones that have keypads. The complete functionality of the game is designed to be played on a touch-screen which would ideally be the way in which how my game would be played. You would have the whole screen show the game (as opposed to the Nintendo DS which had two screens, one for viewing, and one for the touch screen) with certain boxes on the screen which would allow you to access certain menu functions. This would hold the best functionality for a game which is based on asking and answering questions in my opinion.

Here are some examples of games that relevant to my theme

Big Brain Academy

Big Brain Academy is my main reference for most of the things that would be in my game, as it is a solid template for what I need in order to make a question based game fun and interesting. Big Brain Academy is a great game to reference because the game is simply based on questions and answers, with minimal gameplay that is based on the technical skill of the player. I think this is one of the main reasons why it found such a huge audience which spanned across multiple generations due to both its versatility and its ease on the technical skills that the player needs. The graphics are also a great example that games that are question based can follow, because I think that the simplicity helps the game. If the game's graphics were too much, I think that it could overpower the game's overall objective and take away from the quiz show, competitive atmosphere that the game has.

Donkey Kong

The original Donkey Kong had a black background that really contrasted the bright colours that were shown everywhere. The game obviously has graphics that aren't meant to be taken seriously within the context of its own universe, but are instead designed in the way that they are as a means to highlight the different things that are available on the screen. The ladders are usually a very bright colour, whereas the platforms are usually a very contrasting darker colour with some pattern design on them which allows you to distinguish one from another. Donkey Kong himself is multiple colours, with his fur being a dark brown, while his skin tone is a mix between a light brown and pink. This is just another way to distinguish the character from the background. If Donkey Kong was one solid colour, then there could be some situations that would have Donkey Kong blending into the background. If that happens to throw the player off for even a second, then it could mean the difference between the player living or dying, which could then contribute towards the player not enjoying the game because they died due to something that is out of their control.

Clash of Clans

Clash of Clans is one of the most popular games available at the moment, and it is a perfect example of how a game can take advantage of touch screen functionality. With the main game being played in the background on a visual level, while the functions of the game are overlaying this visual with a number of menus and things that the player will have to physically press in order to access.