#amefinal

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Pokémon game aesthetic- research

Being heavily inspired by the fun elements and entertaining nature of these games since I was a child, I decided to incorporate elements of these games into my own final project.

Released initially in 1996, the games have since been a worldwide success and have even moved into experiments with VR, producing games such as Pokemon Go! which was a phenomenon for its ability to get players outdoors in 2016. The original Pokémon series, starting with the GameBoy games Red, Blue and Yellow, is an RPG that requires players to capture creatures known as Pokémon, form a team, battle, level up and progress through the game to become the ‘champion’. Since then, Pokémon has even witnessed the development of a TV show, movies, memorabilia, toys and a successful trading card game. The franchise’s games have since ventured into 3-D styled graphics following the release of the 3DS console, but since the 2-D pixel style is iconic and is the version of the franchise that many young adults recognise and associate with the games, it feels that it would be more beneficial to remediate this particular style of graphics instead of going for something newer and more recent. In doing so, it may also be an interesting reference to how past media objects have been reused and redeveloped to make a ‘critique of society’ and how a game meant for children has been used to create an educational game for (young) adults. It could be an interesting comment on how although technology has developed exponentially and dramatically over the past decade, old technologies still hold unique influence and charm over those who used them and are still just as effective at ‘doing their job’ as newer, faster technologies are.

Through preliminary research, however, it is interesting to see how many adults are still engaged with the franchise. It seems that many adults, ones who played the games as children themselves, are now with their own children and appear eager to introduce their children to the games and to the Pokémon products. Perhaps the Pokémon style has been developing in recent years not only to appeal to children but also to adults who have ‘life-long’ appreciation for the games and remember them fondly from their own childhood (playing with reminiscent feelings and nostalgia?). 

Taken from basic research done in the development module of this project, I noted briefly how Pokémon games required players to become a main part of the story itself (referencing a text by Farber-Bell, 2014) so reusing the Pokémon style to engage players with the narrative and contents is an interesting perspective to take. A lot can be said for the engaging powers of a game as many successful games see players come back for months or even years to fulfill quests or complete missions within the narratives. Presenting information about the environment in the format of a Pokémon game is both unexpected and surprising as players would initially expect to interact with the game in a different way (ie. not be educated by it). Seeing an old style remade for a newer format (a computer game) may be refreshing to players who may have moved on to hyper-realistic games and high-definition consoles and screens, potentially promoting engagement with the game especially if players are surprised by the subversion of their expectations of the game’s content.

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Title screen

Below are the game title screens, the first screen that the player sees when they open up the game to begin. I played around with some designs and settled on the title “Greenwashing: A corporate adventure”, playing on the fun, light-hearted tones of many RPG games to create a contrast between the game’s style and the game’s context as a ‘serious’ game (one that is educational). I wanted to choose an image that had both environment and city, but these images of mine stood out to me the most.

This is an image taken in Brighton. It features both a body of open water and also the city. However, this image appeared to be more aesthetically pleasing than have any real connection to the game itself.

This is the image I ended up choosing. I took this photograph in Shinjuku Park when I was doing my study abroad. The idea to do a game for my final project first came to me when reflecting on my experience working in an interactive narrative app company during my time in Tokyo. Since the Pokemon game franchise (this project’s major source of inspiration) has its headquarters in Tokyo, it feels like a very fitting image to use as the title screen for my game. Shinjuku Park is actually located in a very central area of Tokyo but has some beautiful scenery that mixes the natural and corporate city worlds- an issue that my game is trying to get the player to think about.

I briefly considered this as the title screen after my young brother (age 11) told me he liked this one the most. I liked it too as it’s aesthetically pleasing but I could not think of reasons as to how it really related to the content of my game, hence why I decided to use the image described above.

I edited all of these photographs in GIMP to achieve a pixelated effect, keeping in line with the pixelated aesthetic choice of the rest of the game. The photographs were all taken by me and the originals are in the SUPPORTING_DOCUMENTATION file folder, in FINISHED_TILESETS_CHARACTERS.

The name of the game, Greenwashing: A corporate adventure, is a ‘playful’ reference to the player’s expectations of a game of this type. Typically, players would expect the game to be light-hearted and childish, and although the graphics may seem that way the topic being discussed is actually very serious, subverting the player’s expectations. This can cause the player to be shocked or mildly surprised by the project when it is played fully. While the actions the player can do in the game still reflect the capabilities of other RPGs of this genre, what the player accomplishes within the game (education) is different to others of its kind. (Although, the player can still explore, find items, buy things, change clothes, talk to NPCs and be adventurous, the outcome of the game is knowledge whereas other RPGs of this kind are simply for enjoyment and offer escape from reality.) This project does offer a sense of escape from reality into a different world, however, it was deliberately designed to be a reflection of reality in a different artistic style so, theoretically, the game offers ‘escape’ while simultaneously reinforcing the reality it takes the player away from. This is partly reinforced by the choice of title screen image (as mentioned above)- players may not recognise the location of the image but will recognise that it is near a very corporate setting, and although the image is pixelated, it’s still a real image.

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FINAL EDITS

When filming the video walk-through of my project, I noticed a few mistakes that I needed to correct. Unless the mistakes were pointed out, they were not immediately noticeable.

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Supermarket wireframe sketches

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Development screenshots

In this image you can see a  very small resemblance to the final design of the energy industry’s boardroom. The windows are still along the back of the room and the table is in the centre, followed by a table being located to the right (and also a tree). This was one of the only preliminary sketches I made for the development of the rooms of the game.

While these drawings may not look like they relate to my game, initially I wanted the energy industry’s boardroom to be dark with strong light filtering through the windows to create a more sinister atmosphere, like the image below. I drew these very rough sketches to understand what I wanted to achieve but also to tell my friends what sort of images I was looking for and whether they knew of any movies with scenes like this that I could reference! I didn’t continue this idea further though.

Screenshots of the fashion industry before any NPCs were put in.

Changing the player’s character hair colour. Initially I thought white was a good idea to make the player stand out, but then I decided that this was unrealistic and changed it.

Female Pokémon character reference (Misty).

Female ‘Kira’ suit.

Male Pokémon reference (Ash).

Male ‘kira’ suit.

When one of my friends play tested the newest version of my game, they realised that, from the NPC who gives the player money for milk, he gives it to the player multiple times if the player keeps talking to him. I have since fixed this problem. Another issue they encountered was that the player can walk behind the reception desk in the fashion industry which also should not be possible. This problem has also been fixed.

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25/05 UPDATE

With only a few days before submission, I am currently updating and ensuring that all my graphics are as they should be. I have also added some other features that the player can interact with to make the game more enjoyable.

Vending machines- if the player has money left over after shopping, they can buy as many items from the vending machines as they want until their money runs out. There is (currently) no option to consume the items they buy, however, they can purchase items from any vending machine until they reach below £2 left in their pocket.

Acquiring a suit- I added a new game mechanic. The order of the game is still Food-Energy-Fashion, however, the player must find a suit before they can enter the energy industry’s section of the game. The player cannot pass through the gates at reception unless they have a) found the ID card on the table and b) found a suit and changed in to it. The suit can be found by leaving the energy industry and heading to Fashion Inc HQ, where a woman is at reception. The player cannot access any other area of the fashion industry until they have obtained the journalist’s pass from the boardroom of the Energy industry, however, they must speak to this lady in the fashion industry in order to obtain the suit necessary to proceed (she mistakes the player as one of the models and asks them to change). The woman will ask the player to change in to one of a variety of outfits, but if the player chooses an option other than the ‘Kira’ suit they will not be able to pass through the gates of the energy industry. The name ‘Kira’ was chosen for the suit as ‘kira kira’ is a Japanese onomatopoeia that means ‘sparkling’- it is also the sound for ‘killer’. In slang English ‘killer’ can mean ‘very cool’ or ‘fashionable’ depending on the context, so it was a reference to this as well.  The suit itself, a purple and green suit, is a reference to a character from a Japanese cartoon show called ‘JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’, who’s name is ‘Kira’ (and he wears a suit just like the one in this game)- it was suggested by my friends who gave me feedback and suggested that implementing some form of costume change for the player could be another way to increase enjoyment. The other costume choice- ‘90s style’, produces a different costume for the boy and for the girl (depending on the player’s gender)- players of Pokemon (or watchers of the original 90s anime) will notice that the outfit is very similar to Ash Ketchum’s, and for the female, Misty’s outfits in the TV show. This is a direct reference and appreciation to the franchise that influenced the style of this project.

The glass partitions in the offices of the energy industry have been made opaque. The player can walk behind them and see their avatar through the glass.

The security guard’s sprites had some issues. These have been sorted.

There were also issues with the female avatar’s hair and the walk cycle. This has been fixed.

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GAME EXTRAS: SHOPPING GAME MECHANIC

A shopping mechanic has been added to the Food Industry’s supermarket section of the game. This was added with the intention to make the game a closer reflection of reality and therefore more immersive for the player (as more interactive elements have been added to the game), heightening the impact of transportation and encouraging the player to play on.

How it works:

Initially, when the player accepts the milk quest from their co-worker, a new destination is added to the exit of the room. Now, alongside the new destination, the co-worker gives the player £25 to go to the supermarket with. This is just a random number and the co-worker does not ask for change later on (**might change**).

When the player goes to the supermarket, they can interact with many of the shelves. Some of the shelves have items the player can pick up, including sandwiches, drinks, biscuits, crisps, bread, soup, milk and apples. The cost of these items is unknown to the player but ranges between £1 and £7. The player can pick up multiple items and also duplicates.

In the supermarket cafe, there is now also an option to buy one drink. Each option costs the player £3 and this amount is subtracted from the total of £25. The player can choose whether or not to buy this drink. (If the player runs out of money before exploring this, however, they cannot buy a drink.)

When the player heads to the checkout, the cashier gives them a total for all the items they have picked up. If the total is above £25 (£22 if they buy a drink), the cashier confiscates all items (except the drink if they’ve already paid for it, and also the milk as that’s part of the quest) and the player can choose to go and get more items. Once they have paid, the items remain in the player’s inventory throughout the rest of the game.

The player can choose whether or not to return the milk to their co-worker. However picking up the milk is necessary for a woman to appear near the check-outs (as well as reaching level 4) and offer to take the player to Clam Corp, the next stage of the game. The game can be played successfully without the player doing any shopping at all, as long as they pick up milk from the fridges and reach level 4 by interacting with the NPCs the game can continue.

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MAKING THE GAME PLAYBACK IN FULL SCREEN

Initially, it did not seem possible to make the game play in full screen mode. However, I have found a way to do that.

** PRESS alt + ENTER ON YOUR KEYBOARD TO PLAY THE GAME IN FULL SCREEN **

It must be mentioned that although this is possible, the game software has been developed to make all games have a standard/max resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. When going into full screen mode, it can make the image appear blurry.

It is possible to play the game in full screen mode but does detract from the quality of the image. For maximum quality, please play in its default size.

This is one downside of the software choice I have made. While the original Gameboy/ Ninteno DS games were all played on small screen sizes (so my project remediates even the resolution of the games playable on these devices), with the advancement of digital technologies it would have been more effective if my game could have been played in a much higher resolution at a larger screen size to similarly reflect the 20 years of digital development. Since this software allowed me to create the sort of game I hoped to achieve in the time I had, I opted to go for the aesthetics and enjoyment of the project itself over choosing a different software (and therefore game outcome) that enabled larger game playback size.

Comment: I have just played through the game. Since the pixel style of the game is based on blocks and squares, personally I don’t feel that the quality is affected by going into full screen mode. There are some things that I notice, but by and large it looks ok in my opinion. I can not say for sure how the game will look on other monitors when the game is made into full screen mode elsewhere, however, on my laptop is looks ok.