Sarah Tan

E5900688

Working Title Germ

Target Audience Ages 8+, Male and Female.
Genre Real Time 3D Adventure.

Overview In an up and coming science facility scientists are hard at

research for an important project. Behind on their schedule for the
impending deadline the science team are lacking the caution needed. One
wrong move later and chemicals have been knocked everywhere,
contaminating the current project, and creating an explosion.
The facility goes into lock down automatically with the experiment
breeched.
The contagion squad arrive and watch the CCTV footage from the van. The
lab team are dead. The footage is rewound and they witness the
consequences of the accident, finishing with a staff member being
occupied and taken control of as the other members of the team
suffocate in the wake of the explosion.

Everything goes fuzzy on the screen. When it becomes clear the game
play begins and the player finds themselves inside the science facility,
with the body of the inhabited lab assistant on the ground below.
The playable character is a germ brought about by the accident in the lab.
Its motive - to break free into the world outside.

Motivation/Rationale and Research This idea originally came about

from an early module during university. The back drop is very much the
same as the practice project developed for the Level Mechanics project
revolving around the Greig Building. In an area that is difficult to keep
things fresh a playable character has been developed that is neither good
nor bad, but out to survive in the only way it can. A peer then pointed out
the latest big game, Plague Inc (Ndemic Creations, 2014), and despite
being a little envious that it paralleled so significantly with this idea it gave
a lot of insight into what does and doesnt work for this genre.

Plague Inc, Ndemic Creations

Research and Investigation For this game to work a lot of research has
been involved. Not only in the field of video games, but movies and
television programmes too. Some examples of these are Contagion
(Warner Bros. Picture, 2011), 12 Monkeys (Universal Pictures, 1995), Rise
Of The Planet Of The Apes (20th Century Fox, 2011), and The Walking
Dead (20th Television, 2014).

Universal Pictures, 1995.

20th Century Fox, 2011

The games playable mascot comes in the morally unsure category, which
would sound impossible if it wasnt for the likes of the Grand Theft Auto
(Rockstar Games, 2014) series, amongst others, that captured the fun side
of doing tasks that dont always paint the perfect hero. Morals dont come
into the equation for my character, it merely does what it has to survive
and proceed further towards its goal of breaking out of the facility.
Ethically its always going to be difficult to win over an entire audience,
that being said this feels like a re-imagined scenario. Life is the only
mission and goal throughout.

Technical Overview As much research possible before this project

begins, with background information already undertaken this is providing
a clear view with which direction with which to continue the design.
Software will include UDK (Epic Games, 2014) for the bulk of the game.
Tutorials and plenty of practice skills using Kismet (Epic Games, 2014) will
help control the body of work to create a clean yet creative game, this will
also help with employability in the future.

It is likely that Flash (Adobe Systems, 2014) will come into play a short
time in for the use of SWF Futurewave Software, 2014). files for the User
Interface. The simplicity of merging work from different games
development engines has made it easier to implement the User Interface
on top of the running gameplay.
Photoshop will also play a great hand in the project to neatly collate all
the information.

Project Deliverables Sketched out is a basic mock up for three fairly

short levels. To give the player and possible developer a clear idea of what
the game is about, how certain mechanics work, and which direction the
game is taking.
Again, a fair amount of research will be built on thanks to the other
modules involved. The plan is to use Contemporary Studies in Games to
delve into the morality and ethical sides of a workable video games
character. From the very beginning videogames has brought about
ethically challenged characters From Pacman (Namco, 2014), to the
entire line up in Moral Kombat (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment,
inc. 2014). Even Donkey Kong (Retro Studies, 2014a) started out bad in
his original game (Donkey Kong Nintendo, 1981b). Yet the audience
quickly move past the obvious and take on the challenge given with little
regard to the ethics and morality of it all. This will be fully investigated via
research skills gained.

Project Plan

References
12 Monkeys (1995). Published by Universal Pictures [Accessed
20/10/2014]
Available at http://www.metacritic.com/movie/twelve-monkeys
[Accessed 20/10/2014]
Contagion (2011). Published by Warner Bros. Pictures
Available at http://www.metacritic.com/movie/contagion [Accessed
20/10/2014]

Donkey Kong (2014a).Published by Retro Studios

Available at http://www.empireonline.com/features/50-greatest-videogame-characters/default.asp?film=48 [Accessed 20/10/2014]
Donkey Kong (1981b).Published by Nintendo
Available at http://www.empireonline.com/features/50-greatest-videogame-characters/default.asp?film=48 [Accessed 20/10/2014]

Flash (2014). Published by Adobe Systems

Available at https://www.adobe.com/products/flashruntimes.html
[Accessed 20/10/2014]
Grand Theft Auto (2014).Published by Rockstar Games
Available at http://www.gamerankings.com/xbox360/634491-grand-theftauto-v/index.html [Accessed 20/10/2014]
Kismet (2014). Published by Epic Games
Available at http://udn.epicgames.com/Main/WebHome.html [Accessed
20/10/2014]

Mortal Kombat (2014). Published by Warner Bros. Interactive

Entertainment, Inc
Available at
http://www.mksecrets.net/index.php?section=kolumn&lang=eng&conten
tID=5364&title=The-History-Of-Mortal-Kombat-Video-Series [Accessed
20/10/2014]
Pacman (2014). Published by Namco
Available at http://www.bandainamcogames.com/game/pac-man.html
[Accessed 20/10/2014]

Plague Inc (2014). Published by Ndemic Creations

Available at http://www.ndemiccreations.com/en/22-plague-inc
[Accessed 20/10/2014]

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011). Published by 20th Century Fox
Available at http://www.metacritic.com/movie/rise-of-the-planet-of-theapes [Accessed 20/10/2014]
SWF Small Web Format Published (2014). Published by Futurewave
Software
Available at https://www.adobe.com/products/flashruntimes.html
[Accessed 20/10/2014]
The Walking Dead Published (2014). Published by 20th Television
Available at http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-deadgets-net-run-689725 [Accessed 20/10/2014]
UDK (2014). Published by Epic Games.
Available at http://udn.epicgames.com/Main/WebHome.html [Accessed
20/10/2014]