Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
PROPOSAL
By
March 2016
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The project intended to produce a 3-Dimensional stealth video game. The aim is allow
players to experience a unique story-driven stealth game with linear form of storytelling, and at
the same time allow them to learn about the Art History that consist of parts that related with
their syllabus in the class through the gameplay. The idea to develop this project was inspired by
Assassin’s Creed Chronicle game trilogy which is a stealth-based side-scroller game featured
with actual historical events. The game was not an educational game but the player able to learn
history through the dialogues, cutscenes and environmental storytelling through the gameplay.
Art History is the study of human expression. Visual, but also tactile, and sometimes
aural through history. Art Historians develop ways to translate from the visual to the verbal
through analysis and interpretation. Art Historians also develop techniques to understanding the
way of art in form of visual, material, and in contemporary art sometimes immaterial, to translate
the expression in the particular artwork that able to contribute to our social, political, and
spiritual life. In this project, the audiences will exposed with the topic of Modernism in Art
The time has changed and younger generations were more interested in playing video
games instead of spend their time on reading books. According to the statement of Prof Dr
Osman Che Bakar, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
during the interview state in the article from Malaysian Digest, electronic games nowadays is at
fingertips with rapid advancement in technology makes teenagers and adolescents, from age of
secondary school students to university students become more interested to spend most of their
time on it.
As a video games developer, the author acknowledged that video games are able to give
both positive and negative impact to the players’ life, depend on suitability of the games with the
level of maturity of the player and how it can affect the way of their thinking. The purpose of the
project is to make the process of learning history become an interesting topics to learn by
students through the things that they were mostly interested, video games, instead of through
Most of Malaysian teenagers and adolescents, especially college students were not interested in
learning history, same issue applied to the students in the class of History of Graphic Design.
Some may find that it was difficult to memorize the historical facts and this makes them
Based on study report from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, history is one of the boring subject
(2008). Rigid technique that used in delivering the information will affect the quality of attention
given by the audience. Same things applied to the students, it is supported by the research
iii. Lack of awareness that video games are not always give bad influences.
Most of people especially adults in Malaysia thought that video games brought more bad
influences rather than good influences to the younger generation, this views supported by the
opinion of Senior Consultant Psychiatrist from Universiti Teknologi MARA, Prof Dr Osman
Che Bakar. There are a lot of video games that express good moral values, but some people not
aware of it.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
The students’ attitude towards the computer games is far beyond the attitude level that given by
them during the learning process in the class. Merge the content of learning and the motivation
of games able to make history become interesting topics to learn, allow then to learn through
fun-based activity.
ii. To make people aware that video games are not always give bad influences.
Nowadays, there are a lot of technology that offers new approaches for learning and mastering
new skills. Video games are one of them. It can offer endless possibilities of way to creating a
new approaches to assist learning process. Some people just not aware of it or it were quite hard
for them to accept the fact that playing video game is not always a bad thing. The project is
purposely to make them aware that there is always something that we could learn by playing
video games.
1.4 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
The project deliverable is a playable video game, that is capable of demonstrating the
core gameplay features of the game, which are: story-driven, the top-down view, simple strategy,
simple puzzle solving and stealth gameplay allowing player to learn the history of art and design
through in-game dialogues, environments, collected information, and the method of storytelling.
The deliverable of the project is suitable for both male and female players of vary ages
from 13 to 25 years old – primarily intended for students of History of Graphic Design class
from age of 18 to 25 years old. The game also suitable for unemployed or employed individuals
In order to win the game, players must complete the task given to collect all the
information about the Modernism in Art History by inspect all related artworks in each level and
avoid be seen by the enemy. The game consists of 5 to 10 levels, completing each level will
reveal the memory fragments of the protagonist. Player need to complete all levels and reveal all
v. Setting: Fiction
xiv. Rating:
xv. Game Premise: The Premortem game premise is to inspect all related artwork in order to
proceed to the next level which is each level will reveal the fragments of the protagonist’s
last memories.
1.4.2 Winning and Losing Game
i. Players need to inspect all three artworks in order to proceed to the next level.
ii. Each artwork may contain information about the art movements that may related to the
protagonist’s memory.
iii. Player need to be seen by the enemy called ‘Tormented Soul’, by avoiding their field of
view.
iv. If the player able to inspect all artwork in the level will open memory door to the next
level.
v. Complete all level will reveal the entire protagonist’s memory which is the main part of
Games rule is the game system that is set in the game for player to follow. (Rollings &
ii. In order to avoid the detection of the enemy, the player is allowed to hiding inside the
iii. If the player detected by the enemy, the enemy will reap all the protagonist memory and
he would not able to wake up from the pre-mortem state or in other word the protagonist
Grey Ackles – an independent modern artist and also ex art scholar from Cité Internationale des
Arts, in Paris. He is a husband to Scarlett Ackles and a father of 10 years-old son, Lucas Ackles,
and now living in London. From the memory fragments that the player needs to be revealed, the
story started with he got a text message from his wife remind him to get back home early to
celebrate their son’s 10th birthday anniversary tonight and do not forget to buy the birthday
present. Since the time is almost evening he decided to get home immediately. There is a few
small kindness events before he reaches the bus stop and wait for the bus. He watches a young
boy on his skateboard pass by the bus stop before the boy falls in front of the oncoming bus.
Grey leaps from the curb and pushes the child out of the way, and he is struck by the bus. He
then enter the pre-mortem state that is the part of the gameplay.
Scarlett Ackles – a wife to Grey Ackles and a mother of 10 years-old son, Lucas Ackles, and
now living in London with his husband and wife. She is the one who remind Grey Ackles about
Lucas Ackles – a 10 years old son to Grey Ackles and Scarlett Ackles, and now living in
London with his parents. He is the one who having his 10th birthday anniversary.
Antagonist (Non-playable Character – Enemy)
Tormented Soul - are enemies featured in Premortal. A corrupted soul lost their memory
forever, it believe that consuming the memories of other soul enable it to regain their own
humanity. The Tormented Soul is very strong and can overpower the protagonist. Because of
this, the player must sneak up on it and avoid the detection. It has a humanoid shape and is
covered in long ripped black cloth, making it closely resemble wraiths. It do not have any eyes
but able to sense the soul's memories. The creature only introduce in the game start from level 3
and above.
Premortem is designed with fictional pre-mortem (before the death) state environment
including the environment that the protagonist familiar with, the Art Museum. The environment
concept is fantasy yet still keeping the real-world elements to avoid the confusion among the
player while playing the game. Most part of the real-world elements are inspired by Allen
Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Most of paintings that interact-able
during the gameplay also inspired by actual Modern paintings that created between 1930 to
1945.
1.4.6 System Application
Premortem game enable player to replay the level, the menu appear once the player loses
the game. The game uses music background on certain part with a few sound effects to enhance
player’s mood during the gameplay, and also uses ambience sound on the most part of the game.
The game is playable on both desktop and laptop computers. The operating system has
been chosen is Microsoft Windows 7 and above because it is the most used operation system in
standard computer.
Launch Game
Main Menu
Exit
Play Exit
Game no
yes
Retry?
Gameplay Win?
no
Proceed to the Display
next level “Game Over”
screen
Reward yes
(Display Cutscene)
Game level is the sections of the game. Most part of the game level design, level arrangement
and gameplay is a repetitive. It is designed to avoid confusion among the players during the
gaming session.
Win
the Complete Task Inspect all 3
paintings
Game
Level 4 - 10 Defeat Obstacle Avoid Detection
The game allow player to obtain the information about the Art History (specifically in
Modernism topic) when the player interact with the specific artworks. The information comes
out once the player hold the interaction button on the specific artworks. Each level consist of one
topics and each topics consist of three related paintings or artworks (actual artworks with real
names), which means the topic is break into three pieces of information. The player needs to
gather all three pieces of information in order to open the ‘Door of Memory’ and allow them to
The project aims to overcome the limitations of method in delivering the historical
information specifically about Modernism in History of Art, based on university syllabus to the
students. The project uniqueness is the approach technique it uses to deliver the historical
message to the audiences. The structure of the story that reveal once the player able to collect all
the memory fragments exposes the player with a good moral value, and enable player to learn
that sometime we no need to afraid to lose something in order to do something good to the other.
1.6 LIMITATION OF THE PROJECT
1.6.1 Limitation
Since this project focuses on related Art History facts to be included in the video game,
which is a very specific topic, the intended audience and also research sample is quite limited,
targeted at video game players and enthusiasts, and students that study History in Art and
Graphic Design.
This project specifically aimed at delivering the historical information to the audiences,
which is majorly focused the way how to ensure the audiences learn about the historical value
through the gameplay. Therefore other characteristics of video game such as artificial
intelligence, gameplay system and complexity of the game mechanics may not within the scope
of the project and are considered as additional features. Due to skill limitation to developing this
Finally, since the project output is a simple video game intended only to demonstrate the
project goals and simple gameplay elements, the scope of the game is narrowed to only feature
two to three levels at most, and limited degrees of freedom due to the short duration of the
project.
1.6.2 Assumptions
In order to develop the project, it was assumed that video game players and adolescents
who are interested at playing video games are open to the idea of including an historical value
into the video games and enjoy experiencing their unique adventures. It also assumed that the
player may enjoy learning the history subject through various methods that applied in the game.
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEWS
History is an interesting subject for those who are willing to hear and learn more about
how things came to be. However, according to the Director of Centre for Community Network
Universiti Selangor (UNISEL), Izwan Suhadak Ishak, from The Star newspaper article written
by Kathleen Michael in 23 Feb 2016, young people in Malaysia mostly not interested in learning
history. He also state that if the students ever asked about if they like history, most of them will
tell that they do not. In additional, the same issue also stated in the study report from Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia conducted by Azan MZ & Wong SY (2008), history subject is known as a
dead and boring subject and most part of society in Malaysia presume that history subject do not
have commercial value. This mentality slowly demotivated students or young generation to gain
Meanwhile in the other hand, according to the Malaysian Digest articles written by Arief
Irshad in 11 Dec 2014, Prof Dr Osman Che Bakar, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist from
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) stated that the teenagers and adolescents in Malaysia
become more and more interested in video games nowadays even in extreme cases some of them
may addicted to it. The results of the research conducted by Huizenga et al. in 2007 also stated
that pupils were very enthusiastic about the game and willing to learn by themselves, they are
normally showed a lot of off-task behaviors during traditional learning process were able to
a few things to make history become more attractive to the younger generation, specifically for
students.
2.2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The main purpose to review of related literature is to analyze scientific works by other
researchers that used for investigation. It is a process of reading books, journals, reports,
Based on the Review of Trends in Serious Gaming for Education written by Young et al
on March 2012, video games such as Civilization IV, Call of Duty 4, and Age of Empires offer
students the opportunity to travel across time and space in the effort to bring history to life. The
review also mentioned that the narratives embedded in historical content allow history games to
offer unique affordances to the audiences for reenacting, replaying, and gaining experiences
within the realms of history. Several studies highlighted history-based video games as an
effective means of engaging students beyond traditional methods of history instruction (Devlin-
Based on the research was done by Doctor of philosophy in Education from the
University of Central Florida (UCF), games thought to be effective tools for teaching because
they use action instead of explanation while create motivation and satisfaction to accommodate
various learning styles and skills (Santrock, 2001). Moreover, Science Daily News on
Educational also stated that video games can boost motivation to learn and well designed games
can motivate student to learn less popular subject, such as historical, math. So it is true that
adding interactivity in games will lead to positive impact on the motivation when the person
2-Dimentional games or 2D games are famous before the era of 3-Dimentional(3D) games came
out. 2-Dimentional means the appearance of either organic or geometrical shape that only has
two dimensions such as width and height, and no thickness. In gaming, 2D games still getting
rave review until today. The 2D game like Candy Crush, Ori and the Blind Forest, and Angry
Bird are the example of games that recently played by game enthusiasts. However, 3D games are
more interesting in term of visual appearances that are livelier and give deeper experience to the
2D 3D
Advantages Disadvantages Advantages Disadvantages
i. Simple controls. i. Bottomless pits i. More realistic. i. Expensive.
ii. Uncomplicated are harder to ii. Has the ii. Time
recognize. capability to consuming in
tutorials.
ii. The screen is have more production
iii. Simple goals. genres. process.
just too
iv. Things can be seen crowded. iii. Depth in iii. Require more
more clearly. iii. Hidden items or background and skills
v. Feeling more fairs enemies are world. iv. The control
borderline iv. Impressive scheme and
while gaming.
cheap. graphics. goal are
vi. Allows games to v. Long and high complicated.
iv. Not very
break into an quality. v. More hit-and-
realistic.
“ideal” non- vi. Little excuse if miss.
v. Limited in
realistic world. genres. hit by enemy. vi. Big issues on
vii. Easier to make. camera.
vi. The characters
viii. Cheap. and enemies
takes place too
much on screen.
After reviewing the lists, it is clear that there are a wide range between both 2D and 3D
games. After consideration of time and skill limitation, the developer intended minimize the risk
of production failure and forced to precede the project into 2-Dimentional video game. The 2D
games also does not require high spending cost due to less needed in modeler energy services
Most “abstract information spaces” work poorly in 3D because they are non-physical. If
means throwing away 97 dimensions instead of 98. It is hardly a big enough improvement to
justify the added interface complexity. In particular, navigation through a hyperspace such as a
website is often very confusing in 3D, and users frequently get lost. 3D navigation looks
interesting in a demo, but that's because people are not flying through the hyperspace themselves
(Darkhyrulord, 2012).
2.2.3 Storytelling in games.
According to the research paper written by Jill Eck (May 2006) titled An Analysis of
Effectiveness of Storytelling With Adult Learners in Supervisory Management, there are several
number of theories that offered by educational theorist and researchers that explains why
storytelling has such a positive impact on learning. Erickson and Rossi (1976) offer a theory in
support of storytelling as a teaching and learning tool that surrounds the concepts of learner
activity and teaching pedagogy because it fulfills many of the criteria that comprise brain-based
learning theory (Cain, et. al, 2005). Similarly, McDrury and Alterio (2003) tout the merits of
In video games, storytelling is one of the essential elements in developing a video games.
According to the article written by Craig Chapple in Develop.net (Dec 2014), David Gaider,
game developer from Bioware claimed that a larger number of developers are pushing at the
boundaries of what game narratives are thought to be capable of, so expectations on game
i. Textbox
This is storytelling at its most basic level. At the start of the game, or before
missions, the player is presented with a block of text to read through (or more
often skip). It does the job of communicating the story, but it doesn’t involve the
player at all, and often leaves a big gap between the story and the “actual” game.
This was most common in early games such as Wolfenstein 3D, the block contain
This method usually breaks flow and bore the player. If the game is particularly
short or simple, like a quick Flash game platformer with only a handful of levels
ii. Cutscene
Cutscenes are the storytelling method of choice for most modern games. The
player gets to sit back and watch the story unfold as the characters do the talking.
The big advantage of using cutscenes is that the developer can plan out a scene
from start to end. The developer can time the music to the events on screen and
able to make sure the scene has as big emotional impact as possible. The
technique avoids the player to interact with the game which is possibly causing
them to spoil a dramatic scene. The disadvantage of the technique is it will cause
the player feel excluded since they were not taking part in the action.
iii. Dialogue/Monologue
usually involves two or more in-game characters communicating each other either
used in video games. The technique is where, rather than hitting the player with
story, the game instead places clues around the environments and allow player to
interact with the environment in order to unravel the story. The original Half-Life,
released in 1998, was really the pioneer of this storytelling type. Rather than using
text blocks like many contemporary shooters in that time, it instead let the player
to uncover clues to the story through subtle hints in the game’s world, like an
abandoned military radio or the corpse of a scientist in an alien cave. It makes the
game livelier, like breathing world that the protagonist of the game was a part of.
Same applies to Half-Life 2 which released in 2010. The game mostly tell story to
Learning through games is not a new phenomenon (Kannan AMR, 2012). According to
Bradshaw and Lowenstein (2007) ancient people used games to assist learning, for example,
Based on thesis written by Kannan AMR in 2012, there are several scholars (Nelson,
1989, 2008; Nelson 1999; Terenzini & Pascarella, 1994) in past three decades predicted that
traditional tools such as class lectures, reading and writing assignments, tests, field trips,
discussions, laboratory reports, and such others, for teaching science may not be effective
teaching tools.
Many thought that games as purely for entertainment, but according to Dickey (2005),
there is always room for video games to be more than just entertainment: “depending on the
genre and individual game, players may be required to analyze, synthesize, and use critical 6
According to Kannan AMR (2012), both children and adults like playing games. Gaming
is one of the biggest industries and makes more money next to movies, followed by music and
other entertainment industries. However, such massive industry fails when it attempts to blend
entertainment and education into something that often referred to as edutainment, which is
hybrid genre that has both a learning objective as well as visual material with narratives and or
games as mentioned by Okan (2003, p.255). Edutainment is used to attract and maintain the
i. Fantasy
iv. Challenge
v. Mystery
Educational Game written by Kannan AMR, also refer to the Huizenga (1950) defined play as:
“a free activity standing quite consciously outside ‘ordinary’ life as being ‘not serious’,
but at the same time, absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected
with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own
proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It
promotes the formation of social groupings, which tend to surround themselves with
secrecy and to stress their difference from the common world by disguise or other
can unite in such a way that the game “represents” a contest, or else becomes a contest
Robbery Bob is a 3D stealth video games produced for Android and iOS platform. It is
based on the adventure of an amateur robber sneaking around guards while collecting loot in
various locations. The concepts of the gameplay is the player needs to control the main character
names Bob in top-down view to sneak past security guards, residents and sleeping bulldogs as
the player recover the loot in each stage, almost everything from secret documents, to old pairs of
clothes, even a TV remotes. As the game progress, the player allowed to use ninja-like skills,
abilities, utilities, and costumes to hide in some tight squeezes and avoid detection.
2.3.2 Mr. Peabody & Sherman
fiction film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The story
concept of the animation shows about the machine names WABAC, a device used to transport
the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman back in time to visit important events in human history.
The machine was invented by Mr. Peabody, a gifted anthropomorphic dog as a birthday gift for
his adopted 7-years old son, Sherman, allowing them to visit famous historical people or events,
the WABAC provided educational adventures for Sherman. The main concept of this animation
is about the adventure of fictional character in actual events in human history, some of the
obvious examples are they visit Marie Antoinette in Versailles during the French Revolution in
1789 and getting caught in the Reign of Terror, travel to Ancient Egypt in 1332 BCE and met
King Tut or known as King Tutankhamun, the Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty ruled c.
1332–1323 BC, travel to Renaissance Florence in 1508 where they meet Leonardo da Vinci,
travel to 1184 BCE and joins the army of King Agamemnon in the Trojan Horse during Trojan
War, and the appearance cameo of a few famous historical figures, such as George Washington,
franchise. The gameplay concept of this game is a 2.5D side scrolling platformer, featured a
large array of weapons such as secret shoe blade, rope darts, and daggers. Players must control
the protagonist, which is an assassin, and navigate through the environment. Players need to use
stealth tactics such as hiding from enemies in shadows, break line of sight and can climb areas
that are identified by vibrant colors, in order to reach the goal and progress the story. The game
bring player to experience three different of historical events with three different environments in
three different Assassin’s Creed series. For example, In China 1526, the event known as Eight
Tigers, a powerful group that controlled the Chinese imperial court during the reign of the Ming
Followed by the second series in India 1841, during the event of Sikh Empire was at war
with the East India Company. Then followed by the last series so far, takes place in Russia 1918,
This game both storytelling concept and the gameplay were closely related to the project,
which is to produce a stealth video game that able to assist learning and deliver social and
historical information through the gameplay session mostly via dialogues, cutscene, and player’s
Ori and the Blind Forest is a single-player adventure platformer video game developed by
Moon Studios in Unity game engine and published by Microsoft Studios in 2015 and available
Set as a 2D platform game, Ori is required to interact with his environment as he jumps
from platforms and solves puzzles. Ori is faced with several types of enemies as obstacles as he
Ori and the Blind Forest gives players an immersive experience due to the gameplay
visual appearance in the games look like a painting come to life, while having a pixel-perfect
animation. Due to its story driven game, Ori teaches players with great lessons; to love the
nature, as Ori sets on a journey to save the dying forest, to sacrifice for your loved ones.
2.3.6 Murdered: Soul Suspect
Figure 2.8 Screenshot of Murdered: Soul Suspect (Lightning Gaming News, 2014)
Games and published by Square Enix. The game was released in June 2014. The game takes
place in present day Salem, Massachusetts. Salem is a town haunted by its past of haunting and
witchcraft, including Salem Witch Trials during Puritan era. The game is about Ronan
O’Connor, a detective who gets caught up in a burglary, his life was ended by unknown brutal
and relentless killer. He was shocked once he find himself in the afterlife, he was stuck in the
limbo world of Dusk and the only way to escape from it is to uncover the truth behind his killer,
track him down and bring him to justice using new-found supernatural abilities. Through the
gameplay session, as the game proceeds, the player were exposed about the dark history of
Salem and historical events happened to the town during Puritan era which is one of the actual
part in American History. The player able to learn the history of the town through NPC dialogues
and interactions with the environment during the gameplay. The environment in Premortem was
inspired by how the town is depicted on Murdered: Soul Suspect. It is easy for the player to
define the difference between the living world and the limbo which Ronan inhabits. The player
will be seeing modern buildings as they stand in the present living world and also see ghostly
remnants of the town and all its remains as it was when the witch trials were happening in form
of monochromatic spectral objects. This technique was adapted to the Premortem game which is
most of the stage in each level covered in monochromatic spectral environment except the area
Robbery Bob Mr. Peabody Assassin’s Creed Ori and the Murdered: Premortem
& Sherman Chronicles Blind Forest Soul Suspect
Type Game Film/ Game Game Game Game
Animation
Visual 3D 3D 3D 2D 3D 2D
Appearance
Storytelling Dialogue Dialogue, Environmental Cutscenes Dialogue, Monologues,
Method Movie storytelling, Monologues, Environmental
scenes Dialogue, Environmental Storytelling,
Cutscenes Storytelling, Textbox,
Cutscenes Cutscene
Topics General Historical Assassination Nature History of History of Art
Fiction and Conspiracy Salem (Modernism)
in History
In conclusion, there are still some games products that are able to assist learning history
indirectly by expose the historical facts through several different storytelling techniques: most of
review products were using environmental storytelling and dialogues to deliver the information.
By listing all the products related, it is easy to study the idea to implement into the game. From
overall overview, Premortem is not a new idea but a unique idea since there are not much game
that uses a few elements from several genre which is somehow educational, psychological,
stealth and supernatural, so that the player will experience new concepts of game that they never
did before.
CHAPTER 3
This chapter describes the approach, software, hardware and equipment requirements that are
used in developing this project. The approach that was used in this project is a combination of
widely used in other game development project, based on IGN Entertainment (2006). However,
some sub-stages were added appropriate to the development of the game to ensure that the
process structured properly and the development process run smoothly along the project period.
Premortem. It provides thorough processes of game development on each phase which are
relevant to the project. Below is the discription and detailed explanation of these five phases of
In early phase, the concept of the game was determined by researching and brainstorming for
ideas.
i. Researching
During this phase, research was conducted to gather data regarding the topics that
related with History of Art and Graphic Design. Existing papers and articles
regarding the topic was searched beforehand on the web, and the related syllabus was
A number of video games were reviewed concurrently for the type of game the
project will develop. Most of the video games were searched on Steam; a game
distributing software. Some of the games were also mobile games from GooglePlay.
There are also a few films and animations that related to the topic (history) were
Once research is done, the problem statements and objectives of the project became
clear. The game concept and ideas were brainstormed in accordance with the
objectives. Initially, a simple idea was sketched and drafted in a notebook. The main
purpose of the game is to assist students in learning the topics of Modernism in Art
History. Therefore, the first idea for the game was to create a stealth video game that
allow player to collect informations. From that simple concept, the idea expanded.
3.2.2 PHASE 2: PRE-PRODUCTION
The pre-production phase includes the process of; storyline, storyboard, sketches,scripting, and
gameplay design.
i. Storyline
After establishing the stages in phase 1, phase 2 starts with writing a solid storyline.
A good story is one of the crucial elements that would make a good game aside from
gameplay and graphics. The method used for storytelling is the Three-Act Structure
that used widely in films, animations, comic, storybooks, novels and video games
today. The Three-Act Structure is highly accepted and greatly successful method,
The Three-Act Structure consists of Act I, Act II, and Act III. All acts have their own rules and
guidelines to follow. Act I being the Setup or Beginning; Act II being the Confrontation; and
The first act where the main protagonist of the story is introduced,
including the setting of where the protagonist are located in the story, and the
that some part of the place that seems familiar to him. He also realize that he
Sculpture. Act I end when the protagonist learn that he is in the pre-mortem world
Character Details
As the first act established with the story, protagonist and conflict; sub-
engage in actions not necessarily connected to the main plot. This act also introduces
In Premortem, the main plot of the story is about a guy names Grey Ackles, having
accidents while on the way to get back home after finish his work at the gallery. After
the accident happens, he realize that he was trapped in a strange world which in
between life and death. As he struggle looking his way back to life, he discovered that
the only way to get back is to recover his last memory fragments. During the process
obtaining the memory, the memory attracts a strange creature called Tormented Soul,
the corrupted soul that consumes other soul’s memory. If he fails to avoid the
detection, the creature will robbed all of his memories and he will never wake up
soul memories.
Plot Point II/ Crisis If the protagonist enter the line of sight, the
The final act is where the last confrontation established, followed by the
denouncement. In this act, the protagonist finally obtains all the memory
fragments and remembers what happened before he enters the pre-mortem world.
This act will explain everything; the protagonist manages to fight the near death
situation for sake of his family then wake up and realized that he was in the
ii. Scripting
After the completion of storytelling, the development process need to focus on the
transitions. Writing a script will ensure a thorough process of animating the in-game
Based off the storyline, a few lines of dialogues were written roughly on paper to
visualize the scenes. The script was divided into different scenes for better
understanding in future references. Before the completion version of the script was
written digitally, it was reviewed. Any unnecessary lines or scenes will be removed.
iii. Storyboarding
Developing the storyboard become easier once the script was established. Basically,
the storyboard is crucial to helps the developer to visualize the flow of the story in the
a. Thumbnail Sketching
The stage starts off by sketching a few thumbnails that would satisfy the script.
Thumbnail sketches were drawn roughly on paper purposely to covers the flow of the
story. The sketches were not drawn in detailed but only rough panes to envision how
b. Final Storyboarding
After the thumbnail was reviewed, the final storyboard was developed.
information that was provided in the script. The storyboard was drawn in detailed
with elaborate description in every pane; Sound Effects (SFX), Narrative, Time in
seconds, Camera Angles, and any details regarding the characters’ action in that
pane.
details were set in the storyboard. Sketches of the storyboard were inked and any
a. Characters
In Premortem, there is one playable character name Grey Ackles and one
enemy called Tormented Soul. On designing the protagonist, the physical traits
of the character was inspired by film actor, Jensen Ackles and the outfit inspired
from the protagonist of the game titled Alan Wake. Meanwhile the antagonist
called Demon and also inspired by the creature in Harry Potter called Dementor.
b. Assets
Premortem, the assets include the artworks from Modern Artists, sculpture bases,
painting frames, stairs, doors and power up items. Crucial assets like Modern Art
artworks were designed based on actual artworks including its real name.
c. Environments
inside the memory of the protagonist. To make the place related to the
protagonist, the place was designed to look like an art gallery in the dark, gloomy
world. Most part of the structures were inspired by Allen Memorial Art Museum,
one of the famous art museum located in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. To make
the environments express dark and thriller mood, most part of the world were
Suspect) except the area that highlighted due to contain important assets such as
artworks that need to be interact in order to obtain the lost memory fragments.
v. Gameplay Design
Generally, gameplay is the experience encounter by the player while playing the
video game. To create this experience, the gameplay is divided into components;
a. Game Mechanics
Game mechanics are a form of rules and methods for players to interact with
thriller game, mechanics that were relevant to the type of game were
down potential mechanics that will be featured in the game, limitations were
also taken into account either in term of software limitation and developer’s
as above the limitation were removed and only necessary ones remain. The
b. Rewards
for any successful tasks by the players. By adding rewards, players would be
motivated to accomplish more tasks, and once they achieved the reward, it
would acknowledged them that they had done something right. This reward
system avoids the game getting rigid and boring. Upon brainstorming for the
kind of rewards to be featured in the game, the game’s storyline was taken
into account. Therefore the rewards should correlate with the plot. Further, a
rough sketch was made to visualize the outcome of the game with the reward
system present. Other than proceed to the next level, the player also rewarding
c. Challenges
After the establishment of rewards, the game would be rather dull with it
were added.
Similar to implementing the reward system, the plot of the game was
taken into consideration to make the challenges relevant with the story. Based
on the story, the player was haunted by Tormented Soul. The player needs to
avoid the enemy’s field of view or the player will lose the game.
Henceforth, the idea of the challenge came from the crisis part of the
story. With that idea in mind, the enemy detection system was added to give
players feels challenged. To make the game more challenging, the creature
only spawns when it sense the presence of the player nearby, which means the
player unable to see the creature until they are standing within the radius. This
will make the player always stay in caution and feels like the creature will
After designing the gameplay, the level designs are essential as well. In general,
During this stage, the process started with sketching a layout of entire scale of the
map, on which the floor the player will move on. When sketching the layout, the in-
game location was determined. The starting point of the Premortem acts as the first
level of the game, which is located in the room that looks similar to the protagonist’s
art studio. Once the location was decided, the process continued by designing the
tutorial on paper accordance to the basic game’s controls. The beginning first three
levels will start off with tutorials; the first level teach the player to interact with the
artwork, second level teach player to walk around and finding the artwork, and the
third level will introduce the enemy and teach how to avoid the enemy field of view.
The next step is to specify which objects that are interactive to the player. Objects
like stairs, doors, paintings, frames, artworks, sculpture bases all can be interact by
the player. After listing out the objects, the conditions for these objects were written
on paper; on what it does and what it will do when the player interact with it.
3.3 HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
3.2.1 Hardware
The hardware needed for development throughout the project was a mid-range
computer and a desktop computer. Below are the specifications of the two machines.
Notebook Desktop
Memory 2 GB 16 GB
3.2.2 Software
Much of the game art was produced in 2D image editors, Adobe Illustrator. The
software is mainly used to produce assets, and also allows creation of frame-by-frame
When larger images were involve, the developer will use Adobe Photoshop. It
also provided more advanced editing tools such as colour correction, filters, and so on.
For the game engine, the developer will use Construct 2, due to the engine were
simpler and easier to use, and not consist a lot of programming but fairly flexible and