Sie sind auf Seite 1von 49

FINAL YEAR PROJECT

PROPOSAL

VIDEO GAMES AS PLATFORM IN LEARNING ART HISTORY

By

MUHAMMAD AMIRUL BIN RAMLI

March 2016
CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 PROJECT BACKGROUND

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

History such as Cubism, Futurism, Vorticism, Dadaism, De Stijl and more.

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

usual methods, that mostly through reading materials.


1.2 PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

i. College students were not interested in learning history.

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

demotivated to learn the subject. (Azan MZ & Wong SY, 2008)

ii. Rigid and boring teaching technique.

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

conducted by Huizenga et al. in 2007.

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

i. To produce a video game that facilitating and supporting learning process.

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

with moderate commitments.

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

memory fragments in order to understand the whole story of the games.


1.4.1 Game High Concept

i. Working Title: Premortem

ii. Genre: 2D Stealth Side-scroller

iii. Theme: Psychological Horror

iv. Metaphor/ Concept: Pre-mortem memory

v. Setting: Fiction

vi. Engine: Construct 2 (version r178)

vii. Platforms: Desktop and Laptop Computer

viii. Players: Single-player

ix. Turn-Type: Real-time

x. Production Time: 3 months to 6 months (full game)

xi. Play Time: 5 to 10 minute per level (depend on player skill)

xii. Number of Level: 5 to 10

xiii. Target Audience: Student (17 to 25 years old)

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

the story in the game.

1.4.3 Game Rules

Games rule is the game system that is set in the game for player to follow. (Rollings &

Morris, 2003). Below are the descriptions of the game rules:

i. Avoid being seen by the enemy and inspect the artworks.

ii. In order to avoid the detection of the enemy, the player is allowed to hiding inside the

provided paintings or interact with sculpture bases.

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

is dead, this will consider the player is losing the game.


1.4.4 Characters

Protagonist (Playable Character)

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.

Non-playable Characters (memory fragments NPC)

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

their son’s birthday anniversary through the text message.

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.

1.4.5 Game Design Concept

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.

1.4.7 Game Flowchart

The following flowchart diagram is to illustrate the game system flow.

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)

Figure 1.1 Premortem game flowchart


1.4.8 Game Level

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.

Level 1 Basic Gameplay Intro

Level 2 Complete Task Inspect all 3


paintings

Complete Task Inspect all 3


paintings

Introducing Avoid Detection


Level 3 Enemy

Win
the Complete Task Inspect all 3
paintings
Game
Level 4 - 10 Defeat Obstacle Avoid Detection

Figure 1.2 Premortem game level design


1.4.9 Related Art History Topics

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

proceed to the next level.

Level Topics Paintings/ Artworks


Level 1 'Neue Sachlichkeit’/New Objectivity Wilhem Heinrich
Level 2 Cubism Violin and Glass
Viaduct At L’Estaque
Factory, Horta De Ebro
Level 3 Futurism The Cyclist
Mare Ballerina
The City Rises
Level 4 Vorticism Dazzle Ship in Dry Docks
Mr Wynham Lewis is a Tyro
Workshop
Level 5 Dadaism Fountain
Nude Descending A Staircase
Cut With A Kitchen Knife
Level 6 Surrealism The Elephant Celebes
Montre Molle
The Singer
Level 7 ‘De Stijl’/The Style Composition With Yellow, Blue and Red
Counter Composition on V
Red and Blue Chair (Object)
Level 8 Bauhaus Das Bauhaus Poster
Black Relationship
Gravitation
Level 9 Art Deco The Musician
Art Deco Batman Poster
Martini by John Lewis
Level 10 Pop Art Drowning Girl
Marylin Monroe
Campbell's Soup Cans
Figure 1.3 Premortem related Art History topic in each level
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

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

game, the project may limit only for 2-Dimentional game.

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

2.1 REVIEW OF THE CURRENT ISSUES

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

their interest in studying history subject.

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

working concentrated for hours in the game.


As a result, this project aims to assist the efforts and solve the issue as well as composed

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,

abstracts, and other references materials.

2.2.1 Trends in serious gaming for education.

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-

Scherer & Sardone, 2010; Watson, Mong, & Harris, 2011).

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

undergo the learning process.


2.2.2 2-Dimentional and 3-Dimentional games.

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

player (Darkhyrulord, 2012).

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.

Figure 2.1 2D and 3D games differentiations

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

plus in spending on a very high quality specs on software and hardware.

Most “abstract information spaces” work poorly in 3D because they are non-physical. If

anything, they have at least a hundred dimensions, so visualizing an information space in 3D

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

receptivity or hypnotic trance. Other theorists support storytelling as a brain-based learning

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

storytelling as a result of its impact on reflective and experiential learning.

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

narratives in general is raising.


In creating video games, there are four types of storytelling method used in video games

which is Text Block, Cutscenes, Dialogue, and Environmental Storytelling.

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

texts or in other word known as ‘textbox’ were appear as an interactive medium.

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

sometimes the textbox are the only viable storytelling method.

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

Dialogue is common in games as to be almost compulsory. At its most basic


level, it can be used to communicate the player’s next objective. The method

usually involves two or more in-game characters communicating each other either

directly or indirectly to the protagonist for dialogue or self-expression for

monologue in form of verbally or text in order to deliver the information.

iv. Environmental Storytelling

Environmental storytelling is a new method of storytelling that begins to widely

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

the player through weather, night or day, communication between NPC

characters, and hits through in-game objects.


2.2.4 Learning from Games and Its Essential Features and Characteristics

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,

games were used to coach and train soldiers for war.

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

thinking skills in order to play and execute moves”.

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

intention of learner via fusion of learning objective and entertaining features.


Garris et al. (2002) also mentioned that there are six key or essential features that

characterize the game:

i. Fantasy

ii. Rules or goals

iii. Sensory stimuli

iv. Challenge

v. Mystery

vi. User Control

According to the thesis titled Learning through Games: Essential Features of an

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

means.… a contest for something or a representation of something. These two functions

can unite in such a way that the game “represents” a contest, or else becomes a contest

for the best representation of something. (p. 13)”


According to Huizinga (1950), following are the characteristics of a game:

i. A free activity, and not a forced engagement

ii. Outside ordinary life (fantasy)

iii. Not serious but absorbing players intensely

iv. Not be associated with any material interest

v. Has its own boundaries of time and space

vi. Has fixed rules

vii. Forms social groups

viii. A contest (challenge)


2.3 REVIEW OF THE RELATED PRODUCTS

2.3.1 Robbery Bob

Figure 2.2 Screenshot of Robbery Bob (Dailymotion, 2016)

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

Figure 2.3 Screenshot of Mr. Peabody & Sherman (NafeesSpeaks, 2014)

Mr. Peabody & Sherman is a 2014 American 3D computer-animated comic science

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,

Abraham Lincoln, Bill Clinton, Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton.

2.3.3 Assassins Creed Chronicles (series)

Figure 2.4 Screenshot of Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China (Ubisoft, 2016)

Assassin's Creed Chronicles is a series of video games in the Assassin's Creed

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

Dynasty, Zhengde Emperor.

Figure 2.5 Screenshot of Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India (HighDefDigest, 2016)

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,

during the aftermath of the October Revolution.


Figure 2.6 Screenshot of Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia (PlaystationCountry, 2016)

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

interaction with environments.


2.3.5 Ori and the Blind Forest

Figure 2.7 Screenshot of Ori and the Blind Forest(2015)

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

for purchase on Steam for Windows.

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

makes his way to restoring the forest.

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)

Murdered: Soul Suspect is a third person mystery-thriller game developed by Airtight

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

nearby the interact-able artworks.


2.4 SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEW

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

Figure 2.9 Related product comparison

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

RESEARCH DESIGN & METHODOLOGY

3.1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW

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

methodology developed by IGN Entertainment (2006).

3.2 PROJECT METHODOLOGY

Figure 3.1 Game Production Pipeline


Figure 3.1 shows the Game Production Pipeline that was used in the project and also

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.

The Game Production Pipeline is chosen as it is appropriate in development of

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

methodology based on this project.

3.2.1 Phase 1: Concept

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

obtained from EKLAS system of Management and Science University.

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

reviews on order to gather some ideas before proceed to brainstorming.


ii. Brainstorming

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,

based on the articles written by Moura. G in 2014.

Figure 3.2: The Plot Point of Three-Act Structure

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

finally Act III being the Resolution of the confrontation.


a. Act I: The Setup

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

conflict the characters are facing.

In Premortem, Act I started with Grey Ackles wake up in a different world

that some part of the place that seems familiar to him. He also realize that he

wake up in form of weird physical appearance, in form of Modern Art Human

Sculpture. Act I end when the protagonist learn that he is in the pre-mortem world

where he is struggling to wake up from the near death state.

Setting: Pre-mortem memory (Near death world)

Plot Point I / Conflict:

Character Details

Grey Ackles Age: 30


Personality: Calm, loves his family so
much, kind hearted, very strong-willed
and brave, quick-thinker.
Hair colour: Hazel brown
Hair length: Short
Skin colour: White
Eye colour: Hazel Brown
Outfit: Hooded sweater inside, blazer
outside, dark bluish-grey jeans, black
sneakers, wear automatic wristwatch.
Occupation: Gallery owner, independent
modern artist.
In-Game: Transform into Modern Art
Humanoid Sculpture.

Table 3.1 Story information in Act 1


b. Act II: Confrontation

As the first act established with the story, protagonist and conflict; sub-

plots were determined to create a three-dimensionality to the protagonist as they

engage in actions not necessarily connected to the main plot. This act also introduces

the protagonist moment of crisis, which resides in Plot Point II.

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

from the pre-mortem state anymore.

Subplot An antagonist, Tormented Soul was

introduced. The creatures searching for other

soul memories.

Plot Point II/ Crisis If the protagonist enter the line of sight, the

creature will chase the protagonist and

consume the memory, cause the protagonist

enter the post-mortem state (died).

Table 3.2 Story information in Act II


c. Act III: Resolution

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

hospital took care by his wife.

ii. Scripting

After the completion of storytelling, the development process need to focus on the

precision of information on timing, narrative, sound effects, background music and

transitions. Writing a script will ensure a thorough process of animating the in-game

cut scenes and additional in-game dialogues.

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

game. This stage presents two types of storyboarding process:

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

the scenes will become.

b. Final Storyboarding

After the thumbnail was reviewed, the final storyboard was developed.

Storyboard basically shares similarities to the thumbnail, but with additional

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.

Storyboard cleanup occurred after all the necessary information and

details were set in the storyboard. Sketches of the storyboard were inked and any

existing rough sketches were cleaned up for accurate visualization.


iv. Sketch Designing

This stage consists of the process of sketching characters, assets and

environments for Premortem. The designs were sketched in a notebook and

designed in varieties to help visualize different outcomes. After completion,

designs were reviewed in order to select the final best.

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

physical appearance was inspired by the antagonist in Murdered: Soul Suspect

called Demon and also inspired by the creature in Harry Potter called Dementor.

b. Assets

Assets here refer to in-game items players can interact with. In

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

In Premortem, the game is located in a pre-mortem world that much like

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

covered in monochromatic spectral environment (inspired by Murdered: Soul

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;

game mechanics, rewards, and challenges.

a. Game Mechanics

Game mechanics are a form of rules and methods for players to interact with

the game state. Because of Premortem is the combination of stealth and

thriller game, mechanics that were relevant to the type of game were

brainstormed on paper. Stealth games such as Robbery Bob and Assassin’s

Creed Chronicles were made as references on its mechanics. When listing

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

skills limitation. Mechanics that were thought to be ambitious and considered

as above the limitation were removed and only necessary ones remain. The

finalized game mechanics are line-of-sight, hiding system, power up system,

counter system and interaction feedback system.

b. Rewards

As to keep up players’ motivation in the game, rewards are implemented

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

by reveal the part of the story.

c. Challenges

After the establishment of rewards, the game would be rather dull with it

alone. Therefore, in order to create a more interesting gameplay, challenges

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

come out from anywhere.


vi. Level Design

After designing the gameplay, the level designs are essential as well. In general,

the level design is a thorough process of implementing the game’s stage.

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

personal computer, capable of moderate 3D graphics processing, with a decent processor.

Specifically, two computers were used in the development process – a notebook

computer and a desktop computer. Below are the specifications of the two machines.

Notebook Desktop

Processor Intel Core i7 Intel Core I7

Memory 2 GB 16 GB

Graphics Processing Unit NVidia GeForce GT550M NVidia GeForce GTX970

Storage Capacity 300 GB 1.5TB

Table 3.3 Hardware specifications

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

animations, which can be then exported into sprite sheets.

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

good enough to create game mechanics.

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen