Research and Innovation Blog
My third prototype that i was unable to show at class because i was in the hospital is a recreation of the card shoes dealers use to deal cards at an efficient rate
The designs on the side are us the host of my game and their two sides of their face
for this prototype i decided to show off two of the character designs i was making for the game and some of the color design choices
The model is modeled after my father’s mom and how she would dress like a rich Russian lady
The brown and cream design is the base design while the other three are some extra choices and there will be more
On November 5th, I went to a fighting game event held in Atlantic city in the showroom of the Hard Rock Hotel. The event was called “Battle for the East”, and was held over 2 days because of all the competitors. At this event I was able to gather a lot of information about competitive yet fun games, and because I was at the Hard Rock Hotel I was able to pick up ideas from the casino. I talked to a lot of the people at the tournament and between matches a lot about video games and then was able to show them parts of my game on my tablet that I took with me there. The questions and responses i had gathered over the time of this event will be incorporated into my Senior thesis.
My most common question that I asked the competitors about was what the believed made a game fun and competitive. The responses varied from person to person but it mostly centered around the feeling of having a heavy risk and reward system. I equate it to fighting games where going for a heavy move could lead to a lot of damage to your opponent but if you miss or it gets blocked you could recieve a lot of damage in return. This is also why people can get hooked on gambking because if you bet a lot of money on a single hand and win the feeling is amazing but the opposite ofcourse will happen if you lose.
I then went on to explain the concept of my game to them and how it plays on the risk and reward system with betting. I explained some of my mechanics for the game revolving around the betting of them games with the roulette wheel, and that seemed to peek some of their interest. Then I explained how my risk and reward system would work with the mini games and betting. Depending how how much you bet if you bet high then you could get bonuses to the mini games but if you lose you are risking a lot of your money to try and win over the others. They asked for an example and I then showed them some of my game on my tablet. It was a very simplified version of the real game but it worked for now. It showed them how if every had risked the most money they could that it put everyone at risk to get knocked out way faster than the winner.
I then would show them my character designs and they all agreed that I need a lot more color options for each character so that everyone could be the same character but with their favorite colors. The suggestion to the characters was to try and make them all around the same size so nobody got an advantage over the other in that aspect.
The information I gathered has helped me form more of my senior thesis and only excited me more to put a lot of work into it. The responses from the people at the competition were mostly positive so that was a really good confidence booster. The only thing left now is to keep on working and try to make the best game that I can.
For the first prototype I showed off my in progress 3d model of one of my 4 characters for my game. The model is of me and right now i have the arms and legs all done and the body and shorts. I have some colors on them but not too much and not textures yet. The shoes were very detailed and seem to attract some people’s attention. But there is till a lot of work i have to do on the model so i have that to look forward to. I didn’t get much advise it was basically me just showing my model and people saying it looks good.
The other model i showed was an old model i showed used in a past project and it was a robotic eagle. So i put a cowboy hat on him and said that i would be making a robot cowboy model based round my old model design.
For my prototype plan I can show off a couple of things that is involved with my game. The first could be the character designs or 3d models of the characters that are going to be in the game. The second can be the movement of the characters in unity or a test for the roulette system in the game. The third can be a 3d printed model or some type of physical build of a certain aspect of the game.
I want to show off some of the 3d models i am working on for the game and maybe some movement and animation along with them. There will be 4 playable characters to choose from with different color variations for each so that multiple people can play the same character. I am very far with my first character model right now so he will probably the first model i show to the class. The character models are very important t the game because i want to show how well i can do 3d modeling to companies.
I want to add a physics system to my game to make it fun and funny for people to play such as gang beast. I want it a little more rigid than gang beast though. I love movement options in games so i might focus on that to make it fluid and fun. So the prototype i wanna show is maybe a multiplayer test that people can see if the movement feels good or not. The model i’ll use to show that will be my first character. Also showing off a bunch of minigame ideas and names would be great to because when i think of mario party minigames their focus is not on movement.
Since my game has to do with casinos and gambling there are a lot of different things i can make physically to show off a certain aspect of the game. The easiest may be making a blackjack dealer card shoe to show how fluid cards can be grabbed. A holder for the cards would also be useful.
Research plan update 2 is mostly just the same research as the first update where i am looking up more useful information for making my game. The first thing i researched was other movements and animations in games that i could recreate for my game. I also looked up some 3d models that i could use as reference for making my characters and that helped me to find a shape for all of them.
I thought it was best to make them look for like cartoons so that it is better to model them faster but still give them good looking details to show off all the things that i have learned.
I also picked up another book for game design to help me out and learn some more c# to make the game perform better. Such as character selection and menus and starting and stopping the game. I have also researched how i could use math to figure out some codes to make the game perform how i want it to perform.
Instead of turning to the internet for more research i actually picked up some books and started reading them to gain more information for my game design. I picked up on book on general game design that covers a lot of area from ideas and mechanics to some small coding. The other book that i had picked up was a book about learning more advanced codes with C# for unity, which is the language and engine i will be using to create my game. By reading through and learning these books i can improve my codes and debugging to make the game easier and faster. It will really help me make the game that i want to make because it will give me more time to make it instead of searching endlessly for the information that i need.
I’m also researching a person’s enjoyment of the game and how much random luck should be implemented in the game to make it fun but not to random making players angry. You want to reward the good players but you don’t want to let the weak players be left behind too much. I was thinking about implementing a luck system to make some small comebacks happen or whatever to try to make it fun.
I have watched more videos in blender to model characters better and make each one unique and more fun looking. Instead of making them look stiff and such i diced to ring them better and start adding physics to clothing to make them flow better. I will also be modeling humans so researching anatomy has been useful for getting better models with proper figure.
For my final project concept is to take the idea of gambling type games from casinos and even carnival style games and make it into a fun party game such as mario party. I love mario party but the problem is how much luck based it can be and the same thing can be said for gambling. The difference in my game is that you can take luck and try to bend it to favor yourself such as a person counting cards. I wanna start of making the minigames before i go into the whole thing.
Why i think this is a very good idea for my final project is because i am very excited for it and i can use all of my skills and knowledge to flex my artistic muscles. I will be drawing my characters and then having to do a lot of 3d work. I will have to model, texture, rig, animate and then transfer all of that into a video game that is fun. It can show future places i apply to that i have skills in 3d work and that i can code and that i understand what it takes to make a fun and competent video game.
I am able at the moment to make video games and do 3d work but it will take a long time to do an da lot of creativity and ideas and hard work to get everything to look like a professional game that i am proud to show people. I have a lot of ideas for minigames and the core game so im starting off on the right foot.
So for my research plan i have a lot that i have to look for an d study to get to what i want to make.
The first thing i have to research is all kinds have different gambling games and how they are played. And after that i will figure out how to alter them so that they can be turned into a fun minigame for my overall game.
My next thing i will have to research will be mario party minigames. This will give me a good basis of what minigames are popular and will be fun for the game. I can also research how to code some of the video games so that it make my life easier when i try and start writing the code.
One of the most important things i need to research is why gambling i so alluring and addictive to people. If i can translate that addiction to the game and make it fun for people to play and get hooked on that would make my game very successful. Because if it is pure random that is not fun for anyone. If it is just skill that also takes away fun for people that are not good. So it’s got to be perfectly balanced to keep people thinking they have skill and also getting lucky.
I will also need to research a lot of video game code because if the game feels too slow and or clunky that will ruin the feel of the game. In video games and casinos if something is taking too long people will lose interest in it really fast. Of course the game can’t be too fast or people will get lost and feel left behind.
My idea is to go with my first idea of making a fun video game for people to enjoy and eventually publish the game for people to buy. My video game idea is to base it off of gambling. From Black Jack to even Carnival style games would be turned into fun mini games in the style of mario party. Mario party will be the biggest inspiration for the video game and the style of it. I was thinking such as Mario party has a board to walk on the board would be a roulette table and you can bet on which mini game you think it will land on. I have ideas for models i can make and some mini games for the content of the game. I can make the animations and hit boxes and everything so i don’t need to borrow models or animations from anything. I have already started drawing designs for the game.
I have just picked up an interest in gambling and how everything is done and how people get so excited over it. It would be a fantastic idea to bring the fun of gambling without actually losing money from it.
some minigames i have already thought of is black and blue jack/ Slot Showdown/ Racetrack Rampage/ Dicey Dodging.