Edu-tainment - Planning

Using the brainstorm and the research that I have collected, I am going to start on the planning of my game.

Concept Art

Maths Equals Speed

Bumble

Do You Think You Can Do It?

Welcome to Potions Class

The order of creating the above concept art.

Rough Ideas

This was how I started, I made rough sketches of all my ideas. I wanted them to all be in the same area so that I could see what idea I liked the best.

LineArt

I then went over the rough and made smooth, singular lines, so that the are was more clear, I tried to so all thee in the same type of style, that way when thinking of what one to pick, I only had to think really on the idea, and not so much on what looked better to me, because at this point I just want to see what one I think will go further.

Coloured in and Finished

This is the finished board. As you can see the colours are pretty flat, this is because this is meant to be a quick concept of all the ideas, so that I can pick the one that I like.

The first image of Bumble is in simple, easily distinguishable colours this is because this game would be for a young audience about 4 or 5. I wanted this to be simple and easy to understand for it is for a child. This game is to teach children about numbers and also colours. This game would had a word and also a number flash at the bottom of the screen, showing the child what they have to do with that level of the game. E.g. 4 pink flowers. They would then have to pollinate 4 pink flowers.

The second image of Speed is just a quick flash of what could happen within a level, as you can see the car is on a track. An equation such as 2x2 = will come up on the screen and when they get to the clear green numbers, they have to drive over what they think is the right answer. This game would be for 6 to 8 years old, this is because they would be at the stage of learning more difficulty sums, and may need that extra little help. This will help them with there numeracy.

The second image is from that game that could be Do you think you can do it? and this is a level where the question could be, how many red starts did you see? This is to help someone with the skill to retain information within the mind, after only seeing it for a couple of moments. This game would be aimed at 6 to 11 years, this is because the game would be diverse in it's levels, and almost anybody would be able to use it, but it would be better help and more educational to those of 6 to 11 years.

The last image is from what could be Welcome to potions class. This would be aimed at KeyStage 3 students, and this would be to help them with their up coming tests. In this game it would help them to apply their mathematical knowledge to making potions within the game. They would also work on their skill in retaining knowledge, this will help with multiple other subjects. In this game, they will be given a list of potions and also some base numbers and there will be little clues, they then have to work out the amounts to the rest of the ingredients from the ones that are already given.

What I have picked and why?

The one that I am going to go with is Welcome to potions class. I have decided to go with this one because I think that it would be the most interesting to complete. I want to do something that I would personally want to play, even if it is not for my age group. This is because I feel as though people would be more interested in this type of game, when it comes to making educational games, this is because there will be a character that they have to 'interact' with and that will help them and then there is also the fact that it is about Magical people.
The magic world, in the past 10 years, has had a massive boom in popularity and this would appeal more to the demographic that I am aiming for, since they will be of the generation of Harry Potter, Twilight and also Lord of the Rings.

This is going to be a click and drag game, when it comes to the interactive part.

Negatives

One thing that was brought to my attention was the potential danger of what children may intemperate this game to be in real life. There could be a problem with children thinking about mixing things that they have within there own home. This could be dangerous, because there is no saying what they could get there hands on.
My way around this, and making it safer for children to use is to put an age restriction on it, children under the age of 12 are not to use it, this is because children who are 12 are in year 8/9 and by this time would have learnt about unsafe liquids and substances, and should know not to mix unknown/known substances together just to make 'potions'.
There will also be a warning at the start and this will talk about the potential dangers and how only a certain age group should be using this game.
So this age restriction should help with those accidents occurring. However, if there are parents, or other people that are over the age restriction that buy the game for younger people, then I cannot really help that, other than to mention the possible risks, in a warning at the start of a game.

Developed Art Ideas

Characters

Human - Elf - Witch

Vampire - Gorgon - Saytr

Human - Elf - Witch

Vampire - Gorgon - Saytr

These are the female and male characters that the player can pic from. I did a both genders for each creature that I did. This was so that the player had a fair pick, and that it was inclusive to all. The game could be construed as bias if all the characters that could be picked from were female.

For these characters I did some research into what the characters could look like. Two of these creatures are generally gender specific, so I had to think of ways that I could make these female/male characters, male/female.

So as you can see the first two images show how I thought those creatures would be depicted in female form, and also I wanted them to be more human in the features so that the audience would be able to identify with them better.

Making these characters is to help me pick out a couple of them and then put them into the game as the players 'Study Partner' and out of these characters I will pick three creatures out of these six and I will use both the male and the female counterparts to these creatures.

I asked people what ones they would most like to see and the ones that were more frequently picked were, Witch, Vampire and Gorgon.

These creatures are going to be done in more detail and in numerous positions, this is so that when they are talking they can be animated.

Background

This is the background of the game, this is where the 'Study Partner' will talk to the person playing the game, this is where they will learn the basics of the game and it will go though some simple warnings at the start.

As you can see there is space for the character chosen to be at the side of the screen, and there will be a name for each of the characters. I wanted the background to resemble a place of learning, and as in most mythical room settings they are pretty dated. So I have gone for an old wooden look.

For the text box and name area have been made a neutral colour. I have written in my own hand here, but I am going to change this to text on the computer so that it is more legible to the reader.

This is what the basic design of the background will be. There will be pots, jars and boxes on the shelves and under the desk. The cauldron is where the in ingredients will be dragged to and added to the pot. There will be a number of ones that can and cannot be used. The number on the list to the left is to show how many time a person would be able to look at the list to see what they need.

UI Concept Art:

This is the concept section for the main bits of UI (User Interface) within the game. The ones that I have gone over in the image above are the mouse conepts and also the button concepts. I wanted to look though the possible ideas that I could have for these sections, and a number of ideas came to me.
Some of them are rather simple and dull, and are not something that I would really like to apply to a game, there are some really outlandish ones that would just not fit to the games aesthetics. This goes for both the mouse and the buttons.

Mouse: For the mouse I am thinking of going for the hand design, because I think this would be a nice touch when the players are moving the ingredients around and it would look as though a hand is touching them.

Buttons: For this I am going to use a number of the button ideas, this is due to the fact that a lot of them will be for specific reasons, like back, continue and forward. These are all important and I would like there to be a differenciation within the buttons, so that there is a clear use for them, and it ie easy ro understand what it is that they do.

Layout

There is going to be a set layout for the game.

When the game is loading up, there is going to be a warning screen that comes up and then explains the potential dangers of the game, and how some children may try and take some of the ideas from the game, and then apply them in the real world.
It will be easy to see that this is a warning and should be advised not to be ignored by the player.

Then there will be a poster that will have all the characters that can be chosen from in a setting in an area that could be from a school.

After this there will be a little introduction into the school and what potions lessons will be about. It will also go though some warning labels, so there will be things that the students need to stay clear of, or need to be really careful with.

Then this will go into picking the student that the player would like to have as a partner while they work. This person will go though the basics of what is about to happen and that they need to do, this would come up in the text box. It will tell you what you have to do for the first one, so that if the person is stuck on what to do they have something there helping them, after that the game is pretty simple.

Then they will move to the mixing area, where they will look at the ingredients list, this is where the maths part will come into it, they will have to figure out the ratios and answer the questions before they can move onto the making of the potions.

Then they will go back to the mixing stage, and they will have to refer to the list to make sure that they are keeping in line with what has to be put in the cauldron, there will be a limit on how many times this can be clicked, this limit will get smaller and smaller as the levels progress, this is how the player is going to expand in the skill of being able to retain knowledge.

Then this is going to either go well and be a congratulation page, or its going to be a failed page, and tell them to go back and do it again.

If they pass, they will go onto the next level that will be like before but without the introduction part.

When the last level is complete they will also then be congratulated and there will be no more game and there will be credits.