Unit 6 – Assignment 1: Task 2

Task 2. Similar games.

Title: 

BloodBorne

Title	BloodBorne
Genre	Action Role-Playing game.
Selection of Content	Dark, Gothic Victorian, Dimply lit and Exploration.
Construction of Content	Narrative and character driven
Narrative Conventions	Story driven, Terminate the source of the plague.
Codes and Conventions	Health and Ammunition, adventure, 3rd person, objective based, killing of enemies, variety of tradition weapons
Target Demographic	18+, generally male audience(Young adults).

Genre: 

Action Role-playing game.

Selection of Content:

Gothic Victorian art style, with castle assets and characters being used.  

 The environment is usually always dark with either torches or natural light being used. Smoke is common when trying to make depth for an environment or a change in atmosphere. The game is 3rd person and uses melee weapons as a primary default weapon choice, pistols are used but not often and seen as a secondary weapon.

The font choice is small and looks basic.

The title font choice is a Gothic style and is medium. 

The colours are mainly based in Victorian times (black, brown, white etc). 

The environment seems abandoned with little to no people around. 

The weapons and enemies are large.

The sounds in the game are mainly atmospheric i.e. wind. It also includes sounds such as footsteps and doors opening. The game focuses more on a buildup for a level rather than a soundtrack continuously being played.   

Construction of Content:

At the beginning of the game you have to create a character and choose a group of people (a religious group) which have different opinions of the world. Lanterns are safe zones which allow you to save the game and replenish health. In doing so all monsters will be re-spawned. The game is difficult and the player is likely to die a lot of times so auto saves and lanterns have been placed in the game. The player can collect currency which allows the player to buy upgrades and other items in the shop.

Due to most levels (maps) being large the game created a teleport which the player would have to use if you need to get somewhere which you wouldn't be able to get by foot.

There are many ways to pass an environment but the most popular way is by the story.

The two main bosses are in the same environment "Hunters Dream"

Narrative Conventions:

The games story is linked from the previous game series.

The Hunters objective is to locate and terminate the source of the plague, and escape the nightmare. 

Codes and Conventions:

The game is 3rd person and have Gothic Victorian art style. The game is similar to games in its genre i.e. "Dark Souls" the hub is similar to others with the health bar and damage. The character is able to be upgraded and so are the weapons. The game has big health packs that usually take most of the screen. The sounds in the game are also similar to the games genre as damage and enemies sound the same. The game has taken more of a horror root rather than an adventure game.

Media Text:
Bloodborne used TV advertisement and YouTube as its way of showing of the game. It also used other media software similar to other games in its genre. 

Target Demographic:

The game developers were focusing on keeping their audience of soul fans but wanted to expand the audience by making better software. The games target is for male teens+

Title:

Until Dawn Rush of Blood

Title	Until Dawn Rush Of Blood
Genre	Survival, Horror, Action, Arcade
Selection of Content	Dark, Claustrophobic, Dimly Lit, Theme park art style.
Construction of Content	Shooting targets, leaderboards.
Narrative Conventions	Competing globally on a leader board.
Codes and Conventions	Ammunition, fast paced shooter, Score based, killing of enemies.
Target Demographic	18+, generally male audience(Young adults).

Genre:
Horror, Action and Arcade

Selection of Content:
The games font and art style is a theme park style. This includes realistic designs and animations. Psycho is from Until Dawn which some other characters also being added in there. The game is set at night that has basic light that is either coming from lights from the ride or torches from your weapons. The colour scheme is based around theme park and circus colours (Red, white and black etc.) At the beginning of the game the player enters the ride by the clowns mouth shown on the image. This is designed that way as most circuses or theme parks have these card board cut outs.
Objects such as rubber ducks and balloons are normally seen at theme parks and makes it suitable for the game.
I have chosen this game as it is based in a theme park that contains the odd feature of clowns. The game is first person and is a horror game. It also has a similar amount of levels as I do and each one is based in a different creepy environment.

Construction of Content:
The game has seven levels that are based in different environments from until dawn and some others that have been made just for this game.
1. Haunted Lodge
2. Nightmare Descent
3. Hotel Hell
4. Psycho
5. Ghost Town
6. Mines of Death
7. Final Inferno
The player is placed on a roller coaster that travels to each level which can contain the psycho or ghosts. The levels have hidden rooms which the player can access buy shooting hidden objects. These rooms have more objects that reward more.
The player has to survive all the levels and focus on shooting the targets in order to get a good score at the end of the level or game.

 Narrative Conventions:
(The game is more of an add on for Until Dawn)
Try and survive the 7 levels and to get to the top of the global leaderboards

Codes and Conventions:
The game is designed using VR which is results most of the designs (Hub) to be different. When VR games are compared the hub and controls are similar with usually no health bar being a problem. In this game after a few hits you lose, like most other arcade VR games. The player controls two guns which you have to aim and shoot at targets. the player will have to reload before continuing to shoot after an amount of shots have been fired.
The game is first person and doesn't require you to use a controller as its your head and gun controls you will be using. This is very similar to most VR shooters and Arcade games.
Some of the sounds are from Until Dawn and the rest have been created to make it seem scary, with footsteps and voices being included. When you start the game you have to shoot targets this prepares the player that its a arcade shooter. Including the horror feeling into the game they then get the idea that things may jump out which you have to kill.
(Giving a weapon to a player shows that some type of combat will happen).
When the player runs out of ammo the guns light will go red which indicates that the player needs to reload that weapon.

Media Text:
This games was advertised as a follow up on Until Dawn. It was shown as a advertisement for using the VR. The Game was aiming at the until Dawn audience so that it wouldn't need much advertising as most new games.

Target Demographic:

The developers want to focus on a mixed gender game which aims at teens+.
This is because of violence and horror that the game contains and that its based on a roller-coaster that most people enjoy, no matter the gender.

Title:
Killer Klowns Game.

Title	Killer Klowns Nightmare.
Genre	Survival, Horror, Action.
Selection of Content	Dark, Claustrophobic, Dimly Lit, Exploration.
Construction of Content	Linear, narrative and character driven
Narrative Conventions	Story driven, Stop the nightmare and kill the killer klowns boss.
Codes and Conventions	Health and Ammunition, fast paced action, cover shooter, find objectives, killing of enemies.
Target Demographic	16+, generally male audience(Young adults-adults)

Genre:
FPS, Horror, Action

Selection of Content:
The games environment art style is Gothic Victorian with realistic clown assets that will be all over the environment.
The game time is set in the morning at the beginning then becomes darker after each level is complete.
The colour scheme is red, blue, white (Clown assets) The environment is dark colours such as black, brown, grey etc.
The sounds are similar to most horror/action games with atmospheric sounds and creepy sound effects.
The environments try to give of the feeling of dark and abandoned.

Construction of Content:
The game has four main levels with two rooms that one contains a cinematic.
1. Practice Range (Tutorial)
2. The village
2.5. Room (In a house)
3. The Temple
4. The Castle
5. Prison Cell. (Cinematic) Ending.
On the first level the player must find 3 balloons that they must shoot in order to open the locked door. After one balloon is found one lock will become green, after all are found all locks are green and you will be teleported to the next level.
The village is based in two sections one for talking and exploring the village, the other side contains the combat.
When you reach the last house you are able to enter and complete the objective.
The temple is based around an abandoned temple that is in ruins. The clowns have taken over and left some nasty surprises.
The Castle is the main level which you have to fight your way to the top you fight the boss. After the boss is destroyed you will then watch a ending cinematic.
The cinematic is based in a prison cell that Mike has just woken up in. He then leaves the cell and walks slowly down the corridor to reach the exit, after a few seconds a jump scare will appear.

Narrative Conventions:
Kill the "killer klowns" and their boss. To then wake up and think its a dream then suddenly get jump scared by a clown.

Codes and Conventions:
The player will have a health-bar that will be green that gradually goes red the less health you have.
The screen may become red if you are taking too much damage or on very low health.
The guide for the map will either be in words "Find 3 balloons" or clown footsteps.
Ammo will be included. The story is slow at the beginning then becomes a much faster paced game.
Enemies will explode with some type of effect (popcorn/candyfloss/explosion etc.)
Find the objective or kill an objective to access the next level.

Media Text:
Our game will be most likely advertised through YouTube and other websites. TV advertisement would be unlikely.
These popular games are both dark and gritty and are focusing on the genre of horror.
The games chosen have similar ways on what we want to advertise our game like, for example we want to keep the audience that likes the movie and also for people that have never heard of it. It is also likely the game would advertise using simple websites such as YouTube to gain an audience.
Posters would be a good idea as it could reach a range of different types of people while also making itself known.

Target Demographic:
Our Game is focusing on 16+ (generally male audience). This is because of the alcohol and horror the game contains. The game is made for PC players only.