Guest Speaker Richard Fletcher (5/12/2013)

* Today we had a guest speaker, Richard Fletcher who talked to us about monetising games as he has done so with many of his own flash games. Granted, this doesn't have anything to do with our current project, but our lecturer thought it would help in the future.
I notes I made are as follows...

• There are many websites that accept flash based games, therefore try and make deals with them in order to get your games our there.
• Four main types of deal include...
• Exclusive
• Primary
• Non Exclusive/Secondary 
• Entire Rights
• Many other sub conditions also exist including...
• Branding
• Distribution
• Performance Bonus
• Revenue Share
• API Integration
• Game play Adjustments
• As with anything make sure you always read the small print! Otherwise, they could not only own your current work, but also ALL your FUTURE work!
• You may be asked to add API integration into your game which you shouldn't worry about as it is very common to have in games now. After all, companies like to keep track on what their players are doing, thus allowing them to alter and fix things far more easily.
• Advertising in flash games is how you generate revenue. How much you earn depends on your contract and the number of views the ads in your game get.
• Tons of useful websites were also provided on his power point so I should look those up when I get the chance.
• If there is a new technology out then jump at the chance to be one of the first to make a game for it! After all, 'Angry Birds' is huge because it was one of the first touch screen games to come out and luckily was popular.

* Today I also received from Chris the concept designs for some of the enemies in our fire fighting game. I added these to my team's presentation. Each one represents a different type of fire hazard including (in order) boiler, electric, fire and gas.

* Finally, I worked on editing the presentation to make it look more professional. 

*Graeme our lecturer, who will sadly be leaving us soon, said he would gladly answer any questions we have on the industry if we ever emailed him on Facebook. After all, he wants to continue to help us.

Scripting (28/11/2013)

Sadly our guest from Remode was sick this week as well as the lecturer's emergency guest. Thus the rest of the session was spent thinking about our ideas and working out how to present our presentations to the best possible industry standard, ready for the 12th of December when our lecturer also leaves us.

We also decided to go away and come back next week with what we decided to focus on. For example...

• Myself and Amanda: Will design a rough version of the opening cut scene with me focusing on the script.
• Ed and Chris: Will design the objects and enemy types.
• Ryan and Jim: Will go away and research how professional presentations are presented ready to practice in front of the rest of us.  

I then spent the rest of the session coming up with a rough script for the opening cut scene that would include the following real questions.  

• What emergency service do you require?
• What is the number you are dialing from?
• Please stay on the line as we connect you to your nearest fire and rescue service.
• What is on fire?
• What is the address?
• What is the nearest main road?
• What town are you in?
• Don't put the telephone down until we have taken all the details!

With the above in mind I then started to put together a script that can be seen below.
It follows a child seeing a fire in a distance, dialing 999 in the next scene, an operator asking what emergency service they require, the child then responds and is then asked what number they are dialing from. Finally the operator will ask them to stay on the line and that is the end of our example cut scene, though the actually thing will be longer. 

Panel 1:
Child: "Huh? What's that in the distance? ... Oh no! A fire! I better call the fire brigade quick!"

Panel 2:
(Finger can be seen pressing 9, the words 'Press', 'Press', 'Press' appearing in the air to show the audience visually that they are pressing that number).  

Panel 3:
Operator: "Thank you for calling emergency services. Which one do you require today?" 

Panel 4:
Child: "I really need the fire department. A block of flats is on fire! 

Panel 5:
Operator: "Ok, may I ask what number you are dialing from?"

Panel 6:
Child: "Err... ok. I'm calling from my mobile. My number is 0759 0993 9660759 0993 966"

Panel 7:
Operator: "Thank you, you are doing very well. Please stay on the line as we connect you to your nearest fire and rescue service".

* Amanda also emailed us a bunch of notes on Moodle that I will need to look at and then email her back with the script I have so far. Thus we can add it to the cut scene example.

Harvard Referencing:

• Fire Service (Unknown) Dialling 999 or 112 [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.fireservice.co.uk/safety/dialling999 (Accessed: 28/11/2013).

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Tweaking our ideas (21/11/2013)

* Having formed three groups based on the three most popular ideas, today we looked over them and decided to tweak them where we could.

Firstly, we got a load of sticky notes, pins and paper and put up on the wall a ton of ideas. I drew three different layouts that the game could look like on paper with the fire fighter and fire monster on separate sticky notes, thus we could use these to visually demonstrate our game idea to our client. The layouts included the intended layout of isometric as well as top down and 3rd person.
I also drew some character sprites as well as some projectiles and potential upgrades.
The rest of the group sorted out where the life, radar, items and water supply would be seen on screen.
We also wrote down enemy types, obstacles and the types of questions we wanted to ask our players.

* Afterwards, I thought that if this idea were chosen, I could include narrative in the form of how the fire bosses were formed e.g. someone fell asleep when using the oven that then caught alight etc.
I don't think the main fire fighter should be characterised as they will have a full uniform on that covers their features, so that the player can better imagine the character to be them, plus it would not be gender specific.
I sopose more narrative could be included in the responses made during the scripted 999 call that will feature in the opening and perhaps the end when the player finally puts out all the fires and saves the day.

* The rest of the group made the following note.

Isometric 2D Top Down, Advanced Sprites

Learning:

• Initial cut scene shows the player what to expect when calling 999
• Between levels – The game teaches fire safety
• Quizzes will be introduced to test a player's knowledge which will be tested in between levels
• Incorrect answers – Comic strip is used to re iterate when the user answers incorrectly

Mechanics:

1.            Get loot from enemies

2.            Stronger hose as levels increase

3.            Axes to chop down doors

4.            Air Tanks increase throughout the levels

5.            Wet blanket Smoke Detector

6.            Fire coats to increase health

Obstacles:

• Holes in the floor
• Furniture
• Gas Pipe
• Plug Sockets

Fire Types:

• Electric – Blankets, Plugs, PC, Games console, Phone chargers, Hair straighteners
• Gas – Boilers, central heating
• Regular – Paper, Clothes, Fabrics
• Wood – Furniture
• Oil – Heaters and Chip pans

Extinguisher types:

• Red
• Yellow
• Blue
• Black

* Overall, today's session was a lot of fun as it felt as if we were in a real work environment coming up with ideas and focusing on how to produce a prototype for our game.

* Next week we should be having a meeting with someone from 'Remode' in order to share our ideas with them and therefore get a better idea on what we should do before presenting our ideas to the client.