Further tower defence research (20/1/2014)

Today I decided to look online for tower defence games that include narrative. I did this as, so far I have found a lack of them which concerns me since I need to come up with a narrative for our group project.
You can read my findings below...

• Shad'O: This tower defence game really got my attention, as it's unique in its setting and does indeed include a story. Playing as a young boy named William you and your teddy bear have to defend your memories from the Forgetfulness. Shad'o is especially interesting as the narrative that appears both before and after each level (similar to the method I was thinking of using) is rather atmospheric. For a game about a child protecting his memories with his teddy bear, the game has a surreal 'Alice in Wonderland' quality through the patchwork defences you use in order to fight off shadowy enemies. Thus it tells a serious story whilst still keeping some light hearted elements within the defences themselves. You could even connect such as element through the child (Fig 3) as he looks almost identical to the one seen in the story 'Where the Wild Things Are' (Fig 2). Therefore, including a story in a game about fire safety may well be possible, I just have to work out the themes we want to address first.

Fig 1

                            Fig 2                                                  Fig 3

• South Park: Let's Go Tower Defence Play: Based on the popular series of the same name, this game captures the humour of the show through an original story that it tells at the start and end of each level. The humour is also shown in the enemies and defences you can build as both are just as bizarre as the show is. However, because of this there is no seriousness to be seen within the game, thus even though it is a narrative driven tower defence game, its type of narrative wouldn't be appropriate for the type of serious fire safety game I am trying to write for. However, the way they put through their narrative was through 10-30 second cut scenes. Thus these didn't break the flow of game play and could still be skipped (both things that could be included within the final narrative for our project). 

 Fig 4

• Assassins Creed: Revelations: Finally I decided to try an unlikely tower defence game that was featured as a game play mode in 'Assassins Creed: Revelations'. The game itself still had players doing the usual format seen in 'Assassins Creed' e.g. assassinate targets but, it now had players defend an Assassin's Den when it was attacked. Named 'Den Defence', this mode has the player posting men on rooftops to fire down on enemies. Since this was an optional bonus mode included in the game it meant that it didn't get in the way of the story too much. However, our fire safety game won't be as big in scale as an 'Assassins Creed' title usually is, therefore it may not have been the best example to look up.

Fig 5

 
* From all my research it still seems as if the only way to tell the story would be through a narrative structure at the beginning and end of every level. However, I will need to now think of possible stories that would be considered serious enough for the subject matter but, at the same time, not be overly depressing for our young audience.

With the above in mind, I figured that the story should perhaps be less narrative driven and more educational. For example, perhaps each level should start with an emergency call using the real script used in such situations to demonstrate a serious danger.
Some narrative structures I could include...

• Similar to one of the groups original ideas for an opening cutscene, someone calls for emergency services to stop a fire at X, then the fire fighters respond and do so. When the level is complete the fire fighters could explain how serious the fire could have been if it had continued. 
• Otherwise, it could be that a captain of the fire department talks to the player over a radio as if they are a fire fighter in order to explain the current situation. Players then have to respond to the fire like they would if they were a real fire fighter and at the end of the level would be congratulated on a job well done. The captain could also possibly explain what would have happened if the fire had got out of hand, similar to above.

Harvard Referencing:

• Chris, I (2012) Review: Shad'O (PC) [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/2012/09/review-shado-pc.html (Accessed: 20/1/2014).
• Pawlowski, K (2009) South Park: Let's Go Tower Defense Play! Co-Op Review - Page 2 [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.co-optimus.com/review/320/page/2/south-park-let-s-go-tower-defense-play-co-op-review.html (Accessed: 20/1/2014).
• Unknown (2013) 2-where-the-wild-things-are [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.losangelesmystery.com/ever-writer-needs-a-muse-mine-was-viva/2-where-the-wild-things-are/ (Accessed: 20/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) Shad'O Playism [Online Image]. Available at: http://playism-games.com/games/shado/ (Accessed: 20/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) Den Defense - The Assassin's Creed Wiki [Online Image]. Available at: http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Den_Defense (Accessed: 20/1/2014).

How to get information across? (19/1/2014)

* Over the weekend I was asked to come up with some example methods of getting information about fire safety across to our players.

Luckily I was struck with some inspiration this morning when I woke up and remembered a way that I used to learn things willingly without feeling as if I was forced to, through playing cards!

As a child I clearly remember card games being hugely popular in the playground leading all the way up to year 6. If we perhaps rewarded our players with in-game cards for competing set goals (defeat X amount of fires or build X amount of turrets etc) e.g. just like trophies on the PlayStation Network which despite being worthless are very addictive to collect.
I thought of two card types the information could be shown in the style of.

• Pokemon cards: With an image on the top and information below. We could use the popularity of monster cards in order for our young audience of players to get excited about collecting them all. Having the art for each thing on the card would also add greatly to this.

• Baseball cards: Focusing on far more information and bigger pictures. This card format, although unfamiliar to most kids would be the best way to get as much information across without it looking too text heavy.

* Maybe instead of cards we could use trophies as seen in the 'Super Smash Bros' series or on the PlayStation Network as mentioned before. That way they would still be visible rewards, but wouldn't just be cards either.

* If at all possible we could perhaps allow our players the opportunity to print a fire safety certificate for completing the game which was something featured in many safety awareness games I used to play in the past.
Personally I feel that this would be a great feature to include as it would be a physical reward for the player and could look similar to the example below...

If something like the above is possible then we should also allow players to print all the cards on paper for them to then play with in real life. This could then get them learning outside of the game and still be fun if we had numbers / statistics on them used for playing against one another e.g. similar to the card game Top Trumps.   

* Another way I thought of getting information across without breaking the flow of game play, was through a trivia box that could appear at the top of the screen. Players would only see it after completing a round or by defeating a certain number of enemies. As for the trivia itself it would come up with something like "Did you know?" with something either historic or safety related next to it.
This could even be presented as a news bulletin if we wanted to avoid breaking players immersion.
I recon this would be a good idea, as it would give something for the players to read during the unavoidable slower sections of a tower defence game.

 
* On another note, I know I wasn't asked to come up with a menu, but I just felt I had to get it down whilst I remembered it.
The menu for the game could be the interior of a fire station in which players can play the game, learn how to play and maybe even look at their card / trophy collection.
If we could give the player the option to drag their mouse over objects in the menu screen to select what to do, it would be another nice feature as I found out when playing 'Bloons Tower Defense 5' a few days ago.

Some examples on how the menu could look can be seen below...

* Finally, I looked up some information on fires and decided to write an example description of what the information (regardless of what it is presented as) could look like.


Education focused:

• The biggest cause of fire related injuries at home, chip pan fires, can occur whenever someone decides to fry chips without using the correct cooking equipment, thus resulting in the oil used igniting from over heating. 
• Around 12,000 chip pan fires occur every year with 1,100 of them considered to be serious! Making it a class K fire hazard.
• Class B fire extinguishers are considered ineffective against chip pan fires, only a class F fire extinguisher can be used as it uses saponification to put out chip pan fires. The alkaline solution sprayed from the fire extinguisher reacts with the fat and turns it into a non-flammable soap. 
• NEVER USE WATER! The water will cause the oil to expel violently from the container you are cooking with.  
• Cooking chips at home is fine, just make sure to only use an electric deep fryer as its design features circuity that help prevent the oil from over heating and thus igniting. 

I also found information relating to the injuries and deaths that can be caused from such fires that I decided not to include, as I felt they could perhaps be too dark to feature. Obviously, if my team leader feels that it should be included then I will, but I just feel that that could be just a bit too much information for those who are younger than year 6 that decide to play the game.

* Originally I was also thinking of writing a description that would be humorous and/or light hearted. However, when looking up information for the above serious fire hazard I felt that by trying to make jokes out of it would be insensitive, especially since just this one type of fire causes 4,600 injuries and 50 deaths a year!
I am now fully aware why my team leader was hesitant about my comedic approaches to the game and therefore feel that I will be able to write for it with far more respect.
Granted, I still feel that it shouldn't all be doom and gloom and where we can we should include some fun things in order to not completely depress our audience. Thus the trivia idea of mine could be used for this purpose if we couldn't find another place for it.  

Harvard Referencing:  

• Unknown (2009) Department News - City of Gatesville [Online Image] Available at: http://www.ci.gatesville.tx.us/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={32F0EEB7-CA4C-431E-B53E-6DF245E8AB12} (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (2010) 2010 Dodgers Online Baseball Cards (with no stick bubblegum) [Online Image] Available at: http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/dodger-thoughts/post/_/id/8772/cards-2 (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) How to Organize Pokemon Cards [Online Image] Available at: http://www.wikihow.com/Organize-Pokemon-Cards (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) Trophies Gallery - Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Metroid Recon) [Online Image] Available at: http://metroid.retropixel.net/ssbb/trophies/ (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) Ohio Fire Extinguisher Training [Online Image] Available at: http://county-fire.com/training (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) My Top Trumps Collection [Online Image] Available at: http://www.freewebs.com/chrissmith9179/supertoptrumps.htm (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) How to Plan a New Year's Trivia Party [Online Image] Available at: http://www.punchbowl.com/p/how-to-plan-a-new-years-trivia-party (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) City of Atlanta Fire Department [Online Image] Available at: http://www.slgreshamcompany.com/?_escaped_fragment_=city-of-atlanta-fire-department/zoom/mainPage/image21wn (Accessed: 19/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) Chip pan - Wikipedia (Fire Hazard) [Online Image] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_pan#Fire_hazard (Accessed: 19/1/2014).

Further TDG research (16/1/2014)

* To start of with we showed what we had been up to, in order to keep everyone up to date.
I shared my research and possible synopsis which they were ok with.

For my narrative I was told to do some more research and to think about how to get across the safety information more efficiently. Two other examples of games I was recommended to play were 'Final Fantasy: Crystal Defenders' tower defence game, as it is a spin off from a narrative driven series and 'Defence Grid: The Awakening' which was said to include good use of comedy whilst also being informative.

• 'Final Fantasy: Crystal Defenders': From looking at online videos I didn't see it include any sort of narrative as the series it is from. However, it captures the feel of the series thanks to its sprites and animation which I felt helped give this tower defence game its own flavour.

• 'Defence Grid: The Awakening': Had good comedy from a British computer that talked to the player and explained the rules clearly. Objectives were also clear and therefore balanced the two things perfectly. Finally the sound was also a good example as it played different tracks depending on whether it was safe or not.

* I also learnt that Chris has been designing some levels with environments in mind. Therefore, I asked him to provide me with the list of environments so as to create a basic narrative that could link each one.

1. House Interior 
2. Class room
3. Wooden class room
4. Science Lab

I was told by the team leader that we needed to start with a house so as to get the safety information across better. After all, kids would relate far more to someone losing their home rather than their school. However, if we have the time, we will also include the other environments as seen above.

I came up with two basic narrative types that can be seen below, one for if the location was just a house, and the other for if it was a school as well. Both include a cartoonish / comedic feel, inspired by the 'Phoenix Wright' series (see below), as I felt this style would appeal to kids.

House only:
An old decrepit, hard of hearing and short sighted granny is in a house fire and won't leave the house despite this as she is unaware that she is in danger. Thus the fire fighter has to stay to put it out.
The voice of the  fire fighter appears muffled, as they are heard through their helmet. This is so as to hide their gender and allow players to put themselves into the main role and relate to the character.
Whenever damage occurs to the house, the granny will complain. However, at the end of the game she will thank the fire fighter after he finally gets across to her that her house was on fire.

House and school: 
With this setting however, the player would do the above and then get called to save a burning school.
The class room would contain a cool kid who would keep out of the way, but would want to watch and help by providing advice he has learnt about fire fighting. 
The wooden class room would have a tough manly-man PE teacher who is dumb enough to try and fight the fires himself. However, this is clearly something he shouldn't do and therefore realises this when this environment is complete.
Finally, the science lab would have a cowardly nerdy science teacher who is too scared to leave. Therefore, the fire fighter has to put out the fires in order to convince him to.

Although I understand the above characters to be stereotypes, I wanted the game to appeal to younger audiences and therefore felt these characters would help to make the game more light hearted.

* When pitching the above to my team leader, he explained that, although he liked the ideas he felt that the comedic almost slap stick nature of them would either take too long and /or take away from the important safety information.
I completely understood this and his concerns. Therefore, I continued to research how other tower defence games get across their information ready for when the team leader shows me the GDD, then I will be able to better understand the type of narrative and genre he wants and how to get the information across successfully.

One such example that Jon highly recommended to me was 'Bloons Tower Defense 5' that I played and found to be a lot of fun as it introduced new fun tower defence on a regular level. However, despite having good tutorials and item descriptions it lacked a narrative that I was looking for. 

* I also asked my team leader if he would like me to come up with some descriptions for the fire types so that players can read about them. He said that this would be fine and asked if I could include two example write ups so as to provide him with a choice. I am ok with this.
One which is completely educational based but not too boring, and one which includes some humour without taking away from the important information.

Harvard Referencing:

• Unknown (2013) Crystal Defenders Lite [Online Image]. Available at: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squareenix.android.crystaldefenderslite (Accessed: 16/1/2014).
• Poff, T (2009) Defense Grid: The Awakening Screenshots for Windows [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/defense-grid-the-awakening/screenshots/gameShotId,357653/ (Accessed: 16/1/2014).
• Jamie, P (2013) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Review [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.negativeworld.org/review/9270/phoenix-wright-ace-attorney-review-nintendo-wiiware#.UtwP5rTFLIU (Accessed: 16/1/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) Bloons Tower Defense 5 Hacked [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.hackedonlinegames.com/game/717/bloons-tower-defense-5 (Accessed: 16/1/2014).

Possible Synopsis (12/1/2014)

* This morning I made a list of things I could possibly do in order to further help the project. One such thing was the possible synopsis for the game itself, the blurb, as it were that would sell it to those looking for a fun sounding Tower Defence Game.
I came up with…

"Fire! Help! There's a fire!"
Ever wanted to know what it was like to be a fire fighter? Now you can with this brand new and exciting firefighting tower defence game!

• Prevent dangerous fires from burning down buildings in a whole range of challenging, yet fun to play, levels.
• Use a whole range of real firefighting equipment including water hoses, foam, fire blankets and even your trusty fire axe!
• Learn lifesaving skills within the game thanks to accurate safety information and quizzes that will test your safety know how!
• Thought there was only one type of fire? Think again! Some threats, you may never have heard of, include electrical and gas fires so you best keep your wits about you!

Having started the synopsis I realised I should really have asked my team leader first if this was ok. Therefore, I contacted Jon to see if it was to which he said it would be fine, just bring it in during the next session.

I am glad I did this as, I have now learnt to keep in touch with the rest of the group about my developments and ideas, therefore maintaining a professional approach to my role in the group. 

Research on writing for Tower Defence Games (10/1/2014)

* Today I decided to research numerous examples of existing tower defence games, in order to see how they are written. More importantly I hoped to get a better understanding on how they address important details without becoming boring, something essential for our younger audience who unfortunately often have shorter attention spans.

As a friend of mine recommended one of the most popular examples, 'Plants vs. Zombies' I decided to see how that game did things.

• It keeps its dialogue short but simple, making sure to explain things whilst also making them slightly odd and/or funny.
• Text is hardly used during gameplay, so it doesn't distract the player's concentration. When it is used however, it tends to be cartoon-like sound effects. 
• Item descriptions and objections are clear cut. 
• Spoken dialogue during cutscenes is nonsensical, therefore I guess this adds to the overall bizarreness of the game and cuts down on the amount of recorded lines needed. Sometimes the random things the characters say are also quite funny. 
• The only clearly spoken dialogue appears to be when the wave of attackers are about to show up. Thus, this is a good way of preparing players by clearly telling them what is about to happen. We could do this ourselves or achieve the same by making it a fire alarm. 
• Has descriptions of all the encountered enemy types. This could be quite useful to include in our game as another means of our players finding out more information about the types of fires and how they are started. After all, we often learn better if we decide to research subjects ourselves.

I also tried playing a 'Mario' themed tower defence game which was made by a fan. Overall, I am glad I did as it proved to be a good example of how NOT to do a tower defence game.

• Despite having instructions that you can look at, they didn't make the game clear. The screen is so tiny that it was difficult to find what I was looking for and how to access other options available to me such as upgrading or destroying.
• It also has three symbols at the top which are all meant to represent certain things, but I never discovered what they were meant to mean. Coins were obviously currency, but I hadn't a clue about the others. 
• Whenever you try and do something you don't have access to, it wouldn't tell you why (or at least I couldn't see an indication explaining it). When trying to place defences, only for them not to spawn can be really annoying. Thus having something to tell you that you don't have enough ??? would have been more useful and less frustrating.
• Sounds were useful in telling you that you were hitting enemies or an indication of what was next, but otherwise the music was incredibly repetitive.

Harvard Referencing: 

• Pop Cap (Unknown) Plants vs. Zombies [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.popcap.com/plants-vs-zombies-1 (Accessed: 10/1/2014).
• PKcoolgames (Unknown) Mario And Friends Tower Defense [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.playtowerdefensegames.com/games/1074/play.html (Accessed: 10/1/2014).

Starting to create the GDD (9/1/2014)

* Today we were asked by our new lecturer to start putting together a GDD (Game Design Document) as an entire team before going off into our set teams to work on our specific areas.

* We were also shown the GDD that our lecturer had worked on, 'The Adventures of Snorkel the Turtle'. It was a game about the story of a new born turtle making his way to sea. This proved to be useful as our new lecturer was a previous student and therefore his work gave us all an idea of how to make our own GDD.
These ideas included...

• Research. 
• Images.
• Sprites.
• Level design.
• Notes.
• Animation. 
• Assets. 
• Resources.

* Making sure to speak to the team leader Jon about my role in the group, we came to conclusion that I should work closely on the GDD and writing within the game.
Therefore, during this session I decided to write some of the possible text seen in item descriptions. Making sure to keep it fun and informative. 
Such descriptions could include...

• Blanket: A fire blanket is meant for putting fires out. Not for bed!
• Axe: A tool still used to this day for chopping stuff down! Pretty cool hey? Therefore there's no need to AXE anymore questions...
• Hose: Used for putting out fires, its also great at keeping flowers and people happy in the summer.
• Foam: Used for putting out electrical fires. I'm afraid they may not be enough left to clean the dishes with.

Jon also told me that he is keen on giving me the opportunity to do some voice acting within the game. After all, I have always shown an interest in this area and many children are far more engaged and learn better through spoken dialogue than text. This is great as it increases the number of things I can help my group with.

Despite voice acting being something we wouldn't think about until after the initial GDD, I decided to come up with some possible phrases that could be included. Making sure not to talk down to our audience who are children in year six and above, whilst also thinking of ways of making it come across as both fun and informative.
Any of the below can be edited if it doesn't suit the overall feel of the game.

• "Get ready... GO!" (Start of the level begins)
• "Here comes the next round!" (Next round begins)
• "Upgrade complete!" (an upgrade is complete)
• "Fire incoming!" (Enemy reinforcements arrive)
• "Burn, baby burn! Disco Inferno!" (Enemy reinforcements arrive)
• "Wow! You did it!" (Round is completed)
• "I think it's time for them to COOL off!" (When fire is being estitiguised)
• "Err... things are getting a little hot in here..." (When base is being damaged)
• "Hot! Hot! HOT!" (When base is at critical health)
• "Alright! You saved the day!" (Level complete)

* Overall, it has been fun to come up with the above dialogue as it has allowed me to think outside the box since a tower defence game doesn't include much, if any story. It's also improving my skill at writing through writing a new genre, especially since I plan to make it stand out as much as possible.   

* Jon also asked all of us to email him if we ever can't make it into sessions, thus making sure not to disappoint the group and to let them know what is going on. We can always ask in our emails if we can help in any other way? 

* To help the group, and take some stress off the team leader, I decided to produce the Facebook page for Professional Team Brief that will consist of all our members. This allows all of us to keep in contact with one another during the process and development of our fire fighting game. 

* In general I will do further research on the dialogue seen and heard in tower defence games so as to make sure I am writing for the genre correctly. This will help provide a greater variety of text which is useful as I do not want it to get repetitive. 

Presenting (12/12/2013)

* For this session I watched and criticized the practice presentation which Ryan and Jim will be presenting to the associates from the Fire Service and Remode on our groups behalf. 

As for the actual presentation itself, the panel really liked the idea and Ryan and Jim's presentation skills. They also felt that they did well to relate it back to child safety which was our key message for our selected age group e.g. play as a fire fighter to reinforce that children shouldn't fight fires themselves.

We were also given tips by Remode when pitching any game idea which included the following...

• Don't use gamer terminology e.g. AOE (Area of Effect). 
• Keep it simple so as to give a clearer understanding.  
• Don't crowd your screen with text, use straight to the point explanations so that the audience watching can pick up what they are saying more easily. 
• Include visual images that are relevant to your work.
• Try and include rough designs for how the game would look when played (more visual evidence). 

* All the presentations themselves were very good and demonstrated a lot of hard effort.

* Overall, the panel decided to choose the tower defence game idea. However, they liked all our ideas so much that they wanted to include our game idea's educational aspects and the mini game one's humour, thus a new presentation will be put together which is a mix of all our ideas.