Company Goal

The Company goal is to release our games one by one as they are ready to market!

I think that advertising the demos at the degree show is key to gaining popularity! We have set up a website and once my trailer is perfected with the updated gameplay, it will be released onto facebook, various other social networking sites, our website, and various game reviewers that can look at the game and hopefully give it a good review!

Finished Gameplay Added to Trailer!

This is my final trailer for handing in for my degree! I have added the music to the gameplay so that you can see how the music progresses in layers to give a good idea what it would be like to play the game. Also I have put in a death scene, just to add some excitement at the end of the trailer. Then it is brought down with the fast heartbeat and the out soon!! It's very exciting!

Game Development..

I have been working with the coder for some time now, and he has put together my game to a standard that I think is up to handing in for my project. Of course there are a lot of tweaks to be made in terms of perfecting the gameplay and how the music runs, but it shows off all the animations I did and how they work in their context. I do eventually want to add in things like shadows and bubbles, as long as they look good inthe actual game, (will have to be tested in the future), but I think this could easily be shown with the 2D trailer as first look gameplay!

I have created a thumbnail and an opening display

image - for showing when the app is first opened on the iphone! To begin with I created a thumbnail like this, showing off the gameplay of Bloodbeat:

However, I have now changed it to the 50s style of the trailer. I think it is a bit more different and cool, and it contrasts so well with the bright colours of the gameplay. The gameplay is almost a surprising change for the gamer.

I think when I begin to create menus for this game, I will also make these into the 50s theme, so it all goes together and looks uniform.

Gameplay footage!!

People Testing Out My Game!!!

The best thing about the gameplay of Bloodbeat, is that I have achieved something that is actually fun! The addition of a scoreboard caused a small competition between some friends and I to see who could get the highest score! I feel really happy that people were actually competitive over the game that I have created. Hopefully when it is actually finished and all the kinks have been worked out of the gameplay, (with it actually being on the iphone), it will be even more fun to play!!

Trailer Finished Animation

For the bat animation, I had to look at a reference of someone swinging a bat to be able to draw out the key frames. This actually proved to be the trickiest part of the animation for this trailer. I wanted to make sure I got in the anticipation of his bringing back the bat, and the getting the right weight shift on his body as he swung the bat around.

50s Style Voice Overs!

With the help of Amit from my company, we have created a voice over effect on garage band that picks up a very similar effect to the sound found on 50s animations and films. We managed to put a very grainy sound to Amit's voice, and with him putting on an old-fashioned american accent, I think it's really effective!

The animation after the 8mm recording!! I think it really is effective. It almost looks like a real 50s animation that someone could have taken from youtube as a reference!!

Trailer Designs

Luckly, Shaun from my company, as part of his professional practice module has written me a script for my trailer. It is a great parody that really captures the essence of 50s infomercials. To match this, I have created some characters based on 50s style characters, using similar shapes and line work.

I was influenced by the illustrations from the game "Fallout", as these have a very similar style, and are based on sketches from a similar time, as well as all the other previous research.

These are my storyboards and character designs:

I have decided to animate this trailer in flash, as I have discovered that is is really simple to get that uneven 50s linework using the brush tool with a fairly high smoothing rate on it.

Also, another idea to make it look authentic - after animating this, I will video it off the screen using the 8mm camera found on the iphone. This gives a black and white, grainy feel to both the visuals and the music.

8mm iphone Camera Test:

I think that this idea has been really effective! Even though this was created in flash, it could almost have been mistaken for a real 50s animation. Not only that, this animation was done without drawing by hand as a test, which means that with the added bonus of having hand-drawn animations, this trailer could look very authentic!

Trailer Research

Since I have decided to create a trailer for my game, I have decided to make it humorous, which if pulled off correctly, can really draw people in to liking what you're promoting. I don't want to be obvious in the humour, so I have decided to do a parody of a 50s infomercial, informing the public of the dangers of the virus, Bloodbeat!

To try and get something thats really effective, I have been looking at various 50s infomercials and animations, and also later cartoons that parody the style, to see if I can get any tips.

Top Cat has the style of drawing that I want to to achieve. The animation is very pose to pose, which is very stylistic of the time for animation.

The comedic naivety of this film about the family is what I ideally would like to have in my trailer's script. Of course at the time this film was not patronising in anyway, but in modern times, this style of film has become a commentary on how people lead their lives, and what society was like in the 50s.

The above animation very much gets the style that I am trying to achieve in my trailer. The lines go from being fat to thin, the colour is very roughly applied, and the animation is minimal and simple - relying highly on key frames for the character to express itself.

The Simpsons have done many parodies of these type of infomercials. They really get the type of humour needed to create a successful parody, expressing the naivety of the time, and showing them in a modern context.

Ren and Stimpy also do the same, but they also stylise their animation slightly to create characters that look like they would fit in in a 50s animation. The subjects are also very simple, and of insignificant things, advertised to sound wonderful and exciting - how the 50s could be considered in one opinion by a modern audience.

Death Scenes and Text

These are the finished death scenes. I have also created my own font that is similar to the Gitaroo man font, but is changed into my own style of font and highlighting so that it looks slightly old and not coloured correctly, which actually ties in with my trailer idea.