Tite Page For Uni.

Ba1

Apple Interactive Concept

Benjamin Everington

http://okadaxi-touchmonsters.blogspot.com/

 

Game Mechanics Final (VERY IN-DEPTH......)

Cash points

Cash points will be able to be purchased for unique items in game. These will be at set prices appropriate to what they are. They will range from decorations for your monster, special versions of existing monsters, new monsters and gamer perks.

The monsters available for cash will be highly rare and this will make players want to invest money into the game. The gamer perks will be what people will want to spend the bulk of their CP on and will include,

-Instant cash in increments of $10,000 and $100,000 giving the player a small saving if they spend more on the $100,000 bundle as opposed to the $10,000.

-Reduced cool down on EN and BP by 300% for periods of 3days, 7days and 30days, again saving money if you buy the 30days as opposed to the 7day deal etc. This allows you to do more quests quicker and get ahead of other players!

-Instant En and BP refill.

The shop is the place to go to buy items for you and your monster, be it battle potions, food vital to your monster or just a decoration to brighten up your monster’s field! The currency will be $ for in game money and CP for credit points. Shops allow you to heal your monster if he has incurred damage from quest battles for a small amount of $. As well as performing the “res” ritual on found souls the player owns, This is how new monsters are attained.

Questing is simple and user friendly. The quest menu will be simple with each quest laid out, clearly stating a name for the quest, with a progress bar, a number of required En and the amount of $ and exp you receive after completing the quest. Each time you complete a   quest you will have the EN required by the quest depleted from your total En and $ and exp added to you. With this the quests progress bar will increase and when it reaches 100% the player will unlock a new quest, which you have to complete like the last quest until you fill the new ones progress bar, or a boss battle. You have to complete these boss battles to advance to the next stage of quests. Boss battles are harder but yield more gold, exp and unlike quests you have the chance to attain the beaten monsters soul so you can res the monster at the shop and use it as a companion! All quests are repeatable allowing you to train up and gain levels on previous quests if the boss you have unlocked is too hard! You cannot participate in a quest if your En is at 0. You will have to wait a while for you to get the en back. Questing also increases monster happiness by a small amount, but decreases hunger. Battling is pretty simple, there are 3 buttons, Fight to attack, run to flee the battle and the bag icon which opens the bag menu in the same style as in the game world and shows battle items you can use.Monsters use free will in battle to add in an element of chance. monsters will use any attack that it has learned based on its will stat. Fleeing from a tough battle will stop you from paying the fine for getting knocked out, which increases the higher the level your monster is but there is a chance the attempt may fail, so players have to be careful!

Note about online battles players will be able to set up 3 different monster from the monsters menu. These cannot be switched around in battle but when 1 monster dies the next one takes it’s place,, players can online battle with 1 monster but against a team of 3 you will have a big disadvantage! Online battles will function the same as quest battles, but will generate more $ and cost BP, battle points, to participate in instead of EN. Winning these battles is an alternative way of getting good exp and $. The main attraction of winning online battles is that the more battles you win the more Battle stars you win (these can be viewed in the profile menu). Winning a battle will earn you one star, whilst losing one will gain/loose nothing. The more battle stars the higher you will climb in the online leader boards, and earn bragging rights amongst the Touch! Monsters community. Although there is no direct player vs. player because online battles are done against an a.i using stored player teams from the game database, the leader boards will still be a fun part of the game. Because there is no direct PvP battling I decided to not incur a penalty for a loss if you get beaten by a player when controlled by the A.I while you are away. If you loose while you are challenging players, it will incur a loss and will be recorded on your profile permanently. If players are friends in real life they can exchange friend codes (found in the profile menu). This allows them to use the 2P menu to battle. Battles like this are not recorded on the leader boards and are purely for Fun. Players can also trade any monsters they have, or exchange souls they own. The trade station is another idea I'm thinking about incorporating, where players can post monsters up for trade, and set the monster and level of the monster they want in return, so players can trade at any time. This will also be available to do with any souls players want to trade.

Levelling & stats

Monsters gain levels by questing and winning online battles. When monsters level the following changes will occur. The monsters EN and BP gauge will increase by set amounts depending on what level they reach. They will gain set status depending on what monster they are, so for example a monster like Droad, who uses more physical attacks over magical attacks, will gain more on attack when he levels up etc. Players will also gain 5 bonus points per level they can spend on any stat of their choice, so for example the player can choose to boost a high stat or give extra to a stat they feel their monster may be lacking in. This adds a sense of customisation for the player and also for the player to find out what works best and what doesn't. Stats represented are Atk – attack, Def – Defence, M.Atk – Magical attack, M.def – Magical Defence, spd – speed and will. This game uses a stat called will. Will basically is the monsters battle will. Increasing the will stat will increase the chance of monsters using it’s more powerful attacks which can turn the tide of battle. Because monsters cannot be directly commanded, will is always a good investment of bonus points if you feel lacking in it. It may just prove to be that game winner! Monsters will soul ascend when they hit a certain level, this is basically  the same as evolution in Pokémon, altering the names of the monsters moves, changing its appearance and bolstering its stats slightly. This is why reaching these level bench marks is always something the player wants to aim for!

Types & Skills

Monsters will belong to up to 2 of many different elemental disciplines. This will mean the player will have to train multiple monsters in order to tackle certain bosses in the quest arc. This gives the player more to do and makes the game experience last longer. This will also mean they will have to think about what types of monsters to use in the teams of 3 they will use online. Each element will have strengths and weaknesses i.e. fire weak to water, but strong against grass and so on. Types of attacks can be a combination of up to 2 factors. Phy for physical hitting moves, and Mag for magical attacks will be the first factor, these will increase/decrease in power depending on your monsters attack power in that discipline and the defending creatures def or m.def. The second factor being the element of the attack i.e. Fire, water, holy etc. A monster like droad is attack based and would learn the physical discipline and his element is fire so he would learn fire type moves. Pwr means power and is the stat used to measure how likely the monster is to use the attack in battle. Monster will learn up to 5 moves in their life time, each move having more power than the last, meaning the monster is less likely to use it, this is where the will stat comes into play.

Some things are best left forgotten....

I originally wanted the game to punish for not feeding or cleaning up & keeping the monster happy for a set time, by reverting the monster back to an egg and having to start again, but because the game is online I accommodated the players who may not be able to be online a lot by instead you have to pay X1 set amount of money based on how many hours you fail to attend to your monster. This in itself isn't a penalty and allows players who may not be able to play over a period satisfaction that your monster is taken care of If you have enough gold. If the amount of gold cannot be met you will enter minus gold and any gold you do get from questing etc will then work toward getting you back out of the red.

This was also Implemented due to

me taking The egg system out.

Originally I wanted the monsters to start off as eggs and hatch, but I found this was too similar to Digimon and Tamagotchi’s and didn't want to be too close to them. All I had to do was simply remove this feature. Although I have designed the younger forms of monster, I shall say that monsters will evolve like in Pokémon and other games I just chose to implement multiple monsters in my timescale instead of just focusing on one which didn’t give Me enough time to work on evolutions. Because now eggs are gone, I Also had to think about ways of attaining now monsters, this is now Done by at a set percentage chance, every time you defeat a Monster you have a chance to attain their “soul”. You take this to the in game Shop and they can “res” the soul for you at fixed prices enabling you to add The monster

to your team, and also dealing with death in a nice way for younger players

Giving them a sense of what may happen to them when defeated.

Finalized Logo

Hand drawn in Photoshop

Game Elements

Things to include;

- Monsters players can attain and level up.

- Basic needs players need to attend to, keeping monsters happy and well, bringing in the tamagotchi element into the system.

- Some form of 2 player interactivity making it more of an experience for friends to compete or trade with their monsters.

-A battle mode like that similar to Pocket summoner, so players can battle and gain experience and cash, while not having to interact with online players, but with no penalty for losing, as this isn’t fair to the player who isn’t controlling his team.

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-Easy to access menus and a clear set interface that is player friendly for all ages.

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-Working battle mechanics with types i.e. In basic elements water puts fire out, but fire destroys plants and plants have power over the earth etc.

- Monsters will level up and learn moves. Eventual levelling up will result in the monster changing form or “evolving”.

- In game shop to spend money you earn on items for your area of land that you raise your monster on, as well as necessities for your monster and other misc. Items.

- Cash shop for players who want to get an extra boost they can use their credit/debit card on buying real money exclusive items and other perks.

- Simple menu based quest system for the player to make money and level up monsters.

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- The game will have to be online to update cool downs on energy, the unit used to measure how many quests you can do and how many online battles you can participate in as well as updating the teams you want to use on the online database so other players can battle you when you aren’t playing. This is something I didn't like about pocket summoner and other similar games but it also levels out the game and makes it fair between players and makes the cash shop more worthwhile.

(i.e. the cash shop perk you shall be able To buy that increases cool  Down speed by 300%. Allowing More quests etc over a set Period of days). 

Introducing Castus and Wagga

Both drawn using same techniques as Droad.

Final Concept, Introducing Droad!

Really happy with the finished product, draw using a graphic tab, drawn and colored in Photoshop CS5. reverted back to the original idea of him being a dragon which works alot better. Putting my monsters on blogger really shows I need to clear the slight white edges up!

Fire changed to water?

Mark, my tutor at uni, suggested I try work with vectors for a clean Iphone friendly character look. I used the fire dragon from the previous post but focused more on the toad aspect. I don't like this final outcome at all, but since I have been developing my drawing skills throughout this project I feel i can achieve what I want with hand drawn drawings, as opposed to vectors.

Fire Based Concept.

Baby dragon I have started working on noted for his toad like qualities. Working concept name is not in the works at the moment.

Sketches cont...

Initial Concept Art

Sketches

Initial Concept Art

Likes & Dislikes

Ipod features

Features I feel do not work very well or wouldn't work with my idea include,

- Joysticks or gamepad controls. From the games I did play with these control layouts, all of them were clumsy and I ended up quitting pretty quickly into the game because of the frustration these caused me. Although I did find some games better than others, this control style has no appeal in the game I’d want to develop which is more text based and menu controlled.

-The Gyro & accelerometer functions that apple claim to have said are vastly improved didn’t impress me very much, and personally I didn’t think much of them. I also felt from the games I researched the more popular ones are simple games and didn’t use these features amongst the vast majority, and because of the game I’m developing, these big iPod features simply have no appeal to my genre.

Genres & Target audience

Popular apps on the app store generally are puzzle based, including defence type games like Plants VS. Zombies, and skill based games like Angry Bird backing this statement up. I took this into consideration but, after researching Pocket summoner, there wasn’t a lot of competition and what I did see, all the games have similar functionality and a lot of repetitiveness. I looked to see if there was a tamagotchi game, there was but it was totally different from the tamagotchi’s of old and has become a rhythm based game, lost in the backlogs of the app store. I then decided I wanted to use elements from Pokémon & pocket summoner, and combine them with elements from

The old tamagotchi’s, making a game younger IPhone/Touch users will love but also appeal to the  Older users who have seen and loved these type Of games/toys. From market research I found 69% of iPod touch users are 13 to 24, and 74% of IPhone users are older than 25. Remaking types of old products older users may have liked growing up is a viable choice i.e. The remade TV animation and games of brands like

Thunder cats and Teenage mutant ninja turtles,

appealing to both kids and adult who grew up

with them.

Pocket Summoner

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-summoner/id389297143?mt=8#

Pocket Summoner, Riida.com

FEATURES:
- iPhone4 retina display with high resolution graphics
- Capture and train various type of spirits. Each spirit is equipped with unique skills.
- Quests and boss fight! Defect and capture the powerful bosses.
- Freedom on training. Train your guards wisely and make them as powerful as they can!
- Player versus player group fight!
- Advance to become more powerful summoner by leveling and gaining reputations! 

Pocket summoner is a text based monster collection/fighting game. Players rank up based on earning experience from questing and battling other players via the in game online database that stores each players selected team, meaning you can fight anyone playing the game, regardless of them being online or not. There is actually no direct way of talking to other players, only this system. As you rank up you can level your monsters to tackle harder quests and bosses, but monsters can never be a higher level than your current level. The only downside to this app is that It requires constant internet Connectivity, so playing on the go can become hard for Ipod users.

Angry Birds

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds/id343200656?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2

Angry Birds, Clickgamer.com

The number one top selling paid app on the app store. Angry birds places you playing as a group of birds fighting for survival against the green pigs who have stolen all their eggs. You have to shoot the birds at various different structures while eliminating the pigs set amongst them, the fewer birds it takes you to destroy the pigs the better the score you receive. The game integrates different varieties of birds that have different abilities i.e. the blue birds can split into 3 smaller birds after they have been catapulted, making for more challenging game play. 

Plants Vs. Zombies

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/plants-vs-zombies/id350642635?mt=8#

Plants vs. Zombies, popcap games, inc.

Probably one of the most popular iPhone games out today. Winner of more than 20 Game of the Year awards! You have to use plants strategically to mulchify 26 types of zombies before they break down your door, while collecting sunlight from the sun or other types of plants to be able to grow more. Noted the interface is simple and effective. The  Game has a very accessible art style and simple game play mechanics making for a very addictive experience.

Sugimori's famous little friend!

Pikachu Is one of the species of Pokémon creatures from the Pokémon media franchise, a collection of video games, anime, manga, books, trading cards, and other media created by Satoshi Tajiri. As do all Pokémon, Pikachu fight other Pokémon in battles central to the anime, manga, and games of the series. Pikachu is among the most recognizable Pokémon, largely because a Pikachu is a central character in the Pokémon anime series. Pikachu is widely considered the most popular Pokémon, is regarded as the official mascot of the Pokémon franchise, and has become an icon of Japanese culture in recent years.

Ken Sugimori

Ken Sugimori (born January 27, 1966 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese video game designer, illustrator, manga artist, and director. He is most famous as the character designer and art director for the Pokémon franchise. Sugimori is also credited with the art direction for other titles, including Pulseman. Sugimori drew all of the original 151 Pokémon himself. He has worked on the various Pokémon movies, trading cards, and other games like the Super Smash Bros. series.

From early 1981 until 1986, Sugimori illustrated a gaming fanzine called Game Freak, which had been started by Satoshi Tajiri. Sugimori discovered the magazine in a dōjinshi (self-published Japanese works, usually magazines, manga or novels) shop, and decided to get involved.  Eventually, the two decided to pitch an arcade game design idea toNamco; they reworked Game Freak into a development company and produced Mendel Palace.

For Pokémon Black and White, Sugimori directed a team of 17 people in designing new characters for the games, though he always drew the final designs. He drew much of his inspiration from observing animals in aquariums and zoos. Sugimori has also written and illustrated original manga, including one which was distributed with pre-orders of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness. When he begins a new character, his process normally involves making a rough sketch, then tracing it on to film paper while polishing it and making the illustration more professional looking. After that, he draws the character many times,

changing its proportions until

he is satisfied. 

Digimon

http://www.freewebs.com/digimonuniverse/dworld.html

Digimon.....short for "Digital Monsters“, got it's start back in 1997 much in the same way as Pokémon did......in a game format.  Digimon was produced by Bandai, so it was more of a spin-off of the (then popular) Tamagotchi that they produced, rather than an RPG for a handheld game console.  It came in several different versions, each one had a different Digimon you had to take care of.  As with most virtual pets, the better care you gave them (like feeding them, and making them battle), the bigger they grew....eventually making them better and stronger Digimon.  You could connect your Digimon to another persons Digimon and do battle with them. These Digimon V-pets came to Western shores in early 1998, but they didn't fly off the shelves.  In fact, they sold quite poorly, thus,  there are very few of the "original" Digimon out there, and they are now considered a collector's item. Although never becoming as popular as Pokémon, Digimon has always been there making money and is still considered successful, but with Pokémon out there it has always been over shadowed with the Pokémon games being considerably more popular. Personally I found the early ps1 Digimon game, Digimon world, to be the best monster breeder game I have ever played, retaining the qualities of the tamagotchi and mixing it with a battle formula similar to the battles from the original Digimon tamagotchi's but ported over to work in a fully 3d environment thanks to the play stations capabilities.

The Pokémon phenomenon!

The history of the Pokémon media franchise spans over a decade from when work began officially on the first game to now, and has roots even older. It started simply enough as a hobby of Satoshi Tajiri, who as a child had a fondness for catching insects and tadpoles near his home in suburban Tokyo. Over time, Tajiri decided to put his idea of catching creatures into practice because it would give children the same thrill as he had.  The first Pokémon games, Pokémon Red and Green Versions, came to the Nintendo Game Boy system in Japan on February 27th, 1996, which was the fulfillment of Satoshi Tajiri's dream and allowed people of all ages to catch, train and trade 151 creatures and become a Pokémon Master. Due to high sales, Pokémon Red and Green were swiftly followed up with Pokémon Blue, which had improved graphics and sounds. The west received Pokémon Red and blue on September 1998 and proved to be as successful here as they were in Japan.

Ever since these popular games the franchise has had many game sequels and expanded across many formats and media including:

- Various consoles, big known platforms include, gameboy, gameboy advance, Nintendo 64, Nintendo ds and Nintendo wii (others too!).

- Movies

- collectable cards

-Toys

-Clothing

- and many more!

Pokémon Black & White announced.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/09/pokemon-black-and-white-announced-for-ds/

"The fifth-generation Pokémon game has been announced! At least, the titles for the next generation have been announced -- Pokémon Black and White are the next pair of Pokémon games, to be released this fall on DS in Japan. Nintendo's going for relatively simple colors after things like "HeartGold" and "Pearl." And ... that's pretty much all we know. Of course, given the way the series works, we can all kind of guess exactly how this will play. Or maybe not: a note on the Pokemon home page promises that "every aspect will be reborn innovatively," according to our translation."

Good news for me, time to start doing some digging...