Touch! Monsters.

After researching the Ipod/touch/pad, and playing a multiple variety of apps, I realised there was a big gap in the market for a sim/pet tamagotchi style game. I’m also going to be adding in battle elements into my game to incorporate multiplayer options which seem to be very popular as an option people liked when I did my market research and questionnaires. I will be using popular concepts from games relevant such as, Pokemon, Digimon, Monster Rancher and various other popular titled games that have influence on the market. Artists/Directors studied will include Satoshi Tajiri (creator of Pokemon), Akiyoshi Hongo (creator of Digimon, although this may cause a problem because to date he hasn’t released his actual role in the franchise other than that he created it, so I may have to study other relevant artists) and the Techmo team responsible for Monster rancher (various artists). Other sources of study may arise as I develop my idea. As all these games have such a wide and various media type (i.e books, cards, toys etc) there is also other areas I can look at for ideas, and also use these ideas to expand upon what I could also add to my game, maybe even come up with franchise ideas. I will also look at various types of tamagochi’s released and the platforms they have been released on.

The basic concept for my game is a monster collecting/battling game. Players will be able to raise, train and battle monsters against the integrated a.i and other players via the ipod’s multiplayer capibilities. Monsters will hatch from eggs and players must raise them while dealing with, sickness (from overworking/training or dying in battle), Feeding the pet (Once a day, this adds to keeping the pet happy) and training the pet (5 a day bonus tries at the monster gym, which is based on luck in a jackpot machine style game, with random programmed occurrences). There will also be set quests that directly raise stats and give the player money to buy items etc, which use 1 overall endurance. Endurance will slowly recover over time, so the player has to come back to the game at set intervals to continue training. There will aslo be the added option of battling players over the game, which stores current teams other players playing the game are using and allows the player to battle a team even if the opponent is idle, and a direct multiplayer where 2 users can directly link up via a friend code given to each player and battle. The game will give space for other concepts seen in other apps such as a real cash store, players can use real money in via the app store to buy items unattainable with the in game gold and other perks such as an instant endurance refill, extra in game money etc.