Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production Unit 4: Final Major Project Proposal Form

Media Format (film, documentary, motion graphics, photography, animation, graphic design etc)

Video Game

Synopsis of Idea (content, narrative, genre)

My game concept is for a 2D pixel-based game in the style of a 2D shooter based on vertical movement and level design. Taking inspiration from older shooters, an intended major focus of this game is giving the player limited movement while also giving them the ability to do many different actions with relatively few keystrokes. As for the overall narrative of the game, I’m looking for the story to be relatively simple, and easy to follow as the primary focus on the game is for gameplay. The plot of the game takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting, in which a pseudo-medieval civilisation has formed. The protagonist is a freshly trained ‘Hero’ whose first task given to him by his superiors is to hunt down and capture his predecessor, who has gone rogue.

Target Audience? (demographic NOT age range)

This game is intended to appeal to audiences of people who are looking for relatively short games with different or interesting game mechanics, or are looking for experiences that show different interpretations of games that they may have played in the past. In particular there are two primary types of game players that I’m hoping to appeal to with this game: -the Retro audience (Games inspired by older ones, heavier focus on game mechanics rather than visuals) (Other examples of games that have this type of audience include I Wanna Be The Guy, Space Invaders Infinity, and the 2014 game Strider). -the Indie audience (Games that have unique gameplay elements or unique stories, smaller budget games) (Examples of this game type include Cave Story, Minecraft, and Darkest Dungeon).

How will your project meet the needs of your target audience?

There will be a stronger focus on gameplay and mechanics to make the game more interesting and satisfying to play.

Since the game will be designed with playing over a relatively short amount of time in mind, giving information to the player as effectively as possible is a priority.

In the case of a lot of AAA game releases, many of those game’s story modes will have incomplete stories or use

Salford City College Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTEC Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production Unit 4: Final Major Project Proposal Form

cliff-hangers to facilitate future games in a franchise. This game will feature not only a shorter story, but also a more complete experience.

What production techniques will you use to realise your project?

The game will be created using a specialist 2D pixel-based game engine called Game Maker Studio. As part of using this engine I will be using the engine’s built in script system (known as GML, or Game Maker Language) to create specific actions and interactions. The visuals will be sprite based, made using Game Maker’s, built-in pixel based image editor. Art production may also be influenced or assisted by use of external editing programs such as Adobe Photoshop.