The Gameplay

The game is a simple touch screen based style gameplay and will function best for the iPod and iPad.

The Player takes the role of one of the four elements: Fire, Water, Air and Earth, in order to restore the artworks that have been damaged overtime (thus why the game is now called "Restoration").
In the game there are four sections which are related to different artstyles from around the world. Each zone is also the home of one of the Elements:

African Artstyle - Home to the Element of Fire
Asian Artstyle - Home to the Element of Water
Native American Artstyle - Home to the Element of Air
Medieval England Artstyle - Home to the Element of Earth

By picking a section to restore the Player plays as the Element that homes it, so for example the Player chooses to restore the Asian Art they'd take on the role of the Water Element. The Player then goes around the pieces of art putting out all the Fire Elements that have burned the art while avoiding the Earth Elements which would absorb the player and cause their element to shrink in size.

Below is a very simple image of which Element is strong against the other as well as being weak to another.

Upon completing a section of the museum, the Player would be rewarded with restoring a part of the main statue in the centre and acquiring information in regards to the art itself. This gives the player knowledge about the art around them.

Multiplayer mode will be available in this game. The game would ask for the number of players and then recognise the number of fingers placed in the screen. Different modes of multiplayer would involve:

Particle battle - Players would play as the same element to absorb as many particles as possible. The player with the most at the end of a certain amount of time is deemed the winner.
Team - Players team up to take out the enemy element for as long as possible.
Waves - Players fight against endless waves of the enemy element for as long as possible until the players lose.

This very simple yet effective mode of gameplay means that anyone can get to grips with it as it doesn't involve any complicated commands. Despite this, the game will probably be centered towards younger audiences for it's opportunity to teach with enticing gameplay and small facts about the art.

This is what i've done so far in relation to the animation. It's a bit...well, it sucks but it's somewhere to start off from. Seeing as i'm having troubles getting the video to upload onto here, i'll show some screencaps of my progress

In our group we've assigned ourselves different parts to write up on: I'm writing up on how the gameplay works in the game as well as animating the teaser for our project.

So, i'm doing the small teaser animation for the project and here's what i'm working with:

First are the final drafts of the elements done by my group member Jac. I'll be animating the water putting out the fire while avoiding the Earth on this piece of work Jac sent me.
The end result should hopefully look a bit like the last image but animated.

Flow based gameness

My group (Jac, Will and I) are creatin a game that is based with the same gameplay style as "Flow". We're making ours based around art and the four elements and our first idea was to travel trough art history (however this was then deemed too big for what we were doing so it was scrapped).
So, taking a simpler approach we've decided to alter art history into restoration, where art pieces in a museum have been damaged by the elements (earth would make it dirty and cruddy, fire would singe the work etc) and you've got to restore them to their former glory. On top of this, we're going to base each element on art styles around the world (Water would be Asia due to their watercolour paintings, Fire we'd assigned to Africa, etc).
Each element is good against one but weak to another - Water can put out Fires but can get absorbed by the Earth Clods.

A mock up of the four Elements - Fire, Water, Earth and Air

Coherent worlds: group

My group is still Will and Jac and for our Coherent Worlds presentation we had to compare the worlds of two games according to Vladimir Propp's 'Dramatic personae'. These include:

-The villan
-The Helper
-The Donor
-The Princess and her Father
-The Dispatcher
-The Hero (Seeker Hero, Victim Hero)
-The False Hero

The two games my group chose were "Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis" and "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim"
I looked into the benefits and enemies of the worlds in both games.

So let's begin with "Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis"

Pros: The rivers would keep your dinosaurs healthy and quenched.

Cons: Diseases can take out your dinosaurs
Visitors getting eaten is unfortunate
The weather is out to get you by creating tornadoes and sandstorms

Now, let's move on to "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim"

 Pros: Plants you stumble upon can be made into potions
Forges are in every town to fix/create armours and weapons
Coming across old runes in the world will grant you with abilities


Cons: Falling off cliffs will kill you
Rivers will push you around, sometimes off a cliff
Mammoths will squish you flat if you're not careful

Researching: Zoombinis

For this task we have picked our group members (mine consist of me, Jac and Will) and our genre of video games were given to us randomly: Puzzle

For the puzzle game to look further into we have chosen Zoombinis, a puzzle game released in 1996.

How is the Game structured?
The game is set as a map which the Zoombinis must travel through in order to reach their destination: Zoombiniville.In order to get the Zoombinis to their new home, you'll have to create them first.

Customizable features include Hair, Eyes, Nose and Feet. The names are randomly generated and do no effect the gameplay whatsoever.
These features (except the name) become key parts in most of the puzzles throughout the game. As the player progresses, the puzzles become more challenging.

Does it have levels?
The game has 4 levels, all of which are difficulty. Not so easy (Easy), Oh so hard (Normal), Very hard (Hard), Very very hard (Hardest difficulty)
Example of difficulty changes:

Left: Not so easy Mudball Wall
Right: Very Very hard Mudball Wall







The objective of  this puzzle is to hit the light grey slabs to fire up the number of Zoombinis that the dots list. However, should you run out of mud before hitting all the dotted slabs, remaining Zoombinis are left behind. Mudballs can be one of five colours and have one of five shapes (in harder difficulties the shapes colour can be one of five also).
In the left image, we can see the pattern that the player has revealed: Mudballs by colour are sorted by row while shapes are determined by column. With the information in the image we can then determine that:
Row 1, column 1 must be a Pink Star
Row 2, column 1 must be an Orange star
Row 3, column 3 must be a Green Triangle
etc Thus, solving the puzzle.
HOWEVER
In the hardest difficulty, the colour of the shape plays into the puzzle, thus making it far more challenging. The layout has also altered slightly, sorted into sections as well as rows and columns.

Do you have to follow a set path to complete the game?
For this question, I refer to the map below:

Upon reaching the first campsite the player may choose whether to go north or south. Whichever they choose, both paths offer different challenges but both meet up at the second campsite three challenges later. Other than this small choice, the path is set from start to finish.

How much freedom do you have to explore the game world?
 Zoombinis offers a practice mode. All this does is allows the player to select a level of difficulty and then any puzzle on the map. No other exploration of any sort can be found in this game.

What does the game look like?

The backgrounds in the game are well detailed with shading and lighting to top it all off while the characters (as well as anything that moves) are of a simple cartoon style.
 How do the visuals affect the player?
 These visuals make it easier for players to determine what they can interact with as well as what can interact with them in game.

Here, the bridges and Zoombinis are of the cartoon style, meaning they do a lot of movement. The cliffs and valley are well detailed meaning they are a fixed feature and do not interfere with gameplay other than visual appeal. The faces though, sneeze when a zoombini without the right feature crosses the wrong bridge, although by looking at the faces the player could guess they had something to do with the puzzle.