Taking 7 steps back

 After discussing my own plans for a 2D metroidvania game with the motive of having a substantial change or affect on the players own life and choices made I've been advised to "take 7 steps back".

Let's break this advise down as it is well accepted and understood constructive criticism that I wholeheartedly agree with, as well as some points that I had already started to observe along the creative development process so was beneficial to hear from professionals the same queries that I was already asking of myself.

Initially this game started as a simple 2D platformer that took place in a human body, a design choice based on my own preferences of this genre and the fact that I hadn't seen one done before that was informative of what happened within the body or utilised the different areas and functions of the organs of the body as game levels.  This was enhanced by looking at the character creation tool at the beginning of RPG's as an immersive element and challenging the format of 2D platforms with not having a similar procedure, instead relying on narrative storytelling and character development to immerse the player into the world.  This relationship between a character creation tool and the setting of the game being in a human body led to the conclusion that if players inputted certain criteria in the character creation it could have impactful changes to the gameplay through addition and subtraction of certain levels and change in dynamics and appearance of certain levels for example if the player had a choice to make when it came to inputting how many units of alcohol they consumed a week and this choice led to alterations within the liver section of the game this could have an impactful change on how much alcohol the player consciously chose to consume in the real world.  Likewise if they could input the character as having diabetes this could alter the pancreas level of the game with real life players with diabetes finding the game to be representative and those who don't finding it informative instead, both arguably positive interactions with the game and possibly having a substantial affect on the player.  This also encouraged the idea of choices within the game having substantial consequences, based on realistic biological circumstances that can occur, which was a key production element I wanted the game to have an example being choosing to travel to the brain level of the game for a particular power up/ability/interaction which would lead to a breech of the blood brain barrier - something that in the real world would evidently allow for bacterial meningitis to form, so then a return to the brain level in-game would lead to an interaction with bacterial meningitis as either a boss, NPC or other significant element within the game allowing the player to understand the consequences of their action as well as being informative of actual biology, perhaps questioning their own greed and desire for the original power up/ability/interaction and its relation to the results (was the juice worth the squeeze).  The issue with all of this, even though they fit a niche subject and allow for the development of non existing gameplay and development is that by combatting so many ideas and themes at once they all get diluted to fit within one format and thus don't get the time and space within the game to truly be impactful and resonate with the audience successfully. Multiple good separate ideas and instances of "what if" would also create excess stress when trying to tie them all together cohesively into a seamless idea for a game especially considering keeping the themes and ideas and instances the same stylistically and aesthetically - this challenge had started to generate when looking at the different types of red and white blood cells as one type of antagonistic enemy with "good" intentions and goals and how they could all be visually developed with differing actions whilst still retaining similarity due to how they were related in real life and how they performed their functions in the human body. To overcome this I had started to converge them to the idea of different factions of a medieval/fantasy army with B cells being archers due to how they were simplified in function to firing off antibodies and as the white blood cells rose in importance within the body through their function they would equally rise in the hierarchy of a knight style force with red blood cells being similar to pawns etc, then how would bacterial and viral antagonists be represented? Why would so many deadly diseases be present in one such body as well as the player protagonists vaccine character? Now there are no issues if my main goal with the game was an interesting platformer set in the body with none of the character creation alterations included and it was just based on developing a players understanding of choice and consequences, they wouldn't have to necessarily play as a vaccine and the characterisation of blood cells and bacteria could be fun cartoon style aesthetics for a younger audience game, however this desire to have a more impactful takeaway from the game that most of my research is looking into as well as my own personal style of creating things with deeper meaning and showcasing the ability to push the boundaries of the media format I use for my illustrations requires a more mature audience and as such there needs to be some form of reassessing what the goals of the game are - alongside the previous posts knowledge of understanding the goals of my game and how they align with or oppose certain characters will help develop it from the ground up.  

The different types of blood cells, each could be holding a different class with this archetype of enemy.

A visual of the different medieval classes blood cells could be based on if this interpretation was used. 

A modern equivalent to the above visuals as an alternative.

Alongside this advice, several examples were talked about by both myself and the lecturers when it came to video games as a platform for 'spreading a message' such as the game "Ether One" by White Paper Games aiming to spread awareness and understanding of one of the attributes of dementia - object displacement, researching the game can lead to an understanding of how this attribute could be incorporated into the game mechanics in a respectful but realistic manner whilst still being entertaining and how the developers utilise the knowledge gained from an in-depth look into a singular theme to be represented through multiple facets of the game from musical score, aesthetic choices, puzzles, narrative elements and overall atmosphere from some of these combined.  

The list of games to look at (ignore how they are visually presented as being an illustrator more than a game designer means initial game development will be the main struggle so if the same outcome of the games thematics are reached with simple shapes then obviously the success is in the understanding of the theme by the developers hence why "Thomas was alone" is here with just simple square shapes as characters can be argued to be much more successful than other games with perfectly developed and animated characters.)

Thomas was alone - by Mike Bithell 

Ether One - by White Paper Games

Unravel - by Coldwood interactive

The Talos Principle 1 - by Croteam

It Takes Two - by Hazelight Studios

Papers, Please - 3909 LLC

My continued direction on the game design MA course will be in three pathways, firstly with the research of these games by disassembling how they were manufactured and developed with a distinct goal in mind, including how the accomplishment of success has been determined by peers and critics towards this goal rather than just subjective reviews based on commercial success.  Secondly looking at the game development process due to my complete lack of knowledge when it comes to using any games development software (tutorials on Unity have already melted my brain) and looking at the process from a conceptual thinker and illustrators mindset to determine whether a particular game engine or physical board game would be a more successful format for the end result. Finally continued character and setting concept art, being open to a change in both characters and setting throughout the development on this course is key but also its imperative that as an illustrator on this course that I keep utilising the skills already gained on my undergraduate degree and maintain a style that's representative of what I can offer in the game design industry as well as formulate questions and responses along the way as previously mentioned in the last two posts with visual design processes of a game or other media able to take place alongside the theological process.