LO4 - Game pitch

I completed the slide above and made the game's logo present here.

I wrote the slide explaining the narrative and cut it down into bullet points.

I wrote the slide above explaining the gameplay and cut it down into bullet points.

I created the example of an interactable note.

I drew this concept art.

I created the character explanations and bullet pointed the information.

I drew out the concept art pictured here.

The slide above was written by me.

I wrote out the explanation of the budget once Jai had completed it.

I put the powerpoint together once everything had been emailed to me.

LO4 - Legal/ethical issues

• Copyright is protection of authors work
• We are not breeching any copyright protocols as all our designs such as the characters, storyline, levels are made by us
• Our work will be under copyright 
• Regulation – PEG 16
• Violent graphics and horror imagery that may scare the player

LO4 - Platform details

• DARK will be available on the PS4 and Xbox One
• These consoles can handle the high resolution and frame rate we hope to achieve
• Controller can light up/vibrate in relation to what's happening on screen
• No special system requirements

LO4 - Target audience

• A young audience – 18 teenagers 
• People who like horror and are interested in mystery games
• Those interested in similar games as aforementioned 

LO4 - Sumo digital feedback

+ The main idea was very clearly presented
+ Great logo design
- Too much text on the powerpoint, more visuals for an actual pitch
- Didn't explain what the enemy would be well enough

LO4 - Level layout

LO4 - Budget

• We should be selling our game at the price of £40​
• During the production of DARK we should have 5 actors that will be paid £35 per hour (£1,050 in total)​
• We will have 30 developers in total- the average staff cost for the production of our game should accumulate at £1,981,666.67​
• The total development costs leaves the creation of DARK at a total of £2,955,316.20 ​
• The marketing budget also needs to be factored in which totals £35,000​
• We would end up with a profit of £1,437,641.38 after the full development of the video-game

LO4 - Games market

• The horror market is massive and has many great games but none with a story line like ours.​
• Dark will have many competitors such as : Until dawn, Layers of fear and Amnesia- these are competitors because they fit into the horror genre​.
• These games are competitors because of the adventure within them: Gone home and Everybody's gone to the rapture.​
• The game companies that we will be competing against are -supermassive games, frictional games, Bloober, Fullbright company and Chinese room​.
• Our game will compete against these companies as it is the same genre.

LO4 - Production schedule

Initial draft:

Finalised production schedule:

We would launch DARK in December 2016

LO4 - Gaming mind map

LO4 - Gantt chart

LO4 - DARK initial presentation

LO4 - Visuals

VISUALS

We will draw inspiration from the visuals of horror games such as Until dawn and Layers of fear (pictured below) as they give a moody and tense atmosphere.

COMPETITORS

Our game would be competing with other interactive horror games such as layers of fear, and Soma as well as interactive storytelling games like Gone home.

Instead of calling my game 'The Calling Light' I may call it 'Dark' - below is a concept for the logo of it that I prefer to the initial idea.

LO4 - Production Plan

Our team is I (Maddie Fearn), Hafsa Saleem and Jai Van Der Kraan.

This is a list of tasks we need to complete during the unit:
Maddie - Treatment
Jai - Production schedule and launch date
Maddie - Story, gameplay and characters
Maddie - Visuals
Hafsa - Target audience
Hafsa - Relevant legal/ethical issues
Jai and Maddie - Platform details
Hafsa - Level layout and examples
Jai - Games market
Jai - Budget (development costs)

LO4 - Treatment

Title of Game: DARK
Length of play time: Average game time will be seven hours

Genre or type of game: Adventure Horror

Brief description / synopsis: The protagonist travels to a mansion she has been left by a distant relative. During the game the player will traverse the mansion and gradually discover more about it’s previous occupants, as well as turning the lights on as you venture further in. If you get left without light for too long your character may begin to imagine things in the dark…

Platform chosen: PS4 and Xbox One



Target audience
Intended age of audience: Rated 18

Other target details: Whilst this is the age that we have rated our game it is likely we will actually have an audience of 14-20 years olds as horror heavily appeals to this age range. However, the target audience will be more niche than this as our game appeals to people that like horror as well as games with interesting stories.

Game style: It will be a first person game with no combat; it will rely more on the fear the player generates from being unable to defend themselves against the ‘threat’ of the dark. Most objects within the house will be interactable for you to discover more about what happened in the house via notes or to pick up keys, which open locked doors in the area.



Resources required
Human: Around 30 members of staff (concept artists, graphic designers, level designers, coders, etc.) and five actors to play the three main characters and friends visiting the house.

Equipment: Unreal engine 4, further necessary software and hardware, a computer for each staff member (to work on designing the game and costing, etc), recording equipment for the voice acting.

Location: A relatively small working facility in Sheffield.

Production time: With 30 staff members it should take us a year to make the game.

Additional information

Content of game (items, features and articles): The game will have a single player campaign with no DLC or multiplayer features, a small instruction booklet will come with the game featuring how to play and some examples of concept art for the game. The actual game will feature an first person open ‘world’ (mansion not broken up by levels) with many opportunities to interact with objects within the world, but with none to properly interact with people- instead the story is told through the ghosts and ‘echoes’ of people that resided or visited the location.

Examples of challenges and themes: This game carries the general horror theme and plays on fears of the dark and childhood nightmares; however it also touches upon more relatable topics such as family, abandonment and depression. You will face the challenge within the game of having to find the keys to locked doors by solving riddles left on notes and scouring nearby rooms for ways to move forward. As you progress forward you will unlock achievements in game achievements for completing specific tasks (e.g. lighting your first candle) or for reaching narrative pinnacles (e.g. discovering the affair that broke the family apart).

Styles of comparable games: Games similar to ours in the style of horror would be: Until dawn, Layers of fear and Amnesia. Layers of fear and Amnesia are also adventure horror games that have very open worlds with interactivity being a key part of the gameplay, we have tried to take a lot of inspiration from these games to aid the design of our own. They are both also very story driven but the plot is not as pivotal as other games such as Everybody’s gone to the rapture and Gone home; both of which are similar to our game in style but less so in genre. From Gone home and Everybody’s gone to the rapture we wanted to take the emotional and poignant aspect of the story that has more of a profound effect on the player than a typical horror game.

Profits/Costs 

We should be selling our game at the price of £40, which is lower than the typical price of video games in this age but seems more profitable (as more people may buy it for being cheaper) and more suited to the lower hours of gameplay.
During the production of DARK we will need to pay our actors and workers- we should have about 5 actors (including extras playing the parts of visitors to the mansion) and 30 devs in total. The average staff cost for the production of our game should accumulate at £1,981,666.67 by the end of the production, this includes any equipment they need to use to rent during the development for instances PCs or tablets. The actors we are using will be paid £35 per hour. The overall cost by the end of their time working with us should be £1,050, relatively cheap in comparison to other games as there are only a couple of voice actors necessary in the actual game and, as they are not always present, less time is required to record each line.
There is a fixed engine cost of £18,524.62, the cost of this including the other actual development costs leaves the creation of DARK at a total of £2,955,316.20.
The marketing budget also needs to be factored in which totals £35,000, as well as the dev royalty rate which is at 13% meaning the rest of the money goes to the publishers instead of us. All in all we would end up with a profit of £1,437,641.38 after the full development of the video-game.

LO4 - Story, Gameplay and Characters

INTERACTIVE HORROR GAME - DARK

Gameplay
The calling light will be an adventure/horror game for the PC- it will be open instead of being broken up by levels. It will be a 3D story based game with realistically styled graphics. The target audience of our game will be 16 year olds to early adults as this tends to be the age where they will particularly enjoy the horror genre.
There will be no music, the tension will be built through eerie noises sounding throughout the house. Most objects throughout the house will be interactable to the player, picking up vases  and upturning them may mean keys fall out or you can pick up notes to study the writing/drawings on them.

Narrative

The narrative will be of a woman is visiting a mansion that her distant relatives left to her after their recent death. As she goes through the mansion she must find keys to open locked doors and pick up notes to learn more about the lives and fate of the relatives that left it to her, as she nows very little beforehand. The protagonist will be mute and how she came into possession of the mansion will be explained at the start via on screen text. The player must turn on the lights as they progress, if left in the dark you will start to imagine faces and noises as your character becomes afraid- shadows will jump out at you, objects may shatter or radios will turn on by themselves. Candles can be used to light the way when in darkness but they’re scarce and must be used wisely.

You may encounter the ghost of the father, re-enacting moments of the past that can offer you glimpses into the families lives. Only the father will be the visible ghost as he is the only family member that died there, you will only hear the other people.
Riddles may be found on the back of the memento that give you ideas of where to look for useful items or story based information. 

Characters
Initially you will meet the ghost of the overworked father and will hear the other important characters of the story: a mother desperately struggling to keep the family together and a moody teenaged daughter.
The father (Ryan) had an affair, the daughter found out and was constantly angry with him. Eventually the daughter (Laura) yells at the father when they're all in a room and the father tells the mother (Emma) about the affair; her and the daughter move out for a few days even though father says he'll move out. Afterwards the player sees a bit of decline of the father and he eventually kills himself as he is depressed that he has been left. Rewrites his will before his death in anger and leaves mansion to the daughter (Samantha) of his brother (Liam) (that he hasn't spoken to in years) because his brother meant a lot to him and he feels guilty for arguing with him. Leaves the rest to his daughter that doesn't want to have any part in it.

LO4 - Concept art