Here is (a very low quality) game-play clip of the Flash game.Flash Prototype from Sophia George on Vimeo.
Super Mario Bros 3 for NES is one of my favourite platforms games because of its level design and challenging gameplay. Therefore, I thought it would be appropriate to look at some of the levels and mechanics for this game and see why they are successful. I have also chosen to look at early Mario games, because I think they are similar to Alice in Wonderland. For example, there is a normal character that is a fantasy world and there is an emphasis on growing and shrinking.
The main reason I preferred to look at the early Mario games as opposed to other early side-scrolling platform games, like Sega’s Alex Kidd and Wonder Boy is due to the fact that its levels are explorative with hidden rooms and items, making the game experience more enriching and encouraging the player to re-play the levels, in order to find all the items and hidden levels.
I particularly like the levels with floating platforms, (such as world 3-6, above) as they are more challenging. The player has to be precise about where they jump, which route to take and which floating platform to use.
Next, I will move on from researching art and and will be looking at what makes a good platforming game, as this is my first time making a level. I will start by talking about a useful 21 page document I found by Scott Rodgers, who has worked on God of War, Pac-Man World and Drawn to Life. The document can be found on his website: http://mrbossdesign.blogspot.com/2008/10/platformer-primer.html
Firstly, Rodgers talks about the importance of the game's protagonist. The character's height, for instance, can make a big difference to how they are perceived. He says "Small/short = Plucky, Tall/Big = Heroic, Skinny = Fragile, Fat, = Funny" He then goes on to say that it's important to consider the characters reach, as well as creating metrics for your game world.
Rodgers explains controls and jumping, obviously an important aspect of platforming-based games. He really emphasises the importance of jump zones where the player jumps from) and landing zones (Where they can land safely). Also, he warns designers not to make the game feel inconsistent with the placement of platforms, in order to make the game fair.
In the document, there is a great deal about how to approach a falling character. For example, Rogers explains that most players will cautiously approach an edge and that the designer should think carefully to include a teeter animation to the game. On one hand, it acts as a warning, but it also disrupts the players’ control.
After talking about the basics, Rogers explain how to simply make the game more enjoyable though hidden items, design and aesthetics. For example, he says to make the music more exciting than what’s happening on screen and to create "Perceived Danger," where the character looks like they are in more danger than they actually are.
Finally, I will explain Rogers’ theories on enemies, which I found extremely useful. Although I am not sure that I will include enemies in my platform game (due to time restrictions) I still think it’s important to learn about them. He starts with explaining the basic kinds of enemies that are often experienced in these types of games.
He then stresses the importance that fighting enemies is supposed to be enjoyable, and that the designer must give the player reasons to fight the enemy. For instance, taunt animations are a good way to make the player dislike the opposition. Also, narrative elements can encourage the player to fight, such as the enemy kidnapping a girlfriend, burning down a village etc.
Overall, I gained a lot of knowledge from reading Scott Rogers' informal document and I think it has prepared me for designing my own levels.
Panda Land is a Swedish indie game that reminded me of Miracle Girls, due to the fact that the player throws food at their enemies to defeat them. It was created by Svante Danielsson using Game Maker, a free program many people use to make short games.
The game is set in Södermalm, Stockholm, Sweden, where you play as "indie pop girl" Amanda Panda who tries to save her friends from an evil lizard. Your enemies are "tanned upper-class brats from Östermalm" and you replenish your health with various items, including cake, beer and iPods.
It was useful to look at Pandaland because I think its cute graphical style would appeal to girls and the game is also quite humorous.
I will now look at a few platform games that exclusively target a female audience, in order to inspire more themes and gameplay ideas.
Firstly, I looked at Miracle Girls a Japanese game for Super Famicom, developed by Takara, 1993. While researching for my dissertation, studies have shown that girls typically do not like violent games; therefore, I am looking out for platform games that aren’t violent. In Miracle Girls, which was aimed at a female audience, the two protagonists don’t hurt their enemies. Instead, they throw sweets at them, which make them friendly for a few moments before going back to normal. Also, if the main character loses all her health, she doesn’t die, she just cries instead. Finally, unlike most platform games of this time, which had a boss fight at the end of every level, the bosses of Miracle Girls are simple mini-games.
Although Miracle Girls isn’t an excellent game, it was interesting to look at how it goes around using violence for the sake of its target audience. I especially like how the character throws sweets at enemies, rather than killing them.
