In this post I will show you the evidence of my brainstorming and researching on multiple game genres and their visual aspects.
The type of game genre usually defines how a game is played and what you'll end up doing throughout it, for example: New Super Mario Bros. fits into the Action/ Adventure genre and in it you play as a plumber in a fantasy like world filled with dinosaurs that stand up right and speak, these same monster and dinosaurs are your character's enemies in the game (because they can't stop kidnapping the princess he likes) and so you usually end up squaring off against them and defeating them with the powers you can gain on the way there (fireballs, shell armour, becoming giant, invincibility etc.) most enemies however you'll probably defeat by just jumping on their heads, squashing them to death.
The Super Mario Bros. franchise has for years successfully created their games in both 2D side-scroll platformers as well as in their multiple 3rd person releases, favourites of these times among fans would most likely be the 'Super Mario World' made for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (or SNES) and the first ever three-dimensional platform game in the series, 'Super Mario 64'. Both of these games were completely different to one another visually, sure the obvious reason being the dimensions but also the perspectives at which the games were given changed the way people played them entirely.
Starting with Super Mario World on the SNES, this game as to most of the franchise used a two-dimensional side-scrolling perspective and so to advance the player would have to constantly move to right hand side; jumping, sliding, crawling, flying and smashing through whatever obstacles appeared on screen next (as the view followed the player).
Due to this way of advancing through the game; enemies, items and switches were all interacted with most of the time by simply jumping on top of or running straight into as well as clambering up and down different ledges and pieces of terrain although with there were variations when Mario had obtained a new power like his 'Cape' power (see picture above ^) which allowed him to fly high altitudes at an impressive speed.
Below is a YouTube that shows you a brief outlook on how the game is generally played:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naD6mNeHIsE
In contrast to this 2D platforming Mario game, came the Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64.
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| Flight Cap = Win! |
Super Mario 64 was a revolutionary game in the Mario Bros. franchise, as aforementioned it was the first ever 3D Super Mario game and thus set a trend the for later games to come (e.g Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy). Making Mario into a 3D platformer gave players a lot more freedom than they had whilst restricted to the previous side-scrollers; now with the new analog control and dynamic camera systems you could move in multiple directions and approach challenges in new and interesting ways.
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| Even basic movements like jumping were drastically improved thanks to the newly implemented analog controls. |
Super Mario 64 like most Mario games still fell under the Action/Adventure category for genre even with the transition to 3D and as always the player would have to control Mario plunging him into different dangers to save the (once again D:) captured princess.
Here is YouTube video compilation of all the boss characters from Super Mario 64 in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tEuN8KckTY
As mentioned in the "Initial Game Ideas" post, I tend to set A Frigid Adventure in a top-down perspective where the camera with follow the player and scroll across the map. The visual style I decided upon after looking Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past as that game has influenced mine tremendously and its target audience is mroe or the less same as mine; considering the games success I can garuntee they chose the correct target audience and so if I want my game to thrive and sell millions I believe I too should chose a similar visual style for my target audience who are male between the ages of 8 - 15, my reason being that I believe the genre (Action/Adventure) sounds more appealing to young males than anyone else, this belief being slightly reinforced with the protagonist being a young man who is strong, courageous and adventurous which young males will think is “cool” and can aspire to be like. Another reason I believe my game is more suited to males is that it isn’t very glamorous, it is set in a an arctic wasteland that is overrun by feral beasts, the protagonist just wears a basic outfit (fur coat, pants, gloves and boots) and tends to fight more straight forward and efficiently rather than flashy and dramatic fighter that moves around a lot.
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