The Tomb

I am currently reading and excellent book called, The Tomb in Ancient Egypt by Aiden Dodson and Salima Ikram. It contains within it some excellent research material and maps of tomb interiors all of which are extremely useful to the themes in my game. The book goes into a lot of detail and is heavy reading but the information will be very useful when I have to arrange and design my own tomb environment.

The Lost Pyramid

On Monday 29th there was a very interesting program on channel 4 regarding the lost pyramid of pharaoh Djedefre. The site where the grandest pyramid of all had once stood is now a mound of rubble. The program set out to explore all the theories of archaeologists working around the site and in connection with it to discern what had happened to the Djedefre's final resting place. I watched the program and there were many interesting elements that were helpful to me such as a brief history of Ancient Egyptian building techniques and their customs around the pyramid after the pharaoh had begun his journey into the afterlife.

Norwich Museum

On Dec 19th I visited Norwich Castle Museum. At the museum there wasn't really much on Ancient Egypt that I hadn't already read in various books however it did give me a chance to see some articles first hand and realize the size of some trinkets as well as mummies. There was also a sarcophagus there which was really good, most of the original paintwork and decoration remained intact and was good to get an idea at least of the size and how they might have looked. More than that though was what they might look like in the environment of my game, where they would have been for 3,000 years just like the ones in the museum. Before the end of term I want to try and get to the Fitz William museum in Cambridge as this has a lot more of the subject matter that I want to look at.

Research Documents...

I have decided to do individual research documents and reviews for each of the games and films that I am using rather than one big document containing everything. This will make for better organistion when I put my work on the server as well as a more indepth analysis of each article.

Costume thoughts...

So that myself and people who are looking at my game idea can get an idea of what I want Edward to look like I have done some costume research. It is much better to have some visual aid when describing what a character or anything should look like than having nothing as every persons mind will surely come up with something different. These are the characters that i have been looking at to make an image of what my character might look like.

1. Richard 'Rick' O'Connell ( Brendan Fraser) from The Mummy 1999

The second is Indiana Jones from the series of films (1981 -2008) starring Harrison Ford.

I am looking at these to character purely from a costume point of view, although the characters of each are very intriguing i want to create a character that will fit into the world that I will create, although taking inspiration from these has been very helpful in no way am I actually trying to copy the personality of these characters within my own. These are just two examples in a wider picture, just so people can get an idea as to what kind of looks i want my charater to have costume wise.

My Main Character

At first glance, yes, Edward seems a mundane name for a game character. It also may seem that no thought has gone into this at all but that is not the case. First of all there arnt many archeologists with fancy names like Sir Zeliek or Baron Rivendare, most are normal every day names like Howard or Arthur and i wanted my character to be no exception to this. Having an everyday name makes him seem more like an everyday person eventhough he is not in an everday situation. The main character in Silent Hill 2 is called James Sunderland and even though he is not in a normal everyday situation withing the game, you dont control him going to work or parking his car, the name strengthens that games themes and help us as a person connect with the character more. At least that is my opinion, im sure there are other takes on this which I intend to look into, but I tried to think that if I had not been designing the game, if I had been playing it what would make the story and characters some alive more for me. This is also another reason why I have been playing the games like Silent Hill in order to discern how this choice affects the games story and our connection with it.

Archeology

Obviously there is much more to Archeology than one man on his own plundering about it a foreign country looking for treasure. I want my game to have a certain amount of realism within it as well as all the supernatural that will occur during the story. So I have begun researching the cultural and governmental issues that surround high profile archeological finds, probably the most famous exmaple to give would be the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings on 4th November 1922. There are other examples however, although not in Egypt the discovery of Minoan palace at Knossos and the issues surround certain parts of its reconstruction. All of this I have gone into detail in my research document.

Characters

Although I want to focus primarily on environment design, my game must have interesting and appealing character that the player interacts with. In the game i dont want to have some kind of super hero character who takes on armies by himself, but rather one who is clever and resourceful. I have many ideas floating about at the moment as to how to portray my character and the story that will surround him. For a start he is an archeologist who is still searching for his big discovery.
Throughout his life he has always been in the wrong place at the wrong time and been unlucky with digsites, however this is all about to change. Upon again finding a tomb in an unchartered area of the Sahara Desert in Egypt, at first glance into the chambers that have been excavated, Edward thinks that he has just stumbled upon another plundered tomb but as he clears more of the sand and rubble that has blocked the tombs passages and chambers of years of flood and sandstorms the paintings on the wall become clearer. Could this be the find of his life?

Design Document

Today I finished compiling my game document, I started writing this at the beginning of the term and it covers all of the design aspects of my game. I decided to keep it as a design document and not as a technical document as its is the elements of design that I want to focus on, at least for the moment. I have compiled the areas that I cover in my design document from two resources, two similar design document set ups both of which were given to me buy NUCA handbooks, the first entitled Tinymonkeys Sandcastle Summer is signifacntly older and therefore could be more dated this is why I chose to reference another document and add some other chapters into my document. The second reference was from the handbook Games Art & Design Level 2 compiled from many different sources by Chris Lowthorpe, though I only used one section of this which was the one referenceing the game document and how to go about creating one effectivly.

Other Games...

As well as the two mentioned below I have spent the past week and a half playing through some other games that I thought had some very interresting aspects to them. These were; Wild 9, Descent 2, Morrowind, Soul Reaver 2 and Gears of War. All these games may seem vastly different at first look but it wasnt the actual gamplay or themes that I wanted to concentrate on more the way in which that particular game had achieved something that I wanted to make work in my game, in Gears of War for example it was the detailed environments that i was looking at and the design of them which make the fairly mundane story alot more interesting for the gamer to play through. This isnt to say that the story to my game will be mindane in any way but as I am focussing primarily on environment design I need the ones that i create to be just as engaging.

Atmosphere

The next thing that I have been looking into in alot of detail has been atmosphere within games and it is created with the environments and the other elements that are present within that particular part of the game. For example the camera angle, the music and the ambient noises that we can hear.
A perfect example of this is Silent Hill, in every way all the games in this series create a deep and engaging atmosphere, this is made up of many different elements as well as those that i have stated above.
The atmosphere is clear even in these two screenshots of parts in the game and this is without any sound at all. In my research document I go into more detail about how this is effective and the way in which it enriches the gamplay to make the game much more enjoyable.

Levels and Design

Here are some screen shots of parts of levels that I have been paying particular attention to. The focus of some of these is the level itself where as in others it is more of the atmosphere created within that part of the game that I want to show. Although it will be hard to describe what is going on with the sound other atmosphere creating noises and changes hopefully the screen shots will illustrate some of what i am researching and trying to achieve in my games creation.

1. Level Design research: Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider has been my main line of research into the interactivity and level design that I want to have in my game. It has very interactive environment elements where the whole focus of that game is to navigate the main character, Lara Croft, through the tombs and ancient ruins that lay in her way.The combat within Tomb Raider is also built in to the exploration of the environments, i would like to try to incorporate this element into my game as well. This shows the combat style of the game as well as the setting of the Egyptian level that is in the game.

Again from Tomb Raider: Anniversary this screen shot shows one of the integrated puzzles within the environment with the solution. This is also from the Egyptian environment level and the way that the authentic art of the Ancient Egyptians has also been integrated within it.



In this picture we can see some of the way that the environments work. Ledges that can be climbed and shimmied along are all around the map. As well as the route that the player is meant to progress in there are also other route which may lead to secrets for hidden items. This makes game play much less linear. I have gone into all of the aspects of the Tomb Raider series in much more depth in my research document.


Next after environment navigation and design needs to come atmosphere. My games survival horror atmosphere will differ a lot from that of the Tomb Raider series.

The World of Games...

Over the past couple of weeks I have been looking at films and playing games that relate to the theme of my game. As well as this I have looked at games from the same genre. The main focus of my research and game play has been on the Tomb Raider series and I am conducting an in depth analysis of the elements that make the game interesting for us to play. In short the main point of the games focusing is on navigating the environment and getting Lara to her goal, what she is searching for. Although the main focus of the game remains to navigate the puzzles and the environment in Lara's way it is the search that keeps us engaged. A simple story with a simple goal yet with intriguing and engaging levels and environments. This is what I need to develop in my games concept.

Imagining Egypt

Although it has been a while since my last post I have done a significant amount more research into the culture and some of the layouts of ancient Egyptian tomb architecture. I have looked at books to do with this and one book that I am reading at the moment is Imagining Egypt by Mark Millmore which gives a very simple yet insightful look at some of the myths that the Egyptians had about their Gods and also a lot about their culture. It also goes into some detail regarding clothing and many other aspects of their everyday lifestyle. All of this information will be necessary if i want to make a successful recreation within my game world.

An Overview

The game I want to make this year will be a survival horror as I have always been a huge fan of games like Silent Hill and Alone in the Dark. As well as having the enjoyment to create something that I am really interested in, it will provide interesting challenges such sa creating atmosphere and evoking emotions within the player.
Here is a basic overview of my game idea, this is not the final idea and it might change a bit over the upcoming weeks but this is what I have so far. The story will be based around archeology and the discovery of tomb relics as well as the explorations of the tombs themselves. The story will begin with the main character Edward exploring an amazing new Ancient Egyptian tomb with his team of archeologists, however all is not as it seems and on the tomb lies a terrible curse. After finding the main burial chamber Edward realizes that his team has completely disappeared (not thought up how this can happen as yet, but there will be a reason) and he is alone in the depths of the complex. The aim of the game will then be to get Edward out of the tomb and the surround burial complex. At first look this seems a relatively simple game with a predictable story however, the curse will manifest itself in different ways throughout the game, environments may change to help or hinder the player’s progress.
One of the main points about this game will be that a lot of the focus will be on the environments and not on the character, although there will be a certain amount of character development, it will be more driven towards using the environment to your advantage.
The game will have a very strong sense of psychological horror; there will not be lots of gore lying around like in Clive Barker’s: Jericho as personally, I think this was ineffective at causing fear within the player, however there maybe some occasional places where you find a fellow archeologist killed. The game will most likely be targeted at player age 15 and above, and I hope it will appeal to both genders due to the horror aspect of the game play over the gore factor (I need to do some more research into this perhaps in the form of a survey.)

So far ...

In the weeks prior to setting up this blog I have been getting together all the ideas for my games story and setting as well as some idea of the mechanics and how it will play. I have written out my ideas on the all areas of my game in a mini game bible. This contains all the aspects of the game that I want to consider in a small amount of detail just so I can get a basic overview of what I am trying to accomplish.

In the beginning....

Hi, my name is Geoff, I am currently a student at Norwich University College of the Arts (NUCA) studying Games Art and Design, I am in my BA year and this blog will serve as the dairy in which I record all the steps that I make during my progress throughout the year. During the first term I will be doing research in to my subject area which is Ancient Egypt. This will mostly consist of visiting museums and gathering secondary resources as due to the instability of the country at this time visits to thier monumental accomplishments will be risky. Please feel free to post anything you think may be of use or helpful to me throughout the course of the year, this is my first blog and im still getting used to it but hopefully that wont take to long.