Post Two: Reference Material [Part One]

I am obtaining materials to use as a reference point and also as research into similar products. This will help me find out how real companies brand thier products, and how the games are meant to appear and be played.
Note I am choosing all Game Boy platform games, as I intend to go for the retro 'pixelated' look, and these games are perfect for the job.

First on the list, are the pokémon games. These will be my main reference point.

Here, I have the original box art for the first two games, which were released together. Key features are:
- Pokémon Red has a Red appearance to it
- Pokémon Blue has a Blue appearance to it
- Both games feature logo at top, company logo at base of box, and game's age rating to the bottom left.
- Left fifth of box art displays the game's platform, being the Nintendo Game Boy

Here, is the game's battle system.
Key features to note are:
- Commands bottom right
- Both players have health and level values
- Top right is opponent, looking at bottom left
- Bottom left if the player, looking top right
- Player sprite in bottom left's pixels are at 2x size

And finally, from the pokémon games is the 'overworld' system. Key features here are:
- Simplistic cartoon graphics
- Pixelated look
- Viewed from a omniscient perspective
- Character speech dialogues
- Tile based movement
- Walls, Colision detection

Next on the list is a game in the Final Fantasy Series, Final Fantasy VI (Six).

To the right is the box art, and I chose to feature this due to being much more simplistic. Key features:
- Logo is centered
- Only the logo is in colour
- Background uses a 'sketched' style or art
- Like the Pokémon games, base of box features the company logos
- Bottom left again features the age rating
- Game's platform fills the left fifth of the art, this time Game Boy Advance

Here I have Final Fantasy VI's battle system. The key features are:

- Four character gameplay
- Character 'classes'; meaning each character can do thier own skills
- Colour graphics: this is not what I intend to match, but this is here for reference purposes nonetheless.
- Open battlefeild, where players arent locked at one angle in one place.

Finally, to the left is Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, which is a port of the Playstation game Final Fantasy Tactics to the Game Boy Advance. Key features of the Box art:
- Crisp, colourful graphics center lower on box
- Logo near top, same style as other games in the same series
- Company logos at base of box again
- Age rating at base of box, but it is to the right, not the left.
- Again, the left fifth of the art is covered by the game's platform, being as previously mentioned, Game Boy Advance

This is the battle system in this game. Differences here are that it is a tactical game based heavily on position in the map, and is liek chess combined with Final Fantasy VI. Key features:
- Isometric Graphics - the angle in which the graphics are drawn. makes the game appear 3D when it isn't.
- Pixelated look
- Health and commands at bottom of page, like all other games previously mentioned.


Now that I've analysed imagery from 3 games, here is some footage of Pokémon. I will note below each clip what I like and what I can use in my own work.




Above is the intro clip.
- Branding: Look at Game Freak title.
- Throw you in the game, show in a short period of time what the game is about.
- Sound effects based on the motions you see in the clips






Above is a video showing off the Battle System.
- Commands bottom left
- Animations
- Computer retaliates with their own decisions.
- A 'Console' bottom left, describes what just happened in a simplistic way to make the game more user-friendly







Above we see the player walking around and showing the transition from overworld view to battling.
- omniscient perspective overworld view
- Pixelly Graphics
- Stylised characters
- Interact with people around you
- Tile based walking ('square movements' - where you can only go on the set 'squares' avaliable.


Overall, I feel I shall attempt to mimic the retro feel of the game, and the same type of gameplay by putting the following features in my game:
- Turn based battle system
- Using the same style music / sounds (Chiptune / 8-bit)
- Making the graphics both greyscale and have a pixel-perfect look about them
- Overworld view level/maps.
- Tile based movement