These are going in the 'Make Your Own Beastie' box.

First Beastie

He looks... Pretty rubbish, but he's suppose to, its a 'mock up' of the design for the 'sales pitch'.

Notes on 4th Dec:

• ·      Mock up of one level to show from slide to slide what happens.
• ·      Show how a level works as it is under a bed and would mean it should be extremely short.
• ·      Show more random put together Beasties, that don’t match etc.
• ·      Add level walkthrough to concept doc and delete page numbers and jpegs.
• ·      Talk to Ben and Mark – Blog.
• ·      Possibly Flash section of a level to show.

Comic Book Covers

Keeping the same cover but the comics only change is the name of each comic, the idea being these would come out regular and all look like this. Inspired by children's books that do the same.

Update:

So I have finished the concept document and i'm now making a start on the first of 2 comics. Ive roughly drawn out the first comic so I know what i'm doing for that, I don't know what the second one will be like yet, I have forgotten my rough sketched out first comic so I cant work on that today (i'm in uni) so today i'll come up with the second comic.
I'll also start the sales pitch soon and I need to buy everything I need for the merchandise, which I may do this weekend.

Customisation Examples

I'm working on the concept document now, i've written everything up in Word so now I need to make a nice looking document in Photoshop.
I was thinking I need to do level over views but as its a side scroller I'll just use level examples.

Level One Examples:

At the start of the game the player will be told what to do each time he or she encounters something they haven't done before, jumping etc. Here I have shown what happens when your beastie passes through an item to be collected and what happens if the beastie touches something sharp.

Here you can see what happens when the Beastie jumps on something bouncy and comes across a collectible.

Here you can see what happens when the Beastie gets hurt. He tumbles, skids and loses a life.

Updated Menu Shots:

In game inventory:

Menu Shots

To Do!

• Draw out examples of each 4 levels.
• Shots of the start and end animations.
• Examples of games mechanics.
• Shots of the in game inventories.
• Start pause and death screens.

• Compile into a concept doc.
• Add initial beasties through to progress and final Beasties.
• Game overview, USPs, Mechanics, Controls etc.

• Make 2 Beasties.
• Make 'make your own Beastie box'.
• Make 2 comics.

• Make sales pitch.
• Layout banner.

Last 20 of 20 Beasties!

15 of 20 FINAL Beasties

10 Out Of 20 Final Beasties

My Final 5 Out Of 20

My chosen 20.

They need finalising now to make them totally customisable so i'll do that and annotate. Then i'll draw them from another angle.

Doodles/Ideas

Last lot of potential Beasties

Another Beastie board.

Another page of potential Beasties, one more to go then I can choose a final 20.

My New Beasties

More to come!

I then have to choose the ones that would customise the best, as they need to be fully customisable.

Putting the Beasties together ideas.

Here I was just looking at the ways you could put the limbs on the body, with either buttons or velcro. I think a more cute look would be buttons. I also have noted down a zip around the bottom of the body so the Beastie has an interchangeable head. So in the game the child could change the material, colour or pattern whenever. I shall sketch down a more official way of showing these ideas for my concept document.

Beastie Progress

A more child friendly way to attach the arms and legs, plus it also means they are interchangeable, is using buttons, velcro, or a zip to connect the limbs. Even the head.
I also need to think about, when I choose my characters, they need to have been designed with arms that can be detached plus some have fur, which may not be ideal as you don't tend to get furry socks.
This also ties in with the fact the children can change the arms and legs etc during the game as they collect more material etc.

unknown,13/04/2012,zip and match modular plush animals,http://www.geekalerts.com/zip-and-match-modular-plush-animals/

Above is an plush found called Clump-O-Lumps for children that you can change, if you have the other animals say, you could put a Sharks head onto this bird.

New Character Ideas

I realised that straight away I was making my creatures into already existing animals, unable to break the habit, so I really stripped it back and tried to make characters from simple shapes as shown below.

This then led to coming up with the characters I am now using...

More ideas!

When the Beastie gets hurt, I initially thought some stuffing could start to come out, until say, an arm falls off, leaving the Beastie to find new objects to make an arm. This may be a little too gruesome though, so perhaps it should just kind of jump and say 'ouch' and lose some objects collected, with a little amount of time to grab what its lost until they fade away (A little like Sonic) I think a mesh of these few ideas may work as kids like a little gruesome stuff sometimes, I remember watching 'Grizzly Tales For Gruesome Kids' and Goosebumps' when I was little.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WEVhF372XE

Another thought was that as beds are quite small , it gives only a small amount of a level, so somehow I need to think how the Beastie would create a 'portal' to other kids beds, perhaps where they can collect things not found under the previous bed, such as dinosaurs under one and lego under another.
Each bed could be one level each.

I need to amend my project plan and now and re submit it!

Still make the merch, the box of 'make your own Beastie' merch can be used as an example of the customisation in the project plan.
I also need a small section on the numbers from Moshi Monsters, what they started on, how they gained more money, how they grow every year. Then touch upon how it will be similar for my game.

I need to show how the Beastie will get hurt and examples of what happens, plus start and pause menus and an example of the ending animation of the Beasties leaving for Socktopia, before that I need to show how you would see all your found items so the kid can put whatever it wants together to make the ship seen in the ending animation.

To Do:
Draw more characters
Scan and paint
Choose 20
2 Poses for each
Draw, scan and paint accessories, materials and patterns
Draw, scan and paint level examples
The Portal
It entering the next room/level
When it gets hurt and loses items
Merch examples in Photoshop

All this is in the concept doc

For the Pitch Doc-
Moshi monsters numbers ( speak of them being competition)
How mine will be similar, game numbers and merch numbers, growth, why I should be invested in.

Quick Game Example

A very simple platform game based under a child's bed. At the top of the page you can see a Beastie thats supposed to jump on the teddy, collect the glue stick then jump over the football.
Underneath you see your Beastie coming across another Beastie (based on more forgotten socks) in which case they tell a silly joke as it is for kids. They then go past the lego (i'll call it blocks) where you collect one lego at a time for your space ship building collection.

The Beastie moves by shuffling and jumping.
The Beasties will sound like gobbledegook when they talk to each other.

The Beasties Game!

Ok so the Beasties are made up of socks forgotten under your bed, their goal is to get to Socktopia. The player must do this by first off making their beastie from various socks and buttons etc and they then go on to play a small platform game where they have to collect parts to make the space ship, there will be various items collected so you can make the spaceship look how you would like it to look. Once all the pieces have been collected it will be the end of the game, it will then cut to showing you the items collected and you drag them together to make your space ship, once you decide on your ship, it will show the Beasties flying to Socktopia.
More games will be made from the success of this one, the focus being the merchandise as the games will stay small an simple.

Sexism

Ive googled kids games where they care for an animal and every thing coming up is 'caring games for girls' 'games for girls' 'Cute kitty games' Arrghhh! Some girls love climbing trees and playing in mud too you know, and some lads would love to look after a kitten. This angers me and is one of the reasons why I wanted to be in the games industry, its so bloody sexist.

Game Ideas

OK so an idea I quite like is, as my Beasties look like the sock creatures people can make, perhaps they are made up of all the lost socks in peoples houses - or kids bedrooms we can say as its a kids game, and they need to get back to their home world Socktopia.
Why do I feel like i've gone mad.

More Thoughts.

So now I have decided my Beasties will take on a craft looking theme, setting it apart form Moshi monsters so its not so similar and tying in with the name, I need to rethink the game, giving the characters skills is proving difficult but as I said they will have them in the project plan I will keep trying to include them.
The Beasties world will also look crafty and stitched, not like Little Big Planet but with the nature of the game, this helps give it its own identity. I am trying to think of a game that ties in with the craft theme, even considering it teaching children how to stitch, then the Beastie they choose skill could be stitch, crochet or knit for example and depending on the Beastie they choose they will learn this but that seems not fun enough so I don't think ill set out to teach anything so I am back to the drawing board on game ideas. Everyone thought the skills seemed pointless as I do not want a battle system but I thought the game may seem boring without skills so I insisted and now its a nightmare.
I need to Email and to see if I can amend the skills I said my characters would have and if I can even get away with taking out the skills by stating why in the evaluation.

Beasties design style decided!

Ok so after sketching a bunch of ideas down I came across a style that I thought not only did it validate the name Beasties, it would go perfectly with the putting together your own Beastie theme. They are going to be like little frankenstein creatures, they will look like mish mash put together little creatures, the designs will look mix media, such as buttons for eyes and felt and fur materials for the body. This will also work for the merch, such as the teddy I intend to make and the make your own Beastie box.

This will also help me create my creatures as there is plenty of scope to make lots of designs but it still helps give me focus and direction.
I still need to decide on a game though.

Another thing....

I wanted my Beasties to have skills, as I don't want a battle system I will research the games Moshi Monsters have to get my own idea from that. As this is still the vaguest part of my project.

Revising my honours idea:

After having a talk with Ben to help refine my idea, he thought it that it may not be wise to limit my characters to 4 groups, such as Farm, Domestic, Jungle and Fantasy. I was then going to produce 5 characters in each group. We talked it through and this seemed to limit ideas.
I will also provide a 15-20 page concept document to show off the game, characters and their skills and settings as well as a sales pitch with the merchandise.
I must look at how games like Moshi Monsters make their money, I like the idea of having a free to play game as it is for children and the money is made through the merchandise and advertising.
It would be a good idea to have a group of 'established' characters, such as those seen in advertisements for Moshi Monsters but the children can make their own in the game.
This will still be shown in the merchandise I plan to make such as the make your own Beastie gift box.
I will create body parts all separate so it can be totally a new creation if the child likes or they can use an established character, but they can change their colour and pattern.
I must make a physical prototype so people can make their own in my sales pitch.

So I think I shall still make 20 established characters but I will also present various body parts too, perhaps 5 sets of arms, eyes, ears, legs, body shape, head shape, mouth, paws and 10 sets of patterns and colours.

Instead of making my established characters look like a farm animal or a jungle animal I will now only provide say, the pattern from a cow or the horns from a fantasy character, leaving a larger scope for creativity.

So now in my sketchbook you will see my inital ideas like the farm characters through to deciding this way of creating Beasties will be best.

Farm-Horse

There will be 5 in each group, this is the last of the farm group.

Farm-Chicken

I actually found a bird quite hard to do, I needed it to look like a chicken and I think thats actually quite hard, so I wondered if a cockerel would be better as it would be a more obvious farm bird.

Farm-Sheep

The fourth image down is my favourite. Again, I must think about what skills suit a sheep, as with all my animals I want their skills to almost make sense, to suit the animal.

Farm-Pigs

With all my designs I'm thinking, what skill would this animal have? What kind of personality, as I think as well as being able to change the eyes and colour etc, the character you choose will have set skills and personality. As well as a set look before changing anything.

Farm-Cows

 Thinking up initial designs.

Refining my ideas down, I liked two from the above image, the only thing thats was a problem is the fact my game is called 'The Beasties' these arent very beastie like. thought the first few images on the top image are more monster like but with inspiration from a cow. I prefer my cows from the above image so even though my game is called The Beasties I think I will use the cow second from the top from the above image.

Music

The game will have to feature music for the background, pause and start menus. Maybe even effects for things like when another Beastie wants to talk or if a skills used.
Which reminds me the game needs design examples of these screenshots.
This will only be touched upon in the pitch document though and not made.

More Thoughts

I also need to think about how the game would make money. Do I want there to be an initial fee and then the game is complete? Or to make the game free and to create revenue from items bought in the game or DLC. Or like Club Penguin, create revenue by making the basic game free but the larger game has a fee.
As its a small children's game I want to keep it simple in every way.
I also want there to be communication between players in the game, to make this safe the players will only be able to talk choosing from predetermined multiple sentences.
Decision:
Revenue - Small fee when the game is purchased.
Communication - Sentences/answers/questions they can choose from.

Notes After the Presentation

After doing my presentation I found my idea needed more refinement. I need a much more clear idea of the game my Beatsies are from. It needs to be revised as the skills need to have more purpose as there is no battle system.
I also think I will have to show examples of the Beastie world in my pitch. Meaning I will have to come up with town names and gameplay examples.
Another thought was to make a section of the town with a few beasties in paper just to show a gameplay example. So this makes me think to I need to create more merch so that could be used to show gameplay, instead of paper.
So I need to think of a definite solid game with definite mechanics giving the Beasties skills more meaning.

The Beasties

—Each are from a particular group which are:

—Farm-characters are based on farm animals

—Jungle-characters are based on jungle animals

—Domestic-characters are based on domestic animals

—Fantasy-characters are based on fantasy animals

—Each will have its own skill based on its group such as:

—A farm creature could use mud as an attack

—A jungle creature could use rain

—A Domestic creature could use a scratch attack

—A fantasy creature could use fire

The Game

—The game is basic and small, like an iPhone game. The player chooses the creature from Farm, Jungle, Domestic or Fantasy and plays as this creature

—They can rename if they choose

—They can change the appearance such as:

—Eyes

—Teeth

—Ears

—Colour

—They then go on to have their own hut in a small village with the intention being to explore this village and talk to other beasties. The players do not battle in this game, their skills are used to grow food, decorate their home, eat and play. They also help others in the game, say if a fantasy fire creature needed mud from a farm creature to grow food.

—What makes the player return is the more they help others, the more places they can explore and they will gain more skills.

—Later on add ons will be created like more characters and more locations but my pitch is all about the initial game.

Introducing....

The Beasties

Ta Da. This is the name for my characters. 

Ive also decided the merch will be 2 small comics, a teddy Beastie and a make your own Beastie box full of parts to design your own.

Like this.

unknown,http://www.fredaldous.co.uk/stitch-it-donkey-kit.html

I thought this was interesting.

Unknown,failblog.org

Refining my idea:

I was wondering about themes for my characters. If they could all live in a certain place, say the sea, then they would be all sea life themed. Or completely made up and not look like anything like Moshi Monsters, or a variation of animals and insects like pokèmon. I think it may help me if my characters had a theme, coming up with a game idea might sort this out.

 Doodlings with a sea theme.

Refining My Idea.

A dragons den style pitch, a sales pitch which includes details of the game, which will be simple as the focus is on the art and merch. To actually have some merch like plushies and decals, some sort of way of showing who I'm pitching to how you can put various body parts together to make your own, get it looking really visual.
Something that gives it what no other honours project will have??

Looking at Pokèmon's merchandise.

Pokèmon is quite old now, and started of in 1996 with the game for the gameboy. From there the anime, merchandise and perhaps most famous of all the trading cards.

The merchandise is simply too huge to list as you can pretty much get anything with a Pokèmon theme.

Unknown, monthly musings revolutionary anime the aftermath of Pokemon in the USA,wwwjapanator.com

Diana Lee,01/10/2005,inside look at cute culture,www.uniorb.com

Theres even beans.

unknown,03/07/2010,old pokemon merchandise, www.pokecommunity.com

Unknown

And a grill. A grill.

unknown,www.ioffer.com

The much loved games.

unknown,12/04/2012,pokemon cards,www.kollectobil.com

Pokèmon cards, these took up much of your childhood if you grew up in the 90s.