Game Design and Game Packaging Design
There are three parts we will discuss in the article. The first part is how to develop a game,
and we will discuss how to design game story, we will also explain how the coding worked in the
game engine and how to create an art resource for the game. The second part is how to package a
game, we will create a logo for the game, and we will also talk about what the official game website
look like and we will design a derivative product of the game. The third part is what will be
represented in the gallery, and there are three things will be shown in gallery. They are the game,
website and gift card for the game.
Story Design
First, we need to discuss how to select a background story for the game. The selection of
game background story is significant, and it will directly affect the setting of world view. Each
game will have a background story, but a good game's background story is always excellent. For
example, the history of "World of Warcraft" include vibrant background stories. There are many
terrains and races with numerous stories in the background story of "World of Warcraft," which
derived a lot of "Warcraft" series of game products and even movies. In this game development,
the game background story is: The monster of "Nian" will attack villages at the midnight of the
end of every year in legend ancient times. The villages occupied by the beasts suffered brutal
massacres. The monster will eat all of the heads as food after the massacre. The beast will pretend
to leave the village and turn back to killing survivors in order to prevent someone to escape from
cheating or lucky, even the baby and children are immune.
We will design what happens in the game, which needs to base on the background stories.
First, there is a short animation which created by Aftereffect to show the game history before game
start. All the image will be created by photoshop. At the beginning of the game, the player will get
quest when talking to NPC (None-Player-Character). Player need to finish the quest as described
text. In this time, we will create a demo version of the game, So the game content for the player
will be cut. A player will accept some quests in the village, and there are some missions need to
kill monsters in Forest scene which is the second scene. Player need to finish those quest by kill
some enemy.
Player will control a particular character as the main character in the game all the time.
There are two types of characters will play with the player. The first one is NPC which could give
quests and rewards to a player. The second one is monsters. Player need to kill them for complete
some quests.
Coding
We will know what functions we need to develop after we finish the game design part. We
will list all the functions we need to develop. The entire game system is divided into the following:
skill system, equipment system, inventory system, quest system, item system, enemy system, level
system, battle system and NPC system. Development engineer will not share with some functions
which hard understand and complicated, such as quest system, monster system. But there are some
functions which are really simple, which will be shared with readers because working with the
Blueprint which is a visual coding language in Unreal Engine 4 (A Game Engine) is a really
interesting thing.
The whole function flow diagram in the following(Fig.01), which is a part of the level
system. The level system will upgrade player's level depending on the amount of experience player
has already got. There are two colors of lines in the flow diagram. The white line is executing line
which will active from left to right usually. There is a node will be active from the white line,
which is Set Current Xp Node. The green line is float line, the only data type is the float in the
green line.
We also need to explain some variables in the following(fig.02-03): Added Xp : This is
a amount of experiences player got from kill monster or finish quest. Current Xp : This is the
experiences player already got.
Here we introduce the logic of programming. (Fig.01) Added Xp will get the experiences
when player kills enemies or complete quest. There is a plus node (symbol is +). Plus, node will
calculate the sum from Added Xp and Current XP. There is a green point on the right side of plus
node, which is called return value. What the return value has now is the sum of Added Xp and
Current Xp. The white line from Add Xp and active the node of Set Current Xp, which is the
function to give new value to the variables of Current Xp. The new value is the return value of
plus node. Finally, Current Xp become the sun of Added Xp and Current Xp (old one). There is a
really easy to understand the logic of programming, which is (old) Current Xp + Added Xp = (new)
Current Xp. So that player's experience has been increased.
Art Resources
Every game will contain a lot of art resources which is the most intuitive way to feel the
game. Making art resource will affect the game's picture style and game optimization. Game
optimization is trying to decrease the amount of polygons on an item in order to reduce computer
resource consumption.
We will see how to build a floor from nothing to the game. At first, We will create an
exquisite model, which will have a lot of the amount of polygons and details (Fig. 04-05).
Exquisite model is also called High-Polygons (HP) in 3D Modeling as same as HighResolution(HR) in Graphic Design. HP(High-Polygons) will not only improve the exquisite degree
of the model but also increase the consumption of CPU. There is another type of model which is
called Low-Polygons(LP). Low-Polygons(LP) will only keep the basic shape of HP but without
details which makes the amount of polygons are really low(Fig.06). Designer bakes the detail maps
from HP and then put the details map on LP. The detail map is called Normal map(fig.07-08).
Using the magic normal map, LP not only got the HP's details but also decreased the amount of
polygon face, which is called game optimization. The letter of H is HP, the letter of L is LP with
normal map(Fig.09). It's really hard to distinguish which one has more details. The designer will
import LP in Substance Designer which is a name of a texture software to design the texture.
Finally, we will get four textures from texture software. They are Base color which affects the
color of the item, Normal map which affects the details of the item, Roughness map which affect
the smoothness of the item and Metallic map which affect the metallic sense of the item(fig.10).
We import LP and texture to the game engine. We will create a fantastic material from four textures
we created in texture software by Material Editor. Material Editor is an editor in the Unreal Engine
4(fig. 11). We will finally see how the floor look likes in the game world(fig.12).
Game Logo Design
A game logo is a media which delivers integrated information of the game. Game Logo
always is used on the website, advertisement and videos. Game Logo need include the game
features and form a certain product visual symbols. A good game logo not only could deliver game
information to a player but also attract player's attention. When I design a game logo, I will keep
some rules in the following.
First, Logo needs to express game property. Logo also needs to deliver game information
when a player first saw it. Let's look other game logo design. There is four Gunfighting game's
logos(Fig). The design elements for those logos have already obviously delivered game attribute
to a player which is gun-fighting game. Although the design elements are different between those
logos, they all have the basic FPS (First Person Shooting game) elements, which are metal and
tough shape. There are three western classic fantasy game logos(fig.17-19). Although those logos
are quite different, they are an acute angle and chamfering and elegant elements, which could
clearly delivery game attributes. There are four Chinese ancient game logos(Fig.20-23). We find
there are two common elements in the four logos design. Chinese calligraphy and Ink elements
could express those game related to Chinese game style.
Second, Logo needs to identification quickly. There are two advantages in the two
designs(fig.24-25). There is a stroke around the name of the game, which makes game name text
have strong identification. Background Image and the text of name are clearly contrasted, which
makes the name and the background easier to distinguish.
Third, a Game logo needs to have different versions in order to adapt different background
color(fig.26-28). In this logo design, there are three versions of the logo. We can use them in
different background color for better performance.
Forth, Logo needs to look good with excellent quality(fig.29-30). Game Logo doesn't need
to fantasy but needs to have good quality.
Game Official Website Design
The web pages will be created in Photoshop, and then will import it to Dreamweaver for
cutting and coding with HTML+CSS. JavaScript will be built in for visual effects, and there should
be will a simple shopping cart program which will get the game copy for free. There are six pages
will be displayed on the website. There is the home page, news page, shopping page, features page,
roadmap page and the extra value page. News page will display some the newest update contents
for the game recently, even if there are no enough news. There are two versions of the games on
the shopping page. One of them is PC regular edition, and the other is PC VR version. All the
prices for them are free. The game will be easy to add to shopping cart and checkout without card
information needed. Features page will focus on what functions the game had and will be present
as pictures and text. Roadmap page will show what will be added in the game in the future. It will
be based on the Calendar. Store page will allow a player to buy some extra items or abilities. The
function for the page will be fulfilled in future.
Game Gift Card Design
The game gift card is a derivative product of the game. There is two side on the gift cards.
In the front face, the designer will put the game logo in the center and will change the background
color depending on the value of the gift cards. The value of the gift card will also be shown in the
top left corner. There is a claim code at the back side of the gift card. Gift card policy and expired
date will also be shown on the back face of the gift card. The gift card side should be 8.5cn x
5.5cm. The gift card will be as same style as the Amazon gift card(fig.31-32).
Project in gallery
The Final body of work may need some space in the Gallery. VR equipment needs some
space to developed, which needs at least 1.5m x 2m, for best performance would need 3m x 4m.
The designer will also need to bring a desktop in the gallery, which will calculate video signal to
VR device. The final art work will show on the VR device. A visitor will need to wear the VR
head mounted display to see what in the game world as the first-person view. Player will use
controllers to interact with everything in the game. Player will also see many buildings, trees, and
monsters in the game. The project Goal will relate to the theme because what was designed in the
theme would be shown in the project goal.
For the Website, The Web Page will be printed and mount on a form board with color. For
the Gift Card: Gift Card will be printed as a real gift card.
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