March 2016 – Digital Media

March 24, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Extended Timeline of Output Format (Post Proposal Submission)

Week 8 – Research for Text Adventure Games – (Complete)

During week 8 I decided to further explore examples of Text Adventure games and how I could use this to influence my own creative decisions. I decided to look at some of the very first text adventure games and the impact they had as a new medium, I looked at design elements and general aesthetics I could use to make my game feel more of the era, whilst still maintaining a new and fresh appeal to it. The few notable examples of text adventure games are: Zork, AdventureLand and Amnesia, these three games only really scratch the surface in terms of the influence for game design they’ve had on Antillion Text Adventure.

All concept work for the text adventure game uses a very old computer and binary style font, similar to something you’d see in The Matrix or the Pip-Boy from Fallout 3. This was an intentional choice as most of the text adventure games from the particular era they’re from all use this style.

As it’s quite apparent the visuals bare a strong resemblance to the examples mentioned, me and the other group member decided this was an important aesthetic to follow for our game as most old-school text adventure games used to have this, not out of choice, but out of the less strain this used to have on PC’s.

Week 9 – Further Website Development – (Complete)

During week 8 & 9 I made further progress with the development of the Muse website, towards completion of the project before April 15th. During this time I polished the home page and added supporting graphics and I also added a lot more substantial information on the Development page. I decided to change the font to a web font which Muse had installed, web fonts reduce load times and overall just look much better for an online display format, the font used prior was 8bit and it was mostly illegible on the pages, so I decided that rather than trying to force it to work I would take careful consideration towards other alternatives.
Also important to note is the colour differential, despite all the work done prior and research into the green old-school font, I found that it’s far more painful to look at with the web fonts I had to use and so I decided to settle for a complimentary colour to the Green which is like a neon/cyan blue. The blue is much softer to look at close up and also makes for a nice overall theme with the Green, Black and Other colours.

Week 10 – Implementation of Design Elements – (Complete)

To make the website look and feel more furnished I decided to add some pre-made Muse widgets, these were a gallery to showcase development imagery and also a detailed contact form for the contact page. Overall I feel as though this adds some variation to just the standard text that was only there beforehand. Adding these last touches to the website pretty much marked its completion, with only a little room for polishing and tweaks to make it fully operational.

Week 11 – Finalised Website – (Complete)

After some slight tweaks to the layout of the website and changing some assets to have fixed positioning so that they don’t stretch and compensate for the size of the browser, the website was wrapped up entirely. From there I uploaded the site to an Adobe Business Catalyst server which has the website officially hosted for free.

http://www.AntillionTextAdventure.businesscatalyst.com

March 15, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Finalised Website – Output Format 1

After working on the website for a couple of weeks and polishing some minor details the website was finally completed, it features 4 pages all with different content; The Home page offers a brief summary regarding Antillion and what they are, Story page features information regarding the game and a gallery showcasing another output format which are screenshots and menu’s from the game, the development page links to the development wordpress blogs and finally the Contact page has a detailed contact form where information can be submitted to receive news and updates regarding the game.

Overall I feel as though this website is a strong supporting output format for the game whilst maintaining similar aesthetics too.

If there is anything I would say regarding improvements it would be to make full usage of the page sizes by perhaps creating more supporting material, I feel as though some of the space and potential for the website is taken up with minimal information, which is overall degrading towards the final output quality

March 8, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Week 8 – Further Output Development

Initially for the website I wanted something that felt thematically appropriate whilst still fulfilling its purpose of explaining the game, the design approach I took initially looked great, however the fonts and layout I had chosen didn’t look too great for the website, so I decided to start from scratch. For the website I focused on clarity and simplicity, I didn’t want it to be too fancy because I felt as though this wouldn’t represent the game very well. This is the reason for a solid black background with a simplistic blue font, it’s easily legible, and looks somewhat similar to the game itself.

The screenshots below showcase the layout approach I took for the website and also placeholder imagery where I will later implement features, also something to note is that I had multiple problems with the different fonts I was using which is why everything is highlighted and is something I will later look into in order to fix it.

Overall I like the initial layout and some of the potential features that I can add to the website, thus far I feel as though it’s a great starting point for further development.

March 1, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Workshop 7 – Output 1 Early Development

During week 7 I decided to w0rk towards creating one of my output formats for the Antillion Text Adventure this output formats was a website. After working on Muse the week prior I decided it would act as a good chance to get further practice with the software and so I decided to create a rough version of a website which I could work on further until the output format was ready and polished towards week 12 in April.

When making the website I decided to use the same font we had used for the R&D file, the font is 8-Bit Pusab and it’s the main text for game, which is why it feels thematically appropriate for the website. I decided to add an about and a development page for the game, although they don’t link to anything in particular right now, my plan is to have them link to both of the developers blogs whilst also being informative if people don’t want to read through all the blog posts. Overall I feel as though the direction I’m taking and the design aesthetic I’m going for is the closest match for the actual game which strengthens the overall website itself.