Studio work: Traditional form - Concept drawings

Now that I have created an app idea, I have decided to draw some concept work for possible props in the game. Below are some drawings of shapes for possible bee hives, which will act as the setting of the game. I also sketched out some ideas for ways in which the bee can shoot at the honeycomb crust - from weapons such as slingshots, to larger machniery such as cannons. I decided that these weapons may be too realistic, considering the storyline is based around a honeybee, so I opted for basic-style 'pointer' shooters, which are easy to recognise and simple to create. 

Below are some quick sketches of possible shapes the main character could have for a body, head and it's wings. After researching similar games on the market, I discovered that the most common designs for bees in games were a simple sphere body and sphere head. I feel that this shape could work well as a design because it will allow the consumer to instantly recognise the character.

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Research: The honey bee

Before I started to draw and design my main character (Bumblee the bee) I decided to research bees, in particular, the honey bee. I thought this research would prove invaluable, as it would allow me to understand bees' lifestyles and different characteristics across the various species. 
I have underlined certain sentences because whilst researching about the honey bee, these sentences gave me ideas about my future concept. 


The honey bee: 

Honey bees are a subset of bees in the genus Apis, primarily distinguished by the production and storage of honey and the construction of colonial nests out of wax. 
Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the approximately 20,000 known species of bees. Some other types of related bees produce and store honey, but only members of the genus Apis are true honey bees.


Bees' jobs:

The only bees most people ever see are worker honeybees and they are all females. They forage for food, build and protect the hive. These bees are females that are not sexually developed. Workers forage for food (pollen and nectar from flowers), build and protect the hive, clean and circulate air by beating their wings.

Male bees are called 'drones'. Several hundred drones live in each hive during the spring and summer, but they are expelled for the winter months when the hive goes into a lean survival mode.

Bees live on stored honey and pollen all winter, and cluster into a ball to conserve warmth. Larvae are fed from the stores during this season and, by spring, the hive is swarming with a new generation of bees.

A healthy colony may contain 80,000 worker bees or more at its peak growth in early summer. 

Workers build and maintain the nest and care for the brood. 

The hexagonal cells constructed by the workers are arranged in a latticework known as the comb. The cells of the comb provide the internal structure of the nest and are used for storage of the developing young bees and all the provisions used by the colony. 

Comb used for storage of honey is called honeycomb. 

Workers leave the hive to gather nectar, pollen, water, and propolis, a gummy substance used to seal and caulk the exterior of the nest. They convert the nectar to honey, clean the comb, and feed the larvae, drones, and the queen. They also ventilate the nest and when necessary, defend the colony with their stings. Workers do not mate and therefore can not produce fertile eggs. They occasionally lay infertile eggs, which give rise to drones.

The anatomy of the honey bee:

For the anatomy of the bee, I found this image and an incredibly helpful website which details what parts of the bee help with in their day-to-day life. 


http://www.cyberbee.net/kids/bee.html#leg




Research taken from:
http://www.everythingabout.net/articles/biology/animals/arthropods/insects/bees/honey_bee/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_bee

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Research: Similar themed games on the market

Bumble Tumble:

Bumble Tumble is a physics-based game, in which the main player wants to collect money. Players have to turn the wheel and use the gears in order to make the honeycombs bash against each other and make the honey explode.

The graphics and bright use of colour work extremely well on this app, and has inspired me to use bright colouring in order to attract players' attention and add an element of 'fun' to the app.

Bumblebee Touchbook:

Bumblebee Touchpad is a great educational app that inspires young children to read more. Users can learn in a fun way by touching the words on the screen, then the app will say the word for the user. This game is definitely aimed at younger audiences, how ever a slight concern of mine is that this app suits a niche market and would have to be owned by a parent, as the chances of a toddler/young child owning an iPad is extremely slim. 

BumbleBomber:

BumbleBomber involves character 'Bumble' having to save the flowers from extinction by helping them through their pollen shortage. Players have to travel as far as possible (objective fits to my common convention game research in an earlier blog post: last the longest) and pollinate as many flowers as possible, whilst steering clear of obstacles such as 'bad flowers'. 

A strong point of this game is that it is simple, easy to use and has different game modes to suit many players' tastes. Using interactivity modes such as online highscores, and the option to beat your own best score, this app could be suggested as a strong game on the market in terms of 'bumble bee' themes.

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Conceptual work: Developing chosen idea for an app

After many thoughts about different themes, I felt most happy with my honey bee idea. I decided to brainstorm different jobs a honey bee might have to endure and ticked the ideas I had come up with that interested me the most.

The pages above are notes on different ideas I developed after choosing the honey bee theme. The iterative process took a while, as different problems arose with various ideas. For example, during my research I discovered a game on the market that was incredibly similar to mine, so I had to change my ideas again.

How ever, I feel that I have finally reached a conclusion to what game I shall be creating and how it will work. Below is a picture of a mindmap of my game app idea:

The story:

You play as young 'Bumblee' a honey bee that is keen to impress the rest of her hive. As Winter is fast approaching, the hive needs their supply of honey to live! Thankfully, a gigantic comb full of honey that was collected during the Spring is available for the hive, but a thick crust has formed around it! It is Bumblee's job to break the crust by firing honeycomb pellets from her shooter and store the honey that seeps out in her pot. 

How to win:

In order to fill the honey pot to the top (thus winning the game), players have to get to the middle of the gigantic comb, where the honey is stored. To get to the middle of the gigantic comb, players have to use Bumblee's honeycomb shooter, which fires small hexagonal honeycombs at the gigantic comb. 

The crust acts as a border that circles around the hole of the gigantic comb. The crust is made out of smaller hexagonal honeycombs that are in the following colours:

- Red

- Yellow

- Green

- Blue

In order to create a hole in the crust, where the honey can seep out of, players have to aim the honeycomb pellets (that are fired from the shooter) at the crust. The pellets that are fired from the gun are also in the same colours as above. If a red pellet is fired from the shooter, and ends up hitting two other red small honeycombs in the crust, the three red pellets will cancel each other out and begin to form a hole in the crust. How ever, if a red pellet is fired and hits a different coloured honeycomb, the pellet will fall onto the crust and stay there. 

Once the player forms holes around the gigantic comb, they can rotate the comb using their fingers and line the hole up with the honey pot, and let the honey fall into their pot, thus slowly filling the honey pot up higher and higher.

P.S - the gigantic comb is split into four sections of honey, so that if a player forms a hole in the crust, only that section will seep out, rather than the whole comb.

Obstacles:

Players have no control over when Bumblee's shooter fires, and as more and more honey is collected in the pot, the quicker the shooter fires. The problem with this is that, the honeycomb pellets Bumblee fires stack up against each other, so if the whole screen backs up with honeycomb pellets, it's game over! This will add a significant amount of pressure onto the player because as the game goes on, each level will require more and more quick-thinking, in order to collect as much honey as possible.

Interactivity/use of iOS device features:

Players will use their fingers to rotate the gigantic comb, in order to choose where the honeycomb pellets land on the crust.

Once creating a hole in the crust of the gigantic comb, players will take advantage of the gyroscope feature on the iOS device, and tilt the device so that the honey will fall into the pot.

Game style:

Characters - 1 character in the game, which is 'Bumblee' the honey bee. She is a young, fun bee looking to impress the rest of her hive.

Audio description - SFX are chirpy, fun and become quicker as players progress further into the game, in order to add extra pressure onto the player and emphasise quick-thinking. 

An example of a piece that would suit my game is Korsakoff's 'Flight of the Bumblebee': 

Game sequence:
The game holds aspects of a hyper storyline, for example, the longer the player survives, the quicker the honeycomb shooter fires. How ever, the game also follows a linear storyline, as this will allow the player to understand the game easily and not become disorientated as they could quite possibly if the game storyline was non-linear.

Style:
Cartoon.

Player:
1 player game.

Game elements:
- Shooting
- Collecting
- Alignment
- Timing

Genre: 
Strategy - relies on players' tactical positioning of honeycomb pellets to break the gigantic comb crust.
Casual game - the game is simple and requires no long-term commitment for playing.

Theme:
Animals, the honey bee in particular.

Player type:
The storyline is aimed for all players, as it is a tactical game. The graphics could appeal to a younger audience, as it is commonly known that most children have watched cartoons during their younger stages of life.

Player immersion:
This game brings forth aspects of mental enjoyment for the player because their tactical positioning of honeycomb pellets will either win them the game or lose.

Game modes:
"Quick Fire" - a fast-paced game mode where the honeycomb shooter fires pellets every second. This mode is for experts that enjoy quick-thinking strategic games.
"Normal mode" - the default mode for all players.

Technical form:
Form: 2D and 3D graphics - a combination of both across the game.
View: During gameplay, the view will be a midshot.
Language: Objective-C.
Device: Mobile - iOS devices.

Game elements:
Number of levels: 4.
Number of characters: 1.
Time of gameplay: Dependent on which mode is being played. How ever, this game has been designed for players that just want a quick game to pass the time, so roughly five minutes maximum.
Replay ability: Yes, players can aim to beat their quickest time in filling up their honey pot.
Audio specification (taken from the Apple website, audio specification for iPhone 4):

• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
• Audio formats supported: AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), HE-AAC, MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV

Graphics specification (taken from the Apple website, graphics specification for iPhone 4):

• Retina display
• 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
• 960-by-640-pixel resolution at 326 ppi
• 800:1 contrast ratio (typical)
• 500 cd/m2 max brightness (typical)
• Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating on front and back
• Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Device compatibility: iOS devices.

Number of players: 1.

Online activities: Online highscores (options of: world highscores and phone contacts highscores.)

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Conceptual work: Creating ideas for an app

After completing sufficient research, I've decided to start inventing different ideas for possible apps. My research into existing apps on the market, coupled with my knowledge of common conventions in games (such as objectives and obstacles) definitely helped when coming up with these ideas below.

I decided to start off with simple ideas and build around them to create a structure that could fit well into the App store if developed.

My research into distinguishable features on the iOS devices helped me develop ideas that would work well on the iPhone and/or the iPad. In this idea above, I designed a possible app idea based around the iOS devices' 'push notifications' feature. I feel that there could be a gap in the market for "come-back" games, with the use of this notifications feature. Games such as Farmville or Tamagotchi-style games would work well in combination with this feature.

During the research period of this project, I noticed most players preferred games that they could use just to pass a brief amount of time.
So I decided to create a game that could be played in a short space of time, yet players could still have fun with.
I feel that a pressurising environment in a game for a player could work well, as it will hold their concentration, rather than bore them. How ever, I would have to make sure there was a right balance between the 'pressure' and 'fun' elements, otherwise players could become stressed whilst playing and consequently, quit the game.

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Research: Target market

I have decided to create a questionnaire to hand out to locals around my area, in order to establish who uses apps, what's their preferred app game genre and other details that will allow me to begin to create a concept aimed at a particular audience.

Below is the document I will be printing out and handing to the public.


For optimum quality, please view the document in full screen. For some reason I am unaware of, the document has clipped off certain letters in this document. I can assure you that the document printed off did not contain these missing letter errors!
Apple Interactive Concept Project Questionnaire

Results:


I handed out 15 questionnaires to members of the public around my local area - from members of the public that went to school, some had jobs and some were retired.
I noticed that a large number of the public that had completed questionnaires preferred puzzle games and platform games and tend to play them during their free time. The amount of members of the public that had used an iOS device before was fairly balanced, with most users being younger. Therefore, I have decided to try and develop an idea specifically for audiences of a younger age, but make the app inviting for an older audience through making a puzzle game.

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Research: Discoveries from researching existing products on the market

My next task was to research existing products on the market, in order to recognise common conventions in apps. Whilst testing out these apps, coupling my knowledge of other games on the market, I noticed a trend in most games I played.
All apps had 'Objectives' and 'Obstacles'. For instance:

Objectives included:
- Hit/kill something (contact) e.g. "Angry Birds", "Space Invaders"

- Last as long as possible e.g. "Snake", "Helicopter", "Pong"

- Reach a destination e.g. "Vector Runner", "Line Rider", "Frogged"

- Capture an object e.g. "Capture the flag", "Castle Wars"

- Create something e.g. "Tamagotchi", "Farmville"

- Become superior e.g. "Snowball", "Snake"

Obstacles included:
- Avoiding edges/keeping within boundaries e.g. "Helicopter"

- Objects that could hinder your progression into the game (enemies) e.g. "Pacman"

- Objects that could stop you from functioning properly e.g. "Mariokart" (special moves)

These factors I recognised whilst playing various games have been noted and I will be referring back to these notes when creating a concept for an app, as these notes suggest common objectives and obstacles that appear frequently within games.

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Research: Existing products available on the market

I decided that in order to recognise what made certain apps popular, unpopular or controversial, I had to play some apps available from the App store, rate them and review them. In order to gain an idea on what different age categories thought about each app, I searched reviews online in order to gain knowledge on what sort of app is popular amongst different aged groups. This will help when deciding on what sort of target audience I will aim my app towards.
Please note that the following opinions are solely mine and have not been influenced by other reviews, opinions, etc.

"Fruit Ninja" - 3/5 stars.

Popularity: over twenty million copies have been downloaded from across all platforms (Apple app store, Android, Xbox 360, Windows 7.)

Genre: Arcade.

Developer: Halfbrick Studios.

Quick summary of the game: The player has to swipe fruit with their knife blade as the fruit is thrown across the screen. More points are acquired if the player swipes more than one piece of fruit in one. Players have to avoid swiping the bomb which will be thrown up frequently, if they do hit this, they lose a life (3 lives available before game over.)

Fruit Ninja is a fun, quick-paced game that encapsulated me with it's bright use of colouring, the fast-think gameplay and it's pure simplicity. 

The 'swipe' aspect fitted well with the touchpad feature on the iOS devices. This feature, coupled with the developers' use of sound effects, worked extremely well in combination with each other as it added an element of reality to playing the game.

How ever, after around one minute of playing, the game became monotonous and I soon quit playing the game after. 

I feel that that game could be improved and look more enticing to download if the developers added different scenery in the background, props, levels and game modes (perhaps a quick-time mode) in order to keep the player's attention level maintained at an optimum level. 

"Angry Birds" - 5/5 stars.

Popularity: Over twelve million copies have been purchased from the Apple App store.
Genre: Puzzle game.
Developer: Rovio Mobile.
Quick summary of the game: Players use a giant slingshot to launch birds into the air, with aims to knock off pigs sitting stationary on various built-up structures. The more pigs and structures knocked down, the higher the score.

Whilst playing Angry Birds, I lost track of the time fairly early into the game - it was immersing, addicting and loaded with personality, for reasons to be explained soon.
The cut scene at the beginning of the app was fun to watch and relayed to the audience why the birds didn't like the pigs (this app is infact based on the Swine Flu epidemic). I thought this was a great feature to add in by the developers because it personalises the game with the player, making them feel empathetic towards the birds.
The cartoon-styled visuals worked well in the game, as the solid colours were eye-catching and fun to look at. I feel that because of this, the game appeals to a player of any age, as the graphics do not appear dated, but fun and quirky instead, and the storyline based on the Swine Flu pandemic could appeal to anyone due to it's mass coverage by the media.







Tower Bloxx Deluxe - 4/5 stars.

Popularity: Unable to acquire at given time
Developer: Strategy/Puzzle
Quick summary of the game: Players' aims are to build the tallest skyscraper possible, by dropping a tower level onto another using a crane. Players face obstacles such as the 'swaying' of the crane.

 As I opened the app on my phone, the first feature that immediately caught my attention was the stunning graphics. The use of colouring on the skyscrapers, combined with the 3-D animations running smoothly definitely excited me.
Presented with different game modes, this game suits players of all kinds with all different tastes. For example, players with time to spare can play the "Build City" game mode, which instantly made me think of extremely popular game "Sim City", players who have little time to play can possibly play the "Quick Game" mode during a break. Therefore, I feel that this game suits many different peoples' lifestyles. The choice to choose a game mode also added a sense of freedom for me, which I feel is an incredibly important aspect to playing games.

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Research: The App Store and it's users

Next, I decided to research the Apple App store and learn about the store's audiences and overall demographics.

I discovered that users on the App store are more interested in free games. Therefore, I could add a time playing limit or design a limited version of my app for the players that download the app for free. After this time limit finishes, there could possibly be a dialogue box/push notification could remind users that they could buy a full, paid version from the App store. I feel this idea could work well because it follows a similar convention of existing products on the market, this is shown through the statistic that 39% of 99.9 million free game downloads in the United States' App Store were free games offering in-app purchases.

Statistics to show the relationship between App premium and 'freemium' games:

January, 2011:
61% revenue from premium games
39% revenue from freemium games

June, 2011:
35% revenue from premium games
65% revenue from freemium games

Next, I decided to research the App Store's all-time most popular apps on the market. I discovered that:

All-time top paid iPhone apps are:
- Doodle Jump
- Angry Birds
- Tap Tap Revenge 3
- Bejewelled 2
- Pocket God
- Traffic Rush

All-time free iPhone apps are:
- Facebook
- Bump
- Shazam
- Skype
- Pandora
- Paper Toss

This research will prove handy in my next stages of research, as I will be playing various apps such as these, rating them and reviewing them to discovered why they are the most popular apps on the Apple App Store - this will be my next researching task.

Furthermore, I discovered that the most games available for download, fitted to the action genre (with just under 7000 apps.) After action, the most common genres available for download in the App Store was puzzle and arcade genres. It appears that the least common apps produced for download was dice, racing and music genre games.

These statistics prove interesting upon analysis because it appears that if I was to develop a game fitting to the action genre, despite being a popular choice for production, the App store holds a large amount of similar apps on the market and therefore, my app may appear cliche and uninteresting.
How ever, despite being less popular, app genres such as dice and racing apps could infact, suit a niche market and spark interest through being a less common genre available on the market.



Research taken from following sources:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/19/iphone-ipad-top-app-downloads/
http://bradkellett.com/p/itunes-app-store-statistics/
http://gigaom.com/2010/01/12/the-apple-app-store-economy/

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