P5

Identifying Trends for Target Audience

GENRE

There are lots more apps focused at educational purposes, with no adult content. There are lots of programming apps that teach kids the basics of programming, while making it fun at the same time. Other apps teach kids how to speak different languages, get through mazes, get to do some directional language programming and some science.  As for the games, they're all simplified significantly, with easy to learn controls and basic functions. The games range from simply tapping on objects on the screen, to puzzle games that are aimed at slightly older kids.

GAMEPLAY

The apps and games both have very easy and simple to learn controls, where in some occasions all you have to do is tap. However, some other games, such as 'Angry Birds', follows a story line, and is more of a puzzle game, which is much more advanced for younger kids, due to more controls and puzzles to get through. In the educational apps, they encourage kids to learn new interesting subjects, in a fun way, as compared to school. In the games apps, they encourage kids to get through puzzles, and teaches them the satisfaction of achieving by getting to the end or completing a level.

VISUAL STYLE

The visuals in both the games and apps are full of bright colours, and big bold text to make the kids interested, which is important for the educational games so that they don't get too bored. The apps and games are visually pleasing to the kids , especially as the characters are round and simplistic. This attracts the kids to play, as compared to harsh, violent shapes and unsaturated colours.

ACCESSIBILITY

All the apps and games are easy to use and understand because of the simple design and basic controls. App and game developers do this to make the kid learn the controls easily, and enjoy the game without struggling to play. They're easy to access through the App Store or Play Store, and commonly are free with in-app purchases.

Game Idea

A game where you have to stop the asteroids in space hitting the planet in the centre.

Game Idea 2.0

The game is still an educational game, where each level has different planets and simple to learn controls. You simply have to tap the asteroids or other objects before they hit the planet and you lose. The educational aspect of the game is that the child learns the order and different names for planets in our solar system.

Treatment

My game core diagram

Production plan: Budget and schedule

Concept:
My plan is to create a child friendly tablet game that teaches them the names of different planets, including the order they're in, in relation to the distance from the sun.

Game design:
The game design will be very simple, with a pixelated theme. For example, in the first level, Mercury will be made up in pixels. The levels will work as a progression system, so you will have to play the first level to unlock the second etc.

Prototyping:
I will make two versions of this game to see which one looks best - a non pixelated and pixelated version, to see which one would attract my target audience the best. The prototype will be very simple, with only one level with very basic controls. 

Programming: 
The programming aspect will be relatively simple, due to its basic concept. The main programmable options will be to save your progress, know where and what the player is tapping, switching levels and sound cues.

Character design:
The character will be in a small spaceship, which can be upgraded as you progress through the levels, with different colours etc. The spaceman can be customised simply through the main menu, and they will sit with their spaceship in the corner of the screen, as you progress through space.

Environment design:
The world will have each of the planets orbiting the sun, with a birds eye view looking down, where the player can choose the level (planet). The levels themselves will have the planet in the centre of the screen, with asteroids/other objects going towards the centre. The planets will all be individually designed, with different objects, such as satellites for earth, and alien ships for mars etc.

Sound design:
The sound will be simple, such as sounds of the asteroids as they enter the screen, music in the background as you play and explosion sounds when you destroy an asteroid.

User interface:
The user interface will have a basic 'start', 'options' and 'customisation'. When the player presses start, you will be brought to a birds eye view of all the planets orbiting the sun, and the player simply taps what planet to visit, with a progression system as you unlock the planets. You're score will be displayed at the top left, with three add ons at the bottom, which you can purchase through emeralds that appear randomly during the game.

Quality assurance:
The game will be tested thoroughly, by trying to purposely break the game, so that I can fix the bug. I will most likely be the tester of the game, or I will release a beta and get lots of people to play it and report back the bugs, such as crashing the app.

Deployment: 
I will work in a team if I feel that it's necessary, such as someone working on the graphics, sound, design etc. 

Budget

Schedule

Legal/Ethical issues

Legal & Ethical issues

In terms of photo shoot, this might be in terms of misrepresentation, copyright, royalties

LEGAL

In terms of legal issues, these tends to be about who owns the rights to something, or whether you are slandering (saying something about someone that is not true), or sometimes it can be a legal issue of making sure your content is not breaking the law (as in there is no suffering to animals depicted)

ETHICAL

Ethics are more of a minefield and there are certain ethical considerations that we have in the west that are important to understand. Ethics is about what society views as right.

Such as – is there a balance between male/female genders

If there are,  are these stereotypical roles (eg powerful  and strong male, weak female often dressed provocatively)

Is there swearing, are there weapons?

Southpark is controversial because a lot of people disapprove of its ethics. However, the producers might argue that it is for a small cult audience who are adult enough to know what is right and what is wrong.

What are the legal and ethical issues of your production and can you justify them?

(Delete rows or add to them as applicable)

LEGAL

Issue	Solved or justified?
Intellectual Property	Intangible property that is the result of creativity, such as patents, copyrights etc.  Solved - All words, themes, images etc, will all be my own idea and I won't steal someone else's idea and claim it's mine.
Copyright	Using someone else's work and releasing it as if it's my own work, then making money out of it. This wouldn't apply to me because all of the features in my game have been made by me and created by me.
Liable/Slander	Presenting someone else as someone else. Solved - No people or real names are used in my game.
Fair use	Giving someone the chance to reuse their image or video - Solved, my game will be copyrighted, however, the art style can be copied for other use.

ETHICAL

Issue	Solved or justified?
Age Restriction	A restriction that limits the target audience that can play the game due to their age. Solved - my game will be rated a PEGI 7, due to the mild violence of a planet being destroyed.
Explicit Language	Solved - The game will not contain any explicit language in any written content within the game.
Violence	Solved - The game will contain some very mild violence, which is if a planet is hit by an asteroid it's 'destroyed', but it's very unrealistic. To solve this, I made sure that when a planet is hit, you don't see the whole animation as the game over display hides it.
Religion	Solved - I'm not putting forward any religion related topics for my game so this wouldn't affect the game I have created.

PEGI Rating 3,7,12,18

My game falls under the PEGI 7 category due to the mild scenes and sounds of a planet being destroyed. My game will fall under these PEGI content descriptors because of this to protect younger children: