Tied - A Concept

Welcome to the start of my Final Year Project blog.

The first post is a simple overview, a pitch for my idea. Soon to be followed up with some concept work, research findings and sketches for visuals.

At the end of each post I will have a section titled 'Comments'. This section will be my thoughts on the project so far and what I have.

Introduction

Tied is a 2D, single-player, platform game for the PC in which the player has control of two characters that are chained together at the ankle. This game is targeted at 18-26 year old males and will be developed in Game Maker 8.

Story

The game follows Chip and Chuck, two prisoners who are forced to work on a mine as part of a chain gang. Chuck (who was tasked with carrying loads) manages to grab a pickaxe and take a hefty swing at his chains, breaking his connection to most of the gang but breaking the pick in the process. Now Chip and Chuck are shackled together with no means of separation and must escape as a pair.

Characters

There are two main characters in Tied: Chip and Chuck. Both are caught and convicted felons.

Chip is skinny man about 5'5” in height. He has the look of someone who cares for his appearance (as much as he can in a prison) and has a quick wit about him. He is the faster of the two but is also shorter.

Chuck is a stocky, well-built man standing 6'0” tall. He has a stubble beard and short hair and a greasy look about him. He is taller and stronger than Chip but not as fast and with a shorter jump height.

World

The game is set in 1920's Michigan, United States on a copper mine. The game uses a cartoon visual style with bright colours and outlines, country music and comic sound effects.

I intend to make the game light-hearted and non-serious through use of comic dialogue, sound effects and situation.

Research (To be completed)

I am a fugitive from a chain gang – Movie (1932)

Chain Gang – Movie (1950)

O Brother, where art thou?

Life – Movie (1999)

Take the Money and Run – Movie (1969)

Comments

Up until very recently (last week) I was intending to create a First-Person puzzle game in the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), this is no longer viable for me so I have had to go in a completely new direction, hopefully one that will challenge and stimulate me. Game Maker 8 is a creation tool I have zero experience in; my closest relevant experience would be in Adobe Flash.

The change from 2D to 3D will bring about a huge shift in my intended development times. Designing for 2D is faster and hopefully prototyping and iterations on game play will be faster than in UDK.

Changing perspective from first-person to side-scrolling will be a huge difference as well; Now I have characters to concept, create and animate. On the flipped side of this, levels will be a lot quicker to make and the art style should be a lot easier to keep consistent.

On the whole though this is disappointing for me; I am quite far behind and must work hard over Christmas to make up for lost time.