For this project, the goal was to create a realistic island survival game that aimed to educate players as to proper survival techniques if stranded in the wild. As outlined by the brief, the game should be a multiplayer survival game that leaves players stranded on a deserted island with limited resources following a plane crash. The game should feature players being able to gather resources, build shelter, and fend off dangerous creatures until they reach the goal of the game, which is to escape the island. The target audience outlined by the brief is anyone who enjoys multiplayer and survival games, though it was later stated by the client that it should cater towards an adult audience. The brief further stressed that this is to be a realistic survival game with a focus on immersion and tension. The client for this project is Mash Virtual.
As a designer, my role in the project was to create a logo and brand design, as well as creating UI elements to be used within the game.
As this game is to be marketed towards a more adult audience, the best way to market it would be through streaming on twitch. Through streaming word of the game would spread. Even if people didn't play, they could still learn survival tips from watching. Some popular categories on Twitch in the last few years in the gaming world have been social deduction games where there are typically two teams of which the "good" team need to find their allies and win, and the "evil" team need to band together and sabotage this goal.
The game is primarily made to be a survival game, however there are plenty of games that have used both survival and social deduction elements, some popular ones being 'Project Winter' and 'Dread Hunger' which both have a strong theming of players needing to survive in harsh environments.
To create a strong brand identity for our game, I looked into the game 'Don't Starve' which, whilst acting as a normal survival game, has the player focus on not starving as a main priority. I considered the possibility of making a similarly branded game, but with a different stat that would be in a survival game.
Though not a stat commonly seen in survival games, I decided the idea of 'no sleep' would be an interesting concept to explore within a game. The fact that this isn't a common feature in survival games shows that this would be an important addition to be able to better educate people, one of the main goals of the brief.
Though there are many symptoms of sleep deprivation, the main ones revolve around hallucinations, so we decided the tension of the game would revolve around seeing things that weren't there. This is where the theme of social deduction games comes in a bit more. Instead of a traditional social deduction game, players would have the option to betray each other, supported by the confusion created by seeing hallucinations, such as an enemy attacking you who you thought was a friend. The theming of this survival experience would be inspired by many stories stories of groups going crazy and turning against one another whilst stranded, similar to a 'Lord of the Flies' situation.
When planning a project, it is also important to look at it's impact on the world. To do this, we can look at the Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2015) created by the United Nations that aim to better the planet. In particular, looking at goal 17, which aims to strengthen global partnership and create sustainable development for all countries around the globe, we can aim to better the planet through this project. Playing for the Planet (Playing4theplanet, 2023) was set up by the UN during the Climate Summit to empower the game industry through helping the planet. This collaboration supports the rules for sustainable development by having games join an alliance to protect the planet. By coming together this group has reduced emissions, planted millions of trees, and reduced the amount of plastic in products created. To help spread their impact, this group hosts events such as 'Game Jams' which spread the message of sustainable development by having games compete on a variety of topics that are aimed to educate on sustainable development. This creates more awareness around the topic, and if our game were to become a reality, it would assuredly compete in the Game Jam to spread awareness and educate about sustainable development. Due to the survival and more natural nature of the game, it would suit well to a lot of the categories.
You can view my development towards this project by clicking the links below.
In reflection of this project, I realise the main issues present were the inconsistencies in the style. The reason for this being that I only finalised the branding towards the end in an attempt to use my time towards making in game assets so it would be easier for those developing the game. Though there are consistencies in things such as the colours and the eye shape, a lot of the work looks unfinished when compared with an asset that has a texture to it. If I'd done this project again, I'd make sure to better communicate with my team on what they need, rather than trying to do all the tasks at once and finishing everything at the end. This way I could approach it in a linear manner and see where issues lie.
Another consideration with time management would be wanting to spend more time on my logo, however I'm proud of the outcome due to remembering little about After Effects at the beginning of this project. I hope to further develop my knowledge of this software in projects to come. I think I overcame hurdles well, even if I was a bit slow in doing it and didn't get everything that I'd planned to do done.
