Platform Games: Mechanics

I've been having trouble dedicating myself to a character for my mascot project; I thought taking a step back to look at some other platform games, their player characters and associated mechanics would help me. This will give me ideas for mechanics my character could use (and therefore guide me to a design that will best reflect the mechanics).

Character Design Iterations: Narrowing It Down

As mentioned in a previous post I managed to whittle down my selection of characters from 15 down to 6, with the help of my questionnaire. From here I will be narrowing this list further, eventually down to one final character that I will take forward into a realised game concept. I will do this using both my tacit knowledge up to this point as well as doing some more research along the way.

Literature Review: Looking For Points To Discuss

Below are the notes I've taken in regards to quotes and points I've found interesting, things that I might be able to quote for my literature review and also things that are of genuine help to my work (hence keeping a documentation of them here). This is uncut and I'll only focus on one or two points per source material in the actual essay.

Mascot Character Design: The Fundamentals

Whilst I've been gathering research materials for the literature and contextual reviews for Semester 1, I decided to take a closer look into the fundamentals of mascot character design (these rules apply just as well for other characters, but I'd like to keep things specific if I can). I felt it was important to back up my findings from the questionnaire I produced with pre-existing facts. In his dissertation, "Crash Bandicoot vs Super Mario: A Critical Analysis and Comparison into the Fundamentals of Designing a Mascot", Luke Cook summarises that the four fundamentals of mascot design are: facial expressions, shape, colour and cultural adaptation. 

Gathering Qualitative Feedback: Questionnaire Results

Before I start this blog post, I'd like to extend a massive THANK YOU! to the 24 surveyors who were able to complete my questionnaire (and thanks also to those who offered but didn't get the time - the thought is appreciated!) 

Gathering Qualitative Feedback: My Own Thoughts

As a way to reflect on my work and to possibly gauge some of the feedback I'll receive from the people who are taking my questionnaire, I have taken the questionnaire myself. Below is the questionnaire I created and the answers I provided to the questions. It was informative to think about these questions myself as it allowed me to notice some of the subconscious decisions I make when I buy a product or play a game featuring a mascot character.

Mascots In Gaming: Genres

While I await the results of my questionnaire, I decided to begin research into the next phase of my project: I'll be creating a game for my mascot character to be the protagonist of. Before doing anything practical, I wanted to take a broad look at video games and their protagonists or mascot-type characters across a number of genres; from there I will consider, mechanically, which of them I will enjoy creating the most, be able to explore in the most interesting way and which will showcase the character I design in the best way.