EGX Trip Research
During the beginning of the production phase (well, close to the beginning) of the project I went to EGX Rezzed in London.
As the production phase has already begun for the project, I've started to think about the possible ways that I could show my work at our exhibition that will be held at the end of the project. However, before attending this even I was unsure of how I could do this and only had few ideas of ways to show off my work/our game.
Because of this I decided to look at some of the different games that were set up, and record how they portrayed their game and how writing was used to explain/show off the game further.
The first game that I played and also recorded the set up for was a game called 'ShockRods'. This game like many others, made use of little to no writing when showing off their game. Although there were some additional pages next to each setup, which showed the games name and controls.
Most of the games that I looked at around the event used a similar way to show off their game. Another example of this was a game called 'Cake Bash', where there was an additional sheet that covered the basic controls of the game.
I feel like this would be a good addition for our own exhibition, as our game will hopefully have a number of mechanics which would require the use of different controls. If this is to be created, it would most likely be created by the marketing team, but depending on the amount of detail I could be of assistance.
Additionally, there were some games which didn't have their controls or gameplay explained on demo sheets/control sheets, and a number of these games were somewhat confusing when first playing. So I might talk to my marketing and level design teams about this, as I know the current plan was to have a control tab in-game, but having this shown next to the computers where the games are set up could also be effective.
After continuing to walk around the event I eventually stumbled upon a game with writing material being shown to explain the game.
The game being advertised was a tabletop RPG called 'The Awakening'.
Although I didn't play the game, I managed to look at and read through some sheets that were printed out. One one side these sheets showed an art work piece of the game, the game name and what it is, the development teams name and their website. The next side made use of more writing and explained different areas of the game, such as the idea of the game, the games setting, character and some of the mechanics.
This is something that I think could be effective for our game/exhibition as It would allow me to portray to the audience a number of aspects of the game, such as the world, character(s), and core mechanics, therefore allowing them to have a better understanding of the game.
One of the final items that I found at the event was an advertisement sheet for a game called 'Thea 2: The Shattering'. I played the game, but the main area I was interested in (at least for research) was how different aspects of the game were being shown.
While walking around the event and looking at a number of games, many of the games required someone to explain the idea behind the games, however for Thea 2, there was a small sheet listing all of the games key information.
As shown in the images to the side, the section at EGX for Thea 2 had an information sheet available which effectively portrayed a number of different aspects of the game.
The front of the sheet shows the name of the game and its logo, the developer and then a section of text outlining the concept of the game. However, the main section of the front shows off a piece of artwork for the game.
The backside of the sheet further explains the game itself and states the genre and the inspiration of the game. Additionally, some unique selling points (USPs)/ unique game features. Below this information, there are images from the games shown and then the general release date of the game.
For our exhibition, I feel as though this is something that could be effective for our project. I would need to work with the marketing team and maybe even the art team, but I still feel as though this would be a good way to show the outline of the game itself, such as the different features, and an outline of the game's story (especially as most of my work will be quite difficult to show off/present).
Research Evaluation
After carrying out this section of research I now have a few ideas of possible ways that I could show off some of my work for the exhibition section of the project.
I will need to continue thinking about this, however, as there will be a lot more work I'll be carrying out they will require different methods of presentation.
But at least for now, I have a few ideas for possible presentation materials that could be effective at the exhibition (these ideas were due to the research carried out at EGX).