Ryan Cooke-Ward's Portfolio

As mentioned in a previous blog post, some time has been set aside for creating a story board that serves more as a concept reminder than a strict story board, however it does detail and annotate the introduction to the game, as well as give a brief look into player psychology and why certain concepts have been chosen. Whilst I could upload the whole storyboard, I could also keep some mystery going by only teasing you with a few select images as well! Project Management Expect to see a video blog entry detailing the blueprints I have been working on in order to create an inventory system! It's not entirely finished but it has a decent amount of functionality and had to be implemented before a crafting system could be put into place.

Today we were trying to cement the idea of our abstract, and I have a clearer idea of what exactly it is I am trying to create. It won't be long until we start working on the games design document, and I am eager to see how wrong I was! The Elevator Pitch We were encouraged to use an iterative method when we came up with our small pitch of our game, to write a first draft, critically analyse it and re-write it with these critiques in mind. Unfortunately, I have been toying with this idea long before the academic year started again, and I found it somewhat difficult to 'critique' and a lot of what I re-wrote was a rewording of the same idea, it didn't seem to build on ideas or cut much out. "The player has recently taken over as manager of the towns crafting guild which has for many years been used by adventurers and royalty alike. Using various crafting skills to progress the quality of the items they craft, the player must create a myriad of items fit for...

So now that I have outlined a lot of what I am looking for, I will give a very brief recap on systems I plan to use to create the game I want. Overview The player will play a managerial role in a fantasy town on the losing end of a war, faced with severe debt that they X amount of days to pay back or lose the game. I choose town over a small shop because it would allow me to take a Recettear style of management where I can allow the player to forage for items, send adventurers to return with items, and also buy and sell to neighboring towns and give the game its own sense of an economy. This can also include city building aspects, as well as a few RPG aspects, that will keep the game different through various playthroughs. The idea was spurred by my tutor who suggested researching Roguelike games, such as Rimworld, Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon, that are principally the same each time through, but what the player encounters and their strategy either willingly chances throu...

This is the last stop of sub genre for my inspiration, there being a few golden games that I want to mention that I thoroughly enjoyed and will most likely draw inspiration from. HunieCam Studio (Huniepot, PC, 2016) Up first, HunieCam Studio. Yes, seriously. This game is somewhat controversial but I trust that people reading this blog are mature enough to be able to handle cartoon cleavage and naughty words. Let's get the sexy out of the way now so we can talk mechanics. HunieCam Studio, 2016 Ignore the fan service as best you can. Somewhat unlike the previous game they created, this game had unexpectedly devolved into a clicking game. Personally, I found nothing wrong with that at all. The aim here is to make as much money as you possibly can at the end of the month without going bankrupt on a daily payroll system. So as with previously mentioned games, the objective is short term but requires proper management to get the best score you can without failing. And at the ...

A few years back I was completely awe struck by a mechanic involved in Square Enix's latest MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Normally, there isn't much to management in MMO games, and this isn't really an exception, but previously in games such as Minecraft where crafting was a case of "Put X with Y in a certain pattern," Or as simple as World of Warcraft's crafting system of "Press a button done," the player was introduced to an actual puzzle. A strategy. A challenge to crafting. And I LOVE  it. This is what crafting is to a lot of games. Minecraft, 2011 Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?! (Daylight Studios, PC, 2015) Before I talk about FFXIV:ARR, I must quickly tie in why this is relevant to a management sim: A beautiful quirky game called Holy Potatoes, A Weapon Shop. It's pretty cheap, the story doesn't last long, but the mechanics are fun enough to sink an easy 30 hours into if not more. I really enjoyed this game, and wou...

As spoken about in the previous entry, I am looking to create a game with various interactive UI elements that will showcase what I can do. There is a genre of strategy games that I adore called Management Sims. And/or Resource Management games. I love these to bits. Some of them are nice and relaxing, some of them are challenging, some offer hours of replayability, and some of them pressure you to deadlines that force you to learn the mechanics of the game and quick. Typically, a lot of these games cover a very broad idea. Take the old school Sim City. Wow. How far we have come. Sim City Classic, 1989. City building is a type of management sim. A very popular one, as a matter of fact. With the recent Sim city release, it's also become a target for indie developers, releasing Cities Skylines and Banished. These games are typically slow paced, relaxing, and yet fun, with goals to create a thriving metropolis and watch your own creation come to life. Or be set on fire, invad...