Ciaran Morton

Resident Evil 7 survivalist

Only the brave

Contents page:
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In this document the content includes:

Overview
Platform
Timeframes
Scopes
Goals
Games synopsis
Setting synopsis
UI synopsis
Home screen
Game play view
Beginning of level
Between level scenes
The player avatar
High level concept
USP unique selling point
One line sales pitch
Game territories
Concept document
Design document
Title
Format
Market research
Audience
Languages
Territories
Content to include
Overview
Objectives
Theme
Structure
Features
Characters
Mechanics
Story
Environment

Overview:

Ciaran Morton

In this section I am going to cover: overview, platforms,

timeframe, scope and goals.
Overview:
The main overview to this game is being stuck/trapped in an old run down
house, the overview is very similar to Resident Evil 7, the
only differences is that there are more enemies, the game
has harder difficulties and the visuals are a lot darker and
the amount the player can see it a lot shorter to add
suspense and tension, the other difference is that it will
only be available on the Play station VR.
The games overview is being trapped in a rundown old
house trying to escape from the people inside the house
and all of the enemies inside of the house. The image to
the right is of the Resident Evil 7 logo, this links in to the
game franchise I am using to base my games overview on.

Platforms:

The platform refers to what computers/computer

consoles the game is going to be available on, as I
explained above, Resident Evil 7 survivalist will only
be available for the Play Station VR, this is quite a
new console that can only be used with the Play
station 4, the image to the right is of the Play
station VR. The Play station VR is an augmented
reality simulation whereby the VR has a headset
that displays images that are very similar to each other giving the
impression that the footage is real, it also provides depth to the footage
(3D style) to make it look realistic.

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Timeframes:

Timeframes in games might refer to the amount of time it takes to create

the game, as I am planning on creating the game,
this will vary depending on the amount of people
working on the game, if the game has a full
production team it will take a few months, 2-3
weeks pre-production, 3 months production and 34 weeks testing and polishing, this is quite short for
a VR game as the game has to be developed
completely in a 3D perspective. If the game was not
developed by a full team it would take a lot longer
as there wouldnt be as many people working on the
game so it would take just over a year, 2-3 months
pre-production, 8-9 months production and 2-3 months testing and
polishing.
The image to the right is of a timeline, this image represents a very rough
guide to how game developers plan out making a game.

Scope:

As the game might take a lot of time to create the scope will scope will
only provide a small amount of game play such as:

It will only show the introduction to the game.

By the time the scope is released the game will be mainly created
but might still have some testing and polishing to do this is the
game as Resident Evil 7 as the demo/teaser/scope was released a
couple of months before the game was released, this was so that
the company could see what people had to say about the concepts
before it was released so that it could be updated before it was
released.
No multiplayer mode will be available as it is a single player horror
game and as it is on the VR it could
only be single player as multiplayer has not been released for the
VR yet.
The teaser/scope of the game will only be a few minutes long this
will be a trailer for the game where people can then discuss on ways
to improve the game and give the developers some key ideas on
how to improve the game.

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Goals:

The main goal for any game development is to

release the game on time/ to the time line
instead of having to go over and not being able
to release the game on time, an example of this
is Final Fantasy 15 that originally planned on
being released the 30/09/16 but ended up being
released on the 30/11/16 which is 3 months over
the expected deadline, the image to the right is
the Final Fantasy 15 logo as this is the game
example I just used.

Game synopsis:
In this section I am going to cover the following: game synopsis, setting
synopsis, UI synopsis, main/home screen and gameplay view.

Game synopsis:

In the game I am producing the synopsis is very similar to Resident Evil 7,

this is mainly where you wake up in a rundown house/building, try and
find a way out while having flash backs as to what happened before you
woke up e.g. how/why you are in the house, you find a way out but are
stopped at the last second, this is the intro to the game, after that you are
mainly trying to find a way out of the house/building.
To do this you must accomplish a series of goals that are given to the
player via objectives, these include finding a way out of the house, finding
a key to the door leading out, finding a fuse to open the attic via a
mechanical door etc.

Setting synopsis:

Ciaran Morton

The game is mainly set in a rundown building/house that has a series of

hidden compartments, e.g. false wall panel leading to a series of cellars, a
secret attic with a mechanical hatch etc.
In the game it will mainly be played inside of the house,
the camera is in first person in the VR headset so the
camera angle will be set quite low to give the player an
impression of being quite low/quite small e.g. 5ft 2 just to
make the game feel quite short compared to the rooms,
the rooms will be very tall e.g. 12ft tall, this also means
that the player is unable to see the roof of the house as
the distance the player can see will only be 3 or 4 feet to
increase tension and suspense in the game.
In the game there will only be a few characters,
examples of this are to the right, these are taken from
Resident Evil 7. The middle image is of a character that is
already clearly dead when you see him, the top one is of
one of the enemies and the bottom image is of one of the
two people the play-able character explores the run down
house with.

UI synopsis:

The games UI synopsis is going to be quite simplistic as the main control

will be walking around the map/exploring, the areas where the player can
interact with objects will automatically pop up with a button and press
button to pick up object/interact with
object, e.g. press x to pick up object. The
controls are limited to the controls on the
Play station VR as this game is only going
to be released on the VR. The image to the
right is of the front and back of the two
hand held controllers made for the play
station VR headset. These controls are
look very similar to the play station 4s
controls as these also include: shoulder
buttons, play stations classic X, circle,
triangle and square, also a D-pad. Each of
these are highlighted with red circles and a
thumb stick.
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Main/home screen:

The home screen refers to the very start of video games when the player
loads up the game the loading screen will appear, then once the game is
loaded in the home screen is displayed, this usually includes the games
name and graphics from the game. The home screen I will use is going to
be something simple like an image from within
the house, then the logo/title over the image.
On the home screen there might be some
options like difficulty, graphics options,
subtitles, control settings etc. The image to the
right is of the home screen from the Last of Us,
this is an example of home screens as this is
the starting screen that appears as soon as the
game is loaded up, this allows the player to
choose whether they want to continue a game, start a new game or
change the difficulty/audio/visual options.

Gameplay view:

The view the game is going to be

displayed from is of a first person
perspective, the perspective is going to
be from a short angle as it makes the
room look a lot taller than it would look
if the perspective was taller. As the
game is going to be on the play station
VR it shows the perspective in a first
person 3D perspective as if you were
the player.

Ciaran Morton

The image to the right is an example of first person from the Resident Evil
7 game, I chose this game as the example as this is basically the same
graphics as I am going to use as I am franchising my game from this
game.

Beginning of an office/level:

The only cut scenes are near the start of the game, this is where you are
about to escape but are knocked out and brought back to the house. Apart
from this there arent any cut scenes s that the game/story line runs
smoothly and isnt broken up by cut scenes. Normally, cut scenes are used
to break up sections in a game e.g.
older games that needed to load in
each section of the game and took a
while to load so there would be a
load screen/cut scene that appeared
that includes a load bar that shows
the player how much has been
loaded and how much is left to load,
another example of cut scenes are
small video clips that are triggered
by the player completing a certain
task. The image to the right is of a cut scene at the start of resident evil 7,
it shows a short clip, the image to the right is from the short clip and is a
good example of cut scenes in games.

Between level scenes:

The between level scenes refer mainly to older games (e.g. original Xbox
or Ps2 etc.) this is where the technology was a lot older and couldnt load
in all of the game at once so It just loaded in sections and then had to
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display a loading between level scene, this often

showed the player a percentages or bar that
displayed how much of the next section was
loaded/rendered in and what is left to load/render
in. There will not be any of these between level
scenes in the game I am producing as the game I
am producing will be on the most current
technolny, this is also because horror games rely
heavily on atmosphere and build up, this is
completely ruined when there are constant
loading screens, usually horror games will be made to lure people in so
much that they forget they are even playing, this is broken if I were to
suddenly have between scene loading screens. The image to the right is
of the loading screen from Resident evil 2, I had to pick an older game
from the series, this is because loading screens were mainly stopped after
the PS2 and generally stopped after the PS3. The example to the right
shows a loading screen to be a door that would open when the next area
had loaded/rendered in. This was a key point to the Resident Evil
collection as the first few games had loading screens that were all doors.

The player avatar:

The avatar refers to the character the player is controlling within the
game, all games have an avatar of soft
whether it is a person or an
anandamide object. In game I do not
need to design an avatar, I will only
have to design the avatars clothing,
this is because the player is going to
be in first person the entire game and
will not see the avatar they are
controlling.
The image example I have used is of
the avatar from Resident Evil 4, this is the avatar and is an example of
avatars in games.

--After looking at the brief I noticed that the sections I

have covered above are not actually specified on the
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brief so I am going to resume working on the brief

below, however I will leave the sections I have written
above as I have already written them all out so there
isnt any point in getting rid of them--

Purpose of design documents:

High level concept:

The concept I have decided on is of a remake

of Resident Evil 7, this is by making the game
only available on the Play Station VR, meaning
the specifications of the game can be
maximised. Also the other differences include
that the game will be harder to complete,
there will be more areas to explore, the lay out
of the house will be changed. The image to
the right is of the Resident Evil 7 game, the
image shows the style of the game I am aiming at.
I decided to make a franchised game based on Resident Evil 7 as I like the
game and thought that by franchising I would be able to have better
graphic examples to show rather than trying to create my own.

USP:

The game I am designing is going to have the main unique selling point of
solely being available on the Play station VR, this means that the game is
only going to be4 available in a first person view, the other unique aspect
is that the game is going to be a lot more difficult to complete, e.g. a lot
more enemies and the view will be a lot darker to allow for more tension
as the player wont be able to see very far in front of them allowing more
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scares. The image to the right is of the play station VR, this image shows
the only console that the game is going to be available for.

One line sales pitch:

In this franchise, the games have a

range of difficulties, from
beginner/easy to expert/difficult,
the one line sales pitch is basically
survivalist whereby the game is
going to be a lot harder to complete than the other games in the
franchise, this allows for more tension in the game and more challenge as
playing games on easy doesnt have much challenge as the levels are
easy to pass.
The image to the right is from Super Smash Bros,
this shows the difficulty settings, this image
represents the difficulty levels I mentioned above
and how the game I am designing will basically
only have the bottom three levels to give the
game more challenge and stop people from
playing on the easiest difficulty. In my game I have
decided on the one line sales pitch as Only the
brave~ this is written on the cover of this
document and suggests that only brave people will
want to play this game.

Game treatment:

The treatment for the game I am designing/the concept document is

basically a document with all of the games details, e.g. levels, characters,
NPCs, missions, concept art and other planning assets like: how long it
will take to make the game, how many people I need to make the game,
what the budget is and what It is being spent on etc. Currently I am
writing up the design document and have drawn out some concept art for
the game, this is basically taken from Resident Evil 7 as I am franchising
from Resident evil 7 I have used a lot of their assets and graphics as I
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liked their graphics and thought they were really good and suited the
theme very well. The image to the right is of a screen shot from Resident
Evil 7 to show some of the graphics used in Resident evil 7. AS I was
unable to paste the story boards I created into this document I am going
to put the physical copies in the
middle of this submission: These
are in-between page 11 and page
12.

Design document:

The document I am writing currently is the design document, this

document covers a wide range of different things to write about, this
includes: purpose of design document (high level concept, unique selling
point, one line sales pitch, game treatment, design document), design
layout (title, format, genre, market research, audience, language,
territories, content to include, overview, objective, theme, structure,
features, characters, mechanics, story, environment, detailed examples of
one character and the game environment), document design (structure,
writing style, professional language, selective graphic content,
presentation style e.g. word processed, spell check, proof reading, saving,
versioning, backups). These sections above are all written out in detail in
this document, I am not going to include an image of this here as the
example is this ENTIRE document.

Document layout:
In this section I am going to write a small amount for each of the sections
below, this is mainly because I dont have much time to complete all the
work in this assignment and there isnt much to write about these sections
so instead of wasting time trying to cover each of the sections in a lot of
detail I am going to try and cover them all and try and be as quick as I
can.

Title:

This is a section as mentioned above, the title Is going to be Resident Evil

7 Survivalist, this is a very short section, however all it asked was what
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the name of the game was going to be, I decided on this

name as the game I am designing is basically a harder
version of Resident evil 7. The image to the right is the
image I designed for the cover of this document.

Format:

The format of the game refers to what console the game is going to be
played on, this section is also going to be
very short as all this section wants me to
write I what console I am going to put the
game on, is has been mentioned a lot in the
sections above as I have mentioned and
linked in several times that the game I am
creating is going to be played on the play
station VR. The image of the play station VR
is to the right.

Genre:

The genre I have chosen is Horror, this is because I really like this genre
and I knew this unit would require me to know a bit about the genre I
chose, so I decided to write/chose the genre I knew the most about as I
knew I would have some good examples to use when trying to find
examples to link into the game I am creating.

Market research:

AS I have chosen to design a game that is franchised I already know that

there is a large target market for the game as the company that owns the
game already determined that there is a target market for me, if I did not
decide to design a franchised game I would have had to research market
segments myself in order to see what section of the market to target with
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my game. The image to the right is the cover I

designed for the gamer I am creating.

Audience:

Audience and market research are very similar as

they both and based around the people playing the
game and the people that the game is
aimed at, the audience are the people that
are either playing the game or watching the
content e.g. cut scenes or advertisements
for the game I am creating, the audience is
determined on the market research as
market research Is done to determine the
target audience, then the advert is made
based on what the target audience wants.
The image to the right is a simple graphic
showing target audience, this shows a small
group of people selected/targeted showing target audience.

Language:

In video games language could mean two things, either what languages
the game is available in (what languages the dialog is available in) or if
there is any strong/inappropriate language in the game, in the game I
am creating the dialog will be available in a range of different languages
e.g. English, French, Spanish, Japanese etc. This is to ensure the
majority/all of the target audience can understand the game instead of
just having the game in English and cutting out a wide range in the target
market just because they
dont speak English. Also, as
the game is a horror game the
rating will be 18+, therefore I
will include strong language
as the rating will be maxed
out and I am unable to reach
a higher level so strong language will not affect the games PEGI rating at
all. The image to the left is of PEGI ratings, this shows the different
ratings, in my case, horror/gore is automatically an 18+ so strong
language cannot push the rating up as 18+ is the highest rating possible.

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Territories:

In video games most games have maps that are divided by territories,
this is basically like IRL where there is a world map, then in the map is lots
of territories e.g. UK then the territories would be London, Manchester,
Scotland etc. This is the same in most video games,
especially open world games where there is a large
map and players can roam around the map freely,
an example of this is GTA 5 where there is a map
and in the map is lots of territories e.g. Los Santos
etc. The image to the right is an image of the GTA 5
map. In the game I am creating there is going to be
a small-ish map that is completely closed off, this
means that there is not going to be a map available
to the players and there wont be any territories, this
is to build suspense as players are not supposed to
know where they are within the game and they are
meant to basically stumble around an old run down dark house trying to
find their way out, with a map they could look at it and instantly know
where to go and the game would take seconds to complete.

Content to include:

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Content in video games could mean cut

scenes or objects within the map, an
example of cut scenes is at the start of
resident evil 7 there are a few short
clips/cut scenes where the player sees the
events leading up to the present, this
includes the player going to the house they
are currently in with two other people and
the player being caught. The image to the right is taken from the cut
scene. The objects are basically just interactive objects being in the
room/game, an example of this is a key or fuse the player has to press a
button to pick up then press another button to use it with something. In
my game there will be a couple of very brief interactive cut scenes at the
start of the game like Resident evil 7 as it is franchised from Resident Evil
7, interactive cut scenes means that the player can move the avatar in
the cut scene, however as the player saw the future perspective the
outcome is the exact same for the cut scene no matter what the player
does, this means that the interactive cut scene makes the player do
something in order to make a chain reaction happen in order for the future
to be the same, this is instead of the player being able to interact with the
past and change it to change the future events.

Overview:

The overview of the game I am creating is a franchised copy

of Resident evil 7, this is called Resident evil 7 survivalists,
the bases of the game is that the player is trapped in a
rundown old house and is trying to escape, I have written a
lot about the game above, this would just be repe4ating
what I have already written above. The image to the right is
the cover I created for the game.

Objective:

The main objective of the game is to escape the run down old house, to
complete this objective the player will have to complete a series of other
objectives along the way, this includes things like find the key, find a way
into a certain room, find an exit to etc. Each of these objectives will link
into each other until the player finds a way out of the house, then the
game will end. The image to the right is of a screen shot of the Resident
evil 7 game, in the image to the right, this is where you get the objective
to find a way out, once you find a way out you get another objective to
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find the key, while searching for the key you get more objectives to
complete in order to find the key and so on

Theme:

The theme of the game is a first person horror,

the theme of games is usually the genre,
perspective and graphics, in the game I am
creating the game is a first person horror game, the graphics are going to
be very similar to the Resident evil 7
graphics, the main differences is that the
graphics are going to be a lot sharper
(better quality) also the vision is going to
be shorter as this adds tension to the
game as the game is going to be played
in first person on the play station VR and
the vision of the player is going to be
quite short so the player cannot see too
far in front of them so it is easier for
enemies to jump out at them. The image to the right is of a screen shot of
the game, this is the theme of the game I am creating, this shows some of
the graphics I am using.

Structure:

In video games the structure can mean a couple of different things, this
could either mean the story/plot structure as most/all games will follow a
story/plot line or it could mean the coding structure of the game, as I dont
know that much about coding especially play station VR coding as the
play station VBR is quite a modern device, the story structure is going to
be quite simple, this will be a number of different plot twists and suspense
to keep the players interested, however for the main part there will be
several different objectives per main objective that all lead up to the main
objective to escape the house. To the right is an image of a graph showing
how a story structure should be set out, this is how the game is going to
be as there are going to be several crises to keep the player interested.

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Features:

The features of a game are the main points that distinguish it from the
other games that are similar to it. In my game, the graphics and enemies
will be very similar to the Resident evil 7 graphics/textures and enemies,
this is because I have made this
game as a remade version of
Resident evil 7. The image to the
right is taken from Resident evil 7
as it shows some of the graphics
from Resident evil 7 that I will be
using in my game, however, I am
going to upgrade them by
enhancing them. This section is
quite short as most of the features such as being trapped in a
building/house is often used in the horror genre, this is also the case for
jump scares and other basic horror tactics, this is quite common as there
are thousands of horror games so it is near impossible to create a unique
horror game.

Characters:

The characters in this game are taken from Resident Evil 7 as the game I
am making is very similar to Resident evil 7 except for a few small plot
twists and some small story changes to add more suspense and tension
etc. There is not a playable character as the game Is only available in first
person so there isnt any point trying to create a playable character as it is
never going to be seen in the game so it would just be a waste of time
creating/designing a character that is never going to be seen. The image
to the right is one of the characters from Resident evil 7.

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Mechanics:

The mechanics of the game are going to be on the Play station VR

controls, this means that all of the available actions e.g. walking,
interacting with objects
etc. will each have a
designated control. The
image to the right is of the
VR controls.
The image to the right
shows the front and back
of both of the controllers
for the play station VR,
each of the buttons has a
pre-set action that is
completed when the
button is pressed, an
example of this is moving
the thumb stick to walk
with most games, the thumb stick is the top button on the controller to
the right shown here:

Story:

As I have mentioned a few times in the sections above, (e.g. in the

structure section) the story/story line of the game is going to be similar to
the story line of Resident evil 7 game, this is because I have franchised
my game off of the resident evil 7 game. The main story line is the player
having to wonder around an old run down building/house in order to find a
way to get out, this is the very brief outliner of the story, this does not
include all of the smaller objectives that build up to the larger objectives
that steer the story line in the right direction. The image to the right is a
graph of how story lines should be formulated, this is what I am going to
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use when deciding the finite details in the game, as well as using this I will
create story lines with several different outcomes and ask people I know
which they prefer, then I will get the results and chose the one people
have voted for the most.

Environment:

Environment in video games often refers

to what the graphics/textures look like in
the game, this is because these make up
the atmosphere/environment of the
game, in the game I am designing I have
decided to use a very similar environment
to the Resident evil 7 game, this is
because I have franchised the game from
resident evil 7. The image to the right is of
a screen shot of resident evil 7, this shows
the environment of the game I am going to create.

Detailed examples:

In this document detailed examples could mean a variety of different

things, this could mean detailed examples of characters that are going to
be in the game, as I am creating a first person horror game there is only
going to be three characters in the game, two people at the start that you
go to the house with and one person in the
house that is the enemy, the two people
from the start die almost instantly, this is
because it is very common for horror
games to make the player alone in the
game as it is more tense than if they were
in a group of different characters. The
image to the right is an image of the dead
character, this is at the start where you
discover that one of the people you went
to the house with was killed.
Detailed example could also be the graphics I am going to use, in this
case, the image to the right is of a screen shot from the Resident evil 7
game I am going to use similar gloomy/dark graphics in the game I am
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creating, this is because I have based my

game on Resident evil 7.
These are the two main aspects I can think
of to use detailed examples with.

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