Alpha Circuit – Primary
Alpha Circuit, 2014. Alpha Circuit by Second Dimension Games. [online] itch.io. Available at: <https://seconddimension.itch.io/alpha-circuit> [Accessed 22 March 2022].
This game is an interesting take on a stealth game, as you play as an antivirus fighting against a computer virus. It does, however, feature all the usual mechanics of a stealth game, such as detection, vision cones, stealth attacks, and even a detection status.
The player can only attack when not in sight of a virus part, so they have to stick to stealth, timing and patience to attack and complete the levels, which is an interesting mechanic to me, as I’ve never seen it before. The game also features the ability to teleport across the levels through the use of the purple teleporters, which allow you to move to any one of them without being detected.
The game’s camera does not move and follow the player, as it is completely fixed and shows the whole map. I don’t believe I will implement a camera angle like this, as I want the player to discover the map bit by bit as they move around
FROG Gear Solid – Primary
SkyBrave, 2022. FROG Gear Solid by SkyBrave. [online] itch.io. Available at: <https://skybrave.itch.io/frog-gear-solid> [Accessed 22 March 2022].
This is a game that follows a frog as he sneaks through a location that belongs to the “Crocodile Mafia”. The player has several abilities, such as attacking enemies, and launching your tongue, which can be utilised to grab boxes and block the line of sight of enemies.
The game features a visual indicator of the field of view of the enemies, which I plan to implement into my game in the future, though I particularly like the way it was implemented graphically. I also like the graphics of the game itself, as I have always been partial to pixel art graphics, so this game’s graphics may serve as inspiration for my FMP in the future.
Disjunction – Secondary
Ape Tribe Games, 2022. Disjunction. [online] Disjunction-game.com. Available at: <https://disjunction-game.com/> [Accessed 16 March 2022].
Disjunction is a stealth/action RPG game set in near future cyberpunk New York. The game features three different characters that all have different abilities that alter the gameplay in various ways. While the game can be catered towards fast and loud combat, a couple of these abilities influence and cater towards the stealth aspect of the game, such as through distracting the enemy to sneak past them.
One specific ability that I like the idea of is a smoke bomb, this can be thrown at an enemy, or a group of them, and allows the player to attack them without a chance of retaliation, as well as stop them from sounding an alarm and ruining the stealth attempt. A mechanic such as this could be beneficial to my FMP, allowing players to make it through areas without being seen, or without having any chance of retaliation. This also gives me the idea of obscuring the player through other means, such as steam from pipes that could be shot, or other similar things.
The player can choose whether they utilise lethal or non lethal attacks on their targeted enemy, which doesn’t make too much of a difference for the player, but it gives them a choice and allows them to play how they want to. The game also allows the player to move bodies so that they aren’t found by anyone, allowing for an easier stealth experience.
The game features many aspects that I want to include in my game, such as the torch used by enemies to show their line of sight, as well as the use of environment and cover so that the level can feel naturally designed. This game also features really nice stylised pixel art graphics that really appeal to me, which leads me towards implementing something similar in terms of graphical quality.
While I haven’t bought the game yet, I may buy it if it goes on sale so that I can research the visual style and sound design further.
From my research so far, I have learned a few things, such as possible mechanics, features and level aspects, as well as possible graphical styles and perspectives. I have researched mostly isometric perspective games, rather than top down, which has lead me to reconsider my top down approach, as I may possibly go with an isometric perspective. While I haven’t completed my research, I believe I may make my game isometric in the future. I have also looked at the graphical styles of games I have played for research, and I really like the style of Disjunction, to the point where I may make my FMP have the same style. The style of the characters also remind me of the artwork I did on last year’s FMP, so I will most likely replicate what I have done previously.
In terms of information I still need to get, I plan to look at Payday 2 and Hotline Miami for the level design and sound perspectives, as well as researching steampunk as a setting.
Questionnaire results –
This, as well as the last question, made me question the setting of my game. I originally intended to set the game in a near future cyberpunk world, but now that I’ve been given the idea of a steampunk setting I believe I want to use that idea a lot more. I still want to use some form of modernised technology, so I may take the Fallout/ Wolfenstein approach and make the setting’s technology evolve at an extreme rate, while still maintaining the setting of the past.
The overall results of the questionnaire reaffirmed most of the ideas I had in regards to gameplay elements, though as stated before I have had a change in setting as a result of answers I have received. I also believe that a stealth game set in a strange futuristic cyberpunk world could be interesting, as exploring the technology would be enjoyable.
I also believe that
Payday 2 – Primary
Payday 2 allows most of the game’s heists to be played in stealth, which completely changes the gameplay of each heist, revolving it around detection and answering guard pagers to avoid setting off the alarm.
In regards to research, I plan to look at the level layout and sound design of the game, as they are both brilliant examples of stealth game design.
This is a screenshot of a layout of one of the heists from Payday 2, from the design alone, it looks like a standard building, which would be correct, but it is a standard building that was catered to stealth. Payday 2’s stealth is interesting due to the levels looking like standard buildings you’d see in the real world, and one probably wouldn’t take a second glance at the design, while they have been crafted specifically with stealth in mind. One example of this is the Harvest & Trustee bank, which, upon first glance, just looks like a standard bank level. This would be true, but the level itself is clearly set up for stealth. There is a specific section of this which is a good example, that being the small corridor that branches the main bank floor, and the area that usually holds the vault, camera room and stairs leading to the roof.
Research steampunk setting -dishonoured- ac syndicate-thief
While reviewing answers from my questionnaire, I received several that mentioned a steampunk setting for my game, which is different from my original vision, but could be extremely interesting to look into, and possibly use as the setting. Luckily for me, there are several games and stealth games set in steampunk settings, one of which being my favourite stealth game, Dishonored.
Dishonored – Primary
Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate – Secondary
Bioshock Infinite – Secondary
Bioshock infinite takes place in 1912 in “the Flying city of Columbia”, a steampunk city state that is suspended in the air through a combination of giant blimps, balloons, reactors, propellers, and “quantum levitation”. I have researched this game for its unique setting, as I plan to create a game set in a steampunk world. The game features wonderous technology, as well as various things that are similar, or even identical, to real life. Examples of this are the buildings and some of the weapons featured in the game.
Thief – Secondary
Thief’s design is very steampunk in design, especially in the earlier games. The game features architecture very similar to Victorian england, with steampunk technology featured in many areas of the game. The 2014 reboot of the Thief franchise featured signigicantly less steampunk technology in order to include a gloomier theme, as mentioned in the following article.
VG247. 2022. Thief dev “wanted to get rid of” wood and gold steampunk look. [online] Available at: <https://www.vg247.com/thief-dev-wanted-to-get-rid-of-wood-and-gold-steampunk-look> [Accessed 1 April 2022].
For this moodboard I looked into steampunk aspects of Dishonored and Dishonored 2, it was environments like this that partially inspired me to research steampunk in the first place, as I believe it is a great setting for a stealth game. Most of these pictures are art and screenshots from “The City of Dunwall”, the fictional city in which most of Dishonored takes place. It is full of advanced steampunk technology and inventions and is very gothic/ Victorian in design.
Quantic foundry –
I took the Quantic Foundry Gamer Motivation Profile test, which is used to determine a person’s gaming motivations from their answers. I took this test from the perspective of a stealth game player and I was provided with these results.
While these results may vary depending on whoever may take the test, I believe these results encapsulate the main motivations of stealth game players. The main varying percentages are completion, discovery and story, as these can differentiate among the community, there are even people who play stealth games in a non-stealth fashion and will thus lean towards the destruction and power motivations.
I was also given a “gamer type”, which is used to categorise large groups of people with similar motivations. In this case, I was provided with Ninja/Acrobat, which I believe is the perfect category for stealth game players and their motivations.
VentureBeat. 2022. The Stealth Gamer’s Manifesto. [online] Available at: <https://venturebeat.com/2010/01/10/the-stealth-handbook-for-the-seventh-generation/> [Accessed 29 March 2022].
In this video, the creator looks over several different types of stealth game gadgets and abilities, those being information gathering, AI manipulation, redefining space, movement systems and dispatching enemies. I will research a few of these myself, and how I could implement something similar into my game while still fitting the theme, though a lot of these will be from Dishonored.
I will first take a look at movement systems, my favourite stealth game tool. Dishonored features “Blink”, which allows the player to teleport a short distance in any direction they wish simply by looking there. This ability provides the player with versatile movement in any direction, and pretty much means players can move to anywhere in the map via jumping and blinking around. For information gathering, the player is provided with “Dark vision” which allows the player to see living, dead or unconscious enemies, their sight cones, and the player’s sounds, with the second tier of this ability allowing the player to see resources like health elixir through walls.
“Redefining space” is an interesting one for Dishonored, as I didn’t believe there was an ability that fit this category, when I realised that “Possession” fit the category perfectly. This ability allows the player to possess rats, fish and hound dogs to move around the map, and the second tier allows the player to possess human enemies, though they cannot attack or use powers while possessing. This ability is really interesting to me, as it really does change the way levels are seen, such as by eliminating the need to sneak around something when they can just possess an enemy and walk past it normally. AI manipulation is simple, as the player can summon a swarm of rats that attack enemies, and more importantly, distract a large group of enemies and keep them preoccupied for a short while, this ability is quite useful for crowd dispersion/ distracting guards on their patrols, allowing the player to sneak past easily.
“Dispatching enemies” is actually the category with the most abilities, as it also includes all weapons carried by the player. The actual supernatural abilities, however, are “Windblast” and “Bend time”, which allows the player to unleash a devastating blast from their hands, and slow/stop time respectively. “Windblast” is useful for knocking over enemies for an easy finish, or just to completely disperse a crowd to allow a different approach, the ability will also kill those who are thrown into objects, or off ledges. “Bend time” doesn’t kill on its own, but has an incredibly synergy with the player’s weapons, as in the slow/stopped state, the player’s attacks instantly kill those that are hit, the player can also pluck projectiles out of the air so that they can avoid damage.
These abilities are my favourite examples of stealth game gadgets in any game, and I do believe this research could effect the planning and production of my level. I toyed with the idea of having the protagonist being supernatural or magical, so that a possible similar mechanic could be implemented. The idea of the possession ability struck me as something that could be done in a different way, for example having the player be able to hack into/ rewire a robot and take control of it, letting them complete objectives as a robot that can avoid suspicion.
Dishonored Wiki. 2022. Supernatural Abilities. [online] Available at: <https://dishonored.fandom.com/wiki/Supernatural_Abilities> [Accessed 4 April 2022]. – source for above information on abilities
User Interface research –
Since UI is an extremely important aspect of games, I thought I should have a look at several examples of UI in stealth and steampunk games.
The first game I looked at for UI was, of course, Dishonored. I believe Dishonored’s UI is perfect, especially considering the brush stroke style graphics of the game. It is clear and concise, showing with distinct colours where everything is, and highlighting specific actions like the health and mana elixirs in the bottom right.
I intend for the player to be able to sneak up on enemies and assassinate them by being behind them and pressing a certain key, this would then start an animation of the player performing a takedown on the enemy in front of them. I needed some inspiration for this, however so I looked at different games that featured this mechanic.
From this video alone, I believe the one most similar to what I want to include in my game, is the one seen at 0:46, which seems to be the one that could both fit into my game and be easier to animate.
The same goes for the animation seen at 4:28, which looks like the best one out of all the rest to be animated and put into my game.
Finally, looking at titanfall animations, I believe the one seen at 1:37 would fit the most into my game, were it to be animated in pixel art and from a top down perspective.
I will most likely create an amalgamation of these animations as the final product, as I like the look of all 3 of them. These videos and animations will serve as a good inspiration for my game when it comes to the specific animations.
Finn's Games Design Journal 