Similar Projects (5th March)

This week I have mostly been writing up my pitch document for the experimental game I am planning to make. Most importantly this week I have been discussing with peers about similar games and how games use sound to drive a player to a certain location. We discussed the use of sound in horror games and other games that use sound to attract players to certain objects, and example given was Skyrim[1] which has a plant that makes a pulsing noise to attract the player to its location.

Outside of sound I was looking at games that educates players about nature, I couldn’t find a lot of games and non that approached the topic in the way that was planned in for this game. What I did find though were a lot of games that had really unique and interesting ways to display information about animals to a player such as the Amazon Trail [2] (Image below ) that uses certain styles to grasp the users interest in information about the animals.

Image from Amazon Trail 3rd Edition: Rainforest Adventures

This image uses a scrap book display along with big bold text and clever use of colour to attract and maintain the players interest in the information being presented. As the main aim with my project is to educate players on wildlife this type of presentation is key, especially as a large part of my target audience will be children it is crucial that the information is short and digestible.

With respect to finding the most similar game to what I am planning on making in this project, the most similar games are hunting simulators especially Hunting Simulator 2 [3]. This is because they use the sound of animals to attract a players attention to them and also recreate the environments that their maps are based on.

Hunting simulator 2

Obviously the intensions of these types of games are the complete opposite of what is trying to be achieved in my game. As with my game you’ll only be getting information about the species not hunting them.

[1]Bethesda Game Studios, Skyrim 2011, Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/72850/The_Elder_Scrolls_V_Skyrim/

[2] The Learning Company, Inc., Amazon Trail 3rd Edition: Rainforest  Adventures 1998, Available at: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/amazon-trail-3rd-edition-3g6

[3]Neopica, Hunting simulator 2 2020, Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1135910/Hunting_Simulator_2/

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