Research Plan

As mentioned before, I am planning on making a first-person shooter game with unique movement elements. In order to make an engaging game experience it takes more than just sound mechanics as the things going on behind the scenes are not what draws intrigue. A good game is multi-faceted and combines various skillsets to create a compelling experience. I will obviously need to do some Unity research to make my newer systems work with what I already know but there are more important aspects I should focus on. A few things I will need to research are listed below.

I will need to research level design in order to create intriguing and fair levels for players to freely explore. There are a few games that offer a certain degree of freedom to players without letting them off their “leash”. The art of dictating what your players know and when they feel and know it organically is a skill I want to master as a game designer. There are several primary examples I can pull from that I feel exemplify this balance through their level design alone. There are also several articles available as well as video guides that explain useful techniques.

Additionally, I need a certain degree of art experience to make a visually compelling experience for players. At the very least, I need players to be able to visually distinguish between game elements quickly. This will end up being a huge limiter on quantity of elements within the game world unless I learn basic visual art skills. I plan of following video tutorials and just looking around to see how far Unity itself can take me artistically. If time allows, I might begin learning other programs such as Maya through internet resources also.

Finally, I’m going to need to create or otherwise procure sound and music for the game somewhere. I have more experience with sound than visual elements, but I will undoubtedly need to research this. I have people I know that are exceptionally good at video game sound design and I plan to get in touch with them. Again, there are notable online resources for every program out there and a huge community of people that contribute. I have found these to be the most helpful in the past when it comes to game design.