RESEARCH IN GAMES.

I like doing research.

When making tilesets, I'll use pictures for ideas of what to add in it. For the rooms and look of the maps in general, I look up early Mediterranean pics for that. I may go to the Library and borrow some photo books on architecture or house/castle/palace/garden photos and use that for inspiration as well. The town design I had was inspired in part by Venice, and from another town as well. As that is the general setting for the game, I try to make it look like that in game.

I use Spanish/Portuguese languages for the naming system. The history of it sort of parallels with our world history, where the natives who used to live there are forced out by an invading Empire for their own use (resources and expansion). So I feel like that, along with the look of it, should give a certain feel to the game. I'll research some early Mayan history or go elsewhere and research some old Pacific stories for inspiration on the early culture of the game.

Other than that, I will base some of the characters or in game areas on places I've seen and people that I know. Unfortunately for some people I don't keep in contact with them so I just have to remember how they were like and try to reproduce it in their character. Very tough when I suck at writing and have a bad memory. But otherwise, I like using real life places and experiences for help too. Having been in a cave in real life, I think: "What can I do to make it feel in game like I did in real life? What kind of music would make me feel like how I felt while walking through there?"

I will sometimes also just go looking at a bunch of artwork and see if anything there inspires me. In Paradise Blue, the town of Pertida was inspired by artwork of a Cathedral style city. It also gives me new ideas on where to take something. For example, I had the in game university for Azulea based layout wise on the university I attended. All the bricks and stuff got me bored though, and I wanted to vary it a little. Then I saw a Magical university drawing, complete with stained glass windows and it was very colorful. Of course I like colorful stuff, so I'll think about how to incorporate the general layout of the university, along with a fantasy colorful look to it that yet still fits into the setting. I was previously looking at Gaudi's work in Barcelona for some building inspirations as well for a project.

I also look into various games i like and see what it is about them that I like. "Legend of Mana did x right, but I really hate doing x, what were they thinking when they did x, I love these BGs, this part is dull, I like the quest picture that shows up, I love these BGs". Usually the game is related to what I want to make (Paradise Blue is heavily FF1/5 inspired and I had to look up info such as spellsets, weapons, EXP rates, some boss strategies and ideas from there), but I'll also take from rather unrelated sources and see if the ideas go well together. Sometimes I just have incompatible ideas so I have to scrap something, or maybe it takes too much work to do.

But yes, I really need the research part personally because I'm pretty uncreative by myself and it's just fun to look these things up. It gives me motivation, makes me learn new things, and gets me some inspiration for something that I haven't thought about yet.

Rawr, post was longer than i wanted it to be.

In a professional environment, people are always doing research for their projects, being it the appearance of a landmark, building, object, etc. to mythology.

And generally, research tends to be one of the best ways to gain new ideas. As oppose to treating it like a chore, you should look at it openly so that you can learn new things, it can actually be quite fun (to me at least).

Research is also important in terms of relating to your audience. Finding something that someone else is familiar with tends to help people feel more of a connection with your product, and become more engaged as a result.

I've been a big fan of alluding to religious themes and various pantheons. A successfully used allusion can give a well-read player a complete sense of something with very little effort. I definitely do some research to check that my recollection of these stories is correct and to search for details I can add to clue players in.

I pretty much do the same thing Ocean does only I use any system for naming. What s/he said.



Oh and COLOR. COLOR.

The closest I'll go to research is wikipedia.


Or google images.

post=116219
Karsu did a little research (and I eventually did after the fact) for/about Visions & Voices. A lot of our work is based on Karsu's pre-existing knowledge, however.

This frightens me. I'm not sure I'll be able to look at Karsu the same way again >.<

Edit: On topic, I have done some research. Most of my time has been listening to music in professional games. I listen carefully to a lot of Uematsu's music when I want to figure out how to create a strong melody that's memorable. I'll listen to a lot of other relevant when there's an atmosphere I want to try to accomplish.

Other times I've done research is for naming conventions, mythology, and integrating some aspect of physical science into gameplay. For example, for your standard elements used in most RPG's, fire, ice, water, etc, I've looked into the physical properties and chemical reactions that can create alternative manifestations of each. I haven't come up with anything solid yet, really, but I prefer to have an understanding on how this stuff really comes about (especially if one wants to tone down the "magic is magic just because it's magic" aspect). Also, I've learned that when you do learn more about how things really work, you can diversify and make your skillsets or minigames more interesting.