LO3 Game review Dead Island

Dead island is a FPS horror survival game. It shows conventions of these genres though different aspects of the gameplay for example the idea of the player having a skill tree is a convention of the role-playing genre. It sits pretty average within this genre because games such as Far Cry do these aspects better than dead island.
         The narrative of the game is that you are one of the only 4 people on the island that are immune to the disease  the island is located somewhere near Papua New Ginuea and the story is that you are searching for a cure to this disease.  The story informs the gameplay through the constant action and gore and it effects the approach of the characters because as you are the hero you feel as though you have to help other survivors.
          The story connects with the target audience because the target audience is 18 year old males, any ethnicity and of A, B, C1 disposable income. Reasoning for this is that as the game offers a unique option to play as one of 4 people who are diverse in ethnicity.  This target audience would most likely be fans of action, survival, rpg and horror genres which contain suspense within the game play.
          The characters are relevant to the target audience because the zombies connote to the horror genre. The customizable hero that you play as and having the ability to choose skills as you level up connotes to the role playing audience. The uncanny gore that features throughout connotes to the action audience. 
           I feel that the characters are strong because they all come with background storys and strong roles in the storyline, for example the character Purma was a security gaurd working at the hotel the night the disease broke loos and now as one of the 4 characters immune she must fight against the disease for a cure. Another reason the characters are strong is that that each character has its own audience that it appeals to.
           The main challenge presented in the game-play is the progression through the different danger level areas, these areas determine whether or not there is a the constant wave of attacking zombies, if the area is peaceful or if you have to survive bandits. This level of challenge engages the player because it makes the player take their time either sneaking around being stealthy to avoid the blood thirsty zombies or get really involved in tense combat and witness the gory element of the game. The aspect of an huge openworld where you are free to roam around anywhere you wish, is key to the games success as it offers a unique opportunity that no other horror/zombie game has offered before.  Aswell as this the hugely customisation range of weapons and gear is another apealing aspect of the game that makes it unique. The gameplay is constantly evolving to keep the player on there toes and tense by making different zombies appear that are stronger or faster than the ordinary ones. This leads the player to play in different styles to the classic running and gunning.
            The game is available on Xbox 360, Ps3, PC, Mac. I feel the game is equally as enjoyable on all platforms.
           I would personally recommend this game as it is a one off game that offers a tense immersive adventure that can lead you one minute being as calm as ever to another when you jumped on by a zombie and your sat there surprised.

LO4 Target audience profile

Sam lives in the outskirts of the city and goes to work at a indie company. He spends most of his spare time playing video games or watching television as these both offer escapism from his stressful life. He has a comfortable disposable income which means  he is able to spend his spare money on games he wishes to play. He is not the usual kind of gamer as he prefers to stick to games that offer a unique experience. His favorite game genre is rogue-like games as they have a strong re playability value to them and also they can be played in short bursts, this  means they can be played for a very long time.

LO2 Production schedule week 1

Roles in group

LO2 Comparison report

    Lego Hobbit
This report is a comparison between the written review in the Xbox Magazine and the video review IGN.
    In the Xbox Official Magazine there is no mention of the genre for Lego Hobbit however in the IGN video review they say that the genre is standard combat and exploration.
    In the Xbox Official Magazine they tell us that the target audience is kids with low puzzle solving skills and fans of middle earth. The IGN review were much less specific in the target audience, they said that they are fans of the lego series.
    The Xbox magazine says that the narrative for the story is very similar to the Hobbit book by J.R.Tolkien. Whereas the IGN review goes into more depth about the narrative saying it follows the story of two out of the three Hobbit films and leads bilbo and company from bagged to the lonely mountain.
    The Xbox Official magazine review tells us that the character in the Lego Hobbit game have had only minor changes making them much the same character. Similarly the IGN review just tells us minimum amounts about the character and so they talk about the different playable characters Dwailen, Thorin, Bilbo, Gandalf.
    The gameplay is reviewed within the IGN video review to being a fun journey but not entirely satisfying, fun resource collection, very engaging visuals, charming slapstick humour and in the end its still just a button masher. Similarly the the xbox magazine says that the games main feature is the adorableness and comedy. They also say that the game looks the part and there is plenty of resources to collect, but the characters aren't unique, puzzles are over signposted and that the combat ponderous.
    The platforms aren't mentioned within the video review however the Xbox magazine review says its available on Xbox 360 and Xbox one.
    The IGN video review gave the personal recommendation that the game is an overall 7.4. The pros are that it has great visuals and it is fun to play. The cons are that it has a disjointed story and that the characters are to similar. All that aside IGN say it is a journey worth taking. The Xbox Official magazine’s personal verdict is that the game is for children and it seem to make the mistake of misunderstanding them, but that if you're in love with middle earth then its worth playing.

Game Concept idea sheriff stars

Hardware
The best possible hardware for this idea is PC and Mac.

Target Audience
The target audience is 14-19 males of demographic A,B,C1

Genre
Rouge-like platformer

3 competiters
Rouge legacy, Risk of Rain and Catacomb kids

Game Concept idea

Draft 1: The game will be Rogue-lite 2D platform with a space western theme and randomly generated world.

Draft 2: 2D space western platformer, with rogue-like elements where you play as a randomised character who explores a vast abandoned ancient space base on the moon to find out the mysteries within.

Draft 3: 2D space western platformer, with rogue-like elements where you play in a randomised world with different rooms contains randomly generated monsters and items. The world will be a ancient space base that has been abandoned. Every time you enter the space base it will have a different theme regarding why it was abandoned. The character you play as will be randomly generated at the beginning of each run causing them to have different abilities.

Draft 4: In ‘The Sheriff’s Stars’ the player plays as a randomly generated sheriff