The idea that I have chosen as the game that I am actually going to make is the 'Granny Crossing' game (idea 2) with elements of 'Road Rush' (Idea 2) intergrated into it.
This is my mood board for what the initial design of the game will look like. I took inspiration from games such as Earthbound, Mother 3, Animal crossing, Yoshi’s island and Splatoon because I wanted my game to have a very friendly, light-hearted feel to it so I drew influence from some Nintendo games. I feel as though doing my game in this style will appeal to younger children due to it being very cute and bright while also having the nostalgia factor due to it being in the style of games from the SNES era. Mostly I have decided to stick with a colour scheme of: lemon yellow, lime green, cerulean and dusty pink so that I could have colours from the dominant sides of the colour wheel without them being too bright or straining on the eyes. I have decided to draw influenced from older, more pixilated games because I like and enjoy the style as well as the fact that pixilated graphics will probably be much easier to work with when it comes to making walk-sprites and backgrounds. I will probably incorporate Earthbound’s 270∙ perspective so that the player can get a decent view of the game and I will be able to have curbs and corners into the road in order to add to the challenge of the game.
The objective of this game is to guide children across a road safely in a quick-thinking, puzzle style environment. The player must clear the course of a road for a band of children to cross under a certain amount of time. To do this, you must do things such as pressing the button on a pelican crossing, divert the woman away from pot holes and traffic as well as timing your crossing over roads with no safety features in order to avoid cars. There are many levels in the game and you will get a rank and a certain amount of stars for how well/quickly you complete the level. You can cash in stars for power ups such as flashing shoes and florescent jackets that will help you in a game situation or on a certain level. Although the game does not have any quiz-style elements, the player is gaining knowledge of how to cross a road safely due to the puzzle elements incorporated into the game. If you do not manage to safely escort one of the children across the road, a death animation will play based on how the child dies (eg. Doesn’t cross the road in time and the child gets run over) This helps to set the game with a much darker tone which will make it much more memorable and educational as it shows the real consequences for not crossing the road safely. They will not be too graphic as this is a kid’s game. As the game progresses, the levels will become quirkier and out-there in order to avoid repetition because crossing the same mundane road over and over again will get really boring.
The character that you play as is a girl scout called Alex who helps children to cross the road. Although the main character is female, the game is targeted at all genders and makes up for its femininity with quite an action/puzzle style of gameplay. Her design was inspired by games such as Earthbound, Splatoon and Animal Crossing because of their distinct yet familiar art styles that will be well received by children due to the large eyes, bright colours and overall cuteness in their design. Alex’s colours will be Blue for her shirt and cap with light yellow for her shorts, shoes and hair. I chose pastel colours because I felt that they stuck with the colours of the games that they were deprived from and they are also very bright and appealing to children as well as her talksprite having very soft, thick lines