Platform

Because of the nature of my game I think that the best platform  for it would be either the 3DS. I thought about having it on the DS or Wii but I want to use some of the new technology that the 3DS has in my game. For example I would like to use the gyroscope to enable the player to use the 3DS by tilting and moving it around to look for clues etc within the game. Also I think that the microphone function could be used in solving puzzles. I want one of the items in the player's inventory to be a camera and I would use the gyroscope function to look around through the camera.

Another technology I can think about including in the game is Augmented Reality. With this I can add an extra fascet to the gameplay.

There are a lot of similar types of games that have excelled on the DS so I believe my game is the type of game that would be perfect for this platform. A portable device works best with the kinds of games that can be picked up and played in short bursts and are easy to pick up and put down. I also think that the visual style of my game would be suited to the platform. I have designed the environments so that they have layers of detail which on the 3DS would give real depth.

The main environment would be displayed on the top screen and I have to come up with some way to use the touch screen for movement controls and inventory. The touch screen would also be used for solving puzzles.


Playing Games for Research


In order to get some ideas for how my game mechanic and control system might work using the two screens I decided to play some similar DS/3DS games to see how they effectively used the dual screen and accelerometer technology.

Last Window ; The Secret of Cape West.

The last window is the sequel to Hotel Dusk which I mentioned in an earlier post. I have played the first one so decided to play this one to see if anything had changed in the mechanics or gameplay from the first game. 

The sequel still requires the player to turn the DS 90 degrees and hold it like a book. The touch screen is used to explore rooms and navigate and access the inventory. I think this works well as the player can touch where they want to investigate which is very simple and easy to understand plus makes good use of the touch controls. At some points of the game there are puzzles to solve which also take place on the touch screen.

When I think about how to set out my game and what to have on each screen I need to remember that what is on the top screen will have the stereoscopic 3D effect and the touch screen will not. I need to use the top screen to it's best potential. I think this will mean having the bulk of the environment displayed on the top screen as I have designed it with the 3D effect in mind. But I also want the touch screen to be used to explore the rooms and have the player touch where to investigate so I also need to keep that in mind and somehow come up with something that is the best of both worlds.

Professor Layton and the Lost Future.

This is the third game in the highly popular Professor Layton series. It's format is much the same as the others just with a different story and different puzzles to solve.