Mini Project Complete

Our first mini project is now complete. 

My particular project consisted of me building a town where bible characters lived. I built 4 houses in the town, with no other attractions, as I concentrated on the houses themselves. There is practically no game-play within the town, and my focus was on creating an environment within an engine I had not previously used. Images of each section of the town can be seen below.

Note - I take no credit for any tilesets or characters found within the game. References can be found at the end of this post.
                                                                                                                                                                   

Town

                                                                                                                                                                   

Adam and Eve's House

Interior

Floor 1

                                                                                                                                                                   

Noah's House

Interior

Floor 1

Floor 2

                                                                                                                                                                   

David's House

Interior

                                                                                                                                                                   

Joseph's House

Interior

Floor 1

                                                                                                                                                                   

What I Learnt

From building this town, I learnt a number of things.

• Most obviously, I learnt the basics of using RPG Maker VX Ace. I found that the basic principles are practically the same as other games design software that I have used, though it still had its own stark differences.

• Bible stories are common knowledge to many people, including Non-Christians. Yet there is much more to each story than what you learn when you are a child. 

• It helped me to become more familiar with world building. Creating an in-game environment wasn't too difficult once I had decided on a tile-set. Yet I had to keep in mind the message I wanted to communicate, and the target audience for the game.

• Games can still be seen as unacceptable. Though people are open to playing games, and accept them, there is still hesitance to play a game. This I noticed from actively having to ask people to play the game. There was no-one that asked 'Can I have a go?', I had to ask them for their opinion myself. This could psychologically stem from the social statement saying that 'games are bad'.

• It emphasised things I was already aware of, showing that time and effort are needed to create games, and that play-testing games is essential.

• When people tested the game, though they are aware it is purely a visual experience, they still look out for game-play factors in the game. This shows two things.
1. People, including young people, prefer interaction and engagement in games. This shows how people are in search of a reward, for the good feeling you get from accomplishment.
2. People are unaware that games don't need to be engaging in order to portray a message. Many people see games as purely as a form of entertainment. Games can be used for much more that just fun or to pass the time.

                                                                                                                                                                   

How would I take it further?

If I was to take this game further, I would initially begin by adding a number of additional characters to the environment I have created, as the current environment feels a little empty for a town. I would also likely expand the area and turn it into an area that more resembles a town with shops and buildings, rather than just 4 houses together. Each of the character houses would likely contain a way of starting the player on a journey through the story of the character. This would incorporate teaching into the game, and could possibly be used in Sunday Schools or other educational environments to teach about bible stories.
                                                                                                                                                                   

References

Tiles

pixanna, 2015, Celianna's Tileset, [Image Online] Available at: <http://pixanna.nl/materials/celiannas-tileset/> [Accessed 30/10/2015]. 

ChwarzeNacht, 2015, Egyptian Desert Set, [Image Online] Available at: <http://schwarzenacht.deviantart.com/art/Egypt-Desert-Set-504152746> [Accessed 30/10/2015]. 

Characters

Grandmadeb, 2015, Granny's Lists - Animal Sprites, [Image Online] Available at: <http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/2399-grannys-lists-animal-sprites/> [Accessed 30/10/2015]. 

Wolf. N, 2015, Animal Sprites Worth Keeping - Resurrected from the Dead Sites, [Image Online] Available at: <https://grandmadebslittlebits.wordpress.com/2015/01/17/animal-sprites-worth-keeping-resurrected-from-dead-sites/> [Accessed 30/10/2015].

flickrhivemind,n.d. RPG Maker Sprites - Pig, [Image Online] Available at: <http://flickrhivemind.net/flickr_hvmnd.cgi?method=GET&page=2&photo_number=50&tag_mode=all&search_type=Tags&originput=charactergraphic,rpgmaker&sorting=Interestingness&photo_type=250&noform=t&search_domain=Tags&sort=Interestingness&textinput=charactergraphic,rpgmaker> [Accessed 30/10/2015].

Jones. D,,n.d. RPG Maker Sprites - Tiger and Lion, [Image Online] Available at: <http://forum.rpg2000.4players.de/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=81735> [Accessed 30/10/2015].