2D Platformer or Interactive Character Profile?

My initial idea is to make a 2D Platformer, but I am currently debating between that and making Interactive Character Profiles.

To help me decide, I will be listing the pro's & con's of each one, explain how my existing skills would help me with each idea, and what one would I would do the best in.

2D Platformer

To make a 2D Platformer I would need to make it in Constrct 2 as it is the software I have previously used in the first project.

I would need to make a One Sheet, GDD, Proposal,

Pros:

• Will challenge and develop my skills

• Can access software (construct 2) both at college and at home, therefore it would be easier to make the game

Cons:

• The skills I have in Construct 2 are of a medium level and I would have to do a lot of research into Construct 2. This means I would not be efficient in making the game.

• Would not show off my strengths much, which are in character design & story-telling.

Interactive character profiles

To make Interactive Character Profiles I would need Photoshop/Illustrator and Flash/Animate.

Pros:

• This would focus more on Art/Character design which is what I'm most interested in and is where a lot of my strengths are.

• This would also focus on story-telling/lore which I really enjoyed doing in the last project.

Cons:

• Can only access software at college, therefore would have to plan out my time very well.

• I worry I wont have a sufficient amount of work compared to people making entire games

After using Photoshop & Illustrator throughout the year to create concept art and characters, I can use these software's with ease and I am confident that I can be efficient with using them.

Using Flash/Animate in the previous project helped me to develop skills with working in the program which leads me to believe I will be confident in using it. Because of this I will be efficient in using it. I can use my knowledge of making an interactive story and translate it into making an interactive character profile as both are similar in terms of making it in Flash/Animate.

The Final Choice

After listing out the pro's and cons for each idea there seems to be an obvious choice. Making Interactive Character Profiles.

The majority of my skills and strengths are in design and story-telling, and I'm wanting to go with the choice where I will use these skills more as I believe it will make the project more successful. It would be nice to challenge myself with creating a 2D game in construct 2 but I will be challenging myself no matter what I do. To me, and the peers who I asked for their opinion, making Interactive Character Profiles seems to be the better choice for me.

This would mean I'd have to create characters, backstories for the characters and refine the basic idea. I would be creating characters for a game so I would also have to think about the game world, the audience I want to aim the game at and what they are interested in. Conducting surveys would be a good start after I've justified who I'm going to aim this idea at.

Conclusion:

Listing the pros and cons of each idea helped me realise that making character profiles would be a better choice for me to make. I don't know exactly how long it's going to take to create each character profiles, but using knowledge gained from my previous studies in Art & Design, and from creating characters in my own time I have a rough idea. My aim so far is to make 4. Two magical girls and two enemies. I will need to be checking how long its taking me to do things and if I have enough time, I can create more characters, and I am allowing myself to make less if this deems to be too high of a goal, But for now, the goal is at 4.

I will be making characters for a 3D RPG style game. I will need to think about their backstories and the world they're in and so on. I also need to consider the audience I am aiming it towards.

Next Steps:

• Research things that will help me come up with character ideas, story ideas, world ideas and so on; Magical Girl Anime, RPG Games, Lord of the Rings,

• Research theories such as semiotics and how I can use this theory to make my characters appearance come accross as who they are

• Look into existing character profiles and what they include.

• Fantasy worlds research/inspiration

• Character classes

• Mythical Creature research for enemies (Mythical creatures can directly relate to the theme of "Legend", so making enemies based on mythical creatures makes sense)

• DECIDE WHAT AUDIENCE I AM GOING TO BE AIMING THIS TOWARDS

Above: example of a basic character profile.