The Awakening

Production process for product creation (Task 3)

Concept analysis and Influences

What makes The Awakening different from other zombie games of the likes is that its super realistic
in terms of gameplay and mechanics, players aren’t invincible and have to almost plan out their every
move accordingly. There’s a vast amount of AI within the game that act differently towards the player
(Zombies and the Mexican cartel being more violent and attack on sight whereas Ex-militants are
simply cautious) and then there’s Pearl – the special AI. With her being a main character, her AI will
be far more advanced than any other, she’ll help out mid-combat and post-combat but also helps out
with the development of the story as she is vital to its progression.

There are many influence that contribute towards the idea of The Awakening – The biggest ones being
Dying Light and Bioshock infinite.

I personally enjoyed both games and put endless hours into each but they both stood out to me for
individual reasons and 1 reason in common.

For Dying light, it was the gameplay, I’m not a huge fan of parkour games but add a few zombies and
weapons to it and it becomes rather enjoyable, I also liked the way the map was laid out and the
freedom that it offered but it was only really accessible via parkour so considering there is no parkour
within The Awakening, there will be a little less freedom in comparison. Another reason I enjoyed
Dying Light was because of the weapons, both firearms and melee but more towards the melee
weapons; I enjoyed the way you could upgrade and customise them and they looked different with
each upgrade or customisation.

For Bioshock, it has to be the story, the bioshock franchise has such a rich story to each individual
game and they all tie in together at so many different points too, so I was hoping to have a similar
backstory to The Awakening, mainly focusing on the Main Characters. In addition, the AI Bioshock
infinite imported for Elizabeth was so outstanding to me, I loved the fact that she could help mid-
combat and between it too (like finding ammo, money etc.) on top of this, Elizabeth was also vital to
Bioshock infinites storyline.

What made both games stand out to me was how quickly players became attached to characters in
the game. So for bioshock the main ones were obviously Booker and Elizabeth and for Dying light there
was a few, notably Kyle Crane and Jade. After so much time playing and developing the story and
learning more about the characters (and becoming attached) players are almost emotionally
destroyed when something happens to these characters – and in this case I’m looking more towards
the endings.
This is a key point I want to include into The Awakening, in fact it NEEDS to be included otherwise the
story won’t work.

Saturation of the market

So right now, the main trend in the games industry is obviously Battle Royale, it’s pretty much
everywhere and there are a number of different views around the genre.

In terms of The Awakening, it is a zombie game and there are quite a few of them in existence
however not a lot of them lean towards the super-realistic side to an apocalypse whilst following a
story, which makes The Awakening different; it’s more of a mix between games from different
markets.

The Awakening will more than likely be put into the same market as Dying light, it’s quite a small
market but that doesn’t matter, what matters is making a statement.

Game ideas and mechanics

I would like a decent amount of mechanics within The Awakening, not too intensive ones but ones
that stand out quite a bit; obviously you’ll have your basics like move, shoot etc. but I wish to include
some rather advanced ones that also tie in well with the games AI – one being the healing.

So my idea is after an intensive fight you can choose to rest and fully heal rather than a quick patch
up that you can make during a fight. What makes this different is that I would like Pearl to help out
with the healing, so for example, say you get an injury in your leg and on your back, whilst you heal
the leg injury pearl will heal the injury on your back whilst talking about things such as what the
player could’ve done better or just simply character bonding.

Another idea is obviously the weapon levelling and skill moves.

So after a certain amount of time or kills, the player becomes better with their selected weapon and
can even perform special skill moves specific to that weapon. The player can also customise their
weapon if it has the option to, e.g. chain wrapped around a baseball bat but not a katana etc.

Downloadable content
I already have an idea for DLC that I wish to incorporate, basically the original game idea was that
the main character actually travelled through eras (still sticking to the idea that it’s all inside his
head)
Ideas for eras…

Prehistoric (cavemen/stone age)

Ancient Rome

Viking age

Medieval period (assassin)

Sengoku Period (samurai)

World war one

World war two

Present (awakens)

Promotional Activities

Live action trailer

Actors using go pros act out the first scene within the game (asylum – forest – highway) using go
pros. They’ll likely be chased by zombies for the first 2 areas before running into a gang on the
highway who’ll possibly knock down the main camera before saying something along the lines of
“Time to wake up” or something like that and that could more than likely be used as the games
motto such as dying lights “Good night, Good luck”

In terms of actually creating this, there’s 2 ways it could be done, we could create it ourselves by
renting out sets for the scenes, actors and purchasing some go pros OR the preferred option being, if
Warner Bros do invest in us by becoming the publishers, we hand the idea over to them with a
budget of about £500,000 and the money the make from ad revenue is there’s meaning they get a
fair share of profit made

Another option would be to promote the game at E3 which would be a great way to get attention.
Package Designs

This is just an example of a hard copy of the game for PS4 (I wish the game to be available on
PlayStation, Xbox and Windows)

Time Schedule – 3 Years (Max)

9 Months – Concept

26 Months – Development

1 Month – Testing

Concept Schedule – 9 Months - £287,500

Month 1 – Pre-production

Month 2 – Character Art – 2-character artists - £10K

Month 3 – Character Art – 2-character artists - £10k.

Month 4 – Environment Art – 3 Environment Artists - £22,500

Month 5 – Environment Art - 3 Environment Artists - £22,500

Month 6 – Environment Art – 3 Environment Artists - £22,500

Month 7 – Modelling – 5 Modellers - £50k

Month 8 – Modelling – 5 Modellers - £50k

Month 9 – additional time slot - £100k Spared

Development Schedule – 26 Months – £2,253,489.25 (Promotional budget Inc.)

Month 1 – Establishing office - £281,071.25

Month 2 – Programming – 10 programmers - £218,750

Month 3- Programming – “” - £218,750

Month 4 – programming – “” - £218,750

Month 5 – programming – “” - £218,750

Month 6 – Programming Tests – “” - £218, 750

Month 7 – Programming fixes if needed, if not Texture artists - £41,667

Month 8 – texture art – 5 Texture artists - £41,667

Month 9 – texture art – “” - £41,667

Month 10 – texture art – “” - £41,667

Month 11 – Graphics design – 8 graphics designers - £60,000

Month 12 – Graphics Design – “” - £60,000

Month 13 – Graphics design – “” - £60,000

Month 14 – Sound engineer – 4 sound engineers - £16,000

Month 15 – Sound engineer – “” - £16,000

Month 16 – Music -

Month 17 – Music -

Month 18 – Testing

Month 19 – Fixes

Month 20 – Testing
Month 21 – Fixes

Month 22 – Ready for launch

(Total = £2,540,989.25)

NOTE* During the 16th Month we will begin promotional activities such as E3 which will run up til
launch 6 months later