A game that had influenced my design in Stranded particularly that had been released on the AppStore was N.O.V.A, A first-person shooter that was very similar to the Halo franchise, but being on the iPhone and iPod the game was lacking in depth but was very advanced in ways of gameplay and graphics.
It had a very solid grasp of control, sticking to the traditional method for FPS games but adapting the thumbsticks that would be on a control pad onto the screen of the game.
An idea that wanted to incorporate into the Third-person playing perspective.
Overall what the game had lacked in depth it made up for it in its simple “pick-up-and-play” controls.
A Tech demo for the iPhone was released by Epic games called Epic Citadel, that was show casing that the Unreal engine was possible to run on iOS software for the iPod and iPhone.
The results were spectacular as it displayed that the processor on both devices could render and play such advanced graphics that had never been done before.
Bringing in the possibility to have real-time reflections such as mirrored surfaces and water for example as well as Dynamic movements like flowing banners through skeletal animation. Along with all this was the massive overhaul of the graphics through other breakthroughs that were previously only developed only for Console gaming like bump mapping and global illumination for realistic lighting situations.
All these advances in technology for these platforms mean that there is going to be big leaps in quality of the games and other software on the way to development.
There is a large base of games that have influenced me to stylise my game for this project the way I have.
But there are a few that made me want to attempt to recreate something for the iPod/iPhone, Not just in the way on how the game plays but in a sense of the genre and they way that people can play together co-operatively as most games that are interactive between more than one person have them pitted against each other.
Gears of War’s Third-Person/Over-the-Shoulder camera angle was very intuitive and wasn’t really used a lot before Gears refined the style by limiting it to just over the hips as games before then had the whole character’s body in view.
But one feature of Gears’ that I did not want to implement was it’s Cover system.
Left 4 Dead’s co-operative gameplay and fast and rapid action influenced how I wanted Stranded to play, rather than Gears of War’s “slow and steady” pace of play, I wanted to have that sense of urgency you get through Left 4 Dead but not in a perspective of First-person.
Halo Reach’s character customisation was really in-depth and vast, Something that I wanted to have in my game, but due to the iPod and iPhone limitations it would have to toned down extensively.
Dead Space heavily influenced on how my game plays and looks, with it’s Sci-fi outer space setting and Horror/Survival genre, I never saw a similar game to this on the marketplace for Apple, Let alone with the adjustments and twists that made it unique from my ideas.
The environments from Dead Space helped nudge my own into something similar but I still wanted to keep it separate, Whilst Left 4 Dead’s four player Gameplay was something I wanted to implement to make the game multiplayer and co-operative with Gears of War’s Third Person pacing and layout.
With all of these influences I wanted to keep the characters based in this game based on my own personal ideas to have my own flair to the game.
