After our initial choice of Medal of Honor, and a game set around the World War 2 era; I set about researching the war in particular potential areas of weakness which were overcome by chance rather than skill. It is precisely these types of moments which we were looking to manipulate into a plausible 'alternate history' for our game.
I began my research with a detailed look into the Battle of Britain; and found that the two most interesting points in my research were the use of radar signals in the battle (and their lack of detection by German aircraft reconnaissance) and the weather conditions which affected the morning attack by German forces on 'Eagle Day'. Had the weather not been severely overcast the Germans were likely to have one this battle and this would have in turn put them in a far more powerful position to invade on land.
At this point we each decided which characters we were going to work on and research; Shaun - William, Charlie - George, and Jess and I - Nancy. I then looked into how we could create a believable Open World to explore of 1940's Britain. Below are some photos I took in Norwich when I saw a building which just seemed perfect for Nancy's Newspaper building.
The third section to my research is into the roles and occupations of women in war-time Britian and the part they played in manufacture, labour, artillery production whilst the men were away. The portrait I drew below is based on an image taken from the above book (page 64) of a group of Lumber workers having a tea-break;
The last 2 elements of my research was firstly into how the ATS and Women's Land Army operated, what the women were doing and how that would fit to Nancy's character-role in the game. Our team chose to use a lot of historical reference in our design and so this type of research was vitally important to make sure that our characters were believable and interesting to the player.
And secondly into propaganda artwork and illustration from the time of war. The website I took a lot of my reference artwork from was The National Archives Website;
The National Archives | Research and learning | Exhibitions | The Art of War. 2012. The National Archives | Research and learning | Exhibitions | The Art of War. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/theartofwar/. [Accessed 8 - 22 November 2012].
Aside from my Secondary Research, both Jess and myself spent time playing games and using our own feedback of play-experience to shape the design of our own game. I found in many ways this hands-on research to be the most eye-opening and it did help me to think about our game and the Medal of Honor franchise in a more analytical and removed way. All in all, I think I could have continued and delved into much more detail with my research as World War 2 is a widely covered subject, and in order to create a convincing and coherent game-world; the more research, the better the game!
I began my research with a detailed look into the Battle of Britain; and found that the two most interesting points in my research were the use of radar signals in the battle (and their lack of detection by German aircraft reconnaissance) and the weather conditions which affected the morning attack by German forces on 'Eagle Day'. Had the weather not been severely overcast the Germans were likely to have one this battle and this would have in turn put them in a far more powerful position to invade on land.
At this point we each decided which characters we were going to work on and research; Shaun - William, Charlie - George, and Jess and I - Nancy. I then looked into how we could create a believable Open World to explore of 1940's Britain. Below are some photos I took in Norwich when I saw a building which just seemed perfect for Nancy's Newspaper building.
I spent a large amount of time researching 'ordinary' (if you can call it that) british civilian life whilst the war went on abroad. Whilst reading 'War and Peace - 1940s' I was constantly picking out elements which I thought would be interesting to include in a levels design; be it allotments in the Tower of London Moat, or 'alien-citizens' being pushed onward to London's own form of concentration camps. NPCs collecting tin, or digging in their allotments, children sorting out refuse for recycling.
Harwood, J, 2010. War and Peace - 1940s. 1st ed. London: Readers Digest Publishing.
The last 2 elements of my research was firstly into how the ATS and Women's Land Army operated, what the women were doing and how that would fit to Nancy's character-role in the game. Our team chose to use a lot of historical reference in our design and so this type of research was vitally important to make sure that our characters were believable and interesting to the player.
And secondly into propaganda artwork and illustration from the time of war. The website I took a lot of my reference artwork from was The National Archives Website;
The National Archives | Research and learning | Exhibitions | The Art of War. 2012. The National Archives | Research and learning | Exhibitions | The Art of War. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/theartofwar/. [Accessed 8 - 22 November 2012].
Aside from my Secondary Research, both Jess and myself spent time playing games and using our own feedback of play-experience to shape the design of our own game. I found in many ways this hands-on research to be the most eye-opening and it did help me to think about our game and the Medal of Honor franchise in a more analytical and removed way. All in all, I think I could have continued and delved into much more detail with my research as World War 2 is a widely covered subject, and in order to create a convincing and coherent game-world; the more research, the better the game!
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