DE4401 Games Design Masters Degree: Project ideas

For my first big project, I will need to create an essay about the projects that I will have to focus on. My time on this project so far has been brainstorming ideas for what I will be making. The project idea I will choose after considering my ideas will be the one I will work on for the next foreesable month.

Idea 1: A game of chess but with many new, different pieces to use, and to play against. The core of the game will be these new rules, as well as guiding your own King piece to the goal square in a series of puzzle levels.
These new pieces will include, the Emperor, the Thief, the Jester, the Archer, the Dragon, and the Knoll.
Each of these new pieces will act very different to one another. A benefit to this project would allow me to design the traditional family of chess pieces with an unique spin on it, incorporating how the pieces normally look with a more modern appearance.

Idea 2: A time travel puzzle game where the player can shift between two different dates of time in order to solve puzzles. The entire level that the player explores will shift between each time state.

Idea 3: A puzzle game inspired by games such as Peggle/Bust-A-Move, but with an interesting twist of mechanics, such as moving blockades, the balls themselves having to be combined in interesting ways, such as mathematics or certian colours and shapes inside them needing to be matched, etc.

Idea 4: Work more on another previous project, which will help to improve the quality of it, while also strengthening the skills earned and improved from that project.
SIGIL: A puzzle game/visual novel, similar to Professor Layton and Ace Attorney, this project would help me further improve character design,
Knights Of Tarot: A single-plahyer role-playing game that uses custom sprite sheets for its visuals.
Echoes Of The Isles: A card game based on British mythology, which encouraged me to draw and reinvent many different mythological creatures and people in my style of art, made to work for a card game.


The chosen idea was Idea 2, Chesspionage, which is the idea that seems to have the greatest potential.

DE4401 Games Design Masters Degree: Week 1: 1/09/2022

 Hello, my name is Joe Bigland. I have previously done a Bachelor's year for Games Design at the University Of Central Lancashire, which I will also be studying at for my Masters Degree year.

I have skills in Character and Monster Design, sprite sprite sheets for characters, monsters and environments, and basic coding, which I have used for my various projects, using Unreal Engine and GBStudio, the two softwares that I am most used to using.

My inspirations for my projects have come from the games I have played, such as Inscryption, Dragon Quest, Professor layton, Ace Attorney, Final Fantasy and Danganronpa. These games have given me the insight on how these games were successful and what made them work, which is what I have applied to my projects.

Games that I grew up with include the afermentioned Dragon Quest, but also Pokemon, which has been a massive inspiration and franchises that I have grown up on, not to mention that each game has been helpful in showing me how a good bestiary, or enemy list, is created.

My intention with me joinning this Masters Degree is to be able to make games that a suitable audience for my work will enjoy greatly. What I would like to do is further explore making effective character design or my projects, or someone else's projects.