FIVE STEPS DEVELOPMENT

In this section, I am structuring the development of my game idea. I will be using the 5C model to plan the entire development process:

1.COLLECT

• Understand the principle of Kendo

2.COMPREHEND

• Analyse the information and explore the interesting aspects

• Think about how I can convert the research into game elements

3.CONCEPTUALIZE

• Design the essential experience

• Design the core gameplay mechanics

• Design the art direction

• Design the music direction

4.CREATE

• Experiment with the core gameplay mechanics

• Experiment with the assets

• Create a high fidelity demo for future development

5.COLLABORATE (if needed)

• Collaborate with musicians & artists for asset development

6.COMMUNICATE

• Upload the game to Kendo(or other) communities for playtests

• Gaining feedback for future development

WHAT IS KENDO?

KENDO EQUIPMENT

There are two parts of the Kendo outfit - clothing and armour:

• Clothing - Gi is the traditional Japanese top with medium length sleeves; Hakama is the traditional bottom dress that covers the entire leg

• Armour(Bogu) - Men is the leather helmet, that protects the head; Kote is the leather glove, that protects the hand; Do si the chest piece, that protects the chest and stomach; Tare is the 5 pieces of leather that protects the private part

Shinai is the weapon people use to strike. It is made out of bamboo, usually assembled in four pieces to reduce the damage it causes to others. It has four parts: Tsuka is the handle where people grip; Tsuba is the guard that protects kendoka’s hand; Jinbu is the bamboo-part not covered in leather, it extends the attack range and also can be used to defend; Datosubu is the small bamboo-part between Nakayui and Sakigawa, and is the only part that makes the effective strike. The maximum length of a shinai for adults is 120cm.

TAKING KENDO INTO ACTION GAMES

Kendo is a martial art/sport that requires high-speed performances but also includes a massive amount of details. These details contain not only the physical but also the mental conflicts that make Kendo feel like a real samurai duel. I believe that if I can take these little details into an action game, it will definitely create an immersive experience for the players.

I was interested in these points after the first & second-hand research:

• High-speed duel

• Mental conflicts between the two kendoka

• The step called ‘seme’, putting pressure on the opponent and breaking their postures, including taking the centre and pushing their sword away

• The step called ‘zanshin’, which is the actions that prevent the opponent from striking before they are completely dead(in the real battle) or lost

I made a short analysis of the kendo postures, based on my experience doing Kendo.

It’s interesting to see this way: the most stable posture is the posture that allows you to control the situation, therefore, Chudan-no-kamae (middle stance) is a good example: By pointing the sword to the opponent’s throat, you can attack or defend efficiently whilst creating threats.
However, the posture starts breaking when proceeding strikes:

• Striking Men - leaving the Do & Kote open

• Striking Kote - leaving Men & Tsuki open

• Striking Do - leaving Men, Kote & Tsuki open

• Tsuki - leaving Kote open

In conclusion, the less you move, the more stable you are, and the easier you can control the situation. This would be an interesting mechanic in a game.

The image on the left is a sketch of the shinai, I drew it to show its very interesting mechanism.

As we can see, a shinai has a narrower tip and a wider bottom, which can be seen as a triangular shape:

STEP 1. MAKING ASSET FOR PROTOTYPE

I am using construct 3 for game development because it allows me to make a 2D prototype very efficiently, especially when it comes to a small scale game like this one.

STEP 2. Character movement

Once the asset is made, I need to make it function, and this can be done by assigning behaviours to the asset.

According to the game design document, here are three behaviours I need to make the mechanic work:

1. Scroll to: This behaviour allows the camera to follow the player character so that it doesn’t go off-screen

2. 8 Direction: This behaviour is good for top-down view games because it allows the player character to move in 8 directions

3. Solid: This is behaviour is particularly important because it turns the asset solid and allows it to collide with other game elements

Unfortunately, after the playtesting, I noticed that the behaviour ‘Scroll to’ makes the entire scene shake when the character collides with another object and creates an uncomfortable experience. Therefore, I decided to remove it.

STEP 3. Character attack

According to the game design document, the attack is basically a forward leap:

STEP 4. Shinai mechanism

To recreate the mechanism of a shinai (triangular shape, wider bottom protects the kendoka from being hit), I adjusted the collision polygon to the shape shown above. This collision shape will make the opponent’s attack off centre if the angle is right, which automatically creates a system of defence.

STEP 5. Breaking opponent’s posture (seme mechanic)

A big part of Kendo is seme. One of the ways to seme is to control the opponent’s sword, this includes forcing it to go off the centerline and create an opening to attack. To recreate this mechanism, I made the Right Mouse Button for seme. When the button is pressed, it will push the opponent’s shinai away from the centre.