The Little Picture is a point and click puzzle game aimed towards children aged 4-6 for both genders. The game features a colourful, animated world with cute and quirky characters to
interact with.
The Little Picture is loosely educational which means that it will be something a child could learn from but will not be an explicit educational tool teaching maths or words. Instead the game hopes to not only make children laugh and have fun but also teach good life lessons and morals through gameplay.
Title and Logo
The bigger picture refers to the situation as a whole. In the Little Picture, focus is directed towards a number of smaller scenarios for children to interact with, importance is on the situation through
a lens, and this is where the title is derived.
The logo has two variations which both refer back to the word 'picture' in the games title. The first takes the frame focus arrows you'd see when taking a picture to create a border around the title. In the second variation, the frame focus arrows combine to create a photo frame. Bright colours were used in the logo to ensure that it was child friendly.
Characters
The Little Picture will be character orientated with each level having at least one character to interact with. They will be created with knowledge that anything goes and that that character biology doesn’t need to make sense as they are cartoony and not real.
Another form of character creation will be done by using children’s drawings as direct inspiration. These drawings will then be cleaned up and turned into vector art, ready to be animated and implemented into the game.
Story
TLP tells a story of stories in a non-linear fashion. Each proceeding level is not intended to fit onto the last and instead can be connected or not. The stories/levels should be looked at more as scenarios as there isn’t really a plot to each level but instead random occurrences.
Progression through Puzzles
Children will progress each scenario by solving simple puzzles which will utilise point and click mechanics in creative ways. Some scenarios will have a number of ways to progress onto the next stage which will happen when a puzzle is solved.
Children at this age like to break the rules and feel like they are doing something they shouldn't, The Little Picture will offer the illusion of this by placing secrets and hiding interactions from first glance, only for them to be visible when children experiment.
Puzzles will vary from destroying a number of items to placing objects onto specific areas. There will be variety and creativity shown in the puzzle creation.
Paper Prototypes
Before going into the game engine, level designs were created simply using traditional means of crayon and paper. Using a drawing tool intended for children forces designers to think like a child and will encourage designs to be playful and imaginative. The images below present a number of ideas acting as basic templates for levels.
Digital Prototypes
At this stage no designs are final but will be considered and tested by translating the paper prototypes into digital prototypes using Unity. From here, these prototypes are tested on children and iterated on, keeping what kids find enjoyable and removing what they don’t.
Platform and Controls
The Little Picture is designed for Android tablet and smartphone devices making use of touch screen controls. The game will be played on the landscape orientation of the tablet or smartphone.
User Interface
A well-designed UI is vital in allowing a child to navigate the games menus. In The Little Picture, the interface is minimal and simple, designed specifically for children's small hands. The sizes of buttons, menus and options will differ depending on the platform/screen size
and will alter accordingly.
Interactable objects will feature a broad collision area to ensure that children are able to interact with what they think they are interacting with. Having pixel perfect collision areas will ruin a child’s experience of the game and frustrate them when not clicking or touching on the exact chosen area.
Animation
Animation will bring characters and scenery to life. With the cartoon art style already in place, animations will be able to be free form and lively, characters won’t have to obey to any rules of realism and instead can be as playful as possible.
The Little Picture is an ongoing third year, University project.
Thank you.
