sensai games

The development phase is over - on 1st February we will present our game Anawrahtas Request to the public.

Anawahtras Request has many learning targets. First of all the gamer gets some interesting information about the country, the people and the history of Myanmar. He comes to know, that Myanmar is an conflict area with a military regime as government, and he also learns something about the cruel and degrading methods of dictatorships in general. The game should help do develop the gamers interest on politic.

Because of the fact, that the main character of the game is a journalist, the gamer learns some interesting details about the science of journalism. He comes to know, how the government could censor homepages. He also gets the information in which countries this kind of government supervision is common.

The gamer also finds out, how dangerous it could be, when you rebel against a military regime and how important the freedom of opinion is for a working democracy.

To present our game to the public, we want to start an advertising campaign in game stores like Libro, Saturn or Media Markt.

Furthermore we apply advertisements in Game magazines like GameStar, Chip, etc. Gamers who want more information of Anawahtras Request can visit the official website of the game, where you background information about the story and their characters. You also will be able to download a demo version of Anawahtras Request.

Merchandising

There is also a possibility to produce cards and figures of the characters, which can be sold at game shops and game conventions.

In our opinion it seems a very good idea, to create a board game of Anawahtras Request.

Supported platforms: PS3
Graphic ability: 3D
Multiplayer: No
Networking/ Internet: No
Licensing issues: Irrlicht 3D Engine (open source)

Costs
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Required software:

Modelling Tools:
Cinema 4D – € 1939,00 (2x)

Graphic Packages:
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended – € 3237,60 (2x)
Adobe Illustrator CS3 – € 862,80 (1x)

Web Tools:
TextEditors - free

Sound/Music Software:
Apple GarageBand – free

Software Costs in total: € 6039,40
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Personal (salary per month):
Estimated developing period: 10 months

Game Manager – € 4.500
Chief Programmer – € 3.000
2 Programmer (Freelancer) – € 2.000
2 Game Modeller (Freelancer) – € 2.000
1 Designer – € 2500,00

Personal Cost in total: € 140.000
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Usability Testing by Amber light UK: € 15.000
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Total Developing Costs: € 161.039,40

1. Concentration: 3.5 Points
2. Challenge: 4.25 Points
3. Player Skills: 4.25 Points
4. Control: 4 Points
5. Clear Goals: 5 Points
6. Feedback: 3.5 Points
7. Immersion: 3.5 Points
8. Social Interaction: not evaluated

0 – N/A, 1 – not at all, 2- below average, 3 – average, 4 – above average, 5 – well done

Conclusion:
The test person understood the content and the goals of the game very fast. Strengths of the game concept are the challenging story, the handling of the characters and the entrance in the game. The proband has no problems to understand the menu navigation. One important weakness, which we have to overwork, is the announcement of health. The point “Social Interaction” was not evaluated, because our game is a single player game.

After his successful escape, James returns back to his hotel where he finds a note with an address of a small bar and a short amendment which says, that somebody wanted to help him.
Out of curiosity James goes to the bar and meets the local journalist Sarah Daniels. Sarah is a member of a secret underground organization which releases an illegal newspaper. She tells him, that the military regime knows about his work and he isn’t safe any more. James becomes the offer to join the organization to become more insider information for his reporting. When James agreed Sarah brings him their to headquarter and gives him an introduction how they organize their protest-actions. James learns how the military regime censors the national media and how they blockade homepages from foreign countries. Sarah also gives him an overview about some other states where the national government controls newspapers and TV- and Radio stations. The target of chapter four is that James gets some knowledge about the censorship in Burma and other countries like China, Russia or North Korea. To finish the mission the English journalist has to assign different media-organizations to the right country – for example NTW – Russia, etc.

The demonstration in Burma is in full swings and thousand of people are on the streets to protest against the military regime.
The government tries to break up the revolt and use violence to force their aims.
To hush up the bloody demonstrations the regime blocks the Internet access and there is nearly no way to show the world the brutality of the military.
James took photos of the demonstration and he tries to send the pictures to his agency in London.
But the only Internet access which is working is in a government building and only high generals have an authorisation to enter, so James has to overpower a general to get his uniform. With the clothes and the ID card of the general he gets the possibility to enter the building and send an E-Mail to his office. But when he is connected with the Internet, security forces will see his activities and he has only few minutes to accomplish his mission. The way through the government building is very dangerous and so he has to sneak off to the exit .

Our main character has written his first article and sent it to the office of his agency. Via online transfer he received a payment which he has know physically in his equipment. His next job is to get more information about the history about Burma and write an article comparing the actual politic situation and the earlier one. To gain the information James returns to the library to search for information sources. But when he arrives he detects that the library is guarded by military units. Now James has to find a way to get into the library. He has the possibility to talk to some people who are standing on the streets. Some of them can give him helpful informations, for example a hidden entrance to the library or how to corrupt the units. For some information he has to pay, others a free or given for an reward, for example something to eat for a homeless person who gave him an information. In a backyard James can buy a gun from a protestant. (James can only use the money he earned from his articles).
When he buys the gut a little tutorial starts in the backyard where he learns to shoot.(shoot down some cans from a trash barrel).
So now its in players hand, how James reach the inside of the library.
Inside the building he just have to find some books with the needed information. When James has the information he returns to his hotel room writes his article and receive money for it.

The Demonstration

2nd day in the morning. Our main character wakes up in his hotel room.
On his way to the library he witnesses demonstrations and closed streets, which makes it impossible to reach his destination.
So James tries to figure out what is going on by talking to the people on the streets. (communicating tutorial, important information is automatically registered in his notepads)
James has to collect several pieces of information before he is able to write an article. Every conversation leads him to new facts, which helps him to reach his aim.
When he has collected enough information he can go back to his hotel room and write his article to complete the chapter.

Prequel:

The game starts in a library in Naypyidaw, which is the capital city of Burma. Our main character the English journalist James Winfield sits in front of his laptop. He reads an E-Mail of his chief editor, where he gets the instruction to write an article about the civil commotions in 1971. To get useful information he has to contact a librarian and asks her for some books and a ground plan of the building. During this action the gamer learns the right use of the controller – for example how he can navigate the character (going, climbing, jumping) and how he can controls some special gadgets (map, laptop, torch). The learning effect of the mission is to get basic information about important historical occasions, the population and the political situation of Burma.

To make the intro of the game more exciting, James Winfield finds an old plant layout of the library. He recognizes, that this plan contains rooms, which aren’t drawn in the new map he got from the librarian. Behind a bookshelf he discovers a secret room, which contains some lost documents of illegal actions of the army between 1961-1971.

To finish the intro, he has to return back to his laptop and to write an summary of his inquest which he sends to his chief editor.

Target group:

It’s a gender – neutral designed game. Some parts of the game will rather attract the male audience others will de popular for females.

The male audience will be attracted by the thrilling action and the violent content of the game. The heard stopping excitement of the some sequences will fascinate every male player.

On the other hand females get attracted by the very interesting background story, which deals with the actual political situation in burma. Claiming tasks, and tricky riddles satisfy the female prospects.

The target group is between 14 – 49 years old.

For children, who are under the age of 14 it’s difficult to follow the story, because of it’s complexity, the political background and some violent sequences. Our target group is interested in action games, but they also want information and knowledge about cultural and political backgrounds.

In our opinion the game is gender – neutral, because it contains tasks for both genders.




Feedback of a member of the other group:

We ask Alexandra, who is a member of another group, to give us a feedback for our game.
Michael gave her a short overview and talked with her about improvements.
Alexandra guessed the target group from 16 to 49 with the motivation, that this age group is interested in political issues and historical backgrounds. She believed the game would be too violent for people who are under 16 years old.
In her opinion the game is gender – neutral, because it connects action sequences with political stories and claiming tasks.
Alexandra mentioned that she would also include other countries for the storyboard, and named China as an example.
She also said, that she would play the game, because she likes the mix between political stories and an adventure game.
We were very happy for the short task and the feedback, because her arguments were very profitably.

1a) What is your game?
Anawrahtas Request is a third person adventure game, where a journalist has the task to send important information about the military regime in Burma to his agency in London. The cruel reality forces him to become as brutal as his environment. To reach his goals he has to solve different errands.

1b) Why is our game different?
Because it combines journalistic information search with action sequences, caused by the investigation for the articles.

1c) What makes Anawrahtas Request a game? What is the challenge?
The player is able to settle in the game play. He can enjoy the action sequences and the challenges and the quizzes he is confronted with. Furthermore the environment of game should hijack the gamer in a foreign country.

2a) Game Producer / Manager: Josef Heigl
Responsibilities: group leader, time management, assignment of tasks, etc.
Skills: calm, good overview, experience in project management

2b) Game Artist / Modeler: Michael Sorger
Responsibilities: game design, creation of characters and game environment, etc.
Skills: gamer – experiences with Playstation, Nintendo, Sega, PC, etc.

2 c) Game Programmer/ Designer: Michael Gruber
Responsibilities: programming, screenshots, code conversion of the game environment; etc.
Skills: experience with different pc-programs like flash, processing; gamer

2d) Game Analyst / Tester: Paul Leichtfried
Responsibilities: testing, Human-Computer Interaction,
Skills: good social skills, fast acquisition of problems, etc.

Title: Anawrahtas Request
Genre: Action Adventure
Platform: PC & PS3
Target Audience: 12-40 years

The Game Anawratas Request is about the critical politic situation in Myanmar in 2007. The main character an english journalist has the task to send articles about the current situation to a news agency in London.

When the demonstrations began and the flow of information stumbled, the journalist has the mission to visit important locations (eg. library, military base,...) to get spezial informations.

With every accomplished mission the level of difficulty increase.

even more stuff:

a re-design of the logo


the next logo designs proudly presented by paulchen panther:-)

well, here are the first logo designs for sensai games:

Name: Sensai Games
The name refers to the japanese word "Sensai" and means teacher or master - association with master games.

Other name options: twister studios, el partido

Members: Michael Gruber, Michael Sorger, Heigl Josef, Paul Leichtfried