Festival of Magic
This game is currently pre-release, the style of this game is extremely similar to what we want to do, it uses turn-based mechanics, and a very similar artstyle. This game had not been announced until we'd decided what we were doing, but having discussed it at length we've decided to keep on track, being very careful not to look like its a "rip off" or that we even used their work as reference when deciding on certain elements of the game. The most poignant distinction to be made is how heavily welsh and in general British the storyline is as well as the difference in USP mechanics (Festival of magic is centred around a farming mechanic)
Mabinogion MMO
With researching the story of the mabinogion, we stumbled across an MMO which has been done already that is nothing like our style or even story-specific, but it was interesting to see how others may have interpreted the story.
Final Fantasy 7 - 9
The final fantasy series is one of; if not the most successful series of turn-based action games there is so naturally looking into them was a MUST especially for Josh who is designing and building the battle system.
Pokemon
Much the same as final fantasy, pokemon is another extremely popular turn-based game including environmental puzzles (such as pushing boulders into position etc...)
Last Remnant
Very similar to some of the later final fantasy games but worth looking at for a comparison
Chrono Trigger
I would describe chrono tiger as a cross between final fantasy and pokemon, but its forest-based theme and simple selection system is definitely worth the look.
Art Style
Trine2
Not only does Trine 2 have a very pretty and glowy art-style but it's also one to look at for puzzles using physics based puzzles (such as objects with mass dropping, colliding, and being used to re-direct water). Trine 2 is an invaluable source of research for this project.
CastleStorm
Where Trine 2 uses very pretty and detailed hand-painted texturing, CastleStorm uses very simple, almost block coloured textures which during this comparison the group has decided would be the best option for us, not only with regards to time to create final assets, but the simplicity in itself boasts an elegance and beauty if executed correctly. Using high contrast and vivid colour schemes castlestory is a great example of this.
Torchlight 1 and 2
For art-style the most prolific pre-existing game that has been used for examples when in group discussion is Torchlight. Much like CastleStorm, it has the simple-hand-painted texture appeal, but its far darker in it's theme than we wanted to aim for.
Warcraft
Blizzard employ some of the best hand-painted artists in the world, which has lead to all of their games, especially in the warcraft series, being very pretty and well made with explicit attention to detail. A lot of the art is fairly simple on the face of it but they give a very prominent assumption of detail which takes years to master.
Puzzles
Legend of Zelda dungeons
Professor Laytons
Puzzle Quest
Portal
