CORE PRINCIPLES OF GAME DESIGN
INITIAL TASK -> TASK 1 -> TASK 2
Player-wise, Splatoon 3 has a younger demographic, targeted towards children and young teens. It is a multiplayer game with varying objectives depending on the game mode, but the one it is most famous for, Turf War, has two opposing teams fighting for the most territory on a map for 3 minutes. The team with the most turf inked by the end wins. Boundaries are put in place by suspending the playable map over a Killzone in which if the player were to fall into, they would immediately die, respawning at base. Challenges include the storymode, a single-player experience with many different stages with varying levels of difficulty, and the multiplayer experience which can be difficult depending on your opponent and team.
Gameplay-wise, you play as an Inkling/Octoling, and shoot ink with your chosen weapon that represents the colour of your team. You can shoot at opposing players and the environment, with the objective of covering as much of it as possible before the time is up. Additionally, you can make your character transform into a Squid/Octopus whenever you want, which enables the player to swim through ink of their team's respective colour, significantly increasing movement speed and making them much more difficult to spot.
The narrative, which almost entirely takes place in the single-player story mode, revolves around an Inkling fighting for a secret organisation in order to save their world from a bear. The story in the DLC is slightly different, and instead revolves around an Octoling fighting with an Idol Group in order to prevent their world from turning into a simulation. If the player dies at certain parts of the story during boss battles, they will be shown a short, alternative cutscene which shows their home city being destroyed.
Various Gameplay features and screenshots from Splatoon 3
UNIT 1- INITIAL TASK
Screenshots from Detroit: Become Human
Detroit: Become Human is a game with a more mature age rating (M) and is targeted towards a specific audience with an interest in urban social issues and interactive story telling. The objective of the game revolves around making choices that can significantly impact the narrative and outcomes. Challenges in the game revolve around the player making choices, some of which can be detrimental, so it is important to analyse the environment and collect as many clues as possible to help make a calculated decision. There are also certain parts in the game that are QTE-based, which require a very fast reaction time in order to get desired outcomes or avoid others.
The game revolves through the perspective of three different androids that have gained sentience; Connor, Marcus and Kara. The player is tasked with making all the decisions from their point of view, shaping their story however they want. When not making decisions, the player will often be given control over the character, being able to walk around a confined area to investigate or interact with various objects or people. This can lead to learning new information which could be crucial later on. While moving or interacting within a space, a player won't be able to move outside the designated area due to invisible walls, with a message informing the player that their objective isn't that way.
Due to being an interactive story, there are a significant amount of available outcomes and endings depending on what the player decided and did during their playthrough. Although there are 85 endings, many of these overlap, leading to a more accurate count of around 40. The game focuses on the aforementioned androids: Connor, Marcus and Kara, who are part of a revolution against the oppressive system of servitude. Their journey is an exploration of what it means to be human in a society where androids are integral to daily life.
UNIT 1: TASK 1
FRANCHISE COMPARISON- PERSONA
PERSONA 3 PORTABLE- A SUMMARY
Originally released in Japan in 2009 and 2011 in the UK, Persona 3 Portable, also known as P3P, was an enhanced remake of Persona 3 published by ATLUS which released for the PlayStation Portable, but was also playable on the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV due to backwards compatibility.
The game allows the player to choose the gender of the protagonist, which leads to new routes and scenarios in the story: the first Persona gained by the protagonist, Orpheus, has a different appearance and Igor's Velvet Room assistant, Elizabeth, can be replaced with the male equivalent named Theodore. The gender choice also alters some aspects of the social link stories. Additionally, there are two new difficulty levels available alongside the original game and FES's.
While some critics such as IGN criticized P3P for 'losing some of it's polish', it was just as acclaimed as FES, receiving an 89 out of 100 from Metacritic, making it the third best reviewed PSP game on the website. Persona 3 Portable sold over 158,000 copies within it's first moth of release in Japan. It's high sales likely due to the new content and the popularity of the PSP in Japan at the time.
DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE
P3P is primarily targeted towards young adults, with a focus on those who are familiar with the JRPG genre and series. The game's themes and morals are considered safe for young adults, making it suitable for a wide range of players. Although it has an M rating, the content is generally family-friendly, with some minor points such as sexual harassment. The game's setting and story are made to appeal to fans of the Persona series and those who appreciate the themes of bonds, self-acceptance and death.
THEMES
The theme of the game revolves around the butterfly effect, reflecting the changes that happen should the player pursue the path of one protagonist over the other, and the Latin phrase Memento Mori, translating to 'Remember you will Die', which has served a major role in the thematics since the original Persona 3.
PLAY TIME
As a single-player game, the playtime for the game varies depending on the playstyle of the person playing. Completing the main story takes approximately 64-66 hours depending on pace, but engaging fully with side quests and content can increase the total playtime to around 100 hours.
ART STYLE
The 2D character art is drawn by Shigenori Soejima, who has famously produced many works for the Persona series. Persona 3 is depicted by the colour blue, which is present in most UI in the game, but in Persona 3 Portable specifically, choosing the female protagonist changes every UI that would typically be blue to pink, to reflect the protagonist's personality and linking back to the idea of the butterfly effect and change. The 3D side of the game is generally made up from a more dull palette, with vibrant pops of colour often present to add focus onto certain elements. The drearier colours contribute to the darker narrative the game has to offer, with lighter scenes feeling more special and peaceful in contrast.
CORE PILLARS
Due to Persona 3 Portable's original release being on the PSP, storage was a major concern. The solution the developers came up with was removing 3D environments from the social life aspect of the game, in turn, navigating was transformed into the likes of a point-and-click game. However, exploration in combat areas had 3D environments due to the ambush feature. Additionally, P3P introduced the ability to take control over party members rather than forced to be used the AI targeting, which was mandatory in the original P3.
UNIQUE SELLING POINTS
Being able to choose the main character's gender was the core selling point for the game to differentiate it from it's previous iterations. The new female main character, commonly referred to as Kotone Shiomi by the fanbase and ATLUS, introduces new scenarios and interactions in the narrative. One of the core features for the original P3 game, Social Links, gives the player the opportunity to interact and grow bonds with a set list of characters. In Portable, choosing to play as Kotone changes some of the Social Links you can form bonds with, adding a new perspective to their character.
DIFFICULTY CURVE
When starting the game, the player can choose from five difficulty levels, ranging from Beginner to Maniac. Beginner is designed for those who want a more relaxed experience, while Maniac provides a challenging and rewarding experience for more seasoned players. The game also includes a Normal difficulty, which is the default setting, offering a balance of both challenge and enjoyment. In addition to difficulty levels, the game also offers numerous optional challenging fights, such as The Reaper, The Abyss of Time and The Monad found through Heaven's Door.
REPLAYABILITY
Persona 3 Portable has the New Game Plus feature once you beat the game. The function carries over most items from your pervious run, retains Social Stat values and any weapons you previously obtained. Due to the retained Social Stats, the player will be able to unlock certain Social Links much faster, as well as opening up new dialogue options in certain scenes. Additionally, another new addition is the ability to choose who the protagonist spends their last moments of the game with, however, only members of SEES with a MAX Social Link can be selected.
CORE MECHANICS
In P3P, the core mechanics revolve around the social sim and dungeon-crawling elements, where players manage daily life and school as a student, and then explore procedurally generated floors in Tartarus during the Dark Hour.
REWARDS
Rewards in the game range from items like powerful weapons, money, and fusion spells to character costumes, achievements, and stat boosts for the protagonist. These can be obtained through various activities, including completing requests for Elizabeth/Theodore, defeating the Reaper, maxing out social links, and completing the Vision Quest.
COLLECTING
One of the core mechanics of the game revolves around fusing personas for battle, or in this case, obtaining as many new ones as you can to complete the Compendium. In total, there are around 170 different personas in P3P, each with unique designs and abilities. A number of these are only obtainable through completing social links or requests. Additionally, some personas require very specific fusion combinations, such as Messiah, which is only fusible after reaching player level 91, and fusing Orpheus & Thanatos.
PROBLEM SOLVING OR STRATEGIZING
Due to Portable being a turn-based RPG, choosing which characters or abilities to use in your party becomes a huge part of the game. Whether it's attacking, defending, buffing, debuffing, or healing, every playthrough is different, especially when you factor in things such as HP/MP, Critical Hits, and items.
During the social sim aspect of the game, the player needs to manage their time and plan around the in-game calendar system. The story takes place over a year, and every month, there will be a boss that the player needs to challenge, so staying prepared while also levelling up social links is a key part of the experience. During certain days while in school, there will be tests or questions that can level up social stats and reward the player with rare items if answered correctly.
UNIT 1: TASK 1
FRANCHISE COMPARISON- PERSONA
PERSONA 5 ROYAL- A SUMMARY
Persona 5 Royal (P5R) is an enhanced version of the original game featuring new content, originally released for PlayStation 4 in Japan in October 2019, with a worldwide release in March 2020. The game also received a Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 & Steam release in October 2022, as part of a multi-platform re-release.
The game adds significant content, including a new story arc and third semester, two new confidants, the city district of Kichijoji with new activities, and gameplay enhancements such as the grappling hook, and Will Seeds for collection. Royal also adds new music tracks, animated cutscenes, and the implementation of 'Thieves Den'.
While the original version of the game, released in 2017, Persona 5 had already achieved a Metacritic score of 93, and had since sold over 3.2 million copies, Persona 5 Royal's enhancements did not go underappreciated, and sits at a Metacritic score of 95, and has sold over 7.5 million copies worldwide as of August 2025.
Persona 5 Royal's success can be attributed to mass online media coverage, including people singing praises for its visual presentation, gameplay, story, and music. The game's recieved coverage by large content creators on YouTube such as JohneAwesome's playthrough of both the original and the Royal version, adding to over 5.6 million views just for the first episodes combined, or the game's music reaching views of over 10 million on YouTube, with the highest being Life Will Change with 31 million views, or Last Surprise with 61 million plays on Spotify.
PLAYTIME
Much like P3P, as a single-player experience, the playtime will vary drastically from person to person; however, the average completion time for Persona 5 Royal takes 100 to 120 hours for the main story.
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THEMES
The game focuses on rebellion against unjust societal constraints, the pursuit of freedom, and the necessity of confronting painful truths to achieve true personal growth. Characters in this game summon their personas by removing their mask- a representation of them throwing away the part of themselves that was repressed, and becoming someone strong enough to challenge the injust.
DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE
Persona 5 Royal boasts a diverse demographic that leans heavily toward young adults, but spans a broad age range due to its immense critical acclaim and stylized gameplay. P5R is typically the Persona game that people looking to get into the series start with, due to its more digestible episodic format with the main story and more fluid and engaging turn-based combat compared to its predecessors.
ART STYLE
P5R utilizes a highly stylized, punk-rock-inspired aesthetic characterized by its vibrant red, black, and white colour palettes, bold graphic design, and sharp, angular character designs by Shigenori Soejima. The art style of the game is one of the most highly acclaimed aspects about it, with many people praising how recognisable it comes off as, cementing the art style of the game as one of the most memorable aspects of it.
CORE PILLARS
Persona 5 Royal is built on a foundation of refined gameplay mechanics, expanded narrative, and the thematic exploration of rebellion. Persona 5 Royal introduced new features compared to the original release, such as Showtimes (character-related combat events), two new major confidants, one of which is a completley new addition to Royal, (Kasumi Yoshizawa) general confidant reworks such as changing Goro Akechi's rank-ups from automatic to manual, and a whole new addition of the Third Semester arc, which is argueably the game's strongest point both narratively and thematically, plus many more minor changes that overall adds a significant amount of improvement to the game.
UNIQUE SELLING POINTS
For Persona 5 Royal, one of the key new selling points was the addition of the Third Semester arc, which adds the game's most narratively rich and important story. The Third Semester explores the game's core themes from a new perspective, adding a compelling layer to the game so far, and also leading to multiple new endings, including the new 'Royal Ending', and multiple bad endings based on the player's decision. On top of the new story arc, Royal adds a ton of general improvements to aspects such as gameplay, quality of life, and character arc improvements that overall improve the experience of the game.
DIFFICULTY CURVE
When starting the game, the player can choose from five difficulty levels, ranging from Safety, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Merciless. With the exception of Safety (that locks you in), difficulty can be changed at any time in the config menu, allowing you to tailor the challenge of combat, such as enemy damage and experience gain.
Generally, P5R experiences a reverse difficulty curve, where the game is at its hardest in the first few hours and becomes significantly easier as you gain more tools, abilities, and persona fusion options. The outlier to this pattern would be Okuruma's Palace, which offers a difficult challenge for players who are caught off guard with their preparations.
REPLAYABILITY
Like Persona 3 Portable, Persona 5 Royal includes a New Game+ feature that allows you to start a new game using a save file from a run that you've completed. This retains all weapons, armour, items and registered personas in the compendium. NG+ is very useful for people who want to achieve 100%, max out all confidants, or simply achieve both good endings to the game.
CORE MECHANICS
In P5R, the core mechanics revolve around the daily life sim and dungeon-crawling combat, where players manage daily life and school as a student, and then explore procedurally generated floors in Mementos while in the Metaverse.
REWARDS
In-game rewards in Persona 5 Royal include exclusive Thieves' Den bonuses for 100% completion. Also, confidant rewards, since ranking up confidants unlocks new skills/abilities that the player can often utilize in the Metaverse or Daily Life, making it feel more rewarding to interact with characters you might not otherwise be particularly interested in.
COLLECTING
Like P3P, one of the core mechanics of the game revolves around fusing personas for battle, or in this case, obtaining as many new ones as you can to complete the Compendium. In total, there are around 259 different personas, including DLC, each with unique designs and abilities. A handful of these are only obtainable through completing confidants (rank 10). P5R also introduces the Fusion Alarm, which enables the possibility of obtaining an incorrect persona when fusing, with a completely randomized moveset.
PROBLEM SOLVING OR STRATEGIZING
Due to Royal being a turn-based RPG, choosing which characters or abilities to use in your party becomes a huge part of the game. Whether it's attacking, defending, buffing, debuffing, or healing, every playthrough is different, especially when you factor in things such as HP/MP, Critical Hits, and items. However, the game does a good job of balancing the different party members you obtain, so you can choose to use whoever you want and still have fun progressing the game. Palaces also tend to have smaller puzzle sections, designed to keep the player engaged while exploring.
UNIT 1: TASK 2
DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE
Conducting a survey allows me to obtain a general idea of what kind of games people are into, and what specific aspects they enjoy. Using the information I gathered, I can ascertain and compare these factors to the Persona series, and come to a summary and calculated prediction about each.
I first ask the recipient's age and gender identity. Since the primary demographic for the Persona series is young adults, at least 30.8% of the people that responded perfectly fit with the intended target audience, with a further 61.5% highly likely to fit the demographic.
Additionally, as of 2025, 55% of people that play video games are male, with a significant portion of this being aged 18-34.
Survey taken in-class with 13 participants
When asked what their most played game genre was, Action received 69.2% of the total votes, with Adventure (53.8%) & RPGs (46.2%) receiving 2nd and 3rd place for votes respectively. Mainline Persona games fall into the RPG & Adventure genre, while certain spinoffs in the series such as Persona 5: Strikers, Persona 4 Arena or Persona 4 Arena Ultimax fall into categories under the Action genre.
Additionally, when asked about the most important aspect of a game to them, a strong story/narrative won with 69.2%, while customization and combat mechanics tied at 2nd place with 53.8% each. In the Persona series, the story is one of the most important parts that makes the games what they are.
A central form of customization in Persona revolves around choosing which Personas to fuse, what moves to give them, and what builds to use. On the other hand, while most of the games follow a classic turn-based JRPG combat format, games such as Persona 5 Royal, Persona 5: Strikers & Persona 4 Arena+ Arena Ultimax offer either completely different combat gameplay or revitalize the classic format with fresh, unique mechanics.
A question on the survey asked whether people played multiplayer or single-player games the most. Multiplayer won with 61.5%, and while majority of the Persona series is single-player, multiplayer fighting games such as the Persona 4 Arena+ Arena Ultimax duology, or guilds/ranked systems in Persona 5: The Phantom X mean there are still options for those who prefer playing with friends.
Finally, I asked about the participants' average playtime per week. 53.8% said 4-7 hours, while an even amount of 23.1% sit in either 8-12 or 13+ hours. I asked this because, many Persona games have a lengthy playtime, so averaging only a couple hours a week can mean taking much longer to finish the game. In the lengthiest case, Persona 5 Royal takes around 101 hours to complete the main story, while completing side content and collecting achievements can garner an additional 50 hours of gameplay. Although, the playtime can be subjective depending on the player's reading speed, and how they choose to pace themselves throughout the game.
UNIT 1: TASK 3
UNREAL ENGINE 5
Due to a file corruption during importing the map I was working on, I lost all my work. These are the only pieces of evidence I have of starting the project.
TASK 4
COMPETITIVE RESEARCH LIST: GACHA GAMES
GENSHIN IMPACT- A SUMMARY
Genshin Impact, developed by HoYoverse (formerly miHoYo) is a free-to-play action RPG set in the fantasy world of Teyvat, where players control the Traveler on a quest to find their lost sibling. The game was released in September 2020, where it rapidly gained popularity due to its vibrant open world, engaging gameplay and storytelling. However, its success can be greatly attributed to the 2020 Covid pandemic, since the majority of people across the globe were required to stay at home, which meant significantly more time was spent online and therefore more exposure to the game through advertisement or videos.
The game currently has a strong rating based on reviews from 42 critics. It is described as a ‘well above average’ RPG, due to factors such as its world and character design, although it has a monetization system which incentivizes the player to spend money, typical of any game in the gacha genre. This can, however, repel the demographic of people that are uninterested or feel uncomfortable playing a game that relies so heavily on spending money. This is specifically due to limited character releases, which is the main drawing point of most gacha games, causing FOMO as after a character banner duration ends, they may not be obtainable until months or years later.
DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE
Genshin has accumulated over 300 million players globally, with 70% aged between 18 and 30, and a gender distribution of 60% male and 40% female. With a worldwide distribution of 50% in China and 50% overseas, Genshin’s majority of players fall into a younger demographic, reflecting the game’s appeal to a more teenage audience. The player base gender ratio indicates a broad appeal across genders, likely due to the game’s variety in character designs.
REVIEWS
Genshin Impact has attained a 9/10 on IGN and an 81% Metacritic score since it's release.
THEME/VIBE
The game incorporates various cultural elements into its design, including characters, world-building, music and story. Musical themes such as battle themes, character themes, domain themes and ambient music are all prevalent and add a ton to the experience of the game. Since Genshin largely focuses on exploration, the environment the world is set in offers an array of landscapes, architecture and lore for the player to freely discover, enhancing their gameplay experience and encouraging more investment. Importantly, Genshin uses heavy cultural influences to design aspects of the game, especially the world in which you explore. For example, the Sumeru region is primarily based on ancient India, ancient Egypt and Persia. These cultural themes are represented by the architectural designs, clothing, daily life and music features in the game. Each region uses different cultural inspirations, making sure that the game doesn’t feel monotonous while exploring.
PLAY TIME
As a live-service game, new areas and stories are consistently being added every 6 weeks, to maintain player retention and revenue. Depending on when someone started and how much they explore/complete, playtime will vary drastically between player to player. However, as of 2026, playing through all of Genshin Impact, from the prologue in Mondstadt to the most recent Archon Quests (main quests) and beyond, can take anywhere between 75 and over 1000 hours, depending on how deeply you engage with the game’s side content, exploration and collectibles. Additionally, due to a lack of a skip button during any and all dialogue, the game can seem hugely overwhelming to any new players, and the further lack of endgame content means that veteran players don't have much to do after completing all available content.
ART STYLE
Genshin’s 3D side has a vibrant, stylized anime aesthetic characterized by cel-shading and detailed character designs. However, during certain cutscenes for either promotional material or in-game content, the game uses various 2D art styles to add more narrative impact or widespread appeal.
CORE PILLARS
The anime-style open world environment, the action-based battle system, elemental magic and character-switching, elemental reactions and gacha monetization are all core elements of the game that were fundamental to it's development.
UNIQUE SELLING POINTS
On it's release in 2020, the main selling points of the game were the character designs and the at-the-time unique and innovative visuals and exploration. However, it's reasonable to consider that a significant reason why the game attracted so many players at it's peak was due to it being free-to-play.
DIFFICULTY CURVE
Genshin has a gradual difficulty curve with increasing challenges as the player progresses. The early game's stages are designed to be accessible, allowing time to learn the core mechanics. However, especially in endgame content, the difficulty increases significantly. Harder content incentivizes players to level up their characters, weapons, talents and artifacts.
REPLAYABILITY
The game has frequently faced criticism about it's poor replayability, due to it's abundance of limited time story and character events that are inaccessible to new players.
FUN
Since the game mainly revolves around exploration, a lot of the enjoyment derives from solving puzzles and opening chests for rewards. Endgame modes such as Spiral Abyss, Imaginarium Theater and Stygian Onslaught, all combat-based content that reset rotationally every 2 weeks, giving players incentive to return to the game for renewed challenges and rewards. Rewards often include primogems, the premium currency available in the game either through completing events, quests, exploration or endgame, or by directly purchasing from the shop with real money. Primogems can be used on gacha banners, where the player rolls for a chance to obtain a limited character or weapon.
There is a co-op mode available, so that players can explore, fight bosses and take pictures in each other's worlds. This has however been criticised by players, as some features such as puzzles or quests become unavailable during the co-op experience, making it difficult to become immersed. Additionally, in version 1.5, the game added the The Serenitea Pot, a player-housing system allowing players to create, customize, and decorate personal realms using furniture crafted with materials collected from the open world.
SOUNDTRACK
The OST is one of the more renowned parts of the game, boasting a colossal number of 1782 tracks, produced by the HOYO-Mix studio. Yu Peng Chen, a Chinese composer and music producer, is best known for writing the soundtrack for the game between 2019 to 2023. He is responsible for some of the most iconic themes, such as Genshin Impact Main Theme, Liyue, Inazuma
COOKIE RUN KINGDOM- A SUMMARY
Cookie Run Kingdom is a strategy and character-collecting RPG, where players build an empire, collect over 185 unique characters via gacha, and battle through PvE stories and PvP arenas. It is the seventh game in the Cookie Run series, released on November 28 2020, and released worldwide on January 19, 2021. The game includes a cast of new and returning characters throughout the series. The game is currently ongoing, with a plot spread across chapters being released in successive updates.
DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE
According to Sensor Tower, 60% of Cookie Run Kingdom players are female, and approximatley 40% are 25 years old or younger. The game targets players who enjoy casual mobile gaming, strategy, and fantasy themes. The game also includes and promotes LGBTQ characters in official art, further attracting a broader audience. The game embraces this with its 13+ age rating, making it more accessible to more people.
THEME/VIBE
There are many different cultural inspirations within the game, depending on the area and character. For example, the Dark Cacao Kingdom is directly inspired by ancient Korea, incorporating different architectural elements that add immersion and aesthetic cohesion. All cookies from Yogucura are inspired by Arabian culture, and the Vanilla Kingdom is inspired by Europe, specifically France and Germany. Egypt, China, Japan, France, and India are just a few of the other countries used for thematic inspiration. This adds an incredible variety to the game's aesthetic inspirations, whilst still maintaining a vibrant, colourful vibe for consistency.
GAMEPLAY
CRK is a free-to-play RPG and city-building battle simulator. The game is mainly played by building the player's Cookie Kingdom and collecting Cookies through the game's gacha to use in various game modes. In the kingdom, players place production buildings to produce goods and materials, which are mainly used for upgrading buildings and game aspects. Other game modes include PvP and Guild systems, various PvE challenges, seasonal and event game modes that add variety and strategy to team-building. Additionally, the main story mode, World Exploration, includes Crispia and Beast-Yeast, both giving different rewards. As of March 2026, the game has amassed over 185 playable cookies, with different rarities and available skins.
REVIEWS
Cookie Run: Kingdom has attained a 8.9/10 on IGN and a 4.8/5 on Google Play with over 1.4 million reviews.
PLATFORM
Cookie Run Kingdom is available on iOS, Android, and PC via Google Play Games or emulators such as BlueStacks/LDPlayer. It offers a simple cross-platform experience, allowing users to play on phones, tablets, or computers while keeping progress synchronized. CRK is primarily a touch-screen game, but on PC, you can use mouse clicks for menus/skills, and set keybinds for action-heavy minigames.
STORY OVERVIEW
The story in Cookie Run Kingdom centers around the main character, GingerBrave, and his friends rebuilding a fallen cookie civilization on Earthbread while fighting the main antagonist, Dark Enchantress Cookie. This story takes place within the confines of 'Act 1', which concluded its last release in mid-March 2026. News on Act 2's release is yet to be revealed.
MUSIC & SOUND
The music in CRK is produced by DEVSISTERS, with a Spotify playlist tracking over 600 songs, including full songs, instrumentals, and official soundtracks. Some range from musical numbers for special events to background music for specific game worlds.
UNIQUE SELLING POINTS
CRK stands out in the mobile market by offering a hugely polished game in terms of narrative, aesthetic, and gameplay. Also, within the gacha game market, the game offers a more consistent way to obtain currencies for character pulls due to the consistently large amount of events, weekly refreshes, and a large amount of crystals offered as a prize. It is widely considered one of the more free-to-play-friendly gacha games on the market.
REPLAYABILITY
Similar to other live-service games, since the player's account and progress grow with each update, there is little to no replay value, unless a player decides to open a new account for fun to take advantage of the significant amount of gacha pulls obtainable at the start of the game. Other than gambling and pull rates, nothing within the story itself changes, so there is nothing to incentivize playing beyond that.
ARTSTYLE
Cookie Run Kingdom uses a playful 2D art style for its game, with bold, vibrant colours that are highly effective at attracting a younger audience. The colours also fit perfectly with the game's upbeat tones and provide beautiful contrasts across the game's world whenever the narrative calls for it.
PERSONA 5: THE PHANTOM X- A SUMMARY
Persona 5: The Phantom X is a 2025 RPG title developed by Black Wings Game Studio. The game is a spin-off of Atlus' Persona series, itself a part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise. An open beta in China began on April 12, 2024, releasing worldwide in English on June 26 2025, for Android, iOS, and Windows. The game takes place in modern-day Tokyo and follows a group of characters that wield the power of Persona. It uses both social sim and dungeon-crawling elements in the alternative world known as the Metaverse. Cognitive versions of the people met in the city, along with the Phantom Thieves from Persona 5 and SEES from Persona 3, can be summoned for use in the Metaverse through a gacha system.
DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE
Based on ESRB ratings, player data, and game content, the demographic profile for the game targets a young adult, anime-focused audience with an interest in gacha mechanics and RPGs. The game is rated M for Mature (17+) due to blood, partial nudity, sexual themes, strong language, and violence. The key target audience is fans of the Persona series, specifically Persona 5, who want a handheld or PC experience.
THEME/VIBE
The game focuses on the core theme of 'Desire'. Exploring how personal wants, ambitions, and apathy shape modern life is a key part of what drives the narrative in the game. The central theme revolves around human desires, often depicted as a driving force that should be embraced rather than feared. Centered around the protagonist Wonder, and similar to Persona 5, the story tackles breaking free from societal constraints to live authentically.
GAMEPLAY
To accommodate the format of a free-to-play game created primarily for mobile devices, P5X adapts the Persona mechanics with various changes. Like the main titles, it combines both social simulation and dungeon-crawling aspects; however, replacing the calendar system with an energy system that replenishes over time or is restored using currency, similar to other mobile games. The players can experience story events, answer questions in class, and freely explore the city after school or during days off to engage in various activities. The game also features multiple characters that Wonder can interact with in Tokyo using the 'Confidant' system. Compared to the main series, however, it is heavily reworked, increasing the number of ranks but removing the aspect of every rank having unique dialogue conversations.
Like Persona 5, the dungeon-crawling portion takes place in the Metaverse, a realm created from subconscious desires that consists of Mementos and Palaces. Mementos is the procedurally generated location, while Palaces are story-related levels ruled by various bosses.
REVIEWS
P5X has collected a 6/10 on IGN, a 75% Metacritic score, and a 4.2/5 on Google Play.
PLATFORM
Persona 5: The Phantom X is primarily available on Android, iOS, and PC (Windows via Steam and Google Play Games).
STORY OVERVIEW
The story in P5X is set in an alternative Tokyo where the original Phantom Thieves do not exist, following a new protagonist (codenamed Wonder) who acts against a societal epidemic of hopelessness. The story focuses on stealing desires from corrupt individuals, reminiscent of Persona 5's original plot, revolving around changing the hearts/views of corrupt individuals instead. Working to reclaim the desires of the masses, Wonder meets new allies and fights against nefarious palace rulers.
MUSIC & SOUND
The opening theme, 'Ambitions and Visions' was composed by Ryota Kozuka of Atlus Sound Team. According to the sound director Qin Yao, it helped define the musical style of the game, adopting strong punk and rock elements like the original game. Lyn is the primary vocalist for the soundtrack, but the game includes original music from Persona 5 and Persona 3 Reload by Shoji Meguro. The first volume of the soundtrack contains 21 tracks and was released on April 12, 2024.
UNIQUE SELLING POINTS
P5X adapts the iconic style of Persona 5 into a F2P mobile and PC format, focusing on accessible, high-quality RPG gameplay. The game does a good job at feeling like a new, high-quality P5 installment, offering generous rewards for its players and a way to introduce new players to the Persona series.
REPLAYABILITY
The game offers high replayability through frequent live-service updates, consistently released new areas and expanded story, and rotary challenge modes that offer the player a way to test their skills. While the story is not directly replayable without creating a new account, players can rewatch story scenes in-game and focus on long-term character investment and team optimization.
ARTSTYLE
The Phantom X's art style maintains the signature, high-contrast, punk-rock anime art style of Persona 5, featuring a bold red, black, and white colour palette. Black Wings Game Studio keeps the stylish UI and character designs from the original.
REWARDS
The game rewards players with numerous free pulls every single new update. The currency can be obtained through story, milestones, login bonuses, events, or rotational endgame challenge modes such as Astrolabe, Gates of Nightmare Catcher (weekly guild bosses/raids), and general combat challenges.
WUTHERING WAVES- A SUMMARY
Wuthering Waves is a 2024 F2P open-world gacha action RPG developed by Kuro Games. The game was originally revealed on March 23, 2022, initially inspired by Death Stranding, to create a post-apocalyptic world where players experience a fusion of new and old civilizations. The game developers drew inspiration from various sources, including Punishing: Gray Raven for its combat mechanics, as well as Pokémon for its echo system. WuWa has been frequently compared to other title games, particularly Genshin Impact; however, WuWa aims to place a greater emphasis on its combat system compared to its competitors.
DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE
WuWa targets a global audience, primarily appealing to fans of anime-style, open-world action RPGs, with a demographic that leans towards a younger audience, and catering heavily to male players. Its player base is predominantly male, with community discussions indicating that over 80% of players are male.
THEME/VIBE
The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world, implementing sci-fi fantasy themes by combining ruined modern civilization with nature and advanced technology. WuWa is a fast-paced, intense, action-packed game that focuses on combat and environmental exploration, often compared to a 'light' sci-fi or dystopian atmosphere.
GAMEPLAY
Wuthering Waves is set in an open world; the player controls the protagonist Rover, as well as recruited allies called Resonators, which are split into 4-star and 5-star rarities. The endgame content features modes where characters can be used in a series of combat challenges. The game takes place on the planet Solaris-3, with traversal mechanics designed to support various forms of exploration. Players can sprint without consuming stamina, assuming they're not engaged in combat. There is also wall-running/climbing, grappling hook, mid-air dodges, and gliding. In version 3.0, the Expedition Motorbike was introduced in the Lahai-Roi region as a primary ground vehicle, enabling high-speed travel. The game's combat system involved Intro and Outro skills; Intro skills are triggered when characters enter combat, and Outro when they leave combat. Both skills are triggered when the characters are switched. Players may also acquire and equip Echoes from defeating enemies in the open world, completing quests, or participating in events, which grants them the ability to summon or transform characters into monsters briefly, providing the player with stats that increase their HP and/or damage.
PLATFORM
WuWa is available on PS5, iOS, macOS, Windows PC 9via native client such as Epic Games or Steam). The game supports full cross-platform progression across all platforms, with an Xbox Series X/S release scheduled for 2026.
STORY OVERVIEW
The story is set in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world of Soloaris-3. A catastrophe called the Lament wiped out most of humanity and caused unknown beings called Tacet Discords to appear. Over millennia, Solaris-3, the remaining humanity adapts to the threat and rebuilds civilization. Solaris-3 is divided into regions, with at least three nations introduced to the game: Huanglong, Rinascita, and Lahai-Roi. The story follows Rover, an amnesiac wanderer who has awakened from a deep slumber and sets out to explore the world.
MUSIC & SOUND
WuWa features an atmospheric, electronic soundtrack blended with East Asian elements, produced in-house by Kuro Games to match its open-world exploration. The music focuses on a calmer, lo-fi-esque soundtrack in the open world and uses intense, hard-hitting boss tracks for bosses or fights.
UNIQUE SELLING POINTS
Wuthering Waves distinguishes itself in the open-world action RPG market through a focus on high-intense combat and customizability when it comes to party composition. WuWa was the first open-world gacha RPG to lean more into the combat, which many hardcore players appreciated after being underwhelmed by Genshin Impact's much simpler combat system.
REPLAYABILITY
Like most other gachas, the game suffers from a lack of reasons to come back to it unless there's a new update with an event or story expansion. The endgame modes, Tower of Adversity and Whimpering Wastes, reset every 4 weeks each, leaving a large consistency gap in the content a player can return to. Limited and returning events are frequent, but once complete, there is no incentive to play other than to invest in teams and characters.
ARTSTYLE
Wuthering Waves features a light sci-fi post-apocalyptic style, combining realistic, detailed, and slightly desaturated environments with stylized, modern anime character designs.
REWARDS
The game rewards players with pulls through limited events, progressing the story, quests, livestream codes, and endgame modes. The player can use the currency, Astrite, to exchange for pulls on the gacha system, which can be used for limited characters to recruit or weapons to be equipped.
REVIEWS
WuWa has a 7/10 on IGN and a 71% Metacritic score since its release.
TASK 5
GROUP WORK- COOKIERUN- SUGAR & SOULS
GROUP & RESPONSIBILITIES
Our group consists of 4 members. We each chose our strengths to contribute to the groupwork;
Timis- Concept Art, Unreal Engine, 3D Modelling
Harry- Concept Art, 3D Modelling
Mia- Concept Art, Unreal Engine
Jeremiah- Concept Art
STARTING POINT
We wanted to create a Cookie Run game concept that brought a refreshing new gameplay and mechanics to the series. Sugar & Souls represents Devsisters' bold evolution of the CookieRun IP, into a premium roguelike/souls-like genre. This would be a strategic move capitalizing on recent industry trends, such as the popularity of existing roguelike titles like Hades II, Balatro or Mewgenics, and souls-like games
such as such Bloodborne, Elden Ring or Lies of P. The game would include cross-platform F2P (free2Play) options, and importantly, hybrid-customisable depth by letting players choose how they want to play & progress.
WEEK 1
During week 1, we all spent time brainstorming ideas and allocating roles. We spent time researching the history of the company, concluding that Devsister's was already known for publishing games in many different genres, so a roguelike/souls-like genre would be an appropriate and logical evolution for the series.
We additionally had a look at our target audience, where we found found at that Devsister's audience is primarily in Korea, followed by USA, Thailand and Russia. American fans account for 65% of international sales outside of Korea.
WEEK 2
During week 2, we started working on environment concepts so that we could also start working on our Unreal Engine level. We came up with generalized names for four locations, and worked from there. I personally went with the idea of 'The Garden of Forgotten Sweetness', creating a moodboard for the concept followed by planning out the concept itself. I worked with the idea of an oversized abandoned greenhouse, with a slight hint of danger. I was also inspired by the scenery in Hollow Knight: Silksong, as that game has some very nice and moody environments that had a similar vibe to what I was going for.
GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT
PRESENTATION
Initial Sketch
I wanted to include a variety of different plants to create an overgrown scene. I made sure to include signs of weathering, such as broken windows. I also added a silhouette of the cookies in our game, to conceptualize the scale of the environment.
Final Concept
WEEK 3
During week 3, we worked collectively to develop our ideas further. I came up with ideas for potential enemy concepts for the Garden of Forgotten Sweetness, a lot of them focusing on the idea of camoflage;
- A Water-based enemy that disguises itself as a lily pad, when the playable character steps on it snaps shut like the jaws of a crocodile
- Dragonflies that attack quickly, have some sort of short blade equipped. Not a lot of health.
- Mushroom-type enemies that inflict passive damage/debuffs (spores) come in different sizes = the larger the enemy the stronger the effects
- Venus fly trap type enemy
- Something that has a long tendril that looks like a vine, when walked into, grabs player and starts dragging them up
WEEK 4+5
In week 4 and 5, we decided to go with my environment concept for the game demo. Timis got started on Unreal Engine, and Harry developed some enemy concepts from his own environment. After he was finished with his work on UE, we planned to pass it along between each group member so that everyone could have a go at developing it.
Screenshots of Timis' work in Unreal
WEEK 6
During week 6, the halfway point, I received the Unreal Engine file, I started further developing it. I focused on adding much more plants and creating a more obvious pathway for where the player could go. I also changed the overall tone of the level, changing the colour of the sky and the colour of shadows for a much more moody feel. I also scaled up numerous objects and assets to better fit my vision for the area.
WEEK 7
For week 7, I passed the UE file to Harry. Afterwards, I worked on more concept art, specifically a design for our main protagonist. I used Gingerbrave as a strong reference, as he's Cookie Run's most well-known and mascot character, and, from a design standpoint, a simpler design works better so that the included details, such as the mold, stand out more. I also conceptualized his weapon, briefly exploring different possible types before settling on a lollipop hammer that he could swing around to damage enemies.
Additionally, I came up with a rough narrative idea for the story in our game. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where harsh, neglected conditions mean that any Cookie left is forced to fend for themselves. The Oven Abyss, where Sugar & Souls live in a fighting limbo, has created a rift in the collective consciousness of all cookies, causing major disarray and making them forget their reason for survival in the first place. The world left behind is a place made up of forgotten memories, with fragments of something familiar yet distant and just out of reach.
The story will revolve around the main character and his companions, as they explore and try to figure
out how the broken world they now live in came to be, and if there is any way to save it.
On top of coming up with a story for the overall game, I wanted to expand on the area that I had previously designed, The Garden of Forgotten Sweetness. It would be the starting area of the game, a relatively serene landscape in comparison to the desolate world outside. This area would serve to introduce the player to the world both narratively and gameplay-wise, with more simplistic enemies to make sure the player isn't overwhelmed. The abandoned greenhouse acts as a relative point to which the main characters can return to for safety. They wouldn't know who built the structure, but intend to find out during their adventures.
WEEK 8
Concept art for the main character of our game
On week 8, I came up with mock-up ideas for a basic attack pattern for our main character. I included his main weapon, the lollipop hammer. It made the most sense for him to swing it around with a medium damage radius and normal attack speed. This would make him perfect to use for beginners, as his moveset would offer a balanced playstyle.
WEEK 9+10
In weeks 9 and 10, we started working on our presentation. We screen recorded a video of our Unreal Engine map, and allocated speaking roles to the members of our group.
Concept art for basic attack sequence
CONCLUSION
Overall, I thought this unit was an interesting opportunity to test my group skills. However, I am not satisfied with the result and know that I could've showcased my skills better in a group that had more internal cooperation and passion for the project. I found it frustrating having to constantly wait for someone else to finish their part, and having to change many aspects of the project alone, as the work presented did not align with our common goal whatsoever. It could be concluded that the reason for all this was a general lack of organisation, which I will learn from and apply in the next group project I am involved in. I do think that the amount of concept art we presented could've been improved, and that more 3D models could've been produced if the time we were given was allocated appropriately. However, the research we did was incredibly fruitful, and I am happy with the work we got to present in the end. In the future, I want to contribute more by drawing even more concept art and 3D modelling numerous pieces of the things I have designed. I would also want to add more information about the characters I design, as it would add a lot more depth to the game we're pitching. I found it fun designing the main character and the starting area, and would've liked to create more. I struggled with certain aspects of Unreal Engine, specifically saving and exporting the map when it was my turn to work on it. However, by searching up the issue online, I resolved it in no time.
I am keen on learning new things that will help me with the next project I work on, using various software programmes.
