Welcome to my Style Rules For You overview...

This page contains a project overview of my Style Rules for You project. The initial idea was inspired by idea 13 of my game idea a week project. Below is a synopsis of the game, or you can look at the business and marketing plan and the game design document. The Fashion Police mini-game has been implemented in Lua and is available for download (including source code), see the Fashion Police Home Page for more details.

Synopsis

Stop being a clothing victim! Find out which clothes don't suit your body and which ones will get you turning heads. Be a part of the Style Academy and learn how to dress for your body shape and how to spot other body shapes. Become an accomplished stylist and get useful feedback on the outfits you create. Participate in mini-games to find out whether you can pick a style disaster from style success; finish off an outfit; find out what's wrong with an outfit; or work out what body shape an outfit is best for. Create your own avatar to dress and buy clothes for. Be part of a community: challenge friends or ask for their advice.

Genre and Proposed Development Platform

Fashion games and social networking games. Proposed platform is initially Facebook, with the potential to extend to a PC downloadable game and Xbox Live Arcade.

Target Customer

Women in their 20s and 30s.

Unique Selling Points

• Realistic bodies and fashion for real women
• Quick mini-games that build on knowledge and give a sense of true accomplishment
• Constructive feedback on player's clothing choices
• Easy to play - no experience needed
• Competitive and cooperative play with friends
• Customisable avatar to encourage collecting clothes

Game Details

The player is enrolled as a cadet in the Style Academy which will teach them the style rules that apply to their body shape, to other body shapes and simple colour matching techniques. They can optionally enter details about their body shape so that players can choose not to learn about all the body shapes. Players then work their way up in the Style Academy by completing tests and exams of their knowledge of the style rules (mini-games). Each test only takes a short amount of time, and the player always has a list of further tests to do, giving them the feeling that they can just complete one more test. Players earn "Style Points" based on how well they complete the Tests and earn "Clothing Points" based on the difficultly of the test. When the player has a certain number of Style Points and has passed enough tests, they can attempt the end of level exam. If they pass the end of level exam, they will move to the next level. The tests for the primary levels only have a few rules to remember, however as the game progresses the player must remember more rules and how the rules work together.

There are four types of tests used as mini-games:

• What goes with this? The player is given a partially finished outfit on a model. They must finish the outfit by adding items, with less items being needed for starting levels. Players can ask for feedback up to 3 times, or ask for a friend's help, before submitting a final outfit.
• What's wrong with this? A player is shown a completely dressed body that has some items that do not fit. The player must find the items individually and can ask for hints.
• What body with this? In this game the player is shown a series of clothing items and a series of body shapes. The player must decide which clothing item matches to which body shape.
• Style Police! In these tests, the player is given a backdrop setting, such as a street, a cinema, an office. Characters pass by the player who acts as the Style Police, stopping the badly dressed characters before they disappear from the screen.

In the tests, many different body shapes are shown. However, the tests using the player's body shape have Style Point bonuses. This means that, if desired, the player can pass levels without learning the details of body shapes that are not their own. Players learn the body shape and colour matching rules via optional tips interspersed throughout the game. Note that in order to challenge the player appropriately, and make sure they are learning, the rules are not available to the player during any test and the rules build on each other as the game progresses.

For each test the player can earn Clothing Points and Style Points. Clothing Points relate to the difficulty of the test. Style Points relate to the player's performance score. The player passes the test and gets the Clothing Points, if their Style Points score is 5 out of 10 or greater. When the player has earned enough Style Points and passed a minimum number of tests, they can attempt the end of level exam. In the exam, the player creates an entire outfit for their own body shape based on a theme or setting. If they pass the exam, they move to the next level of the Academy, which means the tests are harder (more clothes to choose or spot, less obvious body shapes or bad outfits, more colours and more rules). Players can use Clothing Points to buy clothes for their avatar's wardrobe and can dress the avatar in these clothes. Brooches can be won for achievements and can be attached to an avatar's clothes, if desired

Friends can be challenged either by asking them to beat the player's test scores, or players can create their own tests for friends. Players can cooperate with friends by asking for advice within the game if they are stuck on a test. Avatar clothes can be gifted to friends. As well as a global and friends leaderboard, details of the player's progress, such as the Brooches they have won are posted to their Facebook News Feed.

Why It Will Be A Compelling Game

Players are learning how their own body can look good and will want to continue playing to find out all of the style rules that apply to them. They receive detailed feedback on how they perform at each task, so they can understand what went wrong and what went right. There will always be a list of possible tests to choose from and, since the tests do not take long to finish, the player will want to continue and complete another test and potentially get a better score next time. There are four different types of test and no test is exactly the same as any other, so the player will have both gameplay and content variety. The player can share their experience with friends by challenging them or asking for advice. Players can customise their own avatar and so can add their own personal style to the game.

Why It Needs To Be Made

Women around the world are constantly confronted by thin or airbrushed fashion models and game characters that are unnaturally proportioned, giving many women body image problems. The bodies used in Style Rules for You cover the bell curve of how real women look. Style Rules for You empowers women because it teaches them, in an entertaining way, which clothes suit their body. Women can then use this information to look better, without going on a diet, and therefore feel better about themselves. Although Style Rules for You judges the player's performance, it offers constructive advice and is in a non-threatening environment, since no one in the real world needs to know about style mistakes made. Most dress-up fashion games do not give the player any feedback on the quality of the outfits they create, or, if they do, give feedback that is insufficient for true learning. Style Rules for You shows that all body shapes are beautiful, but that choosing the right clothes is essential. Players learn that although some clothes are in fashion, they may not flatter their body and so should be avoided. This means players can take what they learn in the game out into the real world and apply it to the clothes that they buy and choose to wear.