Year 2 week 3/4 Elements of Game Design Planning and Concepts

Elements of Game Design

Planning and Concepts

For the purpose of this blog I will be diving into game design, planning and concepts.

Whenever I approach a new brief I always go through the design process, as I begin. It is a fundamental requirement in order to design and create a piece of work that best suits the brief and therefore to create the best idea that I have come up with, not just the first one.

Idea Generation

Firstly I will read the brief and straight away discuss it with others if possible, to try to play with a few thoughts and ideas. Alot of ideas usually get throw around but do not make it due to the brief limitations and specifications, therefore it is a good idea to discuss your thoughts with others so as not to overlook any requirements.

Also my idea generation might require me to look for other reference. Therefore in the past I have used mood boards to express the style that I wish to replicate or take some inspiration from. I will look at everything from random picture that just seem to ooze what I’m looking for, to films and Television. It can also be a good idea to create a thought bubble in order to look at all of the ideas on paper, even though the main bulk of the idea is already written for you to follow, there is always some need for development of an idea.

Concepts

I will usually ruff out a few ideas onto my small note book, which I use for everything, shopping list, appointments, phone calls I need to make, basically everything! This is a good way of seeing if things are going to work or if my initial thoughts need to be altered. These usually include things like small thumbnails and random sketches. In terms of 3ds Max work I will generally draw each piece of the

Model, that of which I will be modelling, and try to ascertain how many tri’s that it will take to build it. Obviously geometry is a key tool here and it helps to give me a good hand so as not to send me in blind when I start to build ( there is nothing worse than running out of tri’s and having to cut back detail!) . I will always keep the tri count down within my initial sketches so that I can add extra detail, if needed, later on in the build.

Planning

When starting out on a project it is very important to carefully plan out how long it will take to complete each process. For instance I generally, on let’s say a four week project, divide my time into First week modelling, Second week laying uvw’s and beginning to prepare my textures, Third week finishing texture maps and Final week to alter anything, to sort problems out and to display my work.

This all has to fall into line with the rest of my ongoing projects and other commitments and therefore this year I have used something that I learnt in college about time management, which is a giant calendar. Now on the face of it you might think that it’s obvious to use a diary or calendar but my calendar is huge and is hung on my bedroom wall, so that every morning I see it and when I’ve completed or missed anything I can mark it off or move it around. It has helped me alot so far!

In the industry teams of artists will be given specific jobs and time scales to complete them so its best that I continue on in this way in terms of my projects. There is nothing worse than someone letting you down with something important, I try to remember the five P’s Perfect Planning Prevents Poor Performance!

Year 2 week 1/2 Reflection on year one and ambition for year two

Reflection on year one and ambition for year two

As they say ‘Here we go again’. Having had several months off from University I feel that my batteries are recharged and I am ready to go again, albeit by Christmas I’m sure that I won’t still feel the same! Still I am looking forward to the whole year and all of the challenges that come with it.

Last year was a strange one for me. I had, the previous year, been at Derby University for the first semester and things hadn’t gone as well as I had wanted them to. This was mainly due to the commute that I had to make each day. It was taking me two hours to get there and the same to get back, so as you can imagine I was extremely tired and had little time to work at home. Also I had to learn to use Maya which kind of put me at a disadvantage considering that I had been using 3ds Max for two years. I made a decision and left with the intension of enrolling at De Montford or Coventry University.

So back into the wilderness I went, looking for a new home! I managed to get interviews at Coventry and De Montford Universities. I looked at both Universities but decided that De Montford had the better course all-round. Luckily I had my interview and was accepted at De Montford, I had a new home! This course was going to give me what I needed as an aspiring artist, also my new home was considerably closer compared to Derby and I had the advantage over other students there with my prior knowledge of 3ds Max.

Now previously I knew in myself that I had a good basis to build on in respect to my 3ds Max knowledge but what I was, and indeed am , seeking from my time at De Montford is to improve my 2d skills and my texturing abilities, in order to become the well rounded artist that I want to be.

I have no doubt that I can achieve this. My drawing skills have progressed alot since I started and my understanding of how this crosses over to my 3d work has become clearer. I’m at the stage in my studies where I know what I need to progress.

Looking back at year one I feel like I have picked up several skills which should help me in year two and into year three, with any luck. Year one was interesting, fulfilling and trying all at the same time. Due to my need to better myself in terms of my 2d skills, I think that it hindered my progress in other areas, especially when Chris told me that I needed to redo all of my final pieces! But nevertheless I did them and they did improve I think. I think that this showed that I am committed to this course to.

However this year I need to harness all of my skills and start to polish them up. I particularly want to improve my UVW’s and texture mapping, which I didn’t get the chance to last year because of my heavy 2d work load.

Managing a healthy balance between Uni work, family life and social life is the key to success in my mission. This year I have made a giant calendar and stuck it on my wall so that I can keep a clear track of what needs to be done. If I don’t get something done on a particular day I shift it to the next available slot. So far it is working!

So my ambition for this year is to be happier with my finished pieces of work, especially my 2d as I felt and still feel intimidated by some of the other students work. I know that I will never be as good as some of these students but I will keep trying to improve enough to be worthy of my place on this course. I really need my 3d work to start to shine now as the area that I wish to enter into, once qualified, is primarily 3d orientated, whilst still incorporating 2d skills for design and texturing. Unlike some of the other students who wish to go into concept art and obviously don’t need 3d skills nowhere near as much, I want to work as a Vehicle Artist.

I am very proud to have made it onto the second year, especially when I think of the fallen few that didn’t, still I need to worry about my path and not other peoples so I will be focusing on my end target now, just a little more, as I edge closer to the finish line.

For now.....’Its bin emotional’

Game Developers Conference

Games Developers Conference

This week’s blog is to focus on the G.D.C held in San Francisco, CA.

To be honest I have never heard of this conference and was excited to do a little research into it. As I have been told to find something of interest at the conference, I am eager to see what it’s all about.

So as I began looking through the web site for the GDC, I began to ask myself the question why and who would want to attend?

Who Should Attend GDC and Why

Career seekers and recruiters

Meet face-to-face with the top talent worldwide committed to making better games. Job seekers, meet companies and recruiters who are hiring now.

Studio Managers and Heads of studios

Gather new methods for studio management during uncertain economic times and learn new techniques on how to market emerging game platforms to target every demographic.

Developers

Hone your skills using the latest tools and techniques from the hottest games released this season.

Exhibitors and sponsors

For three days showcase your company’s products, services and innovations to the most dynamic and concentrated game development community.

New business and venture capitalists

Take advantage of a multi-billion dollar industry by networking with top studio heads, international developers and investors. Gain knowledge of opportunities in digital entertainment and communities that will mould the future of video games and new opportunities.

"The GDC is the direct line to tap into the soul of the game development community at large, to see a snapshot of the state of the industry from all angles, to rub elbows with the superstars in the field, and to study the front-line techniques first hand from the experts themselves. In short, if you're in the industry, it's where you want to be."

-GDC 2009 Attendee

http://www.gdconf.com/attend/index.html

So now that I understand what it’s all about I decided to take a look at some of the news and information blogs and came across something that interested me.

It was a blog in regards to a scheduled talk from Tom Niwinski and Dee Jay Randall from Dead Rising 2 developers Blue Castle Games. They were discussing how the Dead Rising 2 team is using in game telemetry to tune the game, tracking item usage, and ensure all the nooks and crannies have been visited.

Unfortunately the talk isn’t set to take place until May 6^th and 7^th at the G.D.C in Canada so I’m going to have to wait until then to read all about it. I do however know that telemetry is a feature used in the game engine. I can only hazard a guess as to what it is going to be used for but my guess is that it is something to do with the vast amount of zombies that are now able to be displayed on screen at one time.

In the previous game it was only capable of displaying 800 zombies on screen at any one time, whereas now in the sequel, it is capable of displaying 6000! I am a fan of this game and I’m looking forward to its release on August 31^st 2010. I will be chasing up this blog when I have read what Tom Niwinski and Dee Jay Randall have to say at the G.D.C in May.

Creativity 2

Creativity 2

This blog will further explore creativity.

The Ken Robinson Interview:

In a seminar that we watched featuring Ken Robinson, he talked about creativity and education. He stated that with all of our modern day expertise, we still don’t even know what the world will be like in five years, let alone fifty years, which is when our children will be retiring. The funny thing about that is how are we supposed to educate the children of today when we don’t even know what the future may hold? How are we supposed to prepare them?

Ken goes on to say that all children have talents it’s just that with our current education system and society we generally squander them, by putting things like literacy and numeracy ahead of the more creative subjects such as art, dance, music and drama, to name but a few.

He goes on to say that

“if you’re not prepared to be wrong you’ll never come up with anything original”.

With our current way of thinking, we are encouraged to always be right and to not make mistakes. So by the time children are adults they lose the ability to have a go and chance being wrong, it’s educated out of them. This is part of the creative process and it’s slowly squeezed out of children.

So what is Creativity? How do you define it?

To me it’s a presence of mind when you don’t act like you know everything, but let the time to be in control, and your thoughts to wander, it’s when you start everything from scratch, don’t always play by the rules are not afraid to experiment and make mistakes. When that sixth sense of yours is awaken, turning the other five into obedient servants. It’s when you stop trying to impress others but surprising yourself.

http://www.inspirationbit.com/who-are-the-most-creative-people/

The education hierarchy is based on two things

1. Your usefulness for work.

In school even when I was there, I was discouraged from doing anything that wasn’t going to either improve my chances of getting a job or was simply not directly linked towards a certain job title. You were always told well you’ll never get a job doing that! The second thing is

2. Academic ability

There are a large number of children out there that think that they aren’t as good as other children just because the education system values academic ability over creativity. Surely as a society we must change our ways.

I think that it’s clear to see what Ken Robinson is trying to say which is, our current education system is killing off our children’s creativity. The thing is without more creative people how will we as a race develop further? When will we reach Mars or the outer galaxy? Will it be down to just science and mathematics alone? Would it be wise to incorporate more creative studies into our education system and if we had of done before now would man have found say a cure for cancer?

It is of course difficult to answer these questions but surely a more diverse approach to education would benefit us all in the long term. It’s like the old saying goes if only

“If only I knew then what I know now”.

The final formal blog

The final formal blog!

I must start this blog by saying how much, once I’d started them, I’ve enjoyed writing these blogs. Without going into too much detail of my own journey up until this point I would like to point out that in comparison to my short time at Derby University and college; I much prefer the format of writing blogs as opposed to writing essays. It’s not that I don’t see myself as an academic but it’s a much more personal way of writing, like a dairy. Thumbs up for that!

Next I think that the visual design element of the course is outstanding, if not a bit daunting, as I don’t see my visual design work as my best asset. However, Chris’s visual design course structure is very good and I learnt alot this year. I think you can see the progress that I have made in my drawings skills. My only grumble would be that I haven’t had any one to one when it comes to painting or digital painting. I was aware of Cameron’s digital painting workshops but I would have liked some timetabled lessons.

I have enjoyed Heather’s lectures but have been back tracking over stuff that I have already done. However this has been good as it’s always good to practice your skills. I love to model and am looking forward to doing more next year. I would like to see the option of doing a semi specialised year next year as I think it will benefit me personally to develop my vehicle modelling and texturing skills. I don’t want to be a jack of all trades but a master of none. I think that games production would have been better if there were more lectures on things like texturing and different techniques when approaching applying them. Also it would have been good to have had some video tutorials on black board as well as the written ones.

Finally I have to say that I have really liked Mike’s critical games studies. I always enjoy sitting in a circle to discuss matters and have a light hearted chat about our projects and also documentaries that we have watched. I think that Mike has a real depth to his personality and worldly knowledge and have enjoyed getting to know him. Mike also has a great appreciation of films and I think we share many favourites. The only thing that I can criticize is that I didn’t get more time to spend with Mike as I think that I could have learnt more from him.

The timetable was lenient us this year which for me, with a family, was a good thing. Through one reason or other I have struggled with a few different problems but because of the time table it has been helpful to catch up. I think if it had been more demanding of me then I would not have been able to catch up. The work load was quite intense at times and I do wish that I had more time to finish projects. I think the work would have been better to be spread out more and the course made longer. Other than that I have been, on the whole, very happy. I am looking forward to the summer so that I can recharge my batteries and spend time modelling vehicles and texturing. However moving onto the second year will be a big step towards becoming a professional artist and I am hoping that everything goes well during the second year.

Where do you want to go and how do you want to get there

Where do you want to go and how do you want to get there?

Well I spent a number of years wondering what career it was that I wanted to do let alone where I was going to end up. However having said this I am now at a point in my life where I am happy in the knowledge that I want to work as a Vehicle Artist, when I finish University.

I am enjoying my time at University and have especially enjoyed the car drawing, van modelling and concept vehicle designing briefs. I feel that my strengths in my 3d work lie in vehicle modelling and I am quite passionate about it.

I intend on having modelled around fifty vehicles by the time that I finish University. I intend on modelling not only new and cutting edge vehicles but also classic and vintage ones too. During this summer I am going to visit a number of transport museums in order to collect as much primary sourced reference as possible.

Again I do feel that my strengths in my visual design work are probably in my vehicle drawing skills but I am not going to stick to just those alone. They are probably better because I’m more interested in creating them, but I do seem better at drawing stuff that isn’t organic. I am going to draw every vehicle that I model just to add more depth to my portfolio.

Whilst I know what path that I want to follow I am going to plug away at my visual design skills, as I know this is the area that I need to improve the most in. I’m glad that I completed my two year course at college prior to starting on this one, as it gave me a good understanding of 3ds max and design work in general. I feel for some people on my course as I know how it feels having to learn 3ds max from scratch, however most people are fine.

My only grumble about my course is that I wish that I had more time to develop my texturing skills, which I’m sure I will in the summer. As long as I continue to progress in all areas I’m sure I will make it through my course and achieve my goal of becoming a great Vehicle Artist. My dream job would be to work on either a ‘Grand Turismo’ game, a ‘Need for Speed’ game or a ‘Colin McRae’ game, however any job in the industry would be good.

I am looking to work in the midlands area as I have no plans on moving to far away but I will never limit my options of work as I know that I need to be flexible to make it in this industry. If I fail to find work I would consider, as a backup plan, going into teaching as I know how rewarding it can be to teach as I already help my Taekwondo instructor to teach at my local club.

Creativity

Creativity

A definition of creativity

Creativity is a mental process involving the discovery of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the existing ideas or concepts, fuelled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight.
From a scientific point of view, the products of creative thought (sometimes referred to as divergent thought) are usually considered to have both originality and appropriateness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity


It is essentially to make or produce something from ones imagination. I always feel that a person’s imagination is created by the experiences that the person has during their lifetime. You only have to look as far as the expressionism art movement to see a prime example of how life experiences can affect your creativity. During the war these artists must have seen many horrors, which seem to be expressed within their art work.

"Creativity becomes more visible when adults try to be more attentive to the cognitive processes of children than to the results they achieve in various fields of doing and understanding."

http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/dickhut.html

I love this statement as what it is trying to say is that if we, as adults, stop trying to look for a set procedure of commands as to how to do things, it will evoke our creative imagination. Children really do have a great imagination which is quite hypocritical of my earlier statement that life experiences enhance our creativity. I think that all of us are capable of being creative, in one way or another; it’s just about finding things that inspire us.

Creativity hindered or enhanced by technical constraints?

As a result of technical restraints I believe that creativity can be hindered, it can also cause the artist to re-think their approach to something and to tackle it in a different way. However I’m sure that technology does hold back artists creative advances.

Recently I watched an interview with ‘James Cameron’ in regards to his new film ‘Avatar’, in which he stated that due to technical drawbacks he waited something like twenty years to film ‘Avatar’ as he knew that he wouldn’t be able to create the vision which he had envisaged.

How do games manifest creativity?



Well when creating a video game it is the job of the whole team to be creative. The majority of the decision making falls to the Art director who in turn decides what’s in and what’s not. However there will be specific guide lines for each individual to follow in regards to their job title, for example texture and polygon budgets for the game artists. As far as whether the creativity is down to one person or more, it is most definitely down to a collection of ideas and thoughts from a team of artists, which is then filtered down into some form of final ideas by the Art director. Remember there is no ‘I’ in team!!



How do games manifest creativity?


Video games manifest creativity in many different forms such as the option of designing your own character before you start a game, designing or modifying a vehicle, creating your own game maps to play on or offline and modifying your interface and weapon selections and upgrade’s.


Are there any companies or individuals who seem, to you, to be particularly creative?


As a gamer I take note to look for certain games and in particular certain titles by certain companies. In my opinion I believe that ‘Ubisoft’ is a great video games company and they have some real quality artists working for them, having created great titles such as ‘Assassins Creed’ and ‘Far Cry’, by Artists such as ‘Jade Raymond’ and ‘Raphael Lacoste’.

Also Sam Houser, Cofounder, ‘Rockstar’ Games Critics may decry Sam Houser's "brutally violent" and "sexually explicit" world in ‘Grand Theft Auto’, but there's no denying his genius. Gamers can go anywhere and talk to anyone--all while punching and shooting and driving through windows. The most recent GTA sold a record 6 million copies in its first week!

Another is ‘David Cage’ who was involved in the ground breaking and innovative, recent release of ‘Hard Rain’. Cage's Heavy Rain continues his push toward serious gaming with a story about a serial killer, which asks the player: "How far are you prepared to go to save someone you love?"

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kevin-ohannessian/not-quite-conversation/10-most-creative-people-video-games-industry

Life changing or career building?

Life changing or career building?

When video games companies advertise jobs they often ask for either highly trained degree artists or individuals with alot of creativity and a good liberal arts background, but never both? I think that video games companies really want a good blend of creativity and highly trained degree artists all in one, it would be stupid not to take on people due to their lack of education or their lack of creativity.

If I was looking for an individual to join my team of artists I would look to what the person can offer to me via his or her portfolio. I wouldn’t want to narrow down my chances of finding a rough diamond just because of red tape.

Universities such as De-Montford, use a good combination of traditional and current art forms to mould its students into both a creative and a well trained degree graduates, ready for the industry.

I am still on my journey, however my understanding of form, light and perspective are increasing due to the briefs that I am asked to complete on my course. The task that I face as a student is to understand how to create efficiently and correctly whatever it is that I am asked to, and with a high level of realism.

Being on this course is like being taught how to see again for the first time, only taking in every detail that is apparent.

I think that our game art course has it correct in that respect and that industry is looking for the skills that I am being taught.

So the answer to the title....life changing or career building? It’s simple

Both

Sound for Games

Sound for Games

For this blog I will be exploring the use of sound within games.

The use of sound within games is very similar to that of the use within films and T.V. it is a fundamental part of the users experience and it enhances the gaming experience as a whole. I think that the sound design can make or break a game.

Things such as the effects used to resemble the reloading sounds of a gun or the recoil noise made by its firing, the noise made by a certain type of car engine and the sounds made by inanimate objects being interacted with are all diegetic sounds and are part of the basic build up of the types of sounds needed to create a good sound design and a realistic feel.

Another type of the sound design makeup is non-diegetic. This is the type of sound which covers a narrative commentary, the sound of god’s voice, mood music and sounds which are added in for a dramatic effect. Things like the sound of two people fighting or the sound of a sword as it is draw from its sheaf are usually enhanced to emphasise the action being made.

This is also true of sounds that are specific to the genre, such as horror games. In horror games, and indeed the whole horror genre, there is a heavy use of sound design to create a mood or feeling. Things such as emphasised footsteps or high pitched strings to create tension are particularly common within this genre. Also subjective ambience is used to add to the spooky or scary feeling that is trying to be created.

I feel that as technology has progressed so has my appreciation for the quality of the sound within them. Therefore my key memories of sound design within games leans more towards the next-gen games as opposed to the older retro games. Having said this you’ve got to love the sound design of most of the arcade games of the late eighties early nineties, with its pings, pongs and cheesy sound effects. I suppose it was like marmite, while you were winning it was great and added to the experience, but when you were losing the repetition of the sounds became sooo irritating that you wanted to smash it! Love it or hate it.

I particularly like the sound of the cars in the need for speed series as every time you are able to buy a new vehicle and get to drive it for the first time, one of the key things is the sound of the engine when it’s fired up or the noise of it when you reach the vehicles top end!

I also like quite a few survival horror games sound design, for obvious reasons, like the game ‘Condemned’. In this game the moments of silence are very scary, as are the moments of sudden violence as someone jumps out on you. The environmental sounds in this game are also quite good, from the sounds of the subway, with its dripping water and trains in the distance, to the sounds of the streets with cars passing by and voices up ahead and the stillness of certain buildings, with its creaky floors and doors. Also in this game you can collect crows for a bonus. This is quite scary as you can be in a room looking out for people ready to jump out when you hear the noise from a wounded crow on the floor! Makes you jump.

Some of the key sound designers

One man who has just crossed over into the world of sound for video games is a German composer called ‘Hans Zimmer, Hans recently wrote the score for the hit game ‘Call of duty: Modern warfare 2. Hans has won many awards within the film industry and has written many great pieces of music for some top films such as ‘Gladiator’, the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ series and the ‘Dark Knight’ to name just a few. I hope that he writes more scores for video games in the future.

I feel that I have to mention a couple of people from the ‘DreamWorks’ team as they have produced some stunningly realistic recordings. Sound supervisor ‘Erik Kraber’ did some great work on the medal of honour series, even going to WWII battle re-enactments for more realism within his work and also the composer for the series ‘Michael Giacchino’ who wrote and recorded the musical score for the games, beautifully captured in a large church in a college, Seattle, Washington.

It’s quite surprising at how many, usually; film or T.V orientated sound designers are now moving over to work within the video games industry. I think as the technology progresses and allow more freedom to create even more realistic sounds for video games; there will be more of an attraction for people who usually work in T.V or film to pursue a career in video games sound designing. It can only be a good thing for us gamers!

Game engines

Game Engines

This blog is going to focus on game engines.

What is a game engine?

A game engine is a software system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and desktop operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. The core functionality typically provided by a game engine includes a rendering engine (“renderer”) for 2D or 3D graphics, a physics engine or collision detection (and collision response), sound, scripting, animation, artificial intelligence, networking, streaming, memory management, threading, localization support, and a scene graph. The process of game development is frequently economized by in large part reusing the same game engine to create different games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_engine

There are several different brands of game engines including the unreal engine, Gamebryo lightspeed, cryENGINE3, unity 3D, blitz tech, and the infernal engine to name just a few.

The world of games, 3D engines and level editing is where you will come across the terms "subtractive environment" and "additive environment". Addictive and Subtractive environments, when talking in terms of game engines are defined as follows.

In an additive environment, the beginning consists of emptiness - usually called the void. The void is endless and empty. When the designer creates something, for example a room, he creates a space within the void by sealing it off - the easiest way to do this is to simply create a hollow cube. Something like a vast landscape with a beautiful sky is created by first designing the terrain, buildings, trees et cetera, and then surrounding it all with a "skybox", a large hollow box, the insides of which show the sky. This box is necessary to keep the void out, since the world and the void must always be kept separate. A hole in the world is called a "leak", since the void is "leaking" in.

http://everything2.com/title/additive+and+subtractive+environments

As is probably obvious, a subtractive environment is the opposite of an additive environment. In a subtractive environment, there is no void. Before there is a world, there is only an infinite solid. To create a world, designers must subtract bits from this infinite solid, creating hollow spaces for the user (player) to exist in. This eliminates the possibility of leaks, but many designers still favour the additive environment because it is easier to manipulate. In fact, a known way of working around the subtractive style editing is by first subtracting a huge cube, creating a void (of sorts) in the middle of the infinite solid - and then working additively in the middle of this (fake) void, expanding it as necessary.

http://everything2.com/title/additive+and+subtractive+environments

Proprietary Technology

Is a type of technology that is the property of a business or an individual and provides some sort of benefit or advantage to the owner. Companies that are able to develop useful proprietary technologies in-house are rewarded with a valuable asset which they can either use exclusively or profit from the sale of licensing of their technology to other parties.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/proprietarytechnology.asp

Whereas companies buying into proprietary technology may have a quick fix, short term success, but they risk the chance of not furthering development of their own technology for the sake of it which could have adverse long term effects. This could essentially cause a slowdown in growth.