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!
