Elements of Game Design-Documentation

Elements of Game Design

Documentation

For this blog I will be writing a technical specification document for a game. This will be a dry run for my final major project next year.

The brief

This project will require me to recreate three vehicles and a lead character (driver), a none playable character (NPC) an asset and a scene for them to go in. The vehicles will need to show the progression of the ‘Porsche’ design through the years. I will be able to pick specific vehicles through the history of ‘Porsche’ but my primary aim is to show the progression in terms of ‘Porsche’s’ design over the years. Below are examples of past, present and future ‘Porsche’ vehicles.

The character design will be based around the ‘Stig’ from the T.V show ‘Top Gear’, I did toy with the idea of creating relevant characters for each car and it’s era however I feel that this would probably be too much work what with three cars already to model a scene and assets too.

The environment will be a recreation of any of the main ‘Porsche’ headquarters from around the world, interior or exterior. I will choose the Stuttgart headquarters in Germany.

There is a requirement to create a NPC for this brief and I have decided to create a character based on the creator of the ‘Porsche’ Mr Ferdinand Porsche.

The learning outcomes from this should be that of an understanding as to the past present and future of car engineering and to develop modelling, texturing and research skills. The assets will be required to run on high end platforms i.e. PS3 XBOX 360.

The genre for this brief will be that of a racing game with the target audience of 15 and over, similar to the ‘Grand Turismo’ series or such like.

· I will be required to use 3ds max for modelling, mapping and manipulating UV’s

· Photoshop for texturing and for image manipulation and texture painting

· A camera for collecting reference

· The internet for any secondary reference

Technical Specification

For each car there must be no more than 6000 tri’s. Each car will be allowed

· 2 1024 x 1024 32 bit tga’s, 1 for the exterior and 1 for the interior

· 1 512 x 512 32 bit tga for the lights.

For the character there must be no more than 9000 tri’s. The character will be allowed

· 2x1024 x 1024 diffuse map without an alpha 24Bit or 2 x 1024 x 1024 diffuse with an alpha 32 bit tga map.

· 2 x 1024 x 1024 specular map or 2 x 1024 x 1024 colour specular 24 bit tga map

· 2 x 1024 x 1024 24 bit normal map

· An optional 2 x 1024 x 1024 ambient map

For the environment there must be no more than 1500 tri’s. The scene will be allowed

· 3 x 1024 x 1024 24 bit diffuse map

· 3 x 1024 x 1024 24 bit specular map

· 3 x 1024 x 1024 24 bit normal map

· An optional 2 x 1024 x 1024 ambient map

As for any assets within the scene there must be no more than

Timescale

The timescale for this project will be 20 weeks. That will break down into six weeks modelling, six weeks laying out the UVW’s and collecting and creating textures, four weeks texturing and two weeks for any problems and to present all models to an acceptable standard.