summary of year 1

I seemed to have survived so far. This assessment went ok, I seem to have passed at least. Think I need to work a lot harder in getting up to speed on the 3d and Visual design stuff as well as this blog. I got everything done on time, but I just need to get better at things. I'm also going to try to add a lot more posts to this blog, recording my progress in other areas of the course, as well as other relevant things to this course. I'll try and updated it at least once a week.

However, I think I have improved a lot this year, especially in 3D. Even though I'm not that good at it, I think I have got a lot better than from the first project, the bin, which I had no clue what I was doing. Compared to my last project, the weapon project, which had a similar budget, there is a lot of improvement, especially as I completed the weapon project in less time than the bin.

Top: wheelie bin, first project  Bottom: weapon, last project

I also started painting my textures, which is fun, although I think it works best with a combination of photos and painting, at least until I get better at painting. I think this year I've learnt some of the basics, and hopefully next year I will start to improve properly. I'm going to be working on some of the summer projects over the summer and the next semester, so hopefully I will improve with practice and start producing some good work.

I'm not sure if I've improved as much in visual design. In the second semester I spent a lot more time doing digital paints and on the thumbnails as well, which i think has helped me, especially with colour and lighting which I did not use a lot of in the first semester .

  Top: first semseter first project, Bottom: second semester last project

We also had life drawing this semester, which was difficult at first, but I think I have learnt a lot from it.

Top: first life drawing  Bottom: last life drawing

 I also enjoyed doing the sculptures, which is something I would not have tried doing otherwise .I think the second one turned out a lot better than the first though.

 Top: first scupture  Bottom: second scupture

 It's also been suggested that I use softer pencils, such a 6b and that i need to make my lines for confident. Comparing my work from the second and first semester, I think there is a little improvement though, and I'll keep practicing in the summer.

Over the summer, I am going to attempt to do two of the projects, as I think this will allow me to get some practice and hopefully come back to the second year a little better. I think I'll probably do the seabed one and possibly the gypsy one. I've already started some concept and research for the seabed one while waiting for the assessment, which I'll post up and talk about in my next blog post.

Overall it's been interesting and challenging, and I'm looking forward to next year.

Elements of game design, part four: environment

Level designers are the people who design and construct the environment. They use a variety of ways to help players navigate through a level. The main one is lighting. Lighting can be used to direct a player around a level. A good example of this is half life 2, where subtle hints of light can help direct the player towards where they are meant to be going.

This can be done with the environment as well, as the player is more likely to want to walk towards interesting points in the environment. The designers have to be careful not to make the level too maze like (unless they are building a maze level) as it can be really frustrating to get lost in a game and ruin a players emersion. another problem is making and environment too large. Sometimes designers will want to show a sense of scale, yet large open spaces with not very much in them can become boring to traverse. For example, there were complaints that the wasteland in fallout 3 was too empty and large. Problems like this can be solved by having either smaller and more interesting environments, creating more in a large environment (which can be difficult for developers of a strict deadline) or creating a sense of scale by seeing large areas, but not necessarily having the ability to travel across all of it.

The environment is very important to the atmosphere of the game. Even little things such as weather can affect the mood of a game, for example the silent hill series would not have the same effect if it was set on a sunny day instead of foggy day. Were the game is set can affect the atmosphere, and also how it its lit. As with films, lighting is very important in games for conveying a mood but is often overlooked.  The environment can tell a lot to a player about a games mood and story.

There is a balance that can be struck between realism and stylisation. The main thing to make a game world believable is consistency. As long as a game world follows its own rule, it can be believable to its players. For example, the world of crash bandicoot is as believable that of the call of duty series. 

One environment that I like is the citadel from mass effect 1 and 2.  It's a giant space station made by a civilisation that is long gone, but it functions self sufficiently. I think I personally like it because of the interesting shape it is, a ring with extending arms, with the city built on the arms and inside the ring. The luxurious waste of space in the presidium (in the ring), for example the lake, is in contrast to the poorer and packed in space in the wards (on the arms). Despite its large size, the citadel seems to be based off of real life space stations, and the designers could have drawn influence from  them.

Elements of game design, part three: character

As well as having a good story, a game must have compelling characters in order to keep the player interested. This is very important, as if a player finds the characters bland, or even annoying, they are less like to want to continue playing the game. In this age of ever realistic graphics, it is easy for game developers to ignore character development while making their game look flashy. But graphics will not hook a player as well as a good story and characters, and would not have as great a re play value. Although there is a lot of games where the whole aim is to just shoot stuff with little to no character development,  there seems to be a demand in gaming communities for compelling characters. As the industry has grown larger and more complex so has the need for them to make more complex characters.

A comparison can be made to movies; sure action movies filled with explosions can be entertaining, but its movies with good characters and story are a lot more in depth and interesting to watch.

Firstly, the characters need to be relatable. Even if the player does not agree with the characters opinions and goals, they need to seem like a real person. As Tim Schafer put it:

To create a truly immersive game experience with a compelling fantasy world, you have to populate that world with real characters. Not just characters that behave realistically on the screen, but characters that ARE real to you 

The way the character looks can also influence how the audience feels about them. People make automatic  assumptions about the character based on if they are old, or young, and other physical features. These can be used for subtle ways to tell things about the character, and make them more interesting an believable.

Voice acting is also very important. Bad voice acting can completely throw off the player and ruin their suspension of disbelief. Sometime it's just a miss cast voice, and sometimes it's just bad acting. However, if a character is well acted, then it can make them more believable and interesting.

This can also be seen in how the character is animated and directed. As in movies, the way a cut scene is shot can influence the way the audience feels about a character. This can really make a difference, for example a low angle shot can make a character look more threatening or powerful.

Another way games can portray character is to let the player control them during cut scenes. This can mostly be used in rpgs, as it further allows the player to play the role of the characters, and define how they act. This is also done to an extent in half life 2, as the character the player plays as, Gordon Freeman, is not shown and does not say anything, leaving the player to imagine who they are, and leading to another layer of emersion.