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.

Elements of game design, part two: art direction for games

 An Art Director is the person in control of the art department of a game. They are responsible for the visual tone, quality, and style for the game. This means they are in charge of how everything appears in a game. Art Direction affects the game deeply, as how it looks can affect the feeling the player gets when playing the game. The art director makes sure that all Art department creates assets, environments and characters which are consistent to the tone of the game. They manage the other members of staff in the art department to

An Art director is responsible to the Game designer. During production, the members of staff in charge of teams meet up to see how the game is coming on and if everything is going to schedule.

I think it is a creative role in the industry. Even if the role itself does not involve must painting or drawing, it requires lots of creative decisions to be made. A game with good art direction often has something different and original about it, a unique style. This can be achieved by the creative ability of the Art Director. They have to be able to come up with lots of new creative ideas for  the style of each new project in order to be successful. Even though they don't implement their creative ideas, they are usually still  head of the art department.

Unlike in games, the art director in the film industry is not the head of the art department. Instead they work under the production designer. They are in charge of the look of the sets, costumes and some of the lighting. Their role is somewhat similar to that of a Art Director in games; they still are in charge of the general tone of the production and make it visually interesting. However, there are some changes simply because there is a difference in the final product they produce. Films have different things that need to be designed in a physical form, such as character costumes, so the film Art Director would be working slightly differently than game Art Directors.

Art directors need to be good communicators. This is because they will be working with a large number of people who they have to co- ordinate towards the end result of the game. They also need this good communication to convey their ideas clearly to everyone in the team. This is so all the things that the art department creates fits together well in the final product. Being a good manager of people and time is also a necessary skill. They also have to be really perceptive, as they have to manage how everything in the art team produces, even down to the little details. As well as that, they need to be very creative, as they must be able to come up with new ideas for each games look and visual design. These are some of the many skills a Art director for games must need for their job.

Elements of game design part 1

Game design is the creation of the content of games, such as the background and rules of a game. It is a very important part to the creation of a game. Game design starts with the idea of the game, and it is usually the game designer who produces the game proposal document. This includes the concept, game play, feature list, setting and story, target audience, requirements and schedule, staff and budget estimates. Once the game is in production, it is the game designer who makes decisions about the content of the game, and oversees the various teams (such as art, programming and music) to make sure all elements in a game are consistent and work together. They also have to make sure that the game fits into deadlines, budget and hardware limitations. In short, they design the game play. 

A link to basic information about the job of a game design:

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/411/game_design_an_introduction.php

 

Game play is the interaction the has player  with the game . These provide challenges to the player using game mechanics to make the game fun and entertaining. It's how the player can change the game by interacting with the environments and objects within them. This can be seen in puzzle games where the player can interact with the game to solve the puzzle. It is up to the game designer to decide how the game play of a game works.

Game designers are needed from start to finish on the project. This is because they make lots of the creative decisions, from the initial design document and concept, to testing the game and deciding what needs to be changed for the final product. This is the process of a game being produced:

It is not a single persons responsibility, there is more than one type of game designer. However, in the past, when teams were a lot smaller, there was often not a dedicated game designer. In present day, the main types of game designer are lead designer, game mechanic designer, level designer, and writer. Lead designers are the leaders of the other designers and the team. They co-ordinate the team and make the large design decisions. The game mechanic designer designs the game play mechanics, and also makes sure they are balanced. Level designers, which is a more recent role, create the environment and levels of a game. Writers are often commissioned to write the games narrative, as well as anything else written within the game world, such as journals.

Different genres require different design principles. This is because each genre has different game play elements and different things that the players expect. For example, a player would expects something different from a first person shooter than a real time strategies game. However, a good game designer should be able to design games across the genres.

To me, it is mostly important that a game is entertaining. Across every genre, this is the most important part of a game, if it is not fun to play, then it is not worth playing. This can be achieved by great game design, whether it is art driven, or story driven.