Hello everyone, I have set up a new blog to chronic my games design, games journalism and my general video-game lifestyle! It is meant to be a larger hub of information than the current blog which should mean more posts on my ideas, work as well as other articles that I have found useful and interesting.
So head on over too No Rules Here to see what direction I am heading in and why you may want to follow and subscribe to a feed.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Super quick catch up!!!!!
Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted on here (yet again!!) and I have a whole load of work done for my two projects that is awesome-o! Firstly since my last post I re-made my character Sam and re-textured him up. The reason for this was some pretty hasty and messy modelling back when I was first learning Maya which needed to die! So I went back and made him a little less dirty and a lot cleaner cut. Now with a new model came a new UV texture map so for my own sake I made the texture map again and eradicated some of the errors I made first time round with that as well! Yay for erasing bad stuff!
So with the project idea being to re-create my illustrations in a 3D space my main problem so far was getting him to look lovely and toony. This so far in modelling is my greatest achievement and was a complete accident. With this knowledge I will show you how I did it.
Firstly I had to create a new Lambert surface.
I then instead of applying the texture to the colour bar applied the texture to the incandescence layer instead.
I then turned the colour of the Lambert surface to black.
Now although the texture won’t show up on the modelling screen when we render Sam he will look like a cartoon as there is no lighting applied to the texture. Bam!
So yeah you guys may already know how to do that but I feel pretty proud that I managed to find it out on my own which in turn has made me feel a lot more confident with Maya.
On top of managing to achieve my goal with creating my character I also have managed to create my level in Maya with textures and lighting. When I first created the level again I made a terrible mess of the model and although I got it looking all right it was far from it. So I went back and remade the level yet again and the texture to make it look a lot better.
So the level is now solid and lovely looking. After I managed to do this I started pondering about how I would go about recreating the glowing platforms in which Sam can only see once they have been photographed by his camera. So I figured I would do it like this.
First I created an anisotropic material and added a ramp texture to it. I then changed the colour balance to white and blue to give it a surreal glassy feel. Now to give it a really glowing feel I added two blue point lights into the object so it would look half visible and slightly ghostly! With this complete my level started to really look a lot better.
I’ve also been working on my other project and have managed to actually get some game play working. Using a friend’s engine I have managed to, with a little help from my housemate, add programming to certain objects so I can move them with the mouse as well as tell them to affect the character in different ways. For example one object will tell the character to jump whilst another may tell him to run left when he is running right. This has allowed me to make two workable levels and two tester levels that is great as I have managed to achieve my initial goal for this project.
Well that’s a quick wrap up of the solid work that I have done for each project over the last month. I also have some more awesome news for a project that I am going to be working on over the summer. Me and a few fellow designers have come together to form a collective and design and create an episodic game that is a wee love letter the gaming days of past. That’s all I can really say for now but keep your eyes peeled as a new blog will be up and running once the game is in production.
:D
So with the project idea being to re-create my illustrations in a 3D space my main problem so far was getting him to look lovely and toony. This so far in modelling is my greatest achievement and was a complete accident. With this knowledge I will show you how I did it.
Firstly I had to create a new Lambert surface.
I then instead of applying the texture to the colour bar applied the texture to the incandescence layer instead.
I then turned the colour of the Lambert surface to black.
Now although the texture won’t show up on the modelling screen when we render Sam he will look like a cartoon as there is no lighting applied to the texture. Bam!
So yeah you guys may already know how to do that but I feel pretty proud that I managed to find it out on my own which in turn has made me feel a lot more confident with Maya.
On top of managing to achieve my goal with creating my character I also have managed to create my level in Maya with textures and lighting. When I first created the level again I made a terrible mess of the model and although I got it looking all right it was far from it. So I went back and remade the level yet again and the texture to make it look a lot better.
So the level is now solid and lovely looking. After I managed to do this I started pondering about how I would go about recreating the glowing platforms in which Sam can only see once they have been photographed by his camera. So I figured I would do it like this.
First I created an anisotropic material and added a ramp texture to it. I then changed the colour balance to white and blue to give it a surreal glassy feel. Now to give it a really glowing feel I added two blue point lights into the object so it would look half visible and slightly ghostly! With this complete my level started to really look a lot better.
I’ve also been working on my other project and have managed to actually get some game play working. Using a friend’s engine I have managed to, with a little help from my housemate, add programming to certain objects so I can move them with the mouse as well as tell them to affect the character in different ways. For example one object will tell the character to jump whilst another may tell him to run left when he is running right. This has allowed me to make two workable levels and two tester levels that is great as I have managed to achieve my initial goal for this project.
Well that’s a quick wrap up of the solid work that I have done for each project over the last month. I also have some more awesome news for a project that I am going to be working on over the summer. Me and a few fellow designers have come together to form a collective and design and create an episodic game that is a wee love letter the gaming days of past. That’s all I can really say for now but keep your eyes peeled as a new blog will be up and running once the game is in production.
:D
Friday, March 19, 2010
Work, work, work, work and Heavy Rain
Wow it’s been a while since I have written on here and I was doing so well at the beginning of the Semester! Well never mind because I have been really busy doing work on both my projects over the last couple of months and am going to recap on what I have been up too as well as talk about some influential things that I have played and seen recently.
So I’ve been working on both my projects pretty heavily and for the first project I have been making steady progress that is great. I’ve managed to build my character Sam in Maya and apply a UV to him which makes him look like a two dimensional illustration in a three dimensional space which looks really cool. It took me a little while to adapt my illustrative style into 3D but I do feel that the character now has the same feel as my drawings. I have also rigged my character so he can now be animated which after being shown how to do it I found remarkably simple to do apart from sorting out a few snagged vertices. I’ve also managed to finish a level design document for this project and have currently finished sketching up all my objects that are to be in the level. I am aiming to have the level and objects built by the end of the month which leaves me a while to animate and smarten up the final work for the project and compile all of my support work (which is going to consist of a game proposal document, a level document, scenery designs and character design sheets).
My second project hasn’t been going so smoothly unfortunately and I have come up against various problems with the programming for the engine on a fairly regular basis. My colleague who is helping me do the programming has had problems with the engine parts that control the character on screen and although the general logistics work there is one tiny annoying problem that we are struggling to iron out. The good news though is that I have managed to finish my games design document and my level design document for this project which pretty much means as supporting documents go all I need to include is a scenery design document and I’m done. For the final piece of work I am aiming to have at least 5 working levels for the game that are completed in their entirety including all relevant art and animation. This part shouldn’t take so long as soon as the engine is workable for these levels at least.
So all in all a fair amount of work has been done recently and work in general is going quite smoothly. Yet there still is a lot of work to be done if I want to hit my targets and get those top marks.
On top of all the work I have had a bit of time to play through Heavy Rain and I must say that in a past blog I have questioned David Cages ideas on the advancement of gaming and although I do stand by some of my points (mainly to do with whether to class it as a game or not) I must say I found the game to be an outstanding piece of work. There are flaws in it of course yet the parts which struck me the most were those that really made me question the situation posed in front of me as well as making me feel an awful lot of emotion towards those questions and often their answers. The characters were on the most part believable (especially Norman the FBI agent) and weren’t boring as the story uncovered. There were a few storyline points that are questionable in reason like the killers motives and reasons yet all in all the way the story unfolds (in my play through) was emotionally engaging and thoughtful and the control system although in theory may sound like a glorified God of War QTE sequence manages to handle the scenarios well, often making you feel you are in control of the characters actions. As a final statement to the game I would say it has been a while since I have played something this different.
So I’ve been working on both my projects pretty heavily and for the first project I have been making steady progress that is great. I’ve managed to build my character Sam in Maya and apply a UV to him which makes him look like a two dimensional illustration in a three dimensional space which looks really cool. It took me a little while to adapt my illustrative style into 3D but I do feel that the character now has the same feel as my drawings. I have also rigged my character so he can now be animated which after being shown how to do it I found remarkably simple to do apart from sorting out a few snagged vertices. I’ve also managed to finish a level design document for this project and have currently finished sketching up all my objects that are to be in the level. I am aiming to have the level and objects built by the end of the month which leaves me a while to animate and smarten up the final work for the project and compile all of my support work (which is going to consist of a game proposal document, a level document, scenery designs and character design sheets).
My second project hasn’t been going so smoothly unfortunately and I have come up against various problems with the programming for the engine on a fairly regular basis. My colleague who is helping me do the programming has had problems with the engine parts that control the character on screen and although the general logistics work there is one tiny annoying problem that we are struggling to iron out. The good news though is that I have managed to finish my games design document and my level design document for this project which pretty much means as supporting documents go all I need to include is a scenery design document and I’m done. For the final piece of work I am aiming to have at least 5 working levels for the game that are completed in their entirety including all relevant art and animation. This part shouldn’t take so long as soon as the engine is workable for these levels at least.
So all in all a fair amount of work has been done recently and work in general is going quite smoothly. Yet there still is a lot of work to be done if I want to hit my targets and get those top marks.
On top of all the work I have had a bit of time to play through Heavy Rain and I must say that in a past blog I have questioned David Cages ideas on the advancement of gaming and although I do stand by some of my points (mainly to do with whether to class it as a game or not) I must say I found the game to be an outstanding piece of work. There are flaws in it of course yet the parts which struck me the most were those that really made me question the situation posed in front of me as well as making me feel an awful lot of emotion towards those questions and often their answers. The characters were on the most part believable (especially Norman the FBI agent) and weren’t boring as the story uncovered. There were a few storyline points that are questionable in reason like the killers motives and reasons yet all in all the way the story unfolds (in my play through) was emotionally engaging and thoughtful and the control system although in theory may sound like a glorified God of War QTE sequence manages to handle the scenarios well, often making you feel you are in control of the characters actions. As a final statement to the game I would say it has been a while since I have played something this different.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Level Design and Narrative Design progression
What a busy week it’s been! Lots and lots of work have been done and I’ve nearly finished my game proposal documents for my two main projects which is great. I’ve also been experimenting with Google sketch-up for level designs and it’s turned out pretty well so far. On top of that I’ve been playing around with UV texture mapping on Maya and have nearly finished the work for my little robot.
A selection of screenshots from my level design in google sketch-up
One aspect of my games design I have been working on heavily over the last two weeks is that of the game mechanics and with this I really feel like I have achieved something with both my main mechanics for each game being strong and sturdy. Getting this right has allowed me to focus on building the narrative for my first project around the game mechanic and with the second game expand on other mechanics that will enhance the overall game experience. Now that I am coming out of my game proposal documents I really need to focus on building a plan to build a demo for each game as well as work on level designs for each and really nip these ideas in the bud.
I’ve been continuously looking at inspiration around me for visuals, mechanics and narrative design and with a whole host of interesting games such as Heavy Rain coming out it will be interesting to see how their interpretation of narrative and games design pans out. With game play that almost seems to incorporate interactive cut-scenes will this be a step forward for games with narrative or be too close to film to separate the two different mediums?
Heavy Rain Cover
Heavy Rain Screenshot
Personally I see the art (and yes I did use the word art) of merging narratology and ludology to be something different to the cinematic offerings of film and can strive to give something more meaningful on an interactive basis. I do not think cut-scenes are particularly the way forward to blend these two areas together and see real-time scripted events similar to those of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves a more interesting way of bringing narrative together with the aspect of play.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Screenshot
David Cage may not see Uncharted as the mature game he would want to make yet who can argue the fact that the scripted events helped add immersion to the game and if we open our minds who is to say the same ideas cannot be used in other genres as well.
A selection of screenshots from my level design in google sketch-up
One aspect of my games design I have been working on heavily over the last two weeks is that of the game mechanics and with this I really feel like I have achieved something with both my main mechanics for each game being strong and sturdy. Getting this right has allowed me to focus on building the narrative for my first project around the game mechanic and with the second game expand on other mechanics that will enhance the overall game experience. Now that I am coming out of my game proposal documents I really need to focus on building a plan to build a demo for each game as well as work on level designs for each and really nip these ideas in the bud.
I’ve been continuously looking at inspiration around me for visuals, mechanics and narrative design and with a whole host of interesting games such as Heavy Rain coming out it will be interesting to see how their interpretation of narrative and games design pans out. With game play that almost seems to incorporate interactive cut-scenes will this be a step forward for games with narrative or be too close to film to separate the two different mediums?
Heavy Rain Cover
Heavy Rain Screenshot
Personally I see the art (and yes I did use the word art) of merging narratology and ludology to be something different to the cinematic offerings of film and can strive to give something more meaningful on an interactive basis. I do not think cut-scenes are particularly the way forward to blend these two areas together and see real-time scripted events similar to those of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves a more interesting way of bringing narrative together with the aspect of play.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Screenshot
David Cage may not see Uncharted as the mature game he would want to make yet who can argue the fact that the scripted events helped add immersion to the game and if we open our minds who is to say the same ideas cannot be used in other genres as well.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Its Sunday night and although I am planning on chilling out very soon with some food and some x-files (yes I am a geek) I thought I would show you all what I’ve been up to today as well as some other general things to do with games this week. Well as promised to myself I’ve been keeping a tight schedule on my work and got some more practice with modeling on Maya today which has been really good fun. After I got my modeling skills up to date with a few simple objects I trucked on with Josh’s project by creating a little robot I like to call the happy bot. Things seem to be rolling along well with Maya so I’m pretty chuffed I’ve got a decent amount of work under my belt in the last 2 weeks although I need to learn how to UV texture map which hopefully will be done by the end of the week and I can get this robot looking ship shape.
Maybe it’s me punishing myself or just pushing myself but I have given myself a whole ton of work to do this term with my two projects and plan on getting 2 game proposal documents done for a week on Friday, and then get on with making them! Fun, fun and more fun!
Well that’s enough about me so lets talk about the game of the year selection this year briefly. So for 2009 we have the selection of Assassins Creed II, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Demon Souls, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Dragon Age: Origins. Now I only played through two of these choices and thoroughly enjoyed each one of them, Uncharted 2 was a fantastic rollercoaster ride of thrills and explosions whereas Batman was a tightly woven story with an exceptional fighting system. The rest of the bunch have all received expansive critical success especially the underdog Demon Souls which unfortunately hasn’t been released of in Europe yet so I haven’t had a chance to witness its absurd difficulty and challenges although I do intend to.
I am however quite interested to see what other people on the course perceive to be their Game of Year. Not out of the choice above but the game that has really stolen them this year, and if there hasn’t been one then why? I personally think that my game of the year is Uncharted 2 as it is the only videogame that prompted me to play through it continuously due to its engaging action sequences and tip top linear story telling. It will be interesting to hear yours if possible.
Maybe it’s me punishing myself or just pushing myself but I have given myself a whole ton of work to do this term with my two projects and plan on getting 2 game proposal documents done for a week on Friday, and then get on with making them! Fun, fun and more fun!
Well that’s enough about me so lets talk about the game of the year selection this year briefly. So for 2009 we have the selection of Assassins Creed II, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Demon Souls, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Dragon Age: Origins. Now I only played through two of these choices and thoroughly enjoyed each one of them, Uncharted 2 was a fantastic rollercoaster ride of thrills and explosions whereas Batman was a tightly woven story with an exceptional fighting system. The rest of the bunch have all received expansive critical success especially the underdog Demon Souls which unfortunately hasn’t been released of in Europe yet so I haven’t had a chance to witness its absurd difficulty and challenges although I do intend to.
I am however quite interested to see what other people on the course perceive to be their Game of Year. Not out of the choice above but the game that has really stolen them this year, and if there hasn’t been one then why? I personally think that my game of the year is Uncharted 2 as it is the only videogame that prompted me to play through it continuously due to its engaging action sequences and tip top linear story telling. It will be interesting to hear yours if possible.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Playing with Maya and my projects.
Yesterday I made things in Maya for the first time ever, and although they were just a simple crate and a fairly average sky dome it was nice to get to grips with the basic controls as well as learn where some of the more frequently used buttons are. It is amazing how creating simple things can become frustrating when you can’t find the one tool you need even when you are working from a tutorial! Yet even through the moments where I jumped over a step and messed up I finally managed to get a 3D object made with a simple texture on, and if I’m honest with myself I feel fairly satisfied that I could actually do something on there. In the end the two crates I made had different texture, one being a science fiction crate in the style of “Deadspace” and the other a wooden crate. I’m going to continue working with tutorials off web CT in my own time and attend Bev’s tutorial on Monday afternoons to gain experience and improve my skills quickly.
I’ve also been thinking about the two projects that I want to do for my advanced practice 2 module and have decided on what direction I am going to be heading in. They are as follows:
Project One
This project will focus on creating a small 3-D gaming environment that uses narrative design to give the game mechanics reason and substance within the design of the levels created for them. The game mechanics will also need to demonstrate the ability to grow and be used in scenarios that get progressively more difficult. This will give the mechanics longevity and keep the players engaged in the gaming environment and narrative.
Project Two
This project will concentrate on the more commercial aspect of games design by creating a “bite-sized” game for either a portable gaming device that supports digital distribution or a game that is digital distributed through PC or Mac. This will have to be a small game that is designed for short periods of playtime and that is aimed at a specific audience. This project will directly relate to a commercial context with the game aiming to be professionally designed with the intended outcome of being independently distributed.
Hopefully I will get some feedback off my tutors on Thursday to gain a bit more incite into these project ideas so I can begin with my research. Lots of work to do yet again but to be perfectly honest I can’t wait to get my teeth into these projects. Just need to double check I’m heading into the right direction.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Questions to answer...
Well it’s been quite a time since I have last posted on here and if I am honest I am quite disappointed in myself for this. Unfortunately I got swamped under with the ins and outs of work to be handed in at the end of the semester and the blog got shrouded in deadlines and prevailing commitments. But I am back now for second semester and as one of my new years resolutions I am going to be posting as often as other work permits me to.
So…. second semester. I just got back into the university today and as I’m awaiting feedback on my work from last semester I thought I would get back on with the blog and also ponder over what I want to be doing for my Advanced Practice 2 module as well as where I want to be post MA. These fall into several questions posed to me by my tutor which consist of:
o What do I want to do?
o What kind of activity post MA?
o What do I want in my folder?
o What aspects of games interest me?
o What opportunities for new research and development are there in these areas?
o What skills do I need to develop?
With the way that my mind and thinking works, before I can start exploring any design activities I need to address each of these question individually. Doing this will help me focus my design ideas as well as my design direction.
What do I want to do?
This question is perhaps the one that I fear the most. It sounds so definite and final like as if once you choose you can never, ever choose anything ever again. That’s preposterous of course but still it is an epic question to answer as well as justifying the answer you have given. But lets start on a more basic note rather than deciding what exact job I want to do forever by looking at two sub questions.
What kind of activity post MA? - This is an easier one to answer. I think.
After I finish my MA I want to go into the industry. I preferably would like to get into a decent junior design job working with narrative ideas and game mechanics yet the realistic side of me just aims to get a job within the design sector of the industry whether that be a games tester or something where I am completely out of my depth. At this moment in time I don’t want to continue with the academic research of games, but it is something I may come back to once I feel I have established myself into the industry ladder with my feet firmly on its rungs.
What do you want in your folder? – This one is talking about a portfolio!
Portfolios are like a window into your thinking mind. The portal in which prospective employers can view how you think as well as what you are capable of producing and where you need to improve. If I am going to be focusing my work on the thinking side of the fence I will want to have work in my folder that shows interviewers how I think, how I develop my ideas and how I come up with design solutions for videogames. I will need design work that focuses on game mechanics, level designs and narrative designs. I will need to demonstrate that I am capable of producing this design work in a finished state through constructed and playable examples. These will highlight my creativeness as well as the ability to focus ideas into a finished and solid form. If I am to work with narrative design a few contextualised character designs may help give a greater impact of level and mechanic design as well. All in all I need to present enigmatic ideas that push traditional conventions as well as tightly knit ideas that appeal to a more professional and commercial world both being supported by strong modelling skills.
These questions have helped me form more opinions about my own skills and what I need to achieve throughout my MA. I want to focus on game mechanics, level design and narrative design pulling them all together into a coherent piece of work that can show the skills that I have and are eager to build upon.
I want to design the mechanics behind the games and give reason to those mechanics through tight narrative, mechanic and level design.
What aspects of games interest me?
Understanding what fascinates me in games can be quite difficult. Yet I know through talking about what I want in my portfolio and what I want to do post MA that the mechanics that give games substance and narrative that gives players reason are what I am truly interested in, and most of all I am interested into how these two aspects of games can meld together to create deep and engaging experiences for players.
What opportunities for new research and development are there in these areas?
There are constant opportunities for expansion with game mechanics, as new ideas for games need to be sought after to bring new and engaging experiences for players in the world. Narrative design is also an area that is continuously being debated with in games design and without a set amount of rules for it like in literature or films the possibilities for research and development are huge. Bringing them all together with level design is also an area that new research and new ideas can be formulated helping develop the ideas.
What skills do I need to develop?
This section is the most important as it will allow me to understand the areas of my own skills that I need it to develop and focus on. The first skill I desperately need to develop is that of modelling and adding texture to those models. I also need to develop my game mechanic designs by thinking about how the game mechanic will develop with difficulty through the game as well as how game mechanics work. Level design structure will need to be developed in design so I can integrate game mechanics into it seamlessly as well as my narrative skills so I can come up with engaging ideas to integrate the three area skills together.
Well there we go, lots and lots of talk about skills and area to improve as well as what I want to aim towards with my semester 2 and my advanced practice module. For once I feel focused on my work and I know what I want to do and what to aim towards and above all I am excited to get on with it and to come up with new ideas that are both experimental and professional.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Catch up time!
Okay so I’ve not posted on here in a week and a bit and its been bugging me somewhat. I’ve been working on a literature and contextual review to support the recent research I have been doing into game writing and narrative in video games which has taken a decent amount of time away from my drawing as well as my posts on here. So as a bid to catch up with posts and design work for my GDD which I am currently undertaking as a brief I am going to try and get posts up at least 3 times a week with drawing illustrations and ideas.
So lets start with a brief catch up on what I have been up to over the last week or so. I have been working on a proposed GDD for a game named “Zombie Wrath” (I know its not a particularly imaginative name but I can confirm it is a working title) which I have done a game proposal document for as well as a level design with game mechanic storyboards to accompany it. Now at this point I will just stress that this is a slimmed down GDD so to speak and I will be focusing on more complex level design as well as character design and narrative design. The premise of the game is a 2.5D shooter that will try and introduce a more atmospheric and puzzle based game to the downloadable services of xbox live and PSN. At this moment in time all I really have to do for this brief is to complete a second level design and the animation sets for my characters which hopefully will not be too much bother, and if time permits to build a small example level showing scenery as well as mood and character.
On top of this as I have mentioned that I am currently researching into game narrative and how designers can use it too their advantage. This has proven to be the most interesting aspect of my work at the moment and could be something that I will continue to focus on throughout my MA. I also have just got a free igda account online in a bid to try and integrate myself solidly into the games design community and get some of my ideas in design and writing out there. My last post concentrated on game narrative through environment rather than a sole character and talked about a realistic mortality element in computer games that I believe has directly influenced my interest into game narrative and the design that follows it.
My next post will be a full update on my GDD with plenty of illustrations to show the direction that I am heading with it as well as some of the basic game mechanics that would be included in the game. This should be followed by another more comprehensive update on my game narrative ideas and the research I am undertaking. Lots and lots of work to do then! Yay!
So lets start with a brief catch up on what I have been up to over the last week or so. I have been working on a proposed GDD for a game named “Zombie Wrath” (I know its not a particularly imaginative name but I can confirm it is a working title) which I have done a game proposal document for as well as a level design with game mechanic storyboards to accompany it. Now at this point I will just stress that this is a slimmed down GDD so to speak and I will be focusing on more complex level design as well as character design and narrative design. The premise of the game is a 2.5D shooter that will try and introduce a more atmospheric and puzzle based game to the downloadable services of xbox live and PSN. At this moment in time all I really have to do for this brief is to complete a second level design and the animation sets for my characters which hopefully will not be too much bother, and if time permits to build a small example level showing scenery as well as mood and character.
On top of this as I have mentioned that I am currently researching into game narrative and how designers can use it too their advantage. This has proven to be the most interesting aspect of my work at the moment and could be something that I will continue to focus on throughout my MA. I also have just got a free igda account online in a bid to try and integrate myself solidly into the games design community and get some of my ideas in design and writing out there. My last post concentrated on game narrative through environment rather than a sole character and talked about a realistic mortality element in computer games that I believe has directly influenced my interest into game narrative and the design that follows it.
My next post will be a full update on my GDD with plenty of illustrations to show the direction that I am heading with it as well as some of the basic game mechanics that would be included in the game. This should be followed by another more comprehensive update on my game narrative ideas and the research I am undertaking. Lots and lots of work to do then! Yay!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Mortality in games
I came up with an idea the other day with the help of a friend when playing the Left 4 Dead 2 demo which has sparked an interesting thought process in my head. As I'm sure most of you know in Left 4 Dead you start each campaign with choosing a character out of four to play as and the idea is to get to the end of the campaign without dying. This is where in terms of realism it gets tricky, as if you DO die you are not really dead and your team mates can actively re-rescue you from an impossible to escape cupboard somewhere...as the same character that had just died. This is a disruption of reality in most worlds, when you are dead you are dead forever, not for five minutes until you magically spring back into existence in a constantly safe space. Now what if we take the idea of the same character re-spawning away?
For example lets say we have a disaster at the beginning of our game like a plane crash. If instead of choosing a character when you start, the game randomly generates a character for you instead. So if four people are playing at the start of the game four randomly generated characters will survive the crash, if only one person is playing only one character survives. This helps with other aspects of a drop in drop out co-operative system. Say you are playing through the game solo and one of your friends wants to join they can drop in to the game as a "new" survivor which if on the same console would be close to you for screen space sake and online could be anywhere in the same check point area. This system would add more realism to the world that you are playing through as each character is technically a living character within the world, and as I said earlier in the blog when living things die they permanently are dead, this brings me to my next idea. With the random character generator if your character dies he is dead, no respawn for him and no extra lives. Instead you will re-spawn within the nearest check point area (a select area defined through various check points) as a new survivor. I initially thought this would result in a lack of connection with the characters yet with your survivor being fragile with a definitive end if you do like the person created you will want to hold onto them. This could be especially engaging in co-operative mode as real stories through various survivors could take place. For example your best friends character "Jim" went back to heal "Dave" after he got knocked down by a horde of zombies yet couldn't get there in time and watched him be devoured. "Jim" is dead for ever and if the idea is pushed could even come back as a zombie to be later re-discovered as you are trapsing through areas. The only issue with this is that the story through out the campaign could not possibly be character based therefore the story portrayed through the world would have to be cleverly engaging and interesting to keep the players hooked. As I said in a previous post this could be achieved through audio from televisions or radios or out of reach converstaions or writings on the walls. You could even have events happening in the background that are key things to the overall story of this world giving your characters reason to survive.
A tough design route possibly yet ultimately engaging and different. If handled carefully and designed well the inclusion of mortality in games could invigorate the story rather than detract away from them.
For example lets say we have a disaster at the beginning of our game like a plane crash. If instead of choosing a character when you start, the game randomly generates a character for you instead. So if four people are playing at the start of the game four randomly generated characters will survive the crash, if only one person is playing only one character survives. This helps with other aspects of a drop in drop out co-operative system. Say you are playing through the game solo and one of your friends wants to join they can drop in to the game as a "new" survivor which if on the same console would be close to you for screen space sake and online could be anywhere in the same check point area. This system would add more realism to the world that you are playing through as each character is technically a living character within the world, and as I said earlier in the blog when living things die they permanently are dead, this brings me to my next idea. With the random character generator if your character dies he is dead, no respawn for him and no extra lives. Instead you will re-spawn within the nearest check point area (a select area defined through various check points) as a new survivor. I initially thought this would result in a lack of connection with the characters yet with your survivor being fragile with a definitive end if you do like the person created you will want to hold onto them. This could be especially engaging in co-operative mode as real stories through various survivors could take place. For example your best friends character "Jim" went back to heal "Dave" after he got knocked down by a horde of zombies yet couldn't get there in time and watched him be devoured. "Jim" is dead for ever and if the idea is pushed could even come back as a zombie to be later re-discovered as you are trapsing through areas. The only issue with this is that the story through out the campaign could not possibly be character based therefore the story portrayed through the world would have to be cleverly engaging and interesting to keep the players hooked. As I said in a previous post this could be achieved through audio from televisions or radios or out of reach converstaions or writings on the walls. You could even have events happening in the background that are key things to the overall story of this world giving your characters reason to survive.
A tough design route possibly yet ultimately engaging and different. If handled carefully and designed well the inclusion of mortality in games could invigorate the story rather than detract away from them.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Expressing story and atmosphere in 2D (part one)
2D is an interesting style of gaming, it is almost like when 3D became feasible on home consoles that the entire idea of a two-dimensional game was old fashioned and not as cool anymore, like a child discarding and decent old toy for a new one. Although some games have played around with the idea of intertwining two-dimensional game mechanics with three-dimensional visuals it wasn't until recently with the readily accessible online download services such as Xbox-live, Wiiware and Playstation Network as well as successful console based games such as Little Big Planet, that this genre is being explored again.
Why is this exactly? Do designers feel the idea of playing within two-dimensions hasn't been fully explored? Or that the constraints of a two-dimensional world easier to design for without over stepping the mark? Or is it a nostalgic trip, making games in homage to the ones we gained influence from as we grew up? For most I am guessing it is a bit of all of the above.
As I am playing around with different ideas and themes, I have become exceptionally interested in what a two-dimensional adventure game can achieve. Over the years I have played many games that have been side-scrolling or panel based in 2D, yet not many of them had a truly engaging story as well as a compelling atmosphere for its cause. There are a few games, especially from the 16-bit era. that did and two of those were "Flashback" and "Another World". They both had compelling stories that made you feel an integeral part of a universe outside of the game constraints as well as giving you believable purpose within the story world. Although most of the story telling was done through text both games, especially "Flashback" made use of rota scoped cut-scenes to build a believable picture of the world. Great for a 16-bit computer game! Yet in the modern day of gaming with games like "Shadow Complex" taking up the mantle of 2D/3D adventure games are separate cut scenes completely relevant? Imagine a completely integrated world where the camera can pan in and out showing a gaming view when needed and close-ups of scripted dialogue events seamlessly eradicating the need for cut-scenes. Half-life managed it from a 1st person perspective so how hard could it be from a two-dimensional perspective?
Excluding cutscenes in my opinion would help with the atmosphere of the game as it would continuosly keep you in the world of the game rather than taking you out of it. Other aspects of story telling used in three-dimensional games such as audio clips or written items could be used to expand the world you are in as well, or even use items in the world such as walls for text or televisions for audio to help piece together story in a more immersive manner. These are just mere ideas and examples and I hope to look further into it over the next week or so as I am designing my first level for the game I am currently working on. Next time I will look into some of these story-telling ideas in more depth and how by being innovative within the genre rather than purely inventive you might be able to evolve a genre in a positive way.
Why is this exactly? Do designers feel the idea of playing within two-dimensions hasn't been fully explored? Or that the constraints of a two-dimensional world easier to design for without over stepping the mark? Or is it a nostalgic trip, making games in homage to the ones we gained influence from as we grew up? For most I am guessing it is a bit of all of the above.
As I am playing around with different ideas and themes, I have become exceptionally interested in what a two-dimensional adventure game can achieve. Over the years I have played many games that have been side-scrolling or panel based in 2D, yet not many of them had a truly engaging story as well as a compelling atmosphere for its cause. There are a few games, especially from the 16-bit era. that did and two of those were "Flashback" and "Another World". They both had compelling stories that made you feel an integeral part of a universe outside of the game constraints as well as giving you believable purpose within the story world. Although most of the story telling was done through text both games, especially "Flashback" made use of rota scoped cut-scenes to build a believable picture of the world. Great for a 16-bit computer game! Yet in the modern day of gaming with games like "Shadow Complex" taking up the mantle of 2D/3D adventure games are separate cut scenes completely relevant? Imagine a completely integrated world where the camera can pan in and out showing a gaming view when needed and close-ups of scripted dialogue events seamlessly eradicating the need for cut-scenes. Half-life managed it from a 1st person perspective so how hard could it be from a two-dimensional perspective?
Excluding cutscenes in my opinion would help with the atmosphere of the game as it would continuosly keep you in the world of the game rather than taking you out of it. Other aspects of story telling used in three-dimensional games such as audio clips or written items could be used to expand the world you are in as well, or even use items in the world such as walls for text or televisions for audio to help piece together story in a more immersive manner. These are just mere ideas and examples and I hope to look further into it over the next week or so as I am designing my first level for the game I am currently working on. Next time I will look into some of these story-telling ideas in more depth and how by being innovative within the genre rather than purely inventive you might be able to evolve a genre in a positive way.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Level Design and Game concepts
Continuing projects on the course have seen me attempt to design my first level. A nice simple brief which helped me reflect on my own design processes as well the areas that a need to evolve in in order to adapt to my new subject area. The isometric physical design of the level was quite simple in execution yet applying the game mechanics to the design was essentially a steep learning curve for me. The ideas were always in my head and it does come through in annotation and conceptual drawings yet I couldn't quite grasp using the isometric drawing to illustrate the given game mechanics making them clear whilst presenting it. Failing this I ended up seemingly just telling a story rather than talking about the actual game mechanics needed to complete the level, essentially I needed to show what was required of the player. After thinking about this and understanding the faults in the design I can work towards rectifying this in my next brief which is to write a games proposal. For this I will have to think about game mechanics as well as a story and a theme in order to present and sell the idea.
On top of this project I still am pondering about ideas for my design practice project and what I personally am interested in within the design of games. A few thoughts have been bubblying out of late and are mainly aimed towards how narrative in games can effect game mechanics as well as work with them to integrate story into games more successfully than in the contemporary market. Coming from an animation background I have always enjoyed the artistic design from character to enviromental, but have always been fascinated by how the story and narrative uses these objects. The same goes for game design. The difference being that the story is interacted with in a first hand way. The problem with games at the moment in general (not all) use narrative as an after thought rather than a defining game mechanic, and one could even argue the ones that have involved it as a main game mechanic still haven't tapped into the potential. Well at least thats a starting point I guess, probably should look at articles relating to story telling in games and game mechanics as well as a few examples of bad storytelling and good storytelling within gaming history to give me a wider perspective on the idea. Till next time.
On top of this project I still am pondering about ideas for my design practice project and what I personally am interested in within the design of games. A few thoughts have been bubblying out of late and are mainly aimed towards how narrative in games can effect game mechanics as well as work with them to integrate story into games more successfully than in the contemporary market. Coming from an animation background I have always enjoyed the artistic design from character to enviromental, but have always been fascinated by how the story and narrative uses these objects. The same goes for game design. The difference being that the story is interacted with in a first hand way. The problem with games at the moment in general (not all) use narrative as an after thought rather than a defining game mechanic, and one could even argue the ones that have involved it as a main game mechanic still haven't tapped into the potential. Well at least thats a starting point I guess, probably should look at articles relating to story telling in games and game mechanics as well as a few examples of bad storytelling and good storytelling within gaming history to give me a wider perspective on the idea. Till next time.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
So here we go...
Hello there. I see you are actually reading my blog so I guess I had better start writing something that is relatively interesting or insightful into the way that I think about my work in games design. After studying at Uclan for three whole years in animation I have decided to branch out my skills and career path into the field of games design. I like to think that I have narrowed down my educational route to a pinnacle this year and that after I complete this MA I will be ready to push for work wherever I damn well can find it and prove my worth out there. Its strange, but after working in animation for three years, although I enjoyed it and learnt an immense amount about design and myself, I never really quite felt 100% at home. After much consideration and understanding of myself I realised my true love and passion belonged with games.
All in all I like to play.
So here we are at the beginning of the year with an awful lot to learn in a very short amount of time, with a current catch up brief of creating an isometrically drawn level to demostrate an understanding of time and spacial awareness. This for me is a good chance to play around with the concept of level design pushing for new ideas and theories. In the way that I work I need a very detailed understanding of the world that I am creating for. To achieve this I first created a character that the player would play as, I then asked myself "What sort of a world would this character live in?". This allowed me to draw up some conceptual designs for scenery which I then developed into a basic level/game idea. From here I can now understand the world that I am creating a level for and how I need to lay it out.
Well this is just a basic introduction to this blog and a quick description of where I am at in life at the moment. Il be recording ideas, images and current briefs in this blog as the year goes on so if you are interested make sure to check up on it.
All in all I like to play.
So here we are at the beginning of the year with an awful lot to learn in a very short amount of time, with a current catch up brief of creating an isometrically drawn level to demostrate an understanding of time and spacial awareness. This for me is a good chance to play around with the concept of level design pushing for new ideas and theories. In the way that I work I need a very detailed understanding of the world that I am creating for. To achieve this I first created a character that the player would play as, I then asked myself "What sort of a world would this character live in?". This allowed me to draw up some conceptual designs for scenery which I then developed into a basic level/game idea. From here I can now understand the world that I am creating a level for and how I need to lay it out.
Well this is just a basic introduction to this blog and a quick description of where I am at in life at the moment. Il be recording ideas, images and current briefs in this blog as the year goes on so if you are interested make sure to check up on it.
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