Crystal Character

Finished off a concept painting of my crystal character and I am really pleased with the result! The most difficult part was getting the lighting right on both the character and the cave but it seems to have worked out in the end.
I might go back and do some tweaking at some point.

The painting is used to illustrate what I wanted the character to be like aesthetically and how it would live. He is designed to be made of both rock and crystal and I imagine him being rock on the outside and crystal on the inside. If he were to be damaged more crystal would be exposed. I also like the idea that the crystal could grow and morph and maybe the sediment/rock covering him would just build up over time based on his surroundings.

A bit of what I enjoy!

Recently really loving just finding random things on the internet. Came across these guys a long time ago, but they still make me laugh hysterically. They are a folk parody band called "Flight of the Conchords" and.. quite simply they're silly.. enjoy! You'll find I might blog many of these random things, simply so that everyone can see what I like! This song is called "The Humans Are Dead" and it points towards a future of destruction due to robots.. sounds scarily familiar to what we've been talking about in class...well this is the funny version!

Week 7- Art Directors

Art Directors are the people responsible for all the decisions to do with the visual style of a game or other medium. In an article on Gamasutra, the Art Director Phillip Bossant describes a day in his life. Starting as early as 6:00 AM, not getting home until 8:30 PM and continuing work at home seems common and he even comments that some nights he may stay at work. His day consists of many tasks but mainly he seems to arrange how the people are working together: meetings to guide and check up on different sections of the teams happen throughout the day.

Art Directors work towards creating the feel and look of a game. They make sure that a consistant style is present within the game and that each Artist understands and practices this. It seems that being an Art Director means that you have to rely on a lot of people and that there is a considerable amount of trust involved. Phillip Bossant comments "We try to play to each individual's strength" when refering to his team. Other skills required seem to be patience, determination and a passion for what is trying to be achieved.
When creating a game, a "pipeline" is planned to utilise all the time available and the Art director manages this and makes sure that everyone is on schedule. In an interview with the BBC News, the team that worked on Ghost Rider explained their roles. The Art Director explained that he headed up preproduction and developing a lot of concept sketches. He was responsible for working on the visual style. He worked alongside the Lead Designer who took responsibility for the visual style further down the line when production had started. The Lead Designer and Art Director are both answerable to the Game Director.

Photoshop Painting

Today I've been really trying to develop my photoshop skills. I decided to draw a environment for a character I based around crystals. To do this I wanted to digitally paint a cave and then add crystal features to it. I took a reference picture from the internet and attempted to use that to develop my own picture of a cave. I am really proud of the result as I have really been struggling with photoshop.

I also have been trying to develop both my "Organic" and "Reef" creatures. My reef creature is based around a mantis shrimp and I have just been trying to develop it's shape. My organic crystal character is designed to be made of rock but when he is damaged crystal muscle groups are exposed underneath. They are neither of them finished.. but I am trying to develop skills at the same time as design them.

3D modelling

Since I have been learning 3D modelling I have felt like it has been a constant battle between me and 3D S Max. However I am starting to enjoy it! Between the swearing and screaming "WHY IS THAT THERE?!!!" there is some kind of strange satisfaction from making an object that looks vaguely realistic! The more I learn the more excited I am about using these techniques effectively. The class were shown the basics of "Bump Mapping" last monday and it instantly got me excited. Now all I need to do is actually learn to use this tool effectively.... this could take a while!

On monday, we were set the challenge of creating a weapon in about 4 and a half hours. I was really proud to have go to the stage of being pretty much ready to texture despite the fact that there were sooooo many people that were better than me by far!). I have also started making a house for one of my projects.

Simple Games = Innovative Ideas?

After being in a terrible mood one night I managed to persuade my flat mate that I would feel much better after a go on his PS3! After an hour or so of playing random demos and replaying Skate several times, I discovered "Flow". I had read about this game but never really thought of playing it as it looked "too simplistic". After playing it for a short while I was addicted!

The basic idea of the game is that you are a small creature that eats others smaller than yourself avoiding getting eaten by the bigger creatures. The more you eat, the larger you become, gaining more fins and a longer tail. It is controlled by the six axis which means there is very little need to press any buttons.

The reason this game stood out to me so much was that it was a game without any explanation besides a start up screen which said something along the lines of "go with the flow". I then discovered how it worked as I went along and it felt like I was exploring instead of simply completing tasks. The satisfaction of being able to defeat creatures that you had previously been hunted by is immense. I found myself saying things like "now... the hunter.. becomes the hunted!!!!". Cheesy, but fun none the less!

My personal opinion is that this game is a brilliant example of simplicity being able to deliver an experience that a larger, more complicated game, would not be able to produce. Games like pacman and tetris are other examples of this. These games need no explanation, yet they have gained classic status.

Week 6- Game Design

Why do we play games? Is it for the experience? Or for the visual and audio stimulation? When creating games, designers always face these questions. Shigeru Miyamoto is the game designer behind many famous and influencial games such as Mario and the Zelda franchise. In an interview with CNN he said this about how he designed games:

"My staff and I are motivated not by trying to out-sell whatever happens to be in the market, but rather trying to develop something that is totally unique. I think it's important that we enjoy that process. To create a new standard, you have to be up for that challenge and really enjoy it. This is the way we work and have done so many times."

This way of thinking is not the standard for the industry. Many games are created with the sole purpose of gaining profit and often games are created that well purely based on licencing for a film or television show. These titles often neglect good gameplay. Games are no longer created by one man's dream but a combination of hundreds of members of staff. There will often be an art direction that is achieved by many people instead of one man and the core gameplay will be decided by many. Often gameplay is actually the last thing considered once the art direction and rules of the game are decided, this can lead to games feeling unfinished.

So what do I mean by gameplay? Gameplay is the way in which the player interacts with the game. It is what happens in a game due to the player interfacing through a controller. For example, driving a car in a game is the "gameplay" the rest of it is all for decoration: The graphics and the sound effects are all to make the gameplay more visually and audibly stimulating.

When a game is designed there are different catagories of the design process that need to be considered.

1) The rules of the game: What will the player be allowed to do? Will there be gravity? How strong will the player be? How does the player move? etc.

2) What is the hardware capable of?

And finally

3) How can this be presented?

There are a series of arguements involving game design to do with "Ludology" and "Narratology". Ludologists argue that the most important thing to incorporate into a game are the gameplay structures and that all elements of interactivity are primarily more important than other features such as graphics and storyline. Narratologists argue that storyline and presentation are more important.

Different genres may require different strategies of design. For example a point and click adventure game would probably be designed in a very mathematical fashion, deciding what elements to put in where and when to promt the next section of storyline. Conversely a platforming action game like Super Mario Galaxy has been designed with the core gameplay and mechanics put into place first and the storyline designed around it. This can lead to a less fulfilling narrative structure but fulfilling gameplay.

I beleive that a well designed game incorporates both the theories of Narratology and Ludology almost equally, maybe focusing slightly more on Ludology and the element of play. I think that Ludology is more important personally because I want to be able to sit and relax, play, explore and experience something different from another form of media, such as a film. An example of well implemented balance between the two is in Resident Evil 4: whenever a cutscene happens the player still has to fulfil a series of onscreen promts such as "R + B" in order to survive. Although a simple mechanic it was well designed and made you feel more a part of the game and the story surrounding it. I believe all games should feature similar ideas.

Week 5- The Gaming Press and New Games Journalism

My experience of magazines for games has been mixed. On the one hand you get an idea of the setup of games and what to expect when/if you buy them. On the other hand the magazine often tells you what to think of them before you buy them anyway.

When I used to look at a magazine I, like many other people, often turned straight to the review score to see what the writer thought of the game in a detailed, decimal form. What does this number mean? I often used to buy Nintendo Official Magazine until I realised that the boasted fact that it is 100% official could mean that the reviews are slightly biased.

Now that I am slightly older, taller, wiser (big-headed) and understand the way the world works a bit better (I now look on everything with an distinctively adult sense of gloom), I start to think that review scores are not what counts. I now look to what the writer has to say about the actual gameplay, what his experiences of it were and how he felt along the way.

New Games Journalism (NGJ) does exactly this and recalls games and events surrounding the gameplay in a story like fashion. It focuses not just on the game world, but also on the person playing and their reaction to the game world. I think that this style of writing for games can show alot more to the reader but that it could prove dull after a while. I think that it has a distinct amount of charm because it is unusual.

I beleive that traditional writing for games will continue successfully. It fulfills a purpose and as gamers we are already following what everybody else is doing to see what all the fuss is about: if one more person tells us to play a game because it is "98% perfect" the fact that it is written down means that foolishly we fall for it as objective fact.

Week 4 - the history of computer games: 2000s and into the future

The current decade of gaming has seen many changes and exciting new developments. The Playstation 2 was released in 2000 and became one of the best selling consoles of all time continuing success with games like, Metal Gear Solid 2 and the Grand Theft Auto series aswell as many other multiformat games. Following shortly afterwards, the Nintendo Gamecube appeared in 2001 and the Gameboy Advance followed the success of the Gameboy Colour.

It was in 2001 that Microsoft entered the console making industry. Much of the media expected a flop from the expensive console (over £200 compared with the Gamecube's £130) but it became popular, entering the market with Halo and a host of third party titles.

During the last decade, Sega stopped making consoles and became a third party developer for most major console systems.

The handheld market became alot more diverse in the last few years. Sony entered the handheld market with the PSP and Nokia with the Ngage. In 2004, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS handheld console. This was one of the first mainstream consoles to feature a touchscreen and was aimed at people who didnt usually play games. This started a new strategy of marketing for games.

When the latest generation of home consoles were released (Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii), the arguement of graphics versus gameplay really erupted. Nintendo made the daring decision to change very little graphically and focus primarily on how the player interacted with the game. Aiming to continue the success of the Nintendo DS and it's popularity, they created the Wii (pronounced "We"). This console is based on having a motion sensitive controller and being suitable for everyone to play. Other consoles went primarily for power, boasting almost photorealistic graphics and powerful processors, aimed at the current gaming market. The Nintendo Wii has proven to be incredibly popular, renewing Nintendo's diminishing reputation.

Surprisingly the PS3 has lost popularity due to it's expensive price and slow production of games even though it also features a "six axis motion control". Xbox 360 has also been selling very well recently as Halo 3 has been released, an event that has been more popular than most film premiers.

My Personal Gaming History

These last 7 years have been full of great games. After having an N64 for a few years, the Nintendo Gamecube came out. I was so excited about it coming out that I still remember the date that it came out, May 3rd. I had played alot on the Gameboy Advance through many of the main Nintendo games, Yoshi's Island, Pokemon and some Mario games and I really looked forward to the Gamecube and being able to play updated versions of my favourite series.

The games that have stood out for me include: Resident Evil 4, F-Zero GX, Zelda Windwaker, Metroid Prime, Super Smash Bros Melee and Soul Calibur 2.

Resident Evil 4 has become one of my favourite games ever which surprised me as I had never been a fan of the series before. I loved the atmosphere and the whole game had a certain feeling of parranoia and a really cinematic storyline that was presented in an interactive way which really pulled me in to the story. Having to press buttons in cutscenes really kept me on the edge of my seat and made me feel like I never had a rest which added to the realism.

Metroid Prime was one of the few games that I have ever really felt like I was the character: it had some really immersive methods. If there was a bright flash, you would see Samus' face in the visor and if it rained you would see it bouncing and trickling down it. The soundtrack was very distinctive aswell and helped to convey feelings of tranquility or urgency.

Soul Calibur 2 was one of the most fun games to play against a friend. Especially being so fond of martial arts. My best friend and I would get so competitive playing it that I actually remember him punching a hole into his door after a particularly close match (his parents did not find out until a few years later, of course!). The things I liked about this game was the control system that allowed the player to block at almost any time: if timed correctly the opponent would be thrown to one side. It seemed like the most fair fighting game and it made sence when you were pressing buttons instead of the character doing something unexpected all the time.

I now own a Nintendo Wii and a DS and I also enjoy playing PC games like Half Life and F.E.A.R. I personally think that the Xbox 360 is the best console for multiplayer with games like Halo available and how easy it is to network and I have had many, many gaming nights with friends playing Gears of War and the Halo series over LAN.

Although I have played alot of Nintendo over the years, I do not just enjoy those games. I would buy one console, while a friend of mine would buy another. Some of my favourite games have been on other consoles. I really enjoy playing Fight Night Round 3 and Skate aswell as many other 360 games.

I beleive that I enjoy games the most when I am with a friend. I love to go to see my friend Sam and just play Xbox and chat and laugh together. I believe games are better than films simply because of the potential for socialising. Playing games at the same time as somebody else also allows you to have something in common and gives you the chance to invite them over and play together. I want to create games that inspire people enough that they will get talking and enjoy them together.