Task 14: Elements of Game Design, Part 5: Planning and Concepting

Task 14: Elements of game design, part five: planning and concepting

The idea of planning and concepting comes as an essential tool for an artist in the games industry. Because of what the process, that the artists go though, gives them in terms of input to a certain idea that would eventually end up merged with other ideas to result in a final project that stands out, taking all the best and coolest parts of each idea and combining them.

                This process has to begin at the basics. Thumbnailing images of various ideas helps in building a strong set of maybe one hundred different thumbnails, which would then be whittled down variety of ideas, about fifty, sixty thumbnails, these are including the best of the former one hundred to take on even further. The next step in this initial stage would be to further cut down the number of ideas that an artist may have to a realistic ten to twenty plans, which would make for a good selection of quality plans to choose to work with to then build a final project from.

                Another key part to the planning and concepting is the placement of the subjects in the images that the artist is producing, thumbnailing would again be sufficient here as it allows an artist to experiment with the placement, tweaking the images in each progressing sketch. Speed is also a key factor when producing the thumbnails for viewing and taking ideas from, this method ensures that all angles have been covered and cut or included within the final and makes sure that the decisions made are for the better and faster outcome.

                As mentioned earlier, the speed at which an artist produces concept work or thumbnails is key. In thumbnails the more that are done, the better the input of ideas will be for when the project is set up and running, planning for seven hours and then creating a great final piece in one hour or two is better than spending seven hours on a final piece that was only planned for an hour or two and turns out not too great. It just improves an artist’s decision making throughout the final piece almost on a subconscious level, as they would have used parts from one thumbnail that looks great, that they never would have thought to include if they hadn’t of gone through the thumbnail process first in order to get this idea.

                Organisation is vital to how well and how good a project looks and feels. If there is no organisation like; lack of time management, poor motivation and work ethic, a project will fall apart. Managing time well is tricky at first but reaps benefits when used properly, a decent amount of work gets done and keeps stress levels almost none existent, which helps produce the best work, under stress, work can be rushed and some key elements will be missing that can only be included through processes that stress tends to try and skip to finish the project faster. Keeping a good time and work management produces better work and then an artist can have time to correct mistakes that they may find in their work.

                These are the skills that i believe are the most important to get to grips with and start practicing, on a regular basis. 

Task 13: Review of the First Year and Ambition for Year 2

Task 13: Review of the first year and ambition for year two

The first year for me was a huge step for me. I was introduced to 3d software for the first time and a whole new way of working and learning. Although taken back by the new experience, I slowly became accustom to this and started to really enjoy it.

                I did find the software 3ds Max, at the start, rather hard to get to grips with. Although it was a steep learning curve, i feel that this was the reason for my motivation. I wanted to learn how to be good at using Max because I was very interested in what I could create with this software if I worked at it. So that experience really did me some good, i created models such as the Darlek, wheelie bin, building, tree and gladiator and I thought I improved in my skills with each model.

                Visual design was more of a comfort zone for me in the first year, as I had been doing this in my previous school and college work, I enjoy picking up a pencil and paper and drawing and image. Sketching and traditional art media were what I was used to, so the principals of how to draw were there and i didn’t feel like i had to learn everything from scratch. I was interested in learning techniques that were told and shown to me. My ability in traditional art media has improved a lot from what i got from the lessons and I have started to see what I’m drawing in a different way, for example, the colour theory, I now look for more than just the shades of one colour, I started using colours that I would have never thought would be in the senses or objects that I was observing. The single and two point perspectives really helped me in particular as i had always struggled to draw scenery in the past especially when drawing city landscapes and buildings have always been tricky.

                In critical studies I especially like the group discussions I enjoy learning how the industry will see my work, whether or not a piece will be noticed or whether it will be glanced over, i found these talks very helpful in that aspect, also, the lead up to a final product and finished project, the process that the game goes through and the different styles or artists that the elements get worked on. These were documented in my personal research which I enjoyed doing to study the history of the industry that i hope to get into. I very much find the viewing and study of scenery and character reference in the visual stimulation class, very insightful to how a character is portrayed in a game and how scenery and environments help set the mood of a particular set level or cut scene.

                The first year was vital for me to experience the kind of work effort expected in university, and I’m pleased overall with my progress in everything that I’ve been taught.

                In the second year I Intend to try and explore the modifiers and advanced tools available in 3ds max to be able to build more realistic models, and aim to increase my knowledge of topology in a mesh, flow lines of anatomy, how they are helpful in animation, and I want to improve my abilities with rigging character meshes too. I hope to better my drawing capabilities through increased variety of media both wet and dry, and how to properly capture expression and emotion in my pictures by more regularly creating drawings and digital pieces. I want to learn a lot more about how industry runs and works, so i look forward to continuing with the blog research, the group talks and the visual stimulation classes.

Task 12: Personal review of the first year

Over the past year i feel like i have really settled in at De Montfort and
onto the Game Art Design course.
When i first started the course i was excited and optimistic, looking forward to learning about the techniques and skills that are necessary in order to venture into the industry and to secure a job. At first i found the course very challenging in the 3d module of the course, i had never used a 3d software before coming to university therefore i struggled a lot to get to grips with 3ds Max, i found myself being left behind by the rest of the group. I found the Gurus and grasshoppers activities very useful and was very reassured when i had a crash course in 3ds Max from the third years, these lessons really help me to be able to start using Max up to standard and to be able to efficiently create assets, this allowed me to catch up to the rest of the group. it felt like i was thrown in at the deep end from the start, which was, in the end, a good thing as it was a real eye opener into the work i had to do, therefore i have adjusted to a comfortable work rate.
I went into the visual design module fairly confident as this is my strongest skill, the lessons were very interesting and i feel i have learned more than i have ever learned previous about drawing techniques and i feel that my drawings have improved drastically from my original standard. I feel more confident about approaching a challenge, and i think that this new found confidence shows in the pieces that I'm producing,
for example: previously i had always dreaded and stayed away from landscape sketching or scenery drawing, but with the techniques that i have practiced, i am more confident in attempting to create these scenes. Character modeling, that i also have never gone into before, was very enjoyable. I have learned a lot about creating an armature and then applying Sculpy to create the character models, looking at the models i have created i am very pleased with how they both turned out.
I have enjoyed the critical studies module because i found the lessons very enlightening and interesting, everything that i have been taught this year, i have never know prior. learning about the process that game companies go through in order to create a game was knowledge that i know will be applied to my future ideas and suggestions.
In terms of next year, i would very much like to experiment more with human anatomy, i believe this would be vital skills involved in creating and producing well revised character ideas and would enable a higher quality of rendering skills for concepts and accurate action shots. I also plan on improving my speed paint skills and general use of Photoshop in order to produce better quality of textures and colours for the assets that i produce in 3ds Max. I'm thinking that Zbrush would be a worth while tool to use and also one of the digital 3d sculpting software to create higher quality of models, but a focus on raw materials in 2d would be very beneficial in improving fine art skills.
In summary, i think the first year has gone very well, i have learnt more than i could of imagined and am looking forward to continuing into the second year.

Task 11: Elements of game design, part four: Environment

The environment is one of the most important aspects of any game, it has a variety of functions and contributions to the game, and makes it almost impossible to have game without an environment. The environment allows for characters to be placed in a place that compliments the story which a writer is trying to convey, also, the environment helps to establish the surroundings and location within a game. Another way of putting it is that it is vital for a good game to have an environment.
Designers are responsible for creating a believable environment that the characters in a game can navigate, and navigation is important when considering the initial level designs. The environments created have to subtlety and cleverly use colour, lighting and layout of each aspect of the level to guide the player through
the environments. This idea of guiding the player through the levels varies with the genre of game that a particular is being designed for, for example, in a horror survival, the general colour scheme is quite a dark palette, meaning a limited availability of colour use, therefore, lighting can be used to lead the player through.
Directing the player is not only limited to the use of colour from the designers, it can also be achieved through the actual layout of the levels that the game throws at the player, narrow, dark corridors and buildings can be used due to their direct nature when included in game. Buildings give the player options, but, at the same
time, only give them one option, cleverly giving the player a single option to advance.
The way in which the player is lead depends on the genre of game, the genre can influence the whole level design considerably, for example again, a horror genre would call for the levels to be completely different style to an action genre. The style is the key tool in this example, usually incorporating buildings and assets which the player will be forced to go through or move around, again, giving the sense of freedom, however,
not actually having it.
The environment influences the atmosphere of the game massively, the previously mentioned aspects of the level achieve this, colour use, lighting and layout. The layout of a particular level is on of the main roles out of the three, but this doesn't render the others useless, they are all needed to create an atmosphere to suit the
game, the layout of the level creates atmosphere, trying not to exhaust the horror examples too much, within a horror game the idea is to give the player a feeling of panic and to basically scare them. This could be achieved by using lots of tight, lifeless space, where theres no room to run, that gives the player a sense of being trapped and claustrophobic just by initially considering the atmospheric goal. Alternatively, a wide open space in a horror genre gives the sense of safety due to the vastness of the environment, which isn't what the conventional horror genre consists of.
I think that there is a balance to be struck between realism and stylisation in making a world believable to a player because, obviously, if the level is too stylised, then it doesn't represent real life, which is, in most cases, the goal of the production, to give a player the opportunity to live out a life which they can not live outside of the game, and to make this second life believable, there needs to be a representation of the world they actually live in. Although there can be a compromise when the audience of the game is younger an has not yet fully developed a sense of the link between the character interacting with a digital environment, therefore, they are quite happy to be seeing a floating, giant, giraffe shaped house with a tiny bird as the care-taker, so there is room for artistic improvisation and creativity gone wild in this case.
This is a piece of environment art that i like, it was created by Pavel Elagin who is an artist who has worked in Australia on bioshock 2. This piece was inspired by the middle east however i think that it resembles in a way the alien vs predator movie's temple, it is this way that it pays homage to the actual temples in the east,

this representation therefore, in my opinion makes this piece a good environment design.

Task 10: Elements of game design, part three: character

I have encountered many characters throughout my life, watching television, reading books, comic books, playing games and films. Most of these characters are memorable, these memorable characters are very prominent to viewers due to the characters characteristics, some of these characters that come to mind are: C.J from the grand theft auto series, San Andreas, who's cocky attitude and surroundings made for an entertaining game, the heavy rain detective Shelby, who's personality is very much hidden until the end of the game, makes for an intriguing person to follow throughout the story line and my final example being Kratos from the god of war saga, his character is the whole basis of the entire game which, for me, was the selling point for the franchise which is the story of Kratos and through playing the games, the player discovers his troubled past.
There are techniques that the designers use to keep the attention of the player, these techniques, i think, are: the interest factor, the use of the characters past to lure the players into wanting to know more about the characters past which is the main reason for most gamers to play on through the game, they want to complete the story, characters involvement is a big influence on the response to the characters presented to the players, if a character is only seen once, for example, then if the player is left with a choice for this particular character's fate, then the choice to choose that fate is made easier due to the player not relating to the character, in the long run not having an emotional bond with that character, as opposed to a character that makes many appearances, making a connection with the gamer that makes such decisions harder to make as there is a much stronger connection. So screen time is a huge factor in character relationships in games and the player's feelings towards them.
The script is rather important when building character's persona in a game, if a character, for example, had a poor script then this would take away aspects of a the characteristics, that would usually be expressed in the cut-scenes of the story where the relationship between character and player is established.
Included in this equation is the acting of the characters during screen time, actors giving the characters emotion which is as important as a good script, as when, for example a passionate scene is to take place then the quality of acting would be the make or break of the scene, if the acting was terrible, then the emotion would not be felt by the viewer at all which would make for a bad turn to the story and overall a bad experience, with the player loosing interest and eventually stopping playing the game.
The appearance of the character must be interesting, the player has to have an initial attraction to the character he or she is going to control for the majority or all of the game, i think that the appearance of the character is a vital selling point for games that are heavily story based. Take 'Heavy Rain' for example, where
the whole twist in the tale is, Spoiler alert!, that the detective attempting to solve the case of the child murderer, turns out to be the child murderer, this comes as a huge shock resulting from his appearance, of a happy jolly detective which the player would not expect this particular character to be capable of such a crime.
Personally, i find stories that are murder mysteries and crime thrillers completely irresistible, its the solving of the crimes and the suspense that i find a great concept to include in a game, like the examples that i used earlier, 'Heavy Rain' it has all the elements that i look for in a game, solving crimes using intuition and clues, a very good character back story, acting and good action. so these types of games are what i find irresistible.

Task 9: Elements of game design, part 2: art direction for games

The art director is involved in many jobs within the production of a game. Overseeing the overall quality of the work produced for all games, in addition to this, it is also in the job's description to oversee the advertising and publishing materials that are used to promote the game. Most of an art director's time is spent on games developed within the company that could be a big seller, however, time is also dedicated to so called 'B-side' games that are not the main ambition of the company. The overview of the B-sides usually involves reviewing the art through the milestones of the external production, suggesting improvements and new ideas for changes to be made. Art directors attend all the review meeting in the company and their involvement in a game starts when the initial idea of a game is pitched to the senior management, the next stage that the directors take care of is the reviewing of the design document produced by the game artists, they check that the art work is sound and accurate. They work closely with the game producers, deciding how much time should be dedicated to the production team to work on a game, also, how much of the budget shall be spent on each game.  
 The art director is responsible to the senior management of the game, they are responsible for the overall look and feel of the game being produced, both the way the player interacts with the game and the way the player interacts with his environment. this includes both active and passive art in the game.
Art director is a creative roll to play in the production, this is because the art director is involved in every part of the art production of the game, from improving concept work to changing environments that don't work with a certain mood thats trying to be achieved throughout a game, they have to be able to spot these things in the work that they see, therefore they must be creative when doing this job.
With film art direction, it's not so much, harder than game direction, its just the fact that in film, there is only ever one perspective and point of view to address when looking through a camera lens, whereas, the game artist director has to take into account the player's ability to move around 3d space which gives the director's judge-
meant a bigger sense of responsibility if a mistake were to not be spotted in a scene. This observation is the main difference between the two directors and what they do, other than this, the principles of the two jobs are the same: working with the production designer closely, a responsibility to assign tasks for personnel within the team and attending all of the production meetings.
If i were to become an art director in the future, i would think  that i needed to improve my skills as an artist, in spotting mistakes in work such as, maybe a mistake in perspective for example, also i would need to have the skills necessary to be able to correct these mistakes spotted and give advice to improve them. I would need to be able to consistently produce work that is up to scratch with the level that is expected in the industry.

Task 8: Elements of game design, part one: From pong to next gen.

The word 'Game play' has quite a literal meaning: 'the playing of the game' but also carries the meaning: The plot of a computer game or the way that the game is played, alternatively, meaning: interaction with a game through it's rules, the connection between the player and the game, challenges, and overcoming them, plot and players connection with it and describes the interactive elements of a game.
There are many leading lights in the games industry within games design, a few names include: Christian Allen, design team for 'Ghost Reacon' and lead designer on 'Halo Reach', Cliff Bleszinski, Member of epic games and lead designer of 'Gears Of War' and 'Gears Of War 2'and Ken Levine, the designer on 'Bioshock'.
These are just some of the designers of recent years, but, also designers from the early years of computer games are just as well know and recognized by the games industry, names such as: Ralph Baer, the father of video games, he created 'Chase Game' in 1967 which was the first game ever played in a television set and William Higinbotham, the creator of 'Tennis For Two' in 1958. these great minds are what started the whole world of the video game.
  Probably one of the most influential names in the last 20 years is Satoshi Tajiri, his idea exploded into popular culture for children in the 90's as soon as it hit the shelves, Satoshi Tajiri is the founder of 'Game Freak' and the creator of the infamous 'Pokemon' games. He was born on August 28th in 1965. Tajiri's childhood hobby of collecting insects was to be the inspiration for his video game, He wanted children to experience the feeling of catching and collecting creatures like he had as a boy. Satoshi became progressively more fascinated with arcade games in his teens at his local arcade, this interest led to him beginning to attempt to plan his own video game.
 At the age of 17 Tajiri started writing and editing a fanzine called 'Game Freak', moving on from this, he conceived the idea of Pokemon in 1990, this was after he first encountered a game boy, which seemed the ideal console for his idea. The game took 6 years in total to complete and when the game was released it received little media coverage as the game boy was thought to be a dead console. The game sold approximately 23.64 million copies and was a huge part of reviving the game boy and Nintendo.
The process of game design takes place after the process of proto-typing, the proto-typing usually takes place in the pre-production of the game, whilst the game design comes in with the production of the game. This process is not just a one man job, it requires all the efforts of game programmers, producers and artists
to gather all their ideas and suggestions for the game design process.
The holy grail of game design is a game with a carefully constructed narrative that players can influence to the same degree as their real lives. The goal is to have stories that are every bit as engaging as traditional narratives but created in such a way as to enable players to have a variety of player experiences. Based on these lines and these principles, i would say that different genres do not need different design principles when faced with the issue of story line structure. But, in terms of game play, each genre requires a certain style of design when dealing with the game play, for example; a horror genre requires a slow paced game play whereas, an action genre would require a faster, paced game play, these choices will demand for a different set of principles depending on what emotions the designers want the player to feel when playing.
When i play a game i feel that the most important things to experience are: a good story line, i like to feel like carrying on playing the game to find out what happens in the story, it has to be griping and involve interesting characters, otherwise i loose interest. The other thing is, a good level design and art direction, the level that the player is immersed in has to convince them they are part of the story, also what the player is looking at has to look good and almost guide the player through the level to give them a real experience. Thats what i look for when i play a game.