Final Evaluation

Since my last hand in that was in February and since coming back after that term I have been involved in some different set of projects, which my main was a collaborative game project with a team of 5 people (Me, Ben L, Ben R, Curtis and Olivia), I also was involved in a week-long cross-course collaborative project in fine art this consisted of a team of 5 of us once again. (Me, Michaela, Elly, Jo and Shin), during this week I also had an interchange project that was one session looking at UI/UX design, Designing a swimming pool. During these projects, I realised team work was a very important part. Without my teams, I would not have been able to get where I am now with the game and the fine art collaboration project. I have realised how important it is to keep communicating within a team if you are working together because if you do not do this so well you do miss out on what you should be doing and not seeing the progression of the project at hand.  Even though I attended all my sessions with my team meetings for the game and fine art project I can see how certain members within my team did not have a better understanding of the tasks set.

I believe in doing my collaborative projects I have learnt how you must be more patient with how other people do their work, I find that I like to get straight into a project if it has to get done, I have seen how some others do not work in the same way as I do, I especially saw this in the fine art project as Jo and Shin did not have any or not much knowledge of the programmes I and other game students have, they work differently to us in the way they pitch a creative idea and the speed they work. I did enjoy branching out into fine art for a week-long project with Jo and Shin, we all got on very well and worked well together, when we did all meet up. The only downside to the fine art project is that we could have been more organized as half way through the week as our idea did change as our communication wasn't as solid as it should have been during the first day or two. Overall we all put in a good amount of effort on all sides and produced a final video that was presented successfully.

In the collaborative game production project, I knew me and Olivia would end up in the same group as we were working in the same group during our game jam and worked well together. It wasn't hard to find a team we knew Ben R fairly well but I did not know Ben L and Curtis. I liked the idea of being in a team with people that I haven't ever spoken to it was exciting to see how we would all get on as a team and to work with a team were most members where 3D artists, I thought it would be a good experience to see how they produced they own work and to see if I could pick up any new skills along the way. I would say the communication within the team could have been better in the first week or two but this did improve except for one of the members. At the start of this project I would meet the team and we would discuss the game and what tasks which were set for each of us. I would meet them for an hour or so and leave to do some of the tasks (Concept art) at home because I work better sometimes with less distraction around me such as noise, I understand in the game industry I will not be able to do this, I must break this habit. I think now that I should of stayed and worked more often at the university with my team at the beginning of our production, this did change mid-way through to the end of the project I should of started to work more inside the university with my team more as this would of gave me a better understanding of different skills that I could of learnt by them. As a concept artist for the game I did find at times that I wasn't very useful nearing the end of the project even though my team stated that I had done a lot of work for the game and should be pleased as they were with my contributions to the project. I would have liked to of done some 3D work or blueprints for UE4 that would have been placed into the game but because of my lack of confidents with 3D and the logical side to blueprints I did not want to slow the team down or let them down. Therefore, I am going to try and do more modelling in Maya and use substance painter in the summer break even if it is with simpler items or props as I am currently working on my Z Brush skills I could also gain more knowledge in Maya while I do this. I am also planning on working on a small indie game with a small group during the summer break to gain more knowledge of UE4.

Overall there were a few things that did not get put into the game because of time limits but I find if me and some other members had better knowledge of certain skills there would have been a higher chance of achieving these tasks. There could have been a few things in the game that could have been improved on such as the controls at first while playing the game it can be a little tricky to get used to and I find that this could be a problem for the public who will play this at the Norwich gaming festival, a games controller may have been a better option for how to control the character for our game. After a while you do get to grips with the controls in the game. Something in the game that I was disappointed with the most for me was the characters in the game particularly the AI's. Because I specialise in character art it was a shame to not get the time to put in my own designs within the game. Another reason why this did not happen was because no one knew how to rig a character. I believe if we had more time to do this I would of gave it a good attempt to bring this into the game. I have rigged a character once before in 3Ds Max a few years ago now but I find it hard to remember how to do this, I may have still tried to give it ago but time limit was a big issue for us with this specific task. Overall the game project went well and we didn't have many problems as a team, we all added our own skills to this project and I have enjoyed my time doing it and made new friends in the process, I believe the game looks well developed in aesthetics it has well modeled assets and textures, it was a busy but enjoyable experience. 

Week Summary

This week on Monday was a bank holiday, I did not hear much from the team on the bank holiday weekend and did not really get much done for the game on this weekend. I started working on the game from Tuesday onward in which I had quite a busy week a head.

On Tuesday I had a busy day, first me and Olivia went into university to meet the team for a catch up on our progress. I did not stay long as I wanted to get on with the work at home as it was quite busy. Ben L was adding more to game and sorting out the level, He has been working even more harder as we are two down at the moment (Curtis was back later in the week and working on the game), While me and Olivia focused on the aesthetics of the game and making it look presentable with title screens etc...

When I got home I started to play around with text fonts for the buttons.

  I messaged the team to see what text fonts they preferred everyone like 3 or 7 the best, In the end I decided with number 3, but after the decision I came across a font I thought was better suited.

  The Papyrus font. I felt that this was better suited as it looks worn.

These are the Stone buttons with the Papyrus font that were added to the tile screen. I think they work well with the whole theme, jungle. The team were happy with them and they worked well in the title screen. The buttons were created in Photo shop and I used different effects to achieved the markings.

(This is the replay button for the end screens, I forgot to add it on the Tuesday with the other buttons)

On Tuesday evening I finished my part for the title screen.  Me and Olivia decided together to do parts of the title screen together instead of doing one each or working on one screen and the other does another screen. To show that we collaborated together as a pair and to portrayed our own art styles this is why we did it this way.

This is the main character and some wreckage to go with him for the title screen. This was added into Olivia's environment piece for the title screen later on in the week.

Also on Tuesday I manged to to play around in Maya and create a very simple 3D model of a dock piece that we tend to add to the game near the exit scene with the boat in the final part of our game.

This is the simple model that I create in Maya, but it is not UV mapped. I placed the file into Drop box for Ben L, Ben R or Curtis to look at. I do not usually do 3D modeling especially in Maya but  wanted to give it ago, as it was very simple to do.I will however attempt to do more 3D modelling in my own time as I would like to learn more in depth in this skill. I did not do the UV's as I did not feel confident, next time I will try. 

 Ben L use my 3D as a reference and edited it in a way to create this piece above. He has added a texture using Substance designer, in game the dock is made longer. (This was done later in the week).

 This is the doc area added into the game, Now waiting for the boat to be added.

On Wednesday we had a Contextual studies lecture which was 'Choices: Morality and Economics'.
In this lecture we looked at the game 'Telltale- The walking dead', we looked at how in this game you have choices, choices such as giving food to others or yourself, and how these actions can effect the outcome of the situation or characters. We also looked at scarcity in video games, this could mean the rarity of an item in a video game. Fallout 4 is a good example with bottle caps, This is there form of currency in the game, how the character can buy goods, Without it you have nothing. We also looked at the theory of value.This lecture was very handy as it has given me a finalised topic for my research report.

In my report I will look at how post- apocalyptic and dystopian game world are influenced by both man made disasters and natural, how this can affect the characters in game and the player to progress.
For example the topic scarcity will be spoken about as I will be comparing Fallout 4 and Dishonured1/2 both have different elements to them such as fallout is by nuclear war, and dishonored is by power and disease. I will look at how these games relate also using other games such as 'The last of us'. Scarcity are both shown in both if not all of my chosen games. It is a idea that can be worked on.

Also on Wednesday I decided to go into Z Brush and work on a Z tile for the ground texture in our game, it was more of a try out more than anything and has not been used as I was told by Olivia that in Maya it did not import properly and topology was wrong in some areas of the plane. I did this just to give it ago and to try something I don't really do in Z brush. I believe Olivia is planning on working on this task next week, and she is planning on using Substance designer to texture the tile.

My tile that I created in Z Brush, This was for a muddy surface.

By the end of the week me and Olivia had finished the tile screen and near finished the Win screen.
With the Title screen we needed a control menu, so once the player clicks the controls button the controls menu will appear. I decided to do this task.

This is the final result of the control menu screen. I wanted to keep the theme consistent and thought drawing the movement keys and mouse as if they were made of stone would fit the theme well. This was added into the game by Friday.

 The first titles screen when placed into the game it was stretched. Olivia sorted this problem out by changing the page to 1920 by 1080. She had to add a little extra to the painting but not to much. Below is the final piece.

This is the final title screen. As you can see my character and the added wreckage works well with Olivia's environment piece, I think our styles work well together. In all I added the character all wreckage pieces and drag markings, fire lighting to wreckage (In middle) and bottom grass area which is textured. I am very happy with the outcome, it displays a piece of the plot well and I believe this is a good image to go by for the start of the game. Olivia is happy with the outcome too.

I started the lose screen by drawing out a bloody hand (Characters) me and Olivia hope to add a gem to this piece in which it shows he has been court with the gem and killed.

 I have also started the treasure trials logo for the game this will be placed on the title screen and (promo art if we have time to do).

This is a very rough sketch but it put across the logo well, Me and Olivia agree. I have started to do the final logo this will be done next Monday.

This is not yet finished but this is the win screen so far, Olivia worked on the background and I drew the boat with characters. Olivia wants to add waves to the water to give the painting motion. Olivia managed to get this done on the weekend, below is the final piece.

This is the final Win screen, with the added waves. It really does give the painting a feeling of motion.

By the end of this week me and Olivia have came to realise that this was a good way of putting both our art styles across in each piece and that we enjoyed working it together and worked well which we think had effective results.

 Also added into the game this week was a spear added to the now finished AI characters, Curtis has made the AI now chase you if you get to close and kill you when they do.

Change of materials to the AI. We were going to model and rig our own AI character like the ones I drew a few weeks ago, but we did not have the time to do this. If we ever continue to work on this game later on that is something we will add.

 Ben L also modeled this torch for the game it will guild and light up the path for the player.

Week Summary

This is the first week back from the Easter break. On Monday morning we had a meeting with two of the tutors for how our progression has come along with our game since we have been off for the Easter break. Most of us attended except one of our team members. We spoke to our tutors about this and the lack of communication with this member, they told us to give this person a task that is small so they do not feel completely out of the team, so we did, we messaged this member and said for them to 3D model a simple boat for the game, we gave them a image to go by and said to them can we they get this done for the middle of this week, we are yet to see this model. They also looked over our Trello they had no problems with it, it was up to date. I check it often and check off the things that I have completed once in awhile and some members of the team do this as well but Olivia is the one who takes charge of this more than any of us she keeps it in place.

On the Tuesday I met up with the team with Olivia we only went in for a short while, we went to see how Ben L and Curtis were getting on (He was not available for this week). We also saw one of our tutors just to show our progress so far, we are on track with our game so far, still we need to add a few more things yet, for the art side of this project me and Olivia are yet to add a piece of art work for the title screen, win and lose screen. While we were talking to our tutor we mentioned about the tribe characters after having a discussion on Monday with our two tutors we were told that the tribe character in it's design could come across as racist (We did not realise and think the design through enough as a group in the past), as it is based of real life people. As this game will be displayed to the public we have decided to change the design of the tribe character to something less tribal. We spoke to our tutor about this on the Tuesday and told them it has been changed, they agreed with the changed result.

 Original concept tribe character design.

The new enemy character design, it still has elements of tribal but I have changed the shape and colour. I have also made the character quite creepy looking zombie like, as our game has quite a dark, creepy atmosphere to it.

On Wednesday we had a Contextual studies lecture that was titled 'Making connections; Being an active research (and an inactive player). In this lecture we were given good ways of finding research and how to go about it and finding ideas, you could use a spider diagram to give you direction, and exploiting bibliographies by looking at the inside of books and where the reader got their resources. I will take these tips to mind when I next do some research on my research report. 

On Thursday I could not make the group crit as I had a doctors appointment, Because of this I went to see my tutor on Friday as I was struggling with an idea for my research report. After the the meeting on Friday morning I felt more confident and had a stronger idea on what I could theme my report topic on. At the moment I am working with what information and ideas my tutor gave me by next week I believe I will be able to gather more of a final solid idea.

(These are just some books I got from the library earlier this week to give me more of a perspective for my report, I may not need these anymore as my topic is changing).

In the Easter break I did produce a personal  Z brush sculpt piece. I bought Z brush core around 2 months ago and haven't really used it. After doing some work related to the games project I felt like modeling a alien character piece, I had been playing Mass Effect Andromeda a few weeks before, this inspired me to do this piece.

 This image shows the front and side view of my alien head model.

This image shows the back and top view of my alien head model.

I have wanted to get back into Z brush for a while now and have stated this before that I have wanted to improve my skills with Z Brush but didn't really have the motivation to do it, as soon as I did I decided to do this. I did not use any reference imagery and managed to create this in around 4 hours. I played around with different brushes to build and develop the design. I am very happy with the piece and believe it is my strongest Z brush piece yet. I still have a lot to learn especially with the technical side of Z brush but I think the more I produce pieces like this one I will only become more confident and learn more from it.

Also during the Easter break for the game project I did produce some pieces of art work, not as many as I had hope but from me doing this we now have a final idea on what the title screen should look like.

This is six rough thumbnails that I had done over the Easter break for possible title screen designs. I showed this to some of the team when we met up during the week we all decided on number four, with the plane crash, we chose this as it shows the player a part of the narrative, the start of the story.
In the Easter break I also completed two of the treasure pieces, I designed a gem/gems that could be used as pieces of treasure to collect in the game.  I also finished a concept piece for the treasure, it is of a wooden statue that can be collected in the game, maybe if you collect this piece you gain more points?, rare to find only one in the level?, I did briefly discuss this will the team but we are not sure if to add this to the game as of yet as well as Olivia's finished pieces of treasure, it depends on how much time we have left.

 
 These are the gems all in different colours to give the player some variety.

This is the the gem in Maya with it's UV's near ready to be added into Substance designer and into the game.

This is a screen shot from our game with the treasure gems now added this is what Ben L managed to get done this week. I like how he has kept to the original concept designs in shape and colour. He also modeled and textured the spear pit trap and is now in game.

 This is another image of the gems within the game.

 This is the production of the spear pit that Ben L has been working on earlier this week.

This is the spear pit ready to be placed into the game.

Spear pit trap with dead dummy model inside.

 This is the statue treasure piece that we may create a 3D model for and place in the game.

Olivia did finish up her treasure designs in the Easter break/ early this week. Below are images of her finished concept pieces.

At the end of the week I did sketch out a few rough button ideas for our title screen. Me, Olivia and Ben L all decided on going with the stone effect buttons which is number eight, we wanted to go with something simple that wouldn't over power the title screen to much. Also Olivia started with the environment for the title screen we plan to get this done next week, I will add the character to this piece when she has finished with the environment part.

These are just some images of the game progression so far.

Contextual Studies, Games as Sports Task

Take your two example games for the essay:

How inclusive are they for differently able-bodied players, do they make assumptions about the player’s body-type or exclude those with certain disabilities?

Pokemon Go - The game itself can be played by all ages from children to grown adults. If the player enjoyed watching the cartoon when they were younger or if a person is a fan of the franchise already this will give the player more possibility's to play. Some people who may have certain disabilities may struggle with this game as it is very active, the game makes you walk miles if it has too just so you can catch certain Pokemon or battle some gyms. People with disabilities such as Autism may also find this game difficult to play if not accompanied by a friend or carer depending on the players ability's and needs. They may struggle with the social aspect of the game, as it does bring big groups of people to popular places making the area very busy which may not agree with someone who may have low social skills.

Majestic - This game can not be played by children, the age for this game is 18 onward, this draws many away from this game already. I believe this game isn't for everyone because of it's topic on conspiracy. This may only interest a certain audience. People who are blind or deaf will also struggle to play this game because of the elements of communication that you receive in this game from such forms as being called, emails etc..., people with learning disabilities may struggle with this game also but the game does give the player a lot of information to process and put together logically, this can be difficult for some.

How does the meaning of your games change when they are played competitively or by a speed-runner?

Pokemon Go - The fun of the game will be taken away if you try to complete it as fast as you can, it would also be very difficult to collect all of the Pokemon in a certain amount of time. The only way that the player could make it easier to collect all Pokemon would be by downloading or using an app that shows you the Pokemon in the area and how long they will stay there for. The hype of the game would not last if you could play this game on a speed runner.

Majestic - I think to complete this game in a time limit it would be impossible as the player relies on the game itself to update you with information to progress to the next puzzle. If it was possible to obtain all the needed information to solve the story the game would be pointless.

Weekly Summary

This week we did not have a lecture on the Monday so on Tuesday we had a Z brush session. Last week I had trouble with mirroring the Z sphere because my first Z sphere that I placed down was not centered, this then cause the symmetry method to not work properly as it did not mirror and cause deformations in my model. This week I did managed to add Zspheres without any problems. I did get my base model down and started to create form to my creature model in the session, which I was happy with, as I do not feel like I am behind from last week now.

The design is getting there slowly, I would like to change a few things such as the neck area it will need to be a lot longer and the upper front legs look to chunky, this I will need to change in the next session. To achieved the detail that I have put down so far I used the clay build up brush and the move brush.

In contextual studies this week we looked at games as social spaces. The lecture was very useful as it was a topic that would relate to my essay. The lecture consisted of using online gaming as a social place. Because my essay will be themed on AR I did notice that the lecture did mention a game called 'Majestic' which was one of the first AR games to be released by EA in 2000/2001, This will be really good to use as one of my games in my essay as it will relate well to my AR topic.

The seminar was about last week contextual studies lecture that I could not attend on narrative in video games, Even though I did not deliver much in the conversion this week in the seminar because I could not attend last week contextual studies session I did not fully understand the topic as well as the group but I did listen to the groups discussions about narrative.

Also this week we had guest speakers,  Dan and Greg from the popular YouTube channel Did you know gaming? they spoke about networking and what they did in the past before Youtube. They used there skills in pixel art and editing that they learnt in university and spoke about how that help them with the success of their Youtube channel. It was a fun talk.

In anatomy this week we looked at the arm, elbow, wrist and fingers. I was very happy about learning this part of the body as it is an area of the body that I do struggle with drawing the hands.

At the end of the week in my session I drew some studies on hands, noses and mouths, as I felt I need to improve in this area, this was part of my development project.

The Christmas break begins.

Development project

 These are some hand studies that I have done in the week, hands are something that I really struggle with I hope to get better at them. I will plan to do more studies from now on. (The dark lined sketches are mine on the right side).

 These are some sketches of lips with expressions as I never really do expressions sketches. I really enjoyed doing these.

Another area of the body I don't draw often as I am not very confidence in drawing noses. (The dark lined are mine). Overall I think I did well with this study.

These are some rough mask designs for my tribal character.

The two above images are very rough silhouettes designs for the tribal warrior and samurai warrior.

 These are more detailed designs of what my 3 characters designs could include, or gather information on, to bring a final design to light.

I wanted to do some quick composition studies also to familiarize myself again.

This is my final design for my tribal warrior, I wanted to give her a sci fi look with the mask but the rest of her I wanted her to look like she hasn't got the technology like other warriors would have in a sci fi setting, and from being in a tribal area she would not have the luxury of advance technology or weapons. For my first final piece for this project I think it went well. As I am now starting to use Photoshop more regularly now because of this project I don't think I did too bad. I like that in Photoshop I could add different brush effects to the drawings, the tattoos for example, giving this painting a added finish. I'm still inexperienced with adding backgrounds, I hope to improve in this area.