Week summary

This week our first lecture was based on design roles within the industry. Just some of the roles that we looked at in the lecture was Technical designers, Level designers just being some. The lecture interested me a lot as it gave me a better understanding of what is involved within these areas of the industry. The structure of how a level is built was also shown from grey-boxing/white-boxing before an artist creates the design on top.

We also had a Z brush lecture in the week which I enjoyed a lot. We were shown the basics again with the programme but it really helped refreshed my mind on how to use the programme again, I was able to get right back into it after a hour.

Later in the week we had a contextual studies lecture that was focused on mazes inside some video games, these being unicursal mazes (only one path leading to the exist) and multicursal mazes (More than one way to exist). I will be looking into some games that use these two maze types.

I also had a seminar this week, this is the first seminar that I have experienced. It was nice as we as a group spoke about our views on the task that was set about the importance of visuals within a game by an author. It was good to hear about what others thought of the text and the authors thoughts.

We had our first anatomy lecture this week also, it was very interesting to see how the bones and muscles are structured, I learnt a few things that I believe will help me with my figure drawing. The lecture covered the understandings of how the body moves and how it's bones and muscles work during movements and poses.

The end of the week we had a workshop on UE4 looking at blueprints and how they work so a character or object can move or be effected inside the game. During this lecture we looked at first person mode and how to set up a basic character and it's movements using blueprints and then being able to control it within game mode. I found this to be a little overwhelming as I found there was a lot to take in, I found it hard to keep up. I hope that it will come easier to me the more that I learn this.

 Blueprint - Showing character movement.

Very basic character that was used for movements.

 Game progress

Also this week I started to use UE4 to start making my game. After some thought I decided to go with the murder mystery thriller game. I have started to build up my level with the basics, at the moment this includes setting up a character with movement using the WASD keys, space bar to jump and I have played around with adding a downloaded model (Crowbar) to add into my game. I looked at some Youtube tutorials on how to add decals in my game, this is where you can add images or textures to objects. I wanted to add blood on the floor and walls etc... so this was very useful, after watching the video and giving it ago I now know how to add decal to my game.

 This image shows the crowbar asset that I downloaded and added to my game.

Here is the crowbar and the blood markings (Decals) that I added to my game. Only one problem I could not figure out with the blood decal is that on the video the decal was more variant where in my game it is not so much, but I think it still works well.

This is my movement blueprints, this makes the first person character move with the WASD keys and space bar to jump as well as using the mouse to look around.

Seminar Task 1

James Newman, ‘The Myth of the Ergodic Videogame: Some thoughts on player-character relationships in videogames,’Game Studies 2:1 (2002) [Full Article: http://www.gamestudies.org/ 0102/newman/]

1.What does the author think that games are for, or how they should function?

2.Why do you think they claim this?

3.Who might think differently and why?

4.How persuasive do you find the author’s argument?

What does the author think that games are for, or how they should function?

I believe he thinks that games should not be played just by the games visuals aspects but more on the game play of the game itself. I find he cares more for the features of the world within the game, the impression of the game world is more important than what the world should look like. The function of the game should focus more on the game story than the focus of the play within the game.

Why do they claim this?

I think he feels that the story and its characters that exist within the game is what’s important and that is what pulls the player into the feel of the game and it’s game play, this leads to a game leading less on visuals, this makes it more important than that.

Who might think differently and why?

I think people who play games such as war themed games, games without much story aspect and younger gamers and people who have only just started to play newer titles do focus more on a games visual such as its CGI etc.… because this is what the games industry do tend to give the players nowadays. I believe it is built into the player to expect this in every game that they may play, that it should be very much visualized. 

How persuasive do you find the author’s argument?

I personally do not think the author’s argument is persuasive because I find that it takes away the meaning of a game visuals as something as less important, to me a game is important in all its elements, as a game is art, story and all. Also if he seems to think a game visuals are not important then to me it seems that he is saying an artist job in the industry is not needed, pointless.

10 game ideas

In my lecture this Friday we were given a task to do at home, I had to pick words at random and pitch a game idea. (10 needed) Below are my game ideas and their titles.

1. The original fluid thing

A game where water is used to make musical tones, the water has different colours. The game focuses on relaxing you using different musical tones and colours.

2. The art of the solar system

You play as a space craft that fly's to different planets collecting things from the planets that you visit, the collections are rocks etc... the rocks are different colours. The items that you have collected create a piece of art work that you can create yourself.

3. The absent of helmets

This will be a game were you play as a solider who has to make his way fighting through a battle without a helmet and needing to surviving the battle. At the end of the level (the battle) you need to gather the hidden helmet as your reward.

4. Crystal banana whale

The game starts as you playing as a whale swimming through a cave, this is a Crystal cave, the whale will have to collect crystals within the cave. The whale is a banana created by a child's imagination, (yellow whale) collect as many crystals to win the game within the time limit

5. Eagle picnic

You play as a eagle that is in the search for food. You fly over a picnic park, the aim of the game is to collect as many foods from the people picnic tables. You can only collect certain foods that pop up on the screen, the more right foods you collect the more points you earn and the more food you have for the nests. If you collect the foods that you shouldn't the slower you fly and the lower you fly, meaning the bird can crash land to the ground this leads the game being over.

6. Executioner drugstore flutter

You play as a executioner that has entered a drug store and has to destroy as many packets of drugs that you can, the flutter works as a heart beat, it is the store manger heart beat. If it gets to a high level he will call the police. So you must not be caught or seen.

7. Fail ray galactic

You play a s a spacecraft that has to shoot as many space rocks as possible using your ray blaster. The more damage your spacecraft takes the more chance your ray blaster will fail leading to more space rocks coming your way.

8. Limousine air headlock

You play as a limousine driver for a band called "The headlocks" the aim of the game is to get away from as many fans as you can some will run into the road you need to Dodge them. When you drive over a hill in the road this will make the car gain air. If you successfully jump over as many fans as you can while in the air the more points you gain.

9. Unliving erotic actor

You play as a actor that works in the adult industry that is very good looking. One day the actor dies but comes back as a zombie that wants to continues their career. The aim of the game is to become popular again and to make as much money as you can from doing small jobs and gaining more popularity the more you succeed.

10. Martini land kidnapper

You play as a thief who walks into a theme park. The theme park is themed on martinis. The aim of the game is to steal and drink as many martinis as you can within the time limit without being caught.

 

Week summary

This is my first week back to university. Now starting year 2 of my course, our first brief for this term is to make our own game. Our game has a theme, which is "Inference". Included in the brief is a 5 minute prototype of my game as well as a 2 page long Sell sheet that will show my game idea. I have started to think of some ideas for my game and decided to do this by using the brainstorm method, by doing this I believe I have two solid game ideas. My first idea is that you play as a dolphin that is lost. The concept of the game is that the dolphin has to find it's way back to it's group using a echo radar. The game would be first person mode. My second idea is also a first person game were you play as a detective that has gone to a crime scene set inside a warehouse. The aim of the game is to find all the evidence so you can solve the case. Both of the ideas at this stage are still needing more structure but at the moment these are the two stronger ideas that I have.

Also this week we had our first contextual studies lecture. In this lecture we looked into virtual worlds and how the player can be consumed by these worlds. On Friday we were given a task in our lecture, we had to pick two random pieces of paper with random sentences that will make a title of a game, from this we had to think of a game idea and pitch it to the class. My two were:

Leg cramp Olympics

This is a comedy game were you play as a sportsman that starts in a pool that makes him/her get cramp, so the aim of the game is that you need to win the race while you have cramp. As the player you will have to tap as fast as you can on your phone screen to make your character keep up and win. The game will be on mobile only.

Toast apocalypse: Jam- nado

First person game were you as the player play as the toast that has survived a disaster in the kitchen. The aim of the game it to make sure you make it to the save place which is the kitchen cupboard. while doing so jam will rain down on you that you will need to dodge and tornadoes of jam will also try and block your way.

I liked doing this task in class as it made me not think to hard into a idea, start from basic and still be able to produce something that I could work on and build.

My final Evaulation: BA1b.

 

During this project I have learnt a lot throughout the 3D sessions. Some of my 3d models didn't go to plan but I learnt from my mistakes.With the knowledge that I have gained throughout the last few months I will continue to use Maya and the others program's that I have used and will use them in my own time as I hope to progress my 3d skills. I was quite surprise to learn that I would enjoy the 3d tasks that we were given as I had used 3ds max in the past and couldn't figure out 3d at all, maybe this has changed because of the environment I am now in and the good tutoring I have received. I believe I can see an improvement in each task from the lamp to the final project, the time machine. With task one (The lamp) at the time I found it very different and difficult to use Maya to create the lamp but after the first session being shown how to create one I started to use the programme in my own time in which made me more confident. Task 2 was the barrel in which I had to use Photoshop to create a hand painted texture, this was great to learn but I would really enjoy working with realistic looking textures next time. Personally the barrel and lamp are my least liked models from this project, I think this might be because I have improved from then and find the models in themselves a little unadventurous. Task 3 was the vintage telephone, this was the project that I enjoyed making the most, and I find it is one of my stronger pieces and one that I am most proud of because I believe this was the task were I came out my shell a little with 3d modelling. Task 4 was the pillar. I had a few problems with this after the Z brush stage and when I started to UV map and using x normal to bake the model. I found this lowered my confidence in 3d after this task was finally completed, even though I did have problems I have now gain knowledge from these set backs. During the end of task 4 UE4 was used. When I look back I wish I had used UE4 to my advantages and made a scene for my pillar, but I worried I wouldn't have enough time because of the set back that I already had with my pillar. In the future I will use UE4 to gain more knowledge of the engine and it's features.. The last and final task was the time machine. I believe this was the task were I learnt the most from as the whole task included all of the processes that I had learnt in the previous tasks, but with task 5 I had to go through all the stages again and more. The processes that was new to me was the different texture maps that was needed to stylize my model to it's final look. I have never created some of these maps before so this was new to me. The time machine model itself was fairly low in poly count but I wanted to bring out the model through the different maps, I believe I achieved this. In the contextual studies lectures I did learn lot from them and enjoyed the guest appearance lectures, but the presentation did that I and my group had to present brought bring me out of my comfort zone. I believe doing this has helped me with my confidence in speaking in front of others and working in a group. 

Overall with the 3d models I am happy and proud that I can now produce assets in Maya, I would like to grow this skill and become a lot better using Maya and Z brush and will attempt this in my free time. Looking back I wish I had developed more bold models especially which my pillar, but saying that I do believe I have learnt a lot and have for the first time created my own 3d asset. With these new skills I can only get better and build my confidence with 3d.

Time Machine, Final

Here is my time machine rendered and completed in Marmoset, (With the maps I used below too). I have had some issues with this model and not all of them I could fix, but they haven't had to much of an impact on my model shown below. This has to be one of my favourite pieces of work that I have produced in 3D so far. I went with a glossy effect to my model as I thought it would link well with the sci-fi theme that I was going for. At first I wanted it in a plain white colour but I thought it looked a little dull and would be fairly hard to notice any differences in the model while using other maps. I really liked emissive map which has given my time machine a glow in some areas which I was hoping for, I'm very pleased with the look of this map. The roughness map is another map that I thought would give an added feature to my model. As you can see I have used it to add a little detail to the stage part of my model and the base. I added what looks like water marks and foot prints. I feel adding this it gives the model a little interactivity as it shows that someone has used the time machine and returned from the past or future while they have been wet maybe from rain in the other time dimension.. If this was a real time machine in a game asset this is how it would work: The character would place the information of what date they would like to go to on the computer that is connected to the base. When the character has filled in the information on the computer the bottom of the base will start to glow as will the other lit areas of the time machine. Then the ring that is connected to the leg will lower surrounding the character and then transporting the character to where it was the character wanted to go. When they are in the other time dimension when they step of the base the two upright pieces on each of the two front corners of the stage will shoot light rays at the character when they walk through them, this is a device that clears away any harmful bacteria from the character so they don't effect the past or future. Overall I am happy with my final outcome and will be using Marmoset in the future with my 3D renders, and applying maps. 

 

Metallic map.

 

Roughness map.

 

My first base colour map in white.

 

My current base colour map, Grey. It looks messy but it worked well, as I was only doing one base colour for my model I could make it this way as this stopped the joined edges from the UV's being shown on my model which was showing white in areas.

 

Emissive map. 

Week summary 26

This week we were shown how to use the rendering programme Marmoset Toolbag 2. Marmoset seems to be a fairly simple to use. We have to use this programme to render our Pillars and time machine then creating a turntable which is a render video using many photographs of the 3D model. On Thursday we did have a Contextual studies lecture, but I could not attend as I was having problems that day with my Time machine UV's, and my tutor sat with me for a hour in the afternoon and helped me with my model leading me to miss the lecture, but I was very grateful for the help and a lot of worry was lifted. Also my essay is now pretty much completed and the tasks that we were given during out contextual studies lectures. Now to focus on getting the last of the maps done for my time machine, and then to create the PDF documents ready for hand in.