Thursday 28th October Critique

Today, as stated yesterday we decided to go to HC210 (our secondary base room) to story board for our game-play narrative.

As we started to leave Adrian, our course lecturer decided to come with us so we could fill him in on our recent developments.

As it stands now we scraped the storyboarding process planned for today after having a very productive crit. session with Adrian and realising that it was something we shouldn't be spending a day on.

The topics brought up for debate were:

• Categorising the importance of the games elements

One issue that i was concerned about was our apparent ability to get lost in the clouds when it comes to focusing on what we can actually achieve. We have a numerous amount of neat ideas and grand goals that we'd love to implement. But at the end of the day we are artists with one tech artist.

So, with that said, Adrian was able to format our thought process into a very clear process of developing our game from minimal game play through to a more interactive play.

- Start with the absolute minimum but critical objects, the level and a single character. Show that scale is acurate and the geometry of the world is constant.

- From there you can add things such as visual keys for in game events that would take place if it was a full working game. e.g. Adding a scalable wall that the character "would" climb, and note how it would pan out.

- Adding animations bringing the character to life, and continue adding game elements untill you either run out of time or cant continue due to tech limitations.

• Reigning in all our ideas

- We have a lot of ideas that keep on coming, ideas that we need to bring in and ground a little. We need to be aware of our resources and abilities and not get to caught up in unecessary thinking.

• Note EVERY idea that is mentioned

- The more ideas that come out, the more you forget about the previous ideas. Note down everything and build up a pile of ideas that can later be sifted through for either inspiration or brought back into the light.

• Work on our research

- So far our research ethics have been very seperate and individual to each member, as opposed to a collective effort. Whereas with character design that in itself is an individual research process, we all need to know how the environment portrays visually. As a character designer i ned to be able to fit the character to the world, not the world to the character.

• Getting round implamentation of models that dont fit within the time scale of the current level.

- Originally we were trying to fit the additonal characters into a scripted story within the demo. However with the crit just given to us about focusing on the immediate and critical game elements, it would make more sense to have these extra characters showcased in a seperate room within the world... SIMILAR to the museum level at the end of 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2'.

- Maybe even make it possible to switch playable characters, so its like a cloak room, that way enabling the demostration of the other models made.

The key issue that we all realised was a lack of common understanding for the game world and its aesthetics. We need to create a playground as it were before we can truly develop the project further.
As such, in place of storyboarding we decided to replace it with a strong research session on the worlds environment.

Wednesday 27th October Group session

Today we ventured to HC210 (our courses second room) to work as a group in solitude. Our focus was to have a group discusion where we aimed to tackle:

• Any worries within the group
• Current progress
• Throwing out ideas
• Writing a draft production document
• Creating a schedule

VIVI: 3D MODEL

Websites for 3D Model referencing

Websites.

• CGfeedback
• Polycount
• Gameartisans
• Dominance Wars
  

VIVI: 3D MODEL - Thursdayday 14th Oct. Critique.

VIVI: 3D MODEL

VIVI: 2D CONCEPTS

After trying to make Vivi's legs a bit more unique, it turned out i was going in the wrong direction. With this version she looks too bulky to effectively fight, it seems like she is now built for protection as opposed to fighting.

It also detracts from the fact she doesn't need leg protection due to her power (neon tattoo reinforcing her skin).

Here i have outlined the main concern i have with this style. I drew this image just after playing through 'Enslaved' and was worried the legs were too similar between Vivi and the female character Trip from Enslaved.

I wanted to play around with bringing the focus of Vivi to her legs, considering she fights mostly with her legs. Initially i thought about widening the ankles to give her legs more of a solid feel, this was achieved through sock like shin guards.

VIVI: 2D CONCEPTS

In the above image i have taken two of the below costumes i thought interesting.

• The LEFT image really caught my attention, for me the legs are accented really well and she looks a lot more mature here than the original outfit.
• The jacket also turned into something more original in design than the standard pilot jacket from image 1 (first costume idea).
• The RIGHT hand image portrays her as a younger character but with more attitude, it was also pointed out that her costume in this image is similar to Alek's. So perhaps not the best idea.
• I do however really like the placing of her red cloth, giving the feeling of a reinforced leg that delivers a harder than average kick.

VIVI: CHARACTER RESEARCH

Vivi, is a gang leader and a revolutionist as well as a future mother.
She is confident, humorous, strong willed, kind and passionate... she can also kick some serious butt.

Wednesday 6th Oct. Critique.

Our crit. today was given to us by Adrian, and we basically updated him with all of our developments.
The biggest discussion was of our latest USP. Adrian asked if we were still going with the Neon Tattoo's as our USP, we told him it was still in the game, but not as the USP.
Our latest USP development is focused on character development, and as such we are playing with the thought of having the main character; Vivi going through all the stages of pregnancy.

With the different stages of her pregnancy come different game mechanics:

- Notably before the pregnancy, Vivi will be more of an "in your face" beat-em-up type fighter.

- During the pregnancy she will be forced to take on a more ranged and subtle approach to fights.

- After the pregnancy she will be able to take advantage of both mechanics for her "final fight".

To this, Adrian expressed his interest in the concept but at the same time, warned us about the logic's of a pregnant woman fighting because as it stands... that's a laughable concept.

I feel we have managed to counter that issue through with narrative and mechanics.

Two games that have recently caught my eye.

APB (All Points Bulletin)

APB is an online urban themed multiplayer game that has you choosing between two factions: Enforcers and Criminals. Players can then form sub-groups within these factions as they fight, do missions and gain money.
What has drawn me to this game is its character art work, produced by Arnold Tsang. Arnold is an artist i have been following on Deviant Art for some time now, and it was only recently that i found out his character work was for the APB.

(Arnold Tsang's Gallery)

Arnolds work has really influenced me over the past few years, especially his colouring technique which (i adore) im now trying to clamp down on.

What impresses me a lot about Arnold's art is how he only uses details that count, details that will help add to an image and not just to make it look "cool" or "pretty". He achieves the wow factor through logical placement and bringing to our eyes the essentials.





The theme and style between APB and our project are very similar, and as a result Arnold's work has been a major reference point for me when it comes to my character design.


A lot of critique i get with my concept work is that its hard to see how my sketch would look when created as a 3D model.


Here Arnold's 2D render has been near enough perfectly replicated as 3D model, you can clearly see how every bit of detail has been transferred across, and as a result ended up looking like the original artwork.

This is a great skill to have, to be able to produce 2D work that shows exctly how the character would look in a 3D space.

EDIT: I just got a reply from Arnold via email about the time he sets aside for these characters, this is what he said:

"For the APB characters, from beginning to end, I would say 3-5 days."

So with this in mind, i will a lot myself 3-5 days dedicated to each characters creation.

I've added this video because im simply stunned by its customisation abilities. Even if we arent using a customisation element in the project, this has given me numerous ideas for character design and 3D modelling.

• - The addition of veins
  
• - Ideas for creating tattoo's
  
• - Body reference
• - Hair styles.

CQ

Monday 4th October Critique

- Camera issues (disorientaion from hits - USP)
- Concepting what the player will see
- Thalidomide
- Pregnacy mechanics (USP)

Euro Gamer Convention.

- Tiny and Big spurs on inspiration.... **explain and discuss**

http://www.tinyandbig.com/about/

The Plan for now.

As the post suggests, the plan for now is to think up what it is we want to showcase. The current idea everyone favours is:

Two levels with multiple critical paths for 4 characters.

Areas to consider for the next week:

- Look into game mechanics
- Coding
- Mood boards
- Concepts (character/Level)

On a side note, we actually had an offer from one of Ceri's friends to help us with audio. Initially we saw this as being a luxury element for after the main bulk is finished.

However, this comes as a request for her project as her course is based on having her audio creations put into a form of medium, so we are both helping each other out.

As i have listed, despite coding and tech elements being a key factor for this game idea, I feel that at the moment it is fairly important that we mood board and concept for:

Themes
Moods
Atmosphere
Colour
Style

This way we can all unify our minds and get on the same level for how we see this idea shaping up. One persons idea may be completely different to the others, and in a group (whilst it can be beneficial for concepting) its not ideal if this is a continuous situation.

CHANGE IN DIRECTION.

An Action/adventure game?

In the end we came to the conclusion that doing a strictly multiplayer team based arena hack n slash game came with a lot of issues as stated in the previous post.

In the end it seemed we were creating more problems for ourselves than needed so we re-evaluated our idea, deciding what kind of genre would best optimize this game world. We came to the conclusion that a story driven action/adventure would best fit the game's narrative for these reasons:

- It will allow us to put our skills to the test in creating rich, original and well backgrounded characters (perfect for Dan and I who want to be character artists).

- Because we want to go for a well produced and stylized look, it will give our tech artist (Lloyd) a lot to play with for his portfolio.

- Environment wise we will need multi level traversable landscapes with the ideas we have in mind, making for some great level designs (something Ceri and Hannah are really up for creating).

Its also an idea that can help put to good use a lot of skills and visible organisation needed to get a job within the industry, for example:

• - We will be researching into and following a work ethic/pipeline structure similar to that of the industry.
• - We will be aiming to attain a level of industry standards by looking at not only AAA games and the like, but also Indie games. In particular, indie games that have become successful.
• - This is our best chance at now creating an organised project that will ultimately have us producing work we want to use in our portfolio's, which I truly believe this project will push us to do.
• - Time to create something that will get us hired!