I will probably re-do this at one point, just cause I wish to really, good practise. Also, I will be giving it an review when I have managed to catch some sleep.
Wednesday 28 March 2012
Final for environment project.
I will probably re-do this at one point, just cause I wish to really, good practise. Also, I will be giving it an review when I have managed to catch some sleep.
Tuesday 27 March 2012
Element of game design: Environment
As I did a list of rules for characters, I will be doing a list for environments as well:
♦ Compostition. Remember to visual the entire environment from all sides, not just one.
♦ Balance. Realism has to play a role to make the world believable to the gamer, even if it is only during the game experience.
♦ Lighting. A tiny dark cave in Siberia will not have the same lighting as a football stadium during a hot summer day.
♦ Purpose. Remember the main purpose for the environment is for the person to explore, and to interact with it. If the player can't, then there's not much point in having an environment.
♦ Research. If you have not done enough research for a level, it will show, and there will always be a critic to pick on any little mistakes.
♦ Size matters. You can recognise a building miles away, or an island, so if it does not work small, it will not work at all.
♦ Objects. Think of the story they tell, or how they define a space, what it is, who uses it, who will be there and what it is used for. Also, the interaction of the main character and how it can set off a chain of events.
♦ Atmosphere. Remember Tomb Raider and the creepy cave?
♦ Compostition. Remember to visual the entire environment from all sides, not just one.
♦ Balance. Realism has to play a role to make the world believable to the gamer, even if it is only during the game experience.
♦ Lighting. A tiny dark cave in Siberia will not have the same lighting as a football stadium during a hot summer day.
♦ Purpose. Remember the main purpose for the environment is for the person to explore, and to interact with it. If the player can't, then there's not much point in having an environment.
♦ Research. If you have not done enough research for a level, it will show, and there will always be a critic to pick on any little mistakes.
♦ Size matters. You can recognise a building miles away, or an island, so if it does not work small, it will not work at all.
♦ Objects. Think of the story they tell, or how they define a space, what it is, who uses it, who will be there and what it is used for. Also, the interaction of the main character and how it can set off a chain of events.
♦ Atmosphere. Remember Tomb Raider and the creepy cave?
Element of game design: environment
There are three main elements for games design: game play, characters and environment. As I have previously spoken of the first two, I shall now speak of the last. Characters and the story would be nothing without a world to interact with.
The first thing to think about is, that different areas have to create different moods. The dark cave in Tomb Raider creates a spooky chilling effect, whereas the Green Hill Zone on Sonic gives you that urgent competitive feeling. Environments are the best narratives, as environment tells their own story, and has included so much information just by showing you. If an area of a game has a long table, with various bottles behind it, then the gamer automatically know it is a bar.
Different genres need different environment for different purposes. They may seem similar, but one environment can not support Spyro the Dragon and Quake. Even similar games have completely different environments, because of different characters, storyline and interaction. The environment is created to included all of this.
The environment reinforces and reshapes the entire story, and the characters within it’s world. Like I have said above, items give the gamer an indication of what the area is, what the purpose of it, and most likely it’s history. However, it does restrain and restrict movement. In games though, the person experiencing it, explores, whereas with film, they watch. With exploring, comes the chain of events, which only can happen if the environment is set up for this to happen.
Giving the gamers a choice is an excellent option with environment. Certain areas on games are either restricted until later play (Grand Theft Auto) or during certain days (Pokemon), which makes the gamer determined to beat whatever they need to beat to unlock this, just to explore this new environment. Everything in the game reacts with the environment, so getting the balance right is crucial.
The main thing about environment is to get a good balance. If a game is fantasy, obviously they want the world to contain some realism in it to make the player relate to it, but still keep it magical and fresh. A few artist like to use water in their pieces of environmental artwork due to the water reflecting the light, making it a mirror and creating a lot of light.
Personally, I never pay much attention to environment, not as much as I should. I have already previously stated this in my last posts. One environment that does stand out is the Kingdom Heart games because they change constantly to suit the new level you have entered, which I think makes each level stand out to the gamer. I prefer books, as you can paint your own environment, with as much or as little help from the author, there will still be some gaps missing which makes your mind fill in the blanks which is an exercise that video games can never achieve.
The first thing to think about is, that different areas have to create different moods. The dark cave in Tomb Raider creates a spooky chilling effect, whereas the Green Hill Zone on Sonic gives you that urgent competitive feeling. Environments are the best narratives, as environment tells their own story, and has included so much information just by showing you. If an area of a game has a long table, with various bottles behind it, then the gamer automatically know it is a bar.
Different genres need different environment for different purposes. They may seem similar, but one environment can not support Spyro the Dragon and Quake. Even similar games have completely different environments, because of different characters, storyline and interaction. The environment is created to included all of this.
The environment reinforces and reshapes the entire story, and the characters within it’s world. Like I have said above, items give the gamer an indication of what the area is, what the purpose of it, and most likely it’s history. However, it does restrain and restrict movement. In games though, the person experiencing it, explores, whereas with film, they watch. With exploring, comes the chain of events, which only can happen if the environment is set up for this to happen.
Giving the gamers a choice is an excellent option with environment. Certain areas on games are either restricted until later play (Grand Theft Auto) or during certain days (Pokemon), which makes the gamer determined to beat whatever they need to beat to unlock this, just to explore this new environment. Everything in the game reacts with the environment, so getting the balance right is crucial.
The main thing about environment is to get a good balance. If a game is fantasy, obviously they want the world to contain some realism in it to make the player relate to it, but still keep it magical and fresh. A few artist like to use water in their pieces of environmental artwork due to the water reflecting the light, making it a mirror and creating a lot of light.
Personally, I never pay much attention to environment, not as much as I should. I have already previously stated this in my last posts. One environment that does stand out is the Kingdom Heart games because they change constantly to suit the new level you have entered, which I think makes each level stand out to the gamer. I prefer books, as you can paint your own environment, with as much or as little help from the author, there will still be some gaps missing which makes your mind fill in the blanks which is an exercise that video games can never achieve.
Element of game design: Characters II
The general list of rules for character design:
♦ It is the art, and the personality behind it, not the technology.
♦ Interesting! Try and do something no one else would do. Find interesting stuff from the unusual places. Look at interesting people, those who catch your eye out in public due to their fashion choice or attitude.
♦ Research. If there is not any research, then how can you come to a conclusion? Research is the starting point.
♦ Do not focus too much on detail, get the overall appearance and personality as that is more effective than small detail. Appearance is the first thing your audience will see, and judge.
♦ Correct anatomy. Studying humans will help, that I've previously mentioned in my last post. This will tell you to avoid symmetry, it's unnatural. Remember proportion, height, weight and mass. However, exaggerated anatomy can get a certain effect which is not always bad, but tiny waist and a giant chest, does.
♦ Posture. Body shapes are easy to read and understand, remember what poses and posture a certain character would hold due to their personality. Remember strong poses.
♦ Remember dynamic lines. Back to poses, interesting poses will have different dynamic lines to the template poses. The baseline pose needs to demand attention from the audience.
♦ Fashion. The outfit can emphaize posture, pose, dynamic lines, anatomy and shows your research. It also makes your character interesting. Make sure the outfit matches or is suitable for the enviornment/level/game.
♦ Go out of the social norm. Create strong dominating women, and show it through their body language.
♦ It is the art, and the personality behind it, not the technology.
♦ Interesting! Try and do something no one else would do. Find interesting stuff from the unusual places. Look at interesting people, those who catch your eye out in public due to their fashion choice or attitude.
♦ Research. If there is not any research, then how can you come to a conclusion? Research is the starting point.
♦ Do not focus too much on detail, get the overall appearance and personality as that is more effective than small detail. Appearance is the first thing your audience will see, and judge.
♦ Correct anatomy. Studying humans will help, that I've previously mentioned in my last post. This will tell you to avoid symmetry, it's unnatural. Remember proportion, height, weight and mass. However, exaggerated anatomy can get a certain effect which is not always bad, but tiny waist and a giant chest, does.
♦ Posture. Body shapes are easy to read and understand, remember what poses and posture a certain character would hold due to their personality. Remember strong poses.
♦ Remember dynamic lines. Back to poses, interesting poses will have different dynamic lines to the template poses. The baseline pose needs to demand attention from the audience.
♦ Fashion. The outfit can emphaize posture, pose, dynamic lines, anatomy and shows your research. It also makes your character interesting. Make sure the outfit matches or is suitable for the enviornment/level/game.
♦ Go out of the social norm. Create strong dominating women, and show it through their body language.
Element of game design: Characters
Moving on from the visual design, as a whole, in a video game, and on to focusing on one of the main elements: characters. Appearance is a good strong selling point, but it’s the underlining personality of the game, and the game experience that will make it a loved game among gamers.
For starters, if you interested in characters, you must be interested in humans. The study of humans helps creative such realistic characters. Back in the 80’s, the characters were just pixels, without much connection to the player. A lot of characters from then, have evolved and their personalities came a long much later, like Lara Croft. These days, people get attached to characters, form personal bonds with them, instead of having that distance.
People relate to human, or human like characters. The speech pattern or the nervous twitches or the body language is not enough for a character to be realistic. Forget the technology, it’s the art, and then the real character behind that, that will bring the art to life. It is the little details that matter, that reflect their personality, and who they are. Characters all need their own separate story, which is intertwined with all the other characters they meet, along with their own history, opinions, fears, motives, secrets and dreams.
A lot of games can get away with an empty shell of a character, where the player put themselves in the character’s shoes, such as Call Of Duty, or Halo. However, a character contains now much more of a personality. Lara Croft has a back story, certain relationships to other characters throughout the series, likes and dislikes and motives.
In books, there are characters who are deeply loved. Different people are drawn to different characters, by their actions, what they stand for, the decisions they make, who they relate to, how they react to situations, how they react and interact with their environment. The many remember able characters that I can think are mainly from books, and a few from video games. I have a strong love for many of the fictional book characters, because they helped me relate to them, or help me in ways that reality couldn’t, like relaxing.
On top of thinking about all of this when designing, you also need to consider the character’s appearance, as people will respond to characters similar to them. Gender, skin, height, tone, hair, build, and costume all come in to play at this point. However, there is not a lot of variation, you hardly see many old people, or young children. Blue, black, and brown is the standard colour palette for costumes. Majority of characters are based upon the same template.
Games are not subtle, and are perfect to display comedy and violence. They differ from films because now it is a popular thing to have a game with different endings depending on the gamer’s actions. The gamer obtain different view points and different sides of characters, as well as situations. It shows different points of justice, and a different light on the story. In films, you can not experience that, as you are not taking control of the character, and moving through their world, you are watching as a witness.
For starters, if you interested in characters, you must be interested in humans. The study of humans helps creative such realistic characters. Back in the 80’s, the characters were just pixels, without much connection to the player. A lot of characters from then, have evolved and their personalities came a long much later, like Lara Croft. These days, people get attached to characters, form personal bonds with them, instead of having that distance.
People relate to human, or human like characters. The speech pattern or the nervous twitches or the body language is not enough for a character to be realistic. Forget the technology, it’s the art, and then the real character behind that, that will bring the art to life. It is the little details that matter, that reflect their personality, and who they are. Characters all need their own separate story, which is intertwined with all the other characters they meet, along with their own history, opinions, fears, motives, secrets and dreams.
A lot of games can get away with an empty shell of a character, where the player put themselves in the character’s shoes, such as Call Of Duty, or Halo. However, a character contains now much more of a personality. Lara Croft has a back story, certain relationships to other characters throughout the series, likes and dislikes and motives.
In books, there are characters who are deeply loved. Different people are drawn to different characters, by their actions, what they stand for, the decisions they make, who they relate to, how they react to situations, how they react and interact with their environment. The many remember able characters that I can think are mainly from books, and a few from video games. I have a strong love for many of the fictional book characters, because they helped me relate to them, or help me in ways that reality couldn’t, like relaxing.
On top of thinking about all of this when designing, you also need to consider the character’s appearance, as people will respond to characters similar to them. Gender, skin, height, tone, hair, build, and costume all come in to play at this point. However, there is not a lot of variation, you hardly see many old people, or young children. Blue, black, and brown is the standard colour palette for costumes. Majority of characters are based upon the same template.
Games are not subtle, and are perfect to display comedy and violence. They differ from films because now it is a popular thing to have a game with different endings depending on the gamer’s actions. The gamer obtain different view points and different sides of characters, as well as situations. It shows different points of justice, and a different light on the story. In films, you can not experience that, as you are not taking control of the character, and moving through their world, you are watching as a witness.
Elements of Game Design: Art direction.
In my previous post, I have mentioned Art Direction briefly about being an element target for games, instead of focusing upon the technology target that the majority of games do these days. Art direction is basically anything that is visual within the game, and levels. They have to pay attention to every little bit of detail, making sure it is in the correct style that they are working for.
An Art Director is the lead on a team, and has responsibility for the visual tones used within the game, and the style and quality of the game. They are still responsible for, even though it’s not directly, any object, texture, level, character or effect that is or may be included in the game or franchise. They must consider how anything and everything looks from different angles in the game, and this is a crucial point in their job. This could be anything from the reflective surface on a glass, tones on a boulder, how buildings look together, to even the tone of water. They work closely with a game designer and they have be able to communicate well with their team to illustration their vision and version of the game to them.
Usually they use an Art Specific Documentation which helps them stay focus, outline who is doing what, and to track plans. It is done in much detail as possible, and contains a variety of things from an Art Director, including visual examples and story boards. Unfortunately, any disagreements, or anything not quite exact, could undo hours of work for everyone on the team. The Art Director has to make sure this does not happen due to the amount of hours it consumes, as well as money.
The necessary skills to be come an Art Director is being able to pick up on little details, drawing, understanding and being able to use the programs the team is working with, able to do story boards, communicating, writing, easy to approach, painting, bringing inspiration and motivation to the team, and having an extremely good keen eye. It’s essential to have a degree, or some background of graphic design mixed with drawing. I think the hidden skill in this is knowing exactly what will look right where, and in what texture.
I do think it is quite an creative job even though it has a lot of task managing and paperwork, due to communicating with the team. It is a job where you are constantly checking up on people, to get tasks done, and checking over everything, over and over again to make sure it is exact. Being able to get the team to build and create a level, in the way you visualise it is a unique experience for each game and rare for a lot of people to experience. It’s creative in the way that it’s your visual look on the game, and you can adjust it to your suiting, however there are guide lines and restrictions to it, but you have a lot of influence over it. I would however prefer to be on the team than the Art Director, as it is an extremely demanding job.
An Art Director is the lead on a team, and has responsibility for the visual tones used within the game, and the style and quality of the game. They are still responsible for, even though it’s not directly, any object, texture, level, character or effect that is or may be included in the game or franchise. They must consider how anything and everything looks from different angles in the game, and this is a crucial point in their job. This could be anything from the reflective surface on a glass, tones on a boulder, how buildings look together, to even the tone of water. They work closely with a game designer and they have be able to communicate well with their team to illustration their vision and version of the game to them.
Usually they use an Art Specific Documentation which helps them stay focus, outline who is doing what, and to track plans. It is done in much detail as possible, and contains a variety of things from an Art Director, including visual examples and story boards. Unfortunately, any disagreements, or anything not quite exact, could undo hours of work for everyone on the team. The Art Director has to make sure this does not happen due to the amount of hours it consumes, as well as money.
The necessary skills to be come an Art Director is being able to pick up on little details, drawing, understanding and being able to use the programs the team is working with, able to do story boards, communicating, writing, easy to approach, painting, bringing inspiration and motivation to the team, and having an extremely good keen eye. It’s essential to have a degree, or some background of graphic design mixed with drawing. I think the hidden skill in this is knowing exactly what will look right where, and in what texture.
I do think it is quite an creative job even though it has a lot of task managing and paperwork, due to communicating with the team. It is a job where you are constantly checking up on people, to get tasks done, and checking over everything, over and over again to make sure it is exact. Being able to get the team to build and create a level, in the way you visualise it is a unique experience for each game and rare for a lot of people to experience. It’s creative in the way that it’s your visual look on the game, and you can adjust it to your suiting, however there are guide lines and restrictions to it, but you have a lot of influence over it. I would however prefer to be on the team than the Art Director, as it is an extremely demanding job.
Elements of game design: Pong
In the Games industry, the term “Gameplay” is used a lot, especially during the designing stages of a game. Gameplay is basically a smaller part of Game development, which is made up of several elements which include the characters, storyline and the environment.
Games have become the number one source of entertainment for this generation, and the majority of people my age have had several game consoles. Game designers still game or play demos to keep up to date with their market and what their audience is receiving from other companies. This makes them in high demand to keep up with the audience unsatisfying hunger.
Gameplay does play an important role in the Game industry, it is sometimes overlooked. It is often added last minute to the games, whilst the team focus more on the technology based side of it. Sometimes there is a wall between the writers and the rest of the team, because the writer feels that they have laid everything out. However, they do not understand the technical side of the game, for example the control scheme. Small details like the behaviour of townspeople, like what they are doing, interactions with main characters, habits like nervous twitches, and their body language are not included in design documentations. These days, the teams are mainly focused on the technology, like the game Quake was. Critics and the audience have argued that the teams should be more in to the game than the technology. Personally, I know a lot of gamers who only truly care about the graphics, and now popular the game is than the actual experience of the game.
In the 1970’s, it did come down just to one person’s responsibility and their decision in this area. However, as games and game consoles have evolved, so has jobs in the industry. Now usually, there is an entire team of people working on separate areas, with several heads, writers, technicians, mechanics and general designers including specific designers like environment or level. Depending on their budget, and the team, depends on which elements the team will focus on, usually there are always some elements that are lacking.
In the concept stage of game design, the idea will most likely fall under different genres which gives the team room to experiment. Different games have different targets and not just different audiences. For an example of different genres, Quake’s main focus was to show off the technology and the game engine used, whereas Myst was based more upon visual design. However, they also have to focus on other aspects of the Game industry, such as business, and their business partners along with contracts. Profits play a role in whether the game will be cut or not. It is not all about just the quality of the game anymore. Building a game that includes everything is a difficult and lengthy production.
For me personally, when playing a game, it is usually the story that keeps my attention. As I do like to read, the constant flow of a story, along with memorable characters make the experience a joy. I rarely notice environment compared to the characters, and there have only been a few games that have impressed me by the environments.
Games have become the number one source of entertainment for this generation, and the majority of people my age have had several game consoles. Game designers still game or play demos to keep up to date with their market and what their audience is receiving from other companies. This makes them in high demand to keep up with the audience unsatisfying hunger.
Gameplay does play an important role in the Game industry, it is sometimes overlooked. It is often added last minute to the games, whilst the team focus more on the technology based side of it. Sometimes there is a wall between the writers and the rest of the team, because the writer feels that they have laid everything out. However, they do not understand the technical side of the game, for example the control scheme. Small details like the behaviour of townspeople, like what they are doing, interactions with main characters, habits like nervous twitches, and their body language are not included in design documentations. These days, the teams are mainly focused on the technology, like the game Quake was. Critics and the audience have argued that the teams should be more in to the game than the technology. Personally, I know a lot of gamers who only truly care about the graphics, and now popular the game is than the actual experience of the game.
In the 1970’s, it did come down just to one person’s responsibility and their decision in this area. However, as games and game consoles have evolved, so has jobs in the industry. Now usually, there is an entire team of people working on separate areas, with several heads, writers, technicians, mechanics and general designers including specific designers like environment or level. Depending on their budget, and the team, depends on which elements the team will focus on, usually there are always some elements that are lacking.
In the concept stage of game design, the idea will most likely fall under different genres which gives the team room to experiment. Different games have different targets and not just different audiences. For an example of different genres, Quake’s main focus was to show off the technology and the game engine used, whereas Myst was based more upon visual design. However, they also have to focus on other aspects of the Game industry, such as business, and their business partners along with contracts. Profits play a role in whether the game will be cut or not. It is not all about just the quality of the game anymore. Building a game that includes everything is a difficult and lengthy production.
For me personally, when playing a game, it is usually the story that keeps my attention. As I do like to read, the constant flow of a story, along with memorable characters make the experience a joy. I rarely notice environment compared to the characters, and there have only been a few games that have impressed me by the environments.
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