Sidescroller a whole new experience

Introduction to the brief

The brief that we were given was to create a sidescroller consisting of 4 levels, 2 main characters (male and female) and 3 NPCs. It is to work in a large group to work towards a larger goal (game) and work effectively and creatively as a team.

Each section of the level are represented by 4 themes and to include dynamic elements where possible, particle effects and movement:

• ·         Hot
• ·         Cold
• ·         Happy
• ·         Scary

The characters should be rigged so that they have some animations applied as well as walk, run, jump, punch and kick.

The project length is 6 weeks.

What area you worked on?

Within my group of 4 people I was one of the environment artists with 2 other people and a concept artist. Within the environment artists we gave ourselves things to do depending on what we wanted to learn or what caught our attention or what we wanted to do. We thought it would be a better idea to work on the things that kept our interest rather than forcing things upon ourselves. For me personally I worked on a variety of things. First of all though before we started anything we headed to the whiteboard and gathered to discuss our inital ideas. We came up with things that related to our level Hot, such as volcanos, lava, rain forests and even went outside of the box like kitches or boiler rooms which still followed the word hot. We carried on like this and took it to pinterest where all focused on a couple of our ideas and then pinned the relevent images. For example some was given the word desert, so they pinned all the relevent desert photos. Once we had a clear idea of where we wanted to take this we then went onto concepting. Throughout the group we concepted various parts however we did enjoy the idea of a volcano level and wanted to incorporate that within the level somewhere. When we first started the project we all had to do some concepting to get an idea of the way our level looked.

The concepting I worked on was:

• ·         Shape Grabs
• ·         Colour Palettes
• ·         Underground Concepts
• ·         Start Concepts
• ·         Asset Ideas
• ·         Level Idea as a whole
• ·         Path Blocking
• ·         Levers
• ·         Statue Door Mural

Some of the concepts that I did was refining from what our concept artist did to get across the point of the idea I had in my head. The level idea as a whole was originally what I drew on the whiteboard during a meeting with the group. The concept artist then took this to draw it up neatly within in Photoshop for others to work on. I then added my own ideas on top of this and we came together as a group and discussed what worked well.

The modelling I worked on was:

Whitebox:

• Main Tree
• Branches
• Statue
• Lever

Final Assets:

• Platform Edges
• Flytraps
• Flytrap Stems
• Lever
• Magic Mushrooms
• Plant 1, 2 and 3
• Tree Fungus
• Treehouse
• Vista
• Vine Alphas

Within the whiteboxing stage I had created the statue door which was to be re-done to be put into the final piece however I passed this onto another environment artist which finished off the model. The rest I had worked on personally. Within the final assets I took some into Zbrush for the first time. This was a new experience for me as I have never used Zbrush before, however after spending a day on getting to grips with the software I felt more confident with using it and thus taking more models in to get the right shape for when I do the high to low poly bake within 3DS Max.

Due to the change in brief however I had to put some models to the side to focus on the models for the area that we decided to polish and focus on. This is where I created the magic mushrooms. They had an emissive map to add some more colour as one of the main points from the feedback we got was there were too many green and browns within the level. So I decided to create glowing magic mushrooms to add a variety of colours. I also created some emissive maps for the tree fungus as some of the models where to be used within the temple.

The platform edges were broken up so they made the whitebox platforms look a bit more interesting to the player and so it looks like an old temple which has been crumbling. The flytraps were to add a bit of fantasy as they were oversized and what is used as a platform for the player to descend from the bottom of the tree to the temple roof. The stems were concepted by the concept artist and pulled the normal figure of a plant stem. This added a sense of fantasy again and created interesting shapes. The levers were part of the main puzzle that I came up with for our level. The player had to interact with the levers dotted around inside the temple to open the statue door to progress further into the level. Each lever was placed on a smaller pillar and the handle of the lever itself was modelled to look like it was made out of natural materials found around the temple such as a small branch from a tree. The magic mushrooms came from research into exotic plants and also from Scary’s level who used mushrooms within theirs. I came up with the idea to make them purple and glowing to add some contrasting colours from the brown and green background. Plants 1, 2 and 3 were to add some life and organic shapes into the level as it was somewhat lacking organic forms. It was based within a rainforest/jungle environment but there was no plant life apart from the trees which didn’t make sense. So I started working on more organic and exotic plants into the level. Their albedo were also interesting colours which added some more contrast and took away from the sheer amount of browns and greens.  The tree fungus were to be used as platforms to traverse down the main tree. Originally the platforms were simple cross sections of tree trunks and textured like trees however the feedback that we were given was that it was too boring. So we decided from peer feedback to add tree mushrooms which normally grow on the outside of trees and bring them inside. With this I went ahead, modelled it in 3DS Max and then Zbrushed it to bake it down. The treehouse was meant to be put into the final of the level however where we cut it down it didn’t matter too much. I modelled it exactly the way the concept artist had drawn it, I pushed some of the forms so that it wasn’t as box like or square. I worked on the vista between the level and the volcano in the background so that when you started at the top of the level not everything was floating in mid-air. On top of that I then worked on some alpha vines which were used to add some natural vines quick and easy.

What worked well?

The things that worked well for me personally was I was really happy with my mushrooms and plants. I enjoyed taking them into Zbrush and working in more detail to bake down into the normal map. I felt it worked really well. The mushrooms were able to bring in something that we were missing and they didn’t require too much time. They were simple and effect and that’s what I enjoyed with them.

What worked well within the level as a whole was the temple itself, especially with everyone’s assets coming together as a whole. With one of our environment artists working withing engine to make everything look as good as possible it helped to see how the level would like once the engine guys had finished putting everything together. 

What didn’t work well?

One of the main things that I thought didn’t work well was that we weren’t able to figure out an effective way on how to transition between our level Hot to the next level Happy. It was quite a hard call to make and the communication between the two levels was a bit non-exsistent and thus we weren’t truly able to get down a strong idea.

What problems you faced?

The problems we faced throughout the whole project was that only one person could work on the engine at one time and that if we wanted to check our assets within the level we had to wait for the person who was working on our level to import it and place it within the level. This cost some time in places and meant that we weren’t as productive. Other problems were getting the right size for assets, although we had a general outline for sizes it did vary and a lot was changed within engine anyway.

How did you overcome problems and issues?

While one of our artists was working in engine and we had some spare time waiting to see if things were working correctly we made some more assets or adjusted the textures for our models. With the end of the level lacking we were able to make a quick fix on how to tie everything together. Rocks that were already made were scaled and placed around to show the floating island idea that Happy has in theirs and that linked it quite well.

What would you do differently if you were to approach a similar project?

The things that I would do differently is try and get the idea down as soon as possible. I would also make sure that I only spend around 1-1/2weeks concepting rather than the 2 ½ weeks we spent. This meant that we would have had more time modelling and polishing off at the end rather than rushing about it. I would have also liked to work in engine more and help out with lighting and particle effects. This would have eased off the main environment artist who was doing a lot of the engine work. I think that the colours needed to be down and finalized as we spent a lot of time changing the colours within engine and within the textures of the models.

Conclusion/Summary

Overall this project was an eye-opener on how to work effectively as a large group of people working on one game. Even though previously I have worked as a team it hasn’t been in this size and having to work collective amongst individual groups. I’ve learnt a lot of this project especially from the people I have been working with. They’ve helped me a lot to excel in software that I haven’t used before and that has made me feel more confident. I felt that I have produced effective work and it has added to the level rather than be a waste of time. I felt that I kept on track with time and that I wasn’t rushing around too much with trying to get models fully textured and exported.

I think I could have been more involved within engine work and put in more of an input however I didn’t want to mess the engine up in-case I broke it and it would set us back. This is why I held back a little. I wish I had also done some more intricate models such as a statue rather than doing smaller assets.

However overall I think the group worked really well together and I’ve been happy with all the work that everyone has produced. Everyone has had their input and worked hard at what they were given. I think the level that we produced works really well and it came together in the end. 


Here are some beauty screenshots of my work within the level:

Treehouse

Tree Fungus

Most of my organic models in engine

Flytraps

Flytrap Stems

Plant 1, 2 and 3

Tree Fungus placed within level and lever for the puzzle

More plants at the back of the level including some of the alpha vines at the exit door

The vista to fill in the ground

King Of The Dead!

So it’s the second project already and it’s a group one! Yay….

Nah I’m kidding. I am looking forward to it. From the issues from the last group project I was sceptical however that was mainly cause of certain issues. Luckily with this group that wasn’t the case and I actually felt confident.

So the title was “King of the Dead”. We are a small time company and a game studio has approached us! Wooo! We’ve got to give them evidence that we can quickly produce both quality work and original ideas. We’ve negotiated with the games studio to produce a small environment that contains a character sat on a throne with one wall and one floor. Sounds pretty good so far. This will give them a chance to judge our skills in environment, prop and character work. We’ve been given 2 weeks to produce this work.

2spooky4me

First of all we got together in our group which consisted of 4 people. We started by spreading round ideas and telling each other what we had in mind when we first were given the brief. The ideas that went round were mostly based around the Mexican Day of the Dead. However we had a fun idea of creating in a game show way. It was different when we first thought of it but it had a lot of connections to death. We were heading down the path of a game show like “The Wheel of Fortune” and possibly making the game show miniature on a shrine that is seen a lot on the Mexican Day of the Dead. We looked further into the meaning and depth and found that there were some gods which we could include. In the end we decided to take influence from both the Aztec and Spanish Day of the Dead festivals with a wheel of fortune type game show which is over looked by “Mictecacihuatl” the queen of the underworld. She was to act as a host of the game show. We looked at various Aztec designs and shrines to come up with some concepts.

We liked the idea however it was coming to a dead end and wasn't original. It was just becoming more of a throne room. So before it was too late we changed our idea to something different, something more obscure. We decided to go for a wage slave employee. We decided to create some subtle hints that would link the character to be known as Death himself. He were trying to picture him in a cubical office with stacks of paper work. We didn't want him skin and bones so we decided to make him fat and greasy. We wanted to go away from the traditional skeleton grim reaper. A good idea was to add “Employee of the Month” on the walls but maybe change it to “Employee of the Century” to signify that he's been there for a very, very long time. So with that we went ahead and created concepts in which we could work from.

Spongebob has the idea

However the same thing happened again, and we changed our minds. We decided to make our character a politician. However that idea changed swiftly to a War General. This was to give the idea that he was The King of the Dead. We didn't want to make it too controversial but we wanted it to make an impact. It was sceptical at first but we felt confident in what we could do. There are many stories behind our character but it was to mostly signify that at the end of the day he is The King of the Dead. We created mood boards, concepts, whiteboxes and felt that this was stable and went ahead to bring everything together. We got a lot of our inspiration from “The Incredibles” and the “Pixar” style. We used a colour palette similar to “The Incredibles” especially with the textures of the Characters and the lighting around the character.

Best film ever!

So in the end that’s where we ended up. A grumpy skinny general in a war room. That’s what we did in the end and that’s what we were happy with. We took a lot of inspiration from “The Incredibles” and it was definitely the worth the work.

All in all I have really enjoyed this project and it’s been really eye opening working in an efficient group who works well with each other. I’ve felt my concepting has become better especially when working with a whitebox for help. Over time I think my concepting will become much more efficient but overall I am really happy about how everything turned out!

If it was a project by myself I would have changed it to something different. I’m not 100% sure what I would change it to but possibly make it more significant or work more on engine work and particles to create the king of the dead and add something more to it. I did still like the game show and would probably pursue that more.

So here are some pretty screenshots of our final level.

Year 3 and into the deep!

So my first blog post of a new year at Uni! So it’s year 3 and in the deep end of it all. It’s time to think of FMP ideas and to most likely scrap everything! But that’ll be a different blog post. For now I’m going to talk about the first project we were giving which was our PBR Texture Project.

So with the release of UE4 I was pretty excited for this project. I wanted to get used to UE4 and have a look at what it has to offer me. Hopefully this time it isn’t as buggy. However what is this metalness and roughness. When I first heard this I really didn’t understand what was going on. It was like I was starting from the beginning again. Well I actually was, but you know what I mean. Although I had a face of pure confusion while hearing about these metalness and roughness maps I felt like it was the start of something new.

 

It was fitting. Don't judge

So having got this project I went out and took some textures. Now I didn’t really know what was going on and ended up taking a trip to Yo!Sushi for food. Cause who doesn’t like sushi?! Even so headed back and started working on my textures. I was ready to start making tileable textures to apply to the texture balls in UE4. We were giving a level template which had the texture balls already named. We just had to create our own textures to apply to the balls.

So in having all the tileable textures done it was time to make the metalness and roughness maps. So to start with I was randomly change the values between white and black and all the grey in-between until I created the right material. I added in some normal onto certain materials such as rust to give it that bit more of a definition. I thought I would understand metalness and roughness but even at the end of the project I’m still wondering how it works. When I thought it was right and it’d make iron look metal it made it look matte. Which confused me. In the end I just kept tweaking the textures until they were right within engine. It’s not a good way to go about it but hopefully with time I will be able to figure it out. I really enjoyed this exercise and sorting out what material needed what property was fun and interesting.

It also has been good to start learning particle effects as well. I hope to get better at these particle effects and learn other ways of creating them and changing them within Unreal. With the spark particle effects I found that it only came out across one plane. I wanted the sparks to come out from all different directions when they spawn and possibly make it circle around the mystical ball before they die. With the smoke as well I have found it difficult to control and get more a mist feel rather than a smokey feel. This probably meant more tweaking and possibly a new particle, however by using the smoke particle I was able to change it in some of the ways I wanted it to look. The only other issue I have with the smoke is that when you look at the smoke in a specific direction the colour changes to black. I couldn’t figure out how to fix it but it will be something I come away with knowing to sort it out in the future.

So here is some pretty renders of my balls.

All together now!!

Happy little family!

It's so pretty!

"Dobby is... free"

So it’s come to the end of the year now and so much has happened, I never thought that it would go by so fast! But as the year has gone by there has been so much for me to reflect on and this is what I think.

So what am I going to get out of coming to University? It’s not just drinking and clubbing, passing out and getting alcohol poisoning, but it’s learn. It’s a huge step in education and one where you do have to stand on your own two feet. You may still be lead when you go astray but a lot of it moves where you take it. This depends on where you want to go. For me over the year I always wanted to work as an environment artist. But it isn’t just about making a pretty picture, it’s more than that. It’s more of refining your skills, learning new ones, creating pieces of work that you didn’t think your skills could do, all through sheer practise. Back in first year it was like learning all the fundamentals of everything, how to move this pivot point, how to move that vert. Now in second year it was all about how do we make this model in the most effective way, how do we refine our models in engine, how do we learn new tools in CryEngine. It’s taking those fundamental skills from first year and bring them in second year and refining them to a crisp while learning extras on the side. Now when it gets to third year, it’s bringing everything together as one, the fundamentals, the refinement and then it will be the “stand on your own two feet”.

At the end of the day I want to get a degree in Game Art Design and make games as a living, whether it’d be mobile or console.  I want to be able to be a part of a team and create new innovative games. Some may be piss poor, some may be fantastic even a next best seller. But what I do know is I want to work with environments or weapons. Over second year environments have stuck with me, but I have gained an interest in weapons and I’d like to pursue this a little more. After three years of university, I will be employable to games companies with fundamental skills at modelling, texture, concepting and working within engine and I’d hope to refine these more to an industry high level.

There were some major down points within second year that have opened my eyes to what the real world is going to be like. A lot of this was time management and after two years of not working out my time I have suffered greatly, and now it’s time for me to pick it up again. It used to be oh this can wait and that can wait. But now I realise it can’t wait. Anything outside of my course can wait, this course can’t. This determines where my life goes and I don’t want to waste. Yes I’d like to relax but I want to make it in life. Where it takes me I’ll follow with my head held high and proud.

At the end of the day it was a successful/unsuccessful year and I’ve learnt so much in such a small amount of time compared to what my life will give me in the future. It’s been an interesting year. But I’m ready to relax, practise and come back with a fresh mind-set. It’s been a good year! 

I'm such a softie!

“Soft Skills is a term often associated with a person's “EQ” (Emotional Intelligence Quotient), the cluster of personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that characterize relationships with other people”.

OK, so that's soft skills! Wait, what is it again? Oh, so it's based around people's personalities in life and their mind set, in working? So I guess this is pretty important in the gaming industry! Well, in any industry.

So in theory I feel for teachers, it's going to be pretty boring! Sorry! I just feel that, teaching something you have been learning for so many years can be pretty boring. It's like for your life you are telling the same story over and over again. Some people may not even remember what you taught them, so it's just a waste of time. Others on the other hand, go forward with it. This is where I'm getting to.

With soft skills, they're essential for every day tasks. They help people in everyday life, such as getting up and being in the mind set of getting a healthy breakfast so you can have a productive day. People with good soft skills are ones who mostly look out for themselves and try to have as many productive days as possible. This is quite vital for the industry.

Within industry, you always need to be at the top of your game. You need to develop your skills even further and to be on your toes, ready to change when the brief does. By this, it's if something you've been working hard on for a month that is ready to be showed, and that idea gets put in the bin, or you need to start again, you need to have the mindset ready to do that. If you don’t have that, then you'll just think “fuck it”.

Which is basically my mind set. I like consistency within my life, always have done, so if one thing is saying make this gun. I will make that gun. If it changes half way through and messes me up most of the time I say “fuck it”. This is where I then sit on my ass, eat comfort food, cry and play games. But I do have motivation. If it is something I enjoy, such as environments or weapons, I’d get cracking with it. If something changes, then yeah fair enough. With me, it varies depending on the project or the area that I’ve been given to work on. A lot of the time, after having a long project I would like a couple of days to relax and chill out, otherwise, I over work myself. This is quite a lazy mindset. These soft skills, aren't exactly great for the industry. This is why (going back to previous blog) I want to specialise in the environment, because I enjoy this. I have the mind set, and the motivation to learn more about it. However I am very open to feedback, and this I take as a personal attack (which is something I need to learn not to do). However that is only with practise.

Hard skills are good with tools that don't change, or when they do it's very insignificant. Soft skills are excellent for everything. When tools change, and they change a little or a lot, soft skills allow you to work around it, allow you develop your understanding more, to help you to get in the mindset of getting out there and learning them all over again. However we do need to learn both. Hard skills are great for getting where we are, we still need them in life. We still need to be taught how to get going. It's something that is vital to many students. I believe that this is what our course does. It gives us those hard skills which show us how to get started, then we are free to use what soft skills we have to develop our knowledge of what we are working with and on. Those who fail are the ones who have no motivation, no soft skills, and that is what is vital for this course, for the gaming industry, and well for just about any job.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_skills

I did stuffs! I'm so creative!

Creativity. What in the world does it truly mean. The word “creative” or “talented” or “creativity” are words that can mean so much to people, that it could crush them. What do I mean by that. When I was younger, I struggled a lot in most areas of school. I originally went to a pretty shit primary school, and finally got moved to a more higher-class, better quality, better Ofsted reported school. I felt like the dumb-ass out of everyone in the year and even the year below. In the year below, kids would be able to do their multiplication, they'd know their 6x tables and then there would be me struggling with my 2x or 3x tables. For me they were “talented” at multiplying. But that wasn't the case in the end. I never really thought about it being at a young age but now, they just learnt it. Yeah some of the kids had a knack for it, but all of them had to learn, they had to recite, they had to repeat over and over again. It came to tests, and it was one, where you had to learn a specific multiplication table e.g. 7x table. Then you had to say it to the teacher without fault and then backwards. I mean seriously. Backwards. Why?! But I had to do this homework, and for once in my life I wanted to be “talented” I wanted to be seen as a clever kid in primary school, I was fed up of being the dumb one. I don't really want to make this a sob story, I’m sorry. So I’ll get to the point. Basically it was the 7x table week, and I learned those 7x tables, forwards and backwards. I went up to the teacher, completely bricking it, and said it forwards and backwards. This was without any fault, mind you. I passed and got a gold star! YES! I walked away happy and never really thought about it again, until now. So, what was the moral of the story. Well no matter what, “creativity” or “talent” isn't something that is just there, it isn't something someone was born with, it isn't something you just know, a lot of it is something you learn. Yes this learning, that we do for all our lives. No one knows everything in the world, otherwise why are we still searching for cures, or figuring out what Mars looks like. If someone knew everything, we'd already be getting fuel from another universe.


But some people do have a comfort zone with areas, lets say. Some people are really good at rigging, naturally, they get a sense or a feeling with it. Then there are some (like me), who need to learn rigging. I need to learn about where everything goes etc. and that is all through the process of learning. Even those who are naturally good, aren't perfect, they'll make mistakes and they need to learn, but they just have something for it. It's the same with every area, hence why there's the whole debate about being a generalist or a specialist. Those who have a knack, or a natural feel for characters or environments or vehicles etc. will generally specialise in those areas, because that's where they feel they belong, but that's where they need to learn other areas. Everyone is OK at everything, not everyone is excellent at the same thing.


Within the games industry, you aren't expected to be amazing at everything, but have some strong sense about the majority of things going on. When it comes to being an art director, you have to have a strong sense of everything and also be great at one particular thing, but that's from having years of personal experience, to have a strong sense at all aspects. Us newbies as graduates, won't. Once we graduate, we wont have a strong sense of everything, we would have only just got a waft of smell, a hint of spice. This is why becoming an art director takes years of experience. But this doesn't mean he's more “creative” than others in the industry. There may be programmers who are better than him at programming, but that doesn't mean they're more “creative” than the art-director. Everyone is “creative”. The word “creativity” doesn't belong to someone who can do this, that and the other. It's a general term for someone who has keen eye for what they love. You can be “creative” when it comes to medicine, it's not just an artsy-fartsy word that artists use. Imagine how modern medicine would be if no one was creative, imagine if no one suddenly thought about putting a nail in someone's broken bone to fix it, imagine if their colleague didn't say let's put a metal bar in to help it. That's creativity. Bouncing off of each other, to create something. So here we are now, with everyday modern medicine and loads of people with broken legs, arms, backs, necks, skulls, you name it, with metal crap shoved everywhere. OK it's not shoved, it's carefully placed. But you get the idea!


As an artist, to learn, you will need to learn skills in areas which you lack. You need to learn your tools. You need to learn how to use them, how to live with them, how to eat, sleep, drink, make love to your tools. Because they are vital. In an aspect of this world, the tools are vital. By using your tools, you learn the skills, by learning the skills, you practise with the skills, by practising you get better, by getting better you become more creative and so one and so forth. Oh look that word “creative”. It is everywhere, but it does not fit one person. It fits everyone. Not all multi-million games are made by one person being “creative”. Actually it isn't made by one “creative person, it's made by hundreds + of “creative” people. See where I’m getting at?



Even now those “creative” moments in the past, are something we admire, but we don't turn to use them. We say “Oh that particle was fantastic back then, but how can we make it better?”. That's being creative, that's being talented, that's not just one person, that's a group of people, that's a “talented” and “creative” team. 

Yeah! You go Einstein

Generalist to Specialist

The gaming industry has become a real competition now. As it's grown the bigger companies out there like Ubisoft are just making a heck of a lot of money, and all the spaces for jobs are gone. With bigger companies, they are going to keep those already taught in the ways of us newbies can't even handle. For them it's a waste of time and money. For us it's a job gone. It makes me sad in a way that there are so many game artists out there who are just lingering waiting to be taken in. I just feel like I'm going to be joining them soon!


But what about specializing? Well that could be something. Us students are generalists. We know the basics of just about everything. But we don't know specific things in great detail. This is where we need to start thinking about where we want to lead our lives. What we want to do with them, and how we are going to get there. As a background we all need to learn the general of everything. You will more than likely need to learn about anatomy even though you want to specialize in environments. Because when going for jobs in the gaming industry, you just want to get your foot in the door, or just about every body part there is. Smaller companies such as mobile companies, are probably looking for someone who can take on everything, such as characters, environment, vehicles, that they at least know the basics, but do have some sort of an expertise area. This is where you can grow, where you can lead you portfolio, your work. When it gets to bigger companies, they want specialists. Ones who only work on trees, ones who only work on buildings, ones who only work on engine etc. and the list goes on forever. This is why big companies are so fricking huge! They have a team for one area which specialize in that area. It's just one step at a time when it gets to specializing in areas we want to pursue. We are going to have to go through the nitty gritty, fuck this leg, fuck this wheel to get to the yeah fields, yeah trees!


It used to be one guy could do everything. Now as technology had advanced, how technology has become more in depth, people are needed to become specialized within that particular area. Even though that means more jobs, it also means people with a lot more experience, and they're going to be number one to employ. But as technology advances there may not be any need for people, this is the same with any job out there now anyway. We may be taken over by robots.


But on a serious note, having a team of specialists you are more likely going to have a better output of work in a short amount of time, instead of having a team of “I’m OK at most things” and having a meh output in a light year amount of time. It's this that is vital and this is needed. This is what employers in the gaming industry are looking for, and thus us who are OK at everything are being shoved to the side, and there is more and more of us each year.



But it is difficult at being excellent in every area when it comes to the games industry, and thus specialization is extremely important, not only for the person, for you, but for the company you want to work for, or working for. So by specializing in one area, but being pretty good in others, you can help those who are closely related to you such as being a specialist in environments, you can help those with building, but wont be much help with someone who is doing coding or shaders. But you have some knowledge all around. 

Interaction! I hate messy menus!

When gaming was around it was very much, does it work? Yes! Does it look OK? Yes! Does it do the job? Yes! Right that's it! Launch it!


But not anymore! User interface is something that is very looked at when it comes to gaming. So I'll start by talking about the consoles themselves. They were very much square. Box in shape, and that was it. Not much else to it. The materials they were made out of were simple grey plastic majority of the time, maybe slightly different shades of grey but were still grey. They may have red buttons or something along those lines, but yeah, grey. Back then it was great, it was modern to them. But now we see old consoles and we instinctively know that it's an old console. Along with the controllers too. A lot of the old controllers were grey, unless they were specially made ones. But now you look at consoles and they're sleek, the have curved edges and they are not so pointy and painful. It's the same with the controllers, the controllers are more user friendly, they have better looking ergonomics and just overall look nicer. Now the materials are black, it's more sleek, more modern. Some go for white but majority it's black. Over the years there have been fails in the way consoles and the controllers look, but they've come so far and done such an exceptional job! Just look at the comparison through the PlayStation years!

PS1

Comparison between the PS2 and PS2 Slim

From bottom to top, is the comparison between the original PS3, PS3 Slim, PS3 Extra Slim.

Interaction design can also be transcribed into user interface as well. This is also quite demanding in game. For a game to work, for a game to look and feel good to the player the user interface needs to be friendly. It's need to caress the user, make them love the interface. For me personally I really really really REALLY dislike “Dragon Age: Origins” user interface. The inventory is the the most confusing things of all time and this is one of the reasons why I just can not play the damn game. However when playing Skyrim (which is sort of based around the same idea, magic, adventurer etc.) Skyrim takes the bait. “Skyrims” interface is easy and friendly. I could make love to it, because it is just so nice. For me personally I find where everything is, spells, armour, weapons. Then the quick menu of select weapons and spells. It's just quick and efficient. I just find Dragon Age too much!

Skyrim Menus - good very good!

Dragon Age Menus - bad very bad!

But that leads me onto one of the best interfaces I have personally experienced. Once again that is from “The Last Of Us”. I'm not just using the game because I am just playing it now, but because I genuinely think that this interface is one of the best. When playing the game, you see none of the interface apart from the bottom right corner, where you see your health and the weapon currently equipped, but apart from that it's just you and your surroundings. This minimalistic interface puts you more into the game. Then there is the weapons in game menu. It's easy to use and simple. You have a limited number of holsters which only you can upgrade further into the game, but when you have too many guns they do go into your backpack, just like any normal item to carry, however to equip this you have to hold down a button and this will prompt Joel (the main protagonist), to get down, open his backpack and equip this item. I just like how he does that. Also throughout the game you'll get little collectables and the in-game menu for that is really simple. It also doesn't pause the game, the game carries on in the background, so you either wait till a safe place or you better be quick, in case infected come along! But everything about it is so simple, it tells you what it is, what it does, what it costs, how much the next upgrade will cost etc. I like the simplicity and this is what makes it effective. In a way “Skyrim” is the same, it isn't filled too much with crap (which is what I got from “Dragon Age”).

The minimalism, when in game.

In game weapon menu

Crafting Menu from backpack

Upgrade bench menu

Wii Remote and Nunchuck

But it's not just that, there is also the new revolutionary equipment now, such as the Xbox Kinect, the Wii, project Morpheus from PlayStation and the Oculus Rift. So it all started with the Wii, let's be honest. The Wii was a very much user based console, that the person had to physically get off their ass and move about to make it work. Obviously you could have used the D-Pad but why not wave your arms about. Yes you had to hold the remote, but it was a one handed remote that did, well everything. They also brought out the “Nunchuck”, which attached to the original remote, but that gave you more of an immersion with the game, like shaking a enemy off you, or shaking the remote to activate something. But then out popped Kinect. Now I do feel this came from the PlayStations EyeToy, which in fact I thoroughly enjoyed when I had it. It was a bit of a pain to use but the principles were there and with the generation of gaming at that time, it did what it was meant to do. But Kinect made it more involving. There were no remotes, just your body, and it also was able to register multiple people in the same scene. It was great and fun, bit dodgy sometimes, but what isn't. But now out comes the Oculus Rift. Jesus does that look fun! You look a bit stupid with a massive piece of machinery over your eyes, but it really brings you into the game. You use your head to look around the scene. That is new. I knew it was always something that was to be mentioned, but now its real. It is something you can use. I can't wait for games to actually be more linked with the Oculus. I feel it's truly the next step in gaming, that you will actually be there. I know you have to use a controller still to move etc. but looking around is just one step. But recently I have just found out about project Morpheus. I recently bought the PlayStation Official Magazine, mainly because I say “Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel” being advertised, but as I was reading through I did come across the article about project Morpheus. Here is a snippet from what I read.

“Sony's other piece of software, Castle, is a lot more hands-on. It drops us in the courtyard of a medieval-style stronghold. An armoured mannequin is standing directly in front of us. The game tracks our hands this time, too, courtesy of the two Move controllers. We grip by pulling L2 and R2 and start grabbing and ripping away at the poor blighter's robes and limbs. Picking up a nearby sword, we then start slashing away at our stationary target with bloodthirsty swipes. We then snatched a crossbow to shoot some more targets – only to have a giant stone dragon appear and eat us whole. But easily the most astonishing part of the demo comes when the Sony man tells us we can physically walk around the mannequin with our feet. And we do.”

PlayStations Project Morpheus

Wait? What?! We can actually walk around, with our own two feet. What the two feet we stand on. What? From reading that article that is what stood out the most for me. That was something I could not believe, until I read it for the 10^th time. This is where gaming is going. I really hope it keeps going that way!


References:

Playstation Offical Magazine – Issue 096 May 2014

Beep, boop, shoo wop da wop. Sound for games!

Music in games is extremely influential especially at a young age. A lot of the music around in games is become more noticed amongst gamers, old and new. The new generation will always learn the classics such as “Mario” or “Pokemon”. They are one of the most well known soundtracks from gaming history.

Mario! Yeah!

As a gamer, I remember from a young age the “Mario” theme and the “Pokemon” theme. Not from playing myself, but because my family members had played these game. Not only did I start playing these games had I realised how important it was. It is one of those things that you think to yourself “Bloody hell I remember this. Now where the heck did I remember that from”, then you start playing the game, or you go research it on YouTube and nostalgia kicks in. Even if you never played the game, majority of people would have known where it came from. For me the “Pokemon” theme is a big nostalgia kick back. But even now, I listen to the theme songs from games such as “Croc”, but don't really remember playing the actual game, or what happened in it. But I know it brings back good memories and memories like that mean something. I also remember playing “Pandemonium!”. This was a game I never really understood as a young child, but I would listen to the theme and I would just remember. Even now when typing this I’m playing the theme on YouTube and smiling ear to ear, because it brings back such good memories.

Best game ever!

Oh the memories!

Sound and music are used in a very particular way in games. Even some of the most recognized pieces are either from little sound effects or small clips from the game. A good example of this is from “The Legend of Zelda” series. I'll take “Ocarina Of Time” for example. The melodies from when Link plays the Ocarina are well recognized. Some people may not know where it's from, but they've heard it. Personally this was the situation for me. I had not played any of the Zelda series, but had heard some of the tunes, such as “Zelda's Lullaby”. I never knew where I had heard it before, but it was such a recognizable tune. But this can also be in a sense of what happened in “FarCry 3”. I never listened to the sounds that “FarCry 3” had because it never really stood out. Apart from one mission (excuse the spoilers, if you haven't played it), where you have to burn the weed field and that's when the song by “Skrillex ft Damian “Jr. Gong” - Make It Bun Dem”, came on. Now a lot of gamers out there will instantly relate this song to “FarCry 3” (if they've played it obviously). Majority of the comments on this songs official music video all say “FarCry 3 <3”. No joke. It's something like this that stands out, but the rest of the music from the game was a complete dud. The fact that this song is the only way for people to recognize the game, is a bit of a failure within their part, that they have to use someone else's song to make it.

"Did I ever tell you what the definition of insanity is? Insanity is doing the exact... same fucking thing... over and over again expecting... shit to change..." - Vaas

But then there are theme's and songs that create the game. I'll take “The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time” again as an example. One of the best songs for me personally is the “Shop Theme” from this game. It's one that makes me sway side to side with happiness and one that I will always remember. Right now I am doing exactly that. Plus after playing the game, it really takes me back when I was playing, and how I would just stand in the shop for a good 5 minutes just swaying side to side happy. The fact that anyone in the house who heard it, would come in and do exactly the same. It's amazing. So the composer for “The Legend Of Zelda” series is Koji Kondo, who also created the “Super Mario Bros” theme. He would colab with Shigeru Miyamoto, in creating these pieces of work. Kondo had complete freedom to create the theme, and that Miyamoto would put his input on what Kondo had made for the game but would never tell him what he wanted. Kondo commented at the Games Developers Conference 2007, saying that the theme reflects the action-orientated game-play of the series. He demonstrated this by showing how the characters movements and player's button presses, sync with the beat of the music. This is what he was aiming for, and that he found the catchiest tune ever made. Many magazine writers who have ever written about music in games have all said that the “Super Mario Bros” theme beats everything else for the best sound/music in history. Not only has the theme been used in the games but also in an anime film.

Zelda playing the Ocarina

However with music and composing music, you need it to fit the game. You can't have a horror game and happy music. That would sound weird. Take “Mass Effect” for example. “Mass Effect” is a well known game and amongst avid “Mass Effect” players they all get a connection to the music. With this game, it's not a happy one. It's dark and involves a lot of death and loss. The one song that I really hate from the game is the death song “Saren”, every time you die it always plays and you can tell what's happened when you hear that. The one that strikes me the most out of the series is from “Mass Effect 3 – Leaving Earth”. It's so powerful, so dark. The calm piano but low in key, and the sudden rumble of reaper noise, distorting it, putting you on the edge. But it's so powerful you're moved by it in a deep sense. This song fits so well with the game. I find as well that within the game any battles that are about to occur, a song starts playing, almost a battling song. It's sort of predictable but also makes you on edge as if you are there. Not that if you were actually in a battle you'd go around making some cool sounds, but the principle is still there.

Mass Effect 1,2 and 3

The songs that stand out for me a lot are ones that create the most impact. These are games I’ve already mentioned such as “Pandemonium!”, “Mario”, Croc”, “Pokemon” (especially), “Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time”. But others that stand out to me is the main theme from the “Uncharted” series. The orchestra, the deep thump of the drums in the main chorus of the song, is powerful and emerges you into an adventure. Then it softens, becomes quieter, as if you're traversing through rural landscape, taking in the scenery, smelling the air. But it comes back to more of a beat with the drums, the orchestra becomes one, it's now as if you are on top of the ruins looking over the land you've accomplished, over what you have travelled. I have so many mixed emotions with this theme, that 1,000,000% recommend listening to it! Another that I recommend you listen to is the “Skyrim” theme as well. That is truly a great theme, so powerful and magical. The deep roar of the voices, and the whole song, it truly makes you a wandering adventurer. But this isn't like “Uncharted”, you can tell by the song, the tone, that this is more magical, that “Skyrim” is based under different adventuring terms. “Skyrim” is based around magic, dragons, different races, not just Black, White and Asian, but Elfs,Khajits and much more. With “Uncharted” you can tell by the theme that it's modern day and this is all done by music. This split makes it memorable and that's why I love it so much. There are many, many songs and themes that I could talk about, but instead I will link them, for you to interpret how you want and the feelings you get from them.

Can't go wrong with dragons!

Now this is a game

Now thanks to this blog and YouTube, I want to go play all the games! But I can't. I will soon though! But I am going to go listen to all the music from games now! Best blog ever!

Always be a Gentlemon! Classy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpPa46VOyPw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxty0lOIbT4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgcq_ZtqbO0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atM3ZhF8MVs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAMzIihPjAg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGHA9oO1Ybg&list=PLA10D6BE808DD1BBF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhscMsBhNhw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOoRrl8dFZg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y97u-U0nvJM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbpvcU0eMYE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros._theme