Week Nineteen - Any Monkey Could Teach Them Selves

Okay firstly is that going to university should not be about just learning new ‘skills’ so you can perform a new task, any monkey could essentially do that. Throughout uni you should change as person (for the better hopefully) and have a new perspective, one of the things I remember Mike saying in the first week is “if you go to university and come out the end unchanged, to me that’s a waste of time”. So the course your on should not be just churning out tools for trades, of which I believe our course is very far from it.

As I’ve come to realise education is pretty messed up, maybe this is just an idea that’s been implanted in my head by Mike and Chris, as they spend half their time telling us this, but I do think they tell the truth. At GCSE’s and A-Levels, once I had figured out okay to get the grade all I need to do is check these boxes and I’m done. But what a really bad way to do something, by doing this you learn almost nothing. Since coming to uni I’ve tried to stop doing work just for the sake of doing work, and once you realise this you start actually wanting to do the work, getting more out of it, and more often than not produce something better. On this course just in the first year I’ve learnt stack loads, both just skills and technical stuff, but also more importantly I think I’ve learnt how to learn and approach problems.

So anyway back on track, this should be the reason that game companies (or any business for that matter) want uni grad’s, because as well as having the knowledge and skills to make work, they should also have the mind set and understanding to be able to work in the environment, and analyse problems better. Kind of hard to explain this, basically uni should give experiences and brain power to apply you skills to make awesome work, something I fear a lot of course really do not do. As has been said before, any monkey could teach them selves 3DS Max, but unless firstly they have those fundamental drawing skills, being able to see properly and actually recreate from 3d, to 2d, back into 3d, unless you have that know how and understanding, then that, as I said before, would be a waste of your uni life. (by this I don’t just mean the drawing skills as well, I mean all the way of thinking brain capacity stuff).

Right so kind of all messed up there, it makes sense in my head, I don’t think I’ve really explained what I wanted very well, couldn’t think of the right words, I might try and make it more coherent in one of the later tasks, but for now that’s what your getting. And I’ve just gone back and read the task title ‘Life Changing’. So basically that’s it, uni shouldn’t just teach you tools, it should be life changing, done and done.

The Boost Buttton!

Those into Formula 1 will know that almost every year the rules are changed, this is usually to increase excitement in the races. For next years the aerodynamics are changing and so are the tyres, which are all arrantly to make overtaking more possible in the races. But the change that made me laugh was the introduction of ‘The Boost Button’.

So as if you though F1 wasn’t exciting enough for a game, well I would imagine this is going to put some smiles on a few faces. Apparently it’s an energy conservation device, that over the period of approximately 1 lap will store up energy created from braking, and then when the driver desires can press ‘The Boost Button’ and get an extra 80 horse power for a few seconds. As awesome as it sounds I cant help but wonder what person sat down and decided, you know what F1 needs, some speed boost, obviously thought up after watching some nos fuelled fast and furious racing.

I can’t actually wait for this, but with these changes every year what on earth will F1 be like in 5 or 10 years time, I’m thinking F-Zero will come soon…

http://www.seesystems.com/f1/ - a cool site of concepts of futuristic F1 designs.

New Wii Engine

It’s nothing new that often 3^rd party developers don’t put a great amount of effort into some for their games, not pushing the limits of what a consol can do. So when a small time developer creates an entire new games engine, which also works both well and has real effort put into, it certainly is bound to raise a few eyebrows.

This new engine is for the Wii, and has been created by a company called ‘High Voltage Software’ who in the past have made games such as Lego racers and family guy, so from the track record you wouldn’t really expect anything amazing from these guys, and yet they’ve seen the Wii and pushed it’s capabilities further with a rather ingenious design.

This new engine they have designed has been specifically design for the Wii to make the most of it. It will be able to display graphics that no other games on the Wii can do, making use advanced detailed bump and secular maps and also refraction and reflection maps, better LOD’s along with all real time rendering and lighting. There is a claim they want it to stand up to graphics of the 360, which even as it is a highly claim to make, shows there determination and passion to push the Wii, and I believe this is only the first of the push, in time as with all consoles, the power gets pushed further along the lifeline.

The game that they are creating, called The Conduit, useing this engine also looks to be shaping up very good, a first person shooter where aliens have invaded earth, in which you must haul round big guns to blow them the hell away, sounds good to me anyway.

Now the game their making may possible not be the best which would be a real shame because this game is going to be the marketing point for the engine, hopefully we will see a fully immersive single player story along with a multi player mode, and I wouldn’t think it is going to have online, but I suppose that’s always a plus. So I really hope this engine will be successful and in the future more games developers utilize this to make their games, this could very well be the start of the second generation of Wii games.

http://www.n-europe.com/news.php?nid=11725

http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/867/867498p2.html - a link to IGN, where there a screenshots and a tech demo of the new engine

http://www.n-europe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20368 – a link to a forum where there are more screenshots and technical information. (Please keep in not that this game is still in the making stages, and so is not finished and may have missing textures and the like.)

Week Eighteen - Sounds Such As Mario’s Jump

If you spend a day in our lab, every time a phone goes off more than likely you’ll hear a sound from either metal gear or final fantasy, or some other game noise, so I think this already proves sound in games is highly important. But this is one kind of game sound and I think there are two categories, sounds such as Mario’s jump or a coin collected, and then the ambient soundtracks, giving the atmosphere of a scene.

Going back to earlier games the sounds were not interested in ‘real’ sounds as such, but rather those 8 bit sounds we all love, and every time I hear one of those little noise clips it brings back a feeling of nostalgia. Now these sounds are still created from time to time, but with people obsessed with realism in games, real sounds are needed. If you take Call Of Duty 4 for example, the sounds of the guns, breathing, and footsteps, all are made to be as real as possible, the sounds of real battle fields just gives that bit more illusion your actually there.

There’s then the ambient sounds, which are subtly in the background increasing then tension, or making a fast paced chase even more heart racing, and it’s good composers who create these atmospheres. This is why there are now dedicated people who make sounds for games, and often film sound specialists make sounds for game as well. And this can be anything from a huge orchestral piece, to recording the sound of footsteps.

This is one reason why I like my big epic games, when your playing though and an epic piece of music comes on it just makes the whole atmosphere much more impressive.

Something that’s becoming more popular as well is playing your own music in game, which is easier now with consoles which have hard drives (one day for the Wii hopefully). But I played Excite Truck, and at first thought it was good, then put my own play list on, which took a while to make as I had to get those just damn good driving songs, and it made the game so much better.

So sound is highly important in games for creating mood/atmosphere, illusions of what’s going on, and this is all down to it being one of your sense, of which at the moment the only other sense is vision, so maybe one day we will have other sense’s addressed.

Now normally I’d put a few pictures in, but as this is about sound I thought ill include some video clips with some sound, enjoy!

Classic Game Themes Orchestrated!

The Legend Of Zelda!

Mario Theme Tune On Guitar! (There are loads of others as well)

Week Seventeen - The Void

Okay I’m slightly concerned, this task is about game engines, and as said in the brief we don’t do any programming, and as far as I’m concerned I’m don’t plan to, so when you ask me some question with some new and odd words my mind just does not accept them, so if I am to find out about this it could potentially end up very bad. However I do believe the more knowledge we have the more we will understand on how to make good Game Art.

Now I have some knowledge on game engines, such as I know they are there, and in the lab we have to unreal engine, and I know of other engines but know there is vast amount, and when making a game the right engine needs to be pick at the start. I have the euphoria engine on my pc and this engine seems to be incredible, the things it can create, they way the program just tells the “person” to stand straight, then if a force is introduced it tries it’s best to stay upright, and as far as I found and read it’s boarding on human like, I smell Skynet.

As I said there were some new words in this blog task, so I went out and found what they meant, it’s all about the void, so here’s a snippet of what the words meant if your interested, more so I can refresh my own mind in future without filtering through Google.

Additive Environments

In an additive environment, the beginning consists of emptiness - usually called the void. The void is endless and empty. When the designer creates something, for example a room, he creates a space within the void by sealing it off - the easiest way to do this is to simply create a hollow cube. Something like a vast landscape with a beautiful sky is created by first designing the terrain, buildings, trees et cetera, and then surrounding it all with a "skybox", a large hollow box, the insides of which show the sky. This box is necessary to keep the void out, since the world and the void must always be kept separate. A hole in the world is called a "leak", since the void is "leaking" in.

Some popular 3D engines using additive environments:
The Quake engines (Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena)
The MaxFX engine (Max Payne)
The Half-Life engine (Half-Life)
LithTech (Aliens vs. Predator)

Subtractive environments

As is probably obvious, a subtractive environment is the opposite of an additive environment. In a subtractive environment, there is no void. Before there is a world, there is only an infinite solid. To create a world, designers must subtract bits from this infinite solid, creating hollow spaces for the user (player) to exist in. This eliminates the possibility of leaks, but many designers still favour the additive environment because it is easier to manipulate. In fact, a known way of working around the subtractive style editing is by first subtracting a huge cube, creating a void (of sorts) in the middle of the infinite solid - and then working additively in the middle of this (fake) void, expanding it as necessary.

Obviously game engines are reused for a number of different games, and mostly it’s the basic engines that are user friendly and can also be adapted. When the engine is adapted it called middleware, a separate program often made by the games developer when making a new games, that can make an engine do what they want it to do, and also will separate that game from a different game running the same engine.

Right as may seem fairly obvious I have little knowledge of this subject, and I’ve tried to look into it but my minds just getting fragmented pieces of knowledge, so I think this is something I’m going to have to take time to understand, especially for next year as we will be implementing our models into the unreal engine, and from what I’ve heard this just fun, fun…fun….

Week Sixteen - The Meaning Of The Word Geek

Well this task has me slightly perplexed, gaming cultures, what is it, who’s involved in it, how does it affect life of those directly involved and those not in the know. Well I suppose these tasks are to enlighten us in these areas so research away.

…

Okay that didn’t go all that well, I’m still not all that sure I understand just what I’m suppose to be finding, however a thought has been occurring. In the task it say’s about people who have visited LAN parties, now I can say I haven’t, but is this a good thing or not. I can defiantly say there are two answers, yes, and no. now hold on I haven’t just contradicted myself because the answer will depend entirely upon who you ask the question. If you asked someone who had been to a LAN party before and enjoyed it, they would think how can you have never gone to one you crazy person, however if you were to ask it to someone not much of a gamer, not into the gaming culture, they would say no, they would ridicule you for how sad you are and what a ‘geek’ you would be. Now the reason I’ve put geek in inverted commas because it depends on your definition of geek. In common culture the word is immediately looked down upon, and seen as an insulting word, but I beg to differ. If for just a second you forgot what the word means and the stereotypical value it has, and imagine this word just means belong, it means that you belong to certain culture, and certain involvement in something that you truly enjoy and wish to be a part of. If this is the meaning of the word geek then everyone is a geek to there own interests, you can call a gamer a geek for playing games, and at the same time you could call a sign maker a geek, I’m sure if you were with a sign maker and they suddenly said ooo that sign looks like it’s been done very well, or that’s a horrible effort, I’m sure you would think how sad to notice that. I hope this makes sense and portrays what I’m trying to say, and it is something I think is actually becoming widely acknowledged.

Now alas, I’ve just typed that out and understand now what gaming culture it is, it’s the ‘geeks’ who are a part of it, the people that attend these LAN parties, launch nights, conferences etc, and as the gaming industry is exponentially increasing so is the culture it has behind it, and if not already, gaming culture is going to play a large role in world we live in, and the people who call the people involved geeks in the insulting sense are going to have a real shock when they realise just how many people they are insulting.

Week Fifteen - Some Resemblance To A Small Army

Okay first things first, I’m noticing that I’m writing about pretty much the same things in most of my blogs, which is for me becoming increasingly boring and I’m sure it’s becoming more increasingly boring to read. And although I’m trying to stop it, every time I read a new task I get the same flood of thoughts, partly I think it’s because I feely strongly about these points but non the less I apologise and will try find out some more interesting issues to write about. There we go, no on to the task in hand.

Right so just to be a hypocrite I’m going to start with something I’ve wrote in a lot of blogs, which is games cost too damn much to make these days and because of this only the big guns can make the top end games, leaving the small soldiers with less and less hope. In the future I hope this changes as it’s always the little people with the best idea’s, I stress that point idea. So why the change.

Well long have the days gone where 2 or 3 friends can get together and make a game to appeal to the masses, now you need a shed load of money, and good marketing point, more money, and some resemblance to a small army behind you. Let me start with the army.

I’ve read around and it seems if you break a games development company into pieces you end up with;

Game Designers,
Game Artists,
Game Programmers,
Sound Designers,
Testers,
and Producers.

Now to me that’s a lot of roles, but each of these can be broke down into even smaller roles,

directors;
assistant directors,
lead [e.g. artists],
specialists,
and work monkeys as Chris might say.

So that’s a lot of people that end up working in games now, most of which are specialist who have studies or developed to that section of work.

For example just doing Game Art is a big area, you could end up a concept artist, you could be modelling;
characters,
levels/landscapes,
vehicles, general assets,
and even be just a modeller or texture artist, possible just in those areas.

It obviously depends on the size of the of the company to how many a development team has, but still it’s getting more and more the way that specialist are required, and even to cut down time/costs companies out source some of the work they get.

Now the games industry in growing at the moment at a speedy rate to a point that by the time I graduate this break down of jobs may be obsolete, although I don’t think it can break down into smaller roles really, just more and more jobs in one company, which also means that companies don’t really want the average person to work on their games, they want the best of the best, and they can easily do that because compared to the amount of jobs available to the amount of people that want jobs that is an obvious difference. Which is really the driving force to make your self better and better so you can break into the world that everyone hates and is corrupt, but all at the same time they all love and enjoy, ohh the scrambling of the brain.

http://uk.games.ign.com/articles/672/672661p2.html - a link to an article on IGN about the roles in games companies, I particularly liked the part about testers as I knew it was an important role, but it made me realise how much has to actually go into that, without them games would be seriously messed up.

Week Eleven - Wheel Spin, Slide, And Usually Crash In A Spectacular Way

“Gameplay includes all player experiences during the interaction with game systems”

That line made me laugh, it’s from the wiki page, and basically is saying gameplay is absolutely everything in the game, which I guess is true, so now I’m meant to write a blog about it, hmm this could be head scratcher.

Okay normally the best way to describe a word/phrase is to switch it round, so…play game, yeah playing games, that’s basically what gameplay is, when you play the games, as tempting as it is to leave this post at that, I think I better expand slightly.

I’m going to start with the Wii, and by which I mean how we interact with games. This is something that has changed for this generation of gaming, how we interact with the games. Forgetting graphics and all that for the moment, how you interact with a game is essentially one the fundamentals, even when games started, the controller has been a key part (of which I managed to write a whole post on), and with this new invention of motion sensors gives a new dynamic to games. And something I think most people forget when trying to categories these words, is the fun in the game, that’s what they were essentially made for, entertainment, to take a break and just enjoy yourself, and as far as I can tell the Wii does this brilliantly.

I feel now as if I could write a post on how games are meant to be fun, and I might one day… but for the moment I’m just going say games are meant to be fun, just good damn that you enjoy. Okay now that’s done next point.

Now I know gaming mechanics is different to gameplay, well I think anyway, but the games engines affects the gameplay. To but it black and white, a racing game needs good technology so that it feels like a your driving a car, feel the car over-steer, wheel spin, slide, and usually crash in a spectacular way, and a first person shooter needs you to feel like you are shooting a gun and moving around a half blown up building, and a simulation game should simulate something (playing a guitar).

I think when the term gameplay is used, imminently people think of computer/video games, but it can easily be applied to any type of game, the gameplay of a board game, games such as snooker and darts, even at a stretch to Olympic Games.

Okay now my brains starting to hurt because gameplay is a truly huge word and I think I’ll finish this post with how I started it, but this time I hope it has more meaning.

“Gameplay includes all player experiences during the interaction with game systems”

Week Ten - A Few Buttons Along The Way

Story lines are in every game, from the first to the last, granted the detail and depth of a story varies, but essentially a game tells you a story. If you look back of games like space invaders, or even pong to slightly lesser extent, they had a story line, aliens coming to invade the earth, you must stop them and save the day, and from that story line it gives the game more purpose, I’ve spoke about this in a previous blog so wont go into the details.

But as games are becoming ever so more technically evolved, more detail, realism, weather effects etc, people are wanting more and more intricate story lines (this does depends on the game though, as I’ve said maybe times before I like arcade games and big epic games, arcade don’t require the depth and language as a full blown epic saga). Which leads onto to film design, I’ve said before a game is essentially a film but instead of just watching it, you press a few buttons along the way (or ‘waggle’ as it now is) and set of trigger points to get your further in the story.

Now that’s a bad way to look at games, and what makes a good game a really great game, is when you forget that your playing the game, which for example with realism games comes down a lot to the graphics, if something is out of place or not as it would be here in the real world, then you take a step back and think, oh yeah I’m playing a game, but also the story lines a key part of this. An immersive storyline will make you forget about the real world, encapsulate your mind as you tread carefully through and dark ominous courtyard, just like any good book or film.

One of the points in the task was “voice acting”, which predominantly in games is awful and give away more than anything that your playing a game, which is more reason why games are getting like films, games companies employ professional [voice] actors, the storyline is written by someone who understands creative writing, all these things are what are needed by games now, and this is slowly bringing back to my previous blog post, it’s costing too much to makes games and apart from the big guns who don’t bother to make a great game, no one can afford it.

Is the games world falling into a horrible spiral and inevitable heading for another big crash, I guess only time will tell, but I hope not and would like to see the little people in the games world pull some miracles out there bags, because lets face it the bigger corporate types aren’t going to.