Jason's Blog

Scrap Yard Garlick

2010-02-19T19:48:00.002Z

Incase you thought it was fairly quiet in here, it's all because i've been doing my final major project updates on a seperate blog, here's the link.

http://scrapyardgarlick.blogspot.com/

Achievement

2009-12-22T15:51:00.000Z

So i've recently been getting into cycling again, as i kid i always loved being on my bike, but i guess growing up slowly meant i did it less and less, screw that i say! I can see my self really getting into to it now, always do the things you love, there's just no excuse.

Anyway me and my house mate decided that instead of getting the train home for christmas that we'd cycle home, thats from leicester to near birmingham, and is just under 40 miles. We'd planned a router before hand that took us directly across the country through some good scenery, amazing what you can find when you leave the mainstreme roads and citys, and went through a few small towns, one of which we found a great little pub where we stopped for lunch.

We got to Tamworth which is where we parted, my house mate continued onto Litchfield, and i onto home in Aldridge. It was these last 6 or 7 miles that were the hardest, it started to get dark (we would pick the shortest day of the year wouldn't we!), and my legs were litrally starting to run out of energy. But i powered on, slower that before maybe, but i got into alridge and it was when i past the croft park that i suddenly felt this great sense of accomplishment, wonderful feeling and when i finally got home i was absolutly shattered, but so so glad that i'd done it, really was a great thing to do.

So i'm going to keep this up, i've got the bike now and have been slowly buying the kit and sorts for it, expensive hobby at times but you gotta do what you gotta do.

We have also decided that mid next year we want to do the End to End, thats cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats, which is over 1000 miles. It's going to be a big challenge and will take a lot of getting ready to do, but it's definatly something i really want to do, and we've decide that were going to raise money for charity as well when we do it.

Wish i'd took some pictures so i could put some on here, but i've got to get back to leiecster some how, so see you on the other end.

Just a reminder!

2009-12-14T21:13:00.000Z

So after Jolyon and Simon from blitz Games came in today, i think the reaction was similar in a lot of people. There knowledge is obvious, and there critique spot on, but the most odd thing is that it was things that i already knew, or well at least i thought it knew.

What i mean is that they would give use the hints and what not to and what to's, and i could have told it someone else, but for some reason it just wasn't getting to the front of the brain and becoming apparnt. Some times you just need someone to give you a little reminder, of what you already knew. And just a point by this i don't mean i know all they do, just that a little kick start like that can do wonders.

I think in this term a lot of this 'realisation' has been happening to me, at the start i was able to turn to chris in life drawing and say 'It works!', it's only took two years!, but all the work i put in has paid off, and since then i've gone slightly further, and hopefully will always continue to do so. Same goes for 3D, one main thing i've been doing this term is research, a hell of a lot of it, and i mean research in the sense of going out in the real world and doing it yourself, none of this google crap, and it's paid off again in my work.

So it was pretty exciting to get people in from industry to do more than just a lecture, so a thank you to them for taking time to come visit us in our samll space on the 8th, and hopefully we'll be getting more attention in the future.

Things to take away are always look at the reference, compare objects in the scene together, do quick paint overs to eliminate the hassel of tris and texture space, and always review your work, weather on your own or with/by someone else, but you already knew that now didn't you.

Rubbish, Not Trash!

2009-12-07T12:08:00.000Z

Just a little update on my trash having now put it into a small scene. Now it's not finished as i realise that the actual trash looks pretty out of place to it's surroudings, which just goes to show that art direction/style for a project is absolutly nessasary if even in this small project it looks odd. I'm going to fix it now and get the lighting sorted out as there is just a basic set up at the moment.

Oh and yeah i've just realised, why do i keep refering to it as trash, i'm not American! I feel slightly ashamed and will only call it rubbish from now on.

For A Wii Game

2009-12-07T00:51:00.003Z

Fancied doing a new post but as all my recent ones have all been about my work i thought i'd stray a little. However i've not gone too far as i'm just going talk a little about a game, The Conduit.

The main reason i feel i need to talk about this game is i followed it from the start and put up two or three post about it, so seems only fair now i've played it that i draw my conclusions.

Now the reason i was following this game is because it was promising to be the first person shooter that the Wii needed. High Voltage had made there own engine for the game so they could do all new effects other Wii games couldn't, and although the story may have seemed to be a a bit cliché it looking like it could make for a good all round game.

So after all the press and build of the game i suppose it comes down to one thing, was it good? Answer is... it's was alright.

I said this in every post that i did prior to playing the game, i tend not to follow too much hype for a game and not to read too many reviews any more because it builds up false hopes, which is exactly what happened in this case. They boasted about the games engine that could do all these effects and new technical things, but then they made a game with repeating corridors and not all that scenic views, why, if it had the potential why not use it.

Now this is not to say i didn't like the game, i enjoyed playing it and will probable play it through again some day as it wasn't too long, just the hype i read before ruined it i think. The level design/layout was pretty good in places keeping the momentum of the game moving along nicely, there were some cool little easter egg like things with the high voltage logo which made me chuckle. Obviously the control system worked really well, it think the Wii remote was always going to work for this sort of thing.

This part was cool, biiiiig hole in a building, lots of explosions, what else do you really need

Anyway back to some bad points as they are more fun.

The story, i knew before this may not be brilliant, but i think the turning point for me was when the main character say's (in a typical deep action movie voice) "I must get to the president and save him", with the response "Your the only one who can do it". Why, just why do 'you' have to get to the president and save 'him', the world is falling apart so why does that one man have to be saved and why am i the only person who can do this. done well this 'cliché' can work, but it that scene it did not.

Another point to make was that it all felt a little bit lazily made, it didn't feel polished and had a lot of corners cut, just one that i remember, your in the white house (i think it was anyway) and you can look out the windows, but instead of looking out on a pretty view, you get a horrible texture that is completely obvious that's it's in front of your face, that's right a plane just a couple of feet out of the window, in this day of games that's just not right.

I think i know what the main nag about this game is, and was before it was released, it's selling point was... it's a really good game and has amazing graphics, for the Wii. That there is the worst thing for a game to have said about it, for a Wii game it's really good. you should never have to use those words to describe a game, it should stand on it's own regardless of the platform. I just saw that Call Of Duty Modern Warfare has been released on the Wii, and for you casual gamers this may be alright, but if your actually interested in the game your going to get it on the Xbox or PC, why would you get a game that's really good, but decide i want the version with reduced graphics, you wouldn't, simple as, and what casual gamer is going to get Call Of Duty on the Wii, it makes no sense!

You just know that car would have looked sooo much prettier!

Well i guess i just felt like ranting then really, felt good.

Treasure Chest 100 Percent! (in pirate and regular talk)

2009-12-03T22:26:00.001Z

As i swore a few suns ago me final Chest of Treasure!

Here be one of ye Blitz merciless tasks, by where we was giv'n a painti'n and which we were to then craft a full blown '3D' construction, according to ye makers guides of course. This be pleasin' for me do, reason's bein' i chose not to use ye 'normal' and 'specular' charts and to sail solo with the chart of 'diffuse'. So i used the colours that ye earth gave to me, sort out those shadowy depths and bright lights, and created me my very own first hand crafted chart, something that'l go down in books to come, G'Arrrgh!

and now the translation...

As promised a while ago my fully finished Treasure Chest!

So this was one of the Blitz proffesional briefs, this one inpaticular they gave us a concept and our mission was to recreate it in 3D to the specifications givien. I had really good fun with this project, one of the reason's being that i chose not to use a normal or specualr maps and just to go with a sole diffuse. So i painted it from scratch giving it all the highlights and shadows and the like myself, which is the first real texture i've done like this so i've learnt from it and produced something i can be proud of, G'Arrrrgh!!

Will do a presentation board soon with wireframes and texture maps too, all in good time.

Untill our paths be crossin' again...

Textured Rubiish

2009-11-26T16:52:00.000Z

Still need to play around with few things but this is that 95% finish mark you always get to.

Rubbish, Rubbish I Say!

2009-11-24T17:07:00.000Z

Made me some trash.

Done the models and uv's, it's the textures thats going to make these look i'm thinking, hopefully i'll have that done and up here soon, so until then...

Life Drawing

2009-11-22T22:45:00.001Z

I Like Drawing.

FMP

2009-11-22T22:10:00.000Z

I've created a new blog for my final major project, the address is http://scrapyardgarlick.blogspot.com/

Enojy!

Rooftop Concept

2009-11-04T00:17:00.006Z

So I think I've to a concept that I'm happy with now. I've gone through a couple of different ones, and I liked the small central rooftop layout, but as said in the brief it had to be a playable level, so I've expanded and got to this now which is going to be my final concept (tweaks along the way will occur I'm sure).

As I've been planning out I've been thinking about the playablity of it, so there is more than one route from end to end, and i've tried to place objects/extrusions so they break up the line of vision from one end to the other. Time for the real modeling stuff now!

Until next time...

Leicester Rooftops, you need permision...apparantly?

2009-11-02T16:05:00.003Z

I remember before I started this course one of the things I was looking forward to was doing the research for projects, so why hav'nt I been getting out there to do this!

So for my rooftop project I decided this morning to go out and get some reference, obviously rooftops wer'nt going to be the easiest thing to get to, but then I had a brain wave, whats a tall building that always has an open top floor assesable... multi story car parks!

So i went out expecting to maybe get 40 or 50 photos, but just on the first one i ended up taking loads, and from that vantage point I saw other places I could get to, and I've ended up with almost 200 photos, what a score.

I found where random crates and pallets exist outside games!

If that was my fire exit, I think take my chances with the fire!

Then I got to the Highcross roof carpark, and up there must be the largest airconditioning systems you can get. Got a fair few photos from there but a lot of the units and more exciting stuff was behind metal panals, but being only 5 foot high panaels it was'nt too hard to look over the top. Then I found one where the gate was open, so I had quick sneak inside for some photos, but obviously as I come out I see two people in high vis jackets, and so quickly moved on. Took some more photos around and then about 5 minuets later a guy comes up to me and say's "you alright", "yeah im fine thanks just doing some research", "you need permision to take photos up here". Urm okay well as i've photographed it all I just said oh okay thats no problem and moved on. He did then follow me to the lift and ask to see the photo's, I thought he was going to ask me to delete then but I played the student card so got away with it. Getting research is fun!

Behind unlocked gates!

Haymarket Aircon, well i never!

Coming Soon

2009-11-02T00:18:00.004Z

Right first off the boat is on hold for a little while as i want/need to get the set projects done, but i hope to have it finished for the assesments in december.

Secondly when i've got a little more together i'm going to start posting about my major project, ooo exciting stuff indeed.

And so on to the current projects, my treasure chest is almost done just needs few finishing touches, and in keeping with a theme, renders of it to come soon.

But i wanted to get on with the next project, the rooftop. It's going to be chalanging with only having 2 1024 diffuse maps, but i suppose thats the point and i should learn from it, thats the plan anyway.

Anyway i've heard a lot of talk latly about this google sketch up pro, so i've given it a download and had a little play. I must say it is actually really good, it's very smooth and easy to use, as other people have said very intuative. If some of the features were incorporated into max then max would be far easier/quicker to use, just the simple idea's they have put in it make it a truly good program.

So i'm going to lay out my rooftop scene using this, i manged to sketch up this image in about 20 mins-ish, but got use to all the tools and like now i think so will have another play soon.

I think this layout may be a bit too ambitious for the texture budget, but i'm going to get some reference material tomorrow, little wonder around leicester anyway.

So as i've said, more to come soon!

Until Next Time...

Rusty Old Fishing Boat

2009-09-14T21:30:00.003+01:00

Boat that im currently working on, getting through the uv's at the moment.

all together it's 17,674 tris,

but the boat alone is 4,424
the wire ropes and cables are 2,356
and all other asset's at 10,894

Found the boat when i was in Plymouth, took loads of refrence photo's to make it as accurate as possible, i even now know where every rope goes on that boat and know pretty much how it all works, all the more knowledge I suppose.

JD Update

2009-05-07T15:04:00.003+01:00

Little update of so far, im about where i wanted to be, but having a little trouble with the texture on the pool table for reasons unknow which is slightly annoying.

Jack Daniel's

2009-05-03T17:15:00.003+01:00

So I've decided to set myself a little project to do as i really need something to work towards at the moment. I remember quite a while ago seeing an old third year brief where they had to recreate a piece of art but in 3D. I thought this was fairly cool and remember seeing someone had made the melting Dali clocks, so I'm going down a similar path.

I've had this poster on my wall for a while and have always though that would be cool to try and redo in 3D, and as i have the time on my hands now there's no better time. I'm going to treat it as a brief, as if it's a piece of concept art been given to me and i have to model it.

I setting myself 2 weeks to do this, i don't want it to be a on going lingering project, will be a nice challenge i feel, I'll keep putting wips on here, so see you soon!

The Retro Conduit

2009-04-11T16:24:00.003+01:00

I've been following this game for a while now (well actually from it's very first announcement), which is something i don't normally do any more, possible because it can build up false hopes expectations, along side this i tend not to read reviews anymore, I'll decide weather i like it or not thank you very much.

But yeah I'm hoping good things for this game, the one thing is it has it's own engine that high voltage have made specifically for the Wii, which will hopefully give the games that extra faness.

Right now to the point of this post, the box art. I actually really like this box art for the simple reason that it looks like an old retro box art from the Atari era. in those days games consisted of a dot following another dot, (hmm reminiscence of a old first year task here...) but these 'pixel' games had a lot of life because of the box art. I remember playing games that had on the cover some extravagant art of a dragon and some features character surrounded by flames, it was awesome, and then when you moved your dot in the game you just imagined it was what was on the cover of the game, just proving the power of our imagination. hmm i could go on here but i know I've blogged about this before, http://jasongarlick.blogspot.com/2008/02/week-eigth-squares-and-dots-realistic.html it's in there somewhere, read if you must.

Real Life

2009-03-29T20:39:00.005+01:00

Just fancy sharing a few thoughts I've got going on, works all in for next week and it's starting to take it's tole so need some venting.

First off just wanted to comment on the dominance war, and i must stress these are my personal opinions and i think none less of people who do take part. But i was reading through the brief for this years and realised that it just wasn't exciting me at all. There's a new 'type' for this years war which is the demons, and while i was reading about it, not at one point did i think ahhh cool i need to enter this, i think the closest i got to this feeling was in the mechanical section where it was talking about vehicles. And the reason for this is fantasy and making up these 'creatures' just doesn't appeal, I'm much more happy and driven to do realistic things. Now because I've said that I'm not cutting it out completely, i enjoy the concepts that people can come up with, but still i think the best things are ideas/designs that are closely related with realism, or at least had a solid starting point a plenty of research done.

Anyway just to flow on from that, life drawing is something I've got more excited about this term, i think it's because I'm now starting to really 'get' it more and enjoy trying out different techniques, styles, angles and whatever. slightly disappointed that as soon as i was realising this we don't have any now, might have to look into doing some over the summer if i can. So here's a few from this term I'd like to share.

These were done using oil pastels which i hadn't really used before so i was slightly apprehensive, but once Chris gave me a couple of pointers i had so much fun using them, and learnt more than i did if I'd spent the whole session using just a pencil, glad i used them!

Again following on from my little rant, me and Tim started going out and about in Leicester to do some watercolour paintings, which has just been so much fun, going out and actually doing something is a far better way to learn, and as i said fun! i would seriously recommend it, and even if you go and you end up with a piece your not too happy with it doesn't really matter, i guarantee you'll have had fun doing it and learnt something. I'm planning on regularly going to better improve my skills and so I'm actually seeing real life. That's one thing i will not like about an office job, sitting in front of a screen all day, I'd just have to get out to do real things and physically interacting. So here's a few of the paintings I've done so far.

This was the first one i did, was at abbey
park, was pretty happy with it as well.

Also at Abbey Park, found the old ruins of the Abbey which
was cool, this is a view from the ruins looking
at that building which sells ice cream!

This time we decided to go in the complete opposite direction, found some country lanes and cool stuff, nice bit where the river came through an old bridge, unfortunately it then poured down with rain so couldn't actually do the painting while we were there, so did one at home, which was just not as fun as being there.

Unreal Engine

2009-03-27T12:00:00.005Z

So you say Unreal Engine to someone in the games industry and it's a certainty that they'll have a few wars stories to tell, and this term I’ve had the 'pleasure' of getting acquainted with this destroyer of minds.

Well to be honest I don’t think it's as bad as all the talk, like any program really it has it's moments, and yes I’ve lost my temper with it once or twice...maybe thrice, but it has some really nice effects, and gives a more accurate display of models than max does.

At this week in GDC they've been showing of some of the new engines toys and gadgets, and they do look really really nice, the only thing I’d be worried about is it might be making it too easy for people to do. What I mean by this is people who use it may do things not really understanding what’s going on, they'll end up with something pretty, but unless you understand you'll never get that step further. That applies to a lot of things in general, if someone tells me do this this and this to make this I’m always wanting to know why, and what happens if you do this instead of this, this is the only way you'll truly learn. Anyway back to the point I was getting to, one of the new things was a realistic bounce light system, now yes this will give great feel and life to levels, but unless you understand bounce light you'll never get that step further.

This is a nice shot where the light hitting the red drapes bleeds onto the surrounding objects, in the current engine if you wanted that effect you'd have to figure it out for yourself, and these are things you only learn from seeing it in real life and trying to recreate it yourself, that’s the point I’m trying to make, you only learn something if you actually try and do it your self, not just reading about, it's why practical sessions are quite often the most effective.

Anyway talking about unreal, I’m almost finished in putting my environment from last term into the engine. I wanted to improve upon it, although I did like it I always felt it was lacking slightly, so I’ve tried to create more of a mood by making it night time, putting in some realistic lights, and just all round trying to make it better. Just needs going over with a fine comb now, enjoy!

Frame Of Mind

2009-03-20T12:34:00.001Z

So it may seem like I’m just on here now for sake of being on here, and possible I am a part, but that does not mean this isn’t going to benefit me. I think one of the best things I’ve learnt and got into the habit of doing this term is doing things because I want to do them, and not just for the sake of a grade. Now that may seem like a contradiction as I just said I'm writing in here for the sake of it, but sometimes you need a little push in the right direction. I did often enjoy doing blog posts, it's a good way of getting the thoughts down that are all swirling around in your head.

So yeah I haven’t wrote on here much this term, but now I feels as if I’ve got a lot to write, I suppose I’m going to treat these next two weeks almost like a test of what I’ve learnt, and they will include a sum up thoughts of the course thus far.

I did actually want to write in here a few days ago but I thought I’d wait till the assessment and see what feedback I got from the tutors. Now the marks I got weren’t brilliant, but for some reason this really didn’t phase me, if anything it's just made me want to do more, and not just to get the top mark (although that is always nice) but because Heather Chris and Mike gave me some really positive feedback that I can build upon and take further. Cheers.

I can really say even know the course is finishing soon I’m so looking forward to carrying on doing work, I’ll still be going to Abbey park (or even other places) to do watercolours (or even other techniques) every week, and just drawing in spare time that I have. Because this is what I love doing.

One of the points last term I had was when you have to do something for work, even if it's something you enjoy, it ends up not being enjoyable, and not getting done because you feel as if you have to do it for this tick box and that merit point, as soon as you get out of this everything because much more enjoyable and objectives become more achievable.

I think I may not have being blogging this term because I felt it was some thing the uni wanted (and that’s uni not the course), and I felt I’d been talking to the tutors and involved in the course happenings, but obviously this needs documenting, so this I me documenting, and I plan to do much more of these over time, not for the uni's sake, but for mine, because as I’m typing this I’m feeling much better about it all, I think I did actually say in one of my first blogs this is helping sort that swirl of thoughts in my head, expect some more not so random dribbling, because I’m back baby!

Speed Paint

2008-12-16T17:59:00.000Z

Word: Cast
30 mins

Speed Paints

2008-12-13T23:36:00.002Z

Decided to start doing some speedy paintings, and here's the first 2.

Word: Vision
30 mins

Word: Imagination (dont ask why i thought of a turtle on wheels)
20 mins

The Secret Of The Legend

2008-12-04T15:51:00.004Z

So i was looking through some old files on my pc and came across this little gem, it's a creative writing piece that i did somewhere around year 9, which at the time i thought was pretay good. I looked through it with my house mates other day and we all cracked up laughing, it's good and interesting to see how my mind worked back then, Tim was saying he could understand exactly what i was seeing and trying to do but the clichés are just so funny. now i did do this a long time ago and for some reason i dont have the final draft saved so there are a fair amount of mistake but im sure it all adds to the fun, but enough of the preview, time to sit back and enjoy this 6 page story titled 'The Secret Of The Legend'.

The Secret of the Legend

‘She closed the door and was never seen again’

That was the legend of what happened on the island ‘I.B.B.’, and to this day nobody knew what happened, why it happened or how it happened.

Bang! The wheels of the plane hit the runway hard and fast. A young lady walked down the stairs of the plane. She was a fine looking lady, in her twenties wearing a long white coat and a flat but wide white hat with her hair dangling from it. She was then followed by a strange looking man wearing greenish combat trousers and an old army style jacket. He was struggling with rather a lot of bags which were on his back, under both of his arms and every other place he could manage. He looked up at the sky with his hand sheltering his head and said.
“Great day, isn’t it Jose.”
“Yes.” she slowly said “now let’s get going.”
A new Jaguar pulled up and Jose jumped out and flipped her hair from her sunglasses. Jose was the kind of girl who knew what she wanted. She didn’t let adventure find her; she went out and found adventure. Then when she found it she attacked it with full determination, and never left a job unfinished.
“Um, Jose I need some help, with these bags, ah, Ahh, help!” Malcolm yelled.
“Okay Malcolm.” She walked up to Malcolm, looked at the large jumble of bags and picked a small handbag. She smiled at him and walked off.
“Cheers.” Malcolm said sarcastically.
She pushed both of the doors open, and as she did the wind pushed her hair and coat in the reverse direction.
“Hello.”, a voice said from behind the desk, “And welcome to the Big Blue Island Hotel. Have you pre-booked or will you just be staying the one night.”
“The names Jose Sharday.”
“Oh we have been expecting you Jose.” but as he said it he cocked his head to one side, and gazed into her eyes. Jose looked back at him and said in confusion, sorry. He shook his head and said
“How many rooms, miss.”
Just as he said that Malcolm fell in lugging all the bags behind him.
“Two please.” she smiled as she said it.

Malcolm walked into Jose’s room with his head backwards saying “Hey, I thought we were getting window view roo………….WOW!”
“Something wrong Malcolm?” Jose remarked.
Malcolm looked round her room with his eyebrows raised. He didn’t say anything but he wasn’t very happy
“Now let’s go shopping.” Jose told him
Malcolm didn’t ever want to go shopping but he didn’t have much choice. He told her that they were on vacation but she just said on vacation she goes shopping. He sarcastically commented “Oh yeah of course we do.”

On their way out they bumped into the hotel manager.
“You must be Jose Sharday, my, my you have grown indeed.”
She looked at him with confusion. She hadn’t the slightest clue who he was or how he knew her.
“I’m sorry you probably don’t remember me. I’m Niles Spedmen.” Niles had worked with Jose’s dad, but about 2 years ago he had died on a dig in South America.
“I’m truly sorry for your loss and I would like to take his daughter out for dinner some time. Maybe tonight eight o’clock.”
Jose looked at him and said “maybe.” then walked off as Malcolm commented on him being a jerk, she agreed.

It was a really hot day on Big Blue Island. Big Blue was a small island off the Spanish coast, it got its name from the fact it rarely rained on the island and the sky was always big and blue. But this was no normal island it was mainly an ancient volcano and from it made the island a great place to be. There were hot springs all round places to go and see and regular trips up the volcano.
“So ever been on a volcano before Jose?”
“Yes, several times.”
“And if we continue on the tour mam.” the tour guide was getting impatient, and frankly who wouldn’t in the tremendous heat. About half way on the tour Jose spotted some men carrying large boxes. The tour guide explained that they had recently found an ancient hidden chamber that had some very, very old treasure in it. But there was something else to it, some sort of great power, some thing that was so amazing that it could change the very way of life, but nobody knew how to get this great god like power.

Later that night Jose came out of her room to wake Malcolm up. Malcolm wasn’t too happy that he had been woken up on vacation to go out night crawling.
“This had better be good.” Malcolm was still half asleep.

They were both walking out in the back streets of the island but Malcolm didn’t have a clue why.
“What are we doing out at this hour again ON VACATION!!”
Jose being adventures wanted to find out more about this ‘ancient chamber’ but Malcolm wasn’t too happy about being up that late on vacation, but he still went along
“Look over there.” Jose had spotted the boxes that the men were carrying down the volcano earlier “let’s go.”
“What was that noise?” There were two men on guard and one was saying he was hearing noise. At first the other man didn’t believe him but the he heard it too.
“Let’s check it out.” the men agreed
As the too men walked between some boxes, a voice from behind said “hello boys.” the two men snapped round, but as they did Jose flattened them both. Malcolm looked down at them and acted as if he had done all the work
“Can we go now Malcolm?”

They’d been walking for a while and Malcolm was starting to worry that they had took a wrong turn on the way. But just as he was about to open his mouth, the door to the chamber appeared. The entrance was only illuminated by the light of the moon, but inside it was pitch black. Luckily Jose came prepared as she had a flare to light the way; it was as if she new perfectly what to do. Eventually they came to a large chamber. She moved the light into the middle. The room was amazing full of gold and stone pillars, and at the end was a very large stone door.
“Well we’d better start looking.” Jose always loved a challenge and Malcolm was going to ask what they were looking for but it was probably the usual, handle here, lever there, and poof, it was all solved.
“Jose, JOSE look what I have found.”
“No you come here.” Jose had found a very old stone tablet, it read;

‘She who is destined will find the way and see the wonders
that have never been seen before’

“What’s it mean then?” Malcolm said
Jose didn’t know but she also thought that the people who found it didn’t know either. Then Malcolm showed Jose what he had found. It was a small green diamond, but as he got it out a voice spoke.
“Jose, what are you doing here?” Jose looked up and saw a man but he was just a silhouette.
“Well, why are you here?” the man asked.
“That all depends on who you are.” Jose didn’t want him to know why she was there, yet.
“Maybe, but I think you are trying to steal what I have spent so long trying to find.”
“Oh really, and what might that be.”
“Oh I think you know after all you are the daughter of a great man.”
“Who are you?” Jose asked impatiently.
The man stepped forward into the light……as the light hit his face Jose saw that it was Niles.
Niles then said “You see as our dinner arrangements were at eight, and it’s now nine thirty.”
Jose rolled her eyes. He then went on to explain how her dad always said she was very adventuress so she’d probable found her way in to his chamber as he called it.
“You don’t even know what this place dose.” Jose yelled at him
“Well, we’ll see about that. Did you know I have very persuasive methods of getting to know what I want? And also did they ever tell you how your dad died?”
Jose’s eyes grew big, and as she stared at him she felt a mixture of feelings. Sadness but rage on how he dare say that.
“I bet that they told you he got cut by a blade or had an illness and just dropped off.” Niles seemed to be getting to her now she let her anger fill her mind and was ready to lash out him. Then he said something that shed never forget.
“But he was actually a very pathetic little man. I’ll tell you what happened two years ago. It would be my pleasure.”

Two years ago in the South American desert, a tragedy happened that was hidden till now. “Niles what are you doing, what are you doing?”
“Oh Peter Sharday you are so weak.” Niles walked round Mr. Sharday pushing him down to his knees telling him how pathetic he was and how he could never live up to anything.

Peter told him he didn’t have the guts to do anything to even harm him. Niles didn’t agree, and pulled out a little pistol.
“What are you going to do with that Niles?”
“Oh what do you think, kill you of course.” A drip of sweat ran down Peters head.

“So you are going to kill me, but you know if you do, my daughter will be out to get you.”
“Well I’ll have the pleasure of her as well. Any last words?” Peter straightened his back and tried his best not to show any fear but it was too late. Niles pulled the trigger and the bullet flew out from the chamber, piercing the air, then into the head of Peter Sharday stopping life in a few fatal seconds.

“No!!!, I don’t believe you.” Jose released all her rage out on him telling how he was wrong. But the truth was that her dad had died by the hands of a made man. Jose reached back to her guns lining them up with his head. She released the silver devils out of their dark cave into the open. Niles pounced behind a wall. He talked about how she was just like her father, so small and worthless. But as he was he was loading his angel of death. Bang! The two now very apparent enemies were in a gun fight, with bullets blazing across the room pounding into pillars and walls.
“You can’t win Jose.”
They were emptying clips like there was no tomorrow. They both then came within one meter of each other pointing there weapons at each others heads.
“You’re empty.” Niles thought he’d got it but then she said the same. They looked at each others guns. Then at each other. There eyes glared hard. Jose then swung her leg at him as Niles threw a punch at her, but they both missed.
“Its like I said Jose you can’t win.”
They were both standing on a ledge several feet from the floor. If one of them fell the other would have the advantage, but then Jose jumped down running to the other side with Niles following her. She then rolled over grabbing a gun, and with one shot let a bullet fly to Niles. Niles looked down; he’d been shot in the leg. Blood was pouring from his leg quickly changing the colour of his clothes. Jose thought she was now going to get him back but then he said
“I wouldn’t do that if I was you.”
“Oh really, And why’s that.”
As she said that men in suits came out from all corners pointing guns at Jose and Malcolm. She looked hard at Niles while she was taken away.

They were carried back down to the warehouse where they were tied up. Niles walked in and was trying to get Jose to get here to tell him what the place did and how to get it but shed just kept saying she didn’t know. Niles kept trying but in the end he just told her that maybe by the morning she will have changed her mind, he then walked off.
“So got any plans on how were getting out of here?” Malcolm said.
Jose looked at him and nodded. They were both tied but to separate chairs
So, she jumped up and down moving towards the boxes.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She said nothing and leaned next to the box and rubbed the rope on the side till it snapped. She smiled at him then freed him with a knife.
“Careful.” Malcolm wasn’t the one who wanted to be cut. As they run off Jose said to Malcolm that she said she had an idea of what to do.

When they got there it was very quiet, a bit too quiet. They quickly started to look round to see what to do. It wasn’t long before Malcolm found an eye shaped hole in the wall.
“Jose what’s this do?”
She looked at it and told Malcolm to give him the diamond. She put it in the hole and a bright beam of light shot out and hit a fallen pillar.
“I don’t think that’s supposed to happen.” Malcolm liked to point out the obvious. Jose ran up some stairs, looked at the pillar and drew her guns and blasted the pillar to pieces. The dust settled and the beam hit a mirror, reflecting into a very big blue eye. The eye light up and as it did the two stone doors opened and a bright white light appeared from the other side.
“And she closed the door and was never seen again.” Jose whispered to her self the legend of I.B.B or Island Big Blue. Jose moved into the light but as she did Malcolm shouted out, “NO! Wait let me go after all who will save the world next time?”
“You will.” she said smiling
Then she turned round, looked at the light and jumped through, and was never seen again.

Years later……… Legend says “from the white light she appeared and it was said she had the power like a god.”

THE END, or so legend says…

Charater Project

2008-12-03T18:46:00.007Z

Just to contradict my last blog this one is all about a charter project, which is actually pretty fun. So development process was, go to pub, draw character, develop character, develop anatomy skills, make model. Well that’s it in a nut shell, here are some pictures of it all though.

So after a few little sketches I got an idea of what kind of character I wanted, it's the typical old guy drinking his pint in a bar, you could just imagine his whole back story as his sitting there, old people are so more interesting that younger people.

Drawing faces has never been a strong point of mine, which is why I’ve shied away from it, so when I came to draw the face for this character I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I started by drawing what i thought the face would look like, then looked at some Andrew Loomis books for how to correctly draw a face/head and discovered how wrong I was. so I gave it another go and got a better outcome, although it's not exactly how I envisioned it I’ve had a great learning outcome from this and have then took this a step further and make a 3d clay (sculpey really) model of him which was amazing fun, something I defiantly need to get more into.

Self Portriat

2008-11-29T18:25:00.006Z

So it seems everyone wants to be a character artist in the games industry, i think i can understand why, there is a lot of scope with it and learning the human form is an on going process that's difficult but can also be very rewarding once learnt. So it makes sense to have a self portrait project in the course, if you go into an interview with this in your portfolio then they can clearly see if you model looks like you or not. I've made a start and it's more fun/interesting than i thought, it's hard work and I'm not looking forward to making my face, which is why i haven't started with that yet, but I'm hoping to get a decent end result.

As you can probable tell from the intro a character artist isn't something I'm thinking of going too far into, i do want basic understanding of it and the ability to make good looking models, but as of the moment i don't plan to make it my main focus. What i would really like to get into is environment design, which is something I've been thinking for a while now.
Here's an environment project we started earlier on, i haven't finished the textures yet, i need some decent bushes, grass, tree etc references, and that floor has been put down just to give an idea. But this project is the first really environment one i have done and I'm pretay happy with the outcome so far and looking forward to doing some others, maybe even do one for my self portrait when I've done that.

That 'WOW' Factor

2008-11-27T15:26:00.009Z

So first the apologies that I haven't been posting on here lately, I've been wanting for a while now but because it's 'work' I've been putting too much pressure on it and too worried that what I write has to be A* standard work. So I've now just decided to start writing, so you may have bear with me.

Something I've been wanting to write about is this picture above, now first off I haven't done this, my brother recently moved into a new house, and as we were moving things in i noticed this picture on the wall, and at first glance just though that's not right. I said this to my family and at first they did not agree with me, but I kept looking at it trying to figure out why it wasn't right. There are a number of reasons, and all the mistakes have been made with the first lines that were put on the page as It's the perspective that's out. Through the first archway the horizon line is too high, and certain lines do not meet at a single point as they should. I've done a quick annotated diagram of a couple of things so it's clearer. What is good about this picture is it has been very well painted, and you can tell the painter had a good understanding of light and colour, and this often gives so much of a 'WOW' factor that most people don't realise the obvious mistake. which is something I don't do so much now, and I understand why Chris uses certain pictures in earlier lectures that make people go, wow that's took some skill, but even if they are brilliant at techniques in Photoshop, basic understanding is a necessity.

Black line - Horizon Line.
Red Lines - These lines should all meet up to craet the single point perspective.
Green Line - the roof line inside the room needs to be a lot lower, the lowest green line is where it should be about.

But what made me feel good about this was I suddenly realised that all the work from the first year was really paying off now, and my skills as an artist were becoming basic skills that I use on a daily basis. Now I'm not saying I'm done and all the images I do are perfect, but it's a great feeling knowing that the course is really paying off and I'm gaining all this knowledge.

I can say that this term I have not been working to the standard or amount I really should be, but since this I've felt more motivation to get on with work, and an important lesson I learnt from last year was not to just do the work and project for the sake of doing it and getting this grade, but to do work that will help you, teach you, and your able to learn from.

Results

2008-06-29T13:10:00.002+01:00

So...... it seems like yesterday was the day we got our results, and i PASSED!!! Woooooooooo i did it, i can now happily talk about the second year now without living in fear!

I would like to post up my exact results but as of yet I'm not too sure what all the numbers means, I'm sure they'll get figured out soon enough, but the important thing is I've passed which is awesome, so guess I'll have more things in here over the year come.

I Haven't Just Been Sitting All Day

2008-06-24T22:38:00.008+01:00

Well not much has been going on here for while, but I've been busy, honest. I thought I'd just post a couple of things I've been working on to show i haven't just been sitting all day, no seriously i haven't...

So the hospital project we were given is coming to a close now, and about time too has been going on for a fair while now. The guy who'd gave it us seem pretty impressed by what I'd done, well after all he did pay me so must be something. And I'm happy with what I've made myself, especially as this was the first really go I'd had at structures/levels. due to the size of what was being made i feel not much detail in specific area's were achieved, just a fairly generic plan (although was highly complected to make some of those rooms), but i do plan to make the interior of my own house, where I'll be able to make it look more 'real world' just by adding certain details such as scratches and chips in paint, worn away wood and the like.

Was also working on a project for a mini comp on game artisans, was task to make a gateway to the afterlife, of which i came up with a couple of idea's but this one seemed slightly simpler to make. My idea was/is a room, where four light beams would enter through the ceiling into the pedestal in the center (light beam possible coming from distant obelisks, fairly metroid based). Then when you placed your hands onto the smaller pedestal you would be sent to the afterlife. Not sure if I'll get round to finishing this, can always come back to it another day.

Since the course stopped i haven't really done much drawing/digital paints, and i need to start practicing again, this is one i attempted the other day, didn't turn out brilliant but hoping to get into the swing of things again.

This one below is for the 2d mini comp on game artisans, ideas a tree house and I've gone for the town in the tree tops, i want to get far in this, hopefully finished, might end up changing whats in the scene or change the view all together, should be fun though.

Week Twenty-Four - Been A Blast

2008-05-29T01:25:00.002+01:00

So that’s it, first year done with, moving onto the second year soon, oh how scary this is all becoming! I am really looking forward to the second year, this past year has been a blast, I’ve learnt so many things, and not just technical skills, but also mentally such as how to learn and approach things, understanding theory’s and then actually putting them into practice, it’s all been so valuable and I’m extremely happy I chose this course, as I know there are many course out there that don’t allow you to grow and prosper, so for this I have the teachers to thank, and also everyone else on the course as I’ve found you learn a lot from just being in the labs and talking to people.

I think next year I’m actually looking more forward to the 2D visual side of the course, which is not what I thought when I started the course, in fact before I started I didn’t think there’d be much drawing involved and we’d be sitting in front of a screen all day (although I do do that a lot). Hopefully there will be more outings as they always seem to end up with the best results, as well as being a lot more fun. I know it’s difficult with all health and safety form the uni heads, but if we get to go out further than just Leicester that would be great and very beneficial so I think these are things that should be pushed.

There was a mention of maybe looking at more film side, as the two are very closely linked yet. And from the start of the year I have said I’d love to get into the film side at some point. Im not completely sure at the moment now but that’s mainly because I don’t know much about the film industry, and I know the modelling is different, so if that’s something we could get a chance to look at I’d love that.

I plan to keep my self busy over the summer with modelling, got a few little projects in mind, but I also need to remember to keep drawing so I don’t loose what I’ve learnt this year, as I know next year it’s going to be straight back into it and having to step up a gear, still should be good though!

Week Twenty-three - The Land Of Level Design

2008-05-29T01:16:00.005+01:00

So no specified task for this week then, is this a trap maybe to see who does work even when not told, or did Mr P really have so much fun at GDC he didn’t write a task, who knows, but I’ll talk about something or other I suppose.

Well the one thing on my mind at the moment is the hospital project. Alex Jevremovic has given us (the first years) the task of creating the inertia of Coventry hospital, and oh how fun it has been. As I said in my previous post I’d like to start to explore the land of level design, so when this came up it seemed like an opportunity just waiting, and so I volunteered myself to help create the actually environment of the hospital. At first I though it couldn’t really be that difficult, few walls here and a floor to run along, and in essence that’s what it should have been, but obviously this is the first time any of use had attempted something like this, talk about being thrown in the deep end.

So I’ve sort of ended up becoming in charge of the structure (we all hate it when people call us leaders now, ahh the pressure!) but this as I said is something I want to do so I don’t mind really. The original plan was to make the entire inside of the hospital, but due to far few less numbers than we had started with, Alex has said he doesn’t mind just the second floor being done, so that’s a relief.

It’s coming along nicely now, not actually too much more to do on it, and most the assets are completed I believe, and so now I can’t wait to see it all combined into one scene, it should look good and be something we can be proud of, not to mention the shiny penny at the end.

Overall veiw of structure!

A look down one of many corridors!

A corridor done by the man called Si, complete with windows!

Week Twenty-two - Out Of Sync

2008-05-29T01:08:00.003+01:00

This weeks task was suppose to be about something interesting at GDC, but not being completely up to date on my blog I’ve kind of missed it. I had a quick look back at what had happened, not a lot caught my eye and there’s a fair bit of ‘old’ news now. However in a few weeks time E3 will be on again.

E3 use to be the big gaming event of the year where thousands attended to see all of the gaming companies latest’s toys. But in the past year or so E3 has been toned down, only four or five thousand will be attending, who will be invited people only, and it’s not the big conference of the year. But there still should be some exciting things going on.

Nintendo's Booth

I always wanted to go to E3, not just to play the latest games, but see what was going on, it always looked like such a great place to be, an environment where everyone was from the same culture bringing a great atmosphere to the place. This is something that will be harder to attend now as it is invite only, but still would be very cool to go.

E for All is suppose to be the ‘replacement’ for E3, being a much more consumer driven event, with companies attending from a wider range, although still situated around gaming. This event is open to anyone who applies, but being in LA it isn’t the easiest place to get to, but still would be great to go to.

I feel like I should write about something that’s going on then. From what I hear the big N are planning on making some sort of announcement, now when these rumours occur it’s always a big let down to what it actually is. A lot of people think there’s going to be a new DS design, and apparently the current Wii bundle is set to change. A bundle though could be anything from the Wii coming with a different or extra game, maybe another remote or something, it indeed could possible a Wii with more space and or capabilities. Either way it’s reminded me of something I was thinking about the other day, how out of sync this generation is. The PS3 has only recently come out, compared to the xbox 360 which came out a long time ago, and then the Wii somewhere in the middle. So I’m slightly confused to how the next generation is going to work. I know it’s a bit earlier to be talking about that at the moment, but the PS3 should have a fair bit of life in it, where as Microsoft will want to get out another consol much sooner. And then Nintendo could make the Wii last a long time, and if the past is anything to go by the next consol will be an upgraded version, so no idea on the time scales of them. Maybe they don’t need to be in sync now, maybe the next few generations will be a lot different to the standard format, but ultimately competition drives this industry, so there has to be some sort of marker.

Week Twenty-one - Who Recons They Can Do It All

2008-05-28T13:25:00.009+01:00

I’ve mentioned odd things about this topic in past blogs, especially week nineteen, but that does not mean that it’s done and dusted. In fact that’s mainly what most people do, something new put against something existing, and then that’s it. Whereas there should be an on going learning process of continual evaluation and critique, where you have self realization of how good your work is. This is possible one of the most important things I’ve learnt this year, how to learn. Understanding things like this will make you brain much more ‘fit’ and I know it’s a clesha but the brain is a muscle too and must be exercised.

Chris's infamous picture for lectures!

Pictures like this at the start of the year I automatically just said wow that’s amazing how the hell can you do that. And I’m not saying it’s not damn good, it’s got brilliant skills demostrated but it's not a good understanding of light and colour theory, so I’ve learnt to be more evaluative and have realization of the work in front of me. Which has also led to me describing what’s wrong with all pictures I see now, which comes off as I don’t like them, I do, I just now have found picking out bad points a good learning activity for my self. Also when people say these things about my work I actually listen now and take on board what is said. The best example of this was when I was doing a digital painting in the lab and couldn’t figure out how get the colour right. After some frustrating grunts Dell and Mike gave me some very useful tips and guidance, which I listened to and then noticed a significant improvement in my work.

Two of my later photoshop paintings!

It’s obvious now that with the vast amount of work that goes into games, more and more specialized areas are needed, and after a lecture the other day they made a point that it’s much easier to employ some one who knows what they want to do, that someone who recons they can do it all, because no one could make something as good as someone who is a specialist in the area and dedicated there learning to it. So it was said try and figure out what you want to do early on.

Obviously it’s nice to try everything, and highly encourage at the start to figure this out (start could be any length of time from first week of uni to last week of uni) but the sooner you know the better because you can research and practice in the area you want. Before I came to this course I had the idea in my head that I wanted to be a level designer/environmental artist, and throughout the first year you don’t really model much ‘levels’ so I haven’t nurtured this too well. One thing you do do is environment drawing, which I wasn’t too good at but then realized if I want to be good at this I need to draw it first, something that can’t be stressed enough, and if you can’t draw it you will not make a good model of it.

So now the course is officially finished I can try to venture into this world of level making, and I did, I started small and started to make my flat, and I got so far and then we got this hospital project. But of course we need to make the entire inertia of Coventry hospital, so I jumped straight in to the deep and I have been trying to make rooms and the layout for the hospital, but obviously this is a huge job so there are several of us working on it. I also over the summer plan to make my house at home, inside and out, which should keep me busy for a fair while I think.

Week Twenty - Creative Side Of The Brain

2008-05-27T13:28:00.001+01:00

Okay so I did the typical blog task thing of reading the task and then completely over thinking about it and never actually writing anything down, I thought I’d got out of that habit but it appears this weeks task has set some fear into me.

The reason for this is that this task is about creativity, a subject of which we have discussed all year and is pretty significant, and so I instantly put great pressure upon this task, resulting in me not actually doing it…

So anyway creativity, the thing that for a long time has not been deemed any use in profession. When I say this I mainly refer to education, and how from year 1 upwards it’s pushed against the back wall having to try and fight its way to become as acceptable as science or English. Now there is a noticeable reason of why this has happened, how on earth do you measure creativity, because of course in reference to arts, what one person like’s another hates.

But creativity is something that must be nurtured and allowed to be explored. Earlier in the year we went to a lecture in Leicester about creativity, and I know it may be a cliché to say but, it was one of the most uncreative lectures ever, people were actually falling asleep, if not watching the world pass by the window, and the people who spoke were rather boring to listen to, and were approaching the subject way too much like a scientist. Anyway there was one thing I did take away from that, which is there were different kinds of creativity, of which I can’t remember the other millions types, but two stood out to me, personal creativity, and new creativity. Personal creativity is when you first create something new and exiting for your self, doesn’t matter how many times it has been done before, this is the first time you’ve discovered it and you're learning from it. And the other was something that is a bit rarer and is when someone is so creative they break all the barriers and records with something they have created, of which doesn’t happen all that often. But it made me think, you need to have all this little self creative experience so that you can improve the creative side of the brain and hopefully end up with new creativity.

Talking about sides of the brain is something I love talking about, as it usually ends up with my mind just feeling like it’s about to explode, because there really is a stack loads we have absolutely no idea about. Its great talking to other people about this as well because everyone has different takes on it and bits of interesting information, but anyway like I say, brain exploding, not knowing.

So back to creativity, there was a great little line in the task that I thought was worth mentioning 'Creativity without craft is like fuel without an engine - it burns wildly but accomplishes little...’. And this can be very frustrating to some people because there’s nothing like being able to think up new awesome ideas but not being able to put them across. And this links back to the whole education not taking enough interest, which as I say is changing now for the better. But I love the course I’m on now because I’m starting to learn some really great skills and put them to good use, but also learning a real mind set that’s allows me to approach problems and difficulties in a better way, and unleash some work I previously could not have though being possible.

Week Nineteen - Any Monkey Could Teach Them Selves

2008-04-24T15:23:00.002+01:00

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!

2008-04-22T19:02:00.006+01:00

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

2008-04-22T16:38:00.004+01:00

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

2008-04-20T13:44:00.004+01:00

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

2008-04-20T01:01:00.001+01:00

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

2008-04-18T23:57:00.003+01:00

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

2008-04-16T22:46:00.005+01:00

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

2008-04-15T15:44:00.002+01:00

“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

2008-04-15T15:05:00.002+01:00

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.

A Quick Buck

2008-03-09T13:59:00.001Z

I’ve been thinking about this topic for a couple of days now, so thought I’d just write a little about it.

It’s mainly come from this new ‘WiiWare’ that’s starting to arise, and how it’s giving the little people a chance. The problem with games now is they cost a lot of money to make, meaning only the really big boy’s can afford to make the high end games. But because of this no one is really willing to take any risks and so companies are just sticking with the same formulas they know, and churning out the same games year in year out, often looking for the quick buck. A perfect example is football games, why do people insist on buying the new Fifa game because the last digit has changed by one, the only thing your buying is a few extra polys and a new kit, and to charge full price for that is extortionate. So because of this no new gaming ideas are being thought up and the gaming industry is inevitable falling down a spiralling hole, some people saying its heading to a ‘Hollywood’ status.

Now when WiiWare was first announced I didn’t really give it a second thought, but after reading some of the games that are being developed for it it’s starting to sound really interesting. The main reason for this is it doesn’t cost thousands to make a game, and give’s the smaller company’s a chance to make some new fresh ideas for games, there not necessarily thinking about graphics, but more gameplay and design, and ultimately actually take a chance in the hope of creating something brilliant. If you think back to when games started they didn’t cost a stupid amount to make, and so you got loads of ideas for games, and yes some of them weren’t the best, but without that risk a lot of the games we see now would have never come about.

So hopefully the WiiWare will spark off a lot of companies to up there game on more than graphics and the quick buck, and actually design games that are fun, exciting, and worthwhile to play.

Week Nine - A Controller To Play Computer Games With

2008-02-21T19:28:00.012Z

Gaming technology, I’m not too sure this task is meant to be about just the controllers but I feel as if I could write a lot about them, so let’s start at the beginning shall we. Well I suppose the earliest forms were just dials you turned and a couple of buttons, but seeing as that was the birth of games ergonomics wasn’t the highest priority on the list. Then when arcade machines started getting popular the joystick was the main tool of the trade, but for some reason the joystick didn’t really move over to home consols. Right so now that’s out the way we can talk about one the greatest controllers ever, it is of course the NES controller. Okay so nothing too fancy, a rectangular box, 4 buttons and a d-pad, but really what else could you have asked for, it did the job, and it wasn’t uncomfortable, surprisingly. Okay I think one of the main reason I like it so much is the sentimental value, but I wouldn’t say there’s much wrong with it.

NES!

After this came the SNES, really the consol and controller were slightly more rounded versions of the NES, which was good no worries there. And also somewhere around that time Sega came out with mega drive and master systems, which in all honestly looked like black SNES’s, so not much to comment on them there.

Megadrive and SNES!

Not only did this next consol have probably the best name ever, and a logo that beats the rest, it also had a controller that could be used in more then one way…, it is of course the Nintendo 64, or N64 for short. I think this is the point at when ergonomics and style were first given a real consideration. Now as I’m typing this I can already hear people saying how can you say it actually looks good, well I am, I think it took a big step forward, I can remember taking the consol out of the box and just looking at it for a while taking in all the different parts (this may have also been because for the first 2 weeks of owning it I had no games). Aside from the consol the controller also took a drastic turn, implementing the analogue stick as the main tool, having a trigger button underneath, adding more buttons, and obviously having those three infamous prongs to latch onto to. The N64 controller opened a lot of scope for the future of gaming (the N64 was a pretty significant piece of kit in the gaming history), as well as the analogue it also had the expansion slot where rumble packs or memory card could be plugged in, as well as some other fun things.

N64!

To lead on from this is my personal favourite of all controllers, the Gamecube’s. Now firstly there was the Gamecube, which was, well a cube, not all that revolutionary I suppose, however it was small and used them tiny discs, and the best part was it hand a handle on the back of, which was actually fairly useful. But now the controller, to me this controller was the gold crown of all, it had a perfected analogue stick, easy to reach buttons all round, and was just so incredibly comfortable, it just seemed to mould to your hands. The problem I think a lot of people struggled with was the very small d-pad, which I think you do get use to after a while, but I must admit it could catch you out at crucial moments.

Gamecube!

Sony seem to think that the Playstation controller is bang on and have therefore not changed the overall design of it from PS2 to PS3, and a lot of people seem to like it and say they can play for hours without discomfort. But personally I loath it and think it’s one of the most uncomfortable controllers ever. The way the side parts stick out at some random angle does not fit in the hand what so ever, the buttons do not feel satisfying to press, the analogue sticks are made out of some cheap 1970’s rubber, and more than often they seem to break a lot, I bet you all know someone if not your own who has got a knackered controller. There was for a little while this new design for the PS3 controller, but because of little enthusiasm it got dropped, and personally I never really liked its look, but after reading how they got to the design I under stand why it ended up like that, they wanted it to fit more naturally and fit the hands shape better, but I think somewhere along the line they went a bit mental with this and lost track of the fact it was a controller to play computer games with.

Ps2 and Ps3!

And last but not least is the Xbox’s controllers, but first the lets talk about the architecture of the consoles. Yeah so the first one wasn’t the smallest and sleekest out of the bunch and was quite possible bigger than most of the TV’s it was played on, but it was their first attempt, and what came to follow impressed even the likes of me. The Xbox 360 is a very stylish machine that has been designed very well. The controller is actually very good, it looks very stylish and is also very comfortable.

Xbox and Xbox 360!

And finally there is the Wii, the consol it’s self has been designed to not look out of place in the home, and has a smooth sleek design all topped off with a shinny blue light. And then the conventional controller had been chucked out the window and a new way of playing games thought of. You could say not much has been designed for the Wii remote, as in essence it is just a remote but it’s hardly uncomfortable and has simple enough interface to use. The nun-chuck part I think is perfect, it fits into the palm of your hand so naturally, and I swear it’s one of the prongs from the N64 controller. One of the main things that has come from this generation of consol’s is wireless capabilities, it’s something that has bugged gamers for a long time, having to have wires draped along the floor, although I think it’s bugger parents more who have tripped over them as they walk past, but now wireless is a necessity and the only thing to improve it is the power in them, but batteries are getting all the more better now.

Wii!

So what’s held for the future of gaming, will the Wii’s new design catch on and the conventional controller fizzle out. Personally I think not, I think the two will somehow run along side each, it’s kind of already happened with the classic controller for the Wii, however I don’t think the classic controller looks very good at all, and even know I haven’t held one, it doesn’t look all that comfortable. But as I’ve said before, it will be very interesting to see what the next generation of gaming technology has to hold for us.

Week Eigth - Squares And Dots, Realistic Dragons And Aliens

2008-02-20T00:22:00.007Z

So story telling in games; is it really all that necessary, does it make the game all that much better, or is it just extra padding to make a game sound better. Mike said he’s not looking for a definitive answer, but I don’t see how you could ever have a ‘correct’ answer to this, it all depends on what kind of game and how the game is going to play out. If it’s an arcade game then it’s not really going to need a gripping story line, if any at all. If you take space invaders for example, the story line is aliens come to earth and attack, you much then defend and save the day. Enough said and done because when you’re playing the game your only concern is stopping the top shapes form hitting the bottom shapes, you don’t need to even need to know that bit of story to enjoy the game. Whereas a game such as Zelda, which is meant to be a epic rpg, it really does need a good attention-grabbing story to get you immersed into the game. I’ve played games such as Zelda before and just completely forgot about where I am because I’m that into to the story. It’s pretty similar to film really, you’ve got your films that tell an amazing story and really get you into the atmosphere and feeling of the film, and then pure action packed fun to watch films. I suppose the really good films are a mix of this where there’s a well thought out plot and characters, but also has the drama and big events.

Zelda - Ocarina Of Time!

At the end of it a lot of it comes down to opinion, some people like to just pick up a game and play without having to worry too much about what’s going on, where as there’s the opposite where you have a gripping story line and play out a sequence of events.

Story telling also involves the characters, if a concept for a character is thought up it is often the way to think up a whole back story for the character. I know for some of the previous character projects we have had I’ve just sat there thinking about there entire back story, and although it may not be completely relevant and will probable bore people, it actually helps with the creation of the character, it gives it justification and therefore a purpose for the character to be there.

Okay as usual while I’ve wrote this I’ve come to realise a few things, I now in fact think all games probable should have to some extent and story line, even if it as simple at space invaders, I think it just helps justify to the player the point of the game and why certain event s are happening, again I think it comes down to personal opinion, I personally like my games to have huge epic story lines, this will in turn mean a professional writer is needed to get the best story, but I can happily play arcade games which are just fun to play. I suppose I’m the same with films, I like epic well thought out story lines such as Star Wars, Back To The Future, but I also like fun filled films that are just damn good fun and exciting to watch, such as Die Hard (although the Die Hard’s have pretty good story lines too).

Die Hard 4.0 - Live Free Or Die Hard!

So yeah no real answer there but I think I’ve realised why this topic is very debateable, problem is I think I’m for both sides which is why this post might not read all that well.

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050707/chandler_01.shtml - I actually found this after I’d type this post, but it’s an interesting read, I especially like the part about older games with dots, and how when you see a cool box art of a wizard, dragon or alien, you think of these squares and dots of being realistic dragons and aliens. However a lot of it I do disagree with. I wont go into great depths as this post is long enough as it is, but the part about cut scenes and how he says he think’s they take away the gamers interactive experience, I disagree and think if anything make story telling in games more real and gets you more involved into the characters. Also there is this idea that people play game differently and especially with free roaming games where you can achieve goals in a number of different ways, but essentially games are just a series of events where the player activates trigger points to get further along in the story, and I know that’s a bad way of looking at games but when designing a game that’s how it’s looked at, I suppose as games are evolving they are trying to break away from this, but mostly games just put a cover over the trigger points to make your think that you made your own story in the game when in fact your just a puppet who’s told to press A B to get across the road.

Anyway that’s my bogging rage over, I’d like to go on more but as I’ve said before this is getting far too long now so I’ll stop, maybe come back to it one day, but for now I’ll leave you waiting for the next random dribblings.

Dungeons And Dragons!

Week Seven - Art Directors, yes they now use them in the game industry too

2008-02-01T21:40:00.000Z

So this week’s task is about art directors and what effects they have on the final product. The art director is effectively in charge of the overall vision of the game, although they may not be directly involved in creating the graphics, it is them who will lay the law on the people below. The job role is the same as that in films, it’s the person who sits in that chair and shouts orders at people, while everyone whispers to each other, what exactly is his job again. Hmm, I’ll have to look into this, apparently it’s very important.

One of the links is a diary of events on an art director’s day, and all be it not the most interesting read in the world, it gives you an idea of a typical day. From the sounds of it I’m not too sure I would like to be an art director, apart from the fact all the pressure is placed upon you and if something’s wrong you're to blame, there doesn’t seem to be much chance for hands on crafts, but maybe after so many years in the industry it would be more desirable to boss people round, and I suppose the game will end up how you want it to look which is something most game artist don’t have any control over.

You can tell if a game has had a good art director, if you’re playing through a game and question the graphics, not just the whole game (although sometimes maybe the case), but certain areas that just don’t fit in at all, that’s where the art director probably had a day off and didn’t get his input in.

One of the questions to answer was ‘do you think it’s a creative role?’ and for some reason my first thought was no, as I said before, person sit in chair, shouts orders, whispering, etc... but after actually finding out about the game industry, and having the numerous lecturers come in and say how they hate the industry, but it’s the best thing ever (yes…) I’ve realised that art directors are the only one’s with the creativity, and the rest are just drones that do what the man in the chair wants. (Yet still I want to go into to industry, madness I tell you!).

Actually after writing this I think it would be a even harder job than I first imagined, I said earlier that there might not be enough hands on modelling, and at times this maybe true, but you have to ensure that everybody’s modelling is up to the same standard and style, and to do that you would have had to set the style and look and feel of most of the game, meaning you have loads of work to do and if you fell behind the whole department would, then the game gets delayed, and before I start thinking too much of oh god I don’t want to ever be that person, I’ll stop and just say well done to all the art directors, aww what a nice way to end this post.

Ctrl+Alt+Del

2008-01-21T16:22:00.000Z

This is one of the Ctrl+Alt+Del comics, there a great way to pass the time while avoiding work. They are really awsome and once I'd been shown them, I now cant stop reading them, so you have been warned!

http://cad-comic.com/archives.php

Synesthesia Challenge

2008-01-18T15:10:00.000Z

60%

Saw this on Mr P's blog, hmm 60%, yeah well creativity isnt about marks so there!

Assessments

2008-01-18T14:33:00.000Z

So we had our dreaded assessments the other day, involving a presentation to the whole class and teachers of all our work, oh how fun that was.

After spending half the day saying “ I’ll go up next” and then just sitting quietly still, I eventually did it (partly because some people pressured me, you know who are) and shakily got through my presentation. Once done it was a great relief and although I whished I said one or two more things it didn’t actually go all that badly.

Been able to see other peoples work was good, and although Mike said that the open briefs allow you to do anything, but you all still end up with the same idea, I think there was a good range of work and I saw somethings that I’d like to try out for the future.

I think one of the best things from making the presentation is been able to look at all your work in one place, and also while I was compiling my work I got to look back on it all and see what I learned and how my earlier work had many mistakes that I can now easily recognise.

So yeah glad that’s now out the way, unfortunately have to wait till the end of the year to see how it went, and now have to start doing more work for the next assessment, oh the joy.

The Story So Far

2008-01-04T16:20:00.001Z

So an entire term has finished now and we have now been formally introduced to the insane life that is known as Game Art! From what we’ve done so far it we’ve already learnt a fair bit, but it’s had its up’s and downs.

I think the main thing that I wasn’t expecting was so much work, which took me by surprise and is why I think I got behind on some work (well maybe not some…) but actually looking back I’ve realised that I’ve actually learnt more than I thought, at the start if you had said any of the 3ds max terms such as uv’s, normal maps (well any of the maps really) I wouldn’t have had a clue, but now I know what they are and even better can actually do them, well just about anyway.

Chris’s side with all the ‘real’ art skills is a tough class to get by, there’s a lot of work to do and it all requires your own motivation to do it, but even so it’s one of the great sides to the course and I can tell that even by the end of the first year I will have a fair amount of skills under my belt.

By the last week of the term I had kind of hit a wall where there was work to do but I just wasn’t inspired or motivated to sit and actually do it, then the heavens opened and set Ben Mathis upon Game Art. This guy is seriously talented and enthusiastic about his job, he just has so much energy and is just awesome at what he does. Because of him I got more motivated to do work, and I think he did the same for whole class just showing us what we could actually be doing one day. Saying that everyone in the game art industry does seem to say it’s awful to work in and things are never right, but they always follow that up with yeah it’s like the best thing ever and I’ve enjoyed every day of it, how very odd.

So yeah that’s my story so far, and I’ve just realised some thing as I typed that, that last thing I said is actually true, I’ve got really bogged down with work sometimes and though how is this possible, but at the same time it has been so much fun and I cant wait for next terms goings-on, so I should probably now stop avoiding doing really work by doing this and get some stuff done.

One Of Ben's 3D models

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/ - Ben Mathis's Website

Week Six - Its All Good Fun

2007-12-09T15:34:00.000Z

Games design, well this seems like a really fuzzy topic now after reading some of the links, first of all I think I have concluded there is no definition of games design, there blog entry done…. If only.

Games design essentially means the whole game and all of it’s aspect (hmm maybe that’s the definition of games design), but it can be broken down into smaller chunks.

First of all we have gameplay, now gameplay many people say cannot be defined as it incorporates too much, from the way you move a character to physics engine to art style, well that seems like a good enough definition to me. Gameplay is the experience created by the designers that makes playing a game so damn good. But all the aspects have to come together well meaning all the people involved in making a game need to work together to create an overall experience in a game.

Two main factors in this is audio and visual stimulation, these are two things that are very important in games as the other sense’s can not really be created, well yet, such as smell, touch (although you could say the wii is addressing that) and taste. So it is important that the artists can create a visually stimulating game, and this does not mean amazing graphics. Now I’m going to use Zelda Ocarina Of Time as an example here as it will be easier.

Shigeru Miyamoto, Truly The Greatest Games Designer!

This game has an amazing gaming experience as anyone will tell you, you play the game and forget it’s a game and become the role and get really into the story, which brings me onto another point, Plot theme and background. The games story works so well, now this game is a very epic game (and I really do love the epic games), but games don’t necessarily need to be epic (arcade style games like racing games (burnout), side scrolling shooter (R-type)). But the story involves you in a game so someone down in the office has to design story lines, character story’s, scenes environments, list is probable endless, I think a good way of looking at it is it is like a film, if a film has no coherent plot line, badly thought up characters, and lack of detail, you will be left thinking what an awful film, same with games only you play the role.

But with all this there is also a growing demand for freedom in games, it all sparked off really with grand theft auto, although I’m sure there were a few games that had it before. But the ability to do what you want in the game lets you create your own experience, I’m sure anyone who has played GTA has spent hours just driving around aimlessly find new and exciting things to do.

Now as you can probable tell I’m making this up as I go along so I do apologise if it doesn’t read all that well, but don’t worry I am going somewhere with this, sort of.

Anyway back to some more random dribblings. Another thing I’ve got noted down to talk about it the growing in technology and how it’s implemented in games development. A lot of games developers are talking about how these days their physics engines are even more realistic that real physics, showing how when a character dies he falls at the exact speed he would in real life, this is all good and well, an in most case’s does add to the gaming experience (Wii sports has a very fancy physics engine), but without everything else in a game it can all fall apart and result in a very poor gaming experience. So yeah as I think I’ve said before its great and all technology is growing, but unless we can utilise it well and come up with good ideas, it will be become irrelevant, and a dot, chasing another dot, will continue to rule for all of time.

Wii Sports Tennis!

One last thing I’d like to address is two of the questions in the task “Do different genres require different design principles? What's important for you, when you play?” this isn’t set in stone, but my two favorite gaming styles are, the really big epic titles that encapsulate you and keep you wanting to just play and play, and arcade types of game where you can just pick it up and play for a while, try and beat high scores and keep you wanting to just play and play. So yes different genres of games do need different design principles, but it all comes down to you want to play the game and have a damn good time while doing so!(See I told you I was going somewhere with all of this)

Blogger's Rage

2007-12-04T01:57:00.000Z

I’ve looked back at some of my post, and I have this tendency to rant on a moan about things, even if I don’t care too much about it, I’ve also noticed this with a lot other blogs I’ve started to read around, and have come to the conclusion that blogs bring out rage.

This is like road rage, everyone who drives also has stories about how they get really annoyed with the driver in front, or something along there traveling’s that has ticked them off, resulting in road rage. Now most of these people aren’t violent people in every day life but can really lash out given the chance, and blogging it seems has the same effect. Now maybe it is just a way of venting all the negative energy at the end of a day, or the inner dark side of a person trying to get out, but what ever I think blogs are bringing out the rage in people, just something I’ve noticed.

Week Five - Marks Out Of Ten

2007-12-04T01:55:00.000Z

Right so New Games Journalism, this new(ish) fangled way of writing where it’s no typical review and your told pro’s and con’s, usually summed up into a “10/10” system. That’s what we’re mostly use to, and to some extent I think it works, ill come to this a bit later though, but this New Game Journalism completely throws that out the window.

Okay I’ll admit it took me a while to grasp the whole idea of this style, and at first I really did not like it, and I can honestly say after reading through a few different articles, I still don’t like it. The main problem I think I have with it is I am so use to your typical review style, now maybe I’m missing the point of these as they are not reviews as such, but more just a story told from a gamers perspective.

Now I use to always read NGamer (right back to when it was called N64 Magazine), so I’ve always been fairly happy with the way these types of reviews/previews work. And yeah Mike was telling us the marks out of ten systems doesnt really tell use anything, which I do agree, I mean if one game gets 9/10 for graphics, and the other 9.5/10, but there two complete different styles, which is the better game. But I think that’s taking it too literally, I think it’s more of a guide line to what to expect a game to be like, I mean if a game gets 3/10, and another gets 9/10, chances are that game that got three isn’t going to have the greatest graphics in the world, same for the other types of scores (gameplay, Lifespan etc.). Just to add to that a bit I do still tend to read review on n-europe, but don’t let the review influence me to decide weather a game is good enough or not. Mostly reviews are written by someone who is getting paid, and so if they write a inaccurate review it doesn’t matter much to them as they still get pretty penny for it, but some reviews that are written by everyday sorts of people are more likely to more reliable, and I find forums are the best place to find out about a game as they are just talking about It for the sake of talking about it, not for the money or anything else.

Anyway back to these NGJ writings. One of the one’s I actually did enjoy a bit more is “Bow, Nigger”. Staring to read it I thought to myself I really don’t like this style, and I kind of did that thing where you read but think about something else thus not really taking in what you’re reading. But then it starting to get interesting, he started telling an epic like story that caught my interest (possible because it was about a star wars game I particularly like). But still while he was telling this it went off course a few times and didn’t read too well, but by the end of the article I was thinking that it was actually pretty good to read, had a good narrative that told the tale well, but as a review was awful. This is mainly because it didn’t explain any part of the game. Now while I’ve been writing this I’ve been thinking more and more I completely do not understanding this and will end up not getting to any point, so I looked up NGJ on wiki. It does say that NGJ is not necessarily a review but more of a narrative piece that describes an experience or journey of a game, now in that sense then “Bow, Nigger” is pretty good (if you cut out about half of it)

Now to do the typical top gear review style, as much I dislike this style of writing, and how it drags on sometimes, goes into some other random dribblings, has that style by where I will be reading it but also be thinking about something else so I don’t actually take in about what I’ve read, despite all of those things it’s actually not that bad. For the style that it uses to convey the experiences in games, like with the “Bow, Nigger” article even know that could of done with half of it cut out, it actually works pretty well sometimes, but I still highly doubt I will ever read one of these NGJ articles again, I think I’ll just stick to my useless “marks out of ten” style.

Games and the Future

2007-12-04T01:24:00.000Z

So at current time we have the “next gen” of games, being fought out between Xbox 360, PS3, and the Wii. As I’ve said before I think this generation is hard to define, there is on the one side of the battle (Xbox 360 and PS3) where graphics and power are being fought out, and then the other side where innovation and game play are being put forward (Wii). Now this is an age old discussion about which consol and all that, and at this time of night I don’t feel like going into the argument again, you all know the story, Xbox 360 is great, Wii is great, but everyone and anyone hates the other one, but you mention the PS3 and Xbox 360 and Wii join together to down talk it (enter Wii60). But after this generation where are games and companies going to go.

In the literal future (as in the generation after this) it will be interesting to see where the big 3 go. I don’t think graphical power for Microsoft and Sony will be enough to make a big enough difference, plus as the graphics improve from machine to machine the leap between graphics is becoming less a less. If you look at Nintendo’s history the general trend is innovation – improvement (NES (d-pad, start of real home game platform) to the SNES),(N64 (3D, Analogue stick, shoulder buttons, analogue buttons) to the Gamecube). So maybe a graphically improved Wii will be enough to carry them on thought that battle, but I think they will actually do some thing a little more than that, who knows what though. A lot of people reckon if companies want to survive they will need to combine forces, but due to numerous reason this has a very slim chance of happening.

But for the matter of games in the distant future there is really no telling where it will go. But with technology growing and processing power increasing exponentially, it’s looking more likely that the way we play games will become a more interactive realistic experience (the Wii’s innovation and Xbox 360’s graphics are already sparking this off). And after watching the video’s that Chris showed us on technology and humans (human version 2.0, and the 3 part one), it looks as one, it could be very beneficial, but also a very scary world to live, and as excited as I am that I’ll see the this, you can’t help but feel a fear inside after watching them and thinking what could actually be. (Matrix, true this is a film and I don’t think would happen how it did, but it has a fair point about machines and A.I.) Anyway that last bit wasn’t really about games but is interesting to speculate about.

ASIMO, Honda's Human Robot!

So from here games could really go anywhere, we could even end up with another big games crash is we’re not careful, so I hope games stay as games and the creativity of the industry stays true, as I’m going to have to be working in it in the years to come, and I’m not going to be just making water coolers and other office furnishings because there ‘real objects’, I want fun in my games!

http://www.acm.org/crossroads/wikifiles/13-2-S/13-2-13-S.html - Has some interesting ideas

Personal Games History Part Two

2007-11-27T16:51:00.000Z

Right so I’ve reminisced about the Atari, NES, and SNES which are all the first stage of gaming, then along came the world of 3D games.

Doom, The Real First 3D Game!

This generation started off well for me and my brother in gaming, as we had entered a competition to win a N64, I think the question was who is Mario’s brother? After not really expecting to win we got a glowing letter which had told us we were now the proud owners of brand new N64! It was an awesome day, but had a slight problem, we had only won the consol’s, so for a while we just had it set up and were just mesmerized by all it’s glory. Then one day another glowing package came through the door, Mario 64 had entered the building. I think when we got it we actually played the game non stop, it was just pure genius and still is today, I bet most people who enjoyed the days of it bought it again on the ds, I know I did.

The N64 Box, Isn't It Amazing!

The other legendary game on the N64 I think everyone will agree is Goldeneye. I know the week five task is about not giving games scores a stuff, but this game deserves 10 out 10, it just filled all the criteria of a game, I suppose one of the reasons it’s such a historical game is because it started off the whole first person shooting multi player fun filled mayhem of games. But the whole single player part of the game was so well built, with every level having objectives and being able to just achieve victory at the end of every level, and then do it again but really fast to unlock more fun filled stuff (Paintball mode!). And obviously there were many many a times where you have mass multi player games on it, we actually once did a 24 hour marathon of the game, didn’t play it for a long time after that, I wonder why. Then after this came perfect dark which was the same thing in essence, just a lot more shiny and the like.

Now don’t worry I’m not going to explain every game that was “legendary” on the N64, but I am going to list just few; Zelda oot, Zelda Majora’s Mask, Mario Kart 64, Blast Corps (now that game went on forever), Donkey Kong 64, Jet Force Gemini, Mario Party, and countless other great games.

So as the next generation of game arrived I obviously got a Gamecube, and I kind of explained my history and thoughts on this in one of my other posts, but I think it’s worth saying again it’s a lot better than people think, and I don’t know anyone who has owned one and been disappointed. And some really good games on this I think were Zelda (as always), I actually really liked Mario Sunshine as well, I agree it didn’t always feel like it had that Mario spark, but none the less it was good (Mario 2 I always thought didn’t feel like a Mario game). Also Burnout was great, played that to death, actually think too much, remember getting a chain of over 120 burnouts, good times. Time Splitters 2 and 3, they were really good games, 3 was a bit easier to complete 100% but it had a better storyline and feel to it. Also worth mentioning Metroid Primes, Eternal Darkness, Pikmin, Smash Bros. Melee, Luigi’s Mansion, Super Monkey Ball, and I could go on forever so ill stop now.

Right that seems enough for this post now, I think for my next one I’ll talk a bit about the Wii and then the future of games and directions it could end up going, should be fun stuff.

Personal Games History Part One

2007-11-25T16:17:00.000Z

So my own personal games history, now a lot of this may not make sense as some of it was a long time ago, and it’s not like I ever kept a ‘gaming diary’, but I’m sure I can rustle up some kind of blog entry.

Atari 800 XL, And The Self Test Screen!

My gaming life all started way back with my dad’s Atari 800XL. It was actually such an amazing machine, and we even still own it, but if you set it up you cant walk across the floor what so ever because any vibrations seem to make it crash, and this is a pain seeing as it took about an hour to load a game, ah and gamers of this day moan about 10 second loading times! I remember the games were all on tapes, and you usually had to turn the tape over halfway through, but it had some amazing games on it like Ghostbusters, you even got to customize your car on that, jimmy whites snooker, probable better than most snooker games around now, there was a submarine game as well I remember being very good, oh and Powerdown, that game you could just play forever, and we had loads of others including one dad programmed on it, actually now thinking about it I want to set it up again and relive the awesomeness that it was (I can see me actually wanting to do this with every old game I talk about now, maybe this is the point of the task?).

Powerdown!

So that was where my life of gaming all started, but after that good old Nintendo came into business and brought out the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). I actually had this set up over the summer and it still is to this day an amazing machine. Obviously we had Mario Bros. 1 and 2 on it, but our Mario Bros. 1 was a 3 in one cartridge with Tetris and world cup football on it, now there’s a good football game, you could knock out the other players on the team and just dribble the ball into the goal! RC Pro-Am was a great game and I remember my dad always playing it trying to get as far as possible, I don’t think my dad, brother or me ever completed it. Actually that’s a thing with most old games, they were really difficult and actually challenged you to get better and better at the game, most games these days aren’t hard enough (Gamers these day’s…). Anyway I realise this is probably boring to read but I’m having fun remember all my old memories of games.

The Original Super Mario Bros.!

Anyway before I list all my games for NES I’ll go onto the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and it really was Super). Again there were tons of great games on this, Mario Karts (possible the best version), I remember playing Super Mario World in the arcade before we had the game, but only ever had enough money for the first level. The main game on the SNES though was Super Mario Bros. 3, possible the greatest Mario game ever made. It just had so much content in it with the entire racoon suit frog suit, and probably some more, and the level design was just outstanding in terms of artwork and layout. This is one thing that I think will make Mario galaxy so damn good, for a start it’s got loads of classic references from old Mario games like the ships out of 3 and the colour blocks from 3 the castle styles and just so much, and it does look amazing graphically from what I seen purely because of the artistic style and the effort the designers have put in to make the game have that Mario ‘essence’. This is one thing that makes a good game, having visuals that create an atmosphere in the game and give it character that draws you into the game, and this doesn’t just mean realistic graphics, I mean Mario Galaxy is hardy realistic and from what I’ve heard it just immerses you into the game, in fact Mario 64 and Zelda Ocarina Of Time don’t have ‘real’ graphics, and there like two of the greatest games ever made. Also the problem with all this realistic malarkey is it’s more obvious in the mistakes because we all know how it probable should look, so if something isn’t right you notice and it spoils the game play, whereas with Zelda ocarina of time the graphics allowed your imagination to run wild and fill the blanks.

Mario 64!

Zelda Ocarina Of Time!

Anyway I kind of went away from gaming history there and ranted about graphics again, it’s starting to sound like I’m a real graphics whoer, but I think it’s just because I was sick of random PS2 owners who don’t really know anything about games and just side with the PS3 because they know no better. Anyway I’m going to stop now this topic always starts arguments.

Week Four - Fun And Games

2007-11-20T21:15:00.000Z

Okay so I last left you with the N64, Playstation, and Saga Saturn. This was the fifth generation of games and was all about 3D games. Mario 64 will always be know as the first true original 3D platform game, and it was truly an amazing game full of life and colour, and yeah if people of this generation (makes me sound old) played it now would say it’s full of faults and impurities, but the fact is this game defined an era, and was truly an amazing game. So the N64 ran strong throughout its life, but it was coming apparent that the Playsation was rolling through the market.

Mario 64, brings back good memories!

All around 2000 the sixth generation of games started to come to life, starting with the Saga Saturn, which lasted two years before production stopped, but by then we had the Gamecube and the Playstions 2 out. Now we all know how this went, and being a Nintendo fan isn’t the easiest thing for me to write, but the PS2 did, well let’s just say it happy few years. Now obviously I had a Gamecube and I think it was amazing, tons of great games, loads of fun with mates and despite what anyone says had damn good single player games, so I stuck with Nintendo throughout it.

And then we get the current generation, which is a little more interesting, but difficult subject as well. We have the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and the much talked about Wii. Now the other generations tend to have a sort of defining factor about them, side scrollers, 3D games, but Wii kind of changed that a bit.

Seventh Genoration war!

Microsoft and Sony have gone for pure power this time round, making games look more and more real and trying to get games as accurate to life as possible. Now this is all great, and some of the games look breathtaking, but if games are heading for pure realism then part of the fun in games will be lost. At the end of the day games have always been there to bring entertainment to the table, and I’ve always said playing games lets you do things you cant do in real life, like flying a space ship across the galaxy or racing go-karts down the motorway, and even more out of this world things like jumping around planets dressed as a plumber saving the princess, so I think game designers need to be careful not to make games so real there’s no imagination involved. Now don’t get me wrong realistic graphics are good and make games like Project Gotham Racing an Halo play a lot more better, but give me a game like Mario Galaxy which has a such an amazing artistic style and I’ll be more than happy for years to come. So the Wii for me has kept the true entertainment and fun value of games. (I actually remember Sony said in a press conference, ‘yes unlike the PS3 the Wii is fun’, don’t think he quiet meant to put it like that but he made a good point). I suppose it all comes down to personal opinion sometimes as both the Wii and Xbox 360 are doing really well, and you can have a great time on both really, but where are games going from here.

Week Three - Rise Of the Machines

2007-11-14T19:25:00.000Z

So Computer games had effectively been invented, but now it was time for the home video games to have a shot at the market. This started with Ralph Bear’s ‘Magnavox Odyssey’. This had a few games playable on it around the ideas of dots and lines and the like, but due to a number of reason didn’t sell all that well, but all was not lost.

Atari came into the picture and in 1972 release there ping pong influenced game, Pong. When this game was first released on arcade machines it did phenomenally well taking over the world at lunch time. It too was then released into the homes of civilians’, but because it did so well, so many company’s wanted a bit of the action, and there ended up being that many different incarnations no one could keep track. Towards the end of the 70’s the whole video game idea seemed to be declining with the novelty wearing off, the only reason I can see this happening is because everyone one was sick of all this super pong and ultra pong (do you ever think this will happen to Mario party…).

Pong in all is glory!

But the in the early 80’s there seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel as home console’s were given another serious go at. Atari made the Atari 2600 which was the home for space invaders, and all time classic, which introduced the whole concept of high scores which I do actually love and find games don’t have them enough these days, I mean especially with online stuff, the Wii should utilize high score boards for every game, it is suppose to connected to the inter net 24/7. Anyway back to the light at the end of the tunnel, a couple of other company’s released home console’s such as Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum, which was British, and the market leader, just thought I’d say they were British… anyway this light at the end of the tunnel was suddenly closed off in 1983 with the big video games crash.

Apparently this crash is really famous, first I’ve heard of it, and as far as I can tell it’s all ET’s fault, which I think is a little harsh, he only wanted to phone home, not inevitable cause most game company’s to go into bankruptcy because they made more game cartridges’ than consoles and had to put a load in a landfill, apparently.

Anyway I was pleased to find out it was good old Nintendo that brought games out of the dark ages with NES (or famicon as it was also known as). Nintendo had now set the standard for games companies, and were bringing out games that’s are still going strong today, to name a few, Mario Bros., Zelda, Metroid, Metal Gear, and countless other classics. And then also there was Sega (with the Mastersystem) in the running which sparked off possible one the greatest rivalries ever, between Mario and Sonic, of which to this day is still going on, but now there on the same games, madness I tell you. Nintendo also in 1989 stormed the handheld market with the game boy, which was a huge success and always has been with it’s many incarnations. This third generation of 8-bit machines end in about 1992 with the launch of new consol’s such as the super Nintendo and the Sega mega drive. To be honest not too much happened over the next few years, one thing worth mentioning is that Sony would not be around if it had not been for Nintendo. Nintendo approach sony in order to make a console using cd-roms, but the very night before the revealing of the work they had done (which was a snes with cd’s) Nintendo pulled out and all was right with the world again. Then after the snes and mega drive, there was the N64, Sega Saturn, and the Playstation.

Mario and Sonic in there new game, wars will be fought!

So there we go a glimpse look at the history of games, yes I know glimpse, but there really is stacks and stacks of stuff, and the main problem is that it’s not all documented properly, especially in early times. I actually reckon even if someone spent an entire year trying to write a good history of games, there would be countless oddities, and it would be really boring, I mean I’ve just read mine back, and I applaud you if your still reading, anyway not too sure where I’m going with this, so ill stop and leave you awaiting my next post….well I’m sure one person will be looking forward to it, surely.

Casual and Core Gamers

2007-11-01T14:06:00.000Z

Okay I'm sure we all know the argument that Nintendo is neglecting the core gamer, but have Microsoft and Sony neglected the wider audience of gamers. The following extract if off a forum that I regularly visit and I think is an interesting read.

Whilst the few deem Nintendo have forgot about core gamers it seems to me like Sony and MS have forgot about new/casual gamers.
Take this little story for instance...

I recently had the 'pleasure' of attending a RARE/MS party which included a set up of 360 games and booze. The party was a complete failure in many peoples eyes...Why?

Because of the software available to play.

Many pods were full of gamers crowded around Gears of War/Viva Pinata/Kameo and Project Gotham Racing 4. After a few hours it was the same people playing these games over and over again. I asked various people playing them what they liked about it. The response was unanimous: They all owned the game or had previously played the game at home. I then spoke to some people sat down not playing games and asked them if they had liked any games. Again the response was unanimous: No. Some had played Viva Pinata yet found they had to invest too much time learning all of the buttons/menus to play it. It was apparent - Many of these people had an interest in gaming yet were not even playing because the games were alien to them.

Some people were even sat playing pictochat on their DS's. A bold statement for sure.

After discussions with many people it became apparent to me that MS are probably clamouring for a "friendly" game? Something akin to a party game accessible for all. There was one XBOX Arcade pod sitting primarily empty for long periods of time offering jetpac. Simple enough for non-gamers? Perhaps. Accessible? Hmmm. I was spotting a trend.

And so I figured RARE are possibly the closest MS will get to appealing to a different audience. (Especially with a new Viva Pinata party game in the works). And yet RARE seemed a different company now. A marketting exec talked to his companion for 10mins about if HALO3 was really a "ten" game. (Out of interest they said the single player wasn't, multiplayer was). They then discussed BIOSHOCK and said it was great and never mentioned anyother form of game. (Only FPS fans?? You decide).

And yet I feel with the PS3 Sony could have been on top form pushing a new kind of Singstar and eyetoy ... yet this has also been shunned for raw power. Even with their motion controller nothing simple,accessible has been produced yet.

So it apears Nintendo have the party/casual market sewn up. Yet with their IP's being considerably viewed as "core" games (Zelda, Metroid, Mario) and with developers like Capcom, Sega, Rockstar, Konami backing Nintendo with traditional games (Resi,NiGHTS,Bully,Pro Evo to name but a few) I think rather than us focusing on Nintendo's console ignoring CORE gamers. Maybe we should be applauding them and looking at MS and SONY as the ones ignoring gamers.

Without new gamers our hobby will never be appreciated nor seen as a viable form of entertainment. We should want as many people as possible to enjoy what we are already a part of.

Personally I don't think with games coming out like Metroid, Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros., that Nintendo are forgetting about core gamers, there just creating a new market and in turn getting gaming to become more accepted in the eyes of the world/media. But I had never thought about Microsoft and Sony and the casual market.

Please leave any thoughts you've got, and here's a link to the original thread - http://www.n-europe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17602

Week Two - A dot, chasing another dot

2007-10-24T19:50:00.000+01:00

Well usually when ever I think of the first games made, I just think of pong, and space invaders, oh how wrong I was. The obvious thing about early games was graphics were not what was important, how things seemed to have drastically changed, and when I read that the first concept was done on an oscilloscope I almost wet myself....almost. Although saying that in science at school when we got the oscilloscope we had tons of fun moving that dot around the screen. So this “first game” involved 8 crt's and allowed the user to change the trajectory of a missile by adjusting the dials, sounds fun. But after this people did start to play with the idea of games on computers, but these were only things such as tic-tac-toe and checkers and so not much new in a way of games. It wasn’t till 1958 that William Higinbotham created another game on the oscilloscope called "tennis for two" (sounds like the start of pong to me).

Tennis for Two on an oscilloscope!

So that's technically the birth of the video games, but then came the use of really using a computer for video games, and in 1962 Steve Russell created, "Spacewar!” a game to go down in history. Steve Russell was a computer programmer/computer scientist many argue he actually gave birth to the industry of computer games, and it wasn’t just the fact he made one of the first games, he made such a great game to set it off that it’s no surprise the market is as big as it is now.

The Orininal Spacewar!

Then along came Ralph Bear, who some say pioneered the video game industry. Ralph actually first hypothesized playing games around 1950, but it wasn’t till 1966 that he actually managed to start making his idea a reality. With a Bachelor of Science degree under his belt and working for Sanders Associates, him and a small team set work on making a game playable on a TV set, and then completed it in 1967. The game again was fairly simple, involving a dot, chasing another dot, around a maze, (hmm this sounds like where Pacman may have came from). This then evolved into the first home consol, but lets save that for another random dribbling.

http://spacewar.oversigma.com/ - a link to a java game that is pretty faithful to the original game.

Week One - Whats with all this blog malarkey

2007-10-24T14:00:00.000+01:00

Blogging, I’m starting to see a general trend within peoples opinions of blogs, nobody actually likes them, but yet it’s fairly easy to rant on about random stuff, I mean that’s all I’m doing right now, and I’m sure I’m suppose to have some sort of task, of something, of a kind…

Honestly I don’t like this week one task, how the hell am I meant to randomly surf the net and find a blog I like and then write about it, it’s not going to happen I’m telling you. And that’s because I don’t like to read about peoples randoms in there life, and yeah okay there are lots of different types of blogs, not all of them are about how some guy woke up and had 3 pieces of toast instead of his usual 2, but how am I meant to stumble across something really good that’s going to interest me by random lurking.

So anyway it sounds as if my opinion isn’t far from most peoples then, and now I’m going to do the typical top gear thing where I start saying how bad it is, but then actually it’s a good thing all these things happen. The fact you can rant on about something is pretty good, even if no one reads it, normally you would have all these thoughts flying around inside your head with no order, I suppose putting them down sorts them, and also makes you think, I mean I’ve always had 2 pieces of toast at a time, why not have 3, I mean do 2 pieces really fill you up. Anyway I’m not going to dribble on as I would imagine this is probable getting boring now, but I can see my self using this blog from time to time to dribble on, and if not, well it’s not the end of the world now is it.

So blogging, yeah randomness at it’s peak. And I’ve just read back what I’ve wrote, and damn it’s awful lol, but I’ll keep it there to remind me what not to do in my future blogs, (and the fact I don’t want to start again lol), so yeah I bet your all looking forward to my next blog now lol,

Jason.

First Impressions of Game Art

2007-10-15T17:42:00.000+01:00

So it's the start of the third week of the course and it looks like it's shaping up to be a damn good 3 years. I like the idea of doing a blog assignment every week instead of a thousand word essays as I’m useless at them, so thought I'd just give my first blog a go now, do enjoy!

There is a lot more of the artistic side to the course such as observational drawings and concept art on Photoshop, which I wasn’t actually expecting but I’m really happy it's there as I was staring to miss 'proper art' lol. But saying that as much as I enjoy doing drawing and the like, I can see it being a lot of work, Chris has already emplaced his fear lol, but as he said it's all work worth doing to develop further in the course and the industry.

I think the first things the second years told us was "3DS Max, you will probably hate it right away, but learn to love it over time", lol I can already seeing this becoming very true. The water cooler project showed us this, as last lesson we were all shouting at our pc's for it not doing what we said, but I think we all came out with something we were proud of.

So yeah it's all shaping up nicely and I look forward to some more game art mayhem in the coming weeks, Jason.

P.S. I thought you'd all just like to know (especially Mike) it's my cats birthday on the 5th of November, she's called Nala and she'll be about 14 years old, enjoy the picture!!

Nala's the ginger one on the right, the other one is keema.