When I look back on the progress I have made on my blog, I think now that a blog entry showing the videos of what my level looks like now would of been nice, however with the website not uploading them, that idea had to be scrapped.
Character Designs: Another thing that would of been handy would of been my character designs being completed rather than having James Shaden finished at stage 3, leaving Dilby and Rider at stage 2. The designs in appearance came in 3 stages, stage 1 was the rough pencil drawings, stage 2 was the refined, black pen drawings and stage 3 was a finished photoshop version. This would of been completed but unfortunately for me, I have a drawing tablet with a pen that doesn't want to move with me, so I had to try with a mouse, I had Nicholas Rider partially finished at stage 3, however it was still messy and I didn't want to throw it on to my blog in such a messy state.
Along with main character designs, I wanted to add images of what the N.P.C's would of looked like in the game, but due to time being a factor I didn't have, I had to make do with only 1 type of N.P.C. being designed, and that was the elite soldier (enemy N.P.C.) which conveniently I had done in my art assessment and was something to add to the blog. But with that character I did a 3-d model too, however, it would of been the only 3-d human model on the blog and I personally thought it would of been better if I still had the models for James Shaden and Nicholas Rider, but since they were on my lost hard drive, I couldn't use them, so I left out the Elite Soldier model. And looking back now, I think I should of added it to the blog.
Screenshots: I could of added the screenshots of my 3-d, untextured models of my level, however it had slipped my mind like a few other things. Along with 3-d models, I now think back and realise that I should of tried to add more props in to the design, even if they were insignificant and served no purpose, it would of added more of a story to the level, as the placing and textures of said objects would tell a story in themselves, such as what conditions are like there and what the effects are like on the objects.
For natural environmental things, I should of added more rocks to the wasteland, because even though a few optional missions may of required to go to a location out there, a few more rocks would of given the place more feeling rather than plain barren floor with nothing else.
Particle Effects: For other environmental add on 's, I would of included particle effects for dirt flying past in the wind and obscuring the players vision at some point, however I did not know how to make the particle effects go in a direction like it was being pushed by the wind, so I left it out, or else it would of made the level look very odd with a ball of dust floating just off the floor, and though it may of added more effect to the level, I didn't want to risk it. And speaking of particle effects, I should of had fire occurring in some places of man made section of the map, however since I was in a hurry with the temporary terrain, I didn't have time to decide where to add it.
Flare: And with 1 more to add to the visual effects of the map, I regret not adding a flare to the general location of where the sun was in my skybox, however, I had experimented with flares before and unfortunately they didn't not go well at all, so I thought my skybox without a flare would of been good enough, since it was a post apocalyptic looking level and the sky in that level was meant to be obscured and the sun was meant to be blocked off to a degree by the clouds, but a small flare would of increased visual effects just that little bit extra.
Textures: Too further add to the list, I see now that I should of added the textures and bitmaps that I had used in the level so I could show my use of texturing and my capabilities in it. However I wouldn't have added every texture I used as there would be too much room taken up. Also to add to textures, I should of tried to include bump maps to them to make the effects of the textures look even better, however I do not know how to do that, so I had to make do with what I already had.
Interfaces: I feel that in the interfaces section, I should of had more detail to the health and energy bar, and that I should have also included a menu when the player first plays the game, however I didn't add one because I couldn't think on what kind of background to have for it that would of been suitable for the style of gameplay. Along with that, I should of also shown what the interfaces would of been like for the "Mission Log", "Options" etc.
These are the things that I can think of at the moment that I feel should of been included in the blog, and I do regret not adding them, whether it was because I didn't feel it would of been right or if I couldn't.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Unity Screenshots- Manmade Environment
Man made/ Synthetic Environment
These Screenshots were taken of the Ruined town. A couple of low priority props were missing from this Environment such as 2- 3 light posts and a few destroyed telephone cable posts, even a destroyed car or 2.
Town Perspective
Building Screenshots
These are a couple of screenshots of a couple of buildings in the level.
These Screenshots were taken of the Ruined town. A couple of low priority props were missing from this Environment such as 2- 3 light posts and a few destroyed telephone cable posts, even a destroyed car or 2.
Top Down View
Town Perspective
Building Screenshots
These are a couple of screenshots of a couple of buildings in the level.
Unity Screenshots- Organic Envrionment
Organic Environment
Because the natural environment is a wasteland (similar to the wasteland in the movie "The Book of Eli") there aren't any tree's or plant life that would survive in those conditions.
Top D
own View
own View
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Videos- Man made/ Synthetic Environment
This video shows the man made/ synthetic environment of the level, it is considerably smaller than the surrounding natural environment, but that is because they contrast each other, showing that there is not much hope for anybody to survive in the wasteland rather than the town. This video was not recorded in the First Person Shooter assessment map as there were complications and the original level had corrupted so I reimported and did what I could, though it is missing a couple of props.
Below is the Link to Vimeo that shows Walkthrough Video 1: Manmade/ Synthetic Environment
http://vimeo.com/16761634
Below is the Link to Vimeo that shows Walkthrough Video 2: Natural/ Organic Environment
http://vimeo.com/16772652
Below is the Link to Vimeo that shows Walkthrough Video 1: Manmade/ Synthetic Environment
http://vimeo.com/16761634
Below is the Link to Vimeo that shows Walkthrough Video 2: Natural/ Organic Environment
http://vimeo.com/16772652
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Refined Map Design
REFINED DESIGNS
After compiling a series of sketches for the design of the level I had come to the conclusion that my original idea was too large and would have been too difficult to complete as there were streets that were considered to be irrelevant to the main game play. So after rethinking the approach to the design of the level, I decided to make it considerably smaller which would ensure that the player didn’t get lost like in the original idea.
Path Layout- Basic
The Layout of the accessible Pathways for which the player can take are shown below in the birds eye perspective.
After compiling a series of sketches for the design of the level I had come to the conclusion that my original idea was too large and would have been too difficult to complete as there were streets that were considered to be irrelevant to the main game play. So after rethinking the approach to the design of the level, I decided to make it considerably smaller which would ensure that the player didn’t get lost like in the original idea.
Path Layout- Basic
The Layout of the accessible Pathways for which the player can take are shown below in the birds eye perspective.
Path Layout- Refined 1
The image below shows the pathway mentioned above but is more refined and shows the basic width of each road and pavements. And a couple of pathways were added to the scene to make it a little bigger.
Town Layout
The image below shows the slightly more refined version of the pathway but also included the buildings and the [///] boxes show which sections in the buildings have been destroyed and therefore gives rubble and debris blocking sections of the pathways.
First Person Perspectives
- Entrance
Compared to the original design, not much had been changed at a first glance. Originally when the player first enters the gate they have to take a left turn into an alley way as the road is blocked by debris, but with the redesign, the debris moved from the road to the area where the alley way is as there is a semi collapsed building replacing the path. The other change made to the entrance of the town is the bridge, as originally it was designed to be a bridge over what used to be water flow, but it is now replaced by a extremely large plummet to the floor as the area next to the town and under the bridge imploded underground causing the giant craters and destroying a majority of the town in the process, and also leaving a large drop under the bridge. For this reason I had not added a new one to remove the debris on the road as
Town Pathway Idea
Thumbnails
The thumbnails below show only the key areas inside the town, as everything else is irrelevant and is ruined so little design needs to be put into them apart from
- Gate, bridges and buildings
Path Layout
The town will be winding and splitting, and leading to alleyways and dead ends as shown by the top down path plan shown below. But before I could go into further detail, I realised that the level was far too big and I had to drastically reduce its size to make it more suitable for a first level. But this was the original design
Entrance
The design below is that of the perspective of a man who is walking through the front gates and immediately the idea is given that the town is torn by the aftermath of the war, from the ruined outer wall which has blast marks and bullet holes, and the scenery within the gates may be low detail, but it is clear that the inside is in ruins too as buildings have holes in them, roads blocked by debris from fallen buildings and holes in the ground from explosive shells or some other explosive means.
Main Street
The design of the main street is that all of the buildings have a battle worn look to them since the town was purged. The buildings that survived have been converted into either business areas (such as trading salvaged items for goods and/ or services) or refugee areas. The building shown to be the most popular is the Strip Club since it is the area for which the player will get their main missions from and where people (who can afford it) can get services from the women there.
Sounds
The sounds I was thinking of using would vary, depending where the player was in the map, if they were out in the wasteland, there would be constant wind noises as the wasteland sands would be constantly shifting and out in the wasteland there is no wind resistance.
However within the town ruins, there would be a great deal more noises to be heard, even in the back alleys, where rats and occasional sounds of items falling can be heard.
Organic Environmental Sounds
(In the wasteland)
- Howling Winds.
Man made Environmental Sounds
(In the side streets)
- small wind noises
- sounds of scampering rats
- occasional sound of an object being knocked over by an unseen person.
(In the main street)
- sound of bustling activity
- people sounding distraught
- babies crying
- dogs barking
(In the repair shop)
- occasional sound of bell chimes
- occasional sound of coughing from store owner
- sound of items being tinkered with.
- faint sound of rats.
(In the Burlesque House)
- drunk men laughing
- small conversations
- women complimenting to try and seduce.
- talks between the "mayor" and his associates
(In the Rebel Base)
- Loud talking of action
- Equipment being tinkered with
- Equipment being moved around
- faint sound of a firing range
However within the town ruins, there would be a great deal more noises to be heard, even in the back alleys, where rats and occasional sounds of items falling can be heard.
Organic Environmental Sounds
(In the wasteland)
- Howling Winds.
Man made Environmental Sounds
(In the side streets)
- small wind noises
- sounds of scampering rats
- occasional sound of an object being knocked over by an unseen person.
(In the main street)
- sound of bustling activity
- people sounding distraught
- babies crying
- dogs barking
(In the repair shop)
- occasional sound of bell chimes
- occasional sound of coughing from store owner
- sound of items being tinkered with.
- faint sound of rats.
(In the Burlesque House)
- drunk men laughing
- small conversations
- women complimenting to try and seduce.
- talks between the "mayor" and his associates
(In the Rebel Base)
- Loud talking of action
- Equipment being tinkered with
- Equipment being moved around
- faint sound of a firing range
Priority List- N.P.C's
High Priority
Gang Member's
Repair Shop attendant
Trader (also in Repair Shop)
"Mayor"
"Mayor"'s Associates
Rebellion staff sargeant
Rutalian Elite Soldiers
Medium Priority
Optional quest givers
Rebellion Bounty Organiser
Rebellion troops
Wasteland Citizens
Low Priority
Stray animals
Burlesque Women
Gang Member's
Repair Shop attendant
Trader (also in Repair Shop)
"Mayor"
"Mayor"'s Associates
Rebellion staff sargeant
Rutalian Elite Soldiers
Medium Priority
Optional quest givers
Rebellion Bounty Organiser
Rebellion troops
Wasteland Citizens
Low Priority
Stray animals
Burlesque Women
Interfaces
For my level I have decided to do a few interfaces for what the player will see when they see the health and energy bar, the power and abilities menu. The Interfaces will all be using GUI and no 3-d writing as 3-d writing would require a stationary camera with a set background (which may work for small time games) but some of my interfaces (namely the powers and abilities menu) will have the game slow down so that it seems like the character has a split second to decide what power of ability they want to use, but after 3 1/2 seconds, the game speed will go back to normal as it would be an unfair advantage for the player to have the game pause during the abilities menu opening or slowing down to a near halt (a game that uses a similar thing is 'Prototype') which lets them have all the time they want to decide on their next course of action.
The Interface shown below is what the H.U.D. will look like. It will have Health in Red, the Blue bar next to it will serve 2 purposes, the first will be that it is additional health and can only be there if the player heals more than the red bar, the 2nd purpose is that it will be reserved for Critical attacks (when the player upgrades their character). The bar underneath health shows how much energy the player has in reserve, this can be recharged by purchasing vials that have the energy of the class inside it (i.e. a vial of energy for air manipulation would glow a colour of white + light orange light yellow, a vial of dark energy would be a dark midnight blue + dark purple and water would be glowing blue) and these would be put into an injector the player has in their inventory and once the player uses it on themself by injecting it in to their upper arm, their energy would refill depending on what sized vial they purchased.
The Health bars shown below are for the 3 characters the Top is for James Shaden, the Middle is for Jason Dilby and the bottom is for Nicholas Rider. The semi circles on the left will show a small image of the chosen characters face.
The Interface shown below is what the Start Menu would look like in Game should the player need to do anything such as gain skill points (i.e. weapons or power duration) or change their equipment. It also includes options, mission log, upgrades and a map. The circle in the middle will either show a 3d image of the chosen character of it will just be left black.
The interface shown below is the Abilities Interface, as mentioned, the top section is reserved for protection (water), Agility (Air) and Vision (Darkness), the left side if reserved for Offensive abilities for Darkness, Air and Water, whilst the right is reserved for switching between weapons and fists (or fist and claw should the player choose to be Dilby). The circle in the middle of this interface would show the face of the character that is being played and in doing so, only the skills for them specifically will show their colours whilst all other skills will be gray and unusable to the ch
aracter.
The Interface shown below is what the H.U.D. will look like. It will have Health in Red, the Blue bar next to it will serve 2 purposes, the first will be that it is additional health and can only be there if the player heals more than the red bar, the 2nd purpose is that it will be reserved for Critical attacks (when the player upgrades their character). The bar underneath health shows how much energy the player has in reserve, this can be recharged by purchasing vials that have the energy of the class inside it (i.e. a vial of energy for air manipulation would glow a colour of white + light orange light yellow, a vial of dark energy would be a dark midnight blue + dark purple and water would be glowing blue) and these would be put into an injector the player has in their inventory and once the player uses it on themself by injecting it in to their upper arm, their energy would refill depending on what sized vial they purchased.
The Health bars shown below are for the 3 characters the Top is for James Shaden, the Middle is for Jason Dilby and the bottom is for Nicholas Rider. The semi circles on the left will show a small image of the chosen characters face.
The Interface shown below is what the Start Menu would look like in Game should the player need to do anything such as gain skill points (i.e. weapons or power duration) or change their equipment. It also includes options, mission log, upgrades and a map. The circle in the middle will either show a 3d image of the chosen character of it will just be left black.
The interface shown below is the Abilities Interface, as mentioned, the top section is reserved for protection (water), Agility (Air) and Vision (Darkness), the left side if reserved for Offensive abilities for Darkness, Air and Water, whilst the right is reserved for switching between weapons and fists (or fist and claw should the player choose to be Dilby). The circle in the middle of this interface would show the face of the character that is being played and in doing so, only the skills for them specifically will show their colours whilst all other skills will be gray and unusable to the ch
aracter.
Priority List- Organic Environment
**NOTE:** Due to Blogspot not allowing me to post me neat priority listings (which is in Red, Orange and Green), I have had to resort to posting the text only.
The Organic essential of this level is larger than the manmade props as the environment surrounding the town is larger than the town itself as the entire level is, however a majority of the organic props is 1 prop alone, and the rest consist of large rocks that are found in the flat ground areas outside the town.
Priority List- Organic Environment
High Priority
Mountains
Imploded Craters
Dead End Valley
Basin Entrance
Basin Exit
Town Debris pile-up
Wasteland plains
Medium Priority
Low Priority
Exploded Craters
Dust Storms
Rocks
Large Boulders
The Organic essential of this level is larger than the manmade props as the environment surrounding the town is larger than the town itself as the entire level is, however a majority of the organic props is 1 prop alone, and the rest consist of large rocks that are found in the flat ground areas outside the town.
Priority List- Organic Environment
High Priority
Mountains
Imploded Craters
Dead End Valley
Basin Entrance
Basin Exit
Town Debris pile-up
Wasteland plains
Medium Priority
Low Priority
Exploded Craters
Dust Storms
Rocks
Large Boulders
Priority Lists- Man Made Environment
**NOTE**: Due to Blogspot not allowing me to copy + paste my neat tables of priority listings (which is in red, orange and green) I have had to resort to copying the writing only with no tables attached.
Priority list- manmade environment
High Priority
Berlesque House
Repair Shop/ Stall
Entrance Bridge
Safehouse
Rebellion Hideout
Gang Members hideout
Medium Priority
City Walls
Low Priority
Light Posts
Telephone Cable Posts
Destroyed Cars
Destroyed military vehicles
Makeshift Shanty town area
Priority list- manmade environment
High Priority
Berlesque House
Repair Shop/ Stall
Entrance Bridge
Safehouse
Rebellion Hideout
Gang Members hideout
Medium Priority
City Walls
Low Priority
Light Posts
Telephone Cable Posts
Destroyed Cars
Destroyed military vehicles
Makeshift Shanty town area
Game Genres
3. Question: How does a game’s genre affect the way its levels and environments are
designed? Choose one level from three different games—each from a distinct
primary genre—and compare how these levels are designed with regard to
setting, goals, puzzles, and risk–reward system.
Answer:
1. Strategy
Warcraft 3 is the best known Strategy based game, this type of game is ecstatically pleasing to the sky down view because since the units of the game are smaller and the map can be explored by the player quickly (instead of FPS which can take forever to travel 5km by foot in game). For this game the goals vary but most of them revolve around getting to a certain section in the map to finish the level, other goals may include time levels where the player either has to accomplish the goals within the limit or has to survive for said amount of time. The risk reward system is balanced out, such as, if the player encounters a large group of enemies that may be medium, the enemies will drop valuable items that the player can use since it may be difficult to do this, whereas singular easy/ medium enemies won’t drop anything or will drop something minor (unless it helps progress to another section of the level). Bosses will have a high risk reward ratio, since they are the most difficult to defeat and they will have items of great value in this level. Some levels may include puzzles such as finding your way through dungeons and caverns which act as mazes, or flicking switches for certain doors that will allow the player to continue. A strategy game such as this is set in a fantasy land with creatures and being that would not exist in this world, though this is common for many strategy based games, there are some that revolve around historical armies, such as age of empires or command and conquer. But like all strategy based games, the cost system is the common type and uses gold for spending on workers and soldiers and wood for resources for building buildings.
FPS
First person shooters are ecstatically pleasing for the first person perspective because it gives a sense of realism. The most well known FPS would be the Call of Duty series, the most favoured being Call of Duty Modern Warfare (and Modern Warfare 2) since they come with settings that would allow the players character to play the game with the players character taking and dealing damage like actual warfare. The strategies are realistic too as players make decisions that can be similar to official military strategists, which involve strike points for air strikes, calling in helicopters, acquiring U.A.V. support, in battle strategies involve placement of claymore mines, firing through walls and killing the enemy, throwing grenades into areas that will kill an enemy or cooking it to try and get a quick kill (cooking meaning pulling the pin and holding the grenade until the last second). The genre of this game is set in the modern time using modern military warfare which people can understand how the military works in combat and during training and a basic grasp on how the enemy tactics work. The goals for this game would be to reach the designated zone on each map as they have the keys to finishing the levels, each zone will vary, from retrieving secure and secret dossiers, to meeting up with the rest of your team after being separated, getting through enemy lines to get to a pick up spot, climbing to a high point for sniper assassinations etc. There aren’t any puzzles for this game type as it is all about reaching critical areas and killing the enemy along the way, however they do have tactic testing as the player will need to think on how to use stealth to slip past patrolling enemies, using stealth to kill enemies to progress further without alerting nearby enemies and other similar tests. The risk reward system is different between multi player and single player, single player is being able to finish the level using tactics that can keep the player on edge and aware, in multi player, defeating other enemies who may be more skilled than said player will yield achievements that will allow the player to have access to player mods, weapons and upgrades.
Puzzle
There have been numerous game that have incorporated the use of puzzles to test the users creativity rather than their skills at strategy and shooting or cutting up enemies. Though games that are puzzle based straight up can grab an audience's attention for a time, however, the ever popular shoot- 'em- up games take the lead for the gaming community. However, with this being said, there have been actions games, Shoot-'em-up or hack and slash that have incorporated puzzles into their game to make things more interesting and to keep the player on edge and to use their creative reasoning to try and reach the goal of the area. 2 types of these games that do this are the 'God of War' series who use puzzles such as pushing a box to a certain section of the room to allow the player to climb to safety before punji sticks spring up from the ground and kill the player. Or the Metal Gear solid series where the player must use stealth and problem solving to get to the goal undetected by stationed guards, or getting past security cameras, these puzzles are useful to put into games such as that so that shooting or cutting up enemies doesn't get boring and repetitive.
designed? Choose one level from three different games—each from a distinct
primary genre—and compare how these levels are designed with regard to
setting, goals, puzzles, and risk–reward system.
Answer:
1. Strategy
Warcraft 3 is the best known Strategy based game, this type of game is ecstatically pleasing to the sky down view because since the units of the game are smaller and the map can be explored by the player quickly (instead of FPS which can take forever to travel 5km by foot in game). For this game the goals vary but most of them revolve around getting to a certain section in the map to finish the level, other goals may include time levels where the player either has to accomplish the goals within the limit or has to survive for said amount of time. The risk reward system is balanced out, such as, if the player encounters a large group of enemies that may be medium, the enemies will drop valuable items that the player can use since it may be difficult to do this, whereas singular easy/ medium enemies won’t drop anything or will drop something minor (unless it helps progress to another section of the level). Bosses will have a high risk reward ratio, since they are the most difficult to defeat and they will have items of great value in this level. Some levels may include puzzles such as finding your way through dungeons and caverns which act as mazes, or flicking switches for certain doors that will allow the player to continue. A strategy game such as this is set in a fantasy land with creatures and being that would not exist in this world, though this is common for many strategy based games, there are some that revolve around historical armies, such as age of empires or command and conquer. But like all strategy based games, the cost system is the common type and uses gold for spending on workers and soldiers and wood for resources for building buildings.
FPS
First person shooters are ecstatically pleasing for the first person perspective because it gives a sense of realism. The most well known FPS would be the Call of Duty series, the most favoured being Call of Duty Modern Warfare (and Modern Warfare 2) since they come with settings that would allow the players character to play the game with the players character taking and dealing damage like actual warfare. The strategies are realistic too as players make decisions that can be similar to official military strategists, which involve strike points for air strikes, calling in helicopters, acquiring U.A.V. support, in battle strategies involve placement of claymore mines, firing through walls and killing the enemy, throwing grenades into areas that will kill an enemy or cooking it to try and get a quick kill (cooking meaning pulling the pin and holding the grenade until the last second). The genre of this game is set in the modern time using modern military warfare which people can understand how the military works in combat and during training and a basic grasp on how the enemy tactics work. The goals for this game would be to reach the designated zone on each map as they have the keys to finishing the levels, each zone will vary, from retrieving secure and secret dossiers, to meeting up with the rest of your team after being separated, getting through enemy lines to get to a pick up spot, climbing to a high point for sniper assassinations etc. There aren’t any puzzles for this game type as it is all about reaching critical areas and killing the enemy along the way, however they do have tactic testing as the player will need to think on how to use stealth to slip past patrolling enemies, using stealth to kill enemies to progress further without alerting nearby enemies and other similar tests. The risk reward system is different between multi player and single player, single player is being able to finish the level using tactics that can keep the player on edge and aware, in multi player, defeating other enemies who may be more skilled than said player will yield achievements that will allow the player to have access to player mods, weapons and upgrades.
Puzzle
There have been numerous game that have incorporated the use of puzzles to test the users creativity rather than their skills at strategy and shooting or cutting up enemies. Though games that are puzzle based straight up can grab an audience's attention for a time, however, the ever popular shoot- 'em- up games take the lead for the gaming community. However, with this being said, there have been actions games, Shoot-'em-up or hack and slash that have incorporated puzzles into their game to make things more interesting and to keep the player on edge and to use their creative reasoning to try and reach the goal of the area. 2 types of these games that do this are the 'God of War' series who use puzzles such as pushing a box to a certain section of the room to allow the player to climb to safety before punji sticks spring up from the ground and kill the player. Or the Metal Gear solid series where the player must use stealth and problem solving to get to the goal undetected by stationed guards, or getting past security cameras, these puzzles are useful to put into games such as that so that shooting or cutting up enemies doesn't get boring and repetitive.
Games from 80's, 90's and 2004
2. Question: Play three games—one from the 1980s, one from the 1990s, and one
released after 2004. Compare and contrast how levels and environments are
designed in all three games.
Answer 1980: Pac man- This game was very basic but very effective... It is a 2-D side view platform, which has different level’s and only uses pixels and sprites for the characters. However it is the same design of level with the exception of the enemies/ “Ghosts” being faster with each progressing level. The environment is the same level over and over after each level, it is just a maze which has 2 paths leading off screen, which unfortunately send the player to the other side (e.g. If the player goes into the left screen path, they will come out of the right path.
Answer 1990: Small Soldiers- This was a 3-D environment that uses 3-D characters too. The levels used nothing organic and was either rock, wood or metal and flat. The Game play was mostly shooter, however it did involve some puzzle solving as the player would need to think about how to overcome obstacles
Answer 2004: Unreal Tournament 2004- This game is a large FPS that uses 3-d environment which also includes organic models and textures unlike the previously listed game “small soldiers”. The game play has no story line to it, as all it is, is shooting the hell out of the computer and winning the match to progress further. There is no thinking to this game, such as overcoming obstacles or solving puzzles, only if you enjoy shooting people in the virtual world, then you can go all out to your heart's content.
released after 2004. Compare and contrast how levels and environments are
designed in all three games.
Answer 1980: Pac man- This game was very basic but very effective... It is a 2-D side view platform, which has different level’s and only uses pixels and sprites for the characters. However it is the same design of level with the exception of the enemies/ “Ghosts” being faster with each progressing level. The environment is the same level over and over after each level, it is just a maze which has 2 paths leading off screen, which unfortunately send the player to the other side (e.g. If the player goes into the left screen path, they will come out of the right path.
Answer 1990: Small Soldiers- This was a 3-D environment that uses 3-D characters too. The levels used nothing organic and was either rock, wood or metal and flat. The Game play was mostly shooter, however it did involve some puzzle solving as the player would need to think about how to overcome obstacles
Answer 2004: Unreal Tournament 2004- This game is a large FPS that uses 3-d environment which also includes organic models and textures unlike the previously listed game “small soldiers”. The game play has no story line to it, as all it is, is shooting the hell out of the computer and winning the match to progress further. There is no thinking to this game, such as overcoming obstacles or solving puzzles, only if you enjoy shooting people in the virtual world, then you can go all out to your heart's content.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
N.P.C's
Rutalian Elite Soldier; these soldiers are one of the higher division of soldiers within the Kingdom Army, they are trained to be the best marksmen in the world with any kind of weapon, but they are also trained in C.Q.B. (Close Quarter Battles) which deals with hand to hand or using their 2 handed swords. Their uniforms are light- medium armour; they wear chest plate that protects the ribcage, with pauldrons (shoulders), bracers, light armour on their legs, neck protection, light abdomen plating that looks like a six pack and a full helmet with a main, single optical lens that also uses night vision, thermal vision and ultra violet vision, and 3 smaller lenses on the side of the helmet for aiming guns, the helmet is also fitted with a gas filter.
Rough Sketch
Refined Drawing
Final Image
Wasteland Citizen; the clothing of the wasteland citizen is that of the salvaged look, their clothing is taken from whatever can be found in the ruins of the town, they wear multiple layers of clothing to protect themselves from the dust storms that are frequent from the aftermath of the battle that occurred there. They also wear clothing on their heads to avoid sand in their faces, many wear simple strips of cloth that make up a makeshift balaclava, but others also wear sunglasses or goggles to shield their eyes. The physical appearance of the people is that of malnutrition since there are few resources. The facial appearance of the men vary, but they all generally have 2 looks, the first is messy unkempt hair with roughly shaven/ unshaven faces and dirt smeared on them, the second is having rough shaved heads and rough shaved/ unshaved faces to try and keep their heads cool in the heat. The facial appearance of the women is generally alike, they all have messy, unclean hair and dirt smeared faces like the other citizens.
Wasteland Gang Member; the gang members are nearly parallel in appearance to the normal citizens, minus the gang tribal tattoos visible on their body which is exposed at all times to incite fear into the already fearful surviving citizens. The clothing that they wear is like the citizens, but their facial appearances are what gives away their identities, as many gang members have shaved heads (or skin heads) because their gang tattoos are etched on their heads and/ or faces, though there are a few who don’t have the skin head look, and opt for the unshaven, aggressive look, though their tattoos may be visible on their torso, one arm or both arms. And a majority of them carry a weapon on them at all times, which can range to a makeshift shiv to a metal pipe and even occasionally guns.
Mission Givers; the mission givers are put into 2 categories; the first are the main mission suppliers whose appearances are more cleaner than the citizens, since they are the authority of the town, they would live slightly more comfortably, the second type of mission suppliers are the citizens themselves who need a hand with something personal, the mission they give are optional to the player, though the rewards can help boost their character a little bit. The citizens are occasionally traps, as the gang members threaten to hurt them if they don’t get your attention, and with that the player would have to fight off a group of gang members (between 6- 8 should they get to a high enough skill level)
Rough Sketch
Refined Drawing
Final Image
Wasteland Citizen; the clothing of the wasteland citizen is that of the salvaged look, their clothing is taken from whatever can be found in the ruins of the town, they wear multiple layers of clothing to protect themselves from the dust storms that are frequent from the aftermath of the battle that occurred there. They also wear clothing on their heads to avoid sand in their faces, many wear simple strips of cloth that make up a makeshift balaclava, but others also wear sunglasses or goggles to shield their eyes. The physical appearance of the people is that of malnutrition since there are few resources. The facial appearance of the men vary, but they all generally have 2 looks, the first is messy unkempt hair with roughly shaven/ unshaven faces and dirt smeared on them, the second is having rough shaved heads and rough shaved/ unshaved faces to try and keep their heads cool in the heat. The facial appearance of the women is generally alike, they all have messy, unclean hair and dirt smeared faces like the other citizens.
Wasteland Gang Member; the gang members are nearly parallel in appearance to the normal citizens, minus the gang tribal tattoos visible on their body which is exposed at all times to incite fear into the already fearful surviving citizens. The clothing that they wear is like the citizens, but their facial appearances are what gives away their identities, as many gang members have shaved heads (or skin heads) because their gang tattoos are etched on their heads and/ or faces, though there are a few who don’t have the skin head look, and opt for the unshaven, aggressive look, though their tattoos may be visible on their torso, one arm or both arms. And a majority of them carry a weapon on them at all times, which can range to a makeshift shiv to a metal pipe and even occasionally guns.
Mission Givers; the mission givers are put into 2 categories; the first are the main mission suppliers whose appearances are more cleaner than the citizens, since they are the authority of the town, they would live slightly more comfortably, the second type of mission suppliers are the citizens themselves who need a hand with something personal, the mission they give are optional to the player, though the rewards can help boost their character a little bit. The citizens are occasionally traps, as the gang members threaten to hurt them if they don’t get your attention, and with that the player would have to fight off a group of gang members (between 6- 8 should they get to a high enough skill level)
Friday, October 15, 2010
In Game Controls
In Game Controls
The controls for the player are displayed on the image of the Xbox 360 controller below. The buttons may serve more than 1 action;
Right Trigger (RT), when it is tapped quickly once, it will made the players character perform a diving barrel roll/ evade to get them clear of an attack and when held down it makes the character go into sprinting.
The Left Trigger (LT) will open up a menu as long as the button is being held down, this menu will give 3 categories, each varying depending on what character was chosen.
James Shaden will have the categories of;
1. Powers (choosing ice attacks, water attacks or healing, all of which opens up another menu for these)
2. Protection (giving him the choice of a large ice shield when is used to ram down anybody in his path when sprint is held down, or armour which encases him in ice giving an ice human look.)
3. Weapon (Which lets the player choose which of his weapons to use)
Nicholas Rider would have;
1. Powers (manipulating the air creating dense air projectiles or
2. Agility (speeding himself up slowing down his perception of time making it easy for him to dodge incoming attacks and increasing travel speed.)
3. Weapon (Choosing which of Rider’s arsenal to use.)
Jason Dilby would have;
1. Powers (Being able create dark energy and consume people in it to regain energy or adding it to his attacks to increase damage)
2. Vision (Allowing Jason to go into multiple visions, such as thermal, energized or optic shine like Riddick from ‘Pitch Black’)
3. Weapon (Choosing whether Jason fights with his sword or his darkness swarmed left arm)
All Character Controls
The ‘A’ button lets the player jump.
The ‘B’ button lets the person grapple items/ people and throw them/ attack them or interact with mission givers and repair stalls.
The ‘X’ button engages hand based attacks.
The ‘Y’ button uses kick based attacks.
The directional pad is a shortcut to using the powers previously selected (left for powers, up for protection, agility or vision and right for Weapons). All power icons will be visible but the ones that don’t match the character will be left in gray and unable to be highlighted let alone used.
The Right control stick controls the players camera.
The Left control stick controls the characters movement.
The Right Bumper (RB) locks onto the players target.
The Left Bumper (LB) cycles through said targets that are in range.
**NOTE** Move and Jump were accidentally mixed, when I was making the button assignments.
My reason for most of the controls being set in the places, is that for A, B, X and Y, many actions games use those button assignments traditionally and they location of the buttons are also used on PlayStation controllers too.
1. A(Xbox) and X(Playstation) are used for the 'Jump' action.
2. X(Xbox) and O(Playstation) are used for actions/ interact/ pick up items.
3. B(Xbox) and Square(Playstation) are used mainly for 'Attack 1'.
4. Y(Xbox) and Triangle(Playstation) are used mainly for 'Attack 2'.
5. Left Control Stick for Xbox and Playstation both control character movement.
6. Right Control Stick for Xbox and Playstation both control the players camaera view.
As for the remainder of the assigned Controls, I had gone through a number of games and felt like their use of those controls did not suit the style of gameplay I was looking for, but the only one that comes close is the game "Prototype" which makes use of some of the controls similar to mine; such as the power menu button and the quick power select.
My reason for choosing game controls for Xbox 360 rather than Playstation 3 or PC are for 3 reasons.
1. Xbox 360 controllers are more comfortable to use (in my own personal opinion).
2. Playstation controllers L2 and R2 (comparable to LT and RT) require the buttons to be pressed in quite a bit as many of the Playstation 3 games require L2 and R2 to be this way (such as GTA 4's accellerating/ Driving forward in a vehicle whose speed reacts with how far down the button is pressed).
3. PS3 controllers are very sensitive and can ruin gameplay at times as I have tested at a friend's place who has a PS3.
Another Reason why the Xbox has been chosen over PC and PS3 is because PS3 games focus more on graphical games (meaning the PS3 focuses on games that have greater graphics that would be too much for the Xbox 360 and possibly PC just because of the 'blu-ray'). Xbox 360 has a lot of good games that focus on gameplay, and as a result are quite successful, as this game also focuses more on gameplay more than graphical effects.
The controls for the player are displayed on the image of the Xbox 360 controller below. The buttons may serve more than 1 action;
Right Trigger (RT), when it is tapped quickly once, it will made the players character perform a diving barrel roll/ evade to get them clear of an attack and when held down it makes the character go into sprinting.
The Left Trigger (LT) will open up a menu as long as the button is being held down, this menu will give 3 categories, each varying depending on what character was chosen.
James Shaden will have the categories of;
1. Powers (choosing ice attacks, water attacks or healing, all of which opens up another menu for these)
2. Protection (giving him the choice of a large ice shield when is used to ram down anybody in his path when sprint is held down, or armour which encases him in ice giving an ice human look.)
3. Weapon (Which lets the player choose which of his weapons to use)
Nicholas Rider would have;
1. Powers (manipulating the air creating dense air projectiles or
2. Agility (speeding himself up slowing down his perception of time making it easy for him to dodge incoming attacks and increasing travel speed.)
3. Weapon (Choosing which of Rider’s arsenal to use.)
Jason Dilby would have;
1. Powers (Being able create dark energy and consume people in it to regain energy or adding it to his attacks to increase damage)
2. Vision (Allowing Jason to go into multiple visions, such as thermal, energized or optic shine like Riddick from ‘Pitch Black’)
3. Weapon (Choosing whether Jason fights with his sword or his darkness swarmed left arm)
All Character Controls
The ‘A’ button lets the player jump.
The ‘B’ button lets the person grapple items/ people and throw them/ attack them or interact with mission givers and repair stalls.
The ‘X’ button engages hand based attacks.
The ‘Y’ button uses kick based attacks.
The directional pad is a shortcut to using the powers previously selected (left for powers, up for protection, agility or vision and right for Weapons). All power icons will be visible but the ones that don’t match the character will be left in gray and unable to be highlighted let alone used.
The Right control stick controls the players camera.
The Left control stick controls the characters movement.
The Right Bumper (RB) locks onto the players target.
The Left Bumper (LB) cycles through said targets that are in range.
**NOTE** Move and Jump were accidentally mixed, when I was making the button assignments.
My reason for most of the controls being set in the places, is that for A, B, X and Y, many actions games use those button assignments traditionally and they location of the buttons are also used on PlayStation controllers too.
1. A(Xbox) and X(Playstation) are used for the 'Jump' action.
2. X(Xbox) and O(Playstation) are used for actions/ interact/ pick up items.
3. B(Xbox) and Square(Playstation) are used mainly for 'Attack 1'.
4. Y(Xbox) and Triangle(Playstation) are used mainly for 'Attack 2'.
5. Left Control Stick for Xbox and Playstation both control character movement.
6. Right Control Stick for Xbox and Playstation both control the players camaera view.
As for the remainder of the assigned Controls, I had gone through a number of games and felt like their use of those controls did not suit the style of gameplay I was looking for, but the only one that comes close is the game "Prototype" which makes use of some of the controls similar to mine; such as the power menu button and the quick power select.
My reason for choosing game controls for Xbox 360 rather than Playstation 3 or PC are for 3 reasons.
1. Xbox 360 controllers are more comfortable to use (in my own personal opinion).
2. Playstation controllers L2 and R2 (comparable to LT and RT) require the buttons to be pressed in quite a bit as many of the Playstation 3 games require L2 and R2 to be this way (such as GTA 4's accellerating/ Driving forward in a vehicle whose speed reacts with how far down the button is pressed).
3. PS3 controllers are very sensitive and can ruin gameplay at times as I have tested at a friend's place who has a PS3.
Another Reason why the Xbox has been chosen over PC and PS3 is because PS3 games focus more on graphical games (meaning the PS3 focuses on games that have greater graphics that would be too much for the Xbox 360 and possibly PC just because of the 'blu-ray'). Xbox 360 has a lot of good games that focus on gameplay, and as a result are quite successful, as this game also focuses more on gameplay more than graphical effects.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
5 Objectives
Create at least 5 gameplay objectives relevant to your gameplay mechanics
1. Practice using powers (particle manipulation) against the Gang members that meet you at the town gate to try and kill you for your items.
2. Destroy Debris blockading the road; Make your way to Main Street but destroying the fallen debris blocking your path.
3. Interact with the main street guard to gain entry into that zone.
4. Use the characters skills and powers to defend the town against the small raid of gang members (must not let 10 citizens die)
5. Go to the burlesque house and talk to the de facto town 'Mayor' to initiate the chain of missions for the town before progressing to the new areas.
1. Practice using powers (particle manipulation) against the Gang members that meet you at the town gate to try and kill you for your items.
2. Destroy Debris blockading the road; Make your way to Main Street but destroying the fallen debris blocking your path.
3. Interact with the main street guard to gain entry into that zone.
4. Use the characters skills and powers to defend the town against the small raid of gang members (must not let 10 citizens die)
5. Go to the burlesque house and talk to the de facto town 'Mayor' to initiate the chain of missions for the town before progressing to the new areas.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
3 Gameplay Mechanics
2. Create at least three gameplay mechanics for your level. How do these
objectives relate to your original story idea?
a. Particle manipulation, this will let the players characters be able to control some of the particle effects (i.e. James Shaden’s manipulation of water, being able to turn it into ice or turn it into armour, therefore with any water particles near the character, they will be controlled. Nicholas Rider’s ability to manipulate the air, and with the level being set in such a dusty, ruined town, the dirt will be caught up in the attacks so it will show how much of the air is being used. Jason Dilby’s particle effects will originate from him since it is ‘shadow based’ and with it the character will be able to control these particles.)
b. Destructible environments, semi- destructible environments. With this game play mechanic, the fully destructible environments will be those of the minor items placed in to the level (i.e. cars, barrels, debris blocking the only path to the goal)
c. Interactive N.P.C’s; These N.P.C’s are split into 2 categories, these are main mission givers and optional side mission givers. The Main mission givers are found in the Burlesque house which is situated at the back of the town ruins, close to the safehouse/ save point and repair shop, these quest givers give missions that correspond with the players progress as they would need to finish a chain of missions from these N.P.C’s to progress to the next level. The optional side mission givers give the player a chance to do missions that would range from picking up something in one of the buildings to taking out a small group of gang members that may be attacking the area from time to time, but the player would get a few optional mission givers who are actually bait for the gang members to spring an attack on the player. There are unlimited side missions and about 10 main missions within the level before the next one can be taken under way.
objectives relate to your original story idea?
a. Particle manipulation, this will let the players characters be able to control some of the particle effects (i.e. James Shaden’s manipulation of water, being able to turn it into ice or turn it into armour, therefore with any water particles near the character, they will be controlled. Nicholas Rider’s ability to manipulate the air, and with the level being set in such a dusty, ruined town, the dirt will be caught up in the attacks so it will show how much of the air is being used. Jason Dilby’s particle effects will originate from him since it is ‘shadow based’ and with it the character will be able to control these particles.)
b. Destructible environments, semi- destructible environments. With this game play mechanic, the fully destructible environments will be those of the minor items placed in to the level (i.e. cars, barrels, debris blocking the only path to the goal)
c. Interactive N.P.C’s; These N.P.C’s are split into 2 categories, these are main mission givers and optional side mission givers. The Main mission givers are found in the Burlesque house which is situated at the back of the town ruins, close to the safehouse/ save point and repair shop, these quest givers give missions that correspond with the players progress as they would need to finish a chain of missions from these N.P.C’s to progress to the next level. The optional side mission givers give the player a chance to do missions that would range from picking up something in one of the buildings to taking out a small group of gang members that may be attacking the area from time to time, but the player would get a few optional mission givers who are actually bait for the gang members to spring an attack on the player. There are unlimited side missions and about 10 main missions within the level before the next one can be taken under way.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Character Design
CHARACTER DESIGN
Jason Dilby; like the reference image of the 3-d- model, Jason wears a ankle coat that is torn at the ends giving a ragged look, and the remainder of his attire also has the same effect, being torn at the ends. Instead of looking like he salvaged the clothing from somewhere, his facial features indicate the ragged look is from battles, as his face is etched with battle scars from some unknown origin. His left arm is permanently enveloped in the ‘dark matter’ that consists of his power, though it is unseen, it reaches up to his upper arm, and his fingertips on this arm have developed talon sharp claws that cut things very easily, even rock, this arm is also a natural armour of sorts as it is able to block basic attacks with relative ease. His weapon of choice is a single handed, double edged sword which is sheathed on his back when not in use, though neither blade nor sheath are visible. His hair is long, spiky and slicked back with the exception of a single bang of hair that curves downwards in front of his face, his face carries a total of 16 scars giving a veteran look, and the most intimidating feature on his face is his eyes; instead of having normal coloured eyes, his dark power has replaced his coloured iris and sclera a very dark midnight blue, almost black from a distance, giving a demonic feel to his intention
s.
Main Character Bio and Design Evolution:
James Shaden; as described he has a prosthetic right arm that is powered by the electric impulses in his nerves that have been connected, and it also stores highly pressurized water for use in battle when no water is available. He is proficient at dual wielding swords as he is shown to have, his dressing is comprised of a black t- shirt, dark flare- end jeans, combat boots and a dark ankle coat. His hair style is oddly shaped as he has side burns and his hair is sort of messy, the fringe and frontal section of his hair comes out and bends downwards near the ends. His age is of 25 and he has a physique is that of the lean, semi- muscular sort.
Nicholas Rider; he is shown to have more fluid and dynamic actions as shown by the action pose here. As described by his bio, he is trained in Ninjitsu and air manipulation, and as a result, he wears a ninja-esque suit which appears to be skin tight in some areas to give more wind resistance, increasing his agility. His weapons are dual Daggers as they are fast and silent as he was trained to be. His clothing also consists of armour which is a light metal to block enemy attacks to a degree and he also wears a mask that covers the nose down to avoid anything going into his mouth at high speeds. His hair is long and is not tied back in any way. He is of age 26 and his physique is that of an athletic muscular build as a result from training in speed and endurance.
Jason Dilby; like the reference image of the 3-d- model, Jason wears a ankle coat that is torn at the ends giving a ragged look, and the remainder of his attire also has the same effect, being torn at the ends. Instead of looking like he salvaged the clothing from somewhere, his facial features indicate the ragged look is from battles, as his face is etched with battle scars from some unknown origin. His left arm is permanently enveloped in the ‘dark matter’ that consists of his power, though it is unseen, it reaches up to his upper arm, and his fingertips on this arm have developed talon sharp claws that cut things very easily, even rock, this arm is also a natural armour of sorts as it is able to block basic attacks with relative ease. His weapon of choice is a single handed, double edged sword which is sheathed on his back when not in use, though neither blade nor sheath are visible. His hair is long, spiky and slicked back with the exception of a single bang of hair that curves downwards in front of his face, his face carries a total of 16 scars giving a veteran look, and the most intimidating feature on his face is his eyes; instead of having normal coloured eyes, his dark power has replaced his coloured iris and sclera a very dark midnight blue, almost black from a distance, giving a demonic feel to his intention
s. 
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Concept Development
Question 1: Using some of the techniques discussed in this chapter, begin developing a concept for an original game idea. Discuss the central theme of your idea, and the methods you used to bring your idea into existence.
Answer: The Theme for my Game is a 3rd person action game, it will let the character use ‘powers’, like Bio shock but not with the exact same powers and the character gaining them in the same way. There will be 6 major categories for these powers which control the elements, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Shadow, Light, and the player will get to pick a character whose power will vary from other selectable characters. I would use a particle system to help me with the characters powers and the environments, such as fire and dust storms.
Question 2: Create a back-story, environment, and three character descriptions associated with your original game idea. How are these elements integrated and linked through a central theme?
Answer 2.1 The Back Story- Many years in the future, when mankind’s power supply of oil was suddenly wiped dry, methods on how to gain new power sources were taken into consideration, and was revealed that mankind had some sort of connection with the elements which was dormant in the human body. Mankind wished to harness this power to help them survive as since the power source was depleted, world crime was escalating, and eventually into a global war, but during this war, a city arose from the ashes of the world, which would come to be known as “The Kingdom”, which was ruled over by a council of wise men and women alike, who had found the means to harness the new power, therefore offering a bright future for man. Calling these power imbued people “Elementalists”, they served the city and mankind by helping those in needs and defending it against all threats that over loomed it. But what wasn’t counted for was the most gifted of all these people, only one person from each category could be gifted at a time to attain the “God” level, where they had complete manipulation over their element. The ranks went from, Initiate, Average, Master and then the new God level. However, in the military rose a male Fire Elementalist named Mathew Rutals who secretly was in God status and used brutal tactics in getting to his rank, and eventually when his true power was revealed he gained control over this utopian city as its dictator in his floating nigh impenetrable castle and declared war on all those who refused to unite under their banner and serve them, finally in the final war, Rutals’ trusted officers turned on him and slew him where he stood, where he left a smouldering crater.
With the death of a God Elementalist their power would find its way into the next elementalist of the category that would become strong enough to become the new god. After the death of Rutals, the 2nd in command who was a Master Fire Elementalist became the new dictator and their bloodline continued as the rulers. Now over 100 years after that event, The Latest is a female fire master called Katherine Eve who is to become the next possible god of fire as she has shown more promise than her ancestors in gaining this long lost power. However a cult dedicated to the old god harnessed the power to resurrect him to his full potential, and in their sacrifice, they brought back the original God of Fire who instantly overpowered the current dictator and took the throne of the Kingdom for himself once more, eventually he learned the locations of all the other gods except the god of shadow, he captured the god of water and the Goddess of Light and had the Goddess of Earth join his cause. The God of Air was yet to be chosen. But in his infinite conquest for power, he travelled to a country (what was formally England) and challenged its best warrior to a fight for the fate of this land. The warrior was cut down before the eyes of his own son, who took up his father’s swords in a fit of rage and began to overpower him, much to Rutals’ surprise’ and left 2 large scars on his chest, one from left hip to right shoulder and the other from right hip to left shoulder, giving it the appearance of an X, after which he cut off the boy’s right arm and used his power to bring forth the power of the sun in his hand and launch it at the country, utterly destroying it.
Many years later a revolution began within the Kingdoms military, having a large number of soldiers break free and begin a resistance against Rutal’s campaign. Leading it are the masters of the elements and bringing into their resistance, is the Demi- God of shadow, Jason Dilby. Now the player will get to choose one character to control and begin a full on war with the God of Fire. - End of Back-story
Answer 2.2 Environment: The environment for this game would vary a lot, as it would be mostly free roaming (with some linear). The starting environment for the player would be based in a run down, ruined town where the environment around the town is dry and dusty, much like an apocalyptic perspective, closely similar to the environment from the movie “The Book of Eli”. As the Player progresses they will go on various natural landscapes such as going across frozen wastelands to the frozen shrines of water elemental tribes, trek across the forever expanding ocean of sand and see the village of earth elementalist warriors, climb the mountains of the lands to the temples of the ninjitsu learning air elementals, tread upon fire glazed lands where battles took place and walk through shadow infested lands. As for synthetic environments, there will be many ruined towns like where the player started, where hijacking of travellers and crimes are out of control, they will see the underground (literal) base of operations for the resistance, fight through the interior of a maximum security prison, run through the bustling and lively streets of The Kingdom and battle inside the halls of The Kingdoms floating palace. The environments will be able to have some interaction, such as marks on the walls if the player strikes it, or if bullets hit there, along with this, the environments will crack should something disturb them, such as earth elementalists shifting the ground.
Answer 3.3 Characters:
“Jason Dilby”- Jason Dilby is the demi- god of shadows and during the start of the story is the most powerful as he has a vast range of dark powers, such as being able to create black holes inside somebody or next to somebody and either killing them or transporting him to another area within eye shot. The effects of having dark power is the aggressive mutations of the user, dark spots appear on their skin and they begin to grow on the skin and change the appearance of the victim into something grotesque, as for Jason, his mutation is on his left arm, and as a result of his power, it acts as natural armour, along with the digits on his hand now being extremely sharp, giving his hand a talon like appearance. But with his power, it also spirals out of control after he is severely weakened, as a result the darkness on his armour grows up onto his whole body, increasing his size and power, but making him lose all ration thought in the process. Apart from his hand, his weapon of choice is his one handed sword he keeps sheathed and strapped on his back when not in use.
“James Shaden”- James is the most mysterious one out of all the resistance; whilst everybody’s history is known to the higher up’s of the resistance, James’ past lies in mystery as he never speaks of what has happening in his past, and all that is known is that he is probably the last survivor of the country that fell victim to Rutals’ latest ‘supernova’ bomb (Old England). He has uncanny swordsmanship skills when wielding his dual swords and is never seen using two hands on one blade, making people question how much more skill he holds. His right arm is an automotive prosthetic limb which is constructed from light and durable metals and is connected to the nerves where the arm stops. His power is that of control over water, at which is at high masters level, though he may be at this level he rarely uses this power and when he does, he can either control the temperature of the water either freezing it or boiling it. When in combat he releases the water that is incredibly compressed within his auto arm through its wrist and control the water and turn it into incredibly sharp shards of ice, but when in defence, he can also us the water in his body to heal the wounds that are inflicted on him. His attitude is that of the quiet type and rarely speaks unless faced with a troublesome situation.
“Nicholas Rider”- Rider is the fastest of the resistance as he is a man brought up in the temple of air in the mountains, studying the form of ninjitsu. He is an air elemementalist with master proficiency and with his ninjitsu training; he is an opponent that should not have eyes taken off of for a second. Though he was brought up as a pacifist and only used his skills in defence before joining the resistance, however Rutals had marched his battalion into the temple and slaughtered many of those who dwelt inside, and from that day he never hesitated to use his power against the military. His attitude is that of seemingly cheerful, optimistic and joking manners, he never lets his past stop his positive outlook on those he is with now. His attacks are mostly consisted of compressed and highly dense air that can knock many men on their backs and damage the exterior walls of a building. But his greatest talent lies not in offence, but defence, as he uses his control over the air to make himself lighter and not only make light quiet landings, but increase his speed dramatically to the point where enemies find difficulty following his movements.
Question 3: Document your concept with reference material and original sketches. How did you capture your reference images? Create thumbnails and silhouettes. Compile these images into an art “bible” to help guide your vision.
Answer: My environment was captured from still shots of the environment of the recently released movie “The Book of Eli” as the starting zone for the game will be in a mountainous wasteland where a ruined town resides. The Images of the town came from the same movie and various other sources as the town is either run down or recently destroyed leaving debris everywhere.
Answer: The Theme for my Game is a 3rd person action game, it will let the character use ‘powers’, like Bio shock but not with the exact same powers and the character gaining them in the same way. There will be 6 major categories for these powers which control the elements, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Shadow, Light, and the player will get to pick a character whose power will vary from other selectable characters. I would use a particle system to help me with the characters powers and the environments, such as fire and dust storms.
Question 2: Create a back-story, environment, and three character descriptions associated with your original game idea. How are these elements integrated and linked through a central theme?
Answer 2.1 The Back Story- Many years in the future, when mankind’s power supply of oil was suddenly wiped dry, methods on how to gain new power sources were taken into consideration, and was revealed that mankind had some sort of connection with the elements which was dormant in the human body. Mankind wished to harness this power to help them survive as since the power source was depleted, world crime was escalating, and eventually into a global war, but during this war, a city arose from the ashes of the world, which would come to be known as “The Kingdom”, which was ruled over by a council of wise men and women alike, who had found the means to harness the new power, therefore offering a bright future for man. Calling these power imbued people “Elementalists”, they served the city and mankind by helping those in needs and defending it against all threats that over loomed it. But what wasn’t counted for was the most gifted of all these people, only one person from each category could be gifted at a time to attain the “God” level, where they had complete manipulation over their element. The ranks went from, Initiate, Average, Master and then the new God level. However, in the military rose a male Fire Elementalist named Mathew Rutals who secretly was in God status and used brutal tactics in getting to his rank, and eventually when his true power was revealed he gained control over this utopian city as its dictator in his floating nigh impenetrable castle and declared war on all those who refused to unite under their banner and serve them, finally in the final war, Rutals’ trusted officers turned on him and slew him where he stood, where he left a smouldering crater.
With the death of a God Elementalist their power would find its way into the next elementalist of the category that would become strong enough to become the new god. After the death of Rutals, the 2nd in command who was a Master Fire Elementalist became the new dictator and their bloodline continued as the rulers. Now over 100 years after that event, The Latest is a female fire master called Katherine Eve who is to become the next possible god of fire as she has shown more promise than her ancestors in gaining this long lost power. However a cult dedicated to the old god harnessed the power to resurrect him to his full potential, and in their sacrifice, they brought back the original God of Fire who instantly overpowered the current dictator and took the throne of the Kingdom for himself once more, eventually he learned the locations of all the other gods except the god of shadow, he captured the god of water and the Goddess of Light and had the Goddess of Earth join his cause. The God of Air was yet to be chosen. But in his infinite conquest for power, he travelled to a country (what was formally England) and challenged its best warrior to a fight for the fate of this land. The warrior was cut down before the eyes of his own son, who took up his father’s swords in a fit of rage and began to overpower him, much to Rutals’ surprise’ and left 2 large scars on his chest, one from left hip to right shoulder and the other from right hip to left shoulder, giving it the appearance of an X, after which he cut off the boy’s right arm and used his power to bring forth the power of the sun in his hand and launch it at the country, utterly destroying it.
Many years later a revolution began within the Kingdoms military, having a large number of soldiers break free and begin a resistance against Rutal’s campaign. Leading it are the masters of the elements and bringing into their resistance, is the Demi- God of shadow, Jason Dilby. Now the player will get to choose one character to control and begin a full on war with the God of Fire. - End of Back-story
Answer 2.2 Environment: The environment for this game would vary a lot, as it would be mostly free roaming (with some linear). The starting environment for the player would be based in a run down, ruined town where the environment around the town is dry and dusty, much like an apocalyptic perspective, closely similar to the environment from the movie “The Book of Eli”. As the Player progresses they will go on various natural landscapes such as going across frozen wastelands to the frozen shrines of water elemental tribes, trek across the forever expanding ocean of sand and see the village of earth elementalist warriors, climb the mountains of the lands to the temples of the ninjitsu learning air elementals, tread upon fire glazed lands where battles took place and walk through shadow infested lands. As for synthetic environments, there will be many ruined towns like where the player started, where hijacking of travellers and crimes are out of control, they will see the underground (literal) base of operations for the resistance, fight through the interior of a maximum security prison, run through the bustling and lively streets of The Kingdom and battle inside the halls of The Kingdoms floating palace. The environments will be able to have some interaction, such as marks on the walls if the player strikes it, or if bullets hit there, along with this, the environments will crack should something disturb them, such as earth elementalists shifting the ground.
Answer 3.3 Characters:
“Jason Dilby”- Jason Dilby is the demi- god of shadows and during the start of the story is the most powerful as he has a vast range of dark powers, such as being able to create black holes inside somebody or next to somebody and either killing them or transporting him to another area within eye shot. The effects of having dark power is the aggressive mutations of the user, dark spots appear on their skin and they begin to grow on the skin and change the appearance of the victim into something grotesque, as for Jason, his mutation is on his left arm, and as a result of his power, it acts as natural armour, along with the digits on his hand now being extremely sharp, giving his hand a talon like appearance. But with his power, it also spirals out of control after he is severely weakened, as a result the darkness on his armour grows up onto his whole body, increasing his size and power, but making him lose all ration thought in the process. Apart from his hand, his weapon of choice is his one handed sword he keeps sheathed and strapped on his back when not in use.
“James Shaden”- James is the most mysterious one out of all the resistance; whilst everybody’s history is known to the higher up’s of the resistance, James’ past lies in mystery as he never speaks of what has happening in his past, and all that is known is that he is probably the last survivor of the country that fell victim to Rutals’ latest ‘supernova’ bomb (Old England). He has uncanny swordsmanship skills when wielding his dual swords and is never seen using two hands on one blade, making people question how much more skill he holds. His right arm is an automotive prosthetic limb which is constructed from light and durable metals and is connected to the nerves where the arm stops. His power is that of control over water, at which is at high masters level, though he may be at this level he rarely uses this power and when he does, he can either control the temperature of the water either freezing it or boiling it. When in combat he releases the water that is incredibly compressed within his auto arm through its wrist and control the water and turn it into incredibly sharp shards of ice, but when in defence, he can also us the water in his body to heal the wounds that are inflicted on him. His attitude is that of the quiet type and rarely speaks unless faced with a troublesome situation.
“Nicholas Rider”- Rider is the fastest of the resistance as he is a man brought up in the temple of air in the mountains, studying the form of ninjitsu. He is an air elemementalist with master proficiency and with his ninjitsu training; he is an opponent that should not have eyes taken off of for a second. Though he was brought up as a pacifist and only used his skills in defence before joining the resistance, however Rutals had marched his battalion into the temple and slaughtered many of those who dwelt inside, and from that day he never hesitated to use his power against the military. His attitude is that of seemingly cheerful, optimistic and joking manners, he never lets his past stop his positive outlook on those he is with now. His attacks are mostly consisted of compressed and highly dense air that can knock many men on their backs and damage the exterior walls of a building. But his greatest talent lies not in offence, but defence, as he uses his control over the air to make himself lighter and not only make light quiet landings, but increase his speed dramatically to the point where enemies find difficulty following his movements.
Question 3: Document your concept with reference material and original sketches. How did you capture your reference images? Create thumbnails and silhouettes. Compile these images into an art “bible” to help guide your vision.
Answer: My environment was captured from still shots of the environment of the recently released movie “The Book of Eli” as the starting zone for the game will be in a mountainous wasteland where a ruined town resides. The Images of the town came from the same movie and various other sources as the town is either run down or recently destroyed leaving debris everywhere.
The Characters/ N.P.C’s will be dressed in ragged, torn clothing, as if it was found in the wasteland somewhere or on the body of a dead person after they were searched for salvageable items on their persons, however one type of N.P.C that is easy to identify from a distance will be hookers, since they will wear scantily clad clothing to advertise themselves, because in a wasteland town where people need to survive, prostitution will be rife in an attempt to surive. The Criminals of the town will have the same kind of clothing, except what distinguishes them from the rest is that they stay in groups of 3 or 4, they carry weapons like shivs or pipes and they have distinguishable gang tattoos on their faces or on their torso’s if they have their chest visible. And the other opponents that will be crossed are the soldiers of Rutals’ who wear ribcage armour, gauntlets, shin armour and helmets.
Example Base for Wasteland Gang member (ragged look) - Jak 3 Concept art
Bases for Wastelanders clothing (and possibly hair stlye)
Example of gang tattoo
Hooker Base, minus the gun
The base look for the Soldiers is shown below
For the Characters, their looks will be based off the images shown
Jason Dilby and James Shaden base- collected from Deviant Art
Nicholas Rider base- collected from Deviant Art
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Game Design History
1. Question: Imagine that you are a level designer working in the 1980s. Knowing the
limitations associated with this era, what type of game would you develop?
Answer: I would develop a game that incorporated the side scrolling sprite games, a good example would be The Super Mario Bros. series which was an all time favourite for players during that era. I would be aware of the limitations and try not to be extravagent on details and story details.
Originally I would of gone for the text based games, which requires the players to type the actions of their characters with the corresponding environment, and text based games take up less CPU usage than the sprite based games. So on second thoughts I would choose the sprite game concept as it is easier for the possible player(s) to be able to be fully aware of what is happening with their character in the environment, and the game would get more points for visuals rather than text based games.
However I would not steal the unique idea of using plumbers as heroes that rescue a princess from a what would be turtle whilst collecting coins and stomping on small turtles and enemies that look like angry mushrooms with feet. Instead I would have characters that used powers over the elements, like fire, water, earth, air, shaow and light. Though this may have been tricky this would of been easily achieved through the pixels as each power would have a key colour to identify it, and would have some challenging parts to the game which would make the player think on how to overcome it.
limitations associated with this era, what type of game would you develop?
Answer: I would develop a game that incorporated the side scrolling sprite games, a good example would be The Super Mario Bros. series which was an all time favourite for players during that era. I would be aware of the limitations and try not to be extravagent on details and story details.
Originally I would of gone for the text based games, which requires the players to type the actions of their characters with the corresponding environment, and text based games take up less CPU usage than the sprite based games. So on second thoughts I would choose the sprite game concept as it is easier for the possible player(s) to be able to be fully aware of what is happening with their character in the environment, and the game would get more points for visuals rather than text based games.
However I would not steal the unique idea of using plumbers as heroes that rescue a princess from a what would be turtle whilst collecting coins and stomping on small turtles and enemies that look like angry mushrooms with feet. Instead I would have characters that used powers over the elements, like fire, water, earth, air, shaow and light. Though this may have been tricky this would of been easily achieved through the pixels as each power would have a key colour to identify it, and would have some challenging parts to the game which would make the player think on how to overcome it.
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