My end of year evaluation

As well as my own evaluation on the PPP module I had to do a presentation expressing my views and experiences on the entire year. I had, like everyone else, a limited amount of time to make what I wanted to make for the presentation. I utilised my time and decided to use my old game space for the 406 module because when i made the game space I already had the intention of using it to also create my presentation. This worked out well for me as the quality of the game level was high and the pictures i included are entirely relevant and in my opinion (i don't really know) interesting to listen to me talk about. I feel I did rather well elaborating on the 50+ pictures i included in the scene and feel that this course has really helped e open up to presenting my work in front of people as i was terrified of doing so at the start of the year but it doesn't really bother me now at this stage, in fact I enjoyed presenting my work and letting everyone experience what i have created, this was my aim and goal to get out of the course and am really happy that at even a small level i achieved this and look forward to presenting more in the second and third years and eventually presenting my work out in the world and industry, and being confident about it.

This was the game space I presented and think it quite well showed how I work and how I interact with work and present it.

Wacom Tablet

I recently bought a Wacom Intuos 4 graphics drawing tablet and thought I would review it in terms of how good it is, was it worth the money and what other people thought of it.

Firstly how good is it?

Well personally I have found the drawing tablet to be perfect for myself in terms of quality, in that it is spot on, wearage, in that it hasnt at all, and looks, in that it looks very nice to just have around your desktop.

Was it worth the money? as of yet i dont think i have fully used the tablet to an extent where paying £280 has justified it but i think with the quality of the product and that it will last for yesrs i can see myself getting a full useage of the product as what i payed for it if not more.

Here is a review of the item which i used to base my judgment on for buying it. -

This is the second tablet I've used from Wacom, the first being a very basic Graphire Series A6 tablet. I've mostly used it with Adobe Creative Suite and CAD software, where precision is fundamental, and the Graphire has met the job on most occasions apart from super fine work in Photoshop. However, the nib has eventually worn out and it was time for a new tablet, so the choice was either the Bamboo (which is a basic tablet, but good value for money) and the new Intuos 4.
Eventually, it was the greater precision and functionality that persuaded me to buy the Medium size Intuos 4, and it's been fantastic.

The new OLED function buttons are a fabulous idea and enable you to see at a glance what the functions have been assigned to a particular program. Please note that the small tablet does not have these OLED markings.
The pen is sturdy, and well balanced which means you can use it for a long time without being tired. In addition the new scroll wheel (like the IPod of old) on the tablet, enables you to assign scroll or zoom function to it, which means you end up using both your hands and less time on the keyboard.

Three minor criticisms are:
1. The glossy black plastic where the function keys are, which looks great when you first laid the tablet  onto the desk, but soon becomes covered with greasy finger marks.
2. The rubber on the pen picks up dust easily, so make sure you keep it in the dedicated pen stand to avoid this issue.
3. The function buttons have to be assigned when the program is running on your computer. Surely, most of these (giant) companies can come with downloadable default settings for the Wacom tablet to enable configuring this a lot less time consuming, as they're often duplicated in the software.

I would have given it 5 stars had the price been a lot cheaper, so shop around. However, with the free software bundled in: Adobe Elements, Corel Painter etc it makes the tablet worth every penny.

Alan. y Chan

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B0021AEEIQ/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Overall I am 100% happy with the purchase and even though it was a lot of money it is a big part of what i want to do in the future and think it was an essential buy to put me on my way to work in the industry.

Evaluating PPP...

I have decided to evaluate PPP itself and try to get my head around all I have researched throughout the year. What my initial thoughts are, are that even though 25 seems like a lot of posts, a whole year has gone by but i have still managed to come short in posts as i am required. This is not due to a lack of things to blog about but about myself as a person. I do believe i have progressed even though I don't think I have fully met my potential blogwise, but this year as a whole i have learned so much and progressed so much it is hard to explain it all. I know that time management is a key thing to focus on when it comes to doing work next year but I can stress that i understand its importance due to the fact that i am writing this with about half an hour until hand in deadline. I WILL MANAGE MY TIME BETTER!

Diablo 3 Beta / Actual Game

I luckily checked the Diablo 3 website the weekend that Blizzard decided to do an open Diablo 3 Beta stress test, the test lasted for three days over the weekend and most of monday but since the test was a stress test the servers didnt really come up until 4-6 hours after they were launched. I played for most of the weekend and found that the expectations i had of the game were right, I found the game really fun and very easy to get into, this is what the designers of the game wanted, shown in this designers interview I also had a look at.

 

I find these behind the scenes of games videos very useful and its nice to know how the people behind the games I play so much, work and think.

I think that with playing a beta of a game it is useful for feedback which compares the beta to the changes they have made in the real game and if they were good changes or not. I think everything that had been introduced into the game as a result of feedback from earlier beta and alpha tests have been primarily good ones. Players have said that the difficulties for example are a little easy and that there is not a great challenge in the game, i had to agree with this until i played the hard mode of the game, it brings an entirely new dimesnsion of gameplay and teamwork that i think Blizzard have incorperated in very well (looking forward to inferno difficulty).

Another thing that had been changed (or rather not changed) based on feedback would be the death penalty, unlike the earlier game where if a player died they would lose all their armour and a bit of experience the new death penalty is a measly 10% armour durability reduction, this has made many players question is there actually any reason to try not dying, this makes the game overall a little more casual, something a hardcore gamer may find displeasing.

Overall though i think Blizzard responded to feedback very well and have without question created one of the most memorable games that will come out in a long time.

Cyriak

Cyriak is an animator that we were invited to go see, its not exactly my kind of animation but his work definitely has a certain style in itself. Shown in this video you can see that his work is quite strange, these days original ideas sell, and this stuff seems to be original enough to be famous and sell.




From this study i can say that even crap can sell.

Copyright Laws

In one of the PPP afternoon lessons we had we were told about the importance of copyright and its laws. Not only is copyright a serious issue in almost every market industry but i have noticed a warning on the bottom of all the briefs we get given on this course, it reads - Plagiarism is a serious matter which can attract severe penalties and permanent exclusion from the College.
This was further expressed to us by our tutors and the pitfalls and obsticles copyright can bring to a students work and career.

Animation Studio - Distant Future

Quite a while ago we were visited by a former student of this course and it was interesting to see how a student that was in the same position as i am in now has got on after passing this course. The student i think his name was Richard told us about the struggles he faced in getting work after the course, he talked about how it took a very long time to break even and to get work as a small animation studio. This is not exactly my problem as i want to advance in a career in concept art and or game space design, although the difficulty will probably be about the same.

The team Distant Future also talked to us about the projects they had undertaken and how they acquired the jobs that they got. I was surprised at how easy it is to make connections in the industry and that seems to be one of the key features in getting work and advancement in all the industries that this course is preparing us for.

http://www.distantfuture.co.uk/

Lecture - Sectors and Services

From looking at other students blogs and notes i remembered what the Sectors and Services lecture was about, it was about the primary 3 sectors in industry and how they are funded and managed. There are 3 main sectors in industry, these are the Primary Sector, the Secondary Sector and the Tertiary Sector. From what i have learned the creative industry is in the third of these of categories and is the least funded of the three. I think the creative industry has a larger risk factor than other industries and this is one of the reasons it is less funded as higher ups decide that it is not essential, this is a little contradictory of the government since they try to approve small businesses but wont fund them. I will do a little more research into the small creative industry companies out there to see how i might fare, i will do this in my own time as i am seriously considering creating a small games company business and need to do a lot of research to be able to get going and learn more about everything involved.

Lecture - Writing an Evaluation

So we had a lecture on how to write, i cant quite remember this lecture because i dont know if i missed it or not but i know that in my blog over the year i have gotten better in my writing. These final few rushed blog posts are not my best example but i know myself that writing, writing, and writing some more has gotten me better at it over the year. I remember one thing though, that writing professionally is always a bonus in any industry because anyone could look at your blog at any time, and that being prepared and having a professional looking page representing you as a person is always good.

Sound Design Industry

I recently did some blog posts on the game design module which talked about the processes used to create my game space, also addressed the issues and problems i had as well as talked about the sound i used and how i got it in, in my game. I have come more and more to realise that sound in ANYTHING makes a massive difference, in games, films, videos and pretty much anything sound adds to the experience.
From also seeing some of my class mates end of year presentations I have come to realise that any of the films or animations made that included sound make a much larger impact on me than silent presentations.
I wish for my presentation that i had included sound and will definitely be doing so in the future.

I found a good website which evaluates and explains why and where sound design in games is good, I found it very insightful and got me thinking about games I forgot that I had played and noticed things i hadn't the first time i played the games. Here is the website that i found.

http://filmsound.org/game-audio/

Lighting Game Space

One of the defining feature i would like to think of my game space is that the lighting is very dynamic and adds a certain mood to the environment, much like a previous study i have done on gears of war, i would just like to add how lighting can define a game as good or bad when it is such a big factor in a game and when you can tell a lot of work has been put in to that aspect of the game.

The contrast between the light and dark makes the bump mapping and textures stand out and look in my opinion a lot better. This is something i have gone for in my own level.

The way shadows and the shading in the game work make objects look overall more 3D and nicely textured, and in contrast more realistic is another of recent games defining features. 

I have added light into my own game and tried to catch the contrast between light and dark by widening the gap between the levels at which light is managed. eg light things are lighter and dark things are darker (not as much grey) 

Some of the points mentions i hope are portrayed in this image of my game space.

Final Problems Game Project

My biggest problem with this project is that i had to remove my terrain after hours of trying to figure out why my game crashes on opening in Unity. I must have a corrupted file in the terrain assets folder because i have imported it again and again and it still seems to error every time, I eventually decided to go without a terrain and it may bring away from my final game experience but it will have to do.

My Game Sound

One of the final things I added to my game space was sound, i only used two simple sounds but think they work well in my small area, the sounds i used were a fire crackling, as part of one of the main features of my game the fire. also the rain outside the building which can be heard a lot louder when looking through the gap in the upstairs door. I used 3D sounds for both of these to add to the illusion of the space being real and i think it works, i thought about using windy noises and maybe some thunderstorm ones but decided against it when i had to remove the terrain from my game.

This is the sound editing tool, 3D sound is a little different to 2D sound in that 2D sound can be heard all around wherever the player is and 3D sound changes based on where the player moves around the scene.

Concept Art Developed

These are the most recent pieces of concept art I have done for my tavern, they show the colours and shape of the room and also the layout i have planned from the start.

This piece of concept art is mainly focused on the colour of the piece, I want to keep the whole level quite warm and wooded. 

This is the floor layout of my level, I believe I have stuck to this plan 100% as it is exactly the same in this layout as it is in my finished version. I had a long think about what a typical tavern looked like and also had a long search around the web to find inspiration. I came up with this layout entirely myself and am happy to say it is an original layout.

This is one of my earlier pieces I made right after making my first asset (the table in the middle of the room) and have stuck to this idea as i worked through the project.

PP presentation

I have decided to post my PP presentation of my idea of the gamespace because i have some moodboards i havent included online yet, this will show some of my working process and how i got to my finalised idea.

This final image is the scenography that i did for my game space, i think i stuck to what i wrote pretty well and will see how close i stay to my concept art in my game space later on.

Unity - Getting Started

So compared to Maya i am finding Unity to be the best program ever! Its interface and controls are a lot simpler and to me seem more practically placed than mayas controls, the modelling tools are not as up to scratch but thats why i can export from maya and import to unity, Unity as a whole is an easy to use program and once i have been taught the basics it feels like i can finally make a good game like i have always wanted to make.

Here are a few screenshots of me getting used to the basics of Unity.

These screenshots are of simple particle effects, these looked hard to make but just by playing with every setting the particle effects have i could easily make the effects i wanted. I also learned how to import my own photos and applying them into the effects.

Combined Gamespace Idea

Here is the idea I have settled on as a compromise to the two conflicting ideas i already had. Some of this has been shown in my PP presentation but this is what i am really happy with and will start planning and making in the near future.

The idea of this is that i will have a landscape with a tavern which the player will start in, and be able to see out of, this will effectively combine my idea of a fantasy tower and also keep in context why the player is in a tavern.