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DD2000 - Route to Industry - Research pt.4 - The moving

Now, from my previous post, you can see how the companies I mainly want to work for are located in the United States. In this post I will talk about what issues I will have with that.

As much as I do not like to bring in the race card, me being a muslim in this day and age does make things a tad bit difficult.

As you may or may not know, a lot of stories that come out in regards to south asian people going to the US isn’t a lot of fun. I am not talking about the people as most of the people I have met are very nice but more in regards to the security situation, which makes travelling hard.

I would absolutely love to go to America, as it is in my opinion a beautiful and huge country where a lot of the best developers that make my favorite games are based.

However, I still have to be realistic and think about what I can do in order to prepare with the current situation in mind.  How should I go, when should I go and with who are some of the key questions I am researching at the moment. There were quite a few developers who were blocked from GDC recently due to them coming from countries that were a potential security risk. It did make me think a few times whether that was something I was morally happy with even though being a UK citizen I should not have an issue.

The game companies like Ubisoft which are in Europe won’t be that hard to go to and the main barrier will be language especially in France, where French is majorly used even on signs and documentations. So, this is something else I have to keep in mind when applying for roles outside UK.

Japan is another place where some of the most wonderful studios are based, like Tango Gameworks as I have mentioned before, but there is again a language barrier, and like French the language isn’t easy to learn. So with all of this, I will have to keep in mind what moving will entail, the challenges I will face and how I can prepare.

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DD2000 - Route to Industry - Research pt.3 - Studios I want to work for

In the last post I talked about the people who inspired me through games design, in this one I would like to list out the companies that first come to mind when I think of where I want to work and what they are well known for. Not to mention I also list out where they are based, which will be a key point in my upcoming presentation.

Santa Monica Studio

Notable work: God of War Series

Based at: Santa Monica California

Sucker Punch Productions

Notable Work: inFamous series, Sly Cooper series

Based at: Bellevue, Washington

Guerilla Games

Notable Work: Horizon Zero Dawn, Killzone Franchise

Based at: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Naughty Dog

Notable Work: The Last of Us, Uncharted Series

Based at: Santa Monica, California

Ubisoft

Notable Work: Splinter Cell franchise, Assassin’s Creed series, Far Cry series

Based at: Worldwide

insomniac games

Notable Work: Spiderman, Ratchet and Clank

Based at: Burbank, California

Tango Gameworks

Notable Work: The Evil Within series

Based at: Shibaura, Tokyo, Japan

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DD2000 - Route to Industry - Research pt.2 - industry experts that inspire me

In the last post, I talked about what role I wanted but more importantly why I wanted that. Not to mention certain role descriptions were found and I talked about how they applied to me. In this post I will be look at some key designers that have inspired me to work in this industry.

Cory Balrog

Cory is best known for his work on one of the most iconic games of all time, the God of War series which has just recently seen its latest and perhaps the most critically acclaimed entry released. Cory’s time in the industry was perhaps best summarized during his time with Santa Monica, the parent studio of God of War.

Cory originally started as the lead animator for the first God of War at Santa Monica. After which he was promoted to the creative/game director for God of War II. It was also the game that won him a BAFTA for his writing on the game. God of War is not the only title he is known for, but Mad Max as well which he worked on during his absence from the studio, not to mention he also directed the cutscenes for Tomb Raider Reboot. Both these games were subject to critical acclaim and were applauded for their sense of storytelling and direction.

What I really like about him

The best quality about Cory in my opinion is not only the fact that he is exceptionally creative but the fact that he doesn’t give up and fights for his ideas which people think will never work.

Take his work on the latest God of War and in contrast Tomb Raider for example. Originally, Cory pitched the idea of a one-shot gameplay to the team which would not cut or fade out, except when the players died.

The idea was promptly rejected, but Cory didn’t abandon it, as when he came back to work for Sony, he implemented that idea in God of War and it was universally applauded. Not to mention he fought for the changes that has made the latest God of War the best rated Meta-Critic game so far. It’s this willingness to not give up on his ideas that really makes me look up to him.

Rami Ismail

More commonly known as half of Vlambeer, the developer responsible for acclaimed games such as Luftrausers and Nuclear Throne, Rami Ismail has worked on various indie games that have been unique and different.

He was originally a games design student who dropped out from a games design course (more on that later) who went away with Jn Willem Nijman to go and create Super Crate Box.

What I really like about him

Firstly, he stands up for what he believes in. The main reason he left the course at his university was because they were demanding the rights to the game he was working on, which understandably rubbed Rami the wrong way, and he took a stand to leave and start his own group with his friend.

He also usually stays away from giving out offers on their game as he believes that the value they set for it is what they deserve, showcasing the belief in their product. This is different compared to most other indie developers who jump on the chance to discount their game in order to get a temporary boost in sales.

He really does a lot for the indie developers, and has even created tools like the dopresskit which has been set up to help indie developers lighten the responsibilities of marketing and creating press releases, allowing them to better focus on their games. In fact he has even received the GDC Ambassador Award for his outstanding contribution to indie developers.

Lastly, Rami’s a Muslim which is such a different thing compared to most other developers on this list. It resonates with me, as I have had an upbringing in a Muslim culture, where anything related to the entertainment media is frowned upon and it gives me inspiration.

Neil Druckman

I think not much of an introduction is needed when you recount the fact that Neil Druckman wrote the story to what is arguably called the best game The Last of Us completely by himself. Oh and he co wrote Uncharted 4 with Josh Scherr. In fact, any of the instant classic you can think of from Naughty Dog, such as Jak and Daxter, Uncharted, lost legacy, you can be sure Neil was one of the people behind the steering wheel.

His history is just as diverse as his portfolio having started as a programming intern, before being promoted to a full time position as a gameplay programmer a few months later.

What I really like about him

Above: Ewan Wells (President of Naughty Dog)

People were insistent on him not becoming a designer. As mentioned above, Druckmann started as a programmer, and the co-president of Naughty Dog, Evan Wells at that time rejected his demands to become a designer everytime Druckmann asked. He finally caved in but only if he completed his design work after his working hours. Of course, Druckmann more than proved himself after Jak X, being put into the role of a game designer for Uncharted: Drake’s fortune.

This just showed the commitment from Neil, and how much he fought for what he wanted to do. Just like the other developers on this list he showcases that hardwork and perseverance can get you results, so not to give up.

Furthermore, it’s the way he focuses on complex characters but simple story that brings home a driving point as to why people love his characters and ultimately games a lot.

Jade Raymond

Jade Raymond has had a diverse portfolio, where she started working as a programmer but quickly due to her talent, hardwork and skill became a producer. In fact she was the creative charge for one of the biggest franchise Assassin’s Creed, helping it’s inception.

After this she worked on games like Assassin’s creed II, Splinter Cell Blacklist and most importantly Watch Dogs. Now, I completely understand that Watch Dogs wasn’t a huge critical success, but it still stands as one of the most intricate games in recent history with some of the best tech behind it.

What I really like about her

Not only is she known for some of the biggest IP, but they were all at one point brand new ones, that Jade Raymond managed to get shipped and finished. As you know, a lot of companies find it risky to create new IPs, preferring to work on sequels to games that have been a proven hit.

Also with every interview I have seen of her, she is always confident about what she does. You can see from this why she has been so successful, not only due to her proactiveness but also her confidence. She is a good inspiration for how to present yourself as well as come off.

 She also always speaks about how much the game industry needs to take care of its creative individuals, and at the BAFTA Games Lecture 2015, where she was the first woman to give a lecture she talked about this in depth and how the industry was letting down its strongest asset. This was another one of her fantastic producer qualities shining through in my opinion, again bolstering why she is where she is.

I can go days and days talking about different creative directors, designers and producers, however for now I will pick these three, as they all resonate with me.

Cory’s experience tells me not to give up, and believe in my best ideas in order to make them work. 

 Rami comes from a similar culture, where he has had to fight again adversity and stand up for himself and other developers

Druckmann focuses on characters just as much as me, since I too like pitching characters first story later.

Lastly Raymond is a stellar example onto how you should be thinking about the industry in order for you to not only thrive but the creative talent you come across as well.

For me it was important that I looked at a diverse selection of people, as my characters and games are really different and break the standard western tropes. My characters are different, they are human and not your regular american heroes. They struggle and they will show you things that a lot of people struggle with. In order to do justice with that, I will have to learn from Cory’s experience and not give up. I have to look at how Rami helps not only himself but fellow developers. I need to study the work of Druckmann as he like me focuses on characters and lastly I have to be as confident and driven as Raymond if I am to succeed in this industry.

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DD2000 - Route into the industry - Research pt.1 - The Role

Due to my previous experience directing short movies as well as studying courses related to creative writing, I have always had a flair for story-telling and coming up with multiple ideas. However, the strongest thing about them wasn’t about what was going to be the world’s back story or what kind of world the people would live in, however it was about people and their relationships, the issues they got caught in and how I could show those scenes. These were fleshed out ideas where I had planned each shot down to detail.

Still even with that, I loved taking even existing ideas, and putting a twist on them or making them look good. Still, as I have said before it was never about what the idea was but how I was gonna show it.

According to Sokanu, creator of one of the best guiding Career tests, “A video game creative director is someone who makes sure a video game project looks fantastic in all aspects, and is often the creator of the game concept. He or she is responsible for the overall vision of the product, which includes game play, visual style, story, audio assets, cinematics, and marketing materials.”

True to this definition, I have always wanted to have a sort of creative director role in videogames, where I will get to work with various different departments and liaison with them and build that bridge between their work in order to tell an idea or make something look as good as it possibly can, and ultimately get the best from the people.

Another two paragraphs that were rather spot on from Sokany as well were: “The creative director has to find knowledgable and competent team members for a project, coordinate duties between departments, manage the budget, approve different stages of the project, and present ideas and materials to clients.”

“Like a film director, the creative director makes decisions on voice-over talent casting, audio recording, editing, and gets involved with the marketing of the game. Creative directors must have a vision of the finished game, must nurture and coach the studio towards that end, and have the foresight to anticipate the changing expectations of an audience.”

The definition above matches with what I have mentioned initially, in regards to having an experience with directing short movies and people, as I am no stranger to dealing with different departments and working with them in order to create a product that people like.

It isn’t about just me putting my own ideas across and making them into games, but it is equally as important for me to get idea from a collective group of passionate people and do it every bit of justice it deserves and show it how it was intended. In the next post, I will be talking about some of the key creative directors that have inspired me, and why they managed to make an impression on me. This will be followed by me talking about the studios I want to work for and why.

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DD2000 Route into the industry - Proposal

For my presentation, I will be focusing on what I want to do ultimately and how I plan to achieve it, as well as the designers I looked at and what they did to reach the milestones that I wish to reach.

The role that I am aiming for is that of a Creative Director, however understandably that has a long path before I can accomplish it, as some of the best directors working on it have been in the industry for ages. This is why I will be looking at certain director’s as to what they have done to accomplish their goal, and what their route to the industry was.

Through my research posts on the blog, you will be able to read the directors I have been looking at, what they have done and how they inspired me as well as what I can learn from them. I will also be looking at several entry level jobs and various different companies, and talk about the companies that I would like to work for as well and why.

Of course with some of the companies the element of moving will be involved as well, and I will look into that as well, as to what I can do to prepare and whether or not it will be worthwhile. For example, Ubisoft is in France, who is easier to reach then lets say someone like DICE who is based around Stockholm mainly. So All in all, various things will be looked and researched into.

I will also talk about what about my past attracts me to this role, and what I have in terms of advantage when it comes to looking for these types of positions. This will be a combination of talking about what I have achieved thus far, what I will be learning and what I plan to do.

Of course, there are various paths I can take to reach the goal, roles like:

-          Tester

-          Junior Games Designer

-          Environment Artist

-          Prop Artist

-          Cinematic director

-          Scriptwriter

So I will focus on these types of jobs and try and find as many listings as I can in order to compile accurate and usable data at the end in order to support my research and overall help myself out.

Some of the companies I will look at will be :

-          Santa Monica

-          Guerilla Games

-          Sucker Punch

-          Naughty Dog

-          Electronic Arts

-          Ubisoft

-          Insomniac Games

One thing that is apparent from most of the studios above is that they are mostly related to Sony Interactive of America, and there is a good reason to that, as they make games that I want to make myself most of all. This is something I will elaborate with the research on my blog as well.

Overall, my aim is to use the data I gather in order to prepare for a role in the industry so that once I am done with my course I will be on the right track.

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XB2001 - Research Progress - Level Design

The following post details the progress and development path that was taken, as well as what was researched and looked at for the key parts. Not to mention this also talks about how the early version looked.

Compartmentalizing research

To be able to research for the project efficiently, the prototype level design was broken down into different key areas, such as Story, Gameplay, etc. With research, I have personally found compartmentalizing aspects such as this allows oneself to not only acquire more relevant research material, but acquire it more easily, thus overall reducing time.

The look of the PHD

The Protocol Hijack device, is an invention by Alex that allows Salim to takeover cameras and servers as mentioned before. It is shaped like a mix between a gun and a handheld digital camera with an OLed Screen. This is why a lot of images of digital cameras were looked at.

This kind of product allowed me to create a system where the player could not only see through the camera via the screen on the device but I would not have to take the control away from the player.

Furthermore, the way the lid will automatically open when pointed at an hijackable device, would make the technology feel more futuristic and smart. It was also decided that the transition for this would have to be relatively quick, easily allowing players to take control and take the device out.

 Map Early Prototypes and flow diagram The game is split into three different areas, Basement Level, Elevator and Hotel Lobby. You begin in the former and make you way through to the later where the package you have to steal is. The main two however are the Basement Level and Hotel Lobby, as the elevator is just a cutscene of sorts. For both of them, a different flow chart was made, in order to better compartmentalize it.

Early Prototypes

Below is the original rough layout that was made in google Sketch up first, then refined in Maya. This was a very early stage where I was still throwing a few ideas around.

In this iteration, the map and gameflow was going to be completely different, with levels that played in one take, unlike the final version which is split into three different sections.

However, this would have been hard to control, so I wanted to make sure it was compartmentalized.

 Basement Level

Above is the final map, this was meant to be in game, as the map UI for the character showcasing the position of the guards and objectives, however time was of the essence so certain polishes like this could not be implemented. 

However now this serves as a little walkthrough guide that now lets players know where to go. The look of it feels like it belongs in the device on a digital screen.

 Hotel Lobby

When creating the game, I knew I wanted to have a hotel lobby which you had to go through, however I wanted it to be clear and straightforward, cause the game was still quite linear.

The camera has been highlighted on the map as well, with its cone of view, allowing viewers to know where it looked. 

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XB2001 - Level Design - Reflection

In this blogpost I will talk about what went well with my project and what didn’t for me personally.

What went well:

Making the device-

At the moment, the prototype has a device called the PHD, a handcam like device that can hijack cameras and servers when you point at them. The coolest thing about is, that it looks very mechanical and advanced.

Basically as you point at the camera, you get a prompt and the screen lid opens up showing you the view of the camera, giving you a drop on patrolling guards, and allowing you to read their patterns.

My original idea was to just take the control away from the player and move their camera view to that of the CCTV, however that felt like it would be really encumbering for the players and wouldn’t feel satisfying.

That is when I redesigned the device, and made it so it had a screen that could just come up in front of you.

I originally thought this would be really hard to implement, but by using clever media texture workaround and the learning resources available, it was one of the first things I put in due to how easy it was. The result was a mechanic that not only looked cool but didn’t break the flow of the game. Learning wise I learned how to manipulate textures as well which will be very helpful for my next assignments.

Optimisation-

From my experience on my past projects for the university, I decided to keep an eye out for blueprint optimisation from the beginning of the project.

Basically, I made sure I was not excessively writing to the memory by changing the variables or adding running a function on an object when its variable was null. I did this by making sure variables were only written when they needed to. So if you were going to change something to true, it would first check if it was true in the firstplace, and wouldn’t reset it.

This was done with captured components as well, where their mechanics would only run if the component variable had something in it, so I wasn’t casting to empty game objects in the first place.

Overall by making sure of these things, I was able to make sure that the game ran well as some of the blueprint is rather complicated.

What didn’t go well:

Polishing the game-

I pushed myself through this project as I was extremely busy with work and family commitments, where due to ill health of certain family member I had to travel for a few weeks. These events toiled up and really pushed me back.

With the time I could have had I would have been able to add actual polished assets and fine-tuned my level, because as it stands, there are a lot of bugs in the game, and certain collisions are missing, making things go wrong.

It is completely playable mind you, and you can finish the game easily. However, there are a few things I could have polished. I also could added better more realistic lighting so that it rendered well.

However, the major thing I would have liked to improve were the guard’s AI and behaviours, as at the moment it is extremely rudimentary where all the guards do are move on a patrol point and end the game when they catch you. I would’ve loved to add a seek function where if you made any noise or were looked at, and were far away, the enemy will investigate your last known location..

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Titan Souls Flow Chart

As a class assignment we were told to pair up and create a flow chart / branch of a videogame’s progression as part of a lecture regarding linear and non-linear level designs.

Me and Thomas designed this after dissecting the full gameplay loop.  To break it down: - Each area has a different amount of bosses

- The bosses in each area can be defeated in any order

- Player can traverse between areas freely even without defeating all bosses except for the starting area where player must defeat all 4 titans in order to proceed.

- The final boss at the top can only be accessed once all 18 bosses have been defeated.

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XB2001 Team Prototype - The Billboards

What is a city if it doesn’t throw huge banners at your face everywhere you look? Since our entire premise was based off on a weird parody it only made sense that I take some of the well known brands and create mock ads out of them, some of which are a bit dark in humour.

MOCKA LOLA

First ad is based off on Coca Cola, a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator was used for this and the other ads. I wanted to make sure everything could be easily recognised as to what it was, so Coke was an obvious first choice to rip off with its highly recognisable colour scheme and font. 

#TOTEFORDRUMPF

There are heavy elections going on in the nice little town, and the fore runner is non other than the billionaire Monald Drumpf, who totally does not like gun and loves mexico a lot!

Orphan Beer

Based off on Foster, orphan (get it?) ad was designed to be mildly offensive with its tagline. The glass and the contents inside were once again designed in Illustrator as vector then brought over to photoshop to be finalised.

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XB2001 Team Prototype - Buildings Research and Result

The main buildings created by me for the prototype were based on real life buildings, this post details just exactly which buildings they were. Now there will be before and after pictures for the following, some are more loosely inspired than others but you will still be able to see the resemblance  

-          Empire State Building

I think if you are creating buildings for your game, and you don’t have one inspired by the Empire state building you have probably taken the wrong step somewhere along the way.

-          The New York Times Building

Another building that I have always thought was interesting but doable in regards to its overall shape and was a good starting point for me in creating the second building.

-          The City Tower

Living in Manchester, with my university located just around the city centre, The City Tower building is easily one of my most seen buildings everyday, naturally I had to use it as one of the stepping stones for my models.

-          The CIS Building

The CIS Building is another building that I constantly see, and due to its simple layout I decided to base off the basic shape with the main tower in front and the wings behind it.

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XB2001 Team Prototype Reflection - Part 3 (Summary and Final Reflection)

My Conclusion

Overall this project was not only a good learning experience for me, but was one where I got to apply a lot of my skills. Even though I mainly have had experience with Technical design as my strong suit I was able to bring that aspect onto environmental design and thought of creating assets not in an artistic way but also one that was technical as you may have read with my asset cleaning and sparse texture items.

Through this project since me and Aidan used a lot of Trello I was finally able to learn how to use that and Github for not only this but my future projects as well. So super thanks to Aidan for helping me out with Github, it is something that will be valuable.

I am very happy with how the assets have come out finalised, even with the restriction of one colour swatch sheet. A lot of it is owed to the overall shape of these items which were effectively created due to the research images I was able to compile for the team.

What More Could Have Been Done

If I had more time there was more stuff I would have loved to create, such as variations of each building depending on the amount of damage they took, with different texture. I would have also liked to create a subway train that would run throughout the city with tunnels going in and out of the ground. We even had the plans to do that initially.

Another thing that I wanted to personally focus on was more original particle effects since we are using premade assets. Unreal engine’s sprite engine is very effective and thoroughly powerful but it is also very time consuming to learn. Due to our priorities I was not able to focus on it as much as I wanted to at the end.

Final Reflection

I can’t stress how much carefully pre-planning our production has helped us out, as me and Aidan created an asset list for everything that we would need with clear checker boxes so that anyone could easily see their progress and deadline on trello.

The google drive folders I have set up with the research images was another thing that saved us a lot of time, as we knew where to look for what, and were able to create stylised but realistic assets due to the wealth of reference images we had. Furthermore, with just once texture image, and focusing on solid images it was much easier and quicker to texture everything.

Even though there was more stuff I wanted to do, and wasn’t able to due to lack of time does not mean I will stop working on this as I plan to keep improving these assets for the future.

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XB2001 Team Prototype Reflection - Part 2 (Challenge and Research)

The Challenges

One of the biggest challenges I knew we were going to face with two different artists on the team (Prop artist and Environmental Artist) was having consistency between the assets we created, not to mention even though it was going to be stylised it still needed to look like actual buildings seen in the real world.

In order to help with this process I compiled over 200 research images for assets that we needed. These images were for the City, Monster, Scenery and Vehicles. I also wanted the buildings to draw from a real-life source so over 180 images were compiled from the web to help design the structures and items in our game. I then named and arranged them in the right files to make them easily accessible.

Benefit of Research Materials

After this we had a wealth of pictures available at our disposable that we could use as starting points to come up with our designs. I was mainly focusing on the sky scrapers initially so to create them I opened the images I had created and start looking at them soaking in the shape. All 4 of our buildings have been designed on a real building. The main references used was The Empire State Building, New York Times Building, City Tower, and the CIS building.

Some of the buildings came out looking more loosely inspired than the others but overall you could still see the resemblance with them and figure out what inspired them.

Texture Problem

Another challenge I was aware we were going to have was with unwrapping and texturing. The problem wasn’t mainly with unwrapping or even texturing as I have good experience unwrapping and texturing items and am confident in it, but the problem always was time for us. We knew that it would take a long time if we started hand painting or colouring everything individually. I also knew having too many texture files would take up a lot of memory for something so small.

With these in mind, I decided that we were going to use a Colour Sheet with solid colours that you can see above, which includes various colour for most of our items. After talking with the prop artist I decided it was better that I work with unwrapping and texturing so that he could focus on our main asset, which was the monster.

So I Unwrapped everything and arranged the UV faces on the sheet. You may notice the white space in between, and although I was going to do something to remove it originally, I decided to keep it in and use it creatively for items like buttons or signs as seen above.

Asset Cleanup

Another thing I wanted to make sure with our assets was that they were clean. What I mean by clean is them not having any faces the player won’t see or unnecessary tris due to extruding in a wrong manner. I took over the assets done by our prop artists once he was happy with them and cleaned them up. Even though with some I was only able to save 20 or 30 tris, it was effective because when 20 of them were placed to create a city it would easily save over 400 tris.

Lastly I also fixed bad edges and created the windows that would become a norm for all our items. I also took some assets and changed them so that they would better fit what they were going for like the diner that can be seen before and after me taking it over.

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XB2001 Team Prototype Reflection - Part 1 (overview)

Project Aim

For this assignment we were required to work together in a set team in order to create a prototype that we had to present by the end. Before we were assigned a role we were asked what we wanted to pick. The two choices I picked were Level Designer and Environmental Assets.

Now the interesting was, my main strength lies in Technical Design due to my experience and history in coding and mechanic design. However I wanted to stay way from doing something like that for this project as I have picked it every time and wanted to learn more about the process of being either a level designer or environmental artist.

I wanted to mainly try level design as I wanted to learn more about creating environments with gameplay in mind without having to worry too much of technical crafting. I like working with modular items as well in order to create unique environments so that was something I would have looked forward to.

Environment artist was another area I wanted to focus on as I have had experience creating environmental assets like Buildings, houses, foilage and modular items that can be used to build or populate a scene. Furthermore, with my experience in film making I understood theory behind camera work and colour grading which I planned to do for my project.

My Chosen Role & Our Idea

From the choices I had made, the role that was picked for me was of the Environment Artist and our team was compromised of a Technical Designer, Level Designer, Prop Artist and me, the environmental artist.

As soon as we got together we started thinking of the type of game we wanted to create and ended up deciding on a destruction game where players are tasked with destroying a city. The player assumes control of a huge monster as they destroy Buildings, Houses and vehicles in order to attain scores. The entire event is timed, so the main goal of the game is to raise as many points by causing destruction as you possibly can. There are various powerups like time and speed boosts available as well which can help the player out.

We player around with various other ideas before deciding as well, chief of which was the idea for a Hack and Slash game inspired by the aesthetics from little devil inside. Still, we knew with any game we picked we wanted the art style to be as simple and blocky as possible, simply because we did not have much time and had more assignments that needed to be handed in alongside this.

For the technical aspect, we looked at games like Rampage, and took inspirations from how the buildings would shake each time they were punched and slowly sunk into the ground. Our Tech Designer actually managed to implement this in the game as well, making the whole destruction feel especially interesting and dynamic.

For our building assets we decided to make them in the vein of a city games mostly seen on iOS with tiny buildings and assets.

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DD2000 Essay - Research Journey

My essay looks at why videogames are gradually becoming an effective and preferred means of promoting branded automobiles, focusing on the advantages they afford the game designers as well as the any limitations that are put whilst designing a game. Effectively the aim of the essay is to inform the reader on the current trends in videogames in regards to licensed rights for technical products as seen with automobiles in videogames as well as to showcase the viability of video-games as an advertising medium for technical products supported through several examples and practices currently taking place in the industry.

One of the main reasons I chose to focus on the automotive industry is because of how much I personally admire automobiles so it made sense for me to tie my essay into something that I not only had experience in but could comfortably talk about and relate it to videogame design.

In order to effectively write this essay, I had to split up the sections for research. I had a section talking about the financial side of advertisement and videogames, a section where I talk about how many cars are used in some videogames, and a section talking about the limitations like the damage shown with car models.

For the financial implications of both videogames and car ads, I looked at reputed websites like Statista and UKie in order to gather both facts and figures, after which I browsed for articles explaining how effective certain ad campaigns were in order to understand how the figures translated, articles (links available within essay) were read in regards to the Chrysler Ad of 2011 and how it managed to not only bring back the attention to Chrysler, a then dying brand but also highlighted Detroit as a motor city.

There wasn’t much research done on videogames like Forza Horizon or GT Sport per say, as my side job as a video game reporter for Push-Start has be dealing with various reveals and features. So a lot of the stuff like BMW’s A5 reveal and 700 car catalogue that is mentioned in my essay I had knowledge of already, so for them I only referenced articles proving my points such as official game images or reveals.

In parts, I can say that the base of this essay stemmed with the interest I have with licensing products for any medium, more specifically with the limitations that are imposed. I remember being fascinated by the classic Road Runner cartoon and how writers had a golden rule for Will E. Coyote they could not break, which was “he should always fail of his own accord”.

In regards to racing games, years ago I had one day come across this thread on Reddit, where someone was wondering why licensed cars could not be heavily damaged in video games. Even though I wasn’t hundred percent sure of the answer I was well aware that manufacturers would not want their vehicles to be shown in a bad light through video games.

I couldn’t find a lot of sources to prove this officially, but a lot of forums managed to help me, like the stack exchange, where some users were helpful in giving advice about the implications of using licensed products and what limitations there would be.

Images used in the essay relate to the accompanying paragraphs in order to give a visual explanation. At times images from products or ads are also given to show what I am talking about at times. For example, for the Chrysler Ad paragraph I had a still from the ad before the paragraph. Or a picture that was officially released by turn 10 for Motorsport 7 showing how many cars they had.

In summary, where possible, links were added to the bibliography of what I looked at in order to aid my research or draw points, the only things not available as sources are statements that are common knowledge, sayings like “most cinemas support sophisticated sound systems”.

I stayed away from talking about immediate financial benefits of licensing deals as the such deals are hard to research due to their confidentiality so accurate figures are not easily acquired.

[iqbalharisfutureworks-blog]

(3/3) XB2001 Challenge Design: Reflection

This is part 3 of 3 in a series of blogs that talk about my prototype with each blogpost discussing a certain element. In this blogpost I will be talking about the best parts of the prototype and what went well working on it, the areas that are lacking and can be further improved on, as well as what could be done in order to achieve that.

What works well

The main mechanic of the game that solves the gap problem is the grappling hook as I have mentioned in the previous blog posts, and as it stands so far, even with a few key elements missing that I will talk about later, the base mechanic is fun and responsive according to player feedback. Not to mention the contextual UI for the controls makes the gameplay intuitive and easy to understand.

Same can be said for the objectives as well due to the tall standing tower with a helicopter on it being one of the first things that can be seen by the player as well as the opening cutscene clearly showing players where to go, with the lava burning the decaying buildings serving as reason for ding so.

Why they work so well

These positive elements can be attributed to the testing phases where the players asked to perform the tests were very clear with their queries and concerns allowing me to break down the problems in order to efficiently solve them ultimately resulting in a better prototype that not only functions with clear indications but looks interesting as well, giving players not only the what, but also the why about the scenario they are thrown in.

Furthermore, because of how visually enticing and guiding the prototype is, its video will serve as a good portfolio piece that will showcase a few different aspects from the mechanics to the animations and cutscene delivery.

What could be improved

However, even with the strengths of the prototype, there is still quite a bit that can be done in order to make the overall experience better and more visually indicative. One of the main points raised throughout, one that couldn’t be solved due to both time and my understanding of several blueprint mechanics was that the player doesn’t get a visual feedback for grappling and is just propelled, which although does work well with the visual indications does leave room for improvement.

Not to mention, some players wanted to be able to swing as well as zip. As such, for my next projects I will be focusing more on the physics side of the engine especially in regards to UE’s rope.

Final Project Reflection

In conclusion, due to helpful testers, the game’s grappling mechanic and visuals ended up looking and feeling responsive. Not to mention, The cutscenes and the design of the level made everything more presentable as a portfolio piece. However, the grappling could have benefited from visual feedback where players saw something grappling onto the objects and pulling them as well as allowing them to swing since one of the first thoughts that come to mind with grappling hooks is the ability to swing. Still, all in all, the main problem was tackled to a well demonstrable level.

[iqbalharisfutureworks-blog]

(2/3) XB2001 Design Challenge: Resulting issues and their Solution

his is part 2 of 3 in a series of blogs that talk about my prototype with each blogpost discussing a certain element. In this blogpost I will be talking about the issues that came up due to player testing and feedback and the appropriate solutions I designed to tackle the concerns raised.

The problems that arose

From the get go, I wanted my prototype to be intuitive which could be figured out through trial and error, however such was not the case when I first got some players test it without giving them any instructions. Even though the players could see a gap, with a platform at the far end, they did not know that they were supposed to go across by grappling onto the cubes floating above. To sum it up, it wasn’t as intuitive as I wanted.

Breaking down the problems and how they were solved

To efficiently tackle the problems, I took the feedback and broke them down to identify where improvements could be made. The main goals I came up with by breaking the problems were as follows:

Give players a clear indication where they are supposed to go

Give players visual indication for the grappling controls

To give players a clear indication where they were supposed to go, I ended up giving the players a why as well. I added decayed buildings around the player, half submerged in scalding Lava and to let players know that they had to get to the platform at the end, I created a brief opening cutscene that shows a helicopter landing on a tall building at the end of the map. The camera then pans backwards until it reaches the players position, indicating them of the path they had to go through.

Further tests

To make sure this was working as effectively as intended, further tests were done with the same players who had no idea what to do initially, but weren’t ultimately told so. I allowed them to watch the opening cutscene before asking them what they thought their objective was. The answer to that question was unanimously resounding, and everyone mentioned that they had to get to the other end to reach the helicopter and escape the lava, citing the way the camera showed the helicopter and panned outwards showing a clear path.

Contextual UI was added as well, and when players looked at the cubes above them, the crosshair would change and a button prompt would come up. Not to mention, the cubes were made to lit up when looked at to draw another clear path with a green light. This was once again tested, this time with not only the original testers but new ones as well, who with both the cutscene telling them where to go with the glowing cubes and the button prompts, were able to figure out not only what they were supposed to do, but how.

Testing Conclusion

In conclusion, testing played a huge part in directing the development of the experience and allowed me to give priority to what was important. The main issue was with how the goals were translated to the players, which were fixed by both implementing a guiding opening cutscene and contextual UI with button prompts that ultimately got good feedback.

[iqbalharisfutureworks-blog]

(1/3) XB2001 Design Challenge: Overview

This is part 1 of 3 in a series of blogs that talk about my prototype with each blogpost discussing a certain element. This first part of the series will give a brief overview of my prototype and the challenges that were presented to us in order to create it, as well as the design challenge I ended up tackling with a brief rundown of my final prototype.  

The challenges we were given

For our assignment we were told to pick from 4 different scenarios and come up with a mechanic that allowed us to solve their respective challenges. The mechanic had to be built in Epic’s Unreal Engine, using its Blueprinting tool. The four problems we had to pick from were:

 The Gap

This problem would task the student with creating a mechanic which will help players travel across the gap, as falling into it would result in the player’s demise.

The Locked Door

This would prompt the student to create a mechanic in order to open the door and access the area behind it.

The Lever

The player will come across a lever in the middle of nowhere with a wire attached to it leading somewhere the player can’t quite see. With this the students were tasked to create a reaction for the lever.

The Tower

The players were tasked with reaching a ledge at the top of the tower for which the student had to create a mechanic to be able to perform the said action.

Challenge I picked and its Solution

The design challenge I personally decided on was the Gap as I wanted to come up with a creative solution that did not involve the overly used jump, or double jump mechanics whilst learning to code a mechanic that I have always wanted to tackle. Not to mention with a gap, there were many creative possibilities to make the prototype look as presentable as possible.

To solve it, I have created a simple grappling mechanic that allows players to zip towards cubes floating above the gap, all set in sequence allowing players to zip from one to the next in a chain succession of moves, finally propelling them across the gap to the objective.

Achieving the goals

As I have mentioned previously, before I even began with the project I wanted the mechanic in question to be not only creative but be able to give me the opportunity to get more comfortable with Unreal’s blueprint whilst learning to code a mechanic I have always wanted. Thus, the grappling mechanic quickly came into my mind, as I have always enjoyed similar mechanics in games like Avalanche’s Just Cause series, and wanted to give it a go myself. 

Though with a few tradeoffs due to time restriction with the project that I will be mentioning in another blog post, I believe I have managed to solve the problem originally presented and have effectively allowed players to traverse across a gap using a creative grappling mechanic inspired by various different games where it has not only worked but been fun. Furthermore, the controls and UI are intuitive as well due to reiteration that helps the player easily figure out what to do, which were the result of intensive testing.