Week 24 – Final Blog

I personally think the course is really good; I like that your still trying to improve the course in many ways as you can. I think idea of introducing film onto the course is a bonus as I think we could take ideas from films in our work also maybe help to look at another career path as well to do 3d in film. As for the digital art, I guess I am quiet mixed about that, me being not that skill in digital painting in the first place and the doubling the workload would just destroy my confidence.

But I will during summer practice a lot on both my 3d and digital painting as I feel they are the areas I want to refine more. The idea of getting out of the lab more sounds excellent, being stuck in front of a computer isn’t exactly the best thing to do, so I am game for that. I have a had ago sculpting before I thought it was cool, so that would be a nice touch to course as it improve our knowledge on 3d and structure.

By the sounds of these ideas I think it will only benefit and help become even better and help to achieve our in getting into game industry.

Sencond year here I come………….hopefully?

Its been emotional!!!

Week 22 – The Love For Games

I thought seen as I can write whatever I want I thought I would tell you about my love for games. I don’t know why I love playing games, all I can say is that I am good them. I hear people on course saying that since they’ve come onto the course they have lost interest in playing video games. And think to myself no way, how can you want to be a game designer and lose interest in playing them. I guess in all line of work, if your doing it for a living you would lose interest in it eventually.

But as for me I don’t want that to happen cause then I know then ill lose interest in it all together. But as of right now I am still playing good quality games on the next generation consoles and I intend on keeping it that way.

As for GDC all I know is that Gears of War 2 was premiered there and I cant wait till it hits the shops, cause you know ill be the first one there to buy. Oh yea Mike, you are so lucky in going there.

Week 21 – Where you want to go? How do I get there?

I am just happy to be here to be taught from the best and to be taught in way were I am learning something new everyday. Iv always been quiet an ambitious person, and believe I can get through I this quiet smoothly. I know when I needed help with work I know I could turn to my lecturers and also my fellow course mates.

Ultimately I would love to go straight into a job in game industry, but to achieve I am going to have work extremely hard and produce work that can be call industry standard.

I am hoping to get a lot out of this course, I feel really committed to this as I am aware it’s the fifth best course in the whole of United Kingdom, but to keep it that way I believe teaching the students the necessary tools to get into the games industry is the main factor.

I must admit I came onto the course thinking that I would progress quiet smoothly, but then I was hit the reality that this course is no walk in park. In some cense I am glad its that way, cause the only way you can find out about yourself is through your mistakes, and I have made a lot of them on this course. I do believe giving me the time to develop my skills on the course I could become a great asset to university and to the games industry.

Getting to terms with 3d Max was something I found quiet a challenge, coming from an background of using Lightwave and become quiet sufficient in that software, it came as a culture shock to me to using 3d max, and also coming from a none artist background and a completely self taught artist, doing some of task were quiet a challenge. But these challenges will only just benefit me when it comes to the second, now I know what to improve on and what need to achieve in the coming years to become and game artist or a 3d modeller.
Ultimately the only way you can progress on this course is to keep yourself motivated and have an ambitious goal, that’s what keeps me going.

Week 20 – Creativity

I would say you can’t be taught creativity, you’re either born with it or your not. But if you could how would you do it? To explain creativity is hard in itself to be creative you need to understand and think in a way no one else would. I would say I am quiet creative but not as much as I want to be. I hear people saying that schools are depriving students of being creative. Instead of trying to find if the person is of creative nature, they instead rather feed them normal life system, get good grades and get a job. Rather then help or encourage their creativity we are being subjected to things that would ultimately makes us lose interest in the arts.

I would say maybe its true; in school I didn’t to any kind of art-based studies, because in them days I drew because it was a hobby. I knew my teachers saw me drawing and they would rather stop me being creative instead maybe pushing me into the right direction of maybe going into the arts. I did do graphic design, which in some cense is a creative study, but I was more working with computers then creating something with pencils and paints.. I guess leaving school made me realise that I could be a lot more creative with a pencil. Through a lot of practise I became a lot more aware that I could draw to fairly good standard, which then led to the pursuit of what I am doing now.

But when you talk about creativity in the games industry you are always working with restraints. Time schedules, budget, and poly counts. So when it comes to creativity whilst working you have work with them restraints.

I honestly believe Halo is the worst game I have ever played, it’s over hyped and to be honest completely original, if I was going to look at from a creative stand, I don’t think it is. People will argue but its so original, space, guns and aliens wow! I am going to pre order that now (yea right). I maybe over critical of this game but I see games such as uncharted drakes fortune, the game is beautiful, colours, environments, and the character models, but people wont appreciate that because there to busy shooting aliens? There’s were I see creativity fail, peoples perception of creativity is different from someone else’s.

But then it also shows you don’t have to be creative to create a brilliant game. There going to be people who are just going to go for the space age, alien shooter, maybe because gameplay is suited to their taste. Gameplay is another issues that involves creativity, because the most creative part of the game is the gameplay itself.

I believe the games industry is going t become even bigger in the future, I believe it will challenge the movie industry, I am surprised that its not already happened, cause you play games now that have better storylines and graphics that most high budget and CGI movies.
Now that’s creative!!!!

Week 19 – Life Changing or Career Building

To be honest I am just going to say that I am on the best course in the country in Game, Art and Design, although we are working hard on creating things on real life, we finding new ways on how we can incorporate these skills into games. Myself I must admit I am not the greatest of artists in terms drawing and painting, but when it comes to the 3d work I am quiet cool with. They say its ok to specialise, I would quiet happily have done that, but what this course teaches me is that there more to creating something in 3d.

I guess in other case or other course these topics are not issued and students are learning things they’ve already been taught or don’t have a clue of. While students or people are doing this a hobby are creating Japanese manga characters and building unnecessary objects, they could be learning about how to create things from life and then incorporating these skill into 3d, these are the skills and talents game companies are looking for. I believe by the end my time here on this course that will have the attributes to go out and get a job in the industry, I will admit it did take me time to realise how creating things form life is important because if you look now on how game are being created on the next generation console, every has to look real. Now I know the purpose of this course, I think this is a life changing and career building.

Week 18 – Games Technology - Sounds For Games

Sounds in games are so important that I don’t even appreciate it. Just like the movie industry sound or music can change the atmosphere and create a cense of emotion to a person. In games the same is applied, but with added bonus as the victory music or you just found a clue music and the mighty death music. These particular sounds can give you a feel of achievement but also a feeling of defeat.

I am going to give you an example of how music can give you those feelings. I was playing Call Of Duty 4 on Headquarters and we lost the game and this dreaded music played is if we just lost the whole war, then we played another game this we played as the Russians and we won and a high joyous anthem came on as if we won whole match, campaign and war. That’s why music is important in games, cause it can give that feeling and emotion.

I would say I am a massive fan of game composer, cause I don’t exactly sit there and listen to game music, its just there in the game (sorry if sound ignorant). But if there was a composer I would say I would admire it would be Nobuo Uematsu, the composer of all the Final Fantasy games. He reached a lot of success with his music and is probably well known for his work with Final Fantasy. He staged a live orchestral event for the Final Fantasy VIII album. I must be quiet honest with you the music to that game was awesome, from intro to end.

I guess favourite music peace in a game was the game over music in Metal Gear Solid, It made your heart beat fast and it made want to continue, and in the back you had either Roy Campbell or Ottacon screaming in vain for you. But yea that’s was some good and funny music. I could on to say in fighting games such as Tekken, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, the music in them games made you want to fight, it gave you desire and edge to fight, which is good as it allows for person to get involved in the game as well.

Week 17 – Games Technology – Games Engines

There are many different types of engines, some created for specific tasks. For example the widely used Havok engine, used to simulate realistic physics and 'Speedtree', which was used to generate the realistic trees and vegetation in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. These types of engines are know as middleware and are usually deigned be used in conjunction with other engines.

Companies tend to create their own engines or add to them to make them more powerful. In some cases other companies will use existing or other companies games engines for time and money saving purposes.

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

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

The advantages are in buying new games engines, getting to terms with the new technology, and knowing what is next in the evolution of gaming, gameplay and visuals.

Week 16 – Gaming Culture

Gaming cultures, I believe there to be many different ones, you get the causal gamer the hardcore gamer then world of war craft. With games such as Second life and world of war craft I would say that’s a completely different culture in itself. Where people would rather meet people to talk and begin a social link to other people around the world. Then you get the gamer like myself who competitive and enjoys the hammering other people at the own games. But as for socialising I guess it’s the same but not to the extreme. We can join clans with random gamers, or you can create your own. This is how I see casual gaming today.

In terms of how much time it takes away from my life I would say not a lot (since Call Of Duty 4 came out damn!!) but if a game did come out and the experience of playing the game online was enjoyable I could probably go on into the early hours of the morning.
And yes I do have friends I have never seen before but have spoken to on many occasions and played in battles had laughs and had random outburst with. But this is what gaming culture is all about today, meeting people and competing

Week 15 – An Introduction into the Games Industry

As I said in one of my previous blogs the whole coming from the bottom and reaching the top just makes me smile. Just like the games industry it came from starting in a bedroom into buildings with people working as teams. The games industry has become a multi million pound industry. With company spanning all across the globe, along with console manufactures to back them up.

Employees of the games industry I would say are the luckiest people in the world, their cant be a more enjoyable job but to play games and create them as well. As for today’s employees in the industry there are people who have jobs that they specialise in i.e. concept artist, 3d modeller and motion capture etc, thus making a production of a game a lot more in depth and organised. In the old days budgets on games were restricted but in today’s industry budgets are in the millions. But what fear is that game companies will outsource to make the project easier and cheaper to complete. As for me a striving games designer I would like to be in that seat in the office creating cool features and model for a game, but if this continues jobs will be hard to get.

I guess the biggest challenge for the industry is finding new talent, talent with that drive and artistic ability to bring something new to the table. I go back to what I was saying earlier on outsourcing, its not a bad thing to hire someone for a particular period to do some work and the part ways when the project is complete, but in couple of years I will be one of them people who will be looking for a job in the industry and things such as outsourcing will probably damage my hopes in getting a job. If it continues in going into this direction people will then start to lose interest and start moving on to other job i.e. movie, T.V and internet, all I can say that would just be waste of time and talent.

Week 11 – The Elements Of Game Design – Gameplay

Gameplay…where do I start, I mean this has some many different meanings so I am just going to tell you my perception of Gameplay. I would say gameplay is the game ultimately. You play the game because you want to interact in a particular way. Designers have a variety of bringing gameplay into games; I guess you just call it genre. In each genre gameplay is completely different to another game i.e. action/adventure and football simulator, these two completely games but you judge them on gameplay.

I guess it is a environment set with rules as you given something which make you think about your next move because you know in this game you cant jump over the mountain or destroy the wall with rocket launcher because this then would compromise the progression of the story or laws, so you are always given a environment were you always have to think about how got to achieve the next goal.

Games such as Grand Theft Auto, your given a massive map and maybe even two and you can go anywhere you want and whatever you but effectively your still in this same map going around in circle, but to achieve the goal you complete objectives.

Devil May Cry, the character is a sword-wielding, gun slinging hot shot that basically do everything, that’s what they show you in the cut scenes. But in the game apart from swords and guns demolition, everything else is restricted like his ability to smash through walls, and destroy a demon with a single swipe 100 ft in the air are not available, why you ask, because its not necessary, although it would be cool if you could but the main objective is to achieve the goal and have a blast doing it.

Gameplay is extremely important, as I said before it is effectively the game itself. Without it you would basically have an empty shell.

Week 10 – The Element of Game Design? Story and Character

I seen many T.V shows and Films, but I cant seem to think of a character that really stands out for me, but if I had to pick one I guess it would be Tony Montana from the legendary Scarface movie. He was a crime lord who came from the gutter and strove to get the top by using violence and drugs. What can I say he was cool as hell. The story played a major role in making feel for this particular character, as like everyone, you always come from the bottom but you have a dream to go to the top it just depends on how you want to achieve it. Me personally I would never o to them extreme lengths, but to see how someone who would go to them lengths really gives you a cense on how some with that personality and way of life would do these things.

In games, T.V and films, I guess with careful and genius story telling it makes you very attached to that particular character. But in some cases words don’t necessarily make you feel attached to the character, things such as previous events that happened to the character or emotions that expressed on their faces can give you that feeling of attachment.
I am quiet open minded bout all different stories, but I the gangster flicks are my favourite, the whole coming from the bottom and getting to the top or by keeping what you got and wanting more. Most of these movies are actually made from real events so it strengthens the desire to know more about how these people became this way and why they did the things they did.

Week 9 – An Introduction To Games Technology

Iv played many consoles in my time as a gamer, from the classic and legendary Sega Mega Drive to the SNES, Sega Saturn and so on. I believe in have a console with a decent interface allows the gamer to feel more comfortable in playing game on the particular console. For example the Sega Mega Drive Pad, it contained a D- pad, three buttons A.B.C and a start button, I mean you cant get anymore simple than that

As years passed by more complex shaped and looking control pads were introduced into the gaming world such as the N64 controller. At first site I thought ‘‘WHAT THE HELL IS THAT’’, as I watched my friends play it I became aware how surprisingly easy it was to use, I first gaming encounter with the N64 was on a game call…………GOLDEN EYE! This game was immense, using the joystick and a button behind the stick called the z button? Anyways I thought it was cool and it gave you that feeling that you were holding a gun. So ultimately with its complex look and design, the N64 controller was good and still surprisingly easy to use.

Then came the mighty Playstation controller, I thought it was so easy to use and the design was simple. I believe its probably the best controller there is. I mean Sony didn’t even change the design for their later consoles the PS2 and PS3. As for controllers I didn’t like using was the original Xbox controller, a blatant rip off of the Sega Dreamcast control pad, it was to big and heavy and quiet frankly just crap. They did make up for it with Xbox 360 controller, smaller, lighter but still the Dreamcast controller.

As for my conclusion I think the PS/PS2/PS3 controller is the ultimate, easy use, good design and made for the ultimate console, enough said.

Week 8 – Story Telling In Games

Story telling in games is something that keeps gamers asking questions. Unlike films, games can stretch the storyline for a lot longer and me personally some stories in games can be a lot better the most films today. A games storyline is basically the main foundation of making a game, through having a storyline, things such as plot, genre and atmosphere etc can help a designers in coming up with ideas for how they could design characters, environments and atmosphere etc.

In most games, having a strong storyline helps with the success of the game. Games such as Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Max Payne and Final Fantasy have a very board storylines, which entices gamers. For me I like a game with a strong storyline because I want to know how the story ends, like most films today you can already see the ending before the film starts, but in games, with interactivity involved it gives you more of a drive to see what progresses i.e. Max Payne Fall Of Max Payne, the story is so dark and atmospheric you seem to get so involved with the story the game became more enjoyable to play.

In most games in the action, adventure genre the player makes the story happen, as you progress through the game more and more of the story is uncovered and each level or stage is complete. But in some case’s games such as Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid, there parts of the games which have to be uncovered by completing special objective thus giving you more to play for, to uncover that story you wish to see out to the end.

There some game such as Second Life, and World of War Craft were there is no storyline, you are in a world were you create a story for yourself. You embark on a journey where there are obstacles that are needed to be completed, but in these games you have a certain freedom where you can chose whether to do them or not and still be apart of the game by doing something completely different like meeting people from all across the globe.
As for a like Call Of Duty, the game is based in a war zone, where a catastrophic event occurred or about to happen and you need to stop. The game is basically a war story but with a few creative twists. Me personally, I never liked the previous Call Of Duty game, until I played Call Of Duty 4. This game was the best first person shooting game I ever played and personally I don’t think there will be another.