Tier 1 weapon
Tier 2 weapon
Tier 3 weapon
Need to get to work on this Pitch Doc. A whole week to do two or three pages? Ooh I dunno, sounds like a tall order.
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Thursday, 28 October 2010
Fun Animation
Did some more work on those guns I put up the other day. Modelled them in Maya, then animated them expanding and collapsing. Sort of like Mass Effect or Vanquish, I like to think I've achieved it quite well! Have some gifs. Obviously the guns aren't textured yet, I'll do that eventually. This was fun though! I haven't properly modelled something in Maya for a while, and there were a few mistakes made here. Still, pretty enjoyable, I really liked animating them too!
Tier 1 weapon
Tier 2 weapon
Tier 3 weapon
Need to get to work on this Pitch Doc. A whole week to do two or three pages? Ooh I dunno, sounds like a tall order.
Tier 1 weapon
Tier 2 weapon
Tier 3 weapon
Need to get to work on this Pitch Doc. A whole week to do two or three pages? Ooh I dunno, sounds like a tall order.
Saturday, 23 October 2010
Gun nut
I tried designing some weapons for the characters in the board game to use. I know I should've been working on Futures or Honours, but I really wanted to try out my new tablet. I used the technique that guy oh God I should be able to remember his name. Uhh. Him. I used his technique to make the guns, just drawing shapes and seeing what worked. I'm pretty happy with them, the idea is that the guns on the left are the compact forms, and they expand into the larger forms on the right. I reckon I could animate these myself, wouldn't be too hard, right? I like animation, it's easy enough once you get your head around it.
I might have overdone it on the white bits on the expanded forms, but they're really just there to break up the black space. They'll probably be replaced with smaller more subtle details on the final thing, it's just a sketch for now.
I might have overdone it on the white bits on the expanded forms, but they're really just there to break up the black space. They'll probably be replaced with smaller more subtle details on the final thing, it's just a sketch for now.
Got no time to take a picture
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Let's talk about storytelling pt. 2
I talked about bad storytelling, now let's talk about good storytelling
Left 4 Dead is one of my favourite examples of storytelling in recent years. There is one cutscene at the start of the game when you first turn it on to get you established in the game universe, but everything else is in-engine. Despite the game never taking you out of the action to force you to listen to the characters banter, they are still characterised excellently. From the way they shout when they see monsters attacking, to even the way they dress and their idle stance. Just from the characters interactions, we can paint a picture of their background.
Another commendable part of the characters in L4D is that they are all on equal playing fields, and nobody mentions race or gender. Louis' character is that he is the super-boring IT technician, not the black character. Zoey is a horror movie geek teenager who was more prepared for the apocalypse than her friends, not the woman.
The ball was royally dropped with The Sacrifice DLC and Left 4 Dead 2 but I'm not going to talk about that now. I'll just say that the although the new campaigns leading into each other works much better than 4 unrelated campaigns, the new survivors aren't as well realised as the original survivors.
Despite it going completely loopy towards the end, I thought that Condemned 2 was admirable for the way it tried to tell it's story. The cut-scenes between levels are mercifully short and exist mainly to provide context to the different locations the players find themselves in. The main part that I feel deserves praise is the investigation mechanic. The player puts themselves in the main characters shoes and is expected to figure out the sort of puzzles that are generally reserved for the boffins at HQ.
The plot develops with the character, the investigation gameplay ties directly into the main overarcing storyline so the player never feels too disconnected from the actions of the story. You begin to feel a connection with the characters, Le Rue saving your life a few times, and Rosa providing helpful information regarding the mission.
Although I mention Condemned 2 being a good example of storytelling, it is a very bad example of narrative in games. A lot of the levels (Doll factory, Carnival) seem barely connected to the main game, and also don't make any fucking sense. Not only that, but the story goes off the rails at the end with talks of an ancient cult connected to the Mayor, Police Force and the Presidency.
Finally, I would like to talk about X-Com: Ufo Defence. The entire game has three cut-scenes. An opening cut-scene which is mostly irrelevant to the actual game, a "bad ending" in case of a failure state, and a "good ending" for when the player succeeds. However, the game creates a massive sense of attachment to the marines, despite them being essentially faceless and completely devoid of dialogue or personality whatsoever.
The sense of paranoia and the feeling of being watched is present throughout the entire game. The fog of war hangs tightly over the battleground, but the player knows that behind any corner could be an army of aliens fully able to destroy the character in a few turns. The sense of fragility next to the paranoia works excellently in making the player feel very defensive of his marines. When a mission starts going wrong you worry about your characters, especially the high-ranking marines with high skills. They may be the most skilled, but when they die, they're dead.
There are other games I could talk about here, but these are the ones I wanted to talk about. I chose not to talk about games that are generally too plot-centric, as they have their own thing that they do in their own way. I might do a part 3 where I summarise. I might also talk to Rhoda about putting something like this on WebCT. Maybe???
Left 4 Dead is one of my favourite examples of storytelling in recent years. There is one cutscene at the start of the game when you first turn it on to get you established in the game universe, but everything else is in-engine. Despite the game never taking you out of the action to force you to listen to the characters banter, they are still characterised excellently. From the way they shout when they see monsters attacking, to even the way they dress and their idle stance. Just from the characters interactions, we can paint a picture of their background.
Another commendable part of the characters in L4D is that they are all on equal playing fields, and nobody mentions race or gender. Louis' character is that he is the super-boring IT technician, not the black character. Zoey is a horror movie geek teenager who was more prepared for the apocalypse than her friends, not the woman.
The ball was royally dropped with The Sacrifice DLC and Left 4 Dead 2 but I'm not going to talk about that now. I'll just say that the although the new campaigns leading into each other works much better than 4 unrelated campaigns, the new survivors aren't as well realised as the original survivors.
Despite it going completely loopy towards the end, I thought that Condemned 2 was admirable for the way it tried to tell it's story. The cut-scenes between levels are mercifully short and exist mainly to provide context to the different locations the players find themselves in. The main part that I feel deserves praise is the investigation mechanic. The player puts themselves in the main characters shoes and is expected to figure out the sort of puzzles that are generally reserved for the boffins at HQ.
The plot develops with the character, the investigation gameplay ties directly into the main overarcing storyline so the player never feels too disconnected from the actions of the story. You begin to feel a connection with the characters, Le Rue saving your life a few times, and Rosa providing helpful information regarding the mission.
Although I mention Condemned 2 being a good example of storytelling, it is a very bad example of narrative in games. A lot of the levels (Doll factory, Carnival) seem barely connected to the main game, and also don't make any fucking sense. Not only that, but the story goes off the rails at the end with talks of an ancient cult connected to the Mayor, Police Force and the Presidency.
Finally, I would like to talk about X-Com: Ufo Defence. The entire game has three cut-scenes. An opening cut-scene which is mostly irrelevant to the actual game, a "bad ending" in case of a failure state, and a "good ending" for when the player succeeds. However, the game creates a massive sense of attachment to the marines, despite them being essentially faceless and completely devoid of dialogue or personality whatsoever.
The sense of paranoia and the feeling of being watched is present throughout the entire game. The fog of war hangs tightly over the battleground, but the player knows that behind any corner could be an army of aliens fully able to destroy the character in a few turns. The sense of fragility next to the paranoia works excellently in making the player feel very defensive of his marines. When a mission starts going wrong you worry about your characters, especially the high-ranking marines with high skills. They may be the most skilled, but when they die, they're dead.
There are other games I could talk about here, but these are the ones I wanted to talk about. I chose not to talk about games that are generally too plot-centric, as they have their own thing that they do in their own way. I might do a part 3 where I summarise. I might also talk to Rhoda about putting something like this on WebCT. Maybe???
It looked as if I picked your name out of a hat
Friday, 15 October 2010
Let's talk about storytelling pt. 1
It's something I always pay attention to, but so many people seem to get it wrong, Which is a shame. When done right, storytelling in games can be an incredibly effective tool to draw the players in and enhance the overall experience.
I'll start by listing some games where the storytelling doesn't work. Probably spoilers. I'd like to preface this by saying that I thoroughly enjoy all of these games, but want to address these issues.
Mirror's Edge is probably the prime example. We enter the game with hints of a grand conspiracy theory, but ultimately we find it hard to care about everything in the game. All the exposition is force-fed to us in lengthy cutscenes by characters that we have no interest in. We're expected to put our life on the line to save the main character's sister at one point, put the player's motivations don't back up that of the character. Faith's sister is not our sister, and we barely know anything about her anyway. Go on, I bet you don't even remember her name.
The only likable character in the game is your ally over your earpiece, Merc. He is never anything but helpful, interjects friendly lines about how well you are doing in the game and gives you helpful tips about where to go or what is currently happening in the story.
GTA IV is another game where the character's motivations and player's motivations do not match up. This is symptomatic of the entire GTA series, but GTA IV is the most flagrant. The main character of GTA IV, Niko Bellic, consistently mentions to his friends the dreadful things he had to do during the war and how glad he is to leave it all behind. Shortly after this exchange, Niko can steal a car from an old woman and shoot her in the face, murder a prostitute and then kill himself.
Although Niko can be a sympathetic character during the missions and cutscenes, the complete player freedom allows Niko to be a completely different character to that which is presented to us, showing no compassion or empathy for human life.
Not only that, but the game suffers from a similar problem to Mirror's Edge. Despite the cutscenes and character interactions being much better in GTA IV, the game asks us to care about our cousin Roman, risking our lives and going up against innumerable odds to save him. The player's response to Roman has been almost universally negative however, as he consistently nags the player to go to strip clubs, drinking or bowling with him, despite the player possibly having better things to do with their time.
The final title I would like to mention is Devil May Cry 4. Although a very sound game with some very interesting mechanics, one of the main faults of the game is the large amount of cutscenes. It takes 3 and half minutes from selecting "New Game" at the main menu to actually reach gameplay, which is then broken up by another five minutes of cutscene. All this serves to do is show us how much fun the characters are having with this wonderful game, whilst we watch and are supposed to be entertained, despite the fact that we've bought a game and not a CG movie.
Part 2 coming up soon, I need to do some more coursework and get ready for work tonight.
I'll start by listing some games where the storytelling doesn't work. Probably spoilers. I'd like to preface this by saying that I thoroughly enjoy all of these games, but want to address these issues.
Mirror's Edge is probably the prime example. We enter the game with hints of a grand conspiracy theory, but ultimately we find it hard to care about everything in the game. All the exposition is force-fed to us in lengthy cutscenes by characters that we have no interest in. We're expected to put our life on the line to save the main character's sister at one point, put the player's motivations don't back up that of the character. Faith's sister is not our sister, and we barely know anything about her anyway. Go on, I bet you don't even remember her name.
The only likable character in the game is your ally over your earpiece, Merc. He is never anything but helpful, interjects friendly lines about how well you are doing in the game and gives you helpful tips about where to go or what is currently happening in the story.
GTA IV is another game where the character's motivations and player's motivations do not match up. This is symptomatic of the entire GTA series, but GTA IV is the most flagrant. The main character of GTA IV, Niko Bellic, consistently mentions to his friends the dreadful things he had to do during the war and how glad he is to leave it all behind. Shortly after this exchange, Niko can steal a car from an old woman and shoot her in the face, murder a prostitute and then kill himself.
Although Niko can be a sympathetic character during the missions and cutscenes, the complete player freedom allows Niko to be a completely different character to that which is presented to us, showing no compassion or empathy for human life.
Not only that, but the game suffers from a similar problem to Mirror's Edge. Despite the cutscenes and character interactions being much better in GTA IV, the game asks us to care about our cousin Roman, risking our lives and going up against innumerable odds to save him. The player's response to Roman has been almost universally negative however, as he consistently nags the player to go to strip clubs, drinking or bowling with him, despite the player possibly having better things to do with their time.
The final title I would like to mention is Devil May Cry 4. Although a very sound game with some very interesting mechanics, one of the main faults of the game is the large amount of cutscenes. It takes 3 and half minutes from selecting "New Game" at the main menu to actually reach gameplay, which is then broken up by another five minutes of cutscene. All this serves to do is show us how much fun the characters are having with this wonderful game, whilst we watch and are supposed to be entertained, despite the fact that we've bought a game and not a CG movie.
Part 2 coming up soon, I need to do some more coursework and get ready for work tonight.
For the riddles I've been fed, another lie moves over
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Proposal and Miscellany
So I think the Game Proposal project is coming along nicely. I've got my idea of what I want to work on, I'm doing the Cthulhu horror title, which is going to be a lot of fun. I've had a lot of experience DMing the Cthulhu role playing game, so I just need to come up with an original story. I'm really excited to start on it though!! I think I'm going to be focusing on the writing side rather than the drawing side. At least, I like to think I'll be able to write an interesting character, I hope I don't fall into any traps I've seen previous characters fall into. I don't want "Is Black" or "Is a Woman" to be a defining feature, because that's just ridiculous.
I also played through the Mass Effect 2 Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC yesterday. Really impressive, there was a lot there about great storytelling in games. One thing that really stood out to me was when you can read through your crewmate's mail and extranet searches. Most of the time, it's quite tongue-in-cheek, there's a mention of one of the characters looking up Dinosaurs and Sharks on future-google, there's somebody else's workout routine. Almost of nowhere, you find an email from a doctor to one of the female members of your crew, informing her that she's unable to bear children. It was really effective, but made sense in terms of that character and didn't seem like a cheap shot.
In other news, I've got a job! It's only 10 hours a week, but it's going to be enough. This has genuinely put me in a really good mood that will probably be hard to break (this is not a challenge)
I also played through the Mass Effect 2 Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC yesterday. Really impressive, there was a lot there about great storytelling in games. One thing that really stood out to me was when you can read through your crewmate's mail and extranet searches. Most of the time, it's quite tongue-in-cheek, there's a mention of one of the characters looking up Dinosaurs and Sharks on future-google, there's somebody else's workout routine. Almost of nowhere, you find an email from a doctor to one of the female members of your crew, informing her that she's unable to bear children. It was really effective, but made sense in terms of that character and didn't seem like a cheap shot.
In other news, I've got a job! It's only 10 hours a week, but it's going to be enough. This has genuinely put me in a really good mood that will probably be hard to break (this is not a challenge)
This is how the wars get started.
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