Task 25. Career Planning

Just before I begin discussion on my career planning, it looks like I forgot to do task 24, which is a review of the second year. Ill sum it up quickly.
Still loved the life drawing sessions, got through plenty of sketchbooks, group project was a fun success.

I also went off to work for Ubisoft in Pune India for six months. Which is why I have disapeared off the face of the earth. The experiance was an interesting one, one where I got to work on all disciplines of the art side, not much on the engine though. I worked on concepts, to 3D ingame characters, backgorund paintings, props, story boards and cinematics. Which is alot of stuff for six months, but it was a very eventful time. This was my first job, just like everyones first job at times it great and other times a bit stressfull,  but its all things to grow from, I also have some good pub storys now.I learned the importance of working in a live team, I already had a good sence of this from the group project, its realy important to use the strengths of each member of your team when a crunch comes along, which they do often. The golden grain of knowledge I learned was: PLAN!

(Planning is greatly important, you need to plan everything really, its an easy thing to forget and ignore; but later on youll try to change one thing that will force everything else to need changes. Such as finishing a character, than having to add new geometry, so youll have to re-unwrap and rescale your UV sheet, re-bake your stuff and so on. Also it just makes me want to concept everything from the face of a character to the type of shoelace theyre waring, damn. )

But working for Ubisoft Pune made me realise that when working in a games studio, I would have to work bits and parts of everything. If youre a character artist, you'll finish your characters, but after all the characters, props and swords, skinning and so on is done, expect to work on some walls and gates. Youll work where more man hours are needed in most cases. Which is ideal for finding out new stuff.

Nothing was quite as cool as being asked to make something out of your comfort zone, even if youre bad at it youll get lots of crit untill its good, its a building process.

But all that made me think. What about my career, have I started it? Now that Im not in a studio, is it still my career.
Well yes, because there isnt another job I can do with as much zeal. So what exsactly is it I want to do? I love conception and I'd do that every day untill my finers are bone, but obviously theres a flood of great concept artists out there, I also really enjoy modeling characters. Fantasy is my game really, but not too magic and fairy dust. I plan to make a portfolio of wide ranging conceptual art and 3d character models.

Also I remember at one point saying I'd like to become an art lead one day, I learned that the higher the position the less hard work gets done and the pay rises. So I dont really want to do that any more, putting it frankly, I like making things not so much managing people. So I wont mind being a good old poly pusher for a hopefully long career.

I remember the first job I applied for. I was 18.

I went down to the local football stadium in an attempt to get a job as a porter, more of a dishwasher really a temp position and it was paied okay for cleaning. I come on down with a shirt and tie, I thought I looked kind of casual smart I guess.
I show up and every other applicant is in his 30s to 40s in a suit with a briefcase, looked more like I was applying for a bank position. In fact I thought I was in the wrong room.
And alass the interview came, we read through my documents and the guy looked at me and said " It just looks like you came in here looking for a job. " and that confused me as that was exactly why I applied, as did every one else. What other reason, to forward a career in washing tomato sauce off of plates?  And I walked out of there, knowing I didnt get the job, but that was okay, because I didnt want it like those business men porters whos career is pouring that last bit of someones second pint down the drain. And thats how I found out any other job just isnt for me, I learned that before even starting the course. Not to mention that the idea of having to pretend that scares me to do work.


So.. what was this post about? Career planning?!
Uh. I plan to make a book of about 50 page concept art peices, a good couple models.
Stick those puppies together and apply to just about every studio untill I find one with good people and some damned good projects who will let me play with them.
Thats my plan! 

Task 23, Games Education

Teaching specific skills technical skills or developing learning attributes and 'soft skills'?

What do I think? I dont even know what Developing learning attributes and soft skills are. Maybe its free to my own interpretation, in that case, lets say developing learning attributes is motivational self teaching. As that's what we receive. However I wont go into babble. I can only describe the thoughts and opinions I have gained through learning on this course so far coming to the end of my second year.

What would one imagine from games education? Well, thats what one would consider the same as waht you would exspect from higher education. What I was hoping was from turning from a mediocre artist to a professional. The thought in mind that I would not only learn from industry professionals who would pass down their skills in an easy to understand mannor, and give you those £9000 (or however much money I am now in debt to student finance) secretes that only the highest order of elite artists knew. Wishful thinking.
Obviously its not like that at all. Infact, you learn the basics, and that thousand pound  secrete is that you need to draw caws in able to be able to draw cars. The more cars you draw, the better the cars will look in the end. The learning stops shortly after, about the middle of 1st year, when youve learnt your first 3D program and perspective. The rest is hinted at through outdated tutorials or by asking others how you do X-Y-Z.

What does that bullshit have to do with anything you ask? Developing learning attributes. The tutors will ofcourse no longer say " To be able to do X you must do Y like so. ", and thus you, the student must venture of to figure out how to do X, along with Z and the rest of the alphabet. How do I do this? You figure it out. This may be a horrible and rotten way of developing someone to self teach, but only those that want to learn, will venture of and find their own education. Those that do, will more than likely succeed or at least improve. While growing ever spiteful knowing that what they learnt on their own, could easily be told in a 5 minute video, or 2-3 pages of text.
They will remember that tutorial, not just beacuse it accomplished the task at hand, but because they found it on their own, after spending time and resources to find what they need.
So in a sence, what sound and looks like bad teaching, is good, as it forces the student and only the determined students, to succeed.
The less determined, lazy students, will be stuck learning outdated techniques, basic skills, be generalised, get many things wrong , making them a week student. But they will still pass, as they did the things they thought they should do as layed out in the out dated guide books, following outdated advice from last generations tech. They will fall out of the pipeline of university thinking they deserve a job, when they wont have the portfolio for it, or the skills.

What about that Teaching specific technical skills?! Well, those skills get updated all the time. What we get taught is the basic, which is good. But no more advanced skills are taught. And just like the week student, if you taught every student the same thing, they would all produce the same shit.
Which will create a large pool of unemployable clones, with similar portfolios, maybe one or two differences in texturing or something. (Unless your tutors are all star professionals, there are some marvellous teachers out there who still work along side teaching. Somehow.)


So this whole teaching business. How it worked for me? Get taught the basics for a month or two, than run off and do your own thing.
From what I've done and what I've been told is the only way to get anywhere is to want to go somewhere.

Education is just another business, laughing away as you give them your cash for 3 years of "do whatever man I dont care."

"Than we said; £15 per guest, £40 rental on a graduation gown and a £125 photo frame! " - DeMontfort University.

Task 22, Crativity and Garbage

The length of this task will be more about my own thoughts upon Creativity, skill and all that other toss were cramed into beliving exsists. Does it? If it does, how do you get it? Were you born with it?

Well the other day I was watching a tutorial lesson by a conceptual artist and teacher, in their presentations he mentioned how two kids learned. Basicaly two kids were both taught perspecitve and everything, all the worldly basics in order to understand drawing, art and the use of their learned skills.
Now Kid A had been one of those kids who read lots of books, went to measusems, looked at alot of cool shit, traveled a bit, althoughout his lifem he experianced alot of visual stimulai.
And Kids B he did everything kid A did, but for less time, so he spent maybe age 11 to 19, playing games, maybe went on to try to become a football player or something.
So these two kids are told to draw a castle, they both know how, perspective and all that shit.

Kid A draws this crazy castle with a mound and all this stuff looks cool, where as kid B draws this sort storybook castle.
Whats the difference? Kid B only knows the kind of castle he was told about from before he was 10, so he doesnt know what other castles look like and cant be more creative beyond that point.
Kid A, has clearly gone and seen a few, researched a bit and knows his stuff.

So when it comes to creativity, is someone born with it? No. Its basic knowledge, creativity is knowledge. Do you know what a pig looks like, ofcourse, but youll find all sorts of pigs out there, with different skin colours, sizes, tusks, hair or lack there of. If you only know of a Pink pig from the picture book when you was 6, youll always draw a pink pig. If you know that they're related to boars and they can be tiny and grow to be the size of a miniature horse, youre going to get cooler designs.

What have I learned? You can learn all the technical ability in the world! You can render youre shit to the point where it looks like a photo! But it doesnt matter one ounce if it just looks like everything else youve ever seen.
To create interesting ideas, you have to know more. There is no such thing as creativity. Its simply splicing your ideas together.

I was always into drawing. Howver I didnt read many books, watch many movies, in fact I didnt do much of anything. I was quite the recluse. Which makes me like Kid B. But it'd sit and imagine alot, no anything in particular, i'd go on mental rages thing about elongating limbs and objects, just playing around with things in my head. But of recent I know how importand studying other things is. How can I know something if its not in my mental library.
To awnser the questions of the blog task, as is routine.
I show people my creativity by drawing or saying it, i expect them to see it or hear it and imagine it in their heads as I imagined it.
Im neither skilful or talented, as its down to knowledge of subject of which I will never know enough.
What skills do I need to develop? The skill to persuade others that I have the ideas and i guess being able to render a turd helps.
I end with an egg.

Task 21 Specialise

Once upon a time, about 20 years ago, games would be made by roughly 4-6 people. They were in charge of the whole operation, from illustrations to sound and effects.
This however is something of the past as games have become multi-million dollar investments, who would have foreseen such an event?
With big budgets, one can get someone to work on one individual piece of the puzzle which is game construction. So this is how a company grows, larger budget, more contributors, more specialisation.

Its easy to look at myself when I think of specialisation. I came onto the course thinking I will become a digital illustrator, 2D artist and home my skills. This is still my motivation and driving force, despite constant weight.
However of course erasing my ignorance of the rest of the development process; I have been constantly swayed towards the 3D side of things.
If one focuses primarily on one subject, they are bound to become good at it, say if I studied like I used to, free from distraction I could draw all day every day of the week, and improve leaps. Which I would like. However If one trys to become a jackel of all trades, they will never meet the specialist. Having more arrows may be a good thing, but doesnt matter much if you cant hit the bullseye, if you follow me? There are always the temptations to distract you from your goal.

Now lets see what would happen if I went full out 2D artist.
If I became a illustrator, my job would be closer to the end of the project, in fact I wouldnt have much control over subject, I'd create the promotional work for the game, be it cover, poster, or other illustrated bits.
A conceptual artist would be needed primarily a the beginning of the project (at the creation phase), and through out the rest of the project. The primary goal to visualise the world, assets, style and any visual element of the game.

A 3D artist has alot more specialist areas. Not to say there aren't alot of areas in the 2D field, when it comes to ISO games, they have all the rolls of the 3d artist, when creating a full 2d game, as many ISO and hand-held games are.
From what I've come to learn is that there are many rolls for the 3D artist.
Enviroment artist, Character modeling, Prop artist, Weapon artist Special Effects and so on. All have different jobs, yet have the possibility to work on each other feild.
A enviroment artist could easily create the assets a Prop artist could make. Same for a character artist being able to create weapons, props or creatures.
As Ive learned from talking to character artists is they will often be used for other things after they have completed all the character art needed for the game. Like, after they have finished their characters, they were set a task to create animals. Makes sence in an employment state of mind, why hire a new person when you have a fully functional artist at your disposal? Artists are usual on contract for a set period of time, and having them do nothing after their job is done is a waste of money on their part.
So for the chracter artist, their job wouldnt end at charcter art, as chracters fill maybe 10% of the game if im being generous. If they were not given other tasks, they would be wasting time and money, only needed for the smallest amount of time in a company.
Unlike a enviroment artist, who would be needed for far longer, as they are needed to create the whole playable world, assets and whatever else needed in game.

When it comes to specialising, I have no idea anymore. Maybe I am a generalist at the moment, im stronger in the 2D department thats for sure. Its hard to say.

Task 20

In short this task should be based more around use of physical interaction with the non-physical game. With games now choosing to use less of a control pad or in some cases no control pad at all, its hard to see where the future of games are going to.
But I will also talk about user interfaces here and there along the way, keep your panties on.

Lets start at the beginning. The joystick allowed 8 drirections of movment, with 1 to 3 comand buttons, the simple logic of this was often explained on the conroler and had a direct and rather obvious reaction in the game. A similar trend continued through out the 80s and early 90. This was until the analog joystick appeared on the nintendo’s N64. This appeared due to the use of 3d technology in games, now with consoles becoming more powerful it enabled the controller to move through 3 dimentional space, instead of the predeceasing 2D space. However this was more obviouse with the Sony PlayStation analog controller , the Sony playstation took full advantage of its analog controller, as you could use the left analog to move that character, and the right to rotate the camera. This has been a primary function of modern controlers. The 2d style of controlers effected the user interface of games

Yeah thats about all the user interface you needed in the 80s-90s, Lives, Score, Time. And thats it, oh the occasional start screen will help aswell.

Baldaurs gate had quite an advanced user interface, something that reminds me much more of a MMORPG, something which I loved like crack as a child, and hell still do, hooked for life on that stuff. But it had everything you needed with symbols that fitted the theme, sometimes they will change a bit and youll have to do some investigation into what soething is, but eventualy this sort of set up becomes almost easy to navigate. Always knowing where the map, equiptment and whatever else you need is, just nicely tucked away. Some would say its quite messy, but thats just our modern, everything must have one button because were too stupid to understand more than one god damned button, thanks apple, you cock.

However in the past 5 or so years, time has a way of slipping by un-notice, motion sensors has became the fad amongst game developers. Nintendo and Sony use similar motion capture technology, not to mention dule-stick like controlers, which bare close resemblance to each other. The xbox connect had decided to go one step further and remove the controller all together, and instead using the motion capture to almost have the player in the game, being more physical. And motion capture and user interfaces will probably bring us closer to that, matrix style computers, moving each window out of the way with your hands, crazy to think about, but if there is the will, there is the way.

Well a cool matrix style interface is what they want, but what they will get is something more like this photo, just a lazy woman flailing her arm tryingto change from screen to screen likea moron.
And if you notice, this new age of 3d and glimmer glammer has risen to new crazy, sleek user interfaces?

Oh why arn't you posh skyrim. They've pretty mich simplified it down as far as it could go, they didnt even bother with any fitting decorations. Its like getting into a horse and cart, with air conditioning and a tv/radio and sat-nav. Crazy, no?

Remember Nintendo’s Virtual boy? The first real taste of 3D, even thought it was terrible and failed as a product. A decade later, Nintendo has came back into 3d with the Nintendo 3DS, a hand held 3D console that requires no additional equipment, only a slider is needed to cause the 3D effect. Its pretty interesting to think about, the change between the 2d into the relms of 3D. Yeah, Im dont know anymore.

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/art-controller.htm -The history of controllers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_simulator - Flight simulators from early to nw

Task 19 Sounds in games

After having a little tinker in UDK, adding sounds to the groups level a few things appeared to me that as a gamer I had often over looked, just a tad. Games are not just a visual experience but also reach out for the other senses also, which studios have been trying to enhance ever more for a good while now, but sound is one that can add just about any mood they are after.

For example, in Team Tambra's group project, I added a sharp piano key at the time an eyeball fell from the ceiling. Ofcourse, eyes dont make piano noises when falling, but the jolt of sound, combined with the visual experiance, and build up from the rest of the level, really adds to the mood we were trying to convey. Not to mention I was trying to work towards a Resident Evil theme, which the use of piano is used through out their games.

When the budget is right, game studios can really go the mile when it comes to sound. Such as the Biowear's Jade Empire, who had a audio team of 6 workers, who recorded traditional chinese instruments to get a ancient chinese feel to their game. When you think about it, going that extra mile works wonders when it comes to game play. If you're playing a ancient chinese game, which has dominant western music, it wont fit the area youre trying to promote.
You could say, what about Omega Force's Dynasty Warriors?

A game set in ancient china, during times of war, surely this game should have a dominantly chinese sound track. Which, it doesnt, that time period didnt have electric guitars, unless im mistaken. So why does it work with this game? Well, there is still a chinese feel, with the occasional chinese instrument spliced in here and there, but the main thing to note the genre of game. Dynasty Warriors is a action beat em' up, which is relitivly fast pased and semi-real time stratagy. Traditional chinese music isnt as up tempo as western music, that upbeat tempo really helps the game move along, appear fast and like a battle is around the courner, if it was traditional chinese, the game would appear alot slower. Dynasty Warriors has a certain theme, now in its 7th series, its had a rock/chinese theme running throughout every one of their games, if the game were to change its sound track now, it wouldnt fit within the feel of the game.


I probably wouldnt enjoy Time Splitters 2's Anaconda, if it were not for its music.
In fact, I'd pay to listen to it.
Which brings me onto my next subject of game sound tracks. The quality of music in games has soared to the point where company's can literally sell their music alone. Now the average fan can enjoy their games, when theyre not even playing, which builds stronger relationships with the game. So not only can a company make dollar from the game they produce, they can also make extra pennies from the sound tracks they create, which ofcourse are cheeper to produce on mass scale.
Just taking a look at Square Einx's sale records, its obvious their fan base is pretty damned loyal. Their music is very iconic of their games, so its obvious why sales are high. Large fan base, iconic music, theres not much else to it.

Sound in games are not only good for the ambiance, genere, immersion and gameplay of a game, but also for the companys wallet.

Medal of Honour audio team
Lord of the rings audio

Interview with Yoko Shimomura
Square Einx's album sale figures

Task 18, Searchers start your engines!

Whats a game engine? Lets cut the technical jargon and go straight to " Its the empty world containing the information to fill that world. " Or this his how it feels when you open up a Softwear development kit (SDK), something like Unreal or the Elder Scrolls construction set.
Either way, the engine controls all sorts of sweet bits to put into your world. It controls everything from frame rate (to an extent) to particular systems. The game engine once started out as a simple couple lines of code, back in the golden day of pacman and asteroids, it was all that was needed. However games have evolved since than and with every engine, comes a more complex and elaborate code to run it. Many modern engines include 3D real time rendering as is expected with 3D being the front runner for games in this area. The game engine is the program that witll sort all your meshes, lighting, redering, and whatever else will effect the game so the game can be created around it.

I could continue, however Ill explain my own take on the game engine.


The Elder Scrolls construction set was my very first engine I came into contact with Back in 2004, when I got my first copy of The Elder Scrolls, Morrowind (2002), by Bethesda. Now, I was only 13 at the time and had no idea what the hell was going on, but I was heavily interested, the idea of being able to edit the game. However lack of 3d knowledge and softwere knowledge was too much for me, I would always try to work it out, but with no luck.

As a kid I wish I could have done something like that!
However last chrismas I tried using The Elder Scrolls Oblivion construction set and found out it needed 3DsMax 8 models to run, which was a pain.

My second engine which I had come to learn of was the Unity engine.
The unity engine was somethign we were goign to use in the Game art / Game programming. We were going to make a game for this big gaming compition where we would earn some nice money if we had achualy went through with the idea. But thats another story.
The Unity engine was a flash engine capable of web browser based games (something I thought was amazing) and mobile gaming, including playstation 3. Its definatly something to check out, its capable of breakable objects, full 3D rendering, ambient lighting and distance fade. The lot. A very powerful piece of kit.
http://youtu.be/MrG-ZjdosJs
A little video there showing some capabilities. Whats cool is that it isnt nintendo 3Ds Graphics, more going towards PSP and PS2. But suports normal bump mapping and various other maps.

Unreal engine, or UDK (Unreal Development kit) is one of the most widley used game engines out there. Its free and constantly updated. ( A bit too much for my liking, its not backward compatable after all)

Considering its for three generations under its belt, It would be a good engine.

I want to come back to this post after the queens project, simply because, I dont feel I fully understand UDK and the engine. After I gain a better understanding of the game engine, from practical use I will be able to write my thoughts upon it. Untill than its just regurgitated mess from others accounts.

Unreal: http://udn.epicgames.com/Main/WebHome.html
Unity Engine : http://unity3d.com/
CryEngine 3 : http://mycryengine.com/
Whats a game engine? : http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/529/what_is_a_game.php
Top 10 game engines of our time: http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/100/1003725p1.html
Elements of a game Engine:

Task 16 Level Design

Level design and composition are two related subjects, they tie in just like the rest of the game does when you create a level. But composition is a child to the parent of Level design. Lets consider something like the human body. One could call the bones the level design, and the veins the tightening of that design and composition of the level. Without the bone structure in place, the muscles and veins have no where to wrap themselves around and the human form would be a puddle of goop. Quite like a Bad level design.

There are many ways some get around their ideas of level design.
Lets say the Copy Paste Method, which is probably what its actually called, where the level designer desides to literaly, copy one map and paste it in a nother location, or on the next floor of the same location.
Now this isnt a bad thing, there's a little thing called consistency, I mean, every room is usualy different, but in a game no ones going to care too much about two broom cupboards looking the same. Lets have a look at Persona 3!

10 to 25 floors that look exactly the same?! Than just change the textures!!! .

Now dont get me wrong, I love Persona 3, and Persona 4 too as it was also quite pretty. My problem with this game was its computer generated levels. Which to be honest, is cool! Basicaly, one floor is a randomly computer generated map, spliced together from room segments, so you can go back to the same floor you were just on, but it will never be the same map. Now thats a good design when it comes to repeating levels. Its copy paste, but never completely the same. One map is one floor, and you have to go through like 150 or so floors, which is like a billion repeated maps. But every 25 or so floors theres a cool boss, which prevents you from running up further, and you can unlock that level in the elevator. Who designs an elevator where you have to walk to that level first before you can use the elevator to get there? But in terms of a game level, its a pretty cool idea, I liked it, it was like an achievement and made me forget about the endless repetition. And after every boss the level's textures change! So its not a complete bore.

Its a corridor, but its different from the last one.

So when it comes to Persona, I like to consider that they have goods and bads. Yeah, they designed their dungeon to have computer generated maps which could be considered a bit lazy, but they managed to keep it interesting by jazzing things up a bit here and there. So its a mixed bag. You never realy feel lost in this game, but you have to find the stairs in a randomly generated room, which can be forever apart, or right in front of you, which at times makes the game feel easy, or makes the stairs being so close a god send.

Now lets look at a game that will forever be butchered and dragged trough the mud as  the disappointing series, that once was Sega's Mario to Nintendo. Sonic the Hedgehog. Now, back in the days when Sonic was on the Sega genisis, the levels were amazing, a cool fast paced plat former. It was fun, reminded me of setting up marball tracks as a kid, but a bit cooler. Each zone (or map,level) had a good 3-5 unique objects, like springs, loops, or fans, water and all other bits and bobs to keep one from remembering its going from left to right.

It was simple, you run to the right, but go back and forth, avoiding bits and bobs. Their level design was really good for the side scrolling age. Fun stuff, at no point did the game feel, blocky, it was loose. But side scrollers arn't what cause Sega's star child to look like he does. Its their choice to make every sonic game full 3d. The worst to blame is sonic heroes!

What the fuck is going on here? Can I call that a vista?

Sonic Heroes on the other hand decided to just use springs and rails everywhere! And not to mention, you've always going to fall into some stupid bottomless bit. Did you ever fall into a pit in the sega genisis versions, RARELY. This is also down to the bad controls, or lack there of. Often enough It felt like you were being thrown around the level, and you didnt really have to do anything. Its like the deisnger though " More long ass jumps here, lets put 2-no 3 loops here and than put another long jump at the end of all those loops ". This would be cool for a side scrolling game, but when it comes to 3D, is more like this : " What the fuck am I doing, oh god whats going on, I dont know what Im doing, what the fuck how did I die? ". It was all stupidly complicated for no reason at all. One of the many reasons I have never completed that game and never will.

Well, I may have to continue this at a later date. To sum it up:
A well deisgned level can immerse the player into the world. A bad level can take you out of that world, than make you turn off the computer and get on with your life.

The Only way I will play Sonic Heroes again.

  
Reading List:
Crimes agains level design

Review of sonic, which I dont completely agree with.

" Does anyone care about game designers" - Forum post

Task 15 Visual Composition

Im quite pleased to be doing this task as Its something I've spent a lot of time looking into of recent and Ive found some nice trickery and wizardry on the subject.
Composition is a amazing concept, its the method of how we see things, by cropping them and the arangment of the objects we see, so create something.
Composition can change your picture into anything you want, simply chaning the camera angle can change the whole feel of the image
Lets just delve deep into some different methods of showing an image, and how they effect they way we read it, or can read it. This is best portraid with the same image, from different angles.

Lets have a look at these speedy thumbs, thumbs being the best way to figure out what composition works best for what you are wanting to portray.
What does this image say? They say, two people, in an arena, one is attacking the other and the other is defenseless. What can we do with this visualy?
Birds eye: The birds eye view sort of shows quite a tense moment, the viewer is too far away to rach in and stop the attack, we can use this view, so get an almost a god view. This view also takes detail away from the characters, focusing on the shapes instead of details, the event is the most important thing to be see. In this particular scene, the birds eye view can make you feel nutural towards the scene, like youre floating careless, or youre in thr croud completely exiled from the action.
Worms eye: The worms eye view in comparison, rams the action right up into your face and forces you to see it. You can see this attacker is lundging in, the victim is defencless, dropping their weapon. This view is great for showing dominating power, the attacker is in complete controle, its all about the attacker, and his power. A worms eye is very good for displaying the " looking down ones nose at you " effect. Want your viewer to think your character is higher in the social lader than you? Worms eye is the way to do it.
Being the attacker For a different feel, we can set the camera behind the attacker. What does this do? This lets us be right up behind the atacker, looking right over his sholder. Its close, we can see the action, the motion, whats going to happen and enough detail to make us understand, whos doign what to who with what and how. This could also make us feel that we are a partner of the attacker, or we're just about to reach in and stop the action before this final strike.
Behind the victim This is quite a flip of what I just said, its like we are with the victim, we can see whats happening, whats coming, this sort of battle scene.

Fibonaci Spiral When I was working on my bradgate final, Chris mention a "fibonacci spiral ", this is a cool little trick which can make the viewers eye move towards an area you want, for example, a snail shell, your eye will move towards the point. This works with paintings aswell, you can easily combine multipul objects, to force the viewer to follow particular lines. For the image above, I wanted the viewer to have both the feeling of the calm landscape, to slowly pass over onto the action of this dragon fight, paying attention to the bite of the dragon than the soldier riding them in the center of this show.
Rule of thirds: The rule of thirds is almost a golden rule in photography, and can be used to give you controle over your imagery. It splits the image into a 3x3 grid, it alows you to position areas of rest and intrest in your image. Rest is a very important for the eye, if you have alot of noise, you wont notice any of the noise and youll make visual chaos, good balence will help you to create an image which is easy on the eye. Something that will let one look at your image for longer, without draining them. Simply by cropping the image, so the areas of intrest are in areas where the sections cross, you can make nice areas of rest and intrest. Sticking an image dead center, you will not be able to pay much attention to the whole image, as the main intrest, is dead center, sitting there dull and boring. The goal of this method is to get the viewer to look all over your image, so you get more time from them.

Moving objects need space to move into!
Lets have a look at a picture of a tortois toy I drew. Its a toy, but it could be real enough, like its on sand not paper lets say.

Looking at this, clearly I hadnt thought of rule of thirds. Other than that, it looks very cramped, that tortoise is looks like it wants to go over to the right, but it has no where to do, the picture feels uncomfortable. What does this picture show? That this creature wants to stand there? It ruins the picture. Too much of one subject and no space to rest the eye.

Well doesnt that feel better? That little section of uncropped gives you alot more to look at, gives you space to breath no? A place for the tortoise to move into, it no longer feels cramped. It looks like the thing could move into the space, quite hapily. Space is important, good use of space is key.


There is more I could go onto, like piramid method, combining objects of different hights togehter.
But I want to do other things, like paint and finish a model.

Task 14

Planning And Conception

The beginning stages of a project, not just Game Design but film and other tasks, is one of the most important steps in creating a finalised product. Its hard not to want to jump to the final, as I know all too well in illustration, but its important that correct planning is done before hand, in order to achieve a successful product.

In drawing an illustration, such as has been taught to us by Chris, starts with a set of thumbnails, and than slowly develops into a more detailed image. But there is something before the thumbnails even begins which is the planning. We are set a dead line, much like one would have in any practice, this is what we call the Brief. This brief is basically the planning to our project, we are told, how many thumbnails are needed, how long we have on the project and what it is we are to be creating. This could than be developed into a routine, so if we are given a week to do a full image, we can break the week down into sections and spend 2/7 days on thumbnails and preparation with the remaining 5/7 on the finalised image, or 6 days on preparation and 1 on the final image.  That one segmented day could be broken down further into hours of the day, so planning can go quite indepth, and its very important it does, because its so easy to lose time. One of my greatest guilts is not getting out of bed untill 11am on a weekend, realising half the day has gone. When one realises they do not have enough time to do something, or time has disappeared it is down to poor planning on their part. Or in the case of waking up in the morning, thats more of a will power issue.
With a scheduled and good time management, one can assure that something can be created on time, if nothing goes wrong. Something will always go wrong, but without the schedule the amount of time wasted could double or even triple the length of the project. A efficient schedule wastes no time.
Going back to my metaphor about Visual Deisgn projects. Some students jump straight to the final image and than work backwards. It raises questions, why waste time if you already have the final image? What made them think the image they created was the best outcome they could have created? If they worked backwards and realised a better image from their thumbnails, they would have wasted all the time on a final, to make a better final.

When it comes to concepting, its pictured as a golden goblet, or a prise to the young aspiring artist, however conception is all about selling an idea. Its the packaging before the product is created. To get an idea across in a visuals is far more elaborate than in text. In a concept, you can show a person on any level ( investor, director, 3D modeller, audience, ext.) what you want and what you dont want your project to be. If you create an idea which is not liked, the image is far more editable than words, the image can be tightened and refined to strengthen the idea. How I see it, concept art is to turn a chaotic, nebula of an idea, into a a smaller area, to tighten the idea, so everyone understands it, setting limitations to what it should and should not be. If everyone can see these ideas, its easier to abide by them.


Or at least thats what I think, I dont know, Im a student.

Task 13 and Paranoia in Public

Now officially a Second year I can look upon my last year and say how good or bad it was. I think it was neither, some grey in-between, its either black or white and i was somewhere in the middle. I had a good start to last year.
Over the summer holidays my productivity rose to new hights and my quality of work in 3d and 2d came with it.

Although my work on these projects had to be cut short, I am still pleased with some of the progression made. My first high to low bake and my first 15k character.
The problems I will and already have began to face this year are responsibility and sacrifices that need to be taken into account. At the moment, I have not sacrificed anything in order to spend more time working, over the past year I have gained many friends which I once had not had and am grateful for. However this also cuts down on the time I can work, I would not like to cut the amount of time I spend with them out at all, so I will have to find other enjoyment to cull. This is primarily, reddit, drunkenness, maybe even documentaries. All things I do enjoy, but are not needed. I almost wish I could stow away and work with no other worldly distraction, but than my work would be dull and lifeless as the moons surface.

The start of my new year has not gotten off to a running start, as I was at fast pace during the summer, untill I had to move, upon which my speed as been reduced to a walk. I think I will continue to walk for the next day or so (A littlel earthly pleasure, before I change the definition of pleasure), than begin a race towards my goal.

I also feel Ive become some what more bitter of recent, this is probably due to a lack of interaction with others over the summer, takes a while for me to get back into the people mood.

My goal for this year, to gain an internship, to visit and draw at every coffee shop in Leicester, to push myself.

Paranoid in Public.

Over the years as I draw people out and bout, coffee shops, pubs and clubs. I have noticed a strange almost paranoid feeling from those I draw and at times, I almost feel as if I shouldn't watch others in public, or even see them as I am trying to do through drawing. The feeling from many can almost make the work of drawing seem almost voyeuristic, but not in the sexual sence, its as if these people are in a bubble, in the public world but in a thin bubble of which ones glance is intruding into their world.
Let me explain.
In order for me to draw people in life, as they are, I need to draw them as they live, not as they pose or want to be portrait, but how I see them at the moment. So I will draw publicly and attempt to capture their life through my eyes, which is difficult if they were just sitting still at the very least.
Others do not share this mind set. Its almost as if the public, should be as private as ones own home.

Lets use example.
A few years ago, I decide to draw a family (a mother, father, two daughters and a son). No harm there. I watch them from a distance not to disturb them. One of the daughters notice me watching them and begins to freak out.
Now a freak out is how I describe someone whos actions become extremely agitated, sharp head movements, worried facical expression, whispering, pointing and sudden abrupt leaving... Oh and this is a good one, communication to others at the table with phones. (Parinoid behaviour in my books.)
Suddenly the father decides to talk to me and see what Im doing, which is fine, this isnt about people seeing my work, so I will stop there.
What I am interested in is why that girl freaked out.

Recently, a flatmate told me that her sister had recently felt " creeped out " by a man drawing her in a coffee shop in London not 2 months ago. Interested I bothered her with more questions. It seemed like this man was just drawing. But to her sister, he was " Weird " "creepy ". So the freak out was over appearance and that such a person with such appearance was looking upon her. If the description of the male was " attractive ", "cute" it would be a much different story.
So. Is the the reason for the freak out. No. What runs through the mind of someone who is being watched? " Why is this person looking at me ", " What are they doing ", " What do they want ", " Who are they. " ext.
I question, "Why do they care?".

This person is in a public place, in a world over ran with people. These people spend time and effort, making themselves look presentable, to go out into the public world. Some women take hours to get ready to leave their private domain. Im assuming they get ready and leave so people will see them, among their daily tasks.
So theres a catch 22 or whatever its called. People want to be seen and noticed. But they dont want to be seen or noticed it would seem through the eyes of an artist. But what annoys me, is they spend this time, they want to be seen and noticed, but when someone watches them for more than just a passing glance, they freak out, or begin to question why someone else is looking upon another person. Do they think I should process every characteristic of that person in just a glance, they may be able to do that, but it takes me alot longer. I'd rather be able to see the seams of a persons boot or the earing a person is waring for longer than a millisecond. So my question is why wont people let some appreciate others for simply being alive, it seems alien to me.
In some places in england, if you look at a someone for longer than a glance, they consider it a threat, questioning ones reasons for simply noticing their assistance. Looking at someone for longer than a glance, some consider flirting, and either freak out or flirt.

Ive also recently figured out why people notice you at all. People need constant stimulation. If what they are stimulated by ( a conversation ) becomes uninteresting, they will begin to glance across the room, for other things to stimulate their minds. From watching others, Ive noticed the type of people who will enjoy their companionship so much they will not notice whats going on around them, and those who are pretending to care, but never stop looking for something more interesting than the person sitting next to them. And whats more interesting than someone you know nothing about, looking at you, with a book.
I could conclude it here, people freak out, because they are bored. Ive also noticed, those that get bored talking to others, often have repetitively boring appearances, the blad man with glasses and laptop, the female fasion students, the business students (theyre easy to point out).
Theres much more on this subject, I always muddle it around in my head, so its harder to get out in text.
Lets just say, how I see it is; If a person is in public, they shouldnt feel afraid to be seen. And hell, Ill probably pay more attention to that person more than anyone else in the room/street.

Task 12. The review! Boy this is a long review...

A review of my year. Even though I dont count 6 months as a year. Its no where close to a year. And theres my first complaint, I wish my damn loan paied for 12 months of education, and not 6. Okay, maybe 11 months, I'd like a holiday.

Before I start reminising and what not. Im going to review some things that have been on my mind of recent.

First off, for next year this is. Why does only half the room have UDK installed on the computers? Seems pretty stupid to me, surely each computer should have it installed and ready to be used. This was quite a problem when I was merrily working away, untill I was asked to move because my computer was the only one with UDK on it by a second year. Admitedly, its fair enough that I should move as Im not using UDK. But I dont see why all computers would have it. (This is from what ive been hearing from all the second years this is, may have changed, who knows.)

I've been told by Heather,Mike,Chris that one should avoide zbrush as all students produce shit without understanding the basics. Thisaside. My problems not with the use (Seems good for high to low polly bakes.)its with the program itself.
Why are we not using Autodesk Mudbox? Its the same company as 3DSmax and the students can get a free licancy for 3 years. Are we paying for zbrush? Because i think Mudbox is the way to go, its simpler to use, reading up on some job descriptions at RockStar, 3DsMax and Mudbox seemed to be requests.
Same goes for the first point, its not on every computer. A bit odd.

First year gibber now.

Over crowding is a big issue. About 50 first years, and only 40 computers? How is that going to work? If there are 30 second years next year, and another 50 first years, how the hell am I going to use a computer every day?! Sure alot of the first years now dont come in throughout the week, but its still cramped for space in the labs. Not to mention life drawing!!
Life drawing was one of the main things that attracted me to this course. Ive complained about it alot, sometimes quite pationatly to the wrong people. But I still think its a fundimental practice, If I went to a university without life drawing, I would have gladly paied for it. To be able to get life drawing twise a week (tuesday and friday) is the best for me. (Even though, its mostly Tom who has limited poses. Differnt body types would be nice.) I dont see why more people come to the friday session. I really hope its on next year aswell.
Anyway, overcrowding in life drawing was STUPID, majorly stupid. Half the time I wasnt even able to see Tom when he lays down. And just about every drawing, there would be some guys big arse fucking head in the way. No really, when youre tryingto draw someone far away, and you got someone infront of them, the perspective makes their heads look fucking huge, its annoying. I dont want to have to imagine the arm being there. For the next years first years, if anyone has an afro, I bet they will be popular.
Other than that, the drawing studio has these two stupidly large pillars, apparently they are smaller, just fitters came in and put large blocks around them.
On the plus side.. The sink has been fitted! Perhaps it would be a good idea to get rid of the carpet in that room also. Maybe just the section where the students are, but keep the carpet for the model? I dont know.

Some key features of the course?
The whole course is pretty much independant. Its a "You learn yourself, youre just guided to learning yourself". Simply, its the best way to learn I feel, when it comes to 2D. 3D, I need some guidance, there are many things I dont know about and its all new and cool. But Im learning myself. And activly searching for new things. I wouldnt have joined the Games Society, some game MODs, Dominance war, gameindsutry.biz. I probably wouldnt have got tickets for EuroGamer, ext... I've learned alot. I think it shows in my work, I could have learned more, I just needed to look more.

I've learned more about the industry I want to work in, more about what Im realisticly going to produce. I know its not going to be easy and im glad I know that. It only makes me want to produce higher quality work, although at the moment, Its more about learning the skills.The summer Im going to refine them a bit, or atleast try.

The connections, I think this is quite important, the lecutres from Blitz and codemasters has really broken the barrier I had. This barried was a mental thing, which stoped me realising that these artsist are just people. Just like me, only where I want to be, I should activly seek out adivce from them because when they were where I am, they would have seeked out adivce from people who are where they are now. It makes things a little more real, I feel far more confident about my work and showing it to others. I dont even think I can fail when it comes to making a piece anymore, I dont see something that looks bad, I see something that isnt finished yet or needs to be fixed. Also, speaking with those in the industry has reinforced what Ive been told by the tutors. As Ive said, it makes things more real, I can relate. Good stuff.

Stuff ive realised about myself..
I've come to realise who I perfer as my company. Who I like to be around and who i'd like to work with. The only people who I feel I enjoy working with is those who are pationate about their work, the course and the industry. I almost hate anyone whos on the course and treats it as a joke, or doesnt try as much as they should. I mean, its all well and good people have different learning speeds. But 6 months and they havnt leanerd perspective, or modeling or how to write a stupid blog? Its obviouse theyre not doing the work, they have the will but they just dont care it seems. There are tutorials on the VLE, there are 2nd years in the labs who know their shit, Heather and Chris even show us how to do something. Sure sometimes I miss a little grain that can be quite important. But trial and error has solved every problem so far.
And now people are stressing because they dont know how to do the basics, or google their problem with " Tutorial " on the end.
As Hogarth said in Iron Giant.

"-I'm challenged to hold on to my lunch money because of all the big mooses who wanna pound me, 'cause they think I'm a shrimpy dork who thinks he's smarter than them! But I don't think I'm smarter, I just do the stupid homework! If everyone else JUST DID THE STUPID HOMEWORK, they could move up a grade and get pounded, too! Is there anymore coffee?"

Putting it into simple terms. Im pasionate about where Im going and I dont have time for people who THINK they want to go in the same direction. Its not like the work is too difficult for a university student. I could not care less for the lazy. If a few lazy people DONT get kicked off of the course, it would undermind every person who cared enough to put the work in. I would instantly think the first lecture about this not being a Micky Mouse course was a lie. But I'm fairly confident the lazy will be axed. Or, fed to the pigs. Looking at the second years queen projects, I dont want a single lazy bastard on my team next year dragging my level down!

My interest into other artists and art themes has definatly become deeper. I would usualy only admire the artwork, but now my net has become alot wider, I know what appeals to me more but Im also looking elsewhere for inspiration. Not to mention real life. Also, I've been buying alot more art books. Awesome stuff to read.


Well Im tired and should go to bed, theres so much I could write about this year. However, I need to wake up to go to Bradgate Park to draw tomorrow... And thats in 6 hours. Grate.

Also, I keep forgetting to give back the tablet pens i rent out from Tim, I always seem to get pen #1. It'd be easier if I could just rent it out from monday untill firday.

Task 11

Enviroments in games.

Level designers have a pretty interesting role when it comes to constructing their level map. Firstly, they must know what they need to make. Usualy, its something we all are femiliar with, say a Childrens play ground. The level designer must know as much about this Childrens play ground as possable. What country its in, whats the state of the city it is in, the playgrounds surroundings. This should all be quite obviouse and understandable with a limited amount of common sence. Secondly, I think the Genre of game is necacary. Why isnt it neccacary first? Well, in the real world everything is nutural, nothing is really scary or not when you remove all context, the genre is adding the context. What's going to happen here? What has happened here? How would this area be used in this genre? These are all the questions the enviroment artist has to ponder about before setting off on construction. After knowing what to make and what theme to make it, they would than set off for referance material. Something like a Childrens Play ground would be fairly easy to find in suburban areas, locations like a burried tomb in the hill side of China, would be near to imposable to physicaly go to for referance. For the more ambitious locations, referance must be gathered from else where, anywhere that is of relevance in some way or another. A good understanting of location is critical, how can someone make a laboratory if they had never seen one in person? Or just watch an eppisode of Dexter's Laboratory it and exspect someone who works in a lab all day to belive it as a realistic lab?
Getting out there and seeing these places is far better than any google search. A good level designer knows that if you try to put black cabs and a big red london bus to replace the taxis and buses of New York, people will not be convinced by the level. It would be interesting, but people would not belive your black and red New York, to be New York.

Just a room

I'd say thats a cluttered office

A less clutterd, tidy but empty feeling office.

Did you notice the differance between all three? The last two work, the top and bottom dont give asmuch atmosphere as the middle, does it?

As I've said before, all enviroments are nutural untill a context is added to it. Some people are afraid of the dentist, removing all the dentist related posters and the fish tank from the dentist's reception and you have yourself a basic reception space. By doing that, one removes the references, changing the way the player reacts to the enviroment and the enviroment becomes nutural, just a space. The details are where the atmosphere is, the more details, the more atmosphere and the more atmosphere the more the player can feel immersed in the game they are playing. Im not saying sticking a ton of details into a police chiefs office will make the office more beliveable. Sometimes just a few will work, simply by taking your average bog standard office with some blind folds and sticking " Chief of Police " on the door and a " Chief of Police " plaque on the desk, you can achive the same effects you would get if you stuffed the place with references from every fucking cop tv show youve ever seen. Hell it'd probably look better.

Getting good references is important. Which one of these two images would you trust more as a reference?

The original or the remake of someone elses twist on the original? Reference of a reference from a what now? Hell, Level design is mean stuff.

Task 10

When I think of characters, indepth, I think more about personality than clothing and weapons. The character seems to be, to me, how the sound, walk and react to things. Clothing is a small part of their personality, it can tell you what they like or how practical they are. Besides, things like clothing dont come to mind when you read a non-illustrated book. The most recent book I've read being Moby Dick. This book and most have a different way of approaching a character to a movie or a game, the reader has to imagine the character, which I think makes you feel for the character more, as the character is partialy your own mental creation, instead of a visual responce. In Moby Dick, the main character is described very little, the first line being " Call me Ishmael", is just about all the description of the main character. All other description him is through the text and his descriptions of the world around him. It gives no indication of what he looks like, but shows us how the character thinks.

The character descriptions of Queequeg are more than interesting, although different people would interperate him in different ways, he's described in such a way that gives him his unique character, I havnt read another book that seemed similar to the descriptions. The way he talks, is written as if hes speaking in broken english, it gives him part of his chracter, the feeling you would get from him would be far different if he couldnt speak, or was translated into perfect english. Because he can some what speak the language, shows us that hes forign but intellient, even though being described as a canibal. For books, characters are totaly dependant on script and the appearance is up to the reader.

However a book is far different from games. The character has to visualy describe the personality of the character. If the character doesnt speak much through the game you wouldnt feel as attached to the character, so the text is quite important. Lets look at Professor Layton!

Good spot of tea there Luke!
What appeals to me more than the game in professor layton, is the main characters! A simple puzzel game, but these characters have such a charm to them, the personality is in the text. But also in the voice acting. You can tell where these two come from, Professor Layton and Luke, because of their typical english accent. Not to mention that theyre often set in traditional english settings, drink tea, ride trains and solve mysteries like Sherlock Holms and Watson (Another good book which has good character description. It would have been better to compair the Book Sherlock Holms to Professor Layton. But I havnt read it since I was 17 or something.).
The visual styles of the game gives off that desaturated, smoggy english look, especialy in the towns. The style goes back to the victorian, industrial Britan scene, this is reflected to Luke, by his shorts and cap, which makes you think of a victorian chimney sweeper. Even by the use of Laytons hat, makes to think of them Old times. They're innocent and cheerful faces are reinforced by their surroundings and dialog.
To be honest, with out the characters in this game, it would just be a bunch of mindless mini-games which would seem to serve no purpose. The characters keep the story moving and keep the mini games fun.

Characters in this day and age are important in games, well most games. Even Pac Man has a sort of character to him. Hes a greedy bastard haunted by manafestations of his own Gluttony, Greed, Wrath and Pride.

This game seemed so innocent untill I realised the truth.

Maybe I went off on a tangent. I do that.

Task 9

Art direction in games is a critical stage in the production of game play, in today's market more than ever. Its the art directors job to ensure that all the in-game assets and artwork are made on time and are made to fit together in the game. The main idea is that the art director keeps up the consistent feel of the game and follows the theme, making sure other artists dont stray to far from it. The work along side the Project manager to set up briefs and task updates, making sure that the feedback is constantly being passed to the other sections of the game team in the pipeline.
The Art Director will also estimate the triangle count of each asset and how long the artist has to create the asset. This is to make sure that everything runs smoothly, the game cant be made if some assets are not made on schedule. If any major assets were delayed, this would have a ripple effect down the pipeline which would slow production as other artists try to find other work to do while they wait for the asset they wer supposed to be doing originally, or they wont do any work at all until they get it. It would seem Art direction is a creative role, however its more of a guide than the artist, the creativity seems to be channeled to the artists lower down the chain. That seems to be the role of the Art Director, to ensure that the art is tailored to fit the game and for it to be on schedule.

What's required to be a art director would seem to be vision and leadership skills. The lead artist would have to be able to pass his ideas onto others clearly and directly to get the results needed which would involve allot of mentoring to the artists. The Ard director would need to be a natural leader type, if the artists dont look up to the art director, they would believe that his feedback of their work is not correct, there needs to be this ladder making the artists look up the art director. The must be clear and precise about what they are saying in order to get their vision across to the artist, this position is not for the timid. Looking at the amount of people under you and the amount of work required, being shy about an idea could cause some serious problems down the pipeline if a problem is no corrected.

Looking through some job specifications, traditional skills is a must. Not only that they must have risen through the ranks by at least having 4 to 5 years experience in the gaming industry. This makes sense, if the art director was some random character who had no background in games, how could he direct artists? The art director must at some stage be an artist them self, this way they would know what is needed of a good Art Director, they would know first hand what is good management and what is bad.

What would I need to become an art director? Experience and knowledge of the industry. Simply, I can say at the moment my experience is little and my knowledge is sketchy. At the moment I can easily say I dont have the skills required. The real question is do I have what it takes to be an artist and the will to become an art director? It seems like allot of pressure.

Task 8

Game play can be considered the action part of the story in the game. It's what the player can and cant do inside the virtual world. Achualy taking hold of this object (charcter) and endulging in the fantasy of being that character, being in the enviroment and so on. Gameplay is how the viewer can make choices to change the outcomes of the game. Where something like a movie is vary liniar in its story not alowing the viewer to see the whole picture, a game alows the viewer to branch off into various other paths or branches which can be played through in multipul different ways. Gameplay is the interaction of the audience to the medium and the feeling the get playing it.

Often gameplay is pushed aside in many modern games, in the therory that the graphics or story will compensate. This doesnt make an ejoyable game to play, but something pretty to look at. Games like Pac-Man or Space Invaders at the core were good games, their graphics didnt matter at all. People replayed those games over and over, nothing new came out of replaying the game, no unlockables or hidden stages came out of beating them, they only got faster and harder to complete the second time. Many games of recent times belive that replayability means you get a new item or clothing map on the main character. There is enjoyment in getting unlockable prizes for completeing something, but its not something to base a game upon. The unlocking can get pretty tiring, once one realises how often its used.

Remember what you could unlock in the original SNES Super Metroid for completing it? No? Bad, good and Best Endings for completeing it within faster time frames. Remember playing it again because you though Samus was a man, only to find out she was a blond woman? Ofcorse. Remember fighting that giant robot bird thing? Ofcorse. Did you also know they remade the original for the game boy DS? Metroid Zero misson (its pretty much the same game, few new perks and what not). The game play is mostly the same, but with improved graphics, and more shit to unlock. What does all this Unlocking have to do with game play? Nothing! So why is it the most important part of the game? Because its easier to change a character model than make something exciting to play again and again without changing anything. Why was Pac-man fun to play, the unpredictability of the insainly simple AI Ghosts that always seemed to find you, no matter how many times you played it, they'd always go somewhere else. What could you unlock in packman for completing it? You couldnt complete it, it never ends, the background changes colour when you get to a new level, thats it.

For me, when I play a game I look for exscapisum and a exploration. However many things are also important, such as the game being realistic enough to belive in and fantasy enough so I can escape into a fantasy world. I often like to go back and replay games, as this allows me to look at the games details in depth, knowing whats going to happen next so I have time to look at the details of the game. I do love a good sandbox game.

Task 6

Task 6
It seems that most game journalists or reviewers can be attacked by all sides, but the game developers, their peers and by the audience they’re trying to win over. The internet surely doesn’t help the game review magazines, which are basically just buying guides, but is a god send for any Indy game producer, but well get into that later. New game journalism is a good thing, without it we would not know what games are coming out when and if they suit your personal preference of games. They’re basically creating a stir, some games that may not have grown to be popular may have never seen the light of day. New Game Journalism is probably one of the best ways for a new game designer to properly promote their game, with little expense.
Personally, I remember buying game magazines as a kid and they did in fact persuade me to buy one or two games I really enjoyed. Although I wasn’t interested in the rest of the games, its understandable that they have a broad market to sell to. This however was back in the 90s and early 00’s, when internet game reviews were not huge. Back than I believe it really did help sell games to large audiences. My mind frame when buying it was; “I have enough money for one game, I want that game to be a good one.” And magazines helped me with that choice. However now I often just look through gamespot.co.uk and look at the score. I know I shouldn’t, but I do, mainly because all of the text review is dribble, just one persons view of the game. Even when you look at the comments, its just “ I like this game “ or “ This game is shit “, which simply doesn’t help anyone. Everyones view of a game is different, from the journalist to the gamer who plays it. No one knows if you will enjoy a game, they only know what they like and hope you’ll like something similar, its like trying to find a decent prostitute girlfriend, you can never really tell if you like it until you buy it. Than if you don’t sell it to someone else or throw it in the bin.
The main problem with NGJ is that its human and you cant have a robot or android rate a game. Mainly because a human would have to program it to know what games are good. So no matter what you read or do or review, don’t forget the human element that the person reading is not the writer. Basicaly, any kind of journalism is never %100 accurate, so take everything you read with a pinch of salt, or in my case a spoon.
I don’t know how I feel about my own writing. I try to write how I would usually speak, or think in my head. I think that’s the best way to write, but obviously schooling tells you this is wrong and I should write everything exactly the same as everyone else, a brief understanding is all that’s needed I feel. Hay, AtlEasT 1 don’t Tlaksa lhej tis! That’d be terrible. I have been told that I write like a girl in instant messenger. That was from someone WHO TLKS LIK DIS. So either every male types like a retard or I when I had all those nose bleeds last month that was just me menstruating from my nose, who fucking knows.

Task 5

My personal gaming history.

Well, it would seem that games have been around somewhere throughout my life. Being born in the generation of half decent games,  games would be a big part of it.

The earliest memory I have is of playing pac-man, I had no idea what I was doing but I remember the bright colours on a old computer screen. I don’t know what I thought of it back then.

However, years later, when I was roughly 5, maybe 6, my parents bought me a Game Boy for my birthday. Getting this 5 or more years since its release in 1990, (I thought it was brand new and amazed by its thick block design. It wasn’t retro than but It looked cool.) set the trend for how I would get my other consoles, many years after their release. Not only because they’re cheaper, but because they often upgrade. So yes, the first console that was personally mine was a Game Boy. I remember playing it so much the music to the games would get stuck in my head and I could hear it as clear as day, having to check back to make sure the console was off. I also remember how it would hurt my eyes. When I go back home for Christmas, I think Ill collect it again and review this 4 Battery brick, to remind myself.

(Damn, youre ugly. Also Ive seen this in person in NY, its legit.)

Roughly around this time I also remember playing the Nintendo Entertainment System, more, my brother playing and me watching. I’d get bullied a lot by him so I could only really play games when he was not. I do remember playing Super Mario Bros (and Super Mario Land for the Game Boy), mainly because I could never complete them. At all. Along with every other NES game, I could never complete them. I never have.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System also ruled my world, mainly because of one game. Super Bomberman. Super Bomberman, is and always will be one of the greatest games there is; its simple, story mode had lots of interesting monsters and bosses, upgrades, genderless graphics. If I could get one game and recreate it for other 7^th gen consoles. This would be it, I would reproduce it in such a way that no feeling would be lost. Its charm was in its 16 bit sprites, sound effects, music and simple game play. Qualities of which many modern games have lost. I also remember buying many rental games for the SNES from blockbusters, every game I bought for the SNES was achualy enjoyable. Its like they weren’t even trying to make a good game, because the game would be good. Games of the future should look at the games of the past, instead of the games that some other dick is making and try to copy. Yeah I’m looking at you Medal of Honor, PS3 movment controllers and more!

I also have memories of playing the Sega Megadrive over my uncles house, I only remember playing Sonic and a fighting game. Any other game was just awful.

(Kill the fucking cancer patient, you retarded icecream!)

In 1999, the pokemon craze hit, still with my original Game Boy, I bought Pokemon Blue and my brother Red. It was a fun game than, with no real problems. Funny how looking back at it, it was awful, you couldn’t even run for fuck sake! This controlled a huge part of my life and everyone elses, so its no point in talking about. Only fun point was when I downloaded Japanese Roms of Pokemon Gold and Silver onto my computer and pretended I knew what I was reading.

Around 1999 got a PsOne, about six years after its release, but the good games were rolling out. The only game I feel worth some attention is one Silent Bomber. Its gameplay was that of a Shooter, but instead you used bombs, it had a very tech feel to it. Its funny how some games get it right, but they don’t get asmuch light as they should. Although I would say the story was dry, just the gameplay and concepts were great! Also, the PlayStation controllers got it right, somewhat like the SNES conroler, but with a perfect gaming feel, the butons were easy and control pad worked fine. It sickens me that they want to change it in our age.

Anyway, years gone past playing Jade Cacoon on the Ps1. I got my very own PS2. It was pretty sweet, although I never bought any other games than the ones I got with it. Basicaly Ive played Resident Evil Outbreak for some 6+ years. Other games like Persona 3 + 4 I loved for the story. I also had an Xbox, of which the game I enjoyed the most was Jet Set Radio Future, a game I got free with buying the Xbox. Its gameplay was that like of Toney Hawks skateboarding, but with rollerbladers, who had to graffiti tag walls.

(Yeah, dance for me, fools.)

And the tagging was good, all the art work for the game blew my mind. Along with the music, which I still listen to today. The character designs were also very sweet. Even though it was stylised it didn’t subtract from gameplay one bit. Other games like Halo, sure were a blast, although I remember the endings pissed me off. Any game that has a “ Too be continued “ should fuck right off. Why? Well look at this. You buy at (than) £25-£30 game (book/movie), you go through all the hardship that is there to go through. Just to be told you have to spend another £25-£30 in another year or more, while you wait for the next to be released. Not cool. But games don’t end at the end, are not worth my time or money. Did games before 2000 do that? No, no they did not.

After all this PS2 and Xbox stuff. I spent most of my time playing online games. The first being Legend of Mir. I played it because of its cool gritty feel, you could get swords and all sorts of spells. The weapon levels were cool also. However it wasn’t until I played Ragnarok Online, which has gone onto be my favourite game of all time, that online gaming became much more than just slaying monsters. It’s a 3D world, with 2D sprite characters and monsters. All superbly designed, the sprites simply look beautiful, the amount of monsters in this game means that grinding does not get boring.

(Look at how much love whent into this sprite! And thats just one of many.)

It doesn’t, theres so much choice. Your character customisation is superior to other games, by simply having a huge number of accessories and hair colours. The build system of this game is out of this world, your character can be what ever you want. They came out with Ragnarok Online 2, which was a HUGE FLOP. I played the Korean beta, they tried to reproduce a generic online game. It didn’t work. However now theyre making it more like the original. Hopefuly.

Simply. After all this gaming, I decided to go back and play older games. I did not continue into the 7^th generation of consoles and games. I have no Wii, Xbox 360 or PS3. Why? Because there are so many games that were amazing in the past, that didn’t even require good graphics. Why didn’t they require good graphics? Because the games foundations were good.

(PK MAIDS! PK MAIDS! MAIDS!!!! I just like maids.)

I played Earthbound a early this year, its story was amazing, it didn’t matter that I couldn’t run. It mattered that random battles were annoying, but I could wave that because I wanted to see what was going to happen to the main character.

Games of today should look at games of the past, which is why I will continue to look at previous games. The main selling point of the games of this generation is its title. I feel its fucking stupid, no ones making good new games, just remakes. Its like they’ve hit a wall, when that happens you have to go backward, to go forward. And by this I dont mean remaking Pac-Man.

TL;DR : I stopped playing games at 6^th gen. I enjoy games before 7^th gen more. I want new games not remake titles.

(Also, if Ragnarok Online 2 Legend of whatever, is good. Im going to fail my course. http://ro-projectrevolution.blogspot.com/  Good God!)
Aslo, dont you feel bad when you realise your perants bought you all these games and things? I do. Oddly enough.