Moving back into the collaborative project this week we began fairly slowly as a team, having been working on other projects for the past week. However, we began constructing our blockout, initially with a whitebox before turning it into a blockout.

      These blockouts came after an initial room that we made to get a good feel for how we wanted the project to look, which was constructed out of octagonal towers, ascending around a core tower of the same shape.

      Unfortunately I removed this level blockout before recording it.

      The blockout also includes initial puzzle designs and ideas as to how the different puzzles might work in the tower. Essentially, we're using it as a staging ground to help inform us for the final version of our game.

      We've moved to using trello much more to keep ourselves organised, using our facebook group to supplement the information on trello. With all of us working on different aspects of the game, we've taken to using a single main file, with everyone using minor ue4 files to make sure that any assets created work within the game engine, before adding them to a google drive folder. Cloud storage has been invaluable in this process as it has allowed the team to get on with work even if not everyone is in one of the studios.

      Unfortunately, one of our members has been quite resistant to compromising on certain aspects of the game. They have also been frustrating in that when we have organised a time for a team meeting, they have chosen to have a shower at the time when they should be leaving, setting us back by an hour before they show up. Otherwise, I would say that we are still working well as a team, finding out what each of us are working on and how it is going to fit into the game and making corrections of compromises when and where necessary.

      This second week is a break from working on my groups game, and instead working with Fine Art in a collaborative project - as well as taking part in the interchange project. At the start of the week we decided that since our keyword was 'sea' that we would go to Cromer after the interchange project. During that time myself and one of the fine art students made some sea creatures out of recyclables, although mine disintegrated once we started filming.

                               

                           

                           

                           


      I also made an edit of the film, which due to a lack of sound, wasn't the final cut, however, I made some key adjustments to some of the footage (such as the angle of the filming) which was removed in the final version to my annoyance.

      This is my version of the film.

      And this is the version used.

                                      

      During interchange I went to Strumpshaw fen, on the broads with illustration. it was a pretty cool experience, and it let me practice a little bit of photography, as well as my observational skills as when I was drawing the wildlife they would constantly move, so I had to quickly understand the forms of the animals in order to get accurate drawings.

                       

                        

      This second drawing was an attempt to create a 'soundscape' and I drew the circles based on the frequency and loudness of the noise that the guls and geese were making.

      This week marks the start of a longer game jam, and my group have decided to make a physics based puzzle game called Towers of Sheol. The name is an irony as 'Sheol' is the underworld in hebrew, but we are going for a very aesthetically pleasing and almost heavenly style to our game, with Aztec inspirations.

This week I managed to create a pressure pad system that can trigger events such as doors opening, or beginning more complex puzzles, the pad works with both the player character and drag-able blocks (the blueprint of which I helped to fix).

      This week I also created a pillar asset to be used in game, which I concepted, modelled and textured, checking that the model works in engine at each stage.

      At this stage we decided that we'd like to have an emissive map on the model that used an Aztec style pattern.

      So far we are working well as a team, communicating for the most part in person and using a facebook group to stay informed of what everyone is working on and what needs to be completed. 

Evaluation

Throughout this unit, I feel as though I have gained a good understanding of not only how ue4 works, but a better understanding of maya, as well as learning how to use two new programs effectively to create game ready assets. I began using the Substance programs with no knowledge of how they work, but I feel like I am confident enough in those programs to either design almost any material needed, or to texture any model, no matter how complex it might be.

I really enjoyed the indie development part of this unit, despite the difficulties that come with blueprinting, especially when it comes to AI as I wasn’t able to get what I wanted out of it, due in part to a lack of knowledge I think. That being said, I don’t think that being a design director is going to be my chosen career path since I much more enjoy creating game assets and painting.

The industry art test was probably the best part of this unit for me, as although there was more pressure to produce good work, it helped me to push my limits creatively to see what I could accomplish in as short a time as we were given. If we were given more time, on this project I might have made something more dense, like one of the forest scenes that I concepted in the early stages of the art test. I feel as though I still need to improve on my drawing and painting skills, although I also feel like I am developing them steadily, just not at the same rate as I am my other skills such as modelling. I think that’s evident when you compare my specialism work with the work that I have produced for my Asset Creation studies as I feel like they are of a higher standard than my paintings.

I think that this unit has really pushed me creatively and has helped to motivate me to do more personal work and learning outside of hours, which again, has pushed my work to a higher standard than it would have been otherwise. I’m going to try and keep this cycle going, as it is really beneficial to the work that I’m producing, not just from a technical standpoint, but from a creative one as well.

Before beginning this project, I looked at a variety of career options in the games industry, looking at both 2D and 3D jobs to see what sort of thing each one entails.

http://www.digitalextremes.com/careers/postings/art/concept-artist

http://www.digitalextremes.com/careers/postings/art/weapons-artist

https://career4.successfactors.com/sfcareer/jobreqcareer?jobId=108548&company=EA&username=

https://chp.tbe.taleo.net/chp04/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=GAMES2K&cws=1&rid=1605http://www.riotgames.com/careers/18679

What I found was that although the job title might be quite specific, you will be expected to take part in almost every process of the game’s development, no matter what job role you have. I also found that different companies will expect different things of you depending on the role that you are applying for.

For example, Bioware has a separate role for concept artist and character artist, providing a clear divide between the two, while other companies like digital extremes and riot games have a much broader interpretation of the concept artist role.

There is also a lot of temporary positions, for example, 2k jobs are offering a character artist spot to work on the next NBA game, however the contract will end when the game is released.

While searching for jobs, i discovered several artists whose work and portfolios are at the quality that I should be aiming for.

https://johnsonting.artstation.com/

https://www.artstation.com/artist/ajmanzanedo

https://www.artstation.com/artist/vincentderozier

https://www.artstation.com/artist/oliverm

These are just some of the different artists who fit into the variety of roles that I have looked into and whose work I aspire to be like.

Seminar Task 3

1. What does the author think that games are for, or how they can function?

I think that the author believes that games can function as representations of complex systems as opposed to being representations of individual character arcs.

2. Why do you think they claim this?

I believe that they claim this because of the direction that modern games have taken after the release of Sim City, turning games into narratives instead of complex systems.

3. Who might think differently and why?

It is possible that gamers would think differently, which he acknowledges by saying how players prefer to have individuals and emotion within their games.

4. How persuasive do you find the author’s argument?

I think that while this article has some overall good points, and it would be silly to dismiss the points he makes about how our culture is run, I don’t believe that system-based games would have prevented this culture from developing, nor would they be able to change the human nature, which he claims could be possible.

This week I made my sell sheet to accompany my prototype. I wanted to include some of the more important information, and since we only have 2 pages for it, I had to be very selective in what I included.

I went for the game’s premise, the controls, the core mechanic and information about the game’s progression.

                

I also created some assets to use within the game such as a start screen, a controls menu and a proper game HUD.