Essay Plan

For this module, we need to write an essay around a design question. We first need to come up with a design question we need to answer. I was inspired when I watched a documentary called "How Clubbing Changed The World". I love dance music and this documentary was really good, showing how disco started and evolved into house music, how dancing influenced fashion design and how dance music is now on a lot of TV adverts and when you're put on hold on the phone to your bank. At one point for only a minute or two, it surprised me when it said it was chillout/seating areas in clubs that helped kick start modern, contemporary and unusual furniture you see in apartments, offices and retail stores to make them cooler and relaxing. This inspired my question "How do architects and interior designers take inspiration from popular culture to create unique buildings?"

Topshop Fitting Rooms

Red Bull London HQ

The Red Bull HQ's in London is a great example of this. It features lots of club-like seats and tables with interesting features like the steel ceiling-wall-floor in the top-left photo and also a slide.

My question aims to look into how interiors and also architecture is inspired by clubs and other things surrounding popular culture. I want to look at some buildings I know of that are boat-themed, some interesting builds I've seen on Grand Designs and I also want to look at styles such as Art Deco, Art Nouveu and Memphis Group.

Isle of Skye Grand Design

Abito Salford Quays

                                   Casa Batlló                                  Chrysler Building, New York

Memphis Group

Ghost Train Design

I have now completed the basic designs for the project that I need to start modelling. I have a basic layout of the track which states what needs to be in what areas. I have a drawings of possible (not final) cars for the ride and the front graphic design and also block/untextured drawings of characters/props seen inside the ride, so I know how to model them and will try to texture in most of the details rather than modelling to save polys. The monsters are more detailed as these are my own designs so I need reference for when I model and texture, they will use more polys as well as you will see the monsters a lot more close up compared to other models.

Birds-eye view of the queue area and a rail in normal view with chain barrier

Games Specialism Project

At the beginning of the semester we had to fill in 2 PDP forms to determine; what skills we have, what skills we need to improve and what role we are hoping to go in in the games industry. I have experience with lots of programs including 3ds Max, Photoshop, several programming languages and I enjoy creating design documents. So I was really undecided at the beginning of the year with what role I wanted to do. It was between 3D Environment Artist, Programmer or Designer. I also wanted to gain more animation experience.

For this module we can pretty much do whatever aspect of game design we want as long as it relates to the role(s) we are thinking of and the skills we have and need. To combine the roles I have in mind, I have decided to create a fully working ghost train for my project. This will include modelling and texturing all the 3D assets, animating the assets and have them pop out, exporting it all into UDK to set trigger points using Kismet, which is in a way programming with boxes rather than code, and placing a camera on the ride that will animate around the track.

The project will will last until the end of the 2nd semester (about the end of April). I have made a schedule detailing what I want to have done throughout the assignment and I hope to have the design and all the 3D assets made for the new year, then I can start animating, lighting, texturing and adding trigger points, sound effects and particle effects. I am hoping it will look good graphically, and by using the models, VFX, SFX and lighting, create a scare effect. My main aim however is for it to be fully working before it looks graphically brilliant!

Skyrim Game Mechanic Revised

After getting our feedback and being told to give different departments their instructions to create the mechanic, I revised my mechanic into a final document, somehow managing to squeeze it all onto 1 A4 page,  as apparently games developers aren't capable of turning pages so all the mechanic instructions had to fit on one page.

My mechanic features 3 different assets that you can climb on; a rope, a ladder and a collection of rocks (to be placed on the side of a rocky cliff). The 3D assets need to be modelled low poly (so no rivets in the rope, this will be in the texture). The only asset to be animated is the rope swinging, the animators need to focus on the character climbing up, down, on and off each object. These animations also need to be slowed down and sped up, if the player is wearing heavy armour or if the player sprints towards the object, they will climb onto it quicker. There needs to be a different sound for when the player climbs each object and for when they land on the ground or rooftops after dismounting. The programmers have also got instructions for when to play each animation depending on whether the player is wearing heavy armour or sprinting and which object it is they are climbing. They also have other instructions for the AI. The players follower will follow them up the object but enemies will not follow but instead equip their bows and fire at the player. You can still pause the game and load the inventory while climbing but cannot use combat or magic. You can jump off however.

Normal Map

Normal maps are used to fake high-res geometry detail when it's mapped onto a low-poly mesh.

Today we created a normal map for a detailed plane that was fused with booleans, extruded polys and floating geometry.



Hi-res geometry



After creating a new plane, tweaking the render setting and adding a Projection Planar Map to the new plane, I got a bump map:


 
Then all you need to do is apply the bump map as a Normal Bump material to the new plane:



It looks 3D!

Game Mechanic Feedback

The class exchanged their game mechanic ideas and we gave each other feedback on them.

I received feedback off Josh C who said my mechanic "would enhance the gameplay in skyrim and it seems like a very obvious feature to include in a third person adventure game". He then went on to say "Could there be other uses for the mechanic such as swinging across ledges or climbing trees to retrieve a specific fruit for a quest" I wasn't a fan of this idea as it would probably change the game too much and reminded me of puzzles in LEGO Lord of the Rings and Skyrim isn't really about puzzles (except the odd quest). He did mention AI though and I hadn't really thought about what the enemies would do or the players follower if they were to climb something. I decided the follower should follow them up otherwise they could die if left alone with enemies, but the enemies should instead back up and equip their bow to attack the player.

He also mentioned I need to add instructions to Artists, Animators, Programmers and Sound Design which was something we hadn't had chance to add yet and needs to be done for the final document.

I gave feedback for 2 very similar mechanics Sean came up with. I think my feedback was good and constructive but after emailing it to him, I remembered I am his classmate and felt like I was rather harsh. I heard him mash his keyboard with frustration while reading the feedback.. He came up with the idea of the screen going white and the player having trouble shooting while someone shot them in Call of Duty 4. It was a good concept and realistic but it would take some of the fun away from playing if you couldn't easily fire back and he didn't state if the players run speed would be affected, as I'd much rather run away than stay there and get pelted. The other mechanic was pretty much the same thing but occurred when the player is in close range of a grenade exploding or any sort of exploding projectile, it reminded me too much of the Stun and Flash Grenades.

Axe and Shield Texture Painting

Last week we had OJ Farrell, Environment Artist for Ether (White Paper Games) give us a guest lecture on how to paint nice hand-painted textures. He demonstrated by texturing a creepy, dentist-like chair for their upcoming game. He taught us to paint in shading where a light source would probably be. Lighter tones nearest the light, darker tones away from the light and also white line highlights on metal textures and other shiny surfaces. He also showed us how to properly set up a UV Map in Photoshop using Quick Select so you keep in the lines of your objects and also positioning a Multiply UV over your layer so you can easily see where the polys are in areas you've already painted. Later on he gave us a 3D Model and UV Map of an Axe and Shield in Ether and we all had a go of texturing it ourselves. I don't think anyone finished their maps as we only had 2 hours and we're not as fast as OJ! I managed to finish my axe in class, and completed the shield at home. I'm happy with how it's turned out, especially the shield as I could not try the texture on the model as I was painting, as I have 3DS Max 2011 at home, and the Max file was a 2013 version. I thought I'd be different by using darker colours and purple and then realised later on that I'd incidentally used the same colours as my new trainers I was wearing that day; grey, black and purple!





Game Mechanic

We had to choose a published game and create a new mechanic for it. I struggled thinking of a game to focus on at first because during the last 3 months, all I've played is LEGO Lord of the Rings for 8 hours a day and forgot what it was like to play other games. I eventually chose Skyrim and thought of 2 ideas for it. One was to shoot a target (not an obvious red and white circle target) and then water or snow (dependant on area) will rush out to quickly remove enemies. I did think the target idea was very Legolas style though in LEGO Lord of the Rings so I chose to use my other mechanic. I noticed there is no climbing ability in Skyrim. Yes you can walk up mountains, but you cannot actually climb anything and I thought this could be an interesting mechanic.

If you could climb, you could get to new areas, camps and caves that have special loot, that you couldn't get to if you can't climb.
You could also quickly escape enemies which would be useful if you were swarmed, eg. in a city if you have commited a crime.
This would also make Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood quests easier as you could get to objectives in a different way, hide from people if needed and also escape if you were seen stealing or killing someone.

There could be specifically placed small rocks on rocky walls that you can climb, not making them stand out too much but so they look slightly different so the player knows they are climbable.
Also wooden ladders and ropes hanging from rooftops can be climbable to get to the top of rooftops.

The mechanic could be programmed so that players wearing heavy armour or have low stamina cannot climb or climb very slowly, whereas players wearing light armour and high stamina climb things with ease.

Level Design

We were tasked with creating a new level for an existing game. I couldn't choose a recent game I've played as London 2012 and The Sims aren't adventure games, Skyrim would've been impossible to think of a good quest and Lego LotR is not out yet, nor could I think of any levels it is missing. So I reverted back to LA Noire even though it was quite a while since I had played it. I did research some aspects of it and played a few cases to get my head up to speed with it though. Before that though I planned out the basic level idea and areas.

I remembered that while playing cases from the Homicide desk, all the cases focus on the murder of one person so I thought a mass murder would be interesting. I thought about the idea of it being in a theatre, inspired  by the tragic massacre at a cinema in Colorado during the first showing of The Dark Knight Rises.
Thinking about it more and more, it seemed to fit as a good, interesting case in a 1940's theatre, showing Superman (1948) which was released a few months after the games time (set in 1947) but this was the closest match I could get and film was unrelevant anyway.

The case starts in the cinema, you need to find evidence here which includes a bullet, a smoke grenade and a piece of torn clothing. You can then progress to the gun shop. Including the gun shop in the case seemed like the only way of identifying the suspect as no-one knows who he is or what he looks like and he was in and out very quickly so he hasn't left much evidence to go off. Collecting a bullet to try and identify him seems the only way. When you're at the gun shop, you need to speak to the shopkeeper to find out he was using a Sturmgewehr 44 and that he sold one recently. Checking the log book and finding this gun will tell you the possible suspects name and address. Now you need to drive to his apartment. Your partner Galloway will keep the man sat on the sofa while you check the apartment for evidence. After finding the gun, a ripped coat and a gas mask, you have enough evidence to interrogate the man and arrest him.

I used Google SketchUp to make the levels and then added a key of where the evidence will be in the scene, including misc items that are there to add realism and do not help the case.

Theatre

 
Gun Shop

 
Apartment

After finding all the evidence you can interrogate the man and arrest him.

Interrogation Questions

1.

Phelps: “Why do you own an assault rifle Mr Brown?”
Brown: “For protection, in case someone tries to break in.” (Lie- 7.9mm Kurz Bullets)
Phelps: “We found bullets for your gun at the scene of a crime, a gun like this is not used for protection.”
Brown: “I wanted something powerful. It wasn’t my bullets at the scene, plenty of people have this gun.”

2.
Phelps: “What’s with the gas mask?”
Brown: “I kept it from the war” (Lie – No 77 Grenade)
Phelps: “We found a No 77 Grenade at the scene, a gas mask would be suitable equipment to use      with that don’t you think?”
Brown: “Probably but doesn’t mean I was there, I just have this as a keepsake.”

3.

Phelps: “How did you get that tear in your coat?”
Brown: “It got caught on a rail when I was walking to work the other day” (Lie – Ripped piece of clothing)
Phelps: “You’re lying, we found the ripped piece at the theatre and there is gun residue on the sleeve. Mr Brown, I am arresting you on suspicion of manslaughter. Cuff him Galloway.”
Galloway: “Don’t worry, we’ll fetch your comics for ya ‘cause you’ll be stuck in the cell for a long time pal!”