Studio 6 - Concept Art

My game is going to be a role playing game with turn-based battles, much like the Final Fantasy series.

The sections I believe would most benefit from concept art would be:

Characters Design:

Main protagonists

Main antagonist

Key weapons

Main skills/spells

World/Level Design:

Key locations

Interface Design:

Game title and logo

For this entry, I chose to show the main protagonist of my game, Michio and an exotic in-game location, the city of Windgate

Michio

Michio, the former leader of the Imperial Assassins Corps.

Windgate

The legendary city of Windgate, the oldest and most technological advanced location in the game. It's the only location from the Old World that remained intact, because it is located in the sky.

Studio 3 - Use Cases

Counter-Strike 1.6

Player Input

Game Object Interaction

Display System

Audio Interaction

Reading week 2

Creating a game is a fine process involving a lot of people, and where there are people involved, there is also room for errors, miscalculations and misinterpretation.

Games don't make themselves. Therefore the employees need to be paid. In order for a game to be profitable, it must first sell a minimum amount of copies just to cover the production costs. A lot of companies exceed their deadlines and overrun their funds because of non-realistic approximations of the production costs. A mistake made fairly often is implementing too many features, resulting in poor implementation to meet deadline expectation. Therefore many games end up being released too little, too late and fail to turn in profit.

An important part of the game creation process is is pre-production. Pre-production refers to the phase preceded by the actual developing phase, in which the ideas and concepts take shape, and decisions are made about every aspect of the game. The pre-production phase is materialized in a demo, that showcases the core aspects of the game like graphics, music, effects, and mainly gameplay and playability. Big companies like Microsoft and Eidos understand the importance of pre-production and pay their employees during this stage. Sadly, in most of today's games, pre-production occupies less than 1/4 of the production space it should, resulting in a large number of poor quality or cancelled projects.

Another challenging aspect of game development is the rapidly evolving environment. In relation to other entertainment industries, computer technology is one of the fastest advancing fields; therefore game developments need to find the right balance between meeting technology expectations, and compatibility with older users. Console games however do not have to deal with these variables, because the game is developed specifically for that system, and the developers know exactly what the system is capable of in terms of processing power and constraints.

Because of the magnitude of the process, game development is very risky and involves a lot of variable and factors that could go wrong, however this could turn out in a very profitable investment. There are some general guidelines, but I guess it's up to every developer to come up with his own methods and hope their game will be a hit. Unless however, you don't plan to make profit and make the game in your spare time as a hobby.

Studio 2 - Exploring games and identifying games concepts 2

Counter-Strike 1.6

Comparing the amount of work put in a game, Counter-Strike doesn't seem like it has very much going on. Originally developed as a mod for Half-Life engine, Counter-Strike relied on only 9 (4 on each side and the hostage) character models and a few maps. What really made the game so popular is the attention given to detail. The player has a vast array of weapons to choose from, from pistols to SMGs to automatic rifles, to the deadly Arctic Avenger Sniper Rifle, each with her unique model, sound, rate of fire, recoil, precision, bullet damage, bullet power (some weapons like the Glock have the "pin-down" effect), speed, price, range, and so on. The sound effects are also localised 3D and have a great impact on gameplay. Various "this and thats" (for example sitting crouched gives you more precision, the longer you fire continously the lower your precision is) make the game very well thought out and more free form.

But by far, the most important part of CS is gameplay. The idea of two teams killing each other over and over again sounds simple and merely enough to entertain you for a hour or two, but that's just at a simple glance. CS was thought out as a team game therefore it's teamwork driven. The game gets a lot of fun and a lot more strategical when teams focus on their objective (planting/defusing bomb, defending/rescuing hostages) rather than killing each other, and rely on various strategies (rush, ambush, decoy), and team member roles (sniper, support, cover etc) to win the round.

All and all CS is a good casual game, but can turn in a serious game if you want to. That's the fun of it, that anyone can pick it up and play, but it takes a lot of time and dedication to master.

WarCraft III Frozen Throne

WarCraft III is the expansion pack to the WarCraft II sequel WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos. The game surpassed it's predecessors in all possible aspects, and added a few guidelines of itself. Blizzard created a vast world, sized down in maps, in which you control a large amount of unique units to overcome the enemy. There are four races (orc, undead, night elves, human), each with his set of units, characteristics, spells, style and much more. I can only imagine what team pieced up together such a huge game. For units alone they needed concepts, models, sounds, voice actors, fx, detailed artwork, maybe even cut scenes art. The game mechanics are also very complex and very detailed, from spell effects and abilities to unit damage points health points attributes and so on. I imagine they had a whole team only for balancing the game. A team also took care of the superb high quality, cut-scenes that take your breath away as you progress through the story. The story is very intriguing and well written and surprises you at every turn. The team that handled the story line also had to do the main characters' backgrounds, and the world history and so on. WarCraft III is a very immersive saga in the land of Azeroth, with credible and well motivated characters, that make you feel like you are reading a book rather than playing a game.

Rappelz Epic V: Draconic Age

Rappelz is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing game, in which the player assumes the role of a hero in his quest for glory. The main finality of the game is joining a guild in the war for possession of the dungeons. Dungeons bring a lot of profit and prestige to the owning guild so controlling one is very advantageous. There are 6 models of players for each race, but they are customisable in terms of face and hairstyle. However, as players level up, and change their classes they gain new equipment (race and class dependent), spells and other special abilities. These required a lot of concepts before they were ultimately implemented by the graphics team. There is a vast array of in-game items players can equip. The developers also created a large seamless word non-interrupted by any loading screen that player can explore and emerge in, packed with unique monsters, quests and locations to explore. Each palyer can also own a pet which helps him through battles. There are a lot of pets that can be tamed, each with it's unique appearance and skills.

Rappelz has beautiful immersive graphics, but heavily lacks storyline and means, so in the end the player has to rely mostly on grinding (killing the same monsters over and over again to gain exp and items) to level up, and the game gets awfully pointless at higher levels. Once you get close to the level cap there's literary nothing left to do, as levelling is incredibly slow (1% in an hour of grinding) and quests are inexistent.

Final Fantasy VII

In this role playing game you take the role of Cloud Strife, an ex-member of the SOLDIER organisation, that joined up with the rebels group Avalanche to take on ShinRa, the evil company that is hell-bent on destroying the earth and it's life stream.

The game features an incredibly story driven huge game world in which the player is carried around to explore. I can assume there were multiple teams of 3D artists working on this game, as the graphics are made of two components: full quality 3D graphics, used in the movies and cut scenes and the pre-rendered background, and real-time low poly graphics, used to map the character in the world and in the battles. The game has an impressive storyline, with moments referred as "the most shocking moment in video-game history" (when Sephiroth kills Aeris); accompanied by credible MIDI music and sound effects. The game is also packed with a bundle of mini-games that you get to play while in different locations, that just shows the extreme dedication and attention to detail the producers gave.

The battle system is very well thought out and - even though turn-based - dynamic . The game user interface is minimalistic and does it's job properly. The game is very intuitive and has an approximate 10 minutes learning curve. If you just came off Pluto.

Heroes of Might and Magic III: Restoration of Erathia

Heroes of Might and Magic is a turn based strategy game in which you control one of more armies of creatures to accomplish different objectives.

The game is incredibly in-depth and complex in mechanics and gameplay and requires a lot of strategical planning to successfully accomplish your objective. The game is in pre-rendered 3D graphics. Each rase in the game has it's unique characteristics, units, towns, structures, heroes, skills and so on. So I imagine there was a team for designing and balancing these aspects aswell as the graphic team who applied them. The music is also an incredibly relaxing full quality audio opera symphony that sometimes makes you think you're far away.

Reading week 1

• simply because you love to.
• a great way to release your creativity and imagination.
• you like to see other people enjoy your creation and challenges you made.
• you like to share your vision, experiences and story with others in a more interactive way.
• it could turn out into a source of profit later on.

Studio 1 - Exploring games and identifying game concepts

Counter-Strike 1.6
Genre: FPS (First Person Shooter)
Grade: 2 - This is one of the very first and certainly the most addicting multiplayer games of all times. Although based on a simple concept of Terrorists vs Counter-Terrorist, it's fast-paced multiplayer teamplay action was soon to make it one of the iconic games of the 21 century. Even though version 1.6 was launched in 2003 (almost 4 years after the first version) the game is still very popular today, with over 14.000 servers at one time active every day on Steam, and the game still being played by clans (5 man teams) in important international competitions like CAL, ESL and others.
Game concept: The game is basically the war between Terrorists and Counter-Terrorist. The terrorists have the objective to plant the bomb in one of the bombsites. Counter-Terrorists must prevent the Terrorist from planting the bomb or defuse it if planted. Either team can also win by eliminating the entire opposing team.
What about it: The driving force of the game is the unique game dynamics. Although you need to rely on your team, and win through teamplay, personal skill is also crucial in this tactical shooter. A single man can make the difference between victory and defeat. Clans rely on strategies to dominate the round, having people with specific roles in the team. The graphics are heavily outdated today, which clearly shows that the main part of the game is it's addictive gameplay; the game could might as well be black and white.
The 3D sound also plays a major role in the gameplay experience. If you are wearing headphones you can accurately detect the position of an enemy player from his footsteps. However, more experienced players can walk (makes no sound), so most of the times just a single shot or sound can trigger the clash between the two teams. Each weapons has it's specific sound (so for example if you hear a sniper shot at long range, you know you have to hide).
The negative side, however, of the game is that it's played on rounds, and it tends to get repetitive and some point. Even though the outcome of every round is different, it's played mainly the same way, and the game introduces no new content.
This game is still good today because it's main focus was putting the player in front of the decision, playability, skill, and more importantly fun; rather than eye candy.


Warcraft III: Frozen Throne

Genre: RTS (Real Time Strategy)
Grade: 1 - The long awaited sequel to the Warcraft saga has risen to overcome it's expectations. Introducing ground breaking concepts like Unkeep, Hero Units, Unique spells, items, and abilities, along with breath taking cinematic and 3D graphics, Hollywood worthy storyline with twists and turns and a vast array of character voices, races and personalities, Warcraft creates a highly immersive world that just keeps you trapped in front of your computer screen.

Rappelz Epic V: Draconic Age

Genre: MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer On-line Role Playing Game)

Grade 3 - Rappelz is one of the first games to implement the idea of the pet as a important part of the gameplay. Your pet is independent from your character and gains skills and experience on his own. Other than that Rappelz is just a typical Lineage inspired game.

Final Fantasy 7

Genre: TBS/RPG (Turn Based Strategy / Role Playing Game)

Grade 1 - Everywhere you search for it, this game will surely be in the top 5 best games of all time. It's that good. Period.

Game concept: You play the role of Cloud Strife, and ex member of the SOLDIER organistaion, now joined up with the rebels in order to fight the ShinRa corporation who wants to destroy the planet.

What about it: The story line is certainly the game's strongest point; it is incredibly complex and diverse. The idea behind the game is presenting the main protagonist as a group of people rather than a single person, thus promoting teamwork. Each of the characters has it's own unique skills, however these are not sufficient to progress through the game, making the player have to make good use of each character's weakness and strengths. Each character plays a crucial role in the puzzle, which you discover as the story unfolds. The graphics are primitive today, with a isometric pre-rendered backgrounds and 3D characters on top for the world map, and low-poly characters and world for the battle mode. Although the game is an RPG, the battle is turn based. The game is so immersive that you feel like you are told a story, but the difference is you take part of it.

The battle system is the main part of the game, and complements the story very good. Although it tends to get repetitive, the game constantly rewards you with new content such as items, spells, abilities and even characters. The music is just classic midi, but melds with the rest of the components to create a laid-back relaxing atmosphere. This game may seem harmless at first glance , but it's very easy to spend 7-8 hours playing it straight.

Heroes of Might and Magic III: Restoration of Erathia

Genre: TBS (Turn Based Strategy)

Grade 2 - Very thought through and balanced. The successor of a popular and prestigious series. Definitely a must-have in your game collection.

Painkiller

Genre: FPS (First Person Shooter)

Grade 3: Really a lot of fun to play.

Game concepts: As the tag line "Heaven's got a hit man" suggest, through some unfavourable circumstances you are send by Heavens to cleanse the world from Lucifer and his demonic minions.

What about it: The game is simply crazy. All you have to do is run around killing all sort of creatures with a vast array of weapons of mass destruction. The game has good graphics and features (new at that time) Havok physics engine that boosts the gameplay experience to a whole new level. All you do the whole game is see how ragdolls react when you blow them up, pin or impale them, that's one of the reasons why the stake launcher is one of the most fun to play with weapons.

The game really helps you relax and get rid of stress by allowing you to safely target your anger.

Spoiler: Once in a while you get a buff that allows you to kill everything in one touch (now how cool is that?)

Max Payne

Genre: FPS (First Person Shooter)

Grade 2: A noir story about how fast the American Dream can turn into a nightmare. (You actually get to play the nightmares as well in the game)