tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8369989271395862222024-03-18T20:20:16.842-07:00Long Night of SolaceMatthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-49124656331176679852012-04-23T16:36:00.002-07:002012-04-23T16:36:14.745-07:00Task 24: Personal review of the second year: Where do you want to go, and how do<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In life you get out what you put in normally and this is said about education a lot and I agree 100% for me it’s just having the motivation and drive to put in 100%. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Universities are places of higher education and research which gives academic degrees. Universities are places of academic freedom this is where you are allowed to have ideas and communicate them without oppression or persecution. The University of Bologna is thought to be one of the oldest university’s around and was found in 1088. The latin word universitas means a number of person associated into one body, society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc. Medieval guilds of students and teachers would have legal rights usually given by charters i.e. prince’s prelates or the towns in which situated. The guilds where then self-regulated and qualifications were given out to members.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">University’s like Bologna started out as law schools and started of universities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Europe universities had gained in popularity and were beginning to show differences. Northern university’s focused on arts and theology whilst southern university’s concentrated on law and medicine. Bachelor’s degrees were commonly handed out to northern universities except some degrees of theology. Doctorates were given to the southern universities. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">From my three years of university I expect to have gained a degree that I can be proud of and I will have learnt enough, be skilled enough to perform well at a possible job prospect. I want to get my dream job and be successful at it. I can only get there through hard work and determination. Not only do I want to get a job but I want to have furthered myself and learnt more about myself. As I believe university nowadays is a whole experience.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">University is an option or choice you do not have to study at one. You are not forced to turn up to tutorials or lectures it is your choice. If you do not turn up you are wasting your time the tutor’s time and your money. The more you turn up the more you pay attention and the harder you work the better your end result will be. Being in university learning is crucial but reflection is also very important as it teaches you to become more self-aware and intern more efficient the second time around.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So far from my two years of being at university I have learnt a lot. I have gained and improved my art skills and techniques. I have also learnt new software packages and created assets that I am proud of. I am now getting better at scheduling and timetabling i.e. becoming more professional. Joining societies I have learnt more about myself as I have become more of an extrovert which will help me in interviews and makes me more employable. Dealing with living away from home sorting out bills/ payments and having more responsibility’s is also furthering me in my studies as I am becoming more away about how important my education is.</span></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-60993351596239929892012-04-23T16:34:00.002-07:002012-04-23T16:34:49.973-07:00Task 23: Life Changing or Career Building?<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This blog post I’m going to be talking about the teaching issues, different views from games companies and how this affects the students themselves.</span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I think that teaching technical skills and developing learning attributes should be both priorities. You need to develop peoples key attributes so that they have a concrete basis to then have technical skills. The thing with learning technical skills is that in our industry we get new software every year. This means certain techniques could be removed in the newer version and you would then have to learn other ways to do the specific task.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Also the thing with learning technical skills is that you could be really amazing on a piece of software i.e. 3Ds Max but you could get an interview for a position at a games company and they say to you have you got experience in Maya. This means you would have to re learn technical skills as the software is different, this can be difficult if you are set in your ways or you have been using the software for a long time. That’s why I think you need the basics or fundamentals so that you can easily learn new techniques and be easily moulded into what the studio/ Games Company needs you to be.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I think our course is very well thought out, in the first year you are eased into learning the basic skills needed to perform low entry models. This is key because once you have the basics down you can easily learn other areas of the software. You learn techniques in traditional art which helps you improve your standards, execution and creativity which can then be transferred into your 3D modelling. Then in second year you are let loose a little bit which means you can dabble in other programmes new technical techniques. This means that I believe the graduates leaving this course with high grades are perfect for games companies.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Some game companies want highly trained graduate artists and programmers. Some claim they really prefer creative individuals with a good Liberal Arts background.” For me when a games company says the want a highly trained graduate I think the company needs somebody that doesn’t need a lot of help and will be self-efficient this doesn’t mean that the company doesn’t care about the graduate though. When I hear “creative individuals with a good Liberal Arts background” it means that they can give a bit of tuition or guidance to the graduate and further them in a more hands on approach.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I think education can meet these opposing views and I think our course is doing just that I believe that the biggest selling point to our course is that we teach traditional art skills alongside your 3D modelling. Having the traditional art means that the models we create are in proportion they have the right anatomy and they are the best around. Other course’s rely heavily on the 3D side and don’t really carry on the traditional art. I have seen a lot of character models being created with rock hard uniform abs. This is not the case in humans muscles bulge in different ways and to learn this you need to study anatomy which cements my belief in basic art fundamentals are key.</span></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-29015538190987919202012-04-23T16:33:00.000-07:002012-04-23T16:33:17.949-07:00Task 22: Creativity, the talent myth and craft<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In this blog post I am going to challenge what I have learnt about from previous years of schooling and hopefully gain some more knowledge on what is talent, creativity and skills. </span></span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Creativity by talent is a common phrase and there is a lot of controversy over it. To me creativity is to make (create) something new which has value. What I mean by new is very difficult to explain as I believe interperating somebody else’s ideas to improve your own can be as creative. What I also mean by value is that it holds significance to somebody even if it is the creator. I agree with this statement but I also think you don’t have to have a talented in a certain field to be creative in that same field.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This article talks about how everyone is talented and everyone is creative.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?Understanding-Creativity-and-Talent&id=2160826">http://ezinearticles.com/?Understanding-Creativity-and-Talent&id=2160826</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The lady believes that “Talent is defined as the potential or factual ability to perform a skill better than most people.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She goes on to say “</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">All people have the capacity to be both talented and creative, but most people believe that they are neither.” </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The bit about Michael Jordan being kicked of the varsity team was because he wasn’t tall enough and didn’t stand out from the crowd not because he wasn’t good enough. He played in the junior varsity team and scored several 40 point games which is a massive achievement. He then grew 10 cm over summer and managed to get on the varsity roster. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another thing I disagree on is that to me talent is a natural impulse or instinct which you are born with, its hard wired into you and it’s hard to deviate or shut off the talent but it will always be there and comeback. I know I am a creative person and that I am not an academic person. I have dyslexia and dyscalculia which means I have trouble with words and number but in its most basic form. I know that my brain Is wired in such a way that I find it hard to remember number sequences but find it really easy to spot patterns in shapes and colours. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The definition of craft is a<span style="color: #222222;">n activity involving skill in making things by hand. A Craft to me can also mean a sport or singing so I will take the first half of the definition, </span>craft is a<span style="color: #222222;">n activity involving skill. I have learnt from Physical education that skill is learnt along with knowledge and that both can only enhance and stimulate your talent. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the game industry everybody has creativity just some more than others. I.e. An art lead is at high up in the level of creativity as he/she has an overall say on what is working and what isn’t working. A concept artist is another high up creative job. A lower level of creativity would be an environment artist but that doesn’t mean there is no creativity in fact I think I should be using the word freedom more than creativity so an art lead has a high level of freedom. To me indie games are the most creative as you get to see a lot of freedom as the developers aren’t owned or under contract from larger companies telling them what to do.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As an artist I show my creativity through my chosen medium and I would expect my creativity to be acknowledged by others through critiques. I believe from what I have learnt and what I already knew I am both talented and skilful but I know my skills can be approved upon through determination and drive.</span></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-31906481824027392692012-04-23T16:31:00.002-07:002012-04-23T16:31:22.713-07:00Task 21: An Introduction to the Game Industry<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’m going to talk about how the game industry is structured and how it’s always evolving. It started off in the bedrooms and now it’s in massive multi million pound studios. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Codemasters is a great example of the evolution so far it was founded by two brothers named Richard and David Darling it’s one of the oldest British studio’s surviving. Codemasters started off in the bedroom with just coders and they started to create simple puzzle solving games like the dizzy series. They then decided to work on bigger titles and created a game I loved called micro machines. Codemasters then created a cheat cartridge for the NES called the Game Genie it bought in large profits and more exposure. Codemasters now works on big titles and is now a top independent developer. It produces top quality racing games like Dirt 3, Grid and Formula 1. They also have produced shooters like Operation Flashpoint and Bodycount. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">From just Coders creating games it has turned into teams of hundreds even thousands to create a game in the art department alone there are over 10 different named roles that I have come across, in each role you would have a number of people working together. I am leaning towards an environment artist but I think I could be quite flexible and could be seen in other roles if need be. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In company’s you will often see outsourcing, This is when assets briefs or other quantities get sent off to smaller companies to reproduce, duplicate or create the assets. Sometimes things are sent to other companies because the company can improve or enhance the game this is seen with blur studios. Blur studios created spectacular trailers for Bio Wares Star Wars: The Old Republic, Batman Arkham City made by Rocksteady and EA’s Mass effect 2. The trailers bought a lot of hype for the games but for me I was disappointed when I saw Star Wars: The Old Republic as the graphics did not come near to the trailers.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpJX7hgRjJo">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpJX7hgRjJo</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Being an environment artist you need to create inspiring environments that capture the imagination of the player. The responsibilities of an environment artist are to take the concept art that has been approved and portray and create it into 3D. To create UV maps and paint textures for geometry in the environment. An environment artist would also have to use lighting tools and collaborate with other artists. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is an outline for an Environment Artist at Rockstar North. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><a href="https://www.rockstargames.com/jobs/position/850d09bc75390852e54f70c88088eeac/rockstar-north"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.rockstargames.com/jobs/position/850d09bc75390852e54f70c88088eeac/rockstar-north</span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As an Environment artist you need to be very good at 3D modelling and the other topics highlighted because it is a crowded job title. At the moment Visual FX artists are a valuable commodity due to the lack of them at a high standard. UI artists are also in need as it is a very technical job, salary is normally higher in the job titles with less people going for them. Also have more experience means you can earn higher salaries.</span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-35210039326450597062012-04-23T16:29:00.002-07:002012-04-23T16:29:56.693-07:00Task 20: Elements of game technology, part three: interaction design<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ll be talking about the interaction in games and how we have gone from game pads to full blown 12 button controllers (not including directions) and how modern motion controllers are changing interactive design. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Intuitive definition</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1. Using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">2. (Chiefly of computer software) Easy to use and understand.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Call of duty gets a lot of questions asked of it and a lot of them are negative due to its mass market domination and its countless releases. From first time gamers to seasoned gamers the control system is always scrutinized and nit picked over. I have been playing the franchise since the very beginning on pc to the latest console versions. When I play the game I do not think what buttons I need to press to kill somebody or to go into prone it is second nature to me I believe it to be intuitive but this is because I have built up muscle memory and cognitive skills. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To a first time user getting there head around the button layout takes time but call of duty helps you out with practice arenas at the start of the campaign and certain game modes like spec ops. Spec ops is where you go against waves of computer AI enemies racking up points to unlock guns and more ammunition. The hardest thing for a new gamer is to get their head around the thumb sticks. You need to move in a direction with on thumb pad, aim your gun with the other thumb pad, pull the triggers to aim down sights and shoot all at the same time. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also on the screen you can get player clear prompts and helpful on screen reminders i.e. Press x to pick up weapon or Press A to climb. The prompt doesn’t get in the way and isn’t too intrusive and doesn’t break the immersion to much.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The new Wii and PlayStation 3 controllers are pushing the way game designers think about interaction and immersion with the player. Socom 4 is a great game to show the way the motion controls have immersed the player in the game. When you have the Sharpshooter peripheral for the motion controller you feel ready to play straight away. There is a digital trigger, a realistic pump action and even a firing mode selector this means the game can be even more realistic and immersive. When you tap the bottom of where the magazine should be, it reloads the gun in the game. When you jab the gun forwards your character brings out his knife and takes a swipe. Watching videos of people using the motion controls in the game I believe it can be fun in single player use but it wouldn’t work in multiplayer as people that use the normal PlayStation controllers would have a massive advantage.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My thoughts on motion controls, I see them to be gimmicky when they are implemented into the hard-core games like first person shooters but I can see it that it works perfectly in more casual games. I haven’t got around to playing a game in 3D but I can definitely see it becoming popular and very immersive as long as it doesn’t become just everything in your face 100% of your time. Another thing about 3D is that you currently have to wear glasses to view the TV, this can be uncomfortable and not practical to people with glasses already. People need to be able to afford a 3D TV without the wearing glasses before the 3D takes off.</span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-21303750239861400362012-04-23T16:28:00.000-07:002012-04-23T16:28:14.946-07:00Task 19: Elements of game technology, Part Two Sound of Games<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sound in games is very important they can be very complicated and compared to those in movies. The music can range from simple melodies on a synthesizer or big orchestral pieces. Soundtracks are very important and set the tone for the game. From many years of playing games you remember playing certain games when you hear certain songs or soundtracks. For instance I remember playing Need for speed underground 2 because of the song Rise against - Give It all. The song brings back good memories playing it and racing my brother and makes me want to play it again and that is what a good soundtrack needs to do.</span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhldbymXK-8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhldbymXK-8</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In games like ssx the soundtracks influence the game and song selection is key as you want every song to be memorable, catchy and should withstand a lot of replay time. In ssx deadliest catch you have certain music styles for different race events fast paced music for race events, more upbeat tracks for the trick events and more dangerous and mysterious for the survival mode. The music also reacts to what you’re doing in the game so if you grind along a tree the music will stutter, if you carve from left to right the music will pan from left to right speakers and if you bail the music will scratch and distort. All of this creates a pleasant and interactive experience in which the player will be happy.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Martin O'Donnell is one of my heroes in the sound department and has been at the front Of Bungie’s hit series Halo. From the very first second I put Halo: Combat evolved into my Xbox the Georgian monk chants started up and instantly you feel excited almost to the point of chills, it pumps you up to play the game. Martin uses an orchestra to create his music with amazing instruments and very talented players. Martin designed and produced the music a certain way. He made it so it could be dissembled and remixed in a way that meant he could have multiple interchangeable loops which would keep the track appealing and of variable length. Martin O’Donnell also worked on the halo titles up to and including halo reach, each soundtrack for the games has been outstanding.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is a video of the sound developers from 343 studios who are making the new Halo 4 game. They talk about how they had to stay true to the original soundtracks but also stamp their own identity on the pieces. The story of Halo 4 is much more focused on Master Chief so they wanted the music to help portray his emotions.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.gametrailers.com/video/developer-diary-halo-4/729033">http://www.gametrailers.com/video/developer-diary-halo-4/729033</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hans Zimmer is a heavy hitter when it comes to music in films he has worked on such films as black hawk down, gladiator and inception. He decided to work on call of duty modern warfare 2 and subsequently has worked on Crysis 2.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sound is used heavily in storytelling and navigational clues in games. In Gears of War 3 when you complete a section of the gameplay you might hear a gong this tells the player that the intense action is stopping and to get ready for some storytelling. In multiplayer shooters sounds are very key as well you need to hear if the grenade lands near your feet so you can run away. Hearing the other players footsteps is another crucial aspect in shooters as you need to know whether players are close to you or not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-64556626830636384552012-04-23T16:26:00.000-07:002012-04-23T16:26:30.836-07:00Task 18: Elements of Game Technology, part one: game engines<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In this blog entry I will be writing about game engines, how they vary, their advantages their disadvantages, usability and what games they support.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are lots of game engines out there to pick and choose from but a lot of Games Company’s use their own in house engines this is due to the fact that the engine has been in use for a number of years, they have control over the whole direction the engine takes. They have a direct connection with the people improving their engine, bugs get fixed in a matter of days not months and also they can get access to improvements that haven’t been completely finished but could be helpful to the developers.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is a list of commonly known Game engines, the games on the engine and the Companies that use the engines. </span></div><table border="1" cellpadding="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-cellspacing: 1.5pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 100%;"><tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Game engine<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Games<o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Company<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;"> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_(game_engine)" title="Unity (game engine)"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Unity</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartoon_Network_Universe:_FusionFall" title="Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall</span></span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Woods_PGA_Tour_Online" title="Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online</span></span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GooBall" title="GooBall"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">GooBall</span></span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Conflicts:_Palestine" title="Global Conflicts: Palestine"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Global Conflicts: Palestine</span></span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-Road_Velociraptor_Safari" title="Off-Road Velociraptor Safari"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Off-Road Velociraptor Safari</span></span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WolfQuest" title="WolfQuest"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">WolfQuest</span></span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Frontier" title="Dead Frontier"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Dead Frontier</span></span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlestar_Galactica_Online" title="Battlestar Galactica Online"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Battlestar Galactica Online</span></span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartoon_Network" title="Cartoon Network"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Cartoon Network</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Arts" title="Electronic Arts"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Electronic Arts</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=OverTheEdge&action=edit&redlink=1" title="OverTheEdge (page does not exist)"><span style="color: #ba0000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Over The Edge Entertainment</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_Games_Interactive" title="Serious Games Interactive"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Serious Games Interactive</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
Flashbang Studios<br />
Eduweb<br />
Mikesgames Productions<br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigpoint_Games" title="Bigpoint Games"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Bigpoint</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> and </span><a href="http://www.artplant.no/"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Artplant</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;"> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryEngine_3" title="CryEngine 3"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">CryEngine 3</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crysis_2" title="Crysis 2"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Crysis 2</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASTA:_The_War_of_Tears_and_Winds" title="ASTA: The War of Tears and Winds"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">ASTA: The War of Tears and Winds</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArcheAge" title="ArcheAge"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">ArcheAge</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cabal_2&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Cabal 2 (page does not exist)"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Cabal 2</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undead_Labs" title="Undead Labs"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Class 3</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Forged_by_Chaos&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Forged by Chaos (page does not exist)"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Forged by Chaos</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexuiz_(2011_video_game)" title="Nexuiz (2011 video game)"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Nexuiz</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryse" title="Ryse"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Ryse</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniper:_Ghost_Warrior_2" title="Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tour_Golf_Online&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Tour Golf Online (page does not exist)"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Tour Golf Online</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warface_(video_game)" title="Warface (video game)"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Warface</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crytek" title="Crytek"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Crytek</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polygon_Games&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Polygon Games (page does not exist)"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Polygon Games</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=XL_Games&action=edit&redlink=1" title="XL Games (page does not exist)"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">XL Games</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESTsoft" title="ESTsoft"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">ESTsoft</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undead_Labs" title="Undead Labs"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Undead Labs</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Panzar_Studio&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Panzar Studio (page does not exist)"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Panzar Studio</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Xaviant&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Xaviant (page does not exist)"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Xaviant</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IllFonic&action=edit&redlink=1" title="IllFonic (page does not exist)"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">IllFonic</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Interactive" title="City Interactive"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">City Interactive</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=OnNet&action=edit&redlink=1" title="OnNet (page does not exist)"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">OnNet</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;"> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id_Tech_4" title="Id Tech 4"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">id Tech 4</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_3" title="Doom 3"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Doom 3</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_4" title="Quake 4"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Quake 4</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prey_(video_game)" title="Prey (video game)"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Prey</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_Territory:_Quake_Wars" title="Enemy Territory: Quake Wars"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Enemy Territory: Quake Wars</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfenstein_(2009_video_game)" title="Wolfenstein (2009 video game)"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Wolfenstein</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id_software" title="Id software"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">id software</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven_Software" title="Raven Software"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Raven Software</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Head_Studios" title="Human Head Studios"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Human Head Studios</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splash_Damage" title="Splash Damage"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Splash Damage</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;"> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstar_Advanced_Game_Engine" title="Rockstar Advanced Game Engine"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">RAGE</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Club:_Los_Angeles" title="Midnight Club: Los Angeles"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Midnight Club: Los Angeles</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV" title="Grand Theft Auto IV"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Grand Theft Auto IV</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstar_Games_Presents_Table_Tennis" title="Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dead_Redemption" title="Red Dead Redemption"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Red Dead Redemption</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstar_Games" title="Rockstar Games"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Rockstar Games</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;"> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_engine" title="Source engine"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Source engine</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_Life_2" title="Half Life 2"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Half Life 2</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">, </span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Fortress_2" title="Team Fortress 2"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Team Fortress 2</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">, </span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_(video_game)" title="Portal (video game)"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Portal</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">, </span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_2" title="Portal 2"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Portal 2</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">, </span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_4_Dead" title="Left 4 Dead"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Left 4 Dead</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">, </span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_4_Dead_2" title="Left 4 Dead 2"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Left 4 Dead 2</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">, </span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Strike:_Source" title="Counter-Strike: Source"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Counter-Strike: Source</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">, </span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_Defeat:_Source" title="Day of Defeat: Source"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Day of Defeat: Source</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">, </span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Swarm" title="Alien Swarm"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Alien Swarm</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade_%E2%80%93_Bloodlines" title="Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_Episodes" title="Sin Episodes"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Sin Episodes</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Messiah_of_Might_and_Magic" title="Dark Messiah of Might and Magic"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Dark Messiah of Might and Magic</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno_Clash" title="Zeno Clash"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Zeno Clash</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindictus" title="Vindictus"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Vindictus</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> / </span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabinogi:_Heroes" title="Mabinogi: Heroes"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Mabinogi: Heroes</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sting:_The_Secret_Operations" title="Sting: The Secret Operations"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">KOS Secret Operations</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation" title="Valve Corporation"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Valve</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troika_Games" title="Troika Games"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Troika Games</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_Entertainment" title="Ritual Entertainment"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Ritual Entertainment</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkane_Studios" title="Arkane Studios"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Arkane Studios</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACE_Team" title="ACE Team"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">ACE Team</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
devCat (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEXON_Corporation" title="NEXON Corporation"><span style="color: blue;">Nexon</span></a>)<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Unreal Engine 3<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America%27s_Army_3" title="America's Army 3"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">America's Army 3</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_Arkham_Asylum" title="Batman: Arkham Asylum"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Batman: Arkham Asylum</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderlands_(video_game)" title="Borderlands (video game)"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Borderlands</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_in_Arms:_Hell%27s_Highway" title="Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackSite:_Area_51" title="BlackSite: Area 51"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">BlackSite: Area 51</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gears_of_War" title="Gears of War"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Gears of War</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gears_of_War_2" title="Gears of War 2"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Gears of War 2</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gears_of_War_3" title="Gears of War 3"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Gears of War 3</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_Tournament_3" title="Unreal Tournament 3"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Unreal Tournament 3</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Six_Vegas" title="Rainbow Six Vegas"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Rainbow Six Vegas</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Odyssey" title="Lost Odyssey"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Lost Odyssey</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect" title="Mass Effect"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Mass Effect</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect_2" title="Mass Effect 2"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Mass Effect 2</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect_3" title="Mass Effect 3"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Mass Effect 3</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Remnant" title="The Last Remnant"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">The Last Remnant</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medal_of_Honor:_Airborne" title="Medal of Honor: Airborne"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Medal of Honor: Airborne</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_%26_Soul" title="Blade & Soul"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Blade & Soul</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletstorm" title="Bulletstorm"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Bulletstorm</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td> <td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidos_Interactive" title="Eidos Interactive"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Eidos Interactive</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gearbox_Software" title="Gearbox Software"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Gearbox Software</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_Games" title="Midway Games"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Midway Games</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Games" title="Epic Games"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Epic Games</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubisoft" title="Ubisoft"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Ubisoft</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistwalker" title="Mistwalker"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Mistwalker</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioWare" title="BioWare"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">BioWare</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square-Enix" title="Square-Enix"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Square-Enix</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCsoft" title="NCsoft"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">NCsoft</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Can_Fly" title="People Can Fly"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">People Can Fly</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The unreal engine has a lot of Games company’s using the engine this is due to its ease of use and its amazing features. The games that have been made in the unreal engine have been amazing and most have won awards for how good they were. Batman Arkham Asylum won and was nominated for loads of awards from sites like giant bomb, game informer, game trailers and games radar. It also won a BAFTA for game of the year and the studio won spikes Studio of the year.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The unreal engine can be heavily modified as its core is written in C++, it was originally used for first person shooters but then it has subsequently developers have made stealth, MMORPGS and RPG’s games using the unreal engine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unreal engine 3 is designed for Xbox 360, windows, windows vista, windows 7, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3, Wii U, iOS, Android and Adobe flash player. This means it’s one of the most versatile engines around. A lot of the gaming code is written in the Unreal Script a lot of gameplay can be shaped and moulded with going to deep into the internals of the engine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The engine has come a long way since the first Unreal Engine 1. Here is a comparison between the engines and the character models of the unreal tournament games.<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjLhxEdfhNrqt4tD9H2rhNujSJFI9b_Sii5BpBlAUmzqkIntalj8OJYw2vsBjRAi9ZGA13o-rYOxcW62QAho9_F4eEPP6-Rc1f_m2MnLRX5VF99deg93bNoqblLM7LWbbVZoviehK6EnbH/s1600/sf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjLhxEdfhNrqt4tD9H2rhNujSJFI9b_Sii5BpBlAUmzqkIntalj8OJYw2vsBjRAi9ZGA13o-rYOxcW62QAho9_F4eEPP6-Rc1f_m2MnLRX5VF99deg93bNoqblLM7LWbbVZoviehK6EnbH/s1600/sf.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The CryENGINE is another huge engine like the Unreal Engine and was primarily used for<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>first person shooter games. Crytek used a technology demo called Far Cry they then realised and saw its potential and started to turn it into a game after progressing the engine Ubisoft bought the rights for the Far Cry franchise. Crysis was developed for the CryENGINE 2 and when it was released it was unfeasible for computers to run on its highest or even average settings. As the computers became better the game was used as a benchmark tester to see if you had a good computer or not. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The CryENGINE 3 was announced at GDC in 2009 and it was announced that the engine was being developed for Microsoft windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and even the Wii U. Crysis 2 was also created on the CryENGINE 3 and was a multiplatform game which helped other developers see the potential in using the CryENGINE for use on the consoles. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I must say I prefer the Unreal Engine due to its ease of use, is kismet system which allows you to alter the Gameplay scripting and this is very easy to use as it is uses nodes. This helps bring life to our levels and or models.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-7264013481080684642012-04-23T16:23:00.000-07:002012-04-23T16:23:57.754-07:00Task 17: Elements of game design, part six: documentation<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Documentation is crucial in creating assets/levels because if you miss out the planning phase you can go completely off topic, create something that is too memory intensive. Documentation also helps in the development pipeline as is it covers; Concepts, Character profiles, Narrative, Scripts and others. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have been looking on the internet to find some technical specifications for poly counts on current and prior titles, here are a couple of URLS.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=43975<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.games-dev.com/forum/topic/1222-polygon-count/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.games-dev.com/forum/topic/1222-polygon-count/</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/757776-Question-Poly-count">http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/757776-Question-Poly-count</a></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A rough outline for various platforms: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><span lang="EN" style="color: grey; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">“DS can render 2000 triangles per frame max as it runs at 60fps and the system is capable of 120,000 per second.<br />
<br />
So in order to get everything you need in game from 2000 triangles characters are generally limited to 300ish triangles but can be anything up to 2000 if all you want on screen is a character<br />
<br />
PSP has a bit more power triangle wise but is limited to a maximum texture size of 128x128, so characters in PSP can be up to 900 triangles I would say.<br />
<br />
The Xbox and Wii can do perhaps a few thousand triangles for a model<br />
<br />
and PS3 360 and PC development will be something around the region as this quote from unrealtechnology.com<br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div><span lang="EN" style="color: grey; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">QUOTE</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: grey; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">We build renderable meshes with 3,000-12,000 triangles, based on the expectation of 5-20 visible characters in a game scene.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">From looking around in multiple forums I have found out the weapons in first person games are normally 10k and in third person roughly 5000k. This is surprising to me I had always thought they would be a lot lower. I have also noticed that texture budgets are a lot smaller than I initially thought this is because textures take up more memory. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Over summer I am going to produce a small level in udk here is my Project Brief.</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have not come up with a concept as of yet but I know my specifications and my limitations. I will be working to current Xbox 360/PS3 standards. I will be using 3DsMax to create my assets, Zbrush and crazy bump to create and enhance my normal maps and use the unreal engine 3 (udk) to present my level in engine. I will be creating low/medium and efficient density models. In the udk I will be using kismet and creating lighting setups. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There will be several stages in the production process:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.25pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Concepting, mood boards and research</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.25pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">White boxing</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.25pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Concepting</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.25pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Asset List</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.25pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tile able textures</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.25pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">First lighting pass</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.25pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hero assets</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.25pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Secondary assets</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.25pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Second lighting pass</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.25pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Kismet implanted </span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.25pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Minor assets</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.25pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Final Passes<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I will aim to stick to these limitations;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 7.1pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -7.1pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My scene should be under 25,000 triangles. </span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 7.1pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -7.1pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Total texture budget, (for all your maps, diffuse,normal, specular etc) is under 25mb.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">• All objects, cameras, maps and materials in the scene must be uniquely named to enable the assessor to navigate the scene comfortably.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">• Assets should be textured using maximum 1024x1024 textures. Prioritise detail and reuse texture space wherever possible. Maximise the use of your texture sheets.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">• Texture maps should be in .tga format.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">• Save all related maps together in un-flattened .PSD documents</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’m leaning towards a gig venue for my summer project as I really like going to see live music in smaller venues and I think I could make a very well made scene. I think I would also like to create a character as from the way the character will look you should be able to tell what kind of music they play.</span></span><span style="font-family: TTFFFFF900C07BCAE0t00; mso-bidi-font-family: TTFFFFF900C07BCAE0t00;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If I am going to create a character here are my limitations:</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span>·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span> I will be setting myself a limit of 10,000 tris </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Colour diffuse maps<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2 x 1024 x 1024 (diffuse no alpha) 24 bit</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1 x 512 x 512 (diffuse with alpha) 32 bit<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Specular Maps<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2 x 1024 x 1024 (specular maps) greyscale</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">OR</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2 x 1024 x 1024 (colour specular) 24 bit<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Normal Maps<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2 x 1024 x 1024 (Normal maps) 24 bit<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-10768279315553056132012-04-23T07:48:00.000-07:002012-04-23T07:48:32.594-07:00Task 16: Elements of game design, part seven: Level Design<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In this blog I am going to be looking over and discussing about level design and how it’s not always about the visual aspects but how the level plays and interacts with the player. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When we started to discuss our ideas for our level the group talked about things that we could have the player interact with the main ideas where doors switches and jumping from a couple of platforms . Our Story was that the character has driven to this lab and he has to search the lab to find out what had happened there. We kept the level very ambiguous which probably didn’t really help us with the players interactivity. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When we were creating our Initial floor plans we would change and manipulate the floor plan to create a more immersive level but still we wanted to keep the character to the queens building so we had to make certain compromises. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the level we wanted from the start and elevator system this was chosen due to the fact that our level was set in a subterranean lab and we needed the player to get to a down to the bottom of our lab quickly. The kismet for the elevator was drafted in the first week as we knew we needed it too work as it is a key component in our level.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After we created our level I realised that we had a very simplistic level of interactivity. We had only had to turn on switches to open doors. We could have had some more interactivity with some of the objects in our level. The robot arm could have moved when you went up to it and pressed the buttons. We only took advantage of verticality twice and both times we used stairs we could have used other means to scale or environment.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is an image from a game called Damnation. The image is a piece of concept art which was then given to the level designers to decide a rough plan of a level it shows that there are multiple routes through certain sections and I love the fact that you can see where you have come from throughout the level, it makes the level feel immersive. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjSMs7j20qFCIBkihllBfLLQVUMCTL6xFXilAAPRrl85l96vq3phWouiiF7K9kPqNHKU3qbCfYPvOlDW9mRLKpaUCxqt5h1bzPrUKHpVLifQNjx5BU5pFDdsKKktJQ5OVxlITxuqdejNQO/s1600/ds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjSMs7j20qFCIBkihllBfLLQVUMCTL6xFXilAAPRrl85l96vq3phWouiiF7K9kPqNHKU3qbCfYPvOlDW9mRLKpaUCxqt5h1bzPrUKHpVLifQNjx5BU5pFDdsKKktJQ5OVxlITxuqdejNQO/s320/ds.jpg" width="278" /></a></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #241f4c; font-family: "Georgia Serif","serif"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"> </v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas> <v:path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f"> <o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"> </o:lock></v:path></v:stroke></v:shapetype></span><o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A great way to mix up your bog standard paths is to add some verticality this can add some new gameplay mechanics and more player interactivity. Say for example if a player was walking down a path to a door and instead of it being open it was locked, you can see the switch<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for the door but it’s up on a ledge to the right of the player. Then you have to climb up either using rocks, ladders or even create steps using barrels. Finally you get to pull the switch to open the door this could then let some enemies into the path or lead to a cut scene of what’s behind the door.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Level design in fps multiplayer is different to that of single player. In multiplayer levels designers need to take into account a lot of factors. Choke points are key in multiplayer levels this is where most of the action happens as the two teams head down a certain corridor or enter and large room. You cannot have one team turning up late because they had to navigate a longer route. In multiplayer maps things have to be balanced but this does not mean all the maps have to symmetrical. You can balance an asymmetrical level by giving certain weapon drops or even giving elevated terrain to the side of the map that might have more of a disadvantage in the overall layout.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-90813105130675936332011-11-30T12:39:00.000-08:002011-11-30T12:39:54.419-08:00Vehicle project<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For my vehicle project I decided to design a high-end nightclub boat that would take its passengers up and down some of the most beautiful rivers in the world<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdayXB93eQbGSL1q0blagznGM6mFoC6f2O7hviOqccULz9N3cKnWwqYX8nwsf9K4thTGaVdA_YdveJw25gSFqs0KNtDZO1CFXN_wk3gYv84fOShKVSW_3YYhqxMYJgJL2NuTE7WKD3g2Iv/s1600/vehicleIDEAS01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdayXB93eQbGSL1q0blagznGM6mFoC6f2O7hviOqccULz9N3cKnWwqYX8nwsf9K4thTGaVdA_YdveJw25gSFqs0KNtDZO1CFXN_wk3gYv84fOShKVSW_3YYhqxMYJgJL2NuTE7WKD3g2Iv/s320/vehicleIDEAS01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I first started out by doing some quick sketches and photo shop design ideas using the silhouette method. Then came the process of designing ideas, joining those ideas and finally refinement. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After I chose my final idea I went into, and design ideas for the paint scheme and material choices.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpDs52rWZlJoCA5WPUJAL2YyarUDgq5w3C_BCg_IcGIC2h4rR_tcULbqymOJPoVQwX7ob-T547LODwbs1qyoRehlQqAWVJWY-q4UEdcmk3Xu8mpPzTErRTon9t24J2LyxOhdeZWj0G_1Hv/s1600/boat+paint+designs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpDs52rWZlJoCA5WPUJAL2YyarUDgq5w3C_BCg_IcGIC2h4rR_tcULbqymOJPoVQwX7ob-T547LODwbs1qyoRehlQqAWVJWY-q4UEdcmk3Xu8mpPzTErRTon9t24J2LyxOhdeZWj0G_1Hv/s320/boat+paint+designs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Storyboarding helped my ideas developed and helped me identify some of the flaws within my design. One of the main issues was that I was going to have a glass back to the boat. This is not a good idea because you would be able to see all the cables and joining sections, which would then make it ugly and pointless.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw4hJkvHzhxv5ujlXv45dujol91mmybGZ-jTykNjs5OBQBOq31KOdQRwj_9t3mhMxa-faylD-tAJ-EZaq7YmjvwAnuHMCJf-oOa3VjXlO9eyK8i_iHjxsmKc8EusEtniHBtF8to02erO6f/s1600/vehicle+painting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw4hJkvHzhxv5ujlXv45dujol91mmybGZ-jTykNjs5OBQBOq31KOdQRwj_9t3mhMxa-faylD-tAJ-EZaq7YmjvwAnuHMCJf-oOa3VjXlO9eyK8i_iHjxsmKc8EusEtniHBtF8to02erO6f/s320/vehicle+painting.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I want to come back to this project to tighten and improve the design and to think more about how it would work and how it would be built.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqoxxhVWZ4HLwdu5wkgsry-ukJuPIswLHhaz01aOLd2jNa32eG_quIxjGKAi3RcRpureKm_e_3ao3s8Ci_AvxdqtdGb5DS3TPp9wVmCuWQwsVz9rC5ByXzZkCUiLRBptruGFes8Kia1bcW/s1600/final+drawing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqoxxhVWZ4HLwdu5wkgsry-ukJuPIswLHhaz01aOLd2jNa32eG_quIxjGKAi3RcRpureKm_e_3ao3s8Ci_AvxdqtdGb5DS3TPp9wVmCuWQwsVz9rC5ByXzZkCUiLRBptruGFes8Kia1bcW/s320/final+drawing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-61456287226045586692011-11-30T12:33:00.000-08:002011-11-30T12:34:32.069-08:00Leicester city painting<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This week I've been during scenes of buildings around Leicester.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have drawn 12 prep sketches and have found a building I really like due to the lighting when I was there and the large panes of glass that surround the restaurant. Also the building from a certain angle reminded me of Edward Hopper's painting called nighthawks. So I decided to do a digital painting for my final.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Q6OYBPjuVvfJSfXvlrsO8cucYxhq7iZMtv7Ed-bKn3Z9wUZas-0AsZav65q9kmZrkA0P3ipssWXYa7uJc1EAt9aosqV22yAjkbczcAprjahcUl7cpD7la7v7QYIVeSTptQOhkEAyW65_/s1600/Edward%252520Hopper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Q6OYBPjuVvfJSfXvlrsO8cucYxhq7iZMtv7Ed-bKn3Z9wUZas-0AsZav65q9kmZrkA0P3ipssWXYa7uJc1EAt9aosqV22yAjkbczcAprjahcUl7cpD7la7v7QYIVeSTptQOhkEAyW65_/s320/Edward%252520Hopper.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Nighthawks painting has influenced a lot of people, Ridley Scott has said “I was constantly waving a reproduction of this painting under the noses of the production team to illustrate the look and the mood I was after”. When he was directing the film Blade Runner. Also the painting was recreated in the style of The Simpsons for one of their episodes called<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>Homer versus the 18th Amendment.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik2ijJ8clHdBBJpv15c6mG_CCRvMfouuFpge7T5CmSy6apHwGg2228PXSBPH6BqSnI0sytWDg2LKJj-cxR55tvK6F3VzaSfwyLE6rQflbWgzVVEvORYc_NGuof5C6yRNWW5NMm8je25thD/s1600/edward+hopper+building+final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik2ijJ8clHdBBJpv15c6mG_CCRvMfouuFpge7T5CmSy6apHwGg2228PXSBPH6BqSnI0sytWDg2LKJj-cxR55tvK6F3VzaSfwyLE6rQflbWgzVVEvORYc_NGuof5C6yRNWW5NMm8je25thD/s400/edward+hopper+building+final.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"> </v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas> <v:path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f"> <o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"> </o:lock></v:path></v:stroke></span></v:shapetype></span><o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is the final outcome of my painting. the left-hand side of the image resembles the Nighthawks and is very empty, this forces the viewer’s eyes onto the focal point of the image. The focal point being the restaurant, I would like to add some characters into the scene as it would give the painting some life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-81508089291003581652011-11-30T12:29:00.000-08:002011-11-30T12:30:08.190-08:00Task 15 - Visual composition<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Visual composition is, at its most basic the arrangement of elements within an image according to established art principles. Understanding these principles and being able to use them correctly is a key element in developing your professional skill level. For this blog post about visual composition I am reviewing it as a result of a very helpful industry took/workshop. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Visual composition is a key principle that needs to be correct and present in every image that we create. In the past I would just point and click with my camera not thinking about how the image would look if I took the photo from another angle or position. Also when I used to draw seems I didn't think about the points of interest or even vanishing points.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Since being a university I have learned to think more about my sketches since learning the principles and the skills of drawing. The principles of organisation; as an artist I need to decide where my centre/focus points should be in my image. I have to decide where the eyes look around the image. I do this by placing objects in certain places: I can change the feel of an image with a simple change of the viewpoint.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is a list of some of the principles of organisation:<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.15pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">negative space<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.15pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">colour<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.15pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">cropping of an image<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.15pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">shape and proportion<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.15pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">positioning/orientation/balance<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.15pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">the contrast<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.15pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">lighting<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.15pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">perspective<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.15pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">lines<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.15pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">geometry<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.15pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Harmony<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 38.15pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Rhythm<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The negative and positive space should balance each other out. Negative space is commonly seen as a black background like in this image.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><img height="400" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3268/2776216280_cc9e0e4214.jpg" width="300" /><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The colour theory is very important in visual composition because if you get the colour wrong it can throw and overpower the overall image off.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The rules of thirds is where you divide the image into three sections wide and three sections in height using these guidelines you can create a pleasing image by moving the horizon line to one of the gridlines also meeting key aspects into the bottom left that creating spiral effect.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Being human we have a certain curiosity with other people. So in this photo everybody's eyes would go straight to the people. Faces and particularly the eyes will pull the viewer’s gaze in more.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><img height="266" id="il_fi" src="http://media.lonelyplanet.com/lpi/21393/21393-1/681x454.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="400" /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sharp areas will draw the viewer's eyes in over the out of focus areas. This is these same with diagonal lines as they are more of fierce than the horizontal lines. The diagonal line can be strong or weak, with a stronger line the image would be more dramatic and dynamic also the diagonal line takes the views I straight to a specific point of view. This is quite forceful and as I've said dynamic. Using a C or S line can take the viewers are you around an image deselected areas.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 76.3pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In mathematics and the arts, to quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. It is believed that Leonardo da Vinci used the golden ratio in his paintings but there have not been any recorded evidence. When looking at the Mona Lisa it is being suggested that the proportions use the golden ratio.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-33859267900388385342011-11-11T18:20:00.001-08:002011-11-11T18:23:13.609-08:00Task 14 Planing and Concepting<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m re-visiting some of my early blogs due to a very helpful industry talk/workshop.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">During this blog I’m going to be talking about planning and concepting in this blog post and how I go from initial ideas to final products. I didn’t get taught that many techniques or methods to get to a final piece, until I came to university. I would sketch out lots of ideas really small and quick so I can combine and further my ideas till I would come up with a really solid design. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I used to take life drawing classes out of school and I used to draw blind and also draw whilst not looking at the paper this helps you with hand to eye co-ordination and also can then further the speed of you jotting your ideas onto paper.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Since being at university I have learnt a number of different methods. This past week I have learnt a number of small tricks as well, due to a great workshop from a lead concept artist and a senior concept artist. Most of the techniques I have seen or used before but forgotten how helpful they are. One of these methods is called the silhouette method here is what it looks like.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXQo9FqGW-8iPe66ylar3AvuUthgWJCmzEbGYyUWgncx7EdtIyqNzun1fIYK0WFXUmPhGpzAYwMKPqtCVFNWDmWd_YwFQBxfV5ouOpMxoZcdPY7WjlQDFgWpHndGM7oARWCxuaSr8JFLi/s1600/vehicleIDEAS01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXQo9FqGW-8iPe66ylar3AvuUthgWJCmzEbGYyUWgncx7EdtIyqNzun1fIYK0WFXUmPhGpzAYwMKPqtCVFNWDmWd_YwFQBxfV5ouOpMxoZcdPY7WjlQDFgWpHndGM7oARWCxuaSr8JFLi/s320/vehicleIDEAS01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"><v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f"> <o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"> </o:lock></v:path></v:stroke></v:shapetype><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">I have used this method because it is very quick and you can jot your ideas down straight away. Also you can then use a layer mask to add detail to the specififc ideas that you will then choose to futher concept. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">Here are five enhanced versions of my very simple designs for my reef characters project. As you can see it is very rough but its not supposed to be a polished piece yet at this point as im still working on the outfits and I might have a change of heart and decide to blend to outfits.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKqy1TwJybpJsSs8YnJNwa_UyzyX69QmUFk7Ti09v48bVXOFz0TrNzEtQeOZOsmV8jpfEI7zzXyt6HyvJg8bFHLfmcTOBI5xSbXg8RY2WuA7wr3cmm8x_dOHcpNpYEsFFkghQWAk1gUIT_/s1600/character+clothing+options.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKqy1TwJybpJsSs8YnJNwa_UyzyX69QmUFk7Ti09v48bVXOFz0TrNzEtQeOZOsmV8jpfEI7zzXyt6HyvJg8bFHLfmcTOBI5xSbXg8RY2WuA7wr3cmm8x_dOHcpNpYEsFFkghQWAk1gUIT_/s320/character+clothing+options.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">I would then complete a final design and put my final idea into storyboards so I could show how my idea would look in certain environments. Before going into photoshop I would do really quick tumbnail sketches that would literally be only for my eyes just to understand some quick compositions and where certain main objects should be in the scene. After this I will do a larger thumbnail and using markers and biros to produce some tonal values and some simply lighting. Then I would choose to do some quick black and white scenes as you can set your tones and values really quickly and have an overall working image. Also a good tip I have picked up is only to use stock brushes and mainly the round brush for doing quick photoshop paints.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzaPG3Y-mJxz4DfHEpE-nLM8RwLdu9xC7e4SOFIFGdSHlFnVupvRfl-du9tZ8u3V62in4FCF2YC9kCX2O_Y0dVlUmmnuVmD4fKrk7KFmAoY_B7P8kvhyFoddOpQBjJWk-HJTUrioK8cvL3/s1600/final+scene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzaPG3Y-mJxz4DfHEpE-nLM8RwLdu9xC7e4SOFIFGdSHlFnVupvRfl-du9tZ8u3V62in4FCF2YC9kCX2O_Y0dVlUmmnuVmD4fKrk7KFmAoY_B7P8kvhyFoddOpQBjJWk-HJTUrioK8cvL3/s320/final+scene.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">I find if you do not plan or go through cerntain thought proceses and methods you will not reach a consise and well thought out final product. So I tend to set myself a certain amount of time for each process so I can spend my time the most afficiantly. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">For some quick environment work we got taught to use 3dsmax to create a 3d alley way, we then took certain renders i.e. z depth and group mask to help with our digital painting in photoshop. We used a mixture of textures and handpainting to create a dark mysterious alley. The talk/ workshop was very helpful and im glad we had it and its thanks to our course that we have been given all these opportunities to meet industry workers and gain valuable knowledge.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-52519538198372361372011-11-11T18:19:00.000-08:002011-11-11T18:19:23.017-08:00Task 13 Personal reveiw 2<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Last year I didn’t have a plan for my work, I managed to complete all my work on time but I felt with a schedule I could have produced more work or refined my final pieces more. So this year my aim is to have a schedule or plan so that I can a lot my time wisely and produce work of my highest standard. I am going to make a diary of my week so I can see where I am loosing hours where I could be making use of them, I will then make my schedule based on the diary.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I am planning to learn how to use Z brush properly as I have only just got it and need to wrap my head around the new programme. I would like to become proficient at Z brush because I have seen a lot of very nice models when other students have used the software and I think it will enhance my models.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Another ambition of mine is too work more in the set holidays we have. I know I lacked the insight of how it could have helped me and over the holidays I wasn’t working every day. Whereas now I’m setting myself an aim to do work over the holidays.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This week I have used my time well and managed to produce 5 acrylic paints that I’m really proud of I sat and painted for over 5 hours it was great to do as I am and have been a very fidgety person. I find it hard to focus on certain things (like writing my blogs) and I get distracted very easily so I am trying to find ways around these issues. One way is listening to music this sounds weird but I find I focus more with music noise in the background my dad is this way to but my mum is the opposite she has to work in complete silence. I will tend to listen to music of this nature </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnAWn8dHvAc&feature=BFa&list=FLydWEz-paO64ujojyHqxNUg&lf=mh_lolz"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnAWn8dHvAc&feature=BFa&list=FLydWEz-paO64ujojyHqxNUg&lf=mh_lolz</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> . Another way is that I’m having help from the 1:1 support at dmu, hopefully they can help me concentrate and help me think of new strategies when I’m writing my blogs.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Purposeful learning </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">is learning from experience, whether that is the experience of a meeting, a project, a disaster, a success, or any other internal or external event.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Academic foundations helps the student get ready for the next phase of learning and also progresses’ what they have learnt from the first phase.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Autonomous learning helps the student develop their self-consciousness, vision, practicality and freedom of discussion.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The first year was all about learning the basics of 3ds max, Photoshop and traditional skills now as we progress into the second year we will put the skills into practice and find out new process and techniques to complete the briefs we get given. We will also have to learn to work within a group as we will have a group project towards the end of the year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-61235268118320356102011-05-02T10:30:00.000-07:002011-05-02T10:30:49.707-07:00General chat 3 # Ashridge blue bell forest<div style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFTVKdv3Pe4-CqCR8b6wBjNrKHSrHi3D8T4SbQ9nAHKCaH7gMbrl20pLVI-yOsXJ04QZmsbGPcxj5JyPBIrb2wW3Dm71kPJxxdwqakzq96Y2_ALJKLRdYRzOL-7XuQfhgOJvl9QN21UHy7/s1600/P1000945.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFTVKdv3Pe4-CqCR8b6wBjNrKHSrHi3D8T4SbQ9nAHKCaH7gMbrl20pLVI-yOsXJ04QZmsbGPcxj5JyPBIrb2wW3Dm71kPJxxdwqakzq96Y2_ALJKLRdYRzOL-7XuQfhgOJvl9QN21UHy7/s320/P1000945.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"> </v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas> <v:path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f"> <o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"> </o:lock></v:path></v:stroke></v:shapetype></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"><v:stroke joinstyle="miter"><v:path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f"><o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"></o:lock></v:path></v:stroke></v:shapetype></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At the start of my Easter holidays I went to Ashridge blue bell forest which is near where I live. As you can tell from the image we had amazing weather that day, I took my sketch pad and my camera and enjoyed sitting in the sun sketching away. When I got back home I decided to do a digital paint of the forest, I really liked the composition of one of my sketches so I used some of the photos for reference and started to paint. I really enjoyed painting this scene because I really enjoyed that day because of the weather. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVdniacLoI9lKPD9BJf59VNAvKF6HYTmiLKRYp8fMd71MWQzj5J5f3hb1UAYzZ2MHbbHL5QUvZBzOXv-D_u_iVFqubiddmPKP7xayBR8jYOlrSfjlPRFxbBGW2a8r55uxSZ_pWbZV34aXT/s1600/final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVdniacLoI9lKPD9BJf59VNAvKF6HYTmiLKRYp8fMd71MWQzj5J5f3hb1UAYzZ2MHbbHL5QUvZBzOXv-D_u_iVFqubiddmPKP7xayBR8jYOlrSfjlPRFxbBGW2a8r55uxSZ_pWbZV34aXT/s320/final.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> decided to revisit the paint after a few crits from people on my course and from my own thoughts. As you can see I decided to add some darker tones and strengthened the trees as their opacity was low. Really pleased with the final outcome and it might even be put on my wall.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmxHcUdxThnV5Q9uPeHaWKBkObdPJoyehleSkftBbPsEmLPhowbOF_-Wuwh_fN0HmosQ0HOqdAo89JCfsKHi5fhQYRRFrvPcDtzL8o_H3c-Mk18l4vL6mzFXVbireBXkA4CQhVBTkmHhCi/s1600/final+edit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmxHcUdxThnV5Q9uPeHaWKBkObdPJoyehleSkftBbPsEmLPhowbOF_-Wuwh_fN0HmosQ0HOqdAo89JCfsKHi5fhQYRRFrvPcDtzL8o_H3c-Mk18l4vL6mzFXVbireBXkA4CQhVBTkmHhCi/s320/final+edit.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><br />
</div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-84034422729329356782011-05-02T06:06:00.000-07:002011-05-02T06:06:45.349-07:00General chat 2 # Hayling Island<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I went to Hayling Island (near Portsmouth) yesterday (19/04/2011), it started out to be a very nice day and then towards the evening some clouds started to form in the sky. I was down there visiting family but I decided to take my camera, laptop and graphics tablet just in case I had some free time to wonder around, which I did. I went along to the beach front and had a walk around and went to the beach huts as they are quite iconic of the English coastline. I decided to draw a quick sketch to get the correct positions of the huts and sea level and then when I got back indoors I decided to do a paint over. There were some people flying some kites on the beach so I also took photos of them and decided to paint them in to add some fun to the piece.<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnjNujBIMDNTLTB4cDiJy9NGjg6rFPMI5-_2xoby3cSoSH1mlXVh4BXkGDsqz9eIQJcEfZ3xoEjIEwWBZZMlTlJrET1V9OvuovdLqzKy3uKA7OR3sw_aXxriGjc6zp74naezTDetthOiWq/s1600/final+boats+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnjNujBIMDNTLTB4cDiJy9NGjg6rFPMI5-_2xoby3cSoSH1mlXVh4BXkGDsqz9eIQJcEfZ3xoEjIEwWBZZMlTlJrET1V9OvuovdLqzKy3uKA7OR3sw_aXxriGjc6zp74naezTDetthOiWq/s320/final+boats+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then later in the evening as we were leaving the island we pulled over at the docks I did a quick sketch and when I got back home painted the rest of this piece. There was a bridge supposed to be in this paint but I thought it would detract from the piece and I also didn’t draw about 5 other boats as I thought the scene would get over crowded. I really like this piece due to its realism and the way the water came out as I found it hard to get the right colours and highlights but I think I’ve done well here.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgul5tgch_HJiaW_owr1VVnvKXWq3EKE22NnZzxhyphenhyphen518uMwlFQgD6l1-NA_2k5lygmDb-ovFwwyHrtOSpdcxV8vwJ20xws8wie2NSjn3c4c28ILHWWZKYGDWojNdSKu_-AC318We-ZNcvIr/s1600/final+beach+huts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgul5tgch_HJiaW_owr1VVnvKXWq3EKE22NnZzxhyphenhyphen518uMwlFQgD6l1-NA_2k5lygmDb-ovFwwyHrtOSpdcxV8vwJ20xws8wie2NSjn3c4c28ILHWWZKYGDWojNdSKu_-AC318We-ZNcvIr/s320/final+beach+huts.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-57190291912285264762011-04-27T04:34:00.000-07:002011-04-27T04:36:51.848-07:00Task 12: Personal review of the first year<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This first year at university has been great and I am glad I made the right choice to study here at De Montfort University because my course is brilliant and it was just like I was expecting and even better. I really like the ways the course has helped me progress with my traditional art skills and in turn helped develop my Photoshop skills. We visited Bradgate Park twice once at the start of the year and just before we left, we had to complete finals for each visit. Here are my finals first one is a water colour completed on the first visit and the second image is a digital paint from sketches and photo references.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjARorbDzBzHsHefRdaPR8O8BY3xZ25dmz1gK7JBGDfgUFitPUFu4wLhlPXYawOecHdO35Xa3bDTowhCVWKGphL_NtpWMzQDkoh7kjXbL92CqGOXmD5U2BnRBQzp9ZcQajW_iTwX8LCLsye/s1600/scan+21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjARorbDzBzHsHefRdaPR8O8BY3xZ25dmz1gK7JBGDfgUFitPUFu4wLhlPXYawOecHdO35Xa3bDTowhCVWKGphL_NtpWMzQDkoh7kjXbL92CqGOXmD5U2BnRBQzp9ZcQajW_iTwX8LCLsye/s200/scan+21.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFGBEuT3xFY66f2C7t5HCLlMM4ujT9GFdT18apwRTi2_5mRzc7GShPHH3H08qsajbvNMWN-Aj9L70zozd_VWdHJd4Qs01XfpKNsl97-q1ld9cBVZrHCBbwmTH6nZn5lofIakv7y5x27zaC/s1600/finished+finsihed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFGBEuT3xFY66f2C7t5HCLlMM4ujT9GFdT18apwRTi2_5mRzc7GShPHH3H08qsajbvNMWN-Aj9L70zozd_VWdHJd4Qs01XfpKNsl97-q1ld9cBVZrHCBbwmTH6nZn5lofIakv7y5x27zaC/s200/finished+finsihed.jpg" width="153" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As you can see I have improved on my composition and in my colour theory. I have also given the digital paint a lot of atmosphere which the water colour doesn’t have. A suggestion that could be helpful for students in all years could be a couple of hour’s session of critiques and feedback once a week as sometimes I found myself wondering if I was doing enough work as I found time management hard. In my second year I want to keep up the same work rate and even produce more work, personally I would want to see a tutorial or maybe a quick talk on bounce lights as I have not got the hang of getting them correct in my images.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Having come to this course without any previous experience with using any 3D modelling programmes I think I picked up 3dsmax quite well. When there was complaining about 3dsmax from others, I was enjoying and learning about the programme. It is very rewarding when you get to see your final product in 3d on the computer and I really enjoyed the Gladiator model as we got to rig it and we got to see our character move around an environment. I did think for a couple of the tasks we were given too much time was given. I then started to ease off of my work flow and not keeping to my schedule due to the long production time, but this only happened twice. Going in to the second year i would like to see more of our last project which was the gun project, as we got to come up with an original idea and develop it so it included all 3 sub sections (visual design, game production and critical studies). Here is and image of my Gladiator.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik0wh3MMyOxQCeMyKQdj6_ScByVblX95oucVRCEPsEiaGvCrkRd-oK0CsCz3R7MvJ2iT3yk8UiCQSZ44JV1FbYfNkjLsbgVzSmd5nGfI_aJIHP8JEcahp-i5cz3YZovJylwFygvzXJ2UUg/s1600/final+render.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik0wh3MMyOxQCeMyKQdj6_ScByVblX95oucVRCEPsEiaGvCrkRd-oK0CsCz3R7MvJ2iT3yk8UiCQSZ44JV1FbYfNkjLsbgVzSmd5nGfI_aJIHP8JEcahp-i5cz3YZovJylwFygvzXJ2UUg/s400/final+render.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The size of the groups for our critical game studies is just right as it is not overcrowded and we can all have a say in the discussions going on. At the start of the year our group wasn’t talking or discussing that much and I think is due to people not knowing each other enough, a suggestion to get around this is could have been a casual presentation/talk at the start of the year which was about the individual i.e. what games we play, what inspires us. Another suggestion is we could have organised to all meet up in one of the rooms for a general chat or even a trip to a pub for pint. I found the talks to be helpful as I have learned more about the industry and what a job in industry entails.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
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<img height="70" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjARorbDzBzHsHefRdaPR8O8BY3xZ25dmz1gK7JBGDfgUFitPUFu4wLhlPXYawOecHdO35Xa3bDTowhCVWKGphL_NtpWMzQDkoh7kjXbL92CqGOXmD5U2BnRBQzp9ZcQajW_iTwX8LCLsye/s320/scan+21.jpg" style="filter: alpha(opacity=30); left: 118px; opacity: 0.3; position: absolute; top: 800px;" width="96" />Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-12955610443572745662011-04-27T04:19:00.000-07:002011-04-27T04:19:16.982-07:00Task 11: Elements of game design, part four: environment<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As you can tell from the title this week’s blog task is to talk about the environments in games. To start getting a working environment you need an idea now this idea needs to be well thought out and the best ideas are based on real life. You will need good visual reference i.e. photographs or videos and good sketches so you can visualize the overall level normally you would draw a lot of different designs from all angles.</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110425014520/gearsofwar/images/thumb/0/09/Thrashball.jpeg/830px-Thrashball.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Thrashball.jpeg" border="0" height="225" src="http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110425014520/gearsofwar/images/thumb/0/09/Thrashball.jpeg/830px-Thrashball.jpeg" style="vertical-align: middle;" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">You would then draw a floor plan for each level on the map depending if you game has multiple levels. Floor plans can help you decide where players will go through the level or how the map will be played. The floor plans can then be taken into engine and a white box can be created, this white box will allow you to scale and build your level in 3d so you can run around the map so you can see if it works. A white box should be a very simple overall design so you can iron out any problems that may occur when you play the map.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After this you should add terrain and a sky if your map is open and also add basic lighting so you can see the overall atmosphere of the map. The next step is to create basic textures and apply them to your white box so it gets rid of the flag texture, so it is then easier to take away parts of the map that will be static meshes. Adding objects is next and will always want to start working from big to small and you want don’t want to focus on a small part of the map the whole map needs love. You would then go into the texturing phases and then finally you would tweak the lights and start making them a bit more complex.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.splashdamage.com/screens_brink/008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" id="il_fi" src="http://www.splashdamage.com/screens_brink/008.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I’m saving my money for a game called brink it looks to be a really good game and his heavily stylised it is getting compared to team fortress 2. I believe as long as you don’t go wild on stylisation, you keep everything consistent and always reference things from real life the player should not loose belief in the game world. Brinks environments are really well made and look amazing they have got the atmosphere just right and looks just like their early concept art. An area called container city looks just like the slums in Brazil and India lots of corrugated metal all rusted and decaying there are areas with neon signs quite like blade runner but the lights could have been influenced from other cities i.e. Japan. Brink has a key feature in its game called the smart system </span>"Smart Movement Across Random Terrain" this allows players to run, jump and strafe across the environment to get a better view point on other players and the maps. This means all the environment has specific collision boxes and each object has been placed in the environment with thought and precision.<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-72265848866927693952011-04-27T04:02:00.000-07:002011-04-27T04:04:20.152-07:00Task 10 Elements of game design, part three: Character<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hey people this week I’m going to be talking about characters and what they can bring to certain types of media.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I read books (which isn’t often) I like to visualise the character in my own way so a book with important descriptions of character in it is perfect for me. Normally when I read books I can emphasis with the characters more than in films. I’m currently reading a book by Andy McNab called Zero Hour, I really like Andy McNab books due to the realism, language used, important character descriptions and history behind the main character. In Zero Hour as you find out about the character. (Spoiler alert) as I continued to read I found out that the main character has a terminal illness, this made me empathise with the character more due to the raw human emotion that surrounds terminal illnesses.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A film that I really liked and found it easy to empathy with the characteristics was inception to be a really good film due to the script and actors. I started to believe that the dreams and its intruders could actually happen due to the great acting and also that our dreams are private and the script bends that theory completely. Also Leonardo de Caprio plays the main character because he has lost his wife which is very traumatic experience.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Directors/Writers use our human emotions to empathise with the characters, also putting the characters in certain situations will provoke different responses. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Directors/Writers choose to create a character they need 6 key points and here they are.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Speech: The content and manner of speech can help evoke personality such as shy, aggressive and anxious. </span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Motivation: The character ought to have good reasons for their actions.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Concreteness: Everything has to be realistic your character, giving your character specific beliefs is one way another is to create more information about your character for instance, specific brands from certain supermarkets this could show his social background and income.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Change: A character should react to their responses either by changing or avoiding the change. The character needs to grow and develop throughout the story by adapting to situations.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">5.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Behaviour: A good way to show a characters behaviour is to put the character under stress which can reveal certain traits. The behaviour of the character needs to be regular with what we already know of the character.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">6.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Symbolic association: The mind associates meaning to an image/event thus making it symbolic. So if I was to choose the colour red as the colour of my characters jacket it could show that he is angry. </span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/www.ign.com/5629/2010/11/the-walking-dead-cast1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="293" id="il_fi" src="http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/www.ign.com/5629/2010/11/the-walking-dead-cast1.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="400" /></a></div><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ve recently watched the whole series of The Walking Dead and it is a fantastic TV show, but it was first a comic book and I’m looking to buy them to. The Show is directed by <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Frank Darabont who is also known for directing The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption. The camera angles used help me feel as if I could be in the show its self. The character Rick Grimes is played by Andrew Lincoln who is an English actor and plays a quintessential American cop his acting is amazing in the show. The main story line is Rick is a cop he wakes up one day from a coma to find the earth is overrun by walkers (zombies) and he doesn’t know what has happened to his family so he tries to find them.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So overall I believe that a character needs a history and we need to know a bit about it to fully understand a character. Using traumatic or stressfully events can show a character in another light and can also help us empathise with the character.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-73232779046266764452011-03-27T12:20:00.000-07:002011-03-27T12:21:36.999-07:00General Chat<div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">This week I am going to chat about the course that I am studying which is Games Art at De Montfort University. In the past week we have been studying some of the master artists of our choice. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvagfk4QNMHGDVWUXtzcly13_GL21GCoJwWkrIk8fKyz-fak1TgmhALJLAAklJZ5NhQDPNIPe_ENI6RIuMLFgZ7gfPcJIwU1LYIbQtD6-VTrikE3osMQkWcgNU48P1rVqGWTlwOcDsaV4/s1600/the-art-book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvagfk4QNMHGDVWUXtzcly13_GL21GCoJwWkrIk8fKyz-fak1TgmhALJLAAklJZ5NhQDPNIPe_ENI6RIuMLFgZ7gfPcJIwU1LYIbQtD6-VTrikE3osMQkWcgNU48P1rVqGWTlwOcDsaV4/s1600/the-art-book.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">I chose to study Egon Schiele I found out about his work from a book called “the art book” the book contains lots of influential artists and was published in 1994.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I really liked his portraits due to the realistic look to the figures but on closer inspection you notice how he distorts the human form and proportions. I also love the colours he uses for the skin tones these colours to me seem quite dirty and on purpose. We had to recreate the masters piece of work in any media we liked it had to resemble the original trying to emulate the brush strokes, here is my final outcome.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNCqhKJWaruGUdbDMZExkKjCbnkxIIGSAAxOJ1WakDE_dTgenqjX0HuWf_YQF1sNAK__q4GLNMjYxvOYhXWE5ni7GOiqtaJubdLy4vb9T0JgmQBdNZjjRnrY5CEvtpCLuCPj9neAh8sdV8/s1600/egon_schiele02_bak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNCqhKJWaruGUdbDMZExkKjCbnkxIIGSAAxOJ1WakDE_dTgenqjX0HuWf_YQF1sNAK__q4GLNMjYxvOYhXWE5ni7GOiqtaJubdLy4vb9T0JgmQBdNZjjRnrY5CEvtpCLuCPj9neAh8sdV8/s320/egon_schiele02_bak.jpg" width="236" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">We also had to complete a painting on the study of another master, I chose Frans Hals. I really liked the quick, precise brush strokes and the very similar colour tones. I decided to use traditional media for this piece as I haven’t painted on a canvas before. I am really pleased with the final outcome, if I was to change anything I would use a similar pallet to the original.</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi82LftiMmZQJpWgfoGAhuij349b_eKbU7yAerAKbpLGJ5ud3MNJs7fg6Q8aH6swFM_Js87eFxcb3sIDy54OhPKNON8Jo9u4FcKQuAIWKr385PN7yn9KG9BOS5iRJ401uf4-yxP_gZ19f-J/s1600/All+together.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi82LftiMmZQJpWgfoGAhuij349b_eKbU7yAerAKbpLGJ5ud3MNJs7fg6Q8aH6swFM_Js87eFxcb3sIDy54OhPKNON8Jo9u4FcKQuAIWKr385PN7yn9KG9BOS5iRJ401uf4-yxP_gZ19f-J/s320/All+together.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-59966980853986831582011-03-27T12:16:00.001-07:002011-03-27T12:16:24.729-07:00Task 9: Elements of game design, part two: art direction for games<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">This week’s task is to write about art direction this involves what is an art director and what’s the difference between media with art direction.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">An Art director in the media of games is in charge of the art team and what the team produces. The art director makes crucial decisions like which way should the art style go, what visual elements should be used, what the team should be working on and a lot more. As an Art director you need to lead your team into creating concepts and then forming them in the media. The art director will be in charge of lots of smaller groups normally managed by lead artists he/she would arrange frequent meeting with all groups to see if they are heading in the right direction he/she is looking for. The Art director will look out for anything that does not merge with the art direction he/she is looking for, and you would have to change it to his specifications. Art directors are responsible to the Game designer and the publisher.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">I believe that the Art director has a very creative role in making a game. As the Art director gives critical analysis and feedback on the way the assets look, to the overall art direction. This analysis should be given back to the creator responsible and should not be negative unless the object in discussion is completely wrong haha. When I say the feedback should not be negative I mean that you shouldn’t be rude and impolite, you still need to give crits telling them if something is wrong. The Art director needs to be positive otherwise the studio will be a horrible place to work as the staff will not put any effort into the assets.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">The Art director in films is a very important job you would work under the production designer and you would be in charge of the whole art department and collaborating with the Set director. If you were an Art director in this field you would have more of a managerial role. You would have to work with other departments such as Locations Department and Special FX. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">In advertising the Art director is not the head honcho but is a part of a coalition with another role called a Copywriter. They collaborate with each other creating the initial concepts, the Copywriter is in charge of the textual content and the Art director is in charge of the visual design. The overall outcome should be a joint effort.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">As of now I’m not sure if I would want to be an Art director as it seems to be more of a managerial role in the games industry but down the line in my carrier this might be more suited to me? Who knows haha? If I wanted to become an Art director I would need to have impressive skills and experience in video games and I would have preferably been working in the games industry for a while. Although there are some circumstances in which people have got the job even if they haven’t studied or worked their way through the game industry they have studied courses such as fine art and photography.</span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-79320374119123821202011-03-20T09:51:00.000-07:002011-03-20T10:25:16.592-07:00Controller layouts and custom mapping<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hey guys, this week I saw a video from PAX the video showed a disabled man asking developers why a lot of their games was not catering to him and other fellow disabled gamers. The reason why the gentleman could not play certain games on consoles was due to the button layouts they provided he could not press specific buttons at certain times. His aim was to get the console developers more aware of people in his situation or similar situations.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">PC developers have a reputation for allowing their players the freedom to customise their setup and even the game its self through mods. Games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft allow their players to customise their own control schemes, for instance there is a mouse from razor that has 17 programmable buttons that means if you mapped all the controls on to the mouse you wouldn’t have to touch the keyboard for certain games.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg89JaGla7-KnzWRomvG8JbS-cmxybtlgUrV84uTf3wjmHQNlpDv8TzPf0elIJIpbJ7q25K-nBtJdMNN9JSMhy2slVWTH2vT1adXnsQFzb2aa-5TjR-INrMPa4YL84kAarcAZ9EO0O762wt/s1600/razer_naga.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg89JaGla7-KnzWRomvG8JbS-cmxybtlgUrV84uTf3wjmHQNlpDv8TzPf0elIJIpbJ7q25K-nBtJdMNN9JSMhy2slVWTH2vT1adXnsQFzb2aa-5TjR-INrMPa4YL84kAarcAZ9EO0O762wt/s320/razer_naga.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Games like Call of Duty and Halo have been giving their players control pre-sets for a while this has been helpful for players, especially those that play other games with similar pre-sets. A new game from Bethesda/Splash Damage is called Brink, Brink will have custom mapping for consoles. This is great news but why is Brink the first game to do this? As it seems stupid to alienate a potential consumer.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here are my thoughts on why game developers might not want to allow custom mapping for consoles. Consoles have game controllers with a specific amount of buttons and the amount is normally quite small, therefore the developers could be thinking that they are giving to many options to the player who then could get confused. Other developers believe the layout they have given the character is the best layout to play the game. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Overall I believe all games on consoles should allow custom mapping but I believe we should still keep the specific pre-sets, they should be packaged together. </span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-77608883288497116672011-03-20T06:45:00.000-07:002011-03-20T06:45:12.828-07:00Task 8: Elements of game design, part one: from Pong to next-gen…<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">In this week’s Blog post I am going to talk about Game design and some of the choices made in the process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Gameplay is the interactive aspects that a player is allowed to execute in a game. These aspects could be obstacles tasks or others, you need good instinctive controls that help the gameplay. A good plot/story and if the player can relate to at least one character in your game you are on the winning path. I see good gameplay as, the player fully immersed, felling emotions like empathy hatred, with a well thought out control system and new/unique more complex challenges to keep me playing and entertained. As a player I like rewards and being punished for the decisions I make during a game, unlocking weapons/upgrades keeps me playing a game due to the changes. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Here are some of the most recognizable and talented game designers, I have chosen these designers due to me loving there work. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Hideo Kojima was best known for the series Metal Gear Solid, Hideo in</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> 2008 was given the award show's first ever Lifetime Achievement Award for a game designer at the MTV game awards<sup> </sup>and was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 GDC.</span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Clifford Bleszinski</span><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"> helped create one of my favourite Xbox 360 title Gears of War. Here are the obvious Sid Meier and Will Wright both talented guys between them making games like Civilization and The Sims. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Game design takes can take occur in a number of places, you will need a quick over view of your game this is thought up by your lead designers or an employee this will then be shown to the publishers and may follow the constraints set by them. The programmers and artists then go away produce design documentation so that they can set them self-goals to achieve and so they know what they have to complete within the specific time schedule.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">If you are a third-party developer you will usually work with game publishers to develop a multiplatform title. The publisher and the developer both have a say in the design and content of the game. The publisher's normally has the final say over the developer's due to the fact that the publisher is paying the developer to create the title.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">I am a first person shooter fan and yes I like call of duty but I also play lots of different genres and styles of games. I am waiting for Guild Wars 2 to come out so I can play my first massively multiplayer game as I’m interested to find out how MMO’s keep the players immersed in the game. As I find FPS get me involved a lot more and I also feel empathy with characters in the game, a 3<sup>rd</sup> person game doesn’t normally have the same effect with me. So I would say that different genres of games have different design principles. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">When I play a game I look for a good story that keeps me interested hours through the game and the story must make me empathies with the characters. I hope that there is no on the rail sections as it breaks the level of immersion for me.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-50549367504460478372011-01-16T10:52:00.000-08:002011-01-16T10:52:09.691-08:00Next time you buy a game...<span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In our culture we are told to think about where our clothes come from and not to buy certain brands due to the exploitations of child labour. Now I know this isn’t on the same level but should we care about how our games are made? Should we support publishers and developers if they are undermining their staff or us as a consumer? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The back and forth fight between Activision Blizzard and the duo that used to own Infinity Ward Jason West and Vince Zampella is still continuing. Jason and Vince were told to leave due to “</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">breaches of contract and insubordination.” Activision filed their huge lawsuit due to the Jason and Vince’s lawsuit against Activision, which argued against their sacking and they wanted $36 million in royalty payments. As they didn’t receive their full amount for making the game plus they didn’t get any bonuses for creating the most successful entertainment release which has grossed over one billion dollars as of January 18<sup>th</sup> 2010. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Jason and Vince left Infinity Ward and created Respawn Entertainment which is currently working on a game (fps shooter) for EA to publish. In December Activision bought EA into the law suit claiming that Jason and Vince had signed a deal with EA when they were under an exclusive deal signed in a contract. Also the claim was that EA were using go-betweens to persuade Jason and Vince to create their game. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The lawsuit all in total reaches $400 million against EA and the executives.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 7.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Jeff Brown EA spokesman said in a statement. "A PR play filled with pettiness and deliberate misdirection." "Activision wants to hide the fact that they have no credible response to the claim of two artists who were fired and now just want to get paid for their work." Jason and Vince are saying that bringing in EA to the lawsuit, Activision are trying to setback the actual court date. Jason and Vince say “</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">any delay of the trial in this lawsuit would increase the financial and non-financial burdens and would continue to distract us from running our business and earning a living.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So should we continue supporting companies that are taking advantage of its staff? Just a thought.</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-836998927139586222.post-83070213893562242532011-01-06T06:05:00.000-08:002011-01-06T06:05:23.735-08:00Task 6: Writing about Games, Previews, reviews, commentary and lies<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.2pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hey guys this blog post will see me analyzing key links about game reviews and previews. To get your game in the media you need to build up hype and a certain buzz around your game. I have read both blog entries by Kieron Gillen, I have learnt the media coverage can be bias and corrupt but also be completely impartial depending on where you look for your reviews. For example when you are search online for good review of a game that you may buy is a hard and very lengthy task as there are thousands of review sites. When you find one good review that tells it like it is you want more just to make sure the game is getting properly reviewed. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.2pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have figured out from the websites that the publishers and game companies pay the wages of the journalists. The game websites also pay the journalists with some of the money they get from advertising which occurs on the website. Sites like IGN and Gametrailers are heavily influenced and write a good review for the publishers in return they get exclusive interviews, gameplay and moneys. Whereas independent review sites say what they want to say and are completely impartial also they do not advertise games on their websites. For reviews of games I will go to smaller known websites or buy a magazine where as if I want the latest news I will go to well known websites. I also look for review sites that do not have a ranking for their games mainly because you cannot have specific numbers for graphics and presentation. Also the game engines, consoles and software are always being updated so I do not see that a ranking system is very fair. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.2pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’m a big fan of magazines due their professionalism their review styles and their big pictures! In magazines like GAMES<sup>TM</sup> you can find humor and experiences, Here is a sentence from a quick over view of a game called Endless Ocean 2 “If the first one was endless, why a sequel?” Also having a magazine involves you a lot more than reading a review or watching a 2 minute review on the internet. I love hard copies of things (except music) including games I really dislike the idea of cloud gaming but I know I will have to come around to it eventually</span></span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">L</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.2pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I like the NGJ and the style of writing due to the fact that it is more about experiences and not about this game has good graphics and this game has alright sound. NGJ style would be like “when I switched the game camera to inside the off the car I noticed how realistic the graphics were. The steering wheel and dashboard looked crisp and well textured.” </span><a href="" name="_GoBack"></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.2pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My own writing style at the moment would be objectively as I find writing altogether hard, I focus on getting the information down on the paper that I think is the most important to the reader and then triple check my work to make sure it is all correct and sounds right. I would like my writing style to be more subjectively as I want my blog to be more personal and more about my experiences. </span></span></div>Matthew Fowlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08547918269436853943noreply@blogger.com0