Before this class started, I had troubles figuring out what would go into world building and how to build a scene. This course really helped my understanding of how a world can be made from the ground up. I did not understand how deep game developers go into researching about architectural styles to create a convincing world for the player to run around in. There is also a large connection between this and the level design aspect as there needs to be someone to control both aspects.
The lectures throughout the course were probably the most entertaining part about the course as I never found myself not learning something in them. The rate at what we were taught was really well paced and I never found myself confused, although there could be a break in the middle to stretch. I didn’t really understand how much of world building is architectural design and it really open my eyes to the world of architecture and the different types of architectural styles that exist. Knowing this really changed my approach to creating scenes and helped me think about keeping the art direction of the scene consistent by having good reference. The contrast to these lectures was filled up with level design orientated parts. I really enjoyed these but I felt as though they were too focused on a certain game that maybe some people did not quite enjoy or understand. Creating a scene is a big task that can be daunting to start, as there is many 3D assets that are involved. The greybox tutorials really helped me overcome this aspect, as I would meticulously create finish props that would not be to scale and sometimes would be in the right art style when I am finished. The tutorials also showed me that there many ways you can approach the creation of materials and how easy it was to apply them as well as setup material blending within those engines. This was a really important tutorial for me as there was a lot of speculation that material blending was actually quite difficult which did initially put me off attempting. However, with a working file that I had created from the tutorial, made it easier for me to set up in my personal scenes. All these aspects of scene building that I had no attempted were all sorted out in the tutorials that I am now very grateful for. I do not really see myself as a 3D environment artist but I really enjoyed creating small scenes all focused on all of the aspects of world building. One of the biggest things that I did take away was that the environmental design is made up of many different parts and is closely related to modern architectural studies and that most environmental artists are actually unqualified architects. Making an open world map of an island that would be found in Scandinavian areas of the world. This is a quick draft put together using Terrain party for the outline of the shape as well satellite imagery for the terrain texture. This technique is easy for making quick generated world maps. This photo bashing style gives it a realistic look whilst being effective for getting a general idea of what world maps in story driven games.
The indie game industry has gotten some major hits over the past 10 years such as Super Meat boy, Braid and Limbo, but there is one game that was often forgotten and was at the forefront of the indie game industry. The simple platform-adventure game, Cave Story, released in 2004 for PC, was a throwback to the classic NES style games such as Metroid and Megaman. Like its predecessors, the game was quite difficult and required a lot of skill that put off many players initially. Many years after its release the game started to pick up popularity again with its rerelease for the Wii and Nintendo Ds and was a staple in Nintendo’s list of IPs with another release of a 3D version in 2011 and eventually another release for the recent Switch on 20 June 2017. Although a simple game in terms of mechanics, the game shines in its well-developed characters and world design. The atmosphere that runs through the games narrative really relies on the game’s story and dialogue choices and outcomes. The characters throughout Cave Story were developed in a way that make you care for them and the dialogue choices that you give them feel like they have an effect on the games narrative. When it is either at the start of the mission or even in the middle of it, the game presents the player with a side quest. Some of the side quests are usually optional and some of them leave an impact on the games narrative when progressing. These quests and dialogue lines will often question the player’s morals. This type of game design often leaves the player wondering if they had made the right choice even though there were only two dialogue choices (often being yes or no). The more impactful side quests are usually done by exploring the areas around that level and can be easily missed. The uncertainty of completing a level and skipping some of the content is always a foreboding experience. The player is also often rewarded with a piece of story when taking a detrimental choice to your load out. If the player wants to get the good ending, the player would assume that the best ending was achieved by taking all the side quests and taking all the best upgrades to their arsenal. This isn’t the case in Cave Story as a the good ending is hidden away within very quick moments of decision making and some weird decision making. The mystery behind the games moral choices adds to the worrying nature of the games atmosphere.
I would personally relate this games decision making and world building similarly to Dark Souls but easier to follow. Many of the quests you are given have a very distinct outcome and you are able to continue through the main story without much hassle. The secret pieces of lore that is spread out throughout the game that it slowly reveals to the player, makes them want to go for another play through and read every bit of dialogue to them. During the early days of the PS3 era, world building and art direction started to come to life, as consoles were able to handle higher resolution textures and more objects on screen. As fair share of games that came out in this era were third person action combat, a lot of the focus in terms of production was leading to the gameplay aspects. A game that has stood out in the genre, in terms of environmental storytelling and world building, was Assassin’s Creed. This open world game still has properties of the third person combat but it took a slower approach to its gameplay and it allows for immersion into the games environment by having many of the missions based around stealth. Most of the stealth mechanics allow the player to hide in the world’s props and elements. Some include walking amongst a crowd of people, sitting on benches, hiding in wheelbarrows filled with hay whilst also using the rooftops of buildings to hide from pursuers. Navigating through this space, whilst knowing that you are able to interact with the environmental props expands the space around you especially when the game emphasises stealth over combat. Although the combat is very well rounded, being an assassin is the main selling point of how the player exists in the game. Usually when walking through corridors and narrow areas, the player is, usually has no safe areas and is quite claustrophobic, where Assassin’s creed flips this mentality by encouraging the player to go into these areas as the developers put more of these interactive props within these areas. In addition, these corridors have beams and boxes that lead up to them to allow the player to escape onto the rooftops.
The Assassin’s Creed series has a notable art style by having their game set in different periods in time by having to recreate buildings from this era and architectural style. Having a detailed world is very important when it comes to a slower pace game, as the player will have more time to absorb their surroundings and to observe the layout of the town. Some of the more important buildings in the game are out of scale to standout more for navigation. In this smaller scale version of these real cities, players are able to recognise certain buildings and remember basic structures surrounding them. The way the developers repurposed the areas surrounding allow for an interesting blend of modern game design and realistic architecture. Breath of the wild is one of the best games of 2017 with reviews that exceed almost all the versions before it. The reason for this is its seamless open world and an area that seems to keep growing every time you pick up the controller when you leave that area. This effect starts on the first area the game introduces you too. The game gives you all the tools/mechanics to go through the world with in this area and some basic combinations between the two. The player will often go around and test what they can and cannot do in regards with these mechanics throughout the game, but the game teaches you just the right amount to continue to create their own combinations. This leaves the player with the realisation that the game has limitless combinations. This illusion adds to that open world feel as open world games try to emulate as many possibilities as real life.
When leaving the introduction plateau the world starts to open up, as well as the mechanics. Leaving the main plateau teaches you one of the more interesting mechanics, that being movement around the open world. Many open world games often need to have this mechanic as traveling around these open areas can become boring and monotonous, as you will usually come across these areas again. The game designers for Breath of the Wild wanted to emphasise the climbing mechanic. Whether it was a tree or a mountain, jumping off the things you climbed was arguably the most exciting part of the challenge. They wanted to emphasise these moments, and the way they did it was by adding a glider that allows the player to travel long distances when they have spotted something off a mountaintop. Another mechanic based on movement was jumping on your shield and surf your way down to the bottom. Both of these options are equally fun but unfortunately, if you used your shield to get down, the shield would lose durability and could potentially break while doing so. Also added to that, when it broke the player would usually die, as the mountaintop would usually be excessively steep. I personally used the glider most of the time as this you would: cover more ground, avoid combat and the sense of flight while also looking at the beautifully crafted landscape beneath you was remarkable. The climbing mechanic and the combination of shield surfing and gliding, really hit their audience where that little kid lived climbing up their trees in the backyard. How did the game developers get the player to climb these mountains? Often the player would look at mountains and would not bother to climb them as it would usually take time and become quite boring. To drill in the fact that climbing led to the most advantageous part of the games design by having watchtowers that would reveal the area surrounding it on the mini-map; the game would also place a Kurok seed or shrine. Both of these things included a wide range of small puzzles, mini-games or challenges that the player could that would add to their completion stats. This blog post is about pacing within the beginning 3 stages in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as these were the 3 stages everyone remembers. The first stage was a good introduction with a good pace and it never felt too difficult as well as the beginning the too stage 2. Half way through stage 2 is where the developers introduced the water mechanic. This stage was definitely the most stressful part of the game as you were forced to climb up a series of moving platforms whilst being introduced to the movement of Sonic under the water. If you struggled for too long, terrifying music would play in count down to your death. The third world of the game should have really been swapped around with the second world as it introduces the player to the water mechanic in a more suitable way. As you figure out in the first level of this world, you will understand that you would preferably avoid the water as it slows down your completion of the game as well as added stress to drowning. I really believe that this teaches the player about the different routes you can take within the levels after.
This was a really interesting test for baked lighting that we attempted in class. I really found that baked lighting does actually look better than real time lighting and i would like to create more scene this similar techniques. Real time lighting doesn't have enough contrast to create focal points in a scene.
At first I wasn’t quite sure on what to do as I wasn’t present for the tutorial for this assignment. I started to create a regular building at first but I was later told that was the completely wrong approach. This is what I came up with, its meant to be representation of old mining refineries. One structure that came to mind was the building in the level Rust in Modern Warfare 2 and the mechs in NieR Automata. I was also playing around with the scene setups of unreal.
At a time when gaming market was being filled with the newest first person action game, a game that managed to redefine the gaming development culture as we knew it snuck its way onto the PSN store in March of 2012; that game was Journey. Made by and indie company called thatgamecompany(2006), Journey is a 3rd person adventure game that surprised the whole entire gaming industry but stripping back the controls to a bare minimum with an unforgettable setting and environment. There are many more aspects that make up the games notoriety but there is one really important feature that is looked over vastly, the camera. Having a typical camera for this game would not do for Journey as this game relies on special moments of game play in combination of the amazing aesthetic.
Some of the main points they wanted keep was that fact that this game was to be as immersive as possible. Having a first person camera would be a good fix for this issue as that would be the most realistic camera to use. But this wouldn’t do as they wouldn’t be able to capture the cinematic beauty that they have in the game today. Some problems in today’s indie games show that there isn’t much to learn from in terms of camera design and games often end up messing the games camera. Journey solves this problem by having a dynamic camera that allows the player to see in all directions and moves around the screen in a fashion that represents real camera holding. The director of the games feel, John Netsky, says that the problems that he sees in games are that the camera breaks lines of sight when an obstacle comes in front of the player by the camera either going around the outside of the object or going around on the inside of the object bringing the camera to close the player[1]. This usually breaks in immersion within the game which would have been detrimental to Journey’s cinematic experience. The fix that the team came up with, is that the camera just goes around the object that it needs to pass by ray casting. In some cases of the game, the camera does go around small columns which doesn’t necessarily break the characters silhouette but actually adds to the gracefulness of the movement of the character as it slides into some spots. One of the more interesting scenes of the game involves the games camera to break from its 3rd person aspect. This involves the character you play in Journey sliding down a sand dune in some ruins as the camera shifts from the 3rd person element to a very cinematic and beautiful camera angle that displays the games interesting camera design. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7307qRmlMI This is just a small batch retreat for a couple located on New Zealand's east coast. This is the first time using Unreal Engine 4's in engine modelling tools, so it was hard to get around the concept of moving every face. I tried to apply modernist architecture by having large open areas to allow maximum sunlight within the main parts of the structure. The open areas can also be closed if sunlight is too intense. The inspiration was modernist house architectural designs around the early to mid 20th century. I noticed that these types of designs had a lot of sloping angles that also had sections that were facing every direction.
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World design theory (WDT)DevelopersThe goal of this blog is to relate current and past attempts at world design to further improve our understanding. Archives
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