Level 5 : New Mentality

After 2 weeks of struggling with the ins and outs of coding among other things I decided I needed some guidance to send me in the right direction.

So here we are after discussing with Josh and some independant creative thinking I am now feeling more in control of the situation. 

Firstly I have firmly come to grips with the contextual side of this semesters work and have the vast majority of my Design Practitioner essay done with the final chunk and amendments left. I have also began arranging some research into the creative methods of some design practitioners in my field which will make up my independant study report. I will also report useful parts of the Alien Apple lecture which was put on in class into this. Though Alien Apple are a concept art company so they don't strictly work in design and narrative there proximity and association with the games industry means the more general advice they gave was very useful.

Then comes the Unity, in which I am now feeling more comfortable and productive. I will make no allusions as to me being an expert, however I now feel myself slowly getting to grips with my own work (rather then just following tutorials exactly. I especially feel this in regards to understanding scripting, though my skill at writing script my still be far from ideal I now feel relatively comfortable understanding Javascript when I see it. Through discussing with Barry I decided it would be simpler for the moment to make my game first person for ease of use, with the potential to change later once I'm more adjusted to Unity. To this end so far I have made a simple first person player controller who can walk around a plane. Within the plane I have put 2 different polygons in different colors, these will be placeholders for the animals in my game. I have also scripted a basic projectile mechanic for the player controller, this will hopefully become the creature catcher later in development. 

So in terms of what I'm up to now I am feeling in control and motivated again. As far as contextual goes I plan on finishing my design practitioner essay this week and get well into my independant experience report by the end of the week with the intention of finishing the essays by the end of next week. This will leave me easter to concentrate on Unity. My next particular task in Unity is developing basic movement for the 'creature' placeholders which for starters will just move back and forth. I will then move onto the capture mechanic, at which point I can start refining the game til I'm happy with it.

So there we have it Steve is thoroughly back in the building and feeling that energy again. Let's just hope 2 weeks in limbo hasn't cost me too much, but for optimisms sake lets say i'll be fine. I always tend to prescribe to glass half mentalities anyway so its all good.

Peace Out

Bonus Stage - Pokemon

For the second of my narrative/game-play studies I have decided to take a look at one of my all-time favourite game series, Pokemon. I think that given the similarity in story within each new instalment in the series it is appropriate to study the games as a series rather than one particular iteration.

The reason I chose Pokemon is because it’s a series many would say has little in the way of story, however I think there is something more to Pokemon which returns to the intrinsic/extrinsic narrative theory. The usual formula for a Pokemon story is catching and training Pokemon and battling your way through 8 ‘Gym Leaders’ until you reach the Elite 4, while stopping the machinations of an evil gang of criminals. It is true this cycle is repeated through each generation but to me the ‘story’ of Pokemon comes from the Pokemon you catch and raise by your side.

The Pokemon you catch are individual to you they appear in the same locations in everyone’s game but only you know how difficult they were to catch, what moves you’ve taught them and how they battle. This may seem a sentimental reading of the game but I believe it’s the one the creators intended to put across. Everything from the tone of dialogue in-game to the themes in the cartoon show which aired with its release , emphasis was always put onto the relationship between you and your Pokemon. When Pokemon first came out it started a world-wide craze for kids everywhere, those kids are now young adults most of whom regardless of their dedication to the current series still hold onto their nostalgic views of the Pokemon themselves. I think the main reason for this is the variety Pokemon presents right from the beginning players we’re presented with 150 Pokemon to choose from, within which everyone had their best and worst Pokemon. Few people don’t have any add to the infamous discussion of which ‘starter’ Pokemon people chose out of Squirtle, Charmander and Bulbasaur. What especially intrigues me about Pokemon is the fact that it almost contradicts a regular paradigm of video games, in that the player character isn’t really the main focus of the game it is the titular Pokemon which are .

Pokemon is a series which evolves only slightly in terms of narrative and gameplay throughout generations, though the core of the game remains the same. The main difference in each generation is the addition of more Pokemon, which provides an even greater scope for players.

Bonus Stage - Skyrim

On a side note also this week I was working on this:

In order to further my understanding of narrative in video games and how they coincide with game-play I will be analysing existing games to see what I think works and what doesn’t. The basis for these will be games on either end of the narrative spectrum, those which place a heavy emphasis on narrative and those which have little to no narrative. Future case studies may be longer and indeed I may add to this one, this is a first draft of sorts.

Skyrim

With each Elder Scrolls game Bethesda seem to strive towards granting the player a free reign within the game world. With the newest in the series Skyrim the new ‘Radiant Story’ system aimed to essentially ‘build’ a side narrative around the players actions. As much as I loved the game if I’m thinking critically I would have to say this new system only partly worked. Admittedly the way new miscellaneous missions given by unassuming NPC’s and sending me to places I hadn’t yet discovered proved exciting to add extra scope to the game itself. However a greater variety of missions would have been refreshing as most tended to be either defeat enemies or retrieve item from specified location. This meant as much as the gameplay benefitted from this system as it granted a myriad of exploratory options, it wasn’t particularly effective in reinforcing the narrative experience as each question seemed relatively minor in comparison to the ‘properly’ written side quests.

I think an important part in a players enjoyment in a game comes from the bond they share with their character, which is why I think how people portray themselves in games can be a useful source of information in developing greater narratives. From the images I collected off various friends of mine I found most of my friends chose to do down the route of the brutish man mountain wielding a great sword or great axe. To me this is a great representation of the escapism we can all get from video games, I mean which guy hasn’t got that bit in the back of their mind that dreams of being the textbook hero with giant muscles who saves the world and gets all the fame and adoration.  One of my friends created a character and wanted to entirely avoid magic and make a purely warrior class, however he soon found the game ramped up its difficulty without magic. This struck me as potentially bad design, you would imagine if someone should choose to play one particular class they shouldn’t be ‘punished’ as such for it. That said it could also be argued this difficulty adds to the overall experience (both design and narrative) as it creates a more varied game world one which doesn’t always give the player an easier ride.

Level 3 - Keep it Going...

In class this week I have been working more on the tutorials in my Unity book. The task I'm now undertaking is with guidance and assets from the book to create a small game based on an island.Here are some screenshots the guys told me I should put up:

 I realize this doesn't initially reflect directly upon my own design work, however learning with the book is the most effective method of improving my Unity knowledge and skills (compared to independent experimentation and forums as per first semester). What I intend to do is use my class time to continue this development and upon completion of the tutorials in the book (shouldn't take took long) I should be at a point where I feel more comfortable experimenting. I have also been trying to plan the scripts my basic 'Alien Ark' game will require.


I discussed with Josh this week my feeling like I lacked direction in relation to my 'Giving narrative to kids games' project, after discussing we decided this will stay at the back of my mind until I have an epiphany of some variety and know where I want to go.


I have also began properly setting into motion a side project of my creation, I suggested to some good friends from my BA working on our own company together which they were all up for. First I recruited my good friends Bolurin Kupoluyi  and James Smith working on the art, Mark Rocco on Graphic Design elements and GUI/HUD and backing up the artists, then finally I asked my recently graduated fellow MA Barry Soilleux to help me with the design and scripting. After much thought (and running it past the guys) I decided on the name Powered By Bandits for our little company, for which I've created an email address and wordpress (both currently empty). Due to each of our individual time constraints  the company won't be a particularly 'driven' experience quite yet though it is still in its infancy. I also came up with an idea for our first game, a puzzle platformer though I will wait till it is fleshed out to discuss it any further. So another interesting week for me, all this and the toils of trying to find new housing.


Peace Out

Level 2 : Making it Work

Where formerly there  was haze and confusion I now have a firm grasp of where i am going with things.

First my project which revolves around giving a story to the games we play regardless of their lack of narrative, the likes of playground and table games. My first task was writing a list of as many games as Towers, Josh, Sam and myself could think of mainly playground games and basic games like 'Thumb Wars' and 'Slaps'. I then has a spark of creativity as I thought it would be interesting to write a narrative which encompassed several of the games into one fantasy tale. What lead me to this was the way in which serious subject matters and technically semi-narratives creep into the games and rhymes of kids, eg Ring a Ring o'Roses interpreted as talking about the plague. 

 However Josh thought this may be overstretching myself slightly so I will instead just be taking one game and writing a narrative which links to the game and how it is played. With this I intend to see whether as a video game with the narrative and context in place the game can be as popular as it is to play without.

My other task is based around a game which requires narrative for the player to understand their goal and the context of their actions. This task should also show how important a narrative can be in setting up the game-play itself. Due to the nature of this project and the fact I aim to have a working prototype of it I decided to keep the game itself relatively simple.

  To this end I designed the idea of a sort of comically sci-fi take on the Noah's Ark story. The player will find themselves placed into the role of a young alien boy with a strange device which appears to be able to catch other creatures. However should they try catching more then 2 of the same creature they will be unable to catch the creature and will be scolded by an unseen alien in an indistinguishable dialect. After a short while though the player will (through yet undecided means) be able to understand the scolds of the alien as it becomes clear they have been tasked with catching 2 of each animal to warp to the spaceship. 

  For the sake of making a working prototype I will trim the creature variety down to 2 initially which will provide just enough to make sure the mechanics work. Upon success of this I plan on perhaps adding maybe 2 0r 3 more creatures so the game itself will remain relatively small but it will have enough variety for someone playing to get into. With that in mind lets not walk before we can run, my first task is to truly get to grips with the Unity engine a task made much more practical with the help of my new book Unity Game Development Essentials. Following the tutorials in this book I managed today to create a basic mechanic of throwing a ball into a breakable wall. Though this may seem a rather menial task it provided me with a much greater insight into coding in Unity, not to a level where i'm prepared to write scripts for myself quite yet but that goal at last seems within reach now which feels good. This has also provided me with much more motivation to toy with Unity more as it no longer seems like my 'white whale' so to speak and I actually can see myself adjusting to this ins and outs of this program. So all in all PROGRESS would be the applicable word even if on paper there may not appear to be much I assure you it is there.

On a side note since my last post I was offered a 2 month contract Quality Assurance Testing at Travellers Tales in Knutsford. This is a great opportunity for me as it provides a concrete step into the industry, admittedly it requires me to leave my current permanent job to pursue but your only young once as they say. So hopefully if i figuratively work my socks off they will keep me on (any of my readers keep your fingers crossed for me). Though the full days and 4 hour commute will impart restrictions to my computer time I will have my 2 hour commute to and fro with which to let my creative juices flow into written work,designs and dare I say it even a few sketches.

So Peace Out people 

Level 1 - Another Path...

So today was the 'proper' beginning of the new semester beginning with a discussion over the path i will be taking now. After my interesting look into games without narrative in first semester i am now going to explore the seemingly opposite direction.

Firstly I will be looking into the idea of adding a narrative to games which we play that don't usually require narrative, for example hide and seek. I think it would be interesting to produce several variations for each game to show different styles for each.

My second area of study will be the idea of games which don't initially make sense until the unravelling or revealing of the narrative which then gives the player the scope to play and the goals which they are aiming toward.

I also have 2 side project ideas which will be carried out entirely for research but which will be taking less of my time.

The first is the extension of my look into peoples representations of themselves in narrative. After the Skyrim example I tried first i plan on looking at peoples created characters in other games as well.

The second research area will be critical analysis of relevant games which i think have some narrative importance. Whether this be their reliance upon it or there ability to succeed without it. Ideally this research will then provide more insight into my future narrative studies.

I will also be completing my Sony brief side project.

So plenty of exciting things going on at the moment, plus a job if everything goes as I hope.

Peace Out

Sequel Opening - Semester 2: The New Chapter

So semester 2 officially began yesterday and there are many exciting things in the works. Firstly a testing opportunity has arisen, which i am successful in applying for would be a fantastic experience and great help towards my dream of getting a permanent job in the games industry. 


We started the semester by outlining our future plans, with mine essentially being the development of my design and engine skills. I also discussed the Unity vs Unreal debate i was having in my head with Josh who told me to stick with the Unity as i could create more unique ideas with it.


The other exciting thing which I encountered yesterday stemmed from playing Rainbow six with my brothers. I thought about the idea of creating multi-player games based around kids games. These rarely involve narrative so would fit into an area i'm looking into, theoretically would be relatively simple to script and i'd like to think it would incite a level of nostalgia in those who played it. However the games would essentially need to be multi-player to effectively emulate the experience. I will discuss these ideas with Josh and the class and see what comes of it.


Peace Out