Cyber - reflection

I'm glad to be done with it. My work on it's been an educational mixed-bag, and I've taken a lot from it, but I'm happy to see it behind me now.

On the Cyber project i worked on a wide variety of things. I've done only a little bit of modelling for it as that was handled primarily by the animation students. Mostly, I cleaned up scenes, installed colliders, and tested physics. That last part took the most time. Cyber kept falling through the ground, and when it finally seemed like we were progressing somewhere, the whole level gets corrupted. Fun times.

Still, as I said;I've taken a lot from it. I've learned what works for bringing things into Unity, how to manage the hierarchy of the engine, and I messed around with combining controls with various restraints when Cyber was in a first-person view.

In the second semester I was back to debugging on a physical level, trying to find work-arounds for stubborn controls. Since we were using a modified preset 'Island' model, we stuck Hax (Cyber's nemesis) on top of a heron with code to run away already on it. That worked okay. I think we eventually ended up using placement markers, but we all moved on to a different level of the game as the hunting one was causing to much grief for too little progress. I did a bit of modelling for the new level.

That was my experience working on Cyber. I would like to see it finished at some point because I feel we've let the police down with what's been done.

Disney Girl Game -Aladdin Themed

In a recent Rapid Prototype session, my group came up with a few ideas for games targeted towards preschoolers, and also towards preteen to early teen girls. Of the different ideas we came up with, the one I was most interested in was the preschooler game for computers about Abu the monkey catching things.

In the game you play as Abu throught he various scenarios from the Aladdin film. Abu moves across the bottom of the screen following the mouse cursor as things fall towards him from the top of the screen. Players are required to achieve a goal stated at the beginning of each level, be it catch so many objects, or try to get as many objects as possible within a time limit. Players are rewarded visually with the fruits of their efforts.

I wouldn't be a difficult game at all, either to play or produce. However, it still sounds like it would be a fun game that could challange early elementry age children for personal bests.

Millenials

Millenials, or Generation Y as they are sometime refered to, are people born between 1985 and 2001. They are a generation explosion brought on by the grown Generation X, the children of the Baby Boomers. This generation is identified primarily by their ease with technology, primarily with peer-networking.

Something Millenials have grown up with is the rapidly developing medium of video games. Video games are at a point now where they can be anything from entertainment, to broader thing like communication tools and businesses.

Millenials have grown up during an 'everyone wins' movement in sports, where you get a trophy just for participating. This is now a common feature with games. X-boxes have a'Gamer Score' awarded to players for completing specific tasks, and the Playstation 3 has 'Trophies' for the same purpose. These provide longterm proof of achievment for many gamers as these awards are on display.

A poll done in 2007 found that 90% of the young workforce listed 'fun' as one of the top five most important aspects of a workplace. Businesses are recognizing this, and many are adapting their workplace to better hold this new wave of workers, mostly in ways that cater to people with longterm goals, but with a desire for immediate reward. This structure is found in all games; A final goal with several smaller goals leading up to it.

Essentially, Millenials tend to be people with short term desire, but have an eye on some distant prize.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y
http://modite.com/blog/2007/08/07/how-video-games-can-show-us-how-to-engage-generation-y-or-anyone/

Prototype - Out Dig

Out Dig is about you and your rival archeologists searching for a single relic. Whoever finds it will achive fame and glory.

Game pieces: 48 tiles, 1 treasure tile, 1 starting tile, 1 event deck, 6 player tokens, 1 treasure token, 1 4-sided dice.

Setup: Place the staring tile near the edge of the playing area with it's path facing inwards to the playing area. Shuffle the remaining tiles and place them face down where all players can reach them.

Shuffle the Event Deck and place it face down next to the the Tile Deck. Each player draws 3 cards from the Event Deck.








Playing: At the start of a players, they draw a Tile from the top of the Tile Deck and place it next to another Tile already in play. The lines on the tiles must be touching. Tiles cannot overlap each other. Also, the player may draw Event Cards at the start of their turn until there are three Event Cards in their hand.

The player then rolls the dice and moves up to a number of spaces equal to the roll, then ends their turn. The next player to the right takes their turn.

Event Cards: Event Cards can be played by anyone at anytime, but a player can only play one card a round (1 round = everyone takes a turn from the time the card was played). The card's effect is resolved immediatly, and the card is then put into a discard pile. If a Player needs to draw an Event Card, but there is none left, shuffle the discard pile

Winning: The first player to land on the Treasure Tile recieves the Treasure Token. If that player returns to the Starting Tile while they possess the Treasure Token, they win.

Examples of Event Cards:

Landslide: Move a player token other than your own that just rolled to move to another tile. They do not get to move.

Block the Path: If a player attempts to move through a space your player token occupies, end that player's movement.

Brush Off the Dust: Look at the the top 2 tiles in the Tile Deck. Rearrange them in any order.

Pick and Shovel: Instead of rolling the dice, move your player token to one of the tiles in play farthest from the Starting Tile. You cannot move to the Treasure Tile.

Buried Alive: End the current players turn.

Unproffesional Conduct: Take the Treasure Token from a player who occupies the same tile as you. They cannot be in the middle of moving.

What is a game?

In 1994, in British role-playing magazine 'Interactive Fantasy', and article titled 'I Have No Words & I Must Design' was published. It asked what made a game a game, and pointed out how the idea can be misconstrued.

It starts with what a game is not; a puzzle, a toy, or a story. A puzzle is a set obsticle that, once overcome the first time, presents no challenge. A toy is an object, and can be used in games, but is not a game unto itself. A ball was used as an example; it can be used for soccer or bowling, but by itself is not a game. Finally, a game is not a story in that a game is interactive. It shouldn't play out with the same cresendos each time, nor should there be a set direction. These three 'nots' boil down to the first thing that a game needs; participation. Players need to interact and have control in a game. They need to have defined goals, not abstract ones like in Sim City where there is no goal but what you make. There needs to be opposition. People crave challenges, and while cooperative play is nice sometimes, there is no greater challenge than another human mind.

More elements of what a game is are resources, an attachment to the tokens, and information. Resources make people think strategicly as they do not want to be caught short handed, nor do they wish to lose. They will think, 'Do I use this now, or wait for a more opportune moment?'. As for the tokens, if players feel a bond with them, they will be more protective about losing them. This can make for dramatic moments where sacrificing a few can save most of your tokens, or you can risk big to keep everything. Finally, information about everything thats going on in the game must be streamlined and simplified, yet still get across everything that is important to the player. In an RTS you can't be wasting time scouring through dropdown menus looking for statistics on your tank units.

The main point that the article comes back to is that people need to be able to participate and make the game their own in order for something to be called a game. This isn't excluded to the tokens and dice, but interactions with the other players is just as vital. Without them, your just playing alone. Sure you can feel good about getting that hi-score, but who were you playing with? Who cheered you as you teamed up on the head player, or who set up that crucial decision that cost you those hit points? When a game has it's elements then fun can be had.

Cultural Appropriation

Cultural appropriation is an issue that is addressed often in these days of being a 'Global Village'. Many people feel that they a being robbed of their cultural aspects only to have them be abused and commercialized. In most cases this is true it seems, but in other cases it can be an acceptance and welcome of differences.
In the video game industry, cultural appropriation runs a full gambit from artistic and respectful to rude and offensive. This is primarily to help players identify with what's going on usually through stereotypes or cliches. This includes Mario (Super Mario Brothers - Nintendo) speaking in a New York/Italian accent, or having the black character rap during the credits (Gears of War - Epic Games, Call of Duty 4 - Infinity Ward). Games fall back on stereotypes time and again because it is easy, but is it right.
The sad truth is, no matter what you do, someone is going to get offended. Be it someone calling racist (Resident Evil 5 - Capcom), or complaining about representing holy symbols in games (Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Nintendo). Rarely are the arguments grounded, with ignorance of games and their plots/history still prevailent in news media. However, it goes to show that the best intentions and even non-intentions can go astray, often with a single opinion sparking the fire.
The are some games that take good approaches to introducing people the other cultures. Muramusa: the Demon Blade - Vanillaware is an action/rpg title for the Wii which explores classical Japanese mythology in a style meant to resemble traditional watercolours from ancient Japan. Another title is Assassin's Creed - Ubisoft. While it does take some liberties with the events of the Crusades, the different cultures are represented well with no side being clear good guys or bad guys, making the player question if they are doing the right thing along the way. On top of that, when the game is loading it states that the game was developed by 'a multicultural team of various religious backgrounds'. This was to show that research was taken seriously onto what aspects of the various cultures were depicted in the game.
I feel that cultural appropriation is alright so long as it is done with respect and consideration. If an ethical group does not agree with your depiction of them in a game, find out why to try to compromise. Unfortunatly, as strong as the push is for games to be 'art', they still stand as a business first, and with freedom of speech being what it is, studios can't really be stopped completely from doing what they want. Still, respect is a cornerstone to understanding, and should always be taken into consideration.

Sources:
wikipedia.org
gamesradar.com
IGN magazine
gametrailers.com

Quest for the Holy Grail

This is a quick board game based off of Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail. It required that there be branching paths and that the players have a taboo of some kind. To achieve these design objectives, I had the first section of the game to be linear, and then players had to choose a trial from the movie as their final path (the beast, the chasm, or the bridge). Each space on the board had a silly task for the player who landed on them to perform (singing or discribing the sound of a landing cow). Each player started the ame with 3 Chances. If they refused to perform a task, or landed on a Chance losing space, then they lost a chance. If a player said 'it', then they would lose their next turn for each time they said 'it'.

The rules for the game are as follows;

Ye are upon a quest for the Holy Grail. Thou shalt begin thine quest by placing thy playing piece upon the Castle space. Thy comrads and thyself shall determine turn order by rolling a die of 6 side, with the highest number rolled going first, and the others following in a clockwise fashion. Each player has 3 Chances. Ye shall not have 4 Chances, and 5 is right out. Ye shall lose a Chance by failing to perform a task, or by simply being terrible at rolling die of 6 sides. Once all ye Chances are lost, thou must return your piece to the start of the game, or to the last Cross you crossed. A word of caution; 'it' is a forbidden word, and will cost ye thy next turn to speak this word. By the way, who was reading these rules to everyone? Anyway, whosoever lands upon the Holy Grail wins. Now get to it. (Did ye fall for that?)

Below is an image of the board. Anything can be used for pieces.

Review: Soul Calibur IV

Soul Calibur IV is one of the latest additions to the series of the popular weapon-based fighter games. It was produced by Namco, and released on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Players face off against a single opponent in one-on-one, free-roaming combat. There are a wide variety of arenas, weapons, and characters to choose from, and almost every one has a unique set of moves. This allows for a greatly varied set of play sessions with only the basic components of the game.

The primary modes of gameplay are story(a few scenario battles tied to a common plot, not a good one either), arcade(fight through a series of progressivly tougher opponents), and versus(player vs player). Secondary modes include 'extra' versions of arcade and versus where the different weapons have different attributes (nullify ring out, auto-counter, etc), a tower with an endurance section (never ending opponents, no health recovery) and a challenge section to unlock equipment. However, equipment can be unlocked by playing arcade, story, and versus repeatedly, so some may find that more appealing than most of the 'very' difficult challenges.

It's the difficulty of the game that may turn some away if it's their first time with a game like this.while most of the characters are not difficult to find a few moves that work in most situations once the basic mechanics are understood, there is no 'easy' setting for the game, and the AI can range anywhere from average to merciless, even on standard modes like arcade. At that point, a person would need to put some serious practice into a favorite character or hope one of the cheap moves they learned will get them through.

The difficulty can be ofset by creating a custom character. Players can make up to 50 characters of their own design ased of of the fighting styles of pre-existant characters. This includes skills the character has. More skills are available to a fighting style that's been used more, and different clothing and gear allocate points towards different types of skills. Stuck on a challange that requires countering? Build someone who automatically counters instead of blocks everytime. The opponent blocks everything and breaks your grapples? Make some of your stronger moves randomly unblockable, or make it so you do some damage even with a blocked attack. It's also fun to just try building yourself or a favorite character. However, I find that the options for creation are fewer than when the idea was introduced in Soul Calibur III.

Anyway, it's a fun game, and is easy to pick and play with friends. Patience and practice will get you through most of the challenges, but fortunatly you don't need to be hardcore to get everything out of it. 8/10

Getting into the Video Game Industry as an Artist

Article answering some questions on entering into the videogame industry. Original article at www.animationarena.com/getting-into-video-game-industry.html by 'Arenamaster'.

Many artists are interested in getting into the video game industry. However, many of them are unsure as to how they get into this industry.

A mistake some make is trying to start their own business from scratch. That really isn’t a viable option anymore as video games have become a major business. Quality is important, and if you don’t have the skills, experience, or resources, a fledgling company will just drown in debt. Joining a mod team is a good way to get your feet wet as far as building games go, and they are always looking for new talent. However, modding is more for hobbyists and people interested in the coding aspect of games.

To get in with an existing developer you should have a good knowledge of traditional and digital art. ‘Game Artist’ is a general term for a wide range of jobs. These include texture artists, character modelers, and concept artists to name a few. What you choose to specialize in should determine what tools you should focus on honing your skills with.

For being a traditional artist, anatomy is probably the most important thing you can study. This will help you greatly when drawing not only people, but creatures real and fictitious, and even objects. Daily practice is important too. If you want your 2D work to be digital, Photoshop is the standard and is used just about everywhere. On the side, many up-and-coming artists have adopted an anime-based style in their artwork. Unless you have a unique, bold style, avoid this as it won’t help you stand out from the saturation of rivals when it come to showing off your portfolio.

With 3D, it’s not important to know the ins and outs of the various programs out there, but to understand how they are similar. Most 3D programs work in the same way. 3D Studio Max was the traditional choice for learning game modeling, but the company has recently shifted their attention to film. Alias however, has gone the other way; moving from film into video games. Nonetheless, choose whatever you feel like.

For animators, while it’s true a lot more movement is handled with motion capture or physics engines, there are still many things that simply can’t be generated by a machine. A good grounding in animation is still required to make a dragon fly or a robot transform.

Finally, there are many schools now that offer courses in the field of video games. Talent and hard work will get you a degree, but with art, what you can do is just as important, if not more so, as your diploma. Make sure your demo reel that goes with your application shows only the best of what you can do because that is what the businesses are looking for. Most places want at least a couple of years of experience out of their applicants, but if you can show you have the skill, your inexperience can be overlooked, you’ll get the job, and inexperience won’t be an issue in the future.

Templar Casual Game

I've come up with a little platform game for either the nintendo DS or the iPhone. It's based on the Templar Knights and their search for treasure.
You play as a Templar trying to get to the top of each tower in the stage. Each stage consists of 5 levels which act as checkpoints as long as the player has continues, with a return to the start of the stage once those run out.

To reach the top of the tower, player use boxes and boulders to reach new heights, traverse hazardous terrain, and activate out of reach switches. These objects are interacted with via the devices' touch screen, or by pushing them with your character.
There is also a co-op mode, and a level editor. Co-op allows for a second player to help comlete a special set of co-op levels. The characters can jump on each other.
The level editor allows player to make their own levels to share online. For quality control, the levels can only be submitted once they have had a play through by the level's creator.

Review: Battlefleet Gothic

Battlefleet Gothic represents battle amongst the stars with fleets of larger than life space craft.

I very much enjoyed this game. Ships are represented with miniature figures that players can decorate theirselves (meaning that even if another fleet is the same it is still unique), and each ship is worth a certain amount of points. At the start of a standard game, the players decide on how many points they are going to limit their fleets to. They then place markers to represent plants/moons, then place their fleet on the edge of the play area, and finally determine turn order.
Player keep track of their fleet on sheets of paper with sections divided for the elements of the ship. Up to 5 (if I remember corroctly) ship types can be recorded on a sheet. These record weapons and their location, damage, range, speed and 'admiral rating'. The admiral rating is for issuing special orders to a ship, and each ship has their own admiral.
Attacks are determined by rolling several six-sided dice. There is a chart included to help determine how many dice are rolled when variables are involved.
The game has something few battle games have: balance. This is because of two primary factors; Firstly, the mechanics are simple. The more detailed parts are on the same chart as was mentioned earlier, or are listed in the ships' details. In this way, there are a few rules, and each ship has their own way to use them. Secondly, the game was playtested extensivly with people who gave their opinions about what worked and what didn't. This was invaluable in making the game what it was supposed to be; fun.

An excellant thing to play. And if you pick it up, don't feel limited to skirmishing. Expansive campaignes and scenarios can be played out. The simplicity creates flexability. Have fun!

9/10

Review - The Path

'The Path' is described as a short horror game based on the story of 'Little Red Riding Hood'. It was made by 'Tale of Tales' and is available for download through Steam for home computers.

Path is unique in that it breaks what is conventional for video games. It only has two rules: go to Grandmother's house, and stay on the path. Following these rules results in a failure for the player. The rules are meant to be broken because the game is about growing up.

There are 6 chapters and an epilogue in the game, each represented by a girl. They can be played in any order (except for the epilogue which is played last). The girls are of various ages ranging from 5(?) to late teens, and each of them has a different view of the world, theirselves, and what life is about. All of them are naive to the dangers of the world that are reflected in them, and that is where the wolves come into play.

The wolves are all metaphorical (except for the youngest girl). They range from a natural disaster, to idolizing bad people, to hedonism. In order to succeed in a chapter, the player must give in to the girls' 'wolf'. Once players reach the epilogue, they play as what I believe is either a seventh girl, or the seventh wolf (It's a game that make you think). Also, as you wander the forest you may come across various items. Different girls interact with these items and provide deeper insight into the girls' minds. After all this, players are left before Grandmother's house with a girl whose broken from suddenly 'growing up', and the house's interior has become a twisted reflection into the darker parts of what the girl has become.

The display is minimalistic. There are breif control instructions at the start of the chapters, but otherwise no commands are displayed. The forest loops infinatly, and a crude map appears every 100 meters to show where you've been. The only real landmarks are what appear at the edge of the screen. Pawprints indicate the direction a wolf area is in, white swirls show where the girl from the epilogue is who'll be around key items and can return you to the path, or there may be a small icon of an item if your collect enough flowers.

The game can try your patience at times with how slow the girls walk, and running pulls the camera up and pointing down so you can't see around you. This, however is by design to make the players feel defenseless and to force them to observe their surroundings. There is a ranking system for each chapter, but this is generally a farce (possibly to drive completionists and perfectionists nuts). A good game that has to be tried to truly be understood.

Terahk Review

Terahk is a board game in which you control a tribe of 'Mayans' for domination of the board. Each player has 3 different pieces (Mayans, an Elder, and an Idol), and a triangular board tile.
At the start of the game each player places their tiles together. This allows for a variety of game board designs based on how many people are playing. Mayans have an 'attack' and 'defend' mode represented by flipping the desired side of the piece up. he different modes confer different bonus in combat with other Mayans. Idols are like Mayans, but, instead of flipping, they have unique abilities like ranged attacks or ignoring defense bonuses. Idols can be offensivly or defensivly improved by defeating Mayans. Lastly is the Elder. This piece can bring defeated Mayans back into the game and rotate the section of the board it is on..
'Mana' is used to perform various actions in the game. Each player gets 5 mana at the start of their turn. Leftover Mana doesn't carry over to later turns. Mana is used to attack, move, revive Mayans, etc.
The last element of play are the cards. They are used to gain a tacticle advantage over opponents, though some cause trouble for everyone.

Terahk has a simple, almost cartoony look to it, but it is not the fastest of games. It can last up to 2-3 hours when 4-6 people are involved. This is due to a short learning curve, but a deep requirement of strategy that can be undermined by the chance of the dice. Underdogs can stop an assault and rise to the top in a couple of turns sometimes.

For strategy buffs, this is a great game. For others looking for something faster, give it a try with 2-4 players. It's easy to learn, and fun to master.

3/5

Cyber((c) Truro Police Dept.) Game Draft

Game Type
Wall defense

Objective
Defend the 'firewall' from enemies by encasing them in a net fired from Cyber(c).

Challenge
Waves of enemies (bad messages, identity theives, etc) move towards the firewall. When they come to the firewall, they begin to deal damage to the wall and continue to do so until captured. When the wall takes enough damage, the game is over. Players win a level by holding off an entire wave of enemies. There are ten levels.

Mechanics
Cyber(c) can be moved up and down the screen to postition himself to aim his nets. Stronger enemies take more nets to defeat. At the end of each level, players can choose to repair damage to the wall or improve the strength of their nets.

Game Idea: Iliad XX

Chapter 20 of the Iliad begins with the gods dividing theirselves between the Greek and Trojan armies, with Zeus deciding to stay out of the conflict. The rest of the chapter has Achilles racing about the battlefield cutting down the commanders of Troy and fighting Hector and Aeneas.

The game I propose would be a combat game for 1 - 2 players to play as the heroes and gods fighting on either side.

As Achilles, players would be an invincible warrior, but must find and defeat the Trojan commanders in time to achieve victory.

As Hector and Aeneas, players must protect their soldiers from being overwhelmed on the battlefield, and survive against Achilles when he is encountered.

Finally, players would have the option of playing as the gods to support the heroes and soldiers in the battlefield and change the tide of the battle. The Greek supporters would try to help overrun the Trojan, while the Trojan supporters would try ro push back the Greeks.

The game would take place in an open 3D environment. Players would control their character from a 3rd person perspective with horizontal control of the camera to allow a better view of their surroundings. As a god, players move above the battle with markers to show where key characters are on the battlefield.

The would also be a 'Versus Mode' where players can choose to play as a hero or a god against each others forces. This feature should allow for online play as well as split screen to allow a broader range of people who can play.

Wings of War Review

Wings of War is a game based an aerial combat from the WWI era. At first, it looked like it would be complicated, but the rules felt natural once I got a couple of turns in. The method for moving the planes (players place a card showing the flight path infront of the plane card) has several openings for slight adjustments which could affect how the planes engage in combat, but it works anyway because it is an inexact system. Combat consist of short an long range attacks (determined by a special ruler) which are relativly balanced for power in relation to the agility of the plane. Further more, damage is assigned with numbered counters, some of which have effects like flames or jammed guns.

Improvements were made in a WWII iteration of the game in which the planes' movement is more precise, and only two movements are chosen a round to speed things up by quickening the pace of strategy.

There are several variants of the game, and I don't have any issues myself with the mechanics. It can be daunting at first, but the game has simplified versions to ease people in. You don't need to be an aviation enthusiast to enjoy, and there is enough flexability to play almost any way you can think of.

8/10

Ian C.