Interaction design

With games being like little worlds that we as players immerse ourselves within, we have to ensure that the gateways between our 2 worlds are smooth and seamless. When watching a film, that gateway is the screen itself. With the recent push for "3D" in cinema and even on home theater systems, the medium of film is trying to find ways to expand that doorway, to provide new experiences. Sometimes innovation for the sake of innovation can cost the quality of an experience, but we'll get to that later. Games, on the other hand, have more than just the screen to connect the audience with the experience. Actual input devices need to be conceived in order for games to exist- that defines them as interactive experiences.
 


Controllers our usually our main input for games, and for the most part they have remained very similar for a very long time. Nowadays, there is a fairly standardized controller setup which includes 4 face buttons, 2 movement pads or analogues as well as pairs of shoulder buttons. It took a long time to get there, but the three major games companies have all adopted this system. This is probably down in part to the prevalence of multi-platform games available today. Games like Call of Duty and Need For Speed are released on all systems, and therefore all systems need to share controller similarities to make porting easier for those platforms. The wii-u gamepad incorporates a second touch screen to use as a further method of input for players, but as this is a console-specific feature it is rarely utilized effectively unless at the hands of nintendo. The same goes for the Kinect, the xbox one's smart camera interface. A very powerful piece of tech, the Kinect has found a place amongst software developers outside of the gaming industry, pushing concepts like PC navigation and even surgical software. On the gaming front it doesn't fare so well, with few games using it and those that do being generally negatively received. Again, innovation for the sake of innovation is a mistake in my opinion, and doesn't seem to add anything intuitive to the industry. VR headsets like the occulus rift promise a new and more immersive way to experience games, coupling recent leaps in 3D technology along with head-tracking systems. The truth behind this remains to be seen, but there is clearly a lot of potential here. At least more than with the Virtual Boy anyway...







http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/81/10/0498c060ada08c335ad79110.L.jpg
http://www.pcgamer.com/uk/2014/01/15/interview-oculus-rift-founder-palmer-lucky/
http://www.edge-online.com/news/potential-new-wii-u-mario-game-could-aim-to-use-the-gamepad-more-says-nintendo/
http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wiiu/gamepad/0/2
http://blogs-images.forbes.com/erikkain/files/2014/03/OculusRift1.jpg

Sound for games.

Oh boy, sound! Music in games has always been a favourite of mine, and I have a few favourites to show you! You can never underestimate the power of sound, man. A game with stellar visuals is all well and good, but if things don't sound good you're not going to want to be there for long. Memorable music can of course leave you thinking and feeling about a game way after you've put down the controller, and certainly helps to create a more memorable experience. When a game has a good soundtrack, it can be enjoyed separate from the game experience itself, and therefore you spend more time in the world of the game than you otherwise would have. But beyond the music of a game, sound has a massive impact on other elements of the game. From sound effects to voice acting, everything has to come together to make a truly solid experience.

You can almost hear it now...

F.E.A.R (monolith, 2006) is a game that doesn't do many things well, but still stands as a well-received favorite of shooter and horror fans alike. There are 2 reasons for this, and both have a lot to do with sound. Firstly, the soundtrack is stellar. Incorporating eerie soundscapes with indian throat singing, F.E.A.Rs music paints a bleak picture of otherworldly pain that is almost wasted on the game itself. Almost. The other reason that F.E.A.R can make so many mistakes and still offer up one of the best gameplay experiences of the past decade is its gunplay. The shooting mechanics of the game are incredibly solid, every weapon feels like a violent machine of fury in your hands, and this is down in no small part to the way they sound. Every gunshot resonates through your body, and the sound designers have clearly created every punchy bullet sound, every ricocheting casing tingle with a lot of love and attention.

But, back to soundtracks, heres one I want to show you now. Its my personal favorite, not least because it was written by someone with relatively little experience in the field and yet turned out so, so good. Its heartfelt, its varied, its memorable, and it tells a story in a game that doesn't really have much of a story to tell. World Of Goo is a success in many regards, but a large part of that has to be its music. Its about as visual as music can get, entire scenarios reduced to audio-waves. Do have a listen to it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

 

 http://drh1.img.digitalriver.com/DRHM/Storefront/Company/ubi/images/screenshots/wb/fear_screenshot_1.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTmNJUGqKL4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_music

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2D_Boy

Game engines

Engines are a big deal in the industry. The strength of an engine has a massive impact on the way a game can work and the kinds of things it can achieve. In a sense, games themselves are limited by the power of the engines they are built in, and this extends well beyond visual fidelity. Certain engines can allow for more complicated AI, or interactive elements not possible in other engines. Half Life 2 was built in the Source engine, and incorporated a physics engine called Havok to manage its environmental physics simulations. For its time, this provided a much more realistic approach to the way the elements of the game world interacted with one another. This allowed for physics puzzles and whole sections of the game driven by these systems. Source also implemented a complex facial-animation system to portray characters more realistically than had ever been achieved before, thus adding to the overall immersion of the game and no doubt helping it claim its place amongst video-games most effective storytelling experiences. This, along with the overall improvement in the visuals of the game, show how engines are massively important in the development and limits of a project.

Half Life 2

So, what engines are on offer today? Well Source is still kicking about, and the first-person shooter Titanfall is using it, or at least a modified version of it. The engine powering the most games at the moment is Epic Games' Unreal Development Kit, built on Unreal Engine 3. The success of this engine is down primarily to its friendly user interface (something that source is in dire need of) as well as its adaptability. UDK can be used to develop games for all kinds of platforms, from current to next gen and all the way down to mobile devices. Another is Cryengine 3, an engine which is arguably more advanced than UDK and offers a wonderful dynamic lighting solution (something which both Source and UDK have difficulty implementing, but is slowly becoming a staple of the console/PC games market) With that said, there is a reason that few developers choose to use Cryengine 3 over UDK, and it comes down to the aforementioned adaptability. Also it has to be considered that a license for cryengine can be much more expensive than one for UDK (which is aimed at both triple A studios and indie developers alike).

http://techgage.com/articles/graphic_cards/settings/oct_2008/half_life_2_episode_two.jpg
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-titanfall-tech-interview
http://www.crytek.com/blog/exclusive-interview-chris-roberts-building-a-new-future-with-cryengine-3
http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/11/10/interview-prometheus-designer-chats-about-latest-udk-based-game/

Documentation

Documentation is the recording of the development of a game from the conceptual stage all the way to the final product. It covers everything from gameplay mechanics to aesthetic decisions within the project, and I'll be creating a little outline for a game here as a kind of "dry run" for the FMP.

The basic premise of the game is a highly immersive PC co-op horror game centered around the idea of sensory deprivation. 2 players would navigate levels attempting to reach an exit, solving puzzles and avoiding hostile characters in a co-operative manner. The main mechanic of the game lies in the fact that one player cannot see, and the other cannot hear. The player who cannot see still receives visual information from their screen, however, in the form of particle effects manifesting on an empty blackness whenever sound happens in the level. For example, a room filled with humming fans would be partially visible to the blind player. In this sense, sound acts almost as a light entity. The deaf player cannot see or hear sound at all. As the enemies in the game are revealed primarily through the noise they make whilst moving, the deaf player has little warning of oncoming hostiles. The 2 players counter the weaknesses of the other through communication over a microphone feature.


Setting:
"On a routine voyage from Earth, Munich to Mars Phobos, Long Kansas, the IGS Ishmael cruiser ship was abandoned after a fire in the engine-room. 42 crew members were lost in the lockdown of the lower decks. Whilst reports claim a bug in the AI maintenance systems, the exact cause of the fire is unknown. Military Technicians from Long Kansas was dispatched to investigate and terminate the possible rouge maintenance-robots. Most of the robots were successfully terminated, but 2 have been detected as attempting an escape through the lower decks of the Ishmael. A specialist extermination team was sent down into the depths of the cruiser in order to safely purge the last remaining maintenance-robots. One has already suffered severe visual sensory damage, and the other has lost its audio receivers. The termination mission should be over in a matter of hours."

System Shock 2

Doom 3 used and advanced lighting system to its advantage to create atmosphere and a claustrophobic environment.

The game would rely very heavily on atmosphere, as it is primarily a horror game. For this reason, it would be built in a high-fidelity game engine such as cryengine 3 to allow for dynamic lights/shadows as well as next-generation visuals. Assets would be created in 3DS max and Photoshop. The art-direction of the game would be gritty realism, with a primarily grey colour palette for the deaf-robot and a more colourful one for the blind robot. Games like System shock 2 and Doom 3 help to illustrate the intended isolated feel for the levels of the game. The enemies of the game will be rarely seen (by the deaf robot), but often heard (by the blind robot) and will be humanoid. Although the main characters are robots, we as players will relate with humans when they appear, so to ensure the enemies are still scary, they will be dressed in face-concealing space-gear, similar to gas masks, to create a sense of the unfamiliar and the hostile.

Overall the game is an exercise in creating fear for more than one player- something that has yet to be successfully executed in a co-op game. It seems that when horror games become co operative, players loose that sense of immersion through relation with their partner. I hope that with providing 2 distinct experiences for the co operative players, they will continue to feel sufficiently isolated in order to promote a sense of fear.

Pit Droid (Star Wars Episode 1)

The 2 main characters would have approximately 30,000 polygons each, as well as 2 1024x1024 textures. They are to be humanoid in appearance, but without distinguishing facial features. The Pit Droids from the star wars universe are good examples of the level of "human" that the maintenance robots will appear to be. "Cute" is a horrible word, but it does find its way in there somewhere.

Environments would be highly detailed, nearing 500,000 polys on screen at one time. Assets would all utilize advanced materials to interact with light realistically, as well as having realistic physical properties. Due to the claustrophobic areas in the game, a lot of detail could be pushed into a small space. Visual fidelity is priority, and this game is intended for higher end PCs. Enemies would be around 10,000 polygons and use a single 1024x1024 texture. Props are included within the environment budget, and a reasonable count for a prop such as a screen or a generator would be around 2,000-5,000 depending on the size of the asset.

Main character:

30,000 polygons
2 1024x1024 materials including:
Colour specular,
Normals,
Diffuse,
Gloss maps.

Enemies:
10,000 polygons.
1 1024x1024 material including:
Colour specular,
Normals,
Diffuse,
Gloss maps.

Small prop: (screen, table, electrical box)

2,000 polygons.
1 512x512 material including:
Colour specular,
Normals,
Diffuse,
Gloss maps.

Large prop: (generatiors, wall-mounted piping sections)

5,000 polygons
1 1024x1024 material including:
Colour specular,
Normals,
Diffuse,
Gloss maps.

http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/03/PCG220.Reinstall_Shock2_103.jpg
http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/1/17285/604479-doom454.jpg
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070420055210/starwars/nl/images/3/31/DUM.jpg

Task 16: Level design

As stated in the task brief, level design is not the visual appearance of the level, but rather the mapping and construction of the level as an interactive layout. Similarly to good composition, good level design will guide the player without them realising it, and especially in the case of singleplayer experiences, will direct the flow of story in a seemingly natural and nonrestrictive way. This can mean laying out an environment in such a way that players are naturally drawn to various interactive elements without feeling walled-in, when of course the level in actuality is significantly smaller than it would appear. Good level design will promote exploration where exploration is needed, and "getting lost" is a difficult thing to get right in these situations. Pacing becomes incredibly important, to ensure that the player never gets bored nor overwhelmed by what is happening in the game environment. "Metroid" on the NES (back in 1986!) is a stellar example of level design. At the time, the platform genre was beginning to be defined by games like Super Mario Bros, and despite some deviation from the trend, the vast majority of these experiences were linear.


Metroid, for most players, introduced a new way to look at these 2D environments. It allowed players to explore in all directions across the level, with backtracking being a foundation stone of the series. Players would progress in one direction before being halted by an impassable door or an unbeatable enemy, and then would have to return to old rooms to find a way to proceed, perhaps acquiring a key or a better weapon. This meant that as players moved through the game, they were given constant reminders of areas they could not yet access, giving the game a strong sense of progression when these areas were finally explored. This kind of non-linear level design is now found in most singleplayer games, and generally enriches the experience. In some cases, these off-shoot areas are not mandatory, and this gives the player control over how long they spend in a particular environment.

For competitive multiplayer games, stong level design must bring human players together in such a way that the maximum interactivity occurs (in a traditional competitive experience at least). MOBA games like Dota 2 rely on clean, simple layouts to guide players into various areas in order to win the game. Dota 2, in this instance, largely separates the 2 teams into 3 distinct routes across the map or "lanes". Now, gamers as a species will always, if they can, break something. It's interesting to note that in my own experiences with Dota 2, any attempts to "break" the game by forcing all of the team players into one lane and generally not playing the game as it was intended always lead to our own defeat. That is, the level design is so strong and works perfectly with all the other elements of the game that any attempts to "outsmart" the system were futile. This shows that level design must work synonymously with all other elements of the game, be it the character movements, the shooting mechanics or even in the case of games like "Outlast" (A first-person horror game) with the players inability to see clearly.


https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioObT14HESeHScurYBs0buGsK99rMANfBH23Hj33PDJCNqNb9h9I8w4YTUONhrBbNe-76xnjx78_MzGfIJ7J1UsCR2sjejje2OVmbAat1dgjGlhswGbtr3EJXqlMHgYhOv0heC2ujhCuaP/s1600/Metroid.png
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132700/twisted_timeline_iterative_level_.php?print=1
http://www.worldsfactory.net/2013/07/17/dota-2-review-a-compelling-and-comprehensive-game
http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Metroidvania

Task 15: Visual Composition.

Composition is big. People spend ages trying to get their heads around it, don't they? Its that kind of masters thing, where you dedicate yourself to it for years in order to understand every intricate mathematical equation and then apply it to your work successfully. Its one of those areas where art merges with science (one of many areas) but in such a way that the layman sees only majesty. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.", don't they say? "They" being Arthur Clarke. In the task brief it states that "Our industry partners tell us repeatedly that they are looking for artists, not technicians". That's something I'd be very interested in discussing, actually. I mean, this post is about composition, right? Composition, at its finest, is invisible. The people will look at the beautiful painting and it will make sense to them. Everything will relate to everything else on the canvas and it will seem like a snapshot into something otherworldly, something perfect. Composition, along with colour theory and a plethora of other sciences, will allow this illusion of the ethereal. For something to feel fundamentally "correct" as a piece of art, it must feel effortless. We, the viewers, will see art in its truest and purest form. The artist sees a product of meticulous planning, research and understanding. I believe that artists are technicians, and that hiding the technical framework that underpins all good art is the biggest science of all. The idea that there is something more to a successful artist than someone with great technical skill and understanding I believe almost cheapens their work. Talent is a myth and with it the idea of the gifted person, the prodigy, removes the extraordinary amount of effort and dedication required that is required to achieve what these people can achieve. Now, this isn't the place for a discussion involving the soul and consciousness (maybe in another post perhaps?) and I do not believe a robot could create art. But great art only comes from the learned mind. 

Warfare by Otto Dix

Composition is the placement of the elements of the piece, the spacial relationship of the visual entities. Through good composition, an artist can lead the viewers eye in various ways, pacing the visual experience of a piece (for example, a composition that encourages fast eye movements and incorporates strong contrasting elements to overwhelm the viewer, as in Otto Dix's "Warfare"). It can also draw our attention away from less significant areas of the piece and focus us on the more important ones. Note again how with Dix's "Warfare" there are several elements competing for the focus of the eye. This disrupts us and confuses us, and as we stuggle to pick apart the scene we are enveloped in a claustrophobic environment where there is little visual rest. The true difficulty in composition comes with leading the viewers eye -without he or she knowing-. It would be easy enough for us to find the intended elements of a scene if they were the only ones in focus, but that sort of practice holds our hands too tightly. Composition creates an obstacle course (or leisurely walk) that we must choose to navigate ourselves, or the viewer's brains will quickly feel pressured or bored. In the above piece, we are first drawn to the top central painting, and there the confusion and unrest throws us to both the left and the right, where our eyes can focus more clearly. The saturation of the piece fades out as we leave that middle section behind, but the spiraling placement of the elements there forces us back in. It is just little stimulation enough for us to push back into the chaos of the central piece, but not so much stimulation that we get overtired by the painting as a whole. Balance, with all composition, is key. The contrast in that central piece leads the eye downwards where the painting is at its most saturated, finally landing us in the bottom-most piece, its curvature bouncing us back up again until we find our own way out. Entire stories, settings and scenarios can be communicated through composition alone.




http://reflectionsandcontemplations.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/otto_dix_war_triptych1.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_%28visual_arts%29
http://willkempartschool.com/the-secret-of-good-composition/
http://design.tutsplus.com/articles/5-fundamental-skills-every-artist-should-master--psd-28054

Task 14 - Planning and concepting.

In my previous post I did touch on this topic. I talked about how satisfying it is to see an idea go from just a fleeting theory to a full-blown concept, and to take that expanded and explored concept to its fullest potential as an asset, a character design, or whatever it might be. "Your most powerful creative tool is an organised brain allied to a healthy work ethic." I really like that. My work ethic might not be the healthiest at the moment (I'm working on it, we'll get there in the end) but that synergy between all the various components of production is what leads to a substantial outcome.


Above we can see the workflow published by Maxis entertainment during the making of one of the Sims games.We can see the clear entry and exit points for each stage of development, and how all the various components of the production team influence one another to create something which does everything it needs to do. All the different groups are constantly reiterating their product with influence from the other departments.

"Are the members of that group in good communication with each other? Are the list of reviewers involved in regular critiques of the submissions restricted to only those with clear responsibility for the final result? Is the review group casting a wellaimed net to garner feedback from other individuals with influence on the product's future, such as marketing or the publisher?" -Charles London, Maxis Entertainment. Communication is key here, evidently, and whilst this clearly applies to larger productions spanning many different members of a team (as with Maxis and the Sims) it is also something that we as artists have to master internally. Our brains, in a sense, are little mini teams, with various components each with their own goals. Being able to generate ideas doesn't mean you'll be able to see them through if some of those components aren't working together. Letting your imagination fly off the handle and birthing something impossible to create is going to lead to problems down the line. As with the Maxis workflow, communication between components is key to a smooth production- but production is never smooth.

Unknown Worlds is a small independent studio responsible for the game Natural Selection 2. As a sequel to a community born mod, the game had a lot of passionate followers even before it hit the alpha stages. The developer open-forums were flowing with guidance from fans and Natural Selection 1 veterans, all ensuring that the sequel surpassed the original and that none of what they had come to know and love was lost. "It's...interesting! Sometimes we feel we can do no right, but other times the responses are heart-warming and wonderful. The trick is to listen to the reason behind their suggestions and not just the suggestions themselves. Often the solution the propose won't work from an integrity, technological or finance perspective, but you can address the problem behind it in a different way. Then everyone is happy." - Charles Cleveland of Unknown Worlds. The alpha was a failure, and the project was all but terminated. But then a happy accident happened. From nowhere, the community itself offered time and effort to help bring the troubled project to fruition. Sometimes meticulous planning cannot foresee the biggest issues to hit a project, and clearly help can come from unexpected places. The project did finally release as a fully-functioning game on Steam on the 31st of October 2012. I believe that reliance on chaos is foolish and unsustainable, but that occasionally disorder and confusion can lead to great discoveries. Were it not for Unknown World's lack of order, they may never have turned to their own community for help, and the game that resulted may have been very different indeed.


Sources:
http://www.shacknews.com/article/61103/natural-selection-2-interview-the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Selection_2

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/authors/915471/Charles_London.php
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131369/keeping_up_with_the_sims_managing_.php?print=1