Engines for Games

Over the course of the year I have used two different engines. I have used Cry Engine and the UDK engine.

Though there are many different game engines that serve many different purposes for different games encompassing everything from the mobile games supported by engines like Alien3D and And Engine through pc and high end or next generation games that are supported by engines like the Cry engine and the UDK engine I only intend to talk about the ones I have personally used in my second and first year of my uni course as these are the only ones I feel I have personal experience with beyond playing the games they support and therefore are the ones I’m most familiar with.

The first engine I learnt about on this course was UDK; in the later half of the first year we did a simple project to display our assets we’d produced. Though using the engine was simple enough (And I often use it to produce renders of assets) there were a number of problems I found;  Light maps were somewhat confusing to me and the process of importing the objects I wanted to place in my level was easy enough from 3DS max to the desktop but getting them to import into the UDK engine was often buggy and seemed to produce random problems. The way you view your textures in the engine was also something I found confusing. However I like the ease of creating materials and lights and effects in the UDK engine and the ease at which you can start up with udk and be working within ten minutes or so of having no previous knowledge of the engine and it’s the engine I often use to produce my white boxes for levels as well as block outs for paint overs in Photoshop. It’s also helpful for testing out how textures will work quickly.

The Cry Engine was the engine we used in second year – for the Of The Map competition for the Library it was mandatory to use. Over the course of the project we used it to create a level that was more extensive than anything we’d had to produce in the UDK Engine and we found it to be a better level builder in many ways. Though I like UDK because it’s the one I am more used to, Cry Engine seems to produce nicer renders and light effects. It does not require the production of light maps and contains many different features that allow lights and atmosphere to be controlled. It requires you to paint your own sky boxes but this is hardly a problem as it’s something we’d be doing anyway and forces you to produce something better. The Cry Engines usability is daunting at first as it uses unique file types but as you learn it quickly becomes easy and though the placing of objects is a little irritating with its awkward key commands, once learnt they are not much of a problem

Over the holidays I intend to become better acquainted with the Cry Engine as it is the engine that I intend to use for my final major project, I feel the images it produces are superior and as my level will be very visual I want to give it the best showing that I possibly can.

End Of Year Review

Its ten to eleven on the day of final hand in, everything is complete and signed off on and I’m already planning what cake I’m going to buy myself in celebration of getting everything finished in time. Though all I really want to do right now is sleep for a week it’s also a moment of reflection and I feel like I’ve come a long way this year, easily as far as the first year if not further; I have learnt entirely new skills in UDK and CryEngine and I’ve built on existing skills.

The first development piece I produced this year

The last development piece this year

This year I developed drawing and digital painting skills and I’ve improved my Life drawing by leaps and bounds. We’ve had new tutors and the learning experience has only improved with many more perspectives on our work. Working in groups taught me a lot about organisation and in the end was probably the most enjoyable, productive and most satisfying part of the year.

 

We’ve developed presentation skills and listened to employability lectures and combined with the live briefs and professional briefs we’ve done we’ve learnt a lot about professional practice and with that I feel like I’ve improved my time management and organisation alongside the artistic skills that I’ve improved.

Now that I am over halfway through my university education and on the cusp of starting my final year I find myself thinking about the process of University education itself and its uses and purposes.

Universities now seem to be mainly a means to an end, with the job market as it is it seems that you need a diploma to get any job and the University is a means to that end. However, Universities are more than that, they’re tools for learning and that’s learning in every sense – academic and social and university to me provides a unique experience that cannot be found anywhere else.

Universities were originally groups of scholars. They were quite elitist organisations in the pursuit of scholarly matters but as the times have changed they have become places where important research was conducted and were solely dedicated to curriculums like philosophy and sciences, they have evolved from that in the modern age to include every type of subject and open up to a broader range of students but the prejudice towards the academic subjects is still sometimes present.

From my university education I personally expect myself to learn new skills and develop old ones. With the help of the tutors I’m learning modelling and engine work and I’m developing my digital art, drawing and sculpting abilities. Besides these I also expect to learn skills like time management, responsibility and confidence to speak and present. Even from the university experience as a whole I am learning life skills and building up connections and relationships.

From my three years in uniniversity  I am going to get a diploma (Hopefully) but I’m also going to get a bank of skills, both specific and general  that I can apply to a broad range of careers and ventures.

Life changing or career building

They say that there are things in this world that you can’t teach someone. But often these skills are something that you can learn yourself. One question that’s often asked is whether people should be taught ‘soft’ skills – a little hard to explain, they could be said to be transferable to as many situations as possible and are a greater benefit to technical skills than the other way around in the long run, or whether people should be taught technical skills that are specific to the job at hand and tied to the technology currently in use. Though speculations can be made there’s no real telling where industry will go in the future in terms of needed skills and some companies claim to prefer individuals with liberal arts backgrounds whilst others prefer graduate artists and programmers. Of course this preference is as much dictated by the company’s style and work ethic as it is about anything else and it’s not about whether one company or the other is right.

Arguments have been made that with the game industry moving as fast as it is, technical skills may be obsolete as fast as they can be taught and that learning on the job is one of the only ways to ensure that employees have the most relevant skills. Of course learning on the job is essential I do not believe that the teaching of specific technical skills should ever be overlooked.  Whilst it’s true that the industry is moving fast, the skills that we learn are hardly obsolete; though the technology may change the skills aren’t immediately useless; though the technology may grow often the skills required to operate it don’t change, or rather they change at a much slower rate than people would have you believe – Photoshop has had several updated versions since I started to use it in secondary school but the skills I use to operate it have stayed the same all this time.

I myself started out in a Fine art background. I didn’t know what industry I wanted to work in and I was only sure that I wanted it to contain my skills as an artist. In the end I’ve studied eight years of fine art, two of Graphic design and done courses in textiles, photography, metalwork and sculpture amongst others. These skills are transferable to any creative industry; I’ve learnt how to paint, sculpt, design and draw. Not to mention less ‘practical’ skills like how to organise work, reference, iterate and other key skills that I’ve used often in later years and they’ve formed the basis for my more specialized education as part of the game art and design course. Now personally I believe that one set of skills without the other means that you’re working harder to build one up – At the start of the first year my inexperience with the 3D modelling programs we used meant that I felt like I was constantly playing catch-up with my more experienced peers and it was a major source of stress.

The Talent Myth

At the base and the root of it, creativity is the art of creating. Obviously. Be it the idea, the object itself or even the solution to problems or puzzles, creativity is the art of thinking differently, working hard and bringing into being something that wouldn’t have existed if you hadn’t have made it or helped to bring it into being. In greater or lesser ways it’s present in every living thing and it’s creativity that fuels innovation as well as everyday life.

It’s essential to what so many people do; anyone who produces anything has to use creativity to do it and it’s just as important to what we do with game art and design. It’s present in the finished product, creativity goes hand in hand with craftsmanship to give a unique product that will be recognisable and with any luck stand the test of time. Creative thinking has the ability to rise above the problems presented by the limits of technology and comes out in new and interesting ways of creating games, game mechanics and the art and style of the game. Games like Journey, from Thatgamecompany, choosing innovative and new ways of playing and interacting with other players as well as games like Dear Esther by Dan Pinchbeck and Robert Briscoe for it’s haunting, minimalistic storytelling and lack of conflict that’s usually so prevalent in western games are games that stand out to me as being particularly distinctive for their creativity.

As for the myth of talent or gifts, when I left primary school I was declared to be ‘Gifted and Talented’ and placed on some list or other that marked me out as being especially talented. I myself was on that list for getting a particularly good write-up of my science scores but more notably for what my teachers saw as a gift for art. It seemed a little unfair to say I’d been gifted that ability; for as long as I could remember I’d been practicing drawing. I doubt I’d been born with the ability to draw if you look at what I produced at the very beginning it was much the same as my fellows but as we grew and diversified our interests my ability to draw grew where others favoured maths or sports. I’ve always been a pretty terrible footballer, but again then I’ve never practiced football, nor have I ever had the desire to practice. I made a pretty good swimmer but that was only because I trained for at least two hours three days a week. Without that effort I’d never have been good at it and the same goes for academic subjects as well. It takes learning and practice and the notion that Art and ‘creative’ subjects are things that people can be good at without trying is not just unfair on those who’ve built up those skills, but also a harmful way of thinking about it; I’ve known so many people who believe it’s an unobtainable gift that you can only be born with. It’s always seemed to me that the talent isn’t the skill but rather the drive, the will and the patience to practice at your interest until you’re good at it. Hard graft is always the thing most prized and for good reason. It’s that, coupled with the creative thinking is the best way.

Specialist or Generalist

Once, games were produced with one or two people doing every job. In the very beginning games were purely code produced by a single programmer. As it’s grown and matured alongside the technology that supports it, the game industry has diversified in roles and as game sizes grow so too do the size of the studios and teams that produce them. Recently companies outsource their work as well as using their own employees. The industry is now a fast-moving multi-billion dollar industry that has risen from a niche industry in focused markets to a mainstream industry that took 25.1 billion in 2010, in the United states alone.

After several guest lectures from the industry over the course of the last two years we’ve contemplated our future roles and jobs in the future and one of the most prevalent questions we’ve been asking is it better to be a generalist or a specialist? Better to excel at one chosen field or be capable at many or all? After the uncertainties of the industry it would certainly seem better to be a jack of all trades; able to turn your hand to anything a company may ask of you and if you intend to become a freelancer in the field then that adaptability will serve you very well.

Now I personally have always preferred to have a healthy mix of the two, sometimes called a T shaped person with a core skill and experience in others. I’m confident enough in my skills to count certain things amongst my specialities whilst having the confidence in my ability to attempt things I would not consider to be my strong points. I am not afraid to go where my skills are lacking to improve them. A prime example of this being my choice for the final major project; Of all of last year’s projects the foliage and tree projects were my least favourite, and possibly my least successful. This year however I’ve chosen to take this and turn it around and my final major project is hopefully to be a garden.

This game art course has given us the opportunity to try a wide range of skills and build our talents in each. But rather than the skills themselves the greatest thing I have learnt in this course in my opinion is the ability to react quickly, learning as I go to build skills. At the start of this course I could not have imagined the things I’ve produced but the steep learning curve has served me well.

In order to work in the industry successfully now, I’m of the belief that unless someone is of incredible talent, the talent of being able to turn your hand to whatever is handed to you is a far more valuable skill than the ability to create one set of objects spectacularly. In terms of employability the diverse nature of skills will allow you to apply and take on many different jobs and fill many positions within those jobs.

Interaction Design

Interaction Design

Last year Microsoft released the Xbox one. It’s ergonomic controller, motion tracking and voice recognition technology make it a very different beast to the earliest of it’s forefathers. I live in the age when the oculus rift is looking like it’s going to make virtual reality the next big thing, where technology is an ever present part of work, play and practically every other aspect of life besides; though the word Technology makes most people think of an entertainment product, technology is saving our lives and making everyday life so much easier for so many people.

Now that half the world interacts with a computer on a daily basis, some for many hours a day, the way people interact with technology and the ease they are able to do it is a huge part of development. Though there may be some stumbling points (I personally cannot stand how I’m supposed to interact with the windows 8) millions of pounds are spend developing accessible and innovative solutions to interaction.

In the beginning game consoles were blocky and simple and their controls were minimal – the very first home console, the Magnavox Odyssey had an analogue controller with dials used to position the cursor in the vertical and horizontal axis. And though it was a time until things like motion sensors and voice would be included even this earliest console had different interactable features – a golf club and ball attachment and the first ‘light gun’ style controller for a shooting gallery game.

Consoles like the Atari 2600 brought the joystick from the arcade into the home and though games consoles are mostly content to stay in their handheld controller comfort zone over the years the controllers have become more ergonomic; research and development have gone into making them easy to use and comfortable to hold. Consoles like the Nintendo 64 and gamecube began using the ‘handlebar’ style controllers that are still in use today.

Several notable exceptions have emerged mostly moving into motion sensor technology. The Nintendo Wii or Wii U and the Kinect on Xbox were preceded by the playstation move. At first slightly gimmicky they’ve become a firm area of video game with unique titles made with the technology in mind. Though there are some purists who prefer to exclude the Wii from the list of ‘proper’ gaming consoles but there’s no mistaking popular opinion and the Wii is the third most popular home console of all time.

Video games consoles not only interact with us, but also facilitate interaction between us; the Sega Net Work System for the Sega Mega Drive was the first console to include a network connection to download games (though the game had to be re-downloaded each time) and connect and play with other players by using a Megamodem (A modem with a speed of 1600 to 2400 bit/s) This was a service only available in Japan but the Sega Channel was released in North America and provided a similar service.

Online multiplayer is now a standard feature on most consoles and games and rather than requiring a monthly subscription cost usually only requires the owner to have an internet connection. People are connecting and competing against others all around the world.

Sounds for Games

Music effects the way people learn as a motivator music has been in the forefront of social change. Both influencing and also being influenced by society.

 

Nowadays it’s easy to forget the social implications and the power of music – available as it is at the click of a link on the internet, but as one of the earliest forms of entertainment, storytelling and plays a vital part in society, facilitating communication.

 

In music, arguably the most influential track is ‘Good Times’ composed by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards – one of the most sampled tracks of all time, sampled by bands and performers from Queen to Justin Timberlake. It set president for copyright and crediting composers. Though it might not be the first song people think of it’s inspired or enabled the creation of many others, making it one of the more influential songs written.

 

It’s power to incite emotion has been used in every genre from the stage to the screen and very often it is the soundtrack that makes or breaks a scene or film. Though this property is often overlooked due to the subtle nature of it’s effect, music has the power to sooth or terrify and a talented composer can do with a tune what chapter upon chapter of prose is needed to achieve.

 

Sound has become an indispensible part of video games though the first video games on consoles like the Magnavox Odeyssey were completely silent (Pong’s sonar beep being regarded as the first ever game sound effect) before games like Space invaders used simple, repetitive rhythms that sped up as the enemy neared to generate suspense and panic.

 

Journey escape was possibly the first to contain actual music, with its digitized versions of Journey songs. And Tetris’ repetitive soundtrack becomes one of the most recognisable original pieces of music produced for the video game industry. From then on, music became a firmly established part of the music industry, through Zelda, Final Fantasy and mega man.

 

The release of the Nintendo 64 meant that games began to rely on the CPU to generate sound and music and new genres of games such as survival horror took full advantage to create atmosphere using music and sound effects.

 

From then on games like Dance Dance Revolution, based solely on music led the way to cement Music as a vital part of any game.

 

Games have grown in sophistication and the technology has grown to house it, games now contain scores of music that would rival other media such as films. As in these media, sound is used to build and enhance mood, atmosphere, ambience and tension. Many successful game franchises have distinctive themes and background music that not only enhances the game experience but are so distinctive that they become synonymous with the franchise itself.  

 

Horror games such as Amnesia use music and sound to create feelings of dread whereas games like Bioshock infinite use it to create feelings of Zeal or wonder. Virtually every major game produced now has a unique soundtrack and as much research gets done into getting authentic music and the correct music as does into the visuals of the piece. Nowadays the visual and sound designs are strongly intertwined. Making them stronger than they ever could have been alone. Composers such as Jack Wall - Mass Effect and Splinter Cell: PT, Jesper Kyd – Hitman and Assassin’s Creed ii and Koji Kondo – Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario have rightfully earnt their place as excellent composers, and their scores 

Documentation

Though the final major project doesn’t start until next year, I’ve already started to generate ideas and gather research materials and reference images. A part of this process was thinking about documentation.

As this will be the first project of this scale I’ve had to produce on my own organisation and specifications will be of great importance if I want to stay on schedule to produce a working finished piece to the best of my ability.

With that in mind, I’ve produced a dry run of the game outline that will accompany my final major project;

Concept:

For my final major project I intend to produce a game level for a computer or playstation 3 platform. A garden on an island in the middle of a lake in the Japanese Chainiwa or Strolling garden style. Either during the summer or Spring. I will be looking at Japanese legends and myths to collect inspiration and I am particularly interested in the legends surrounding sun showers – the legends of Fox weddings – and would like to combine these with other myths and legends to create a mystical or Ephemeral feel to the garden.

By the end of the project I hope to have produced a full level containing the garden on the island and either a bridge or boat crossing the lake. If possible I would also like to produce a room or two of a building within the garden.

I will use 3DS max and mudbox for modelling and the Cry Engine for building whiteboxes and the finished level. I will be using photoshop for authoring textures but I also wish to produce textures by hand-painting them.

Technical specifications:

Lead character:

Though the level will be mainly first person the lead character you play as will be one of the characters will see most often. The character must be distinctive, recognisable and high quality and to that end should be relatively dense. Around 15,000 tri.

An NPC:

An NPC in the small garden would likely be viewed multiple times. Whilst they may not need as many tri as the main character but  10,000 tri

A Vehicle:

This will be the boat that carries the character from the mainland to the island garden. It will have about 9000 tri and 1024x1024 texture sheet

 

The Environment:

As the environment will be viewed mainly from a first person perspective, the tri count will need to be slightly more dense than a third-person level in order to maintain the detail of the objects. I do not want to set a specific tri-count for the environment. However I am aiming to have at least a frame rate of at least 25fps on the final level.  Tri will be used efficiently with this aim in mind.

Props and scenery objects:

Props and scenery objects follow much the same rules as the environment itself. Props will be repeated in multiple areas of the level and as most scenery objects will be plants and stones and will therefore be repeated many times.

Though not the final idea for my FMP this basis will form the complete design document for my project.

Level Design

In my previous entry I talked about how composition of visual elements are used in video games to influence players and guide them through the level as well as creating mood, emotion and emersion in a game level.  Whilst it is true that this is a very important aspect of the finished game it is not the only part of the development process.

 

Though video games are primarily thought of as an artistic exercise, often thought of in the same way as Films or TV shows but they have a unique element not present in these media; video games have to house a player who will experience and interact with the level. The player’s actions dictate the outcome to some extent but it is the job of the level to be clear enough to direct the player to the solution or conclusion whilst still being challenging enough. Modern games contain assets and environments with dynamic behaviours interactability and huge environments which call for creative solutions to maintain frame rates.

 

The level has to be able to cope with the dynamic actions of a player whilst directing the player along the course of the game. With game levels becoming larger and many games are becoming increasingly free-roam or turning towards a sandbox style which means that the underlying elements and design of the level have to be exceptional in order to support the large amount of assets that the game will house.

 

Therefore it is the job of the level designers to produce this. Without relying on the visual aspects of the level game designers build levels with mechanics and layout in mind. Things like trigger boxes, portals (Used so that the game loads portions of a level rather than the entire level all at once) and interactive areas and objects are all planned out and tested in this stage.

 

In the early days of the industry, games were produced solely by programmers but with the evolution of 3D levels it’s become necessary to diversify the roles within the team. Design became more refined; games became larger and required a more diverse range of skills. Now that games are bigger, more complex and more open, games need to be tested multiple times to ensure their playability and function. To this end, Level designers will produce game levels using white box elements as stand-ins for game elements. Interactable elements may be represented by different coloured textures and it is in this stage that the interactive architecture of the level is planned and tested. These basic versions of the finished level help developers to test out their level functions and mechanics without the distractions and influences of the visual elements. This also means that changes can be quickly and easily made. Not to mention that as the level is built without the need for the visual assets and art, there’s no need to wait for testing to start. This means that the game can be tested and improved for longer, improving efficiency in the development process. This extra time also means that there is more time to find and fix problems and bugs in the game and has become a vital part of the development process that supports the rest of the game’s production.

The importance of compositon

Whether it's for concept art or a stage-design like process of populating an in-game scene, composition is not just a pleasant addition to a piece of work but is in fact a vital part of an image or a game. Not only does it create visually pleasing environments but it's also a tool to direct the eye of the player, draw focus to key elements and direct the path of the player through the level. Composition also takes a vital role in creating a believable environment that feels natural to the player whilst still being interesting.

Composition is also used to develop narrative, demonstrate importance and status in an image and is used to create rhythm, mood and pacing in an image. In a game or 3D space these same principals can still be used to great effect; A video game level can be thought of as a series of scenes and vignettes that narrate or illustrate the story of the level or even as a series of 2D images presented to the player. Without composition and planning to order and structure these images, things might be overlooked or meaning might be lost. 

Composition plays a big part in making a scene or image readable whether it's distinguishing the difference between a piece of furniture in a dimly lit room and an enemy lying in wait for you behind it or the figure of focus and the background of an image, composition is there to help make sense of what could be a confusing image in the same way that in a large, open or potentially confusing environment, composition can mean the difference between a frustrated player and a happy one where it can give hints to direction or solutions to puzzles.

Even in it's derelict sections where colour is less of a help, Portal manages it's composition well to point you in the direction of the solution

You can go anywhere, so how do you find where you're meant to go?

Skyrim's vistas are wide and often bleak but compositional elements of flow (the mountains) and focus (First on the tree, then the castle) come together to point the viewer through the image in the direction of the ruined keep and on into the larger world

Through flow (creating curves within the image), contrast, (between light and dark, focus and none focus or bright and dim colours) pattern, repetition and proportion the viewer is able to distinguish where an object in a 2D image is in a potential 3D space. Even in a game this is important because the player is looking at a 3D environment through a 2D medium like a TV. Though 3D gaming platforms exist, 2D is still far more common and then the task of distinguishing depth and placement is left up to the brain and the eyes ability to process the information given and it's up to the artists creating the game to supply the right information to make an area, scene or character recognisable and noticeable in a natural manner.

Mastery of composition is essential in any art field, in video games mastering composition gives you control over how a player will view an area and therefore gives you control over how a player will react to and feel about that area. This is essential in creating a compelling narrative and a sense of emersion or investment from your players. There's a reason employers look for artists rather than technicians.