Task 10: Elements of game design, part three: character

Characters are a massive part of the video games we play. While the NPCs and characters we interact with help to fill the world it is the main character, us, that really link us to the game. The way our avatar looks, feels, acts, sounds and moves is all a huge part in how we react and ultimately enjoy the game. Everything must be considered in order to make your character fun and believable within the environment.

Alot of games these days that focus on story telling or atmosphere that involve your character have you play in 3rd person. This allows for a greater sense of individuality and personality to the character you play, letting you see how they look and move. While 1st person tends to be used for more action based shooter games, where your avatar doesn't need a sense of character and is more just a shell that you fill with little real interaction with the environment or NPCs.

There aren't many games from the past that I can recall having particularly memorable main characters, possibly due to the design of the character you play only becoming considered more important in recent years. Games seem to approach character design and importance in different ways, for in instance games like Call of Duty or Battlefield your character doesn't have a personality or design because you never see them, they are merely shells that you fill. In games such as these character, personality and interaction come from the other people who play with you online, and not from the NPCs in the single player campaign which often feels empty and underdeveloped. In my opinion games that are designed toward online play often have this issue and this leaves the single player disappointing and less enjoyable.

The games that really nail character design are the story driven 3rd person action/adventure games. The games that revolve around your character and how they interact and respond to the world. You aren't just sitting in a shell shooting at stuff you are following a characters story and living through it with them. Fantastic character design is a link that lets you really feel part of the game's world. There are many games that do this well and one I personally enjoyed was Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. All 3 Uncharted games have amazing character design and there is a real sense of personality, interaction and history between the main characters. The way they banter and relate to each other increases the sense of believability and enjoyment you get from the game and it makes the experience thoroughly enjoyable. The interaction, humour and believability of the main characters is easily what I enjoyed most about the 3rd game (the rest of it is awesome as well, making it one of my favourite games of all time!). Another stunning part of Uncharted 3's character design was the way you moved as Drake. Depending on where he was and what was going on he would move and react believably. No more endless running from people that never tire! No, if Drake would run too long he would get tired and have to catch his breath looking abit sluggish and slower. One of my favourite examples of this is where Drake must make his way through a desert after surviving a plane crash, during which he often collapses and he must stagger back up with you pushing him onwards as he becomes ever more exhausted. The realism and sensations you get throughout Drake's movement within the game world is staggering and something that will have been carefully considered throughout his design process.

Perhaps the thing that comes to mind most however when thinking about character design is the appearance of the characters. This is obviously an important part of design and is something we will immediately relate to as players. The way characters stand and move, the colour or quality of the clothes they wear and the purpose of them. Is the character a stuck up rich prince or a dependable army grunt? If the characters look or feel out of place or wrong within the environment we will pick this out and dislike it, whether we know it or not. So characters, whether the main character or an unimportant extra need to look and feel believable.

While most genres of games or films will need characters to be as realistic as possible there are many cases where heavy stylisation or characterisation is used to fantastic effect. Examples of this include the game Team Fortress 2, which has 9 unique characters, each designed and styled to be instantly recognisable and interesting. The animation company Pixar uses heavily stylised characters that while often unrealistic are always believable and enjoyable. The fantastic use of exaggerated facial expressions or characteristics allow you to instantly understand what is being portrayed and its always thoroughly enjoyable!

I often wrongly assume character design to simply be how the character looks, a series of awesome concepts that explore the different clothes, faces or stances characters can have but I now understand it to be much more. Character design is just that, the design of a real character with depth. Something that is believable and fun to play, some one you can connect to and experience. Some one with an appearance, attitude, sense of humour, stance, motive, emotion, drive and even a way of moving. True character design isn't easy or simple, people are complicated things and the art of character design is creating someone  well enough ,that we actually believe they exist.

Elements of game design, part two: art direction for games

What is an Art Director?

The art director is a person who supervises the creative process of a design. The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, marketing, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games.

Various artists may create or develop specific parts of an art piece or scene; but it is the charge of a sole art director to unify the vision. In particular, the art director is in charge of the overall visual appearance and how it communicates visually, stimulates moods, contrasts features, and psychologically appeals to a target audience. The art director makes decisions about visual elements used, what artistic style to use, and when to use motion. One of the most difficult problems that art directors face is to translate desired moods, messages, concepts, and underdeveloped ideas into imagery.

In film

An art director works directly below the production designer, a large part of their duties include the administrative aspects of the art department. They are responsible for assigning tasks to people and keeping track of the art department budget and scheduling as well as overall quality control. They are often also a liaison to other departments; especially Construction, Special FX, Property, Transportation (graphics), and Locations Departments. The Art Director also attends all production meetings and tech scouts in order to provide information to the set designers in preparation for all departments to have a visual floor plan of each location visited.

In Video games

The Creative Director is responsible for the overall look and feel of a computer game, overseeing any high level decisions that affect how the game plays, looks or sounds. The position is a relatively new one within the games industry and has evolved out of the producer's role as this has shifted towards managing the process of completing a game on time and on budget.

The Creative Director's focus is ensuring the quality and style of the gameplay, artwork, music and audio assets that make up the final product. In many cases, the Creative Director is also the creator of the original game concept and characters, and so acts as the visionary who makes sure the finished game fulfils the initial goals.



 V. Matt Carofano the Art Director on Skyrim

At the start of a project, the Creative Director works with a small core team defining the framework of the game, with special attention placed on the artistic styling and any technical obstacles that will need to be overcome. As the game's development continues and more staff are added, the Creative Director works closely with the lead programmers, artists and designers to ensure all the code and art assets produced, as well as playable versions of the game, meet the initial vision and are of a sufficiently high quality. The Creative Director deals with issues arising such as new features and any major redesigning of characters and scenarios. Outside of the development team, the Creative Director acts as the game's advocate promoting it to executives who are not directly involved in production, such as the sales and marketing departments.

Becoming a Creative Director
There is no set route to becoming a Creative Director, but it is not an entry-level role. Creative Directors usually have over five years experience in a senior game development position, and have shipped commercially successful titles.
Many Creative Directors have previously worked as a lead artist or lead designer, while others come from a production background. They will have demonstrated exceptional abilities in terms of understanding how the different components of a game combine together to create the finished product.

Essential knowledge and skills
The most important skill for a Creative Director is to be able to inspire artists, programmers, producers, marketing staff, and others involved in the development process to make the highest quality product possible. In this respect, the Creative Director acts as the game's visionary during its development.
They also require the ability to make tough decisions that affect the game's schedule and budget as well as the look and feel of the final product.
Creative Directors should have a good understanding of the bigger picture of game development, including the impact of their decisions with respect to financial and managerial outcomes.

The Transit

So 11:00pm the night before the Transit van project is due and yay its finished. Not sure that should be a yay as much as it should be a 'phew'. When I last blog the model was complete and I just had the dreading unwrapping and texturing to go. Unwrapping has by far been the longest part about making things in 3D, so that's what I expected again, not so. I found unwrapping delightfully quick and easy, with the van being a slightly more complex box it wasn't too hard. I did however, drastically underestimate the amount of time the texture would take to create.



External texture sheet



Texturing thus far hasn't really taken that long but the Transit van took soooooo damn long. The first problem I had was my own fault, rubbish reference photos for textures. I had to spend alot of time altering images to make them use able and more accurate. I also had to go out and find another Transit to take more images and use what ever else I could find to get it done.

I found I became very attentive to details and tried to line everything up, often having to alter the model itself and the UV unwrap to do so, constantly altered bits of everything trying to get it right. This took alot longer than anything else I've done, despite it being a complex box -.-"

I did however get it finished, as was the point of this blog to show the finished product off.

So a final note and what have I learnt from the product?
Well not much. Due to poor time management (damn you Xmas for making me lazy ( yes I'm still blaming it)), I just didn't do as much with the van as I would of liked. I could of put alot more detail into it, done more than one texture or do more than one van. It really didn't take 4 weeks to make, but it took me 3 to get my head out my ass and just do it. So what have I learnt? Do the damn project, you'll probably learn more!

The Transit Van

So yeah, put it off again, despite telling myself I wouldn't. Damn the Christmas holidays! They have made me sluggish, sleepy and damn lazy! Its been hard trying to get back into the swing of things since resuming Uni and the new projects have felt somewhat daunting. With 2D projects like character design (eeek I'm rubbish at it) taking priority my poor old Transit van became nothing but reference images and good intentions.

I set out making the design document fairly early, I didn't think it was going to be too problematic, just something I would probably forget to do. I set myself out a weekly plan of what I wanted to have done and admittedly failed to stick to it. I think my problem with 3D is I always think its going to harder and more boring than it is, I put off starting a project because a blank 3D max with photos of what you intend to create is daunting to say the least! However once I manage to knuckle down and just get to it I enjoy the experience. I enjoy the challenge with 3D Max of figuring out the best way to create something and adding all the little details and getting it as pretty as possible. I have done from the very first lesson where my simple church model ended up having a graveyard with tombs, headstones, paths, fences and even a welcome sign to the church. I need to find a way to get past the initial hump of starting a new project.

Another reason I put off starting in Max is because I know its generally not going to take very long. We had 4 weeks to do our Transit Van and, like the house, this was much more time than needed. Despite restarting the van once or twice I completed the modelling within a week, modelling my final van took about 2 days, around 16 hours. Unwrapping can be annoying and fiddly but generally doesn't take masses of time either with textures being relatively easy to create. I'm confident I could model and texture a Transit van within a week if that was all I was focusing on. so with a 4 week time frame I could make 4, IF I didn't spend so much time faffing about not wanting to start. Damn you Christmas you have made me lazy!!

So down to my Transit, what have I created....Well this....minus the awesome face.

 I was really happy with my van. I did restart it once or twice and am pleased I did. I haven't used reference images within Max before and think this was the main reason I struggled with my first van model. Deciding it was too fiddly to not have them, I put some in, restarted the model and think the result is much better for it!

It is under the 5000 tri limit at 3653 meaning more details could be added if I wanted.

It is still yet to be textured and with just over a week remaining for the project I don't see that being problematic.

 I do however have some drawing to do...best get to that.
Damn you Christmas you have made me lazy!!

Positive Effects of Video Games

With my last blog being focused on the negative effect of video games I wanted to look into the positive effects that they can have. In many video games, the skills required to win involve abstract and high level thinking, skills which are never taught. Some of the mental skills trained by video games include:



-Following instructions
-Problem solving and logic
-Hand-eye coordination, fine motor and spatial skills
In shooting games, your character may be running and shooting at the same time. This requires the player to keep track of the position of the character, where he/she is heading, their speed, where the gun is aiming, if the gunfire is hitting the enemy, and so on. This requires a great deal of eye-hand coordination and visual-spatial ability to be successful. Research also suggests that people can learn iconic, spatial, and visual attention skills from video games, there have been even studies showing that surgeons perform better after playing video games.

-Resource management and logistics. 
The player learns to manage resources that are limited, and decide the best use of resources, the same way as in real life. This skill is honed in strategy games such as SimCity, Age of Empires, and Railroad Tycoon.

-Multitasking, simultaneous tracking of many shifting variables and managing multiple objectives. 
In strategy games, for instance, while developing a city, an unexpected surprise like an enemy might emerge.  This forces the player to be flexible and quickly change tactics.

-Quick thinking, making fast analysis and decisions. 
-Strategy and anticipation.
-Developing reading and math skills
Young gamers force themselves to read to get instructions, follow storylines of games, and get information from the game texts.

-Perseverance
In higher levels of a game, players usually fail the first time around, but they keep on trying until they succeed and move on to the next level.

-Pattern recognition
Games have internal logic in them, and players figure it out by recognising patterns.

-Estimating skills
-Inductive reasoning and hypothesis testing
Playing video games can be similar to working through a science problem. Like students in a laboratory, gamers must come up with a hypothesis. For example, players in some games constantly try out combinations of weapons and powers to use to defeat an enemy.  If one does not work, they change hypothesis and try the next one.

-Mapping
-Memory
-Reasoned judgements
-Teamwork and cooperation when played with others
Many games are played online and involve cooperation with other online players in order to win.



-Simulation, real world skills.
The most well known simulations are flight simulators, which attempt to mimic the reality of flying a plane. All of the controls, including airspeed, wing angles, altimeter, and so on, are displayed for the player, as well as a visual representation of the world, and are updated in real time.

Aswell as being fun, enjoyable and often relaxing video games and playing them can have many other positive affects on people that benefit you in life. It would be great if this could be more recognised and applauded rather than focus being on potential negative effects.

Age Ratings on games

Computer and video games are now enjoyed by millions of players throughout the world. In the UK, 37 % of the population aged between 16 and 49 describe themselves as ‘active gamers’. With gaming more mainstream and such a massive variety of games on the market how do we know what is appropriate for who?

Age Ratings.

Age ratings are systems used to ensure that entertainment content, such as films, videos, DVDs, and computer games, are clearly labelled by age according to the content they contain. Age ratings provide guidance to consumers (particularly parents) to help them decide whether or not to buy a particular product.

While this information is there for a good reason, many parents simply ignore age ratings. The age rating will stop children being able to buy games they aren't old enough for, but parents will buy them instead. With improving graphics and realism violence in games can become ever more realistic, so should we be concerned?

Some people seem to think so. One of the most common criticisms of video games is that they increase the violent tendencies among youth. Video games have been studied for links to addiction and aggression and its been found they do not contribute to these problems. Sadly I just think the video game industry has become an easy target for the media to blame for many modern day problems. I think many people have become largely desensitised to ideas of violence or gore due to modern media, including video games and films, they have undoubtedly become more graphic over recent years. Being desensitised to these themes and actions however does not make one capable of performing them. People have stated in the past kids are becoming incapable of telling the difference between the virtual gaming world and real life, leading to violence outside of video games. Surely you can't blame this solely on the media, out of the millions of people that currently play video games the overwhelming portion is capable of discerning reality from games. Some people are inherently different that makes them capable of violent activities, playing games or watching films doesn't change that and its wrong to blame games in general for an incredibly small minority of problems.

Lt. Col. David Grossman is a psychology professor who has written several books about the subject of violence in the media, including "On Killing" and "Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill". During heights of video game controversy he has been interviewed on the content of his books, and has repeatedly used the term "murder simulator" to describe first-person shooter games. He argues that video game publishers unethically train children in the use of weapons and, more importantly, harden them emotionally to the act of murder by simulating the killing of hundreds or thousands of opponents in a single typical video game. Many find Grossman's conclusions to be highly selective and misleading.

With games receiving this kind of accusations you'd think people might start following those age restrictions a little bit more. If people are really concerned about the negative effects it could have on their children then they should stick to the age restrictions, stopping their kids playing games deemed unsuitable until they are old enough. Most people, kids included, should be capable of disconnecting what they do in a game to how they should act in reality. Many parents see the age ratings as mere guidelines and that their kids are mature enough to play them but maybe they should think a little bit more before allowing their 12 year old to play a game designed and aimed at 18+. Or at least be aware of what they are allowing their kids to do and see within the game.

Horrible stuff!

Video games have the capability to allow you to do anything, like explore other planets, become treasure hunters or even help you learn new things, its not all about shooting people. Its an incredible platform of expression and freedom of speech and yet people want to censor it. If your concerned about what you may or your kids may experience, avoid the game, but don't stop other people having fun. I find 'Barbie Horse Advenventures' highly disturbing, but I'm not trying to get them banned. Yet.

The Value of Video Games

Institute of engineering and technology

My father is a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET - http://www.theiet.org/), which means he has access to a variety of interesting lecturs and events. A about a year ago there was a lecturer about the history of video games and where they might go in the future, so he invited me along also.

The lecture was held at Nottingham University with guest speakers from the National Video Game Archive (http://nationalvideogamearchive.org/the-team). 

 Announced in September 2008, the Archive is working to preserve, analyse and display the products of the global videogame industry by placing games in their historical, social, political and cultural contexts. The National Videogames Archive wants to document the full life of games, from prototypes and early sketches, through box-art, advertising and media coverage, to mods, fan art and community activities.

Videogame Archive Lounge

Videogames are a key component of modern culture and of our social, creative and technological history.
The National Videogame Archive is a joint project between the National Media Museum and Nottingham Trent University, which aims to celebrate that culture and preserve that history for researchers, developers, game fans and the public.

Crazy gaming child

During the lecture the true value of video games was discussed, what games are, what they mean to the people who play them, and what elements of them should be preserved. The true value of video games is the impact and experience they give to everyone, especially the people who play them. A game is worthless unless people play it and people won't play it unless they like it. What reaction do you get when you play Call of Duty, Angry Birds or Sonic? 

Video games have changed massively in a short space of time, as I discovered in recent blogs and many of these old games are being lost, discarded and forgotten about. They might not be worth alot of money right now but they are a part of gaming history and I think should be carefully archived. Games, like everything, deteriorate with time and if we don't start archiving everything now there might come a time when much of this past is completely lost. 

Lets save the video game! http://www.savethevideogame.org/