Well, I figured I should write about some games, considering a third of my pathway is games design. I don't actually play games like Tomb Raider (I prefer RPGs more than anything), but my mum's been playing Tomb Raider since about TR2's release and has finished them all except for Underworld, which was released a week or two ago on PS2, a couple of months after the current gen releases.
From what I've seen so far, it's really not looking that good. I thought the later release date would give them time to make sure it worked right with an older console, but I should've guessed that wouldn't be the case. One main thing I noticed is loading times. The loading screens (that are dressed as information screens) take up to 30 seconds to get to the game once you've been killed, but it's the ingame loading that's really weird. I got a couple of videos just to show the two ways scenery loads while playing the game.
The scenery doesn't load until about 10-15 seconds after you first see it, so you end up walking in midair. If you hadn't been there before, it'd really throw you off (and personally I really hate glitches where you go through/can see through scenery).
If the scenery doesn't load late, this happens. You get stuck for about 5 secs like the game's frozen.
And this isn't a nitpick, but I found this amusing.
She kinda floats down the stairs. I cut it 'cause there was a load if messing about between the two clips.
I can't really get a good video of the camera, but once again, it's always looking for Lara's 'best' side rather than going to any angle that'd actually help. She can scale walls at angles now, but that makes movements fidgety and a lot of the time it takes a few tries to get her heading in the right direction.
That's what I've seen so far. Probably seems like I'm nitpicking, but it's stuff like that that I'd expect to be at least nearly polished out when the game's released.
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Just got feedback back for my games project
Didn't go as well as I'd hoped, really. I didn't his 'very good' or 'excellent' for any of the areas. But I was told that it looks like a good game to pitch to an educational game company, so I started thinking about where I went wrong with it. I was nearly kicking myself when I realised one gameplay problem that could've been easily solved.
The major problem is that for someone who can't solve codes easily, the opponent will most likely give them a level 4 code to solve, and someone who could solve them easily would be given level 1 codes. This makes gameplay unfair. One thought I had would be to raise the code level the person solves the code correctly, and have it lower back down to level 1 when they get it wrong. This, however, would not allow for much player interaction and would also need more spaces for the players to move along, as combos could rack up very quickly.
One aspect that still escapes me is how to create interested player interaction to keep the players' interest. If I were to pitch it to a company, I would have to make it ultimately more interesting for the younger audience it would almsot certainly be intended for.
On a completely unrelated note, I've been watching Mike Mozart's live blogtv broadcasts, and more recently he's been discussing the subject of public domain music due to YouTube's increasingly strict policy on copywrited music by muting and removing videos, even ignoring fair use. His aim is to promote these public domain works so his viewers will use them in their videos, meaning that YouTube would have no rights to remove or mute them.
The major problem is that for someone who can't solve codes easily, the opponent will most likely give them a level 4 code to solve, and someone who could solve them easily would be given level 1 codes. This makes gameplay unfair. One thought I had would be to raise the code level the person solves the code correctly, and have it lower back down to level 1 when they get it wrong. This, however, would not allow for much player interaction and would also need more spaces for the players to move along, as combos could rack up very quickly.
One aspect that still escapes me is how to create interested player interaction to keep the players' interest. If I were to pitch it to a company, I would have to make it ultimately more interesting for the younger audience it would almsot certainly be intended for.
On a completely unrelated note, I've been watching Mike Mozart's live blogtv broadcasts, and more recently he's been discussing the subject of public domain music due to YouTube's increasingly strict policy on copywrited music by muting and removing videos, even ignoring fair use. His aim is to promote these public domain works so his viewers will use them in their videos, meaning that YouTube would have no rights to remove or mute them.
Friday, 16 January 2009
What I've been up to
Just a little note first, I'm gonna be making a new background image for my blog, so it looks a little plain right now. And now for the main post X3
Since my second year began, I've tried to do different things. Don't think I've really succeeded, but here's hoping I get to over the rest of the year ^^; Anyway, here's what I've done in my spare time.
First of all, I've been trying to make fake anime screenshots, particularly of Dissidia: Final Fantasy, which I mentioned in my last journal. A single still frame from an anime actually have more detail than one of my pictures that I've spent a great amount of time on, so it's good practise.
I've also been working on my alternate style a bit more, trying to make it into something more unique, rather than it having the same feel to it with it's colouring with only the lineart that's changed.
Which led me to try and recreate this stlye in 3DS Max, which has gone okay, but I still have a lot of problems figuring it out.
I had started to alter the face shape around, but that particular file corrupted this morning (unexpected error caused 3DS Max to crash). Luckily I saved backups :3 Compared to previous attempts to make a character, I think this is turning out much better, although like I said, I'm still having a lot of problems with it.
I've been working on my manga a bit more, too, and it surprised me when I took an older page with my most recent page and compared them. There were so many things I could see had changed in the two years since I started it (going very slowly. Only on chapter 4), but it made me realise how much my style had improved and even how I can improve it further (all the subtle details that are in manga will take a while to figure out).
I'm going to enter this years NEO manga contest again (missing last year due to my operation and needing an extension), so here's hoping my skills have improved enough.
Finally, on a completely non-multimedia related note, I've been making plushies :3 So far I'm just on those ready to sew kits, and so far I've finished a guinea pig, a dolphin, a baby owl and most recently, a dragon (no pics for them yet). I've bought materials to start making my own designs soon enough, so it'll be a fun experiment for me and a chance to do something a little different. My first custom project is going to be Timcanpy from D.Gray-man (who I can't find reference pics for for some reason O.o).
Anyway, that's some of the stuff I've been up to. I could've done a lot more, like trying more animation, but I recently had my animation previews muted on YouTube and it's made me a little paranoid T.T
Oh yeah, before I forget, I never posted the photos I took of my finished board game :o
I just hope it was playable.
Since my second year began, I've tried to do different things. Don't think I've really succeeded, but here's hoping I get to over the rest of the year ^^; Anyway, here's what I've done in my spare time.
First of all, I've been trying to make fake anime screenshots, particularly of Dissidia: Final Fantasy, which I mentioned in my last journal. A single still frame from an anime actually have more detail than one of my pictures that I've spent a great amount of time on, so it's good practise.
I've also been working on my alternate style a bit more, trying to make it into something more unique, rather than it having the same feel to it with it's colouring with only the lineart that's changed.
Which led me to try and recreate this stlye in 3DS Max, which has gone okay, but I still have a lot of problems figuring it out.
I had started to alter the face shape around, but that particular file corrupted this morning (unexpected error caused 3DS Max to crash). Luckily I saved backups :3 Compared to previous attempts to make a character, I think this is turning out much better, although like I said, I'm still having a lot of problems with it.
I've been working on my manga a bit more, too, and it surprised me when I took an older page with my most recent page and compared them. There were so many things I could see had changed in the two years since I started it (going very slowly. Only on chapter 4), but it made me realise how much my style had improved and even how I can improve it further (all the subtle details that are in manga will take a while to figure out).
I'm going to enter this years NEO manga contest again (missing last year due to my operation and needing an extension), so here's hoping my skills have improved enough.
Finally, on a completely non-multimedia related note, I've been making plushies :3 So far I'm just on those ready to sew kits, and so far I've finished a guinea pig, a dolphin, a baby owl and most recently, a dragon (no pics for them yet). I've bought materials to start making my own designs soon enough, so it'll be a fun experiment for me and a chance to do something a little different. My first custom project is going to be Timcanpy from D.Gray-man (who I can't find reference pics for for some reason O.o).
Anyway, that's some of the stuff I've been up to. I could've done a lot more, like trying more animation, but I recently had my animation previews muted on YouTube and it's made me a little paranoid T.T
Oh yeah, before I forget, I never posted the photos I took of my finished board game :o
I just hope it was playable.
Around the net
Yeah, it's the name of an Attack of the Show segment, but ah well :3 So here's a few things I've found on the net (well, what I remembered about, anyway)
I'm not normally into anything to do with Halo, but the scenario was just so unusual and the movements were really smooth and realistic that it caught my attention. Machinima's not the easiest thing to pull off, but the models are well rigged and animated.
Bad guys killing people, good animation and a Disney parody? Sounds good enough for me! It looks like it's jumped straight out of the original webcomic, with each frame looking like a fully detailed panel. Okay, so it gets gruesome, but it works so well :3
Dissidia: Final Fantasy was released on the 18th of December, but it's kept my attention since it was first announced in May '07. The main selling points of this game were that characters from other Final Fantasy games that we've become so used to were redesigned and recreated for the PSP engine, with the graphics coming close to that of the PS2. Also, the combat system was created from scratch, featuring a full 3D environment and camera system, with battles arenas spanning a huge area.
Just an example of gameplay from when the game was released. It also shows a ingame cutscene too. One thing to note is that no motion capture was used for either the full motion videos (intro) or any of the cutscenes and battles. They decided on this as it would give a more unrealistic feel, and they wanted characters to be able to do what people couldn't in real life.
When I find out more stuff, I'll be sure to post it and give my thoughts.
I'm not normally into anything to do with Halo, but the scenario was just so unusual and the movements were really smooth and realistic that it caught my attention. Machinima's not the easiest thing to pull off, but the models are well rigged and animated.
Bad guys killing people, good animation and a Disney parody? Sounds good enough for me! It looks like it's jumped straight out of the original webcomic, with each frame looking like a fully detailed panel. Okay, so it gets gruesome, but it works so well :3
Dissidia: Final Fantasy was released on the 18th of December, but it's kept my attention since it was first announced in May '07. The main selling points of this game were that characters from other Final Fantasy games that we've become so used to were redesigned and recreated for the PSP engine, with the graphics coming close to that of the PS2. Also, the combat system was created from scratch, featuring a full 3D environment and camera system, with battles arenas spanning a huge area.
Just an example of gameplay from when the game was released. It also shows a ingame cutscene too. One thing to note is that no motion capture was used for either the full motion videos (intro) or any of the cutscenes and battles. They decided on this as it would give a more unrealistic feel, and they wanted characters to be able to do what people couldn't in real life.
When I find out more stuff, I'll be sure to post it and give my thoughts.
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Animation Sketchbook
And here's the pages from my animation work (I posted the finished animation a little while ago)
I'll find some of the stuff I've seen over this holiday and post my opinions on it, along with what I've been up to. I've gotta say, it's the first holiday I've had in a long time where I felt like I've done everything and nothing all at the same time.
I'll find some of the stuff I've seen over this holiday and post my opinions on it, along with what I've been up to. I've gotta say, it's the first holiday I've had in a long time where I felt like I've done everything and nothing all at the same time.
Visualisation Sketchbook
Oops, I did it again, didn't I? I've seen a load of stuff I could post on here, but it never really clicks to link it here.
First of all, here are the pages from my visualisation sketchbook
And here's my finished video
First of all, here are the pages from my visualisation sketchbook
And here's my finished video
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