OliveWorks

Mobile game UI layout

2012-01-30T19:00:00.000Z

This mobile project has changed completely from when I started and I have to say that I am very glad that I did make all of those design changes. Hopefully this new version will show that I have produced something good that can evolve into something great.

So thus far I am tinkering with Unity to create a PC demo version of the game for a few reasons:

To gain feedback on the design and gameplay so far so that I can tweak things.
To see how well the game will be received by those tantalised by puzzles, word games and even puzzling word games. I hope this will also give me enough data to judge whether it is worth developing the full mobile version or whether to just complete the PC version.
To gain some support and players who will look forward to the release.
Once I have created this within Unity I should have sufficient knowledge of how to implement the full version and should be able to modify the game for a mobile platform...at least this is the plan anyway.

This is the intended layout so far for the PC demo.

I have tried to keep the layout simple and adaptable for the mobile game. Since the mobile game will be played horizontally and vertically both layouts have been considered.

The button positions across horizontal and vertical fairly similar, so hopefully the differences in layouts will not confuse players too much.

The PC demo version will probably use the horizontal layout. Hopefully I'll have something blocked in and ready for people to play with soon.

January Target Completed!

2012-01-30T16:18:00.002Z

January

~~Complete: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West~~

One down! It's such a good feeling to know that even at this early stage in the year I have completed something on my Resolutions list already. Hopefully the rest of the year is as successful.

As I'll get a slight headstart on February's task I am inclined to set two goals.My main focus will be to get the PC demo finished (I can see a few speed bumps already but I'll see how it goes).

I was interested in playing Relentless' first digital release, Blue Toad Murder Files, so I bought this last year on Steam during a sale. It's a short game so I think it shouldn't take up too much time, and may even provide a nice break between development. All work and no play etc.

February

Complete: Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle
Develop PC demo of mobile game idea

Wish me luck!

Bounty: Facing the Captor

2012-01-19T13:29:00.000Z

Feel free to comment on this my first attempt at a scene from a story idea that I have had for a game with the working title, Bounty. Over the next few months I plan to post different scenes from the same story to gather feedback on my style of writing and possible improvements to the scenes/overall story.

Any feedback is welcome though so crit away!

Facing the Captor

The woman looked towards her husband and daughter's faces. Her husband's she could barely see from the position he was laid in. The tall strong, man that she had always known her husband to be had been reduced to a small, still curled up mass. His face, arms and legs were covered in black and blue bruises, cuts and welts. His wounds had gone untreated for so long that it looked as if infection was setting into them.

Her daughter was kneeling down over her father, quiet while continuous streams of tears rolled down her face. Her father could no longer protect her and this she now realised. Her eyes, big, brown and glassy, were looking to her mother now for protection. To carry her away from these monsters who had ripped her from her slumber in the dead of night.

The woman collapsed to the her knees on the cold, hard, marble floor and sighed. "What do you want from me?" she said slowly raising her head to face the one responsible for shackling her and abducting her family prisoner.

A man sat on a large throne a short distance in front of her. He was elaborately dressed in layers of silk clothing. The throne he sat on was tall, gilded with gold and set with rubies and small emeralds at the top of the chair back.

He leaned forward slowly, a smile slowly creeping across his face. He knew he had finally gotten his way. "Why, your remarkable and legendary skills of course".

New Year, New Targets

2012-01-19T13:13:00.000Z

The end of January is very nearly upon me and I have been reluctant to write yet another resolutions list for the year as it always pains me to look back over it mid-year and in December having realised that I have fallen short of my targets.

So I'd like to make monthly targets this year to see if these are easier to achieve. These will be both expanding my level and design experience as well as helping me make a dent in my games catalogue.

This month:
Complete Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

So far I'm not doing too bad with this target. I had a good run on it over the last weekend and thought I'd have it finished by the end of the month. However, I've just gotten halfway through the game and although I now am much better at the combat, the boss challenge's have certainly been raised. I hope this isn't another game that gets left "to complete another time".

Gears of War 3: Reflections of the Story

2012-01-01T22:11:00.000Z

I completed the single player campaign of Gears of War 3 a couple of days before the end of last year. I have really enjoyed how the story that has progressed throughout the series and how it has wrapped up during this last instalment.

I am going to briefly discuss my thoughts on the story that has developed from the first to the third game (mostly focusing on the third). I do warn anyone that has not played the game or completed the game yet that there will be spoilers within this post.

WARNING: There are spoilers within this post, so if you don't want to know stop reading now!

Story
The game is about Marcus Fenix, the lead character, finding out that his father, Adam had not perished under the debris of his house years ago, but instead was held prisoner by Prescott, the chairman of the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG), his boss essentially. Adam was later held by Mira, Queen of the indigenous population of Sera the Locusts, to try and combat the real threat - the emulsion.

Throughout the previous games and the majority of the third, emulsion was thought of as a fuel, a resource. However, Adam later explains that the emulsion is a being in itself. Acting as a parasite it sought to infect every living creature on the world of Sera. In the second game, the emulsion had only just started to affect the Locusts. Those that were after were known as Lambent. The locusts lived underground before the emulsion started attacking them so they emerged to the surface, E-Day was upon humanity.

In the third game, humans that had been in contact with emulsion for longer lengths of time were now showing signs of infection and behaving just as destructively as the Lambent in Gears 2.

The mission is to find Adam Fenix and help him finish working on the machine he had built to exterminate emulsion infected cells from all living things on the planet.

Introduction to the third instalment
The flashback at the beginning was good. I found that it helped me remember and sum up what was previously occurred within the story. However, I'm not sure if I was a new player that there was enough content in this section to do a sufficient recap for them but luckily the remainder of the game focused more on rescuing Marcus' father rather than relying on previous information gained from the other games.

Did the story unfold evenly across the duration of the game?
The game was comprised of five acts. We learn that Adam is alive during the first act but only get to him during act five. I felt that although I got to experience a lot more of the different environments throughout Sera, came into contact with more COG and Stranded so I could see how the war and E-Day had affected each of them, that I'd have liked to have had more information fed to me about Adam's whereabouts throughout these in-between acts.

I think something simple and short would have sufficed. For example, before Mira started tracking Marcus and the rest of Delta we could have been shown scenes with Mira talking to Adam trying to coerce him into working harder to save the Locusts. I think this would have been interesting to see as you find out that Mira and Adam had a relationship for a long time where Adam seemed to sympathise and genuinely wanted to help the Locusts if there were more time.

This would have been a nice addition but it was not essential. The varying number of challenges that the Delta squad had to overcome throughout each act was enough to keep me amused and still focused in getting to Marcus' dad.

High points within the story

Emulsion infected humans
I wasn't expecting the humans to be infected by that emulsion. But I suppose it makes sense when you think about it, although during the scene where you come into contact with the first infect human I was expecting more of a typical zombie than a fluorescent, raging and quick moving zombie. So this was an interesting twist.

R.I.P Dominic Santiago
My fiance had played Gears 3 on the day of launch with his friends at my house while I was working all day (much to my annoyance as I wanted to play it through in co-op with him, anyway...). When I got home that evening I found the house still, perfectly silent. Not the atmosphere of roaring orders at each other and swearing at the enemies. So I presumed they had finished an gone home. When I entered my front room I walked in to find four adult males in total silence eagerly watching a cinematic. I said my hellos and left as I didn't want to see something that would spoil my experience later.

So when I saw this cutscene with Dom dying, I instantly knew that this was the cutscene that stunned all of those men to silence. In my mind Dominic Santiago was your brother, he was the constant character throughout Gears that survived, that would be there at the end. Not any more. The death of his wife and kids just got too much for him and he nobly sacrificed himself so that the rest of Delta could live on. However, Dom was emotionally going downhill from the beginning of the game. His appearance was ragged as if he didn't care about keeping himself presentable and at the point of his death you could argue that he just wanted to end it all. So he did. Even so, his character went through a lot of pain, and turmoil so he deserved to go out whichever way he chose. I loved his character, he was a great sidekick.

The reason behind E-day
I found it interesting to know the real reason behind E-Day. The Locusts were just running themselves. Who knows what would have occurred if Adam has come to a mutual understanding with Mira, the Locusts may have lived peacefully underground co-existing with humanity on Sera. We don't know who attacked who first. The Locusts could have been disorientated when emerging from underground and attacked out of fear. Humanity may have also struck the first blow for fear of the unknown, which led to the fifteen year war with the Locusts.

Marcus' dad dying
Another emotional moment in the story. After all the time Marcus spent searching for his dad. He was killed by the very weapon he had created to save humanity. Adam also seemed to be torn up by guilt and regret throughout the majority of the final act. It was almost like he was punishing himself for the devastation the Hammer of Dawn caused at Ephyra and not preventing E-Day. At the end of the game, Marcus looks more lost than ever with no goal to persevere and no family left.

Anything missed? Not covered?

The true fate of Marcus' mother
I was hoping to find out what happened to Marcus' mother. She had apparently gone missing in the underground caves when Marcus was about 16 years old and she was a biologist. The fact that she gets lost in the caves, Locust queen looking very human-like and Adam Fenix working with closely with the Locust Queen for 20 years is rather a coincidence no? Did Marcus' mother turn into the Locust queen through some sort of experiment that went wrong? The locust queen's very human-like appearance was mentioned once by one of the Delta squad but not expanded upon. I think that this may have been a clever and deliberate thought provoking question for players to agonise over. She may have been taken hostage in exchange for Adam's cooperation to work on the existing emulsion problem for the Locusts? I don't know and I guess I won't find out.

After analysing this game's story it has taught me a lot about the building blocks required for a good linear story. The twists and heart wrenching moments are just as important as the unanswered questions that make the player want to explore and persevere to find the answers. One thing that I will keep in mind when creating a game story is to build up a character who is believable and likeable so that the player wants to help them achieve their goal, cares about their difficult decisions, feels and believes their pain.

UDK Level progress

2011-12-09T22:50:00.001Z

So December, as most of the months this year, has not gone to plan. In November I did manage to block out most of the level I wanted to create. I expanded on my previous idea to make progression through the level a lot more interesting. As it stands, the first area for the puzzle has been blocked in so once the kismet has been written this should be good to test. The second puzzle I think will need to be more of a challenge via an interface. I have no idea how to implement this so I have three choices: 1. Learn how to do this, 2. Change the puzzle so it can be implemented within the environment (this may involve a change in the layout) or 3. Skip this puzzle and just have the two puzzle rooms and various enemy encounters. Hmmm...I'll have to have a think about it.

So back to December, with my deadlines at work moved up I had even less time to complete my set tasks. The first project that I was leading was an overall success. Many players seemed to love the addition to the game which was brilliant. A few bugs did pop up but with the time that I had to test the project and the amount of game that it encompassed, I think that I didn't do too badly. All a learning experience or so they say.

Because of the extra time that I spent preparing for my project and the rest of my tasks, I sadly neglected this UDK level. I want to complete this level to make it the first in a long line of outstanding game design pieces, but it looks like I may need to go back to redesigning the level again in order to move forward.

The rest of the and next year should be very interesting for me.

Match Maker 2: Update 4

2011-10-31T21:52:00.000Z

So another late update. I didn't get much implemented over last week and last weekend I've been at Runefest for Jagex (check out the amazing smoking RuneScape cake below) so today I have been fully resting up and rehydrating after the eventful and tiring weekend.

So from the tasks that I listed last week I have:

Move the delete button to underneath the main board

Remove save button

Warn player about the letters randomly changing

I've also re-organised the Main Menu page to give the player the option of entering the Challenge or the Casual mode of the game. Once the casual mode is implemented this button will work.

Lastly, I had a simple thought to encourage players to replay the game. When the timer runs out or when the player unlocks and moves onto the next level (during Challenge Mode or Casual Mode respectively), the player will be shown a fraction indicating how many words they managed to correctly spell and how many remained during that level. As I say simple but I think it's a good one.

Over November I'm calling a brief recess on development of this project but when December rolls around I'll be back to work on Match Maker.

Match Maker 2: Update 3

2011-10-24T22:46:00.000+01:00

So this update is a week late. Last week I added the following to my prototype:

Added a menu
Added a save a load function (but on after contemplation I think I'll remove this as it's not needed)
Add points to the player's score when they correctly spell a word
Add 5 seconds to the timer when the player correctly spells a word
Restart the level when the time runs out
Check off words that have already been found
Output a green, red or orange square next to previously entered word to indicate a correct, incorrect or already found answer (respectively)

I also changed the layout of the components like so...

I also tried the demo on 3 of my work colleagues which gave me some useful feedback and even pointed me to some similar games to study.

From the feedback I came up with the following that needs to be added:

Implement 'casual' mode - linear progression through new levels where more letters are unlocked every level.
Add High score board
When all words in the level are found/session ends/time runs out, save score in High score board
Implement in-game menu
Move the delete button to underneath the main board
Remove save button
Warn player about the letters randomly changing

So I still have a lot of work to do unfortunately, but overall I think that this project is moving in a good direction.

If you'd like to play the latest build of my project so far, you can download it here.

Send me all your feedback too. Anything will be useful :)

Match Maker 2: Update 2

2011-10-16T12:28:00.000+01:00

So this week I have made considerable progress with one of my prototypes. The player can now click on the the randomly displayed letters in the grid to spell out a four letter word. If the player spells a word that is on the list of words for the level they will gain score for that word. As each letter carries an individual value (like in the game Scrabble) some words will carry more score than others so it is up to the player to try and work out which letters carry the most score and create words using these.

At the moment the layout of the board is at a very placeholder state where only the board, the empty spaces and a basic delete button are shown. This is something I'll be working on this week to enable all of the important elements are displayed as well as adding a timer to create the Challenge game mode.

I'm hoping with these and a few other essential features worked in this week, I'll be able to upload my first WIP version to my site to get people to play and give feedback to this idea.

Match maker 2: Update

2011-10-06T13:16:00.000+01:00

So, mid-week I sat down and worked on my prototype for a simple word creation game using Game Maker. The game reminds me a lot of the the non-digital game Boggle that I used to play a lot when I was a child. But the idea for this was actually derived from a previous idea I had for my 'mobile' game, Match Maker (this project is no longer solely a mobile project).

Over the past few months I have iterated on this idea so many times. The main reason was that I was not convinced that enough challenge existed and that the game simply wasn't fun. This led me to two different ideas but similar gameplay methods.

The first idea was a simple pattern matching game. The player is presented with two 4x4 boards. One is placed above the other and the one on the top is smaller. The smaller board will depict the pattern, using blocks of colour, that the player needs to match in that level. Each block on the larger board will randomly change colour. Once the level begins the player needs to select each block on the larger board to correctly match the ones on the smaller board. The player will be timed and the faster they match the pattern, the more points they accrue. As they progress through the levels the patterns will get progressively more difficult i.e. more blocks will need to be matched or a mixture of colours will be required. So this was my first idea. I'm still not convinced with it, but I figured if I make a simple prototype it will help to demonstrate my idea and I can get others to play it and let me know their thoughts.

So my second idea, is very similar to the first. In this game you have a set amount of blank spaces (the amount depends on the difficulty of the level) shown above the larger 4x4 board. Instead of coloured blocks, the board will randomly show letters. The player will have to create i.e. a four letter word using the letters that appear in the larger board. Once a word has been successfully created, the four spaces will turn blank again and the player can begin to create another word. Players will be timed and will have to create as many words as possible within the time limit in order to score the most points for that level. As they progress through the game more letters will be added into the 4x4 board and the length of the words to create will get longer.

So far I have been dedicating two nights a week to my projects so that I can play more games, devote a decent amount of time to Take Initiative and work on improving my other non-game related skills. I hope to post an update a week detailing how this is going.

What do you think of these ideas from what you have read so far? Worth developing prototypes for to judge their potential? Or should I scrap them both and start another project? Or have you got any questions for me? If so, feel free to comment :)

Improving my skills and revisiting writing

2011-09-29T23:09:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I posted so I'll catch you up. I have been working on my mobile game idea, which again has gone through another change and been looking at the skills I currently possess and the ones that I need to improve.

After thinking about the skills that I need to develop to become a better designer I have realised that I need to work on improving my communication skills, particularly when I am trying to describe an idea or give my opinion on anything.

So I've decided that I am going to use this blog to help me improve this skill. By analysing games that I have played I believe that this will help me to learn what I think makes a good game, will help me understand why a game fails and the design issues I need to consider when designing my own games. So from now on when I finish a game I be posting a piece analysing the game or an aspect of the game.

I have also been recently writing a story for a new UDK level that a few friends and I are planning to create. I'd obviously like to be involved in the design of the level but at the moment I have taken the role of game writer. I have forgotten how inspiring it is to imagine a new world with new rules, characters and possibilities and being able to put this idea into a game that I'll have a hand in creating is very exciting. I have gotten so into this new idea that I'm thinking of turning it into a short story but I guess after the level is created I'll have to see whether it is a good idea or not.

After realising how much I enjoy writing the story of a game I have thought a lot over the past few days about the thought of considering a career in games writing as well as trying to get in a design role. So after thinking about possibly getting into writing I have realised that since university I have built up a small portfolio of written pieces in my efforts to get into a design role. So after scouring a few PCs and USB sticks I have collected all of the pieces that I have worked on over the past few years.

Take Initiative
Interviews
Tutorials
Design and QA Tips

Reviews
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars
The Dig
Wii Fit
The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
Pokemon Pearl

Previews
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Preview
Tomb Raider Underworld
MySims Kingdom
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Rune Factory Frontier
Fable II
Pipe Mania
Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep
Final Fantasy IV

I wanted to list all of these so I can remember what standard I was at and that I need to be better than this. after all having something visual as a guideline is better to work from.

So in effect this blog has now become my outlet for my games development and writings.

I hope you enjoy what's to come in the future.

Where I am with this year's targets?

2011-09-06T14:25:00.000+01:00

This is a good question and this year by far has been the most interrupted so far in my life. But, however depressing looking back on this and knowing that I haven't yet achieved much is, I still have to do it so that I know where I'm heading towards by the end of this year.

So my targets this year was to:

Get through a good number of my 25 games that are catching dust.
Create 6 games, levels or maps using either UDK, Gears' Editor or UT3's Editor.

Towards the first half of the year I did manage to get through a few games, however I still have a mountain to get through (it doesn't help that I keep buying more and the bargains/new releases this year have been unavoidable). I'm thinking of dedicating one day a week to gaming in a hope to seriously reduce this game pile before christmas hits.

The second target has been slowing drifting away. In total I have started or had the intention of completing 5 projects this year - Prison Break, a Gears of War level, a mobile game (working title MMH),Tiny Adventures and The Epidemic.

Prison Break was completed a while back but I am sad to admit that it is the only project that has been completed :( I didn't want to show this video earlier in the year as some people didn't give me very constructive feedback on the level, but it's all a learning experience so i'll share it.

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There are a lot of issues with this level so I think more time spent constructing levels in UDK is definitely needed to help me practice better lighting, layout and gameplay, level flow.

I have been thinking a lot about reworking The Epidemic with better graphics however, this does not seem to be a worthwhile cause. The gameplay is all there however I won't be developing this into a full title. So for now, the ground work is done for any future platformer that I want to make in Game Maker (as most of the gameplay features that I created are quite typical of platformers) but I'm finally going to put this one to rest.

I did begin a Gears project however it occurred to me quite early on that what I had planned was a lot bigger than I had intended. So instead of continuing on it fizzled out. I think the skills that I learned should be used to create a small level in Gears in the future but at the moment it as well is on hold.

My mobile game got some feedback from a couple of designers. Sadly this was not positive either. So for a while I felt a bit low, but I re-worked on the gameplay and have planned out a shed load of levels. I've estimated that I could get the game prototyped within 24 hours. And now I have sorted my licence for Game Maker 8.1 I'm good to go again :) So, yeah this game isn't in UDK or any form of Unreal engine like my targets indicated but it will help me to create a game quickly to assess how well it will actually do should I choose to release it in the future.

Lastly we have my latest project Tiny Adventures. After working out how to reposition the camera and change the controls using Kismet and a bit of the code, UDN released a platformer prototype with all of these functions present and better than what I had. So I have migrated to cannibalising this version to develop my own prototype. I have planned out a few basic levels which should show the basic features of the game. The only challenge in my way now is to learn how to swap out the default character for my own. This is going to be a major project as I'll have to not only code the behaviours but model the props too. So far building the test levels are my priority and at the end of September I'll assess my progress once more.

So I started with 5 projects. One complete, one cancelled, one deferred, one nearly there and one in the intial phases still. I'm not going to reach my target of 6 projects this year sadly. I have to accept this. But at the very least, I'm going to aim to get this mobile project done and then continue with one project at a time from now on.

Why I've been so quiet

2011-08-13T00:58:00.000+01:00

So I have been a bit out of it. This last month and a half I've been extremely busy with moving and adjusting to a new project and a new team. My gaming time was also affected. I'm going to try and dedicate a night a week to getting through my backlog before christmas comes and more arrive.

My mobile project is still ongoing. Although I have been losing faith in the idea, I am still going to complete the idea. Even though the move made my computer set aside, I have drafted out a number of levels that will be suitable for a demo project. I have estimated that this project should be finished in about 24 hours so I hope to block in a weekend very soon to finish this project and get it tried, tested and either polished or shelved. So hopefully early September there should be something.

Having finally bought a new laptop I am now fully equipped to start working towards creating more UDK projects. Below is a preview of one of the characters for a UDK project I am hoping to develop.

As usual I have been falling behind on my targets for the year., but I still hope to be able to get something good together by the end of 2011.

Not much work done :(

2011-05-28T22:25:00.000+01:00

Sadly, life has been getting in the way again and I've behind again on my posts. So during this busy period I'll be posting as often as I can, but this may not be regular intervals.

Work redesigning MMH is going well though so I hope to show some progress with that soon.

Late/Early MMH update

2011-05-18T17:02:00.000+01:00

The progress with this game is on hold for about two months :( as a massive TV is situated in front of my PC that I use to develop the game on and we can't move it because a) it's way too heavy and b) we have saturated the rest of the free space in our flat with 2 other TVs (we currently have 5 in our flat - 2 we're using and 3 that are old). Anyone want a free TV?

I have considered sitting on this massively heavy TV and using it as a makeshift chair but I'm not sure if that's entirely sensible. So I guess I could either try and create another version of the game using another tool or wait until we move in 2 months (yeah, we found ourselves a house!) as the move will disrupt things enough. I decided on waiting and as I have other half finished/started projects, I figured this would be a good time to roll back to one of those.

I'll still try and post something every week as it will keep me in check and push me to progress so keep reading.

How playing games helped me in real life

2011-05-11T17:25:00.000+01:00

Over the last two weeks I've been busy trying to look for a house to buy (it's true what they say, it is one of the most stressful things you can do in life!) so unfortunately, no time has been spent recently developing games. But last week I had an interesting problem while going to view a house that I believe without the random skills of learning to think around a problem that I learned playing point-and-click adventure games like the Broken Sword series and the patience that games like The Lost Vikings taught me I wouldn't have overcome this problem.

I found this property that was within our budget. It was in the perfect location and from the pictures on the site it looked great so I rang the estate agent who gave me the couple's name and booked me in for an evening viewing. So after work my boyfriend and I went to view this house. We drove down the street and couldn't see any "For Sale" signs outside the house. "Odd" I thought, but we were early and the street was a very long "L" shape so I decided to wait for the estate agent as they hadn't told me the door number. The time that we agreed came and went and we assumed they weren't coming. By this time my boyfriend wasn't too happy and neither was I. I really wanted to see this house. So being the stubborn woman that I am I declared that I would find the house that night even if I had to knock on every door.

So I got out my smart phone and looked at the site photos again to see if one of them was a picture of the front of the house. No joy. They only picture of the outside was of the back of the house. But I noticed that on the top of the house their appeared to be dark tiling. The houses along the longer part of the road that we were in were all bricks on the front so we drove further down to the houses that resembled the dark tiles like the one in the photo.

Now down at the shorter end of the "L" shaped road, I noticed that one building was obviously a block of flats so I ruled that out. That only left about 8 houses.

Now, a normal person would have given up long ago and rescheduled the viewing, but not me. I had grown up playing frustrating games like the Lost Vikings where you may have died 5 times before you even understood how to overcome the puzzles within the levels. Looking back at the picture of the back of the house I looked at the extension. The roof of that was slanted so I enlisted the help of my boyfriend who's nearly a foot taller than me to look over the back walls of a set of 4 houses' gardens to see if he could see an extension and if so, a slanted roof. None of the first set had this feature, so by a process of elimination we were left with the last set of houses on the road.

Finding our way around the back of the garden again my tall boyfriend looked to see if he could see an extension. Yes! One of the properties did have an extension matching the house in the picture. But to make doubly sure we checked the back garden which had white stones instead of grass in the picture. Success! We had found our house. Our relief and smugness of being able to deduce this was quickly thwarted by the dog within this garden barking loudly at us. So we ran to the front and apologised to the owners before we looked around the property.

Would I have been able to have found the property without all the previous "training" I had gained playing video games? Maybe, but I wouldn't have viewed it as a puzzle rather than a negative situation if I didn't.

MMH: Gameplay overhaul

2011-04-29T22:51:00.000+01:00

Oops! So yeah I missed a week posting. Things have been very busy for me with work and holidays so I am a bit behind. Here's what's been going on so far.

I recently got some feedback for Make Me Happy from a couple of designers (those who are actually paid for it and have done for a number of years). The feedback I got was a little disappointing so I had to have a big work around of the gameplay. Luckily, the basic idea of the game hasn't changed only the objectives per level. I think this will be a great little game for very young children and could be useful teaching them all sorts of good skills like identifying and learning colours, shapes, pattern matching etc

Only time will tell with this little game. I hope to jump in and rejig my code next weekend so between now and then I need to properly hammer out the mechanics so that everything is solid. Fingers crossed that it all goes well.

Make Me Happy: Initial playtests

2011-04-15T13:24:00.000+01:00

So, these last few weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster for me (and I expect next week will be a lot of the same). So not much development has been done to MMH this week. I let a few friends at work playtest an early version and from their feedback I have decreased the speed at which the images rotate in the first levels. I need to revisit this later as I want to gradually increase the speed within each level to improve the challenge.

Another issue was the GUI. My participants seemed to misunderstand that the score was being displayed on the meter and the time as a number. I decided to switch these around so that the meter now displayed the elapsed time and the points for the round was displayed as a fraction (shown in the previous posts screenshots).

This change seems much better. The placement of all of these items are being tweaked but so far this is how it's looking.

I hope (if I have time) to implement "connect 3" and "match the sequence" functionality into the later stages of the game to mix up the gameplay and constantly challenge the player. I'm thinking the best way to easily show that the gameplay will be different in each level (other than a pop-up) would be to use a different coloured board.

I'll see how effective this is during playtests.

Make Me Happy: So far...

2011-04-08T13:24:00.000+01:00

Make Me Happy is a simple, small and smiley mobile game. The smiley's appear in a grid 3 by 3. You click on the happy smiley to increase your score to make the character happy. When the character is happy you will progress onto the next level. If you click on a non-smiley you will either not gain any points or lose points. This is because these make the character sad. Make the character happy before the timer runs out.

If you gain enough score you could unlock the Bonus round for the world. Each Bonus level is different. Follow the instructions on screen here to make me happy.

Keep Smiling!

This has been my "small" project for a few weeks now. I wanted to develop it all within a four day weekend but it just didn't go to plan. I hope that within the next week or two this will be complete, even if the art is not. The art is completely placeholder at the moment (so shockingly bad) but it does help me focus a lot of the mechanics.

As always, the mechanics went into a state of flux at one point. But now (I believe) everything's solid and just requires being implemented. I chose to use Game Maker 8 for this project as I thought it would be nice a quick to implement and with Yoyo games keen to become publishers for iOS products, PSP and Android, if I spun out a good project then I could possibly submit this to them. This may be a bit over-ambitious but hey why not aim high.

As I said this project is taking longer than I expected so to try and encourage me to complete this soon I've decided to post an update every week. This may just be screenshots, a general note about the features that I have added or the problems that I have overcome. But regardless I am sure that this will help me push forward.

Once the game is fully complete and ready to test (with placeholder art) I'd love to get feedback from everyone and anyone about the mechanics and usability of this game. Also, if anyone would like to test this game that is also welcomed :)

Here are some screenshots of my progress so far!

A quick update

2011-03-08T13:21:00.000Z

So, now that my jam packed weekend is over I'm going to be powering on adding materials and meshes to my Prison Break level. It's actually taking me a lot longer than I originally anticipated but watching the whole level take shape is great fun so I don't really mind at the moment.

The Gears level is on hold until I get the Prison Break level completed. I've got a lot of researching creating e-holes, better cinematics and splitting the gameplay routes for each player to look into. So I figured it's better to tackle this again when I can give it my full attention.

A friend has also asked me to put together a prototype of his game using UDK (I know another project) but since this will be great practice for me and is only a prototype to prove the core mechanic can be done using UDK I thought I'd give it some of my attention. So visit back here later in the year to see how that's progressing.

Kicking myself into gear

2011-02-22T12:24:00.000Z

After my long and well deserved week off from work I've had time to think in detail about where I'm heading this year and what I need to do to ensure I reach this year's end goal.

Gaming

I finally completed Mass Effect 2 (applause please) last week! I'm still aiming to work through my backlog of games so that's not going on the backburner (I've also just purchased another game today as it was too good an opportunity to pass up) and with the amount of good new releases this year I can't actually afford to stop playing.

Portfolio Site
Although at the time I liked my website design I feel that this needs a massive overhaul, so I am working on blocking out a new php site. The domain will have to change as freewebs (my current free hosting site for my portfolio) does not support php sites :( Luckily I can use the space on Ti to test out my site design before committing to buying a new domain and server space (if need be).

But what good is having a great portfolio site without the amazing work to put in it...

Portfolio projects
So far this year I have started 2 new projects: my Gears level and Prison Break and I have had the graphics overhaul for The Epidemic hanging over my head for ages now. Last week I neglected all three I'm sad to say, but no more!

The Gears level is probably the biggest task as I still have to script lots of encounters and cinematic sequences plus texture and add meshes.

Prison Break just needs a weekend (and maybe a few evenings/lunches) as all I have left is to add the terrain, static meshes and textures.

The Epidemic is another project that just needs some time. All that this really needs is a major graphics overhaul but as Game Maker uses sprites, I can easily replace the old and the new will pop up in their correct location. Simple!

I've now listed out everything that I have left to do in all of these projects and included a new mobile project (so that I am fully organised with this when I am ready to begin). This way I can visually manage what I have left, how long it will take me and if I'm on track for the remainder of the year.

I'm hoping 6 projects will still be doable this year. Guess we'll have to see.

Prison Breakout

2011-02-08T16:09:00.000Z

So during a bit of downtime at work I used my time to delve a bit deeper into Kismet in UT3 (sadly I haven't got access to UDK at work).

So within about 24 hours (maybe a tad more) I managed to blockout a very small level that I had on my mind for a while. The objective is very simple. In order to escape the prison the player must open the bridge. To do that the player must power the generator. To power the generator the player must find 3 crystals (I know, who uses crystals to power a generator but bear in mind these are only placeholder at the moment) and then operate the bridge controls to escape.

The crystals are scattered around the map in high and low locations. To prevent the player from escaping and to create a bit more of a challenge I have spawned bots (the other prisoners) at various points in during the level.

Currently due to the limitations of the PC I'm on (or maybe just UT3) the editor always crashes when I place terrain and rebuild :( So the addition of terrain and water volumes will have to wait until I get this project home.

There's also no SFX hooked into picking up the crystals or opening the doors but I'll get those into the final game.

Here's a video of the level with the full gameplay implemented in my blocked out environment.

(Apologies for the dual monitor view). As always any comments are appreciated.
>

Gears S.A.S. part 1: January Update 2

2011-01-31T13:08:00.000Z

So I'm not exactly where I wanted to be at this time in my Gears project but I thought I'd do a quick update regardless. I have set up most of the coverlinks on the vehicles/sandbags placed within the environment and I'm still refining the placement of them during the later stages of the level.

I've got about half of the enemy spawn points in an triggering and now that I have got to grips with the simple spawning I'd like to get the emergence hole spawns in. As I have a busy month ahead of me I now want to try and get this all blocked out by the end of February. This may require a few long evening and weekend stretches but it will all be worth it once its in and blocked out. The sooner I can get that done the faster I can get some playtesters in on the fun.

Here's a WIP video of my progress so far. Apart from my abysmal encounter with the wretches I think this video shows good progress. Any comments are appreciated!

Gears S.A.S. part 1 Level Update

2011-01-19T13:42:00.000Z

Right, so largely what I've been doing with this project so far is blocking in the basic layout of the environment. Making sure the scale is correct is highly important to me in this level as I thought my UT3 map was scaled completely wrong. I've also been sorting the flow through the map, placing pickups and learning how to set up cover points behind cover objects so I can start having a play through soon. Cover has been placed very loosely at the moment so I have to make sure I do not overload or place too little cover objects.

I'll stick up some WIP images soon as I say, I hope I have finished refining the layout of the buildings so it should only be the pickups, cover points and AI to place and script.

Needless to say I think my ambition of completing this part of the project to a functional stage will not be possible by the end of the month. I am now aiming for the end of February.

EDIT: On the plus side I am really pushing getting through a number of my 360 games. Gears 2 and Batman Arkham Asylum started last weekend!

Gears of War 1 completed!

2011-01-11T10:20:00.000Z

I completed Gears 1 over the weekend and I have to say that I am now more informed about how to layout my buildings and flow through an environment and I know first hand how difficult each enemy type will be.
So before I complete blocking out my level in the editor I think it's sensible that I review my initial layout and see if it will still fit in well with the game now that I have a better idea of the flow through levels.

Also, because of the time limit (and the fact that the image I wanted to use in the WoLD contest was more suited to a Source map) I decided not to enter. Instead I would like to try and get this Gears level fully blocked out with the main gameplay features by the end of the month. If I can do this then it will keep me well on track to my 6 games in a year target.

New Year, new projects!

2011-01-02T21:34:00.000Z

So I've just arrived back from London and was going to jump straight into finishing blocking out my Gears level when I noticed the the World of Level Design are having another contest. I feel compelled to enter this one too as its going to stretch me again to not only working to a deadline but this is split into two parts so that I focus firstly on the gameplay mechanics and then the visuals. And, by February I should have a fully complete game level. I guess I'll have to see if the amount of time I can put in will be enough to participate.

So over the latter part of last year I did manage to play more games. Not as much as I'd liked to as I still have over 25 360 games to play but I did finish Fable 3, have played quite a bit of Mass Effect 2 and have nearly finished the co-op campaign of Splinter Cell Conviction (I have to say I am quite enjoying even though it has been irritating at times). This year I want to get through a good number of my 25 games that are catching dust.

I created two Unreal projects last year which was great but this year I want to create 6 games, levels or maps using either UDK, Gears' Editor or UT3's Editor.

Hopefully I haven't set my targets too high. Should be an eventful year.

New UDK Beta with iOS support is released!

2010-12-22T14:36:00.000Z

I've been anxiously waiting for UDK to release this version of their engine so that I can start churning out loads of iPhone game ideas and prototypes.

Available to download now at www.udk.com.

I'll hopefully be sharing some of my own UDK iPhone ideas in the future. Let me know what wonderful ideas and playable games you come up with too.

Gears Level Design Document

2010-12-17T13:00:00.000Z

It's been a while since I posted anything so here's a quick catch up.

I've been completing the first draft of my Gears of War level design document which I'm naming Save All Souls (or S.A.S at least for the time being). It will be a short level, part one of my complete idea for the level. Hopefully it will be a good addition to the Gears universe. The doc can be read here.

Other than that I've been looking at another small project in UnrealEd to keep me entertained at lunch. I've also been adding some additional gameplay features to The Epidemic, polishing the existing ones, trying to revamp the graphics and creating additional levels to make this a good little portfolio piece. Hopefully these changes will make a great improvement so hopefully by the end of January I'll have another UnrealEd project and my SAS level blocked out.

I'll be posting some WIP images of my Gears level as and when I have them.

Portfolio direction...at least for now

2010-11-21T22:56:00.000Z

So it's been a few weeks since I completed my Halloween house project in UDK and I've been busy writing posts for Take Initiative and putting together a level design document for a Gears of War level that should hopefully show that I am capable of creating a single player level with interesting cinematics and a beautiful environment. However, after having a think about my current direction in design I have decided to put this level on hold as it will be a lot of work and as I haven't finished playing Gears Of War yet it may be a bit early for me to assume that I could put together a level that would fall into place seamlessly within the storyline that I haven't discovered yet. So until I have finished my level design document and completed Gears of War, I'll be concentrating on developing smaller game ideas that show my interests.

I really enjoyed using UDK and Unreal tech so I'll definitely be returning to it within the new year. Hopefully playing more shooter, open-world, single player campaign games will help me gain a better understanding of the genre so that I can apply this knowledge to my own levels next year.

My idea at the moment in order to produce a number of small projects within a short length of time is to create simple Game Maker games or Flash movies demostrating the core mechanics and major features of the game ideas. As someone is more likely to sit a watch a short 1 - 2 minute video of a game than sit and play through 30 levels of a game I think that this is the best way to go. This decision also appeals to me because of my limited time at home due to work and making time to play games.

It's been a while since I played around with Game Maker and years since I've put together something in Flash so hopefully within a few weeks (Christmas willing) I'll have something new to put in my portfolio.

Halloween Postmortem

2010-11-02T22:13:00.000Z

So last week Thursday I decided to draw a line under my halloween house and upload my final images for entry into the World Of Level Design challenge. I can honestly say that every time I use Unreal tech I learn alot more.

So for this quick post mortem I have to start by stating that I should have began this project at the beginning of October instead of at the end of it. That way I would have at least been able to scratch half of the wonderful sctipts that I had to bring this building to life. But although I didn't get the inside of the house done, visually I'm extremely please with the way this has turned out.
I also am extremely confident in importing models from Max into UDK after creating a great little pumpkin and created some of my own custom textures (ok, sourced from the internet but I did have to remember how to alter them in Photoshop and learn how to add them into UDK).

I am planning on re-visiting this project later next year to get the scripted sequences sorted and to also fix the following things:

Sky materials
I couldn't work out how to apply a good dark, moon filled sky so I settled for inky black. A great big bright moon would look brilliant so I do aim to get this done next time.

Lighting
I wasn't happen about the lighting in the bottom part of the house. This is because I do have a lot of open space within the house so I'll make sure that the rooms are closed of to restrict light leaking.

Model Creation
Despite the hair pulling and headache of it all I really did enjoy creating my pumpkin model and I think it would be fun to create some more reusable models for this building e.g. small round windows, large front doors, metal gates, internal doors and internal props.

I do have to mention this textures site that I did find later on in this project but was a great help with the amount of materials it has and they are all the correct size and offset correctly so all you need to do is save as a targa. Brilliant!

3 Days to go!

2010-10-26T23:14:00.000+01:00

The countdown continues and I began today with the intention of sticking to my 'schedule' but this didn't go as planned.

I first decided to create a pumpkin in max, export that, then import it into UDK. How hard could that be right? Wrong (sometimes it feels like I'm the only one to have problems with computers and software). So I created my pumpkin, all be it very basic and no carved face but hey, it was just a test to see how to export and import. So after I added my materials I exported the model and tried to import it into UDK. The model appeared perfectly. Woohoo! I thought then I realised that instead of the 3 materials slots I had assigned only one appeared :( I still have no clue what I did wrong but after spending too much time dwelling on that I decided to re-organise my schedule and get other things done.

So this evening I have finished the layout of the grounds and added my own material to the building (which I think looks much better in capturing the age of the building and adds more authenticity to the scene). I also changed the bright skybox material to a black night sky and added fog to the grounds. I think the lighting is ok at the moment but I may tweak that a bit more tomorrow.

So all in all, despite a poor and unfortunate start I did get a lot done this evening and its not even midnight yet. Bonus!

I do still want to get pumpkins into my scene so I am still on a mission to do this before Friday. But if this isn't possible I think my building and the grounds look great and I am very proud of myself. I don't think I have a good chance of winning because the competition is fierce but in this case, it really is the taking part that counts.

So the last tasks really are to import my pumpkins and take some screenshots.

4 Days to go!

2010-10-26T09:26:00.000+01:00

So, I'm cutting it extremely close here.

I've spent the weekend bringing my building up to scratch and I think it looks quite cool now. This was I had by the end of Sunday:

So I spent a few hours yesterday working on the grounds and adding foilage to the building to bring it to life.

I've also put together an extremely rough model of a sign depicting the WoLD reference so I don't forget this.

So for the rest of the week this is my plan:

Tuesday: Create a (very basic) gate, import a pumpkin model and add final touches to the building/grounds decor.
Wednesday: Get the skybox sorted, sort out the exterior lighting
Thursday: Add the fog, take preliminary screenshots

Hopefully I can stick to this, but things do have a habit of going wrong so fingers crossed.

Here's what I have so far, I don't think it's too bad at the moment but I'd like some pumpkins to really create that halloween feel.

Blocking out my halloween house

2010-10-19T23:20:00.000+01:00

I finally got around to posting on the WoLD forums to enter myself into the challenge.

Having already cut down my aims and objectives for this project I thought with the limited amount of time that I have left that this would be acheivable (see my post on the WoLD forums). But after reading a reply from someone I have decided to reign back totally on any scripting and focus on creating a really visually attractive environment. It's sad because I was really looking forward to creating all of those effects but thinking realistically I probably won't be able to get it all done before next Friday :( But it's all good experience and I have learned from this that if I intend to make a map for a contest with a month's deadline don't start it halfway through the month. I should have time to go back to this map early next year and start the kismet and matinee sequences to really bring the map to life so I am looking forward to this. Luckily for me I am happy with the interior layout so all I'll have to do is the kismet and matinee work. But now back to the present...

So today I added a basic terrain texture, a boundary for the map (which will act as the wall), reworked the roof (so it hangs over the edges of the walls to improve the shape) and added a basic brush for the roof windows. I also added a skybox with a material as near to a blackened sky as I could get at the moment. However, I will look into getting a better material this weekend.

So this is what I have so far...

The next time I open the editor I intend to try and get the materials for the walls of the building and roof applied.

Halloween's approaching!

2010-10-13T15:37:00.000+01:00

It's been a busy time for me over the last week. Moving back to the original project I was hired for and yes, doing overtime (again!). But this will not deter me from continuing to build my portfolio. Right now I'm considering entering the WoLD Halloween contest.

I've thought of an idea and will be using UDK. As this will be the first time I use UDK I will be creating an explorable environment rather than a gameplay map. However, I do intend to improve on the visual quality of my level by making long corridors more interesting by using a variety of materials, effects and more meshes.

So my aims for my next level will be:

To create a halloween themed exploratory map suitable for entry into the WoLD contest. I am currently basing the building design, the lighting and the fog effect on the photo above. The player will begin within the grounds of the house. The house will be fully explorable and it will include the following:

Scripts

Creaking doors and floors
Knocking sounds when the players walk around
Flickering lights/candles
Fog particle effects
Moving/running shadows similar to what was done within Dead Space - This seems like a great idea, whether I can pull it off in the short time I have is another thing entirely.

Visual

Holes in the roof and floorboards
Spiderwebs
Pumpkins
Spooky looking trees
Large dark green hedges surrounding the house and large trees around the back
Large metal gates
Time of Day: Night time with moonlight and street lighting

Possible additions (if I have time):

Bats flying outside
Player interactions triggering events e.g. when interacting with cupboards bats will fly out
Wind sounds
Matinee Sequence: wind effect that looks as if the candles have blown out
Importing custom models (even if it's only one)
Publish the map this time (although I don't think its actually required for the contest)

So that's my list. It does seem quite alot to do as I have a full time job, overtime, other activities and only 12 evenings to do this in. But hey, if you don't try you'll never know.

Ruins of the Mayans: Quick-Point Postmortem

2010-10-10T15:44:00.000+01:00

Well I have finally gotta to the Beta stage of my map (Hurrah!). I'm having a few teething problems with publishing the map (mainly materials missing GRRR!) so I have decided to look into this a bit further down the line, but for now I'm happy to stick some screenshots of the Beta version to my map on my portfolio site and upload a video later in the week.

As I have learned a hell of a lot on this project I thought I should take some time to reflect a moment on what went wrong and what went right in a quick-point postmortem.

THINGS THAT WENT WRONG

The original design was a bit one directional - players traveled up to the pyramid and once up there there wasn't much to do on the back entrance apart from travel down again. This meant I had to redesign the map so it took me longer than expected to get past the blockout phase.
Setting up team start points as opposed to player starts - I failed to realise that in there were two different types of player starts. Word to the wise for all noobs, when you are following a tutorial for creating map, make sure the tutorial relates to the type of map you are creating so that you add the correct player starts or in my case the team start points.
Creating kill volume in the water restricts the player's path and makes them stay on course - This was a great feature to add as I could manipulate the players paths instead of them using the water to swim away.
Setting the player starts to different teams - Again another niggling little issue that stumped me for a while. Thankfully I found some helpful tutorials on the net to aid me with this. Essentially set each team start to a different number either 0 or 1 for a two teamed game.
When blocking out, place everything before getting the players to playtest - They won't get the full experience if only half of the game features have been added. Seems stupid but I did it so I think it's worth noting.
Doing this project whilst working through an Alpha and Beta period on a AAA title is quite demanding, physically and mentally - Thankfully I worked on the majority of this project during my lunch hours because after I got home I was extremely tired. Unfortunately this meant that I was restricting myself to only five hours work per week for a while. I did put a lot more hours into the development of this map during the latter stages though.
Publishing map - I have recently found that some materials have been missed from the cooked map. Whether this was due to Unreal crashing near the end of this or that the materials I used just weren't accessible I don't know, however I will be looking into this further.

LESSONS LEARNT/THINGS TO DO NEXT TIME

Fully define my goals and expectations for the game before I begin.
I need to have a much fuller sense of the gameflow and pick ups needed at what point in the game. To make sure that I do this I will be making more detailed maps before I even touch the editor.
Adjust the spawn rate of the pickups - As this will prevent players camping at locations where the better items are spawned. By decreasing or increasing the spawn rate of the pick ups will also allow me to change the difficulty of the game.
Research architecture and environments more thoroughly so that when using restricted assets like only UT3 ones, I have alternative ideas of what to implement within the environment to make it more interesting instead of flat walls and empty space. And if models are needed know exactly how things will look and where I can get these from.
Playtesting sessions and getting feedback are a godsend! - I would have never have gotten to the level I am at now without the feedback I had from the WoLD forums and my playtest sessions. Mainly the entire flow of the game was fixed and changes that were necessary were made to make sure the game was fun.
Add cover spots so AI can also use cover and add 'priority' path nodes so that the AI move to those locations when the flags or significant objects are obtained by the player.
Re-work the scale that I use to produce a better sized map. The scale that I used was way too big. This was able to be seen clearly especially within corridors and exterior areas.
Beyond Unreal Forums are ace! A great forum that I used when I got stuck with small kismet issues.
Make more sniper locations for FPS - If I ever create another multiplayer map I will have to create more sniper locations.
The amount of playthroughs I did was good and gave me very informative feedback that helped to make my level much better (4 or 5)
Optimisation - I need to make sure that I have used the minimum amount of static meshes, lights and brushes to ensure when I create larger levels that the frame rate or loading times of the levels are not affected. If I get into this habit now then hopefully I should be ok when it comes to my more ambitious projects.

In conclusion, I've learned that research needs to be thorough and across all aspects of your level. But playtesting with experienced players of your genre will give you invaluable feedback and help to improve your game highly.

RotM - Nearing the end of a great journey

2010-09-20T12:59:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since my last blog post so to sum up, I've been putting the finishing touches to map by adding meshes to the area. The hardest thing that I am finding is locating appropriate assets provided with the game that suit the style of my map.

I also realise that although I spent a lot of time researching the look of my pyramid, I didn't fully look into what should be within the corridors. So the last of my time is being spent populating the corridors of the pyramid and the tomb before I do the exterior and interior lighting before the final playtest. Well...that's the plan anyway.

One-Page Designs

2010-09-20T12:51:00.000+01:00

As I'm trying to diligently create a lot of content for my portfolio it is important for me to not only create a lot of high quality designed games and levels but also to show that I can document my ideas and levels to a high standard. Unfortunately, creating comprehensive design documents takes a lot of time and (as I'm working to a deadline) this will eat away at my time to actually develop these games considerably.

I do want to demonstrate that I can create great documents that support the fantastic games that I make but alas what could I do? The answer came to me in the form of a tweet by Matt Glanville (thanks so much!). He'd read a blog post by Josh Sutphin, a Lead Game Designer at Lightbox Interactive, which talked about a great way to fully document games - One-Page Designs. This idea was brought to Josh's attention by Stone LiBrande, Creative Director at EA/Maxis who did a talk on this subject this year at GDC.

Using this method the designer would fully document sections of the game i.e. the UI, game mechanics or map layout and encounters using diagrams, icons, story boards etc practically anything apart from paragraphs of text. Apparently this method is more appealing to readers and they are more likely to read the one page rather than a one hundred page document. I'm not sure how true this is (although I'm sure that it's not far wrong) as I haven't used this method yet, but over the next few months I will be using this method to document the various small games and maps that I'll be creating as they will save me time and provide me with documentation for my portfolio.

If you've used this method of documentation before please let me know your thoughts.

Alchemy on Android!

2010-08-26T14:40:00.000+01:00

The past few days I've been for lack of a better word obsessed with a game released on Android called Alchemy. The basic idea is to combine different elements to create new things. You start with the basic elements of earth, water, fire and air and away you go. You combine the secondary and tertiary products of these combinations to create even more new objects. There are 300 items to unlock in total and so far I'm on 118. So quite a lot more to go and it's starting to get really tough.

But what I love about this game is that it's such a simple idea. As I have an interest in science myself I was trying to think of an educational game using the periodic table elements but this has blown me away. It's a much better idea than using elements from the periodic table as everyone will identify even the most basic elements of earth, air, fire and water.

I also love the little easter eggs and quirky objects that I've unlocked so far. I've found Yoshi, the 1 Up mushroom from Mario Bros, a Genie and a Zombie. I can't wait to play some more later on.

So if you have an Android OS on your phone, download this game today. Oh, didn't I mention. It's totally free! Here's a sneak peek at the game for those unfortunate enough not to have Android.

RotM: Step back to making a better map

2010-08-17T11:13:00.000+01:00

So before I dived into starting to add static meshes and textures to my map I thought I'd get the opinion of one of my friends who is quite an avid FPS gamer. Doing this dropped my hopes of nearly finishing my map to setting me back at least another 2 weeks.

The feedback he gave me was very useful though (it also taught me not to show an half finished blockout map to any player). The main points he raised was that my map didn't have any sort of cover around the top of the pyramid and this meant that the players could easily run from base to base across the top without ever entering the tomb. This point occurred to me before this playtest session but I simply put it to the back of my mind thinking that I would sort it out later when I placed the rest of the meshes. Now I have decided to place either cover to block the paths around the tomb effectively forcing them through the pyramid or to place a lot of coverage at these points to make it a bit more difficult to get to the other bases.

Other little points like placing more pick up on higher levels to entice players to expose themselves and come out of hiding, adding extra rooms that contained better weapons and more ammunition and making sure that the tomb had a good crumbling feel to the area are going to be easy to fix so I intend to do this soon.

The last point that my friend suggested was that there needs to be an additional route that should be safer but longer to travel between the bases and the tomb. This again would further encourage players to travel through the pyramid instead of along the top. So I'd eventually have a shorter more exposed/dangerous route and a longer safer route. More tweaks to the terrain are required for this (not much though) so that's another task to add to the list.

I have though created an underwater effect within the bodies of water in the map so that when you fall into the water there is a blue, watery effect to your vision (Thanks Hourences!). Eventually though I do want to make sure that when players fall into the water they respawn somewhere near their base to save them time trying to get back to the upper areas.

Hopefully I'll be finished this map before my trip to NY.

RotM: The joy of Textures and Static Meshes

2010-08-10T10:27:00.000+01:00

So I've finally finished the geometry for the map. It still needs to be polished but its at a good standard for me to begin filling my map with textures and static meshes. So over the next couple of weeks that's what I'll be doing. I intend to apply the WoLD's technique and work systematically through the map section by section so each area is brought up to the same level of quality.

I'll post some new images soon!

RotM: More Terrain and Water features

2010-08-02T13:25:00.000+01:00

So now I've finished blocking out the terrain and pyramid so that the tomb now has exits that lead out up to the ground level.

I'm going to be placing the pick-ups today so that the map is closer to what I think will be the gameplay in the final design.

The rest of the week I guess I'll be adding the kismet and matinee triggers in to activate the secret doors (that I want to put in place over the tomb exits) and finish refining the terrain. There are some areas of the terrain that still need smoothing and the steep drops at the sides of the pyramid need to be steeper. I also think that raising the river will also be beneficial for the map. Currently at some points in the terrain the player cannot see down to the river and it would be a shame to block the players' view of this feature.

Ruins of the Mayans

2010-07-26T22:22:00.000+01:00

As I'm posting progress of my Mayan pyramid level to the WIP forum of World of Level Design (a great site for anyone interested in learning how to start level design) I thought I'd do the same on my blog.

This map has gone through so many iterations already from indoor map to outer and inner gameplay areas. The whole mayan pyramid theme was only decided upon when I decided to create an outdoor environment. I really like the unique shape of the mayan pyramids and my initial idea of a maze fit in very well for the bottom level of the pyramid, after that the environment was sort of built around that.

Below are some screenshots of my early iterations of the outdoor level.

After putting these screenshots on the WoLD forums I got some feedback that made me realise that my map had no purpose anymore. Yes players could run up to the pyramid, navigate around the corridors and fall into the tomb where they could battle further and exit out into the environment once more but this was not what I wanted. I wanted the tomb to be the central piece of this map, so after hearing some feedback that I think I needed to hear I came up with what you see below (apologies for the size).

I think this new direction for my map is where I wanted to head. Initially it was a capture the flag map with two bases at either exits, but as I expanded into a larger map I changed it to a death match type. I haven't fully decided on which type it is but I think now that I have reduced the scale and switched a few things around it could be a good little CTF map.

This week I'm going to work on getting the terrain refined. I need to create sheer drops on the sides of the pyramids so that rivers can flow around the sides towards a waterfall at one of the empty corners. I also want to put in two paths, one from each of the tower bases to lead the player into the tomb.

Then, on to (finally!) texturing some of this map!

I'm really happy with how this is progressing, although I do think I may not get it finished by this weekend. You can't rush if you want to learn though.

The Importance of Planning

2010-07-12T16:34:00.000+01:00

I have revisited learning level design using the Unreal Editor and I have to say that I am finding this time, time well spent.

Since my evenings are spent at work (yes at work!), relaxing (when I actually get in from work) with my boyfriend, eating dinner or sleeping, I have being using my lunchtimes to practice using the editor.

During the first few lunches I was producing work straight from the tutorial, but unsatisfied with this, I decided to produce something using the small amount of new skills that I had acquired to produce a unique map and help to hammer into my brain the methods of using the basics in Unreal.

I had my own ideas, and decided to start small with an indoor level. Once I finished blocking out the level I realised that it was far greater than I thought and I would have to spend a lot more time on it than I realised. And this would be time I could have used to go through more tutorials and learn additional stuff.

So (in my not so infinite wisdom), I planned out an outdoor equivalent to my previous level simple adding terrain. But once I got into the editor I realised that I wasn't happy with how this was turning out. The outdoor area was far too bare, so I added bits and pieces of architecture wherever I felt was needed. But now I needed to redesign the whole perimeter size, also I was moving further and further away from the original objective of this map. It was giving me a headache.

I frequently read the articles published on the World of Level Design site and a couple of articles had recently been posted detailing the 11 Day Level Design process. I decided to use this as a guide, as I didn't have 11 full days to produce a map within). So I made time to gather some references images, then I sat and drew a few different sketches, gameflow/gameplay routes of the map and pinned down what I wanted to show I could do and, more importantly, what I wanted to achieve with this map.

I found this workflow process extremely helpful because once I had come up with a front and top view of the level and knew what each building would look like, approximations of where they would be and the function of each I was pretty happy with it and jumped into the editor confidently.

I'm in the process of playtesting the flow of this current map with friends and family so that I can incorporate the feedback early into the design so that changes further along into this project will be significantly reduced.

After I have implemented any changes during this stage, I'll carry out another playtest session to ensure that the issues that arose before have been fixed and I'll begin shaping the terrain. WIP images of the map will be uploaded shortly

Hold on TI DeDA Experiment

2010-07-05T10:27:00.000+01:00

Due to unforeseen circumstances the DeDA experiment that I was going to conduct later this year will have to be put on hold. The DeDA (for anyone who has not read a previous post) was going be an experiment to educate myself about games design using a similar course structure to what is taught in current Game Design degree and masters courses around the UK. This course I was going to fit around my hectic social and work life (being a QA tester restricts my time a lot) and also would help me to create a tailored portfolio of great work to help me when applying for junior game/level design roles in the future.

I will try and write informative articles related to game design and post these only on the Ti site but I may not necessarily be able to write about how this affects my own project(s).

Creating my portfolio is my main goal at the moment and to get the work done within a specific time limit. This means that I will just be focusing on what I need to put in the portfolio and what skills I want to show. Hopefully by the end of this time frame, I will have at least two additional small projects to add to my portfolio.

Review of 2010 Goals

2010-06-25T14:28:00.000+01:00

Late last year I made some goals to get myself into a junior design role. These were:

* Play more games

* Make a small game using Unity

* Make a small game level using Unreal Ed

* Create a great standard project, even if it's just the one.

I've laid Unity aside for the moment as I think it's more important for me to focus on learning Unreal to a good standard i.e. terrain, particle emitters, Kismet, Matinee etc so that I can create some excellent gameplay maps and environments.

I have now made some progress over the past month or two as I'm more focused now at using my lunchtimes to work through the Mastering Unreal Technology Volume 1 book tutorials. So hopefully before the end of July I will have a fully built (and working level to show off).

I'm working on playing more games this year so I am pleased with my progress with this. It's just the 'great standard project' that I seem to be slacking on a the moment sadly, but I do still intend to get something created before the end of the year, hopefully the end of August.

Escaping the curse of the 360 Achievements!

2010-06-25T09:13:00.000+01:00

I love collecting things. When I was a little Girl Guide, I had collected so many of the badges that instead of the normal two columned width sash, I had to upgrade to a three column one! In games, e.g. within Dark Cloud (a game for the PS2) I had to get 100% within all the town and upgrade all of my weapons to their highest potential. Now, I didn't immediately jump onto the Achievement Junkie (or Achievement Whore as so many have eloquently named it) bandwagon immediately. I just played games on the 360 for the pure enjoyment of progressing through the games and because I wanted to start to analyse the design of the games in order to help me become a better designer. However, whilst working within a games industry (and being surrounded by a lot of competitive males) I had come to understand another reason for Achievements - bragging rights! And, because of the niffy nature of your gamertags being visible to all your friends and everyone (depending on wherever you want to place it) there is no limit to how many people can view your gamerscore. So after comparing my gamerscore to everyone else's on my Friend's List I was utterly disgusted with my lack of effort, after all gaining achievements is just another form of collecting so I wanted to gain all that I could.

GETTING SUCKED IN
My next game was the Orange Box, specifically Portal. Before I began the game I look at the list of achievements and see plan how I was going to gain them. So I went out of my way to look for all the cameras, fall so far etc in order to gain these achievements. It was only when I was playing Resident Evil with my partner the other night that I realised that while I was going out of my way to gain these achievements, I wasn't taking the time to critically analyse the design of the game or even enjoy what I was playing. When I started getting disappointed that my partner had just gained 60G (by accident!) and I didn't, I realised it was time to stop.

KICKING THE HABIT
I have now consciously decided that I will not play games just for the achievements. Achievements are a good way to make players replay the game and search the vast areas of the game that so many developers took the time to create for our amusement so it's only right that we do make an effort to explore them. Your gamerscore also speaks for itself by showing everyone how much of an interest in games that you do have, so I do think it is important that I do build this up to a significant amount (say over 10K?). But I will not be going out of my way to gain every achievement within a game just for the sake of it. I still feel good when I have gained yet another achievement, but my goal for the future is now focused to analyse the design of games so that when I become a designer I will be a better one and to enjoy the games that I am playing.

Move to Blogger!

2010-06-22T17:17:00.000+01:00

It has become apparent to me that Google are a great global force that is only getting larger and better over the years. So I have decided to move my blog over from it's previous home in Wordpress to Blogger so that I can check out all the fun stuff Google can offer me via Blogger.

Kinectimals!

2010-06-16T17:46:00.001+01:00

Finally the title that I'm working on has been announced!

Kinectimals is a new title being developed by Frontier Developments for the new Kinect system for Microsoft's Xbox 360.

The game is filled with lots of cute animals that you can interact with in a variety of ways and even though it may not appeal to most hardcore gamers, it's guaranteed to be loved by lots of children and young at heart adults.

So watch the trailer below and see what you think.

DeDA: Structure and Update

2010-05-25T10:31:00.000+01:00

I have decided that I am going to break each topic into two parts:

Theory - the current area that I am researching citing references

Development Diary - this will detail my opinions on the subject and (if applicable) how I have applied the theory that I have just learned to my project and why I have chose those decisions.

The theory will be posted on the TI site so that anyone wishing the try out this course in the future can view all of the topics and hopefully learn something from them. While both the theory and my Development Diary posts (detailing the practical application) will be posted here.

At the moment I am currently:

Refining the course content into manageable chunks

After working out my free time in the week, I need to apply the course content into calendar to see approximate full time length of the course

These are my on going tasks to do before I begin my course:

Continue to wrap up my current projects

Continue my research into a suitable reading list

Save some money for laptop and books needed for course

Game Maker Competition 6!

2010-05-23T20:46:00.000+01:00

Sadly I have not yet learned to stop involving myself in new game projects. Currently I have one (shall we say) dormant role in one project, one not so strenuous role (yet) in another project, one project that I'm losing interest in and then there's Project TF which is my main focus at the moment.

The dormant project is unofficially in a hiatus as theproject has now been pushed back for an expected release next year. The team members are now returning to their own lives and other projects which is a shame as it was looking to be a good project. So hopefully, the team will be brought back together later in the year and I can gather some good experience using Unity. The deadline for the project that I'm losing interest in is drawing ever closer so I just intend to do what I need to to for this demo and call it quits. Internet projects are hard especially when there's a lack of communication between the team members and you're losing interest.

The not-so-strenuous project is an interesting one because while it doesn't require alot of input from me at this point in time, it will require me to develop a new design skill set which I will need to practive heavily on in order to deliver good (or at least acceptable results). This project is also non-digital which will be extremely useful in my portfolio as I have not got any non-digital game projects that have been produced. So I am very keen to stick at this project.

Lastly, Project TF. This is my game concept and I need this be achieve great results. The additional member to the project has already helped me intensively, producing a basic engine in a very short time and giving me design critique which is helping me to think over the current mechanics within the game. I'm hoping that Project TF will be a good candidate for the Game Maker 6 competition which has the theme of 'Discovery'. While discovery is not the main focus of the game it is one of the important mechanics for progression and character development. So if my team member and I get it together I may consider entering. There's nothing to lose but everything to gain!

Help with Pitch Documents from Irrational Games

2010-05-21T14:52:00.000+01:00

Irrational games have revealed the pitch document that helped unleash the Bioshock franchise to the world. I would advise any aspiring game designer to have a look at this document as the would be useful for answering questions regarding the content required, the layout and would also give designers an idea of just how much a game can change from conception to the release product. Read it here.

Game Design Challenge: iPad

2010-05-05T09:24:00.000+01:00

So for the last couple of weeks I've been working on an iPad game idea for the fortnightly GameCareerGuide Game Design Challenge. To be honest I did put a lot of effort into this idea asking people's opinions, doing the board layout and just refining the basic rules, so Project TF was neglected only slightly during this time. But luckily my hard work paid off and although I didn't get the a place as the best entry (maybe next time) I did get another honorable mention :) This has motivated me to try more often to 'compete' within these challenges as they do get me to think outside of my usual design box.

So here is my design for the iPad Construction Destruction.

Well...

2010-04-15T14:49:00.000+01:00

...after a few weeks off of being completely lazy and a pitiful amount of time being spent on Project TF over the Easter weekend. I am now returning to the development of this prototype.

Unfortunately, it seems as if I'm doing this project solo so a lot of the polished art work will only go in once the functionality of features have been verified. This is probably the best plan for me as spending time working on or looking for resources will take up a considerable amount of my time. So anyone playtesting the project will hopefully look past the graphics and focus on the mechanics and gameplay to help me refine the game to make it more enjoyable for players. After I, playtesters and focus testers are satisfied with the improvements I'll start creating beautiful graphics to help my game shine.

Where I am at now is completing the final details of the design on the project site and I've got the following done and into the control system: Walking, Jumping, Machete Move 1, Machete Move 2, Whip Move 1, Lassoo, Discovery.

The problems that I have encountered at the moment is that after the animation has finished playing the character is not moved to the new coordinates, so that will be my first thing to look at. Also the Discovery move needs further animations made of the character at a smaller size. This shouldn't be difficult, but will take a bit a time as I didn't think to cover this when making the rest of the sprites. Also there is a small problem of the character playing the jumping animation and using the Discovery move at the same time because they are on the same buttons, but all of these seem quite minor and I don't reckon they should be difficult to fix...hopefully.

After this is done, I'll work on some basic enemies, the experience and the Intellect system.

The TI:DeDA Programme

2010-04-07T21:35:00.000+01:00

Over the last few weeks I've looked into the objectives and learning outcomes of degree and masters courses within the UK currently available to anyone wishing to get into the games industry. And I have also been trying to generate a suitable name for the programme.

The Programme Title

From looking at these course outlines and a few requirements of my own I have come up with a first draft of the objectives and learning outcomes for my new course, which will be called the Take Initiative: Design Degree Alternative (DeDA) .

I decided to focus on a course that consisted of subjects taught on degree courses so that it will cover the basics of game and level design for beginners. As I am not qualified to teach a professional course most of the information I distribute will be from secondary sources, my own experiences with design and whatever I learn along this process. I intend to create a plan to produce each project that will be used in the portfolio, but will break each section of the development process down so that the participant has a chance to analyse that stage of the process in greater detail.

Objective and Learning Outcomes

After researching the objectives and learning outcomes of the current Degree and Masters courses within the UK I have created a shortlist of the objectives that I want DeDA to achieve and the learning outcomes that I want the participants of the DeDA to gain.

Objectives

Keep the cost of books, tool, software and trips i.e to conferences and/or IDGA meetings under the cost of professional/official courses at this time. Currently, this is about

Provide information and teach participants how to use current development tools e.g. UDK/UT3, Unity or Hammer to produce high standard game projects.

Be level design and game design focused

To be a suitable time scale to learn all the content outlined in the course and produce a portfolio to fit around a schedule i.e. a QA role

To produce a portfolio of work that will (hopefully) consist of 2 large projects that demonstrate knowledge of current tools

Learning Outcomes

A comprehensive understanding of the study of games and techniques used to create them

To be able to make critical analysis of certain areas of games after playing them and to be able to talk confidently about them

Learn to design and develop game projects from concept to release using the latest development tools

Be able to make contributions to the development of innovative games, methods, concept, genres or mechanics.

These still need to be looked over and refined but they seem pretty solid for me at the moment.

Project TF: Update

2010-03-15T20:34:00.000Z

Right, so last week I got all of the animations for the game into GameMaker. This week I'm looking to assign the controls to the animations to make the character walk, jump, use their weapons and the discovery feature.

Phrase for Thought

2010-03-14T22:14:00.000Z

"To be really good at anything, you have to spend 10k hours on it" - Malcolm Gladwell.

New Direction for OliveWorks

2010-03-09T18:16:00.000Z

Right, so I've had a think about how I want the future of this blog to progress and I want it to be a game development blog personal to me so showing my postmortems and sharing lessons learnt throughout all of my projects.

I'll also be posting more information about the game development course alternative (GDCA) that I'm working on to see if I can put together a course with the content of a Masters programme but at a much lower cost. So keep watching this space if you're interested in developing your game design skills at a lower cost.

Project TF progress: Development Time!

2010-03-08T12:53:00.000Z

I've got a rough idea of the stats for the enemies and will be using this to get all the moves' attributes correct. I have decided to cut down from the original 60 I have to a more realistic 30(-ish) as at the moment I don't think there will be enough content to equally distribute these moves to the player throughout the game.

So far I have learnt that during the design phase of this game I need to design these aspects in the following order: Core mechanics, Other mechanics to support gameplay, intended hardware/software, controls,character stats, enemies stats, weapons and their attributes.

So my tasks for this week are:

Making a dev schedule for prototype

Starting the prototype development

Project TF documentation progress

2010-03-03T22:14:00.000Z

Right, so I'm a bit behind with starting the production of this project however this is due to work and can't be helped.

So far, I've developed a list of moves that the different weapons gain as they progress and I'm working to finalise the details for these such as amount needed to unlock etc. Lastly I'm working on some basic enemies nothing major at the moment just someone to practice the moves that I have on and help me to balance it.

Looks like I'm working on the weekend so may be a little behind starting the implementation of this but I've saved time setting up the basics by using an early early version of a previous project of mine. Once I make a schedule of the prototype I'm hoping everything will come together so this project can be wrapped up by September 11th.

Professional Masters or Self teaching?

2010-03-02T13:48:00.000Z

I've recently been investigating a Masters course which offers the best course content for me. So, for me, this is not a programming related or focused course, but one which has a focus on game and level design and possibly modeling as I enjoy that too.

Another thing that I have thought about it the type of software that the institutions can offer me. Most designer job posts state that the candidate will need a knowledge of the Unreal Editor, Hammer or similar tools. So learning these tools are of high priority to me.

Some courses I have read about state that they use the latest technology but when I looked into it further I found out that their 'latest' tool was a product exclusively available to everyone that had the internet. Too bad as the rest of the course content seemed good, but the price tag of over £5K for a course and tools that I can download myself put me way off.

Now that UDK and Unity Indie is freely available to everyone there is no reason why I shouldn't be able to produce games with the current technology retail games now use that are well polished and are up to a quality high enough to be good for distribution. After all some of the iPhone games distributed nowadays are made by small teams.

So far I think I've found an online course that will allow me to work and study part time. I'm still waiting to find out about details about the course content, tools and fees that they use but I am considering this course.

The alternative, of course, will be if I can find some decent books that will teach me the ins and outs of game design, teach myself the latest tools and develop a small polished project (or two) demonstrating my design skills I reckon I could get the same output of knowledge and portfolio content from this instead of a professional Masters programme. Ok, so I won't walk away with a qualification, but I will have saved thousands of pounds that I can use for much more. I've attempted to do this in the past working on short projects and some have been developed but not in the tools that I need to learn or demonstrate an ability in. I have also been side tracked by life so I would be working each week in an unstructured way with only bits and pieces getting done when I had time or was focused enough. This time, I believe by outlining a full long term timetable will help me develop a good work attitude and produce faster results with my work.

So if I intend to start my own 'Masters' programme will have to develop a course which will fulfill the following:

Keep the total cost of the course e.g. books, trips (for conferences and IDGA meetings) under the price of a professional Masters programme at the present time

Teach myself the current development tools

Produce a portfolio of work

Keep up to date with the current games industry news and design techniques

Put together a useful reading list

To do this over the next 6 months I need to do the following:

Wrap up/finish my current projects

Buy a laptop capable of running the latest development tools

Gather people's opinions and read book reviews to develop a reading list

Design a part time two year course to follow around my work schedule that includes learning game design theory and how to use the latest development tools

Create a calendar to block in a fixed schedule of time to dedicate to this 'Masters' course

So, as well as waiting for more information about this course, I'm going to start preparing and researching for this course.

Progress with Project TF

2010-02-21T14:57:00.000Z

Well it's been a while since I posted anything about the progress about this project so to quickly sum up:

A working title has been decided for this game

We've lost the concept artist pegged for this project to another one of their personal projects :( So that means I'm doing a lot more of the work. Good because I'll have a lot of stuff to put in my portfolio, but bad because I'm no where near at a great standard at the moment so I guess I'll churn out lots of sub standard work before I get to the gold. Also with all this extra work the project length will undoubtably increase.

Fully dedicated to using Game Maker as the prototype tool for this project and who knows maybe the full dev tool. With the release of GM 8.0 I acquired a free upgrade to this new iteration so I will be able to use all of the new features that hopefully this project will benefit from.

Set up a wiki to manage the documenting of this project. As I normally do this in Word docs I thought I'd give this method a try. I have already found this extremely useful as I can access the up to date docs online from home and work. I am also using this as the project site so that any prospective team members will be able to follow the progress of the project and judge whether they would like to be a part of it (this link will be disclosed in the future as the project prototype begins to take shape). The only downside to using the wiki that I chose was that I found out that Google do their own one and it looks much better :( But I'm still happy with WikiSpaces as it seems that it can integrate most items like spreadsheets and Google's calendar into a page as well as Google's Wiki alternative.

So, right now I'm ironing out the details for the prototype like the mechanics of the game and systems with the other members of this project so that I can start as soon as possible on this prototype. I hope to begin this the week beginning the 9th March.

Talisman of...

2010-02-09T16:44:00.000Z

Trying to write up the doc for a new game that some of my friends in QA and I are developing. I haven't decided the dev software yet but it's looking like Game Maker because its quick or trying my hand at Unity. We also need a working title so hopefully that's sorted soon.

One doc down!

2010-01-31T17:44:00.000Z

So I've finished the short concept document for the NTG game and now I'm going to start thinking more about this short platform adventure game that I'm concocting with a friend from work. The pitch document for this project can be found here.

NTG: Completing the doc

2010-01-29T23:50:00.000Z

I've nearly finished working on the doc now. I've got a few interface diagrams mocked up and just need to complete the screen mockups with just basics of what options each holds.

I've also joined another group project using Unity to improve my skills and motivate me to keep learning it. My main task is just to design puzzle and quests but if I practice with Unity more I may be able to be a level designer too for this demo, which should be completed by May so says the project lead. Guess we'll see how that goes.

NTG: Finalising mechanics, screen flow and interface design

2010-01-07T10:52:00.000Z

Last night I didn't get a lot of the documentation wrote up, but I did pin down the entire mechanics of the game, screen flow chart and interface design of the game.

I've decided (if time permitting) that there may be two modes: complete before the time runs out and get the fastest time. I couldn't decide which would give the better gaming experience so I decided that creating both and testing both will help to decide this.

Only drafting left to do is the GUI at during the main game. I'll use simple menu designs at the moment and just concentrate on getting it all fleshed out into a working basic prototype.

It should be interesting trying to do this whilst learning the tool.

NTG: Mechanics and Scheduling

2010-01-04T15:00:00.000Z

Over the past couple of weeks I've been fleshing out the mechanics and scope of this project. The majority of this doc should be completed over the weekend and hopefully some basic level designs so that I can start creating a very basic prototype of the game with basic art elements.

2010 Goals

2009-12-21T15:30:00.000Z

Last year I set myself the following tasks:

Make a list of target companies that I want to aim for first.

Tailor my covering letter for a specific role/company

Polish my CV and strip out any unnecessary content

Develop a great portfolio - 3D level, Design documents, Small, 2D playable game demos, Only your best work

Sadly, I never good round to completing a 3D level, due to the amount of projects I got involved with, holidays and changing jobs. Luckily I have secured a contract role as a tester at one of the companies I'd want to work at as a designer so I'm learning first hand how a game is created. Unfortunately, this has also had a negative affect as I have been woken up to the realisation that I don't have enough great standard work to show as of yet to even be considered for a junior design role here. Fortunately, I have now made a lot of friends that are also eager to extend their skills and combine our work to produce a good project.

So as I have gotten myself into a good position for gaining a junior design role, I have seen how far away I still am, so that will require a lot more work and dedication this coming year.

This year I thought I would try to make a shorter list of specific goals:

Play more games

Make a small game using Unity

Make a small game level using Unreal Ed

Create a great standard project, even if it's just the one.

So these are my targets. First I will try and develop short documentation for the both of them so that next year I can begin learning the tools and development of the projects.

GameCareerGuide Challenge: Restaurant Success

2009-02-27T09:32:00.000Z

I've been taking part in these weekly design challenges hosted by GameCareerGuide as an when I can over the past five months now. Much to my dismay when none of my entries have been selected, but nevertheless I think these challenges are an exceptional way to keep me thinking about creating new innovating games so I continue to take part.

Last week the Game Design Challenge: Restaurant Game was set. My first idea, like many that probably were selected, was to do with management of entire restaurants so after detailing my concept I submitted it. But I continued to think how I could develop a game that would benefit a potential restaurant owner that would teach them the skills to run a successful business and I came up with a series of mini-games for potential restaurant owners - Restaurant Success (I know, I have to come up with catchier names). Happy with my idea I submitted it and unfortunately it, like many other ideas didn't make it into the top 3. However, this second idea did make it into the list of honorable mentions and that is surely a sign of progress to me. So here's my idea, Restaurant Success.