Elements of game design, part three: character

So the importance of characters is something gaming companies are beginning to think about more and more these days because the market of shooting games with gorgeous graphics but no story isn't going to attract all people quite frankly.

This is right up my street.

I am so hardcore about characters I really couldn't care about the graphics and effects of games.

Ok so that's not entirely true, of course having good graphics, sound and effects will make a game aesthetically pleasing and beautiful to play, where you will stand around for 10 minutes just panning the camera around the character and admiring the view, I'm pretty sure we're all guilty of this but if a game is beautiful but has no characters to fall in love with or a story to rip you apart then is it really worth playing?

After being emotionally attached to Ezio for three games you witness his death

I actually don't think so, this is why I never really invested in the Call of Duty series, they care about the multiplayer more than anything so the actual campaign storylines are incredibly short, I remember my dad finished it in a couple of days, and my dad's the kind of person who has been trying to finish the main storyline of Fallout 3 for three years now. People have said that Call of Duty has been the same game since the first Modern Warefare but with better graphics, this is why I never played it properly. When I spend £40 on a game I want one that will give me at least 40 hours of gameplay with an emotional story and characters who I can truly fall in love with. This is why I am emotionally attached to Fallout, Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed, even Uncharted, which isn't that long but has such an emotional story and gorgeous characters that it's 100% worth it.

Where's the real story CoD?

So what is it about these games that I love and why I am emotionally invested in them? Well take a movie for example, how about Star Wars (the original three of course)? Three movies of the same characters and you'll eventually grow attached to them, you'll feel such sadness when Luke finds out Darth Vader is his father (spoiler alert! Wait..) and when Vader aids Luke against the the Emperor, losing his own life I'm sure many people have cried over it. It's exactly the same in games, if you find a game that will make you cry because you just love the characters so much then you're doing characters and story right. Go to Tumblr and you'll find thousands of blogs crying over fictional characters (including mine..). So Mass Effect has to be one of the most emotionally draining series I've ever played. Spoilers ahead for a few games by the way.

This make anyone tear up?

Mass Effect is a trilogy and you play as your own Commander Shepard for all three games. In Mass Effect 1, about 15 minutes into it your Turian friend Nihlus is shot dead by the main antagonist of the game, Saren. This is just a big kick in the head for all of the deaths that you will face for the rest of the Mass Effect series, and God did some of those death's kill me. You'll build friendships, close bonds, even romantic relationships with some characters and if they don't die then rest assured Shepard will die instead at the end of Mass Effect 3. Oh yes the 150+ hours you've invested in this trilogy all for Shepard to die. Nice. But as I was saying, the way you will grow emotionally attached to these fictional characters is remarkable, I remember having to play a bunch of side quests which took me hours just because I wanted enough paragon points so that Tali wouldn't die during her quest in Mass Effect 3, that's how much I loved the characters, I would go out of my way to ensure they survived for as long as they could. Apart from Miranda. Because I accidentally didn't warn her about Kai Leng. And I'd been dragging my Mass Effect 3 playthrough for way too long at this point. Sorry Miranda, I'll make sure you survive in my new playthrough, I have more respect for you now that I've seen you die.

"Had to be me, someone else might have gotten it wrong"

Mass Effect is just one game, the same type of emotions will apply to Fallout when you watch dad die after sacrificing his own life for you, in Assassin's Creed where you play as Ezio Auditore from his birth, witnessing the death of his brothers and father all the way till his death after he retired as an assassin through three games and Uncharted where you watch your rival Eddy die at the hands of the descendent monsters. If I can fall in love with a game's story and it's characters then you can tell I will be invested in the series for a long time. So yes, story and characters is so important to me, it's what makes me love the games I love.

"Run."

So this is down to a few things, acting and writing of the characters. If an actor can give life to a wonderful script full of emotion then you will have some wonderful characters that people will instantly fall in love with. If the characters look awesome then even better, I'm sure people have fallen for Garrus Vakarian solely because of the scars on his face.

"The scars have started to fade, I know they drove you wild."

For me I find emotional stories irresistible. If I can fall in love with characters and begin to feel physically sad about the story of a fictional game then I will play it. Haha. All in all if I can fall in love with a game I will never let go of the characters and story, I don't know if this is a mental problem haha but if it is I don't care, because games are my getaway.


Sources:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3115/common_methodologies_for_lead_.php
http://gamasutra.com/features/20060324/cifaldi_01.html
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10216#.UTAOJOsjX6k
http://www.designersnotebook.com/Workshop/CharacterWorkshop/characterworkshop.htm

Elements of game design, part one: from Pong to next-gen…

So from what I've been blogging about previously, we know that games have been around for a long time now but how have they changed? Better yet, have they even changed at all?
Many people will argue that Pacman isn't playing the same game as Super Smash Brothers Brawl but honestly, are the games we play today any different to the first ones? Aside from the graphics and visuals of today's games the idea behind them is the same. There's always a goal you have to reach at the end of a game, levels you have to get to, collecting items, beating your enemies and telling a story, most games have this so what's so different about them all?


Design documents play a big part in the creation of games. Yes, all games have the same sense of direction as I described before but all games ARE different, there will be different things that go into a game to make it, and a design document is the first place to start. The design document lists the initial ideas, maps out characters, designs and story and the people creating the game can act upon this to create something as original or unoriginal as possible. If game artists didn't have a design document then games would be much more 'clunky' and rushed. This is what really makes games different, it depends on how a game is mapped out and created that will make it different and exceptional to other games. If you think about Pacman it has some simple steps; you act as a character that has to avoid being attacked by enemies and you can pick up items to aid you. Ok so we have the main gameplay here so how is this different to other games? Lets have a look. In Spyro the Dragon you are on a quest to defeat Gnasty Gnorc but whilst doing this you have to collect gems and dragon eggs as well as defeating enemies. Sounds like a very similar gameplay style to Pacman actually. But the way the game was made, the different art style, playing full on instead of side scrolling, this is what made Spyro so different and what makes other games so different. The gameplay style may be the same but story applies.

Is Spyro really that different to Pacman?

"The player is paramount" is something all game designers must take into account. When creating a game you must do what the player wants, something they will actually want to play, creativity is key and creating a game that is beautiful visually and emotionally is what really makes a game stand out to everything else, gameplay can be the same but having an emotional story, loveable characters and gorgeous surroundings is what will make something worth playing. Pacman is such an iconic game because of how retro it is, but something like Bodycount has beautiful colours and interesting levels, Fallout 3 is beautiful in it's own way, destroyed and deteriorated as it's theme and you will grow to adore the surroundings and the snow of Assassin's Creed III gives it the edge to a beautiful level.

The beauty of snow in Assassin's Creed III

Randy Pitchford, the president and director of Gearbox states his job is to “worry about a little bit of everything, mainly business and our relationship with our business partners, along with the quality of our games”. This proves that quality is what makes a game special as well as listening to your audience. If you are creating a game then you need to listen to your fans, if you want something that will be appreciated then it's best to listen to your fans.


"Video games probably represent an emerging new media, a new design field, and possibly a new art form. All of these are worthy of study." Games are something within themselves, they are loved by this generation because we grew up with them and the way games have developed has been an inspiring journey for us all, something to aspire to because of how far we have come and how fast it has happened, different genres of games emerging, different art styles, different games and a different story each time, but the gameplay pretty much remains the same, I think we like this so much because it is what we have grown up with, people don't normally like change but having all these new games but with the same goal is something people love. The games themselves don't particularly change but different ways to play it, styles and characters are what differentiates them all.

Garrus Vakarian, loved by most Mass Effect fans

So all in all what is meant by gameplay? Gameplay is what is played in the game and how you play it, there's different types of gameplay, from rpgs and mmos to simulations but they all have a goal at the end of them, this is what makes them games. Different design principles are needed for different game genres art-wise but the goal will stay the same and the leading companies, Ubisoft, Naughty Dog Inc, Bethesda and the rest all know that listening to their audiences and giving them something they are used to, whether it be the VATS system of Fallout or the charm of playing as Nathan Drake in Uncharted, this is what their players look for in their games. It is not down to a single person but the whole team who develop the game as well as the audience that play their games and tell them what they want.

What's important to me in a game? For me personally it's the story, if I can grow emotionally attached to the characters then you'll know I have enjoyed a game. Beautiful graphics and fun gameplay will help but I will always love the story of gaming more than anything.


Sources used:
http://www.paranoidproductions.com/gamedesign/excerpts.html
http://www.randomterrain.com/game-design.html
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2675/into_the_transmission_randy_.php
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2156/game_design_theory__practice_.php
http://www.theoryoffun.com/excerpt.shtml

This Term thus far

So I'm half way into the second term now, and I feel I am improving and doing a lot better than I was last term at least.


Visual Art:
Starting life drawing has been wonderful for me as I absolutely love it, it was most likely what got me onto this course in the first place so doing it again has been a joy. I've started using charcoal and chalk for the first time properly, which I've hated in the past but think I am finally getting used to now and I have a fun time using it to shade.

Charcoal and chalk on mid-tone paper

Quick pencil sketches

Charcoal on white paper

Using a rubber on white paper covered with charcoal

Charcoal drawings

We also did some contour drawings, first of still life, which I did of people I saw whilst in Costa.

A few of the contour drawings from Costa

The week after that we did some contour drawings of street scenes around Leicester and then did an ink wash of them using Indian Ink. I think these were both a lot of fun, I've never done ink washes before but it was pretty simple to pick up and really brought life to my contour drawings!

One of my ink wash pictures in the Leicester market

After that we started on a vehicle design project. This really intimidated me at first since I have so much trouble drawing vehicles and the first vehicle I designed The Albatross, a battleship based off birds I didn't much like.

My first vehicle, The Albatross

So I went back and did a new design of a futuristic flying suit for two people connected through breather tubes on their masks and I liked this design a lot more.

My second vehicle, the Dragon Fly-Suit

We then had to make presentation boards to sell the vehicle, I did a detailed one describing how the suit worked and a more propaganda styled one as it is meant to be used by the military.

The detailed presentation board

The propaganda presentation board

Finally, the last thing we had to do was make a model of our vehicle so I bought a Barbie doll from the £1 store and modeled my suit over it using Fimo Clay. It took longer than I expected because I had to do a lot of waiting for the clay, paint and glue to dry but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, the only thing I don't like is the felt on the wings since I couldn't get it to stick in the style it's meant to be and also I ran out of felt so just had to make do with what I had.

My model of the Dragon Fly-Suit

3D Game Production
We've only had one project handed in thus far in this term and that was to model a Ford Transit van. I found this quite boring as vans aren't very interesting and the modelling took me way longer than I had wanted it to as I had a lot of trouble with the front of the van but I learnt a lot of new skills to use in 3DS Max during this project which have made me understand everything better for example, I learnt that by creating planes and then holding shift and dragging them allowed you to create new planes coming off the original plane, a brilliant feature that without it I wouldn't have been able to model my van as well as I managed to and also by hitting the enter key with the selected faces you want to unwrap during the unwrapping process maps out everything for you smoothly, something that would have helped me greatly because of my terrible unwrapping last term. So even though the project was boring, I'm glad we did it because I learnt these new skills.

Final renders of the transit van

We are now currently almost 2 weeks into out month-long second project of the term which is our first character project! We have to model a gladiator which should be interesting, I'm almost finished with the model of mine, I just want to add some more clothes to him and give him a weapon. We also have to use pelt mapping to unwrap these which we have yet to learn so that should be interesting. This was my first attempt at my gladiator's face, something which scared me greatly as well as scaring a number of other people so enjoy it!

Some scary face modelling

Critical Studies
So far critical studies this term has all been about presentations, which is why I've been so quiet on my blog! We had to write a review on a game of our choice and then make a presentation and present it to the rest of our groups. I chose Fallout 3 and did a very long review on it (because I love it so much!) so when it came to condensing it into a powerpoint I had a lot of trouble. The first time I presented I'll admit that I didn't practice it at all and it was pretty much thrown together at the last minute (sorry Mike!) I didn't pass the first presentation as I ran over the five minute time, had way too much text and not enough images, sat down instead of standing up and didn't look at my audience. I couldn't afford to fail the second time we redid this presentation so I fixed mine up, taking out all of the text and putting in just images, having around 40 slides of images and then set up a five minute timer and practiced what I was going to say and keeping it under five minutes for hours for around a week before we redid the presentation. When it came to presenting it I think I did a ton better, I haven't had my feedback yet but I stood up this time, looked at my audience and pointed at what I was talking about a lot of the time, knew exactly what I was saying, made my audience laugh a couple of times and pretty much was exactly five minutes. I truly hope I pass this time because I put a lot of practice into the redo! I also was told I talk about hot characters in games a lot. Heh.



So so far this term has been incredibly challenging, I really don't do much more than work, on my days off I normally get up and start working straight away and work into the late hours, it's rare for me to have a day where I'm not working for most of it, the only exceptions I can think of so far have been when I went back home for a weekend and took my sister to see Wreck it Ralph (a brilliant film by the way, go and watch it!) and the celebratory drinkup me and my friends had at the Speekeasy game bar in town after handing our Transit Vans in, other than that I more or less work solidly for most of the day, I'm looking forward to the end of this term and handing in all of the hard work I've done really, I truly hope the hours will pay off!