Week Twenty-Four

So then. My last formal blog task, probably for good this time. And I get to sum up two years instead of one, which puts me in a unique(ish) position. I've seen how the course changed from my first first year to my second first year, and I have to say... don't move floors next year! Although, to be honest, although the lack of computers did provide an opportunity for more traditional 3D art, I think that the Max skills are so important to the second year that it seems like something to be avoided.

I think maybe Game Art should have some kind if summer project thing going on. Lots of people stood up at the first presentation and said that their first projects weren't very good because they'd gotten out of practice over the summer. That's a personal opinion though, and not a reflection on any of those people. Maybe Chris would rather we didn't learn bad habits when left to our own devices :P. It just seems like a logical conclusion to me.

The structure of this year, with the first term of going out and about, and the second term of life drawing, seemed to make more sense to me... Although that could be because its the second time around. And it could be that it shouldn't make sense, to keep people challenged and on their toes, but there you are. We seemed to do less revisiting this year though, last year we went back to the canal and places. Or perhaps I missed it, because lets be fair, I have missed fair few sessions.

Other than that... the introduction of Facebook seems to have worked much better than the wiki thing last year, but I can't help but wonder if there isn't a better website for it. Still, Facebook seems to work really well once everyone actually gets on there and gets active. Having an online community definitely seems to be a big bonus though. Its a good way of keeping in contact with the other students, even when I'm not in class too often. And of arranging trips and things to places like Bradgate, in self study time.

And that's where I trail off, and can't think of anything else. I have missed a lot of time. The film sessions were really good though, massively enjoyed the ones that I came to. And Chris' colouring in is always helpful, all of it, so I can't pick out a good bit. Max hates me with a passion, so perhaps I'll leave the 3D side of things alone after the assessment, but the tutorials on blackboard certainly taught me much more than I ever knew before about making the darn thing work...

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/350/what_game_companies_want_from_.php
http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/347/academics_for_game_.php

Week Twenty-Two

The GDC week, or how my tutors tried to make our entire class jealous of their trip to San Francisco (and managed, quite effectively.)

It is quite shocking to me, a non gamer, just how many of these sessions look really really interesting, even though I have no prior knowledge of the game that they're based around. The talk about art directing horror and immersion in DEAD SPACE for example, looks completely fascinating. I don't even watch horror films, and it looks interesting. However, I do think that despite being on wheels no one could have dragged me into the talk about NARUTO: Ultimate Ninja STORM. I mean, one of the areas of focus is listed as secret techniques. Perhaps that means something other than that what I think it does, but still.

Lighting with a purpose. Now there's one that looks like a gem. That could be applied to any form of art, not just game art, even if that's where the practical demonstrations lay. So is it possible to glean advice from games lectures that could be applied to other areas of art? I think so. Especially if you're working on either extreme realism or extreme stylisation for something. Creative and unique stylisation seems to be becoming a big thing in gaming at the moment, and understanding the process from conceptualisation to realisation must surely be helpful for other areas of art and design.

So there. You don't have to be an avid gamer to find things of interest at gaming conferences. Getting a different perspective on something leads to greater creativity, so doing something completely different once in a while is good for those unique ideas.

http://www.gdconf.com/

Week Twenty-One

The ability to reflect effectively on experiences is key to getting the most out of any activity. It allows us to think about why we are doing something, what we gain from it and what it means to us, which often leads to other ideas of things that we could try. It can lead to a greater understanding of ourselves and our motivations, which in turn can help identify any areas which we'd like to change, and the best ways to go about it. Without taking time to reflect and put things into context, we act only on impulse and instinct and therefore the things that we do have less meaning. Its the active part of learning, and how we recognise what things work for us, what things don't work for us and where we want to go with the things that we have learnt. By understanding what does and doesn't work we can avoid making the same mistakes again in the future.

Without reflection, an end product becomes meaningless. We will never be able to replicate it, or make another like it, unless we understand how or why we made the thing in the first place. Therefore, the process is given more meaning by reflection. Reflection also gives us the opportunity to see other avenues of possibility, by thinking something over. It can lead to new ideas, linked to the first, and is therefore a very important creative tool.

What will I gain from three years at university? Well, what have I gained from two years at university? It isn't progress on any particular course, but I still don't think its been a waste. My technical abilities have improved immeasurably. Looking at my work in my portfolio and then in my Game Art sketch books makes me cringe at the old stuff. Money management (believe it or not), cooking more than just instant pasta... The list goes on. Proper reflection means that I don't see these two years as a waste of time, but rather an opportunity to learn a whole bunch of stuff that I didn't know before.

http://llk.media.mit.edu/projects/clubhouse/research/handouts/reflection-v6.pdf
http://www.practicebasedlearning.org/resources/materials/docs/Reflection%20Work%20Based%20Supervisors/page_04.htm
http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/reflecti.htm

Week Ninteen

I think the most striking thing I found when I tried to research this task was that I could find any graduate level art jobs for the game industry advertised anywhere online. That and DMU was the only Game Art course I turned up, but that surely can't be right. Still, its the only one you can find using Google.

On the one hand, some companies prefer you're highly trained, very specialised and technology savvy artists who also perhaps know a little programming. These artists should require little training on the job, and the employer can be sure of the quality and the efficiency of the person whom they are employing. This person fits neatly into a specialised role, and will work to the briefs they are given. On the other hand, some companies would prefer a creative individual with a more Liberal Arts background (really? The internet lies!) who would bring to their company a different perspective. A different perspective, as we've learnt, often leads to more creative ideas, and can add more marketable uniqueness to their final product.

This poses a challenge to the people educating graduates to fill these entry level positions (of which there are not enough.) To do so, a course would have to be continually updating its content to keep up with the current trends of industry, or risk being left behind. Being bang on the current game movement will give their graduates the edge to hopefully get positions over less prepared persons applying for the same position. Only a course that keeps up with movements within the industry, that can change and redirect its programme, could possibly hope to do so.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/jobs
http://www.aswift.com/html/graduates/
http://www.workingames.co.uk/ViewPage.aspx?PageID=100027

Week Eighteen

Sound is used in games in a number of different ways. Primarily its used to create atmosphere, to induce the player to feel some kind of emotional reaction. It can also be a cue to something happening, a change of area or that something is sneaking up on you or is around the corner in front of you. Its used to make game more immersive, more realistic. They add an extra dimension to characters and landscapes, making the whole experience more interesting and therefore more memorable. It can also create a brand or identity for a game or serious of games, or link a game back to a TV show or movie. Having a unique set of sounds is part of the process of establishing a game's identity, which could then be used for marketing. Popular games often spawn soundtracks, and become instantly recognisable if advertised on the TV, or now at movies (for reals. Saw it myself.)

The old games that a lot of people played as children had very different sound tracks, and many hours of accumulated screen time leaves quite an imprint from such a young age. I myself was more of a Sonic than a Mario fan as a child, and found out recently that I still recognise a lot of the older game soundtracks, despite not playing them for years. (I only had a Sega Megadrive :o). Is the music much different now? For sure. But I still recognise some of it.

http://filmsound.org/game-audio/
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/03/retro-game-samples-a-nostalgic-punch-to-the-face.ars
http://www.soundforgames.com/
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1130.asp
http://www.audiogames.net/pics/upload/gardenfors.pdf

Week Seventeen

Game engines are the coding platforms that game are built onto. They run the code in the background that tells the game how to behave, what graphics to generate and how things should move. Having a well built game engine is key to having a smooth running and glitch free game. The typical engine provides a rendering engine, a physics engine, audio, animation, scripting, networking and a few others.

Reusing a pre existing game engine economises time and therefore money which can be a large advantage in the video game industry, especially with such long project times already. However, the more times that you re use an engine, the more outdated it becomes, and buying into one that wasn't created specifically for a project may mean that it won't quite do all of the things you'd like it to. But it will already have been tested, and team members may already be used to working with that specific engine and therefore be able to work more efficiently and know how to best work around its limitations.

Every generation of game engine is expected to be better than the last, and the key issues are normally quality of graphics, speed, better physics engines and cleared sound. Basically, all of the outputs have to improve with each generation. Also, keeping up with the changes in technology. Increasingly the big companies are trying to be more creative in the ways that we play games – with touch screen technology, wireless, lots of different in put devices and so on. The game engine needs to be able to deal with all of these new options, as well as the improvements to graphics etc.

http://www.unrealtechnology.com/technology.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_engine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_engine
http://www.devcellsoftware.com/
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/sweeney-unreal-game,news-739.html

Game Engine Research

So I made the mistake of bringing up the next blog task over dinner with a programming friend and my fiancé, also a gamer... They decided to provide me with their opinions of several game engines, in no particular order (spelling mistakes mostly on purpose);
Unreal is Awesome
Aurora teh suxxorz
Steam is slow
Infinity is dated (not quite so infinite?)
Unreal has funny hit boxes
Aurora 2 has a fail z axis of death
Unreal is Joey's B*tch
Quake is slow, badly put together, has lousy hit effects and is very very old
Doom was great at the fake 3D

Now to see if the internet can shed any light on these words of wisdom....