Been trying out some animation in Max. (Needs some work)
Friday, 3 February 2012
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Week 14 Reading - Mike Stout - Learning from the mistakes: Level Design in the Legend of Zelda
What are the ways of evaluating level design the stout offers, how do they apply to Legend of Zelda.
- SNES Era "Good design principles".
Singeru Miyamoto: Once said that with The Legend of Zelda he wanted to evoke the feelings associated with exploration in the player.
Level Design on Paper:
Level Flow: How to the spaces in the level fit together? Where is the player supposed to go, and will she or he know how to get there?
Intensity Ramping: Does the intensity of the experience ramp up in a satisfying way? Do monsters get more difficult as the level goes on? Does the player get a chance to learn how the enemies work and then displays her mastery to later on?
Verity: Is there sufficient variety in the gameplay? Do enemy encounters frequently repeat themselves? Are the spaces varied in interesting ways?
Training: If the design requires new skill from the player, does it teach them?
"Mikes RPG Centre"
Analysis:
The feeling associated with explorations
Level Flow - Breakdown:
Critical path - shortest path through a level without using secrets, shortcuts, cheats, the path the designer intends the player to take.
Linear Layout:
Clever tricks to create illusion of very open level design.
1. The critical path is almost entirely linear. This means that it's much easier for the player to find her way through the dungeon without getting hopelessly lost.
2. Rooms branching off the critical path makes the level feel less linear.
3. A small bit of room re-traversal at the beginning of the level makes the level feel less linear but because it only includes a small number of rooms the player probably wont get lost.
4. Giving small hidden shortcuts through the level allows the player to feel clever and allows the designer to disuse the linearity of the level.
Intensity Ramping - Breakdown:
1. The enemy encounters should usually ramp up in difficulty over the course of the level.
2. No encounter should be repeated twice. This gives a greater variety and also helps the player constantly answering new questions as she goes through your level.
Variety - Breakdown:
None of the encounters are ever repeated. The combination of level design elements and monsters are always different.
- Too much monster variety (TLOZ)
- 10 rooms in total with 6 monsters.
Training - Breakdown:
The Legend of Zelda training is written the "Black Room" example where the NPC gives you a hint.
Analysis:
- Didn't consider the Black Room a training because they were fairly useless.
- Translation issue, they were trying to guide the player to train them to important things they needed to know.
- They abandoned the black room method after this.
What I learnt:
That it is possible to achieve the feel of a non-linear level design by taking a linear path and adding short off shoots.
Ramping encounters along the critical path still allows you to have a good intensity ramp even if your level designs aren't all linear.
Miyamoto and company intended to have training in the but it was excluded because of localisation errors.
- SNES Era "Good design principles".
Singeru Miyamoto: Once said that with The Legend of Zelda he wanted to evoke the feelings associated with exploration in the player.
Level Design on Paper:
Level Flow: How to the spaces in the level fit together? Where is the player supposed to go, and will she or he know how to get there?
Intensity Ramping: Does the intensity of the experience ramp up in a satisfying way? Do monsters get more difficult as the level goes on? Does the player get a chance to learn how the enemies work and then displays her mastery to later on?
Verity: Is there sufficient variety in the gameplay? Do enemy encounters frequently repeat themselves? Are the spaces varied in interesting ways?
Training: If the design requires new skill from the player, does it teach them?
"Mikes RPG Centre"
Analysis:
The feeling associated with explorations
Level Flow - Breakdown:
Critical path - shortest path through a level without using secrets, shortcuts, cheats, the path the designer intends the player to take.
Linear Layout:
Clever tricks to create illusion of very open level design.
1. The critical path is almost entirely linear. This means that it's much easier for the player to find her way through the dungeon without getting hopelessly lost.
2. Rooms branching off the critical path makes the level feel less linear.
3. A small bit of room re-traversal at the beginning of the level makes the level feel less linear but because it only includes a small number of rooms the player probably wont get lost.
4. Giving small hidden shortcuts through the level allows the player to feel clever and allows the designer to disuse the linearity of the level.
Intensity Ramping - Breakdown:
1. The enemy encounters should usually ramp up in difficulty over the course of the level.
2. No encounter should be repeated twice. This gives a greater variety and also helps the player constantly answering new questions as she goes through your level.
Variety - Breakdown:
None of the encounters are ever repeated. The combination of level design elements and monsters are always different.
- Too much monster variety (TLOZ)
- 10 rooms in total with 6 monsters.
Training - Breakdown:
The Legend of Zelda training is written the "Black Room" example where the NPC gives you a hint.
Analysis:
- Didn't consider the Black Room a training because they were fairly useless.
- Translation issue, they were trying to guide the player to train them to important things they needed to know.
- They abandoned the black room method after this.
What I learnt:
That it is possible to achieve the feel of a non-linear level design by taking a linear path and adding short off shoots.
Ramping encounters along the critical path still allows you to have a good intensity ramp even if your level designs aren't all linear.
Miyamoto and company intended to have training in the but it was excluded because of localisation errors.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Creativity of a Different Artistic Medium - Music Video Recording
I like to dabble in a bit of Photography and Video Capture from time to time, so on a completely un-related note to video games I've decided to post a music video that I filmed for a local Hardcore/Alternative Metal band.
Over the Christmas holiday more specifically new years eve, I did a favour for some friends by filming this video for them in and around the house I'm currently living in for University... and so here's how it turned out:
Entitled: Foreign Bodies - Tempt
Over the Christmas holiday more specifically new years eve, I did a favour for some friends by filming this video for them in and around the house I'm currently living in for University... and so here's how it turned out:
Entitled: Foreign Bodies - Tempt
Monday, 30 January 2012
GGJ - Global Games Jam 2012
For those of you who are unfirmilliar with what the Global Games Jam is you can take a look at the website: 'here'
On Friday the 27th of January 2012 myself and a team of other first year students gathered in the games labs at approximately 4pm for the Global Games Jam event that was about to take place over the next 48 hours. During those 48 hours we were develop a game the type of game, was entirely up to the team!
Dictionary Definition: The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. The name originates from within Greek language meaning "he who eats the tail".
After a long discussion on the theme in a quiet area we agreed on something. We decided to design something that spacifically plays on the idea of the term 'he who eats the tail', which was the basis for our game idea. We created a simple tile based game where a simple character goes around and feeds the tail to the head end of the snake itself. (Directly linking to the theme)
Our inital idea for the core concept was to be 'like the game snake, but in reverse'. We wanted to take the idea of passing through walls as a mechanic which is required for players to transverse between edges of the puzzle maze in order to complete it. A lot of time and effort went into the level design for snake-a-maze and the judges seemed to like the level progression as a key feature of the game. In the end all of our hard work paid off as our team got one of three awards entitled 'Best Game'.
On Friday the 27th of January 2012 myself and a team of other first year students gathered in the games labs at approximately 4pm for the Global Games Jam event that was about to take place over the next 48 hours. During those 48 hours we were develop a game the type of game, was entirely up to the team!
 |
| Ouroboros |
Dictionary Definition: The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. The name originates from within Greek language meaning "he who eats the tail".
After a long discussion on the theme in a quiet area we agreed on something. We decided to design something that spacifically plays on the idea of the term 'he who eats the tail', which was the basis for our game idea. We created a simple tile based game where a simple character goes around and feeds the tail to the head end of the snake itself. (Directly linking to the theme)
Our inital idea for the core concept was to be 'like the game snake, but in reverse'. We wanted to take the idea of passing through walls as a mechanic which is required for players to transverse between edges of the puzzle maze in order to complete it. A lot of time and effort went into the level design for snake-a-maze and the judges seemed to like the level progression as a key feature of the game. In the end all of our hard work paid off as our team got one of three awards entitled 'Best Game'.
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Week 13 Reading - Ed Brying, Game Level Design - Building a Simple Level
The basic elements of a level are:
- Concept
- Enviroment
- Beginning
- Goal
- Challenge
- Reward
- Way of handling failure
Complexity is this layered.
Story: Is not a fundamental element of a game - can enchance a level and give the players useful information many gamers do not have many form of narrative elements e.g. chess, tetris, minecraft.
Putting it all together: A simple level to demonstrate how all elements work together and are used.
Concept: Each level the player is perceived a challenge to overcome (A basic story is present in the game).
Enviroment: 3D Gameplay 3rd person, beautiful relative graphics.
Goal: Consistent - Progression being its own reward.
"Simple is a more developed complex"
- Concept
- Enviroment
- Beginning
- Goal
- Challenge
- Reward
- Way of handling failure
Complexity is this layered.
Story: Is not a fundamental element of a game - can enchance a level and give the players useful information many gamers do not have many form of narrative elements e.g. chess, tetris, minecraft.
Putting it all together: A simple level to demonstrate how all elements work together and are used.
Concept: Each level the player is perceived a challenge to overcome (A basic story is present in the game).
Enviroment: 3D Gameplay 3rd person, beautiful relative graphics.
Goal: Consistent - Progression being its own reward.
"Simple is a more developed complex"
Monday, 23 January 2012
Post brief thoughts/comments on La decima vittima (Week 10)
"Killer" -
The Seventh Victim (1953, a short story)
It inspired a film made in 1965.
La Decima Vittima (Trailer):
Thoughts?...
The Seventh Victim (1953, a short story)
It inspired a film made in 1965.
La Decima Vittima (Trailer):
Thoughts?...
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Week 12 Reading - How To Write Rules Without Confusing People [J.Seigel] (2007)
- Rules are the most important aspect to convey to a player
- Less written information as possible for written rules.
Writing clear, cohesive rules:
Flavour First: If the game has a narrative within the mechanics, make that narrative clear immediately. The petaphors will be helpful in explaining and justifying the games logic and mechanics.
Get the boring stuff out of the way: List the meterials needed for the game next, followed by any pre-game instructions for setting up. If it gets wordy or over complicated, slim it down and add an Illustration or two to help explain.
Begin with the End: The first rule you should give the players is the winning condition of the game. Tell them what their objective is from a logical standpoint, all the other rules serve the winning condition and will make more sense when described with regards to it. It also makes it easier for players to find when they forget how to win.
Go from General to Spacific: Think of it like a newspaper journalism or an inverted pyramid. After the objective, describe the broad, overarching rules before describing the instances and expectations. If it's Mille Bonner explain the place mile cards before you explain the hazrds and remedies before you explain the saftey cards, and explain the saftey cards before you explain the coup four 'ACs'. Another way of saying this would be to explain the things that happen most often in a game first and the things likely to happen last.
Tell players what they can do before you tell them what they can't: Somewhat related to the previous point you should always explain the least constricting rules before explaining the most constricting. Rules explained earlier there become the primary rules and the rules following are the instances and exception where the primary rules change or don't apply.
- Short sentences
- Low level vocabulary
- Illustrations
- White space
- Bullet point
Be friendly unless style makes it so...
- use light hearted tone with your rules.
This reading was very useful for when I began thinking up rule sets for my developing ideas and for my individual game.
- Less written information as possible for written rules.
Writing clear, cohesive rules:
Flavour First: If the game has a narrative within the mechanics, make that narrative clear immediately. The petaphors will be helpful in explaining and justifying the games logic and mechanics.
Get the boring stuff out of the way: List the meterials needed for the game next, followed by any pre-game instructions for setting up. If it gets wordy or over complicated, slim it down and add an Illustration or two to help explain.
Begin with the End: The first rule you should give the players is the winning condition of the game. Tell them what their objective is from a logical standpoint, all the other rules serve the winning condition and will make more sense when described with regards to it. It also makes it easier for players to find when they forget how to win.
Go from General to Spacific: Think of it like a newspaper journalism or an inverted pyramid. After the objective, describe the broad, overarching rules before describing the instances and expectations. If it's Mille Bonner explain the place mile cards before you explain the hazrds and remedies before you explain the saftey cards, and explain the saftey cards before you explain the coup four 'ACs'. Another way of saying this would be to explain the things that happen most often in a game first and the things likely to happen last.
Tell players what they can do before you tell them what they can't: Somewhat related to the previous point you should always explain the least constricting rules before explaining the most constricting. Rules explained earlier there become the primary rules and the rules following are the instances and exception where the primary rules change or don't apply.
- Short sentences
- Low level vocabulary
- Illustrations
- White space
- Bullet point
Be friendly unless style makes it so...
- use light hearted tone with your rules.
This reading was very useful for when I began thinking up rule sets for my developing ideas and for my individual game.
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