eucalyptustime

[eucalyptustime]

Hoo boy...

I finished my second game for the semester!!!!

TL;DR: a post is about me debriefing/decompressing about my semester working on my games with reference to animation/art practices in game development. with some talk of future personal projects I am looking at at the end of the post.

Keep reading

[eucalyptustime]

Entry #13

Slime Rancher, Rated Everyone 10+, Xbox One

The game Slime Rancher involves the player being stationed on a foreign planet inhabited by round, squishy, and adorable creatures known as slimes. Your job as the player is to round up these little fellows onto your ranch grounds to collect their droppings to make money.

One of the primary goals of the game is to explore the vast island the game takes place on and to collect as many slimes you can afford to look after.

In the starting area of the game, some of the variants of slime you have access to are:

Pink slime (standard)

Tabby slime

Phosphor slime

Rock slime

Radiated slime

and many more

I found that all the little smiling faces and cute noises that the slimes were making were very calming. The innocence of these creatures is somewhat contagious. The design of these slimes are very good, despite being so simplistic. The effect they achieve is more important than how impressive a character model may be. This is a very good game for someone to play if they are experiencing anxiety and stress due to the joys of interacting with the precious slime babies. 

Paying attention to the story itself is optional, for the lore is found in the many PDAs around the island left by the protagonist’s predecessor. Which is great if you just want to get into taking care of your slime babies.

In the 10 something hours I have plugged into this game, there have not been any NPCs in the overworld of the game. All of you see of the ones that do exist are still images on the optional fetch quest monitor. This greatly enhances the feeling of mystery surrounding the entire world built around our squishy friends.

The game has areas blocked off from the player at the very start of the game, and are accessible if the player has enough resources to have come across a key. Because of this, the game has a good pace to keep the player interested in playing for hours on end.

An important thing to not going forward with my own journey in game design would be the use of the smiling slime faces for architecture and user interface in the game shows us the importance of cohesion and sticking to a theme. The slime face has become synonymous with the entire brand of the game, making it very easy to market and set this game apart from the competition. 

[eucalyptustime]

Entry #11

In the one meeting our new team has had together, things went over pretty smoothly. The designer is producing a steady stream of ideas for the game. He is also drawing some concept art for the game and wants to do the music for the game. This is a pleasant surprise considering that the last designer than was on my last team wasn't timely with providing lists of the assets they needed for the game and I needed to design the layouts myself. Because of this, I feel good about working with this team in the future. 

What we have so far

We have decided to work on a deep-sea bullethell shooter, which seems to have a less complicated mechanic system than my last game. The visuals of the game are based on all the bioluminescence found in many of the flora and fauna deep within the ocean. The current idea for the player character will be a type of electric eel. There is talk of having a flashlight mechanic, and I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of that it. Maybe to have limited vision of the surrounding enemies and background sprites. 

The enemies that we have come up with for the game consist of an angler fish, a barracuda, some small generic fish in schools, and maybe some grabby tentacles. All of the character spites will have polygonal, brightly colored lines filled with black. The background may also be black with some subtle details, but if the flashlight mechanic is used, I have have to create unique backgrounds to help the player get their bearings. 

This weekend I will be churning out animations and some preliminary sound design. Hopefully I can get a lot done to get back on track and have a good working pace. 

[eucalyptustime]

Entry # 9

AlphaBear 2, rated 9+, iOS

In the game, the goal is to get the biggest bear on the screen by matching words to get as many points as possible within the lifespan of the letters on deck.

I picked this game off of the Game for Change list because the art of the square-shaped bears looked very cute, and when I started to play it, that feeling was only amplified by the cute little emotes that the player character made. 

I found myself actually liking this game because it is surprisingly more challenging than I thought it would have been. This may be due to the fact I have never actively sought out expanding my vocabulary, both in general and it games like these. I am not used to having to think of creative words while being under pressure. One of the game features that I really like is that they have a box below in the hud area with the word that you have just completed. When you press on it, it shows you the definition of the word. I suppose that is was makes this game “educational” as advertised. I like it because it is a nonforceful way of learning, the player has a choice in how they want to experience the game. 

I do find that the game's story is very cute, I think it is referencing Back to the Future, in which there is a frizzy-haired old bear scientist and a young bear who go into the past via a time travel device with a capacitor of sorts. 

After the second session of playing Alphabear 2, I noticed that there really isn’t a way to keep a player like myself motivated to keep playing. Others may have a personal obligation to collect all of the helper bears, cute outfits, etc. The story isn't mandatory and forced onto the player. The lack of structure is a lacking part of this game.

Overall it is a cute game that could be worth playing to kill some time and maybe learn some new words along the way. 

[eucalyptustime]

Entry #7

Peer review

This past week, my team and I met on Friday in class and vaguely discussed what we had left to do. I gathered that the programmer in our group is still figuring out some of the mechanics in our game. He briefly opened up Gamemaker to demonstrate what he had so far. It looked like he was still using placeholder images for the prototype he was working on at the time.

Oddly enough, neither the producer or the designer on our team were asking many questions about the schedule and how we were feeling about our progress in the latest meeting. Despite the fact that the producer’s job is to make sure our team in on schedule and to check in with everyone. Also, it has occurred to me that I may have done the designer’s job for her. But that was only because she was not supplying me with the lists of the assets I needed to produce in the beginning. 

Now that I think about it, the programmer and I have essentially been carrying the team. I have had to make my own production schedules and organizers after waiting weeks to see changes in the official schedule. I almost feel guilty voicing these thoughts because the team is really nice in general. 

On Content...

I honestly think I am behind on schedule due to the fact that the sheer number of assets I need to produce for the game is a lot. I have 37 items listed on the productivity spreadsheet, and there a a few other animations in addition to those that are apart of a couple of umbrella assets, such as the directional walk cycles for the NPCs.

I have actually found myself pleased with the cute little sprites I have created for the game. An idle position of the male NPC can be seen below. They are actually loosely based on a particular artist that I follow on twitter. I have always been fascinated on how @/qugre chooses their colors and simplifies forms.

Further Thoughts...

Over the weekend, I had rented out the video studio in the library for our team to go and record sounds. The programmer and I were the only ones who could make it at the scheduled time. Which was perfectly fine, for I was the only one who really needed to be there since it was my instrument that we wee using. We got a decent amount of the sounds recorded during the session. While we were recording, I discovered that the programmer had also noticed that we were the only ones in the group that were making meaningful contributions. I suppose that the producer will be doing more of the work in the reflection periods of the project, but for now it feels a little unfair. 

[eucalyptustime]

Entry #6

Progress so far...

Upon reflecting on the communications that my team has partaken in, it has occurred to me that we have been sparsely communicating. It seems that we only really message the server we have created in preparation for meetings. The producer has not been asking me a lot of questions about my work process, how long things are going to take, or what I have to do left. My workflow has mostly been self-directed. I would have thought I would be asked more questions after the initial development of the schedule since he had talked about refining the points and dates on it. 

Concerning the game, I think that the plot has shaped itself nicely. I actually love the morbidly cute story and visuals. I have stuck to a strict palette to work from as far as the colors are concerned, making the visuals of every asset look very coherent and thematic. Another pleasing part of the visuals is that I am sticking to using textured brushes in the software I am using to make the game, making it look somewhat like a kid draw the visuals, which does go along with the idea that the protagonist is the ghost of a child. 

I will admit, due to the amount of time we had to complete the game, we will not be able to make the game any larger than the 3 levels. As you can see above in the 2 out of the 3 rooms we will have as levels, each of the rooms will feature some basic items a person may found in their homes, like a vacuum and a closet. There will only be a few differences between the items that can be found in each room. Personally, I think only having three, not very challenging or unique levels will leave the playing experience very short and unengaging. The idea of figuring out which objects the player needs to possess in order to scare each tenant is puzzle-like, and puzzle games normally have many more levels than we will be able to create. I fear that our playing experience will be lacking since there is so little content. 

Oh, the things I’ll have to do...

The graphics of the game will consist of animations involving the protagonist Ollie, such as possessing the objects, indicating that there is nothing to possess near Ollie, and potentially the movement of Ollie. I will also have to animate each of the possessive objects “scare events” as we have been calling it. As well as any movements involving the tenants of the studio apartments the player is terrorizing. 

One of the things I am dreading the most about my responsibilities is that the artists of the team are responsible for sound design...The team has decided to use the kalimba that I own for the sound of the game, and I don’t know how to play the instrument, let alone know what sounds good for a game! I recently kinda learned what a chord was! I don’t even think I can remember the definition of it! I honestly don’t even was to talk about it. Sure, we can use public domain sounds for the game, but like SFX sounds with kalimba I have to do myself. Just thinking about this stresses me out. 

[eucalyptustime]

Entry # 5

This entry will be about how my team and I have been communicating in the preparatory stages of making our game.

Team Reflections

When our team first got together in the initial introductory meeting, I was really nervous because none of us had a viable idea for the game. Especially since the most fleshed out suggestion was a generic educational card game... which sounded really unimaginative and boring. I was also irked some that one of the members in our group insisted that our groups meet in person, despite the fact that everyone else is up for virtual meetings via Discord. 

So in the second in person meeting, the programmer, designer, and I had got to the location early and had a lot of good ideas for the game:

Some of the ideas featured simple concepts such as

Paint splatter platformer

Ghost hunter 

Ghost scare game

By the time the producer had arrived to the meeting, we were all pretty confident in creating a Ghost roleplaying game where you try and scare the occupant of a house or a series of apartments. We were so excited, we kept brainstorming details of the game to be.

While the rest of the group was discussing the technical details of the game, I started to sketch some ideas for the general look of the game. I ended up sticking close to soft, muted purple based analogous color scheme for the game. I think my current concepts feature more pink hues, which really stands out when it is unfinished. I plan on capitalizing on the brain’s ability to interpret colors warmer or cooler than they actually are when paired with the right colors. 

Moving Forward

In the second brainstorming meeting, we discussed the specifics involving the mechanics of the game, such as what kinds of props the player can posses in order to scare a tenant, and what kinds of tenant will be living in the unfortunate apartments. 

So far I’m really excited for the game since it sounds both fun to make and to play. 

[eucalyptustime]

Entry #4

In this entry, I discuss my thoughts on the Game Development industry in reference to 2019 GDC State of the Game Industry and the 2017 IGDC Developer Satisfaction Survey. 

Unfortunate Status Quo

The State of the Game Industry report confirmed that fact that many of the developers working in the industry work themselves too hard due to either peer, management, or self-pressure. I was also pleased to see that many developers think that unionizing is needed, despite the fact many think it is unlikely to happen in the current game development scene. 

I hope that this majority view changes in the future, I do not need the further of the game development industry to continue to normalize working more than 40 hours per week like it has been. Actually, I thought to myself that I should be the one to heavily advocate for change in the industry in the future. Which, given my personality, wouldn’t be the best idea since I’m assuming that I’d have to be a charismatic leader in order to pull that off.

New Thoughts To Consider

What surprised me most about The State of the Game Industry report was the fact that developers said that the Nintendo Switch was the console that would be the most interesting to develop games for, which is about 45%. I would have thought that it would be in the minority since Nintendo has the stigma of producing games for “children.” Additionally, the fact that nearly 20% of the developers were currently developing for the Switch. It also surprised me that Android and iOS were in the survey conducted on the developers. And the fact that they were in the top 5 in the most interesting platforms. 

Regarding the Developer Satisfaction Survey, I thought it was weird that developers from Japan were not a larger percentage than what they were. I had known that American/European developers were the majority, but I didn’t expect Japan to be only 12% of the sample population.

Going Forward

My desire to pursue game development as a career changed slightly after reading these pdfs. Seeing the general attitude of the majority of developers towards the future of unions in the game industry. I don’t really feel comfortable with a future filled with overworking and stress and potential face critique due to not being able to deliver working more than 40 hours a week without getting burnout. I still somewhat want to dive into the industry, but if I did, I would have to be prepared to be determined to make changes in the industry if I ever wanted to not have anxiety attacks over the long hours.

[eucalyptustime]

Entry #3

In this post, I will be briefly reviewing the game Life is Strange.

Life is Strange, Rated M, Xbox One

In the Game, Life is Strange, the player controls the character Max, a budding photographer in high school who has discovered that she can go back in time in a player decision driven visual novel game.

A lot of my feelings about the game after the first session of play consist of confusion and frustration. Firstly, this is my first time really playing on an Xbox, so the control scheme will take some getting used to. I also find myself getting frustrated at the lines the characters are saying. I think it’s a fairly shallow take on what it is like to be a girl in high school from a character interaction standpoint. Mean girl archetype character has too many problems for me to even get started on them. One could say that high schoolers were not consulted in the writing process. The slang, obviously, strongly dates this game and does not pair well with the lack of expression in the voice acting.

From a design aspect, the character models are a little embarrassing to look at, for lack of a better word. I personally am a strong advocate of opting for a heavy stylization of the characters to make it easier on the console and designer when portraying/rendering expressions for the characters. Normally for games of this era, I would accept the technical limitations at the time, but with such a character/interaction driven story, sacrificing realism for appeal and ease seems to me like a better option.  

From a gameplay perspective, I think that the 40 minutes of play was a little lackluster. It mostly consisted of looking at objects and pressing Y. Also, my lack of experience with the Xbox control scheme did not help in my frustration when I have to constantly look away from the screen to check if I’m pressing the right button.

People that Life is Strange is not suited for is people with short attention spans. There is hardly enough stimulation for it to be engaging as a game. It is more so of a comic book or a movie. Thus I personally felt disinterested or alienated during my playing experience.

[eucalyptustime]

Entry #2

For this entry, I will be reviewing/discussing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I will be briefly touching on issues I’ve had and my general thoughts for the games. 

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild, Rated Everyone 10+, Nintendo Switch, Wii U

In this latest installment of the Legend of Zelda franchise, the player explores the vast land of Hyrule and battles countless monsters as the silent hero, Link. The objective of the game is to defeat the evil entity Calamity Ganon and free Princess Zelda from her prison.

Breath of the Wild is on the top of my list for games I would love to experience like new again. It has such a calming atmosphere, and because of that, it holds a special place in my heart for personal reasons.

The game is one of the most innovative entries of the Zelda franchise. I would say it was one of the most highly anticipated Zelda titles that I can recall. It reimagined countless motifs and locations for new and old audiences alike. That would be its strongest and weakest point.

I feel like BOTW focused too much on improving on what had already existed instead of creating new concepts. I will acknowledge that it totally defined lore and the aesthetics for the 5 main races in the franchise...But that’s about it. Not much new content for the series as a whole was produced, no new songs besides the main theme, no new races. It felt underwhelming after a whole playthrough. Maybe this feeling is due to the fact that I’m a longtime fan of the series and was perhaps too familiar with the pre-established canon. Maybe I was too eager to experience something entirely new, instead of enjoying the creative evolution the series underwent with the latest installment. 

The overworld was filled to the brim with...the same old stuff: 900 korok seeds, short and unchallenging shrines, the same 3 grunt monsters, and the same minibosses. It was cute in the beginning, but after the first 50 hours into the game...it gets really old. It lost the uniqueness and wonder after realizing that that’s all there was in the overworld. Which is a shame, since the overworld exploration is primarily fueled by the player’s innate curiosity to explore and inspect every nook and cranny. The lack of variety and significance of the details fails to reward the player for exploring. 

From a technical aspect, there really is a lot of that Nintendo Polish™ all throughout the game. Clean and visually pleasing character models and animations, minimalistic yet thoughtful sound design, and a straightforward combat system. The consistency of it all leaves the player fully immersed in the world, regardless if it isn’t hyperrealistic. 

[eucalyptustime]

Entry #1

My name is Juliet, I am a Sophmore Graphic Design/Digital Media BFA major at UNC Charlotte. I have been playing video games since I was a kid, with many precious memories involving Mario and Link’s adventures along the way. The desire to share my enthusiasm for video games led me to join a simple game design club in high school. 

I feel that we are in the progress of a renaissance of video games. One that revisits meaningful character writing and development instead of focusing on the latest gimmicks and graphics. The gaming community is slowly maturing its tastes. I honestly believe that the God of War franchise is a good example of how it has matured. I am unfamiliar with its earlier titles, but from what I understand, it has shifted its focus on Kratos’s conquest of Greek pantheon towards the budding relationship between Kratos and his son in a dangerous, new world. God of War 4′s story moved me, even though I was never familiar with the protagonist’s past struggles. 

Breath of the Wild revisiting concepts introduced in the first Legend of Zelda is another way that games are looking to back to what made games great. There are countless other titles that are good examples to back my claim that the gaming community is no longer looking towards hyperrealism and gore for their enjoyment.