ShapeMan

This is my version of ShapeMan.

Here are the videos with the commentaries:

 

and

and here are the documents:


https://docs.google.com/document/d/15MdeYPEnrBASsv10Kys8agpl4KdaMp6Ra09VOx0WEts/edit?usp=sharing



finally here is the initial game sketch:

Trends in the Gaming Industry

Top 5 trends in gaming at the moment

·        Live gaming broadcasts

Live gaming online broadcasts have been growing quite fast in the past couple of years. Websites like Twitch.tv, YouTube.com (although it’s not known for being a website where you can live broadcast, but it’s relatable to this topic nonetheless), - as well as minor ones such as Azubu.tv and also MLG.tv – are online venues for a huge video-game fan base. Twitch for example, is a live-streaming website, where you can broadcast almost anything you want – video-games, music, creative stuff like painting or designing a character and even just chatting about general things. You can also interact with the audience in the chat, with various, free and paid emoticons, and finally you can directly support the streamer by donating money or subscribing to their channel. These websites are now starting to be considered as potential careers. Because the gaming world is growing so fast and so is the audience for video-games, everyone wants to watch their favourite YouTubers/streamers shenanigans – and they are quickly becoming celebrities. Live gaming broadcasts are becoming big in the industry because it’s never really been seen in the past few years – it’s something original, and everyone seems to love it. For example, the most well know YouTubers can reach over 1 million, or even 2 million views per video, - and even more, if the video actually becomes viral - and the biggest streamers can get from 15 thousand live viewers, to 40 thousand and beyond. There's a lot of money involved in this trend: For example, live streamers and YouTubers, especially live streamers need exceptional good computers and a good internet connection, as well as other minor things which combined with the full setup can cost anywhere from £800 to (if you want the best of the best) £7000. This might seem like a lot of money, but it's not that much compared to what these people can actually make out of their job. "Sodapoppin", aka Chance Morris who is one of the most popular video-game streamers on Twitch, streams 10 hours a day to around 20K viewers, 8K subscribers and gets around 500 $5 minimum daily donations. It's estimated that he makes around $250K to $350K a year (excluding taxes I believe?). Although he's one of the biggest streamers, regular streamers can make enough to live of Twitch. Not to mention YouTubers, who can make millions. Also there are a lot of sponsors and partnerships involved, "million dollar deals", etc. Basically live streaming and YouTube has a lot more to it than just video-games.

·        F2P (Free to Play)

Free games. Not much to say about this, everyone loves free things. Open Source gaming has a huge community - for obvious reasons - and it’s growing every day. Plus, gaming is evolving, which means that games will only get better, and so are these free games, and so is the audience for free games. A lot of people say that games should be cheap to buy and cheap to play. Free to Play games take it to the next level. Even though some of the people who make free games are only trying to get noticed by bigger companies, there are people who make free games for the sake of it - so that the audience can freely enjoy their free entertainment. The main reason why free to play games are successful right now, it's because if people want to test it out, they can just do it, because they don't have to pay for it, and some of these games are actually worth a try - if people try it, like it and get addicted to it, you can be 100% sure that game will be successful. And another thing is, if you try out a free to play game and you didn't necessarily enjoy it, the only thing you lost was time - another advantage towards paid games. Examples of successful Free to Play games are: League of Legends, the most played game at the moment, with the biggest competitive scene and the largest community of players; Team Fortress 2, huge FPS game by Valve that became popular because of its originality; and many more: DOTA 2, Smite, Hearthstone, Tera, PlanetSide2, Warframe, etc... 

·        E-sports

“The most recent League of Legends World Championship tournament in Seoul, South Korea, (at the time, it was in 2012 I think) boasted 40,000 attendees, and 32 million people watching the 2 day event online. That’s just as many viewers as for the Sochi Olympics Opening Ceremony.” Even though it is severely criticized - for example, parents don't understand that kids and a lot of people watch other people play video games -, facts cannot be ignored. E-sports are quickly reaching the level of “real” sports, and that's even if they're not already there. It is said that e-sports will reach NFL's (National Football League) level within 1 or 2 years. Now, NFL is one of the biggest sports league out there, and in only 3/4 years, e-sports have already gotten to the level they are right now, having a bigger audience than NHL (National Hockey League) and now, they will potentially be overcoming NFL. It's without a doubt that E-sports are ballin' outta control right now, and this is apparently only the beginning... Everyone says that e-sports will rise to the top. Last year, League of Legends' World Championship, which is the biggest e-sport tournament (has a $1 million prize for the team who wins the tournament), gathered dozens of millions of total views. It won't take long until e-sports reaches the level of Super Bowl. Financial wise, e-sports is getting richer every day. The majority of games in e-sports consist of 5 players vs another 5 players; so there are a lot of teams in e-sports, and each team, obviously just like in sports, they need money to keep it going. E-sports hasn't really reached the level of sports, where there are transfers of players to other teams for money, although, that is becoming a thing now. Negotiations of players between teams are becoming a thing in e-sports. Not to mention that all the teams have sponsors of all types - even food companies.
So in conclusion, the audience is already huge, the financial power is growing and therefore E-sports are becoming the new sports.

·        Online game updates

Updating a game online. Nowadays, the majority of games (especially online games, such as League of Legends and Counter-Strike GO) are constantly being updated. Either game changes or bug fixes, even DLC, users can update their games by downloading the patches online. In the past, you used to buy a game (physically, as a CD) and just play it (if we want to go way back, where online gaming wasn't a thing, you would just buy the game and play it offline, and that would be the final version of the game. If the game had game-breaking glitches, there was really nothing that could be done about it.). Now, you can either buy a game online or in a store, and you can keep updating it as the developers release new patches. Even if it's not an online game, it can still be updated, and DLC can also be released. This is a huge thing in the gaming industry. Everyone accepted cloud gaming and it's seen in every game. Nowadays, if any game was released like the old-school way, not being updated at all, and being played in the same "patch" it was released at first, the game would either have to be a huge title already or it simply wouldn't be successful at all. DLC can also bring profit to the company - for example, Call of Duty DLCs all cost money. You cannot get the DLC if you don't pay for it. Call of Duty releases dozens of DLCs every time they make a new game, so they get millions and millions just from the DLC.

·        Online Gaming

Offline games are considered a waste of money by a lot of people. I can see why - you pay £50 for a game, you complete it and then you stop playing it, because there's nothing else to do on it. This doesn't happen with online games, since there's always content. Online games are the most played ones, and the most watched because they keep being updated and therefore there’s always something new in online games from time to time. The games keep changing which makes you wanna play more. In online games, you normally play against other players, which is what makes it fun. I remember when i personally played my first online game, which was Counter Strike 1.6, i was so excited, not because I was playing a video game, but because I was playing it with other people in the internet that I didn't know they even existed!! Online game are way more competitive compared to offline games for the same reason - you play against people with either a lower level of skill, same level or higher level which makes it super interesting. Also online games don't get boring as fast for the same reasons and also because in games like Counter-Strike or any other big online games, (especially MMORPGs, where there's always something to do) you can't really complete the game, and if you think about it, online games are like arcade games, there's always content. Another reason why online games are huge right now, it's because you can play with your friends, and also make new ones. You can co-op or play against them. In the Financial side of things, online games nowadays, and in the future will always overcome offline games. This is because most online games have a pay-to-win system (not necessarily pay-to-win, but surely 99% of online games have an option where you can spend real money to "support" the game makers), where you can buy things for real money that will give you an advantage or benefit you. The game makers get a lot of money from this system. Not to mention DLCs too. For example, if we look at MMORPGs, the majority of them has a pay-to-win system, like an item store, where you can buy better items to make your character stronger, and the only way to get these items is actually to pay real money for them. Now, if you get addicted to an MMORPG, it's almost certain that you're going to spend at the very least some of your pocket money on the item store.

Top 5 future trends in gaming

·        Online content such as in YouTube and Twitch unlikely to continue being free to watch

With the huge growth of e-sports, websites like Twitch (which already charges optional subscriptions) and YouTube (which has recently introduced YouTube Red, a subscription based entertainment platform) most likely will be fully subscription based, and become even more similar to TV. There are a lot of reasons why this is happening, but the main one is money. There is already A LOT of money involved in these websites, and their financial power is only starting to grow - they have huge potential.
Also, as we know, TV is dying. The internet is taking over all the audiences. The younger audiences, as in teenagers, pretty much don't even watch TV anymore, including me. I went from watching TV 3/4 hours a day when i was around 10 YO to not watching TV at all pretty much right now. In the future, younger audiences might not even watch TV at all, if they follow the steps of the current generation. TV might die completely. Ok, i think you got the point. Now, it's easy to understand how TV is dying and YouTube as well as live streaming is rising: Firstly, these last two have a much bigger variety of content to watch, compared to the content you are obligated to watch on TV - like, you have more options on the internet. Secondly, it's free. And last but not least, there's almost nothing that grabs the younger audience's attention on TV anymore, which doesn't happens in the internet. Back to the initial point, and taking in mind everything i just said, it's very possible, almost inevitable that the free online content that we all know and love, won't be free for much longer. Especially with E-sports growing at such a fast pace, and quickly becoming as big as sports. In conclusion, we can say that YouTube and other websites are becoming the new TV.
PS: This isn't really a trend, i know, but I thought it would be relevant to talk about, and I really wanted to mention it.

    

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·       








·        Virtual Reality

Things like Oculus Rift, Google Cardboard and PlayStation VR have been announced and will be released in the near future, and have a huge potential to start changing the gaming industry. Everyone loves innovation, especially in gaming. The fans are always looking for something new, something revolutionary - like feeling as if you're IN the game! That's what virtual reality brings to the table. Virtual reality is something that some would have considered impossible like a decade ago, or at least unlikely or would've been invented many decades from then. It was considered a dream. - and that's why it's going to be pretty big. Some YouTubers have already tested it, and made videos on them, and people seem to love it. Everyone wants to try it out. Financial wise, VR is set to change the world of video games.“VR is happening here on a scale and with an energy you can’t believe,” he said. “The universities are pouring millions of dollars into it. I don’t think you went far enough in your article. Seriously, this is going to change everything.” - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b29a3106-9761-11e5-9228-87e603d47bdc.html#ixzz3uE9aZi38 | http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b29a3106-9761-11e5-9228-87e603d47bdc.html#axzz3uE8xruwh
VR is going to be THE next big thing in gaming.

·     Parents as gaming advocates

It’s already happening and it will grow even more. This generation's passion for gaming will pass onto the next generation - when today’s gamers grow up and have children, they will become their children’s "gaming educators" - they will get them into gaming. As you can tell, this will make the industry grow. "Through a recent survey of UK families, the channel found out that 75% of parents they surveyed now play video games with their children, and that children aged 10 or under take most of their gaming recommendations from their parents." - http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/23/16-trends-that-will-change-the-games-industry
This is also beneficial for the families: Parents and children will automatically spend more time together, strengthening the relationships between them.
The market for this topic is already here, and it will eventually grow: consoles such as Wii-U and games such as Wii Sports, as well as many others are perfect for a well spent session with the whole family. Now, it's inevitable that this market will grow - because gaming is being taught from generation to generation, that means that the industry is growing which means that more games and consoles like this will be created.











·     Cloud Gaming

The idea of providing online gameplay-ability from various devices. "In 2010, Sony purchased streaming company GaiKai, and its technology is now helping power the PlayStation 4's cloud services." - http://mashable.com/2013/06/19/gaming-tech-trends/#QWQP0SJbNOqN . Sony also said that they will eventually allow PlayStation 4 games to be played on the handheld PS Vita. It's also said that this new technology will make games look much better, decrease loading times and increase the map size. Cloud gaming is basically the next big thing for consoles. "The actual game is stored, executed, and rendered on the remote operator's or game company's server and the video results are streamed directly to a consumer's computers over the internet." Financial wise, companies have been investing a lot on cloud gaming: Sony buying the streaming company GaiKai, and other companies such as Microsoft and OnLive have also been investing for a few years.

·     Augmented reality

What is Augmented reality you may ask? Well, "Augmented reality (AR) is the integration of digital information with live video or the user's environment in real time." - http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/augmented-reality-AR
Basically, AR add new things to an existent image or picture. Why is this relevant? Because it has the potential to change gaming to a whole new level. It's just like we see in the movies, or even in our dreams - it's augmented reality."The key to augmented reality is the software. Augmented reality programs are written in special 3D augmented reality programs such as D'Fusion,  Unifye Viewer or FLARToolKit.  These programs allow the developer to tie animation or contextual digital information in the computer program to an augmented reality "marker" in the real world.". Right now, it can be used in mobile phones, but it is said that in a few years, it can move onto gaming, having the potential to create something completely different from what we've seen so far.

Year 1 - L3 Games Design Unit 78: Digital Graphics for Computer Games Assignment 2

Client's brief: Come up with your own design brief, it should have at least 5 levels or rooms and one main character and several monsters to avoid.

My brief: Create a level based 2D platform game that involves controlling Malzah, a 20 year old, who has an awesome super-power - he can glide and shoot energy beams (in order to destroy enemies). He can also jump onto platforms in order to avoid obstacles (such as fire and spikes) as well as destroy enemies (such as ghosts and banshees). His purpose is to defeat all the enemies and slay Ao Shin, the Evil Dragon God.
The game would be rated 3+, since it only contains mild violence in an appropriate context for younger children, but neither bad language nor frightening content is allowed. The game is appropriate for both male and female audience.

Here is some concept art of my brief:

close angle to Malzah's face

concept art of the basis of the platform game

Malzah's gliding animation possibility

alternative colours for Malzah

Hand drawn concept art of Malzah

Legal and Ethical considerations

Copyright law

"Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights for its use and distribution. This is usually only for a limited time." The time limit varies but it's normally 70~ years since the death of the owner.
This applies to both briefs, since the client wants me to "come up with my own design brief" - so basically, I can't just copy someones works, it has to be my, original idea.

Libel

Similar to the copyright law, libel is defamation - basically when someone tries to make you look bad by saying something that can ruin your reputation and that (hopefully) isn't true. People do this because of high competition in the industry. Libeling can be considered a criminal offense. This doesn't really apply to my brief, because no one is going to really defame me, since there is not reason to do so.

How are female characters represented in Games?

In a big majority of games, unfortunately women are portrayed in negative ways. They are often represented as objects, and they are even designed in provoking ways, in order to get more audience. They attitudes as well as personality are also affected. This doesn't relate to my brief, because there are no female characters on my game.

Intellectual property

Intangible property, a result of creativity and originality. It "refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce." It relates to this brief, because i came up with all the ideas for the work, so the intellectual property is mine.

What is Pre-Production

For my assessment, the client brief was to create a platform game on GameMaker, based on avoiding/killing enemies and collecting points to add up to your score in order to advance in the game. Apart from that, there weren't any more requirements from the client, leaving with a lot of opportunities and ideas to create the game.


Types of Production: It's the initial idea that led you to start creating your game (not necessarily a game, could be a film, song, video, etc...). Different ideas suit different formats, so for example the idea i had for my game, only makes sense in a game, it wouldn't be suitable for a film for example.

Finance: The budget you have to create the game. It's how much money you have and how much money you're going to spend with all the elements. Creating games from scratch can be really expensive, depending on how complex the game is going to be - the bigger and better games have to use a bigger budget compared to smaller games. When creating a game, you have to spend money on:
Hardware ( such as Computers, Peripherals, Dev Kits)
Software ( such as UDK, Unity, Game Maker, Maya)
Publishing ( such as Steam Greenlight, ID@Xbox, PSN, IOS, Android).You can, however, receive a funding from a company when making your game: Indie Funding (Indie Fund, GamesLab Development Fund); Crowd Funding(Kickstarter, IndieGoGo etc); Grants (Unreal Dev Grants); Publisher (Activision, EA, Bethesda etc). These companies will provide you with a budget if they like your idea. - In the game i'm creating, this element won't be necessary since I'm given all the tools that I need to create the game, and I'm also creating it by myself.

Time constraints: Deadlines. Making a game takes time. If the client brief requires you to finish the project by a certain date, you have to do your best in order to meet that date. Because some aspects of making a game can require you to be quite creative, you might probably end up spending more time making something that you would expect, and that can lead to you not meeting the deadline. The availability of people and personnel as well as timescales for clearances (if a game is not appropriated to the rating that it is considered for example.) can delay the finishing of your product. - For the game i'm making, I'm doing my best to finish the game within the deadline limit.

Personnel: Generally, you need people to help you making a game (although you can make a game by yourself, though it takes more time and it's just hard...). You need people who will cover certain roles within the game industry in order to make a good game. These roles include: the Animator, Assistant Producer, Audio Engineer, Creative Director, External Producer, Game Designer, Game Programmer, Games Artist, Lead Artist, Lead Programmer, Level Editor, Marketing Executive, Marketing Manager, Product Manager, Project Manager/Producer, Public Relations Officer, QA Tester and Technical Artist. You don't necessarily need all these to make a good game, these are just pretty much all the job roles in the game industry. You do need, although, personnel that is experience in the tasks that they're set to. The size of the team (if there's not enough people) can damage the production of the project. This is also related to the finance - if the salaries are too high for the budget, you will have problems. - For my game, i don't need anyone else to help me with any assets of the game. Since it's a very basic game, everything within it will be made by myself - although, i can ask for help on how to do certain things, i will still be the only one making the game.

Facilities: You need a facility to work on. The better the facility, the better the overall conditions of your work place, the better the outcome of your game. For some games where you need acting from real people, you might need a studio or even when you want to make a certain scene in a certain place in real life for example. - In the game that I'm creating, i will only need the a classroom to do the work.

Materials: In order to make a game, you need a lot of material from Computers, Monitors, Keyboards and Mouses to Chairs, Desktops, and also software - software will vary a lot, but it can include programs like Maya, Adobe Photoshop and Fireworks, Unity Engine or any other engines to actually create the game, etc. You can be limited for what you can be able to do if you don't have enough/ the necessary material. Material is also related to Finance - if you don't have a rather decent budget, you won't be able to afford much material/the quality of the material won't be the best which can result in the project not requiring the client brief. For my game, I will be using only GameMaker as my software program, since it was requested in the client brief, and for the other requirements, this software will be enough to meet them,

Contributors: Sponsors. If you want to have a successful game, you need it to be sponsored. Sponsors help on the marketing side of things - they help you promoting your game and can also provide you with money to create it. You pretty much need a good sponsor to make a lot of money from a game. Contributors are also people that contribute to the creating of your game. For example voice actors that are only going to say a few sentences on a certain scene. - I won't be needing any sponsors or any contributors at all for my game since it's not going to be published, and also because it's a basic, small game, so therefore i don't need much help creating it.

Codes of Practice:A set of rules that tell how the people on your team should behave/what should they do. This is helpful for the employees to comply with the ethical standards. This is also related to health and safety. These are also Regulatory bodies for example Ofcom, Press Complaints Commission (PCC), Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), Pan European Game Information (PEGI), Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) as well as Trade associations such as The Independent Games Developers’ Association (TIGA), Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers’ Association (ELSPA), and the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA).  - in my assessment codes of practice won't really be necessary since i'm making the game by myself and the codes of practice will be the standard college rules.

P2 Be able to Generate Concept Art Ideas for Computer Game Graphics

Stimulus

What is a brief?

A brief is a set of requests for the task that was required by the client. - Client Brief.

Own brief

With the client brief, there's always something that the client doesn't specifically require - they give you freedom to be creative and make it your way - this is your own brief, it's the requirements that you set yourself for the client's task.

Market Research

Market research is the ideas that you use on your task based on other games from the same genre for example. You can see what was successful with a certain game and inspire your game on those ideas.

Ideas Generation

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is when you gather all your ideas about a certain project in order to get to a conclusion.

Mood boards

An arrangement of your ideas in any format: images, text, photos and any other objects that represent something. Can be either physical or digital.

Thumbnail Sketching

A small drawing on paper to quickly describe an idea.

Concept Drawings (Backgrounds, Sprites, Character, Weapons, Vehicles, Environments)

A sketch/an initial drawing or/and idea of what a character is going to look like for example.

Legal & Ethical Considerations

What is copyright law?

"Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights for its use and distribution. This is usually only for a limited time." The time limit varies but it's normally 70~ years since the death of the owner.

Libel

Defamation. When you say something false about a person and it's damaging their reputation.

How are female characters represented in Games?

Most of the times, women are portrayed in negative ways in games. They are generally oversexualized - in the way they are designed, clothes they use, personality and way they act in general.

PEGI

Pan European Game Information, a video game content rating system that informs the buyers on how appropriate the game is for them.

Intellectual Property

The initial's idea owner right of claiming it.

What are computer game graphics and graphics specifications?

What are computer game graphics?

Computer game graphics entail the following:

- Print Media Graphics (game poster/packaging)

This is like the face of the game. It’s the art of the game cover, the game’s poster, game’s website and overall the theme in which the game is portrayed. This impacts the number of sales – the better the game cover the more copies you’re going to sell for example. It also makes the audience get into the game even more.

- In-game Graphics

Head-up display graphics/in-game interface: it's all the things that you can possibly interact with in a video-game. From your HUD to the main menu, mini-map and chat, etc., all the things you can interact with by clicking or typing, pressing any buttons, etc, that’s the in-game interface. Here are a couple of examples of in-game interfaces. The image on the right clearly shows us the main menu of the game, as well as character, stats, abilities, mini-map, scoreboard and time.

Sprite graphics: 2D Sprites: A sprite is a bitmap graphic that is designed to be part of a larger scene. It can either be a static image or an animated graphic. Examples of sprites include objects in 2D video games, icons that are part of an application user interface, and small images published on websites.

3D Isometric Sprites: 3D isometric sprites are 2D sprites that give the impression of depth, posed in 3D. For example, World of Warcraft of The Sims, where you can rotate the camera and see you character in a 3 dimensional perspective, these games use 3D Isometric Sprites. They are used to add depth.

Background graphics: These are the graphics of all the things that are in the background in a certain scene – from trees to walls, forests, rain and clouds, etc… These are mainly static images that you cannot interact with, they are just there to set the ambience and also so that it wouldn’t just be blank.

Image textures: Texture art “is used to describe either the way a three-dimensional work actually feels when touched, or thevisual "feel" of a two-dimensional work.” (http://arthistory.about.com/cs/glossaries/g/t_texture.htm) It’s used to inform the audience of what something is made of, looks like and feels likes. Textures should be relevant towards the place, background, storyline and scene of a game.

- Concept Art Graphics

Concept art is “the initial design used to develop the look and feel of a project.” (http://artistryingames.com/concept-art-concept-art-important/). It’s all the ideas that you have before you start creating certain aspects in a game (or film, comic book, etc...) such as: the characters, the background, the location, the environment, etc. You can get these ideas - and advance in your project – from a simple drawing, or a model, or even something you’ve seen in a film for example.

What is graphics specifications?

The word specification can have different meanings:

- Client Needs

What are the client requirements, what was asked for you to create -  what is the client brief.

- Audience

How are you going to create the digital graphics according to the audience/towards the target audience. For example, if you're creating graphics for a new Sonic game, you won't include any major violence in the graphics because it's just not appropriate.

- Thumbnail sketching

Thumbnail sketches are used to describe a small drawing on paper used to explore multiple ideas quickly.They are similar to doodles, but may include as much detail as a small sketch.

- Visual style

Photo-realism: Photorealism is the kind of art where the artists try to make things look realistic, from the scenario to the characters, sound and storyline, graphics in general, etc. Photorealistic graphics are designed to look as realistic as possible. For example: the game “Until Dawn”, has a photorealistic style, especially although not only the graphics, but also sound and storyline. As we can see the character Sam from the game, she looks pretty much real on the cape. In this picture we can clearly see the facial traits and features of Sam’s face (Sam is the woman in the picture), and we can clearly get to a conclusion that they look quite realistic.

Cell-shading: Cell shading is a type of style which makes 3d models look hand drawn. Similar to photorealism and exaggerated styles, cell shading is the kind of style where the artist try to make things not look very realistic, but also not exaggeratedly abstract or cartoonish – this style is based on drawing cartoon characters or/and scenarios, although not with too much fantasy around it – it is basically mainly used to mimic (or create new) cartoons or comics. For example: the game “The Walking Dead” is a cell shading game because the graphics look kind of cartoonish and hand-drawn, plus they don’t look very realistic or too abstract/exaggerated. In this image, if we look at the characters or/and the grass, we can clearly tell that they were hand-drawn and they don’t look very realistic at all.

Abstraction: Abstract style can often be defined as the opposite of realism and/or the photorealistic style. This type of art does not strive to resemble realism at all, and normally has a lot of features that are quite unrealistic – abstract – and may have different looks from different perspectives (as in different people read these features in different ways). The abstract style normally uses a lot of colours, lines and shapes, although it doesn’t mean that it resembles any objects in real life. Take in mind that an abstract style doesn’t necessarily have to use colours, lines or shapes to still be within that style. For example: the game “Geometry Dash 2.0” has an abstract style since it has a lot of shapes and colours. As we can see in the image below, the game has a lot of different shapes and colours as I said before, making the game look quite strange, random and abstract. We can see that the shapes don’t really represent anything in real life, it’s just a style.

Exaggeration: This style is quite similar to the abstract and cell shading styles – you can even call it a mixture of both. It consists in over-the-top graphics, and it’s based a lot on fantasy. You can also say that this style is literally the opposite of the photorealism style, as normally everything in these types of games are just not realistic at all. Normally, this style uses a lot of colours and a lot of light, as well as exaggerated details in general, such as physical traits. A good example of exaggerated style games would be the MMORPG genre in general – so games like “Aura Kingdom” and “World of Warcraft”. In the image below, we can see all the lights and colours that identify the exaggerated styles in this game.

- Composition

- Environment Composition - It's the big picture - everything that the player can see. You can compose single corridors and rooms, towns, landscapes, far horizon views and stunning backgrounds. That kind of composition is often seen from only few directions, that makes planning of the composition easier.

- Environment Elements Composition - Set dressing, details, groups of objects that are parts of the big picture. Garbage around the dumpster, rocks on the ground, stuff on a desk. That kind of composition can be seen from arbitrary angles.

- Visual Feedback & Navigation - Highlight the objective, show the way to the objective, guide the player through a specific area. If the player's objective is to get to the chopper and you need to navigate the player there or you simply want to show the player where he should go then you can apply composition rules to highlight something that will catch his attention and change his wandering course.

A common technique for composition, is the rule of thirds. It attracts the viewers attention to a certain point in the picture. 

- Typography

Another way for a video game to look appealing and creative, is by using a typography styles.

"Video games have also been known to use many forms of typography, to relay atmosphere or a timeline in the cut scenes or the gameplay itself. Its uses are varied but with it game-makers can greatly enhance the experience or gameplay." - http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/creative-uses-typography-video-games/ 

- Technical Considerations

To meet the client brief requirements, you must also take in mind some technical considerations, such as:

- File format

- Optimization

- File Naming conventions

- Asset management

- Intended output

For example, you may want to use different file formats for different tasks within the client brief.