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.

Assessment 1: Understanding Digital Graphics used within video games - Joao Teixeira

Assessment 1: Understanding Digital Graphics used within video games
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zkckDmWOEAgzQghvTKCDSYb3jQ2nDImN4d26hWMywmA/edit?usp=sharing

Assessment 1 : Researching games

This is one of the assignments that I've done: Assessment 1 : Researching games
It's got 4 tasks.
In 2 of the tasks i talk about the first ever game sketch that I've done.
In the other 2 i talk about video game genres and the benefits and consequences of playing video games.


assignment one