Bullet Revisted

By the way, not only am I working on my honours, Nic, Tyson and myself are continuing to improve Bullet, which was pretty and playable by the end of last year. We are trying to revisit some problems, replace and add original designs for the game's exploding items and a possible redesign of the menu.
Right, so here's a concept for the main menu, this will be applied to other menus, just with the change of options.
My thoughts are that when the menu goes into level select, revolver chamber will zoom in to show half the chamber, and each level's entrance is shown, lined up to each bullet set in the chamber. As the player flicks through the levels, the chamber will turn to view to the next level.
I'll do my best to explain through concepts...might be better to understand.

Just to Begin...

I'm sure no matter what age you are or what country you live in, if you're reading this you've most likely played a game at least once in your life. Whether it was when you played Dungeons and Dragons way back in 1975, button-mashing trying in Street Fighter in the 90s, or having your bowls emptied from shear terror as you play Amnesia, I'm sure at some point you have also played a game which consisted of a boss fight/level of some sort. They can frustrate you to the point of never wanting to touch the game again, or become the bane of your existence, either way they can easily become part of a game's development to create a climax and add to the emotion of a story. In upcoming posts I'll be exploring the successful and unsuccessful boss levels in gaming history, both mainstream and indie games, why they did or didn't work out, how they were memorably good or bad, and how certain games can exclude a boss and still win over gamer's hearts.

While researching things, I will also be trying my hand at creating bosses and their environments as my accompanying project to my exegesis.

Although I realise there are a ridiculous amount of games that have been made and played, I will focus mainly on the memorable, the loved, the hated and the accoladed. And I will try my best to be accurate in my findings, if there is something that I have written that is incorrect, feel free to inform me without hurling abuse ^_^

The Topic of the Year

If you so happen to be curious about what I plan to be working on and around this year, here is the gist of it, since I had to do a brief explanation it for this week's research methods class:

Theme of Research: Concept art in games.

Brief Description of Research:

Pre-production art in the games industry is a key component to creating an interesting gaming experience. Comparing boss levels in video games in terms of their visual and emotional impact, whilst discovering the creative process to developing a boss and its compatible environment shows the importance of conceptual planning in games.

4 aspects/concepts I'll be focussing on:

- Uniqueness of boss levels between previous video games.

- Brief history of game development in terms of concept art.

- Thought/creative process of developing a boss and its environment.

- The significance of concept art within the games industry.

I'm also beginning to buy more concept art books that'll go towards my research, so far I've bought

The Art of God of War III, The Art of Bioshock 2: Deco Devolution and The Art of Uncharted 2 Among Thieves. Still waiting on The Art of Resident Evil 5, The Art of Darksiders and a brand new wireless wacom tablet that will hopefully make my life a little easier ^_^

And due to my scan being a retard, scanning and posting will have to come later.

Bye for now, not forever!

Holiday piece

I didn't sit around on my but doing nothing on my holiday you know...
Here's a little something I did before heading over to Singapore, and I'll probably post some sketches I did during my trip soon.

By the way, I may change up my casual ranting blog posts to something a little more professional, seeing how my blog will now be a part of my honour's exegesis. So once I dive into the pool of university study, there will be more artworks, research and hopefully some interviews with concept artists working in the games industry.

2011 Begins!

Howdy again! It's been a while hasn't it?
Well let's do a quick update.
Since the last post, most of the games created last year were a success, unfortunately for Phoenix, the team decided to pull it off of the showcase list at Brisbane's Mana Bar, this was due to the game not being able to deliver visually and in playability, however Bullet and Call of Kebabhlu proved to be a hit on the night. Bullet even got the People's Choice award! A great ending to graduating.

After a nice big break and a trip to Singapore, I decided to continue my studies and applied for honours in games design for another year, specialising in concept art and illustration. SO this means I'll be at uni for another year, drawing like crazy, improving my skills, learning more about art in the games industry!

Uni starts in a week...so I'll put up some work that I've done in my holidays before the hard work begins again.
Here's one I did tonight to pass time on a hot Australian summer's night ^_^ Peace out for now.

1hr + distractions

Running towards that light like I stole something

The final week before the uni deadline required me to complete the last background images for Call of Kebablhu, complete texturing for level props and the heroine as well as create a HUD for Phoenix.

Call of Kebablhu:
Thanks to Zac Duff for creating the concepts for all of the background levels for the game, with his inspiration and art style woven into each concept, I was able to refine them into their pixelated forms. Taking a step back after working on them for countless hours, seeing them being in the game and being able to view them as a whole is quite nice, I will admit it wasn't easy following the exact colours used in the concepts, especially when it came to gradient effects, fabric looks and reflections, but putting the effort in to get those things looking right in the first place makes all the difference. And getting good reactions from fellow team members when they noticed those efforts makes it worth while. Plus it helps if the images can be 32bit coloured bitmaps, as it doesn't limit me to the colours I can use.

These last two images are of the variety store that sells rubber ducks, and the food court where the player is able to finally obtain his well deserved kebab. I personally quite like the glow of the neon signs in the variety store as the green and reds bounce around the store and contrasts well with the ducks, probably making it one of the more brighter areas in the game (even though it's set in the dark).

C.O.K Variety Store

This here is the food court, not the cleanest of all food courts (are any of them ever?), but it looks used and abandoned, just how it was imagined. And in a crazed effort, I managed to pull off the shiniest of metal doors, which is intended to be the second focal point to the kebab shop anyway. Again, using the right lighting helps direct the viewer's attention to what is going on and what will happen next.

C.O.K Food Court

Phoenix
Having pre production done and dusted, it was time to get cranking on texturing models. I was able to find a whole bunch of withered and stained paper textures to use for level props like the explosive barrels and control panels, part of the "dirtying up" process to making the facility level less squeaky clean. I also used cardboard textures to give particular models a more solid feel to their structure. Crumpled, folded, lined, inked, coffee stained etc, all these effects of paper make up the what you see down below.

Explosive barrel textured

Control Panel textured

Crate textured

Assault mode textured

Recon mode textured

Shield mode textured

For the majority of the play testing phase, we had a place holder HUD which would show the energy distribution between weapon ammo, health, and jump boost available to recon, assault and shield modes of the player. Recon mode would be able to jump higher for longer but lack the ability to shoot, whilst assault mode would distribute more energy to weapon ammo, and shield mode allows the player to take less damage and regenerate energy. And just to add a little continuity to the art style, the HUD also has a textured paper style applied to it.

Phoenix HUD

Uni is over for this year, but there's no rest for us yet! All the teams are going to continue to refine the games that were create in both first and second semester before we showcase them at our industry night, which as far as I know is the 29 of November at Brisbane's Mana Bar.
It's a big moment for all of the 3rd year gamers, wish us luck!




So remember kids, if you're doing any kind of art, if you want your audience to be drawn to something in particular, or direct them to where to explore next, use lighting to guide the way. Think of it this way, we are like moths, dragged towards any light source, even if it means getting your mind blown out your arse.
And if you're texturing objects for a game, be sure to consider the hygiene level of the place you're texturing for. Hardly any place is 100% spotless, so adding even a little bit of dirt to your textures will give off a more realistic feel, no matter the art style.

Week 12 & 13 updates

After a few gruelling weeks of spreading my work time on three subjects, the stress has dropped a little (which actually isn't a lot) and focus is directed more to the final games projects.
Here's the summary of weeks 12 and 13:

Phoenix - Completed texturing for Alpha, Bravo and Charlie using 128, 256 and 512 resolutions respectively. These models will not be zoomed in on at any time during gameplay. To compare scale, and Alpha on screen is approximately less than thumb size, and having tonnes of detail in the texture probably wouldn't be picked up with the human eye. We're still going for the papercraft art style, the renders display a variety of blue and black biro marks, office paper, staples and cardboard.

Meanwhile, here is Phoenix team member Mic Stuart's animation work on a couple of the enemies, still a work in progress I believe. Kapow!
As well as the rest of the team member's blogs:
Tyson Foster
Grant Davidson
Amjad Alkharsan

Call of Kebabhlu -  Started to knock down more backgrounds, seven down and three to go. The recent ones done are the underground mall, the creek with landed bathysphere and drain tile. Kylie Findlay has been working on the animations for the game, and it's super awesome to see the backgrounds come alive with drains leaking, stars twinkling etc. It's tedious stuff, but it will look great in game ^_^

 Industry: Phantastic Piggy - Gordon had approved all the character designs and required a concept of gameplay, game over screen and title screen for the game, pretty much saying "go forth and make it look epic". And so it was done, by week 13 I had given him all the work from the very first project, to the mech game, and Phantastic Piggy ready to be marked.

Here are the initial concepts...

...And the finals

 These past weeks have been such a shitstorm, so apologies for the lack of postings, but I will continue to put up completed work, and I may have to rant about what's going on later. However I think from now on I will try to add a little advice that I've learnt or been told from friendlies at the bottom of entries.
Hope it all goes to a good cause, I 'spose a little advice is better than none.






So Remember kids! Consider the size of any characters and levels that will be viewed on screen when you're texturing, it can save you a lot of time because you want need to go nuts on the details if, say a character, is only going to be an inch big on the screen. Stick to generic texturing resolutions (don't make them up or you'll piss people off) e.g. 128x128, 256x256, 512x512, 1024x1024 etc.

Commence Arm Flailing

Crunch week just hit me in the face.
This week's to do list:

Phoenix:
-Texturing Alpha and Bravo enemies
-Clean up visuals

Call of Kebabhlu:
-Refine 7 more backgrounds

Phantastic Piggy:
-Finalise main character
-Farm animals character design
-UFOBBQ design
-Planets design
-Game over screen
-Cityscape design

BLOGS TO VISIT:
-Tyson
-Amjad
-Nic
-Kylie
-Dan

Phoenix Boss

Call of Kebabhlu Storm drain scene

Call of Kebabhlu bathysfear.

Call of Kebabhlu hallway scene

Week 10 Summary

The coffee's gone cold and tunnel vision sets in, and that light at the end is starting to become pretty bright.

So in the last couple of weeks, I've been busy doing a lot of things for a few teams. Here's the breakdown:

Phoenix:
-Glamour shots for Faffer bot npc, Alpha, Bravo and Charlie enemies:
These were to accompany the turnarounds, whilst finalising the additional details and colour palette for each one before going ahead with texturing.
 
-Designing the level's moving platforms:
As the player explores further into the facility, the environment will change from basic, bright, clean areas to potentially more dark, dirty and ominous spaces, hence three varieties of platforms were created to function differently to each other.

-Designing paper craft-esque prop designs of the standard crate and explosive barrel:
Simple as that. Referenced an origami water bomb ^_^

-Concepts for an end level Boss:
This has, and still is a good challenge. We agreed to it being more like an Alpha bot, but on a much larger scale, and the first concept I did pretty much locked in the scale, but instead of allowing it to have freedom of movement, we're going to integrate it into the part of the level it's located in, much like GLaDOS in Portal.

Check out Tyson's and Amjad's Blog to see final models, rigging demos and animations, among other Phoenix related awesome.

Platforms

Boss concept 01

Crate and Barrel

Faffer bot

Alpha

Bravo

Charlie

Call of Kebablhu:
- Background help:
The guys from C.o.K (hehe) asked me if I could assist them with their point 'n' click adventure game. Due to not having a dedicated artist on the job, they've done a super good job at working with what they have and become a neat team of Jack of all trades. They are going for a 'Beneath a Steel Sky' art style, whilst maintaining a humour only a wierdo would love...and in this industry, we're all wierdos. I've seen the gameplay's script and it's fantastic, all the best for these guys ^_^

The Citadel

Industry Project (Gordon Moyes):
-Briefing room concept: After getting the last bit of feedback from Gordon, I went ahead and completed it with additional high res photos. Gordon approved it and Amjad is keen to model it.

-New character concept: Gordon's got me working on an iPhone game he's got in the works. Something to do with pigs, for the time being I've been told to work on the main character, Fantastic Piggy (or "Phantastic Piggy" for possible added smart arsery). More details probably after this week.

Briefing Room thumbnails

01

02

Final

The First concept that came to my head. Far more to come.

So that's the past couple of weeks.

Stay tuned kids, for there's much more on the way. ^_^

Charlie Beauty shot coloured

Boss concept side view

Charlie Beauty shot line art