Elements of game design, part 6: Visual composition

To work on visual composition is to plan what eventually will become 3^rd dimension and even 4^th. In order to nail the feel and style of an environment, character etc. There needs to be a full understanding of the fundamentals that can be learned from the great classical artists. Things like understanding 3D form and lighting, using these to create a feel, a mood, to visually communicate your ideas. These are all required when creating these fundamental attributes in game design.

These images are works from the game The Last of Us. As you can tell I am quite a big fan of this game. I feel it symbolises everything that I feel makes a great, engaging game. Every detail is perfect in my opinion. For example all of these landscape concepts depict the mood and feel for that  particular environment. The fundamentals are down. Use of perspective to enhance the 3D readability of the image. As well as clever lighting and layout, every single one of these images is immersive. They all stick to a very organic colour pallet with muted colours that tied in with all the other technical choices made for the imagery. Having seen and experienced the final outcome, they really stayed true to the images and style that they created in the early stages of  of design.   

This stretches through to the character development, including the monsters and enemies in the game. They followed the same believable and realistically possible structure that the environments had. Countless variations and different ideas are put into characters. Once a final design is decided, an illustration of the characters needs to be done in order to show their personality. Again they need to be readable just from just one image as well as a series of images.

To place the characters within an environment composition also shows how characters and environments tie together, to show an all-round immersive feel to the imagery. It gives us a chance to understand the human impact within the surroundings that have been created.

I feel that simplicity is key when coming up with the visual compositions. Over complicating an image can cloud the original message within the scene, and how people read it and interpret it. Using the great classical elements that made the great masters artworks, can enhance the impact of games concepts and design on the viewer. It is becoming an art form within itself. The games industry is becoming a lot more art conscious and is hiring and requiring more and more technically exceptional artists to produce their design and concepts work.

I stumbled across this article written by the film critic Roger Elbert, entitled ‘Video Games Can Never Be Art’ http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-never-be-art This article was written on April 16^th, 2010. Robert Elbert passed away on the 4^th of April 2013 at the age of 70. He stated that Video games would never be art in the lifetime of anyone who has a current interest in them. But this is coming from a man of 67 who has seen a lot of new technological advances, but believes in the stigma that games cannot be art. I feel that The Last Of Us challenges his words. I feel it matches with other forms of art of storytelling but in such an advanced way. 

If people could see games for what they are now and are fast becoming, without the stigma they’ve seemed to have gained over the years, I’m sure many would question their own opinions. So many art forms are taken into consideration with modern games, from visual style to the music used. I feel they are on a fast track to becoming a controversial art form, that I personally love and these are elements that I always look for within a game.

Elements of game design part 5: Planning and Concepting

The making a game and many things in this word is a series of planned out processes that follow a strict formula. 

This work flow is the basis for design. It’s a series of trial and error. Idea generation, starting with no boundaries to help loosen up the mind to be inventive and creative when coming up with new ideas. Through this process of handing in ideas, and receiving opinion, constraints are born. This helps to really focus the team on what direction all idea’s should be following.

Looking through a recent purchase of mine ‘The Last Of Us’ art book (pictured below) In the introduction it states, they were told to “develop Naughty Dog’s next big franchise.” From this broad scope they had to narrow down every element of the game. The first idea/restriction they came up with, was to base the story around the relationship between 2 characters, this then quickly developed into the idea of a father daughter type relationship.

This was a solid ground to work on, as obviously, the game ended up exactly as such. A good base idea can carry out all planning and development for the entire concepting process. In constrains we begin to find what exactly is needed to make this game a success. Multiples of people are always involved. With most of the time the creators and idea generators have to answer to those who are funding the project and producers. These back and fourths between people again, are key to moulding an idea to eventually reach its final desired outcome. 

For me personally I find once I have an idea planted in my head, I try my best to stick to that idea. To the point where I will discard any other good idea just because my first idea was such a great idea that helped spur the rest of my designs.

For instants. A current project I’m working on, is to design a land sea and air vehicle that can carry 2 people and a lot of equipment. As soon as I heard the project brief, I instantly thought of a vehicle I saw on the TV show Top Gear.  

This car had tyres with built in paddles that scoop the water and placed in such a way on the tires, that when it hits the water it skims across it. I had this idea of the tyres stuck in my head right from the word go. However when designing, you have to generate a load of concepts to explore as many idea’s as possible. In this process, I tried out some ideas that use the same systems as a hovercraft.

This was my main idea, (pictured above) where by the cylinders at the side would act as the paddled tyres as well as the protective case for the propeller’s. I had my heart set on this idea, but this idea (pictures below) has also wormed its way into my favourites.  

It’s a concise and simple idea, which is why I think its works so well. I have yet to develop the original idea. So I have yet to see its full potential.

The process of concepting is purely about idea generation and not getting too attached to an idea. You need to be able to churn idea after idea out into the firing line. A lot of idea will be rejected even ones that you particularly love. The game design process is a team effort, and there will always be others that will object to your ideas, but also be willing to collaborate on them further. 

Reflection on year 1, and ambition for year 2

So I’m back fresh and slightly terrified after a long yet very quick summer break. On receiving my results I suddenly realised just how much this course asks of me. I felt I worked myself the hardest throughout my entire educational journey for this course and yet I scraped by with a minuscule pass mark…oh dear.

This truly scared into thinking I seriously need to up my game. Even though I felt it was the hardest I’ve ever worked (and it was) I can still see where I needed to pick up the slack. Better planning and consistency are key I think. I made a habit of not starting things right away, as well as spending more time and effort on some projects rather than others. Balancing time is so crucial on this course and I need to be incredibly strict just too even begin to pull it off.

I’m not really majorly happy with any of the work I did in the first year, which is something that needs to change for the second year. This is when we start to think about portfolio and employment, which in itself, seems incredibly daunting. I feel I will never be prepared enough for work in this industry. I guess that’s what the second year is for. I just hope it works out that way.

So it’s all up to me. Only I can make whatever I want from this course. Starting with better organisation. I find that I spend more time on 3D work, simply because it is my weakest suit. I panic and stress to the point where I’ve completed a task that still looks shockingly bad, but also has left me no time for any other work. Clever I know. So, I guess I need to spread my time and effort more effectively. Possibly find time to practice my own skills, the things I enjoy the most, like tradition 2d as well as digital painting.

I need to re-realise why I chose this course in the first place. I got caught up in the work load and completely forgot why I signed up in the first place. I aim to be a concept artist, to be even more specific, a character concept artist. That was my main inspiration all along. Those characters I drew throughout my school years because school was just so painfully dull and I wish I focused on that more. I hope that with focus on employment this year, as well as an opportunity to do some awesome work for portfolio. I think a big thing to keep in mind is stress. I refuse to stress this year, as I have a personal situation that comes with all the downs I can handle.

My boyfriend is a soldier and is on tour to Afghanistan. I had to deal with this last year too but only for the first month or so. This time round, he’ll be away for my whole second year. This sucks because he always puts so much faith in me and tells me that I can do anything I set my mind to. If anything, I want to do well in this course for him, to prove that he was right all along.