Kahne Goldsmith

23-year old Aspiring Game Designer from Melbourne.

[kahne-goldsmith]

Solum - Game Texture

These are the textures I created in Substance Designer for the group VR project titled ‘Solum’.

[kahne-goldsmith]

Spoils of War - Game Textures

[kahne-goldsmith]

The Future of Videogames: Alluring Gameplay and Storytelling

It is evident that videogames are becoming the fastest-growing type of mass media over the coming decade. Alluring gameplay and storytelling are becoming the future of videogames as we know it, with Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us becoming the standard to which other developers strive to match. Apex story driven narratives are inclusive of strong emotional ties that create profound sensations. Furthermore, the evolution of graphics in conjunction with photorealism emerging individuals within a virtually created world, and beautifully composed musical scores and sound effects that delve our senses into a rich rush of impression. It’s these ideas that will let those who experience such a game be forever changed by it, much like those who are changed by great works of literature or film. A shining example of such a game is the third-person action-adventure survival horror The Last of Us created by American videogame developer Naughty Dog. It’s these ideas that create the dramatics of The Last of Us bringing us closer to what we experience in real life, proving that playing such a game can be compared to reading a great book or watching an electrifying film. Thus keeping those playing guessing what will happen next.

The Last of Us is the pinnacle of evolutionary storytelling and shows how video games are capable of conveying strong, emotion driven narratives. Conrandy (2013) expresses that The Last of Us wouldn’t be nearly the masterpiece that it is if not for the writing produced by Neil Duckmann and Bruce Straley. It is the clarity and experience that allows exploration of the greatest parts of its character and theme. Too often videogames are seen as nothing but a medium dominated by brawny gun-toting men and anime-action sword-swinging characters with exaggerated plots that convey trivial petty emotions, the humanistic element is so very rarely seen. Ekman (2008) indicates that a key question in games is how the narrative reality is maintained. The industry has chosen to neglect the rudimentary of quality writing, and rather, try to create a game that people will think is ‘cool’, the masses will buy, play for a few weeks, and then sit, collecting dust. Howitt (2014) testifies that gameplay and story have traditionally occupied the player’s attention using a timeshare model; gameplay forms the experience and the narrative is often delivered in cut-scenes, and as a result they don’t match up. Developers frequently neglect that the videogame medium has many advantages to storytelling over other media such as film. Unlike those watching a film, the audience of a videogame has the ability to directly interact with the narrative. It is this interactive tool that immerses the audience, creating a narrative that emotionally invests those playing. Thus, “Allowing the player to become emotionally involved with the characters in the game” as well as giving “players interest in the narrative of the game in order to find out what happens next or how the story ends, rather than just to progress through the game and gain points or ‘kills’” (Stobbart, n.d). This is something Naughty Dog took and were able to strive past in leaps and bounds to create a solid moral story that the industry never bothered with, to create a work of art that wants to produce an insight into our being and reflect on who we are as humans. Developers repeatedly disregard “the main story line as well as individual plot elements and narrative turning points” within a game (Perron, 2005) and should instead begin “inserting examples of intertextuality in the text and an exploration of themes and motifs as well as making allusions to contemporary life” (Stobbart, n.d). It’s perfectly clear that The Last of Us not only exceeds the assumptions of poor narratives within the videogame medium, but has created a standard in what we should come to expect from publishers in the future.

As multi-core processors and graphics chipsets become greater enhanced, faster, and more powerful, the dynamic and simulated experiences produced create breathtaking visual effects that place players in a new world that react to their actions. “Emotional realism is an important factor when helping the player to become immersed within the game world (Lordyorae, n.d.). It is these actions that affect players in the moment, both physically in game and emotionally in the real world. Hartmann (2012) indicates that dramatically changing the industry to where we can insert a whole range of emotions, will only happen when we reach the point that games are photorealistic. The Last of Us “possess the brutality of realism and the prowess of dramatic, character-driven storytelling - one that's enveloping, exciting, terrifying, and even heart-breaking” (Kendricken, 2013). Thus, supporting this idea that the weight of real life-like characters conveying emotions through facial features and actions has a considerable influence on the player. Players see the character as an extension of themselves and quickly form strong attachments, creating a sense of self emersion. McMahan (2003) suggests that realism is an important factor, that is, how accurately does the virtual environment represent objects, events and people. Without photorealistic conventions it will become increasingly harder to open up to a newer audience who have never player videogames before. Stobbart (n.d.) proposes that the continuing technological breakthroughs by console making companies can create a more immersive experience for the player and affect the way that a narrative is delivered.

The inclusion of music and sound effects in videogames has a considerable affect on a players emotions, particularly when an action is achieved or performed. They establish a mood for the player, making the events within the game become “Cinematic” (Bridgett 2007) or “Bigger than life” (Prince 1996).  Music directly interacts with a game’s themes creating an extra layer of vibrant, clear, and greater emphasised feelings toward the player. Krumhansl (2008) established that different types of music directly trigger different emotions. The Last of Us incorperates this perfectly adding the quality of Academy Award winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla whos “musical score serves the game’s narrative” and one that adds music that “is rife with poignant, descriptive and intimate sounds” (Arieces, 2013). Without this masterful musical score The Last of Us would feel incomplete, as it has such a momentous influence towards the player and his or her emotions within a scene. “Sound tells a story, and the emotion you set with sound supports that story” (Andersen, 2013). Music creates memories, it has the ability to create a moment which lives forever. Music is “a boon to immersion, helping us feel like we’re really in this world alongside the protagonists” it “manipulates us” (Sapieha, 2013). Lankoski (2007) provides the idea that it is this immersive, cognitive investment within a games context that has the greatest emotinal impact in regards to a game’s goal. Andersen (2013) agrees that the slightest change in sound can vastly alter how a moment is perceived emotionally by an audience. Consequently, making it one of the most important things to remember when designing sound in a videogame.

Videogames offer experiences that no other medium can match. These games have the potential to create experiences that delve a player’s senses into euphoria. It’s recognizable that story driven narratives that reach the pinnacle of strong emotional ties within a player will become the norm for developers in the future. Additionally, adding individual emergence through photorealistic graphics, composed musical scores and sound effects also influence vigorous feelings through a player. Naughty Dogs The Last of Us accomplishes this without fault, creating a truly incredible emotional rollercoaster. While it is clear that videogames are becoming the fastest growing form of expression for developers to reach out to those unfamiliar with the medium. It is these ideas which will need to be further developed to catch a new audience’s attention “by creating an interactive experience in which the player is not only an observer, but also an active participant in the outcome of the narrative” (Stobbart, n.d). As Barwick (2013) puts it, developers need to heed this new technology to help forge gaming narrative worlds which are rich in specific detail, immersive atmospheres and believable characters that players also feel they can relate to. Excellent narrative progression and gaming story worlds will become the core factor to big titles and what will separate the good from the great.

[kahne-goldsmith]

Light Horse Studios: Spoils of War – Exegesis

The Light Horse Studios team created Spoils of War with the aim to highlight the intense raw emotional and physical nightmares that the men of the 1st Australian Tunnelers company had to endure during the Great War and to help players appreciate the scale and horror of the conflict taking place at the time.

The goals that the Light Horse Studios team intended to portray were those of deep emotion, expressing the experience that these brave miners were faced with. The Team aim to achieve these goals through various in game connotations such as the art style, in game audio, game world, and personal game characters.

The thought of creating game art that aided in forming a sentimental emotional response towards the player by highlighting the ‘coldness’ and ‘sadness’ war time evokes was very important to the Light Horse Studios team as it emphasize the dark undertones often forgotten about the Great War. The eeriness of these tunnels dug by the bare hands of the 1st Australian Tunnelers aimed to show just how dark, bitter, and silent a shift was for these men. Through the use of grey/dark pastel colour tones we felt the player would greater appreciate the seriousness of the context and idea behind the emphasis on drawing attention to the intensity and raw emotional states left behind from the Great War. The game art created by the Light Horse Studios team did allow for the highlighting of such ‘coldness’ and ‘sadness’ through dark colour undertones present in the look of elements in the game word and the look of the character units. Although, the Light Horse Studios team would have appreciated if a higher level of detail was meet within the juicing phase of development. Animation of the player character would also have benefited from the juicing phase of development, but time constraints caused an undue rush for the implementation of said animations in the exhibition build of Spoils of War.

Game audio was a major aspect in the development of Spoils of War, aiming to represent the same sounds as those who were in the tunnels heard. The gameplay sound effects play a large part in affecting the player’s thinking and enhancing the feedback and experience of the game to the player. It was important to the Light Horse Studios team that audio was something that would allow the player to feel emotions, such as fear, anticipation, and terror, that greatly influence how one would feel not only straight after the experience, but further into their life. It was this importance that ultimately caused us to peruse audio designers to create these audio assets to a high quality that we were looking for. The inclusion of an audio dialog introduction upon starting the game gives greater context and feedback to the player to help them understand the situations these Tunnelers experienced during their time serving. Aside from providing an emotional tie this dialog also aids in teaching players what their objective is for the playthrough. This piece of audio dialogue is very vital because without it, players may only understand what Tunnelers do and not understand the context behind their situation. The game audio within Spoils of War work fantastically well in favor of the overall contextual meaning of the game, the main theme present on the user interface screens, as well as the game play screen provide a good background for the player supplying interest into the gameplay. The audio provides player feedback and player emotions to a standard that is well received, especially the audio dialog introduction sequence. Implementing various background sounds, such as shell/gun fire, explosions, etc. that were muffled below ground would have had a greater impact on portraying the sheer loneliness below the surface.

The importance of the construction of the Spoils of War game world became a principle objective to the Light Horse Studios team, as it was important to the overall context and idea behind creating such a game. The aim was to focus and represent the darkness, quietness, and loneliness of the underground ‘word’ compared to the ravaged landscape painted by the constant warfare above. A major aspect for the team was to correctly identify the different levels of soil that the 1st Australian Tunnelers faced, and just how long it would take them to advance through. This would allow the player to develop a sense of the hard work put forth by these men and the strategy associated with where tunnels were dug, further strengthening the connection between the player and the games emotional themes. The fog of war mechanic was implemented to create an aura associated with how the miners were digging into the unknown, knowing nothing of what laid among the next few meters, creating a sense of distress and fear for what may be waiting. Environmental factors were also strongly pursued in development as the factors such as air quality, boulders, and the fear of cave ins were a very real threat to how the Tunnelers operated the mines at the time. Greater care should have been taken when implementing world assets, such as the soil tiles and background images. Some trouble was foreseen during this stage as all the soil tiles were too large a resolution to identify between, as well as the background image being too short of a width to fit the scale of the game world. The game world itself serves a very good purpose within the overall context, allowing for an experience that portrays a deep emotion towards the player.

While conducting external testing, it was emphasized to the team that having a tutorial mode was extremely important for the player to learn the mechanics set out. During the weeks leading up to the final build of Spoils of War, it was decided that developing a tutorial with accompanying audio voice assets would be ideal. The Light Horse Studios team were unsuccessful in creating an inclusive tutorial mode for spoils of War, due to issues involving how the tutorial interacted with the gameplay world.

Overall, creating personal characters for Spoils of War was of utmost importance for the Light Horse Studios team as these men would be how the player interacts with the game would to be delivered the inclusive emotional response. Having included three playable characters in Spoils of War, each with varying stats that would aid or diminish them in different situations/environments, creates a chance for the player to become emotionally inclined to units as they are not respawned at any time during a play through. By allowing the player to choose the makeup of their team up to six units, in any format they see fit, gives the player some control over their experience, without the thought of becoming emotional connected to the units they have chosen. Originally, the Light Horse Studios team wanted to develop six individual personal characters each with a personal background/story to further strengthen the emotional ties towards the player. This goal however was out of scope, causing the team to stick with three individual classes of characters. By committing to this three class system the team ultimately achieved the goal to express teamwork within Spoils of War, allowing a strong connection with how the 1st Australian Tunnelers proceeded to achieve successful actions. The personal character’s aspect was one thing the Light Horse Studios team want to achieve the most, but were unable to achieve such an empathic link due to the inability to convey the emotion on the characters. These characters showed very little personalities, with nothing to distinguish their roles or story elements, other than their face.

All things considered, the Light Horse Studios team achieved the overall aim to highlight the intense raw emotional and physical nightmares that the men of the 1st Australian Tunnelers company had to endure during the Great War. These thoughts and ideas were present to help players appreciate the scale and horror of the conflict taking place at the time, but better execution in many of the already existing areas could have been achieved to a higher standard to further express and portray the deep emotion felt by the men of the 1st Australian Tunnelers company. Nonetheless, with extra time and care within the polish phase Spoils of War would have presented to be a fantastic final execution. Although, the goal of portraying such emotion is what the Light Horse Studios team wanted to show within Spoils of War and is present throughout varying aspects.

[kahne-goldsmith]

Light Horse Studios: Spoils of War – Postmortem

This Trimester Studio Unit 2 called on the class to create group game that would hold a message or an emotional response that differs based on the experiences of the player. The group, also known as Light Horse Studios, ultimately decided on working to develop the game I pitched called Spoils of War.  The vision I anticipated for Spoils of War was that of a 2D side-scrolling/real time strategy game that plunges players into commanding an Allied tunnelling company during the Great War (1917). The Player would be tasked with destroying Axis trench lines by digging tunnels beneath the enemy to set explosives, all while avoiding complications that can cause death to the company men. Spoils of Wars aim was to highlight the intense raw emotional and physical nightmares that these men had to endure during these daring attempts and to help players appreciate the scale and horror of the conflict seen. Personally, I believe that the team has accomplished the units target goal, but greater care and consideration could have been taken to achieve a higher level of development in various roles and positions throughout the entirety of the project. Due to the overall scope of the game, and varying skill levels within the team, Spoils of War fell short during its development process.

As Spoils of War was my vision I was tasked with being the Creative Lead for project. My role consisted of aiming to maintain the overall consistency of creative assets being produced, gameplay objectives/mechanics, and aid in the creation of art assets and documentation. I believe that my role was performed steadily and reliably from the outset and throughout the entire development process. A task that I found challenging and quiet daunting from the beginning of the project was being in somewhat of an authoritative role. This is something I hadn’t previously been exposed to, but over the course of the project quickly started to learn and pick up various leader role techniques alongside the Project Manager. I do believe however that both myself and the Project Manager should have been somewhat firmer with the team from early on as a backlog of development task seemed to pile up towards the pointy end of the project development process. That being said I did really enjoy the experience of being in a lead role, I didn’t think before this the commencement of this trimester, but I would happily put my hand up for another role like this.

One aspect of the whole project that was hit and miss was the use of adequate and strong communication channels. I believe that over the entirety of the Spoils of War project communication between team members was our major downfall. From early stages the group struggled to grasp a steady stream of communication as we were trying to contact each other through various applications such as Slack, Discord, and Facebook Messenger. There was very little discussion on the game development process which prompted myself and the Project Manager to create a sole communication stream in the form of a Light Horse Studios group on slack. It became very apparent to the group that communication was a major issue when our programmer posted that ever since the project had begun communication between team members had been close to zero. Team meetings were really the only form of communication between team members, and even then were only being scheduled once a week. In response to what our programmer expressed about the groups communication, the decision to hold a meeting twice a week was put forth. This caused a very big spike in communications between the group as all team members often had questions or updates on development work, although often what was discussed at these meetings wasn’t elaborated to those who may have been absent. Which in turn caused bumps in implementation down the track. In the future, seeing how important strong communication channels are, I will definitely be pushing for stronger communication and feedback between all disciplines and members of the project at hand.

Something that was very adamant at the end stages of the project development was how the lack of a well-used Gantt chart caused some implementation hiccups. Early on it was discussed that having such a chart would help organize and prioritize tasks that needed to be completed in order to proceed to the next task at hand. During the first half of the development of Spoils of War a Gantt chart was used, but very minimally. Not making good use of the Gantt chart in the second half of the project hurt us and our ability to implement work that had been finished, and find out what hadn’t been finished at all. For future project I believe that there definitely need to be a well-used Gantt chart to adequately differentiate what has been done and what needs to be done to further development.

Documentation, with the exclusion of the Gantt chart, was something that I am very proud of during the development of Spoils of War. All team members were very adamant right from the get go about having well rounded documentation to convey the ideas set by the original pitch documents. The use of strong Asset lists and a detailed Game Design Document/Art Bible without a doubt helped set the vision of the project right from the start to the end of development.

During the last few weeks on the development of Spoils of War the issue of rushing last minute work was becoming a problem. The major aspect during this time that was holding the team back was the creation and implementation of the player animations. The issue with this process was that prioritizing the entirety of the animation components of the project should have been something that was worked on early on. Clearly something a well-used Gantt chart would have solved. This being said though, having those who were working on animation pick up on the fact that the area that they are solely working on is moving slowly and bringing it to the attention of myself and the Project Manager should have happened. Some resentment at the very last stages of development caused undue stress to those who were working on other tasks, such as myself and our Documentation Lead, as we were tasked with picking up the slack of the Animators. This was definitely a learning experience for me. In future projects, to prevent this issue from happening again, as a Project Lead having discussions with each team member regularly on the progress of said tasks would be adamant. As previously stated, having a Gantt Chart or similar documentation would have aided in helping the team prioritize and know the milestone dates of certain tasks.  

Overall, the highlight of the whole development process of Spoils of War was having the ability to work with a large group of passionate class mates to not only develop a game, but one that I had envisioned. Each team member seemed very thrilled and excited to work on my game, which made me feel very excited in turn. A lot of effort was put into Spoils of War and I’m ecstatic that the team got to the end and met our target to an extent.

[kahne-goldsmith]

Yuanfen – Postmortem

This Trimester Studio Unit 2 called on the class to create a 2D side-scroller/platformer in Unreal Engine 4 as an individual project. This project, much like the group task, to create group game that would hold a message or an emotional response that differs based on the experiences of the player. I was pleased to see that we were tasked with creating such an individual game, as it gave me the opportunity to dive into Unreal Engine 4 head first, with no prior knowledge of the engine. One thing that I enjoyed most was the self-guided learn that I was tasked with, especially in relation to leaning Blueprints rather than having to hard code. Over the course of the Trimester I believe that this individual process went very well, compared to any previous individual projects I had worked on in the past. Although, I did run into some issues due to my lack of knowledge of such processes in Unreal Engine 4.

Going into this project was quite daunting to me as I was particularly worried about implications concerning code as this is definitely something that I am not strong at. But I was quickly reassured after discovering just how easy visual blueprinting is to an extent, especially for someone who is very visual, such as myself. Being able to rapidly prototype my game within the first few weeks of the project gave me a lot of faith in my ability to overcome problems and create art assets/animations that I’d be happy with. My self-motivation during this project was the highest it’s ever been during an individual project. The only real implications I came across with blueprints was trying to initiate different ‘states’ to my player and game world objects, this did cause me to become quite frustrated as I found it hard to visualise how these components would fit into the blueprints, and how they would react to one another. It was also quite difficult to find online resources and tutorials for creating a 2D side-scroller/platformer, which in turn made development time longer than I expected. One thing that helped me immensely with blueprints was the ability to group and comment different components to see how they worked internally. For future projects, personal and Studio related, I will definitely be choosing Unreal Engine 4 over other engines such as Unity 5 as it is very user friendly and effective to use. The highlight of the project for myself was having the ability to teach myself and learn a wide range of new things in an Engine that I may have not touched otherwise.

Producing the art for this project was the thing that I enjoyed the most, creating 2D art is something that I am very passionate about. I often find myself working more on art related processes, rather than dividing my time evenly across other aspects of the development process. This is something that I will have to work on if I want future projects to run smoother. This project gave me the opportunity to develop 2D pixel art, something that I had previously been told to avoid making as it often has stigma attached to it of being a pain to accomplish. Creating the level assets was something that I enjoyed greatly, and having the ability to easily be able to implement them into Unreal Engine 4, add collision, and then literally paint my level was amazing. Although I did find individual aspects of creating the 2D pixel art a little challenging, such as smoothing my animations, I appreciated the challenge. Being able to quickly import animation frames, then use the flipbook option in Unreal Engine 4, made implementing these complete animations that little bit easier. In the future, combating animations is something that I will have to spend more time researching and developing to create something that I am truly happy with.

As the Trimesters end fast approached, my individual time management suffered a little. Looking back on the project as a whole I should have individually planned sections and tasks to be completed at certain points along the development timeline, especially after my prototyping phase. I often found myself switching back and forth between different sections and tasks, which in hindsight stressed. This stress ultimately caused me to start rushing things and pushing it right to the last week of the Trimester to get a build ready for the exhibition. Future projects will definitely have time management become one of the most important things is address. Setting milestones along the development timeline will be a very high priority for me, to help with the overall project consistency, efficiency, and stress. By doing this I will create a greater chunk of time to further develop and polish my project and have a reserve amount of time if anything major happens to derail progress.

To me, having the opportunity to create a project in Unreal 4 Engine has given me a greater appreciation for visual coding, I found it to be very enjoyable as I was able to adequately understand how and why various things happened the way they were happening. Upon completing my individual project I was able to learn how to develop Blueprints to make game mechanics I otherwise wouldn’t have found out to do. Furthermore, having learnt how to develop simple enemy AI with different control states, and environmental hazards has been of interest to me. Finally, how Unreal Engine 4 makes the importing of art assets easy to use and place in the game world, through the use of Tile-maps and Flipbooks, makes me excited to use the engine again. This project was very enjoyable to not only myself, but my peers as well. The project has opened my eyes about the prospect of having indie game developers produce games in their own time with such an easy of use. Having the ability to teach yourself new engines amazing.

[kahne-goldsmith]

GDS220 – Postmortem

This Trimesters unit has without a doubt been my favorite unit I have completed thus far in my studies at SAE. The focus on creating games that hold a message or an emotional response that differs based on the experiences of the player is something I am very passionate about in game development. Over the course of the 13 weeks on Studio Unit Two I have learnt many new things in relation to being a leader, how Unreal 4 Engine is a great tool for budding designers in terms of its ease of use, and how working in a large design group can be beneficial as well as a challenge.

As a part of the assessment criteria within the Unit a set of Key Performance Indicators needed to be met with either a successful or masterful application at the end of the trimester. Personally, I needed to focus on trying to increase five KPI’s from successful to masterful.

Over the course of the trimester further developing my communication skills was one thing I wanted to impact most on. Early on in the trimester I believed that when it came to communicating with my peers in a 'non-formal' setting I was able to adequately get my views across while taking on theirs. The Spoils of War group project has given me opportunity to grow in this area. My ability to communicate in a ‘formal’ setting has definitely improved, especially when it comes to gathering the ideas and questions of my peers. Although, greater communication over the course of the Unit would have benefited me to a larger point.

Time management has never been a major problem for me, but it also has never been something I’ve been on top of. This trimester I feel I’m still focusing on aspect of projects that I find more intriguing, while pushing back other aspects that are just important. I still find that I may be distracted with other things, but do always find the time to accomplish what needs to be done. Providing an adequate amount of time to all processes still stands as something I need to look into.

Given the opportunity to develop an individual project, with the elements of self-teaching and research has seen a massive increase in my ability to problem solve. I will still continue to try and analyse any problem I face with any previous problems I have encountered, to determine if it is solvable from the knowledge I have gained from overcoming said problems. Seeking outside help has had a massive benefit in my problem solving ability. It was very rare for me to become so frustrated with a problem and leave it for an extended period of time, something I would have previously done.  

Again, with the inclusion of the individual project this trimester has seen a considerable leap in my ability to integrate new processes into my work to improve the overall quality of it. Finding out new ways to develop even the smallest aspect of a design further has given me a lot more faith in my ability.

 The pressure of this trimester definitely motivated me to work to a better standard than I previously had. By taking and maintaining a sense of priorities from this I was able to apply them at a more level headed work ethic than previously. Which in turn actually increased the quality of work I produced.

Overall, this trimester has helped me develop my skills to a level that I am confident will take me to the next level of my studies at SAE. Not only has the support been fantastic during the unit, but the confidence that has been granted to myself and peers has been very reassuring in my ability to continue conducting my studies further.

[kahne-goldsmith]

Spoils of War (Mechanical Lock off) - Post-Mortem

As it’s the end of Week 9 (29/07/16) the mechanical lock off build for our Studio Two unit group project Spoils of War was due to be handed in.

The overall goal for this assessment is to develop a game to hold an emotional theme and meaning to be developed within a small team over a 10-week time period, with set milestones along the way including a prototype build in week 5.

I believe that the groups mechanical lock off build was successful in delivering on having all the mechanics discussed along the pre-development scope and timeline. The next few weeks we will be focussing on implementing the remaining assets.    

During the weeks leading up to the mechanical lock off, I believe that I was able to show a positively strong work ethic with what I had accomplished in envisioning, communicating, developing, and creating. As it was my game idea that we ultimately decided on committing too, I wanted to show my team that I was very enthusiastic in being the Creative Lead.

Communication between the team started strong, we decided on using Slack, an online communication tool. All team members seemed enthusiastic about their specific roles, and began work right away on specifics set to them. As the weeks progressed though communication began to fall short, prompting a communication revision among our team. Our programmers have also spoken about our communication and has suggested we should always be in communication with them in future projects and not leave them in the dark. After seeing the programmers comment it is very apparent in our Slack channels.

Overall, I’m really proud and happy with what our team has accomplished in the past weeks. The implementation of our key mechanics in this latest build has put us on track for a successful final build of Spoils of War.

[kahne-goldsmith]

Connecting Players To Characters

A character connection within a game is always how developers want the player to be immersed, after all its this character that will be joining the player through the entire game play journey. There are various different ways that developers aim to do this, whether this be through camera choices (First Person, Third Person, etc.), a 2D or 3D Space, a player narrative, character relations, etc.

One thing that I find hard to believe though is that players don’t always think that a character connection is even happening. Players can become very naive in this regard. Just because you may be playing a mobile game, let’s say Candy Crush, that doesn’t have a ‘player avatar’ that digitally represents you, those players more often than not think there’s no protagonist to the story. That’s where they are wrong, that protagonist is you, the player. The Developers create that story narrative through the player as the character themselves, which when done in the right way can pull your players to become greatly invested in playing your game.

A question that I as a Game Design student find most intriguing is ‘who are we controlling?’. Is this controlled character a reflection on our own being, or one that has been molded for us to experience a side to something we wouldn’t usually follow? Personally, I’d argue that it is a cocktail of both of these ideas. Psychologist Berni Good from Cyber Psychologist suggests that “that character identification involves an 'increasing loss of self-awareness and its temporary replacement with heightened emotional and cognitive connections to the character” which defiantly suggests that we as players “do put ourselves in the role of the character, suspending our sense of self in these virtual worlds." One players experience will most often always be different to that of another player, some may find the particular theme of a game to be upsetting, while your friend finds it funny and witty. This is bread and butter for developers. By creating an experience and relationship that is unique the player often pulls them closer and more likely to pick up another game you’ve created, yearning for a new experience that will take them away for just a tad longer.

[kahne-goldsmith]

Case Study: Neil Druckmann and Emotional Ties Within Games.

One of Naughty Dogs very passionate employees is creative director and lead writer Neil Druckmann. Druckmann has worked at Naughty Dog since 2004, and is most known for his work on Game of the Year ‘The Last of Us’ (2013), and most recently ‘Uncharted 4: A Thief's End’ (2016).

One thing that I love about Naughty Dog’s games is that they often always portray a wide range of emotions, pulling the player deeper into the experience, and its Druckmann’s belief that ‘the creative cycle of storytelling, interaction and back again is something unique to video games’ which allows for such an experience for the player. ‘When they work in concert the experience is like nothing else.’ (Druckmann, 2013). The ultimate goal is to tell a story that the player can empathize with.

Although Druckmann is the lead writer and creative director for both of these games, he is clear in saying that the emotional works are not only down to his side of the project, but equally rests on Bruce Straley, the director of Game-play, to portray this to the player through gameplay. For a video game to be ‘about something’ and ‘attend to issues of meaning’ it comes down to how to get to that emotional place for the player, and it’s of the utmost importance for all those working on such a game to know the exact direction and meaning.

Druckman is also very vocal on how important narrative and character development is in developing such emotion, saying that ‘through the interactions you form a bond that’s something you can’t do in a passive like a film or a book. You care for this other character because he/she is there helping you out. That, coupled with the story and the performances, creates a bond, unlike anything you’ve seen in a video game before.” Further saying that ‘something about the gameplay and the music and the story come together to sell a relationship.” (Druckmann, 2013).

Without a doubt, I would honestly say that both ‘The Last of Us’ and ‘Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End’ typically pluck at the emotions of the player, creating an experience that no other media can match. It is this very emotion that allows for such ‘a certain heart and emotional underpinning’ (Druckmann, 2016).

References

Hussain, T. & Butterworth, S. (2016). Uncharted 4 Interview: Naughty Dog on Crafting a Legendary Ending. GameSpot. Retrieved 10 June 2016, from http://www.gamespot.com/articles/uncharted-4-interview-naughty-dog-on-crafting-a-le/1100-6437139/

Neil Druckmann. (2015). The Last of Us Wiki. Retrieved 10 June 2016, from http://thelastofus.wikia.com/wiki/Neil_Druckmann

Robertson, A. (2013). The Last of Us: interview with Neil Druckmann and Ashley Johnson.Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 10 June 2016, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/10091838/The-Last-of-Us-interview-with-Neil-Druckmann-and-Ashley-Johnson.html

[kahne-goldsmith]

Emotion in Creative Media!

Within creative media, emotional aspects are one of, if not the most important aspect of producing a creative piece. Whether it be within writing, films, art, or games, creatives always want to evoke particular emotive responses towards those who are viewing their works. The reason for this is that emotions are universal, relatable and cultivating, they always tell the truth.

Most creatives want an audience to identify with stories through the characters within the piece, it is through the character’s emotions in which the audience will be reached.

‘only when we connect with the characters on an emotional level, does the interaction become deep and meaningful. Well-written scenes that include characters' emotions allow the audience to viscerally take part in the story and bond with the characters.’ (Alderson).

Psychologist Robert Plutchik devised a wheel of emotions that has become a model to describe that of human emotions. He proposed that all people experience a basic set of eight biologically primitive emotions that directly relate to behaviours that help adapt and improve our chances of survival. Our many and varied types of emotions stem from primary emotions, which vary in intensity and combine together to make new emotions.

The phenomenon of reality shifts is that of our feelings linking with the shifts in reality we are witnessing. These times when we notice things appearing, disappearing, transforming, or transporting affects changes in the way we experience certain emotional reactions.

In 2000 author and researcher Cynthia Sue Larson conducted a "How Do You Shift Reality?" survey of 395 people, which asked the subjects to answer twenty questions about their reality shift experiences. Of these twenty questions, the answers from one particular question "When I notice reality shifts, I often feel... " produced twelve typical types of emotional reactions for people experiencing reality shifts.

These are in order from most used to least used answers:

1.       Curiosity

2.       Excitement

3.       Awe

4.       Happiness

5.       Confusion

6.       Fear

7.       Anger

8.       Sadness

9.       Denial

10.   Gratitude

11.   Heightened Awareness

12.   Acceptance

For further explanation of why Larson believes that these were the most common answers I really recommended checking the Top 12 Emotional Reactions to Reality Shifts.

References

(2016). S-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com. Retrieved 6 June 2016, from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/75/1c/2c/751c2ce6d4d7ae60062dd8a8b0e2aff9.jpg

Alderson, M. (2016). Connecting with Audiences Through Character Emotions. Writersstore.com. Retrieved 6 June 2016, from https://www.writersstore.com/connecting-with-audiences-through-character-emotions/

Larson, C. (2016). Top 12 Emotional Reactions to Reality Shifts. Realityshifters.com. Retrieved 6 June 2016, from http://realityshifters.com/pages/articles/top12emotionalreactions.html

Types of Emotions and Feelings. (2016). Holistic MindBody Healing. Retrieved 6 June 2016, from http://www.holistic-mindbody-healing.com/types-of-emotions.html

[kahne-goldsmith]

Brainstorming!

Brainstorming allows for solving problems and coming up with new ideas in ways that allow you to observe the problems from outside the way of normal thinking, and understand the issues and root causes to come up with alternative solutions better than those previously thought!

Personally, I prefer to generate ideas from mind maps. Mind mapping is predominantly a visual depiction of words relating to a topic. It works by grouping similar ideas together that help to show the relationship between various points and ideas. Generally, these points are a written word or a few words strung together, but including sketches of an idea can also be very beneficial. By allowing yourself small visual sketches, the way in which ideas can generate and expand on a topic increases massively! Mindmaps let you see the big picture of a topic and make connections between details!

Additionally, brainstorming can be great for team building! When discussions are shared the benefits of improving creativity and innovation within an organization or individually can be increasingly beneficial, as well as improving the quality, profitability, efficiency, and morale.

[kahne-goldsmith]

Knights of the Living Dead

Check this link out https://djschoffer.itch.io/knight-of-the-living-dead

I actually did the background art for this game! I was pretty happy with how it turned out, given that this is only an early prototype. I would highly recommend Dylan as a programmer, great dude, thanks for letting me work on your game!

[kahne-goldsmith]

Here’s my 3D blacksmith's hut that I designed in Maya! Creating the textures for this was actually a lot of fun, thumbs up/10! Hope you enjoy!

[kahne-goldsmith]

Exhibition

Wednesday night saw the annual end of Trimester SAE exhibition night where students from games, film, audio, and animation could exhibit their trimesters work for attendees to watch/interact with, allowing for networking communication and feedback on the work submitted.

For myself and my two group members, Taylor and Noon, it was a chance to showcase our studio unit one 3D prototype game titled Grav Boot. In short Grav Boot is a third person runner, where the player can move between 3 “lanes” as well as change the direction of gravity to alter the level and avoid obstacles as well as maintaining momentum.

Aside from some feedback alerting us to some minor and major bugs in our build, the feedback on our game was mostly positive, which was a relief to me. Those who played our game were able to understand how the game worked, comparing it to some traditional runners such as temple run and subway surfer.

I was very glad to have showcased our playable build at the exhibition, it allowed us to sit back and enjoy watching others play the game we designed! I really look forward to the exhibition night next trimester, can’t wait to see what others have produced, and watch those same people play a game I had a turn in developing!

[kahne-goldsmith]

Maya – Texturing

Texturing is probably my favourite thing about creating 3D models in Maya, I have no idea why but I feel like I have a lot more freedom to develop my ideas within the textures. I find it 130% easier than designing the actual 3D model, more often than not I find myself thinking ahead of the model creation about how I’ll texture it, which can be good and bad. Depending on the model itself, and what part of the model I’m texturing how I go about creating the texture varies. Rather than using Photoshop to create my textures I prefer to use Manga Studio, I find that the program itself works so much better with my Cintiq 13HD, and has that awesome pickup – put down mentality. Honestly, if you swear by Photoshop download the trial version of Manga Studio and see if you still prefer it (Bonus, it’s cheaper too!).

[kahne-goldsmith]

Studio Unit One: Assesment One (2D Game Space)