Y1 S2 T11 - Elements Of Game Design - Part 4 - Environment

Level design is something I have always been interested in. From an early age I was always making up own levels using a pen and paper, I could come up with my different ideas and variations following made up tasks you would have to complete in the levels.  One thing about this though is that I was playing games that like Mario, Crash Bandicoot and sonic and the objective in all of them is pretty much the same and what I found interesting is there basically is an unlimited amount of ideas and designs you can come up with to challenge the user, yes they are simple but I find them effective, but in the more modern game with a story you have to sort of make the level while sticking to a script. I think the way level designers now-a-days make up their levels is by looking at the script first because that tells them what is going on and gives them an idea for what they need to build in relation to the characters and how they will navigate around the level eventually reaching the goal they must accomplish. They would sketch out the plans to the level first, this would help them get idea and a sense of where everything is going to which then helps what they are going to build and texture within each separate part to the design. They can start off with the white box modelling technique, eventually slapping on the texture, but the textures they used can be influenced by what the story needs, if for example we were to play Legend of Zelda then there’s pretty much a castle in every game and tons of caves meaning they need to get these textures in relation to the different puzzles or scenes of the game, like the animation of what happens. Most castles would be dark so the texture would most probably look gloomy; if not then the lighting would be placed to make it look gloomy. The atmosphere is dependent on the scenery and all games they have a certain Art direction so I think it’s important to keep the game looking the same way through out, which all good professionally made games do, else it would be one wacky game if not, but perhaps maybe that a good idea that no one has thought of before? We’d just be pinching off other people’s ideas and throwing them altogether in one, that idea actually reminds me of Super Smash Brothers, they bring together all the Nintendo characters and their environments, which is interesting and it’s always been a successful franchise even though there’s only ever been 3 versions of the game.

No game is real, all games are unrealistic no matter how hard they try, they look like they are realistic but it’s still all virtual at the end of the game. I guess we are thinking about how we are going to turn gaming graphics a step higher and get them looking even more realistic, but it’s going to be many years before then, I think that one thing that makes most gamers addicted to a certain type of game is not how it plays but they way it looks also, they can be attracted to a certain style type and it makes them care for the game more becoming more and more interested to point where they must have the next game in the series on the actual day it’s released and they do nothing but play it whenever they can. I think within any game however you make it how you want and at the same time you make whatever it is in the game that is required like not just the environment but also the characters as well, and you keep them all the same style, so what I’m trying to say is that every game is designed whatever it may be and then stylized in a specific way throughout, it’s basically just variation after variation of Art styles that we see on the shelf’s of our favourite game stores, and they are all a variation of realism manipulated into a different way.

One gaming series environment I find interesting and may sound silly to some is actually Pokemon. Pokemon, from what people see think it’s all about made up creatures that don’t exist and battle them, what most people don’t know is that that Pokemon is actually based on the different regions of Japan. For example the first Pokemon game was based on the Kanto area of Japan, in which makes it quite unique because it’s based on what already exist in that area of Japan, but the thing is it’s not just one area of Japan they have taken. The latest games in the series are very interesting because it is based on the metropolitan area or New York City in America. This sort of says the team of Artists would have gone to New York and get references of how to make that and put it into the game itself. How many times do you see New York City on TV or films and TV series based in New York, there’s millions of them so it was only a matter of time before they thought we need to get out of Japan and go explore the world? This gives them a million and one places to visit and base their environments on. There’s a whole world out there and they have so many possibilities for ideas, until the whole world is full, but people would like it so much that, if it gets to the point where they need to make a whole new world then people will still buy it because of all its success in the past and let’s face it all games are made because of money, and that’s what Pokemon is all about, it’s about catching creatures and fighting them, simple but so effective coming back to my crappy but influenced level designs. Everything actually in the game makes perfect sense in relation to real life, not to get in detail about all that but in reality the bridges in the metropolitan area of New York are placed and based of the actual existing ones. Right down to the last details, the main things you would mention are the tall buildings of New York and the streets of they have replicated, it give the impression of ‘the big city’ or ‘the concrete jungle’ that is New York has been turned into the style of the’ Pokemon world’. These games are based on a grid format which the player runs around on to navigate and they have done that well evolving it along the way from basic 2D graphics to now 3D with many more possibilities using the environment within the games (and giving thanks to the technology that now allows them to do so).  The environments are all set out in a format that allows them to play the game which they first made back in the late 1990's and now have adapted the landscapes around them into that of the game should be played. There are so many parts of the game and features you could reference it to and these are all ideas from existing films and things in New York. I have no idea about the names of the designers and Artists for these games; I’d have to look them up but again what they have done is simple and effective, or could say that it’s simple and effective way of making millions off of children who feed off this Japanese phenomenon’s worldwide. The big bright bold colours of the game make them attracted to it and no matter what people may think of the word ‘Pokemon’ when they hear it,  the people who actually make it are having the last laugh because of all the money and that basically the whole idea of games and it’s genius to be honest.

   Pokemon Red 1996                                                     Pokemon Platinum 2008

Y1 S2 T10 - Elements Of Game Design - Part 3 - Character

I think the characters in films and TV I’ve seen, for almost all of them, it really depends in the type of environment they live in. When I say that I mean that environment has the biggest impact on the type of character that becomes them, for example like their life style, the people around them, the things they like, do and say are all the aspects of the character that makes one become connected to the actual person/character and even can make them relate to them in various people’s own life’s. I find that it is easy to like or dislike a character upon what they are like, but one thing about film, actors on TV and fantasy characters in books is that it’s all fake! That’s the only thing that puts me off getting overly connected to them, but then again the same goes for games, no matter how hard we try to be realistic about them, they never will be...

They definitely are good at trying to capture all kinds of feelings that we can feel towards them, you have to be creative to do so and I feel like it’s definitely all to do with the Art style and direction simply because it’s that which basically controls the mood of everything. It’s all used to create an emotional feel to the viewer, whether it is the settings or the script of the film, show, book or game and how the characters and actors react to it and make what’s written on paper into practise. It basically is just like making a film or game, you have to plan it all down on paper and make documents first. The point is how you plan it out is how it should be follow through, so writing a script and giving a film or game a setting (or an Art direction) will effect they way we perceive it.

I believe that a character can be defined by these types of things even the clothes they wear is such a strong way to give an idea of them, but I also think that it doesn’t define them completely, as in there are a lot of questions that could still be answered, what I mean is that there’s so many things you could say about them and the script is what they follow, but the script doesn’t give a description of absolutely everything about them, so I feel like there’s more that can be answered which not only the script but the settings and actions don’t always necessarily show with just about any character really. The only way you ask these questions is to gain such strong feelings towards them that you want to find out, but maybe never will.

I’ve personally never been interested in books, I think this is because it’s basically reading, which I think is (to blatantly put it) boring... My main problem with them is that I like images, I learn more by looking at imagery. The thing you get with it is a sense of the mood, colours, and settings and from that you can gain a better feeling of it in my opinion. I’ve seen quite a lot of films and played a lot of games however, the type of stories I personally like are ones that don’t have all this cliché crap in them. There’s far too many stories were everything is okay in the end and you know it’s going to happen before you’ve even got through half the game or movie, because whatever the problem is, you know it by about 1/4^th into the film and the problem is always resolved in the end. I more of a fan of the old games and films, where it all began, the story lines were simple and they were the biggest thing for their time and to me still are, now-a-days it’s all the same stuff being repeated over and over and it’s a case of “seen it all before”! Don’t get me wrong there are some good games out there that are different and maybe forgotten about now and there are probably a lot more out there released every week but I don’t have the money to buy everyone of them. Some of the games I do like are re-made like the original Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro etc, and I always find myself coming back to them and buying the latest ones because I guess it’s just the roots of what I know and liked as a kid, and it’s just something that can’t be taken away... never, and I don’t think I’ll ever change that to be honest. These characters and the settings they are put in, in just something that I think will last forever, because it was there right from the start, I’m not a fan of change either and that’s where my feeling stand on them, my connection is so strong to them that I don’t want to ever forget them.