tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43783493022761327252024-03-29T03:25:05.642-04:00Penguin Game InquiryIceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-26052333166784184272014-02-02T21:12:00.000-05:002014-02-02T21:12:37.514-05:00Breaking Down UGC - HCI Entry #1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
After a long hiatus, I've decided to start posting up some of the blogs I've had to do for classes once again. The most recent class to require blogs is Human Computer Interaction, which is essentially how to effectively created user interfaces and give feedback to users in order to give the best experience possible. The journal entries I will post for these have been done earlier so the date they are posted aren't reflective of the day they were actually done.</div>
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<b>HCI Journal Entry 1</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>January 15<sup>th</sup><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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After
having taken several Human Computer Interaction courses, it’s allowed me to
understand more about the concept of HCI and how it’s used in our everyday
lives. I specifically want to focus on how it was used in some of past game
development projects at UOIT and how well they implemented feedback for players
or not.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Ultimate Gladiator
Coliseum : 80 AD<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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UGC 80
AD was a third person, gladiator combat game based around arena fights created
in my second year of GDW. The goal of the game was to fight through several
battles, earning gold along the way to purchase items to become more powerful
in order to fight more difficult bosses down the line. I will be taking a look back at the game to
compare its use of HCI during combat sections, in the HUD and the end goal of
the game. I will judge the extent of player feedback that was provided to see
whether or not the game was easy enough to understand. I’m also keeping in mind
that the game was developed with a limited time frame and we had a surprisingly
large amount of content we had to cover, but this doesn’t mean I can’t
criticize it still.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Start Menu<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbT3Y55I6QH_pHRW7bXU3FnTXwaHEH-CmuH-FF4f49p77uKNbmIsuJCRNCxcenV7X23elJSurBznlgJzHp2Ul_qywuDfIEpzzfSe-wwv_4rh00xoZYDXKGrkYqKW9Pqqv33s5xngi8Bm4/s1600/UGC01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbT3Y55I6QH_pHRW7bXU3FnTXwaHEH-CmuH-FF4f49p77uKNbmIsuJCRNCxcenV7X23elJSurBznlgJzHp2Ul_qywuDfIEpzzfSe-wwv_4rh00xoZYDXKGrkYqKW9Pqqv33s5xngi8Bm4/s1600/UGC01.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>(From UGC : 80 AD beginning menu)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Right
from the start the opening is an eyesore. The logo itself is extremely
pixelated and a bit glitch, the stats in the top left aren’t very visible and
aren’t visually exciting (the same goes for the text near the middle). The menu
in the middle gives a look of simplicity and looks a lot cleaner but clashes
with the rest of the HUD elements already on display. Going over the resume,
start, controls and exit sections will highlight them which helps give feedback
which button you’re on but it’s hard to tell in the first place that they are
buttons you can scroll over.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMFq230C5jG6ZOt5eZO2pjnli2eQsq0KtNcSyJOt5ob_a18tuIPOwu73-CvSoTT5ZPYbQdV00U2G7lVbW0Qr52Y-6vtj491IbuF1jeLNQvueJOdb8aLQVeRoyZZhhQNPgxglFMv-DAAAU/s1600/UGC02.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMFq230C5jG6ZOt5eZO2pjnli2eQsq0KtNcSyJOt5ob_a18tuIPOwu73-CvSoTT5ZPYbQdV00U2G7lVbW0Qr52Y-6vtj491IbuF1jeLNQvueJOdb8aLQVeRoyZZhhQNPgxglFMv-DAAAU/s1600/UGC02.png" height="184" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>(Controls image)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Going over the controls section will bring up this image,
which is highly pixelated and not easy to read due to the choice of font. It
explains the basic controls of the game but in a very typical and non-engaging
fashion since players don’t get to learn through a tutorial.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>During Combat<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ7Tv_IWfgjbnOQYS_Y3rqJ7PdGpnuQt9ZiSyP37Y_QppkmPsSR_Af9mE0Joo2tZWX7Modq3DyEZCLYaQV_9vSqJpkIl2X6NgWuXTbwhrOk8P0wqp7Srg9w0JXHZuvmjtcm3VVT48dgQU/s1600/UGC03.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ7Tv_IWfgjbnOQYS_Y3rqJ7PdGpnuQt9ZiSyP37Y_QppkmPsSR_Af9mE0Joo2tZWX7Modq3DyEZCLYaQV_9vSqJpkIl2X6NgWuXTbwhrOk8P0wqp7Srg9w0JXHZuvmjtcm3VVT48dgQU/s1600/UGC03.png" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>(First Stage)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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In game the HUD elements show
player health, stamina (for special power attacks, blocking and other actions)
as well as an icon representing your character and weapon. When you get hurt,
the health meter will go down, same as the stamina bar when using abilities
which are perfectly fine in representing information to the player. The other
stats that were on display in the start menu are gone now however. These only
show up during the pause menu which actually helps avoid showing clutter during
battles. Between showing the stats in battle and during the pause menu, my team
actually made the better choice since you didn’t need to know what stats you
had upgraded during battle.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When taking damage, your
character would make noises when being hurt which helped give the player
feedback. However when attacking enemies there was no substantial noise to
confirm you were hitting the enemy. It was a simple “swish” sound that occurred
whenever you attacked, giving little to no feedback. The only feedback that was
displayed was that the enemies would flash a bit whenever hit. The lack of
sound on impact hurt the feedback players would get in whether or not they hit
an enemy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLhBO49N_hc3R3YH1FZEfC3rrL4XHEdzqME9qE727vCe81IeHUKeCIS41f4ylpXiDZT4KOPrZWo8YmD8baOPEesM1pIRSsFVfcvmlWcvJD4gSL7xTSfoEyxV0BP0Apgjqjkc8XbJNf-gk/s1600/UGC04.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLhBO49N_hc3R3YH1FZEfC3rrL4XHEdzqME9qE727vCe81IeHUKeCIS41f4ylpXiDZT4KOPrZWo8YmD8baOPEesM1pIRSsFVfcvmlWcvJD4gSL7xTSfoEyxV0BP0Apgjqjkc8XbJNf-gk/s1600/UGC04.png" height="113" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicp8N2WOeOZSkD4kwoELmJFyIv63B1u9bS2VjgN6e7ItvdcS139OrbKzZbGqvQ0Jbd9XLr56ObmTYK3Djwa0Otb7964h3VdbQJKwqL_GlDcZtUuEp8aBDznDW8T4LW5usiqTd88_MzWHQ/s1600/UGC05.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicp8N2WOeOZSkD4kwoELmJFyIv63B1u9bS2VjgN6e7ItvdcS139OrbKzZbGqvQ0Jbd9XLr56ObmTYK3Djwa0Otb7964h3VdbQJKwqL_GlDcZtUuEp8aBDznDW8T4LW5usiqTd88_MzWHQ/s1600/UGC05.png" height="111" style="cursor: move;" width="200" /></a></div>
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<b>(Left: Red screen indicating dangerously
low health – Right: Player game over screen)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Further damage taken would also
begin to show a red shader effect to represent low health. This was definitely
one of the better choices to represent feedback during the game as it clearly
showed a sign of danger to inform the player they were close to death. We would
also display a message saying that you lost gold and that you needed to press a
certain button to respawn. Although it displayed the information we needed, it
obviously wasn’t very engaging and obvious to the player. There was no real
time update showing your gold going down and we didn’t even show a proper
gameover screen or at least a proper respawn screen. Players would just wonder
why they were suddenly placed in the middle of the sky.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUNdAiW_3NlsthxeF1Z-nQ-dGIIlHuKSUH1PYTCdFsi6bizcDevrrEF5YXtKofuLwEGXeOXulYrRCytHOOOwIUHEreHyu6tNbAP18egKyr6W3dp2YljrIYn1NE65PG5n5fmk9yhc0CP5I/s1600/UGC06.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUNdAiW_3NlsthxeF1Z-nQ-dGIIlHuKSUH1PYTCdFsi6bizcDevrrEF5YXtKofuLwEGXeOXulYrRCytHOOOwIUHEreHyu6tNbAP18egKyr6W3dp2YljrIYn1NE65PG5n5fmk9yhc0CP5I/s1600/UGC06.png" height="165" width="200" /></a></div>
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The image displayed above showed
a quest marker which took you to the next area when you defeated all enemies. This
was fairly animated as it bobbed up and down. The design of it was fairly
effective in comparison to other elements. Although it did not specifically
state it would take you to another level, it still drew players in due to its
appearance and animation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Items and Quests<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1jvvYlYHAtn-aLL40qmhyphenhyphen4zG59xqjyoW3wPxARL7q0EdRBgNRbrhqZok9u0WCnmkCnB-G4I6noFsUuOFzGsq7D1AUcy12hZ2YcEr4hk73KbI8YLzjp3BSS8N_jj4EG2uNCWnm_FCe_OE/s1600/UGC07.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1jvvYlYHAtn-aLL40qmhyphenhyphen4zG59xqjyoW3wPxARL7q0EdRBgNRbrhqZok9u0WCnmkCnB-G4I6noFsUuOFzGsq7D1AUcy12hZ2YcEr4hk73KbI8YLzjp3BSS8N_jj4EG2uNCWnm_FCe_OE/s1600/UGC07.png" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
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(<b>Side Quest area and shopkeeper on right)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Our
game featured a blacksmith character who allowed you to purchase items and also
gave you quests in which you could earn gold. There was an arrow located above
the head of the player that pointed you first to the Blacksmith so at least we
were telling the players where to go. It would also update to point to enemies
you had to defeat should you accept a quest. During a quest, if you tried to
accept another quest, the game would inform you should complete your other
quest first. This was a good HCI feature to add considering all the other ones
the game was missing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Gew-WboKyIpHN4XVo9smhwshAGIG3vP87AVAsgJjsarDjcOaGNQGgPKon6xTpyrlKvCIyZ5svzXs85nmZ847LHb4vWMiEFEfB3I7LKOH9S0Wv2sxcPi_A-NZTy6Lt6V8bqY9UbKbpfU/s1600/UGC08.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Gew-WboKyIpHN4XVo9smhwshAGIG3vP87AVAsgJjsarDjcOaGNQGgPKon6xTpyrlKvCIyZ5svzXs85nmZ847LHb4vWMiEFEfB3I7LKOH9S0Wv2sxcPi_A-NZTy6Lt6V8bqY9UbKbpfU/s1600/UGC08.png" height="232" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>(Blacksmith menu : Quests on left – Upgrades on Right)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b> </b>In the image above, in order
to even talk to the Blacksmith, you had to attack him. This was an obvious flaw
since we didn’t highlight a specific button for interaction with NPCs, nor did
we state that anywhere else in the game. We pretty much had to assume people
would be confused and eventually just attack the Blacksmith which would finally
open the menu.<o:p></o:p></div>
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From
there we at least provided two different menus that the players could choose
from to purchase upgrades or do quests for rewards. We displayed the upgrade
cost on the right side and it worked on a formula that increased every time to
purchased a new upgrade. This system is never explained in game but players can
at least see the upgrade cost increase. It worked but it wasn’t the best design
for upgrades. We never showed what your upgrade levels were in this menu. You
could only see your upgrade levels in the top left corner where the stats are.
When you purchased upgrades, players got feedback by the either the sound of
gold being dropped (meaning a purchase was made) or the Blacksmith would tell
you he couldn’t sell you the upgrade. Although we had a audio component in
feedback, we lacked the visual component which hindered the experience a bit,<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjItEBKIRrHYQzFKr_Yn8EOI7O6WdhQugo1B2mHMWDYpZmCNDdTpy_PKk5hisVV48Ibx9jC4Yozf-nyUbOikNsmKtmr643-bY2gyBJJT9zfdZCyDU4LqeVj6IuSRkqQW7HaIZQZkTyfLuQ/s1600/UGC09.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjItEBKIRrHYQzFKr_Yn8EOI7O6WdhQugo1B2mHMWDYpZmCNDdTpy_PKk5hisVV48Ibx9jC4Yozf-nyUbOikNsmKtmr643-bY2gyBJJT9zfdZCyDU4LqeVj6IuSRkqQW7HaIZQZkTyfLuQ/s1600/UGC09.png" height="78" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>(The health bar extending over which showed you had more health but
looked really ugly)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Some
upgrades did have visual aspects however. The sword when upgraded would turn a
different color, up to four times. The health bar would extend and so would the
stamina bar if you upgraded those. Unfortunately that also made the HUD look
worse since the bars extended over some aspects of the HUD. The speed upgrade
didn’t show any visual signs like the others and you could only notice it by
watching how fast your character moved.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Judging the Goal of
the game<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The
last problem we had in terms of communicating the end goal of the game of UGC
was that we didn’t. We never showed any proper feedback that players were
participating in a gladiator tournament and would be facing harder and harder
opponents until they reached the final boss. We just spawned new enemies
whenever players entered the arena again. We didn’t even have an indicator
saying they had reached a new level. We should have at least had some simple
text or image representing that as we had never really shown the progress of
players. This was a simple but easy thing we should have implemented but we
couldn’t due to time constraints.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Final Thoughts<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b> </b>Looking back at UGC, we have
a fair number of elements that did communicate a lot of information to the
player. The amount of information displayed for the side quests and upgrades was
more than I remember. The lack of some in game combat visuals and audio as well
as the lack of showing the end goal of the game were the worst offences in
terms of player feedback however. Overall UGC gave a decent amount of feedback
for players but was clearly lacking in a lot of key areas.<o:p></o:p></div>
IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-28337350969392423782013-04-12T19:53:00.001-04:002013-04-12T20:09:29.160-04:00GDW is over - Red Dawn<br />
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It’s been quite some time since I last updated this blog but
it hasn’t been without good reason. My program always keeps me busy, especially
near the end of the semester when crunch time is highest in order to finish our
GDW game. But now its finally over, my 3<sup>rd</sup> year and <u>final GDW game
ever is complete</u>. I may have briefly mentioned what it was in a previous post
but that was so long ago I wouldn’t even have remembered writing it. </div>
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All sorts of events happened before the final submission to UOIT such as LevelUp where students from U of T, OCAD, UOIT and others showed off their games to the public.<u> </u><a href="http://www.untoldentertainment.com/blog/2013/04/04/level-up-student-showcase-2013-contents-under-pressure/" target="_blank">In fact our game even got an honorable mention as well! </a> There was our own UOIT event called Gamecon where the game devs from all years would show off the almost final versions of our games and capstone projects. I'll cover both of these in a later blog but for now lets get to what my team's game is.</div>
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<a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/65157746/ScorchingSouthStudios_RedDawn/RedDawnInstaller.EXE" target="_blank">Download LINK</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRlzDzA5s_94cVtSE5ULuarXd735ddmoEMIo6NZVR1M5yei59jzsrHSxfROcyWTjylT1w-yLuqw9o7unXA_jeu1PsSBff4z8bLqgQjAXMSgmcei7nEXjvuzj7kKWS4IzN_irXODP3VX3E/s1600/title.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRlzDzA5s_94cVtSE5ULuarXd735ddmoEMIo6NZVR1M5yei59jzsrHSxfROcyWTjylT1w-yLuqw9o7unXA_jeu1PsSBff4z8bLqgQjAXMSgmcei7nEXjvuzj7kKWS4IzN_irXODP3VX3E/s400/title.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Apparently there was a movie
called Reddawn that came out before we named our game. We had no idea
what it was. Moving on from that though, our game is a ship to ship combat game
with a heavy emphasis on multiplayer and looks like Windwaker. Players will
control one ship, sailing in a battleground with several other ships and your
objective is to destroy them. There are multiple different modes to choose from
such as death match, timed matches and last man standing matches as well as
multiple different levels to select.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2t1Ns9j5SoZabASXRZKronfJSYri90lWOWf6Fb5ddGCCCQuqsgM09U2fhI1mUshzmXhyphenhyphen5L7Rb3dC4yg_QUQ8RbCR150Rxmi8iHhebG2nxi8AZlW4JlmkKnyn4yOJ2OErX8cwykN353iM/s1600/Reddawn_Title.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2t1Ns9j5SoZabASXRZKronfJSYri90lWOWf6Fb5ddGCCCQuqsgM09U2fhI1mUshzmXhyphenhyphen5L7Rb3dC4yg_QUQ8RbCR150Rxmi8iHhebG2nxi8AZlW4JlmkKnyn4yOJ2OErX8cwykN353iM/s320/Reddawn_Title.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<h4>
<b>Controls</b></h4>
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The most important part of the game is how do you control
your ship? You can increase your speed or decrease your speed which increase
your movement but inversely decrease your turn rate. The faster you go, the
harder it is to turn. You also don’t have to hold a button to increase your
speed. Once you are at a certain speed it won’t change unless you to choose to
increase or decrease. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjYekjwxtE8utpKOmmE4V5O1Yb6GUt64srM7JDHcSEY2x4uQpHeWhHs51VQswELN3Xycm_is4wX7pQN75cjtZkjv0fTDg9QRijhZOzPp8TaMVCOjmrHm1QgM7WhMIDB52k589RVnQqjQQ/s1600/Reddawn_Screenshot01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjYekjwxtE8utpKOmmE4V5O1Yb6GUt64srM7JDHcSEY2x4uQpHeWhHs51VQswELN3Xycm_is4wX7pQN75cjtZkjv0fTDg9QRijhZOzPp8TaMVCOjmrHm1QgM7WhMIDB52k589RVnQqjQQ/s320/Reddawn_Screenshot01.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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We wanted to make it feel like a ship, so that meant you
weren’t just shooting some machine gun in whatever direction you were pointed.
Since ships have stationary placement for cannons on the sides of the ships, that’s
how you shoot. You control the left and right sides of your ship with the Xbox
Controller triggers. Left trigger would fire cannons on the left side and right
cannons would fire cannons on the right side. The same applies for
flamethrowers located on the sides of your ship. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP6o-UR2NcASbHYwrLir2dRsxuudwZfTd-ebRX_MDP0F7ZUm93VSNVo1PLFWy8WBkTWdI5Rn61qBeRkQ4RbJ9SeMKyBC1EIx461hAVIIf7xoKPKMtm1J0cI2ELYmIA92wCcZol17E8sjg/s1600/Reddawn_Screenshot02.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP6o-UR2NcASbHYwrLir2dRsxuudwZfTd-ebRX_MDP0F7ZUm93VSNVo1PLFWy8WBkTWdI5Rn61qBeRkQ4RbJ9SeMKyBC1EIx461hAVIIf7xoKPKMtm1J0cI2ELYmIA92wCcZol17E8sjg/s320/Reddawn_Screenshot02.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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You also have access to a harpoon at the front of the ship
that fires forward. If it connects with another ship, the two of you will be
dragged towards each other, allowing you to do some weird physics defying
drifts to aim your cannons in cool and interesting ways. Its used as a chasing
tool for those pesky ships that try and run away from you. You also have access
to mines that deploy from the rear of the ship. They do massive amounts of
damage and you can leave up to 8 on the field at any time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<h4>
<b>How to win</b></h4>
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When you select a new game it brings up a menu that allows
you to customize the match in any way you see fit. The main types of modes are
deathmatch, life match (last man standing) and timed match. You can also choose
how many AI you want to fight against, if it’s a team battle and also what
level you want to go to.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For the modes, deathmatch is the typical get X number of
kills to win. Last man standing is where you have a pool of lives which run out
as you get killed. If you lose too many lives you’re out of the match. Timed
match runs a set time and every kill you get gains you a point while every
death nets a loss ofa point. So 7 kills, 5 deaths = 2+ points.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When a match ends your stats will be displayed, which are
your kills, deaths, and team. A good way to compare yourself to the
competition.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX_mjPfuDP4FfoEoOBcI8ZsxMw8EIDBV84tgFFamAQ-9dPF5vZE-bGM-RmqwIn9DZNdiArugPbNlCUO7VMXffCrT92wMELOR8_BFcmz9cEqS7x2u7Yfjte60sEhZdwG8zqKKwqei9vLLw/s1600/Reddawn_Screenshot04.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX_mjPfuDP4FfoEoOBcI8ZsxMw8EIDBV84tgFFamAQ-9dPF5vZE-bGM-RmqwIn9DZNdiArugPbNlCUO7VMXffCrT92wMELOR8_BFcmz9cEqS7x2u7Yfjte60sEhZdwG8zqKKwqei9vLLw/s320/Reddawn_Screenshot04.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<h4>
<b>Multiplayer</b></h4>
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I said the game was multiplayer so that means playing with
your friends. This GDW year we had the opportunity to learn networking in our
games and so that applied perfectly with the concept for ours. You can connect
on local LAN to other computers who have the game (unfortunately we didn’t
learn how to connect across the internet though). All you have to do is have
someone set up a Red Dawn server, have people connect to that person’s IP
address and “Board the Ship” to establish connection.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFPKC-SjRFxXIZZqDTzEHcteSJST5zZn8SxonuHaT7Zx3omZ5V57uWXGS0DFkVkRahv5t3hLPipElVgZOGC1Q-KBTg7MXpcRQNTFm_zZ2XCM8NjCVh2Zpg9irHq6BY36UVHCxvvtYYwaA/s1600/Reddawn_Screenshot05.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFPKC-SjRFxXIZZqDTzEHcteSJST5zZn8SxonuHaT7Zx3omZ5V57uWXGS0DFkVkRahv5t3hLPipElVgZOGC1Q-KBTg7MXpcRQNTFm_zZ2XCM8NjCVh2Zpg9irHq6BY36UVHCxvvtYYwaA/s320/Reddawn_Screenshot05.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Due to time constraints its not as user friendly as it
should be but it still works quite well once you’re in. You can setup a match
just like in singleplayer mode for everyone else in the lobby if you’re the
first one to connect. You can chat before match and once everyone presses the
ready up button, the match will start. It will even keep track of your wins and
losses when you return back to the multiplayer lobby.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<h4>
<b>DOWNLOAD</b></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCYJLvCK3qpuFCIW-xXHY399BioVzrDx3RK9hm5Ag3V1gI9twuZcRKrKJWFGSKjqzHWrdokBTLyYD2T7EbWRWYuxTVvAHb85z6a9s8rjuEgU2nA6YEE_i8oFQpZ7sBea9VGGG3PU9iIeA/s1600/ReddawnControls.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCYJLvCK3qpuFCIW-xXHY399BioVzrDx3RK9hm5Ag3V1gI9twuZcRKrKJWFGSKjqzHWrdokBTLyYD2T7EbWRWYuxTVvAHb85z6a9s8rjuEgU2nA6YEE_i8oFQpZ7sBea9VGGG3PU9iIeA/s400/ReddawnControls.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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That’s a basic overview of our game. I have made it
available for download for anyone that would like to try it. There is a
download link above and right here.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/65157746/ScorchingSouthStudios_RedDawn/RedDawnInstaller.EXE" target="_blank">Download Link</a></div>
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I shall probably write another post for Post-Mortem of the
game and also an overview of the Year and the UOIT event GAMECON where all of
the GDW games are displayed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-67346074104617117502012-12-04T19:44:00.002-05:002012-12-04T19:44:58.830-05:00MIGs 2012: Creating Efficient ToolsAmongst the presentations at MIGs, one of them was so simple and yet so well done that it had my attention the entire time. This presentation was"<u>the Art of Creating Efficient Tools"</u> presented by David Lightbown who had just recently joined Ubisoft Montreal to work on the exact topic he was covering. The presentation was coveyed not with heavy text, but with simple images and through enthusiastic presentation. You were paying attention to him the whole time and the presentation in the background helped to demonstrate his points nearly flawlessly. He even had volunteers to come up and gave a free copy of Assassin's Creed III afterwards. No other presentation I saw had volunteers at all.<br />
<br />
Now the topic doesn't sound all that interesting, but honestly it's the core of usability. It's the core of ease of access for anything and everything relating to the creation of pretty much anything that requires software or even hardware. The point of this presentation was to be aware of how important making tools that are easy to use will help the entire process of creating something like a game. He pointed out an interesting system that we use in our everyday life when using tools.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Look -> Act -> Think</u></span></h2>
<br />
So what happens is we look at the tool and then we begin to act. But then we think about if we are doing the right thing, or wondering how I am supposed to do a particular task using this tool. It could be thinking about something as simple as finding out where the print button is or something like that. What is happening with complicated software that when we are having to look and think too much, we do not act. That means we do not get the task we want to accomplish with the software completed. What we want to happen is to maximize the amount of acting. Well the only way we accomplish this is reducing the thinking and looking time!<br />
<br />
It's such a simple looking process and I have never thought about it because it just comes naturally. But it makes a whole lot of sense. From my personal experience, I have hard coded values to place a whole bunch of objects in a world. Now that works, I can get the objects where I want them to be but I have to think more to make sure I am adding the right parameters for each object, if it has health or what not. Instead of doing that I could use a PREFAB. A PREFAB would be an object that contains most or all of the necessary information to place an object where I want. So instead of 10 lines of hard coding per object, I reduce it to 1 line of code using this PREFAB, it makes it a whole lot faster. More acting.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>The User Experience</u></span></b></h2>
<b><br /></b>
The user experience is key. We want users to be able to have a streamlined experience that maximizes acting and reduces looking and thinking. Well he gave a few tips on how to best maximize acting.<br />
<br />
Form and color was the first thing mentioned. Form and color are so simple and yet they can represent so much. A simple circle combined with a color provides a lot of information for us. For example street lights have red and green circles for stop and go. They are simple shapes with colors and yet they tell us information we need to make an action almost instantly. A good point was brought across that you should not only use colors though. There is still a large portion of color blind people and a green and red hue circle nect to each other would still be confusing for them. A combination of a different shape for each along with the different color will make it adaptable for more than one kind of user.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7USOkVqfNvbFv1Ew9ow2qvpaocfGofpOiK-HFPLzLWBJzvzncrhTgBu4dJjFlgXG7FEYqIgxyUTzjJyHDYXrBYyhMnc-qXb-4UuTbm6uohQ4Ujz2yMv1XsrJFHkSYneAvbPrBBImQols/s1600/SHAPES.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7USOkVqfNvbFv1Ew9ow2qvpaocfGofpOiK-HFPLzLWBJzvzncrhTgBu4dJjFlgXG7FEYqIgxyUTzjJyHDYXrBYyhMnc-qXb-4UuTbm6uohQ4Ujz2yMv1XsrJFHkSYneAvbPrBBImQols/s320/SHAPES.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Which object would be more likely to represent STOP?</b></div>
<br />
This shape idea ties into the next point which is interaction design. With the Mental model and conceptual model. These two models are essentially "How do we think?" vs "What it actually does". Essentially its like comparing two objects to be similar, so you say something like "Its as easy to learn as riding a bike". Typically learning to ride a bike is easy for most people so the message is essentially that the material will be easy to learn. This ties into how shapes have certain meanings. A circle is a softer shape and we think more along the lines of smooth, nicer objects. Meanwhile a hard edged square we might associate as more aggressive.<br />
<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>In the Real World</u></span></b></h2>
After pointing our some tips on how useful shapes and thinking are, he began to point out some very useful real world examples. So let's say we need to make a tool to help users build levels for a game. Well there is something known as the 80 vs 20 model (I THINK). Basically what you need to do is focus on satisfying the 80% of people using the tool because it will be near impossible to satisfy the other 20%. For example the earlier example of "Easy as riding a bike" would apply to 4 out of 5 people, except the 5th person who had great difficulty learning how to ride a bike. The analogy doesn't apply to that person, and the usability you provided in your tools won't either.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUs4JNWd7NVQe5l8dzTWcUYkBst5X07xuTI43EmW2VDoLkU3hgEB7CtsTPctFLvjcBmRFD9ejvLjQayxSZNoRBPdd2nLHn4JeNzJiFWcpY63kEzTCinVuvxK64zqNcLoAyrKmA1yqkdzs/s1600/4Outof5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUs4JNWd7NVQe5l8dzTWcUYkBst5X07xuTI43EmW2VDoLkU3hgEB7CtsTPctFLvjcBmRFD9ejvLjQayxSZNoRBPdd2nLHn4JeNzJiFWcpY63kEzTCinVuvxK64zqNcLoAyrKmA1yqkdzs/s320/4Outof5.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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If there are 4 out of 5 circles that can use your tool efficiently already, forget about the 5th circle</div>
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<br />
Another point is that tools should be streamlined to do certain tasks. Don't make it a jack of all trades tool that does everything. Making it do everything makes the interface of the tool even larger and more cluttered which makes it more difficult to navigate and perform the tasks you need. If you are just making a level loader tool you don't have to give it the option to be able to create models either. It only complicates things even more.<br />
<br />
This leads to the next point which was the statement that intermediate users make up the bulk of users for the tool. There are some experts of course but it's a small majority. There are also beginners who will be learning to use the tool. Now the more complicated the tool the harder it is to learn. Make it less complicated and there will be less beginners and more intermediates who know how to use the tool fairly well. You cannot expect all users to become experts, especially if its a tool that's very complicated. Even if they may know all the shortcuts that makes them very efficient, it won't apply to all users and the extra features will slow most users down. Overall the workflow will decrease due to the larger amount of users slowing down versus the expert fast user.<br />
<br />
So how does this overall affect our workflow? Well like we stated earlier, more acting means more productivity. The easier we make the tool the more workflow we get and the more people we have working on making content instead of wasting time thinking on how they need to solve a silly problem. We can same hundreds, thousands of work hours by simple usability.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Do these apply for Game Design and Game Engines?</span></u></h2>
<br />
Well actually yes they do.. Game engines is the easiest to identify that this lesson helps because a Game Engine is in fact a tool. It's a tool that helps to make the game in a more user friendly way. The Unreal Development Kit is a game engine that tries to streamline the process for even non programmers. Ogre SDK provides plenty of functionality that we wouldn't want a weaker programmer having to waste his time figuring out. Point is that yes these lessons apply especially for Game Engines.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuYTCVw_QNmZ1TY2fnWccaOt1A1z2hRpYV4XBb5hcPeAZ81POv8nIU7YtxleLa4i4nsFr9iLgGDVCq__58ZSDj7dzVNB1csOXhRvs38az7ipKFStpTlgBsLpYQujBlkYRPHNL_QVnkhB8/s1600/udk.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuYTCVw_QNmZ1TY2fnWccaOt1A1z2hRpYV4XBb5hcPeAZ81POv8nIU7YtxleLa4i4nsFr9iLgGDVCq__58ZSDj7dzVNB1csOXhRvs38az7ipKFStpTlgBsLpYQujBlkYRPHNL_QVnkhB8/s320/udk.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
What about Game Design? This is much trickier to answer. Usability is a very important concept in games. No one wants a game that is extremely difficult to control and is a complete nightmare to figure out where to go. Usability and functionality attracts players because if they are able to do cool things with button presses rather than having to do crazy complex combinations to accomplish a lesser task, then there will be more of an audience. Just look at games that have simplified controls. A simpler fighting game such as Smash Bros has a lot more sales and more of an audience than a fighting game with crazy controls such as Blazblue or other complex combo fighting games. Even the shapes idea can lead into character design which reflects the game designer and etc.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9vg1WCqiDfkkJSCJiegeRymPoS_joYiBINABTG5Cf5sHD8yi69_e1sYzpl60u6LrO024jXnkMaeDkI503TNB1_mxe5fpmtHU997Jl__c5WcLhPy6GebtV9J6jUrWjOXEh2PR1wCNsch4/s1600/Pokemon-Stadium-2-super-smash-bros--brawl-226790_400_329.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9vg1WCqiDfkkJSCJiegeRymPoS_joYiBINABTG5Cf5sHD8yi69_e1sYzpl60u6LrO024jXnkMaeDkI503TNB1_mxe5fpmtHU997Jl__c5WcLhPy6GebtV9J6jUrWjOXEh2PR1wCNsch4/s320/Pokemon-Stadium-2-super-smash-bros--brawl-226790_400_329.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Smash Bros used simplified controls to great success</b></div>
<br />
The only way to debate this topic is the fact that some games actually want controls to be harder because thats just how the gameplay works. While some games go for simplfied controls, others want more complex interfaces. Take Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth, an RTS that simplified the control scheme while looking at something like Supreme Commander, on opposite ends of functionality. And yet they both sold relatively on the same level anyways. That goes to show functionality doesn't always lead to better games but neither do complex ones either. So the conclusion for game design is that really, is that efficiency in being able to perform tasks in a game doesn't mean a better game. Unless its a level building game, then you want to be able to build levels easily like Portal 2 Level Editor.<br />
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<br />
<h2>
<b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Conclusion</span></u></b></h2>
Anyways going back to the actual presentation, it was great. It was simple, it was very well done and got the point across. Though I might have known most of this information before, the presentation really helped reinforce it my mind now. I believe it's stuck there permanently. What to take away from this presentation is that creating efficient tools reduces thinking time, increases work productivity which means more time to make stuff!IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-8045823016468152562012-12-04T18:47:00.002-05:002012-12-04T18:47:33.687-05:00Game Engines in ReviewThe semester is nearly over and the last class of Game Engines just passed on Monday. It was a class that was difficult but also very interesting and quite fair. The topics that were discussed were quite broad but were all very interesting. All the lessons from in class to the tutorial sessions were all useful and both professor and TA were extremely helpful, easy to listen to and really great overall.<br />
<br />
As for the work to be submitted in the class, this course used Hogue's infamous/famous XP system where doing homework questions would grant points. Get enough points and you write the midterm and eventually enough will get you to the final exam and even grant bonus points if you go high enough. The questions themselves were all quite tough and took a significant amount of time to complete them. Nevertheless some of them were still quite fun. I particularly enjoyed the AI question involving flocking, seeking, fleeing, etc. Though I cannot program very advanced AI yet, just simply seeing the AI in action is very fun to watch.<br />
<br />
I recall many of the lessons that were taught in class and they were all useful though some were review since they had been partially taught the semester before. My only vice with the course is that, according to the text book that we'd be assigned to read, this course should be split up into 3 which means the material we got for the lectures is very condensed and therefore not as focused as it could be. Though I admit it sounds very difficult to come up with a proper selection of lessons for a course as broad sounding as Game Engines. That's pretty much computer animation, computer graphics, programming and a whole bunch of other courses put in a nutshell for one more course. That's definitely not easy to plan out.<br />
<br />
One particularly interesting thing is that, in a previous post I talked about how my group was planning on using component systems. Well it came to our professor's attention that people were discussing component systems and did one last talk on it the day before this post. Our Professor had actually done a paper on component systems so it was clear he knew what he was talking about. He reinforced to us to learn Object Oriented Programming more (the type of programming we were taught since first year) but opened our eyes to more about the component system. There is still a lot we haven't fully implemented and made some mistakes in our component system that he helped clarify.<br />
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If I were offered to take a course under this combination of TA and Professor again, I most certainly would. The course was a pleasure to learn and the teaching particularly clicked with my style of learning so it just helped reinforce learning it even more. Anyways this was just a short post this time since I can't really think of much else to say. Overall Game engines was great fun but hard work.IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-53314444886278821452012-12-04T16:47:00.002-05:002012-12-04T18:48:04.182-05:00MIGS 2012 : Directing Visual Design in Games<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB45PBCoOXNPIF_0m_dCB7fxvZ2tD98LbI5rXF5D3KYMgpV-uxo6wUENl_kjlw-RKLNj-AjjTJgkAaHbpX451_sL42aEc_drj0LOmoW7grJotlTewM0otgXT75bjQmLeWoKQ0Rz2IIpx4/s1600/Rage-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB45PBCoOXNPIF_0m_dCB7fxvZ2tD98LbI5rXF5D3KYMgpV-uxo6wUENl_kjlw-RKLNj-AjjTJgkAaHbpX451_sL42aEc_drj0LOmoW7grJotlTewM0otgXT75bjQmLeWoKQ0Rz2IIpx4/s320/Rage-logo.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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It's been a while since I did a post of any sort due to GDW deadlines and what not. Now that it's finally over I can fill in some blogs I wanted to do a while back. First off I mentioned during my MIGs experience that I wanted to talk about one of the talks, which was the Art Direction for Rage.<br />
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It went over the following note points for the development of RAGE over the course of the hour long talk<br />
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<li>Assessing the Visual state of the game</li>
<li>Assesing the limitations of technology</li>
<li>Priorities and Targets</li>
<li>Wishlist</li>
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First off the Director of Art for RAGE Stephan Martieniere talked about how he first joined the project. He spoke of how he had to adapt and make use of assets that were already in existence when he came in. By that time the RAGE development team had a lot of landscape already and a good skybox. However Stephan Martieniere had to take what already existed and not only improve it, but to find ways to fully implement it and work with the gameplay of RAGE. I will go over some of the notable points he talked about that really help show how important visual design is to the overall feel, look and even the gameplay of the game.</div>
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<u><span style="font-size: x-large;">SkyBox</span></u></h2>
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The first thing he improved was the skybox of the world. It is an essential look to the asthetic design of the game as he explained. Why is that? Well the skybox in a world like RAGE, where you can see it whenever you're out exploring the world makes it a very important asset to get right. You will be seeing it time and time again and it has to compliment the scenery and not be an eyesore. It needs to be pretty to look at and draw you into the beauty or ugliness of the world. Its more important than you would think at first glance.</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Breaking the World</span></u></b></h2>
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When he spoke of this he meant breaking the world that already existed. As I mentioned earlier he came into the project a bit late, when some assets were already in place. In this case the landscape of an entire world was already in place. What the team had to do was take this existing land and punch new areas that could be filled with content. But it wasn't just a simple, open up a new place and hope it works out. They had to actually plan out how the world would work. The places that would now be created needed to be logical to the geology of the world and needed to be located in a place relative to how it would reflect in the lore of the world. Breaking up this new places took a land that was already defined and made it seem even larger than it already was.</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Avoiding Containment</span></u></b></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisueCKMhRSD9mux_-6t1hyphenhyphenplifF-_-RSumwnlOSHFKjDiALPdXJ-6b7_x1Q9xg4_UBh_XLQyvoOXEbfKgDK7jhDI-5fsPE_DNjb7ivc8Fc84qvyFlNcnEsCyYPBt8v4UyElKAf13XTHJQ/s1600/standard_rage_gc09_screenshot_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisueCKMhRSD9mux_-6t1hyphenhyphenplifF-_-RSumwnlOSHFKjDiALPdXJ-6b7_x1Q9xg4_UBh_XLQyvoOXEbfKgDK7jhDI-5fsPE_DNjb7ivc8Fc84qvyFlNcnEsCyYPBt8v4UyElKAf13XTHJQ/s320/standard_rage_gc09_screenshot_3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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When he spoke of containment he spoke of the presence of the high valleys and cliffs that cluttered the world of RAGE. He specifically got into how the large valleys would serve as a way to make the players feel more constricted and feel like they are in a smaller world. In that sense it meant making far away landscapes and more of the skybox visible. It allowed for a sense of change and direction as there was more to see in the distance. You could see landmarks or cities and have a good idea where to go. It would present itself to gameplay as well for the exploration and discovery of the world since you have more to see.</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Establishing Narrative logic and Visual Coherence</span></u></b></h2>
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Next he spoke about what I have mentioned a few times earlier in this blog and that the environment is about the characters as much as it about the story. The Environment needs to be a fleshed out world, a place that characters inhabit and therefore leads to the story. The gameplay needs to take into effect the characters and monsters you might face in the world, the cities they live in and how they might behave. Incorporating all of this together is visual coherence. For example you would put a character in a an environment that suits them, that they belong in. </div>
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A high tech city gave way to bandits with high tech looking weapons and armor. This affected their visual asthetic for sure. This also affected gameplay as well as it might give access to new equipment as well. The characters would be designed to match and compliment the palette to the city so that they would not only fit but be visually pleasing as well.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ00K6O53e-FpKDowO1_9AG4dRJxu6WTyNRBEnpniB-DA1vWp6xb8BMiBKa60czB2rluwsx3-6laiv6OWIIHdTUB2D-EKZOVECF5Mt4xDZnRcaSEOflKlLWawLhiAIyeafQUx_nPBcmVk/s1600/r07bxh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ00K6O53e-FpKDowO1_9AG4dRJxu6WTyNRBEnpniB-DA1vWp6xb8BMiBKa60czB2rluwsx3-6laiv6OWIIHdTUB2D-EKZOVECF5Mt4xDZnRcaSEOflKlLWawLhiAIyeafQUx_nPBcmVk/s320/r07bxh.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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He also briefly spoke about ways to enrich the story in subtle ways. Billboards in cities, signs, logos, landmarks were all used in RAGE's cities. Each of these tell their own story, some lore in the game that would help flesh out the world. You would see some billboards advertising products that fit in the world of RAGE, movie posters that would show what kind of movies they watched before the apocalypse, etc. These would help flesh out the world and make it it's own and though we might not always pay attention to these extra tidbits, they really do help make the world feel believable and engrossing.</div>
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<u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Extra Tidbits</span></u></h2>
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I can't really put the rest of what he said into one larger catagory but I'd still like to talk about them.</div>
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One thing he mentioned was that the design of the environemnt was all about the information that would be revealed to the players. This has an obvious gameplay aspect to it as it helps show and guide players where they might need to go, what to do, or just engrossing the player in the world itself. Environments should be composed in a manner not to overwhelm the player but to provide enough information and give them a good idea where to go and still have the beauty of the environment. Again this is visual coherencing and mixing game design with the art design.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv-r7rInNUc7STyv841IfvJ4utDlBRUXnOxCz3oPEOsCyjUU_fpysiQjJtwWZhJyfDo8zdS4IwQJtzZoJPggnmh4TZOyZN3T_E18PcQJ0jaDUCYrznpdrC-slpbLvQvW6W83m0mlfFeHk/s1600/RAGE-wallpaper-1080p-03-PANORAMA-LANDSCAPE-ENVIRONMENT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv-r7rInNUc7STyv841IfvJ4utDlBRUXnOxCz3oPEOsCyjUU_fpysiQjJtwWZhJyfDo8zdS4IwQJtzZoJPggnmh4TZOyZN3T_E18PcQJ0jaDUCYrznpdrC-slpbLvQvW6W83m0mlfFeHk/s320/RAGE-wallpaper-1080p-03-PANORAMA-LANDSCAPE-ENVIRONMENT.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Another neat thing he mentioned was that when making environments he stated that it helped create the NPCs that inhabited them. Like was mentioned earlier, the NPCs are supposed to be able to inhabit the location they are at, or at least the world. Making a specific kind of environment lead to how inhabitants might dress, what kind of equipment they might possess and how they might act. This again leads to their AI, new weapons, new story and a lot more game design elements.</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Conclusion</span></u></b></h2>
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Stephan Martiniere had thought he had an hour and a half but only had an hour so he didn't have time to speak about everything he wanted to. Nevertheless I learned a lot and it helped reinforce in my mind that game design and art design really shouldn't be seperate at all. For higher level games they should be fully integrated together if a believable world is to be created. Even if the art design leads to level design, the gameplay needs to take place in those areas which leads to influencing how gameplay is. The large overworld of RAGE meant there would be a lot of driving and exploring which was an entirely new gameplay feature different than simple shooting.</div>
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It makes me want to discuss more about the visual design of the environments if I wish to make a fully fleshed out world for a game someday. This honestly sounds like the key to making a great environment to fit a great game.</div>
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IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-24501965563871609302012-11-24T14:19:00.000-05:002012-11-24T14:19:00.010-05:00Component SystemsOver the course of this semester, a topic has been brought up between some groups regarding different ways to approach engine design. We wanted to come up with a way that we could make our engine flexible and provided a lot of functionality. One of the subjects of the topic went over something called a "Component" based engine. Before I go into what this system is I want to explain what I did last year for my 2nd year game.<div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>UGC: 80 AD - Inheritance</u></span></b></h2>
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In the code for our group's game from the last year, it used inheritance, a lot of inheritance. There would be a class called "Character" which had subcatagories of "Player", "Enemy", and further subclasses such as "EnemyFinalBoss", "EnemyLion" and such. The cool thing about this is that I could easily make put all of my Character objects into a list and update them all. All of them would have a "virtual" update function that could be inherited and overwritten so that specific characters could update to different parameters. For example the player character could update to increase his HP over time, while the EnemyLion would instead update his stamina or something of the sort.</div>
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If I wanted to access specific functions, I wouldn't be able to with the EnemyLion normally since he would be created as a "Character" class and insert into a "CharacterList". However if I really needed to I could "cast" it which forces my EnemyLion into an actual EnemyLion class temporarily so that I am allowed to access it's functions. Normally I would have only been able to access the character class.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFsKdS6A-6nV7hPM3xPD5MVYqnGjDDrVjulj2EJWoEsJ7fyCdvs7qYVidmdEOViatmy_JaoiIk4ZptWYGwMPch-11dB1DI5MyBwah1WXmNm0pp7rMW-qp8si3DLpW8ogr3FexLiCFbEhs/s1600/Inheritance.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFsKdS6A-6nV7hPM3xPD5MVYqnGjDDrVjulj2EJWoEsJ7fyCdvs7qYVidmdEOViatmy_JaoiIk4ZptWYGwMPch-11dB1DI5MyBwah1WXmNm0pp7rMW-qp8si3DLpW8ogr3FexLiCFbEhs/s400/Inheritance.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>Character class needs to pass in the four values on the right, but not every class under it has use for these</b></div>
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Now the problem with this entire structure while it sounds like it works well is that it was cluttered, unorganised and I had functionality and attributes in some classes that never even used it. For example, my Character class had a whole bunch of integers to represent health, damage, speed, etc, and some of the classes under it didn't always use them all. I had "Damage1 and Damage2" that were only used by the Player character but the Lion had to inherit both of these even though he only needed "Damage1". This happened for quite a few classes in fact since I needed to update these parameters all the time and check for them. This made the entire system clunkier than it needed to be.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Introducing Components</u></span></b></h2>
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Now that I have covered the flaws of my engine last year lets talk about this "Component" System. Components basically mean that they are attachments to a base object class. So for example I create an object, it essentially has nothing inside of it. What I do to make it have functionality is attach "Components" to it. These components can literally be almost anything, they can represent a model, rigid body, health, damage, etc. This means almost any object can be anything and do anything, it makes for an extremely flexible system that allows a lot more freedom for the objects to perform actions.</div>
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For example I could attach a health component and damage component to the player but for an NPC that can't attack I will only attach the health component, or I might not even attach that since I probably won't need to hurt him. He would simply have his model and rigid body and perhaps some other component to trigger an event to talk with him. The skies are limitless with what you can do with these components.</div>
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<b>With components we can attach any component to any other component. We can also make certain components interact with each other such as health to AI.</b></div>
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There are a lot more complex aspects of the component system that we haven't touched yet or learned but these are the basics of the system. We used a combination of inheritance and components, making a pseudo component system. We add a component list to each object. Each of these components is essentially a really empty class template that will be inherited from by the Health Component, attack component, etc. We simply override it to have the functionality we need and if we need to access specific functions, we simply cast it to the appropriate component type (i.e. Health component).</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Final Thoughts</u></span></b></div>
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I don't want to reveal everything about our component system but that's basically a simple gist of how a real component system might work, or at least a pseudo component system. We hope to learn more about it because so far the results of the component system have been infinitely more flexible to use than with the old inheritance system. Essentially we can make any object do anything. I can make a key turn into an enemy and attack people, make it have an inventory and give it some gold to hold onto.</div>
IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-26422343133859397162012-11-17T12:18:00.002-05:002012-11-17T12:18:37.730-05:00MIGs 2012 - Trip Experience<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggYIGq6h4NG2hDuoUpryobKMJixXVE8Npqcks9goYQJ7CShVYUKx6Qg57KzdHg3WhigAVBsbBxUIThXNwqwBDPQps-b-a-OiDJ8tO9U6g3qzCtKc3GG_OtnP35MAfM8m1W_J-BFSZ8Dv0/s1600/MIGS_EN_2_noir.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggYIGq6h4NG2hDuoUpryobKMJixXVE8Npqcks9goYQJ7CShVYUKx6Qg57KzdHg3WhigAVBsbBxUIThXNwqwBDPQps-b-a-OiDJ8tO9U6g3qzCtKc3GG_OtnP35MAfM8m1W_J-BFSZ8Dv0/s400/MIGS_EN_2_noir.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Just this week from November 12 to 15th, the Montreal Internation Game Summit took place. Developers from all over the world ranging from programmers, game designers, artists, audio technicians and even the CEOs and executives of companies came to meet over the course of these days. Some even gave very useful presentations about their field of study that would unveil new technology and techniques to either market their own company or help audience members for their feature endeavors.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Trip Begins</span></b></h2>
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A trip for UOIT students was formed and I was among the students taking the trip to Montreal, leaving on the 12th and leaving home the night of the 14th. We spent only two nights there, being at the conference for day 13 and 14 which were the most important days anyways. We took the 6 hour long bus ride to reach our hotel on the 12th and pretty much spent that day exploring Montreal. The tickets we had purchased did not include the 12th or 15th in it's admission so we would not have been able to get into MIGs for that day.<br />
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The first night concluded and the first real day of MIGs began. We spent a 20 minute walk towards the hotel in which it took place (though we got lost the first day) and came late to the first presentation. The first presentation came from Tim Sweeny, the CEO of Epic games in a talk about Challenges of the Next Generation Consoles.<br />
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<b>Highlights included a speech from CEO of Epic Games Tim Sweeney</b></div>
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On a side note I want to state that there are lot of important game industries people here at MIGs (though perhaps not as much as there would be at GDC). Tim Sweeny is the CEO of Epic Games, developpers of Gears of War and Unreal and they are a very powerful company for both making games and developping tools for making games. Other speakers included Peter Molyneux, formerly with Lion Head Studios and created Fable, Black and White and other games.<br />
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Going back to how the day went, I missed the entire first lecture since I had to help my friend Mr. Freeman who did a problem with tickets. I then split off to go to the lectures I wanted to look at. I was very curious about a lot of the art related topics interestingly enough. Though I pretty much mostly focus on programming in Game Dev, I am still extremely interested in art, perhaps more so than programming.<br />
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A quick note about the presentations is that every time slot is an hour. Also there are always 5 other presentations going on at the same time so that means I missed some other presentations I wanted to go to due to conflicting time slots.<br />
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<a href="http://mtldgtl.com/en/calendar/#migs" target="_blank">To get an idea of the presentations and topics covered, look here! </a><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">The Presentations Begin - Day 1</span></h2>
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The first lecture I went to was "Drawing Inspiration" Bringing Characters and Worlds to Life" by Samantha Youssef. She works at Disney now and went to Sheraton College in the art program, being the only one from her year to be hired by Disney when she graduated. Her talk was incredibly informative regarding art and it was very useful as it opened my eyes to some new techniques she talked about (and she was pretty). I took notes as well and I plan to do a personal write up about this topic and some of the other topics later.<br />
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Then came lunch break where I explored the rest of the show floor, but before that I will go over the presentations I went to first.<br />
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<b>Guild Wars 2 artwork from Lead artist Kekai Kotaki (now at Bungie)</b></div>
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Amongst the other presentations the first day included Kekai Kotaki, the lead artist who worked on Guild Wars 2 and worked on Guild Wars 1. Unfortunately his presentation got shafted as he was supposed to be provided a tablet so he could draw live for us and teach us techniques. Instead he did not get one and was forced to simply go over his existing work which was still interesting but kind of dry since he was not prepared for this event.<br />
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I then went to attend a programming presentation, one on GPGPUs which should interesting since it regarded the use of GPUs for more uses but the delivery was very dry and kind of boring so I almost fell asleep unfortunately. I do not remember much from that presentation and if I had been less tired at that time I would have absorbed more information.<br />
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<b>Square Enix featured their new Glacier 2 Engine</b></div>
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The most interesting presentation followed, a look into Square Enix's Glacier 2 engine. <u>I</u><a href="http://iceninja77.blogspot.ca/2012/11/migs-look-into-glacier-2-engine.html" target="_blank"> have already made a write up of my impressions of the engine here.</a> To sum up that experience, seeing a AAA game engine close up and learn more intricate details and its features is awesome.<br />
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I pretty much ended my day there even though there was one more presentation that day since I was probably going to fall asleep in the next presentation<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Presentations Begin - Day 2</span></b></h2>
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The first presentation I went to was the earliest slot, with a keynote from Peter Molyneux. We got in a little late once again and he talked about "Experience and Innovation". It was a little strange though since he was there via Skype call instead of in purpose. Apparently his new game "Curiosity" became so popular it had a server crash and he needed to stay there. He pretty much talked about Curiosity, how it works and a look into the office where the studio works.</div>
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I went to a presentation on audio afterwards which I unfortunately fell asleep in. Not because the presentation was boring, in fact it looked really interesting, but I was kept on too late the night before and got very little sleep. Sadface.</div>
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RAGE - Featured in the Art Direction presentation</div>
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Following that I went to a talk on Creating and Art Direction Visually Successful Games by Stephan Martiniere, who was lead art director for RAGE. It was extremely informative and in fact related highly to game design surprisingly. A few key points about it for now is that he was designing environments the NPCs themselves could inhabit and the environments would reflect in their outfits. I.E. a tech city would have people in more high tech looking outfits. It was a mesh of visual design being coherent to the world of the game and being immersive. The talk was so interesting that I will probably have a write up on that later on.</div>
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Details regarding Battlefield 3 Cutscenes and use of Facial motion capture were presented</div>
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Afterwards I went to a presentation regarding Voice Acting/Performance Capture, featuring Battlefield 3. The presenter Tom Keegan talked about the use of motion capture needing a lot more physicality now as the actors need to be able to act naturally and actually envelop the character for more natural movement. So an actor playing a soldier would need to hold a rifle and move around like they were doing it. He even talked about having all actors in at once to do a scene versus voice actors just going on different days and doing their recordings separately. It was an eye opener into some of the techniques they use for MO-Cap acting.</div>
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One of the most interesting talks of the day came from David Lightbrown, recently hired by Ubisoft Montreal for designing user interfaces. The talk was about "The Art of Creating Efficient Tools" and was actually VERY interesting and very well done. The presentation itself was the most engaging out of all the of them, he actually used the audience, he was funny, his presentation wasn't heavy on text and used simple shapes to engage the audience. This is one of the talks I am going to write about in the future but essentially it was all about developer tools that are so well done that they will reduce the work time to learn them and just use them to create content.</div>
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The final presentation came from a combination of a lot of speakers talking about how they think the future of gaming will come about. Some were more serious speeches, while others were more light hearted. It was interesting to see all these people talk on stage within an hour and everyone had a different opinion and topic they coverered. With that, the MIGs trip ended and we took the bus home!</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">Extras, Extras!</span></h2>
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In my lunch break time and time I didn't spend in the presentations, I looked around the rest of the show floor. There were several booths for many companies, from Game Development studios, to Colleges and programs that specialized in teaching Game Development. Amongst them included Eidos (Deus Ex: Machina - Human Revolution), Ubisoft Montreal (Assassin's Creed III), Bioware (Mass Effect 3), and several others I can't remember. At these booths you could meet with the representatives of those studios and get contacts for networking.<br />
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<b>Ubisoft Booth</b></div>
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There was also several others areas such as a demo booth which developers of any sort (including indie) could get space to display their new games. Another area was the art gallery featuring art submitted by people for a small fee to be displayed and voted on. The winner would get a prize of some sort (I have no idea what that prize could have been). There were two catagories, one for pictures which included 2D concept art, 3D models, illustrations and another catagory for video. The video could be trailers, or some artsy looking cutscene. Some people even submitted just a piece of music they had composed themselves.<br />
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<b>The Sketch Duel area - Participants are focusing intensely on making their art</b></div>
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To top off this area, every now and then they would have a sketch duel. The first day featured professionals going head to head where they would have 15 minutes to draw something based on a randomly generated template. It could be something like "Draw a samurai dancing beside a house", which they would have to agree on. After the 15 minutes the audience would vote on the favourite. The same rules applied then next day when non professionals were allowed to enter and I watched the entire thing to see their technique. It was mostly speed painting and was another good motivator to learning more art.<br />
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Unfortunately I forgot to take many pictures and I should have gotten the art gallery...<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">Final Notes</span></h2>
So that was pretty much the MIGs trip in a nutshell. It was a really fun and interesting experience, something I would love to do again. Next year I plan to have my portfolio all ready, business cards ready and improve my art experience so I can have a chance at winning the Art Gallery. The presentations were definetely interestin and I learned a lot from them, so I will definetely check them out again.<br />
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Stay tuned for more posts for MIGs. I will probably have the following topics covered in more details in the future.<br />
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<li>"Drawing Inspiration" Bringing Characters and Worlds to Life"</li>
<li>"Creating and Art Directing Visually Successful Games"</li>
<li>"Art of Creating Efficient Tools"</li>
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IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-8359275162776763322012-11-16T19:33:00.002-05:002012-11-16T19:33:33.367-05:00MIGs - Look into the Glacier 2 EngineJust this past monday to thursday, the Montreal International Game Summit took place and Game Devs from all years decided to make the trip down. I will have an overview post of how MIGs went but for this particular post (since it's for Game Engines) I want to talk about one of presentations that took place that was particularly interesting.<div>
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<b>Hitman Absolution is the first game released to use the new Glacier 2 Engine</b></div>
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Square Enix has several engines under their belt but the most recently created is the Glacier 2 engine. Glacier 2 is not for license for other studios unlike a game engine like Unreal 3. This engine is only for Square Enix projects and doesn't include the Square Enix projects in Japan for Final Fantasy and other games. The engine currently only has no games currently released under it's belt but it will soon in the form of Hitman Absolution. Other projects are using it as well but I can't quite remember them all.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">Why build a new engine?</span></h2>
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This is one of the questions the speaker, Kasper Engelsoft addressed. The reason for having a new engine is of course to compete with advancing hardware and methods of rendering, algorithms and structure to put it in a broad sense. He stated that it also had several other important advantages as well. </div>
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Kane & Lynch apparently used some messy code in order to get features the dev team wanted</div>
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One was to target previously problems with the first Glacier. The first Glacier appeared to have "hacks" where the programmers would just modify the code in messy, unstructured ways in order to make things work. We saw some sample code from a few games such as Kane & Lynch that proved this messiness. Glacier 2 is supposed to rectify this problem and include features that are already built in so that these sorts of hacks don't have to be done.</div>
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Glacier 2 hopes to rectify problems in the past Glacier Engine</div>
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Another thought that came to mind was why not just use another engine such as Unreal? Well this goes along with the points stated above. Not every engine has all the features a game needs or isn't tailored to do certain things that are crucial for a company's needs. Unreal might lack certain things that most games Square Enix is going to need, so that means having their own new engine will tailor it to exactly what they need.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Features!</span></b></h2>
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With those questions out of the way, more content of what the new engine could do came to light. One of the most important parts of using an engine is that if it provides the right tools, it will increase the productivity of those using the engine dramatically.</div>
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One of the features the engine had was editing on the fly with the game rendered in a seperate window. Other engines do have this feature though such as Unreal and one audience member did not hesitate to point this out. They must have missed the point the engine is specifically tailored for their needs. Anyways I sidetracked but this feature is of course very useful but the best is when modifying things of the engine on the outside, it actually changed the source code at the same time as well. That means anything added in the visual editor could directly make changes to the source code and make things even faster since you wouldn't have to redefine things inside the source code. This was actually one of the highlight features the engine possessed.</div>
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<b>Hitman Absolution uses Glacier 2 to render many NPCs with strong AI</b></div>
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I am going to be honest, from this point I can't say quite as much as I hadn't had much sleep the night before so I didn't hear everything that was said about the engine. We got a look into their code structure which looked very organised and clear in comparison to the code shown from the previous engine. We also got a look into their particle system as well as real time rendering of 500 completely dynamic NPCs with advanced AI. This was a feature brought into Hitman Absolution since Hitman was the one being demo'd at this time.</div>
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<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Conclusion</span></b></h2>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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Unfortunately I wish had more to say and took notes but it was still a very interesting presentation. It was exciting to see the inner workings of a AAA engine first hand and understand the reasons behind its creation as well. It provides great motivation to make our own engines seeing the capability these engines provide.</div>
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IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-36882302647995402132012-11-05T16:23:00.001-05:002012-11-05T16:28:39.139-05:00Havok - Friend or Foe? ~ Learning Havok<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Havok is one of the tools we were provided with this year in order to create our GDW games. One should be excited at the prospect of having a chance to use a top quality, triple A engine. However once you get into it, you realize it won't be as easy as it seems to get Havok fully running and doing what you want it to do. Not to mention we aren't getting the real version of Havok, rather we are getting a free student version that doesn't have all the tools that we might be hoping for. One should think that simply having Havok would be only advantageous and it should be but when it becomes a requirement to have and it's not so straight forward to do, it begins to look more like foe then friend.<br />
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First off let's just see what Havok provides.<br />
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<ul>
<li>Realistic Physics simulation, velocity, acceleration and forces</li>
<li>Collision detection and collision response with objects of any shape and size</li>
<li>Animation and skeletal animation</li>
<li>Creation of it's own objects to be rendered</li>
<li>Compatability with Maya for 3D modelling</li>
<li>Sensors, events and callbacks</li>
<li>Vehicle dynamics</li>
<li>Rag dolls</li>
<li>Constraints such as rope attachment</li>
<li>And many others...</li>
</ul>
<div>
Now that's a lot of features it has and that means the engine has a ton of potential to do amazing things. The problem is that the documentation provided is while very long (1000+ pages) it is not very easy to understand and not very helpful. Many have agreed that the documentation Havok provides to learn it's tools is anything but straight forward. There are also so many things you have to learn about the whole system, that even implementing one of the tasks listed above is anything but easy. In order to correctly implement something, you either have to read through a ton of documentation and might still miss some things, or you're told by someone else.</div>
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<b>The documentation isn't exactly straight forward even though it looks like it would</b></div>
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<h2>
<b>Sooooooo Complicated!</b></h2>
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The free version of Havok did not really provide any tutorials to help and any online searching for such help is extremely difficult. For example, I wanted to figure out how I would get collision response in our game so that when a player attacked an enemy, the enemy might lose health. First of all I looked into the Havok documentation for collision detection. It listed for me, at least a half a dozen things and didn't really fully explain which I should be using, nor how to implement them. So after searching that for some time, I gave up due to how difficult it was to comprehend.</div>
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<b>They don't provide proper examples of how to use these for collision detection</b></div>
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I then went to search online for any help in how I might get collision detection in Havok. Again I was frustrated by the lack of any help online due to the wording I needed to use, or just otherwise lack of resources. Havok by itself does collision detection between it's "rigid bodies" but I needed to know how to access when they would collide. Havok would not provide for me a decent answer even with looking for all these resources. Nor do I remember seeing any obvious tutorials that would help show me.</div>
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<h2>
<b>But Demo Samples are useful</b></h2>
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<b>Havok demos are the main method of learning Havok</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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Thankfully not all hope was lost for the samples they provided were actually very helpful. These were pretty much the only way I learned how to use Havok. I finally managed to find out how I would implement my collision response after much searching through the demo samples. They provided source code in these samples so I was able to extract it, figure out how to use it and put it in my own engine. Thankfully this process itself wasn't too difficult as it mostly involved using inheritance and overriding certain functions. It's not that obvious at first though and takes a bit of time to figure out. You also have to take the source code from these projects and import it into your own projects.</div>
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<b>The demos finally helped me learn how to use collisions. I turn the objects to blue when they hit.</b></div>
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Through this method I managed to figure out several useful things for our game such as collision detection, collision filtering, attaching rigid bodies to a set path, and a few others. However I wish there was an easier way to learn these things through tutorials or more resources from Havok. From what I've learned it seems like they simply provide the documentation for free students. But for those that pay the full price for Havok they get all features of Havok along with tech support to help teach people. That's the benefit they get while we are stuck with having to figure out everything with Havok by ourselves. Granted its a good learning experience but it makes things dreadfully slow to learn.</div>
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<b>Also Havok Demos are very fun, particularly the vehicle demos</b></div>
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The only saving grace was the samples which were very helpful indeed. I know this blog hasn't been about actually learning much today and mostly more of a rant but this just highlights of what to expect if you ever get Havok. Be excited by the potential the system has but be prepared to have to learn a lot and use the samples a ton in order to fully use it.</div>
IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-34384704938441018272012-10-29T20:38:00.003-04:002012-10-29T21:01:58.389-04:00How to Make a Basic AI - Seek & Wander<br />
If anyone remembers in Super Mario 64, the goombas were different then their 2D counter parts. Instead of simply walking in a straight line, they actually did some somewhat more dynamic AI. They walked around and when you got close, they suddenly turned toward you and ran at you. This is a very basic AI that can work in a 3D game and today I'd like to show how it can be done.<br />
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First off let's break down what kind of behaviours the goomba is using. It uses two simple AI behaviours...<br />
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<ul>
<li>Seek</li>
<li>Wander</li>
</ul>
The seek behaviour means to head towards a designated target, simple enough. The behaviour is a little more complicated but it eventually involves the same thing. It seeks towards a target, but what it does is calculate a new target in front of itself whenever it's called to make it appear like its just walking around aimlessly.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Physics System</span></b></h2>
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So we know what these behaviours are and they sound pretty simple. Before you just go ahead and make them we need to make sure we have a physics system of some sort. So let's say we have our "Goomba object", well if we want to accurately calculate forces for our AI, we need to make sure he adheres to some form of physics. This physics system is not too complicated, in fact all it needs to consist of for us at this point is the following...<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Force</li>
<li>Mass</li>
<li>Acceleration</li>
<li>Velocity (Speed)</li>
<li>Position</li>
</ul>
<div>
You would give your goomba this physics system and give it an update function that applies these forces every frame. With the proper system, simply applying some force, will automatically do all the calculations to make the goomba move. So Force = Mass*acceleration, velocity += acceleration, position += velocity or something of the sort. So this means in our AI behaviours we would be calculating the forced required to go to our target.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Calculating the target</span></b></h2>
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For our Goomba, we would first of all need to keep track of it's target. A vector represents a point in space, X,Y,Z which is what our game world consists of. In this case our target would be our player, so when we call the function "SetTarget", you would pass in Mario, the player's position (as a Vector XYZ) into the function. Great, we have our target now.</div>
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<div>
Now we have our target (MARIO) and our goomba's position so how do we make the goomba go towards Mario? Well the benefit of using vectors is that when you subtract one vector from another, it creates whats called a "direction vector". It's essentially a direction pointing from one vector to another, which is exactly where want to make our goomba go. This direction is exactly where we would apply our force towards!</div>
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So to find our direction vector it would be MARIO's position - GOOMBA's position. We would make sure to normalize (magnitude is 1) this direction vector and multiply it by the amount of force units we actually want to apply. We then return this force we have calculated to our Goomba's physics update to apply this force. The force would be calculated and sent to accel, then velocity and calculating our position.</div>
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This essentially how we seek towards an object! This can be turned into a "flee" behaviour where our goomba will run away instead by simply having the force calculated be the negative value instead. "-Force".</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Wandering</span></b></h2>
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Wandering on the other hand is more complicated but still applies the same concept of targetting. Instead of taking Mario as a target, we generate one ourselves. </div>
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What our goomba does is he generates a vector directly in front of the direction he is already facing. From there we pass our goomba some angle which we will randomize to be either negative or positive. The purpose of this is to generate a random direction for our goomba to go (i.e. veer left of veer right). From there the vector we generated earlier will be rotated by the angle.</div>
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From there it's simply calculating the direction vector from our target to our goomba. The same process as seek now.</div>
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<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Combining them</span></b></h2>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
Well obviously it seems like trying to use both of them at once might not work so it's simply a matter of checking for Mario's position. So we would want our Goomba to wander around when Mario is far away and chase him when he gets close. </div>
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So we set some radius for the goomba. This radius will calculate whether Mario's position (using the same direction vector calculation) is within the radius. If it's Mario isn't within our radius thing, let the goomba just wander around, he doesn't care or even know Mario is near yet. If Mario gets inside the circle our Goomba is suddenly alert, he knows Mario is near. He should go and get him, therefore applying the seek behaviour.</div>
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Depending on how you do it, if you have both behaviours activated at once, you will want to disable the other one so that you don't get both forces influencing the Goomba.</div>
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And that's pretty much the basics for a simple AI system. You don't necesarily need the physics system noted earlier but it will help greatly for calculations and it's highly advised. It's not all too hard to do but the harder stuff will come later when you need group behaviours such as birds flocking together. That's a topic for another blog post though.</div>
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<a href="http://natureofcode.com/book/chapter-6-autonomous-agents/" target="_blank">For more information about these AI behaviours, look here!</a></div>
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IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-855049616023644632012-10-29T20:03:00.001-04:002012-10-29T20:40:28.757-04:00Basic AI Systems - Pattern and Dynamic AIA major factor in how believable the game world is, comes from the AI system. When you think about it, almost every game has AI in one form or another. Even a simple game such as Super Mario Bros. has AI, very basic AI that follows the same pattern. Nowaways we have highly advanced AI, like the ones demonstrated in the Halo series, renowned for their AI. There are varying types of AI, they can be set patterns or they can be dynamic and changing based on the state of the game. The type of AI used is dependent on the type of game being made.<br />
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For my post about making a <a href="http://iceninja77.blogspot.ca/2012/10/how-to-make-basic-ai-seek-wander.html" target="_blank">Basic AI Behaviour, click here</a><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Pattern AI</span></b></h2>
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At it's core, a patterned AI doesn't care about what the player is doing, it's not going to react specifically to you if you happen to be jumping, attacking, or dodging. The most they might react is if you happen to be near, it will activate their AI. This is the kind of AI that was featured a lot in games in the 90s and earlier.<br />
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The most basic versions of these come in the form of goombas in Super Mario Bros. Their AI pattern is to just walk ahead and if they run into an obstacle turn around. These enemies in particular don't care at all where you are.<br />
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<b>Super Mario Bros - World 1-1 ~ The Goomba AI literally just walks forward</b></div>
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Another rather basic AI is the AI in turn based RPGs, notably Pokemon (the old games). They pretty much have no AI. Where pokemon will have a list of four moves, in most battles though they will simply use them at random, with no thought to strategy. Later games started to implement actual patterns in battles to make some good strategies but they were still mostly patterned.<br />
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<b>Pokemon Red - The AI used to just randomly use whatever attacks where in their movelist</b></div>
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However they can still get more complex then that fortunately. One of my favourite examples of this kind of AI is from Megaman X on the Super Nintendo.<br />
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When encountering a boss, the boss will use predetermined attacks and go on a set path around the boss room. They may jump from place to place, fire some attack, then go to another action. The action they are about to perform is noticeable and easy to memorize once you get the hang of it and allows a player to react easily and memorize what they will do. There may be some randomness as to what order they may do the actions, but it will always be the same. They might always fire in the same direction, jump to the same location, etc.<br />
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<b>Megaman X - Launch Octopus Boss</b></div>
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The most interaction they might have with the player is that they can determine a player's position and fire a missile directly towards that location. They might also change or speed up their pattern if their life is lower. Despite these potential interactions, they are still heavily patterned and won't react dynamically or specifically to what actions you're doing.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><b>Dynamic AI</b></span></h2>
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These AI are completely mainstream now and with good reason. Player's yearn to have more realistic experiences and dynamic AI will do these on the fly. This AI is the kind that pays attention all around it's environment and to the world. It uses complex pathfinding to move around the world, interacts with other objects around to act as a team or fights against the using advanced tactics. This is the kind of AI games like Halo and Starcraft is known for.<br />
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For example in Halo, Elites usually lead a pack of grunts. They act as a unit, shooting at you and taking cover. When the elite, the grunts activate a fleeing behaviour to run away. When you throw a grenade at them they jump out of the way to try and avoid it as best they can instead of just ignoring it. They react to your actions according and don't follow a set pattern.<br />
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<b>Halo - A quick look into the AI system</b></div>
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Gears of War is another good example of great AI. The enemies will act together, some providing covering fire while others flank. If you stay in one spot the AI will find a chance to get around to you. They actively pay attention to their environment and obstacles that might be in there way. This is evident in the "Horde" maps in Gears of War 2 and 3, where they will dynamically change what they are doing depending on the different maps.<br />
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Gears of War 3 - Campaign</div>
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AI for fighting games leans towards both this category and patterns. On one hand they need to react to where the opponent is at all times and figure out when they are attacking and block accordingly. On the other hand they need to perform combos and memorize the order to these in. Most fighting game AI seems to be exploitable to certain patterns though as there are only so many things they can do. Some games like Dead or Alive 5 and Soul Calibur 5 are smarter and learn what moves you do and what to block during a match. On the otherhand games like Street Fighter 4 and Marvel vs Capcom 3 use the same patterns for the most part and don't even know any combos. The difficulty merely adjusts their reactions and how often they attack and block.<br />
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Soul Calibur V - Legendary Souls mode (Hardest Mode)</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">What's better?</span></b></h2>
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Well the answer should in theory be the dynamic AI, however patterned AI still lends itself to a lot of games. A lot of action-platformers still use patterned AI or at least a very low level dynamic AI with lots of patterns. They still fit these games because it provides the players an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the game and learn the patterns of bosses. A lot of players find thrills in being able to memorize and fight AI that they will be able to figure out and take out.<br />
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Driving games are also a good example of patterned AI as they simply follow the route on the road over and over. They use some dynamic AI sometimes (depends on the game) but a lot of simulators have the cars following a set path to have the fastest possible time. If they get knocked off course, they simple continue to try to go back onto that path. They pay attention to nearby cars so they don't crash into them but they still follow the same pattern since this pattern (path) provides the fastest potential route.<br />
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On the otherhand games like shooters heavily require AI now. People are no longer interesting in enemies that simply stand there waiting for you to come to them and shoot them. People want enemies who take cover, react to your attacks, your position and act as a team. Same with RTS, fighting games and many other genres. The degree that the enemies dynamically react is of course dependent on the game genre, but shooters and RTS are definitely the types of games that have some of the most dependence on changing AI.<br />
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So the answer is that dynamic AI is definetely gaining much more substance but it doesn't completely replace the good old patterned AI. Even a lot of dynamic AIs have to use patterns in some form anyways. I believe that patterned type AI won't ever fully go away and will always have a place in at least some kinds of games.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Making an AI</span></b></h2>
Now I'd like to go through how you might make a basic AI in your code. This will be a two-Part blog since the content in this one relates more to game design and the other more to game engines<br />
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<a href="http://iceninja77.blogspot.ca/2012/10/how-to-make-basic-ai-seek-wander.html" target="_blank">Click here for Part 2</a><br />
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IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-85924702855457491672012-10-27T13:40:00.002-04:002012-10-29T20:49:11.596-04:00Dialogue in Games<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How does dialogue enhance the experience of a game for us? What are it's advantages and it's disadvantages? What are the different ways we can go about bringing dialogue to life and bringing story to the players? As a follow up to my previous blog I want to talk about the difference between dialogue with audio, dialogue without and even games that feature no dialogue at all to convey the story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Story has always been an important part in some games. A lot of games still have story of some sort even if they have no cutscenes or dialogue. Some games simply feature a "story" button featured in the main menu or something of the sort (though that's usually for flash games or lower budget quick games). For titles with larger budgets they usually have either cutscenes with dialogue & voice acting, cutscenes with only text dialogue, or the rare no dialogue and no text ones.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Action Only</u></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These aren't too common and it's very important for these kinds of cutscenes to convey all the emotion and the messages they need with only character motions. It becomes very hard to pull this off for certain kinds of games, such as RPGs which usually have the largest of backstories. However there have been some very notable successes that have proven that you don't always need talking and text to convey what's going on in a scene.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The best example I have experienced of this is the Lego series games, such as Lego Star Wars, Lego Batman, Lego Indiana Jones, etc. In these games, the Lego characters do not talk at all but they have to re-enact scenes from the movies or settings they are in as though they were mimes. They are able to provide and make the emotions obviously in certain scenes such as worry, happiness, laughter, while still trying to stick to the character they are playing. They also have to use a lot of exaggerated gestures to convey more emotion as well.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lego Star Wars 2 - Cutscenes</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The best way to relate how these are successful is black & white films from long ago, the ones that featured no sound at all. This is pretty much how these cutscenes go. In order for the Lego people to properly convey the story to the player, they must adapt to lack of sound pretty much (at least lack of dialogue). Movements must be over exaggerated , expressions must be exagerated as well to easily convey how the Lego person is feeling. Where the camera is looking is even more important as it must make sure to focus on whats important in telling the player what they need about the story and to show the character expressions at the right time.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Artist - A recent movie done like the silent films from long ago</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A no text & no dialogue cutscene is entirely possible and can be really well done and successful. The saying "actions speak louder than words" definetely rings true here, as the case of Lego Star Wars has shown just how much can be displayed. However this isn't easy to get right. If you can't get the characters to display the right expressions, it can come out as half-assed cutscenes that don't have much merit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also trying to imagine it in a game with more serious story is difficult. Though movement and facial expressions convey a LOT of emotion, speech conveys another layer that adds to a scene and the world. It's hard to imagine a large Final Fantasy like world being able to convey everything that's needed without dialogue and still be fully enjoyable and as fleshed out as it could be with dialogue.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Dialogue - With Text </u></span></b></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We've seen these types of games for eons, since the days of Zork and with advent of visuals, in the form of cutscenes in RPGs like Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, and even Zelda. Games that feature only dialogue with text read on screen are still common, however in the triple A game area, it's becoming fewer and fewer. Most games that don't convey much story can just stick with this, but those that do need to convey a story have gone to sticking with actual speech instead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However there are some notable exceptions that show that so much expression of the world can still be displayed without the need for characters talking. One of the most recent examples I have played is The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword. Characters are extremely expressive in terms of animation and facial expressions. They convey absolutely everything necessary to go along with the dialogue you're reading they are saying. You can easily match the two together because of how well the emotion is conveyed.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword - Has some of the most expression I have seen in characters in a while</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is in fact very similar to No text & no dialogue, in how much importance there is on character expression at least for Skyward Sword. Though there isn't as much reliance put onto the expression of the characters with text, it's still a very important aspect if you want to get the feel of a cutscene right. 2D games can still manage to get away with only text but are they really as good as games that provide both text and some meaningful expressions? This is up for debate obviously.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Final Fantasy VI - Had plenty of dialogue and no speech</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The thing about dialogue but only via text is that, it's much like reading a book in that sense. When you read a character's speech, you can imagine what their voice might sound like in saying it. You get to embody the character with however you want that character to sound. If I want Zelda's Father in Skyward Sword to sound like Gandalf, then I can do that. This applies to both 2D and 3D games, perhaps even more so for 2D games as you don't always get character expressions on screen too.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Dialogue - With Speech</u></span></b></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dialogue with speech can be considered to be the whole package, but really it's simply a different art form. You now have the final layer of audio to go along with movement and expression, speech from the characters. In most triple A titles, this is the choice they go with for cutscenes and with good reason. Movies nowadays are no longer soundless, they come with people talking, music cues, etc. Most people are used to these kinds of cutscenes and enjoy them more so.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However these aren't always the best choice because it relies on the talent of your voice actors. In fact it can be detrimental if done wrong. A terrible voice actor can take you out of the experience with their dull and flat lines. Dialogue that's in written form, when conveyed in speech can actually sound terrible, but seem fine on paper. You have to rely on people saying the lines in a way that sounds good and fits the character, while making sure their lines sound naturally. Take for example some of the games that get dubbed from Japan, some of them are terrible.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Trouble Witches Neo - Terrible line delivery</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those are the downsides, but the upsides if you can get it right, breathes new life into the character. Much like you can get attached to a character in a movie, you can get a attached to a character in a game if their voice conveys their emotion and personality in such a way that appeals to you. Of course you can still get attached when they can't speak, but if the voice really fits the character, then it makes it hard to imagine the character not speaking that way. For example once I heard the voices of the characters in the movie for Lord of the Rings, whenever I read the book I always hear their voices now. So strong the voice acting can be, that these actors and actresses behind the voices can sometimes be permanently imagined as that character, such as Nolan North for Nathan Drake in Uncharted.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Uncharted 3 - A series known for it's excellent dialogue and line delivery</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These kinds of cutscenes can also be more immersive. Take for example some of the cutscenes in Modern Warfare 1. The helicopter scene when the nuke goes off is great because the dialogue brings you into the scene. Imagine the build up to that moment with just text, I don't believe it would be quite as impactful. It would have been slower and the stress of the situation wouldn't be quite as obvious to a lot of people. It would also have to make some changes into how it was shot to make it more impactful without any dialogue if you tried that method. I wouldn't be able to take it quite as seriously if I just saw a bunch of overexagerated expressions.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Call of Duty 4 - A shocking moment helped conveyed by dialogue</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Conclusion</u></span></b></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't say one is better than the other because that's not true. Take these as artforms, different ways to convey a message, in this case a cutscene. I like to imagine Action only as the silent films from ages ago, text only as reading a book (or watching a subtitled movie), and speech as a hollywood movie. These all appeal to different audiences and provide different experiences for the viewer. Sometimes they aren't always done well and can fall flat on their faces, but they can each be entertaining in their own right as long as they are done right.</span>IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-39301353397155675302012-10-23T16:41:00.002-04:002012-10-23T16:42:42.914-04:00Fragmentation - My memory has got some holes!When I am talking about memory I do not mean the memory of our conscious self. I instead mean memory that our computer uses. Our computer contains different kinds of memory, some of them faster to use and some of them slower. Fragmentation is like the title says, making our memory have holes in them. I will explain the whole process of fragmentation and how it does this but before we do that let's talk a bit about what kind of memory our computer has at it's disposal.<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Memory</span></u></b></h2>
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Our memory is responsible for allowing our computer to do all sorts of complex calculations at rates faster than a human possibly could. The more memory we have, the more things we can do at once and the faster we can do it. This applies for all of the programs that our computer has to use when it's being run, from a calculator, to a game. </div>
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We generally have two types of memory, cache memory and RAM (Random Access Memory).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm-cgwnZe90Sv19I82z63ScnacdBVnBwYN5NsUo8LfbeiP5hqqgucJqdFCl_SikcQGXwkZCfRfEORrCvj-8fPyPl-TZgELTUY_k9ZpzkObjIC4EJC1dDZz5yBJlCUKO-Yi7ryOwEbYYio/s1600/CPU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm-cgwnZe90Sv19I82z63ScnacdBVnBwYN5NsUo8LfbeiP5hqqgucJqdFCl_SikcQGXwkZCfRfEORrCvj-8fPyPl-TZgELTUY_k9ZpzkObjIC4EJC1dDZz5yBJlCUKO-Yi7ryOwEbYYio/s320/CPU.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Cache Memory </b>is the faster of the two and is located closest to the CPU in our computer. The CPU is what is doing our calculations, therefore the closer we are to the CPU, the faster our calculations. The problem with cache memory is that we have a lot less of it then we do of RAM. This means we want to perform as much calculation in cache memory as we can before resorting to RAM in order to be as fast and efficient as possible. We also have several layers of cache memory, the closest one labelled <b>"L1"</b> while the others being L2, L3, etc. L1 is the fastest layer while the others get progressively slower.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4g9bYlkV9IKXHYDTiAixOAP2O-YHq-fDayGz-pZeh20lHrCQkxxplldVF0T8YHvWqtPalvpEXAFWJTilZUohqLmk14i_SBlD7MS28nudLKq5Poe4yxoWdS4JjJKeweyFLAudRW4CH97U/s1600/computer-ram-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4g9bYlkV9IKXHYDTiAixOAP2O-YHq-fDayGz-pZeh20lHrCQkxxplldVF0T8YHvWqtPalvpEXAFWJTilZUohqLmk14i_SBlD7MS28nudLKq5Poe4yxoWdS4JjJKeweyFLAudRW4CH97U/s320/computer-ram-01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>Random Access Memory </b>is the slower of the two and located farther away from the CPU. However you can have much more of this kind of memory, and can frequently be seen in large 1-8 Gigabyte sticks now, with multiple of them on one computer.</div>
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Now that we've got a quick understanding of memory let's talk more about what fragmentation is</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Fragmentation</span></u></b></h2>
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Fragmentation is how memory begins to break up and becomes unusable for some reason. Well what is that reason exactly? Well let's take a look at a block of memory.</div>
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Each block in this represents a byte lets say. When we create a variable we want to use in our program, let's say an integer to store a number for use later and a boolean for some true or false value, they each represent a different size of memory. An int is say, 4 bytes while a boolean is only 1 byte.</div>
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Now when we create these variables, they aren't actually done in order, they are put randomly in memory via something called dynamic heap allocation. Whenever we create a new variable, it could be put anywhere around in our memory. It could be at one end or another end of memory. Since our memory is so big, normally we don't worry about this. But we have have 1 million variables, things will get messy and things will get out of order. This is what it might look like.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIGnXMGzNiM01MlVDladBZQhyphenhyphenhRVPE5HaePRg8MsMVmrSS6j2lM4bMBvdJeaVqWGtunu9i9akOoHsYTv1KhlX2jd0zL5AcSWmBNSQd8RWYb9tYxVoLTMbJCaX1YnAZ5ed5m9hV55sxdkY/s1600/Fragmented+Memory.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIGnXMGzNiM01MlVDladBZQhyphenhyphenhRVPE5HaePRg8MsMVmrSS6j2lM4bMBvdJeaVqWGtunu9i9akOoHsYTv1KhlX2jd0zL5AcSWmBNSQd8RWYb9tYxVoLTMbJCaX1YnAZ5ed5m9hV55sxdkY/s400/Fragmented+Memory.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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This causes the following problem. Let's say we have some blocks of memory free, a 1 kb block and another 1kb block we can use. This is all we have left and we want to use a function that uses up 2 kbs of memory. Well our 2 free blocks add up to 2kb right? Everything should be good. Nope, program has memory leak error.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiYv7V5tgfHmDvBxzpAop6lDCAdvKWmOhC-klvrNiHnQiIAUKusEzEvaoXYOTli9Voxg5Hz_PsI7xxv7_N1HgX_MnbTG3Q5JL6JvWqPJsZOUv5IWpR3zeOapVMItSmYCcEeqaYWJnD634/s1600/NOINT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiYv7V5tgfHmDvBxzpAop6lDCAdvKWmOhC-klvrNiHnQiIAUKusEzEvaoXYOTli9Voxg5Hz_PsI7xxv7_N1HgX_MnbTG3Q5JL6JvWqPJsZOUv5IWpR3zeOapVMItSmYCcEeqaYWJnD634/s320/NOINT.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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4 Free spaces for int, but we can't put it in still!</div>
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What just happened? Well the reason it crashed is because we can't split our function to use memory from the 2 blocks seperately. We need to have one continuous block of 2 kb, not 2 split 1 kb blocks to have our function work. This is the kind of thing that happens in fragmentation. We have all these weird gaps in our memory that become unusable by things that require more memory. When you have a a lot of different variables of different size being put in all sorts of places it means we are prone to run out of memory earlier than we should, even if we have some memory left to use.</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Fixes for this!?</span></u></b></h2>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Contiguous Memory Allocation</span></u></b><br />
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There are a variety of different methods we can use in order to fix this. First off, instead of making variables and <b>dynamically allocation them, </b>we use techniques that will instead use a <b>contiguous form of memory allocation. </b>What this means is to put memory right next to each other, instead of randomly placed. Two well known methods are <b>Stack Allocation and Pool Allocation. </b>For the sake of not making this post too huge I won't go into great detail about both. Howevere here is a brief example for how an array, a stack allocation type works.</div>
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Let's say for example you want to make 5 integers. Instead of making 5 of them individually, you mean an array of integers. Here's a comparison of what they would look like.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlotHIMS9fuf2n2DOnEAYO7rGxMSdM0iqfgr1BMXGdlhukcgLfA6X5g0w4q5piTJMnHgY1klRGoIXoQEZzC4037B-9wuK_l2Ykn76F0c5A3iDynZSqsYmyOtTxb7BCTdcaCflgx5qNJRs/s1600/Array+vs+Heap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="96" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlotHIMS9fuf2n2DOnEAYO7rGxMSdM0iqfgr1BMXGdlhukcgLfA6X5g0w4q5piTJMnHgY1klRGoIXoQEZzC4037B-9wuK_l2Ykn76F0c5A3iDynZSqsYmyOtTxb7BCTdcaCflgx5qNJRs/s400/Array+vs+Heap.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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As you can see, while our seperate integers would be scattered, our array is nice, neat and located in a nice little block.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Defragging</u></span></b><br />
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Another thing you can do is <b style="text-decoration: underline;">defragging.</b> Defragging involves freeing up memory by moving all memory down to the lowest address. This means to put them all near the bottom to fill up any space, therefore filling up any holes. You would use this memory every now and then to make sure you won't get fragmentation. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1jgEf0RVNvRTNKE4eckCUpvPRgUNB5hz-AT5GnxZUsqxT8-X07boGhqWWgaiBpNXD7QLYKe1-yw16WkoSDg-Bie26YTjbMO0MakIr2L5C7-fG1UZ2p1I3lDN8b57KUrXJMUvzXCjR_5k/s1600/Defragexample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="83" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1jgEf0RVNvRTNKE4eckCUpvPRgUNB5hz-AT5GnxZUsqxT8-X07boGhqWWgaiBpNXD7QLYKe1-yw16WkoSDg-Bie26YTjbMO0MakIr2L5C7-fG1UZ2p1I3lDN8b57KUrXJMUvzXCjR_5k/s400/Defragexample.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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One problem this presents is for pointers. (Pointers point to other memory addresses and can be used for variables as well to reference specific locations in memory or copy the location of other variables.) Since pointers point to a specific location of memory, it means when you're defragging since memory addresses are shifted down to make sure there are no holes, that means whatever your pointer was looking at before will now be either NULL, or pointing to something else now. The way to fix this is to make sure you can repoint your pointers to the correct variable which is easier said than done.</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Closing words</span></u></b></h2>
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Fragmentation is a very important concept for higher level programming. For small programs you will hardly ever use up your memory that fast so you don't have worry about this. But the larger and more complex your program gets, the more important defragging and avoiding fragmentation becomes. </div>
IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-4424756350346753752012-10-18T16:38:00.002-04:002012-10-19T14:27:55.857-04:00Sound is important! ~ Audio in GamesWe often take for granted the sound we hear in games. As our professor Bill Kaprolos taught us, sound is often a neglected part in games. Not just by designers at times but also by players as well. How often is it that people will play a game without the sound or replace the game's music with their own. Designers adding in sound in the last few months and thinking of it as an after thought. Not everyone does these but it's not uncommon for it to happen. For this post I'm going to take a look into how sound, from music, to dialogue, to sound effects and ambiance affect the game. I believe that a truly great game will have great sound to make it a truly complete experience.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Sound Effects</u></span></b></h2>
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These are the bread and butter of pretty much every game now. These define the sounds your enemies and players will make in the world, the environmental reactions to your actions. This ranges from things such as character footsteps, sword slashes, gunshots, explosions and anything that is resulted from an action or visual change in the environment. It can be a scripted sequence like a bomb going off and setting off that explosion, or your character holding a gun and you, the player making the gun shoot by pressing the trigger.<br />
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The reason these are so important is because they are something you will hear a lot during your game, pretty much all the time. It means that they cannot be annoying, tedious or repetitive. They need to be designed in such a way that they make the experience for the player even better. They need to be satisfying and make sense with what's happening on screen.<br />
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Bioshock - They use an excellent opening that uses a perfect mix of visuals and sounds</div>
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Something satisfying would be the gold drop sound in Diablo 2. You hear that sound and immediately know that gold is somewhere to be picked up. The sound is kind of addicting and makes you want to go pick it up immediately because it has this satisfying feel to it. Diablo 2 also makes it so different items would make different sounds too, so if a potion drops, it makes a distinct sound, same with a large weapon or a small weapon. These sounds are both satisfying to hear and provide us information, even if it's not fully on screen yet.<br />
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Diablo 2 - A few iconic sounds, potion, town portal sound and going through the town portal</div>
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A game that had you shooting a gun but fired what sounded like pellets would be very unsatisfying. If the tool you're using is making sounds that don't naturally fit it, it will take you out of the game. It won't feel right and as a result probably won't be satisfying either. A problem with this is that games can also be subjective in terms of sound and what they should sound like.<br />
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For example, the average Call of Duty player doesn't really know what guns really sound like. A trained ear in gun sounds can detect a lot of inaccuracies with Call of Duty's gun noises which detracts the experience for that player. For the others though they don't even know and might think they are accurate anyways. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3 on the otherhand have been praised for their accurate sound effects that really help immerse you in the game. Also Call of Duty has reused sound effects a lot for their guns.<br />
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Battlefield 3 & Modern Warfare 3 Sound Comparison</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Ambiance</u></span></b></h2>
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Ambiance would be defined as sound that is only meant to enhance the experience. It's in the background, very faint and subtle that's designed to ease the player in or out of the experience. It's not as obvious as sound effects which are more about giving feedback about what your actions are in the game. A good example of what ambiance is would be birds chirping in the background of the environment in Skyrim. Another would be cricket sounds or slight distortion noises in a game like Slender.<br />
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The reason ambiance helps so much is that it makes the world feel alive. When you're not performing any major actions, just exploring the environment or even just standing still, if you just hear complete silence its usually not a good sign, (depending on the game of course). Imagine you're in an environment where gears are rotating around like some sort of clockwork tower. You certainly wouldn't hear silence that's for sure but you also wouldn't want to hear the cranking of gears constantly as it would irritate the ears. The ambiance would be for some subtle clock sounds in the background, not too loud but not too quiet. It would be a balance in between that helps reinforce the environment you're in.<br />
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The same with a game like Slender. There is no music and the only sound is your footsteps or a thumping noise from Slenderman every now and then. The rest of the sound is crickets and other bugs in the distance. It helps add to the experience that you're in an actual forest, and in a horror game atmosphere is everything. Absolute silence in the ambiance wouldn't work quite as well as the environment might not seem as natural and therefore take you out even more.<br />
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Slender - Playthrough (Just listen for the ambient noise)</div>
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Going back to Skyrim again, the use of ambient noise in the outdoor environments is subtle and you might not even notice at first but it's there. The reason you don't notice is because it helps sell the environment so well that you just feel apart of it already. If there was absolute silence in the ambiant however, you would definetely notice it. It would feel off because there are always other sounds in nature, at least some. There is hardly ever complete silence.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Music</u></span></b></h2>
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Though I haven't posted my Tunes of the Week blog in some time, I have not neglected how important music is in games. I've already gone on several blogs about this topic already so I don't want to cover this too much. But reiterating briefly...<br />
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Music is important in games because it helps define the experience and helps define the memories for us. Familiar catchy tunes help us to both progress in the game and help us remember those experiences later. Whenever you hear the Super Mario theme, it's very sound can reinvoke memories inside of you because of it's association with the game. The fact that the tune is so catchy also makes it so it comes back to you and might make you want to play more.<br />
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Bayonetta - You may Call me Father (From the 2nd last Boss battle)</div>
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Music can help drive a lot of players to play again depending on their tastes. I myself have played certain boss battles in games over and over because of just how spectacular the experience was, from gameplay to the music, sometimes even just for the music. Other times I stay in certain areas because the background music is simply so catchy, or beautiful depending on the game.<br />
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Halo 2 - Blow me Away (From the level "Gravemind")</div>
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For example I played the two final levels of Bayonetta over and over because the music and entire boss fight was just so spectacular. I replayed the level "Gravemind" in Halo 2 over and over because at the end of that level, it had some really badass music. I roamed the fields of Hyrule in Zelda: Twilight Princess because I just enjoyed the background music. I've done all of these actions for no other reason then the music sometimes and that to me goes to show the music has done it's job.<br />
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Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Hyrule Field Theme (Played in Hyrule Field)</div>
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Finally, sometimes it's just a final, beautiful reward for beating some games.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Dialogue</u></span></b></h2>
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This is the one area that can be debatable. In fact, I believe it's best to save this one to it's own blog post as there are a lot of variables with how dialogue can effect the game or not even be required in one. A quick overview of what would be in store for the future is Zelda vs Final Fantasy. Dialogue driven they both are, but one contains actual dialogue while the other is simply reading.<br />
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FOR LATER THOUGH.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Conclusion</u></span></b></h2>
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To me, sounds are really one of the most important parts of games. I used to play some games without sound because of various reasons (like a bus thats too loud, or saving batteries on my Game Boy). However once playing the version with sound versus without, it's easy to see what I was missing. Sound helps drive the experience and all the aspects of sound mesh together help create the full cohesive experience of the game we are playing. Weakness in area can have surprisingly bad consequences for the experience if it's that bad or disengaging.<br />
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As Professor Kapralos said, sound is an important but often neglected part of games.IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-89000755073642724342012-10-15T13:11:00.001-04:002012-10-19T14:28:15.309-04:00Humans Opponents vs AI OpponentsHuman opponents and AI opponents, there has always been a debate between which provides a better experience for players. Many stronger players have agreed that humans are much better and that there is no question about it, while others have tried to argue that AI opponents can be compable. All of this is usually a comparison in multiplayer games where the option to play with bots or human opponents is provided. In this blog post I look to compare the advantages and disadvantages of both in a multiplayer environment as well as take a look at how they provide a different experience for singleplayer versus multiplayer in a variety of different genres.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Human Opponents</u></span></b></h2>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Skill Levels</span></u></b></h3>
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Your entire play experience changes depending on the skill of your opponents. Since there are so many players with different skill levels and different strategies it means that your experience can change with every match you play. This is the most important factor in having human opponents versus AI opponents because it means humans can provide you some uniquely different experiences that you could never get from AI.</div>
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<b>Soul Calibur V - My Online Matches against human opponents, much more dynamic and interesting than AI.</b></div>
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Say for example you're going against one opponent in a match of Marvel vs Capcom 3. They will choose their characters and have some set strategy they might perform to try and beat you. They will also react to your moves and depending on their experience and skill, might be able to adapt to your strategy and counter what you're doing. Their set team of 3 players will each have different weaknesses and strengths that the player had decided to combine for various reasons. They will make sure their team has some sort of "synergy" that they work together. In comparison the AI in the game just randomly places different characters on the same team with no thought of strategy.</div>
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<b>Marvel vs Capcom 3: My Online matches, where other players might panic if put in a tough spot</b></div>
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Also if a player has lower experience they might not know what to do against you or even panic and do even worse. You not only have to deal with the dynamic skill level of said player, but also their emotions too.</div>
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If a player becomes angry during the course of play, depending on the player they can perform differently they then are when calm. Anger usually resorts to less focus, less careful strategy and impatience. This can lead to them performing worse and then becoming angrier as a result, which becomes a circle of doom for the player. Trying to remain calm and not change your play is one of the factors that dynamically changes your method of play.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Team Communication</u></b></span></h3>
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Team communication is a great example of how much more beneficial playing with human opponents can be, or detrimental. A good team means that players will communicate useful information to each other, keep each other calm and formulate strategies together on the fly during a match, whether its a shooter or an RTS. You can perform tactics together that you otherwise wouldn't be able to accomplish alone or with AI. Say for example you're in Call of Duty. You can order your teammates to distract an enemy down a road while you go to flank the enemy via an alternate route.</div>
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<b>Call of Duty Black Ops - Multiplayer, Team communication can be the difference between winning and losing</b></div>
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Of course other teammates can be detrimental, such as uncooperative lone wolves, suiciding players, AFK (in game but away) players, or lower level players (compared to overall skill level of all players in game).</div>
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Overall the play experience with human opponents is really the full, dynamic experience of the multiplayer portion of the game. Different strategies can be used and different skill levels are encountered which can change dynamically in a game.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>AI Opponents</u></span></b></h2>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">AI Predictability</span></u></b></h3>
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While it was stated that human players are dynamic, in comparison AI opponents are generally not as dynamic in terms of their ability to adapt to strategies. The problem with answering for AI opponents is because every game is different in terms of AI capabilities. AI programming requires a LOT of effort and many games with multiplayer have begun to eliminate bots from multiplayer modes like Halo for example.</div>
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In general AI opponents cannot adapt as well as human opponents (higher level human opponents) because there can only be so many situations and AI can be put in. It must have so many different variables it has to choose from and decisions to make depending on the situation that it makes it near impossible for an AI to perfectly react to any situation. Even if they could that would make the AI too perfect and would take away from the experience since they would just counter your every move.</div>
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<b>Tekken 6 - Against bots, which after a while can become a dull affair</b></div>
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Since AIs can adapt as well, it means they can only do so many actions. While a player playing against the AI the first time will think the AI is good, eventually the player may catch onto the AI's patterns and habits. The player can then exploit how the AI works all the time and eventually makes the AI very dull to play against as they would always do the same thing. The same could be said regarding a human opponent and their habits, however humans have the ability to adapt and change while most AI aren't as dynamic and learning algorithms for most games don't really exist in full force.</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">AIs can "Cheat"</span></u></b></h3>
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Note: Contains a bit of Engine Stuff! </div>
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AIs can also be given the ability to cheat which can range from full knowledge of positions of all players on the map, to "auto aim". This means an AI can immediately detect your position in an FPS and shoot at you with pin point accuracy. This can be seen in some "kill cams" in Call of Duty Black Ops, where an AI does not even see you then spins around immediately and shoots you right in the head. In the case of a game like Star Craft, the AI can simply just know the position of all your units and buildings and move its own units towards your units to attack.</div>
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<b>Call of Duty Black Ops - Aimbot, aiming at you perfectly with little reaction time</b></div>
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Due to the coding required to make an AI, sometimes this is very difficult to avoid especially if not given enough resources to develop a super great AI. In Black Op's case, the AI for combat training may not have been given as much thought since human opponents have always been the main draw for Call of Duty games. What they could be doing is detecting player positions around and using ray tracing to detect if a player is in potential view of the AI, and within a certain range. If they fulfill this requirements then the AI will turn to the player since they already know their position.</div>
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As for how the AI is able to spin around so quickly and shoot with pin point accuracy is due to the AI having the position of the player. The AI gets that position, finds the dot product of its position and then uses these two to get the angle to the player. The AI likely can detect the position of body mass (meaning head, chest, legs) to find the best place to shoot and then shoots from there. AI can always be able to detect the exact spot they shoot. The only reason they might miss is because the developers would add a variable that "shifts" the aim of the AI so that it might miss the center of mass.</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">AI for Teaching players</span></u></b></div>
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While I have been pointing out the flaws in AI, let's start pointing out some of it's positives. For one, AI opponents usually have set difficulties which means a new player can choose the one that fits their player level. Whereas human opponents it's not easy to tell at first glance how good they will be, AI will consistently provide a similar level of difficulty depending on the one you chose.</div>
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<b>League of Legends - They provide AI opponents with various difficulties to ease players into the game</b></div>
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AI in general are a stepping stone in fighting human opponents. AI provide a safer and less hostile environment to play in whilst learning all the game mechanics. What I mean by hostile environment is that not everyone is comfortable playing with other players online, or strangers at least. It can cause stress in some individuals especially if there are other players on the microphone yelling slander towards the player. What I also mean is that the stakes aren't as high. If you lose to AI or with other people, you generally don't feel as bad as you might against human opponents. (This is of course debatable and up for HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY STUDY) But for me I find this is the case as when I do AI, I am usually learning anyways and if my teammates lose with me, unless they are trolling then I know they are learning too.</div>
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Although I stated that frequently AIs can cheat, this is usually avoided on lower levels of difficulty because they add enough "stutter" to make the AI not use it's perfect methods of detection. This can be either via lowering their accuracy, delaying their reaction time or in games of knowing your position, just not act upon it. So despite those "cheats" the AI on lower levels won't generally be too bad for new players. Hopefully enough testing was done on the game for this.</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Advanced AI</span></u></b></h3>
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Unreal Tournament - Human like bots, even since 2000</div>
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For those companies with smart AI programmers there have been some pretty sucessful multiplayer AI bots out there. The most obvious and one of the most celebrated of these are the Unreal Tournament AI. Even since 2000 their AI has been extremely good, so good that you might mistake them for a normal player. They don't follow set patterns (at least not very obviously) and seem to be able to react to things on the fly. They are of course still following some general structure of what to do in certain situations and have a limited amount of different reactions but they are blended together so seemlessly that you wouldn't even notice at first.</div>
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This example stands out as one of the few times games have shown to demonstrate comparable AI to humans, however it still has its fair share of flaws, such as "Godlike" bots having instant aimbot much like Black Ops.</div>
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Overall a general consensus is that AI are great tools for learning but generally won't provide the same full experience that human players will. Human players will be much more dynamic and cater to a variety of different skills and strategies while AI will be much more predictable and provide a much more linear experience. Both have their merits and faults but overall there is a reason why AI bots hasn't been as much of a focus in multiplayer and it shows.</div>
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Though I was intending to cover Single Player and multiplayer differences, I will do so in a later blog post as it doesn't fully relate to the topic here.</div>
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That's all for now, this is The Penguin, signing off!</div>
IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-54680163570883561022012-10-13T22:48:00.000-04:002012-10-19T14:28:32.681-04:00Repositories - Back up ALL the files!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Repository? What is that and why is this related to game engines? Well it's useful for game engines, more specifically programming in general and has a variety of other uses too. A repository is sort of like a back up system for your code (or other files). If you have a repository for your code and you make a really terrible mistake later on, you have the ability to revert to an older version and restore code! It has a lot of other things too but let's seperate this blog post neatly into some sections first.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Backing Up</span></u></b></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Repositories have the ability to back up your files and revert to older versions. You would set up a folder of your choice as a repository and from there the program will let you do a variety of things (program of your choice, I use mercurial and tortoise HG, but more on that later). Essentially I can choose which files I would like to include to back up, so even if there are a ton of files in the folder I chose, I can select each one that I want and exclude the ones I don't want. There is even a file called .hgignore that allows you to ignore certain types of files so that they will never appear when choosing to select what to back up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From there (for mercurial) all you have to do is add a comment that says something about what you're doing so, something like "Just created this program that adds numbers" or "[ADD] Added the ability to multiply to program". And then you just click commit. This will add a new "revision" which can be reverted back to in the future. You can add new revisions whenever you want to add a new file or change a file.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's also possible to branch off as well, which means you're making another version that might be significantly different. From there you can multiple branches, each changing different things and even merge them later. So you could edit one file A, and one file B in a different revision. And later on do a merge that allows you to have both the changes. There can be conflicts though so you will have to use some provided tools to resolve those.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You're aren't limited to only backing up offline, you can also back up online. You can send your repository to online repositories in sites such as bitbucket. You will be able to store it online, make it public or private and allow certain users to see it. That means since you can upload it, you can also download it to, or rather "clone" the repository if you have permission. This allows users to clone online and transfer to others with relative ease.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The coolest feature involves the use of having multiple people all with permission to upload to the same repository. This allows multiple users to update from that repository and work on code simultaneously. This allows an entire group of programmers to collaborate much easier as there are back up versions, code easily accesible online and updated to the most recent version. Merging code is also easier than normal as it even highlights what changes there are between version too! This is a really useful tool for the GDW groups in our school.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Setting up mercurial is not too difficult. You need mercurial itself and then another program to properly use repositories.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First download mercurial</span><br />
<a href="http://mercurial.selenic.com/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://mercurial.selenic.com/</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then download Tortoise HG, this handy application allows you to interact with bitbucket.org for creating repositories, pushing to them and cloning them.</span><br />
<a href="http://tortoisehg.bitbucket.org/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://tortoisehg.bitbucket.org/</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From there all you need is a bitbucket account to be created.</span><br />
<a href="https://bitbucket.org/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">https://bitbucket.org/</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With a bitbucket account, you can create repositories online and be able to share them with anyone you want. You can choose who gets persmission and be able to push and clone from repositories.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now once you have everything installed, here are some tips on how to get started with a simple repository.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First right click a folder you would like to make as a repository. Go to Tortoise HG -> Create Repository</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After you've done that, right click on the folder again. Go to Hg Workbench.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once you're in tortoise hg, make sure you're in the correct folder. In the bottom left you will see a list of files. Select the ones you want, right click and press "Add".</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDvceYipwqNjvqx08o0uLXIhzef0DYE57YCyymc_1H4htatyDcfHonvO9Uh6fRs2tJ50IVpHZDSpf4wrm271Bv6McYtWXiYabX9wDyTEVm2_fAXVsjYR62e4NVKyaChmh7nI_fXGMSFq0/s1600/Repo04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDvceYipwqNjvqx08o0uLXIhzef0DYE57YCyymc_1H4htatyDcfHonvO9Uh6fRs2tJ50IVpHZDSpf4wrm271Bv6McYtWXiYabX9wDyTEVm2_fAXVsjYR62e4NVKyaChmh7nI_fXGMSFq0/s400/Repo04.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This will add them to the repository. All you have to do is add in a message like on the right side and click commit (Its further right, in the program).</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz1b2GmjUpqa37PdSM3X57-97ZklN2ztlYQZ4-C-jjLTXz1NDyuD9Q6T14qPO_eUTYtvGEBqJbOpNd265tPgpTbhwpXK72k7wI-s5Qgi9yqV52btzuWEYIJaXCwRuhb7XFjo4JyxUa8O4/s1600/Repo05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz1b2GmjUpqa37PdSM3X57-97ZklN2ztlYQZ4-C-jjLTXz1NDyuD9Q6T14qPO_eUTYtvGEBqJbOpNd265tPgpTbhwpXK72k7wI-s5Qgi9yqV52btzuWEYIJaXCwRuhb7XFjo4JyxUa8O4/s400/Repo05.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Go into your bitbucket account and go under repositories. Go to Create repository.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAiN6DgyEx8fRRDILRzEM3iSfEzHEYk-ingbol6afeu_JTdFmiH4HmvWBGZHH9MVChgIGLm4MMMqz2fdIVrW54K-CNXrluDVwO4j4YkoAcv8mdsL9SPkrV3cHblTJ6b4TMjRYfLHpVcQk/s1600/Repo06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAiN6DgyEx8fRRDILRzEM3iSfEzHEYk-ingbol6afeu_JTdFmiH4HmvWBGZHH9MVChgIGLm4MMMqz2fdIVrW54K-CNXrluDVwO4j4YkoAcv8mdsL9SPkrV3cHblTJ6b4TMjRYfLHpVcQk/s400/Repo06.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It will then give you a list of options. Make sure to have Repository Type : Mercurial. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you're using code, select the appropriate one under language.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfUHoHTtvkeeNIwjbwgE-meLN2MRsXWiYP7v0qtWmE1JBf7yRAd-c-vkqSoNkuu9jZq1JytGQaSJxodCruPZ1u4P6XiMgRb6ZFzTmTAozkWbE3d3az-ARBkpsrqR9vKIbspJQWPsB6vrE/s1600/Repo07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfUHoHTtvkeeNIwjbwgE-meLN2MRsXWiYP7v0qtWmE1JBf7yRAd-c-vkqSoNkuu9jZq1JytGQaSJxodCruPZ1u4P6XiMgRb6ZFzTmTAozkWbE3d3az-ARBkpsrqR9vKIbspJQWPsB6vrE/s400/Repo07.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once you're created the repository online, go back into tortoise HG. Find the recycle sign on the upper task bar. Once you do that you will go to this screen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click on the button I have highlighted, the cylinder pointing to a cylinder farther away. This will allow you to "push" to an online repository.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All you need to do from there is get the link of the repository itself and type it in. They will ask for your username and password.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCbcQSMJOkBwaiVyllSaR3tBZzQBBQH9r5HWV9jzdMVq5P6P2deQlaWQuSbVWOjv7tQlhdl_PuGmfbqyFgCRTshvkFd6UJFakmt5sfd1weJe-Trkdu2ZH0vChyN3wcW3XoDzfG1ZwmnVE/s1600/Repo08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCbcQSMJOkBwaiVyllSaR3tBZzQBBQH9r5HWV9jzdMVq5P6P2deQlaWQuSbVWOjv7tQlhdl_PuGmfbqyFgCRTshvkFd6UJFakmt5sfd1weJe-Trkdu2ZH0vChyN3wcW3XoDzfG1ZwmnVE/s320/Repo08.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once it says you've successfully pushed, to test if you did it right make a new folder. Right click it and go to Tortoise Hg-> Clone. This will make a clone of your online repository.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4U0ZLUqEUXQ0J9e0wHjfZIUxXKjQD2_lTVr4S3XjkOvtxuRfKfVEq920XOr_HrETluXdI-LwDjvyShziISfkdcYTgZevsJQO-KJu0LRQvWpHguOUhjbYyxVXw71EKmEE0RwM9JYgogxk/s1600/Repo09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4U0ZLUqEUXQ0J9e0wHjfZIUxXKjQD2_lTVr4S3XjkOvtxuRfKfVEq920XOr_HrETluXdI-LwDjvyShziISfkdcYTgZevsJQO-KJu0LRQvWpHguOUhjbYyxVXw71EKmEE0RwM9JYgogxk/s400/Repo09.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From there, put the source as the linked repository you want and then press clone. It will again ask for your username and password (This is to check if you have the rights to clone this repository).</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQwpvqABl9jysoiD_Yrff_u3xQM0mr2lM1DstM5JWE40gJiQIiPOkn5AFmmNyURpviX9_u4Nk9-KHjE0Q9YVJgY6PIHlO4STarG_S_DlzZkswNS3cl2I5WLdV1h07EB2KFklsoiKTCNS4/s1600/Repo10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQwpvqABl9jysoiD_Yrff_u3xQM0mr2lM1DstM5JWE40gJiQIiPOkn5AFmmNyURpviX9_u4Nk9-KHjE0Q9YVJgY6PIHlO4STarG_S_DlzZkswNS3cl2I5WLdV1h07EB2KFklsoiKTCNS4/s320/Repo10.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And there we have it! A cloned repository with everything we checked off, available for us to store online. Be careful about putting files too big. If you're doing programming only included files that are absolutely necessary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways I hope this was interesting to anyone who read it and that repositories might help them!</span></div>
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IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-73228063968740516872012-10-07T14:25:00.000-04:002012-10-19T14:29:30.031-04:00Concept Art Creation & Tips<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Development for this year's game has already begun with my group Scorching South Studios. We have already began preliminary game design ideas as well as concept art for the models we're going to create. Each of us had to do concept art for either a character or several props, each of them all needed orthographic views for Front, Side and Top as well as a perspective drawing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this post I'll detail my process for creating the various views as well as some tips on how to make life easier in photoshop for making concept art in this style. Here I draw one of the "pirate" characters in our game, Violet Blackwood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is a link to a <a href="http://scorchingsouthstudios.wordpress.com/year-3-pirate-game/" target="_blank">description of our PIRATE GAME</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First we begin with our outline of the shape of the body. Since this is concept art we don't necessarily have to make it like a painting. A good step for beginners and experts a like is to draw a stick figure and figure out where the joints are. This gives a basic idea of our proportions. Make sure to use references if you don't know your anatomy, there are plenty of guides out there so I won't be covering how to do anatomy. Not to mention I still have some ways to go to fully understand anatomy.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCqsURpEPKKE1HyP7R2CN7XZXa6hK8PiMzj4EPiYLqd_uw44RHMA7iq8MhFkKZZGKQhdLITZ0DeRafw7YH2l6Zolb6Dfx76YssA6iA8aJdhc1mHA0oOznZEVS2jLGVbbmj_9iKr54bv-E/s1600/Creation01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCqsURpEPKKE1HyP7R2CN7XZXa6hK8PiMzj4EPiYLqd_uw44RHMA7iq8MhFkKZZGKQhdLITZ0DeRafw7YH2l6Zolb6Dfx76YssA6iA8aJdhc1mHA0oOznZEVS2jLGVbbmj_9iKr54bv-E/s400/Creation01.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here I am simply drawing only half of the pose since this is a front pose and we can use an easy trick to make things easier and more accurate.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdtr1qQWD2e_MGjyV5M747Xq56dMqS_2f-aJST4eIprGdS5BdL9tDiUXybTIncSMMyhHjQP5dVvxVGrTOBv4RSm4zHPkB89muwHOIFKCPiBAvTArhYJj_A6SaHkSRgkuPCwAI8X2K8o1E/s1600/Creation02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdtr1qQWD2e_MGjyV5M747Xq56dMqS_2f-aJST4eIprGdS5BdL9tDiUXybTIncSMMyhHjQP5dVvxVGrTOBv4RSm4zHPkB89muwHOIFKCPiBAvTArhYJj_A6SaHkSRgkuPCwAI8X2K8o1E/s400/Creation02.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We can select the layer our pose was on and simply make a copy of it and flip it around. Voila the full pose in half the time and matching the other side.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinQeCwjAF0lvZNxlZMTFE4zKcyJd85zOUb7Jbn45ziowgFg8qL0LgglyhXKFDoFqvME7pncqYJLgwesDsX2YSYUTS6Mz7oek0XSPArH0Hexsu_LqmtlbMRhfon0RNOwtNbO2c_e5P53sc/s1600/Creation03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinQeCwjAF0lvZNxlZMTFE4zKcyJd85zOUb7Jbn45ziowgFg8qL0LgglyhXKFDoFqvME7pncqYJLgwesDsX2YSYUTS6Mz7oek0XSPArH0Hexsu_LqmtlbMRhfon0RNOwtNbO2c_e5P53sc/s400/Creation03.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From there it's all up to your design ideas for what you want the character to look like. Look up references for what you might want and look for inspiration. Figure out who your character is, how they might dress, what kind of expression they might have, etc.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOj2324aKe7p3ML9rSr6Q8X0IJRPkBasNuq1HEH2istlohXw6MxfsZrmsCWsDk6ntirP5POpUmRikMqckjaG8kLI60H6V8CWLq_bdHoZZDEcu4NSyq6-V8gUUmoXAqliiRLZgjj7wnxss/s1600/Creation04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOj2324aKe7p3ML9rSr6Q8X0IJRPkBasNuq1HEH2istlohXw6MxfsZrmsCWsDk6ntirP5POpUmRikMqckjaG8kLI60H6V8CWLq_bdHoZZDEcu4NSyq6-V8gUUmoXAqliiRLZgjj7wnxss/s400/Creation04.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since we already have a base outline of the shape of the body, we can make changes if we aren't satisfied with a certain copy. Here I have redone some features, just using the base outline I made earlier. I even have a copy of the old outline from the image above in case I want to use it or reference it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Though it's not necessary, it doesn't hurt to have a display of expressions your character might have in game for reference later on. It also gives you a general idea of the demeanor of your character and how they will act.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The same goes for poses too. They help give an idea of how your character might carry themselves. They dont need to be detailed at all and just help on how you'll want to do animations later. Here I use the stick figure idea I detailed at the beginning, using that as a framework to build the body around.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From there we have to color our character. At this point we only really need to get a basic color to represent the color palette our character might use. It helps give us a sense of the colors of the game because the characters colors should fit with the world.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiXORn9tkIhBCl35byf6CigbZyMuQz6YzodhyphenhypheneNFPJM7znG7NzC5dtgnEjIWQafchptjAuoginn4VK7mTl7WgiBu662Dp-m4DD_LxZIr1RudpQQH4C0Qw-gesGf0Fq1SodIQjU4HQ4vWI/s1600/Creation05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiXORn9tkIhBCl35byf6CigbZyMuQz6YzodhyphenhypheneNFPJM7znG7NzC5dtgnEjIWQafchptjAuoginn4VK7mTl7WgiBu662Dp-m4DD_LxZIr1RudpQQH4C0Qw-gesGf0Fq1SodIQjU4HQ4vWI/s400/Creation05.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is a neat tip I found to coloring. First off make sure to always have your colors on a different layer than the outline. That way you can color over the lines without worry. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also Instead of using the paint brush to color, use the magic wand and select the area you want to color. In this case I choose the right arm shirt portion.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgosKeSqCLc5A29byaDInSFhxuasScvBdrzvYTjLJ16bfSOF4BjyJL2d2kyJseVlw6_g2bbx8qm26utRHCPu7C-SSPeTSVcM74nQMOusg_sXvLF1FZpbeL__15Lvzlt7KR-wElZge-eVsc/s1600/Creation06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgosKeSqCLc5A29byaDInSFhxuasScvBdrzvYTjLJ16bfSOF4BjyJL2d2kyJseVlw6_g2bbx8qm26utRHCPu7C-SSPeTSVcM74nQMOusg_sXvLF1FZpbeL__15Lvzlt7KR-wElZge-eVsc/s400/Creation06.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;"> You can simply use the paint bucket tool to fill it in, but before you do that make sure to use the expand option under "Select" which makes sure the edges around your outline will be filled. This doesn't fill in every single crack but gets rid of 95% of them most of the time. From there you can use the paint brush to fill in the cracks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I then do that for all the areas in my character. You can use the same duplicate method I described in the outline for colors too for a front pose.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One important thing is to try to keep your colors in different layers. For example the shirt, skin, hair and gloves are all different layers on their own. Each layer is it's own solid color. The reason why I do this?</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSsyphvPiBtff6EBg_bCd0Yu841z8tZDPeW8kAJsOiniJUFZSJ191a2uHQA356-1Me2_swwRvQvjlZ-9Z6N_SpdSu3jkmVOVIZ8ds6-K-pzEy7R1oSD1mUvAAuQMRIHmcGyW5TqnAgOt4/s1600/Creation08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSsyphvPiBtff6EBg_bCd0Yu841z8tZDPeW8kAJsOiniJUFZSJ191a2uHQA356-1Me2_swwRvQvjlZ-9Z6N_SpdSu3jkmVOVIZ8ds6-K-pzEy7R1oSD1mUvAAuQMRIHmcGyW5TqnAgOt4/s400/Creation08.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It allows you to easily change the palette of the character on the fly. Using color overlay we can change the color on the fly to any we want. It's also possible to change colors using hue/saturation but it's not as accurate and not as easy to find the exact color you may want.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As you can see the shirt is now green instead of violet so though it might take a bit longer in adding those layers, if you plan to experiment with different palettes this technique makes it so much easier.</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Other poses and proportions</span></u></b></h2>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If you plan to model your character and use these images as templates in maya it's important to keep the right proportions relative to your character. A front pose is different than a side pose so make sure to look up those references.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5dt5oIiZFIa28C7XS2mvuLrqwTfVStQlUEKDdLY7bxiQUwoqVC-ePWU0z_NAm84DMxBTfkZrWtbWHSiJtN9WnmWNPdZPL980gL1HcjY76E6Aw9fkdJN4_i1in4tvsl8uKoa-JRS6mYvQ/s1600/Creation09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5dt5oIiZFIa28C7XS2mvuLrqwTfVStQlUEKDdLY7bxiQUwoqVC-ePWU0z_NAm84DMxBTfkZrWtbWHSiJtN9WnmWNPdZPL980gL1HcjY76E6Aw9fkdJN4_i1in4tvsl8uKoa-JRS6mYvQ/s400/Creation09.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Make sure to keep proportions in line, using guides. They are very useful and can help keep things relative to each other. So I want the shoulders to line up, or eyes? Use guidelines to make sure they line up right to each other from front pose to side pose. (Note: These guidelines are off because I moved them by accident). </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQbdxehVXaQF0GGUCca7gLULLE9z7MxDCzUzASktGMx1isYeWOt3QqPe3QWsG3hu0g85nWHiR_AEuzf4Y9kdBdC8B6m5trEz8e3I2sPxSFvAU0uqtMD2IHaZSUbRxMN5Q-67Qz4oo1_dM/s1600/Creation10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQbdxehVXaQF0GGUCca7gLULLE9z7MxDCzUzASktGMx1isYeWOt3QqPe3QWsG3hu0g85nWHiR_AEuzf4Y9kdBdC8B6m5trEz8e3I2sPxSFvAU0uqtMD2IHaZSUbRxMN5Q-67Qz4oo1_dM/s400/Creation10.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And go from detail to detail, make sure they line up because things will look different from side to front (obviously). Also it's not always necessary to draw the arms on the side view.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Shading & Highlights</u></span></b></h2>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Shading is very important to help convey for the form of a character. This can end up being the hardest part a lot of the time and there are many ways to shade. Some people prefer realistic shading or have the talent to do so but I go with solid colors. You can still convey a lot of form even with solid color.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhba0FYCB-jAq80YPrBLREHZqmJIpj6q_tn-pkok1wJCSx5a2uPNqA6TyU30AxaJhNqojuQ9DL1hFfcF8N7BQ_XtaxTHRdtWy4Rsxuyo-QOOTGJ9LXTg0W8R84xr3-XyxL9hRbLIUFPBc4/s1600/Creation11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhba0FYCB-jAq80YPrBLREHZqmJIpj6q_tn-pkok1wJCSx5a2uPNqA6TyU30AxaJhNqojuQ9DL1hFfcF8N7BQ_XtaxTHRdtWy4Rsxuyo-QOOTGJ9LXTg0W8R84xr3-XyxL9hRbLIUFPBc4/s400/Creation11.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here we have a perspective pose I drew, already coloured in (And the gun is shaded too but ignore it). For my kind of shading there are a few methods to choose from. One is using the exact color you want to be the "shaded" version, which is just a darker version of the color you're shading on. I don't use that anymore because its slow even though it's accurate.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh5tczoSt52w3xuysoPhoiLKyNTvsP0E7S2Fles-IvfzyWA_BxZkcI8h246VTOPzBH_7TbCHQUKL8IDXFH_MkffAioTQYNR-bcaVKdJnvOrDC7eDAAanBiUGFAUjgZyiCUmyhq3PNFQbw/s1600/Creation12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh5tczoSt52w3xuysoPhoiLKyNTvsP0E7S2Fles-IvfzyWA_BxZkcI8h246VTOPzBH_7TbCHQUKL8IDXFH_MkffAioTQYNR-bcaVKdJnvOrDC7eDAAanBiUGFAUjgZyiCUmyhq3PNFQbw/s400/Creation12.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I do is I use only one layer to represent all my shading and use a black paint tool to fill in the areas I want shaded. The layer that is highlighted I am did all that shading on, and it's all solid black. I lower the opacity of the entire layer to a lower number because 100% would = pure black, unless you want that for comic book look.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The problem with this method right now is that the shading looks so dull, the colors look so bland. This is the exact problem with my technique, however I found a way around it.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhphfgZpTeFoDTwpXne_KsZAGXeY9gtpV-QiB9oPYnmJq3d_8j28kCkcbeE4YZhap1LLHx-ipI28yenOSXoeEpZUruyDD1hKcqvGZ9NxmbB4gHheUam9DfU_UfHBe8XTESh8pHN29MFDj8/s1600/Creation13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhphfgZpTeFoDTwpXne_KsZAGXeY9gtpV-QiB9oPYnmJq3d_8j28kCkcbeE4YZhap1LLHx-ipI28yenOSXoeEpZUruyDD1hKcqvGZ9NxmbB4gHheUam9DfU_UfHBe8XTESh8pHN29MFDj8/s400/Creation13.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here I took the exact same shading layer and instead of using a "normal" layer, I made it an "overlay" layer. As you can see the colors look more vibrant but it's not really shaded still, it looks too light. But vibrant it is, so whats the solution since none of those work alone?</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjwfwCDj48FFhRPiC9INxT_8Z7_XibEy7NWHPYa_Slc6c7Xj8szrbdkojfqhrttiBexVFi8uw61SvDqZ-TiVJvXWXjjgXHPmJGTh0fH3VLVTpXeUhmumnfiY3zEWjf_iLjceW3uLlvIaI/s1600/Creation14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjwfwCDj48FFhRPiC9INxT_8Z7_XibEy7NWHPYa_Slc6c7Xj8szrbdkojfqhrttiBexVFi8uw61SvDqZ-TiVJvXWXjjgXHPmJGTh0fH3VLVTpXeUhmumnfiY3zEWjf_iLjceW3uLlvIaI/s400/Creation14.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Put them together. I use a combination of both my overlay at a high percent (75%) for this case, and then the normal layer at a low 30% opacity. This makes it so it combines the darkness of using a normal layer being low opacity with the vibrancy of the overlay version. Now my shading looks a lot more vibrant! I can change the percentage I want for each opacity and experiment to the look I want easily!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9alvBrSCU06hUx1bFOfb7vdaPrmZroOOtTueoUoqnoQ-6hKn1DQ62LJeBAkbbf5l78tbDLGqBvvdX8S7o7Lo4Ir1MLeLlnqGgi0ENockSIlX1pUna5o1yimiUA-BKiTnkukVP0Rqy0YE/s1600/Creation15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9alvBrSCU06hUx1bFOfb7vdaPrmZroOOtTueoUoqnoQ-6hKn1DQ62LJeBAkbbf5l78tbDLGqBvvdX8S7o7Lo4Ir1MLeLlnqGgi0ENockSIlX1pUna5o1yimiUA-BKiTnkukVP0Rqy0YE/s400/Creation15.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From there lighting is similar, instead of using black we obviously use white to represent highlights and shimmers. Once I have filled my layer in with the white I need, I duplicate it and use the type of layer I want. In my case I simply used two "overlay" layers, one at 100% and the other at only 43%. Again it's experiementation to find the amount of color/whiteness you want for the highlights.</span></div>
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Putting it all together</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well it's actually already pretty much all put together since all you need to do is enable your colors, enable your shading layer and your lighting layer. Tadah! We have our outlined, colored, shaded and lit character. These were tips for that whole aspect, actually figuring out the anatomy is a different beast entirely, maybe something I will cover in the future if I can get better at it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's pretty much the process I went through to create this concept art assignment for the game. Hoped some of these tips might have helped!</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Final Concept Art Sheet</span></b></div>
<br />IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-72069381619914493802012-10-06T15:21:00.000-04:002012-10-19T14:29:45.573-04:00Game Engines & Glitches!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although I did an old post on glitches, I would like to do another because glitches are so interesting and I can take another look at it more so from a Game Engine point of view than computer graphics one.</span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What are glitches?</span></u></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Glitches are a common issue in a lot of games and can range from being problems with graphics, to gameplay itself. A glitch is a very broad term for the game behaving in an improper fashion. A behaviour that is not the one intended by the developers. Pretty much every gamer has experienced a variety of glitches in different games, sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle. Sometimes they are a hilarious occurance and othertimes a frustrating detour to the gameplay. It can even go so far as to break the game for you, preventing you from proceeding and just causing mental suffering.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before I show some of the glitches that we gamers have encountered, let's just talk about why it happens in the first place. Games are all about code, and how code functions together. You have scripts, variables, classes, all functioning together to try and form the game for you. Each of these can rely on something else and if you did not program properly, alternating one variable, could affect another unintentionally. This can cause unwanted things to happen because your other variable was never intended to be changed at that point in the game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An example of this would be, we have variable X, which is triggered by getting to a certain point in the main quest. We just defeated an ogre overlord. Now from here, we have two paths, one is SUPPOSED to be unreachable and you will unlock something to get up there later and leads to variable Z, the end game. The other path we head towards where we are supposed to be, to enventually defeat the next boss in line, which would trigger variable Y.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, in order for us to fully trigger variable Z properly, we need to have both variable X and variable Y already triggered. If we happen to accidently reach the path leading to variable Z when we aren't supposed to, we head towards the final boss area before even defeating the boss at variable Y. We reach the area for Z, but since variable Y wasnt triggered, the boss decides to go on an endless loop of dialogue because for some reason, his dialogue only worked properly when X & Z where both triggered properly. This is an example of one type of glitch. As well the fact that you were able to reach the path leading to Z so early is a glitch too, possibly a simple physics glitch to launch you high enough on the platform to reach that path, when you were supposed to unlock a jetpack or something that would let you get up there as a result of defeating Y.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This all sounds pretty complicated but honestly there are some many ways that glitches could occur due to games having such large scope and so many pieces of code that interact and rely on each other. The example above is a more complicated one (not actually) but there could be other glitches like wonky physics calculation from running into objects strangely, disappearing people, wonky hit detection, etc. Glitches could honestly be anything, just remember what games you've played anything that didn't seem quite right is a glitch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now on to the fun stuff.</span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Gameplay Glitches</span></u></h2>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These ones can change how the game is played, these are usually known as exploits in some cases, it really depends on the game. Sometimes they become so powerful that they need to be patched, othertimes the company and community just embraces that glitch and molds it into their gameplay.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An example of a fully embraced glitch is wavedashing in Super Smash Bros Melee.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Basically a character jumps then dashings into the ground at an angle. This allows them to cover a lot of ground, and be very mobile while using attacks as they please. It gives more freedom to use any move you want as supposed to running and is much quicker too. This isn't easy to learn and became a fundamental to high level play in SSBM. The glitch was embraced.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A glitch that was patched out was the javelin glitch in Modern Warfare 2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This glitch was awful, essentially people could run around as kamikazes, holding out the javelin weapon. This weapon was only meant to take down aircraft or launch mortals from a far. However people found a way to exploit it so they could have it held out and if they died, it immediatly dropped a javelin missile under them, which had a pretty huge radius and kill anyone. So basically if you shot the javelin guy and he was somewhat close, even 10 feet, you would die. Eventually this was patched out because it was detrimental to the gameplay of MW2.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Level Breakers</span></u></b></h2>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These kinds of glitches are the ones that bypass portions of the level you shouldn't. THis can include clipping through walls to reach places you shouldn't, doing shortcuts that were never intended to be taken, and other things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gears of War 2 - Skipping portions of the campaign level</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Othertimes you can also clip through levels in multiplayer modes too. This is however much worse as it ruins the balance in the mode.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gears of War 2 - Out of the map in multiplayer</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These aren't the worst glitches because usually the multiplayer can be fixed (or its too difficult to do when actually fighting others) and it's cool to get out of the levels and see what else is around in the levels. These are usually pretty fun glitches.</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Game Breakers</span></u></b></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Okay I lied, these ones aren't fun, they are evil. These glitches are the ones you want to avoid like the plague, they corrupt save files, they prevent progress, they make your experience miserable and even make you restart sometimes. These are usually problems with triggers, kind of like my example above except even worse because it's usually not very obvious you can cause these kinds of problems or it's not even in your control.</span><br />
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<a href="http://ca.ign.com/articles/2011/12/06/game-breaking-glitch-in-zelda-skyward-sword"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://ca.ign.com/articles/2011/12/06/game-breaking-glitch-in-zelda-skyward-sword</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is an example of a fairly recent game breaking glitch for Skyward Sword. Basically you could potentially lock yourself out of the main storyline by doing certain quests. This type of glitch is most likely a "variable glitch" where doing certain quests would trigger a function that would make it so you couldn't talk properly to a main quest giver properly anymore.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.1up.com/news/skyrim-patch-now-out-ps3-36-pc-follow-soon"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.1up.com/news/skyrim-patch-now-out-ps3-36-pc-follow-soon</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For this one, the Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim was having some issues involving lag. Basically the game's save files were getting so massive so quickly that it actually lagged the game and would make it unplayable the farther you got in the game. The amount of data being saved at t he beginning compared to later grew exponentially. This was for the PS3 issue however and they later sent out a patch that would fix it and a variety of other problems. All of those other problems are in fact, other glitches/bugs!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.1up.com/news/skyrim-patch-12-issues-dragons-flying-backwards"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.1up.com/news/skyrim-patch-12-issues-dragons-flying-backwards</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yeah and then the patch also introduced new bugs, including very talented backwards flying dragons. I don't even know how they managed that but it would have to be related to them changing the orientation of the dragon or physics. Its really hard to identify how they managed to introduce an unrelated bug. This bug isn't game breaking but it happened as a result of a fix for the lag issues so... its staying here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They don't all have to be evil game-breaking, restart bugs. However they can still include bugs as simple as not rewarding you the gold you need, taking away your items, resetting your stats, and etc. These don't break the game but they alter your experience when they shouldn't.</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Non-Game Breakers</span></u></b></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes it's not so game breaking as it is strange or hilarious. These types of glitches may draw you out of the experience but sometimes they are a welcome sight because they don't actually harm the gameplay. These can honestly come in all sorts from graphical, to gameplay, to physics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fallout : New Vegas - Floating body parts</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The problem in this glitch is most likely that the game is still rendering the object but the physics for it did not get calculated so the object itself remains but it's collision mesh, physics calculations are all gone. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Battlefield 3 Beta : the Worm</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is essentially just a model not connected properly with its skeleton. The skeleton is all over the place and stretching the model to extremes. The skeleton must have been shifted from a weird calculation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Skyrim - Space Launch</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And Many More...</span></u></b></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are honestly way to many glitches to be counted. The ways they happen all depend on the engine being used and how they manipulated the code. It's pretty much impossible to tell how they managed to do it without looking at their engine but it can still be guessed. But the basic premise is, they are not supposed to be there! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But regardless of the way they happened, just pray they are fun ones and not the game breakers.</span></div>
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IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-44536670512641126312012-10-05T21:07:00.000-04:002012-10-19T14:30:36.211-04:00Linearity versus Freedom in RPGs<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The balance between control and freedom between the players and game developpers has teetered since the beginning. Developers have tried to find the right balance of leading players into their story and levels while giving them enough freedom that they aren't suffocated and can have their own unique experiences.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But its not just about freedom. it's about the type of game is being represented. Some games benefit more from a linear experience while others are better suited to give more freedom. Every game is different and requires the right balance to fit with the games mechanics. In this post we will take a look at how some games have gone linear or given freedom and how they faired.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Three layers of Freedom</u></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before we begin let's take a look at the three types of linearity/non linearity we can have.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Linear</span></u></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pretty much controlling the entire experience, forcing you onto a single path to one objective, no alternate paths or methods of completing that objective. Players learn new things in the appropriate order and developers can make sure everything goes right.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The path is very guided in Linear. The gray lines represent missions/obstacles that must be completed in order to proceed.</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Semi-Linear </span></u></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Players are sent to complete their objective but they can use alternate methods of completing it. Players are given some amount of freedom but they are still being led slowly towards the final goal (Main storyline). Developers will have less control as players can do certain actions out of order that can make the experience not the intended one designed by the developers.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtLhPIKaBkKi0A9RaWejsV-7bX0CtfkTlffwOnv4hxwuljMLaCB1eCqMvllrrj2T2tD_k-OBZkxD1XrumHH0EMohr5wZTb1_csNcL0vjr8DxgV1AplrUJpzcUtIrqR0cDGbj3eg30dSN8/s1600/Semi-Linear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtLhPIKaBkKi0A9RaWejsV-7bX0CtfkTlffwOnv4hxwuljMLaCB1eCqMvllrrj2T2tD_k-OBZkxD1XrumHH0EMohr5wZTb1_csNcL0vjr8DxgV1AplrUJpzcUtIrqR0cDGbj3eg30dSN8/s320/Semi-Linear.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are many more choices, alternate paths but to proceed any farther you must reach the end of the current level. From there you will get more paths.</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Open-World </span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The concept of an open world means you can do almost anything at any time in the most extreme circumstances. Most open world games are a balance between open world and semi linear, so that players still guide but provide a massive amount of choices to pursue. Of course developers need to guide players still and it's difficult to make sure the experience remains consistent for doing one particular mission early and another later and still make the missions relevant.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNpxjt6cy9pjkAacYvgMkffdQalO8iwnWyOJIp4KVNBEiAc_Rvm4aZKG3DODS2Z4d-6MuHn2ei0E9XkPrmnjQWS2KHKmAHQVS-suKIUxbj2bnKcbWONR7Yz1lsnfOp2vIR9kqUR1bryNM/s1600/Freedom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNpxjt6cy9pjkAacYvgMkffdQalO8iwnWyOJIp4KVNBEiAc_Rvm4aZKG3DODS2Z4d-6MuHn2ei0E9XkPrmnjQWS2KHKmAHQVS-suKIUxbj2bnKcbWONR7Yz1lsnfOp2vIR9kqUR1bryNM/s320/Freedom.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here you can roam and do whatever you wish, you do not have to follow the main storyline to do a lot of other things in the game. You can do whatever other sidequests as you please and go to the main story anytime you wish. Or there is no main storyline at all.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Final Fantasy XIII</u></span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqcs72yZaAOeR4tgU-ecCoaLdYIKFu7gPfr6C7vUcaTsQRZv9pyPXJMya6CZp0Pc_cEDPmO5zY-A9mYaLvmFee3wDjEYnwlMMsMJP7wUKCiBH5IKQiWjDMIN_UkOh9t1eVeApdoEJeQLA/s1600/final_fantasy_xiii_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqcs72yZaAOeR4tgU-ecCoaLdYIKFu7gPfr6C7vUcaTsQRZv9pyPXJMya6CZp0Pc_cEDPmO5zY-A9mYaLvmFee3wDjEYnwlMMsMJP7wUKCiBH5IKQiWjDMIN_UkOh9t1eVeApdoEJeQLA/s400/final_fantasy_xiii_logo.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Coming from a franchise known for huge worlds, Final Fantasy XIII was a step back in terms of freedom. Many consider a huge step back so much that many fans have raged at Square Enix and (boycotted) the game. This game's first half of the game is the very definition of a linear experience, however it's very focused and story driven and focuses on story development as it's core. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The basic premise of it's linearity is that you walk down a corridor, going on X location to Y location, with little to no detours for alternate paths for items or alternate ways to get to your goal. Linearity is depending on guiding a player to a location and having a very large area with multiple paths but in the end would like you to end up somewhere else is considered non-linear, or at least semi-linear. For Final Fantasy XIII though, paths were generally very straight forward and if there was a larger area to explore, there would be no secrets to be found and usually only one extra (usually useless) item to be discovered.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The game only opened up in freedom once the later half of the game hit where you were presented to the area of Gran Pulse. Here though you were lead by story eventually out of the area, it was absolutely huge and presented itself with other sidequests to be done now and many areas to go. This portion of the game was non-linear, that's for sure. In fact the premise of sidequests are considered a non-linear affair because they offer you a chance to do something else besides the main quest, a detour that gives you the freedom to choose what to do. Sidequests were lacking in FF-13, only appearing once you reached Gran Pulse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The good thing is that, in doing the linear levels early game, the story was presented to the player all the time and drove the experience. The team was able to show up the story upfront and place such importance on it and it's characters. The game also became more accessible to other players as well who were daunted by the prospects of giant areas and getting lost. However it lost a lot of freedom for players used to many sidequests and large areas of previous Final Fantasy games. The game didn't offer enough chance ofr players to do their own things, only till the later half where if players were disappointed by being guided too much, they might have stopped before then.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This issue was however rectified in the release of it's sequel Final Fantasy XIII-2 which use semi-linear level design. It guided players and told them where they needed to be and also providing plenty of sidequests, larger levels and multiple hidden areas to go to from the start, all the while advancing the story.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Dragon's Dogma</span></u></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVb2eF92Nzr6n1WQTl0ikXP2z48c9zdXy43ZvoleZgPY34ndhMNGKaJvi7buQT0Bt4ghzysUmDLCwib1v6fyPcaTl1rwJ4f8rtTI2Hk7MxFO4saJVONwQ_U6QpQ5d3Xzkf3dgkkoCosJY/s1600/Dragons-Dogma-Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVb2eF92Nzr6n1WQTl0ikXP2z48c9zdXy43ZvoleZgPY34ndhMNGKaJvi7buQT0Bt4ghzysUmDLCwib1v6fyPcaTl1rwJ4f8rtTI2Hk7MxFO4saJVONwQ_U6QpQ5d3Xzkf3dgkkoCosJY/s400/Dragons-Dogma-Logo.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was a very interesting game and is a good balance between semi linear and open world though aiming more towards semi linear. This game is a 3rd person action fantasy RPG, similar to Demon Souls but faster paced and with a team of allies. The entire world itself is accessible right after the prologue, you can head to anywhere in the map of the game and not be stopped from going there. This presents itself to a lot of freedom and you are still told where you need to be if you so choose.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The thing is, that though you can access a lot of those areas, not everything will be there. To have all the monsters appearing, you need to activate them by talking to be people to activate quests. A lot of these quests also need to be activated in a linear fashion, meaning you need to progress the story to access some of them. You can access any of the locales in the world but you can't get the full benefit of all of them until you do some requirements. Not to mention if you went to those areas too early it might also be too difficult for your character at the time until they can get stronger.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However despite that, there are plenty of sidequests still accesible during any parts of the game, which is what gives the player a lot of freedom. You can usually get several sidequests at certain portions of the game and get more once you reach farther into the story. This makes it so that you are given freedom to do other sidequests before the main quest but still guide you to do the main quest so you can unlock more to do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These two aspects of the game, the freedom of exploring the world and the sidequests is what makes this game both semi-linear and open world. It restricts you from doing anything and everything at once, but still provides you a lot of freedom and content from the get go and guides you towards the story still.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim</span></u></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX1D-OgtKEMahCycUmq-oD2vvDiZTNZ8eUQp6LNH7SOQMOsTEtGqozCIudzeXWcx8KsvQqOujKJTrJZk_4J1ar7QyB9QKvg3vvQ0y0IDwGyXG_6ks3KXQDXXw3Z0xJO0LYf81KRV2TgFg/s1600/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-logo1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX1D-OgtKEMahCycUmq-oD2vvDiZTNZ8eUQp6LNH7SOQMOsTEtGqozCIudzeXWcx8KsvQqOujKJTrJZk_4J1ar7QyB9QKvg3vvQ0y0IDwGyXG_6ks3KXQDXXw3Z0xJO0LYf81KRV2TgFg/s400/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-logo1.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is one of the most open world games I have ever played. A first person/third person action RPG with massive amounts of content, the world is open to you right from the ending of the prologue. Comparing it's level structure to Dragon's Dogma, it allows you to explore anywhere you want in the world anytime you want. Any locale on the map is available to you no matter what level you are, and no matter what your progression is in the main story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Want to just run through the main quest and beat it right away as a level 1? Go right ahead, enemies will scale in strength with you. Do you want to completely ignore the main quest and just do whatever other side quests? That's perfectly fine. The game does not force you to do it's main quest line in the slightest and you can branch off to any other quest at pretty much any point in time. More quests don't unlock later, you can just do any of them right away. Despite so much freedom in quest choice, the main storyline isn't dumbed down by lack of direction either, it is epic indeed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's what makes this game more open world then Dragon's Dogma. This game is Open World because there are pretty much no restrictions. You can begin the Dark Brotherhood questline or Mage's guild questline even if you aren't an assassin or a mage. It doesn't matter your profession, what skills you are good at, you are allowed to do anything and everything. As a result this means some questlines aren't quite as tailored towards a specific type of character as you'd hope but it means its whole world and its massive amounts of contents are open to players of any kind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is opposite of a lot of MMOs which still guide you, forcing you to only go to certain areas after doing some quests, or getting to a certain level. This is kind of ironic since MMOs are generally considered to be the most open ended world games but the Elder Scrolls series. The downside for Skyrim however is that there might not be as much challenge due to how the game scales, or too much challenge if you leveled up your character wrong. But in terms of linearity and open world, this game takes the cake as one of the most open ended games. (Also Oblivion, Fallout 3, etc)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><u>Conclusion</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So we've seen the most linear, and most open ended versions of RPGs. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Skyrim is a good example that a lot of emphasis can still be placed on story even if it's non linear. Most of the sidequests have good storylines in the game too. However all sorts of terrible glitches that ruin sidequests or even main quests do plague the game due to it's massive scope and freedom. This can lead to all sorts of troubles that can be game breaking. This may or may not be related to how open world it is, it likely is due to the amount of crazy variables going on as well as lack of focus in one specific area.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7nQ6KV-tlD-LhKtUYueOfSJOa1UPFkeZ9AYI-t7QaGY13uT5qiWX1nzRPuid-7VBEhyphenhyphenuHxDxMg-zOK-yipmBMIBG4ilvovz0X6Zj8djioNksXybAE5knlMGuu5XRizDkp4tfgni80SDg/s1600/Freedom-Sky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7nQ6KV-tlD-LhKtUYueOfSJOa1UPFkeZ9AYI-t7QaGY13uT5qiWX1nzRPuid-7VBEhyphenhyphenuHxDxMg-zOK-yipmBMIBG4ilvovz0X6Zj8djioNksXybAE5knlMGuu5XRizDkp4tfgni80SDg/s320/Freedom-Sky.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Skyrim is an extremely open world game and follows this structure very well</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile Final Fantasy XIII placed so much emphasis on story that it lacked the freedom for many basic necessities like sidequests or even having towns as hubs to buy weapons. It made the game feel a lot more disjointed and far away then previous Final Fantasy games where you had a home to stay safe. However that worked perfectly into the story, because it was all about alienation and being seperated from civilization. It helped keep the themes and tone of the story by doing this. However it doesn't excuse how linear some areas of the game where, and could have at least been more prone to more exploration for hidden items.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUimz6FmU-roHW8lKaNMqnAZdacds-Gc_Nacpb6nh-_CMvqSNMG5RK5wRxR-a7EeXzrG3ArugD5EzdO0H1gOfx1iw5oHW5lnl4qKFTyncP0lHmftKJvVvVFD2UHhS3v8BK85RHimiiTRc/s1600/Linear-FF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUimz6FmU-roHW8lKaNMqnAZdacds-Gc_Nacpb6nh-_CMvqSNMG5RK5wRxR-a7EeXzrG3ArugD5EzdO0H1gOfx1iw5oHW5lnl4qKFTyncP0lHmftKJvVvVFD2UHhS3v8BK85RHimiiTRc/s320/Linear-FF.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Final Fantasy XIII followed a very linear structure during the first half of the game</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dragon's Dogma had some great exploration and really felt like an adventure when you were roaming the lands with your party. It had very few game breaking glitches unlike Skyrim even if it wasn't as fully open world as it was. Unfortunately the story wasn't quite as strong and was a bit more disjointed, though it could be due to the writing. It's hard to say if the game's story structure was flawed due to it's open world form or just the actual story. That's not to say the main quest was terrible, but had its ups and downs.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj37MIURauUOMoD8b14nTtYtadsDhAJmrSH-o3zdC8gun57Ei6H4CcjomPR6IqP0iJgimeJ5C2_a5zXryfAImNhpwu8gDT_YxFBlqcxaq60uZbmmYaInsTNrb3o-PQZ-16AmYGSGI62sRo/s1600/Semi-Linear-DD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj37MIURauUOMoD8b14nTtYtadsDhAJmrSH-o3zdC8gun57Ei6H4CcjomPR6IqP0iJgimeJ5C2_a5zXryfAImNhpwu8gDT_YxFBlqcxaq60uZbmmYaInsTNrb3o-PQZ-16AmYGSGI62sRo/s320/Semi-Linear-DD.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dragon's Dogma follows along a mix of semi-linear and Open World</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So really, it all depends on the execution by the team. Linear and Open world can work well as long as the team is able to control and layout the level and story in a way that will draw in players and keep them entertained. Either one is perfectly viable but it depends on the type of game and the type of quests and storyline it wants to follow.</span><br />
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IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-47392275746546109522012-09-28T21:08:00.001-04:002012-10-19T14:30:53.880-04:00Ogre3D : Making a robot arm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzTxQ3ogWv-q74U0WXdYzD0jkRz0Ogh4BNsxE8q9jLfidiitbMlo_dVaPQN2RGb93n54EGWg7xtwhUswEe0iqL19NhSZsT7LeEvpjv4mKXR5i1wuuTYh7JWgfMPbXX35veeQIbYty3dzU/s1600/Ogre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzTxQ3ogWv-q74U0WXdYzD0jkRz0Ogh4BNsxE8q9jLfidiitbMlo_dVaPQN2RGb93n54EGWg7xtwhUswEe0iqL19NhSZsT7LeEvpjv4mKXR5i1wuuTYh7JWgfMPbXX35veeQIbYty3dzU/s320/Ogre.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Game Engines is a course all about programming through and through. The teachings of this course is to understand the core building blocks to create engines in an efficient manner. Besides learning how to build engines, we at the same time learn how to use and modify existing ones to suit our needs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like any course this one requires homework which is done in a different manner than most schools. You are awarded "XP" points for completing a homework question, which builds up until you reach enough that you are allowed to do the midterm, and later the final exam. I started off with a simple one so as to get points more easily and start myself off easy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All of the code we do is used by using an engine compiled and built by our professor and TA, along with the open source "Ogre3D" engine. I'll briefly go through the steps I took into understanding and creating the question I decided to do, which was to build a robot arm.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>About Nodes and Skeletons</u></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The robot arm itself is supposed to be like a skeleton, able to move its arm and fingers around such as a human would do. With Ogre3D the task isn't so bad thanks to some of its features. First of all to create a skeleton you need to have whats known as a hierarchy of nodes. Nodes essentially act as our joints and are the basic building blocks you need to make a skeleton. You want to strategically place these nodes where the joints of your body would normally be.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBVoirIXTOAC-DROJQVyE6XDGMafICMJ7pdZUJlrtN0bafkXOPChcxpNPf6MOhkvykwGvJJ2q46lKgetK7qYc4D0uFRqHVS0uHdgwy648gp1nJ_Qmfae57H2dfMbFQkdb-mg74U7jqNqY/s1600/Skeleton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBVoirIXTOAC-DROJQVyE6XDGMafICMJ7pdZUJlrtN0bafkXOPChcxpNPf6MOhkvykwGvJJ2q46lKgetK7qYc4D0uFRqHVS0uHdgwy648gp1nJ_Qmfae57H2dfMbFQkdb-mg74U7jqNqY/s320/Skeleton.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Skeleton, each dot represents a node, a joint like a bone in the body</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We begin with one node, the root node from which all other nodes will come from. This is usually the center of the body, from which stems towards arms, legs, hands, feet, etc. For the robot arm, we have our root node as the base of the arm instead of worrying about an entire skeleton. From there, we have nodes that act as "child nodes" to our root node, located at the arm. Now that we have a "parent node" to our child node, it means that whatever happens to our parent node, it will do the same to any child node it has. So if we rotate it around, we rotate everything under it too.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2c3BRzWbAbxIzlIiHm0bKBgGFHMFLxpaz9Ufz4g46RxEHxrUkBVqQ9nRlbNuUVIp7PSoH11T6Uhflt3dUOiKk6oPkYbDorhmD2IJ6rUk1GMjQpaE9oleHKVgkcCpVAIHlNWh46m2W85A/s1600/Robohand1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2c3BRzWbAbxIzlIiHm0bKBgGFHMFLxpaz9Ufz4g46RxEHxrUkBVqQ9nRlbNuUVIp7PSoH11T6Uhflt3dUOiKk6oPkYbDorhmD2IJ6rUk1GMjQpaE9oleHKVgkcCpVAIHlNWh46m2W85A/s320/Robohand1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The highest node is at 1, and works its way down to the others. It branches off at 2, where 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D are all children of 2. If 2 moves, they all do.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since we have an arm, we have a child node acting as a joint for the hand itself, then joints for the fingers. These become children of children of children, which means, if we move our parent node in the arm, it will move all of those joints. This is how we are going to make our robot arm, by making these joints and having child nodes.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ogre3D Process</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ogre3D has a lot of useful tools, one of them is a hierarchy system involving the use of nodes. It's already built in for us which makes this process for us not as difficult as it could have been (making a hierarchy system is not easy). We have our scene manager, which controls everything we have in the environment at the time. Inside the scene manager we are allowed to create nodes under it. A root node is automatically created, starting in the middle of the area.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With this in mind we can begin creating nodes which are children of the root node. We begin by making cubes, so as to give us a visual of where we are placing our nodes exactly. We also make cubes that will act as the "mesh" (Skin) of our arm as well. Each of these will require a node as well to designate their current location. How this works is that our cube is attached to a node, and instead of the cube having to be called to find its position, we can use the node its assigned to to find it.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUoQqrzNMCiuq3XYtMzLuKTUbg51CmuBb2okKOQgAMjc7zjMYQeXOXKb0yjJon68D5x1UcS-1afqkofaHRJg-CCrqLkgz2l8sivVi8gKGP_aVlAXnCL96Gn3hxauVx93lnJxaf4HqdMuU/s1600/Robohand2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUoQqrzNMCiuq3XYtMzLuKTUbg51CmuBb2okKOQgAMjc7zjMYQeXOXKb0yjJon68D5x1UcS-1afqkofaHRJg-CCrqLkgz2l8sivVi8gKGP_aVlAXnCL96Gn3hxauVx93lnJxaf4HqdMuU/s320/Robohand2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is a pre-visualisation of the hand with the node hand we used from earlier.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our goal is to place nodes where joints should normally be. We make our arm first, creating the cube for it with its own node. We then position a node directly on the tip the arm so that it can act as the joint position we need. This new joint node is then turned into a child of our ARM portion. From there, we create a new cube to represent our hand portion, making it a child of our joint between the arm and hand. From there it's simply a matter or repeating this process and finding the right position to put our joint nodes. It may sound a bit complicated but it's actually pretty simple, it's just a matter of placement.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNL0FgOek7k38TUcFUdvN_g8TwPNl6hJWfVk3iD7DQvq4ChZJjjiR2Z3RvUQtVLWTLme35RYb0BY_REoq-bV__ezZtm3hwBgqm-Dy8ueKGg9Cr-vv0CzxRwVQT7RitsM-af9UJd0mHMDc/s1600/Robohand+Real.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNL0FgOek7k38TUcFUdvN_g8TwPNl6hJWfVk3iD7DQvq4ChZJjjiR2Z3RvUQtVLWTLme35RYb0BY_REoq-bV__ezZtm3hwBgqm-Dy8ueKGg9Cr-vv0CzxRwVQT7RitsM-af9UJd0mHMDc/s320/Robohand+Real.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Final arm in the program</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From there all that was required was to ensure that the joints were in the right place and then code it so that our keyboard would be able to rotate every joint as required.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mistakes</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was still a learning process as I had gone through some mistakes while doing this program. For one, I did not have those joint nodes located between each CUBE. Instead I simply had all the cubes required, so the arm, hand, finger, etc. What I did was rotate just these cubes in place, which made the hand look like it was moving unnaturally. The reason was because the center of rotation is located in the middle of the cube, not at the edge. It would cause a strange looking hand that really had no joints.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmgkSwRJ_G2-7XQxe7Um-vVLOwdDHHJCr4Vub1MfjMHdXzTgHirZQiw1RMyi0bDke1S9nkq1qw3oWzqGtgvF8spgfuKymrLejz-YKzGaIbLloLz5uuZp7dVhNDb3HKZcU2VBdbFYH62Yg/s1600/Robohand+corrected.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmgkSwRJ_G2-7XQxe7Um-vVLOwdDHHJCr4Vub1MfjMHdXzTgHirZQiw1RMyi0bDke1S9nkq1qw3oWzqGtgvF8spgfuKymrLejz-YKzGaIbLloLz5uuZp7dVhNDb3HKZcU2VBdbFYH62Yg/s320/Robohand+corrected.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Red represents where the nodes where that I was rotating. Green is where I put new nodes in order for the arm to rotate properly.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is where I was told I needed to put more nodes. What this really translated to was that I needed to put actual joints in between the cubes representing the different parts of the arm. These are important because now instead the center of rotation would be located right between the arm and hand part, exactly where it needed to be to make a natural looking rotation. Once I realized this it was just a matter of knowing where to put the joint.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Conclusion</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So here we have it, my working robot arm, now with actual joints instead of fake ones and rotating properly. I won't put all my code up since it's just a good learning experience for others to do and it's honestly not that hard once you know what to do.</span>IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-22068832025376743942012-09-26T15:53:00.002-04:002012-09-26T15:53:42.303-04:00Portal 2 - Ways to design a level<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Portal 2 is a rather simple game with pretty basic mechanics
but the concept of having two portals to play with via portal gun opens itself
to limitless numbers of puzzles. With Portal 2, Valve later released a level
editor for the community to share. The level editor itself is very easy to use
and with basic knowledge of Portal 2 of even just experimenting with the level
allows you to create all sorts of puzzles. For Game Design our goal was to
create a Portal 2 level with our group with some requirements.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m not going to talk about what I did to fulfill
requirements for the assignment, instead I'm going to go through what I learned in designing a level.
Essentially what I should do and what I should not do for a puzzle. These dos
and don’ts are up for debate but I feel these are things that really help in level
design.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9EZorkxx1lAkkpdswLAMosw1VrfmswzpzCMdPjIfrSFJPJULQ4E1Mo7HCMoPAkkOFbN02T1oaKQcPQK5tbmNKXga6v_3vnhBdUwolJvWFVwrQCJWVpeGky4vCWjlG78R4CmeGsgqHcpI/s1600/Portal+level04.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9EZorkxx1lAkkpdswLAMosw1VrfmswzpzCMdPjIfrSFJPJULQ4E1Mo7HCMoPAkkOFbN02T1oaKQcPQK5tbmNKXga6v_3vnhBdUwolJvWFVwrQCJWVpeGky4vCWjlG78R4CmeGsgqHcpI/s400/Portal+level04.png" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My designed level (With testing and additional content from teammates)</span></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NOTE TO THOSE MARKING THIS ASSIGNMENT : ONLY READ THIS BLOG POST AFTER PLAYING THE LEVEL</span></u></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>What to do!</u><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">_____________________________________________</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Make it obvious what
a button does</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When triggering a button, you need to make sure that you see
it affects the environment around you. This means if you press a button, a cube
should drop down for you to use right in front of you or near you. It shouldn’t
be all the way across the map where you can’t see or hear it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj5ELDzqeBX2fKtSkosAh3zzpIAE1TpY_THM1-1aUQFxjWMLmaUW2rRsTtwSke2qiDdmfesZiIsgfAOOkmqNpRRgRJtz6zR1JwRnkRRIcWYKeOR0k0EYKynS65KH1H_n2Y7TYJEewZDGk/s1600/Portal+Level+07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj5ELDzqeBX2fKtSkosAh3zzpIAE1TpY_THM1-1aUQFxjWMLmaUW2rRsTtwSke2qiDdmfesZiIsgfAOOkmqNpRRgRJtz6zR1JwRnkRRIcWYKeOR0k0EYKynS65KH1H_n2Y7TYJEewZDGk/s320/Portal+Level+07.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Laser gate on</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The reason we do this is because that way it won’t confuse
the player needlessly. Have a button be in viewing distance of what the result
is going to do, or at least keep it close enough so that players will see the
result without having to search too much. Having an obvious audio queue can
also work but isn’t as effective. We need to provide the player some feedback
on their actions otherwise it’s needlessly harder. If we want to make a puzzle
harder, it should be because they need to think about how to solve a puzzle,
not more difficult because they need to find out what your button did and where
it dropped the cube.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ-Mpj3-t_8AZoTckf2NZlCojvMDYfn7qCOOXkvhe9fJun8zvFfjHpN-OapUmKletcnod4Ple-SUqAm9krkUmeNSB3v0jRsPsrDPeBqskv-6lOWX-7QWl2Wc1T6pVqv_L32PqjGhc4DLQ/s1600/Portal+Level+07v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ-Mpj3-t_8AZoTckf2NZlCojvMDYfn7qCOOXkvhe9fJun8zvFfjHpN-OapUmKletcnod4Ple-SUqAm9krkUmeNSB3v0jRsPsrDPeBqskv-6lOWX-7QWl2Wc1T6pVqv_L32PqjGhc4DLQ/s320/Portal+Level+07v2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Laser gate off. The button is in plain site of the laser field so it's easy to tell what the button did.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my level, I’ve positioned all my buttons in such a way as
if you look close to them, you will see the result immediately or soon enough.
For example, a button will drop the cube right next to you, or will raise a
bridge right in front of you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Lead a path for the
player</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In other words, don’t make a giant room that doesn’t look
like it has any particular order or requires a lot of back tracking. The reason
we would want to lead the player is because we want them to get to our puzzles,
this isn’t an adventure game. Now there is a limit as to how much we should lead
the player, don’t point out everything for them, but point enough out for them
to get somewhat of an idea of where to go. Don’t have three paths and in no
sequential order scattered about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The purpose for this game is for players to solve puzzles,
not wander around like an adventure game. Though designers could attempt making
a level like this, the main draw to playing portal is puzzles. Any moving
around without doing any actual puzzle solving could be considered boring. Walking
around to get to the end of the hall just isn’t fun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhboXPN9VHXcChByKD6iKe1t3itUOficfPgy8Q0b8ZgkTnsnmQprptfumZdBYNL3-nCOcJbSlmQSJOjRgCUJ6z-hbziQzrN8h02D1OgT4OSe19h3gb0LzM0onb3GVjzrELDKbLKpx2ZULU/s1600/Portal+level02.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhboXPN9VHXcChByKD6iKe1t3itUOficfPgy8Q0b8ZgkTnsnmQprptfumZdBYNL3-nCOcJbSlmQSJOjRgCUJ6z-hbziQzrN8h02D1OgT4OSe19h3gb0LzM0onb3GVjzrELDKbLKpx2ZULU/s320/Portal+level02.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The goal is in sight, all you need to do is figure out how to disable the threats in your way</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For my level I lit up the path (This was actually a
requirement for our levels) but I also made it very linear, you can actually
see your final destination right away. I made it obvious where you need to be,
you just have to figure out how to get past the obstacles in your way. Some key
areas are also highlighted by lights though you still have to figure out how to
solve the puzzle once you get there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Allow some mistakes</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The player is going to make mistakes and we shouldn’t always
punish them too terribly with them. One bad thing to do is make it so if
players pass a certain point, but forget something they become permanently
stuck and have to restart the level. This is especially terrible if there isn’t
even much of a clue that continuing without a key object will end up this. I
made a jump in one level to test and found out I became stuck at the bottom
because I couldn’t portal to anywhere else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcI-ho6BJRm5CiaydM-QHKLuz8EQhJR5cNuP3D3cw1qimd49nyraNve5GyXbZnW2W4qEA9iduEMz5W6DObvMjKXsEuO3Y8q7YqZA7Q4Zk9FNFKdRZhxyIG1bbOa9PodI8krxW7_Cy9h5U/s1600/Portal+Level+11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcI-ho6BJRm5CiaydM-QHKLuz8EQhJR5cNuP3D3cw1qimd49nyraNve5GyXbZnW2W4qEA9iduEMz5W6DObvMjKXsEuO3Y8q7YqZA7Q4Zk9FNFKdRZhxyIG1bbOa9PodI8krxW7_Cy9h5U/s320/Portal+Level+11.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For my level, it is possible to return all the way to the beginning if you dropped a cube</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One debatable thing is the use of precision mistakes. For
example I played a level where I had to use a reflection cube to aim a laser to
a laser catcher to cross a bridge. If at any time the laser slipped off, the
bridge would fall under me. Now this is difficult to cross and it’s a neat idea
but for some players it can be frustrating because they know exactly what to do
but one small slip up leads to restarting a level. This can lead to even more
frustration if this is right at the end of a level meaning you have to do
everything all over again because of that. If I were to use this in a level, I
would just force them to restart the bridge, not restart the level. Either that
or have a checkpoint right at that spot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the topic of checkpoints, one thing to do for a level is
that if you plan to have a very dangerous area where players will die, try to
keep it closer to the beginning rather than the end. This way if they make the
mistake of dying, they will be able to retry as soon as possible rather than
having to go through the same beginning puzzles over and over. Eventually that
just becomes a chore because you already know how to solve everything at the
beginning and have to keep doing it over and over.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7zSLPU4UNtjWSa5Aeccs5Bv6iitpUtkIRkbhH2coYwPIbniswnLJA0RoJ_ATscVVU2trO6JjWuqNjrw7jXr2JBJHAMJcukVZ6mwbAZ6XMuOi0enCcGdvsU75SX9FuNjKbO82OcIAFfm0/s1600/Portal+Level+12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7zSLPU4UNtjWSa5Aeccs5Bv6iitpUtkIRkbhH2coYwPIbniswnLJA0RoJ_ATscVVU2trO6JjWuqNjrw7jXr2JBJHAMJcukVZ6mwbAZ6XMuOi0enCcGdvsU75SX9FuNjKbO82OcIAFfm0/s320/Portal+Level+12.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Precision mistakes are minimal as the player is given the whole length of the level to try aiming this laser</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How I used this in my level, you ride across a tractor beam
throughout the level, spotting obstacles in the distance. You can also see
these obstacles before riding the tractor beam too. I ensured that players
could return to the beginning of the level by raising a bridge if they forgot
anything important. To solve my puzzle, I also give you ample time and
alternative ways to get to the finish so as to avoid players blaming precision
mistakes. At the end of the level, you have to destroy some turrets with a
laser beam and using a reflection cube. The farther back you start on the
tractor beam the more time you have to target the turrets in your path. There
is also a fairly wide window you have to destroy the turrets even if you start
as far forward as possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Don’t have “Troll”
buttons<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Try not to have buttons that will screw
over the player, especially into death. Don’t have a button that immediately
kills a player for pressing it, unless it’s obvious that’s what the result will
be. Don’t have buttons that randomly cause effects like that or put you at the
beginning of a level unless you make it clear pressing it will have that
effect. It will only serve to frustrate players and make the experience worse.<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjATHJ9pJqteluS5T6N3Z_srxcHNVOkojN8PTMe2CyrmP5kKWNHH25ELW09x6NXlurM27ZO1vxvVjjcu0bW-_fBS9OMQw9d0ptL0IDAApNiqmUF4M-qo0qpxT2CCF4i7L2I-h0RsPt9xew/s1600/Portal+Level+08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjATHJ9pJqteluS5T6N3Z_srxcHNVOkojN8PTMe2CyrmP5kKWNHH25ELW09x6NXlurM27ZO1vxvVjjcu0bW-_fBS9OMQw9d0ptL0IDAApNiqmUF4M-qo0qpxT2CCF4i7L2I-h0RsPt9xew/s320/Portal+Level+08.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These two button (left) in my level used to be unhelpful. This has been rectified.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For my own level, I did in fact have a “troll” button, where
activating it would not really help you. It wouldn’t kill you or set you back,
but it wasn’t helpful either. Players in general will want to press the buttons
and have them do an effect of some sort that will help. My buttons simply disabled
the laser that would allow you to kill the turrets blocking you from the end of
the level. Now I have it so pressing the buttons will instead activate the
laser so that you can proceed. I made the button actually give some benefit for
the player.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>__________________________________</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Get rid of anything
useless<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This one should be fairly obvious and it’s to make sure not
to have any areas that look like they mean something, but they don’t actually
do anything. So don’t have a bunch of buttons in an area but pressing them
actually does nothing. It will only confuse the player even more, similar to
the problem I mentioned earlier of having buttons who’s effects are obvious.
Don’t have corridors that lead to nowhere either, they should be either a means
to complete a puzzle or a way to get to another puzzle. This is similar to the
troll button issue except these serve to waste time rather than frustrate the
player.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq5v8Yo5ptNjzy4ukeIrV2PqcwZIhKrpnjYloVc2ep1FM87B6eNms6tc3t0KbYasQswrmhZTWz5m7X_RwFGH0NAwjJOGdswENArJ6rmszY1ZjU9I6IopyU3u6keEcN14iiYGCHk9YZ9Dk/s1600/Portal+Level+07v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq5v8Yo5ptNjzy4ukeIrV2PqcwZIhKrpnjYloVc2ep1FM87B6eNms6tc3t0KbYasQswrmhZTWz5m7X_RwFGH0NAwjJOGdswENArJ6rmszY1ZjU9I6IopyU3u6keEcN14iiYGCHk9YZ9Dk/s320/Portal+Level+07v2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The button behind this cube is given use to flip the turret in the distance. It may be a one time use, but it always benefits the player.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For my level, I got rid of any extra areas that weren’t
needed. I had a small corridor that had a reflection cube but I got rid of the
cube because I had already provided a reflection cube at the beginning of the
level. Hence I made sure to get rid of the corridor later because it wouldn’t
make the puzzle any better. I also made sure every one of my buttons did
something meaningful. This is also part of the reason I changed the buttons
that disabled the laser (noted in the trolling section), because they didn’t
actually help you at all. You could get by without even touching them, which
confuses a player even more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Difficulty vs.
Accesibility</u></span></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6I4apO_XI9Dl8qCxEFOSdVlw1aSheUurFiFkhRFkxhkgGGxrV_cc5jGyMj0afzF4ihnsX5EoME9b3Tg8TgGHkMI14HmCAwoEIBpxfYuMDr_tcaoNi77MppKZWXzGt1C_I6p00sCQoPy0/s1600/Portal+Level+13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6I4apO_XI9Dl8qCxEFOSdVlw1aSheUurFiFkhRFkxhkgGGxrV_cc5jGyMj0afzF4ihnsX5EoME9b3Tg8TgGHkMI14HmCAwoEIBpxfYuMDr_tcaoNi77MppKZWXzGt1C_I6p00sCQoPy0/s400/Portal+Level+13.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Level beaten!</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everything I have said is relating to making everything
easier to understand for players. It is my belief that it’s a very good
practice. There is a reason that Portal & Portal 2 did so well in their
campaigns despite them being brief. It’s because they were all very accessible,
pretty much anyone could go through the game and enjoy it. They pretty much
adhered to all the “What to do”s that I mentioned. Everything was clear and
straight forward, the difficulty was in figuring out the puzzle, with no other
issues in the way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Think about it, if you suddenly had useless buttons, buttons
that changed things in the level far away, way out of your sight then that’s
just going to confuse and frustrate you right? That’s not confusion by logic,
it’s just confusion to frustrate, it does not benefit the player experience in
anyway. Sure it can promote observation but the key to making levels that will
appeal to players is to make it accessible and it’s easily possible to keep
observation too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That’s the point of good level design to draw in players, to
make them want to play even if it’s difficult. You want to make players like
your levels and play through the game. If word gets out your game is broken,
punishes players and is confusing in its level design, people don’t want to
play. So making accessible, but difficult levels is really the best way to go.
It’s simply good level design.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-13721878821457462692012-09-23T00:30:00.000-04:002012-09-23T00:30:54.104-04:00Goals are the Spice for Games<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Multiple game types are no strangers to games. Video games have been implementing multiple different modes for you to choose from since the very beginning. These can range from coop, to multiplayer and such but the most drastic thing to change are the goals to winning the game. The mechanics of the game remain intact (such as going from Campaign to Multiplayer) but the goals to winning have changed. No longer do you focus on getting to the end of the level and continuing the story. In multiplayer your goal can vary but the most common one is get the most kills, either solo or with your team.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Within the subset of multiplayer lies a vast array of different modes though, each with different goals. The same can be said for some singleplayer modes as well. The point is that changing the goal can affect how you play the game itself. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my Game Design class we did an activity for the purpose of looking at different goals in a single game. We played a coin tossing game essentially, with everyone having different goals. It was easy to see some people playing much differently, such as one person flicking coins to try and knock off others the whole time, while others were simply trying to flip coins to land on another coin to gain points. After seeing this activity I could really see how much goals can vary the gameplay.</span></div>
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<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For this post I'll take a look at various games and the other modes with different goals they offer and see how they change the experience. Let's first take a look at Left 4 Dead 2 and how a goal change in the game leads to different level design.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Left 4 Dead 2</u></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHBuceRhgRJitJD9_N9E6IrprkOgwFFbFFMW3JkzqA5NM_X6jTBdGi_DX7SZANR0WeSKlxScmES_mB8sdLdELyZ01ZJmDiiryxeJ4kGH-RsEDzK-QJPBa-YDa8RT3UVGdeGOOI7e3yTE/s1600/left4dead2logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHBuceRhgRJitJD9_N9E6IrprkOgwFFbFFMW3JkzqA5NM_X6jTBdGi_DX7SZANR0WeSKlxScmES_mB8sdLdELyZ01ZJmDiiryxeJ4kGH-RsEDzK-QJPBa-YDa8RT3UVGdeGOOI7e3yTE/s400/left4dead2logo.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Campaign mode vs Survival Mode</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Left 4 Dead 2 is a survival horror shooter with cooperative gameplay in every mode it has. There is always a team you are with, you are never alone. If you decide to run alone you will be easily picked off by the infected. In the main campaign it has you and 3 other players trying to reach the end of the level. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the campaign, you move with your team from point A to point B, hoping to make it to the next checkpoint before dying. Simple enough, how pretty much every other campaign works in a shooter.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBqy5P5j0LA13WcgLIA5VGRwbx2mAvP_VvaZPXa_SOumpTnGhv9BUKBnUUnfnVqKjy6-C_8kR2lHJP6E44seUSCB8X_2852RrFLOxdg38yOiWfOY_sVU6mPG_sQnvBNm9ge9yQzUuk6s4/s1600/L4D+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBqy5P5j0LA13WcgLIA5VGRwbx2mAvP_VvaZPXa_SOumpTnGhv9BUKBnUUnfnVqKjy6-C_8kR2lHJP6E44seUSCB8X_2852RrFLOxdg38yOiWfOY_sVU6mPG_sQnvBNm9ge9yQzUuk6s4/s320/L4D+2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Campaign mode: Beginning of the first level 'Crash'</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However in the alternate mode survival, your goal is now to stay alive as long as you can with your team. Your goal is no longer to move from location to location but to simply hole up somewhere and give it your best shot to stay alive. There is no winning in this mode, there is simply the satisfaction of getting the longest time alive in a level.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You still have access to the same items as you would in campaign but in terms of level design there are several changes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In survival you are no longer forced to wander around or being forced to go to certain areas to proceed. You can stay in the same spot for as long as you want, but the catch is that the areas you can go are now limited. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Survival mode takes place in much smaller areas and wandering off is not a wise. Another difference is that the amount of enemies is increased so surviving can actually become a daunting task.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You have unlimited supplies for ammo located in an unsafe spot (Depends on the map but typically its not easy to get back to supplies). Health packs are limited however</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Special infected appear more frequently, especially Tanks.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfIBFax5dQ_f16OrgR1bw9Fomp3aK6PQNnsgm9el4L-LXBX6490DVzwXt7G2G8wlFOtMPpGC34D-1uIQw-XTvwUem2U0pLxSv1pHDU_Jp5aSweg4JPfSdBOca_qOLP2wsCi1DlbkpThCU/s1600/L4D+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfIBFax5dQ_f16OrgR1bw9Fomp3aK6PQNnsgm9el4L-LXBX6490DVzwXt7G2G8wlFOtMPpGC34D-1uIQw-XTvwUem2U0pLxSv1pHDU_Jp5aSweg4JPfSdBOca_qOLP2wsCi1DlbkpThCU/s320/L4D+1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Survival Mode - There is now a timer to show how long you've been surviving</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With Survival mode, things have to be changed in terms of level design in order for the mode to work properly. Simply putting you in a campaign level and telling you to survive though it does change the goal won't actually make it fun. By changing a bit of the level design and rules slightly to fit with the now changed goal, it allows the mode to be significantly different to play then the campaign counterpart. Otherwise it would just be campaign mode with a slightly different shell which wouldn't be different, wouldn't give variety and wouldn't help the game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By making a game mode with a different goal, it forced some aspects of the game's level design to change as a result to accomadate the goal. The experience is different and gives another way to play the game just because of a decision to change the goal of the game.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let's take a look at another popular shooter with several different game modes.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Call of Duty</u></span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMVQt3Lqy85jrD8sFF4DPPUi4NSYhuDfaNSL940gyF6578e8Z4LmkJbWouGyYaydXkh76JVIYKzgDSHdfOvUeKsHFmY3jT2iayilm2taml6NwU_hBtsJd41OocVLEfDz53PuORe0VuBEQ/s1600/mw3logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMVQt3Lqy85jrD8sFF4DPPUi4NSYhuDfaNSL940gyF6578e8Z4LmkJbWouGyYaydXkh76JVIYKzgDSHdfOvUeKsHFmY3jT2iayilm2taml6NwU_hBtsJd41OocVLEfDz53PuORe0VuBEQ/s400/mw3logo.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Call of Duty franchise has had a wide array of game types (so have many other shooters) since the very beginning. Here I am going to outline three distinct game modes with very different goals from each other and methods of victory. Let's compare these modes which are <b>Team Deathmatch, Domination and Search & Destroy.</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Multiplayer Modes</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Team Deathmatch is the typical get as many kills for your team as you can. The first team to a certain number of kill is the winner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Domination's goal is to hold 3 areas at strategic locations. These areas are always located in the same spot and once captured will give points to your team for every second they are under your control. They can be recaptured by enemy players. The team to get to the score limit first wins.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Search and Destroy is different than the other 2. For one you only have one life for a round and there are multiple rounds in a match. Teams alternate between defending and attacking. Attackers need to place a bomb and have it detonate, or kill the entire enemy team to win. Defenders need to run out the time limit (rounds are only a few minutes), defuse the enemy bomb if they planted it or kill the entire enemy team.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Comparing the Modes</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So now let's compare them all shall we. Team Deathmatch has the most simple and typical goal, run around and kill as many people as you can. The most efficient method to achieving victory is to make sure you die less than you kill. This is typically considered the most "mindless" of the mode since it's not always necessary to think up advanced tactics to get a certain position.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8GPEiStcjy3rTbEviK1X5gaY8lsxdUQLc94j5aFKFo0IuN-F6JIH4JMr0DOatF1NGcaJPjCWmMmhaVDFKxAt8O_LENhZv_HE8Gb6gRtRqkB_5J2Lhr3PxBx7djJ8JxCwRhBGTGb1CEnk/s1600/MW2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8GPEiStcjy3rTbEviK1X5gaY8lsxdUQLc94j5aFKFo0IuN-F6JIH4JMr0DOatF1NGcaJPjCWmMmhaVDFKxAt8O_LENhZv_HE8Gb6gRtRqkB_5J2Lhr3PxBx7djJ8JxCwRhBGTGb1CEnk/s320/MW2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Team Deathmatch - You can see the score required to win in the bottom left</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Domination requires more thinking because you need to have people cover the areas you have captured as well as send in people to capture other points. Its a constant balance of keeping what you have and taking from the enemy. Since the goal is now different then Team Deathmatch, it becomes unadvisable to run around the edges of the map, far away from capture areas because that won't help to attain victory for your team.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK_JGTrqydCni-Vy1bymYrBdfDF0rZLGvjr9m3NlWu4HDLFHVwD8W1BKUeQtW5YRjNNUJej9Gxk2A2iX1I1C7CTwTk0nVOnhCpBMhzd4rYBkJgMfeDlv_FZkbMZx8z5dzD4zOOEr08yXA/s1600/mw3dom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK_JGTrqydCni-Vy1bymYrBdfDF0rZLGvjr9m3NlWu4HDLFHVwD8W1BKUeQtW5YRjNNUJej9Gxk2A2iX1I1C7CTwTk0nVOnhCpBMhzd4rYBkJgMfeDlv_FZkbMZx8z5dzD4zOOEr08yXA/s320/mw3dom.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Domination - Three locations A, B and C to capture and defend</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Search and Destroy becomes far more challenging with a lot of varied goals all around in the mode. In order for these goals to become available (such as taking out the entire enemy team) some changes needed to be made. For taking out the enemy team, the rule of unlimited lives had to be changed to a single life to accommodate the rule. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvI9DBfiVTMNvHsdknNjpe3EJ4-kDGr-ozd5qQ5v0gbLcS_3YDdqfAmDya3IRnyX3_p1qibcAmoLzpYu036oCOt6PsEkx14bJyow8Rk0tuYpTxll5QQ0EkwnRSvUQVWwyFh-nzCfT0s5I/s1600/Mw3_briefcase.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvI9DBfiVTMNvHsdknNjpe3EJ4-kDGr-ozd5qQ5v0gbLcS_3YDdqfAmDya3IRnyX3_p1qibcAmoLzpYu036oCOt6PsEkx14bJyow8Rk0tuYpTxll5QQ0EkwnRSvUQVWwyFh-nzCfT0s5I/s320/Mw3_briefcase.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Search & Destroy - Attacking team planting the bomb</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As can be seen, changing the goal to winning the matches presents themselves to very different gameplay styles. Some require less tactics to achieve the win, while others work a lot better with coordination and are much more punishing. Since some levels have objectives placed in certain areas, different levels can become signifcantly different to play. Such as for domination, which will differ much more in tactics due to different locations of capture points in maps then it would for Team Deathmatch.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It can also be seen that for some goals they need to modify some core rules of the game in order to function properly for modes like Search and Destroy. Unlimited respawns would not work in a mode like Search & Destroy, though it could turn into a different game mode still involving the use of planting bombs. Those modes come in the form of demolition and sabotage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now that we've seen how goals can change how everyone has to coordinate together, let's take a look at another game which allows multiple goals to achieve victory.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Age of Empires II</u></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFc18yFNYQoMNqB1i2b3BZd5qyG1jRmP_WXdsNKxyLNhKsL3h61zMx9jm8yOdIt6LIPT3iqT4Z5awgUHOG3GdaNIBniQrCeEszG8SGY9ztn-L8vJ1R91RrU7CSd_0XyKIXN4bfjAjJ5TE/s1600/1AgeOfEmpiresIITheAgeOfKings-Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFc18yFNYQoMNqB1i2b3BZd5qyG1jRmP_WXdsNKxyLNhKsL3h61zMx9jm8yOdIt6LIPT3iqT4Z5awgUHOG3GdaNIBniQrCeEszG8SGY9ztn-L8vJ1R91RrU7CSd_0XyKIXN4bfjAjJ5TE/s320/1AgeOfEmpiresIITheAgeOfKings-Logo.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Age of Empires II, as an RTS you have the option of selecting from a variety of different victory conditions (goals). There is a selection of standard victory as well as alternative victory conditions. You can win any standard game with any of the following Standard Victory conditions.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Standard Victory</span></b></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Conquest : Defeat all opponents. To defeat an opponent destroy all their units and buildings.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wonder Victory: Build a wonder (Takes a ton of resources to make) first and keep it for a set amount of time to win.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Relic Victory: Control all relics on the map. These can be taken into and stored into monasteries by monks. Keep them all for a set amount of time to win.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can complete any of these during the course of a standard match which means you have three potential ways to achieve victory. You can also opt to force everyone to only be able to use one type of victory when creating a game. So you can make a conquest only victory game, or Wonder only, etc.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Alternative Victory</span></b></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Timed Victory: Have the highest score at the end of a certain time, or defeat opponents before then.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Score victory: Reach a certain score first. Score is determined by resources gathered, buildings and units built, map exploration, etc.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For these alternative goals, they use a system to calculate score based on the value of your units, buildings, research, resources, units killed and map exploration.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">How these Victories make the game different</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3qthJadv9wR6ib1_r7A13nfSEcD_4ZIvZohYg-QQgOblt-_P6Q6aF1HWSpRDxOrJTIlaqExN744FFcY7YJrcw2F6VW2HEZu1V6GLzyfdUeKwP3PNAm5CoVSjjJrQWhPSk2JWqscnG_4/s1600/49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3qthJadv9wR6ib1_r7A13nfSEcD_4ZIvZohYg-QQgOblt-_P6Q6aF1HWSpRDxOrJTIlaqExN744FFcY7YJrcw2F6VW2HEZu1V6GLzyfdUeKwP3PNAm5CoVSjjJrQWhPSk2JWqscnG_4/s320/49.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Wonder- This is one way to achieve victory in a normal match</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's interesting in a standard game where you can try to opt for any one of the three standard victory conditions. It means you players can decide a tactic that best fits their strengths and their position in the map. They could try defensive via using a Wonder, or explorer by looking for all the relics, or even opt for offensive by going all out to try and destroy everyone. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This system really appeals to players of all sorts of styles because a defensive player who likes to make a really strong castle would be at a disadvantage in a conquest only mode. They can use their wonder as a chance to obtain victory by staying in their base. And likewise it gives offensive players the chance to go and stop that Wonder camper by destroying everything in their base. Its a very flexible system that shows how giving multiple goals in a single match can cater to players. This also shows how having different goals will promote different styles of play.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvtSNFmzKbLAEZx3qx_zcJKJSJODEbP8iQeWOysConZChbhD1gdjCwTdNw_CcReGlMghOXiEiUNN2KBzpbfqQ3kEU6N6wS18VOLGI7WOge5jANp_XF8gp7M3pGIkEYAlnzHKlXS9l6O0w/s1600/Church_And_Farms.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvtSNFmzKbLAEZx3qx_zcJKJSJODEbP8iQeWOysConZChbhD1gdjCwTdNw_CcReGlMghOXiEiUNN2KBzpbfqQ3kEU6N6wS18VOLGI7WOge5jANp_XF8gp7M3pGIkEYAlnzHKlXS9l6O0w/s320/Church_And_Farms.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monastery - This can be used to store relics located around the map and is another way to achieve victory</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The score system also lends itself to a slightly different style of play. You would still want to be using winning strategies to outsmart the other player but if things draw to a standstill or go to long, there is a chance you can still win by alternative means like exploring the map while one player stays inside their base. Having this different win condition can change your tactics on the fly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So as can be seen, even with different goals, the base mechanics of the game didn't have to change. The resource collection rate hasn't changed or anything like that, or your unit creation limit isn't changed. The goals are the only thing that will differ which by themselves will make you play the game differently. And that's the point of goals, to change how you play a game and promote variety and refreshing strategies.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>How Goals change the game</u></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Goals can vary in the way they influence the game. As can be seen in COD's Search and Destroy mode, it sometimes require some core rule changes (no respawning) in order to work properly. In Age of Empires II's case, they didn't even require core rule changes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether they change the core rules or not they promote changing the way you play. It makes you think different, aim for things that you wouldn't do in a different mode. The purpose behind multiple goals and game modes is variety, to cater to different playstyles and give different experiences to players. Sometimes you make the goal the same for everyone, othertimes you allow everyone to win in different ways. The choice in doing that lends itself to allow the game system to used to it's full potential and provide a larger amount of ways for players to enjoy themselves. Not everyone enjoys the same game type, so multiple modes is a great way for players to choose how they want to play and match up with others that want to do that mode as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is how I've seen different goals affect the games I play!</span></div>
IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-47473291955309198982012-09-19T15:56:00.001-04:002012-09-19T15:56:22.808-04:00Basket-Ball - Game Design Class Activity Breakdown<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Game Design and Production has never shied away from doing
class participation though always to various extremes. Today was the most
involving and interesting class activity in a while. Usually class activities
are with small groups of around 5 or so, but this time it involved splitting
the entire class into 2 very large groups. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The objective was for each group to make a game within
around 25 minutes and had the following guidelines…</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You have 1 ball</span></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Objective: Get the ball into a basket</span></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Use whatever you want in the room to help with
the rules of the game</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To set some perspective on the
environment we were in, it was a large room, with about 8 rows of long desks
extending across the room. Here is a picture to show the room we were in and
how we could use.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwtDIJZhcB_S9ir36uKz7oBq__AhHyVLhe38T6RPwxyAlOQO5Tz38WI7Dy5Fc9oWZuJ9q4u77r_XP70mRyEntVQFuOPSfvSrUKzgcWYM9m8J7A3TlqSavLHbgYx0c486Iu9jWZ3fPNRzU/s1600/IMG_0470s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwtDIJZhcB_S9ir36uKz7oBq__AhHyVLhe38T6RPwxyAlOQO5Tz38WI7Dy5Fc9oWZuJ9q4u77r_XP70mRyEntVQFuOPSfvSrUKzgcWYM9m8J7A3TlqSavLHbgYx0c486Iu9jWZ3fPNRzU/s320/IMG_0470s.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our group demonstrated our game
first while the 2<sup>nd</sup> group did so afterwards. I will put it out there
that they were interesting for the time given to make them but overall they
were pretty bad games.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">1st Game – Chaos Bounce</span></span></u></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Rule overview</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The group I was a part of. For our game we made it a team
based sport with 5 players on each team. The goal still is to get the ball in
with one team starting with the ball in possession.</span></div>
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<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Teams are to position their players around the
field strategically before the match begins. They were allowed to stay on top
of the desks.</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">An important thing to note is that players </span><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">cannot move</b><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> from their initial spot.
They are allowed to take a step out but leave a foot behind as well as move
their hands to block but they cannot take a real step out. The only time they
can move is when they have the ball in possession, and are allowed </span><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">3 steps</b><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">This makes it important to pass the ball around
as you won’t be able to score if someone is blocking your way. An important
thing to note about passing is that </span><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">when
passing you must bounce the ball on a surface first</b><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> to your teammate.
Fairly to do so was not actually given a consequence yet but you just weren’t
supposed to.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">If somehow a player misses passing the ball,
since no one can move from their spot, it will automatically go to the closest
player.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One final rule is that players cannot position
themselves too close to the basket so that they cannot easily dunk the ball in.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An added rule near the end was for every player
to take a chair and choose a position to place it on the tables around so that
it could prove to be an obstacle and block other players.</span></span></li>
</ol>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyFX3ThK4lfy0NiuNFQ4JLj6WXrtj4KfKJysGe5KkAz9J2Y-9_-6WDfyEY-n7egWUvq0g6rIuh7Fs9gfT_QaAcbe4euYtz2g0bbglTu6TVoOAbClQ7E5wj3S1rzmlKoFLWdHbP8Y71VjU/s1600/BALL+BOUINCE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyFX3ThK4lfy0NiuNFQ4JLj6WXrtj4KfKJysGe5KkAz9J2Y-9_-6WDfyEY-n7egWUvq0g6rIuh7Fs9gfT_QaAcbe4euYtz2g0bbglTu6TVoOAbClQ7E5wj3S1rzmlKoFLWdHbP8Y71VjU/s320/BALL+BOUINCE.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Players must always bounce the ball when passing</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Problems with the
game</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Breaking down the game, it became pretty obvious it was
similar to handball and basket ball. The handball rule of only moving a certain
amount when holding the ball applied with our rule #1. The basketball aspect
came from rule 3, bouncing the ball. However it was obvious it was a very
static and rather boring version of those games due to the fact that no one
else can really move except for the player holding the ball. It makes the game
a lot slower as repositioning will only happen when another player manages to
get the ball and they really cant move too far.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another problem lies with rule 4, which sends it to the
closest player. It should have been automatically given to the other team
because the passing team made a bad throw and should be punished. Otherwise
they could simply throw it really far, reaching their teammate on the edge and
being out of reach of anyone else so they can automatically get the ball.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The whole positioning of the game is interesting but
honestly really slow and boring. A player could literally stand there and never
get the chance to do anything in the game. Nor can they make “good plays” by
getting into position at a good moment. This is like a turn based bored game
with some interaction between players, not what a game with a ball should
really be like.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWfffCLm2ol4zHGtGPSXRKcOrvWOfTYBbpZY5VAb21zMn4YxdOeIJ6JAdWhUgBh2oERGxzHYb_SoCJa1YOBMDqIRPAW1JUm85FYIEjn8ubYYnLQKplSFNjStzzNbnmx77hAJiXcj3d9j4/s1600/Chair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWfffCLm2ol4zHGtGPSXRKcOrvWOfTYBbpZY5VAb21zMn4YxdOeIJ6JAdWhUgBh2oERGxzHYb_SoCJa1YOBMDqIRPAW1JUm85FYIEjn8ubYYnLQKplSFNjStzzNbnmx77hAJiXcj3d9j4/s320/Chair.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chairs as an obstacle were there but didn't really matter all that much</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">What could be
improved</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a game like this, you really need to have some control
over your movement, either that or the rules needed to be changed because it
would have just become handball. Games with static movement in a physical sport
are not generally as fun as those that have some movement. The idea of
positioning is neat, but it needed to have just a bit more movement because if
you never got the ball, you were pretty much stuck.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were also simple rule changes that could have made the
game better but weren’t put in time to be applied to the game, such as the ball
going out of the reach of players. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Conclusion</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For a game made in 25 minutes though, it isn’t bad but it
wasn’t particularly fun either. I volunteered for testing the game though only
with 3 on 3. It was honestly not interesting because I never once got the
chance to get the ball due my position. I already went over the problems with
positioning but honestly it just wasn’t too fun. It looked like it had potential due to the
positioning of chairs and people, however people on the edge of the area just
couldn’t do as much as people closer to the basket.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">2</span><span style="font-size: 27px;">nd</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Game –
Human Foosball</span></u><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Rules Ove</b><b>rview</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The game made by the 2<sup>nd</sup> group, I honestly didn’t
hear all the rules but the basic gist of it was human foosball. For some reason
both of our groups decided that we should have minimal movement in this game
and be stuck in the same position for most, if not the entire game. With their
game, you could not move at all, no matter what, you stayed in the same
position.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The basket was placed in the middle of the field, where it
was surrounded by members of the two teams in foosball like positions. They
litered all the rows of the area, (not allowed on the tables) with around 10 or
more players on each team. They essentially slapped the ball, trying to get it
into the basket. It was simply mindless hitting into the center which looked
kind of fun and intense at times but overall was as static as our game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Problems with the
Game<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People in certain positions hardly ever got to see the ball
or get a chance to hit it, which in all honesty doesn’t look like too much fun.
Since they were forced to stay still in that position, it made players in the
center the most likely to hit the ball and have the most fun, while players on
the outer edges got it far less frequently. There was a lack of balance in who
got to hit the ball the most due to these positions so the fun factor was not
equal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another problem was that players would often hit the ball
out of boundaries which slowed down the game since they had to go pick it up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcFrKdTGis0Cd0oI5L-Smpe2YKsljdi4Zoi8fSC-Xk1InWGLQkafHfXLVy66ho11I8ufZ1koD5dLd-gAuLzIFBiS3Vz88FPlWUENryJrmuUEMtFYF88czrAqgjWQebZGrZB1r5BRbwZF0/s1600/IMG_0471s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcFrKdTGis0Cd0oI5L-Smpe2YKsljdi4Zoi8fSC-Xk1InWGLQkafHfXLVy66ho11I8ufZ1koD5dLd-gAuLzIFBiS3Vz88FPlWUENryJrmuUEMtFYF88czrAqgjWQebZGrZB1r5BRbwZF0/s320/IMG_0471s.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Legendary Game Design Ball</span></b>
</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">What could be
improved?</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was honestly an interesting idea but if the game allowed
for a bit more movement then it would have been better. Something I would have
done to add to the fun was to allow some limited player movement. Players
should be able to move around a bit in their row, a limited distance but not
running into other players (if they happen to be in the same row). This would
allow players to be more mobile and have a shot at being able to hit the ball
to where they need to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The basket was also located too close to players, if they
were farther back they it would have allowed for more shots on the net that
weren’t blocked by players. It would have given an opportunity for more
scoring. The demo by the other group had no one scoring in the timeframe they
were given.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Conclusion</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This game was even less mobile than our game which I don’t
find to be that good of an idea. It definitely looked chaotic like our game but
I noticed a good portion of people who rarely were able to hit the ball. The
idea was interesting but seemed to lack in fun factor for those on the edges.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u><b>The goal behind this activity</b></u></span><b style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Both games used a mix of level design and Game Design. We
created the rules but then we fit those rules and mechanics into the field we
were to use, which is the goal of level design. I can tell that both groups
thought more so about the game design aspect then the level design aspect.
Though the rows of desks were incorporated, the only other level design that
came about from the activity was for my group, (Chaos Bounce) which
incorporated chairs into it to make more dynamic levels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There has been a lot of emphasis on level design these past
lectures so I believe it would have been more beneficial if we had put a bit
more interesting design into the use of the room. Group 1 (Chaos Bounce)
however had better use then group 2 (Human Foosball) so my group wins!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-33286069534200990712012-09-17T16:27:00.000-04:002012-09-17T16:27:58.622-04:00A look into Super Smash Brothers Brawl’s Engine<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL5WY_VoZrTkKg-z-T3bWePpp-Xu2nYEkwkuPAX3G9kZO7H6c2RZ57OMAGFq2FEdXgXFDbic2IHi0eDv-d_lQPVwqJoRaMIM7llN9tDETcZyPVuPQFvFLPGkTn6wCp8I1d6mYbou061RM/s1600/362337-ssbb_logo_super.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL5WY_VoZrTkKg-z-T3bWePpp-Xu2nYEkwkuPAX3G9kZO7H6c2RZ57OMAGFq2FEdXgXFDbic2IHi0eDv-d_lQPVwqJoRaMIM7llN9tDETcZyPVuPQFvFLPGkTn6wCp8I1d6mYbou061RM/s400/362337-ssbb_logo_super.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Super Smash Bros. Brawl may have been released 4 years ago,
but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something that can be learned from it. Knowledge
from classes from the previous year have made me realize just how some of the
systems in Super Smash Bros. Brawl now work. I won’t have code or anything but
I do have tons of experience with this game so some of this is speculation but
I do have some proof too!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Physics &
Gameplay</span><o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgqTjQjj4fICpduTd5wljw2-gOvxrK5XKmqNi9CdXccrNYkT5dxCuKwrX40N3LUWkhO_a9yiNaO3kBrD1a-Tt5fjtIHxUTWxVVE60iikcpVWEewTKx65_gUlKrB1lN9SzA_9YZTwg5-UU/s1600/150_HavokLogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For this entry in the series, they were able to get the Havok engine into their game. But Super Smash Bros has always dealt with physics in it's own way and having Havok only helps. With Havok the game deals with physics in ways that don’t deter
from the core gameplay the series is known for and adds several things that make the game more dynamic then it used to be. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A brief overview of how
the gameplay works is that characters are knocked off stage, flying further the
more damage they receive until they are KO’d offstage. The distance someone
flies away is based on several factors...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>1) The character’s weight</u></b> – The lighter the character the
farther they fly when hit. Heavier doesn’t fly as far. In general heavier character are slower and lighter are faster.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgchFqKPcCX-OYCzUTf_dt8eO7mOcQlkDezyjtxaMCQMP2FEMXtJiczybuxOpAUphdMElRJ31HqsOOO6M3vKxkwoIyT6Wac0TZJQA_xQ2sYT0TRSbDaxQyY00EFDHknaISlmXpHBB8eLIM/s1600/Weightcomp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgchFqKPcCX-OYCzUTf_dt8eO7mOcQlkDezyjtxaMCQMP2FEMXtJiczybuxOpAUphdMElRJ31HqsOOO6M3vKxkwoIyT6Wac0TZJQA_xQ2sYT0TRSbDaxQyY00EFDHknaISlmXpHBB8eLIM/s400/Weightcomp.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mario is considered average weight while Bowser is the heaviest character (<a href="http://super-smash-bros.wikia.com/wiki/Weight">Weight values found here</a>)</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>2) The floatiness of the character</u></b> – Some characters are
inheritly floatier, meaning they will fly up higher when hit then someone who is the
same weight but has a lower floatiness. In general all characters are floatier
in this game then they were in Melee. You also cannot fall as fast as when you're floaty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXqMql2xwCHCF7sIJagzvBs8IFAbPuFXqLVBF2B-u3ntGGVd0tmIngCK_jBLHMo6G3C69H0myQVbjHzmyXNIkQVI5MQOvLdLM78ZZwgFq06e_WSmyjGeYIwcmDsWkYuCNDXIhhyphenhyphenU0lluQ/s1600/Floatcomp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXqMql2xwCHCF7sIJagzvBs8IFAbPuFXqLVBF2B-u3ntGGVd0tmIngCK_jBLHMo6G3C69H0myQVbjHzmyXNIkQVI5MQOvLdLM78ZZwgFq06e_WSmyjGeYIwcmDsWkYuCNDXIhhyphenhyphenU0lluQ/s400/Floatcomp.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These two have the same weight but despite that Samus falls much slower and is easier to knock farther vertically (<a href="http://super-smash-bros.wikia.com/wiki/Falling_speed">Fall rank found here</a>)</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>3) The amount of force in the attack</u></b> – Some attacks will
send players flying farther compared to other attacks. Some attacks from items
like the “homerun bat” have enough force to usually knock an opponent off to
the side regardless of weight or their damage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizoKVFKIQugARvwszqZkW1fsf8vwGhr7nNb9OG1ZfvdJGglJ8aOAQbnLXorIWjyWZjl6IGKH-cYpUKGvv4wuX83u0HC0ukMfnqe1__G6kLflgo61APqpPbHI9fX_PBOsqCI0Y1OzUJwZk/s1600/Smash+attack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizoKVFKIQugARvwszqZkW1fsf8vwGhr7nNb9OG1ZfvdJGglJ8aOAQbnLXorIWjyWZjl6IGKH-cYpUKGvv4wuX83u0HC0ukMfnqe1__G6kLflgo61APqpPbHI9fX_PBOsqCI0Y1OzUJwZk/s320/Smash+attack.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Smash attacks have some of the most force in a character's movelist usually</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>4) Damage Percentage</u></b> – Determines how far a character will
fly from an attack. This is NOT a direct ratio of distance however. A character
at 100% damage will not fly 100 times farther than a character at 1% damage.
Nor is it true that You will fly twice as far at 200% damage compared to 100%. Rather
than linear ratio of distance, the game uses an exponential formula to
calculate how far an opponent will fly. 100% compared to 50% sends an opponent
flying much farther away and that distance also depends on the force exerted. The exact formula for this is not known (By me).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZS2Dhb6wZ_-abkZ6CHaPgCGVhjtGHKTc34EQxlO2DH2-jc1W78vQputBhqLVswIeaGUr6NnTO1TgNFQiIGG2ydiWQZRbzGSMPS9-Ae4W9sFm_ztSYF_tAC7ekqN7ctT2R0RTeO-1bJQY/s1600/Damage+Percentage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZS2Dhb6wZ_-abkZ6CHaPgCGVhjtGHKTc34EQxlO2DH2-jc1W78vQputBhqLVswIeaGUr6NnTO1TgNFQiIGG2ydiWQZRbzGSMPS9-Ae4W9sFm_ztSYF_tAC7ekqN7ctT2R0RTeO-1bJQY/s1600/Damage+Percentage.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Link flies farther when hit since his damage is higher</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>5) Stale Moves</u></b> – This is a more minor addition to how the
game handles force of attacks. Basically the game keeps a counter of how many
times you have used a particular move. For example, Mario’s forward Smash
attack, which is very good for KO’ing. If you have only used that move, it
would check the counter based on how times you used that move in a row and hit
with it, compared to other moves you have used to it with recently. The amount
of damage and force that the move would apply would be reduced based on this
counter. Therefore the game endorses using a variety of moves rather than just
spamming one single move. Basically if one person uses the same move too much,
the force they can apply to knock an opponent away is reduced.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>6) Directional Influence</u></b> – Not known to many but this is a
way to influence the direction you’re flying when hit. By mashing the control
stick in the direction you want when hit, you can reduce or increase flight
distance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX30G25MSvyd1qQupdiazXLDxMuGhabbfbu3eA_r2OOSdT4w-HCDs0OlDWslTy6ASQOQknjM5L9D5NcdoBoewPWkm3nQ8s4BttZ0ocUD5x6VyzGwGdCBuVJmisZPKV7o8vi2jtYQb1XOY/s1600/DI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX30G25MSvyd1qQupdiazXLDxMuGhabbfbu3eA_r2OOSdT4w-HCDs0OlDWslTy6ASQOQknjM5L9D5NcdoBoewPWkm3nQ8s4BttZ0ocUD5x6VyzGwGdCBuVJmisZPKV7o8vi2jtYQb1XOY/s400/DI.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Havok Additions</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgqTjQjj4fICpduTd5wljw2-gOvxrK5XKmqNi9CdXccrNYkT5dxCuKwrX40N3LUWkhO_a9yiNaO3kBrD1a-Tt5fjtIHxUTWxVVE60iikcpVWEewTKx65_gUlKrB1lN9SzA_9YZTwg5-UU/s1600/150_HavokLogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgqTjQjj4fICpduTd5wljw2-gOvxrK5XKmqNi9CdXccrNYkT5dxCuKwrX40N3LUWkhO_a9yiNaO3kBrD1a-Tt5fjtIHxUTWxVVE60iikcpVWEewTKx65_gUlKrB1lN9SzA_9YZTwg5-UU/s320/150_HavokLogo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Besides these basics, Havok applies some additions to the
series as well, these are…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>A. Collision of characters</u></b> – When an opponent is knocked
away, if they pass through another character on screen, they will collide into
them. The person who was flying will have their flight distance reduced based
on weight of the character you collided with. Usually this results in a
significantly reduced flight distance upon hitting another person. For the
person that is hit, they will fly a distance based on weight and force the other
character is experiencing from flight. A set modifier seems to be added in
order to reduce the distance the person hit is, since in all cases this person
seems to only get knocked back a short distance. The only way you can be KO’d
like this is if you’re already near the edge of the stage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>B. Weight to items </u></b>– Some items are put on wheels such as
crates. These items typically are given a large weight from the start and they
can begin to move if they are on an inclined surface. If they happen to hit
anyone on the way, the speed the crate is at will determine the force the
opponent is sent flying. For these items the weight seems to be rather significant
as it’s been shown to KO many characters or set them a large distance if at a
high percentage. Items can be influenced by the wind as well to send them into
characters as well.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgozHVeNsOIUKalXsmJGUIPEw5QdCku5wNjFoBzSejmo118bRGKsqR7epcMlPrjtpRuNkuNvYz6bMXmKAL-9uPDqOEUG-hY-IrSWmxZQpp-zkwgphFPEgwz1zpxdmA3tQiZOgG7dxt-fII/s1600/Crates.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgozHVeNsOIUKalXsmJGUIPEw5QdCku5wNjFoBzSejmo118bRGKsqR7epcMlPrjtpRuNkuNvYz6bMXmKAL-9uPDqOEUG-hY-IrSWmxZQpp-zkwgphFPEgwz1zpxdmA3tQiZOgG7dxt-fII/s200/Crates.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Crates in Smash Bros now have weights</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are other additions that Havok or the base Smash Bros
system uses for other things involving gravity that aren’t easy to tell apart.
But they are in the game one way or another.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Animation &
Skeletons</u></span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The game uses a skeletal animation system, this can be
observed from watching Brawl moveset hacks. In these videos provide cool
insight into how the skeleton is assigned to the mesh of a character. The mesh is attached to the skeleton and assigned the correct weight values to coincidence with the joints of the skeleton. Each model for a character would
normally be assigned appropriate weights that fit with their particular skeleton.
Once you start assigning different movesets to different characters, its
basically trying to use a different set of animations which belong to the character who's moveset you're trying to mimic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/8ZDgjjDnWLM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A video of Brawl Hackers switching movesets of characters Part 1</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For example if we have Mario and we try to give him Luigi’s
moveset, they may look similar but Luigi’s skeleton is not the same, with
different proportions and with his mesh assigned to weigh correctly with the
skeleton. Mario will therefore appear distorted since now he is automatically
taking Luigi’s skeleton, but still using his own mesh. He appears to be
stretched and is also using Luigi’s animations now. Also, certain moves that
Mario does applies automatic particle effects which will still appear despite
having Luigi’s skeleton. This is because those particle are still assigned to
the character of Mario and since we are identifying him as still being Mario,
he will get to have those fire effects in his Smash Attacks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/zmoY1RmoZFA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 2 of the moveset swaps. Notice how no one's meshes are breaking. It appears they all have a similar skeleton structure.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are issues with missing animations however. If Mario
was to use his down+B, which brings out his FLUDD water tank, Mario simply
spawns the tool on his back, there is no animation (0:50 of the video). Luigi’s moveset however
requires an animation to do the down+B attack (Luigi spins around). Since there
is no animation, Mario will simply go into a T-Pose since it’s trying to
reference an animation that does not exist in Mario’s data and will become unable to move due. If Mario had a
normal down+B move, he would be able to reference an animation since it would
likely fill that slot in Mario’s data. Sometimes the animation can break
anyways even if they do have an animation in that slot, so its hard to say for
certain why that is since moveset hacking is, finicky.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/iuLHui7omLQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Final Part of moveset swaps</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the most part having a character and giving them someone
else’s skeleton seems to work. Since everyone seems to be able to use each other skeletons, we can come to the conclusion that their skeletons all in fact have the same hierarchy and number of nodes. The only difference is the position of those nodes which causes the weird distortions we see in characters (such as Mario's face being weird in the first video). The only problem is a few missing or broken
animations due to characters having different properties for their attacks which cause the T-Pose to activate. It's cool that they were able to make the right number of nodes that would fit all their variety of characters, from Bowser to a more humanoid character like Mario. It
becomes scary when one gives a little character like Pikachu, someone big like
Ganondorf’s moveset…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj268oMBJfkf3bQA92doyUXK_BPg6mCvsEcLxDrlL0I4NRxiBbsyPu3mdhL6lz3PEFYsjpJhMqMObvmpGPF0z-ip10Ac4EWW1u-7MQKd2MRSf1PbCRImznCwRjIOeaS5G9CI3VOKrOP5po/s1600/Longchu3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj268oMBJfkf3bQA92doyUXK_BPg6mCvsEcLxDrlL0I4NRxiBbsyPu3mdhL6lz3PEFYsjpJhMqMObvmpGPF0z-ip10Ac4EWW1u-7MQKd2MRSf1PbCRImznCwRjIOeaS5G9CI3VOKrOP5po/s320/Longchu3.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pikachu becomes a creature of pure terror<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Other systems</span><o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I won’t go too far into how the particle system works
because I don’t really have too much information on the rendering system of the
game. So I won’t spend time just purely speculating without any actual stuff to
go on. All you need to know is that the game looks very nice for a Wii game, character models and particle effects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Conclusion</u></span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That pretty much raps up this post. Thanks to moveset
swapping I was able to look in detail about how the animations in the game
worked as well as the meshes and skeletal animation system. Physics on the
other hand were found with just years of experience with the game as well testing
and observation. Thanks to Game Dev now I can see this game in a different
light!</span><o:p></o:p></div>
IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4378349302276132725.post-9272462540392650542012-09-14T14:05:00.000-04:002012-09-14T14:05:23.374-04:00Accessibility of Fighting Games<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My friend <a href="http://naeemmoose.wordpress.com/">Mr.Moose</a> recently tweeted <a href="http://www.includification.com/">an article about accessible games</a>, which are games that are able to be played by all manner of people, included those handicapped. Now this got me thinking about games in general that would be accessible to everyone, or rather games that seem to have barriers to a lot of gamers handicapped or not. One of the genres I found to be consistenly have issues getting people into the scene are fighting games, one of my favourite genres.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are really a variety of factors being the cause for this and I'll go through them and why I think they are causing a barrier that detracts people from playing a lot of fighting games. For this post I am going to select three different fighting games, all with a variety of different characters and fighiting mechanics to ensure that none of these games play alike. The three games are as follows, Street Fighter 4, Blazblue : Calamity Shift and Tekken Tag Tournament 2.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="240" src="http://cdn0.hark.com/images/000/033/813/33813/original.0" width="320" />
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reduce your opponent's life gauge to zero to win</span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First off let's just briefly outline how you win in these games, it's really simple. Reduce your opponent's life gauge to nothing to win a round. Win enough rounds (usually 2 out of 3) to win the entire match. Now this concept is simple enough and no one should have trouble understanding it, the problem comes with the other mechanics in the game. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First off let's talk about some crucial things to learning fighting games to show why it's so hard for people to get into this genre. These are...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1) Fundamentals</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2) Movelists</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3) Combos</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In short, fundamentals are key things that you don't normally think about but do in a fighting games. These aren't normally taught to players by tutorials in game so these are key things that aren't being taught.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Street Fighter 4 - There is more to a fighting game than just using special moves</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Movelists are assigned to your character, every character has different moves to choose from with different properties. You need to learn your characters movelist if you want to know what action to do at a certain time. Movelists can range from reasonable to insane depending on the game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - Every character has access to hundreds of different moves</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Combos have been a highlight of fighting games for a long time and are a way to deal massive damage that you wouldn't with just hitting a person once with a special move. These take memorization and time to learn and can be daunting to figure out and execute.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blazblue - Combos require execution, timing and memorization to do</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Fundamentals of Fighting Games</u></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A lot of new games have tried to make an effort to teach the fundamentals of their game but it's a difficult road for new players to learn. For Blazblue and Street Fighter, they share a lot of similar elements because they are both 2D fighters while Tekken being 3D does in fact share elements too.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Spacing</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spacing - Gouki (Right) uses a fireball at a distance that the enemy played would jump in only to get an uppercut to the face</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For instance one of the most basic things to learn is spacing, which means your distance relative to your opponent which is important because some characters lend themselves better to close range combat and others at further range. Spacing out your opponent to take advantage of your character's movelist is a large versus your opponent's character's movelist becomes part of the "mindgames" that come in the matches. Knowing when to throw a fireball based on the distant to your opponent, to make sure they can jump over and kick is an unspoken rule but its there. The problem with this is, no tutorial in any of these games actually teaches you the fundamentals of spacing and this IS one of the most important parts of fighting games. Everyone pretty much has to figure it out for themselves or look online which is just meant more time researching instead of learning hands on. Not too beginner friendly.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Footsies</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SF4 - Fei Long (Right side) uses a fierce punch, hitting at max range. A demonstration of footsies or "poking".</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another important fundamental is footsies, which lends itself to spacing. Footsies basically means "poking" at your opponents with moves that ensure you can keep the distance you want relative to the opponent and deal damage. These are important in pretty much all fighting games. Again the problem is that these aren't really taught in tutorials either. I don't know why fighting games neglect to include this in tutorials but this is another very important concept that I never learned without looking online.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Punishing</span></b><br />
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<b>Ken (On the right) Uses a very slow attack that takes a while to recover. Ryu can then "punish" it with an attack as result.</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Punishes are another important concept, which means to punish an opponents move that either misses or simply takes too long recover from the animation. This has been taught in a very well done manner in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 but the other games I have not seen it being taught. This is really important to learn as well and the problem is to learn how to punish, you need to know how the opponent's character you're facing works. This involves a lot of technical mumbo jumbo of frame data and such that really makes it hard for newcomers and even experience players to learn. This is something that though simple, takes a ton of dedication for any player which can seriously deter casual players.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mix-Ups</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Mix-Ups means to alternate between attacks that force opponent to defend themselves in different ways.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mix-Ups is another technique that was actually taught in the tutorials for these games (except Street Fighter 4). Basically when characters block an attack, they have two options, block high or low. Moves can be counted as either overhead or low. Lows block lows and high blocks can stop overheads. It's a pretty simple concept in practice but hard to execute in real time without lots of practice. You also have to do it without looking to obvious or you'd get predicable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are honestly a ton of other fundementals but I've covered more than enough to show how complex a fighting game system can be. This is NOT an easy system to get a hold of and the fact that a lot of fighting games still have yet to officially teach these concepts in a tutorial makes it really daunting for new players to get into.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Movelists</u></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b>You have a lot of characters in a fighting game, sometimes its around 12, sometimes around 50. And every character in the game has a different set of moves with different properties and special attributes. That could be throwing a fireball or doing an uppercut to lay the hurt on opponents in the air. It's really a lot to remember and you're going to have to learn to combine together to form combos if you want to do any real damage. Let's quickly take a look at how Street Fighter 4 handles these.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SF4 - Ryu using his Ultra Combo, dealing tons of damage</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Street Fighter 4 handles move lists fairly well. You have a movelist that doesn't seem to be too large or overly burdening. It can still be a lot to remember but it's organized well and not too complicated. The moves themselves take some getting used to. The quarter circle motion for a fireball is a lot easier to do than it used to be in Street Fighter 2, meaning that these games are trying to appeal more to the casual audience. The problem comes when combining these in combos or trying to apply fundamentals such as spacing and footsies. Still that can be considered more "advanced" stuff but if you want to even think about becoming good, you need to learn those fundamentals.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blazblue is in a similar boat to Street Fighter 4, with a lot of moves still but not an overbearing amount. The tutorials also teach you how to use these.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">TTT2 - Characters have a lot of moves but none are specified as "special moves"</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tekken on the otherhand suffers greatly on the topic of movelists. The game has pretty much 100 different "moves" for a character and they don't even give you any recommended moves to use. They don't even have a tutorial for each character to teach you how to use these moves as well, its all in practice mode. This is one of the greatest oversights the game has and it makes it extremely difficult for even an experienced player to get the grasps of a character. For beginners I can't even imagine how hard it is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The problem in general is movelists don't ever tell you why you'd use a certain move. They don't say "This is a fireball move, use it for spacing" or "This move has invincibility temporarily, use it to counter moves" you have to go through the entire movelist and figure it out for yourself. Learning this stuff for new players is a lot of work.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Combos</u></span></b><br />
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Combos have been a basic feature in pretty much all fighting games since Street Fighter 2 first came out. They used to be much simpler but still restricted to certain timing and were difficult to pull off. Nowadays, combos come in all sorts of flavors and the methods to do this in each fighting game is different from the other. Let's start off with Street Fighter 4.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>SF4 - Ryu Trial mode and combos</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is probably the best example of a game that provides simplicity with depth. Combos in this game are actually taught through a mode called trial mode, where set combos are provided and you're allowed to attempt these while seeing all the inputs necessary. Every character has their own trial mode and since every character's moves have different properties then they all have different timing and move combinations to make different combos which makes this mode necessary.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The problem with this mode is that they don't show you the proper timing or even provide a "demo" of the combo being done for you. This means you pretty much have to experiment by yourself to find out the timing for the combo. This can become very frustrating to new players since when going into a fighting game, you don't have much sense of timing. Though they show you the combos, it pretty much becomes trial and error to learn. Some even require one frame (1/60th of a second) to chain a combo. Some very basic combos can still be achieved through button mashing and still aren't too difficult but it can still take a fairly long time for new players to learn these. Street Fighter 4 still nevertheless contains a good way for players to learn combos.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Blazblue - Challenge mode for Ragna</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Blazblue, combos are in general much longer and more complex than Street Fighter 4. You combine knocking your opponents all over the air and your hit count in a combo soars into the double digits easily. The mechanics to Blazblue are entirely different and have different timing and properties to combos such as ground bounces that make them it so that any combos you might learn in a different fighting game won't help you here or at least not as much as you'd hope. Thankfully they also contain a trial mode for each character similar to Street Fighter 4 and even provide a demo reel for you to see the timing and learn it. Basic combos with more hits are in general easier to do in Blazblue than Street Fighter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>TTT2 - Fight Lab</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and it's predecessors are in 3D arenas and have combos that are way different than Blazblue or Street Fighter. The problem with Tekken is that unlike those two games, combos aren't even taught through a trial mode for characters. Tekken Tag 2 recently had a "fight lab" mode which taught you the basics of the game (and some fighting game fundamentals) and some combos, however any character specific combos have to be learned entirely through trial and error or looking up videos. For the game not to include this is not very beginner friendly so the process to picking up any character in this game is very difficult.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Combos in general can take a long time to learn for new players because they have to get used to a lot of different gameplay elements still. It's not like in a shooter where the basic knowledge of where to aim and use corners is quite a bit easier to grasp. There is a lot of memorization to be had with combos which can really be offsetting to new players.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Fighting Games require commitment</u></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fighting games are a daunting task to get into, because there is a certain level of commitment this genre needs more so than other genres I have played with. I myself have a few friends who have tried fighting games but never got into it because either A), they think its button mashing which its not, or B) Upon figuring its not button mashing looks way too complicated for them to figure out and really get into. They don't play one more than one fighting game and even if they do, it's not very often.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>TTT2 - Combo video, these aren't easy to do and takes a while to do in training mode let alone in a real match</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fact that a lot of fighting games don't have a good story means that you usually buy a fighting game for the fighting system and multiplayer, not anything else. A lot of fighting games recently have been lacking in single player content (not counting Blazblue and Persona 4 Arena or Mortal Kombat recently). So the problem lies in the fact that you have to spend a lot of time to get good in these games because of course you play to win. There is no fun in getting obliterated by someone miles better than you and beating computer opponents only has so much appeal. To enjoy these games you need to fight real people, which means you really have to get into the system and learn the fundamentals. If you don't you could end up losing, getting frustrated and just giving up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>SF4 - Daigo and Justin Wong are top tier players who spend most of their time playing fighting games. This can be seen in their grasp of everything about the genre.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's the barrier this genre faces. It needs the deep mechanics, fundamentals and movesets present right now to keep it's core audience because that's what fighting game fanatics go for. But how do they get new players in while keeping the same tournament level style of play.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Accessibility has been improving</u></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I may have been stating how hard it is for newcomers to get in due to all those factors but companies have been working hard to get people into the genre.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For one there has been an "easy button" mode implemented into Blazblue as well as Marvel vs Capcom 3. This basically makes all the special moves easier to execute, not requiring quarter circle motions or full circle motions and what not. This definetely makes it easier for the new players to get the hand on the basics as they dont have to worry so much on the execution of moves. These modes are however limited and don't allow you to access the full move list of your character. This type of control has been implemented as earlier as 2001 in Capcom vs SNK 2.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blazblue - With easy mode, even basic moves turn into special moves and can turn into combos easily</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As previously mentioned, there have been more tutorials for combos and some of the basic fundamentals (though not all of them) featured in some games. The game Skullgirls recently featured a rather broad tutorial and taught a lot of the fundamentals as well as the game's own systems thoroughly though it had no trials. Other games like Tekken Tag 2 have not shown all its systems in it's tutorials. If games could teach the fundamentals of the genre more like Skullgirl's tutorial, then a lot more of them would be appealing and accessible to audiences. If they can combine Skullgirl's tutorial along with teaching you at least the basics of how to use a specific character, then it goes a long way to teaching players how to get into the game.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Skullgirl's Extensive Tutorial</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Conclusion - How do we make it easier for new players?</u></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In short the problem is there are a whole cluster of things for new players to do, learning movelists, characters, combos, important fundamentals, with usually only a few of these things actually being taught. Fighting games are daunting there is no question about it, which is why new players need the game to help them. Sure they can look online if they are passionate about learning but you want to make sure the game itself is helping right there. Its so much easier to do a tutorial in game than to look at a video online.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But if you can make a person really enjoy a fighter, get into the system and learn the fundamentals, you have to get a hold of their attention for not only the sequels to that fighter, but other fighters in the scene as well. If you learn Tekken 6 for example, you can easily get right back into Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Even your fundamental understanding of spacing and what not will transfer to Street Fighter despite the different mechanics of the games. That's what fighting games have to do if they want to hook people in. Make it as easy as possible and add in the depth of the game's systems and fighting game fundamentals as they go through tutorials (fun tutorials that is). The more a game guides a newbie's hand, the easier it will be for them to get in.</span><br />
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IceNinja77http://www.blogger.com/profile/09122593522786021239noreply@blogger.com1