Games Development
FMP
Context & Research
Context
Introduction
For my context and Research pages I will start out with a full in-depth SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis, this will help me in the grander terms of the project and can also be used as a guideline for how I will be writing, discovering, researching and uploading to the site.
In my introduction, I will point out how I have interpreted the assignment brief to fit what I want to do for the FMP and how I will go about doing it. Firstly, The way I interpreted the assignment brief in the aftermath of Unit 12 is to look into the art side of games, this will be done by researching storyboards, character art and delving into how I can use these methods of game design to create what I intend to design for the project.
What I intend to do for the project is to create a small 3-5 character art pack will a small storyboard that fits them along with a set of profiles, ID cards and other items that can be found on them. The main pieces of inspiration for this as my FMP was computer games such as "First Class Trouble" & "The Division, Factions" and board games such as "Cluedo" & Dungeons and Dragons".
To achieve my FMP goal, I will be researching into the genres of games that the characters I have in mind can fit into as they are all to be able to fit into multiple games types such as horror, adventure and Puzzle & RPG. With these four genres being my main heading for the FMP I will now mind-map what I could perceive these characters to look like and how they could come across one another in a storyboard setting.
SWOT Analysis
A SWOT Analysis helps me look into what my perceived and peer-recommended Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats are. The reason I feel the need to ask my peers what they think my SWOT is, is that if I had not and never compared the answers from others against my own feelings then I will not know what I actually need to work on; and would most likely be working on a self defined weakness where others around me see differently.
Strengths
Starting my SWOT analysis off with my strengths, I believe that my attention to the units and what they ask of me to complete has been followed through with all the research and development needed and then some. my main evidence if this is my Units 9-12, in these units I have gone through exactly what was asked of me to research into, the development processes and then further into how I would go into implementing those researched techniques into my personal home studies. examples such as UNIT 9's MAYA computer monitors being created and developed solely by myself by researching and developing techniques. research into not just outsource studio "DEKOGON", but also "BigMediumSmall" and "RocketBrush". UNIT 10's look at different Game Jam games with the same starter quote called "Lost & Found" Researching what games currently exist with that quote such as "Don't Forget The Stars", "Hotel Liechtenstein" and "Lost Buttons, Found Control" just to name a few. As well as creating / heading a small team then going out and creating our own game called "OVERRUN" which haves the player defending the wildlife from logging and deforestation companies in an isometric and clouded environment akin to Point&Click strategy games with "Project Zomboid" being our leading example.
A semi-strength of mine would be that I have a profound way to articulate specific points that lead into evidence of said points. Able to weigh up both the pros and cons of a subject matter as an outsider and put those pros and cons into contest, and with them in contention, look into the finer details of what the pros and cons are, what they can entail along with if those pros and cons of the subject will affect my time management of tasks needing completion.
A third strength of mine as given by my peers is my keen eye at spotting the specifics of mise-en-scene when looking at images of developed games, the lighting especially. Is it appropriate? Should it be changed to fit the mood? does it work well with the themes? And do the colours of a character reflect their personality well?. Mise-En-Scene (Put in frame / Put in Scene) has an important part for all media as it can be the defining psychological element to a players outlook on not just the story, but the characters, the scenery and the own players mental status at that point in time when playing.
Weaknesses
Within my weaknesses, what I see myself having along with my peers is that I have a quick burnout time. I am quick off the block for my work days, but as they day goes on and the further I get into the atmosphere, I tend to drop off in terms of completing tasks as well as focus and knowledge. This weakness of mine can kill my momentum when in work environments and force a complete stop in brain activity. A great way I should be able to combat this is by taking breaks regularly and going out for fresh air or even going for a walk to keep my brain going. My reasoning behind thinking this is because it has been scientifically proven that working long hours without breaks in a stuffy environment or even inhaling stale air can cause a steady drop in engaging brain activity and fatigue.
A second weakness of mine would be that I get distracted by outside sources such as my college friends talking about a subject that I hold an interest in or my phone going off with unimportant notifications, even as I typed this out I felt the urge to check my phone for notifications and change the song playlist that was playing as it had gone through a full rotation of the album. A few ways I will be able to combat this issue is to keep my phone in my bag, to turn it off or have it face down with the notifications turned off, but even with that
My third most important weakness would have to be how encapsulated I get when writing up, this is because the further I go into myself for SWOT, the more I dig into myself and and bury my strengths and opportunities. This can be moved for a threat as well as I can potentially knock my own self confidence and that would then commit a spiral downwards.
Opportunities
Opportunities that I have are that there are always lessons on either YouTube or Artstation which go into detail on how I can draw be it by Traditional means, which consists of pens, paper, pencils and rubbers to create my artworks or Digital, which consists of using a drawing tablet with a computer that has a software placed onto it where the drawing tablet can be utilised, E.G; Photoshop, MicrosoftPaint, GIMP or Krita, all of which are used by industry professionals to design and create pieces of art that can be found on websites such as Artstation.
Another opportunity for my FMP will be that no matter what happens when it comes to technology, I can revert from the Digital creation to Traditional which will work to my favour no matter if the power goes off. the only thing that will be a problem from doing this would be the accuracy of drawing both sides of a face and character, which for me is slightly more difficult in the traditional setting.
The last opportunity that comes to my mind is that as this FMP is mainly college based and that my class has received a new drawing tablet upon which I am proficient with. I will be capable of drawing out complex and detailed characters.
Threats
Threats for this project would be things such as not being able to get my work done as I am otherwise occupied with real world issues that are more important, such as a family, or a world event that has me involved. Other threats to my FMP could also be of a time scale, meaning I have not managed my time appropriately and would be behind on things like being on my SWOT analysis where as other students would be on a diorama or even starting their research such as in my case looking into where industry professionals got into their positions.
I'd say my most prominent threat for my FMP would be a resurgence of cases for the dying off pandemic or catching the illness myself as I am now heading into a job where mishandling of resources can cause an immediate hospitalisation from contact with biological contaminants. The job in question being NHS housekeeping which can have me positioned in or around biological wards and even in surgical suites.
Mindmaps
My mindmaps for the FMP below detail where exactly I had looked in terms of when creating a set of characters, what clothes they as singles entities might wear, what art style out of 2D or 3D I wanted to Choose, and which genres I would try to make the characters fit into. Keeping my four genres, I knew now that once I had the basics covered I'd be needing to go into the refinery stage. Once I had started the refinery stage, I firstly looked into the clothing choices and designs that I could make.
With a key of Red, Yellow, And Green for difficulty, my process of the designing was short but the sub-headings such as "Body Armour", "Camouflage" and "Patches" are to be dependent on the body type of the individual I were to be designing. An example of what I mean can be if I was creating two entities, one with the Endomorph body-type and one with the Ectomorph body-type, the armour of those tow types would be scaled appropriately. this means the larger individual would receive more armour, akin to a juggernaut. moving slower but gain better defensive stats if placed in a action game in comparison to a skinner classed individual would receive far less armour so that they would move faster and be a lot more sneaky or even better camouflged.
Proposal Form
Pitch Presentation
PowerPoint Document Format
Within this video, I go through my Pitch Presentation and answer questions given to me by my peers as well as my lecturer. I feel as if I could have done better to explain and evaluate my presentation whilst going through. I also think that I could have run through the presentation better, as I believe that rushing through without taking many breaks for a breath or allowing time for information to be digested would have large impacts on me in the future, especially due to me thinking at the time that I was going to slow.
Research
Heading into my Research phase of the FMP, I will go through the Hardware and Software that I will need to complete what I have set out to do. Along with my Hardware and Software, I will going into the three main somatotypes, how the three types are portrayed, the weight that they can carry for their sizes as well as speed and when those two are covered, I will then head into the Art Style which I have given myself to use, this art style will be backed with images and references that showcase said art style from different games, with examples being from all platforms (Mobile, PC, PlayStation, XBOX). and lastly, for my research I will be looking into clothing types for the possible characters such as Tribal garments, casual civilian clothes and military uniforms from different era's, with the focus being modern day with hints of futuristic and past. What the characters can look like, such as race, eye colour, hair colour, tattoos, piercings, etc..
With the general games market of games having action games characters' predominantly male, I personally decided to go ahead and design two of the three characters as female, with their own different personalities and backgrounds.
Primary Research
Primary research consists of research or investigations into a specific area solely done and written-up by myself, With that; Within this primary research sector of my research branch of the FMP I will be looking into and tallying up evidence of character usage for multiplayer games along with the statistics of the players likeness towards the character in question, this will be done by asking people; Be it my peers, Friends, or Random players online which characters they chose to use and why.
Knowing this will take a while, I have already set a few questions to ask such as:
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out of all the characters the game has, who is your Favourite?
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Why is that character your Favourite?
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What has this character got, that others don't?
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Would you be happy to see more characters of race added to the game? ( if not, why?)
Primary Research, Character Design Form
Listed below are the questions and answers that I had asked my peers as well as others that I know will give genuine answers, these answers have helped me generate what types of 2D and 3D characters I will be creating for my FMP, especially as I now had clear cut evidence of what people preferred to play as be it gender of character as well as games played and found most exciting.
Design Form
The first two questions in my Form that I had sent out to my peers in the class and to people that played games of all types that I knew was to get a good view into which types of characters that are more widely chosen; Even with most of the those that had chosen male as their gender they associate with, almost half of them chose to play as female characters in games, a complete reverse to those that identify as Female who play as male characters in games. With two people playing as other genders if they were applicable.
When it comes to the types of games, the graph is varied between all of the choices listed, but FPS (First Person Shooter) took the overall win with RPG (Role-Play Game) and MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) taking up a joint second with all other choices matching up with one vote each, With Other being "Board Games", this ties in with other answers further into the form.
Somatotypes are important for my games character research as that allows me to design characters fitting the descriptions depending on body type and genre chosen.
these games genres choices made me raise an eyebrow as from talks amongst my peers and others, to me it seemed that they liked Horror and Historical games the most, but I was actually happy in the end that they had chosen what they felt they liked individually and not all herded together to landslide a single genre simply from talking about them.
Art style was added into the form as I needed to know what style was looked into the most and with the answers that were given, I now had a heading into the way I was to generate and draw up the characters I was to create. What I had not expected was for someone to pick Minecraftian, as that genre of art is mainly pixelated.
Question Seven, what I personally reasoned to be the most important, games wise, turned out to be the most shocking, as it subverted my expectations with almost all participants opting for the "Other" section, then writing in their own answers, these ranging from games such as World of Warcraft and Killing Floor 2 to even Cluedo
Questions Eight and Nine tie in together with one another as both of them feature what the player themselves likes about their games, these questions both being highly important for me s both of them can give me context on what I can do to make my characters stand out against one another, which is the base idea that I had.
What I personally interesting about the form that I had given out, is that in Question Seven bigger hitting games, especially in the world stage. such as "Call of Duty", "Battlefield" and "Destiny" did not sway the votes at all, but in fact the "Other" option was chosen more favourably. This is distinctively interesting as the genres that were chosen are found within games such as those previously mentioned.
Within the "Other" option I was surprised to see games such as "Killing Floor 2", "Skyrim" and even "Cluedo" The Board Game. The game that is "Cluedo" is specifically an outlier here as it shows me that even though this is a games development course where I was so focused on designing and creating a set of characters that fit into a digital game, that I never stepped back and considered the possibility for board games or even table-top action games such as "Dungeons & Dragons", a games platform that I am quite honestly annoyed at myself for never considering. A valuable avenue that I should in future look down.
Secondary Research
Secondary Research consists of research or investigations of a subject of which I am looking into that has been completed by another person, or persons, comparing the data extracted from those research gatherers against one another, correlating the evidence and using those extracted elements which I am looking for to draft up a statistic of what the games market is missing, or low on in terms of my FMP.
As my FMP is about character design and creation, I will be focusing my secondary research on gathering studies on popular games characters, the traits those characters have and why player bases like them. After matching the similarities, I will then look into the differences; Why those differences are important and what the market at large thinks of those differences in terms of what makes those characters Unique and Symbolic for either the company or legions of players that adore said games character.
Secondary Research, Cayde-6
Cayde-6
Ace Of Spades
Ace (Presumed Son)
Uldren Sov (Renamed "Crow")
Cayde-6 is / was a games character from the Destiny & Destiny 2 Franchise who's whole persona revolves around being a "Carefree" and ultimately funny individual as opposed to the naturally gritty and solemn reality for the games themselves, where warfare is a constant and never ending.
The traits that Cayde-6 had other than his carefree sounding attitude and funny one liners which gave player audiences somebody to like and enjoy, was that held within hidden "lorebooks" that are discoverable through both games is that the way Cayde holds himself around others in the game is vastly different to how he acts as a solo NPC, this gives the player (known only as Guardian) another way to view him and either become even more engrossed into his story and character or start to feel sorry for him; As from the "lorebooks", Cayde is simply alone, placing bets that hold his life on the line for an in game currency called Glimmer.
Within the DLC "Forsaken" Cayde-6's Final appearance alive, we as players start a mission which is to control and restore peace to a presumed prison riot and breakout, low an behold, it turns out that it was a prison break IN to free and convert scorn (a highly deadly species within the game) to assist in the coup for a world and kingdom. Cayde-6 finds out that all the Scorn captains are freed and fights, loses his ghost to, and finds out that said scorn captains are now under the command of Uldren Sov (renamed "Crow"), who then kills Cayde-6 with his own weapon the "Ace of Spades", (named after his presumed son, "Ace" and gives reference to his gambling addiction)
Secondary Research, Elena Fisher
Elena Fisher
Nathan Drake
Zoran Lazarević
Jeff Wynia
Elena Fisher as a secondary games character in popular games series "Uncharted" as known is a force to be reckoned with, knowledge of her within the games paints her as a journalist and self reliant investigator of historical mysteries. During the events of the first Uncharted game, "Drake's Fortune" it is shown that Elena was filming the discovery of "Sir Francis Drake"s' coffin with Nathan Drake when their boat was then attacked by pirates, who had been looking for Nathan.
Elena makes comebacks in the rest of the Uncharted games, most notably in Uncharted 2: "Among Thieves" and again in Uncharted 4: "A Thief's End". Both of these games where she is again a secondary NPC character to the playable and main character Nathan Drake, Elena in the second game playing the role of a wartime and investigative reporter to the city of Kathmandu and "Zoran Lazarević" with camera man "Jeff" where both she and Jeff are taken along to help the player in a temple that will reveal a way to Shambhala, a mystical city known in the in game universe as holding the key to living forever.
How This Research Helps Me In The Future.
How does looking at Cayde-6 help me?
Looking at Cayde Helps me in my FMP by allowing me to asses how the art of his character on first glance with an outsiders eye and no prior knowledge of him to portray his character as a cool, mysterious individual with a likeness to the Ace of Spades as seen on his gun.
By this establishment and narrative of his character with an outsider looking in perspective, it can show how a character can look completely different to how they act in the game they are from; And Cayde-6 ticks this box fully. Another way looking into Cayde as a character has helped me is by allowing me to get a focus on the way he has been dressed up. when I further researched into Cayde, it was evident that he had been dressed in a particular way, with the Ace of spades on different parts of his clothing, as well as his clothing itself being the only reminder of who he "Used to be".
How does looking at Elena Fisher help me?
Elena Fisher helps me in my FMP by her being used as a cornerstone for me to get a glimpse into how I can look into a female anatomy when drawing, from the definitions of her facial features to the way she is built from the chin down. the sculpting of a female character is vastly different from a male character as a female character is in a sense more curvy, with less block or squared elements in the joints and especially the arms, legs and torso.
When it comes to Elena as a character being used specifically to help me, my thought process for this was that if I am to create a set of three characters, with two of them being female, I needed to get a glimpse into what a female character with a specific somatotype might look, like and since I had finished the whole 4 (as of writing) main game Uncharted series, I took Elena Fisher as a prime example to use as a base; And see if I could get a chance to paint a character of my own design with the same shape and athleticism.
Primary and Secondary Research
Both the Primary and Secondary Research that I will be conducting will help me in the future as I will need to continue to utilise the facts gained from both, after the correlations. Once done with them I can keep them to memory as I complete my Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production stages of the FMP. Another way both Primary and Secondary research helps me in the long run whist doing the FMP is that both of them can point me in the right direction for how I will be fulfilling my sketch phases and colour pass-overs. How this can be done is by watching and re-watching stylised artist tutorials. which allow me to hone on my craft and complete the FMP to a standard that can be deemed acceptable by Hobbyist or Freelance Standards.
Areas that I will consider regardless of the data that gets cited from both Primary and Secondary research is that:
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evolution of characters comes from not just a lore standpoint within the games, but also from the start concepts of characters and where they ended up before a games conception.
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Bias from my friends about a character, this bias will be kept to account, even if other sources say otherwise such as my friend talking positively about (X Character) where-as a company doing a study will not.
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eliminating my personal biases about specific games and characters so that my research is not swayed to favour a set of characteristics over others.
PEGI Ratings & Targeted Audience
PEGI System
The PEGI System is a system and organisation rates games for the appropriate audiences, such as games that are kid friendly but are a bit to mature for those under the age of 3,6,12 will jot be able to play games under those ages legally.
What does PEGI mean?
PEGI means Pan European Game Information, Which essentially means why the games are rated the way they are in terms of their contents and messages to the audience.
A PEGI rating for a game will depend on what the game consists of, be it subliminal or literal in terms of messages to the audiences, an example of this would be the 12+ rating on Sam and Max games. With the few and far between limited subliminal adult messages such as innuendos, the targeted audience would not know what some of the voice lines mean as they are usually always double entendre. This acting as a safety net to get away with what is said.
PEGI Ratings
PEGI 3
The content of games with a PEGI 3 rating is considered suitable for all age groups. The game should not contain any sounds or pictures that are likely to frighten young children. A very mild form of violence (in a comical context or a childlike setting) is acceptable. No bad language should be heard.
PEGI 7
Game content with scenes or sounds that can possibly be frightening to younger children should fall in this category. Very mild forms of violence (implied, non-detailed, or non-realistic violence) are acceptable for a game with a PEGI 7 rating
PEGI 12
Video games that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy characters or non-realistic violence towards human-like characters would fall in this age category. Sexual innuendo or sexual posturing can be present, while any bad language in this category must be mild.
PEGI 16
This rating is applied once the depiction of violence (or sexual activity) reaches a stage that looks the same as would be expected in real life. The use of bad language in games with a PEGI 16 rating can be more extreme, while the use of tobacco, alcohol or illegal drugs can also be present.
PEGI 18
The adult classification is applied when the level of violence reaches a stage where it becomes a depiction of gross violence, apparently motiveless killing, or violence towards defenceless characters. The glamorisation of the use of illegal drugs and of the simulation of gambling, and explicit sexual activity should also fall into this age category
Content Flags
Sex
This content descriptor can accompany a PEGI 12 rating if the game includes sexual posturing or innuendo, a PEGI 16 rating if there is erotic nudity or sexual intercourse without visible genitals or a PEGI 18 rating if there is explicit sexual activity in the game. Depictions of nudity in a non-sexual context do not require a specific age rating, and this descriptor would not be necessary.
Drugs
The game refers to or depicts the use of illegal drugs, alcohol or tobacco. Games with this content descriptor are always PEGI 16 or PEGI 18.
Gambling
Racism
The game contains elements that encourage or teach gambling. These simulations of gambling refer to games of chance that are normally carried out in casinos or gambling halls. Some older titles can be found with PEGI 12 or PEGI 16, but PEGI changed the criteria for this classification in 2020, which made that new games with this sort of content are always PEGI 18.
The game contains depictions of ethnic, religious, nationalistic or other stereotypes likely to encourage hatred. This content is always restricted to a PEGI 18 rating (and likely to infringe national criminal laws).
Language
The game contains bad language. This descriptor can be found on games with a PEGI 12 (mild swearing), PEGI 16 (e.g. sexual expletives or blasphemy) or PEGI 18 rating (e.g. sexual expletives or blasphemy)
Fear
This descriptor may appear as 'Fear' on games with a PEGI 7 if it contains pictures or sounds that may be frightening or scary to young children, or as 'Horror' on higher-rated games that contain moderate (PEGI 12) or intense and sustained (PEGI 16) horror sequences or disturbing images (not necessarily including violent content).
Purchases
The game offers players the option to purchase digital goods or services with real-world currency. Such purchases include additional content (bonus levels, outfits, surprise items, music), but also upgrades (e.g. to disable ads), subscriptions to updates, virtual coins and other forms of in-game currency.
Violence
The game contains depictions of violence. In games rated PEGI 7 this can only be non-realistic or non-detailed violence. Games rated PEGI 12 can include violence in a fantasy environment or non-realistic violence towards human-like characters, whereas games rated PEGI 16 or 18 have increasingly more realistic-looking violence
Target Audience
Target Audience is the audience that gets targeted by a game, be it by the way the game flows or by story and even the characters themselves, this can be done by personality traits, their "Personal" likes and dislikes as well as affiliation and economic class E.G: working class, middle class etc...
The Target Audience that I had chosen for my character pack is that of a 16-18 PEGI rating, reason being as one is a bloodied cultist, one has a gun and the third one has a dismemberment. What I had planned for my characters is that there was something that would hold them all back, but be all brought together by those exact setback and work together for a common goal or good.