Alpha Status Met

hey folks,

Quick update. We did our alpha presentations to our mentors and some industry vets and things went swimingly...aside from a crappy projector that shows images far too dark. They liked where we went with the game. We've accomplished (and then some) all the requirements for alpha status and are now hard at work charging towards Beta.

Beta comes on the 14th of this month so not much time to do...well anything aside from work on the game. The end is in our sites....Anyone from Relic out there want to offer me a job before we grad and I am inundated with job offers?! ....k seriously though I need a job end of Feburary

Dev Diary Numero Seven

So,

That was a well needed break. Development slowed to a crawl, as predicted working from home for a group of 5 is not a terribly productive process. We had sicknesses, traveling, difficulty communicating and, of course, the holidays and family.

A comprehensive bug list has been made by yours truly while our PM works on fresh eyes work and PM duties. Our coder was tasked with refining the AI which is sorely needed (Due to our dismemberment feature, out AI cannot make use of the extremely useful and sorely missed Kismet AI) So, our coder is literally learning to make basic AI on the go. Something I am sure future employers will value. Our level designer has been battling the elements in an effort to get back to the UK to visit his family. He made it, but had no access to a computer Circa later than 2000 so...He couldn't do a whole lot of level design work. He got back to Canada early enough to do a bit of level tweaking, but not as much as we had all hoped. Our 3d Guy is simply AWOL. we're all assuming he just had an awesome restful break.

Anyways, this is my blog and my dev diary so, onto my tasks. As I mentioned above I compiled a comprehensive bug list. I concentrated, obviously, on larger game breaker bugs of which I found a fair share. In addition to that I've been writing up suggestions for enemy placement, level layout, gameplay flow and intuitive instructions. I have plans to make some changes to textures for several gameplay objects to emphasize (or in some cases de-emphasize them) I also have a nice list of sounds to create.

Now, on my first day back (tomorrow) I'll be making a prioritized list of these bugs and then I'll be handing them out to team members to get fixed. As anyone in QA can tell you. fix two bugs, switch on or create one. So, better to start now than in 2 weeks for QA. I hold no illusions given our time frame and inexperienced team that we will have our fair share of bugs, but it is my goal to showcase my QA talents and part of that will be starting early. I'll also be commandeering our 3d modeler for QA work. He's shown little interest in doing work aside from 3d but did express some interest in QA so that should work out nicely.

In addition to that work tomorrow I'll be creating the sounds I have discovered we will be needing after my test passes, I am sure the team will have some more sounds to add to my list as well. I am still counting myself lucky we had the foresight to prioritize our sound list and begin work on it with the collaborators early because they've been out of contact and have seemingly lost interest in the project. We've gone far and above out of our way to accommodate them, but they seem too busy and have little interest in completing the project they agreed to. Ah well, luckily we have all the stuff we need and I have a lot of interest in sound design in addition to game design so it will be fun to complete.

Speaking of sound, since I do not pro tools I had to get my hands on a copy of Reaper (great price for what is it by the way) to edit sounds in an effort to create music. I spent a day or two on my break learning the program and creating music for the game. I am just too used to pro tools now, even though I find the program...odious to say the least (buggy, buggy, BUGGY) I am still used to it, as such. I do not feel any of the music I created for the game over the break with Reaper will be used for the game. I'll be creating some more music for the game when I am back with the group and have a copy of the oh-so-finicky pro tools.

Approximately one month until industry night, man I need a job...

Warhammer Online and how I believe it could have been more succesful

                The game I’ve chosen to analyze today is Warhammer online (referred to as War from now on). A popular MMO from Mythic Entertainment and produced by EA. Based on the extremely popular games workshop table top models and games, War online brings the rich fantasy, brutal combat and extensive lore of Warhammer to fans in a complete package. So, why is it only moderately successful? I have several ideas as to some barriers that War online created for themselves which limited sales and bypassed fan demographics.

               The first barrier standing in the way of War online is its similarities with World of Warcraft (referred to as Wow from now on) People in the know, are aware that Warhammer thought of Orks, Goblins, Dwarves and Halflings long before Wow did...But, then again, J.R.R Tolkien thought of all those things long before either of the companies. The simple fact of the matter is Wow came out first, it was familiar and it had nearly all the races that War online planned to implement. Fans who are not particularly knowledgeable about the two games and their lore will see the races in Wow, compare them to the races in War and think...”well, I’ll go with the more established MMO of the two”

World of Warcraft Orc

Warhammer online orc

       
 

               How could this perceived barrier be fixed? I believe the Lore of Warhammer is about as deep and rich as it gets for fantasy settings. They have several races that could have taken the place of simple dwarves, humans, elves and so forth. Races such as the Skaven, giant, scheming rat man that live underneath the surface of the world plotting their ultimate revenge on the surface races. Or how about Lizardmen, who have an art style and history based on ancient Aztec and Mayan civilizations. Simple humans could have even been replaced by Bretonnians. Yes, they are human, but they are humans entrenched in a feudal knights and lords system which is significantly different than how humans are handled in Wow. Ultimately, War stands apart from Wow in gameplay, but the similarities between the two were too much for many newer players who simply went with the more established World of Warcraft. War needed to standout a lot more to get more new customers I believe.

               Another Barrier is a fairly simple one, price. At $15.99 per month in USD the subscription price is not only high, it’s a dollar more than Wow. Since Wow is their largest competitor and they are already firmly established, it only makes sense to use the simple method of offering a new game, new gameplay and all, for cheaper. This strikes me as a simple way to garner more new subscriptions. I think cutting the price down to 13.99 per month, 11.99 per month for the three month option and 10.00 flat for the yearly subscription would have been a smart move. To further cover overhead, War could have added micro transactions to supplement their income and make up for their cheaper subscription price. The price could have even undercut Wow by just a dollar and I think it would have brought in more new players. I understand this is likely a decision by EA rather than Mythic, but it was still a huge mistake in my opinion and one of their biggest barriers. Ironically enough I believe it would have also been the easiest to avoid.

             The final barrier I will discuss is likely a controversial one as it could really go either way. I believe War online could have garnered more players, what’s more, a different type of player than Wow, if they went with an M rating. While almost all the time, an M rating causes games to lose sales, there are clear and proven exceptions to the rule. I think given the time frame War came out in, it’s  lore (which is incredibly violent and dark) and the fact there were no other big MMO’s with an M rating at the time, War could have gotten away with it. With the Teen rating it received, even with the different art style than Wow, it was clumped into the same frame as Wow. I believe the game didn’t stand out enough if one were to put screenshots of the two together, the color palettes and world environments were just too similar. Yes, War was darker and a bit more refined art wise, but it wasn’t enough. I believe more War fans would have flocked to a Warhammer online universe truer to the lore, extremely violent and extremely dark with elements of very dark humour thrown in to boot. 

               So, where does this leave War?  Well, as a whole, the game was a success. In fact, it was one of only a handful of MMO’s to come out in the last several years to take away players from Wow. Sure, most trickled back to Wow, but it still did not stop the game from making a profit for the developers. I think they could have taken it further though, they knew standing out from Wow was a necessity, but I think they tackled the problem far too timidly. Switching up similarities by adding never before seen races would have been a huge boon I believe, especially if they were marketed properly, something which Mythic did quite well for the game. The subscription price was another fault, being the new guy, how can you expect to charge customers entrenched in Wow more money to switch over to your game? I imagine they thought they could get away with it because it was something fresh and new, but I think in the long run it hurt their subscription base. Finally, there is the controversial belief that the T rating hindered the game. While this is a matter of opinion, I believe I have backed it up with evidence that it may have been a good idea to go with an M rating. Warhammer is extremely dark, it’s always been that way. Making it a Teen game just helped to put it in the same frame as Wow to many players. Since Wow is was more established, cheaper and larger, I think Mythic needed not just some differences, they needed a lot of clear, drastic differences to really take a big chunk out of the MMO market dominated by Wow.

My first audio track

So,

it's my first game audio track. It's a bit rough around the corners, and the volume needs to be upped a bit (pro tools exported it sounding fine) but when I play it in vlc or winamp it's kinda quiet so I need to look into that.

Anyways. It's hosted on rapidshare for now. It will be hosted permanently very soon on soundcloud which was linked by my buddy Jack Nilson from vancouver film school in the same course as me. He's a couple months ahead.

Will update when the soundcloud file is activated. For now, download from here and please let me know what you think.

http://rapidshare.com/files/392815586/GD17_Zach_GA_Assignment2_GrpA.wav.html

let me know the kind of game it makes you think of, or possibly even reminds you of. Any and all feedback appreciated.

** Update **

Got soundcloud working. Check it out! http://soundcloud.com/zedkhov/chemical-warfare

Z

This week in Game Design School

Hey folks,

Busy week again, the folks in earlier classes weren't lying when they said the work ramps up dramatically each term, and this is only term two haha.

Ah, when it comes down to it thought and I am getting stressed out I just step back and tell myself I am making video games.

That brings me to the point of my post. I heard some great advice passed around by teachers who have been in the industry a long time now. Idea stealing happens a lot in this industry, it's almost guaranteed to happen to you at least once. Instead of getting mad, just come up with a new idea. If you had a good one, you'll have a good one again, odds are if you learn from your last one it will be a better idea overall as well. Basically don't let the bullshit get you down, concentrate on what makes the job fun.

So, this week we went into further detail for sound design. I created a one minute ambient sound clip of someone walking through the jungle, the rain starts and they come across a jaguar, they start running as it chases them, they make it to a stream where the cat attacks them and knocks them into the water, then devours him as the sound fades out. It's not the most unique project, but what I am learning is growing fast as is my interest in sound design. 3D design however is a thorn in my side. We're using 3d studio max and it's more than a little difficult to pick up. Tonnes of options, tonnes of redundant methods for accomplishing the same goals...which contributes to the ridiculous amount of options. Just, not my thing I suppose. Still, it's great to learn in case you ever have to touch something up in 3dsm or possibly communicate with your team in specifics of the program with what you need done.

And just to remind you folks. CS5 is out. I hear the tweaks and additions to the brushes make digital painting even more fun and compete a bit better with painter. Anyone tried it? thoughts?

Been busy update

Course I've been busy it's a video game design course condensed into one year. No excuses. So, we started doing game audio the other day. Loved it, little bit difficult at first to wrap my head around the interface. The program is called pro-tools and I encourage anyone interested in learning the basics of audio editing to grab it and try it. As I said it may take awhile to wrap you're head around the interface but once you get it things get significantly faster.

Anyways. Short little update. More coming soon, I'm one week into a two week level design assignment and hope to get my finished level walkthrough up on youtube at some point. Hopefully this weekend.

Z

Meeting the lead cinematics designer at Bioware

Hey again folks,

I got a bit of free time before I have to hand in a major final presentation. My classmates and I all had to make an analog board game which is balanced, unique and built to professional standards for a prototype. The teacher then plays all our board game with his wife and kids and marks on it in regards to presentation, playability, fun factor, uniqueness etc etc.

Anyways, that's done and will be handed in and presented soon, so as I said, I have a bit of free time. I'll go into a bit of detail of how privileged we are at Vancouver Film School, we were treated to a presentation by none other than Armando Troisi, the lead cinematic designer for Bioware. This guy helped shape and mold the likes of Mass Effect and Dragon age. Any in game cut scenes, or even interactive cut scenes (meaning conversations) was overlooked by him. To top it all off, he is a grad from Vancouver Film School. Anyways he went into great detail on how cinematics in game design works, you must have an eye for detail of course, but you must also be a student of film in regards to how lighting, posing, framing, etc works. Every little detail is in your control and must be addressed to make the best possible cinematic. Armando also went into detail to how cinematics works, they'll do anything and everything to make the cinematic work the way they want, more often then not this means "hacking" the game engine. This means ripping cameras, adding filters, posing chars in ways they were never meant to be etc etc. He also mentioned how in nearly every scene in a game cinematic the parts of the character that are not seen in the frame are probably doing the most bizarre things you can imagine. They are only concerned with making the characters or scene do exactly what they want, they do not care how it is done or what other parts outside of the view of the "camera" are doing. As long as it works right?

Anyways, the presentation was fantastic and enlightening. There is now a real desire for cinematic designers in games and is certainly a route people can go once they finish a video game design degree, for those that love movies and games such as myself this could be a dream job within a dream job.

Where I've been

Hey Folks,

I've been away from blogging for quite some time, I've acquired an art degree and am now at Vancouver Film School in the intensive video game design course. From this day on I'll be covering my assignments and giving some news and information in regards to my time at the school. I'm also hoping my blog will get people who may be interested in video games as a career to look into it more seriously. It's no walk in the park, but at the end of the day you're making video games for a living. You could be much worse off, I know I have been.

So, just to recap I'll be covering assignments and passing along information and advice I acquire here as well as covering new and upcoming games and technology. Hope you check back often and enjoy the site. Please don't hesitate to comment or ask questions I'll get to each and every one of them.

Cheers,

Z