Unit 78: Digital Graphics for Computer Games

Thursday, 11 December 2014

HA2 Task 7 - Review

After looking at each aspect of my project I am going to create a review of my overall performance and decisions that I made during the time that I had.

Overall I feel that my performance on this task was below average as I didn't have good project management as my timing for each task weren't accurate leaving me with not enough time to complete each other task to the highest of standards. At the beginning of the unit I feel that my timings were more accurate as I finished the first few tasks within a certain time limit but after that i just took too long to take my pictures which stopped my progress as that was the next step in my process and i couldn't continue without doing this.

When I was creating the vector image of my game cover i did experience problems when I was attempting to trace my own face as the lighting was terrible which made it impossible to define any features that were on my face and trying to free-hand draw them didn't work as the proportions didn't look right making the overall image look worse. I decided to not include any facial features on my character which i felt was the right decision for the situation that I had.

If i was to do this unit again I would improve my timings my not wasting time doing nothing but instead I would take the pictures straight away and get working on them in Photoshop so that the overall quality would have been better as I rushed the pictures and the Photoshop. Also when taking the pictures I would have ensured that the lighting was correct so that you could see everything instead of the light being to bright or too dark so that you couldn't see anything.

Also when creating the vector image I would take more time to focus on the finer details as the picture is very plain when it comes to looking at the character, I could have added logos, scars, sunglasses etc. I did finish the product before the end of the 5 weeks but it wasn't to the highest standard as I wanted it to be photo realistic however I don't feel that I achieved this as the details were missing which makes the image more of a toon style which isn't what I was going for. However I feel that I captured the slight humor that I wanted to show that this game wouldn't have been all serious by adding the bucket and spade to the zombie that was on the ground.

Overall I think that I achieved more of what I wanted to portray to the audience compared to what I didn't achieve but wanted to. I feel that the final artwork was of good quality but could have been improved with more attention and by following my character profile exactly. The finished product achieved the aim of the project in my eyes however my project management didn't achieve the aim of the project.

HA2 Task 6 - Presentation

HA2 Task 5 - Production

Salford City College

Eccles Sixth Form Centre

BTec Level 3

Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production

Games Design

Unit 78 – Digital Graphics for Computer Games

HA2 – Transformation Production Log

Name	Jake Hyatt

Date: 17/11/14

First I inserted the vector version of my game cover that I created in Photoshop by inserting the images that I needed, I then moved them into the correct position before I used the magic wand to get a roughly cut out object. I had to use the eraser to erase finely around the zombie as the colours of the skin and clothes were very similar to the background which rendered the magic wand useless. I also used the eraser tool on the bucket, spade and baseball bat to give the illusion that the items were either being worn or being held.

Date:17/11/14

After the image was in Illustrator I would use the hot keys to select the tools that I wanted “V” for the selection tool “P” for the pen tool and “I” for the eyedropper tool. The process I would go through is I would first create a new layer with a relevant name for what will appear on that layer, I next selected the pen tool with a red outline but no fill and trace around everything first that I could see or what I thought would give the layer more detail/depth before selecting the select tool to select the pen tool outline that I wanted to fill. I would finally choose the eye dropper tool and click inside of the shape that I had selected which would change the colour to match the one I chose but would also automatically get rid of the red outline making it easier to repeatedly select a new shape and fill it with the correct colour until the layer was complete and I’d move onto a next one. I also used Bezier curves when drawing the outlines so that the image looked smoother instead of having jagged edges.

Date:18/11/14

For the sky instead of tracing it I decided to put a gradient fill as it looks smoother, it also made it easier for me as the clouds would have been hard to trace as they were slightly faded and the sky often changed to different shades of blue. This was the best solution to the problems that I had as the gradient changes shades of blue until eventually going white and even though it’s not from the original image I feel that it still blend in with the rest of the image. I did this same effect in the circle of the game title because the original would have been too difficult to trace however I kept the colour scheme from the original.

Date:20/11/14

Date: 21/11/14

For the text I used the pen tool to create a line but to ensure that when I went to trace a new line the pen tool wouldn't continue so I pressed “Ctrl + Shift + A” which would cut the line off so that the pen tool when used again would create a new line.

Friday, 14 November 2014

HA2 Task 4 - Character Profile

Character Profile:

Mason Hughes: Mason Hughes is a 25 year old DJ in the nightclub Pacha on the party continent of Ibiza. He is very passionate about what he does but is only more passionate about one thing…killing the infected (name undecided) and finding out why this has happened in the first place. Mason wasn’t infected as it was a sound that was produced which mutated the humans into these infected but he has his headphones on which blocked the sound. However nobody turned instantly as there is a delay to make it look like a random outbreak the next day.

Appearance

Mason has a Caucasian skin tone as he is originally from Europe. He is a male, around the height of 6 foot with no defining features such as birth marks, freckles, moles etc…his body type is ectomorph so he will have an average build (nothing too extreme). He will have teal coloured hair which will be medium length, a hat so you will mainly only see the fringe of his hair, his headphones which are constantly over his ears in case the sound is played again to clear up people such as himself, no glasses, no ear or nose piercings but will have snake bite piercings on this lower lip. His jacket and shoes will look basic as they will be able to change (I’ll talk more about that later) but he will have black skinny jeans which you will not be able to change throughout the game. Mason will not wear any jewellery below his head such as rings, chains or bracelets.

Personality

Mason will have a dark sense of humor which will show in his phrases and special moves which he can perform. He is outgoing and doesn't care what anybody else thinks about him, he is courageous and will fight any infected that he sees (big, small, fast, slow or even an evolved/special one). He is dedicated and never gives up on anything so if a mission is failed then this will have a negative effect on him making the mission harder to complete next time and vice versa if he completes the mission 1^st time. He wants to gather as many survivors as possible and take them to safety as he cares about the future of humanity as nobody knows if this has happened all around the world.

Powers

He will not have an powers at the start of the game but can find loot (different shoes and jackets) and depending on the rarity of them it will give him a certain power such as speed, jump and strength and the rarer the item is the less the cool down timer will be to use these powers and the % affect will be much higher.

Skills

There will be two skill trees which will be Survival and Combat. The survival tree will have three branches named Hunger, Health and Agility. The combat tree will have three branches called Ammunition, Finishing moves, Toughness. It will be impossible to complete every branch of both tree because the further you travel down the branches the more skill points that attribute will require (lowest will be 1, highest will be 7) so the player will have to spend their skill points wisely. However you will be able to reset all your skill points and re-spend them in a different way to experiment with each tree and branch in as many ways as possible.

HA2 Task 3 - Game Genre, Setting and Synopsis Research

Infected Island Of Ibiza

The game that I am creating will be both open world and linear as you will be able to roam around and do whatever you feel like doing (side mission, saving survivors or just killing infected) but will eventually have no more side missions or survivors to save until you have completed some main story missions to unlock more.

During missions I will include a system that will affect the character depending on his personality as he is dedicated to survive. I will show this because if the main character dies during a mission then it will have a negative effect on him making the mission even harder to complete the next time that you play it (e.g. slower movements) but there will be better rewards if the player completes the mission without dying (e.g. more skill points, rarer clothes). Another thing that I will implement is that unlike in dead rising 3 where once you have cleared zombies around the survivor then it doesn't matter if they die or not but in my game I will give the player a reason to keep these survivors alive as bringing them to the safe house will give xp bonuses, skill points, side missions and more information regarding the story line.

The loot system in the game will ensure that the player doesn't get the best clothes in the game off the first zombie that they kill, the rarity of the clothes will depend on the level of the infected, infected between level 1-10 will drop common (white), levels 11-20 will drop uncommon (green), levels 21-30 will drop rare (blue), levels 31-45 will drop legendary (purple) and levels 46-60 will drop flawless (orange). As the levels go up the infected will become stronger, mutated and generally harder to kill so the player will also have to think about upgrading their weapons as well as just ranking up to get better clothes as they would most likely de more often. This also leaves room for DLC to come out that includes new clothes, new missions, new enemies, higher levels.

There will be weapon crafting in the game and the weapons will become more complex (more parts needed, harder to find parts). There will be both serious weapons like in Dead Island but there will also be silly playful weapons like in Saints Row 3 and Dead Rising 3 to make the game more enjoyable for the player. There will also be hidden collectibles and Easter eggs around the map to trigger the players interest in finding all these whilst playing through the game.

Along with this I will implement that you have to keep your character well fed (above 75%) but if his hunger goes below this he will just move slower but if reaches drastic measures (below 15%) then you will slowly start to loose health but this process will speed up the lower the hunger percentages goes.