Woo work time

Now with what I have managed to get done this year, I'm not gonna have to spend every single day of christmas trying to do 12 weeks worth of projects in 3 weeks.
Just some minor changes: making the lid of the chest bigger, fixing my trash to Jolynns paintover and finishing my crab with some zbrushing on there too. Seems like an easy enough task, and many many sketches to do with my FMP to get a visual idea of what I'm gonna be doing.

Never been too good at drawing but I gotta do my best so I'll probably start doing a bunch of sketches tonight and everyday so I can have a massive log of stuff to show Chris, then he'll be really impressed and amazed and I'll get a super high grade for lots of development.
So I need to make a final decision though it doesn't help that Heather seemed really unimpressed when I explained it to her. LOL IDEAS

Alchemy

For the last day, I have been using Alchemy to generate shapes for me to draw over and hopefully help me with some monster design. I've never been too good at thinking outside the box with most things, like generating 25 variations of the same outcome. Alchemy has helped though, I've gotten a unique image from every random shape it's made, most of them being monsters/creature designs which are really going to help in the long run.

Blitz

I must say it was really useful having a word with Mr Web today as he highlighted many things I never would have looked at when modelling or when planning a piece.

Firstly we discussed my FMP about how it shouldn't be created like a wedding cake and only finished when the last bit is done. It should be more comprised of elements that stand well on their own so that if I run out of time, I will have something to show. So it totally leaves me with some planning to do regarding what it is I actually want to make for my FMP and how I will go about it.

I do enjoy making assets/props just not whole levels, having to plan where everything goes. This is referenced in my little alley way environment which is turning out great and isn't a whole large thing as it just bogs me down. Hence why I quit the rooftop and went back to the crab.

The other two things he helped with were the Trash and my Chest project. The chest, he said, was a bit drab and should really be more contrasting with much brighter colours to keep the interest in. Bringing areas out and giving them more punch so tonight I will be working on that, also to my specular. If I make the grooves less shiny, it stops them being so bright like in real life and gives the rest of the gold more punch.

My trash needs some scaling work, as I never really considered how big things are in real life. He said the cans and bin were about right so everything else needs to be scaled to fit. Have to change the shape of the bin bags to make them seem as though they are leaning onto the bin, and make them bigger so they seem more realistic. The other point he made was about story. He pointed out that there wouldn't be trash around the outside of a bin if the bin wasn't full. Hearing him say that it just comes out like common sense.  

Stumble Upon

After Eavesdropping a conversation, I took a note of Stumble upon and checked it out when I got home later and I have to say it is really amazing.

There are so many sites that I have been to that have just had excellent things to save into my inspiration folder.  Lots of great graphic design and lots of art. A bunch of fonts and hilarious pages and online games. Though I do look forward to it pulling up a page of someone else's pictures and seeing how others think and work.

I don't wanna be a concept artist or anything but I still love the look of pretty pictures and those of well dressed characters of course. Headphones and angst is the future I tell you. 

And my chest

Not my cleavage, that comes later.

This isn't the most recent version since I forgot to put a keyhole in it but that is now done. All I have to do is sort out of UV then start work on the zbrushing.

3rd Year Post.

I have been working on things just not posting on this blog for lack of not wanting to update with a three line post. Though thats sort've what this is gonna be anyway.

Just finished the modelling for the trash project. Wanted to branch out and model a dumpster and a wheelie bin to place near shops, restuarants or flats. This is pretty near the 500 tri limit.

I did want to unwrap and zbrush my mimic chest today but then because the labs are now on 3DsMax 2010 we have the same problem as last year with the labs being one version of what I have.

This is my current progress into the 2D to 3D sprite contest that Game Artisans was running. I was unable to work while it was on but liked the idea so I made a model following the guidelines. It's Django from Boktai sitting at 3k tris which is the limit.

Shall we take Risks?

Apparently not. According to this Kotaku link there are people in the industry saying games aren't that creative anymore. Industry veteran and Zoonami CEO Martin Hollis compares films to games saying that films were about two things. Romance and Guns hence the "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" phrase. Bond films in a nutshell really. Then saying that games were all guns and killing with "Bang bang, Bang bang" Apart from games which aren't meant to have enemies in them (puzzles and sports games) what was the last game that didn't have a certain degree of fighting or doing harm to another? (Yes whacking an animal on the head with a net counts as violence)

Violent scallywag

None really come to mind. I look at my collection and only those you'd expect not to have violence don't. What is it about violence and killing that makes us play loads of games about it? Is it that all gamers are repressed criminals and use games as an outlet? Do we enjoy murdering other people, nazis and ambassadors of other races using all sorts of weaponry? I suppose we do.

I look at prototype and remember that there are no children walking down the sidewalks. Then I remember that Alex Mercer is an over powered psycho who can fling people up in the air like a 10ton truck just by running down the road with a shield out. 

The majority of grunts can't even touch you in this game.

But that isn't the point of this article. We are here to discuss that all games are now similar and don't stray from working formulas. This is one of the reason I hate games about war. Not just any war. The two world wars. They have been done to death and back and that's the reason Wolfenstein has Nazi Zombies. All the characters are generic army guys who shoot army guys wearing different colours with a range of automatic rifles, pistols and shotguns. There may be jeeps or tanks but there'll be many town levels and some field/forest/jungle ones maybe even a few in the snow. If you don't kill all the bad doods, they will chase you throughout the level until one of you dies so you have to kill everyone. How many times have there been war-based games? Too many for me to count. 

I like new games, I like fresh characters. Stereotypes are fine. They provide foundations but don't make everyone look and act the same; Army guys, RPG characters like Cloud, little girls holding massive weapons. At least Max Payne is slightly different, Kaim Argonar from Lost Odyssey and Tingle in Zelda.

No character in the world is as unique as this 35 year old Fairy man.

The article later says that new IPs fail because it's new and it is not what people want in their Testosterone man games. MadWorld, the black and white Running Man-esque Wii game went down and even that wasn't a kiddy game. I still want to play it but I've heard good things. Same with No More Heroes made by the people who made Killer 7 about a schizophrenic serial killer.

No More Heroes. Cel Shaded Assinate em up

People know that they like to shoot and kill. They don't quite know if they like new characters like the one in Scribblenauts. I've seen this receive much hype, especially since you can put a steak on a baby and get it eaten by a lion and I think they have God fighting Satan in it too. Fez is a 2D platformer that then rotates the world 90 degrees a time so you can reach other platforms. It looks great and is only being made by 3 people. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat was an amazing platformer that used the bongos but now it's been ported to the Wii it doesn't use the bongos. That's half the fun taken away.

See, look how fun it is. Accessible to kids without being crap to adults

I feel saddened when I look at the game shelves and I see games that were obviously just knocked out such as the Wii and DS plague of Brain Training, Dog Training, Toilet Training, Train spotting style games. Then the rest on those systems thats all casual or for kids. 

Xbox is plagued by shooting games and RPGs, I don't even look at the Sony shelves.

In years to come I see developers only taking the safe options in FPSs or casual/kids games instead of taking risks and doing something new and different. Like the whole point of games is supposed to be about. I come to games either looking for a Narrative or an awesome experience. Some games are falling by the wayside these days, though stalking Kotaku it's hard not to see what's going to be coming out that has potential. However looking at a release schedule for Europe holds no promise at all. It seems to be one promising title per 5 cheaply made game.

Can't wait for the 18th of September on the Wii. Great day for gaming.

I wanna change that. I want to make games that aren't the same or have been done before. I want new stuff.

Fun fact. Searching World War 2 Game character in google, the first image is a gypsy. Actually only the 5th/6th image onwards are of war.