Christmas is Coming

This is the last time I'll be posting in the year of 2012 as it's Christmas and as I am a great believer in family spirit and joy I'm not going to be committing any time over the festive period towards work. Anyway enough of that nonsense let's get down to business, so this is the first milestone for my game project known as Outer Eden and so far we have a character, game design document and now an audio proposal where I have outlined that the music, sound effects and dialogue will be influenced by that of Mass Effect, Star Wars and other famous titles that feature in the sci-fi genre in ordered to get across the right message to my audience to make my game that little bit more immersive.

Below Displays the milestones for Outer Eden 

Friday 14th December - Character both modeled and textured 

                                     - Game design document complete

                                     - Audio proposal

Friday 15th March      - Press pack for Outer Eden

Friday 22nd March     - Outer Eden cinematic completed with audio

Friday 19th April        - Outer Eden level completed

Friday 26th April        - Outer Eden Production Blog conclusion

                                    

I would like to say happy holidays to all

First Milestone Build Up

Here it arrives the final week for me to complete the game design document for my game Outer Eden and as you well know from last week there was still a lot for me to accomplish....in fact it wasn't just the GDD I was expected to complete as I also need to have my character fully finished and by finished I mean texture and ready to roll.

With all that in mind I can safely say it has been a struggle but I did manage to get there as my remaining for sections to my GDD were finished which included Game Art, Technical, Management and Appendices. These sections weren't too hard to complete however finding out business plans from existing companies proved to be a slight downfall, so my business strategies supporting the concept may be lacking.

Moving on as you can see from below images I have fully painted my Armour for the main character and it just requires a head to be wielded to the body...other than painting being inaccurate in places do to my slight of hand I think it captures that futuristic feel my game promotes.

GDD completed sections

1. Game Overview
2. Story Setting and Character
3. Gameplay and Mechanics
4. Levels
5. Interface
6. Audio
7. Artificial Intelligence
8. Game Art
9. Technical
10. Management
11.  Appendices

Didn't however propose my audio for Outer Eden due to progress this week being focus around the GDD completion and main character's armour completion which I see to be key factors when completing this cinematic that is to be finished for Friday 22nd March.


Next weeks plan of action

• Propose Audio
• First Milestone

Under two weeks before my first Judgement day or whatever

Under two weeks left now  before my first major milestone where I have to have my character completed with texture, game design document fully fleshed out and a proposal for what kind's of sound I would like to work with for my upcoming 3D game project Outer Eden.

Firstly I would like to establish that I haven't done any wok on my character as I have overlooked dates and it has come to my attention that this Game Design should take high priority over other outstanding milestones due to its scale.

So if we look back at the list of Sections I presented last week in order to give you an idea of my current progress.

1. Game Overview
2. Story Setting and Character
3. Gameplay and Mechanics
4. Levels
5. Interface
6. Audio
7. Artificial Intelligence
8. Game Art
9. Technical
10. Management
11.  Appendices

As you are able to see above I have come across a new feature....how exciting. I can now put lines through text. Anyway, so from the above you can clearly see which sections have been completed and which haven't and as I told you last week sections 1,2 and 3 were finished, so from that you can see that this week I have managed to further build on my GDD by successfully completing sections 4,5,6 and 7. Due to this being my objectives of last week I would say that I can see this week come to a positive end. 

For these sections I have not encountered any problems like I said the only set back has been the time constraint which has given me no choice but to focus all my attentions onto the GDD.

Fundamentally in order to complete these sections the following visuals had to be created

Menu screen designs with transitions between all menus.

HUD design

One of the level design's

At this point in my project I had some idea of how I wanted my game to play out the following video of Mass effect is just a small example of how I depicted my game at this point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vcMoDO1mDA 

This is how I could imagine Outer Eden to be like but without the vehicle for the majority of the time but there is the option of utilizing vehicles for faster means of travel

Next week I hope to of achieved

• Completed Game Design Document 
• Meaning sections 8,9,10 and 11 must be finished
• Character Art
• Team management, etc
• Character painting 

14th Decemeber is my first milestone which is in under 2 weeks where the following must be finalized 

• Character Model finished 
• Game Document Finished 
• Sound Proposal

Oh yeah I almost forgot...the week prior to I mocked up a leveling up system design aswell as my radar design and here it is.

UV's and such like....Oh dear

After last week's showcase of my progress on the 3D model of my main character for my game project Outer Eden I have made progress in order to keep to my date of completion which is the 14th December 2012. Such progress has been made on the issue I encountered because of making my armour using Autodesk's 3D Studio Max as I created additional polygons they weren't being registered when it came to painting. Enough of all this rambling I can safely say that I managed to sort out my UV's, with no issues well unless you count taking a lot of time to do. Below displays my character's finished UV's.

Now for my 3D character model I have to paint it and I have around 3 weeks until the 14th which is great if I don't say so myself.

In terms of developments on my GDD (Game design document I would be inclined to say that so far I am making steady progress as after looking at a few examples of existing game design documents online I have constructed a final structure that breaks it up into 11 sections and these are as named below:

1. Game Overview
2. Story Setting and Character
3. Gameplay and Mechanics
4. Levels
5. Interface
6. Audio
7. Artificial Intelligence
8. Game Art
9. Technical
10. Management
11.  Appendices

I almost forgot, in my section 3 gameplay and mechanics I put together a radar design as the gameplay  as the radar in game as a massive impact on how the game itself plays rather like grand theft auto with the mission objective system where an icon is placed on the mini map to present that there is something to head towards in order to progress in the game. Below is my radar design created in Adobe Photoshop. Its design has been inspired by the games theme through the use of colour representation and the rest is for you to decide on whether you like it or not.

From looking at the above I can announce that sections 1,2 and 3 have been completed leaving me with around 3 weeks to get the rest completed as my milestone like the 3D character is the 14th December 2012. 

I feel like I am on track, but that doesn't mean the next few weeks will be easy.

Nest weeks task's

• Paint Character 
• Sections 4, 5, 6 and 7 completed
• Level design 
• HUD design

Body of a model

Last week I felt my post title was a bit boring to be honest so this week I've gone for a different scope as I did promise to have some modelling complete for you this week and I haven't failed to deliver. Images of main protagonist 'Zak Knight's (Spero) Armour; modeled in Autodesk 3D studio Max. Model has been re-done since first screen shot on my first post as sculpting armour didn't seem to give me the results I desired. Too many smooth surfaces and not enough rigid indents, etc.

Front Perspective

Back Perspective

Overall I am satisfied with my work. unfortunately I later discovered that because I constructed all of  the armour structure in max, by adding additional polygons. Causing it tamper with the UV map, so over the next week whilst further developing my game design document I will be pelt mapping my character model. On a positive note because each section of armour was created as separate elements it won't be as intense to sort out, but it has been estimated to take me four hours. 

Next weeks tasks:

• Pelt Map character 
• Continue to develop game design document according to plan

Game Overview

After weeks of preparation my journey had finally begun as this week I started to write up my game design document. This task was greeted by initialization my games concept, which was supposed to be a high concept briefly highlighting key areas included within the concept. However, it turned out to be a some what extended blurb, but I feel it covers all bases, when considering it as an introduction to my game design document. It points out genre, characters, plot and further elements.


My first section, Game overview. Is exactly as named. An opening segment that presents readers with a range of listed elements that will be embedded into the final game concept such as enemies, number of levels,   Target audience, Collectables, Objectives, Visual style and Project scope. All of which act as a root directory for further details to for further publication within the finished game design document, which needs to be completed for the 14th of December 2012. At this stage I feel satisfied that I'm on target to get it completed by that milestone.

Next week I'm going to focus on further production on character, as that needs to be sculpted and painted by the 14th aswel.

Game City

Yet another week has passed me and I am disappointed to say I haven't really hit my targets outlined in my last post, but I am pleased to highlight that it hasn't been a complete disaster as for one week only Game City open up some sort of festival aimed to attract the public community located on the Old Market Square in Nottingham.

Due to this I have attended various lectures from individuals already dabbling in the games industry, in order to further inspire and increase my existing knowledge. One specific area I feel has really stood out at me is story development as Outer Eden is a concept reliant on  the story element. However, by just mentioning story doesn't really hit the nail on the head, so what I have understood is that I need to come up with a logical ending in order to construct a more believable journey for consumers to enjoy. This will aid me when trying to write out the rest of my story.

Another step has been taken with my game design document in the action of showing my plan to my Tutor Robert Hoare and he has assisted me with tweaking, so I can now started working on it without any problems in the future.

That is pretty much all I have for you this week.

I can promise that my game design document will be started on next week as there aren't any events taking place for me to be distracted by

Tasks to complete:

• Game design Documented started
• Character Sculpting

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail

At this stage I think its time for yet another update on where I am with Outer Eden so far. Firstly I would like to say due to this being in the early stages of my project there isn't anything in terms of visuals I can show you but hopefully by next week I should have further developments on the character model I posted last week.


However, I am proud to announce that I have managed to construct both a game design document  plan alongside an all round production plan including milestones in order to make it easier for me to keep on track.


No attempt to begin writing my game design document was approached due to my decision to produce a plan as I think it is essential to have a source such as a plan to build upon. Other elements such as audio have been briefly looked at as I had the chance to start editing voice recordings, but I haven't really formed anything specifically for Outer Eden. During my video session we touched on painting techniques and again nothing has been moulded into Outer Eden.


All in all during the early stages I can see that things are starting to mingle into one another across all areas of the production categories and as the weeks go on you shall start to see this happening as my concept starts to take shape in the distant future.


Unfortunately, that is all I can point out on this post, but I can give you the heads up on what to expect next week.

• Further developments on Character sculpting 
• Start to write up my Game Design Document
• Further exploration into voice acting and scripting

A Sudden Change of Heart

All of a sudden I find myself re-thinking my story for Outer Eden as me and another fellow student studying on the same course were discussing each others concepts and as a result of this he suggested that a make my alien species humanoid in order to attach more of an emotional connection. These ideals were influenced through James Cameron's 2009 film Avatar. All of a sudden when he mention this idea I was blown away and decided  to incorporate it into the story.
I did this because in my previous post I discuss how I wanted to approach a psychological path and this would allow me to create a link between two completely different races and how certain individuals from both sides of the spectrum react to one another and how events can affect a mindset. Below is the edited story description.


“Outer Eden is a 3rd person PC production in which places the player in a world five billion years from now...where planet Earth is seist to exist. Subsequently humanity managed survive the burning hunger of the Sun's radiant disease by cultivating Mars. However, there is more than meets the eye with this desperate attempt to salvage humanities footprint in this eternal universe, with a corrupt government known as “The Cratoriun Council” a human constructed government made to be responsible for humanities every decision.

The player finds themselves taking on the role of Zak Knight formally known as Zak Spero an ordinary twenty one year old man unknowingly made to live in the shadows of the father he didn't know. Away from the Cratoriuns evil eye and their resilient super soldiers. 

Before, events drastically turn, humanity has been settled on Mars for around eighteen years when  a mysterious individual known as Sebastian tracks you down and unveils your true identity. Unfortunately, due to high security levels the Cratoriuns discover who you really are, giving no other option but to evacuate the Dome, where other mysterious findings are stumbled upon.

Mars being the promise land wasn't the only advantage as the Cratoriuns discovered a resource  as they called it Plasmus that was obtained from within the surface of Mars. This energy was used to rapidly evolve civilization and it was utilized for the suits worn by Cratoriun Guard making them genetically engineered beings.

Another civilisation, was encounter living on Mars and diplomatic prosperities were undertaken way before humans even established themselves on Mars. These relations involved the self centered Cratoriun Council and another humanoid race that derived on peace and well being known as the “Feusions”. Such negotiations drove the Feusions underground so humans could be the only capable civilization on the surface and if they didn't comply they had threatened to wage war upon them. However, all existence of this pacifistic culture were hidden from all of human society. Human civilization was consolidated  to a huge dome to avoid any interaction with the Feusion's and they were fed lies such as a criminal underworld had been formed in the outer lands of Mars, so knowone would dare to set foot outside.

Due to you escaping human civilization as a result of events of uncertainty. Another potential threat presents its ugly face in the bewildered out lands of Mars. Where you first encounter a race alien to you. The Feusions were walking the planets surface yet again and on the hunt for redemption.

Eventually you as Zak locate an access tunnel carved into a volcano leading to the Feusion chambers underground, unfortunately due to prior events the Feusions emotional sense have evolved giving them a need to access certain feelings that humans had already adapted and they take you prisoner.    

You as Zak Knight must learn to understand the Feusion ways as you discover the truths that lie within humanities civilization on Mars and gain the trust of this ancient cultural race.”


From reading Outer Eden’s newly modified story I believe you can see a depth that wasn't in the previous description.

I will hope to post again next week at some point.

New Beginnings

My name is Sean Wheat and I am a student currently studying on the FdSc Games Technology course at Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies. On this course I am required of to produce a playable level for the games concept I gave birth to as part of the first year studying on the Games Technology course.

Game title logo

From here on out the upcoming months I anticipate will be greatly challenging as I do look to extract my game “Outer Eden” from its initial design into a game sequence in which others can immerse themselves and hopefully aid me with serviceable feedback for future projects. 

This Blog will contain weekly reports outlining the growing stages in which my game takes in order to mould into its final point, which will be a fully playable 3D segment from Outer Eden. So, as I have mentioned this I estimate will be highly challenging at certain periods, but it will give me an opportunity to maybe further analyse my strengths and weaknesses and improve on any flaws I do possess. 

From here on out the upcoming months I anticipate will be greatly challenging as I do look to extract my game “Outer Eden” from its initial design into a game sequence in which others can immerse themselves and hopefully aid me with serviceable feedback for future projects. 

This Blog will contain weekly reports outlining the growing stages in which my game takes in order to mould into its final point, which will be a fully playable 3D segment from Outer Eden. So, as I have mentioned this I estimate will be highly challenging at certain periods, but it will give me an opportunity to maybe further analyse my strengths and weaknesses and improve on any flaws I do possess. 

“Outer Eden is a 3rd person PC production in which places the player in a world five billion years from now...where planet Earth is seist to exist. Subsequently humanity managed survive the burning hunger of the Sun's radiant disease by cultivating Mars. However, there is more than meets the eye with this desperate attempt to salvage humanities footprint in this eternal universe, with a corrupt government known as “The Cratoriun Council” a human constructed government made to be responsible for humanities every decision. The player finds themselves taking on the role of Zak Knight formally known as Zak Spero an ordinary seventeen year old boy unknowingly made to live in the shadows away from Cratoriuns evil eye and their resilient super soldiers. 

Before, events drastically turn humanity has been settled on Mars for around seventeen years when  a mysterious individual known as Sebastian tracks you down and unveils your true identity. Unfortunately, due to high security levels the Cratoriuns discover who you really are.

Mars being the promise land wasn't the only advantage as the Cratoriuns discovered a resource  as they called it Plasmus that was obtain from within the surface of Mars. This energy was used to rapidly evolve civilisation and it was utilised to the suits worn by Cratoriun Guard making them genetically engineered beings.

Another threat presents its ugly face as knowone has dared to venture out into the wilderness of Mars located outside of the city. But you had no other option but to go on the run at this stage. This is where you first encounter an alien race that breed from the core of Mars known as the “Terrorsite“ a hate filled bug like race, which incidentally contain power signatures that of Plasmus. 

You as Zak Knight must take on a  deadly alien threat to humanities survival whilst evading the Cratoriun evil eye. In order to follow your past and become a symbol of hope.”    

The story description itself highlights that this isn't exactly a small concept, but I only hope to complete a brief sector of gameplay to present my overall skills and ability's as an individual. Not to forget, this game concept was first established as mentioned for an earlier assignment piece and over the recent summer break I have been unsure on whether or not to stick it out or transition my energy's into a completely fresh concept, but in the end I felt this risk values weren't worth combating and after overviewing my design a spark was re-lit for Outer Eden. When constructing this concept my interest in scientific research was brewing as I watched a documenting relating to how the world will end. Some people may disagree with the theory of the Suns expansion burning eating our planet but each to their own. Also, other scientist have ventured into the possibly of life on Mars, which again I found greatly inviting..... just imagine walking around on the red rock landscape. Anyway, that is how I came to the conclusion of utilizing these theory's and making them my own with Outer Eden a heavily story driven concept, some may say fantasy adventure. 

The Final piece of jigsaw in this design was psychology and how it is animal instinct to survive , but not only that I promise to embed other forms of interesting psychology conceptions.

Due to it being a 3rd Person action I expect to utilize software such as Autodesk Mudbox, Autodesk 3d Studio Max  or even Autodesk Maya. In order to create characters I have already justified that I will be making use of the detailed potentially Autodesk Mudbox has to off and no only that I have started to look towards sculpting  Zak Knight. However, this is still early stages at the moment.  

Render of Mudbox work so far

Other important aspects I have visited is the game engine I will use to map out my virtual world and with it's highly advanced lighting system and excellent free form landscape construction method I have decided to use the CryEngine. Below is a Screen shot of an early look at a potentially Mars wilderness, but like my Autodesk Mudbox experimentation it still needs to be improved.

Visual look at the stance Mars may take

Another element I must include is audio in order to give my character voice, environments a realistic feel and even music for emotion. I haven't really looked into audio much, but I can inform you that I will be looking at existing games such as Mass Effect, etc. To grasp an accurate use of audio to a professional standard.

My key focus for this term is to write a game design document (GDD) for Outer Eden, So I will be looking at taking my concept portfolio and expanding on it to make it more presentable for a hypothetical work force to produce my game. This project will be ongoing for around nine months and  I am required of to follow all of the professional procedures when developing a computer game. Other essentials I will have to produce is a cinematic alongside audio that will be integrated, scripts for characters, a marketing pack and press pack, the gameplay segment and finally this blog where I will be taking your through my journey into experience life as a games developer. 

Currently, I have been introduced to Autodesk Mudbox, Voice acting and setting up milestones to make sure I am on track with every aspect of the production of Outer Eden. 

Tasks I hope to have completed for my next post

• Further develop character in Autodesk Mudbox 
• Construct a production plan with various milestones 
• Start work on producing GDD
• Further exploration into voice acting and scripting