SCENEOGRAPHY – REFINED BRIEF

•SCENEOGRAPHY – REFINED BRIEF

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•Name : Yoni Cohen

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•Project Brief :  UFO

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•Project Title :Aliens 

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•Broad Audience : Teen / Mature

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•Mood / Atmosphere :   lonely / cold / intimidating / out of comfort zone / look over shoulder / tense / scared / escape / mystery / aliens / unfamiliar / haunted / lost / 

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•Scene Description: Crop circle, haunted house, rural space, crashed UFO parts, dark skies, lots of dark green, dark navy blue, stars, some random lights from the house and other electrical objects, some fire coming from the UFO itself

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•Time of Day :  sun set - dark    INTERIOR / EXTERIOR / BOTH

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•Explanation / Backstory of Scene : kidnapped by aliens, the UFO has crashed and formed a crop circle landing outside an old, creepy traditional American house far out into the country surrounded by fields surrounded by extremely fields at a rural location. Background objects are the house, and just complete rural space of fields and trees etc. The subject will be based in the crop circle itself almost like a maze. No other character will be in the scene.

Seth Engstrom

I was looking at Seths work to help inspire me and help towards putting in different ideas like he has done, and creating a realistic fantasy world that is mouth dropping

http://conceptartworld.com/?p=4506

Noah Bradley

Noah really captures the mood really well in these images, it's almost as if she's tried to over emphasise to allow the audience to get caught up in the moment and forget about reality for a minute. I would love to portray this same emphasis on my game to my audience,



http://www.noahbradley.com/

Brief making of Far Cry 3

Marc Beaudoin, Technical Directo​r at Ubisoft

Captured body face and finger animation, vita reference, facial video reference using motion builder.

Acting was key for narrative

Motion builder and reel time was very useful, lots of time saving. See output directly without creating movies.

Motion builder python was used for finger animation.

Level Design Director for Far Cry 3: Mark Thompson

The first question Mark Thompson, level design director at Ubisoft Montreal, asks himself when embarking on a new project is: "What do players expect from my game?" In the case of Far Cry 3, the adventure is set in a lawless tropical hideaway.


"We know that the game has to be beautiful," Thompson says "The island is the main character". "Far Cry is known as a brand that has always been incredibly attractive." Yet this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to crafting a game to fill the Far Cry fan base with enthusiasm, and Ubisoft is striving to balance the demands of gamers with the ambition of the development team.



The words "open" and "world" are key when it comes to distilling the real qualities of Far Cry 3. Ubisoft is piling a lot of effort into creating a sumptuous environment that lures players in completely. 
The words "open" and "world" are key when it comes to distilling the real qualities of Far Cry 3. Ubisoft is piling a lot of effort into creating a sumptuous environment that lures players in completely. 

“At E3, the demo we showed, you use the sound of the waterfall to mask that fact that you were killing that guy, and you dragged him to hide him behind the waterfall… It’s not just scripted for that demo, it’s something systemic. You know, if you drag a body and hide it in a bush, it’s going to be there, it’s going to be hidden. If you’re inside a bush, you’ll be hidden. The AI isn’t omniscient, it doesn’t see through walls, it doesn’t see you through bushes. If you think you’re hidden, you’re hidden and the AI don’t know where you are.”

"Far Cry 2 looked incredible even though it was an open-world game, and most open worlds sacrifice the visual fidelity," muses Thompson. "But for us that's just the cost of making a Far Cry game. It's the cost of making a shooter game as well. People expect a certain visual quality, and we don't want to reduce that just because it's an open-world experience."

The game is based on one very large island, so how can players traverse it?
“We wanted to make sure that travelling the world and getting between missions wasn’t a chore. If you want to follow the mission path, it’s quick to get from mission to mission. There aren’t huge, huge distances between them and we have a super accessible fast-travel system. Like at any point you can jump into the menu and fast-travel from wherever you are.”

Are there incentives and rewards for exploring?

“We wanted it to be a little deeper than getting XP because you know, Jason’s trying to survive on the island so the world is full of resources. If he was stranded on a desert island, you’d look for food, you’d look for shelter, you would look for things that could help you. If you were hurt, you would want to try and find medicine. We wanted to make sure the island gave this to player. You can just follow the story path but you perhaps wouldn’t have as many resources as someone who goes off into the jungle, someone who kills and skins a boar, someone who takes that meat, someone who takes that skin from the boar and uses it to make something, and the same for the plants.”

E3 demo... 

Far Cry 3 game trailer...

The Computer Game Design Course; Game Concept

The Computer Game Design Course; principles, practices, and techniques for the aspiring games designer.

Written by Jim Thompson, published by Thames and Hudson

Breaking the idea down into it's component parts and identifying their individual development needs.

Asset artwork - concept drawings of game assetc etc. characters, levels, vehicles to develop the feel of the game.

Interface - at basic level it begins when the player loads the game and must navigate to the point where he starts to play. On screen info is also presented to the player during gameplay. (tells you what to do)

Story - If the game is an adventure style game with a story this will need as much care over its development as a film script or novel would.

Level Design - games consist of stages or levels, as the player progresses through a game, the levels generally increase in difficulty and the story develops.

Game mechanics - crucial factor in its design, the game mechanics directly affect the way a player experiences a game.

Audio - A designers role at this stage is to suggest sound effects and dialogue to give the sound engineers direction in their work.

The Computer Game Design Course; Research and development

The Computer Game Design Course; principles, practices, and techniques for the aspiring games designer.

Written by Jim Thompson, published by Thames and Hudson

Expanding the initial idea

Look at similar games to one you have in mind, play and compare them. Read reviews and question the comments. 

As a designer, you should constantly refer to as broad a range of materials as possible - from news to culture, natural history to science etc. Keeping your mind open to many and varied influences and sources of info will cultivate insight and inspiration when it is needed most. (Game engines such as Rag Doll Kung Fu, can be valuable sources of inspiration. Using an existing game engine to empower your own ideas can be another valuable starting point, and this method was used to produce Day of Defeat)

A game engine is the unseen code which drives the visual game action on screen, usually very expensive to develop, it makes excellent financial sense for a game developer to reuse an existing game engine and replace visual and model date to create a new game which is very different.

Can you describe your game in one paragraph?

If not, hen the idea may still need refining, as it's important to sell your idea to others. A good description will include the premise of the game, any unique features, and it's potential market.

Can you summarise the story.

Different from the description, should be a short paragraph which captures the essence of the story and allows others to appreciate and enthuse about it.

Which platform?

Some games more suitable to consoles, others to PC's. Many of these considerations are technical; while some are concerned with the market sector the chosen platform is designed to appeal to.

Does it fit a genre?

Like a film, relating it to a genre will help you establish exactly what the game is about.

What's the target audience?

Establishing the target audience will relate to the development of the game to the players' perceived expectations.

For future reference, by listing description, story, platform, genre and target audience in a concise document you will compile a quick reference tool with which to answer questions arising during development about what the game should be.

The Computer Game Design Course; Starting the design process

The Computer Game Design Course; principles, practices, and techniques for the aspiring games designer.

Written by Jim Thompson, published by Thames and Hudson

The design process refers to the ideal way in which a computer game should come together. There is no set order to follow to achieve an end result. The start comes when theres an idea, the initial spark can come from several sources.

Existing Intellectual Property - means that the game is intended to embody a pervious existing idea

Similar theme - Two games, with similar gameplay/ideas/themes with enough difference to avoid copyright infringement.

Mix and Match - New ideas can come from mixing together ideas from old genres. 

Brand new ideas - rarest and riskiest propositions in game development. 

Structuring the process;

Who is involved - small teams working on developing the initial ideas

Designers - games designers are responsible for the look and feel of a game. (designer, scriptwriter, level designer)

Art and animation staff - give visual form to the designers ideas, 2D & 3D models & animations to help create unique style/

Sound and music engineers - these roles may cover the design aspects of the game as well as the more technical side, when incorporating the soundtrack into the game programming.

Programmers - create the code for the engines that deliver games. The obvious roles in this category are software engineers and programmers, but these areas can be subdivided - possible roles also include artificial intelligence programmer or platform designer.

Quality Assurance and testing - QA professionals and testers make sure the game works & that it meets its specifications. 

Managers - project management pivotal. (project manager - programming manager - art director) over see entire project & running well and to schedule.

The Computer Game Design Course; Gathering Materials

The Computer Game Design Course; principles, practices, and techniques for the aspiring games designer.

Written by Jim Thompson, published by Thames and Hudson

Gathering Materials

To develop the idea you must start to gather material that will inspire your work.

Look for written and visual references.

Research includes not just existing games, but to be as broad as possible. 

Quite often it is the discovery of an apparently unrelated piece of data which can inspire a true creative insight.

(wikipedia, Gamasutra, game design sites, first hand material, real life inspirations, moodboards, sketches & notes)

Steven Spielberg is reputed to have had the inspiration for the mothership in Close Encounters of The Third Kind while sitting in his car looking at the pattern of LA street lights at night. 

The Computer Game Design Course; Design Inspirations

The Computer Game Design Course; principles, practices, and techniques for the aspiring games designer.

Written by Jim Thompson, published by Thames and Hudson

Design Inspirations.

Idea and concept development.

Design inspiration comes from many sources. It's important to consider anything as a suitable starting point for a game as the competition for new and better games is getting tougher.

Outside interest and personal experiences provide fantastic inspiration for designs and help develop innovative and exciting games.

Cultivating inspiration.

the more you seek inspiration, the more it can elude you. Not playing as many games as possible, but looking far and wide into other cultural activities. Research and preparation is very important.

Real life and literature:

Warren Spector and Harvey Smith are the designers of Deus Ex, a critically acclaimed game that is often cited as one of the best examples of a first person shooter/role playing game to date. (Title; Deus Ex. Developer; Ion Storm. Key features; Dystopian cityscape, hybrid FPS and role playing game, cyberpunk feel, literary references)

Throughout Deus Ex there are many references to classical and modern literature. Some of the environments in the game are real-world locations. For example a real life inspired setting; a dirty, dark and threatening version of Honk Kong.

Another feature was the fact players could choose violent or non violent means of getting through levels. The freedom of choice had the effect of making the game seem more real than previous linear-style FPS games. 

To create such a physically and psychologically rich game, the designers drew upon all their non digital gaming experience, the literature they enjoyed reading, and real world locations as inspiration.

Childhood bug collection.

Nintendo's reputation for producing innovative and popular games.

A deeper insight into two well known Nintendo games designers provides an insight into the inspiration for their most famous designs.

Shigeru Miyamoto; Born in Sonobe town, Kyoto, Japan. Youth; often explored the countryside, lakes and concealed caves. enrolled in the Kanazawa Municilap College of Industrial Arts and crafts and graduated with a degree in industrial design but spent much of his time sketching ideas. His degree secured a position as a staff artist within Nintendo's planning department. The inspiration of the landscape and the idea of exploration in his youth can be seen in his games such as Mario and The Legend of Zelda.

Satoshi Tajiri; Lived in suburb of Tokyo. Youth; took part in bug and insect collecting from surrounding countryside. His enthusiasm led to try collect as many different bugs and to try to design increasingly varied and ingenious ways of collecting them. While at technical school, he discovered love for digital games which led to form a games magazine and was fascinated by the new Nintendo Gameboy. All the inspirational factors and Satoshi's desire to allow people to enjoy collecting weird beasts from the surrounding countryside and trade them gave rise to the concept of Pokemon. 

Design Process

A designers notebook/sketchbook should contain a wide range of material that has attracted and stimulated their attention over a period of time. Snippets that may not be useful at the time, and real life sketching and photographs can help to inform and inspire your designs.

Question the status quo

It is a good idea to force yourself to think of different responses to familiar situations - to think laterally. The designers of Call of Duty 2 recognised that the concept of the health pack was not very realistic and would become very boring if the player simply became incapacitated. The solution was when hit by an enemy bullet, the edges of the screen would flash red and the players vision would blur, his movement would slow down, and his ability to aim would be reduced plus sound effect of player gasping in pain. If the player received no further damage he then returns to normal health. This helps the player think more tactically and use the available cover more effectively rather then rely on a  magical health pack. 

Designers are left to ask basic questions such as 'why are there health packs in games?' and 'what if there weren't any?' This approach hadn't been seen before COD2. The moral is if you can learn to ask these 'awkward' questions and then you seek to answer them, you will find it can drive you toward innovative answers.