Level Trailer Progress

 

These are some rough sketches and ideas I had for the camera angles for the trailer we are making for our unreal level. I also jotted down song considerations and possible voice over.

Teaser Trailer: The Talos Principle

I feel like this trailer is really effective because it emphasizes a lot of the beautiful environments that you will spend a long, long, time in throughout the game. they are all varied and a delight to look at. It also gives quick snapshots of the puzzles build curiosity and anticipation, encouraging the viewer to want to play the game and figure out what is going on, and what the voice-over seems to be rambling about in regards to free will. While I feel the overall tone of my level is different, I do like the focus on exploration and puzzle-solving.

Favorite Game Trailer - Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward

I actually had a really hard time deciding on this one, even though it was one of the first trailers to come to mind. Every trailer I thought of I questioned it: is it really my favorite? What do I like about it? Do I just like this trailer because I enjoy the game? And after a lot of back and forth I finally settled down and Virtues Last Reward, the second game in the Zero Escape trilogy. I feel like there is an interesting challenge putting together a trailer for a visual novel style adventure game, because most of the game play is probably not nearly as fun to watch as it is to experience it yourself.
The trailer, much like the game itself its densely packed with information that you might need to watch multiple times in order to catch. Overlapped phrases and rapid-fire images cut between scenes from some of the bad ends of the game creates a tense atmosphere that should get any mystery fan ready to sink their teeth in. The moments of low tension are used to introduce the main characters, as well as hint at the emotional stakes of the game. Though, I do feel like they could have gone further and showed some of the escape the room puzzles featured in the game, but given that the main audience for the trailer would likely be fans of the niche franchise I can understand why that wouldn't be included.

Mystic Mausoleum

The Mystic Mausoleum

Background: You are a treasure hunter on a quest for riches aplenty. You have gotten word of an old mausoleum for a once renowned general hidden deep within a cave network. From what you have heard the inside of the mausoleum has been left untouched for centuries.

Setting: As you climb up stairs carved into the walls there is a rumble and rocks fall behind you blocking your main way of escape, unless you feel like taking your chances by plunging into the void. When you get to the top of the stairs the area plateaus into a wide courtyard. The area is mostly dark, lit by bioluminescent moss. Various things are covered in moss or overgrown by small cave plants. To your right is a statue of the general, and to the left is a drained pool with some sort of monument in the middle. Past that is the mausoleum, flanked by columns. One of them has been knocked over.

Time: Mid-day

Conditions: Dimly lit, some light filters in from far away, mildly damp.

Characters:

Quintessa - Young woman and treasure hunter extraordinaire.

Pippin - Young man, intel gatherer and often ignored voice of reason.

Camera slow pans over the area while Pippin gives Quin guidance over the radio.

Pippin

Okay according to my info you should nearly be at the mausoleum courtyard. Apparently it used to be a place of reverence for a famous general a few thousand years ago but it hasn’t been touched by modern hands since. I doubt there would be any traps, but if there are they haven’t been sprung yet so be careful.

The camera shifts to first person perspective, Quin is going up the stairs as she responds on her radio.

Quin

Oh please, I’ll be in and out before you know it with riches aplenty. We’ll be eating like royals tonight!

As Quin is going up the final flight of stairs when suddenly, just as she is about to reach the top, large rocks rain down and block the way back.

Pippin
What was that noise?

Quin

Nothing that important, just some boulders fell on the stairs behind me.

Pippin

So much for eating like royals tonight...

Quin laughs and hangs up on Pippin for the time being. The courtyard is free to explore. There is a statue directly after the stairs of the general overlooking the courtyard, flanked by large decorative shells. A few more shells lie haphazardly against the cave wall. Upon looking at the statue Quin comments:

Quin

Huh, that sword doesn’t seem to match.

When looking at the shell pile you may be able to catch a glimpse of the shield underneath the shells, but it’s not immediately obvious. Instead Quin will just talk about the shells.

Quin

All these giant clam shells split in two, I guess it was some sort of ritual.

Going further into the courtyard there is a drained shallow pool with a monument in the middle. A large orb sits in a stone base, there is a strange indent in the center of the base across from where the statue lies. Quin will examine it.

Quin

It looks like there used to be something here, did someone get to the treasure first?

Past the pool is the front of the mausoleum. There is an overturned pillar to one side and steps leading up to the door. The door as a design on the front with three gemstones on it. There doesn’t appear to be any way to open the door directly. Quin will complain and then call Pippin.

Quin

There’s no switches, pulleys, or anything! I can’t even take the gems off. Hey, Pippin?
Pippin

Oh, you are still alive.

Quin

Fit as a fiddle even. Do you have any idea how I’m actually supposed to get in here? The door won’t budge.

Pippin

The door is open in the old painting I have, they way to open it must be elsewhere, look around!

Quin

Real helpful, thanks.

After examining the orb the player will then be able to acquire the sword and the shield. If they managed to do so before going directly to the door then the corresponding gem for whatever item they picked up will be lit. The colors of the gems are hints to the items. The one being the color of the sword, and the other being the color of the shells. Upon getting the sword Quin will state.

Quin

I guess that this didn’t belong here after all. I thought these ruins were untouched....

And retrieving the shield Quin will say:

Quin

I thought I saw something shiny underneath the shells!

Once you have both items in order to light up the third gem you have to place them at the base of the orb.

Quin

There, a perfect fit!

The orb begins to glow and rise, and the 3rd and final gem will light up and the door will also rise.

Quin

I got the door to open, I hope you are ready for riches aplenty!

Pippin

Yes, now just don’t die.

The level ends upon entering the mausoleum.

Freshman Stuff

A collection of neat things from my freshman year:

 

An interior environment based on the setting from Supergiant Game's Bastion. For Drawing 1

 

A skydiving flying squirrel for my Drawing 1 class. 

 Limited color palette painting for Drawing 2

Environment design based off of Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for Drawing 2

Some still life digital paintings for Drawing 2.

Character design ideas for Traditional Animation

The World Ends With You Level Analysis - Week 2 Day 4

The World Ends With You is a Square Enix game originally released in 2007. A mobile HD release came out 2012 but I will be playing on the DS version (my childhood copy, even). Week 2 Day 4 was always one I remembered as being a favorite, but I was concerned that was just a bit of nostalgia speaking, so I decided to put it to the test for my assignment. And, I felt that it held up pretty well!

 

(Look at how tiny it is on the new 3Ds XL!)

In TWEWY there are typically four types of gating mechanisms stopping you from moving about the world: walls without reapers (you can't access this area in this chapter), walls with support reapers who say nothing (you can't access this area yet), walls with reapers who ask you to do a task, and a miniboss fight. The tasks can be everything from answering questions, usually about something said earlier in the game, to clearing the entire area of "noise" the monsters in the game. From the start of this chapter you have three areas you can go to, and one with wall type 2. Two of the open areas are just for exploration if you wish and the final one gives you a chain of wall type 3s on your way to get to the Udagawa Backstreets. But something happens on your way there! When you get to Tipsy Tose Hall Neku and Joshua find the reapers of Def Märch arguing over something. When you try to sneak on over to Shibu-Q Heads they notice you and force you to help them find their stolen microphone by blocking off the entrance to Shibu-Q Heads until you help them. 777 does give you a decent bit of yen as payment, though. One of the bandmates says he's going to Spain Hill, which is closer than A-East where the other bandmate says he'd go look. You can check in any order but since you haven't gone to Spain Hill yet in this level you are likely to check there next (that's what Joshua suggests as well, if you tap on him for a hint). After some questioning you can move onto Molco, the scene of the crime.

 

(A camera that can take pictures of the past! Too bad only Joshua can use it.)

After taking some incriminating pictures of BJ at the scene of the crime you can advance downwards or take the long way back around, if you really want to. Exploring and going off the main path and going to Towa Records rewards you with some extra dialogue and info, and even more if you decide to press on and go see Mr. H at Cat Street. BJ is actually in Scramble Crossing, not A-Street and after talking with him going anywhere triggers a bit of story dialogue. After that you can roam around some more if you wish but nothing will happen until you go back to Tipsy Tose Hall. Joshua will ask you to show the correct photo to 777 twice, and reveal that while Tenho did originally take the mic to get his bandmates to stop arguing, Sho Minamimoto stole it afterwords to use it in one of his trash pile art pieces and replaced it with his megaphone. With the mystery solved you are free to go to Shibu-Q Heads.

 

(The thief revealed via flashback)

As soon as you enter Shibu-Q Heads you are thrust into a miniboss "fight" you don't have to defeat the miniboss, just get the health down far enough or get him down to a certain health and he lets you continue. After that just run on through to Udagawa Backstreets. You hit a cutscene trigger near the top of the stairs, and then after that talk to Joshua standing by the mural to end the chapter. 

Overall this chapter lets you roam through all of the 21 districts shown on the map, though not all are open at the start and you only need to go through nine in order to beat advance to the next part of the game. The extra areas are both practical, containing stores so you can buy more gear or food, and for more rewarding purposes, holding extra bits of dialogue and story info. The game rewards you for going off the beaten path, and the only places you can't get into at all are only available near the very end of the game and aren't even shown on the in-game map. I honestly didn't realize how many areas were open and available to you during the chapter until having to do this analysis and really detail everything down. Given that everywhere in the game is based off of a real world location, I can't help but wonder if I'd be able to navigate around Shibuya using the map I made.

Oase

I was just at the Sarasota Game Jam! I was apart of a team of three (Chelsea Drinkwater, another student at RCAD, and Brian Cosgrove, a local game dev). Together in 48 hours we made the game Oase. A calm and relaxing game about bringing water back to your desert town, and watching it flourish. Chelsea did the painting for the title screen and came up with the initial concept and most of the designs, then I made all of the in game art assets, and then Brian found some audio and put everything together in Construct 2! It's played simply with the arrow keys to move and the space bar to interact. You can play it at itch.io here!

 

Game Designer Interview 2 - Philip Jones

I also reached out to Midboss to see if I could interview someone there. 2046: Read Only Memories is totally on my list of favs. After some finagling (I imagine they are busy with preparing for PAX East) I was able to get of a hold of Philip Jones, the VP of Creative at Midboss. You can find them on twitter @probearcub and Midboss's website here

What are the main types of games you work on?
Our studio is quite young and most of us here are working on games for the first time. Our debut title was a cyberpunk interactive fiction with visual novel and point-and-click elements. That's gonna continue as a series real soon, but we're also looking at new and interesting types of games coming out, like VR. We'll also be exploring ideas in more quick action gameplay genres, to diversify for people who aren't as interested in story games. A couple of us also worked on a small Twine game called PUNKS for #ResistJam earlier this year. :)

How long have you been working in the industry?

It's just been over 4 years for myself, full time. A few no-name blogging and podcasting gigs eventually led to me joining MidBoss to work on the GaymerX convention and direct our Gaming In Color documentary. It's been a wild ride so far, but 'indie' can definitely feel disconnected from the rest of the industry at times, even when constantly being surrounded by so many amazing talented folks. We're kind of in a transition phase between games and I think I'm just eager to have something creative to sink my teeth into again. Looking forward to doing more big things!

How does designing a single player game differ from a multiplayer one?

I tend to think of all games as 'multiplayer' in a sense if you count the game's systems, language, feedback all specifically designed by humans for humans to explore, enjoy. The major difference between those two modes is designing systems that respond and give the player feedback for actions they take and enjoy the game that way, or designing systems that focus on how the content can be experienced and enjoyed as a result of cooperative or opposing actions between avatars.

When you are playing a game, what types of experiences do you find to be most rewarding?

Bright colors. Customization. Collectibles. Trial and error gameplay. Distinct signature characters. Exploration. Wistful music. Arcadey UI/UX. Cuteness. Those are probably some of the most common trends in my top favorites. :) 

On the other hand, what types of experiences are the most fun/rewarding to design (or are they the same)?

I've really enjoyed working on ROM as a chance to improve my writing and narrative design instincts. A lot of plot and worldbuilding is one of our specialties and something we'll continue, but sometimes I just need 20 minutes of SSX/Tony Hawk/Crazy Taxi/Mortal Kombat/Need for Speed/Animal Crossing to take a break from it.

What sort of skills or traits do you think are the most helpful to have when it comes to game design? 

Programming is one skill that's always useful especially if you want to build your own games, but there are so many different genres, engines, scripting languages and tools.. my first inclination would be to ask what KIND of games one would want to make, and the great part about the industry now is that there will be lots of ways to start in any direction for beginners. :)

What are some of the biggest challenges to overcome when designing games?

Crunch in order to meet deadlines is afflicting the industry pretty harshly. Graphic fidelity and animation has improved so much that companies are pricing themselves out just to keep up with competition, and it's near impossible for any new studio to join the ranks of that field. Budgets are so high and there's so much risk (your game can be profitable or not by the difference of getting 7.0 reviews vs 8.0 reviews) nobody wants to really innovate so all the shelves have sequelitis. The mainstream game community culture isn't aware of most of these issues on a large scale, and there are a lot of pockets of gamers that spend a lot of energy attacking things like "SJWs" and "diversity" instead in order to maintain the status quo, despite the fact they're also somewhat dissatisfied with today's major titles.

What sort of things inspires you, are there any websites/resources you always look to for inspiration?

I'm constantly inspired by the other queer indie developers I've met and know, the other queer and NB people I know in pr, journalism, pretty much all over the industry. We have a facebook group and discord chat for specifically non-binary people in the industry and it's very rewarding to be around people like me where we can be open in a professional setting. Matt Conn personally has done a lot of the heavy lifting to make things like that possible not only for gaymers and I wouldn't want to be working anywhere else.

Do you have a favorite project you’ve ever worked on?

Oh! I ran a podcast for about 18 months called the SSX Ubercast that basically recapped the very impressive marketing campaign and developer releases while the 2012 title was being developed. Had on a bunch of community members and pro players, including the game's creative director for 3 interviews. It felt like I was breaking into something, though it didn't directly lead anywhere. Still one of the most fun times in my life. 

Finally, do you have any advice for students?

Go! To! Events! You can usually get student discounts on most industry events and half of this job is being seen, making meetings, getting your foot in the door and having a name with your face. Also if you're working on a uni game project, submit it to festivals or your local IGDA chapter if they're doing something. :) Soak up as much as you can and it's easy once you make your first friend.

Game Designer Interview 1 John Hawkins

The first of a couple of interviews I did for the project I posted about before. This one is with John Hawkins of Big Huge Games. Here is his LinkedIn profile and here is Big Huge Game's website
What are the main types of games you work on? 
Most have been strategy games; although I have done some casual and role-playing. Specifically historical strategy games. It's been a range of mobile, console, pc, and board games.

How long have you been working in the industry? 
15 years

How does designing a single player game differ from a multiplayer one?
 It's a lot easier, but less fun to do single player - multiplayer adds in the fun of another person but usually leads to more interactive systems. 

When you are playing a game, what types of experiences do you find to be most rewarding?
 Me personally I like things that make me feel clever or like I'm making progress

On the other hand, what types of experiences are the most fun/rewarding to design (or are they the same)? 
Yeah the same. hah - although it is fun to design for a variety of player types.

What sort of skills or traits do you think are the most helpful to have when it comes to game design? 
You have to be equally creative and logical, and you need a variety of experiences to draw from. You also need to be able to empathize with other people since you need to understand their point of view when arguing your point or understanding what they enjoy.

What are some of the biggest challenges to overcome when designing games? 
Honestly the hardest challenge is getting the whole team on board with your vision. Otherwise it's trying to get the game to the point where it is actually fun.

What sort of things inspires you, are there any websites/resources you always look to for inspiration? 
Playing other games and living life - you find inspiration in the most random of places. 

Do you have a favorite project you’ve ever worked on? 
 Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, because not only was the only I've done that was ever done ahead of time but also because my passion that led me to making games was Age of Empires II.

Finally, do you have any advice for students? 
Play games, makes games, network as much as possible. Be ready for opportunities, and seek them out.

Game Designer Slideshow

I made this google slides presentation on being a game designer for class!
Boop!