Alex Galuzin's Game Level Guideline Questionairre

Use the following EVERY TIME you make a new level with your team:

Map Creation Guidelines Worksheet

GAME TYPE

1. Single Player or Multiplayer?

2. Game Type?

3. What game is this map for?

STORY

4. Story behind the map. Why are the players there? Why is the place/environment there? Write the history of the environment.

5. What is this map about?

PRE-PRO & GAMEPLAY

6. What is the objective of the map?

7. Do I have a top down sketch?

8. Do I have a top down player path sketch?

9. How would the player to play through your map? Visualize this.
 What experiences do I want the player to walk away with from the map?

10. How big is the map?

11. Who is my audience? Who is the player? What is my Demographic?

12. How will I make the map memorable?

13. Do I have location concept sketches?

VISUALS

14. Photo Reference?

15. What is the time of day of the map? Season? Color?

16. Feel and Atmosphere. Describe what I want to portray in terms of the feel of the map and atmosphere.

17. How will I direct the player? What methods will I use? Color? Noise and Sound? Guide the player without telling them where to go. Smart design.

18. What am I going to concentrate on? What do I want to learn when I am finished? What aspect of design, gameplay, fun, crazy, atmosphere?

19. What is the visual trademark of your level? How will the players remember the map?

11 Day Workflow Plan

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

Day 5:

Day 6:

Day 7:

Day 8:

Day 9:

Day 10:

Day 11:

Please bring to class

Pencils, pens, sketchbook, erasers, any images you find in magazines, books, from the internet

Look online for images of places, objects, vehicles that provide inspiration.

Consider your own life and think about events, people, situations that could lend themselves to games or game concepts.

Use your class blog to post these images with writings about what they mean to you and how you think they might play a role in a videogame idea.

Wed 24th August Class

11 Day Unreal Development Kit Workflow Study

Websites covered in "idea" section of 11 day game design

1) Movies
2) History
3) Architecture Magazines/Books/Websites
4) Comic Books
5) Concept Art
6) Videogames
7) Your life

http://www.archdaily.com

http://www.contemporist.com

CONCEPT ART

http://www.conceptart.org

(look in gallery)

Your life - use a blog to build an overview of your history, your experience

Always carry a notepad.

Photo reference collection - help to design

3 Category

1)Environment reference - actual locations - direct copy or inspiration

2) Lighting Reference - color pallette, lighting styles

3) Style Reference - types of overall style - e.g. cool vs warm

http://www.images.google.com
http://www.flickr.com
http://www.wiki.commons.org

open up photo reference and start drawing from them

Sketches & drawings - look at form, shape, design environment

Gameplay and flow sketch - top down overview - took that and then pathway - how they travel through environment

Top down - floorplan - day 2 blocking in the environment

Map Creation Guidelines

A questionaire sheet - narrow down and focus on type of environment - go through it & fill it out

1 - get all elements together

2 - gameplay flow - block it with brushes

3 - focal point - visual target for map - a specific location for

4 - work on exterior

5 - terrain

6 - exterior

7- details

8 - ext lighting

9 - int lighting

10 - sounds, particle fx, gameplay elements

11 - post production & ready for release

Work in sections

Homework - due next week on 31st August

1) Read the handout - taken from a) "Creating the Art of the Game" by Matthew Omernick
and "On Interactive Storytelling" by Chris Crawford

2) Collect five images from google images that reflect the type of imagery you'd like to focus on were you able to make ANY kind of FPS game. Post a blog entry including these images, and describe what it is about them that appeals to you. How would these images fit into a videogame in terms of mood, gameplay, atmosphere?

3) Download Chris Crawford's "Art of Videogame Design" from class blog & read

4) Post link to your blog ASAP to David Cox at dcoxgame130@gmail.com

UDK 11 day level design course

This link takes you to a resource we will be using in Game 130 to build game levels with Unreal Developer Kit

The Making of Halo 2 - the hard lessons of videogame production

Behind the Scenes - The Making of Halo 2

The making of Halo 2 examines the production process behind a major "triple A" title console game (released in 2004).

This is how bad things had gotten at one point of Halo2's production according to WIRED Magazine:

"It was a disaster in the game-story campaign," admits Harold Ryan, the studio manager. "We looked around the room going, 'I don't want to play this. I don't want to make this.'" They threw out 80 percent of the work they'd done and started over. But they now had barely a year and a half to reconstruct the entire game. 

CUT AND PASTE THE QUESTIONS BELOW INTO SIMPLE TEXT OR MS WORD.

ANSWER THEM ONSCREEN AS YOU WATCH THE FILM. SOME TIME WILL BE ALLOWED AFTER THE SCREENING TO FINALIZE ANSWERS. THEN PASTE BOTH QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS INTO YOUR INDIVIDUAL GAME 130 STUDENT BLOG

As you watch answer the following questions:

1) Jaime Griesemer, game design lead on Halo 2 suggests that if you have 30 seconds of fun, this can translate into _______________?

2) The cinematic script for Halo 15 levels long - 2 protagonists - drive the 20 hours of action. Feature film length.

3) Marcus Lehto of the art department talks about artwork such as the "sentinal headquarters" - what is the challenge of this interior for the player

4) Why is E3 so important?

5) What is a danger with the desire by a team to add graphical richness?

6) Nathan Walpole (senior animator) discusses animating the brute character - what new feature has been added to Halo2 in terms of the relationship between characters like the Brute and vehicles such as the warthog?

7) a) What is 'framerate'?

b) What elements can affect the framerate of the game?

8) a) The producer cares about the retailers and the fans at E3 why bother about these things so early in the game's development?

b) How does the team generate enthusiasm among the fans at E3 in the demo booth?

9) What features of the game were the fans most enthusiastic about at the E3 demo?

10) How did the decision to go with the more detailed real-time graphics (stencil shadows, real time reflections etc) affect completion deadlines?

10b) What did the US marines demonstrations of guns etc in South Carolina do to assist with the game?

11) What were the main functions of the LAN game sessions held in the private house in Connecticut?

12) Why were (parts of the) game called the 'matrix of doom'?

13) According to the lead producer, how did the Halo2 team ultimately mess up? How was this issue ultimately dealt with?

14) Why are the level diagrams called 'commitment' by the level designer?

15) The time line showing the schedule to shipping allows a lot of time near the end for what?

16) How do the two audio directors differ in terms of how they obtain performances from the actors?

17) What do the team members argue is the advantage of a totally fixed deadline?

18) What do you think is meant by the phrase "building a cathedral with a hurricane" (in relation to making Halo2)?

19) Have you played Halo2? What did you think of it in relation to the first Halo?

20) Were any of the problems that faced the Halo2 team enough to affect its enjoyability as a game from the player's point of view?

HOMEWORK - Read this article from Wired Magazine about Halo3:

Then answer the question for next week:

How did Bungie ultimately overcome the problem of 'featurism' that had plagued the Halo2 game?