31.12.09: Sourced Map

As I said the other day, I think drawing the map from scratch would be unnecessary; not gaining me more marks, requiring a massive amount of time and still looking quite crude. I have therefore started working in Photoshop with the maps I found of Oxfordshire throughout the history of Ordnance Survey.
This is a smaller version of a high quality jpeg which I could easily import and manipulate in Flash; layering an interface and user controls.

30.12.09: Expert Advice

As the area I live in is one of the key locations of the Civil War, a number of publications have been written on the subject by local historians. I took the opportunity to talk to one such expert about the historical events and specific questions related to my project development. The discussion was fantastic and I generated 4 pages of notes as well as photographs of a number of coins and medals he had from the Civil War. He has also offered to give an opinion of some of my writing such as the timeline events and storyline missions and the feedback should be invaluable.
I have experimented with some of the photographs in Photoshop to make the most of the powerful and relevant imagery of the coins and medals.

26.12.09: Festive Progress

Been a while since the last post due to the Client Brief needing prioritising as its due in in a fortnight and just from taking a break!
However, I have still made some progress on the Sketchup map with refining the important details on the South Tower. The crenelations and small turret make it much less of a box and the whole environment more lifelike. Thinking about games design as well as simply recreating a location, I have converted the turret from a flag tower into a sniper spot; creating a tactical location within the game.
I have also got three new books and a DVD on the Civil War which are full of really excellent research material. I have been drawing from the photographs and historical and contemporary artwork as well as updating the design documentation with some new information.
While I make a point of creating my own material from scratch, I am considering adapting sourced images of maps for the project as the 20 hours to make them might not be appreciated in the marking and so not make enough of a difference. As the internet is pretty poor for finding useful Civil War imagery, I think there's sill a bit of kudos in researching from books and film.

10.12.09 - Video Development

By adjusting the video settings in Sketchup I have got an avi file which could import straight into Flash at my desired resolution and frame rate. I decided 800x600 pixels is most suitable for web, especially with the smaller laptop screens with the additional loss of space from browser toolbars. 30 frames per second also allows for a beautifully smooth run through and this experiment has shown me how well the process should work.
While I will need to texture and complete the map, then redo the animations, I will create smooth and interesting transitions along the routes the user will be able to move. A great idea by Gareth while discussing the semi-documentary stile I want to create, was to make big 3D arrows showing paths through the map. Different colours could be used to denote different units' movements or paths the player could take.
I shall now begin to develop objects to clutter up the environment and add realistic detail.

02.12.09: Stokesay Development

We're into December now and I think the project is going OK. All of the sections are under way, with each one taking about as much time as I had hoped. I'm really considering focusing on Sketchup as I could create animated visuals of numerous locations and items relatively quickly.
The Stokesay map is progressing well and has now overtaken the UT3 version in just half the time. I still don't feel bad about the sacrifice on visual quality as I think its better to be able to see the entire map more clearly as they were intended to be informative. I also think its a lot more stylised than Unreal, which without extensive time simply looks like a UT3 mod rather than an original concept.
I have been focusing on developing the interiors as well as the video. There are now 12 unique and detailed windows on the South Tower, with the 3 separate levels cut out. The two buttresses on the tower are also now in place, making it appear much less boxy and I have cut out a rough shape for the large underground armoury; tying in the ideas developed in Gareth's project.

30.11.09: Sketchup Progress

I have started to refine the windows and animations; trying to make the fly through the map less bumpy.

29.11.09: Interiors Video

I have tried another, more jumpy, animation showing the environment from a closer perspective; moving through the few interior spaces I have built so far.

29.11.09: Video!!

First video from the sketchup map! I wondered if it would be easy to create a video file of the animations and its just a couple of clicks. I have finished quite a smooth fly through the area which has developed slightly from the last post and starting to take shape!

28.11.09: Sketchup Colour

In just a couple of days, I'm catching up with my progress on the Unreal version of Stokesay. I have experimented with some basic stock textures and the lighting and fog settings to bring the structures to life. I really like the drawn style of the programme which should suit the rest of the content i submit much more than UT3.

27.11.09: Sketchup

I had been working on some more drawings for the equipment screen part of the project, looking at lighting and shading, and thought I could give Sketchup a go. I was amazed at how undemanding the program is on your system, making tabbing between multiple windows of reference images and sketches less likely to crash something! After 6 hours in Sketchup I'm absolutely in love with it. The controls are really intuitive to me - a mixture between Unreal Ed, Flash and Photoshop and the visual results are what I want from my 3D work. I think I will leave my BSP work in UT3 where it is and convert over to here as it would be a far more appropriate program to master over the next year for this concept style work which I am orientating towards. You can very quickly visualise shapes and environments here, while Unreal is an environment for dedicated level design. Despite some anti-aliasing issues and the need for images on each face, I'm really happy with how the map looks in this program, with the built-in and instantaneous video system being a massive bonus. The Matinee video recording within Unreal was a real chore while here, in seconds you can have a fly through working which can be easily updated. Working in Sketchup still shows I can think in 3D, which is all I wanted with Unreal Editor, and I think this could be a far more valuable program to understand.

21.11.09: World Map

I accumulated a massive amount of writing and research over the summer for accurate characters, events and weaponry, and after a tutorial with Jay, he suggested I looked into professional design documents online for a structure. Supreme Commander's Chris Taylor has a full downloadable template with every conceivable part of the design process documented (the list of contents alone is three pages!). I have now started tidying up and structuring the thousands of words, tables and images into relevant sections; building up a design document even at this early stage. I'm so glad I did this ground work over the summer, as it has saved me a huge amount of time now and has informed a large number of my design decisions.
I have also been developing the world map for the game, now having a rough sketch for each of the 20 tiles and four of them coloured in photoshop. I have experimented, using techniques introduced by Gareth, with creating a hand drawn and worn effect, while it may be altered throughout the course of the year. I am also working on several images for the legend of the map such as bridges and forts, making them approprite and to create unity across all of the tiles.

14.11.09: Concept Sketches

Further sessions with Gareth have been really inspiration and as I'm from an artistic background (from GCSE to A level and then a Higher Education Foundation Art course) I really want to develop my drawing and Photoshop skills. Working in sketchbooks can be a great way to see someones thought and development processes and I now have 15 to 20 pages of concept sketches and structural designs for location object and character designs. My interests in the industry have moved away from level design at the end of last year and towards concept work. On previous courses and with the group projects over the past two years, I have enjoyed the challenge of having to come up with a number of varied concepts, being passionate about each one but also being prepared to drop them and move with the group decision. Its a challenging process but really tests your creativity and produces an interesting range of work. I therefore want to focus this year on my conceptual work and less so on 3D as we haven't looked at design programs such as 3D Studio Max and I would rather focus my time developing the skills I have, than learning too many major new ones.
That said, Gareth introduced us to Sketchup last week; a free downloadable 3D program which isn't resource heavy but is a really easy and effective way to construct and animate ideas. I am even considering leaving Unreal Ed and moving to this as I think it would be a more appropriate medium for a concept artist to work in than a full game engine.

24.10.09 - 06.11.09: Concept Art and Sculpture

Following a really positive meeting with Gareth, the 3D tutor, I have been inspired to work on the drawings and visual content for the game. As my most successful work in the past in school and college has been artistic, I think it would make sense to progress those skills this year as much as I can as they are widely transferable.
So far I have 16 pages of sketchbook drawings and with some invaluable photoshop hints from Gareth in an hour and a half session with just me and john I should be able to develop them nicely.
I have also begun experimenting with miniature sculpture. Ive always liked Warhammer model making and they sell high quality sculpting equipment which I have used to create a couple of Marquettes for reference. I think it could help with the drawing, having a 3D shape to work from for lighting and such while also showing another unusual skill.

13.10.2009 - 23.10.09: Proposal Presentation

My time has been focused on completing the proposal document and preparing for the presentation.
I have been refining a power point I developed earlier which covers the key concepts of the game. Following the actual presentations, we were told that few if any of us really presented what was wanted. I think we all felt that our projects needed introducing as we didn't know what each other was working on, while a more structured presentation of the proposal document may have been wanted. Maybe if we had done a very brief presentation in week one, it would have allowed us to share our concepts and then work on something more formal later.

I think the document is coming together, with a few visuals from the prototypes and planning; my time spent over the summer really paying off.
Having to structure a work schedule for each month has been really useful as I now have a rough plan of what I will need to complete each month to get what I have set out completed. The workload looks pretty light per month, especially after Christmas when the client work is over, and I'm confident the project will be larger than I anticipated.

01.10.09 - 12.10.09: Interactive Storyline

Following 2 tutorials pitching the project concepts to the tutors, I have been developing the extensive proposal document. While in previous years we completed this at the end of the work, this time round we will have to produce it at the start to actully show what we propose to complete.
I have also had to consider how to present the storyline aspects of the project in a communicative and interactive way. My initial idea is to develop a couple of the storlyine missions as top-down interactive walkthroughs; showing the user how the written story would translate into action.

31.09.09: Minigames and New Code

As I will have a few weeks before the project briefs are handed out and the workload picks up I have made the decision to develop my programming knowledge. So far in the course, I have used a decent amount of code to move between locations in the file, control a characters movement and track stats. However I have approached animations in a simple way, using large numbers of frames on the timeline and a lot of content on the stage. I felt it would help my job prospects and potentially speed up my working process to design in a more professional way.
So far I have learnt from online tutorials and practicing with the code, to be able to load everything dynamically from the library, leaving the stage entirely empty. I have found the basic controls to be able to manipulate position, scale and alpha of objects which should make dynamic editing really easy.
I have also developed the Tween class of code which has dropped the many hundreds of frames I previously had in movie clips. I have refined a prototype game developed over this summer from a lot of timeline content back to a single frame with code on, which I now understand.

27-30.09.09: First Tutorial of the Year

After the first tutorial of the year, pitching the project to the tutors, my intended approach has been approved. The work so far has all be preparative; gaining a detailed understanding of the subject and collecting quality information to develop. One area to be developed is the storyline, considering a way to present it visually. One idea is to create a top down game, running through a storyline mission. This way the user could see the freeroam nature of the missions in action as well as the planning behind it.

19-25.09.09: Unlockables

I have refined the long list of unlockable equipment, bringing in animals, carts and boats. I decided to add a specific description for each of the now 80 weapons, to help explain my specifically chosen equipment. This section of work has been very intense, requiring me to find specific, detailed historical information, take notes from it then write them up. However the process has helped me to refine a few choices and understand the technology better.

09.09.09 - 11-18.09.09: Upgrades

I have begun developing the numerous weapons upgrades through extensive research into historical industrial practices. I have the 5 main gun mechanisms for the game and a wide range of accurate upgrades to be applied to them. In addition to this I have found 5 steel forging processes as well as combination weapons to upgrade the melee weapons with.
After a random power cut irrevocably corrupted my Unreal engine editing hard drive, I have managed to install a new one. Very fortunately, through my paranoid backing-up systems, I had a recent copy of the 3D project and a solid week’s work has been rescued. PHEW!
I developed the detailed upgrades systems and devised the inclusion of cannons. Now the 5 main upgradable weapons have a list of accurate technology to customise them with. I also devised a list of the specific weapons of the game and the order they would become available.

08.09.09: Map Development

I have added 2 hill ridges I have visited in Shropshire which have rare and interesting features, working from Ordinance Survey and Google maps. The county has been altered but shouldn’t appear ridiculously changed. I have decided to lose the coastline to add realism and kept many of the main features of the surrounding countryside. The coast will now be one of 5 smaller maps which will be accessible when the player moves to the corresponding map edge. These are Scotland (north), London (east), York (west), south coast (south) and the Isle of Wight (south from the south coast map).

07.09.09: Map Scaling

I developed the maps, calculating scales and referring to the sizes of other free roam experiences. I settled on a 50-60km2 map centring on the city of Oxford for the main location. This is due to its historical significance in the war and interesting river geography, breaking the map up very effectively. Each A4 tile would measure 1.5km x 2km and I think it could work really well in Flash, being able to zoom in on each tile.

06.09.09: World Map Concepts

I began drawing out maps after collecting from the storyline the key locations required. I chose to base it on Oxfordshire as I think it has an interesting shape and is relevant to the plot. I started by drawing out the county, and then adapted it roughly to the required geography – e.g. coast, hills etc. I planned a tile system to be easy to make on a4 paper and be widescreen-ratio friendly. I chose a portrait map instead of landscape to break away from the boxy feel, with benefits being space around it to decorate.

02.09.09 - 05.09.09: Story Development

Moving on from the visual side of the work, I have been developing the storyline characters to include found images and biographies. This can take a while, trawling the internet and looking through the several reference books which I have discovered.
I have continued extensive refinement of the storyline and its missions to ensure historical accuracy. I redeveloped the loading screens from 500 taken to have a final selection WITHOUT filters as many of them work as well if not better plain.
I have developed the story work further adding titles for each mission as well as the characters and locations where the work will be given.
I decided to experiment in flash with a figure and a revolving weapon animation for the menu systems. They are quite basic but spending this time helps work out a system and style. I developed the story, working from another book I have found by a local historian and Civil War expert.

28.08.09 – 01.09.09: Location Photography

While visiting the area, I took the opportunity to gather and edit over 500 photos in Shropshire. I have always felt that I want my work to be entirely original and so have worked from my own material for every project so far on this course. I could Google some of the images I have collected but I thinks it’s much more creative to find my own and I actually end up with better imagery. As well as sweeping landscape shots from the tops of hills, I visited specifically relevant locations to the project for research purposes.

25.08.09: Logo Development

After adding the stationary smoke to the logo, I was inspired to add a slight animation to the logo as it might act as a part of the games loading sequence and would add interest to the screen. I had noticed how Mercenaries 2 and Call of Duty 4 and 5 had used a smoke affect on their menu screens by having two solid 2D images moving across each other from opposite sides of the screen. I experimented with this overlapping design using advancing Photoshop imagery and ended up with what I feel it quite a striking screen. The smoke is subtle and elegant and works very well in grounding the dark image. I added two more layers of finer lines of smoke and animated them to float up and down to complete the image.
As I believed we would have early presentations in the year about our FMP, I decided to plan out roughly a power-point presentation. Using my recent imagery, I put together the basic skeleton of the slide show with points to talk about to the group.

24.08.09: Logo Concepts

I decided to develop the identity of the game slightly by adding text to the logo. From my research when working on the symbol earlier, I saw that the majority of games use text as a defining identity for the game rather than a symbol. Half-Life, Mercenaries 2 and the Unreal series have an actual symbol as well but the more recognisable game identities can be lone text such as with Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty. As such I decided to locate a suitable font. Looking at imagery from the age, I had the choice to use either handwriting script or early printed type. I considered having words scratched into wood or metal or using type in dripping blood for example, but felt a period typeface would have more specific relevance to the game. I began by looking through websites around the civil war to see what fonts they might have used as found Monotype Corsiva was very popular. I also experimented drawing by hand a printed typeface, as I couldn’t find a fitting default one. In the end after experimentation with Mt Corsiva in Photoshop, I believe I developed an effective style and distinctive title. I scratched away at the letters in places to make them look worn and antique and separated each one individually, resizing slightly and changing their spacing to make them look of the style of early printing. The groundbreaking use of propaganda at this time meant that printing is a key feature of the war and so a sensible concept for the main logo.
After completing the layout I added it to the two larger more detailed logos I had and found it worked more effectively white on black, making the atmosphere darker and more grown-up. I then added a slight smoke effect to it, helping the pure-white areas of the letters appear almost glowing.

23.08.09: Storyline Research

Today I completed the 35 storyline missions with objective details for each side and historical reference to names, locations and events. This took a long time due to referencing and planning each quest as well as the overall body of the game. I feel it is now a good length and the content should be compelling to play through.

22.08.09: Storyline Planning

I began planning the storyline and the main missions along it. I decided to have two parallel storylines, one for each of the two game factions. They would show either side of each encounter as well as unique quests for both sides, giving the player the option to experience the storyline from two very different viewpoints.
I started with 45 missions, which I felt was a reasonable length for a freeroam games main story but refined them back slightly so the player wouldn’t be repeating themselves. I didn’t feel losing a few would impact on the game experience as the many side missions and similar aspects to a freeroam can make the storyline insignificant.
My constant thought is to make the story accessible and interesting but not preachy or compulsory. So I am frequently referring back to books and internet resources to make the game accurate, whilst trying to make it all as fun as possible and not a historians crusade to educate people. I feel accurate history can give games a powerful and compelling integrity such as the Age of Empires, Total War and World War series’. Age of empires especially has intricate details of each available upgrade with historical info, but doesn’t force you to wade through it. Assassins creed on the other hand, with its preachy and condescending ‘unskipable’ cutscenes makes the experience negative and boring.

21.08.09: Planning the Project Outline

I decided to plan out specific list of what I want to submit for the project. This should give me a clearer understanding of what I will need to complete and help me to manage my time. While this is just the summer and I have been experimenting, as the new semester approaches it may help to focus my work more. I lost marks on the Designing for the User project last year by spending huge amounts of time on unnecessary aspects of the game. The second Flash project was much more successful as I was much more conscious of the work I was doing.

28.07.09: Naval Game Visuals

Having the functioning placeholders completed, I have added advanced visuals for the sea, and each angle of the ship. I have animated the sea to be gently moving and added froth to make each image of the boat feel more mobile as well as plumes of smoke for the refined canon.

27.07.09: Naval Game Coding

I have experimented with advanced code to make the canon fire from the centre of the screen from a fixed, pivoting ship. However I have settled upon using buttons to press and trigger movie clips of animations tweens. This may not be as professional as an entirely code based approach, but I don’t feel this approach has been an issue so far on the course and has had the same final results. After all, I am illustrating my ideas and making a prototype, not learning to be a dedicated programmer and am focussing on the design element of the work. I will still need to use a large amount of code, including numerous variables.

26.07.09: Naval Combat Game

Today I began a Flash game centred on the naval sections of the story after checking with Jay (James Field: Project Tutor and Course Leader) that more varied elements could be included in the FMP. Some of the stronger influences for the design of this demo come from the Playstation 1 ‘Overboard’ and sections of ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’ original game. The player would ultimately be able to sail around a bay, fight with other ships and complete objectives. I next created a placeholder for the ship to pivot on in the centre of the screen upon certain button presses.

20.07.09 – 24.07.09: Location Photography and Editing

I have collected relevant photographs on location and from other sources and heavily edited them to suit an identified theme within the title. Using filters and other editing, I have developed them to appear as paintings. I have found this approach recurs throughout a few games, such as the oblivion loading screens and offer an intriguing image for the player from the game world as it loads. I also added a developed logo to images to unite them as loading screens, with a shape for a load-progress bar to be set.

17.07.09: Initial Logo Concepts

In order to give the game an identity I have generated a logo from my own photos and developed it to be appealing and fit the theme of the game. I chose an inverted sword for the centre of the design as the crucifix shape reflects the religious motivations for the Civil War while the violent nature of the object confers the violence of the era. A mixture of simple hilt and an ornate blade also represents the conflict between High and Low Church, which was the main difference of belief at the heart of the war. The crossed pistols make a powerful image in my opinion, similar to a coat of arms and are specifically relevant as they show the most advanced gun technology the player will acquire.

14.06.2009: Windmills!!

I have developed the intricate wooden cladding to the gatehouse and discovered the texture limits to a BSP-heavy map. While there is absolutely no performance drops throughout the entire level, no matter what the complexity of the BSP, the engine seems to be limited at texturing the same material onto more than a few hundred surfaces. This isn’t an issue but more of a consideration no to waste time but check more frequently. I am also being careful to ‘cook’ the map more frequently as check it can actually play.
I have developed an idea to include multiple maps displaying changing weather across the world. I could therefore design areas at night, morning, daylight and in different weather conditions. This would be an option possibility after all other world has been completed but to start with I have designed a windmill (based on Wheatley Windmill, Oxfordshire) as they will feature in the game landscape.

13.06.2009: North Tower and Lighting

I began with the shell of the North Tower making sure to the design stays in keeping with Great Hall architecture. I have also developed the lighting of the map further to have unity across the level and cast stronger shadows and sunlight to give it a ‘morning’ feel.

12.06.2009: Great Hall Ceiling

Today I began extensive work of great hall rafters (based on St Peters Church, Wootton Wowen, Warwickshire: an example of fine roofing from the era), and further developed the Great Hall windows. The rafters add an impressive atmosphere to the room and add strategic points for the actual gameplay. I am keeping level design in mind with the build, as it isn’t just a test of my design skills but creating a playable environment. As such, certain aspects of the location may vary from real life in an effort to enhance its playable nature.

11.06.2009: Gatehouse and Great Hall Refinement

I have added an accurate chimney to the Gatehouse as well as cutting out the windows of Great Hall and finishing hollowing out its interior. I have experimented with lighting within it and the shadows cast by the interesting window shapes look very impressive.

10.06.2009: Stairs and Roofs

I began by lighting the spiral staircase as apart from main lights the map is generally dark. I designed the interesting buttresses for the Great Hall and South Tower, refined the South Tower roof to add the battlements and built a preliminary outdoor staircase. I also completed the 12 pitched roofs on great hall, a mighty undertaking however I feel they look really effective. To finish, I hollowed out the Great Hall roof as a start for the building’s interior.

09.06.2009: Awkward Great Hall Roof

Today I began the large Great Hall and completed most of the roof. This was an immensely difficult process as it meant cutting and adding obscure angles into the original block. I also created a vast spiral staircase and full south tower interiors ending with aligning the hundreds of textures on the shapes of the walls.