Expanding from the three examples I gave I'll critic them on their good points and bad points. Each one were designed specifically for their genres and it seems all have defined their GUI look for their genres. I'll analysis them in the same order starting with Bethesda's The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim GUI.
Bethesda have designed this GUI to compliment their game experience; Bethesda has always designed their games to have high levels of immersion (Even though most of their games have bugs that can destroy immersion). Skyrim's GUI is about intuitive design, an easy interface that allows users to pick up and play with issues of misunderstanding. Health, magicka and stamina, weapon energy slots (from souls) and enemy health all have their own GUI bars that appear when players either; take damage, cause damage, use magic, perform player character animations (running, jumping, blocking, etc.) , use or draw weapons and fight opponents. However these interfaces down intrude game experiences, the opacity changes on the fly. Invisible when inactive and visible when active. The compass bar is constant but is placed at the top in the middle and doesn't intrude.
This GUI has one major flaw however, either due to the game engine limitations or game design. This flaw is the enemy health bar. When players versus multiple enemies, only one enemy health bar is visible on the screen and this is below the compass bar. This is an issue when players versus multiple enemies on harder difficulties, especially mage enemies. This may have been done for screen real estate reasons but it does affect the game experience when the player is fighting multiple opponents.
Here we have Grand Theft Auto IV and Rockstar's legendary GUI. It's no secret that most if not all open world sandbox games use GTA's GUI. Games like Just Cause 2, Saints Row series, True Crime series and even Rockstar's own Red Dead Redemption have copied (or known as cloned) Rockstar's game GUI design. The focal feature is the mini-map, almost everything is conveyed using the mini-map. Users will have streets highlighted, pick ups shown (health, armour, weapons), health / armour bars, compass, altitude (if flying or sky diving) and police notifications appear on their mini-map. Other features like; Weapon selection, police wanted rating is shown in the top right of this image. Rockstar's new addition with GTA IV was the mobile phone GUI. This included several new features the GTA franchises didn't have before this generation due to limitations. Features like phoning NPC characters, signing on to online networks (GFLW, Xbox Live and PSN) and the use of the phone camera for specific missions in the game. Once again, others have copied Rockstar's formulae of the GUI interface with the phone addition, notably Saints Row: The Third.
It's hard to critic Rockstar's GUI as it's been so influential in the industry, everyone has copied it. It's kept it's basic look since 2001 and doesn't seem to be changing any time soon. The next likely change to this type of interface will happen when Rockstar decides it needs to be changed, and the most likely outcome will be the others copying once again.
Finally is Naughty Dog's Uncharted GUI. Similar in a sense to Skyrim's, i.e. the GUI tries not to intrude during gameplay but appears when prompts are required. Most of Uncharted GUI features appear in the top left. Weapons are featured in this position so players can see the equipment they have during chapters. On screen prompts appear at the middle-bottom of the screen during gameplay and quick time events (QTEs) appear in specific locations when prompted. Uncharted's GUI is much more basic to the other two examples since it's an action / adventure Hollywood blockbuster experience. Everything is about the characters and set pieces in environments so the GUI is really irrelevant useless needed.
The main criticism I have with the Uncharted GUI is how every prompt (unless QTEs) is allocated to the triangle button on the PlayStation controller. This is a major issue that still exists today within the franchise (minus the PS Vita game that uses touch screen controls). The issue is that healing an ally uses triangle, picking up ammo (not in Uncharted 3) uses triangle, switching weapons uses triangle and collecting objectives or treasures uses triangle. This annoys users as the GUI moves between each triangle command. This could be down to control input limitations though (Not enough buttons).
Although Naughty Dog's interface isn't influential, Naughty Dog's vision is, and that's why I chose it as an option to be considered for our game GUI.
So originally my first initial plan was to recreate Robert's Park, this however changed soon after as other team members wanted to do the park environment. This led me to consider Victoria Road, specifically the college buildings in that area. These buildings have great significance to Saltaire's history and also became a focal point in our story. Before starting anything major with the environment I planned out the modelling methodically, I didn't want to just jump in with it. First I mapped the road and pavement. Using a basic box I extruded it to cover the road I wanted to recreate. Here is an image showing the first stage.
After plotting the road I moved on to the grass and small surrounding walls. I used planes for the grass and then sized them so they fitted right. The walls were much harder to develop that the grass. I first used the standard primitive tool to create a box that I resized, then I used the extrude tool to expand to several times to cover the allocated areas. For the more detailed sections I simply used extrude again and modified it with the resize tool. To connect the posts together I used the bend tool on a box.
The fencing was actually quite easy; although it looks complicated it was relatively simple. I made one base fence using a cylinder then used my favourite extrude and resize tool to get the pointing effect. After the base model was complete I cloned it and resized a smaller model and then a larger model. I thought the 3 sizes would create a more realistic looking fencing system. I also extended the platforms at the wall corners were the loins would be placed.
Before moving on to the buildings I wanted to throw in environment features like; benches, street lamps, bins, Victoria Hall building stairs and a public sign. The sign was easy as it involved just 3 standard box primitives, nothing complicated. The benches were created with a box, simply extruding the leg segments created a basic looking bench, then using the create tool I connected them and then extruded the rear of the bench to create a back panel. I deleted polygons to have gaps in the bench design. The street lamps were created using a basic box that was again extruded upwards with a bend at the top. The bin was made with ease; it is a cylinder that I cut in half then resized the height of the bottom section. I then selected the top and bottom, reduced them slightly in size and reversed the normals. I then created polygons to connect the inner, out layers plus connecting the upper and lower section. Creating the stairs were easy, extruding continuously until it look decent.
My first building in this environment was the Victoria Hall, simple box design with an extruded roofing (one section lifted much higher), forced in wall on either side of the main entrance and then added windows and an arch. Windows and the arch was created using the bend tool, I just selected individual polygons to bend and other parts not to be so it gave that arch look.
After finishing the initial (basic) design for the Victoria I moved on to the outer buildings. These were made with standard boxes and modified with moving vertices. When I created these buildings I redesign the window arches by using the same tools but I used them more effectively. I also decided to remove the original arches from Victoria Hall because they look much better. Simple window and door shapes were added to the outer buildings.
The most significant building in this 3D environment is the Salts building. I created this building like the rest by simply using a standard box primitive. The segments were increased by at least a dozen on height, width and length. I used images as references to get the design perfect. Vertices were moved to get the angles looking right; polygons were extruded in and out to recreate the defined areas of the building.
The bell section of the Salts was added at a later stage in the development. I used the same tools as usual to get the shape correct. Pillars were added using cylinders and I copied over the windows from the outer buildings. Quarantine walls closed off the environment, they were created using planes. I added a ramp on one of the closed off walls as an entry point for the animation. Large lights can be seen in the image below but I decided to remove them as they looked pretty awful. I pulled in trees to add so nature to the environment, they weren't created by me however, I used the available foliage on the software.
Texturing was a long process; this was the case last year, lucky though I decided to use an easier technique to texture everything in the environment. UVW Unwrap was such a pain last year and would have made this process take several times longer. You could say I cheated but I used UVW map, this option sped up the process of texturing by no end. I dis-attached the roofing of each building from the base and textured the roof differently to the base. After the texture was applied I re-attached the sections together. I added more detailed textures throughout the environment and included one Easter egg poster on the rear of the main sign board. Some of my textures didn't look right or didn't really work so I decided to use available textures to replace the unused ones. Other changes happened in this process; I updated the arched windows and doors again so they were solid impervious objects. This was done so textures would be easy to develop. Before finishing the texture process I looked at the map scale. Some sections seemed to be oversized and others undersized so I rescaled them because my OCD was on alert but also so it looked correct.
Lighting was a key factor in this environment and this came now, most others added a power lighting system with sky boxes in their environments. This wasn't for me and I wanted the lights to be effective but not intruding on the environment. The street lamps are on with a strong beam of light but they don't light the environment up massively around them. A touch of fog and this creates an eerie atmosphere, something similar to the original Silent Hill games.
The animation process was hard as ever, I was given support on this part so I can't praise myself for how well it came out. I used key frames to the get the motion correct with the camera within the environment. The animation was fluid throughout with the only one issue being an overlooked camera clipping with the ramp during the jumping section of the animation. The total frames in this animation is around 1200, this allowed me to have a good frame rate in the animation.
Does your final design meet your original intentions?
I believe it does meet my initial ideas for this environment. My planning wasn't ideal; I knew what I wanted to do and planned it on a basic level. My original intention was to have more streets around the Victoria Road but this was changed due to time constraints. I knew I couldn't complete the work with the original Victoria Road idea. All the important aspects of Victoria Road are captured in the location so developing the entire street wasn't really necessary. Due to these reasons I believe it's met my original intentions.
How did you manage your time?
On the planning side of this process my time management was pretty useless and probably effected my time on the actual 3D production side. My planning came later than planned and entered in my time for 3D work. My time management for 3D work didn't start off well but I spent extra time to catch up and complete my work so it balanced out in a way. The allocated time was 8 weeks; the hours were limited to the sessions in the 3D rooms so roughly 8 per week, in total 64 hours of work. Individuals could attend for extra hours to either improve or continue developing. Attending these extra sessions helped me complete my work.
How could you manage your time more effectively?
In all honesty, I lost focus at this stage. Being focused, enjoying my work, more practice with the software that could have given me more time to develop my plan and actual work. I effectively slacked off for several weeks and this made me late in terms of time efficiency. I did however redeem myself when crunch time came and I attended additional sessions to complete the work. A poor start that ended well in summary.
What did you struggle with?
As before, animation has never been my thing and learning this will be the biggest hurdle I'll have to overcome. It's been hard for me to grasp the animation side of the application and my first attempt last year was totally forgettable. I received help from my tutor and other students regarding developing my animation. I gave the direction and plotted the movement of the camera but the actual animation was set by my tutor and class colleagues. Texturing (UVW unwrap) would of been difficult if I didn't use mapping but thankfully I did and this wasn't an issue this year. The only other struggle with textures were some of my own textures didn't tile good enough so decided against using them. Modelling wasn't a struggle but just time consuming, I spent too much time on the little things in the environment and making object too exact.
What did you find easy?
Lighting was incredibly easy; I simply placed the Omni lights in the environment and then placed them into the street lamps. Simply selecting setting options and the job was done for lighting. This was the same case with fog, nothing difficult, finding it was harder than using it. Texturing was easily done thanks to UVW map, the tool did most of the job, and I just had to modify the positioning of the textures.
How does your finished design compare to professional examples?
My final design reminds me and others (it seems) of Silent Hill. I believe this is down to the fog and lighting more than anything else. It wasn't really my intention to do this, I did want an eerie environment but not at the levels since in the Silent Hill games. Silent Hill games have dark, foggy and limited light environments to create an empty, long since gone environment feel. In a sense my environment is very similar but for different reasons. In terms of graphical effects I believe my environment is very comparable to something like Silent Hill. My modelling isn't highly detailed to the buildings it's based on but resembles them and looks recognisable so I believe they're professional enough. The animation looks smooth and fluid throughout with only one incident of clipping. The clipping can be seen but only for a millisecond. Due to my skill level with the software at this moment I'd probably compare it to something from the 6th generation of gaming.
Comparison of Silent Hill 2 gameplay screen-shoot and below that is my HD render of my environment.
What do other people think of your finished design?
Looking at the comments on the YouTube uploads; specifically comments regarding my scene, it seems to be really positive with people giving high praise and compliments to my work. Most people liked the atmosphere created in the environment with the lighting and fog effects. Other positive comments were directed at the animation within my scene of the trailer. The only negative comment was about the lack of creatively my scene had, I can understand and accept this complaint but I was recreating an existing environment so my creatively was limited.
What could you improve upon?
Four areas of this finished design could have been improved.
1st my planning; I could of done much more here, I visualised my work but never got it down on paper before my 3D work started. That would have been the biggest improvement I could have made to this work as it would have settled my thoughts, ideas and gave me references to my work.
2nd my modelling; although it didn't need to be hyper realistic it could of been far more accurate to the actual environment I was recreating. The outer buildings could have been more detailed with more realistic and accurate textures. Another point would be the curvature of the street in reality, this isn't present in my environment and with more time it could have been included.
3rd my texturing; my initial textures didn't really work well with my environment and something noticeable with the buildings is that they're covered in clay brick textures. Factually this is completely inaccurate, Saltaire buildings were made with sandstone bricks, unfortunately the texture I had taken on camera and modified didn't work well enough for me and with time constraints I opted to drop it for a tileable clay brick texture. This and the use of UVW unwrap would of made the textures looked more sharper and more realistic.
4th my animation; as stated before I would of fixed the slight clipping issue that was present only for a millisecond. This little improvement would have made the animation 100% perfect.
If you were to do it again what would you do differently next time?
Time management would be the 1st real thing I'd do differently, less slacking and more focus. Additional planning and more time spent on the software it could have been completed with higher quality and ready for editing much sooner. Other than that and what I've discussed in my improvements answer I would have done this process in a pretty similar fashion.
What did you learn?
I've learnt new skills and tricks with the software. You can do a lot by simply extruding, moving vertices and resizing standard primitives. I didn't really do things like this last year. I never used effects before this project, the lighting and fog really improved the look of my work and made it feel much more atmospheric than it would have been. My skills with animation still needs to be higher, my learning curve needs to accelerate so my work in the future will look better and more professional. It seems obvious that creating outside environments is much harder than making indoor environments. Much more needs to be considered, for example; environments are open so more content needs to be made to fix the foreground and more importantly the background. This isn't an issue if you place obstacles the sight of the background or even effects to make the background harder to see. Interior environments don't have to consider this aspect and will ultimately have less content visible unless windows are placed throughout the environment; this for me makes exterior environments harder to develop for.
Overall I'm extremely satisfied with my work, I'd like to thank the positive comments I've received on the YouTube uploads which also helped my self esteem.
Below is my final design in video and the Red Hawk's final game trailer.
For this unit we had to create a GUI interface that would be used for our game's 3D environment. This being all theoretical we'd use a frame in our game and conceptually develop an GUI based upon that frame. Before placing a frame, I created 3 concept designs based upon typical or popular GUI designs. These concepts are available on through this link. After penning these designs I recreated them using Photoshop, these Photoshop versions included a frame from the my part of our trailer. These designs are available here. From these Photoshop versions I selected my favourite which was the Role Playing Game example, then I recreated it again using Flash. With Flash I created roll over buttons on the GUI elements that would change when players either selected these elements or on screen prompts told the player about them.
Does the final graphic user interface meet your original intentions? If it does match your planning explain why?
Since I've completed this unit relatively quickly I pretty much matched my original designs, well at least my first concept which was the RPG example. I developed this design on Photoshop with a frame from my game environment. After the Photoshop example, I finished my original design using Flash. The concept to final product is pretty much 100% identical.
How did you manage your time?
I managed my time extremely well with this project, everything regarding the project besides this reflection was completed within two days (2 actual days). I spent around 5 hours on planning which 2 were allocated to concepts. I wanted to construct the planning properly so I spent a good amount of time on it. Photoshop didn't take that long as I used simple tools to get the concepts looking right and with colours it looked like a real GUI. Flash had taken slightly longer than Photoshop even though I only had one to do but this was due to playing with settings and remembering how to make roll over areas (buttons) over the GUI. All in all the time on this project was used well and effectively.
What did you struggle with?
To be fairly honest, pretty much nothing. The only place I slightly struggled with in this process was with Flash but I eventually remembered the skills I learned last year when I made my Flash questionnaire game. Here is my evaluation for that project.
How does your finished graphical user interface compare to professional examples?
In my planning I showed my inspirations for my concepts, I then developed the concepts to look realistic in colour on Photoshop. Finally I finished my RPG example on Flash with roll over areas. My final GUI looks very similar to the professional example I showed at the end of that blogpost. The only additions were the mini-map in the top right and a constant level bar at the bottom of the GUI. Here is a professional example of Skyrim's GUI and below it is a screenshot from my final Flash GUI.
What could you improve upon?
I guess I could of done more with my final Flash GUI, I'm more than satisfied with it but I could of done a lot more. I achieved what I wanted with it so it's not a major issue and it isn't bothering me but that's were I could of done more.
If you were to do it again what would you do differently next time?
To repeat what I said in my last statement, spent more time with Flash and padding out my GUI with multiple GUI layers.
What did you learn?
I learned that using my time effectively I can complete work in a relatively quick amount of time. I started this unit on Sunday and completed everything besides this reflection by Tuesday. If I applied this concentration and motivation to all my work I'll probably achieve better across all my work on this course.
Here are some more screenshots of my final Flash GUI.
Continuing from my concepts, here is my Photoshop versions which include my 3D environment which I completed early in the month and was shown during the digital showcase on the 10th of May. I'll run with the same order as the last post, Role Playing Game example first.
Second example would the Open World example.
And last is the action / adventure and shooter genres.
The graphic user interface or GUI is a information device used to convey data from the screen to the user. It's available to the user visually, more prettier than text but with colours and shapes. Seeing the content present on the screen, but it seems like it's talking to you rather than you just reading it, that's the sensation I get anyway.
A great example would be the dashboard of a car, everything is visually seen but you understand the information like it's second nature. Translating a game GUI and a car dashboard is done in similar ways, visual data is fired at you in both circumstances. Game simulators today, especially car simulators use either virtual GUIs or it forces the player to understand the car's virtual dashboard as the real thing, this works extremely effectively, increases immersion and feels incredibly real.
Below is an image of a brainstorm / mind map of GUI features used for either Action / Adventure games, open world games or action RPGs.
Subtitles would be the only feature I'd possibly add to this list, subtitles obvious let people read what they hear. Subtitling has become more effective in the games industry of late were the text reads like it's told.
I've created 3 conceptual examples of graphical interfaces that represent 3 different yet similar genres, these examples have been influence by popular game franchises.
My first example is heavy inspired by Bethesda's 'The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim', Skyrim's GUI offers maximum screen real estate. The GUI doesn't intrude on gameplay and the opacity changes depending on what the player is doing. For example, if you're simply roaming the landscape you'll only see the compass bar across the top. Other features may also appear like stamina and if a weapon is drawn. However, if you're battling in the game, most if not all of the GUI elements will be present during gameplay. The only additions on this GUI compared to Skyrim's is the inclusion of a mini-map in the top right corner and a experience / level bar at the bottom. I believe this examples is clean, provides tons of data than can be consumed and would look brilliant in an actual game. Considering this was at 1920x1080 the screen real estate would be immense.
This second design is similar to what you'd expect for an open world game like Grand Theft Auto. The mini-map is usually sitting in the bottom left with a health and armour protection bar surrounding it. The inventory slot is usually located in the top left or right which leaves plenty of room for other features. Simply adding a stamina bar to the right of the mini-map gives players more data. Ideally it would be more attached to the map but this is just a concept and not what a final version would look like. I've also added a on screen command or prompt below the cross-hair and a objectives box in the top right to balance the GUI more. This example seems to work for the genre it's used for but offers much less data to the player that the RPG example. With that said, franchises like GTA also include items like page devices, phones or PDAs that appear on screen. These devices offer much more visual data and which also increases the realism of their games.
And finally, this GUI is more suited to the action / adventure and shooter genres. Information is limited as the user is usually told information via dialogue or through game events that can be dynamic or completely scripted. In the top left is information about the players inventory or arsenal. Primary and secondary weapons are displayed so the player can see their equipment, this usually includes highlighted bullets and grenades that are available for player. A more advanced cross-hair is in place with a on screen prompt that features below and finally a objectives bar and can also be used to convey subtitles. A health reticule usually appears as a filter when players take damage with their game character unlike the previous two examples. A GUI of this nature is common with games like Gears of War and the Uncharted franchise. This type of interface probably offers the best nature screen real estate but also offers much less data to the player.
All in all, I believe the first example (RPG concept) offers the most visual content and if programmed correctly, would offers the best screen real estate.
These actual game examples below are the basis of my concepts; the first being Skyrim, then Grand Theft Auto IV and finally Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.
The idea was to create audio that was needed to add realism to the trailer, sounds like; footsteps, door sounds, wind howls and more. I decided that Foley artistry would be the best technique to capture these needed sounds. Audio is massive to a viewing experience, visuals give you the sense of the content but sound adds depth to the viewing experience that brings trailers to life. Getting the sounds through was the preferred process. Originally it was planned that sound samples would be gathered by recording in a nature environment, so for example a park. I attempted to do this for several weeks (during my sound sessions) but with no luck. Almost every attempted was spoiled by background interference or sample wind effecting the audio device during recording. The focus shifted soon after towards creating the sounds in a controlled environment in the sound studio at the college. This was more successful with over 9 minutes of audio recorded and having a large amount of samples to work with. I used wooden planks to simulate walking on wooden flooring, gravel in a container to simulate someone walking in a park or through ruins. Other sounds were capture during this session that were more experimental.
Does your final audio product meet
your original intentions? If it does not match your planning explain why?
In all honestly, I'm very disappointed in the final audio that was produced by myself. It did resemble in some capacity my original intentions but didn't live up to the quality I hoped for. Sounds that were planned for were captured and sounded well enough individually, however they didn't mix well at all with my team's trailer. This could be down to several reasons but I believe the time management throughout the team was an issue that pushed audio editing to the very end of the production, the narration almost missed the final cut.
My personal belief is that, if the team had all of the 3D components complete a week prior to the final audio cut, all audio elements would of been present in the final trailer. Since I was proceeding over editing the final trailer I decided the best decision was to cut my Foley sound samples out of the trailer, I believe this was the best decision and this benefited the final trailer.
How
did you manage your time?
I can only criticize myself during this undertaking, management was poor during this task and time was wasted with failed attempts trying to capture audio in a nature environment. Additionally, more samples (and of better quality) could of been recorded in the controlled environment during this wasted time. Furthermore, I attended the studio for additional hours (which is a slight positive) to mix the samples capture, this was in vain however as the samples didn't sound much better and was ultimately unused. If I had to score my time management skills with this task a 1/10 would be more than generous.
What
did you struggle with?
On top of time I'd say understanding the software used to created and mix sound, Cubase is a great piece of software but to a none musician it was terribly hard to understand and work with. My tutor helped my with the software and introduced me with the key settings but I just wasn't comfortable with the software, this probably contributed the final product being below my hopes and expectations. Modifying the audio was a challenge in itself, it seemed like there were thousands of different modifiers available and finding one that worked was a headache. Even with the modifiers I chose I wasn't completely satisfy with the feedback.
Foley was harder than expected also, I love the idea behind Foley and massively respect the professionals in the industry. I'd like to think I'll have a second crack at this unique technique in the future, with this experience I'm sure it'll run much more smoothly.
How does your finished audio compare to professional examples?
Comparing my final audio piece to professional examples wouldn't be fair to professional examples. I removed the audio because it would of been unfair to have included it in the trailer. I'd say it would be hard to find an audio piece even remotely as bad as mine, maybe I'm being extremely harsh on myself but it isn't comparable and comparing it would be disrespecting professionals out there.What do other people think of your
finished audio?
It's impossible to receive criticism regarding my audio as it never made the final cut. My teams members felt it sounded rather repetitive and it did since it was mostly walking sounds with only a few sound bits in between. The general response regarding the rest is varied, some positive and others negative. The main criticism is that the soundtrack doesn't work well with the 3D content and it's repetitive throughout. The main positive is the trailer's introduction with PEGI age rating, radio broadcast and story narration.
What could you improve upon?
As stated above, probably nine tenths of the process would be improved upon if this was done again. Motivation would be much higher knowing my mistakes, developing my skills with the software would be up there on the list. Using controlled environments to produce sounds would give me more time to play with the audio and finally having more pieces of tat about to help create the sounds would increase the sound libraries needed for something of this magnitude. If you were to do it again what would
you do differently next time?
Again I'd repeat my thoughts above, more motivation, developing skills and definitely more planning. My planning was all in my head and not fully recorded, the 3D was my focus throughout and this may have contributed to the low quality of my sound.
What did you
learn?
Firstly, that audio production and this process was extremely stressful but secondly, I've learned that my skills regarding audio need to be improved across the broad. I'll probably never record Foley in a nature environment again and concentrate on creating sounds in a studio setting as the results are far better in my experience. Finally, throwing everything at it (literary), especially when recording sounds can actually pay off.
For our marketing side of the project we've looked at advertising our product on ourselves, you could say we are walking billboards. A local business provides a service that lets users create customized shirts with preset designs or users can upload unique and individual designs. The service is streetshirts and their base t-shirt is priced at £9.99, additional designs add price to the overall product.
First, I believe having simple text slogan similar to that of Rockstar's above our product name will add a more professional look to the shirt. Rockstar started to use their "Rockstar Games Presents" to show their name, putting the name on the logos added value to the product. Replicating that with our product will no doubt add that extra touch. This increased the price by £2 and came to a total of £11.99.
Next came the game logo, this sits just below the "Red Hawk Presents" text so it looks similar to Rockstar's style. This is just my temple as my logo wasn't chosen by the team so this isn't a final representation of my design. If my design picked I'll include the chosen design. Adding this logo added a further £10, making the price £21.99. Furthermore I added the Red Hawk logo on the back, it covers the shoulder blades and fits quite nicely on the shirt. This was simply done for effect because of the positioning and shape of the logo, however it also advertises our team. This second logo design only increased the price by another £6, putting the total price to £27.99.
I'd also like to include individual team member names on the back of our individual shirts so people know us more personally during the build up to the Digital Showcase and also the actual event on May 10th.
I'd like to comment that this game name logo came out incorrect continually so I just used this broken version just to illustrate my intentions.
Regarding this second image I'd like our individual names below the Red Hawk logo.
Red Hawk team members voted on individual shirt designs, it was decided that my design would be the best for print yet additional changes need to be made. Team hinted at looking at a cardinal red colour to compliment the Red Hawk logo. My game name logo was just a template and the correct one will be applied for the final design.
Black Design Front
Black Design Back
Cardinal Red Front
Cardinal Red Back
Both colours look good, both priced at £27.99. A future team discussion will decide the final colour of our shirts, either way I'm happy and they look professional.
During the evening sessions on Monday I sent time on modifying my environment plan. Due to time away from college I've spent time catching to others in the whole group and my group. This environment plan continued through Tuesday morning and evening with a 1 hour session dedicated to sound planning. Both planning documents need completing mind, sections are complete with both plans but they need finalizing so I can begin actual production work. Due to time off I'll have to spend time at home and during the holidays to catch up with work.
Screen shoot above is a slide from my environment planning document.
As a little taster session today with a stand in tutor we looked at Windows Live Movie Maker. We was given a task to take video clips provided and to edit them into a correct order or 'continuity editing'. The task was quite hard I'd say as the order was quite debatable. After finding an order that suited me, lets say. I played about with the software, cutting clips that contained content that I didn't like. I also played with visual effects as well. Furthermore I modified time by speeding sections up and other down.
For the project we, Red Hawk have to design promotional content or a promotional campaign to accompany our actually production. The promotional work will include the actual promoting of our work but also promote the development process and we'll hopefully have platforms to showcase our work on. For example, we hope to showcase our work on popular social network sites such as; Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The idea is to promote our content and what we're doing in different ways, Facebook and Twitter offer a wide range of promotional tools were as YouTube is very specific and will be a great asset for video content, which in turn is the main project anyway. The great advantage of using these platforms is that, they're free and extremely popular with people.
Visual content needs to be developed for these platforms. For example, we need banners and visual content of the product on sites. Creating visual concepts and promotional content on Photoshop and uploading this content for our promotional platforms will add that professionalism aspect but also a visual base for us to look at our development process.
This is an example of a banner I made on Photoshop. The actual banners will look similar to this when developed and published.
The story is based around Saltaire; a university has been developed in the park following a discovery of a stone holding power beyond mankind. The stone was named Deus Lapidem; Latin for God Stone. Saltaire was chosen by the High Council of Modern Science to host a university for research of the stone. The “Titus Memorial University of Molecular Science” was opened. Scientists tried to understand the stone, years of research lead to full contact interaction. Scientists moved on to other experiments to try and unlock more applications. Whilst this was taking place, wicked people wanted to use its power in such ways that would harm the very existence of humanity.
This is a brief description of the back story developed by Joseph Connell, a Red Hawk team member.
Content
Environment: Tomb, Memorial Centre, University, Park and Victoria Road.
Character: Main Protagonist, Lions, Stone Zombies, Spectre, Hawk (Intro and potential Easter egg).
Sound Direction
- Trailer Music; development process for the trailer theme hasn’t been fully discussed; work regarding this aspect will follow once actual concepts are discussed.
- Narration; Narration to be developed in the trailer through radio broadcast, hence Lewis Radio. The idea is to have the radio as a natural use of narrative, a potential monologue that discusses humanities survival.
- Sound Effects; wind, howls, footsteps, door creaks, lion roars, animal noises and zombie groans.
Other Aspects
Team Introduction; an animated 3D model of a Hawk will open are trailer. The Red Hawk represents are team.
Transitions; will divide the trailer into certain sections, cutting from environment to environment. The transitional screens will either hold quotes regarding the incident that start the downfall of humanity or what’s relevant to the game’s story.
Production & Marketing Plan
Job roles were allocated to team members during the team meetings. Although some members have more production work currently, these roles are subject to change in both production and marketing.
Production Job Roles
Ivo Anusic (Team Leader)
Environment - Park
3D Characters / Objects - Lions & Main Protagonist
Photoshop - Texturing
Sound - Dubstep Track
Lewis Corcoran (Co-Leader)
Environment - Park
3D Character / Objects - Female Spectre, Radio Prop & Park Props
Photoshop - Texturing
Sound - Radio Narrative
Alex Forbes-Wake
Environment - Memorial
3D Objects - Memorial Props
Photoshop - Texturing & Splash Screens
Sound - Foley Artistry
Adam Thompson
Environment - Tomb / Crypt
3D Objects - Tomb / Crypt Props
Photoshop - Texturing
Sound -Dubstep Track
Myself
Environment - Village
3D Character / Objects - Titus Statue, Red Hawk, Uni & Park Props
Photoshop - Texturing
Sound - Foley Artistry
Trailer Introduction
Joseph Connell
Environment - University
3D Character - Stone Zombie
Photoshop - Concept Art, Transitions & Texturing
Sound - Dialogue and Story Narration
Marketing Job Roles
Ivo Anusic (Team Leader) – Promotional Adverts
Lewis Corcoran (Co-Leader) – Game Icons (Steam, App Store and Android Market)
