igibbinspreston.files.wordpress.com · web view2017. 6. 6. · level 3 games design. production...

Isaac Gibbins 26/5/17

Level 3 games design

Production report: Cold SteelMy Proposal The title of the game will be icy steel and will be an action Sci-fi strategy game where you control a mech in fast pace combat. I will be working towards producing concept art of the game like the environments and the mechs themselves, with some having backgrounds as well. This will relate to my work as it can help develop my drawing skills and help to get a better understanding of how to design the concept for a game with a set style. It will also give me the knowledge of how to make great mech designs in the future.

The influences I had were of mech games like Chromehounds, Phantom crash and Armoured Core: For Answer which were some of the games that I played as a when I was a kid. The game will have a mixture of both Chromehounds and AC: FA with the environments similar to Chromehounds and gameplay like AC: FA. I will obtain various images to look at the different landscapes and to gain an idea of what the environments look like. I will also look into the different companies of AC: FA and get a general idea of their location and their products.

I will be using paper to draw out sketches and to make the outlines of the main drawings. I will then use the computers and scanner at collage to be able to start using the programme Photoshop to shade and colour in the images more efficiently than using coloured pencils. For the time plan, I plan on using the Easter holidays to start sketching put the mechs and to start looking into the landscape of Norway to get the different levels of verticality and see what the majority of their industrial buildings look like, for example oil rigs, ship ports, factories.

I will make my review by adding the final products to deviant art and art station to see if my work will be critiqued, I will also ask my class mates to review my work and give criticism. I could potentially see if people in Preston will critique my work.

Viability and market researchThe reason I have decided on this idea as there are not that many mech games that are similar to the layout of my game and the game will be a fast pace game to give players a great challenge of skill and reaction.

The Front mission series is a tactical top-down strategy game that uses humanoid like mechs. The game uses a turn based strategy setup with the use of different weapons, legs terrain and skills to make your moves more tactical with certain weapons having different range and different legs move differently on different terrain.


There is a third-person shooter version called Front mission evolved that uses a similar setup to Armoured core with having more speed and tactical gameplay than strategy and planning, though legs still have different effects.

Chromehounds is a third person tactical shooter made from the same group that made armoured core. The game's mechs are part by part made as you can develop them any way you want as long as you have the parts to do so. The game has a part integrity system that tells you which parts have what health. Another mechanic is a system that lets you see parts of maps as well as see key points for capture. Your mech's legs can effect what weapons you can use and what mech category you are apart of, with the classes being soldier, sniper, defender, scout, artillery, and commander.


The MechWarrior series is a tactical shooter which has you choose from a variety of different mechs, which you can choose the armaments for. The game has a heavy emphasis on part degradation and health conservation as it is easy for parts of your mech to be taken off. The different mechs can do different things like run fast or hover for a few seconds, allowing for more tactical decisions and ways to avoid getting shot whilst getting an advantage over your enemies.


The Armoured core series is a tactical third person mech shooter that emphasises choosing the right equipment for the different missions and conserving your health. The mechs are humanoid and dependent on the game, can be fast or not so fast. The games use a realistic style making the mechs look beautifully crafted in the later versions. The different parts can give different effects and the amount of info can be an overload, but once you learn what parts do what, it is easy to make your mech the way you want, especially in the 4 series

The series has sold millions of games with their second game selling 800,000 copies alone making the series a major success for from software.

These games have fan bases of hundreds of thousands of players and are some of the most successful mech games because of the systems they use for the different games, allowing for the different games to have different feel to them.

My game offers a retractable shield for more tactical gameplay as you can fit the shield and be able to use it whenever you feel in danger. Also, the game will feature an alignment system where, if you complete the different side’s missions, you will gain respect or loose respect for the respective sides. This will also effect the different main missions that will appear as you can be on one side or the other as well as have more allies or enemies.


The market has a fairly low saturation in the different brands as there isn’t as much of a fan base for mech games compared to shooters or racing games so my game will not just be another mech game because of the low amount of realistic/ semi realistic mech games out there.

FundingI would get the money from bank loans and or gaming loans as the game could cost up to 30 million pounds to make and will take a bit of time to make so this money would be distributed between the different sections when making the game.

Materials, facilities, resources and production scheduleI used pens, pencils paper, manikins, ink, paintbrushes, college games rooms, computers, Wacom tablets and Photoshop.

Project management and contingency planningMy backup plan was to use the college’s computers in the library so that I would be able to catch up if I was behind or if some of my work was deleted.

I was on target with my Gantt chart for the whole project as I would concentrate on my work whilst adding in the detail towards the end of making some of my images so that if I felt it was taking too long, I could just leave it as it is and move on to the next image/ outlining it on Photoshop.

CopyrightI have developed all of my ideas from scratch so if there were any problems with copyright, then it would be an accident and I would change the designs to avoid copyright infringement. The only thing that could give risk copyright is using the different nation’s military’s though it is set in the future so the technology will most likely of changed. Like I said, the designs are all my own so under copyright law I could get the designs and the name of my game protected by copyright.

DevelopmentSketches and silhouettes


Sketches and silhouettes- for these, I made these designs from the top of my head and made them with little detail whilst making plenty so that I have a wide variety of parts to choose to make my mechs out of. Also, it allows me to check which country the silhouettes are for and allow me to develop the manufacturers that they come from.

Anatomy

We used mannequins to make poses that we might use for our characters. After that, we traced over the poses and developed the muscle/ mechanisms used to move the different parts of the body.


Detailed Images

This design is for one of the Japanese models and shows what equipment will be used by the army model. This also allows me to show the manufacturers designs and some of the details that are in the models and the weapons as well as show the logo of the manufactures. This goes for all of these designs.

This design is for the British titan model and includes the equipment that their army uses it for.

This design is for the German heavy artillery model and shows the equipment that their army uses with this model.


This model is the military police model for the Norwegian military and what equipment they use for the model.

Detailed scenes

This image is showing a titan model walking whilst a navigator guides the pilot. I am trying to show the designs in 3D and give them an environment to try and show them off by using perspective.

This design is showing a Mjolnir model patrolling a river whilst a supply ship transports goods. I was trying to develop my perspective to give more detail though it looks flatter than the previous image.


This design shows a Switzerland base with a wolverine model patrolling the outside of the base. This was trying to use the spacing rule in photography to make the environment around the mech more of a focus whilst you still can see the mech.

This image shows the Japanese model moving towards a firing range for training whilst in the background a section of the city of Haruna is opening its drawbridge to allow people to walk to the other side of the city. I chose this design as it gives the sense of 3D and would allow me to add shadow to the image.

This image is a helicopter landing to pick up salvage and scrap from a ravine that had a big battle. This image was meant to show the devastation of the fighting, but it doesn't really show that and have some strange lines i forgot to rub out.


This design is a training facility in France and is showing a French model mech walking towards a firing range with a quad walker and tank tread model moving in the lower levels. The image is meant to show how busy the bases can be and show how my 3D skills have improved.

This image shows a Belgium model looking over an Italian camp in the middle of a field next to a river with an Italian mech patrolling the camp with his weapon looking for any threats. This was meant to show the vast distances in the game and show a different type of leg but the design looks a bit weird and unnatural.

This image is showing a helicopter going past the city of Akagi with some cars/ trucks on the mountain pass. The design was meant to show the verticality of some of the places and show the design of the helicopters in a more detailed way.


.

This image shows the foot of some Switzerland mechs as they attack a Swedish town with some infantry attacking civilians in the house. The image is meant to show the sense of scale and show the devastation of the battles.

This image shows the Swedish CQC model with its shield up in the mountains of Norway whilst the pilot outside of the mech walking to get into the seat of the mech. I chose this design as it has a lot of potential for good shading and shadows. I was trying to make it show the mech as the main focus and show both the mech and the weapons in more detail.

This image is the German heavy artillery model moving through a park in the middle of a war zone to re-position so that it can fire at the enemy in safety. I chose this image to test out shading with colour using gradients. The image is meant to also show the devastation of the war whilst also showing the way the mechs can move and how their joints work.


This image is a titan model shooting upwards in the middle of rolling hills with its shield retracted and cows running away. I chose this image to give a sense of scale to the mechs and to add a symbol to the mechs. The design is to show the way the mechs can be used in combat as well as add some modern detection systems like the radar on top of the head.

Coloured potential design.

This was my attempt at using shading and colour without gradients. I personally think it went OK but could be improved on. i Was trying to manually shade the image as well as manually add shadow to try and add more realism to the image.


Outcomes

The image uses a lot of gradients to show the shading and to add the shadow. The image could have shown the scale of the image but I forgot to add the pilot in. the image is meant to show the detail of the weapons and show how smooth the shading can be in Photoshop.

This image is meant to show how the gradient can be used to shade in colour which I think went very well. The image also gives a good look at how the different legs might move. The image was meant to have some grass that I made by using a special brush tool but for some reason, the brushes disappeared as I used the gradient tool.


This image is meant to address some of the points that the group brought up that I could improve on. The image gives the sense of scale that I wanted so that you could think of what these mechs would look like up close. Also, I have added a symbol to try to make the mechs look like they have specific symbols for the different mech types. I used the gradient tool to make the natural shading but I also used a different layer and the brush tool to add the shadows around the cows, trees and the mech.

Evaluation

Things I Need To Work On

The things I will work on will be showing the scale of the mechs as well as show where the pilots go so that people know that the mechs are manually controlled. Another thing that I should do is add more modern life technology to make the robots have ways of looking that are obvious to people. Also, another thing that people have told to change are the colour variety as they seem to blend in together and don't let people see the full picture. Some people also say that I should make the purpose of the mechs to be more obvious so that the audience knows that the mechs are combat mechs.

I have addressed a few of these pieces of advice like the size and the combat in my newest outcome and I will address the other points like the place where the pilots will sit as well as the colour variety in the next outcome if I get time to do it.

The future

If I was to keep going with this game, I would add a few more final outcomes and to start 3D modelling the games so that when I start making the environment or levels of the game I will be able to get the size and scale of the game right as well as being able to see how each joints of the mech will move.

igibbinspreston.files.wordpress.com · web view2017. 6. 6. · level 3 games design. production...

Documents