The new version is released!
There have been many changes, and this time its visual! What's new? - New Sprites - New HUD - New Title Cards & Results Screen - New Routes in acts Enjoy this new release!
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My ObjC is almost complete!
There have been loads of improvements since my last post about this assignment, such as: -Adding 3 difficulty stage, all with unique artwork, gimmicks and mechanics. -Adding levels within each stage to increase the difficulty the more points you gain. -Game Over Screen. -Automatic bubble spawning with different speeds and quantities. By the end of next week, I'm Planning on creating a "demo" using the bubbles to create a fully controlled accelerometer game. Ian Williams is a Senior Artist currently at Blast Furnace / Activision. He develops games on the iOS and Android platforms and works across all areas without focusing on any particular skill or discipline. He started out as a storyboard artist, 15 years ago, and has worked in all areas of production including a project leader on a couple of titles. Ian got hired by doing an art test for a N64 game. How he became a Games Designer was by playing “Quake” and “Unreal Tournament” and experimenting of how to edit / create by using the provided tools.
His general day-to-day work involves in checking the progress of the current game and using version control software, which will automatically backup each version on the servers. Next the team’s updates and fixes need to be synchronised and checked to ensure the game is running correctly, then finally new work can begin. He explained the benefits of his job includes, working in a fully creative environment, having the opportunity to work with hi-tech powerful machines and software, able to work on the new generation of gaming a year before release. The entire team has equal input within the department, so there is no real hierarchy of authority, for example; ideas, praise and criticism are all part of a shared process. In my opinion, depending on the hired people, this may be a bad idea as some of the team could slack off and so development processes will slow down. Ian has also stated that it is important to have simple/sensible naming conventions. I agree because this can make the whole team easily understand what they are working with. This was initially developed by HONDA, and is now currently an industry standard. Implementation takes too long so testing is often under utilized. SCRUM is lightweight and easy to initially pick up, however it is difficult to master.
SCRUM consists of ‘backlogs’ and ‘user stories’. Small tasks are picked off and teams will ‘sprint’ to complete the work over two to four weeks. The SCRUM Master oversees the task. The work should be in a shippable condition at the end of the ‘sprint’. A daily SCRUM is a quick 15-minute meeting specifically designed to improve efficiency, and is always held at the same place and time every day. The ‘sprint’ cycle continues until the ‘backlog’ is sufficiently reduced. The are two ways to discover when it is reduced, which are either, when the money runs out or when you reach the deadline. The product’s ‘backlog’ is dynamic, meaning priorities within development will constantly shift. A ‘Burndown Chart’ is a visual representation of the amount of work left to do on each particular sprint. This will ensure the team to keep track of every completed work, incomplete work and any future work that is to be complete within an ideal set number of days. Within SCRUM there are 3 different roles, which are; product owner, SCRUM master, and the team. Also four ceremonies; Sprint planning, Daily SCRUM, sprint reviews and sprint retrospectives. And lastly there three artifacts, which are; the product backlog, the sprint backlog and the burndown chart. Arthur is a Design Director at Travellers Tales and has been for 15 years, and is currently working on LEGO Harry Potter and LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean. He has also produced previous LEGO games which are all also licensed by the necessary companies. He has produced many other games e.g. Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex and Sonic R.
He has stated that you can learn more from bad games than good games. I agree to this because you can find out what went wrong and compare it with a good game and differentiate between the two and pick out the negatives and a solution to it. Arthur has been working on the title LEGO MARVEL for about 18 months. Three different companies need to agree for licensing the game. The team working on the need to have had a large watch list to contribute towards background research to produce the game, so they can have an idea of the history of the game story, as that is very important. To actually make the licensors trust you, you need convince them by showing knowledge of their games inside and out, this is why looking back at previously released games/movies is very important. He stated that the best games are made when the entire team gets involved. I agree with this because involving the whole team will create a bigger impact towards the customers, and with this the team can make gags such as cameos, voice actors, etc. This is my current assignment I am working on. It uses ObjC language, and it is a simple game similar to "Fire" from the Game & Watch series.
Currently it's at early beta stage, where the game is playable, however, there are still some game mechanics I still need to implement, such as; score system, life system, Game over screen, random "fire missile" function. At the moment, the player can move the "hero" left and right either using the accelerometer or via touch & drag. The player can spawn the "bubbles" by touching the screen. Plus if the game gets too intense, there is a restart button. This week’s exam lecture was about Outsourcing. Outsourcing is when a games companies sends off specific work to other studios locally or internationally.
Outsourcing is useful for small teams with quick project turnarounds; it is used for e.g. voice recordings, music, specialist artists, etc. The introduction of the Next Generation of consoles opened up games to more specialist skills due to the increased capabilities of the software/hardware. Outsourcing is also a beneficial solution when projects are overlapping, because the amount of work is reduced to one team, and is spread across many other teams in different companies Outsourcing to other countries can occur, however problems can arise, such as, languages which can develop communication problems. Smaller companies tend to outsource to multiple countries, however doing so can take a lot of management and can take a long time to complete. Local Vendors are more costly than International Vendors, because, for example, UK staffing costs are higher compared to other countries, like Japan; however, using local Vendors are specifically trained in Games Design. Using foreign Vendors are cheaper yet they lack technical expertise. When Outsourcing, it is vital to present an in-depth, accurate brief, to ensure the outsourcing companies produce work as close to your ideal outcome. Making the briefs too complicated will create masses of confusion, particularly when there are language boundaries. After the outsourcing is complete, the staff needs to be taught the skills to review outsourced work and resolve any issues that are made, as the games company could release a game that has broken segments or are wrong. This week’s guest lecturer was Nick Rathbone, who is a Senior Designer at Codemasters. He had graduated at the University of Bolton in 2008, and then worked on a Silent Hill game for the Nintendo Wii.
Nick first talked about the Sales Pitch, aka CV, and told us what makes a good CV, such as; making it eye catching, stay to what is relevant and limiting waffling, demonstrate your abilities, and do a Cover letter because it personalizes your application. He also noted that Agencies are not the best option to get employment, but they can however introduce roles that you weren’t previously aware of, plus the Agencies provides masses of research towards the chosen role. Next he talked about creating a Portfolio, preferably an online one. He stated that you should make the Portfolio easy to access and navigate, I agree to this, as making the Portfolio hard to navigate will prevent the chances of employment, as it is very annoying. Nick next moved onto interviews. He said that, the interviewers are experts in their field, you need to be prepared for any questions. I do agree, as the questions will find out whether the interviewee isn’t being fully truthful or meeting criteria’s. Showing lots of enthusiasm for the company’s products and style of design will also make you stand out. Nick said that his role is hard work, but to manage his role more easily, he is a team player and seeks any advice from those with more experience, communication is the key priority within his role. He stated that always be pro active, because your boss will never expect to catch you in a position to have nothing to do. This week’s guest lecture was presented by Nick Davies who is a Founder and Head of Production at Lucid Games. He used to work at Bizarre Creations, and has worked on XBOX and PlayStation games.
His day to day role involves in Team management, hiring new staff and external relations (marketing, press, etc.). He mentioned several methods of pitching to a publisher, such as paper pitch which is low in cost but are very risky for target publishers, video/rip-o-matic is slightly higher in cost, but a high/medium risk, showing a prototype is fairly high in cost, however a much lower risk, and lastly a target render which is very expensive but very low in risk. The next phase is the contract phase which involves financial negotiations. I have learnt that Intellectual Property (IP) retention is a key stage of negotiations because you would want a fair slice of future profits. I have also learnt that if you want to secure big funding you will need to lower your IP. Nick told us that for budgeting, 60% of the budget is spent on development and the other 40% goes towards marketing. The average cost is 5k-8k per man per month for a major game project. I agree with what Nick said, “Outsourcing to a continent such as Asia will save money and will temporarily boost staff levels…”, because the labour market is cheaper. In the development phase there are 4 stages what are used, which are; Prototype, Pre-Production, Production (100% staff working), Mastering (60%). Next, Nick told us that during the development phase milestones are used to check progress and points where funds are released from publishers. During the phase, Greenlight meetings are held, where high level executives review the progress and decide to either continue the production or end it. Lucid Games is a small Games Studio, as there are 34 permanent staff. Being a smaller studio is easier to be flexible and staff can quickly respond to any sudden changes towards gameplay, however hitting the milestones are crucial to receive finance. F2P is a business model for online games where the players don’t pay to actually play the game, however revenue is achieved from adverts, in game purchases for upgrades, items, etc. and expansion packs. The aim is to entice players to continue playing your game, and eventually leading them to do in game purchases.
Comparing F2P and P2P (Pay to Play), early F2P games were of a lower quality than P2P, but over the years F2P games became much more popular leading to massive revenue and better quality and now major games. There are some games that use both F2P and P2P, e.g. a game is F2P up to a certain level or point in the game and if you want to continue playing the game, then you need to buy the game. Analytics is a repetitive process which has a number of steps which are; collecting data through a third party middleware software provider which shows all the statistics of the game, measuring the collected data of how the players interact with the game, examine the kind of audience, where, when and how your game was played and identify the reception of the best parts of your game via interests, usage, etc. The third stage is engaging the feedback, to improve the usability, maintenance, and revenue. Lastly monetizing is the final stage of the process which involves using all the data gathered to assist developers to alter the game to increase the income by targeting advertisements, and selling in-game purchases. | AuthorHi I'm Matt Nixon and I am a Programmer who can work with C++ and ObjC. ArchivesJanuary 2014 CategoriesAll SONIC IS A TRADEMARK AND COPYRIGHTED BY SEGA. I DO NOT OWN SONIC THE HEDGEHOG (CHARACTER). |
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