So it's time to start thinking about dissertations and all that malarky. It's all been a bit hectic as we've come to the end of our first big group project but I was able to squeeze in an essay that focuses on a specific area of the bigger picture.
I think the research is good, I've found some great stuff, though I really need to focus on strengthening my argument. Some of the conclusions I've drawn may be a little tenuous.
Our x48 game Giant Ego has been featured in the June issue of Edge magazine. We had a great talk with Keith from Edge during the competition and he was really intrigued by the philisophical undertones. We've got a paragraph that discusses the visual references as well as the mammoth technical task we prescribed ourselves to. Also, three very prevalent screenshots were included, which I'm very pleased about.
We've been meticulously preparing and practicing for our Dare to be Digital 2010 interview. With over 100 teams entering internationally and only 10 or so getting through, the competition is going to be stiff.
Upon getting on the bus to London I realised I didn't know anything that I was saying off by heart. I crammed in 3 hours worth of memorising and had just about got all the info I needed in my brain by the time we arrived. After 5 or so group runthroughs we fixed any final problems and were confident in ourselves that we were good to go. To celebrate we went off to China Town and ate copious amounts of Chinese food.
The next day we woke up and went on our merry way to the interview. I had drugged away any nerves that I had with some lovely placebo rescue-remedy that really did the trick. We loitered around for a while before being invited in and introduced to guys from Sony and Sega. After several shaky technical failures we were able to get off to a good start and pitched really well. Then when the questions came round our extensive practicing came into play and we were able to fire off well researched answers, seemingly to the satisfaction of the judges.
We came out feeling like we'd pitched the game idea as well as we possibly could have. The super preparation really paid off and the attention to detail, such as getting matching T-shirts printed and having a fully animated presentation really paid off.
(left to right: Henry (me), Gregg, Kate, Matt and Ahmed)
I've just come back from a fantastic couple of days in Huddersfield, taking part with a team from Newport in Microsofts X48 Games competition. The theme announced was 'Giants' and we saw some really nice takes on it from other competitors.
We won the 'ooh shiny shiny' prize and according to an anonymous judge were in the running for both 'best art' and 'most experimental'.
Here's some screens of the art from our game 'Giant Ego':
Summary:
You play as a personification of the human ego, with faceless peers rushing on screen to either compliment or insult you. Compliments and insults fly on to screen from the sidelines, missile-command style, ensuring a hectic rush to keep your ego balanced as you try and progress from left to right throughout the environment.
Each environment is a subtle reflection on three key fragments of human life: love, work and money. Each of these have a symbolic obstacle with which a certain ego is required to pass through. For example, at the end of the 'love' period, we tried to represent a difficult breakup or divorce through a half-buried engagement ring. In order to successfully pass through this ring, the humbling of the character is required.
Whilst we had this personal undertone, it was really important to us that the game was immediately accessible and engaging for everyone. One way we tried to achieve this was through an eclectic and stylised art style that initially revealed itself as quirky and playful and a control system that played to the strengths of the hardware we were developing it for.
Whilst we're really happy with the art, the innovative concept and mechanic, we were developing the game for an unreleased phone using a beta development kit that had only been out a few days. These technical restrictions lead to the end product not quite being as playable and complete as we would have liked. However our team is really enthusiastic about continuing the project and hopefully turning it into a more well-rounded game.
Here's a short clip showing some of the animations and environments in action. This is in no way reflective of the gameplay and is more of a showcase of the art and animation style.
The Day
The guys at x48 were fantastic, the event was fantastic, the resources were fantastic, everything was fantastic.
Here's our team photo:
Everyone hard at work:
Greg and Ahmed sorting things out behind a wall of energy drinks and junk food.
Me and Ahmed going through our early gameplay ideas:
We all had a great time and are really looking forward to the next x48.
When I was 12/13 I was heavily into 3D modelling. I created around 200 different renders of everything from eyeball monsters to castle scenes to weapons. Generally everything that a 12 year old kid is into.
Unfortunately when I was about 15 I lost all record of my work in a hard drive fire. In total I lost about 600 models, 200 renders, 80 games and countless animations and pieces of Photoshop experimentation. I still have the burnt out harddrive in the hope that oneday it can be retrieved.
Anyway, when trawling the web I accidentally found some stuff that I'd uploaded under a weird pseudonym that I couldn't remember. These were all made when I was either 12 or 13 so they're obviously bad but I'm really pleased I've found a remnant from my past :D.
Man, I remember when I made that tank, I thought I was the best thing since sliced bread. What a noob :)
Polycount is 4500 though I think I can get it down to 2500 after optimising the hands, head and feet.
The model was box modelled from scratch using standard anatomy reference and orthographics provided by my group. The next stage is doing some deformation testing, rigging and texturing.
Details like the clothing, feathers and eyelashes appear blocky though will be treated with alpha texturing to add more fidelity at a later stage.
