Music Influences: Peter Oppersdorff

Pete Oppersdorff has been kind to give me a number of musicians who may be producing stuff I would be interested in, here is a list of a few he’s suggested; Global Communication – 76 14, Bonobo (Discography), Various Artists – Wider Horizons (Album name), Four Tet – (Discography), One Tasty Morsel – Illogitechnicality (Album name), Midimal – In Search of Water (Album name). He put some music on a data stick for me, which I shall be listening to tonight, so thanks a lot Pete!

This is one of the songs I have found from the list of artists suggested, and I like

Another awesome background piece that really sets up a progressive, but passive feeling.

Music Production and Influences: 1

I’m currently gathering influences and information for my sound and music design. I will obviously need to find independent artists to record with, or develop my own music, and I’m considering doing a little of both. I have always been interested in music technology, and I look forward to taking my project influences towards composing.

To expand upon my influences, today I have been talking to people in class who I know to have different tastes so that I can get a scope on the current movements. I have considered some dub-step and ambient influences already, and am endeavoring to find some styles I can adopt.

Sound Design

I am moving into planning for the sound design in Aether. I shall be constructing a list of sounds I will require, and once that is finished I will submit it to my sound expert Joe McDonald so he can research and gather the relevant effects.

I will also have to consider the sound atmosphere in each of my levels individually, and research methods to create effects like sound muting and under water tones. This will help me construct a more immersible design, and sound is something the gaming industry has started to take really seriously. The right soundtrack to a game can make or break the illusion, so this is something I will have to spend a lot of time on to get right.

Gantt Chart

I have created a Gantt chart using the much helpful Gantt Generator here. This plan is subject to change, but it’s a good basis to work from.

Learning Agreement: Final Major Project

Name: James Crawford
Course: BA(hons) Digital Media Productions
Level: 6
Unit: Specialist Project
Reference number: IMD610
Credit points: 30
Study hours: 300
Tutors: Phil Beards and Liam

Interview Questions for Wes Platt

I am interviewing Wes Platt aka Brody, founder and owner of JoinTheSaga which is a collective of online, hyper-text-based roleplaying games that has been running for over 10 years. He recently made a move into the game development sector, and now works for Icarus Studios. As part storyteller, part designer on Fallen Earth, I thought he would be a brilliant person to get in contact with. In preparation for the interview, I looked at a few articles already broaching the subject of modern gaming and text based roleplaying. One of the better articles was called ‘Interactive Storytelling: the Rise of a New Game Genre’ and can be found here, it’s quite old but it illustrates a number of points I agree with.

Question: How many hours a week do you think you spend on your hobbies?

Question: How did you get into text based games?

Question: What do you think their strengths are, and likewise, their biggest weaknesses.

Question: Do you think there are any problems with the levels of immersion that can be attained?

Question: How do you relate being a writer to being an interactive story teller?

Question: How do you think your experience at JoinTheSaga has helped with your current job?

Answer: I wouldn’t be as adept at my job without the experience that I’ve had working on MUSHes. The roleplaying side was particularly valuable in training me to jump from one character’s mindset to another and to craft believable dialogue on the fly. Managing the MUSH helped prepare me for the perils of throwing your work to the mercy of the broader public, as well as teaching me the important role that staff-player relations can have after a game’s launch.

The Life of a Goomba

This very interesting article on 2 Bit Wasteland hypothesizes on the concept of the ‘grunt’ in video games, and how these faceless characters are rarely fleshed out more than ‘kill this because it’s bad’. I’ve noticed this before, but it’s almost a necessary step in writing narrative, regardless of media. It’s hard to deal with motivation in any sense, even in real life we’ve seen war tactics that depersonalize the enemy so that soldiers can do their job without conscience becoming a problem for morale. These are themes well trodden in films like Apocalypse Now and Platoon, the Vietnam war obviously being a very dour subject when it comes to mixed interests.

It would be amazing to see a video game that, like Apocalypse Now, sincerely considered the consequence and morality of mindlessly slaughtering grunts, or the motivation these grunts have to keep getting back up and asking for more. Even the contemporary bests in the gaming market today like Call of Duty 4 and Gears of War come across insincere at the worst of times, and have seemingly hollow objectives for their players.

I actually think Mass Effect is commendable in this sense, and I think this is due to the exploratory nature of RPGs, because during the playthrough of the story a lot of information about every faction is revealed, to obsessive degrees, and it really helps shape the dynamics of the characters.

I have contemplated putting enemies into Aether, but I don’t think they would fit.

Evaluation

Luminiferous Aether had developed into something very different from what it first started as.

One of my major inspirations in the design of my project was a classic 2D platformer called Another World, which was released originally on the Amiga in 1991. I only found Another World earlier this year, and when I did I was amazed at how clear the design had been, and now innovative some of the decisions had been. It set a clear mold for something I would like to produce in the future, abstract but beautiful.

This will was later coupled with a gameplay idea I had been toying with for a while. I originally started thinking about the nature of gaming engines over the summer, when I was studying the process of design and construction in modern games. I was doing a lot of research in preparation for this project, and some of that included diagnosing the mechanics of a 3d engine.

The thought occurred to me that all objects inside a 3d engine are only realized by the skin they have, or the texture, and aside from that they are merely hollow vessels marked out by lines and points in a grid. I came up with the idea of swapping textures in a live environment, as though the player was given the map editing software as part of the game engine, they could play out their role as Neo in the destruction of a Matrix narrative. I originally thought this would work well with other elements that removed the fourth wall, the ability to go ‘No Clip’ or mess around with the lighting engine, but as I was considering options for my Extended Major Project and my Specialist I considered how this idea might fit into a 2d space.

I wanted to produce something more Hellenistic. The self referencing ideas I held originally would give way to a deeper exploration of beliefs, the original idea gave me the option of creating a witty, entertaining game but ultimately one that risked shallowness. Developing it away from ‘open engine’ idea allowed me to explore a lot more concepts that I was interested in, and it helped me manage the game into a chapter (structure).

Problems and shit

lots of research into digital distribution, and how it allows me to release a game without a publisher

I have encountered many problems during the development of both my theory and practical proof of concept. Most of my problems centered around the use of code, and the implementation. Much of the basic engine I have been developing has been redesigned countless times.

I researched and realized that there was either better ways of making things work or needed to add new functions.

One of the biggest problems in the production of my proof of concept was working out the maths behind collision detection. I spent a lot of my time resources on researching and learning about the different ways this can be achieved, and eventually settled on one of the accessible methods, Axis based detection. I now have the maths and structure to implement both a broad and narrow phase of coding to allow my levels to grow to a very large size without worrying about the negative effects on the performance.

finished product

Overall, I have found it very hard to judge how much work I have put into this project as I have been working towards a ‘draft’ and not a finalized product, but I am very pleased with what I have established in my design, implementation and planning. I feel very strongly that I have established a solid foundation for what could potentially reach the quality of those games found in the digital distribution.

Stop Using HitTest!

http://scienceandcode.moomug.com/?p=73

Influences: Cave Story

On the subject of Pixel Art, another game came to mind. It’s an indie title, and was released freely over the internet for PC and I think Mac too. It’s called Cave Story, and it collected such a cult following that it is being released for the WiiWare in a revamped form. Here is a video.

Cave Story’s a good example of RPG elements being included in a game that doesn’t rely on those elements for progressive difficultly levels. What I mean when I say this, is that the challenge is always against player skill, and all obstacles can be passed regardless of what amount of leveling has been made. Most RPG’s however, restrict player access to future areas or secret areas by making the abilities of the enemy far greater then that of the player.

There are, of course, benefits and problems with both ways, and I think a good balance between the two is important to make sure the player doesn’t feel his control has been taken away.