Game Final/Midterm

Royal Game of Ur

One board, held by the British Museum, is dated to c. 2600 - c. 2400 BC, making it one of the oldest game boards in the world.

Two player strategy race table board game.

Ancient Mesopotamian

Siege of Bodenburg

Chainmail

DND

Revolutionary because it has character picking/build, high fantasy, DM, highly co-op, dungeon “crawling, NPC interaction, open ended, narrative aspect

Gary Gygax

Published Chainmail, mini war game that simulated medieval era tactical combat. Later worked with David Arneson to make DND

David Arneson

Created a fictional game called Blackmoor. Worked with Gary Gygax to make DND

LARP

Live action role playing game

Steve Jackson

In 1980, he and Livingston made FIGHTING FANTASY gamebook series (The Warlock of Firetop Mountain)

Warhammer

Tabletop game made by: Bryan Answll, Richard Hallwell, Rick Priestley

Isaac Childres

Designed Gloomhaven, Forge War, and Frosthaven

Tennis for two (Computer Tennis)

One of the first games developed.

William Higinbotham designed the game in 1958

Displayed on an oscilloscope

Spacewar!

1962 by Steve Russell, Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob Saunders, Steve Piner. First known video game to be played at multiple computer installations

Magnavox ODYSSEY

First commercial home video game console. September 1972.

Came with the pong game

Atari

1977

Caused the creation of activision

Fairchild Channel F

First to be based on a microprocessor and to use ROM cartridges. 1976. Several of these cartridges capable of playing more than one game.

Commodore PET

First massed market Personal computers in 1977

Stephen Gary Wozniak

Co founded apple with Steve Jobs.

One of the most prominent pioneers of personal computers

Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux

Creator of the ultima series. Helped with establishing the computer role-playing game genre

Jordan Mechner

Created prince of Persia.

Used rotoscoping

Pong

Released on Nov 29, 1972

Created by Allan Alcorn and Nolan Bushnell

Was the first commercially successful video game

Gun Fight

1975, Tomohiro Nishikado

Based on Mexican stand off. First video game to be pvp

Space invaders

1978

One of the most influential video game of all time

Designed by Tomohiro Nishikado

Tomohiro Nishikado

Created space invaders

Designed western gun (Gun Fight)

Moved the gaming industry away from bong inspired sports games and moved it to more fantastical situations

First Console War

Nintendo vs Sega

By 1988, Nintendo held 83% of the north American market

Round 2 “Console War”

Sega vs Nintendo

No clear winner but leaning more towards Sega

Round 3 “Console War”

Sony enters the fray

Sony still held 60% of the overall video game market share in North America at the end of 1999. Nintendo held second place. By 1998, Sega had a declining market and significant financial losses

Round 4 “Console War”

Microsoft wants their share too!

PlayStation 3 vs Xbox 360 vs Wii

We are still witnessing giant corporations fight for supremacy in the game industry…

Takeaway from game wars

• Nintendo is resilient

• Sony and Microsoft have fought as long as you lived

• Driven quality in the game industry (not anymore)

• Launch titles are important

• Tech isn’t always the answer

Real winner of the console wars

Computers lol

Game engine

Software network designed for the development of video games and support tools such as a rendering engine, physics engine, scripting and networking,

Unity

Pros:

• indie, beginners

• Fast, agile, portable

• Large community

Cons:

• Small projects

• Artist unfriendly

• Popularity decline

Unreal

Pros:

• versatile

• Shooters

• Artist

• Large games

Cons:

• easily choke

• Beginner non-friendly

Pipeline

Chain of production:

Idea - preproduction - production - release - iteration- production (loop)

Animation

Responsible for animating the characters and other elements of the in game environment

Art

Create 2D concepts or 3D models for characters, creatures, and environments

Audio

Responsible for the landscape, recording sounds, voice actors and music edits designs and mixes and implementation in game

Design

Architects of the gameplay experience defines the rules of the game and its world’s narrative and oversees creative development from concept to release and beyond

Production

Organize the creation of the game, as well as oversee the games development, responsible for production management from a business and financial perspective

Programming

Responsible for writing the code to brung the game feature or service to life making it playable or useable build

Quality assurance

Ensures that product quality data such as bugs errors test output results and user feedback are found and communicated throughout development

Brand and marketing

Create campaigns for defined audiences about key aspects of the game using social media, reviews adverts online communities dedicated game websites sales platforms and face to face events

Producer

Make sure that the game is delivered on time, on budget, with all the expected features, at the highest quality possible while keeping the team focused on the work.

Art director

Communicate and establish the artistic vision for the project. Includes how various assets work coherently,t ans pleasingly within the same project.

Lead artist

Manages the quality of final assets and the day tasks for the art team

Level designers

Responsible for building geometry and creating the look for the game world. should have a good grasp of game design too

Asset Artists

Responsible for creating assets that appear in the game world, including characters, environments, props, user interface screens…

manages the technical side of asset creation such as collision volumes, making sure that objects are exported correctly and apply physics attributes to an object.

Technical Director

Determines how technology is used in the game engine, maintain libraries and set technical standard for the game

Lead Engineer

Day to day tasks for the rest of the coding team

Engineers/coders

Can focus on various aspects of a game such as network, sound, graphics, AI, UI or game tools

Lead designer

Responsible for communicating and establishing a global coherence to the project and make sure that gameplay, mechanics, enviroments, character and sound make a cohesive whole

Designers

Focus in particular aspects of gameplay such as: systems (combat, economy, scoring, etc) user interface/experience, levels, scripts

Sound designers/engineers

Contributes to all aspects of the game audio

Lead QA

Works closely with the producer and other leads to evacuate the game’s features from a testing point of view, bug testing

Hierarchy

1. Lead (usually considered a “management” track

2. Principal

3. Senior (usually considered an “expertise” track

4. Junior

5 Principles

Accessible

Usable

Relevant

Engaging

Motivating

Philosophy behind solid planning

1. Context (why?)

2. Mechanics (what?)

3. Requirements (How?)

4. Timeline (when?)

Art Bible

document the conceptual explorations as well as serving as reference to artists on artistic decisions, execution, style, etc

Level Design Document

map the enviroments and levels the player will traverse, as well as document the various environmental puzzles they may have to solve

Technical Design Document

Compendium of all the technical knowledge about the engine, rendering techniques, etc, how they pertain to the game and or the decisions that they imply

Moodboards

External third party resources to make a vision

Clusters of influence

Doesnt have to be only visuals

Sketching

Tangible reference

Communicate visions

Shouldn’t be too detailed

Always sketch first

Avoid color

Wireframing

Blocked out layout space

Interface, navigation and information

Portfolio

Needs to be tailored to the industry’s needs

Environment Art Portfolio

“One shot” playable enviroments

Designed for gameplay

Character art portfolio

Conceptual characters

Additional: rigging, animations, materials, concept art

Typical project: fanart

Prop art / Generalist Storyboards

Collection of related props for a given gameplay

Additional: materials, scripting, animating

Project: set of weapons for a first person game, collection of hero assets for a mocked up game

Level design portfolio

Conceptual vertical slices for various styles of gameplay

Additional: game design, scripting, lighting, environment art, engines mastery (unreal + unity)

Project: playable vertical slice for a particular style of game

Game design portfolio

Conceptual vertical slices for various styles of gameplay

Additional: scripting, programming, documentation, level design, engines mastery (unreal + unity)

Narrative designer portfolio

Writing samples such as games, reviews and fiction

Additional: game design, scripting, documentation

Project: interactive writing fiction using Twine, ink, or any game engine

Tech art portfolio

Collections of custom tools, materials, shaders, particles, etc

Additional: scripting, programming, engines mastery (unreal + unity), documentation

Project: VFX particles for a particular style of game

Programming?

I advise to showcase your skills by making a fully playable prototype that will show skills in game design

Concept art?

I would advise to showcase your skills by either a prop or a character, showcasing your prop design skills or character art skills

Sound design?

I would advise you to showcase your skills with level design and show how you can “sell” a particular experience

Animation?

I would recommend making a set of dynamic and scripted animation systems for particular gameplay, showcasing your mastery in tech art

QA

Usually stems from great understanding of game design concepts. Showcasing great understanding of UX and documentation is paramount

Jack of all trades?

Odds to beat a specialist at their own trade is low. Indies would be interested in you but they typically don’t hire. I recommend picking the closest specialization to your heart and show mastery there

REIGN PC

Reward

Environment

Identify

Gameplay

Narrative

Progression

Challenge

Level design Planning

Gameplay Milestones

Choose a theme

Level design Sketching

Rough Layout for general layout

Detailed layout for architecture, gameplay moments, power ups, enemies, etc

Level design Prototyping

level blockouts, don’t integrate art until you are confident several playtests have validated the general direction of your level.

Player zoo, it’s not a bad idea to have a temporary level that includes all the mechanical elements you wish to test

Level design Theory

• Gating, implicit linearity or open ended: you can impact the way you want players to progress and/or experience your content by gating certain or all areas of your level

• Designing for failure: consider your level offering several pathways to success including a failure path

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