Job Roles
Audio -
By contributing in the from of audio, the sound designer will work alongside the game designers, in order to create all the aspects of the games audio. This can include the design of sound effects, the recording and processing of dialogue, and composing and editing music. In addition to working alongside the game designers, the sound designer will also work alongside the games writer. As well as this, the music created should be appropriate for the teams specifications. Upon creating the audio assets, the sound designer may also work on scripting the audio assets in the game using Unity.
Writing -
The writer is responsible for bringing the narrative structure together, whilst also ensuring there is cohesion across the story, characters, dialogue and world lore. Things such as the basic story structure, character back stories and entire narrative must be delivered on time, so that other departments can begin their production. In conjunction with this, the writer must also work closely with the lead level designer to ensure that the story being written is feasible in the allotted time and with our set of skills.
Art -
Artists are responsible for creating all the graphical assets for the game: Playable characters, enemies, bosses, NPC's, collectibles, buildings, location assets, vehicles, and all other level assets. The artists will work closely with the writers and designers to determine what characters, objects, worlds, and cinematics are needed and to identify how to utilize the technology most effectively in the art production pipeline. Furthermore, artists should create a portfolio of their artwork, either in a physical art book or in a gallery on their Wix website.
Level Design -
The level designer creates the level layouts for the game. For pre-production, the level designers will map out their level designs on paper and will test the game's planned mechanics. In addition to this, beat lists will be created to check the distribution of enemies, challenge and gameplay mechanics. In pre-production, the level designers will use their blueprints, in order to digitally build their levels by firstly whiteboxing, then bringing in game assets, characters and enemies, create interactive objects, and building the terrain. As well as this, the level designers will also create the system components within the gameplay.
Marketing -
The marketing team will be made up of one or two more people who will create all the marketing assets for the game. Their duties include: Creating posters, postcards, business cards, digital advertising, taking in-game screenshots, making and sharing game play videos, creating trailers, creating high resolution art, packaging, shooting behind the scenes footage, networking with industry professionals, running the game's social media campaign, anything else needed to market the game. The marketing team are responsible for promoting the exhibition, creating activities for the exhibition, and ensuring the event is well attended and runs smoothly. The marketing team usually are skilled in 2D art, whilst also having some knowledge of 3D art.
21/11/18 - Rigging
In today's lesson we looked at rigging in Maya, which makes it possible to manipulate shapes, by bending them and changing their overall appearance. Above is an image of my first attempt of rigging in Maya using a basic cylinder shape, where I played around adjusting and experimenting with its overall shape.
05/12/18 - Narrative Structure
In today's lesson we looked at narrative structure. Although I have not chosen writing as one of my chosen job roles, we looked at the different narrative structures which are commonly found within video games. These included, limited branching, open ended and critical paths. For each of these narrative structures we identified what makes them different and also why they are used or not used.
11/12/18 - Scripts
In today's lesson, we looked at scripts which can be used for both film and game and how they are set out. By looking at this, even though i'm not applying for a writing specific job role, it will help me to understand how this job role will work. In addition to this, by looking at scripts it will also help to show me how the writer or writers will have to be in constant conversation with the rest of the group/team, in order to make sure the script links to the rest of the game in every aspect.
08/01/19
In today's lesson, we looked at coding in Unity, and whether we could make a light turn on and off, using only the touch of the space bar. We managed to achieve the desired effect in Unity, using a plane, sphere and light source. Following this, we then coded a c# sricpt to make the light source com on when we pressed down the space bar and turn off when it is released.
Games Case Study: Battlefront II - 10/01/19
In today's lesson, we looked and played the game Battlefront II, in order to analyse both of our chosen job roles within the game, such as the audio and level design seen within the game. For the audio aspect of Battlefront, both the soundtrack and sound effects were very similar to the film iteration of the Star Wars franchise, thus being very cinematic and orchestral sounding. I believe that the both the soundtracks used, along with the sound effects evident in the game fit the theme, genre and overall atmosphere of the game appropriately , whilst also staying true to the similar feeling Star Wars tracks featured within the films. In addition to this, I also looked at the different level designs within Battlefront II, and how successful they were in helping to create a range of appropriate backgrounds for the different arena's and the game as a whole. I believe the the games different level designs were all effective and successful in their own rights, as they all manged to capture the overall star wars feel and atmosphere for all the locations that were featured, by staying true to how the different locations were presented throughout the different Star Wars films.