CINEMATIC :: 17/03/2016 - Feedback

Had a feedback session with the tutors today, and progress seems to be going quite well.  I cannot contribute anything to the animatic at this point, so I'm just going to be working on more background plates and refining my creature over the next few days.

In feedback, i was told that my creature was too bulky and did not quite suit the elongated form.  My team has asked me to slim it down and change its limbs a little in order to fit Oscar's ideal a bit better.

Tea has created some really amazing character concepts based on my design though, and has given me permission to use them for the central character:

It works really well as it contains all the modifications that i already wanted for my own character With this design in mind, it would be really easy to draw smooth, undulating shapes for the mane and tail, and the small creatures are very similar in design and shape too.  Jo has adjusted her creature to match it, and I feel like all i could really do to improve it is to modify the dark-world version a bit - maybe add  more bones down the neck and make the legs more skeletal?

I received some advice for Matte painting as well - to keep my edges harder and to play around with brushes.  Once i figure out some layouts, I might try this out over the weekend.

INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE :: Game blogging 03

Are the “choice situations” in the game obvious or subtle? Do you know the outcomes of your choice prior to making a decision?  

This week I have chosen to play The Wolf Among Us, and in true Telltale Games fashion, has the player answering choosing how to respond and answer to the characters and situations around them right off the bat.  

Domsch (2003) talks about the nature of a choice situation and states that "One important aspect of choice is therefore how informed it is – that is, whether we choose based on knowledge or arbitrarily. Choice situations differ in the amount of information that is given about the consequences of the different options." There are plenty of choice situations within the game, and the first conversation with Mr Toad proves this.  The model that the player follows is one of incomplete information - "the agent is provided with some knowledge about possible outcomes, but no certainty in relation to the probability of the outcomes, and/or the completeness of information about outcomes." Bigby and Toad explain enough in the introduction sequence for the player to understand what the Fables are and what a Glamour is before being put into a situation where Toad does not have a glamour on him and being presented with the consequences of such an action.  The world suggests that Fable without glamour can be punished, but depending on how the player feels, they can make Bigby be kinder to Toad and let him off, or give him a warning, both of which affect the player's relationship with the character.

The game cues you in whenever you make a decision that will affect another character, or make a choice that will have some impact later on in the game, informing you with notes in the corner such as 'Colin will remember this' or 'You chose not to lie to Beast'.  The choice situations tend to be mixed in with smaller, minor dialogue choices that Bigby makes, so I often didn't realize that I was making a potentially game-altering decision until after I had made it.  That said, I tried to keep Bigby's choices true to how I would have responded in the same situation, favoring peaceful dialogue options and trying to be as honest and friendly with the characters as possible.  This may play into the idea of gameplay guided choice over moral choice, as keeping peace between my PC and the NPCs of the game means that they will not have any ill will towards me, and hopefully won't find ways to condemn my character further down the line.

Some consequences in game are immediate, leading to some rather expected outcomes - if you're a dick to the Fables, their opinion of you is generally bad as well, but the truly game changing decisions that the player makes are presented at the end of each chapter, shown in pie graph form.  These graphs tell you things like whether or not you chose to give Faith your money, who you think killed Faith at the end of chapter 1, and whether or not you saved Prince Lawrence.  There is no right or wrong in any of these choices - the graphs at the end merely show you how you stacked up against other players, and how the story changes because of your decisions. 

INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE :: Week 4 questions

Week 4 Reading Questions

Anatomy of Player Choice - Domsch

1) What differentiates a “choice situation” from the numerous other micro choices a player makes all the time in a game (like whether to jump or crouch, run or walk, move left or right to dodge a projectile, reload after one shoot or three etc…)

The core requirement of a choice situation is that needs to contain at least two different options. It also creates some form of motivation that invests the player in one outcome over another. Choice situations can also play upon the player's emotional preferences, helping them to decide which option to go with.

2) How are “motivation” and “knowledge” important to choice in videogames?

The motivated choice plays upon the player's curiosity at what might happen due to its outcome. This can be combined with the informed or knowledge based choice, where the player knows enough about the video game's mechanics and world to select the 'right' option. The motivated choice is needed to show the player that the outcomes of both choices will not be identical, and it achieves this through the information that the choice provides.

3) What kind of game structure does the “teleological attitude” work best with and why?

The teleological approach would work very well with a linear game structure and unidirectional or progressive paths. When the player is presented with a choice, the options are geared towards the favor of one more than the others, meaning there is generally a 'right' and 'wrong' path. Choosing the 'right' path lets the player proceed through the game and towards further nodes on the string, while choosing the wrong path eventually dooms the player to failure.

4) Do you agree that videogames place an emphasis on speedy action, particularly when it comes to game choices? Can you think of any exceptions to this?

I can definitely agree that most video games place emphasis on quick action, especially when it comes to games like The Wolf Among us and things that involve quicktime events. Even with games like Skyrim and Dragon age, the player generally cannot save the game during a choice and tends to want to progress in order to continue the story, making decisions on the spot as well. The only example I can think of that doesn't is Eyri's Action, but the game purposely makes you take it slow and destroys all previously ingrained knowledge of how video games are supposed to work, forcing you to consider your choices carefully and avoid the illogical traps and pitfalls that it throws at you.

Moral Choice in Games – Perdue

1) Do you think the player’s moral choices should be rewarded in a game?

No, not unless the situation's outcome calls for it. Do you think we should be rewarded for feeling strongly about something or going with your gut feeling? I feel like it should be the same in video games, as it creates a more true to life and realistic experiences, and strengthens the idea of the character within the story.

2) What is the difference between a choice driven by morality and a choice driven by gameplay mechanics?

Choice dictated by gameplay directs the player to choose one option over another in order to gain 'points' or 'skills' associated with that choice. The choice no longer becomes about the player's feelings towards the situation, but hinges on how they are going to benefit by answering a certain way. Moral choices lie more with how the player feels about the situation and what they would choose or not choose if they were put into the situation themselves.

3) What is the most meaningful choice you’ve made in a game?

The most recent that I can recall is the conscious decision to spare every last character I came across in the game Undertale. Just before the final boss, a character appears to judge the player for every act of violence that they committed and every level that they gained. I remember the speech explaining what LOVE and EXP were acronyms for hitting me very hard, and it was a very powerful and dumbfounding moment for a first time player. By choosing not to kill, I gained an extra bit of dialogue, which I found quite touching, before being able to progress with the game.

LIFE DRAWING :: 15/03/16 Week 4

CINEMATIC :: 14/03/16 - Plans for the week

After meeting up with the group today, we discussed our plans for the week, which are finalizing our storyboards, and thinking about a date for filming.  We are expected to have an animatic completed by next Monday, so a lot of our designs need to be finalized so that we can put a storyboard together.

My goal for this week is to finalize my creature and figure out the plates for our Matte Painting layout.  Feedback on the artistic impression that I had drawn over the weekend was positive, and people seemed to really like the color palette, so it might be one that I stick to for future attempts.

I plan to use Hamish's plate method to come up with a few compositions myself, and aim to do this tomorrow or Wednesday.

In the meantime though, I have begun to play around with my character and try to solidify its movement and expressions.  Thinking about the dark world transition came to mind today, and I have drawn upon some previous dream images as inspiration for how my spirit might change.  Both of these images are from 2012.

With these in mind, this is where I am with my character sheet:

The spirit's expressions reflect the transition from a calm spirit world to a dark one, the small sequence is a potential transformation it undergoes as the world changes.  The sketchy images were just me getting a better feel for the character and how it is shaped and moved, and the bottom two images are what I would like to use for its model sheet - they just need to be cleaned up and finalized once I've run it past the group.

I'd like to tackle layout plans for the environment before I attempt to figure out the colors for this creature, as how the environment looks plays a big part in how the creatures will appear in order to contrast it.

CINEMATIC :: 13/03/16 - Matte Painting and Concept updates

Over the course of the week we learned about Matte painting and started putting our design ideas into practice.  My giant creature was received pretty well and we are now using it as our central spirit character.  Tea asked me to elongate it in order to make it fit Oscar's ideas a little better, and over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I managed to come up with a more advanced concept for it.

Tea and Jo are also working on smaller creature concepts, and may be drawing inspiration from this new elongated spirit creature that I started with.  Over next week I plan to create a proper turnaround for it and work out some design tweaks and textures for its skin - the initial creature was very dark and we want them to be bright and stand out in our spirit world, so a color palette overhaul may be necessary.


The other thing I worked on over the weekend was applying the Matte painting practices that Thaw taught us over the week, using a bunch of new brushes that I downloaded in Krita.  Oscar asked for a vibrant world with a sort of oil painting or stylized feel to it.  In the process of trying to get the hang of Matte Painting, I came up with the following image:

It utilizes a bristle brush and leaf patterns, along with a color palette selected from the background.  The background itself is a photo of reflective salt flats at night, with a nebula pillar cropped and placed in the background with a 'lighten' effect.  As a stylized reference i think it looks quite lovely for a first try!

Hamish has showed me the method he's been using to create plates for scenes by using a photo and drawing over the assets within it using layers and the lasso tool to create plates.  I might spend the next week doing something similar in order to create the kind of landscape that we're after.

By the end of next week, we're expected to have an animatic, so I would like to spend this time solidifying our background and getting the hang of matte painting, as well as creating a solidified creature in terms of design and shape.  Color and movement can come later, once the animatic is taken care of.

INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE :: Game blogging 02

Do the story nodes in your chosen game work well to support gameplay and gameplay objectives? Why or why not?

Sonic's story nodes are presented in the form of 'zones' that Sonic must move through in order to complete the level.  They show the progression of time in the game and act as markers of the 'distance' sonic has traveled in the world.  For example, sonic starts off in rolling green hills, and after freeing his friends, he moves on to another area which is much more mechanical.  The environment reflects the kind of robots he will encounter (semi-organic insect and fish robots in Green Hill zone compared to more obviously metallic bullet shooting creatures in Chemical Plant zone).  Since the first Zone had Sonic defeating a boss in the second Act, the player can immediately assume that it will be the same in the second Zone, albeit with the antagonist driving a different machine that will ultimately require different tactics - most likely something learned in the first half of the zone (such as utilizing travelling pipes or springs) - to get past.

One could say that it fits the string of pearls model, but only barely - the gameplay is extremely linear 'travel from point A to point B', and the only instances of 'pearls' that I can think of from the segments that I played being the short introduction to the boss of each Zone.  It would seem to focus on a 'show, not tell' dialogue, but this may be largely due to the limited space that old Sega cartridges have compared to the video games of today.

The game thrusts the player straight into gameplay with no explanation, tutorial or end goal in sight, the only instances of variety being the changing levels that Sonic must navigate through.  I feel like the first level and the gameplay helps the player to understand what to expect in future levels, but while the changing backgrounds present fresh scenery and keep the player interested with their different mechanics, the overall lack of any dialogue or story makes it fail in terms of a dynamic and informative game.  Your objective to get to the end of the level in each area is clear, but without the storyline found in the game's manual, the player would never understand that their goal is to collect chaos emeralds to stop Robotnik from taking over the world.