NEXT-GEN Nescot week 15 - Game Design Document

Game Design Document

Game Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
High Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Unique Selling Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
Platform Minimum Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       5
Competence Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
Synopsis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Game Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    6
Game Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
Game Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    6
Game-play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
    Game Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
    Game Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
    HUD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
    Player Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
    Player Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
    Player States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
    Player Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
Character Line-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
NPC Enemies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . 10
    Enemy: Outlaw (human) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
    Enemy: Outlaw (Alien) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
    Enemy: Target(bounty) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . .10
    Enemy: Police . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
    Enemy: Police (Swat/Army) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
    Enemy States . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
    Enemy Spawning . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   11
NPC Allies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   11
    Civilian (neutral) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
    Ally Spawning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   11
Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
    Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
Level Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
MVP (Minimum Viable Product) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       14
Wishlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   14

Idea:

Futuristic bounty-hunting/mafia.

Large sky-scrapers
Flying cars/ spaceships
Aliens
Police/crime
Death
Multiple worlds/maps

Game Overview

Title: Sky-Line: Mafia
Platform: PC + PS4 + Xbox-one
Genre: Futuristic bounty-hunting/mafia 3.D shooter.
Rating: (18+) ESRB
Target: Casual gamer (aging from 18 - 35)
Release date: (unknown)
Publisher: (unknown)

Sky-Line: Mafia is a first or third-person open world 3.D shooter game where the is both a bounty hunter and part of a large mafia

High Concept

Sky-Line: Mafia sets the Player in a futuristic cityscape where he/she acts as a bounty hunter to take down outlaws and rival gangs for the law enforcement while also covering up the deeds of your own mafia group by living a double life of being an agent of the law and covering up your own dark intentions.

Unique Selling Points

• Multi-platform.
• Unique story.
• Multiplayer.
• Futuristic technology.
• Multiple planets/maps.
• Alien languages that are relatively easy to understand.
• Customizable character.
• Can switch between first-person and third-person.
• There can be mutinies against you and betrayals within your mafia.

Platform Minimum Requirements

PC, MAC, LINUX, PS4 AND XBOX-ONE.
OS: Windows XP SP2+, Mac OS X 10.8+, Ubuntu 12.04+, SteamOS+ .
Graphics card: DX9 (shader model 2.0) .
capabilities; generally everything made since 2010 should work.

Competence Titles

Red Dead redemption series: Rock-star games
GTA series: Rock-star games
Mafia series: ____ (don't know publisher)

Synopsis

In a futuristic city, you act as a bounty hunter, taking down gangs and outlaws while hiding your own dark intentions and criminal activities.

Game Objectives

The objective of the game is to make your mafia take over all the areas and become the most powerful mafia in the game

Game Rules

The game level is a open environment set in a futuristic city where the Player is a newly emerged mob boss while also hiding from the authorities by hiding as a bounty hunter to kill rival gangs and mobs. The Player can move around and attack Enemies with (currently 4) different Weapons (see Weapons).

In this level, there are different spawn points from which the Enemies originate. Each Enemy has a different behavior and will try to defeat the Player (see Enemies), usually depending on what they do.

The Player scores points by killing Enemies during missions: the number points earned depends on the Enemy type. After the level/activity ends, score from the mission is decided by the score and given to the player in in-game currency.

Game Structure

Menu > character selection/creation > Story mode/ multiplayer (endless) > pause menu/quit > repeat.

Game-play

    Game Controls

PC controls

W - move forward.
A - move left.
S - move back.
D - move right.
E - interact.
C - crouch (hold prone).
Shift - sprint.
R - reload.
Tab - switch weapon (weapon wheel).
Mouse Left Click - fire.
Mouse Right Click - aim.
Mouse movement - look/rotate.
Spacebar - jump (hold climb).
Q - show objective.
F - grenade.
Esc - pause menu.

Xbox controls

L2 (left trigger) - aim.
R2 (right trigger) - fire.
L1 - switch weapon (weapon wheel).
R1 - Grenade.
A - jump (hold climb).
B - crouch (hold prone).
X - interact.
Y - show objective
L3 - sprint
R3 - melee
left joystick - move in the direction the left joystick is moving.
right joystick - Look/ rotate in the direction the right joystick is moving.
Start - pause menu

Ps4 controls

L2 (left trigger )- aim.
R2 (right trigger) - fire.
L1 - switch weapon (weapon wheel).
R1 - Grenade.
X - jump (hold climb).
O - crouch, (hold prone).
☐ - interact.
  ⃤   - show objective
L3 - sprint
R3 - melee
left joystick - move in the direction the left joystick is moving.
right joystick - Look/ rotate in the direction the right joystick is moving.
Start - pause menu

    Game Camera

When the game starts, the camera will focus on the two characters the Player can choose from. The camera will remain still while the Player chooses a character to play with. After the selection is made, the camera will turn 180 degrees and will continue following him/ her from a 1st or 3rd person point of view. The camera will rotate with the Player’s movement.

    HUD

Player Health: Indicates the amount of life the Player has.

Ammunition: Displays the Weapon's Ammunition (if it shoots physical ammo) or a slider (if it shoots lasers) to show when the gun will need to recharge (time depends on Weapon).

Mini-Map: Displays an overhead (less detailed) example of the map.

(Image taken from Battlefield 4 and is not my gamertag)

Player

    Player Characters

The Player character (can be boy or girl) can have an age between 20 - 45 depending on what the Player chooses. They are the leader of a newly emerging mob. Problem is, they can only build their empire slowly, this means they must be discreet with their actions. The Player acts as a bounty hunter to destroy rival gangs and mobs while also staying under the police's radar. The Player's final goal is to create the most powerful mob in history and rule the three in-game worlds!

    Player Metrics

Speed: 6
Max Health: 100
Attack Damage: Dependent on weapon
Time to attack: Depending on weapon

    Player States

Idle: The idle state is a cycled animation where the Player is looking around, it plays back when the Player remains still.
Crouch:
Prone:
Move: The movement animation will be triggered while the Player character is moving and will cause the character walk/run depending on if sprint is activated or not.
Jump: The death animation will make the character fall into a rag-doll state when their life reaches zero.
Climb:
Death:

    Player Weapons

The Player has a multitude of different weapons to fight their enemies. Each gun has different stats and effects, for example the "Colonial Laser Pistol" is a weapon that you can collect from common police officers and the "L.A.P.D2019c" which is used by lower teared Outlaws and thugs.


Below is some draft ideas for weapons.

Weapon	Description	Type of Enemy to use gun.	Cool-down/ delay	Reticle	Damage per shot
Colonial Laser Pistol	Fires a small bolt of plasma with a medium accuracy and close range.	Average (common) Policeman	cool-down: 2 delay per shot: 0.75	none	body shot: 12.5 head shot: 20
L.D2019c	Fires physical ammo (10mm rounds) with medium accuracy and close range.	Average (common) Outlaw	cool-down: n/a delay per shot: 1	Iron sights	body shot: 17 head shot: 27
Colonial Combat Rifle	Fires physical ammo () with medium accuracy and medium range.	Swat (uncommon) Police	cool-down: n/a delay per shot: 0.25	Red dot sight	body shot: 8 head shot: 13
Colonial Rail-gun	fires a large beam of plasma that (without aiming) has very low accuracy but greatly high range.	Swat (uncommon/rare) Police	cool-down:  4.5 delay: 2.15	Sniper Scope	body shot: 120 Head shot: 150

Character Line-up

NPC Enemies

Enemy Type	Speed	Weapon used by Enemy	Max Health
Outlaw (human)	4	The L.D2019c	100-140
Outlaw (alien)	4.5	The L.D2019c and the Colonial Laser Pistol	100-120
Target(bounty)	5	The L.D2019c and the Colonial Laser Pistol	100-170
Police (human)	4	The Colonial Laser Pistol	120-150
Police (alien)	4.5	The Colonial Laser Pistol	120-150
Police (swat/army)	3.5	Colonial Rail-gun and the Colonial Combat Rifle	150-200

    Enemy States

All Enemies possess similar behavior and states, as described below:

Idle: The Enemies play the Idle state, only when the Player is not spotted or they are not hostile to the player. this also activates when the player escapes the enemies.

Move: While the enemies move, they will be in the Move state, heading in the direction of the Player, cover (something to hide behind while shooting) or an Ally.

Death: Death happens when the Enemy sustains too much collective damage or too much damage from an attack.

    Enemy Spawning


Each Enemy has its own spawn point (see Level Design) and will spawn at a certain rate. An Enemy will only spawn if there are fewer Enemies of that particular type than others in the scene at that moment.

ENEMY	SPAWN-POINTS	SPAWN RATE 1-5 (1 lowest/5 highest)	MAX ENEMIES (per mission)
Outlaw (human)	run-down areas/ poorer regions.	3	20
Outlaw (alien)	run-down areas/ poorer regions.	3	24
Target	wealthy areas/ poorer regions depending on side of the law or wealth/ height of authority.	1	3
Police (swat)	wealthy areas/ poorer regions (depends on wanted level).	2	24
Police (human)	wealthy areas/ poorer regions (everywhere but more common in wealthy areas).	4	20
Police (alien)	wealthy areas/ poorer regions (everywhere but more common in wealthy areas).	3	18

NPC Allies

Allies are characters the Player character has in their mob (other than the civilians which are neutral).

They are in the game to help the Player fight against their enemies. After the Player accumulates the required progression in the story, the Player may be able to spawn a group of outlaw allies.

Once spawned, they activate a cool-down and the outlaw Allies will assist the Player until they die or the Player dismisses them. When spawned, the Enemies will begin  to attack the Outlaw allies. This allows the Player to be able to attack the Enemies without being attacked in return as well as the allies attacking the player's enemies for them.

    Civilian (neutral)

SPEED	DURATION	COST
4/4.5 (depending on if they are alien or human).	Until death or the Player moves too far away.	No cost or ability to be summoned, the Civilians will spawn naturally because they are Neutral.

    Outlaw (ally)

SPEED	DURATION	COST
4/4.5 (depending on if they are alien or human).	Until death or the Player moves too far away.	Cool-down of 7mins and Player must reach a specific level.

    Ally Spawning

When the Player reaches a specific point in the story, a button will appear in the GUI with the shape of the Ally. When clicked, the Ally character will be spawned (other than the civilian) from a nearby  area or spawn point.

Art

    Setting

The game takes place in a futuristic city with large skyscrapers and flying (and non-flying) cars. Because this is far into the future, there are lots of aliens that are living on earth alongside humans as well as multiple visit-able planets with different aesthetics.

Level Design

The levels consist of three large maps that are on separate planets with aliens and humans living in sophisticated buildings, skyscrapers on higher levels and aliens and humans living in urban slums and alleyways in the lower levels. In the slums (dispersed around the floor) there are obstacles and trash to hinder the Player and the Enemy's movement (this is more commonly populated by outlaws). In more sophisticated areas the streets will be more clean and will more commonly be patrolled by police. Characters will spawn randomly (civilians) and their appearance will depend on the area they spawned.

Audio



MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

• Two Player characters to choose from (Boy/Girl)
• Built for the PC platform

Wishlist

Add More Allies: possibly in future DLC or updates, this would allow the Player to choose from a variety of different battle strategies.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 14 - rotoscoping

During week 14 we were tasked with creating a Rotoscope (animated video that is drawn over the top of a live action video) of any video of our choice. For mine I chose "The star-wars kid" video because I think it is very funny and it is one of the oldest videos on youtube.

After getting the video, I used Photoshop (using the timeline window) to draw over each frame using a draft-like style which gave the final video a scruffy and morph-like appearance.
Each second of the video was a total of 24 frames and my video lasted about an estimate of 5 seconds which added up to a total of 120 frames or more.

Originally I wanted to have a static (non-moving) background but I scraped that idea because it didn't appear well with the scruffy affect I was trying to create.

My Rotoscope can be seen below:

Overall I believe that my Rotoscoping was a success because it flows very nicely and has a (somewhat) detailed image of movement made by the image.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 12 - Software in game production

Software is essential in the video-game industry, this is because everything in the video-game industry must be digitally created and stored for use in the creation or designing of the full game.

A flow chart describing the sequence that is taken to create a video game is on the right. It starts with the ideas for a game being created, they are usually presented on pen and paper or in a Game design document on the computer.
Once the setting and contents of the game are further developed, artists and designers are tasked with creating designs and drawings that tailer to the game. This is usually created on the computer using "Photoshop" or possibly "Gimp". This is also done inside of 3D modeling software to create characters, objects or environments within the game.
Finally the game is coded in a programming software or game engine software (sometimes they include both in one) which is used to create the game world and determine how the game works. It does this by adding the characters and items and then coding interactions and actions for each item.

Personally I would use Photoshop to create a design then import the design to MAYA and model it before using the model in a 3.D or 2.D programming software such as Unreal Engine or Unity.

Below are a series of lists describing different softwares alongside some of my personal opinions (not on all items).

Design/Thought processing:

designs (drawings)/notepads - baisic way of jotting down ideas and designs.

Photoshop - graphics editor - drawing/ animation software - multiple uses -lots of useful and extensive tools.

Gimp - drawing/ animation software. (don't personally know much about this software)

Modeling Software: 

Maya - easy to learn - large amount of uses - lots of tutorials online -

Programming Software:

These are used to code and create the game environment using the models and animated (or non animated) rigs given from the modeling software. Some programming applications don't need coding because it has set code already there and some also have modeling software inside of the programming software.


Scratch - can be used directly off of a browser - 2.D only - no programming (coding) required

R.P.G maker - 2.D only - incredibly basic - very small amount of tools or help - no programming required - can only make R.P.G games -

MonoGameDev - 2.D and 3.D - programming required - Exports to Desktop, Mobile, Web - Available for Windows, Mac, Linux -

Unity is used to create both 2.D and 3.D games and animations in a somewhat easy to learn manner. This can be helpful when wanting to make a 2.D game because it allows the developer to have a quick and easy setup for creating their 2.D game, as well as this, the 3.D aspect is also very helpful despite the drawbacks of the programme.
For example the coding application that comes with the program doesn't tell the programmer that there is an error until the programme is run. And it doesn't show the programmer the placement of this error, which can be annoying.
However, the assortment of tools and effects available to be added are incredibly easy to find and to understand, making Unity incredibly friendly towards starting programmers with easily accessible tutorials and free(or paid) assets on the internet.
Unity is available on Windows and Mac and exports to desktop, consoles, mobile and the web.

Unreal engine can be used to create games and animations in incredibly detailed 3.D graphics and is much more easy to use than Unity. However, Unreal engine doesn't have a set 2.D setting, this makes it harder to create 2.D games or animations but also makes it possible to add depth to 2.D games by making them in 3.D using flat images/surfaces in-front or behind each-other.
In order to create games in unreal you need to program the games yourself, but it is much easier to do as it will auto correct your code if you missed a capital letter and will immediately tell you if you have incorrectly spelled a word.
This application is used to create games by not only coding, positioning models and creating a level design but also for modeling and rigging within the application itself. This allows the program to overtake other positions in game production.
On the other hand however, the program can be harder to learn especially in the modeling aspect  due to the large amount of options and tools as this can lead to beginning users of the program being unable to find tools and effects they need.
Unreal Engine is available on Windows and Mac and exports to desktop, consoles and mobile.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 14 - Exam game

For our programming exam we were tasked with using unity to create a slingshot game which involves the player shooting a spaceship through multiple targets before hitting the finish line.

Firstly I created a unity 2D project and added a space background with a spaceship (the player) and series of planets set up in an obstacle course.

I did this in 2D because it made it easier to maintain the forces acting on the ball (spaceship), this way it allowed me to make sure the player has one direction to move in and it made the map easier to create borders around by adding 2D colliders around the sides.

Secondly, I began adding the slingshot for the player next, I did this by creating a "Ball" script that would allow the player (spaceship) to be dragged around a set anchor point when the mouse is pressed down and to launch the spaceship (in the opposite direction that you dragged) you stop holding the mouse click.

Thirdly, The goal was added, this allowed the player to win because I created a script called "goal" that (once the player entered the trigger) would delete the player game-object (the spaceship) and show text of the player's time, high-score and telling the player that they have won. The player only wins the game when the player collected all of the targets and reached the finish-line.

Then, I started to add numbers onto the planets in order, this was used to show the order the spaceship would need to go past the planets to collect the targets that were going to be added.


Next, I added targets so that the player would have to pass the planets in a specific order, I did this by creating an array and counter that (depending on the number in the array) would spawn the target in different positions, if the counter went above 10 however, the targets would no longer spawn and would allow the player to win once they reached the goal.

The player would loose the game if they touched a planet or got to the goal without collecting the targets beforehand, when this happens text appears on screen telling the player that they lost and the scene restarts so the player can try again.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 13 - Game reviews (2)

during week 13 - we were tasked with creating two reviews of different games, below are my reviews.

Rainbow Six Siege:

Rainbow six siege is a deeply engrossing first person tactical shooter that not only encourages teamwork and communication but makes it necessary and needed to win. Rainbow six is primarily online with player vs player and player vs AI. Rainbow sixes games consist of two teams of five players, one team is the attacking team who needs to complete an objective and the other is a defending team who needs to defend the objective. The game is won once the set objective is secured (completed) or if the defending or attacking team is eliminated, there are no re-spawns in rainbow six which can lead to interesting games where there is a sense of tactical movement to minimize the number of casualties suffered by your team.

Rainbow six has a wide variety of maps that are all destructible, this allows for the attacking team to chose their entry points at where-ever they may choose while the defenders need to reinforce walls and set traps for the attacking team to fall into, this allows freedom of any tactical or loud entry whitest allowing the defenders to block entrances, slow the attackers and make it easier to counter the attackers.

In Rainbow six you can kill both the enemy and your teammates (friendly fire), where you hit your enemy changes the amount of damage you do, for example; head-shots kill instantly, leg shots do less damage but put people into a down but not out state instead of killing them, arms do less damage but kill them instead of downing them and shooting their chest does normal damage. This means it very easy to die in Rainbow six.

Rainbow six siege also has a large cast of incredibly balanced, diverse and unique characters with special abilities that either consist of traps, blockades or ways of countering or breaching the opposing teams defenses. Characters in Rainbow six can be customized as well by unlocking outfits in the operators load-out. Selecting a character also denies your teammates from picking that character, this stops multiple people being the same character.

Rainbow six allows for endless replay-ability as you never know how a game will be played out and there is a constant supply of updates and new content. Also Rainbow six is stylized in a realistic tone, this shows the more serious setting of the game and allows for more realistic immersion.

Despite all of these great points, Rainbow six siege can be impenetrable to newcomers due to the large amount of experienced players and toxicity towards lower level players and trolls can ruin matches with little penalty, this can be caused by abusing the "vote kick player" function and abusing the ability to kill teammates, even though you can be suspended for thirty minutes, however doesn't increase in time very often.

Over all I believe that Rainbow six siege is an amazing game and I would recommend you buy it, but be aware of the downsides and annoyances withing the game and its community.


Over-watch

Over-watch is an exhilarating fast-paced first person shooter that encourages objective based play and teamwork to win matches. Over-watch is mostly set online with a multitude of tactical game-modes that have a set time and score before the game finishes, allowing the players to enjoy intense battles and thrilling overtime comebacks. Also over-watch urges much more towards despite also having a player vs AI setting.

Over-watch is stylized in a more cartoon-like appearance to most other first person shooters, this gives a light hearted and joking atmosphere that can be compared with Team-fortress 2. However, this can be considered to be a complete opposite of Rainbow six siege's darker and more realistic atmosphere.

Over-watch currently has a total of twenty one unique and interesting characters with their diverse appearances origins and personalities that can all be shown in their dialog and emotes (actions/animations that are activated purposely by the player), despite the fact that they are grouped into four character types. Each of the characters are completely different, for example "Junk-rat" and "Bastion" are classed as defenders, however, "Bastion" has the ability to transform into a mini-gun and shoot the enemy team from a fixed position while "Junk-rat" arches explosives over short or long distances in order to damage or scare away (would be) attackers.

In Over-watch no characters are made for only one purpose which allows flexibility while playing by using he characters abilities and specials in multiple different ways, similarly to how the rainbow six siege operators can be used to further the teams progress or help shape situations in your favor and win the match.

Unfortunately, in Over-watch most maps are built in a way that only allows for one mode of play which means that there is notably less variety than other games such as rainbow six siege, despite this is made up for in the hilarious and unique dialog.

Over-Watch also has a loot-box system similar to rainbow six in which they give you multiple randomized items that can be sprays, emotes or skins. this also comes with a multitude of easy and quick ways of unlocking them, however over-watch, unlike rainbow six, also gives the option to pay for loot-boxes with real money.

Also unlike rainbow six, Over-watch allows players to create custom servers with their own sets of rules, this allows players to create games with their friends and create miniature game-modes that might not pre-exist.

Over all I believe that Over-watch is a great game with a large amount of options of play and customization despite its limited modes.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 12 - Animation (kick)

During week 13, we were tasked in teams to animate a word acting out the action that it says. For the task I was paired with James.

To create this small animation, we used hand drawn cut-outs and positioned them underneath a camera. I drew the different letters and actions of the "i" using a H.B pencil whitest often showing and asking James about desired designs and designs I had made. I also gave the "i" an eye to allow it to have a sense of emotion. 

James then volunteered to do the positioning and editing because most of the drawings I made were not used in the final creation. Firstly, James attempted to use adobe-Fireworks to make the animation, however the blog website I use did not allow the GIF to be shown due to the large file size and therefore used Adobe-Animate to create the GIF.

In order to do this, James lowered the size of each of the images and reduced the amount of time each image would appear on screen.

Unlike other animations on my blog, this animation did not need to be tracked because all the frames were already created after taking the images and only needed to be placed in order.

(Animation that was created can be seen below, sorry for the flash effect in the frames)

Over all I believe that we did well on this assignment because me and James worked well together in a group with good co-ordination to produce our final image. However, if I could re-do this assignment I would re-take the images for the GIF to get rid of the flashing effect of the lighting and to increase the number of frames to make it move more smoothly.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 13 - Walking Animation

During week 13 we were tasked with animating a running/walking man move across the screen.

To create this small animation, I used the program Adobe Animate. I used this to position and edit the animation by using the pen tool to angle and draw the ark of each leg and arm stride. Once I was done I created another layer to hold the body and another for the head.

To create the head, I used the sphere tool whilst shift-clicking to make the created object symmetrical. Afterwards, I began creating the body by using the square tool and painting over it to make the body look more smooth.

Then I began making a large amount of key-frames holding copies of the head and body at different positions.

Underneath each foot I created small shadows to show the ground underneath the moving character.

Once again the way I tracked the previous placements of the character was by using the 'onion' feature which allowed me to see what came before that frame (in blue) and what came after (if it was there it would be shown in green).

(Animation I created can be seen below)

Over all I believe that I did well on this assignment because I think that the animation I made flows well and realistically runs. However, if I could re-do this assignment I would make the legs of the character thinner because the size of them is more eye catching than the arms or upper body.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 12 - Animation (bouncing ball)

To create this small animation, I used the program Adobe Animate. I used this to position and edit the animation by, firstly, creating an archway using the pen tool to angle and draw the steepness or shallowness of the arches. Once I was done with this I decided to create another layer to hold the ball and its movements.

To create the ball, I used the sphere tool whilst shift-clicking to make the created object symmetrical. Afterwards, I began creating a large amount of key-frames holding copies of the sphere at different positions. When the ball would be expressed as falling fast I would distort the sphere into an elongated shape for a brief second to make the frames blend better together.

Also, whenever the ball hit the floor I would flatten the ball to emphasize the landing and launching of the ball.

The way I tracked the previous placements of the ball was by using the 'onion' feature which allowed me to see what came before that frame (in blue) and what came after (if it was there it would be shown in green).

(Animation I created can be seen below)

Over all I believe that I did well on this assignment because I think that the animation I made is rather smooth and flows well. However, if I could re-do this assignment I would make the animation slower by using more frames and I would make the ball roll towards the end of the page.

NEXT-GEN Nescot week 12 - Essay: game buyer/ player types (500 words)

Within Gamer psychology there is what is known as "The Four Bartle Types" (The Bartle taxonomy of player types classifying video-game players (Gamers) based on a 1996 article made by Richard Bartle which references their preferred actions within a game).

These four Bartle types are referenced as:

Killers: The players that prefer to interfere with the functioning of the game world or play with the experiences of other players

Achievers: (actively or inactively) Attempt to accumulate status tokens (achievements) by beating rule-based challenges the game world presents.

Explorers: Discover (or control) the systems governing the operation of the game world, frequently attempt to find everything the game world has to offer or differentiate from the story of the game world and continue on their own path.

Socialisers: Form relationships with other players throughout encounters within or outside of the game world's story.

Personally, I believe that I fall under a mix of the killer, socialiser and explorer categories because I like to play exploratory (open world) games while choosing my own path within the game. Games that I like to play in this category include (but are not limited to): Skyrim, Oblivion, Middle Earth and many more.
I also play lots of first person shooters such as Rainbow Six Siege, Battlefield and Call of Duty which most likely would fall under the "killer" category as-well.
The reason I also believe that I fit within the socialiser category is that I play lots of games with friends and make friends with others online whilst doing so.

Alongside the four Bartle types, there is another system to determine player/ buyer types, This is called "The Four Keirsey Temperaments".

These Temperaments include:

Artisan: (Sensing + Perceiving): these player/ buyer types tend to play realistic (or realistically in) games while using tactical and manipulative (of things or people) ways to win or advance. These players can also be described as; pragmatic, impulsive, action-focused and sensation-seeking.

Guardian: (Sensing + Judging): these player/ buyer types usually play practically and logistically, while also trying to be organized within the game. These players can be described as: hierarchical, detail-oriented, possessive, process-focused, security-seeking as-well.

Rational: (Intuition + Thinking): these player/ buyer types often play in innovative, strategic and logical ways. These these players can also be described as: scientific/technological, future-oriented, result-focused, knowledge-seeking.

Idealist: (Intuition + Feeling): these player/ buyer types play imaginatively while using diplomatic approaches. These these players can be described as: emotional, relationship-oriented, dramatic, person-focused, identity-seeking as well.

These two separate types of defining player and buyer types interconnect with each-other to determine the genres that the different sets of player types most likely want to play. 

For example: 

A killer/artisan player type would most likely want the power to be free to act at will on other people or things within the game.

An achiever/guardian player type would want the security of possessions obtained by following the game rules.

An explorer/rational player type would want the satisfaction of understanding how things work and to have the ability to explore a larger world.

A socialiser/idealist would want people to have the ability to cooperate toward a goal.

Below is a diagram showing the different player/buyer types

taken from: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6474/personality_and_play_styles_a_.php?print=1

Genre types compared to player types.

Genres	Examples	Core Player types
FPS	Call of Duty	Killer, Achiever
CRPG	Fallout 1/2	Achiever, Explorer
FPS-CRPG	BioShock	Achiever, Explorer, Killer
Open-world CRPG	The Elder Scrolls (skyrim)	Achiever, Explorer
MMORPG	World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Guild Wars	Achiever, Explorer, Socialiser
MMOG	Unreal Tournament, Team Fortress 1/2 (any FPS multiplayer mode)	Killer, Achiever
Adventure	King's Quest	Socialiser, Explorer
Action	Tomb Raider, Uncharted	Killer, Achiever
Survival-Horror	Resident Evil, Dead Space, Amnesia	Killer, Achiever
Turn-based Strategy	Civilization	Explorer
Physics Puzzler	Half-Life 1/2, Portal 1/2	Killer, Explorer
Real-time Strategy	Age of Empires	Achiever, Killer
Flight Simulator	Falcon 4.0, Microsoft Flight Simulator X	Killer, Explorer
Space Shooter	Wing Commander	Achiever, Killer
Music	Rock Band, Guitar Hero	Killer, Socialiser
Simulation	SimCity, Railroad Tycoon	Explorer
Social	FarmVille	Socialiser, Achiever
Online Gambling	Blackjack, Texas Hold-Em Poker	Killer, Achiever