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| Octopus Head Details |
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| Whole Octopus |
Week 4 - Reflective Journal
To start this week off, we had a lecture on prototyping, primarily discussing the production of ideas in relation to our work on the second game jam. There is no set approach to generating ideas to create a game - in a team of designers, programmers, and artists, each will have different ideas and approaches to design, even within their own departments. These differences can help breed innovation, as each person discovers their own method of ideation, which can be anything from mind mapping to sketching. Some people find they have their best ideas whilst exercising, taking a bath, cleaning, or going on a long walk -- whatever works best for the individual will ultimately bring fresh ideas to the table in a team setting. Methods of idea generation include: Mechanics, MDA Model, Slow Boil, Intellectual Property, Blue Sky, etc. These act as "anchor points" in game design, giving a starting point from which to build the game;
- Mechanics - Designing out from and around a core mechanic.
- MDA - Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics - focus on what the user experience should be.
- Slow Boil - learning as much as possible about a topic beforehand.
- Intellectual Property - An already established IP to build off, e.g.: Marvel, DC, etc.
- Blue Sky - Exploring new ideas constantly, no constraints, until finding something that works.
But, any ideas must be tested to make sure they work, this is where prototyping comes in; "Game prototyping should be used both as idea generators and as alternative exploration solutions... it allows you to think by doing – this means you will gain more value in the processes of researching, defining, ideating, and testing." (Starloop Studios, 2020). It is good to consider working on a Verticle Slice (polishing one aspect of the game) or a Horizontal Slice (unpolished version of the entire experience) when considering prototyping.
For a game jam, that takes place over a short amount of time (sometimes only 24 hours), quick idea generation and prototyping is a must; "The important thing is to build something interactive as quickly and cheaply as possible, learn a lesson from it, and move on to other branches of your design... Prototyping should be treated as a way to answer questions about your gameplay, rather than representing the quality of the final product." (MasterClass, 2021). Ideas must be validated and critiqued quickly in order to be able to constantly test and learn from our work.- the prototype doesn't need to be a "polished" product in order to be used, and the faster it is made and tested, the quicker a development team can move ahead. With this in mind, Mechanics, MDA, and IP are the best approaches when starting a game jam.
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| Fig. 1. Spence, 2022. Previs and Animatic Comparison - Factory of Fortune (2016) |
Animated storyboards and previs (fig.1) are both forms of prototyping I've worked with during an undergrad project in 2016. The purpose of this was to show a basic version of something that could become a final, animated short, and submit it for feedback and critique. Despite working on our own projects the majority of the time, myself and my peers were encouraged to give each other constant feedback on our work and design choices throughout all of our projects. I would consider these to be my main experiences with prototyping prior to starting my masters and working on the game jam.
As usual, this week also involved a couple of team meetings. After the experience of the previous game jam and the improved structuring of our meetings and Trello board, our sessions together have felt more productive and beneficial. We are able to assess our limitations and what we can realistically create in the given time, and work around absences of team members. Despite having no programmer on our team, I feel we've made some good progress.
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| Fig. 2. Coates, 2022. Ghoul-Seum Viking Room Screenshot |
For this week, I attended a different life drawing session, this time with a female model, and a warm-up involving quick poses. The starting poses ranged from 1 minute to 5 minutes, gradually working up to 10, then 15, before doing some much longer poses. As someone who wishes to pursue concept art and character design, doing quick poses is immensely helpful. I mentioned in my previous journal entry how the concept art class on drawing people focused on quickly marking out a basic human form and pose that can be built off of, and I feel doing fast poses in life drawing helps immensely with this. "You will learn how to simplify things, how to suggest the presence of a body part, how to pick and select only the interesting or important parts to focus on. During the short poses, it’s not just mindless quick drawings, you need to think very quickly, estimate proportions and angles, and not waste time on details." (Li, 2019).
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| Fig. 3. Spence, 2022. Life Drawing Session 3 |
I also attended another concept art class this week, this time on Value, Shape and Detail. The basic rule of value is that the image should be as readable in black and white as it is in colour. Whilst two colours may look different, they can be less readable in an image if they have similar values, even if good shape language is used. Working on an image in greyscale and then adding a colour layer is one way to make sure the values in a piece are working.
Shape language is used in design to communicate meaning; "shapes can tell a story, show personality, and illicit an emotional response in the viewer without using any words." (waltdisney.org, 2020). For example, a round shape may indicate a character is soft and harmless, a square shape can indicate strength, and a triangle can suggest speed or danger. Below you can see concept art for Rise of the Guardians (2012), showing the basic shapes used to design each character.
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| Fig. 4. Noguchi, 2013. Guardians Characters Basic Shape |
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| Fig. 5. Richards, 2009. Detail |
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| Fig. 6. Spence, 2022. Concept Class Value Concepts |
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| Fig. 7. Spence, 2022. Colour Overlays |
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| Fig. 8. Spence, 2022. Chest Asset Block-Out |
Starloop Studios. 2020. 'Rapid Game Prototyping: Why is it Important in Game Development?' [online] Starloop Studios. Available at: https://starloopstudios.com/rapid-game-prototyping-why-is-it-important-in-game-development/ [Accessed on: 21/10/2022]
MasterClass. 2021. 'Will Wright’s 3 Tips for Successful Prototyping in Video Games' [online] MasterClass. Available at: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/will-wrights-tips-for-successful-prototyping-in-video-games [Accessed on 22/10/2022]
LI, Mary. 2019. 'what is life drawing and its benefits' [online] Mary Li Art. Available at: https://maryliart.com/what-is-life-drawing-and-its-benefits#:~:text=You%20will%20learn%20how%20to,not%20waste%20time%20on%20details. [Accessed on 22/10/2022]
The Walt Disney Family Museum, 2020. 'Tips & Techniques: Shape Language' [online] waltdisney.org. Available at: https://www.waltdisney.org/sites/default/files/2020-04/T%26T_ShapeLang_v9.pdf [Accessed on 23/10/2022]
Images:
Figure 1. SPENCE, Nel. Previs and Animatic Comparison - Factory of Fortune (2016). Private Collection: Nel Spence
Figure 2. COATES, Zachariah. Ghoul-Seum Viking Room Screenshot. Private Collection: Zachariah Coates
Figure 3. SPENCE, Nel. Life Drawing Session 3. Private Collection: Nel Spence.
Figure 4. NOGUCHI, Takao. 2013. Guardians Characters Basic Shape. [digital] noguchin.com [online]. Available at: http://www.noguchin.com/wordpress3.6.1/?page_id=135 {Accessed on 23/10/2022]
Figure 5. RICHARDS, Paul. 2009. Detail. [digital] autodestruct.com [online]. Available at: https://www.autodestruct.com/thumbwar.htm [Accessed on 23/10/2022]
Figure 6. SPENCE, Nel. Concept Class Value Concepts. Private Collection: Nel Spence.
Figure 7. SPENCE, Nel. Colour Overlays. Private Collection: Nel Spence.
Figure 8. SPENCE, Nel. Chest Asset Block-Out. Private Collection: Nel Spence.
Concept Art Workshop - Using Silhouette to Create Quick Character Designs
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| Rough Silhouettes |
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| Rough Jester Concepts - Using Rough Body Silhouette |
Week 3 - Reflective Journal
This week, our lecture was on Reflective Practice - the contemplation of experiences to improve and inform future work. Continuous reflection helps a person understand what they are doing well, and what they can improve on, this is useful in both educational settings and the workplace. As mentioned in my first Reflective Journal post, I am expected to use reflective practice to maintain a journal of my experience during my masters course, and have been trying my best to summarise each week in my journals, going over my learning experiences and my plans to move forward with what I've learned, and what I may need to consider in order to improve; "Journal writing can be used to enhance what we do and how we do it. As a vehicle for learning, it can be used in formal courses, our pro-fessional practice, or any aspect of informal learning." (Boud, 2001).
The primary focus for my weekly journals is critical reflection - a form that requires me to "step back" and assess my ideas and method of working, in order to see how I could enhance and/or change my usual system for the better. In a university setting, where I'm collaborating with other students, this is specifically useful; "Working in pairs or with a group for which learning is reason for being can begin to transform perspectives and challenge old patterns of learning. It is only through a give and take with others and by confronting the challenges they pose that critical reflection can be promoted" (Boud, 2001).
Over the duration of my course so far, I would say one of my main challenges has been getting used to working in a group. Excluding a short group project in my second year as an undergraduate, I have primarily worked alone on all my projects, and have had to work out the best way to work effectively as a team member. I have found frequent communication with my team to be vital, as well as regular discussions and updates of our progress.
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| Fig. 1: Unknown maker. No title. - SMART Goals |
SMART Goals, a framework used to set both business and personal targets, were also discussed in this week's lecture. Setting SMART goals can help me with self-management and keeping myself accountable, as well as making sure I'm setting myself realistic targets. An example of a personal SMART goal would be:
- SPECIFIC: I will complete six reflective journal entries.
- MEASURABLE: I will have five entries complete by reading week.
- ACHIEVABLE: Making sure to take notes will aid my ability to complete journal entries in a timely manner.
- RELEVANT: Completing the journal entries will help me in my self-reflection and self-directed study, improving my overall work.
- TIME-BOUND: My entries will be ready for my peer review on November 2nd.
I would like to use this framework more in the future, especially as I increase my self-directed study and need to better my ability to self manage.
Over the week, two in-person team meetings took place. The first was after the end of Game Jam 1, for which my team sat together and discussed our progress with the game jam, and our plans for Game Jam 2. The feeling was it would be best to take the next couple of days to consider any ideas for the second jam, and how we felt about either staying as a group, or separating. Over those two days we acquired a new team member, Jade Jiaping Wu, an environment concept artist.
The second meeting took place in a casual setting, allowing a more laid-back discussion which I feel benefits our team dynamic. According to a LinkedIn article on the advantages of informal meetings, these gatherings are "simpler to organise" and "More ideas can be addressed... as there is no necessity to adhere to a set agenda." (Thalpe, 2021). It was helpful to simply throw around ideas with the team, and discuss what could be realistically completed. By the end, we decided to stick to the same idea as the first Game Jam, but be a bit more ambitious - adding more enemies, rooms, redesigning the layout of the game, etc. We also agreed on having more frequent meetings, making sure to do at least one meeting via discord, and one in person meeting after Wednesday's lecture each week.
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| Fig. 2: Spence, 2022. Ghoul-seum |
This week I attended another life drawing class. Unfortunately due to some scheduling issues, the expected model didn't come in, so instead the tutor set up a scene for us to study. We were told to take photos and focus on specific areas, do lots of quick rough studies of areas and aspects of the scene, eventually finding an area we could focus on for a longer piece. I prefer working from a live model, as it helps me better understand human anatomy, something that aids my ability to improve my character designs. But, I still enjoyed the class, and could see the benefits of a set up like this, especially for environment design.
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| Fig. 3: Spence, 2022. (Still) Life Drawing |
At the end of the week I attended an undergraduate class on concept art, this week focusing on creating quick concepts for human characters. Despite continuing to create digital art between my undergrad and masters, creating fast, rough, but readable concepts is not something I've done much of. My usual method of sketching out a character or illustration, is lots of lines which make very little sense to anyone but myself. This class, lead by Phoebe Herring, was a great learning experience for me. Part way through the lecture the class was tasked with sketching silhouettes, playing with perspective and poses to create suggestions about what kind of character we were drawing. After this there was discussion of proportion and anatomy, and advice on books to read and draw from. I intend to invest in some of these books to improve my drawing ability for character concepts.
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| Fig. 4: Spence, 2022. Silhouettes |
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| Fig. 5: Spence, 2022. Chest Asset WIP |
References:
BOUD, David. 2001. ‘Using Journal Writing to Enhance Reflective Practice.’ New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 2001(90), [online]. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ace.16 [Accessed 17/10/2022]
THALPE, Wathsala. 2021. 'Advantages of having informal meetings', LinkedIn, [online]. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/advantages-having-informal-meetings-wathsala-thalpe?trk=articles_directory#:~:text=There%20will%20be%20no%20formal,adhere%20to%20a%20set%20agenda. [Accessed 20/10/2022]
Images:
Fig. 1. Unknown maker. No title. LaunchSpace [online]. Available at: https://launchspace.net/blog/smart-goals/ [Accessed on 19/10/2022]
Fig. 2. SPENCE, Nel. 2022. Ghoul-seum. Private Collection: Nel Spence.
Fig. 3. SPENCE, Nel. 2022. (Still) Life Drawing. Private Collection: Nel Spence.
Fig. 4. SPENCE, Nel. 2022. Silhouettes. Private Collection: Nel Spence.
Fig. 5. SPENCE, Nel. 2022. Chest Asset WIP. Private Collection: Nel Spence.
Week 2 - Reflective Journal
Our lecture this week was on agile practice and project management, with specific focus on time management and planning. In game development, agile practice is a repetitive process, involving working on small projects instead of one larger project as a whole. These "small projects" will involve an agile cycle, in order to complete a specific part of the game's development, on the way to completing the final project. Types of agile cycle include Scrum, Sprint, and Kanban.
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| Fig. 1: Unknown maker. No title. - Example of agile practice. |
A sprint consists of a series of stages. A simplified version would be: plan, develop, launch, review. This process can be repeated multiple times on the way to completing the final product, with each sprint focusing on a specific aspect. This allows any issues to be fixed following the review stage, unlike within the Waterfall method, which is more linear and can lead to problems being ignored until the final stage, as the product isn't continually reviewed and tested.
Scrum is a popular form of agile practice in the games industry; "Scrum's simple, iterative, and discipline agnostic practices make it an attractive framework for managers and teams trying to contain schedules and budgets ballooning out of control." (Keith, 2010). The specific roles within a scrum are the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Development Team. The Product Owner defines the project vision and helps plan sprints. The Scrum Master works as a team leader, and helps organise the team and the scrum overall. The team then utilises the structuring of the scrum to create the product.
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| Fig. 2: Unknown maker. Kanban Methodology. |
Kanban is a visual framework that's useful for managing and monitoring game development. As seen above, the three collumns will contain - tasks that need to be completed, tasks currently being worked on, and tasks that have been completed. Having a visual of a projects progress can be immensely helpful, serving as an instantaneous archive of progression, highlighting any issues and allowing a team to work on fixing them before they become detremental to the continuation of work. Software such as Trello uses the Kanban Methodology.
During this week we also had a team meeting, via Discord, to discuss our plan for the Game Jam and build a better understanding of our roles in the group. For myself, and some other members, there had been confusion about what task each of us should be completing and when, in order to create our game. By the end of the meeting, a team member had set up a Trello board for us to keep track of our work, and what other team members had been doing.
This interaction with my team raised some thoughts about the last few years, and how the Covid-19 pandemic pushed many companies to move towards remote and/or hybrid work, as workers began to favour working from home; "In February 2022, the most common hybrid working pattern that workers planned to use was working mostly from home, and sometimes from their usual place of work... The proportion who planned to return to their place of work permanently fell from 11% in April 2021 to 8% in February 2022." (Is hybrid working here to stay? - Office for National Statistics, 2022).
The pandemic has fundamentally changed how people think and feel about work, with employees valuing their free time and mental health more; "our priority structures were ruthlessly simplified. Some days, our only focus was to stay alive and keep our loved ones safe... According to a recent study by Ernst & Young (EY), 54% of workers left a previous job because their boss wasn’t empathetic to their struggles at work, and 49% said employers were unsympathetic to their personal lives." (Moss, 2022).
The Games industry was, like all businesses, affected by the pandemic; "from tiny indies to multi-studio powerhouses, from the US to Japan and everywhere in between, developers have had to very suddenly trade office floors for bedrooms." (Clayton, 2022). This lead to delays in development and release, as studios shifted to at-home work; ""We moved all our people to [home offices], supported them with software, hardware, furniture and amenities. A very limited number of people stayed in the office to make sure everything ran smoothly (servers, etc.)"." (Clayton, 2022). Game developer Bungie recently announced "most current and future roles will be available remotely or on a hybrid basis" (Clayton, 2022), proving a definite shift in the industry, and something I'll be considering on my career path, as the idea of moving to a much larger and busier area has become increasingly negative over the last few years; "games don't require some secret magic obtained through having 500 people in the same building, that developers shouldn't need to relocate to expensive hub cities to make the games we love." (Clayton, 2022).
Despite the benefits of working from home -- lack of commute, schedule flexibility, better work-life balance, etc. (Hart, 2020) -- there are also many disadvantages, some of which became prevalent during our first week of the Game Jam. Lack of social interaction, routine, and discipline were the most obvious. After one meeting, it was clear our team needed to set up regular meetings to discuss our work, both via Discord and in-person. Whilst the online meetings were easier to do more frequently, there were clear benefits to in-person social interactions; "face-to-face conversation is an important aspect of a teams’ communication context and is essential in regulating teams’ cohesion and attitude. Overall, in-person communication reduces negative affect in teams working together" (BCD Meetings and Events, 2022).
Planning more frequent meetings and discussions will hopefully benefit our team, and maintain a stronger feeling of this being a group, collaborative project, instead of an individual one.
Something else discussed in our lecture that will be helpful in our team work is Version Control. Version Control allows the whole team to view and access all project files and code, and helps prevent the loss of information during production. The Games Academy at Falmouth University primarily uses Git, a software that not only provides file access to multiple team members, but also keeps track of changes made. This means, for example, if a piece of code causes problems in a file, but the issues aren't noticed until some time later, Git will keep track of when the code was editted, allowing programmers to return to the older version and fix the problem where it began. It is an invaluable resource for collaborative work, especially for a team that primarily works apart from each other.
This week also involved an introduction to ZBrush, a program that, unlike Maya, I have no experience in using. Initially I enjoy the idea of being able to sculpt a model in a more traditional way; being able to turn and shape it as I go. However, trying to work out the best brush, adjusting pressure, and using a tablet to sculpt, felt very foreign and uncomfortable for most of the workshop. I aim to watch some beginner content on using ZBrush, including one posted by our lecturer. With these, I hope I can get to grips with ZBrush, and spend some time at university practicing it with the asset I began building in Maya.
Finally, at the end of this week I was able to attend a life drawing class. It was nice getting back into doing traditional art, and being asked to use charcoal as a medium put me out of my comfort zone, but pushed me to work in a way I wouldn't normally.
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| Fig. 3: Spence, 2022. Life Drawing 15 Minute Studies |
References:
KEITH, Clinton. 2010. 'The State of Agile in the Game Industry' [Online] Game Developer. Available at: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/the-state-of-agile-in-the-game-industry [Accessed on 13/10/2022]
Ons.gov.uk. 2022. 'Is hybrid working here to stay?' Office for National Statistics. [online] Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/ishybridworkingheretostay/2022-05-23 [Accessed on 10/10/2022]
MOSS, Jennifer. 2022. 'The Pandemic Changed Us. Now Companies Have to Change Too..' [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2022/07/the-pandemic-changed-us-now-companies-have-to-change-too [Accessed on 11/10/2022]
CLAYTON, Natalie. 2022. 'Covid-19 taught the games industry to be better' [Online] PC Gamer. Available at: https://www.pcgamer.com/covid-19-taught-the-games-industry-to-be-better/ [Accessed on 11/10/2022]
CLAYTON, Natalie. 2022. 'Bungie will offer fully-remote options for 'most current and future roles'' [Online] PC Gamer. Available at: https://www.pcgamer.com/bungie-will-offer-fully-remote-options-for-most-current-and-future-roles/ [Accessed on 11/10/2022]
HART, Meredith. 2020. 'The Pros and Cons of Working From Home: Navigating Remote Work' [Online] Owl Labs. Available at: https://resources.owllabs.com/blog/work-from-home-pros-cons [Accessed on 11/10/2022]
BCD Meetings and Events. 2022. 'The Business Case for Returning to Meeting Face-to-Face'. [online] Insights.bcdme.com. Available at: https://insights.bcdme.com/blog/the-return-of-live-events-customer-insights [Accessed on 11/10/2022]
Images:
Figure 1. Unknown maker. No title. K&C [online]. Available at: https://kruschecompany.com/agile-software-development/ [Accessed on 11/10/2022]
Figure 2. Unknown maker. Kanban Methodology. Starloop [online]. Available at: https://starloopstudios.com/best-agile-practices-in-game-development/#:~:text=Agile%20game%20development%20is%20an,efficient%20games%20for%20their%20customers. [Accessed on 11/10/2022]
Figure 3. SPENCE Nel. 2022. Life Drawing 15 Minute Studies. Private Collection: Nel Spence
Life Drawing - Sessions 1 + 2
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| Second session - 1 hour nude study |
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| Second session - 1 hour still life study |
Game Jam 1 - Night Guard Concepts
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| Concepts for the main character, the Night Guard, for the first Game Jam. |
Week 1 - Reflective Journal
I think the best way to describe my first few days as an MA student is "overwhelming". It's been some time since I sat in a room of peers, feeling like I'm learning something from the ground up. It struck me how diverse our group was, with everyone bringing difficult skills and levels of experience. This was somewhat reassuring, as was the general atmosphere of the very first lectures.
I came away from the first week with a multitude of thoughts and plans on how to progress through this year, including:
- building a better understanding of reflective learning
- taking classes in concept art and 3D art to refamiliarise myself with methods and programs
- researching the games industry to gain a better understanding of development methods and pipelines
My first challenge is maintaining a reflective journal as a part of my development during my course, putting my thoughts, observations and learning experiences into a written form. The purpose of this is to take meaning from my experiences in order to learn new things and improve my work (Boud 2001: p.9-10). I am not particularly adept in putting my thoughts and feelings into a written form, though this is something I expect to improve as I complete more journal entries.
My second challenge is the three week Game Jam, in which myself and a small group of my peers must design and build a game to present to the rest of my class. In my undergraduate course I was very much used to working alone on a project, and even in group work there was an idea to "share the load" and work on the designs, animations and 3D work together. I am now in a position where my main purpose is to produce concepts, allowing other members of the group to bring them to life in a 3D setting. I realised I have a limited understanding of the process of game development, and the actual work that takes place during pre-production, production, and post-production; this is something I will research and learn about over the next couple of weeks.
Another issue that arose as my team discussed plans for the game jam was finding a visual style that both myself and the other artist on my team (James Thompson) would be happy working with, as well as one that could be taken to 3D quickly by our 3D artist (Zach Coates). It having been three years since I last did a large amount of design work, and practiced different styles, I have become comfortable in my current art style. I plan to confront this by attending some 2nd year classes in concept art, as well as research on basics of simplistic designs in media.
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| Fig. 1: Spence, 2022. Initial concept sketches for the Night Guard |
Finally, I got to refresh my knowledge of Maya during a workshop in which we had to design and begin blocking out an asset based on the game Sea of Thieves. I chose to begin building a chest, and despite some knowledge coming back to me, I realised there was far more that had been forgotten. Luckily, our lecturer Adam was on hand to give help and advice, as well as produce an introduction video to maya, which I will be using to aid me in improving my chest.
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| Fig. 2: Spence, 2022. Chest sketches |
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| Fig. 3: Spence, 2022. Building chest in Maya |
References:
BOUD, David. 2001. ‘Using Journal Writing to Enhance Reflective Practice.’ New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 2001(90), [online]. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ace.16 [Accessed 06/10/2022]
Images:
Figure 1. SPENCE, Nel. 2022. Initial concept sketches for the Night Guard. Private collection: Nel Spence
Figure 2. SPENCE, Nel. 2022. Chest sketches. Private collection: Nel Spence
Figure 3. SPENCE, Nel. 2022. Building chest in Maya. Private collection: Nel Spence
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