Case Study

12/9/19

Playing hard reflection:

I learned in the documentary that there is a very high chance that your game will not even get approved for further development by a company. I didn’t realize that so many games get disapproved and that the people who want to work on that game just end up having no jobs until the next game comes along.

19/9/19

Job Roles and Hierarchies:

Jobs:

Game Design:

• Game developer
• Level designer
• Content Manager
• Programmer
• Director/Writer
• Play Testers

Animation:

• Animator
• Programmer
• 3D Modeler

VFX:

• 2D Artist
• 3D Artist
• Texture Artist
• Computer graphics supervisor
• Look development artist
• modelling artist
• Animator
• Environment artist
• Match move artist
• Prep artist

Focus:

Texture Artist:

Texture artists make surfaces look realistic on computer-generated (CG) 3D models.

They rough objects up or they make them shine – scales on a crocodile’s skin, reflections on car doors, skid marks on roads, creases in trousers.

They start with a 3D model created by a modelling artist that is usually a plain grey shape. The texture artists paint the details onto the surface of the models until they look like a photograph.

Texture artists sometimes create textures from scratch, so they have a good understanding of different kinds of real-world materials. Sometimes they work from a library of stock textures. Or they might use photographs – often photographs from the live-action footage of the film they are making – in order to digitally project them onto a 3D model as a basis for the texture.

Once a texture artist is happy with the textured surface that they have created, they can ‘bake’ (copy using a VFX program’s ‘baking tool’) the texture from one surface so that it can be used elsewhere as well.

Texture artists work for VFX companies or studios or as freelancers. Smaller VFX companies may not distinguish between texturing and modelling artist roles, and instead advertise for one position to do both roles.

Research and Record

1. What is the role of the Quality Assurance (QA) department?

Quality assurance managers play a crucial role in business by ensuring that products meet certain thresholds of acceptability. They plan, direct or coordinate quality assurance programs and formulate quality control policies. They also work to improve an organization’s efficiency and profitability by reducing waste.

2. What is a role of a producer

Producers manage the schedule, budget, development team, licencors, and outsourcing parties. Producers are crucial because they are there to make sure the game/project gets completed at the expected quality.

3. What is the role of the CEO / Company owner?

CEO’s or company owners in the games industry are on the other side of the industry and they control and handle all of the business side of the games industry and they also decide and make final decisions such as what types of game they want to make and when the game needs to be released etc.

 Structure of Jobs in Games, Animation and VFX

03/10/2019

World building

AO: ISIW 1 Understand the concept of an imagine worlds in relation to the games, animation and VFX industries

Our world is going to be a medieval battlefield with things like battering rams and it will also have 2 bases on either side of the battlefield. In the middle of the battlefield there will be control points that you and your soldiers can take over.

Discuss how history can impact and influence your imagine worlds project.

History will effect our project because it will allow us to know what things will be realistic to put in our game and we will add items corresponding to that time era. We will research what kind of weapons and transport people in war used during the era that our game is set in.

Reflection

A. World building theory

A setting is made when there is a level of conflict in a place over a certain amount of time (Does not have to be a negative level of conflict). A fixed design is when setting always sticks to the theme of the places and settings. Free design is where the settings and places are not stuck in the same theme and there is multiple different themes and genres in the world.

B. What have you developed with your group’s world

In our group we developed that we are going to make it so that the people who are fighting against each other are from different countries or are from different religions so that we have some sort of story behind our game. We also had the idea that you play as a king and your job is to take over the other kings castle while having to take control points on the way so that you can get buffs which will help you take over the other castle.

10/10/2019

Target audience and Market Research

AO: WII 2. Know the regulatory, ethical and legal requirements applicable to the games, animation and VFX industries.  

WII 3. Understand how products in the games, animation and VFX industries are taken to market.

A target audience is a set group of people that your game/product is aimed at. This can be a age group, game genre or an art style.

You would define a target audience by what style or genre of game your game is. For example a story RPG wouldn’t be aimed at someone who likes e-sports/competitive games and a competitive gamer  will not be interested in a Story RPG.

PEGI/ESRB is a company which classifies what rating that games will be. PEGI is used in Europe and ESRB is used in america.

GDC Market research video reflection

Market research is the understanding of which trends and topics are interesting players, this will then cause more sales of the game. from the video we watched, i found out that a game that is not high in sales can still get high reviews and a game with high sales can get bad reviews.

Market research can impact the development of a product by deciding which platform the game will be sold on. This is because certain platforms gain more money. For example, there is going to be more of an older audience on platforms such as steam whereas there are going to be a younger audience on things like mobile and Nintendo switch.

17/10/2019

Production management: Agile and Scrum

AOS:

PM 2 Plan the provision of requirements for a specific production

PM 3 Be able to co-ordinate a production processes

Research and discuss

What is agile?

Agile software development comprises various approaches to software development under which requirements and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams and their customer/end user.

How does Agile help us develop products?

Agile helps us develop products by allowing us to think of different ways to manage our production methods

What is scrum?

Scrum is a meeting between the people in your team and it consists of things like sprint goals. During a scrum someone from your team will be a scrum master, this is the person that will be doing most of the speaking during the scrum. The scrum master is also in charge of telling people what they need to be focusing on and whether the quality of their work is up to standards.

What are sprints?

Sprints are goals that you set that you plan to complete in a short amount of time. A sprint consists of planning, implementation, review and retrospect. During the implementation stage of the sprint that is when the scrum takes place.

Self reflection

Why is it important to investigate and regularly update your project management documentation?

It is important to update your project management so that people who are apart of your team know which part of the project you are up to. It is also important because you or someone from your team could forget when a deadline is due.

How do you and your group know you are on track to meet your deadlines?

We know we are on track with task because we keep referring to our trello page every time we complete a task. We also know when all of our deadlines are due because we have our personalized burn charts so that we know when we need to finish certain tasks.

What should you do if it looks like your falling behind on schedule and why?

If you are falling behind on schedule you should call to have a scrum and tell your team that you falling behind.

07/11/19

Monetisation models and Financing

AOs:

PM 2 Plan the provision of requirements for a specific production 

WII 1. Understand job roles, career structures and business models across the games, animation and VFX industries

WII3. Understand how products in the games, animation and VFX industries are taken to market

Research further, discuss and explain:

1. Monetisation models for GAVFX products.

2. Advantages and disadvantages for each model.

A monetisation model for GAVFX products is selling merchandise that is related to the game or product. A advantage of this is that increase sales and advertise the product. A disadvantage of this is that it costs money to make the merch.

14/11/2019

AO: Understand job roles, career structures and businesses models across the games, animation and VFX industries.

Sole Trader

1. What is a the definition of a sole trader?

A sole trader is a person who is the exclusive owner of a business, entitled to keep all profits after tax has been paid but liable for all losses.

2. Give examples of what and how a sole trader may work in the GAVFX industries.

A sole trader in the GAVFX industry could work in a motion capture studio or a game production studio. The sole trader would own the studio and get people to pay them for using the studio or the place that the sole trader owns. As a Sole trader, you’re taxed on the profits that your business makes through your annual Self Assessment tax return. Essentially, your profit is the income that your business receives, minus the allowable sole trader business expenses incurred.

Freelancing and contracting

1. What is the difference between freelancing and contracting?

The difference between freelancers and contractors is that contractors  will usually only work for one client at a time where as a freelancer they can work for multiple clients at a time.

2. What is a company employee/worker?

An employee/worker is someone who works for a company

3. What is the difference between a full time contract and a temporary contract?

The difference between a full time contract and temporary contract is, a full time contract is when you work for that certain company until you either get fired, retire or decide to leave the company you are working for. A temporary contract is when you are told before you start working for a company, the day you will not work for them. Temporary contracts are usually a lot shorter that full-time contracts, temporary contract usually lasts around across a 6 month period.

28/11/2019

Immersion

GAVFX products immerse the audience by using human senses in the products such as sight and hearing. Senses are used to engage the audience by using certain sounds that reflect what the audience is seeing. For example, the music that plays during a game like super Mario is portrayed as a happy tune, this reflects the world of Mario because the setting is mostly bright and colourful when going through this certain game. Sound is important because it can set the scene for what genre of game you are playing. In horror games, the music isn’t going to be in any way similar to the music played during Super Mario. Also, in horror games the sounds can be used for anticipation for example, you can be walking down a corridor and the music could get louder and more fast paced. This will immerse the audience by making the player nervous but also excited to see what will happen. Sound in games could be created by something called “The art of Foley”. This is when people use objects that aren’t necessarily what they are meant to be sounding like. There are 2 people creating the sounds and someone in the next room mixing them to make them sound as realistic as possible. Touch and game feel can help with immersion because if you are controlling a large, bulky character in a game then usually the movements are going to feel clunky and more slow paced compared to if you were controlling your car in Rocket league because in that game the movements are fast and smooth. This type of slow and clunky movement is seen in games like dark souls for example.

09/01/2020

Mini Mock reflection/feedback

For the feedback i got on my mini mock, i realize that i need to be more time efficient when answering all of the questions in the exam so that i can get all of my points across on all of the questions. Also, when talking about target audience i need to be more varied in terms of what audience the game/project is set to instead of putting an age range on the audience. On the topic of target audience i need to understand that it isn’t only about age and could be about whatever genre of games the player likes. In my mini mock i didn’t talk about sound and visuals. I could talk about these two things and say how these aspects of the game could immerse the player and why this is a good thing. I could improve all of the points i have listed by creating mind maps. Creating a mind map will allow me to think of a range of points for each aspect then therefore i will have more variety for my answers.

Production Pipeline Revision

• Ideas generation – inception
• Pitch – inception
• Scrums – inception
• Budgeting – pre-production
• Staff allocations – inception and pre-production
• Previsualisation – pre-production
• Greenlight – pre-production
• Game design and technology design documents – inception and pre-production

This is a list, in order of what comes first to last in the production pipeline. I have also added whether they fit into the inception or pre-production.

Mock Reflection

I am not necessarily happy or unhappy with my grade. I used the mock exam as a gauge of what i know from the case study part of the course. The highlights of my mock were probably the market research part and concept for imagine world. My desired grade would be a high pass/merit.

12/03/2020

Job roles

In the GAVFX industry there are 3 types of contracts when it comes to jobs.

Freelance

This is a self employed person who is hired to work for different companies on particular assignments

Full time

A full time contract is when a person works a minimum number of hours depending on their employer or the job that they are going to be working.

Part time

This is where a employee will only be employed maybe for one project then they will be released from that work place.

19/03/2020

Legal, ethical, and regulatory issues within the GAVFX industry

Are games to blame for violent behavior in the real world?

In my opinion, i don’t think that games have any impact on the real world in terms of violence. If anything, video games can be an escape or a release for people who have those types of urges to do things in the real world.

Is it okay that these games exist?

Yes. I believe that all ranges of games should exist, there are more people playing violent games who don’t exude violent behavior then people that do show this behavior in the real world.

What is the difference between real violence and video games violence? 

Real violence and video game violence are completely different, in my opinion. When you are exuding violence in a video game, you are aware that you aren’t actually harming anyone in the real world.