Maybe I'm just getting older and horror is having less of an effect on me, but it seems like in recent times horror is just becoming less horrific. I'm talking about all forms of media, from movies to TV series, to video games, to even online stories. When you think of horror, you think of actually getting frightened by the material. Those who say they enjoy it for the settings and the creative writing have their own genera, thrillers, which while are 'thrilling' aren't inherently scary. The point of horror is to scare the reader, not to thrill them with fantastical concepts, however usually most good horror manages to do this anyways due to how well written it is. Some of my favorite writings do just that, primarily freak me out, but still manage to get me to come back to the story time and time again just for the mystery and the insane narrative I must figure out and solve for whatever reason.
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With October in full swing, it almost seems sinful how I haven't mentioned one of the most important challenges present for artistic creators of all types. The Inktober challenge and it's counterpart, Goretober, are challenges that provide a new prompt for every day of the month where artistic creators then use these said prompts as the main topics of their daily project. This isn't just limited to traditional art however, as digital artists, writers, and even musical composers can participate, as long as they stick to the base line of the given daily prompts. It can teach discipline, perseverance, and focus to those who need it. It can also be used to teach creative thinking as one struggles to form an idea for their daily topic. Why is this relevant to game design and media creation? Well it serves as an example for various things, such as time management, project scope, and creative flow. Before partaking in the challenge, usually I only finished 5-8 drawings per month maximum, and while those drawings tended to be much higher quality, this challenge has taught me how to effectively communicate my design intentions while saving time by not adding strenuous detail. I've become so well versed in this that now I am completing 2-3 finished drawings a night, my production has never been higher! All creators should attempt this challenge at some point, as these skills of quality check and time management translate well into other fields such as game design. I'm fairly certain that if one wanted to, they could quite easily make their own Game design related challenge (Codetober perhaps?) in order to encourage game design based challenges of project management and whatnot, teaching new designers how to effectively manage workload and incorporate creative freedom to those who participated.
I have completed both light and dark versions (Day and Night) for all of our background scenes, and have designed a basic textbox for all of our main dialogue to fit in. I'm also in the process of finishing up any and all other characters we'll need in the coming scenes, but until I get that finished, I've created a Dummy character that Chloe can use for a placeholder for her coding. I don't know if she was able to figure out a streamlined way to get the text to load correctly, so she might resort to just using a lot of if statements in place of an array of some sort. I don't care how everything is set up in the code, as long as it works I'll be impressed. Though I fear the pressure might be getting to Chloe, and I wish there was something I could do to help lighten her load, however, just how I could help is something that I am unsure about. Maria has finished up the script, and she wants me to look through it, however I've been so busy with my own projects that I haven't had the chance to go through it yet. I want to edit it because while it is fairy decent on it's own, some moments are far too cluttered or far too sparse when it comes to dialogue and descriptions, and I got confused easily while reading through some sections. It's passable, but it's by no means a masterpiece, however with the amount of time we have left to finish everything up, I will be glad if everything gets implemented correctly. I don't think what we have now fits Maria's original vision at all, but If she's upset about it then she hasn't voiced her concerns. I think she's just like the rest of us; we just want it to be finished and working.
Well for starters, it's best to mention what we are on schedule for: We have completed a UI and have a more solid direction on what this game is supposed to take, as Maria's concept was rather shaky and in some areas, completely nonviable given our current time frame. Chloie has taken the raw PSD I made of the interface and has begun to take the individual components apart and implementing them into the main game screen. To my knowledge, Maria is tasked with finalizing mechanics, though it is clear that she is thinking that we are capable of more than what we can handle within our limited time frame. She is also tasked with audio design, however due to my personal experience with follay art and Chloe's experience with various musical softwares and finding free to use/non coppyrighted audio, that responsibility may fall on our shoulders as well. I have also completed a few concept sketches of various character poses and items that would be potentially usable in game, however these were the only ones I was able to upload (Shown below), so the rest of my rough landscape/background sketches are still stuck on my desktop. As mentioned previously, I, along with Chloe, were able to sort out the game mechanics to create a more solid foundation for what we would need to create for the group. We are hoping that we can narrow down all our ideas for the gameplay experience so that Chloe and I can create all that we need to, as any more extra features/assets that don't make the final cut will be wasted resources and time that could've been spent on creating assets that will be included after the final cut. The goal is to have spent managing our time to the best of our abilities in order to have as little cutaway as possible.
A stunning idea about manning a rescue boat with co. to learn navigational skills and how to prep for a possible disaster you may have to trek through. While I am very impressed for the concept, as the idea of being able to man a rescue ship in dire conditions and search for the remains of the survivors of the wreck is very appealing to me, I still am curious as to how various roles of the ship will be designed. For example, are you able to designate roles from the beginning, if so, who does this, and are they interchangeable throughout the progression of the game, or are they static for the entire duration? All in all, could this be a game that could be designed by students? Possibly, however, I don't believe it could be any students. A small ragtag group like ours probably couldn't, just with the numerous time constraints plus our limited members would make something like this a very difficult feat to accomplish. Not to mention, a game that is aiming to be as realistic as possible poses a threat on how well the game engine could load and display the map with all the current characters present within it and the various weather conditions it would need to simulate. Not to mention, water, clouds, wind, and various other types of weather can be some of the most difficult things to animate, not to mention just how all the parts would interact with each other. Even the boat would probably need to simulate some sort of weight so that players can get a feel for how to move without tipping overboard. However, this idea would be quite marketable since there doesn't seem to be any games that simulate this quite exactly, Its a subject that's up for grabs. Plus, the gameplay would probably be dynamic and unique in ways not usually seen before. Along with the dark atmosphere, and the urgent vibes players would likely feel during more active moments would create a simulation that could probably be enjoyed recreationally.
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Creator InfoThis is a blog for a Game Art Design class. Future programmer and currently an artist and writer. Archives
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