Ouch

My ouchy 3 weeks post op. Believe me it was more painful than it looks.

Getting there

Although definitely not healed my hand has recovered enough to get on with some light work.

Where did that eight weeks go? The doctors still reckon it'll be another 4 weeks before I can do lifting etc. I can be dextrous not strenuous I guess.

I have however been able to get back to some work. So now the time has come, for the next 6 months I must live breath and sleep(Though this may not be an option) Animation and do both of my finals.

Im Back...ish

To give you the update.
Firstly I have a little set back, in a freak washing up accident I have severed the a tendon in my little finger of my right hand and so have been signed off uni until after Christmas, I'm gutted but I've talked to lecturers and re-arranged my dead line which fortunately means I'll still graduate next summer. I can however type all be it left handed and at a reduced pace. I'm trying to use the time I've been given to be proactive and Im swatting, researching and reading up as much as I can on games design etc (biggest problem is i cant play games).

Now its time for that aforementioned typing.

Initial Video Pitch

Flip Festival Workshop

Just signed up for a workshop at Flip. It's a game design workshop, it should be highly informative and helpful, I'll let you know how it goes.

"This one day workshop, run in conjunction with Wolverhampton University’s Institute of Gaming and Animation, is a great opportunity to get introduced to the X-Box XNA game platform which allows users to begin developing their own games with the free downloadable tools from Microsoft."

First draft of aims for specialist study module.

Specialist Study

My project is to create an Iphone application aimed at parents of young children;

the App will be made up of a series of games, activities and stories which aim to aid children's learning.

The game will allow parents to keep a selection of activities and games in one place making it convenient for long journeys and keeping children occupied.

The reason I have chosen an Iphone App is that it sways the course towards the field of work which I want to go into; the games industry.

Another reason fro wanting to create and App is that the App store is the fasted expanding entertainment market in the world; last year there were 2 billion downloads from the App store creating $3.5 Billion dollars.

I feel that if I could develop an App it would not only provide me with an invaluable insight into an aspect of the industry I wish to get into but also show I have a contemporary knowledge of the gamers industry to potential future employers.

• The app will have a main character that children will be able to relate to.
• Predominantly it will use primary colours and make it visually appealing.
• I will attempt to make as aesthetically tactile as possible using organic materials, textures and shapes. This is so that the game doesn’t appear flat.
• The App will be episodic as to allow for different themes in order to keep the game fresh and appealing. I will concentrate on one episode with the aim to expand on I.P at a later date.
• A large proportion of my efforts will be concentrated on organisation and planning; this is due to that fact that I would like to become a game designer and ultimately a producer.

Re-write as Re-drafted document for blog and moodle how? and then list and then why? and then list.

What visuals are you going to produce?

Mood boards, storyboards, colours and textures

Axel and pixel

Start test

Finish aims

Textures

Draw up a schedule

What are the principle rewards

Use education City as a case study. Analyise and dissect.

What is the aim for the kids?

What will they learn and how?

Difficulty levels.

Use textures and patterns

Revisit little man - why didn’t he work?

Flow chart of game

How long will the levels be.

Linear / non-linear

Start basic character design

Western Most Point

ust a very quick post. These are a few photo's I took at the western most point in europe. The sun setting at true west was spectacular to say the least. I just wanted to share them with you.

Camera Obscura

Now I am aware that this isn't exactly a new concept but it is pretty bloody cool. Observe the undeniable cool that is a direct result of lights and mirrors. Its like a Arthur C Clarke cover.

The Piggies

Over the summer I designed a series of e-cards based on a number of seasonal holidays. They where designed to be as visually appealing as possible. The colour palette was based on Watchmen. This was also the first time I had used cross hatch shading. I chose to use this after reading the Killing Joke, the illustrated use of cross hatch shading was extremely effective and as a result i attempted to emulate that. Here are the final designs, plus a few concepts, for each holiday. Accompanying each holiday is an idea for an animation to go with each set.

Portugal and Dolphins

This summer i also went to Portugal. While I was there were a number of truly inspiring occasions. First up was simply the architecture. From tiles to doors there was textures,patterns, shapes inspiration every where. Here are just a few examples:

But most of all. One of the most incredible things I have ever had the privilege of seeing. Whilst on a boat trip sailing along the Algarve coast (Hahaha I sound like I'm in a 60's romantic novel ^_^). A school of dolphins came swimming along side the boat. It was awe inspiring and one of the most majestic and beautiful things I've ever seen.

Meeting Peter Moore

Whilst in the glorious city of Edinburgh I stayed in the Glasshouse hotel, which ironically is directly next door to Rockstar North (the studio that made GTA IV). During my stay, the night before the conference, me and my girlfriend decided to go out for dinner. We were waiting for the lift and I was talking (for a change) about how excited I was about Edinburgh Interactive and how I hoped I'd get the chance to meet Peter Moore (President of EA Sports). Peter Moore as I mentioned in my previous post is some what of a hero of mine, for many reasons, but mainly for his Halo 2 announcement speech when he was at Microsoft(for those of you who can't recall the speech or simply aren't as much of a geek as me click here to watch it). Just as I was saying all this, as if scripted by some soap opera writer, right on cue he walks round the corner to get in the lift. Before I have time to even speech he offers a hand and simply says "Hi I'm Peter".

There was no grand introduction just a polite sincere shake of the hand. He then proceeded to talk to me outside the hotel for a good ten minutes, asking what I was doing at university, where I saw myself going and offering me advice on how to get there. It's safe to say he is genuinely one of the nicest people I've met, He even asked my girlfriend how she was enjoying Edinburgh.

I then saw him the next day at the conference and said hello. He remembered me and asked as to wether I was enjoying the conference. I thanked him for advice and he said "well you never know when we'll meet again. I know they say never meet your hero's, but in this case all I can see is it was a real pleasure.

Thank you Peter.

This summer I attended EIF (Edinburgh Interactive Festival). First of I would like to thank the city and people of Edinburgh for there hospitality, what a truly wonderful city it is. I could talk about how much I loved it all day but on with business side of things(Guns before butter as my dad would say). Edinburgh Interactive is a games conference where people gather to discuss the art and business of making games. Unlike E3 it is a series of lectures from industries leading protagonists.

Following is the schedule and my conclusions and findings from the conference. I also met one of my personal hero's but I'll tell you that story as a separate post. A quick hint, that halo 2 tattoo. ^_^

Edinburgh Interactive 2009 - Conference Schedule

Thursday 13th August:

10.00 - 10.15 Introduction; Chris Deering, chairman of Edinburgh Interactive.

10.15 - 11.00 Keynote; The challenge of Reinventing the Iconic Sports Brand Games, Peter Moore president of EA sports. This was a truly fascinating talk. Covering everything that it took to turn around what had become, in all honesty, a stale brand. From how to humanise a brand that was regarded as some what of a endorsement behemoth, to the importance of metacritic (A website that compiles average scores from all existing reviews). This was a genuine insightful look into how EA sports (Vancouver) turned its fortunes around. One of the most obvious examples was the Tiger Woods viral video video, where EA made fun of itself. This was a key moment in people changing there perspective. EA was mocking itself and its short fallings? A true classic piece of viral advertising if you haven't seen it click here. Also for the full breakdown on the talk click here.

11.00 - 11.45 The more things change, Sean Dromgoole of GameVision and Crawford Christie managing director of Arkenford. In this talk Dromgoole and Crawford, two industry analysts talked of the growing trends in the games industry. However the more important subject they covered was where the industry is headed. They do this by looking at trends within the industry and plotting them out into a series of gradually ever more perplexing diagram and graphs. Complicated but none the less fascinating. Casual games are the way forward apparently.

11.45 - 12.30 Sound only games, Marton Owen, CEO of Smalti Technology. A talk about essentially turning text based adventures in to audio adventure games using GPS and basic interaction to create the game world. Sounded like a fascinating idea, it was however in the very early stages of development. One example was using GPS on a school field to teach children how lions hunt. One group of children being the lionesses and the other being the gazelles.

13.30 - 14.15 Lessons from social games, Kristian Segerstrale CEO of playfish. Kristian talked about the advantages of developing games for social networks. The main argument being that if the game is not well received by the community you can tweak it accordingly or even abandon it all together. The investment is 10% to original launch 90% post launch, where as traditional games are vice-versa. It sounded a solid theory however he was very cloudy on his profit to expenditure figures , a little cloudy meaning he said " we have money in the bank when asked how much the company earned.

Also at EIF was a games room where there was a selection of games on offer to play, Mini Ninjas and Arkum Asylum where personal favourites while Nintendo had there usual understated affair to promote Wii sports resort. They just had an indoor beach, full steel drum band and more combined inches of television than an average small country. You have to love them. We salute you Nintendo.

"Producers don't do anything?"

This summer I attended an inspiring and highly informative lecture at BCU's TIC (Birmingham City University Technology Innovation Centre). The lecture was given by Steve Stopps, a project manger at Blitz Games, and was entitled "producers dont do anything, so why are they so important"? The lecture covered everything from development costs to time management.

Steve opened the lecture by addressing the growing role of the project manager within the games industry.

Starting with over all production costs Steve explained the rapidly increasing costs of computer game production. Average Wii development takes 18 months has a team size of 20 - 30 people and a cost of $25 million. This may seem high however, when compared to that of

Xbox 360 and PS3 $80 million it is clear to see why the Wii is the fastest expanding games catalogue.

He then addressed the roles contained within the studio. That of the Project Manager (or producer) Design (Designers) , Art (Artist) and Tech (Programmers).

The emphasise was placed on the role of the Project Manager. It is a Project Managers role to "free the creatives to do what they do do best". It is paramount that the Project Manager should not be the creative vision holder. The reason for this being that it is best for a Project Manager to be able to view the project from an external point of view. They must also be able to offer constructive criticism and concise feedback.

He then went on to talk about the Time,Scope,Cost Equilateral Triangle. This is a way of explaining that if you change one of the sides all of the other sides must change too as a result. In other words if you wish to increase Scope then you must increase Cost and Time also. It must stay equilateral.

Steve also talked of X and Y managers. These are two different management styles, (for a full explanation click here). Essentially the theory entails that X managers work by being the enforcer, where as Y managers work by being the supporter. This is illustrated in the following Diagram.

Two things that Steve said that truly stuck out in my mind was that, firstly, a manager "should take responsibility for everything, credit for nothing". The reason for this being that it leads to trust. Secondly " A creative project is never finished; it's abandoned". I think anybody creative or indeed has worked with creative people can empathise with that.

Also he made it apparent that using SCRUM management (A well established management theory) we can understand the difference between the involved and the committed or the pigs and chickens. I feel this comic strip illustrates the theory perfectly.

He also believed that end users expectations where changing as they gain a better understanding of the system being built. Marketing will also require change, as to them the market is feature driven , where as it is now content driven.

"The longer the project the more it will change."

In this section he touched on development scheduling and time scale.

Months: 1-5 Pre production

6-12 Production

13-18 Post production

The average 8 hour working day: Email 1 hours

Meetings 1 hour

Training 1 hour

Which leads to a 5 hours actual working day. Meaning you should always allow contingency

low risk: + 20%

medium risk: + 40%

High risk: + 60%

Pro's of contingency: better retention of key personnel, increased organisational agility, an improved ability to invest in the future

Cons: Adds alot of additional cost

Ultimately a manager should ask three questions, what did you do yesterday? What are you doing today? Is there anything stopping you?

Since attending the lecture I've been in touch with Steve Stopps on a few occasions now, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank him for his help and advice.