A game I have been playing for about a year now is Garry's Mod. Released in 2005, it is a sandbox style game where you can mess around and do anything from building structures to driving a mail truck around Hogwarts. The default game features a few maps to play around on, and the game gives you construction materials, tools, weapons, and some vehicles to mess around with. You can download more maps, weapons, vehicles, entities, props, character skins, and much more from the Steam Workshop to add to the game. All the things in Garry's Mod are actually from other games, such as Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2.
Pros: -Lots of customization -Few rules, lots of freedom -Singleplayer and multiplayer How you play the game is up to the player, they can play singleplayer or multiplayer, and they can do whatever they want with what is given to them in the base game or what they download in the steam workshop. With multiplayer, you can host a private game with your friends or join a public server, which usually consist of roleplay maps such as Star Wars or Harry Potter, where they reenact the movies or books, or just where you can join explore a map from a franchise dressed up as character from that franchise. Back to singleplayer, the leader of the game session can customize rules for the session, such as if the player can take damage or if the player can fly around. Also, the player can set the singleplayer session to allow friends to join and make the session a multiplayer session. Cons: -Takes a long time to load -Lots of keyboard shortcuts to learn -Menu can be complicated One major problem I have with Garry's Mod is how long it takes to initially start up, and especially when joining a multiplayer game. I think this is due to having to download and update Steam Workshop mods when joining a game. Also, there are a lot of keyboard shortcuts to learn, and I have only learned a few, which my friends use against me. In addition, the menu is something I am having trouble getting used to. Finding weapons or entities can be hard for me, especially when I don't know the name of the item and the fact that I'm subscribed to hundreds of items on the Steam Workshop for Garry's Mod. Sometimes the menu feels more like the internet than a game menu. Rating (Out of 10): Graphics: 9 Music: N/A (No music) Cinematics: 9 Story: N/A (No story) Content: 10 Controls: 5 Gameplay: 7 Due to the large freedom of play and customization, the graphics don't really matter to me, nor the fact that the game has no story or ambient music. The controls can be hard to learn at first, but that is normal for most video games. If you are into sandbox games like Minecraft, then you should add this game to your collection. I rate this game 8/10.
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Some video games have had movies made based off of them. One such video game is Angry Birds, which started as a mobile game back in 2009, which I remember playing back in 2nd grade on my iPad Touch. This weekend, I watched The Angry Birds Movie, and decided to compare it to the original game.
In the game, the player is given a set amount of birds of different types for each level. Each bird has its own name and its own ability. Some abilities are speed, bomb, or weight. The player must figure out how to use these bird's abilities to effectively destroy the pig's structure, who are the enemies. The structures are built out of different materials, such as wood, stone and glass. These materials have different strengths and the player must decide how to slingshot the birds at the structure to get it to collapse and kill all the pigs. The birds are attacking the pigs due to the fact the that the pigs have stolen the birds eggs to eat them. In the movie, the birds live on a utopian island where happiness is emphasized in society and everyone worships the mythical Mighty Eagle. The main character of the movie, Red, who is also the most famous bird from the game, has anger management issues and is an outcast from society. He is always grumpy and lives on the beach away from the bird's village. One day, he screws up by cracking a family's egg, and is punished my getting sent to an anger management class. All of his classmates are the birds from the Angry Birds game. Eventually, the pigs show up to the island one evening and are very kind to the birds, and throw a large party. All of the birds are very excited about this, except Red, who senses something is off. He and Chuck, also known as the yellow bird, and Bomb, explore the pig's ship and find a lot more pigs inside. Eventually over time, the pigs integrate themselves with the bird community, and the pigs start to show a creepy interest in the eggs, which they steal in the game, and that's exactly what happens next. While the birds are at a massive rave party the pigs built for them, the pigs steal all the eggs and blow up the bird's village. When the birds realize what happened, they abandon their happy, peaceful ways and become angry and warlike. They build a raft from what the pigs left behind and head to the pigs island. When they get to the pigs island, they launch themselves at the pig's city with a slingshot the pigs gave them earlier in the movie, and the birds use their powers from the game to start destroying the city, which is built out of wood, stone and glass just like in the game. the birds raid the castle and fight with the pigs for the stolen eggs, when the Mighty Eagle shows up and helps turn the tide of the battle in the bird's favor. The pigs launch a counter attack with aircraft built out of scrap which resemble aircraft from the game Bad Piggies, which is another game in the Angry Birds series, except where you play as the pigs. Eventually, Red fights with the king pig, and blows up the entire city. The pigs are defeated and the eggs are safe. The birds return to their island and treat Red as a hero, and build him a new house in the center of town. Overall, the movie was very entertaining, and the plot was very easy to understand, even for those who have never played the game. The movie was very brightly and colorfully animated, and there were a lot of innuendos in the dialogue, a few too many for a children's movie in my opinion. I wish the movie was longer, but based off the ending, I believe there will be another one. Some other movies that are based off of video games are Assassin's Creed, Warcraft, Mortal Kombat, Rachet and Clank, and Tomb Raider. I plan to check out Ratchet and Clank and Tomb Raider, as those games are more of my style, so I think those movies will interest me more. The game and the movie are similar in many ways: -The birds each have special powers to help them attack the pigs. -The pigs main goal is to steal and eat the eggs. -The pigs build their buildings and equipment in ways it can easily be destroyed by the birds. -The Mighty Eagle comes in when the birds are in deep trouble. -The game and movie were very similar, but had many differences too. -Overall the movie was very entertaining. -There are many movies based off of video games. This year in class, we have been working exclusively in 3DS Max. In my free time outside of class, I have been looking at the portfolios of professional 3D modelers and getting inspiration from them. One creator I have taken particular notice of is Franco Singh-Vigilante. He mainly uses Maya and has worked in 3DS Max to create his projects. This is a scene they made of some sort of industrial complex. I hope in the future to make models more like this. The last time I attempted to create a highly detailed building in 3DS Max was in Scientific Visualization class two years ago. I like how the buildings smoothly fit into the landscape, and how they included details on the building like the spaces in between the wooden boards and the bumpy surface of the tin roof. They also included stones in the wall and complex supports under the buildings. There is also a ramshackle fence and grass leading away from the buildings. The trees also have cool detailing where the leaves are square, but the tree still looks very detailed. I am really into architecture and city planning, so I think it would be cool to build a really detailed town or city in 3DS Max, even for a game. To improve my skills to be more like their work, I will try to retain the techniques I learn in class and download modeling software such as 3DS Max or Blender and practice at home. Specifically, I want to get better at lighting and cameras, because I barely know how to use these tools. I will try to experiment with them on my own time and make sure to do my best on my lighting and camera assignments when the time comes. Franco used lighting to give the scene detailed shadows and a camera to get a close up of the scene. I know he probably used the indent or chamfer tool to make the crevices in the wood, and the scatter tool to make the stones in the wall. I would really like to know how he made those trees. -3D Modeling programs have a lot of tools. -Working in 3D requires a lot of practice. -I should practice more outside of class. Here is a house I made in 3DS Max to mimic Franco's work. It is a gray building just like in his image, although in the future I hope to add textures to my buildings. To make this house, I used the extrude, bevel, and inset tools on a cube. The Image: Franco Singh-Vigilante's Blog:
Forza Horizon 3 is an open world racing game that is both singleplayer and multiplayer. The game is rated E for everyone 10 and up. It takes place in Australia in modern times during the fictitious Horizon Festival, a large auto event involving racing and car shows.
Pros: -Large map -Large variety of cars -Quality graphics -Music variety -Map is very open -Easy to make money Cons: -Crashes sometimes -A lot of cars don't have much customization -AI is clumsy The quality parts of the game are the large map that has plenty of things to do and explore, such as crashing through farms and jumping across the outback, and finding barn finds to add more unique cars to your collection. The game has over 300 different cars to choose from. The graphics are also really nice. Over time, dirt will collect dirt on it, water will cover your windshield during rain and your car will kick up water on the road. There are also many radio stations to listen to with a decent variety of songs, and you can even create your own radio station. The races pay well compared to the prices of the cars so you do not have to grind much or spend real world money in game. There is also a chance to win a large amount of money or a car every time you level up. The parts of the game that need improvement are that the game randomly crashes sometimes, a large amount of cars don't have much body customization besides the paintjob, and the AI of cars is very clumsy, with AI cars running into me on the road a lot, making me get behind in a race. Overall, I think this is an awesome game and would recommend it to friends, especially if they are auto enthusiasts. Last week in class I learned how to work with splines in 3DS Max. I thought it was interesting to work with 2D shapes in 3DS Max, eventually turning the shapes into 3D shapes using the lathe and extrude tool. I would draw half the shape in 2D then use the lathe tool to spin the spline in a circle and create the 3D shape. I could also draw a complete 2D shape and use the extrude tool, turning a shape like a circle into a cylinder.
-A spline is a line with multiple curves and vertices. -The lathe tool creates an abstract 3D shape from a 2D spline. -The extrude tool pulls out the face of a 2D shape. To get a job in the gaming industry, you don't just need to be excellent at using programs like Adobe Photoshop, 3DS Max, Unity, or have good communication skills, you also need to have a presentable portfolio, a colorful resume and a cover letter to show your possible employer that you are the right fit for the position you desire. Also, game companies don't just want to see if you can use these programs, but if you know the fundamentals, or the basics of skills like drawing or creating a scene. They want to see if your designs have good composition, and if you know principles and elements of design and how to apply them and make them work together. They won't be happy if you're excellent at using a program but all your works are a sloppy, unorganized, mess.
To make myself more presentable to a possible employer, I think I should rework my portfolio. First, I should make it easier to look at my works, such as creating a slideshow so a viewer can scroll through my works quickly. Also, I think I should post more detailed works, works that require more skill and show my knowledge of the principles and elements of design, and post more often. -Making a portfolio is very important in the game industry. -Make a colorful portfolio and resume showing your skills. -Don't just focus on how to use the programs the employer wants you to use. -Know the principles and elements of design. A game I have recently been into is a game called Brawlhalla. It is a 2D platform PVP game, where the player jumps from platform to platform to collect objects to help them fight another player or the computer. You have a certain number of lives and try to survive the longest by killing other players by knocking them off the edge. The game does not have a story and has a very repetitive style of gameplay.
Pros: -Cool graphics -Ease of play -Can play without friends -Does't require a good computer Cons: -Some weapons are unbalanced -Takes a long time to earn gold The pros are that the game has simple but detailed graphics, there are only a few keys you need to learn to play the game, the game is singleplayer as well as multiplayer so you don't have to go gathering friends to play. The cons are that some weapons are more powerful than others of a certain type, such as two different characters heavy weapon have a vast difference in damage or attack time, leading to a disadvantage to playing as that character. The game also takes a long time to earn gold, which is used to unlock new characters, and you have to pay real money to unlock new weapons for a character. Overall, the game is fun to play besides the grinding for new characters. I am now finishing up my final game following a tutorial. This series of tutorials is actually easier than the others I have done, as this tutorial already has the coding done, and I have to focus more on the visuals. The game is a 2D game where the character has to jump to different platforms and collect red gems. After I finish this game, I will continue on my independent project. For my independent project, my idea is to make a dogfight game where you play as an aircraft and have to shoot down other aircraft before they shoot you down. It will be the like to famous game Galaga.
Last week, I finished my second game following a tutorial, a copy of Flappy Bird. In this game, I made the map move so the player has to avoid incoming obstacles by moving the bird up and down, and the bird cannot move side to side. So basically, the map moves instead of the bird. After I finish my third game following a tutorial, I'm going to make a game completely on my own, where I have to make everything from scratch. I might follow a unity tutorial to get some help with coding, but besides that, I will have to make everything on my own. I also need to make a game design document (GDD), and some advertising items. Since my first step will be to make a GDD, I decided to look up what is required to make one. Even though the GDD I make will be more like an infographic, I thought this webpage could still help. The most important requirement for a GDD is to describe every little detail in the game. Secondly, you need to make it readable, and organize your thoughts. In addition, you might need to demonstrate an aspect of the game by creating a graphic, and explain how it works, not just what it is or what it does. Also, you need to provide alternatives in case something doesn't go according to plan when developing the game.
-Include everything in the game -Make it readable -Create graphics -Have backup plans Last week in class, I finished making my first game following a tutorial. It turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I thought I was going to have to do the whole game by myself without a tutorial, but luckily there was one to help guide me through. In the end I felt very accomplished after I got the game working. In the future I will have to create a game all my myself, and each game I am creating with the tutorials is more complex than the last. I found this cool article talking about the different jobs in making a game, and even though this article is talking about making a game as a team, it talks about the different roles in making a video game. The most important job is for everyone to stay on task and work together, keeping track of where each other. It is also good to do self checks too. If one thing is off, the game is thrown out of sync. Another important thing is to have others test your game to see how they like it. You want the game to have many aspects but still make the game playable and enjoyable. You also should see if people like your idea and if its to complex.
-Check yourself and stay on task. -Keep everything in sync. -Have yourself and others test the game. |
AuthorMy name is Adam Servas, Categories
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The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools.
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