Artist Statement Rev 1.0

Being both a gamer, a programmer, and an artist has its quirks and perks.  I have always loved playing computer games, but ever since I started high school, I was tempted to create my own. I soon learned how to program, however I was impressed by how the artwork would add so much to the game play. From there, I had made it a goal for myself to create games that combined the best game play with some of the best visual elements I could. In that manner, I am a self taught programmer who has specialties in creating visuals for highly interactive games. As part of this goal, I enjoy putting together programs and art that is not only functional but also beautiful in  design and nature. I plan to continue my investigation and endeavors at Drexel University this fall.

This week's work log:

Monday April 30th: Did some bug fixes on both Ninjio and Void. Tuesday May 1st: Did some smaller fixes to Void, Started to make final builds of the games for District Arts Festival, HYPE TRAIN LEAVING THE STATION! Wednesday May 2nd: Did some fixes for Ninjio… yeah, that's it… lots of bugs to fix Thursday May 3rd: Got the four screenshots that I needed ready to be printed into posters. Friday May 4th: Helped out a few classmates to get their images ready to be printed out. Also spent some time playtesting Void.

The Art of A Display

The Art of A Display

Introduction

So this blog post, without hiding the it's true identity, is meant to show off the planing that I have done for my District Arts Festival (DAF) senior display. As you can see below, I have a draft of what the display will look like. It will be a triangle display made out of cardboard with a wooden center to help support the display. The display will incorporate two (rather heavy) IMacs for everyone at the DAF to play the demos for both Ninjio and Void. 

There will be two panels that will have the games up. Each panel will showcase the game's logo, or at least a work in progress logo, a controller for each game, and a small information section that will show how play the game alongside some various information about the games (like how long it took and target platforms). 

The last panel in the triangle will showcase screenshots from both games. I have a few screenshot locations for Ninjio in mind and am currently looking into where I can get some cool looking screenshots from Void. Void also will have a small, artistic panel showcasing it's current slogan which I will reveal down the road here soon.

The layout for the display. Note that each block is 3 inches.

This week's work log:

Monday April 23rd: Did some pixel art backgrounds for Void’s story cutscene.

Tuesday April 24th: Started work on Void’s story cutscene.

Wednesday April 25th: Worked some more on Void’s story cutscene.

Thursday April 26th: Watched Mr Bomboy’s presentation about District Arts Fest displays.

Friday April 27th: Signed up for District Arts Fest and finalized both Ninjio and Void, WE ARE DONE HERE!!!!!

The Art of Difficulty

Disclaimer:

Most of the projects that I will be doing are for a game that I am developing on my own code named Project Ninjio. In short, the game is a story action driven role playing game (common referred to as an action RPG). It features 2 uniquely styled areas, one in which the cities are built to flow along with nature, and the other where the cites are hyper futuristic. The game is set in a futuristic China, where after a large war, the country is split into the two settings described above. The game is built in the Unity 3D game engine.

The Art of Difficulty

Introduction

As I move to finish up both Project Ninjio and Void to the phase where I would be able to demo them at District Arts Festival, I have carefully been paying attention to the difficulty that each game presents on a per-level basis. This is all in an effort to make both games as playable and enjoyable as possible for the demos, because I believe that no one would like be stuck on level one of Void while to rest of the levels that follow it are much easier in nature. What I have been doing, in essence, is balancing the difficulty curves for the game to be both enjoyable and challenging.

A difficulty curve graph

What Is A Difficulty Curve?

A difficulty curve is simply a graph which plots the player's skill level and challenge level on two axises. Ideally the player should be kept in between the two curves to maintain both interest and to challenge players.

One way that I have been working on balancing this curve in Void is asking myself what levels are giving my playtesters the most issues when playing through them. I then have been ranking those levels and have been changing the order of the levels to suit those rankings.

This week's work log:

Monday April 16th: Finished up looking at classmate’s End of Marking period blog posts.

Tuesday April 17th: Started work on the Game Learn Work Area.

Wednesday April 18th: Did some UI work for the Game Learn Area.

Thursday April 19th: Absent from class but did do some light work for the Game Learn Area.

Friday April 20th: Did some more work on the Game Learn Area.

End of Marking Period 3 Peer Blog Posts Review

 End of Marking Period 3 Peer Blog Posts Review

After reviewing some of my peer's end of marking period 3 blog posts, a few of them stood out to me as very interesting and even a few showed some great progress on their projects. One example of someone who works hard and was able to achieve a ton this marking period was my friend Michael, with him not only being able to finish up the audio work for his humongous animation, but he was also able to start rendering out some of the scenes for the animation itself! Another person who made considerable progress this marking period is Keaton with his VR animation which we finally got to look at though his VR headset. It was awesome to see his work in it's final medium, even though the animation was just a set of stills taken from the huge spaceship he has been working on for multiple marking periods now.

Another individual who, although he not a whole lot to show for, I enjoyed their presentation was Mark with his attempt at making his own music. The stuff that Mark had been making was make with GarageBand and FL Studio, the former of which I personally use for production of music for my games (Void, Ninjio etc). I remember one time Mark came to me asking what software I used/ planning on using for my game's music and I recommended FL Studio to him, which he quickly got around to learning in conjunction with GarageBand.

Anyways, that has been a quick recap of what my peers have been doing throughout marking period 3 and I hope that everyone can end off the school year with a ton of progress to show off!

This week's work log:

April 9th - 13th: Looked at other peep's blog posts!

Void

Void

A sample level of Void

Void's trailer, as seen in the end of marking period 3 blog post

What is Void?

Void is, as stated in my End Of Marking Period 3 Blog Post, a little side project that I have been working on. Development for the current form of the game started this school year during game development club at school, however I was able to make a quick prototype in the last few weeks of game development club last school year. Void, unlike Project Ninjio, is very far in development currently and, like it's original intent, is a side project for me that is allowing me to test methods of iterating on a single, solid, concept. If all goes to plan, Void will be launching onto mobile platforms like IOS and Android in the next couple years.

The player's trail

Void's Mechanics:

The easiest way of easily summing up Void's genre is that it is a 2D platformer, similar to the earlier Mario games, with a small puzzle mechanic. Void's main gimmick, or mechanic I guess, is that everytime the player moves, they leave a trail of past instances of themselves. These trails that the player leaves behind will, if touched, result in an instant death. This mechanic may seem small, but it allows for plenty of moments where the player has to think out their actions and execute them perfectly, which is something that you see lots of time with a puzzle game like the Portal series or Bejeweled series.

The trail that also kills

Void also has collectable items called color clusters that are, supposed to (currently not working at the moment), unlock levels and reward players for perfecting their platforming skills.

Void's Art:

Void's art style is 2D, well it is a 2D game after all, pixel art that is mostly grayscale in its color scheme expect for a few items (but they are important for a reason)! The reason for the grayscale pixel art scheme was because, well I don't know... but it lends itself good to the story that I am planning for the game, which is currently still being worked on.

This week's work log:

April 2nd - April 6th: Viewed some of my classmate's end of marking period blog posts!

End of Marking Period 3 Blog Post

End of Marking Period 3 Blog Post

Geesh, has another marking period gone by already?! All I can say is that the amount of progress that have made on Ninjio is staggering. I have gone from ideas of what I wanted Ninjio's demo to play, look, and feel like to a nearly completed demo for the game. In doing so, I have been able to successfully split up Ninjio's overall demo into several smaller sections. Each of these sections are at points in the demo's overall story and action where I feel that if the player was left with any of these particular sections that they would have a good understanding of Ninjio's story and game play. Without further ado, I present to you the three sections of Ninjio's demo. I will intentionally keep the story and action as vague as I can, as I feel that I would be hard to "briefly" explain all the action going on at a given time. 

Section 1: Huai Ren boss fight

The arena from the player's point of view

An overview of the boss fight arena

This section of the demo was a pretty much guaranteed section that I wanted within Ninjio's demo. This section is where the player is introduced to the attitudes of three of Ninjio's main characters and the main villain throughout Ninijo's overall story. This section takes place during a boss fight, actually a mid game boss fight, with Huai Ren. The trio, as I call them, consisting of Yuan Shi, the team leader, Bao Lei, the savagely programmed robot, and the character that the player controls throughout the game, Kuai Long are tasked to invade Huai Ren's headquarters only to find that Huai Ren has a much more evil intent that simply ruling his city, he wants to take over the world. The trio then is charged headfirst into an hectic fight between Huai Ren and his army of robotic minions. This section contains two cut scenes, one before the fight to setup the characters and to showcase Huai Ren's evil intent and one after the fight to bring closure to the boss fight.

The arena from the stage

Section 1's art assets

Below are some of the art assets used during the boss fight, including many scenery items for the boss fight arena itself. These include benches, rocks, and a stage on which Huai Ren appears on briefly.

The hallway from above, note that the sides of the
hallway facing the camera here have been removed

Section 2: The Long Hall

This section is named after the original intent of this section of the demo. Originally this section was just suppose to be a scene in which the player gets to know an interesting part of Bao Lei's character. This section was meant to be an in-game dialogue chat between the trio, but it slowly morphed into a fun section of action that is now a cool down period for the boss fight that comes before the section. Originally this section was just to be a long hallway, hence the nickname, to allow for a section of dialogue to be played, but now it is, in addition to the dialogue section, a hallway with some twists and turns and some enemies for the player to defeat.

Section 2's art assets

Below are some of the art assets scattered throughout the hallway, including obstacles like boxes, boxes, and boxes (because boxes are a level designer's best friend).

Section 3: Michael Bay Ending

So this section is the very last section that players encounter before the demo ends, and boy did I want it to end with a bang (hence the nickname of this section). This section contains the rest of the group, Bing Nu and Ji Xie, meeting back up with the trio. Before the big boss fight, Bing Nu and Ji Xie split from the group to plant explosive charges in the maintenance area of Huai Ren's headquarters. In this section, the trio and the duo (Ji Xie and Bing Nu) as found together again. The duo are found, in a cut scene, to be trailed by several dozen of Huai Ren's robotic minions. The player is then tasked to dispatch all of them before continuing onto the last and final cut scene of the demo. The final cut scene consists of the team realizing that they cannot exit Huai Ren's elaborate headquarters, so Ji Xie suggest that they get off of the place using his new grappling hook. The demo is then ended off with an image of the team gliding away from the exploded building, with fireballs lining the background of the shot.

Section 3's art assets

Below are some of the art assets that were made for the final section of the demo. In order to save time, I reused the rocks and the ground that I made for the boss fight arena in this scene (asset re-usability at it's finest). 

Miscellaneous assets

Character portraits

These are used during dialogue to denote who is talking.

Police Bot Drone

This is the only enemy that I have made for the demo, but I do have ideas for more.

Whats next?

Whats next for Ninjio is for me to finish up the final cut scene, the one where the characters glide off of the building while it is exploding. Other than that, the demo is just about complete. I will need to start working on some things that would help during the demo for players, which includes things like a survey (so I can gauge the reaction that people have of the game), and a quicker way of restarting the game so that the next person in line can start the game with a clean slate. Another thing that I would like to work on for the game is some sort of area before the boss fight for players to get to know the characters and to help the player understand the controls of the game before I shove them headfirst in an, admittedly, challenging boss fight.

VOID

Void is my own little side game that I have been working, I will be making a blog post on here soon about the game itself, but I just want to leave you guys with some awesome footage of the game featuring a highly atmospheric song by one of my favorite music artists.

This week's work log:

Monday March 19th: Model and textured some surrounding buildings for the Fountain Scene.

Tuesday March 20th: Started prep work for the Fountain’s cutscene

Wednesday March 21st: No school, worked a little bit at home on the fountain cutscene.

Thursday March 22nd: Worked on the Fountain’s cutscene

Friday March 23rd: Started work on the Fountain’s final cutscene.

The Art of The Play Test

Disclaimer:

Most of the projects that I will be doing are for a game that I am developing on my own code named Project Ninjio. In short, the game is a story action driven role playing game (common referred to as an action RPG). It features 2 uniquely styled areas, one in which the cities are built to flow along with nature, and the other where the cites are hyper futuristic. The game is set in a futuristic China, where after a large war, the country is split into the two settings described above. The game is built in the Unity 3D game engine.

The Art of The Play Test

What is play test?

So I have recently given a few of my friends the opportunity to playtest Ninjio and another project that I have been working on. A playtest is a good opportunity to allow outsiders, in my case anyone but me, to play the game while it is under development. The playtest allows solo creators like me to gain valuable feedback on the game and allow for some excellent suggestions for changes and features. Although I would like to list all of the changes and suggestions that I got from my friends during their playtests of both things, I feel that listing all of them would not make sense to anyone who hasn't played Ninjio or my other project before. However, I am more than willing to list the things that I have learned about how to properly carry out a good and productive playtest.

What makes a productive playtest

A good look at how a developer can use playtests
to get feedback from gamers

Ill be honest, most of my playtesting sessions are very casual in nature. Most of the time I will ask my friends, or anyone who I think would like to play the game, if they would want to playtest the latest build of my game. I think that this very casual nature of my play test results in some very good and truthful suggestions and reactions to the game, although I always come in with some sort of questions to ask for people.

I remember one time when I was watching someone play through Ninjio's boss fight and realizing that the person did not switch weapons that they used, using the low damage output shuriken attacks instead of going back and forth between the melee and shuriken attacks as the situation called for it. I asked them if they even knew that they could do that, and the did not know that you could. I then asked them how I could encourage the use of all the attacks and the person suggested that I make the default weapon that the game start you on to be the high damage, but high cooldown, melee attack. I made this change and then asked another person, who hasn't played the game till then to play it. To my suprise, they ended up pressing as many buttons as they could (even ones that closed out of the game!) to see if there was another weapon they could use.

It is the simple process of seeing an issue, asking questions, and listening that makes playtests so vital for all game developers.

This week's work log:

Monday March 12th: Finished texturing all objects in the Long Hallway scene

Tuesday March 13th: Redid the character portraits and added Bing Nu and Ji Xie to the dialogue character system.

Wednesday March 14th: Made a fountain for the new section of game codenamed the Fountain Scene.

Thursday March 15th: Continued working on the fountain for the Fountain Scene.

Friday March 16th: Started texturing the fountain for the Fountain Scene.

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