by Annie | Feb 10, 2011 | Game Design, Illustration Station
As I’ve been mentioning again and again in my blog lately, we’ve been working very hard on our final game project concepts. And at this point, we’re ready to introduce the world to Chip, the protagonist in our game. In the image above, Chip is the yellow blockheaded guy on the left. The concept and mechanics are still being hammered out, but we need all the feedback we can get. Whether or not you’re an artist or game designer, we want to hear from you. How does Chip look? How does the environment look? What do you think of the colors, shapes, lines, spacing, style, etc.? What stands out? What caught your eye first? We realize the importance of the look and feel of a game in attracting and maintaining players, so we’d love any and all feedback. Please comment below or send me your thoughts....
by Annie | Feb 9, 2011 | Game Design
I was up late last night. Doing what? Programming in my PJs, of course. I proceeded to dream about design docs and prototyping and was out of bed before my alarm clock went off. You see, we’re in the midst of preproduction for our final game projects, which means mountains of design docs, multiple prototypes, and countless brainstorming sessions. Oftentimes with game projects, my interest starts to wane after brainstorming the initial game concept and hammering out the mechanics. This time around though, with the challenge of creating a full game in just a handful of weeks, the pressure is on, and I’m loving every moment of it. I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing than designing games. Back when I first created my website, I wrote that I breathe design. And it’s true. Game design is pumping through my veins. This is the stuff dreams are made...
by Annie | Feb 4, 2011 | Game Design
Learning a new program can be both exciting and stressful. For our final game project, we’ve decided to use the Unity game development engine. Unity allows us the flexibility to use prefabs and object oriented programming that will be especially useful for the mechanics in our game. While programming logic is easily transferrable from one programming language to another, the nuances and syntax can take a bit to get used to. Here’s one developer’s account of getting started with Unity:...
by Annie | Feb 2, 2011 | Game Design
Last week, our class took a field trip. When you take a field trip in a game design course, where do you go? Why, to Electronic Arts, of course. EA Canada is right around the corner in Burnaby, BC, just a hop, skip, and a jump outside of Vancouver. After spending time filling out forms and playing around with some super fancy swivel chairs in one of the EA meeting rooms, we were escorted around the premises by EA employees. In game design, you’ve got to work hard AND play hard, and at EA, it shows. The facility includes a soccer field, basketball court, state of the art gym, library stocked with games and movies, and fancy coffee machines on every floor. Not a bad place to...
by Annie | Jan 31, 2011 | Game Design
You know how some people seem to be absolutely amazing at one thing in particular? They can wipe the floor with you in foosball or complete every Sudoku puzzle you put in front of them or cook like a five-star chef. Well, I’m not one of those people. Those people are well-lopsided, and all my life, I’ve been well-rounded. In other words, I’m good at a lot of things but not great at any one thing. I’m a decent writer, good at math, enjoy puzzles, win board games every so often, and am getting better at Street Fighter. Though there are days when I wish I could just focus on one dominant strength, most days, particularly in game design, I’m quite thankful for my well-roundedness. The title ‘game designer’ encompasses a wide array of skills and tasks. Sure game designers work on designing game concepts and mechanics, but they must also possess the communication skills to express their ideas, the scripting savvy to throw together quick prototypes, and knowledge of basic visual design principles. In the past few weeks, shoulder-deep in brainstorming sessions and preproduction document writing marathons with my final game team, I’ve capitalized on my well-roundedness as much as possible. My left brain has been tasked with creating working prototypes, and my right brain is busy designing a cohesive and memorable visual experience for our game. I guess I’ll never be truly well-lopsided. But when there’s so much to learn, so much to do, and so much fun to be had in game design, I’m quite happy to be...
