Monday, 11 June 2007

Akira: Ending photoes




Sunday, 10 June 2007

Akira: Final storyborad




Finally, I finished the storyboards.
But the files were too big, I even cannot send one by one , by using e-mail.

Thursday, 7 June 2007




Interesting Facts:
Surprisingly, video game audios are often not taken seriously and overlooked. As technology is advancing, meaning music studios and home theater surround systems are more powerful than ever, videogame sound effects/sound are becoming more and more important. WipeOut, a futuristic racing game with electronic music and crazy explosion sound effects that blew us away time and time again wouldn’t have been the same if it didn’t have any sound. Lord Of The Rings wouldn’t have been a great video game to the movie if it didn’t have any decent sound. When video games first started, many developers surprisingly took the easy way out and used compressed mono streams. However, since 1998, game developers started taking note on how exploring the world of sound effects could benefit in overall gameplay.






Sound Effects

The use of sound effects is just the same as those of motion pictures. By usual standards, the sound effects are recorded and then incorporated in relation to the interactive environment of the video game. Normally, the simpler the game will result in lesser sound recordings needed. That is why sound design/incorporation were often left to one or two people to assign.

As video games are becoming more and more sophisticated and gameplay becoming alot more interactive and detailed, this has lead to improvements in sound quality. This also lead to increasing numbers of more sound designers dedicated to game projects. Today’s games include realtime sound for better sound qualities. Thus, for instance, a bomb going off in an enclosed room will echo realistically.


Recording effects

There are two types of sound effects, these are realistic recorded sound and digitally synthesized recorded sounds. Realistic sound effects are created from recordings from original sources, they will always have the most realistic sounds. Whereas, digitally synthesized or sampled sounds are much better used for sounds that are very inconvenient to record in studios, for instance, explosions, gunshots and aircrafts flying. For the smaller/easier subjects, for instance, clipping a coin, typing or footsteps, it is much more practical/best to record them in the studio, under controlled conditions.



Good Sound Games

God of War II
The music and sound on this game were commented to be very interactive. What’s really good about this game is that the music and sound truly brings a feel that such a storyline exists. When you are playing this game, the music stands out because it has the type of music one would typically expect in a top budget movie. The sound effects were just as equally impressive, because not only did it interact with the environment in the game really well, the sound effects also gave clues as to what you can and cannot destroy.


Zelda: Ocarina of Time
One of the best, if not the best RPG video games ever created with a perfect blend of music, gameplay and graphics. It has some of the very best soundtracks and sound effects ever blended into a video game, it features many marvelous melodies that were carefully composed with string sounds and melancholic guitar picks. However, the standouts are the sound effects. Every level/location has its own large number of ambient noises. For instance, the subtle trickling of water, the wind howling and the windmill clanking. It is easy to see they put as much effort into sound as they did into gameplay and graphics because every little interaction has its own brilliant sound effects. Everything sounds so carefully created, for example, the bow/arrows, the screams and the noises/footsteps sound as convincing as the real thing. The sound quality is also full surround sound, it was arguably the first game on N64 to introduce rear audio channels rather than just the Left and Right channels.
What I loved about the sounds of this game was the way it overwhelmed you. It draws the player into the Zelda virtual reality world, which is one of the main reasons why this is one game we just can’t put down once we start playing.


Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
In terms of best sound effects, this was one of the best games ever made. The sound effects in this was exactly like in the movie, it was so realistic and well created that it made you felt like you were right there and watching it all happen in front of your eyes, which made the overall gameplay so much more addictive. The designers in this game carefully altered the sounds’ phase variations, meaning they made the impression that the sounds moved from one speaker to the other before fading out.

Monday, 4 June 2007

Tuesday, 29 May 2007

backgrounds


The character setting final; Akira


Sunday, 27 May 2007

the final opening storyboard; Akira



the character design#3, the pose; Akira


the character moving pose sketches, with funny faces.

Character Development#2; Akira















en.....I just found these, although they are very japanese but still cute.

Tuesday, 22 May 2007

Rough Storyboards; Akira



Friday, 18 May 2007

Game Structure; Steph

Here is the proposed game structure:



Yeh, I agree we should finalise the characters. What level for which character will be in, and also i was thinking maybe we should give them a name.. just a thought. This way the characters sound more real. We should also give them a group name! (hehe, names are cool!) what about 'the four planeteers'? oh, and we should start thinking of a name for the game.. maybe 'rain collectors'?

regarding background graphics.
we should start to have some ideas for that too.
maybe post up some examples of styles, or images that inspire.

Just to clarify, the last character we have all decided will be a duck, not a boy.

See you all next week. Bring all your work to show.

Thursday, 17 May 2007

Thuan here.....................

hey, we should probably sort out what character goes on what level..... i'll do a bit of research on water saving as well so we can have tips for the game... we're only using four right?
yep just working on the scripting atm.....hopefully by next week ill have the hit test thing happening with the character moving from side to side....(fingers crossed).

oh yea we should also talk about the interface design as well, looks, graphics, buttons etc..

Synopsis & Concept Outline; Steph

SYNOPSIS:
Fast forward to 2050…
Global warming and human negligence, has finally taken its toll on the earth. What was once feared, more then 40 years ago, has now become a reality. The world has encountered a major crisis - No water! Areas around the world are drying up at an increasingly rapid rate. Animals, plants and most of all, humans are under threat. Beaches have turned into vast, barren sandpits; rainforests have become a collection of ugly wilted trees; wetlands are no longer wet; and farms have disappeared, left abandoned to rot. Mother Nature, decides to take action, selecting four warriors from among the earth to save the planet. Each warrior sets out on a mission to save one of the areas that is most effected by the drought. They travel in search of rain to replenish the environment. It’s a tough and challenging job, but someone has to do it. Saving the planet starts with doing your little part to save water, these parts, though small, end up making a huge difference in the end. The world is on their shoulders. Will the warriors be successful?

CONCEPT:
The game begins with a narrative of four warriors who are selected by Mother Nature to save the planet from drought, by travelling to different places to collect raindrops. This story will be played out in the form of a comic style still frames/animation. The game will have four levels, with four different characters and locations. In each level, the speed of the rain drops will increase, making it more challenging for the player. The characters will be controlled using the left and right arrow keys, which will move them horizontally across the screen. Raindrops will randomly drop from the top of the screen, where the player will have to control the character to catch the droplets, by allowing the raindrops to fall into the bucket. On the side of the screen, there will be a water bar, displaying how much water has been collected. There will also be a time limit, in which the player will have to fill up the water bar. If the water bar is filled within the time limit, the player wins. On the win page, the player will be asked to water a flowerpot, once watered a flower will grow, displaying a water tip on how to save water. Once all four levels have been completed, four images will be displayed of the four characters in a nice and healthy environment. If the water bar is not filled within the time limit, the player loses, meaning mission failed. A water tip will be displayed on how to better save water. Also, an image of a dried up place will be shown, to show the consequences.


Let me know what you think of it..
Is there anything i missed or should change/add?

Gant Chart; Steph

Hi All,
Here is the Gant chart, check to see what needs to be done each week. [click to enlarge]


Game research #5; steph

Here is some research i did on some games:

GOD GAMES allow the player to take on the position of an entity with divine/supernatural powers. They have full control over the game settings and exercise that control over the characters in the game. Often in many God games, there is no win or lose, instead the player is challenged to attain and maintain a level of success. Without specific goals and objectives, the player often has a greater deal of freedom in such games. Some popular games in this genre are:
- Utopia


- Spore


- The Sims


The Sims game is a strategic life stimulation computer game. It is a stimulation of the day-to-day activities of one or more virtual people in a suburban household. This game differs from other games in that there are no definite goals or objectives. Instead, the game focuses entirely on the lives of these virtual people (“Sims”) placing the player in control of their virtual world, and their daily activities. The game creator refers to the game as a “digital dollhouse”. The player is encouraged to make choices and engage fully in an interactive environment. The only real objective of the game is to manage the Sims schedule and make decisions to help them reach personal goals.

ORISINAL FLASH GAMES.

I really like the Orisinal games because the concepts are really simple, yet still appealing.
There were many different types of games, most of them had the objective of mainly to shoot or have some sort of interaction between the characters.

Notable games were:

[winterbells]

The game play and concept is very simple yet, it still succeeds in being an interactive and graphically appealing game.

[cranky crabs]

This game involved a lot of player interaction. Not only did the player have to look out for the balls, hit the crabs with the yoyo and also they were racing against time. This made the game more interesting to play.

[flight of season]

Personally, I really liked the idea for this game. It is simple, yet interactive. Also the graphics in this game are really cool.

[apple season]

This was the inspiration behind the project concept. The game idea really appealed to me, because the objectives were clear and simple. It was also involved the player because playing the game required some good co-ordination skills.

That's all for now.