Elements Of Game Design, Part Five: Planning and Concepting:

'Your most powerful creative tool is an organised brain allied to a healthy work ethic.

Professional game development lives and dies by effective organisation. In other

words, planning and concepting are essential to achieve successful outcomes. The

ability to demonstrate that you can generate ideas and see them through to a

successful conclusion within a fixed set of constraints and in a short period of time, is

a key professional skill you should develop.'

To begin with I agree with the initial statement that certainly the most powerful creative tool is an organised brain allied with a healthy work ethic.

Without these key areas your productivity and workflow simply fall to pieces.

The very game pipeline varied as it may be from company to company depending on desired outcome, will still always have areas and time allocated for planning and concepting. To ignore these fundamental tasks would spell chaos further down the line, imagine getting to a stage of final development and optimization tweaks and then realizing you do not have a coherent story, or rubbish game mechanics because you did not plan for it in the beginning.

Another key aspect that is mentioned is the ability to demonstrate that you can generate ideas and see them through to a successful conclusion within a fixed set of constraints and in a short period of time.

One good quote by Jeff Bezos mentioned in an article linked at the bottom from gamedev.tutsplus.com states: ‘I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out’.

This really emphasises the creativity needed within the game industry to be able to solve problems that come forth. The writer then goes on to say how time constraints are paramount stimulating creative thinking and without them, or where more freedom has been allowed it has ultimately ended up discouraging this and limiting new ways of solving problems.

A prime example of this being mentioned as well in the form of the game Daikatana:

‘Daikatana was a game created by John Romero, one of the co-founders of id Software (creators of the Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake series). In 1997 Romero enjoyed fame and fortune and decided it was time to make his dream game come true. He designed the game with great amounts of content in mind, more than 20 levels and plenty of weapons and monsters, with no limitations in budget, team or time. Initially he planned only seven months of development – but following multiple reschedules, changes in game engine technologies and code rewrites, the game ended up being released after three years.’ This proving that without the constant pressure of deadlines and constraints not to mention proper planning and concepting there is no chance of meeting desired goals or solving problems quickly and creatively, effectively overall there is no drive to keep going, and there is no structure to the work.

Yet another example is mentioned, this time in the form of Duke Nukem Forever:

After gaining success of Duke Nukem 3D in the 90s, its creator George Broussard was ready to make a sequel called Duke Nukem Forever. However after Initially announced in April 1997, the game was expected to release a year later, but constant changes in game engine technology made Broussard change his mind multiple times while trying to develop the best looking game he could. Duke Nukem Forever ended up being released 15 years later, in 2011.

In conclusion I will say again that I agree with the statement, the game industry works off an organised, structure pipeline that needs to be adhered to in order to achieve marketable results. Tools like healthy work ethic and organised minds combined with workable time constraints are a tried and tested method for success and are essential for the aspiring game artist, programmer, director, or, hell anyone that intends to work in the industry.

External References:

Gamedev.tuts article:

http://gamedev.tutsplus.com/articles/business-articles/constraints-are-an-essential-aspect-of-game-development/

Wired, downfall of Duke Nukem article:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/

Year 2: The return.

During the months I have had off from uni I've had time to reflect on the year and re evaluate my goals and aspirations.

However they have more or less stayed very consistent over the summer, I am still confident that I would like to pursue a 3D role, focusing, if possible in environment design. The reasoning behind this lies in the months I've had off, namely the games I had chance to play, titles like Fallout: New Vegas:

 Assassins creed 3:

 and the Bureau: XCOM declassified:

 really stood out to me the beautiful environments really make or break the player’s immersion in a game and make the overall experience more or less enjoyable as a result.

On top of this another contributing factor towards this decision is the way that environments are made in relation to other elements like characters. I came to this through the last project from the first year, being the UDK level creation, I really enjoyed the way that environments can be split up into many upon many of smaller projects that decorate the surroundings, I populated the level with different foliage and topology changes as well as a water piece to make the environment more entertaining to explore. As oppose to one daunting task of a whole character creation.

Now I understand the fact that I cannot simply pick one area I like and then disregard everything else,

 given the current standing of the industry I need to be capable of anything that is required, however I also know that so long I can provide these skills I can specialize in a certain area which I would like to be environment design.

My ambitions for this year are to be much more productive with the time allotted for projects, use the time not just to complete the work on time, but to complete, then re complete it with the knowledge I have gained to produce a higher standard each time. This will be a big shock from last year, however I am determined to get into this mind set and stick with it.

I would also like to spend a LOT more time in the labs as I realized I need to remove myself from distractions in order to achieve my set out goals and I believe if I can do this now it will set a very positive work ethic and ground work for the future.

One final note would be that I am looking forward to furthering my skills, especially in 3D and gaining some freedom although daunting it seems in being required to look at your work and reflect upon it and improve before handing it in, but I’m sure if I apply the above I can overcome and succeed in this too.

Well, there are the ideas and ambitions for this year, now i need to put my money where my mouth is..

External References:

Assassin's Creed 3 The Frontier Map IGN:

http://uk.ign.com/maps/assassins-creed-3/frontier 

Fallout: New Vegas screenshots:

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/eng/art/fnv-screenshots1.php

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified developer blog:

http://www.2kgames.com/blog/the-bureau-xcom-declassified-developer-blog-hangar-6-r-amp-d-dlc