Taking Rhythm Games to a New Level

Rhythm games have been very popular for years, starting out in the arcades, with the dance pads coming to the living rooms. Also im sure you are aware of the popular franchise, Guitar Hero and more recently, Rock Band. These two games focus on the playing being able to play the songs of well known rock bands using popular instruments, the most common being the guitar.

I got given the latest Guitar hero for Christmas and i thoroughly enjoyed it, still play it know, pretending im a rockstar whilst tapping away at a piece of plastic with 5 coloured buttons.

However, now the creators of Rock Band have upped the tempo and have incorporated a 'Pro Mode' for the guitar, drums and keyboard parts of the songs. The one that stands out for me is the guitar. Instead of just having 5 buttons and a strum bar, you get the full 102 threats and six strings:

However, instead of full length strings, you get a button, 1 for each threat. No more pretty colours which you can learn to play well in a few weeks, this will take months of practice to play well. What i like about it is that beginners won't get overwhelmed by tuning and having to develop calluses. This is what put me off learning guitar back in school, or it was the fact i was 14 and dedicate my time to anything, apart form games. Now i could play and learn at the same time. You can even plug it into your pc and use a MIDI sequencer and have a blast.

Of course some people will think that they will pick this up and then be able to play a real guitar well. Not the case, sure you will know the chord placements and what not, but will you be able to hold the threats down properly, know how pinch harmonics work and whamming.

It is a very sturdy stepping stone though, that i think will get a lot of people learning the guitar from this. I'm quite tempted myself to pick on up, even at the £109 price tag.

I think this is a big turning point for rhythm games, and i suspect there will be many to follow.

You Don't Need Fancy Graphics to Have Fun

Quite a will ago i stumbled across a game called Minecraft, because it was mentioned on the team fortress 2 blog. It is certainly an interesting game. For a lot of people the graphics, or should i say, art style, are an interesting choice. I suspect they are as simple as they are is because it is only been worked on by one indie game developer until now.

The purpose of the game is to survive, and build what ever you want. You start with nothing and simply punch the ground or trees to collect blocks of dirt, wood etc. You can then craft items to create others and combine them to make tools, armor and weapons. What i love about this game is the fact that each time you create a new game the level is randomly generated, and can become the up to 8 times the size of the earth, or until your computer runs out of steam. Here is a fly over, showing the random generator at work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DBzT5U6_gw

It can produced some amazing scenes even though it is made out of blocks.

I'm quite a fan of indie games, they show promising ideas, unlike many mainstream developers, producing the same first person shooters over and over, just with slightly better graphics.

You can play the free version if you visit www.minecraft.net where you have unlimited blocks and can only build things, if you want to get the most out of it you have to pay, and it has only just entered beta. I reckon in the next 6 months this game will be pretty damn popular.

End of Year 2

Well the final assessment is already upon us, i can't believe how quick time has gone, it only seemed like yesterday i was reading the mortal engines briefs. I've certainly learnt a lot this year, especially the 3d side, mostly from my mistakes. The mortal engines projects played a big part in this. I made a lot of errors within each project, mainly with the texturing. Now i can look back at it and see how bad some parts were. The small projects heather gave us after Christmas were good fun. I think it would be good for everyone if these were set after each major project.

The group project was a major part of the second year. It showed us how things work in the industry and how important certain aspects are. Having good communication skills are vital, as well as consistency and naming conventions. I certainly enjoyed the group project and look forward to seeing what next years second years create. Even though the group project was fun, i still think i'll work on my own for the 3rd year major project. I like to have full control over what is happening, plus i won't have to worry about people not turning up or doing the work etc. Not that this really happened in our group, but i did notice there were one or two people in some groups like this.

The 3rd year major projects have really inspired me to get to grips with unreal, as some of the results are fantastic, something i am really looking forward to using in the 3rd year.

I'm starting to become more confident now with my drawing, i don't hesitate as much as i used to, i just get on with it, no matter how difficult the scene is. The better the challenge the more you learn i've noticed. The same applies to my life drawing, i feel i am improving steadily, Chris mentioned about getting life drawing every day next year which would be great.

I think the most important thing i have learned from this year is how important time management is. You would be surprised at how many hour you waste each day, and they add up, to a lot. One thing i defiantly need to do for the third is is create my own work timetable, and ensure i stick to it. Otherwise, things could go horrible wrong...

The Group Project At An End

Well, the group project is pretty much at an end now and its been quite an interesting experience. It is a great way to see what things will be like in the industry. The importance of scheduling, naming conventions and more. Personally im really pleased with the way our level turned out and also with the group i'm in. We all got on well and the weren't any bad moments or bitching etc. The use of a forum worked really well, it allowed everyone to upload their work and people download it from anywhere. We also used a blog to keep track of the level's progress and add any concerns or important announces.

From the feedback we got from formative assessment we all agreed to churn out a decent amount of small assets which could be placed around the level, as it felt fairly empty and didn't really have and signs of human activity. Writing on the walls in conjunction with the assets made the level believable. We also managed to get a few sounds and animations in the level.

From the start we all agreed we wanted to use lighting to create the atmosphere. The use of light fog and harsh lighting worked well. You can see enough to know where you are going and to see the assets, but not too much so you can see the whole room. This meant that the person moving around wouldn't get overwhelmed by the details and miss small parts. The lighting meant that you would have to move about at a slow rate, ensuring that you wouldn't miss anything.

Mark did a great job in the unreal department. His experience with UDK really helped us make the most of it, and also meant that we could start creating the level in unreal earlier, due to the fact that no one had to learn it. Obviously we all still had to learn it so we can create our own levels with our assets and textures only, but without the pressure.

I think one of our groups strongest points was that we always were in the labs when we were supposed to be, and at any time when a meeting was arranged. This meant that we would see the progression of peoples work and the level several times a week, ensuring that everything was going to plan and that there were no major issues. Communication overall was very good.

I think the main problem we had was consistency with the textures. Seeing as pretty much everything would have some form of corrosion, dirt and grime, getting the amount right was difficult. We made several mood boards which had the textures we were aiming for, as well as some colour swatches, which helped.

Overall, i feel our group project went well. Communication was good and motivation was high. This enabled us to achieve want we had planned at the start. The group project has taught me a lot and has been a valuable experience. I think everyone deserves a pat on the back.

You Require More Polygons

The amount of polygons, or tris, whatever you prefer, is constantly increasing every year. Seeing as computer technology gets outdated almost every six months its pretty easy to see why. Personally, i feel we are at a peak of graphic realism right now, almost every big game will have the same graphical quality as the others, none really standing out from the rest, although some will be better in some areas depending on the genre of the game.

One game that will raise the bar when it is finally released will be Gran Turismo 5. GT has always been know for its high level of details with the vehicles and now it almost looks perfect, the cars at least :

I read an article recently in a PS3 magazine on the statistics of GT5, and some of the cars consist of up to 500,000 polygons, compared to the original GT, which had 300 polygons for each car. Generally though, the majority of the cars will be about 100,000 polys. Below is a car not created for GT5 but built to the standards and constraints:

Pretty crazy. The reflections are brilliant. What amazes me is that the PS3 will run the game with 16 cars with this many polys and real time rendering at 60fps, which i doubt any computer could do comfortably. In a year or 2 probably.

Of course this doesnt mean you dont have to worry about low poly modelling, this is still a key factor in games, manly to do with levels of detail, the further away you get the less detailed it will be. I think GT4 had 5 levels of detail.

Oh, its a good job the ps3 uses bluray because at the moment GT5 is 140GB in size, planned to be released on 3 discs. No wonder its PS3 exclusive, installing it on a PC with dvds would be fun...

Character Design

It's always a challenge to create a decent, original character nowadays. Personally, i dont enjoy it that much and therefore struggle more than most people when it comes to the interesting character projects. Anyway, more and more games are becoming more realistic each year and so are the characters, at least in most games. Some are quite simply ridiculous. The main culprit for such crazy characters are generally beat em ups, which tend to consist of guys with muscles bigger than their heads and women with oversized breasts and some pieces of cloth or leather as an excuse for an outfit. Soul Calibur 4 thrives in this area of 'art' for example:

I guess some people who have never seen a woman in real life may find that attractive. Even Realistic games such as Resident Evil 5 go wrong sometimes:

Hurr, my arms are bigger than my entire head. It must be a struggle to find tops that don't rip every time to put them on. Luckily there are some game developers out their who know how to create decent, realistic game characters. The main one that pops into my head is Valve, with Half Life 2. Take Alyx Vance for example:

Nothing over the top, just someone who you would expect to see in real life, unlike the woman above. I suspect one of the main reason Half Life has such good characters is the fact that a lot of them are based on real life people, not made up. The link below shows some examples:

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs38/f/2008/363/1/0/Half_Life_2_Character_Models_by_leebyrne.jpg

If anyone asks you, i can't seem to make a decent character, building or vehicle, just tell them that all the inspiration you need it right outside.

The Group Project

Well its been a fair few weeks since we started the group project and time is flying by, it only seemed like yesterday we were discussing what to do. Personally, I'm very happy with the progress we are making and should make the deadline without much stress. We are currently on the stage of texturing the environment, most of which has been completed in a week. We now need to make sure that the amount of grime and dirt is consistent, as well as the colours used. The colours should be ok as we are all using a custom swatch made from several reference photos. Next we will be doing some beta testing to make sure the geometry is accurate and ensuring the textures are correct and have no major errors which stand out, such as obvious repeating textures. Once this is done any normals and specular need to be created. Even though we have been ahead of schedule for most of it i think the planing could have been a bit better, mainly the tasks given to each person, as a few things have been made twice by separate people. Nothing major, just small things such as lights and chairs.

Anyway, here are a few shots of the current textures (the composites in the view ports wont look as crisp by the way):

Desaturated

A few days ago i was sat at the window in subway staring out into the street when it occurred to me at how bland most people dress. Almost everyone will be in clothes that consist of greys, browns and blues. You really don't see that many people in bright and bold colours. It may be their personal taste or simply because they don't want to stand out like a sore thumb.

Its the same with most environments we live in. Looking down a street all you will see are tones of grey and brown, maybe a hint of orange or yellow. I guess it means everything looks consistant and not having buildings that look outrageous. Then again, that would make a trip to the shop more interesting.

Now that games are becoming more realistic the same is happening to most first person shooters. Games like Killzone 2 and the CoD:MW series. In Killzone 2 you can't even make out what's going on half the time because its so bloody dark. At least the recent release of Battlefield Bad Company 2 has given hope, the jungle maps are very pleasing to look at, full of vibrant colours.

This game is great by the way, if you are a fan of modern shooters then you'll love it. It's always satisfying taking out a sniper by bring down the entire building he is camping in.

Motivation and Time Management

Motivation and Time Management can make a big difference in peoples careers. Good time management can ensure that you make the most of your day, but without motivation, then it is useless. Sure you can have a timetable set up to ‘guide’ you through your day, but if you look at it and go, ‘ugh, boring, ooh so and so is on the TV’ why bother. Motivation is a key factor in life and without it we wouldn’t move forward.

Let’s look at time management. Not long ago I recorded all my time spent to see how well, or should I say badly, I spend my time. Here is what I ended up with over the duration of a week:

15 hours lecture time

22 hours self directed study

31 hours gaming

62 hours sleeping

18 hours eating, cleaning, random crap

20 hours unaccounted

As you can see I really aren’t using my time very well. The main problem I have is the fact it is very easy to get carried away. For example, whilst playing Team Fortress 2, I’ll say to myself, “right, just one more map”. Now, a map will usually take about 30 minutes until the server changes level, once you get going it is very easy to get carried away. “Just one more”, “ooh love this map” etc. Before you know it I’ve spent an extra 2 hours playing without realising. It also doesn’t help when you are playing with friends. Another similar situation is with sleep. At this age, we only really need about 6 hours sleep to function properly, but when you wake up and you are nice and warm in your comfortable bed it is so easy to fall back to sleep without realising. I say to myself, “just 10 more minutes”. Minutes quickly turn into hours and before you know it is 1 o clock in the afternoon. I find that putting my alarm on the other side of the room helps.

On the other hand, I always feel that I have done more work than I have. I look back on what I have produced in the last x amount of hours and realise I haven’t actually been work constantly. When I think about it I have wasted half of it due to distractions.

Having a good working environment ensures that you can make the most of your time. The trouble today is most work is done on the computer, which also have games, the internet, chat programs, music and more. Any of these can keep a person distracted for hours at a time without them realising. What I have done to prevent such distractions is this, deleted all the game shortcuts off my desktop, as well as signing off of chat programs to prevent more distractions. Some people I know have to have something going on in the background such as music or a TV program as they cant stand the silence, personally I don’t mind having some peace and quiet once in a while and can happily sit there working in silence, just as long I am enjoying the work. That’s another thing, passion.

Being passionate about your work will make a big difference to your motivation. You will find that if people are given a tasking based on something that they are passionate about the outcome will probably be of a higher quality compared to something they aren’t interested in. As for myself, I will happily sit down and model a vehicle in 3ds max simply because I enjoy it, ever since I was a young child I have been interested in vehicles. On the other hand, if I am told to model a character I find it much harder to concentrate on the task, become easily distracted due to the fact I’m not interested in characters and become bored. Another example would be this; during the summer I went to beaulieu for the mini cooper register. After looking around I sat down and drew my friend’s mini, which took roughly 4 hours. I enjoyed every moment simply because minis are something I am passionate with. Also the weather was pretty much perfect which helped. When we are told to go out and draw people in the streets of Leicester it is a different story. Drawing people quickly has also been a weakness in my abilities so the fact I find it difficult does help.

I feel that having breaks is important. Some people like to work for several hours at a time non stop until they have finished what they had planned to too. Personally, I have to take small breaks every hour or so, otherwise I can become bored or frustrated. I also realised that even though I think I have worked for say, 4 hours straight, I haven’t, I’ve probably worked for about 2, maybe 3. Sometimes I ‘hit a brick wall’ when modelling, simply not knowing what to do next, or how to overcome something. Having a break helps me to relax and clear my mind. I also find that having two or three projects on the go at the same time can be useful. If I get stuck with one or fed up with another I can switch to a different project, and then come back to the original one, now that I have relaxed. I tend to spend up to 3 hours on a project until I call it a night or switch to another, any more and I tend to lose interest. One thing I have learnt is to never play games whilst taking a break. Do this and time may fly by without you realising until it is too late.

Right, well im not really sure what else to put as of yet so i do a quick sum up. To make the most of each day I need to cut down on games and sleep big time. Ideally I should have about 42 hours of sleep a week, about 6 hours a day, as this is all you really need. As for games, simply uninstalled the majority of them will help, along with removing the desktop shortcuts to any remaining. The hours saved can then be spent on self directed study. Having a timetable will also help plan out each day, otherwise I could easily sit there wondering what to do for an hour.

Sum up of mortal engines projects

Now that i have completed all 3 projects based on the novel Mortal Engines, i think its time to look back and see what i can improve on, if i can i will probably make changes over Christmas after some feedback from the assessment .The first project was to create an environment from the book. I decided to go with Rustwater Marshes. The main part of the scene would be the large tracks sunk into the boggy marshes, created by a traction city. The triangle limit for this was 20000, which was more than enough. In the end my triangle count came to 15943, which was more than expected. Below is the final outcome:

Looking at it now i feel that the overall the composition can be improved. There are several areas that can be improved as they are rather empty. I also think that there needs to be a larger variety of colours, the majority of it is just brown. I am fairly happy with the way the tracks have came out, fairly simple design but it works, although the way the side and bottom connects could be improved. As for the textures, i am happy with the skybox, came out better than i had thought seeing as my photoshop skills are amazing. The mud texture was ok, the normals worked fairly well, but it could have had a bit more variety in colour. The main part i need to improve on the texture allocation. Heather said that i could have saved a lot more texture space with the bark and reed textures by the way i unwrapped it, and making the most of tillable textures. The material for the water turned out nicely, but it a bit too expensive due to using a raytrace material. I am going to try and achieve the same results using cubemaps instead.

The task for the second project was to design a vehicle which could transport at least 2 people under earth's gravity conditions. I decided to design a 'bug' the vehicles used on traction cities as a way of getting around. The triangle limit was 9000 which included both exterior and interior. Here is the outcome:

First i textured it as if it was new, and then i textured it to look rusted so it would fit in my scene.

Overall, i am happy with the shape of the vehicle, with a total of 6380

triangles used.

As for the textures, the new one needs more detail to help break up the blue. The rusted texture looks ok, and i have placed some joints where the parts of the body are connected with bolts. The normal map helped a great deal to help bring out the detail in the texture, especially on the wheel hubs. Below are some larger pics:

New Version renders : 1 2

Rusted Version renders : 1 2

The third project was to create a character based on the novel, an

d be a self portrait. The triangle limit for this was 9000, and i was also required to make a Level Of Detail model (lod) which had to be under 2000. As well as this the model had to be rigged. The triangle count came to 7128 and 1992 for the lod. For me, this was probably the most difficult of the 3, as i have only modelled 2 character beforehand, and have never rigged a character before. The biggest challenge was to get it to look like me, i spent quite a while working on the head alone, constantly tweaking it. The hair proved rather difficult too, especially the fringe. Below is the end result:

I am pretty happy with the textures, seeing as texturing is my weakest area. I also spent some time editing the normals and specular maps, which i need to do more of in the future.

Rigging wasn't too difficult, some areas were rather tricky, especially the fingers and the shoulders. The shoulders don't deform that great, i think i needed a few more edge loops, but everything works so its a start.

From these 3 projects i have learnt a lot, especially with the character project. It has also shown my strengths and most importantly my weaknesses which i can begin to improve on.

Violence stepping up a level

Well as I'm sure you are aware, the new Call of Duty Modern warfare has been released and has had record breaking sales. However, one area of the game has been highly scrutinized and has resulted in the game being taken off the shelf in countries such as Russia and Germany. This is the part where you are undercover as a Russian terrorist. You are sent to an airport and told to kill every innocent civilian you see. Now, there are many other games out there where you can kill as many random people as you wish, Grand Theft Auto being the obvious one, but in that you have the choice to do so. In this situation, you are forced to. If you don’t then the terrorists become suspicious and if you fight back, then you fail the mission. You do have the option of skipping the level in the first place, but then why put the level in the game in the first place, if you know that it will be looked down upon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NMnnMRWJ-0&feature=related

I think one of the main reasons it makes people shiver is the fact that you know that you are the good guy, but you have to act like a bad guy. When it comes to moral gaming, people will choose what they feel is right. For example, i have been playing a bit of Dragon Age Origins lately, in where you can decide how to respond in conversations. You can be a decent person, being kind and helpful, or you can be a complete arse. Now when i see some of the responses you can see which is the mean response, they do me me laugh a bit, but i still go with the kind option simply because that's who i am, and i will feel bad afterwards. People can argue that it is only a game, its not real, unfortunately it can affect some people and has done, kids acting out games which results in serious injuries or even death.

Of course the game does have an age rating of 18 and only suitable for adults, but this wont stop 10 year olds from playing it. At a younger age games can have a strong affect on children's minds, making them believe that because its only a game it makes it ok to carry out such acts. Personally i don’t see why people complain about the amount of violence or swearing in games, the age rating is there for a reason and the same can be said about films and even music. I guess what separates the games from the films and music is the fact that you actually control what happens, where as in a film it is already been done and is displayed to you, where you have no interaction whatsoever.

Anyway, gone off at a slight tangent. Usually, games such as GTA don't bother me at all when you can drive around knocking people down at you own will, shooting endless cops knowing you are in the wrong, but for some reason it doesn't affect people as much as CoD:MW2 has. I suspect it is partly due to the realism of the event. The animations and the screams and cries of innocent people, its something that looks like it could actually happen.

Infinity Ward, the makers of MW2 are in the process of making a patch that will remove the mission altogether, until then, it wont be available in Russia. This could be a valuable lesson for game developers, they may think that with the technology available they can create ultra realistic games, but sometimes people can go too far.

Meet the Spy

This video by Valve is simply awesome. Enjoy.

 

End of year sum up

I really can't believe 24 weeks have pasted, I can remember the first day as clear as anything, I can even remember my interview as if it were yesterday. It truly is scary at how quickly time flies. I guess it’s true what they say, 'time flies when you're having fun'. I have really enjoyed my first year on the course and look forward to the challenges of the second year.
At first everything seemed a little daunting, what with having 50 people on the course, rooms were a little crowded, but hey, it gave me a chance to get to know people easily. It was a shame the computer labs weren't ready by the time we had arrived, I thought they would have been done during the summer. It didn’t bother me too much as I got Photoshop and 3ds max on my computer here in my flat.
I like the overall structure of the course, having projects set for a week or two allows us to get into the habit of working with deadlines, something that is crucial to meet in the industry. The trips out to places with Chris was a nice change to college, just sat in a class room all day, it is certainly nicer and more effective drawing from life. I have certainly learnt a lot over the past 24 weeks in all areas. I enjoyed the Wednesday sessions too, although i am a rather quiet, shy person, I found everything Mike had to say very interesting and inspiring. Every time I left the room I had something to think about and has helped me realise things that I wasn’t sure about before.
3d studio max seemed a little scary at first, I think a lot of people found it hard and still are getting to grips with it. As for myself, I really enjoy using 3d software and spent a lot of time at home messing around with it. Plus Heather's tutorials were a great help for the projects we have covered.
There really weren’t any bad points over the past 24 weeks. Oh and facebook is working well I think, it’s good to see the 2nd years work too so we can see what to aim for next year.
All in all, jolly good show chaps.

GDC

The GDC is a pretty big event that happens each year, consisting of conferences from visual art to management. I was having a look around the website http://www.gdconf.com/index.html and found some things that i would love to attend. One that stood out to me was the conference about how the landscapes in Farcry 2 were created. I've always been really interesting in level design; I’ve even made a few maps for Team Fortress 2, one of which is being used in a league soon.
Anyway, I’ve always wondered what process is used to create such vast landscapes such as the 50 square km world in Farcry 2. It must be almost impossible to create it in 3ds max. I can’t even image what it would be like to texture. I guess the same situation applies for a lot of rpg/adventure games such as oblivion and fallout 3, even though fallout 3 probably on had one texture, just grey and gritty.
I remember many years ago using a world editor for Command and Conquer Generals, you could deform the ground with a simple up and down tool, with different settings. I should imagine something similar could be used for Farcry, although a lot more time and effort would be needed, as the player is on the ground, not flying above it.
I reckon I would find this conference really interesting as level design is my favourite area of games and I would love to learn the techniques used.

What am I going to get out of three years at University

So, what do I really want out of my 3 years at uni? Of course a pass in the subject I’m doing would be nice, but it doesn’t mean it will secure me a job afterwards. I think quite a few people jump to this conclusion, if they go to uni and get their degree then they can just go out and get the perfect job. Life isn’t like that I’m afraid, especially at the moment, with more and more companies going bust, thousands of employees being made redundant. University is a big investment; you have your accommodation costs, course fees and generally outcome for food etc. You really have to make these 3 years count to really make the most of it.
Personally, I see university a chance to learn and develop new skills which you will need in the near future, to help you secure the job you are after. Sure, you can learn 3ds max in 2 weeks, by paying a couple of thousand pounds, but you don’t get the experience out of it. A lot of people who I have spoken too, who themselves went to uni, say that is has been some of the best years of their life so far. For me, it is the first time where i have become fully independent and I’m enjoying it.
Another thing I plan to get out of uni is a strong portfolio, which is vital when applying for jobs, without it you won’t be going anywhere. I should be able to build up a nice bulk of work ranging from drawings and sculptures to 3d models and digital paintings. Another good thing about the time hear is that we get people in from the industry itself, who can give us valuable advice on what to do and how to go about it.
With all these facts taking in to consideration, my 3 years at uni will be well spent and push me that little bit further to being part of the games industry.

Creativity Take 2

Right, Creativity again. Personally my views on it haven’t changed a great deal, but recently I’ve been thinking about a video we were shown in a lecture. It is a speech from Ken Robinson, you can watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
On part that really caught my attention was when he mentions that everybody is born with creativity, its just people loose it when going through education. Think about it, you are forced to do subjects such as Maths, Science and English, no matter how good you are at it. It is only until your 4th year at secondary school where you get to choose 3 subjects to do, along with English, Science and Maths. Also, creativity can come in a variety of forms such as dance and music, not just art. During education, children who are talented in dance for example, are taken away from the creativity due to being forced to study maths and science, therefore their talent is not put to use.
The other things are mistakes. Nowadays, mistakes are generally the worst things you can do in you're average job. This also applies to education for example, maths you are either right or wrong. This is the complete opposite to any form of art, in art you can never be wrong, it is just a different style or approach to a subject. This is what hurts children’s creativity early one, they begin to think that if their work is not exactly the same as an example then it will be wrong, and therefore think that they aren’t good enough and stick to the usual subjects like maths. A lot of talent and creativity is lost and not put to use because of this thought process.
This pretty much my thoughts on this subject, for now...

Life Changing or Career Building?

Getting into the industry is always going to be hard from the start, especially from a graduate’s point of view. The main reason is simply due to the lack of experience you will have when you leave uni.
When game companies are looking for a new artist, they usually spilt into two categories. The first being the people who are only interested in hiring experienced artists, people who have been working in the industry for several years. This means that they can pretty much guarantee that the person will be productive and creative enough to produce decent outcomes for the games the company is working on.
On the other hand we have companies who tend to prefer artists with a liberal arts background. This gives the chance for the inexperienced to give it a shot at the games industry, enhancing their abilities and gaining valuable experience. If you are an exceptionally talented graduate, some companies spot this, and offer students a job as soon as the finish the course. You often get people in from the industry to visit universities and have a look at some of the work produced. This gives the chance for students to receive valuable feedback from experienced artists who do the sort of stuff for a living.
Now, game art courses offer a lot to help students on their way to being a game artist, but they can't do everything for you. The courses are generally there to guide you and it is up to you to become unique to other artists. Game companies like to see a variation of styles in a portfolio; this means that the employee will be able to produce artwork for any genre. Of course, you will be taught rather a lot, the drawing techniques to produce convincing sketches, digital painting and 3d modelling such as 3ds max. However, as I said earlier, it is up to the student themselves to make that final jump, to stand out from the others and get that position as game artist.

Sound in Games

Sound in games has to be one of the most important areas when designing a game. Sound can dramatically enhance the gamers experience. The type of genre that comes to mind is horror/thriller. Games such as Doom, Resident Evil and Left4Dead all use the soundtrack to create suspence. For example, in resident evil, you will be walking through an abandoned building which is dead silent, appart from some creaks. All of a sudden you may hear objects being knocked onto the floor and growling. Then some fast paced music starts to play, but nothings happening, you hear moar growling, the music gets faster, you start to run then BAM, evil mutated zombie dog jumps on your face. The game wouldn't be the same if you had Alice in Wonderland playing in the background. Now game engines are becoming more safisticated sounds can easily be triggered at certain events, rather than constantly being played.
As for my own sound history, i remember loving the songs on the Crash Bandicoot games. They made if so much more enjoyable to play compared to if it was played in silence. My favourite soundtrack has to be the Worms 2 theme. Sometimes I would just sit there listening to it and not actually playing the game. The music of Worms has always been good up until it turned 3D. The music on the main menu was HORRIBLE, in my opinion, just so cheezy, just didnt fit the game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZGBDYG5aTY&feature=related
Now compare that to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpV28Jcmdfk&feature=related
I know which one i prefer.
Whilst on the topic of worms, who could forget this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mqrkvc6wS4&feature=related
Anyway, for some games I tend to turn off the music completely. For example, on Dawn of War 2 i have it switched off so i can hear whats actually going on, aswell as hearing my mate speak over Vent which is always a useful thing.

Game Engines

The game engine is the software that actually makes a game work. Without it, you would just have a load of random data not doing much at all. Game engines are designed to work on a variety of platforms. For example, Valve's Source engine works on the PC, Playstation 3 and xbox 360, even though it is about 50 years old :P Still, Team Fortress turned out nicely, except for crappy hit detection and many many bugs.
Anyway, a game engine consists of several smaller engines. These include a rendering engine, physics/collision engine, sound, animation, AI and more. The actual term 'game engine' was used when the release of Doom and Quake appeared. From these, many developers brought licenses to use these engines and then simply design their own visual style, clearly saving them time and money.
Subtractive and additive are terms used for difference level creation processes. The additive process is where the designer must create the level in a void which is endless and empty. If this process is used a skybox is required to seal off the map. A map must have no leaks, otherwise this can cause lighting issues and textures becoming distorted and blurred. If you think about a fish tank, if there is a hole then the water will leak out, the same applies for a level, but it needs a roof of course. Subtractive on the other hand is where there is no void, just an infinite solid which must be carved into. This method means that there is no chance of leaks but it isn’t as easy to manipulate as the additive process. Maps such as Counterstrike and Team Fortress 2 are created with the additive process, in a program called hammer. It is a free program to download off Steam, in the Source Developer Kit.
As for next generation engines, they must have a long life span and to be adaptable for many games. This will help reduce costs, as developing a game can cost millions. Only the highly popular games will easily provide a profitable income.

Gaming Culture

The gaming culture is growing and growing nowadays, what with more and more people having access to broadband and therefore the Internet. I remember playing games a bit around the age of 10, until the day I got a broadband connection at home. Ever since then I have been part of the online gaming community, which tends to occupy a fair chunk of my life. Now that I think about it, I didn’t really play many games online until I was introduced to Steam. This is an online community just for games, it has its own store where you can purchase and download games, as well as friend and chat system. When online, it tells you what games your friends are playing and what server they are on. I have a Playstation 3 at home and Steam is far better for keeping track of friends and joining them. In my opinion I think it is better the Microsoft Live, plus its free :P
Anyway, gone off at a tangent as always. A friend at college said I should buy counterstrike, so I did, and unlike most people I really didn’t like it. Now I’m a big fps fan but it was just so dull, slow and good at killing your morale. Run round a corner, headshot, wait 5 minutes to respawn and same again. Another friend showed me Team Fortress 2 and what a game. I’ve been playing it since it was released up to this day and I still love it. Not just the gameplay, the art direction they took, the humour...crap I’m doing it again. Right, back to steam community. If I look at my friends list, only 5 of them I know in real life, out of 50 odd. Since playing TF2 I have joined a clan where I have got to know a lot of decent chaps, some i know really well now, even though I’ve never seen them in my life.
The clan I am in compete against hundreds of other clans all over Europe; some cups even offer prize money to the winners. There are huge gaming festivals where thousands of gamers go to compete in tournaments.
Some people say that games take always peoples social life, stop them from exploring the outside world and people. On the other hand, you get to meet many new people and talk to them, not just typing, which makes things far better, you really get to know people well, and have a great laugh in game. I’m glad to be part of an thriving community and will be for many years to come, hopefully.