Heroes and Villains Revisit

I redrew the Hero and Villain from assignment 6. I decided that I should redraw them for this portfolio in higher quality. They might be better or worse, who knows:

I added a background to this one. It has a sunrise, it kind of makes the character seem more like a character than just an empty shell.

Here is the villain. I've messed up the hands. I wabted to make it look like he was holding them in a similar fashion to Mr Burns from the Simpsons.

My post for assignment says what I though of this assignemnt.

Adding Chance to Chess

This assignment was based off the idea that chance can be added to even the most skilled based games. Chess being about complete skill of the player.

I came up with most of my chance mechanics using dice, spinners or coin flips. Generally, these are the most popular forms of chance that can be added to a game. Where a player would make a choice, such as which piece to move, chance can be added instead, such as using a dice to choose.

Although, in the first draft of this assignment there wasn't enough analysis, too many rules and mechanics, a few of which may have actually broke the game. In the redraft I removed some of the new mechanics and analysed the ones left further.

Creating a casual board game using pattern

Casual games based on pattern are very popular today. This is because they can be mobile and can be accessed quickly for short bursts of play, anywhere, anytime the player is bored. I had to come up with a game based on pattern to appeal to a casual audience.

I came up with a card game which uses colours and chance cards. Players must guess sequences of cards the other player creates. Points are gained based on if a player gueses the right cards and gain bonus points for guessing in the right order.

The chance cards add more chance to the game, where each player has a possbility of adding some kind of effect to the game. One example is the reverse engineering card which makes all players lose points for that round of play instead of gaining any.

This was a good assignment as casual games are very appealing. They can be played quickly and don't require much space to play. I think I might try to refine this game more in future.

Finished Assignments

As I've completed the assignments for this year, I might as well the turnarounds for them here. The images will be in order of when the assignment was set.

This was the first assignment, after learning the basics of 3DS MAX we were tasked with modelling a simple object. Some examples were a treasure chest, a old western wagon and a throne. I picked the throne as I felt it gave the best options for creativity. A chest usually keeps flat or rounded, nothing special and a wagon must look like it will function. the above throne looks like it would be very heavy and somehow strikes fear as it looks like a bird spreading it's wings, as to make it look huge and dangerous.

the first attempt at this model was a little broken, so I remodelled it. Many areas had multiple vertices in the same place. The UV Map was messy too. Now the model is much cleaner and so is the UV Map.

This was the part of the second assignment. I didn't model this demon, I'm not really good enough to yet. Hopefully soon I will be. Anyway, I created the texture for the model. I'll admit, It's not too great. That's likely due to my paining skills being quite bad. Overall though it looks okay, could be better though. I tried to highlight muscles to add a little bit of shading.

This is the last assignment for this year. Everyone had to model a current generation FPS weapon. Many people picked assault rifles or old style pistols. There were a lot of interesting designs. I picked to create what can be simply described as a ShotgunHammerSaw. It literately is a combination of a Shotgun, Hammer and Saw. The gun is a shotgun, the central black area is shaped like a hammer and the magazine doubles as a crude saw. I'm not really sure what inspired this design. Maybe it was the opportunity to create a modern FPS weapon with no real limits. 

I also created the UV map and texture for the model and I went for a metal for most of the gun, but also wood for the stock, handle and pump. The normal maps and specular maps took a long time to create. I kept getting a text based error when trying to create a projection. Eventually it worked and then I had both. Look at the last post under Introduction to 3D modelling to see both maps.

I used Xoulil Shader 2 as a realtime shader for the weapon. The lighting is a little funny, but I hope to work on lighting and stuff. I had a problem where one side of the weapon would be completely white. After messing around alot this problem was reduced. 

Overall, I'm pleased with progress made this year, but I know that I can improve and will try to improve my skills with my free time.

Creating a Timeline of Social Board Games: Trivial Pursuit

The pieces. Arguably the most recognizable aspect of the game.

The famous game of trivia. Another highly famous part of the game is the pieces that are used. The iconic coloured Pie Slices can be recognized almost instantly by many people across the world.the coloured pieces represent the question categories that the players must know trivia in. Answering questions gives the corresponding piece which slots into the yellow cylinder base piece. The first player to fill the base piece with all of the colours and moves to the centre of the board wins.

The board has spaces the same colours as the pieces and landing on one whil mean that aquestion of that catagory will be asked to the player. Players move by rolling  dice. There is also a 7th colour, Grey, which results the player rolling again when landed upon. 

Here is the board, the palyers must complete their Base Piece with all 6 colours before they can travel to the centre and win.

Board Image Source:

http://www.canadiandesignresource.ca/officialgallery/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/trivialpursuitimage1.jpg

Pieces Image Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Trivialpursuit_Token.jpg/220px-Trivialpursuit_Token.jpg

Creating a Timeline of Social Board Games: Ticket to Ride

Here is the board from a British version of the game

Interestingly, i heard about this game from Xbox Live Arcade. I didn't know it was a board game until it was shown during a lecture in introduction to games design. the game is basically a game about creating train routes. It's surprisingly fun due to the colourful visuals and inclusion of real world locations.

Players must collect coloured cards which can be used to create routes. Cards are drawn at random so players don't know what colours they get. Players gets points based on the length of railways and if the player can complete the destination tickets they get by connecting to very distant cities.

During  a turn the player can either draw train cards (the coloured cards needed to create a route), create a route or draw more destination tickets.

This game is social more between friends who have an interest in trains. Arguments may arise as one player may seem lucky and get all of one colour cards, meaning they can easily build the longest routes.


Here is a link to where I got information from: http://www.daysofwonder.com/tickettoride/en/content/overview/?game=us

Image: http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/dem/personal/t2r/tunnelsbridges/tnb-entireukmap.jpg

Creating a Timeline of Social Board Games: Pictionary

Pictionary is like charades, a classic game where players must act out words for other people to guess. Usually based on pop culture. The difference with Pictionary is that players must draw the object and show it instead. Players have a minute to draw the object. The player who is drawing draws a card from a deck to receive the object they must draw. Other players must guess the object for the player to be successful in drawing. Friends have fun trying to guess what drawings are. Arguments and discussions arise from whether the cat someone drew looks more like a horse and other fun topics. Friends can talk long after the game as it shows peoples true drawing skill. It influenced the game Draw Something, found on smartphones. the game is essentially the same but is played over the internet and has no board. It lacks most of the social aspect as you have no real contact with the people you play with. They are in your facebook friends list, but you can't actually see them through the game. There is also a board game. It's not that different to Pictionary, also made by Zynga. A company known for not really coming up with new or unique ideas.

Source: http://miad.utrechtblog.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/43/files//2011/09/pictionary-13640.jpg