Unit 67 - Computer Game Engins

Game engine research

2D Game Engine - RPG Maker XP 

I've been using RPG Maker XP since 2007, all this information below required no research. It's all pre-knowledge from past experience of using the program. 

RPG Maker XP is a 2D game engine that gives users the flexibility to make an entire 2D RPG game from scratch. There are many older and newer versions  of RPG Maker such as RPG Maker 2000 which is an older version, or RPG Maker VX Ace which is the current newest version. 

RPG Maker XP is a very easy program to get started with if you're going to use basic elements of it. When getting to the advanced stage of the program, you'll notice that you're using a lot of switches which basically work in the same way that triggers do. The good thing about all of the RPG Makers is that you have full control over everything wether that is certain tile sets, characters, icons, environment or even background wallpapers. Don't get me wrong, making all these from scratch will take a very long time, it just depends how in-depth you wish to go when creating your own 2D RPG. 

In the paragraph above you can see that I have used a few examples, i'll list these examples again for you and then give a brief paragraph about them.

• Tiles
• Characters
• Icons
• Background wallpapers
• environment
• switches

Tiles

Tiles sets are different Sprites on different tiles, you can select multiple or single tiles and then "draw" them onto the layer you are working on. The layers you work on are also built up of tiles, making it more precise to place down your tiles to create an in-depth and detailed environment.

Characters

Characters are playable sprites that are already in the RPG Engine. You can make your own sprites but that would take a lot of time. 

Icons




There isn't really much to explain when it comes to the icons. These icons are primary used for when making items such as health potions or food etc.

Background/Wallpapers

Background and wallpapers are used in battle sequences or when starting up the game. The battle sequences that you can make will require to have wallpapers that match the environment that the battle is being placed in. Background is what you use to show off the start menu. In my opinion, backgrounds and wallpapers are basically the same thing anyway.

Environment

The environment in which you realm in! Well, your own environment that you have created. I've basically summed up this in the tiles section, but just for a quick recap, the environment is whats around you, what you're walking it. 


Switches

Switches are quite complex when heading intro RPG Maker straight way, but get increasingly easier as you progress your knowledge with RPG Maker. So what is a switch? Switches in general turn things off and on, this works in the exact same way. For example, there is a chest infront of me in which I have already opened. Inside this chest revealed a healing potion that i'd picked up from it. How would I stop the chest giving me healing potions with no script to tell it not to? Simple, just make a switch and name it what ever you want, then activate that switch by turning it on in the healing potion script. But make sure that after you activate the switch, no more script is after it. Because that switch has made it so nothing happens after and stops the looping. This means I wont constantly keep picking up health potions from a single chest.


2D Game Engine - Scratch

Scratch is a very simplistic program to use and I know a lot people that started out with using that program to make basic games such as, catch the ball in the net and gain the highest points. Little things like that. 

Scratch is good for getting use to scripting as well. Scripting can be quite scary and overwhelming to people that are going into it blind, scratch uses this as it's advantage to narrow scripting down so its a more user friendly program. Scripting in Scratch looks simple as well, because it some cases it is. Take the script in the picture above for example. If you click on the image, it will enlarge. You will see that the script is pretty basic. You can see that the script starts off with, When "green flag" click, the game starts. After that, it then follows on with, switch to costume open mouth. this means that it can switch over to the next sprite of the script which is a drawing of the fish with it's mouth open. So it knows what sprite to show. 


3D Game Engine - Source Engine

The source engine is a launcher than has programs used to make mods, maps and games. The tool that is mostly use for these features is called 'Hammer Editor", I commonly use this tool to make Portal 2 maps in my spare time and if I can be bothered.

A company named Valve make the source engine and also use it to design their games too, to a certain degree at least. Not everything is made using this that Valve uses. Due to this being originally a company tool, it is quite tough to get to grips with when starting out for the first time at using it, although once you understand the basics of the tool, the more tougher things are picked up easily and easier to understand.

I've used Hammer Editor for a few years now and even I haven't fully got to grips with everything yet, although I am on and off using it which isn't regular.

The image you see below is a simple room with a door that's been placed inside of it. Simple right? Not so very. Allow me to explain in a more simple way.

There are two main ways you can make a standard box as room is Hammer. You can either get cubes and stretch them out, align them to the correct size and simple put them up against each over. Or you can do it the way I do which is to make a massive cube, and then pressing the enter key. Pressing the enter key makes it an object, ready to be edited. By right clicking my object, I can make it hollow inside, and then set how thick I want the edges to be. This will be the walls on each side including the ceiling and floor. Then by ungrouping the (now hollowed) object, this causes each side to be selectable which is great for assigning different textures to different sides.

That's the room explained, now the door! Putting in a door into your environment is pretty much the same as importing a picture, kind of. If you look closely at the picture, You'll see a tool bar on the left side. On that tool bar there is a completely brown cube. By clicking the brown cube, it opens a new window with a search bar and variables on it. By typing in, Input_Door_01 into the search bar. It will find that specific door in the picture above. Then you can simply move it about in your level. 














As you can easily tell, it's not a simple click and drag program. So how can young developers design levels Simply? Is there a tool for 3D levels? Well if you're into Portal 2 like I am. There is a in-game level editor that is beyond simple. The editor is literally a click and drag job.

The image below shows the in game editor. You have your items on the side, and your room in the middle. How to do create a basic room? Simply just click and drag the walls in or out depending on which size you want. How do you place items in? Simply click and drag the item you want and place it in your area. Right clicking the object and then clicking 'Link to' allows you to link that object with buttons etc. How do you place buttons? The same way you placed in your items on the side bar there in the picture. Everything you need is there! :)

Valve specifically designed this in-game editor for people who find Hammer to complex to use, and if they're a big fan or Portal, Valve didn't want to miss out. Most of Portal's reply value is the workshop they have which allows people to upload their maps they have made for others to try out. With this very easy engine/level editor, anyone who finds professional programs hard to understand can now join in and make as decent maps as professionals too!

psudocode

Today in class we were using Psudocode to type a basic instruction and convert that into a proper form of code. At the start of this objective, I didn't have a clue. Looking at the code just made me think, "Yeah I have no chance". Although the outcome of how I feel towards Psudocode changed quite a lot.

The best way I found to be the easiest was to break down each sentence separately and literally just work it out. For example, the first line I wrote that I wanted to be converted into code was 'Got bike out of shed'. The second instruction was 'Opened gate to the outside world'. I can't get the bike past the gate if the bike isn't even out the shed yet so that made me realise that I need an 'if' command. If (bikeOutOfShed) == true {. Writing true at the end of the if command verifies that it is out of the shed. 

It's as simple as that. Obviously i'm not a genius with Psudocode within the space of 5 minutes, there is a lot more I need to learn. Though I feel that given the time, I can pick this up at a fast pace. 

3D Game

The idea of my 3D game is to go into multiple chambers and pick up each plug and slot them into their right plug sockets. How do you know which one is the right one I heard you cry? Each socket/plug is colour coded!

The camera inside the model is the character, you can see a set of stairs right infront of it. These stairs lead to the plug sockets.

This is the exit of the game, it lights up green when the chamber is solved. 

2D Game

My 2D game is made in RPG Maker XP 

RPG Maker is a basic program which young developers can get to grips with. It also has several advanced options that you can easily utilise for your game, most likely making it a more enjoyable experience.

My 2D game was a simple quest which was to talk to this guy who randomly wondered about the map. He can't find his treasure chest but has the key for it, he hands you the key to go find his chest, open it and retrieve his good inside of it to return back to him and maybe claim a reward.

The screenshot above shows triggers that activate all in order and the path that the event goes in. This is just one page, there are five other pages associated with this event. You can see the sprite picture of the guy you have to talk to as well, this means that all the events that happens in this window, starts with him.

As you can see in this photo, a few things are faded out. Each map has a series of layers and each layer shows one on top of another. In other words, if you put a table down in say, layer 2 but also wants to put a cup of tea on top of that table, you would have to change over to layer 3 because it's above layer 2. Meaning that the tea will then appear in-game on top of the table.

And lastly this screenshot shows the entire map finished, with the quest finished. You can see that there are faint creases in the walls of that (perfectly shaped) mounted, this indicated that the player can climb up it to get to the chest or order to finish the quest. That last bit also rhymed. I can make a rhyme anytime!

Unit 5

This is my timeline

http://prezi.com/ew_kxrnt1qni/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Monday 6th 2014

Our task today was to choose a game of our choice and use the KWL template.

K - What I know

W - What I want to know

L - What I learned



Essay:

Art varies from all sorts of things, but who would have thought it has such a massive impact on Games Design. Using some examples of the game I have chosed, being Portal, I will tell you how Art inflences Games Design.

It's hard to define and explain what art is, and what it isn't. Some people say that everything is art, but that leaves me with the question "Can something not be art? If something isn't art, what do people see it as?". Now, this could get very confusing, so keep up. If someone sees something as art then it is. But, if you see the same thing as that person, as not art, then it's not. Art is peoples opinion that they see in there own eyes. A lot people would define art as most things that they see, but is it art if they don't see it? It really gets you thinking about what is right and what is wrong when it comes to what art actually is and what art specifically looks like. Going back to how this influences Games Design, I think that some designers use the the advantage of art being most things and then just let their imagination run wild. To easily sum all of this up, art is what peoples opinion are.

Now i've got you thinking, lets move onto a question that people may find pretty basic but necessarily might not be. What is a game? A game doesn't actually have to be a video game, it could be a game in the park with your friends, or a card game etc. A game being an interactive form of entertainment. Video game being part of the topic in this essay, I will expand on how a video game is a form of interactive entertainment. Not everyone will like every game, people like games that they find most interesting to them and this is because of the concept and mechanics of the game they like.

Now, my game that I chose being Portal, uses the Art style of Surrealism, a gun that fires portals, using portals to go through dimensions to solve a series of puzzles, using specific elements which may defy gravity etc. In my own opinion, I think that Portal is highly influenced by Surrealism and because of the aspect of the game, it forces the Surrealism aspect to the max.

"The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power." - Google Art Quote. With that said, at the very start of that quote you read 'The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination'. This relates to games massively, we obviously use our creative skill and imagination to even think of a game let alone make it. When people use imagination in games, they try to make it as creative and entertaining for the player as much as possible in order to give them the best experience whilst playing. Because of the quote I have given, it backs up the fact that art is related to games in a very big way. 

"The faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses." - Google Quote. This is the definition for imagination. Imagination is a form of art as read in the paragraph above and imagination is everything it games. People have to use there imagination to create or develop something in a game. The imagination and ideas in a game, is the game itself. you can't make game where you havent used your imagination or creative skills, which again, is art.  

"the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness." Google Quote. This quote is describing creativity which is another key factor when it comes to art and games. yet again, the word imagination is popping up in the quote. Art means all these things, imagination, creativity and they all link to games. Creativity it games brings the entire idea to life. Making the idea, developing the idea and then creating it for the final product. 

Michael Samyn and Auriea Harvey argued that  "games are not art" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_games_as_an_art_form#Roger_Ebert_on_video_games_as_art
In my own opinion, i'd like to argue against that. With the proof and knowledge that we have gained from this essay, how can video games not be art? using the meaning of art which narrowed down is, creative use of imagination or what people see it to be, that alone verifies that games are art

Time to conclude this essay because with all this said, I think we have pretty much summed up how art influences games design. With all my information and quotes, we have worked out that art is games and games is Art. How does art influence games design? It influences it because the game is the art. It uses the aspect of art and puts it into the role of a game because of the imagination and the creativity behind  the hole idea of the game. 

Thanks for reading - Bradley Hahn

https://www.google.co.uk/#q=art+meaning

https://www.google.co.uk/#q=imagination+definition

https://www.google.co.uk/#q=creativity+definition

Portal Minimalism - Just great. Everything is that white-on-black, at liest for a while :) #PortalFTW

Unit 1 - 3 Visual Recording

Unit 4 - Communication Through Art & Design

Style

These pictures of the lasers are a main feature of what I am going to add into my final festival poster.

In my own opinion, when ever I picture an image of a electric festival, lasers are the first to come to mind. In the first picture, the lasers are in a netting type style, this is how I think I will add the lasers into my final poster design.

Lighting/Lightning imagery

Lighting effects on the stage portraying a shape going across the floor seems like a pretty good idea. What I could do is lights beaming down from the top of the poster shinning onto the title. This could give the Title a shadow effect that will go across the floor. The first image with the blue electricity I like the best. The way it is shaped and put together looks really nice. You have the little thin parts of electricity streaming off the thick neon looking electric lines which I think gives off a good effect to the black background. 

Summery:

For my final poster, I'm going to do a range of sketches and drawings of objects such as lights, neon electricity etc.. and show development from those objects. After I have got a wide range of ideas and items that i'm going to use. I will start doing my final poster in a rough copy image, then go over it in fine-liner to scan it in to the computer. Afterwords i'm going to work with it on either photoshop or illustrator.