Unit 72 Computer Game Design: Task 1a: Principles of game design (Visual Styles)

Task Introduction

In Task 1 I am going to be explaining the different visual styles and game play elements that contribute to video games. I am going to be explaining the concepts in as much details as possible using Three different video games, all with a different genre to help concept where the elements are included and how each element may be different in each genre.

Here is a list of the different elements that I am which contribute to the visual styles of a game;

1. Terrain - (e.g. Vietnam, jungle, industrial location, factories, nuclear plants, etc.)

2. Architecture - (e.g. Factories, warehouses, huts, office buildings, etc.)

3. Objects - (e.g. guns, chairs, desks, trees, boxes, crates, grenades, knives, etc.)

4. Characters - (e.g. soldiers, mercenaries, etc.)

5. Non-Playing Characters (NPC) - (e.g. a brown dog, a white big cat, a man observing, etc.)

6. Feedback - (e.g. how accurate you have been, how many lives you have, how much time you have, etc.) what happens when you kill something or die ie pad vibrating, screen going red, gems, vocal etc. Feedback to let you know how good you are or bad

7. Interface - (e.g. heads up display (HUD) – tells you ammo, number of grenades and where people are on the map (location/level, menus, etc.)

8. Perspectives – (E.g Is it 3D perspective, First person persective, third person) Context-sensitive - (e.g. press the letter 'K' + 'W' to become invisible, hold the 'Y' key down to get more energy, etc.) why you need that kind of view? What makes it suitable for the genre? What is it good for?

9. Full-Motion Video (FMV) - Cinematic, how they help, advantages of not having it is that you choose what happens

Visual Style

Introduction

In this Task I am going to be creating a report of the visual concepts which contribute to designing a video game. I personally think the Visual element of video games is probably one of the most important elements when designing a video game. The reason I believe this, is simply because the visual details In a level or even the appearance of a character can change how the player engages with the story. For example, if the game genre is sci-fi the game designer will design a world which will fit the genre purpose to try and keep the players interest in the Sci-Fi story. Would it be efficient to have a Western environment with a Sci-Fi story-line? Probably Not.

The visual style of the game is probably the first element of a game which attracts the player to the game for instance, video games use trailers as is a cinematic display of the video games visual style. Trailers need to be engaging and immediately capture the audience’s attention. I think this alone clarifies how important the visual style is when designing a video game. I am going to give elucidated examples of the different visual styles in a video game. I will be using five video games all of which has a different genre as an example of how different visual styles capture a different story and genre.

BorderLands

Brief Introduction

Borderlands is a video game franchise which involves a series of action, role-playing, first person shooter games. Borderlands was first developed by gearbox software and was published by 2K games in October 2009 for multiple gaming platforms such as the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. By December 2009 borderlands started to surprise the marketing when they sold over 2 million copies of borderlands, by February 2010 3 million copies had been sold and by august 2011 the game was sold surprisingly over 4.5 unit internationally.

1. Terrain

The story of all the games in the borderland sequel takes place on a mysterious planet called Pandora. Pandora has many different species and aggressive creatures which live across the map because of this there are many different settings which the player will encounter couch as snowy or volcanic ash mountains, valleys, desserts, ravines, canyons.

To the right there is a image of the map for the east coast in Pandora. Just by looking at the map you can see all of the different valleys and ravines scattered across the map, not one area is the same. For instance, in the top right corner of the map you can see an area which looks like rigid mountains in a variety of blue and purple shades. This basically means that the particular area is going to be more of a ‘colder’ setting and the player can expect icy, frosty, raw brisk weather. Whilst on the bottom left corner you can see sharp rocks, covered in hot red larva.

This obviously means this area is going to contain some sort of fire or larva; it is going to be dangerous and the complete opposite of the other ‘cold’ area.

There is an individual island which is full of vegetation unlike in the main centre of the east coast which is more of a western spacey environment. In fact borderlands include a lot of different plants, unique and just as unusual as the different creatures which live throughout these areas. Below the map you can see a section which is labelled ‘Legend’ This section basically acts like a key for the map, for instance each area has its own individual number which you can find in the legend. For example, the larva in the bottom left corner is number 32. In the Legend number 32 is crawmerax’s Lair.

All Over Pandora there are many different areas which all include different weather and terrain. You can see another example of this in the north map aligned to the right. There are many different areas labelled on the map, for instance there is highlands, frozen wastes and dead sands. The areas are just as unique as in the east coast area.

Whilst I was researching I came across a environment artist who helped create the overall visuals which the player will encounter on the screen whilst playing borderlands. The Artist is called Timothy Andrew Wilson and he led the environment art team at gearbox software in 2006-2010. I found Timothy art portfolio online ( http://www.vaporslave.com/), In his portfolio you can see environment art which was used in borderlands one.
In the portfolio you can see different images which would of been used in borderlands for example there is art of the floor, walls and of the different textures used in the environment.

2. Architecture

The architecture design in Borderland varies across its planet Pandora. The Buildings have a futuristic but post-apocalyptic design due to the lack of resources. The non-hostile civilians normally use scrap metal or rubbish to create their buildings, occasionally there will be some buildings which will be made out of bricks or wood and sometimes some buildings have facilities such as power to be used as business or a place to sleep although it is rare to find a building with facilities. The military that impose direct law upon civilians probably have the highest class of buildings; there buildings are made out of steel or concrete which is obviously a lot better than the civilians have. Lastly there is the ‘lowest class’ architecture which is usually known as the bandit camps, these camps usually are a relatively simple hut or shack which the gangs will use as shelter or storage.

3. Objects

There are many different objects in the game which the player can interact with including 'plot' objects and inventory objects. For instance there are Loot able Objects such as chests and containers. The Chests are usually hidden in certain areas of Pandora so the player will encounter the lootable chests only in secret places whilst the containers are everywhere and easy to find. There are four different types of chests, some better than the others;

Ammunition chest - A dark, dusky green colour. They contain collectable items such as grenades and ammo.

White chest - A a white rectangle chest. This chest generates a random weapon based on the players highest level.

Red chest- is one of my personal favorites, it is a rectangular chest similar to the white although this chest is red and the lid is opened up from the back revealing several shelves which can contain several weapons, sheilds, grenades, class more, ammo and more nessacry collectable items.

Crimson lance chest- This chest is like the red chest but better. The crimson chests have better capacity and have a better chance of getting a rare weapon. This chest is the only chest which could potientially hold a ultra-rare pearlescent item.

According to the gearbox software there are over 17,750,000 different variations of weapons in just the first borderlands game. This is because Borderlands has many different class's of guns including handguns, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, and more. Each gun can have a different firing speed, reload speed or even the damage type. There are other lootable objects other than chests. For example, there are a lot of safes and lock boxes which are scattered around Pandora, the player can loot these objects and find a various amount of money which then can be spent on other objects such as the vending machines.

The vending machine is basically a equipment dispenser. The player can choose new weapons, gear, ammo. Nearly all vending machines include a rare piece of loot that is only available for a limited amount of in-game time, after which the machine's inventory is rotated for a new set of equipment.The vending machines are usually near the transition ports but multiple machines in a area can be possible, it depends on how big the area is.
Lockers can also be looted for weapons, money or ammo. Fridges and washing machines which can contain money and mail boxes which contain ammo and grenades. There are many other objects which the player is able to loot other than what I have mentioned.
Below is a video showing a player loot several chests. At 1:25 you can see all the different chest's and how they generate their weapons.

5. Non-Playing Characters (NPC)

A NPC is a character which cannot be controlled by a player. These are sometimes known as a non-person character simply because the character is controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence and is impossible for the player to play that character. In borderlands one there are a lot of NPC'S, some human and some robot. Here is a short list of some of the NPC’S; you can find the full list in the references.

Athena - Crimson Lance defector.

Mr. Blake - The vice president of the Hyperion corporation, and sinister benefactor in Tartarus Station.

Commandant Steele - Leader of the Crimson Lance on Pandora prior to the opening of the Vault.

Crazy Earl - Shut-in who lives in Crazy Earl's Scrapyard. He has a pet Skag called Skrappy.

Dr. Zed - Resident doctor of Fyrestone, he later moves to New Haven - then T-Bone Junction.

General Knoxx - Crimson Lance general. Titular character of the third DLC, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx

Claptrap - A small robot that introduces players to the game.

Guardian Angel - A mysterious benefactor who can "see" everything on Pandora through the ECHOnet.

NPC'S are important in role playing games such as Borderlands because Non-Player characters are generally used to support the player and to help advance the games plot. For Instance In borderlands there are a few stores and traders which have NPC'S as their staff and a NPC as the players 'side kick' (Claptrap). It would be boring to play a video game with just the player's character although it is also important that the NPC's do not overboard with the player by having too much 'character'. If the NPC has too much character then it might distract the player and get irritating incredible face so it is important that the NPC only enhances the player game play and avoid unordinary actions which can be too much.

6. Feedback

In this section I am going to explain how borderland's show the players feedback. For example, How the game shows the player how accurate they have been. In borderlands one the player gets Experience Points for killing the bad guys, The more accurate the shot is the more XP the player will earn. The game shows the player is earning XP by showing a health bar and showing the XP 'float' around the enemy and eventually go to the level up bar aligned to the bottom in the games interface screen. When the level bar is progressing it will flash and eventually level up. Once the player has leveled up the player will earn skill points which allows the player to customise their character with additional skills and specialisations or can be spent to unlock the players action skill. When the enemy is close to dying the words 'critical' will appear above its head in bold, red letters and when the enemy does eventually die the enemy 'screams' and falls to the floor which then the player is able to loot the body for collectables such as money, ammo, weapons or shields. When the player is hit the pads will vibrate and the interface screen will begin to flash red in the direction the player is being hit. For example if the player is being hit towards the right the right side of the screen will begin flashing red to indicate that the player is being hit in that direction.

If the player dies or falls off a cliff the player will fall through a portal or some sort of wormhole and the player's character shoots 'I will never die' and teleport to the closest transition port (Closest check point).

When the player has a critical amount of ammo left the ammo bar (Bottom, left) flashes white to tell the player that they need to collect ammo fast or they wont be able to reload their weapon. When the player collects money a icon pops up showing the total amount of money the player has. Below is a video which shows the game play of borderlands. Notice how the game is showing feedback to the player by giving them XP points to indicate when the player is doing good and bad.

7. Interface

A user interface is how the user uses different devices to interact with the game for example keyboard, controller and a display screen are popular devices. I am going to be explaining the interface of the borderlands game by analysing its HUD and how the game displays its information visually to the player. For instance, In Borderlands the interface is displayed in first person perspective with the main information such as the player’s health and the ammo. I am going to explain how the HUD is displayed and what information it provides.

Ammunition&Grenade
Borderlands displays its ammunition at the grey bar in the bottom right corner of the HUD. The first number is the loaded ammunition and the second number is the remaining ammunition. The grey bar will eventually slide to the right as the loading count decreases. Above the ammo Bar it displays the grenade count and the mod of grenade. For instance, in the example image above you can see that the player has loaded their ammunition 9 times and have 111 remaining.

Damage
When the player is being damaged the top, bottom or sides of the screen will begin to flash red to indicate that the player is being damaged in that direction.

Health
The Health Bar is the little Red bar in the bottom left corner. The red bar will shrink or move left to right as health is being damaged or is being healed as well as a number to indicate how much health the player has left. For instance, in image above the health will be at 790, if the player looses any health the number will go down and the bar will shrink more to the left hand side of the interface.

Shield
The shield is similar to the health bar but is a blue bar and is located just slightly above the health bar. It also has a number to present the characters remaining shield and will slide from right to left as the shield is losing its charged and is gaining charge.

Compass/Map
The Compass which acts like a map for the player to follow is in the lower centre of the screen. The compass is a 360 degrees compass which means when the player turns around the compass will rotate just like a real compass. It syncs up with the characters orientation and if there is any enemy's or mission an icon will appear on the compass.

Action Skill
The Action skill is the characters special abilities. This is displayed on the lower left of the HUD as an icon. When the Icon is white the player is able to use the action skill although if the icon is grey and dull looking like it is in the example image (Above) then the player is unable to use the skill until it is fully charged.

Objective/Goals
A summary of the mission which the player is currently doing will appear in the mid right of the HUD. It is displayed in a mission lock with check boxes to indicate which Objectives are complete or incomplete; once all objectives are complete the list will disappear.

Target
The target is what assists the player with aiming their weapon. The target varies by the weapon type for instance most of the typical guns will have a upright cross as their target icon whilst shot guns and rocket launchers will have more of a bracket icon. Although with every different gun the target size will change for example it might be tighter and smaller on one gun and a lot of space and big on another gun to help have a accurate aim.

8. Perspectives

In This section, I am going to be explaining the perspectives in borderlands. The perspective is basically how the player perceives the game play for instance the camera can be moved to get a different perspective and a different effect/atmosphere. In this case, Borderlands shows the game in a first person perspective this means that the game is rendered from the view point of the player’s character so the player can see exactly what the charter is seeing. This perspective is extremely beneficial in borderlands because the first-person perspective allows easier aiming because there is nothing to block the players view and it also allows the player to be more interested in the environment other than the character they are playing. I think this is suitable for borderlands because it is a role playing game which involves a lot of NPC'S, being in first person perspective will make it easier for the player to notice and identify the NPC's and their own surroundings.

9. Full-Motion Video (FMV)

A Full-Motion video is a technique which video games use to advance the story and to display action without using any characters/sprites. A Full-Motion video is really similar to cut-scenes or an interactive movie because the game is using cinematic to help enhance the story/presentation of the game.
I have inserted a video below which is a playlist of all the FM V from borderlands one. The main advantage of using a full-motion video is that it shows of the personality of a character which is important in a role playing game such as borderlands because It helps show the player a certain element within the story which is significant for a role-playing game because the player needs to understand the story to be able to assume the role of the character in the fictional setting. In borderlands one the player still remains control of their actions, they are not able to skip the FMV or interfere with the FMV but they are still able to control their character for example the player could search the room whilst the FMV is happening.