Friday 28 September 2012

@Alan - New attempt at Proposal

@Alan - I have tried to come up with something reflected on the points you said so can you advise me if I am on the right track or if I'm still aiming too high etc

Through research and thinking about what I am capable of, I have started to try and make decisions of what the game would be and want the goal/s I could achieve at the stage I'm at now

Type of game I would like to create would be a platform style because they are popular with a younger generation as well as older

Type of character would be a boss villain

Standard of game would be for Nintendo Wii/ Nintendo 3DS

Age limit for 12+

Narrative of the game: An evil witch doctor who deals with bad spirits and voodoo is exiled from the tribe he    was part of and in revenge he sets a dark curse over the tribe and they transform into his slaves (eyes could turn white, red or distinctive color) and they become monster - like, however the voodoo curse gets out of control transforming all creatures and living things in his path. The witch doctor himself become effected changing him as well. Mean while a younger member of the tribe (12 years old) doesn't get infected due to a special healing bracelet passed down from the elder of the tribe as the future protector of the tribe, he has to restore order to his tribe and defeat the evil witch doctor and curse he has inflicted.

Goal: Character creation - (depended on how simplified and time frame) but thought maybe 2 characters the River God Boss and Evil Witch Doctor

But if that seems too hard then one separate character, either River God model with turnaround
or Witch Doctor model with turnaround

4 comments:

  1. Hi Adam

    Before I make any comments I suggest that you have a chat with Phil on Monday afternoon.

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  2. Hi Adam:)

    Really sorry we didn't get the chance to talk today (Monday) - but as you will have noticed - it was a very busy day. However, I did read your proposal and my first instinct is just to go '2 Characters? Are you NUTS?!' I'm going to be super-honest with you, Adam, because you're a really hard-working student, you want to do well, and you've got high expectations - all of this GOOD, but it's also true - and this is the honest bit - that historically, your abilities as character designer (in terms of draftmanship and the conversion of 2d into 3d) fall some way short of those same high expectations you have. This is normal really - what we can visualise in our heads is so often limited by our technical prowess in realising it 'out there'. You are not alone in this, but in order to grow, Adam, you must face facts in a coolly objective way. Character designers draw and paint all day, every day. Character designers are in love with the nuts, bolts and innerworkings of animal and human anatomy. Character design is a way of seeing and translating abstract ideas into physical, performative personalities. I'm stating all of this plainly, because I want you to acknowledge the difference between wanting to be a sort of a person and living like that sort of a person. I know you want to be a character designer and I know you want to be able to create 2 great characters in the weeks remaining to you - but the reality is actually this: you still need to work bloody hard at the boring basics of character design in the time remaining to you if you want to create ONE fully resolved, properly designed memorable character - that also makes the jump from 'interesting silhouette' to perfectly modelled, lovingly textured, lovingly lit, lovingly posed CG asset. For you, Adam - at your level of expertise and experience - this is a HUGE challenge, and I guess my worry is that you thinking that maybe you might be able to make 2 characters suggests that you're still not yet facing the reality of what you do - and do not know about designing great characters.

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  3. okay - so that's the tough love bit out of the way. In short, you need to wise up in regard to your ambitions for this minor project. You need to produce one complete character design predicated upon a 2d portfolio of a suitably proficient and professional quality + the associated 3D pipeline. This much you know - but this much is already A LOT and a true challenge for a student who has never yet completed or finished a character design pipeline satisfactorily. This is not a criticism, Adam - or a failure to acknowledge your achievements - it is, however, a simple fact. You don't have any real experience of being a character designer in a way that would be recognised as such by industry or indeed by the assessment criteria of a third year project brief. If all of this is sounding negative - it's NOT negative - it's neutral. It's just how it's been for you - your 'story so far' and it's important that you acknowledge your weaknesses and lack of experience, because in so doing you can structure a minor project that is more likely to enrich your skillset AND your experience.

    So - to the nitty gritty then: you're proposing to design a character for an 'insert title here' game. The game has an African setting, and your character is a witch-doctor. I've seen your influence maps and your gathering together the colours shapes and textures associated with Africa. Personally, there are issues here I think about the portrayal of witch doctors that might press a few racially sensitive buttons - you'd have to be very careful I think in terms of tone and racial cliches. When I read your proposal the world of your game sounded vague, and Africa a bit 'cosmetic'. I was left thinking, 'what's the point' and 'why Africa?', and 'what sort of game is this?' Again, I'm sounding negative here - but really, all I'd admitting to is that nothing about your proposal feels completely convincing - it feels like an aesthetic over and above anything else.

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  4. Personally, I think you need to really think about your game + Africa in a more integrated way - and think about the users of the game: for example, if your game was for a younger audience - and it was for an app or ipad - and it had some conservation or eco element to it (I don't, something about extinction and habitat), maybe your witch-doctor character or tribesman or whatever becomes more of a guide or sage or information-giver (to the user). Actually thinking about your game, its market, its purpose (and 'why Africa?') might stop this proposal feeling as arbitrary as it does right now. It could be more 'Angry Birds' than 'epic' in terms of its gaming world. If you creating something Ipad-based - so that young users puzzled their way through the alphabet using African animal names, with some kind of guide who 'speaks' to them, the actual context of the game would feed up into more than just the cosmetic process of looking at 'African stuff' and making an 'African character out of that African stuff'. I'm hoping this is making sense - short version; I think you need to give your gaming context MUCH more thought, otherwise your character designing in a vacuum and that's the very last thing you need in terms of you further refining your understanding and sensitivity for the pipeline.

    I was ready to say all of this at our tutorial - and would have done - it's hard to get the tone right when you write stuff - I can't put some of this across with the 'Smiley face' that would normally accompany a chat like this. Anyway, I'm in tomorrow morning, so we'll probably catch up then :) (smiley face!)

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