Game Design Blog by Fredrik Henriksson

Twitter

2012-01-22T14:40:00.000+01:00

I just started a twitter account to let everyone know more about my everyday life as a game designer and level designer at Oxeye game studo.

It would make me very happy if you would follow me there as well. <3 (@Frall_)

https://twitter.com/#!/Frall_

Thank you for all your support! :)

Work placement: Cobalt

2012-01-15T10:45:00.001+01:00

I am happy to announce that I will do my work placement together with the swedish Indie developers Oxeye Game Studio!

I will work with them on there current project Cobalt that is published by Mojang, I will help out with the singleplayer campaign and mostly do level design.(Check it out here and get the alpha version: www.playcobalt.com)

Also check out this amazing action teaser:

A huge thank you to all my friends in the game industry and at Futuregames that helped me with contacts etc during this progress.

I would also like to thank all the companies that interviewed me, I had many amazing companies that was interested.

Starcraft 2 map layout and a new portfolio

2011-12-04T10:40:00.006+01:00

I am currently looking for an internship:
The work placement is during 30 weeks, starting January 2012 and is part of my education at FutureGames, please check my portfolio further down for more info.

This work placement is completely free, I am self funded and supported by Swedish school funds as well as European Union Leonardi Programme which means that companies do not have to pay me any salary.

Check out my new portfolio at: www.fredrik-henriksson.com

Starcraft 2 map prototype:

I woke up early this morning, full of creativity and inspiration so I started planing a new starcraft 2 map layout, hope you like it! (very early layout, needs allot of testing and tweaking)

Platform game project

2011-10-08T09:06:00.001+02:00

I am currently working on a small but action packed 2.5d platform game to try and learn some more JavaScript, level design and game design.

To learn some basic scripting I'm looking through and editing example scripts and following tutorials as scripting is truly something I'm struggling with, but I really want to improve.

Just thought I should share a video of one of the enemies the game will feature!
Expect more updates on the game in the near future.

This model below was my first enemy, not counting my previous cube prototype, but I changed it to what you see on the video above as I realized it kinda resembled the male reproduction organ with a little imagination. :P

Amnesia lecture: Evoking emotions

2011-09-09T17:39:00.002+02:00

Check out this great lecture about "Evoking emotions and achieving success by breaking all the rules"
it was held at the Game Developers Conference europe 2011 by Thomas Grip, project manager at Frictional Games.

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014889/Evoking-Emotions-and-Achieving-Success

Team Fortress 2: Flow analysis

2011-08-31T18:32:00.081+02:00

TF2 Introduction:

Team fortress 2 is a class based multiplayer first person shooter developed by Valve
Corporation. When announced in 1998, the game was intended to have a more realistic
and militaristic style of gameplay but the design team changed that over the nine year
development period into a fun and silly cartoonish style game, heavily influenced by early
20th century commercial illustrations.

The player takes the role as one of nine characters, all with unique weapons and abilities,
to fight with their team to complete various goals depending on the map and game mode.

Flow Introduction:

"Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.

According to Csíkszentmihályi, flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. To be caught in the ennui of depression or the agitation of anxiety is to be barred from flow.

Colloquial terms for this or similar mental states include: to be on the ball, in the moment, present, in the zone, wired in, in the groove, or keeping your head in the game.

Flow is one of the fundamental reasons that people play video games. This is especially true since the primary goal of games is to create entertainment through intrinsic motivation.

The use of flow in games helps foster an enjoyable experience which increases motivation and draws players to continue playing. Game designers, in particular, benefit from integration of flow principles into game design. Games facilitate flow as either an individual or group activity."

Taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29

Flow analysis:

Balance between skill and challenge

Team fortress 2 is full of challenges all the time as it is a multiplayer shooter you’re always facing other players that may be too easy or too good for you to handle. This of course proves a challenge as you want to improve and be the better player in most fights as well as improve your teams strategies,
sometimes thou you may face players or entire teams that are so much better players then you and your team that all fun is lost.

Team Fortress 2 features nine different classes so if you feel that you want additional challenge, or one class becomes boring you can always start practise and learn to play another one as each class have a very different play style.

If you want to become really good, or want to find more friends in the Team Fortress 2 community you can increase your challenge and fun by forming or joining a TF2 clan to start working on perfecting team strategies and play clan wars against other clans.

Valve continues to add free content to the game such as new weapons, maps, “meet the
team“ videos and other fun ingame collectables like hats, medals etc, this makes the game last longer by giving there players increased fun and challenge with for example new weapons and maps.

Clear goals:

Team fortress 2 has several main goals, each depending on what map is played and the
game mode. The limitations to achieving the goals usually come from your and the enemy
team, the game timer also limit players and add a stressful aspect that forces the players
to take action and try to complete the goals in time. (The game modes not mentioned here
are Arena, Payload Race, Territorial Control and King of the Hill).

Capture The Flag (CTF):

Your team’s objective is to enter the enemy base and steal their intelligence briefcase
(usually a flag in other games) and bring it back to your own intelligence room, while at
the same time also protecting your own team’s briefcase.

If you die while carrying the intelligence briefcase it will drop to the ground, allowing your
team to try and recapture it during a 60 second timer.

During this time your enemy team will try to secure the area and defend it, if anyone in
your team manages to touch the briefcase the timer is reset to 60 again if they should die.

In a standard capture the flag game mode, the first team to capture the enemy’s
intelligence three times wins. There is also a time limit and if both teams are unable to
capture 3 times in this time limit the game will end is a stalemate.

Payload (PL):

In the game mode called Payload the BLU teams objective is to push a bomb cart from one
end of the map (BLU base) to the other (RED base), while the RED team must do
everything in their power to prevent it from getting to their base.

To push the cart a BLU player must stand next to it, the more BLU players next to the cart
the faster it will move (max speed is capped at 4 players). If the BLU team is unable to
push the bomb cart for 30 seconds it will start rolling backwards slowly until a BLU player
is nearby the cart once again.

BLU team wins if the cart reaches its final point, where the bomb will explode. RED win if
they manage to hold BLU and the bomb back until the game timer runs out.

Along the bomb carts track there is also a few checkpoints, when the cart reach one of
these checkpoints, more time is added to the game clock. In addition, the cart cannot roll
back past the last checkpoint.

Control Point (CP):

Team RED and BLU are fighting for control of a number of interesting points on the map.
When a player stands on a control point that is owned by the enemy team for long enough
(the exact time varies depending on which point and on what map), the point will be
captured by that players team. The objective for both teams is to secure all control points
on the map.

Some control points will be locked, unable to be captured by either team unless its
unlocked, to do that you usually have to capture a different point first.

Just like in payload, the more player of your team capturing, the faster you will receive
that point, also more time is added when a point is captured.

If the game timer ends while a point is being captured the game will enter overtime, until
the point is completely taken or lost.

Map design makes goals clear and game more fun:

The RED team use warm colors, natural build materials and
angular geometry while the BLU team has cold colors,
Industrial buildings and orthogonal geometry.

At the picture below we can compare the RED and BLU
base on the popular 2fort map, they look very different but
the accessible areas are exactly mirrored for balance reasons.

Notice the warmer colors and the build materials like wood for RED and the cold industrial look of the BLU base.

This as well as signs and arrows allows players to easier find their way around maps and know where to go without getting lost.

Each playable class also need specific areas around the map where they have increased use of there special abillities and playstyle.

Scout
- needs places where he can double jump to, thus shortening the distance he must travel in relation to other classes.

Soldier
- needs areas he can rocket-jump to.
- give him some higher perches. Soldiers greatly benefit from being above the action and firing at the feet of targets.

Pyro
- benefits from enclosed spaces like tunnels. A map with too much open space makes this guy far less useful.
- Pyros love ambush points. So putting corners in tunnels and providing things to hide behind is good.
- ammo placement is vital for Pyros. Know where to place ammo packs for pyros to pick up, but not too much.

Demoman
- the Demoman can benefit from the same rocket-jump areas you're making for the Soldier. The Demoman can actually get higher from his sticky-mine jumps, at the cost of more damage.
- give the Demoman places to use arc-based attacks. Create things he can lob his grenades over. This could be rooftops with holes, barracades, or higher-up windows.

Heavy Weapons Guy
- Don't make him run out in the open for too long. He's an easy sniper target. Give him places of cover from the ideal sniper locations. If anything, just make sure he has brief moments of vulnerability instead of a long, impossible run toward his goal.

Medic
- Medics benefit from cover and corners, just like Pyros do. Give then things to hide behind as they stay locked on their healing target. A map that is too wide-open yields many dead medics.

Snipers
- need a good place to perch and snipe people. It should be open enough that they are at risk as well.

Spy
- can benefit greatly from passages behind enemy lines. Being able to sneak into enemy territory then turn around as if they're one of the enemy is beneficial because now they've got a lot of stabbable backs in front of them.
- needs recharge points where he can hide to recharge his cloaking ability. It's especially good to have these en route to sniper locations and sentry locations.

Engineer
- needs ideal locations for his sentry, but also possible ways to destroy a sentry in these locations. Distance can influence sentry placement. Engineers don't like to put sentries where a Soldier can easily stand out of its range and fire rockets.
- carefully consider ammo placement. Where you put your ammo can influence where an Engineer will start building his things. It's good to make the Engineer travel a little or expose himself to grab more ammo. But make sure it's available.
- make sure there are safe nooks for teleporter placement. Teleporters that are placed in the main traffic will be easily destroyed.

More info on this here: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=631269

Direct feedback:

Clear classes:

Valve decided to use strong silhouettes and shading to draw attention to specific details to
make models distinct and focusing on making the characters team, class and current
weapon easily identified by other players. Below is a picture showing all nine classes with only there silhouettes.

Feedback and motivation:

When you die in Team Fortress 2 you get to see who killed you and where they where hiding, this helps a player understand why they just instantly died by showing the sniper far away and know where he was hiding to be able to avoid or kill him next time. This is important because its extremely frustrating just dying without knowing what killed you and it prevents the player from feeling helpless. Also when you die you see motivating stats that makes you feel better to avoid frustration.

"On the bright side... You stayed alive as Spy longer then your previous best."

Some “death cams” are less motivating though!

Break of flow:

Entire teams game play experience can be hurt by a player who does not play with the
team or don’t fulfill their class role, especially in a game like TF2 that strongly emphasizes team play. For instance playing with a medic that doesn’t heal could be very frustrating.

As the game is class based where each class got strengths and weaknesses at different
map locations, for example: The Pyro with his short range flamethrower excel in tight
areas and around corners to hide and ambush people but is weak at long distance. Pyro
players also hate water. (For obvious reasons as it’s hard to burn stuff under water.)
This makes some encounters really hard to deal with without your team backing you up or doing their job properly.

Different classes also have allot easier time killing certain types of enemies, for instance
the spy, who’s main goal is to infiltrate the enemy base disguised, to put a knife in the
enemies backs, have allot easier time to backstab a sniper who got his view limited by his scope, but have a really hard time staying undetected when an enemy pyro light him on fire.

Team fortress 2 really shines when played with well-coordinated teammates, and not doing so often lead to frustration.

The game got random critical hits that sometimes kills you even though you where the
better player in a fight, many players want the critical hits removed, but they also serve as a good way for new players to feel better than they really are.

Cheaters obviously destroys flow in multiplayer games like team fortress 2 where it affects other player’s gameplay experience.

There are a few cheats such as Aimbot that helps you aim and got features like auto-fire and makes all shots critical hits. There is also a radar cheat that lets you see enemies, sentry guns, bombs and rockets as well as enemy health bars thru walls.
I believe that cheating really destroys the fun gameplay for everyone on the server except for perhaps the cheaters themselves.

End words:

This is one of my favorite games as it features fast paced, nonstop action with lots of
humor and fun team play that never gets boring as the gameplay is different depending on
what class you play.

Even thou Team Fortress 2 was delayed several years, went thru allot of re-designing and
got a completely new look it became a really great game, and I am quite sure I would not
have enjoyed the originally realistic version nearly as much as I have fallen in love with
this humoristic cartoony fast paced action game.

There are already many realistic war games out there, Valve created something new and
fresh and I’m really glad for it, this game has given me many hours of joy in the wonderful
world of Team Fortress 2.

It’s my dream to one day be able to give such joy to others with games that I took part in
creating.

My Starcraft 2 map stats and info

2011-08-29T01:40:00.001+02:00

Here are a few images and stats from my Starcraft 2 map "Last Haven"
I also published a beta test version of it on EU Batlle.net under the name "Last Haven Beta 0.5"
If you try it out please comment and let me know what you think. Remember this is not the final version of the map I am still working on it.

(Clicka the images to increase size)

Late night Starcraft 2 bug testing

2011-08-23T05:24:00.000+02:00

I'm up late again, its now early morning in Sweden but I find that I have my best inspirations and ideas at night! I spent some time redesigning my Starcraft 2 multiplayer map a bit and really like the changes.

The map is a large, very detailed 1 vs 1 player map with 2 main routes to your opponents main base.
My main focus at the moment is balancing the map as mutch as possible for all three races.

I joined a site called HotKeyIt that focuses on helping Starcraft 2 players improve.
The plan is that I will ask there professional gaming coaches for feedback later on to get there input and valuable feedback to make me a better starcraft 2 level designer.

You will get more updates of the map in the future once its design is closer to release, you can also se a video of it at the blogpost below, but for balancing issues I have already changed the layout some as well as detailing and lighting. I Named the map "Last Haven" for now, if you have tips for a better name please let me know in the coments!

Bug: Earlier tonight I added those "steam vents" there to the left, what they do is block line of sight so its a good strategical area to hide units or buildings.

But my ramp is to close to the smoke so if I stand exactly where my unit it located, (on the ramp)
at this specific distance I can see enemy units hiding behind the smoke because the unit is just high enough on the ramp to be considered standing on "high ground" and this allow him to see past the smoke. If the enemy units would have been further back I would not be able to see then due to the units sight range.

This could be left in to give professional player strategical choices but I will try to solve it by moving the smoke area slightly more left to increase the distance between the ramp and line of sight blockers.
New players would not understand why they get attacked behind the smoke where they feel hidden and safe.

Click to enlarge image

Note that this screenshot is in game low graphic settings with Stronger Team Colour Mod I use to slightly increase my abillity to play Protoss vs Protos games with my colour blindness.

Starcraft 2 Galaxy editor bug

2011-07-18T10:30:00.000+02:00

I found a nasty bug while working on my starcraft 2 map.
If you wonder how I sound after a night with no sleep at all you can actually hear me commentating in the video!

When I dont run into bugs its really fun to create maps for Starcraft 2!
Hopefully you all can see the potential of the map, I will show you the final version when its done.
Its a large 1 vs 1 map completely mirrored for balance reasons, with 4 very important watch towers.

If you got any good name ideas for the map please let me know!

The Starcraft 2 map editor is easier to use then Unreal, Unity or Hammer so I would recommend you try it out if your new to level design.

Thank you for reading, if you like my blog please Folow it! <3

Game project: Shadow of the Shire

2011-07-04T14:43:00.000+02:00

Six weeks ago the development of Shadow of the Shire started.
The game was developed in 6 weeks by 7 Futuregames students.

We had to follow scrum and use Pivotal tracker and Unity during this project.

Shadow of the Shire is a first person single player adventure game set in a scary environment, greatly inspired by Amnesia: The dark descent

The developers:

Fredrik Henriksson - Game design, level design, sound design
Ivan Boström - Level design
Fredrik Albrektson - Scripting, scrum master

Jessica Fuentealba Wiklund - 3D Artist
Peter Wilhelmsson - 3D artist, animator
Gustav Holmström - Concept art, 3D artist, art director
Markus Andersson - Trailer, particle effects

Gabriel Lundgren - Music

I am proud of the game we made, but we faced allot of problems during this time and I know we could have made it even better if everyone got along, there is so much more I wish we had time to do, I will write a post mortem about it later.

A big thank you to Gabriel Lundgren for creating the music for our game and to the Jury of game developers who spend there valuable time at our school to give us there feedback, having people from Frictional games who made Amnesia to look at our horror game was pretty epic actually.

The jury:

Sjoerd "Hourences" De Jong - Teotl Studios, Multi-artist
Johannes Wadin - Might and Delight, Lead Level designer
Johannes "Johno" Norneby - Indie developer, programmer
David Westerlund - Game Music entertainment
Marcus Johansson - Frictional Games, Multi-artist
Mikael Hedberg - Frictional Games, Story writer/designer

Thank you so much!

Marketing for Video Game Designers

2011-05-05T00:34:00.000+02:00

I received this interesting article by Liu from http://www.gamedesigncollege.com

Marketing a video game can be a unique experience. Unlike many other fields that use marketing to sell a product, a video game designer can be deeply involved in the process of selling their game.
The field of marketing can be much different from product to product, depending on audience as well as the nature of the product itself.

The video game industry is unique in the way that it markets its products. Although a number of traditional techniques are used, such as advertising on television and in print, video game designers
themselves can get participate in the marketing of their product in a variety of ways.

The best way for video game designers to market their product, whether they are a major developer or a small, independent game publisher, is by attending local and national conventions related to video games, sci-fi and fantasy, anime and comics. Many video game designers wait until these conventions to make major announcements about the games that they have in production.

They may also build anticipation about games by releasing playable demos at these conventions. This can be a great way of building anticipation about a game, as those who take part in the demos spread word about the game to other users in reviews, both online and in print.

Some video game designers might even release playable demos to the general public, cutting a few minutes to an entire level’s worth of gameplay and releasing it in a format that can be downloaded onto a console or computer to be played.

In addition to these downloadable teasers many video game designers have also begun to release side-games on devices such as tablets and smartphones. These games, fully developed, act as an advertisement for an upcoming game and help players to gain excitement about the title.

There are many other ideas that may be used to market video games that a video game designer may be able to use.

In the past video game designers have allowed gamers to vote on elements of the game such as character design, they have designed smaller versions of their games for users to play, and they have even introduced short multiplayer games in order to excite interest.

A good video game designer must think of not only the needs of their game but the needs of their audience. Because they understand their audience a video game designer is often the best person to market their game.

Colour blind and gaming

2011-04-18T17:08:00.000+02:00

Sometimes I just suck at computer games but other times I actually play at a disadvantage because I am colour blind. Apparently there should be a number visible in this picture below, I really cant see it.

I study interaction design at school right now and just thought I should share this great colour blind gaming article by BBC.

I may accidentally kill players on my team in FPS games or psi storm my own or an allied army in Starcraft 2.
Below is an example where two protoss armies attack each other (click to get a larger picture):

The players are blue and red, two colours that I normally don't have a problem with, and looking at the screenshot now I can clearly see the difference but in the heat of battle it is almost impossible, it becomes even more messy in team games, where there are more players (and colours).

What is important to note is that as a colour blind player I don't think in colours because I know that I cant trust what I see. I wish more game developers would design games not focusing entirely on colours in the future.

Mini games!

2011-04-10T16:04:00.001+02:00

I created a few small prototype games at school with friends to learn some basic scripting!
These are made in 2-4 days each without any 3d artist... so prepare for blocks and balls!

Soon I will have a 6-7 week game project in Unity with scripting, game design and level design. I am really looking forward to it!

Thank you for reading gamedesignblog, please follow and share! <3

Game project: The not so flying carpet.

2011-02-19T11:06:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we finished our first trailer for the game project I have been working on for the last couple of weeks. This is the first computer game I have done and it was allot of fun. We used UDK for this project.

The not so flying carpet is a reaction based racing/platform-jumping game set in a dark, murky forest with an arcade style fast paced gameplay.
The wooden ledges are your friends and the swampy ground beneath is your enemy.
Navigate the troll through the forest and try to get him to fly for real.
Since he cant rely on his carpet (that barely flies) its up to you to keep him safe.

This game was developed in four weeks by five students at
Futuregames.

Restrictions: 50.000 polycount limit (low poly), No more than 5 MB worth of 3D data, and 10 MB worth of 2D data.

This is work in progress.

Fredrik Henriksson - Game design, level design
Bojan Piperac - Project lead, game design, level design
Oskar Thuresson - Art director, 3d Artist
Leo Ringborg - 3d Artist
Rasmus Bremholm - 3d Artist

David Westerlund - Music http://davidwesterlund.com

Download beta: The not so flying carpet beta

I am very proud of our game, The Not So Flying Carpet.
We achieved to get the intended setting and gameplay we had in our vision at the beginning of development.

The level design is fun, exiting and challenging, and quite easy to continue to build on for future levels.

Our graphics looks good and everything fits well together with our theme.

The three most important things I have learned during the development:

Working in a team with a real game project on a tight deadline have been very educational for me, facing problems and solving them.

Everything takes allot more time then you had anticipated, unexpected problems will occur and I realize the value of good planning.

I have learnt allot about how game designers and level designers work, but also how 3d artists work and what we can do for each other.

Game Dev Story - Reality analysis

2011-01-11T23:04:00.005+01:00

Game Dev Story is a game development studio simulator where you as a player have to deal with problems and obstacles that may occur when dealing with a real life studio.
But the question is, Is it really that realistic?

Positive/Realistic:

It has a surprisingly nice balance when it comes to the economic part, which could give a proper reflection of a real life scenario.
There is always something you can purchase or upgrade but there is also something you need to prioritize in order to accomplish your goal. The great thing about this, is that it feels like a realistic event when it comes to the planning part. Yet another great thing is that there is parallel options for you to do if you don't want to stick to one strategy.

When hiring another worker you can see how much he cost and his abilities.

The workers you can hire has just like in real life, different abilities such as strong/weak sides.
They do also learn along the way when producing the product.
Which means they get more productive the longer they have worked in the company.

Negative/Unrealistic:

One minus side is that when you get a new project to let your team work on, you don't have the choice to apply the right worker for the right task, you will basically get one random from your company to work for this task or hire a new worker outside the company.
Instead of having the choice to choose a much more convenient person from your company.
We both found this part to be unrealistic.

Another similar element is when you look for people to hire, you spend about 50.000 dollars to look up people, then you find about 2 potential workers, but you don't want to hire them yet, but in a month or so, then we never really found a way to hire these applicants afterwards.
We had to spend another 50.000 dollars to search for new applicants instead.

There was also no choice to search for a specific work group, such as sound designers only. Or only programmers.

When Purchasing a license for a specific gaming console, the button said: “Negotiate price/license” but when the button was clicked you actually bought it for the full prize, where we as players thought we would have the option to haggle the price.

First impression:

The strategy we used when creating our company was to focus on quality games and still hold a defensive economic strategy.
But when we soon realized that most real-life game companies that focus on quality game titles also have a very offensive economic strategy to improve their break through.
Then we slowly focused to create more defensive game strategies from the economic left overs we still had left and build our empire the slow way, without focusing on break through’s.

The game simulator held all the basic requirements to be playable. But from a realistic perspective.
Then its not very easy to understand as a game. The control over the workers could have been much more open to give the simulator a more realistic management.

Made by: Emil Wikström and Fredrik Henriksson (My friend Emil wrote most of this but we did the analysis and testing together)

Level design document using Google SketchUp

2010-12-29T18:01:00.001+01:00

It´s about time I show a level design document I did at school some time ago.

The assignment was to design a single player level for a fictional game, with specific restrictions and then model it in Google SketchUp.

The goal was to mimic a realistic situation where a lead or director gave me a rough outline of a level to further detail the design, and at the same time learn SketchUp.

Read the level design document here (Press read online): Level design document: The canyon.

I hope you like it.
Below is a detailed overview of my level layout in scetchup.

School project: UDK level design

2010-11-05T19:34:00.001+01:00

Today I finished my unreal development kit map!
The assignment was to create a map with a menu and some kind of small puzzle game built into it,
Just to learn some more about kismet, UI Scene and matinee recording.

For this map my focus was to try and create a beautiful outdoor environment.
I really enjoy level design, how creative it is and the interesting challenges it gives me.

I hope you like it! (Watch in HD!)

On a side note I will be on the Swedish game event Gamex tomorrow! I am really looking forward to it.

Unreal development kit, The Ball and meeting with Dave Sharp!

2010-10-20T20:01:00.006+02:00

Unreal development kit:

The last few weeks have been interesting!

Lately I have had allot of lessons in Unreal development kit (UDK), created by Epic games.
It is kinda similar to Source development kit which I had some prior experience with, still I find UDK challenging but allot of fun... there have been a few nightmares about Kismet (visual scripting) though, but I have learnt allot.

In about two weeks I will hand in a small map or game created by me with triggers using kismet to create some kind of puzzle.

Sjoerd De Jong (project lead and creative director at Teotl Studios) who have mapped since he was a kid and got experience from Epic Games and Starbreeze, is our UDK level design teacher.

The Ball:

Today Sjoerd showed us how he created his new game The Ball (a singleplayer action/puzzle game built in the UDK editor).
It was very educational and interesting to see how his levels was made, everything from design decisions and material editing to everything they did to create the actual ball and all its behaviours in the game.

Take a look at the trailer below! The Ball is available through Steam the 26th October and is yours for only 17,99€.

Meeting with Dave Sharp:

Last week I also got the chance to speak some with Dave Sharp (Binary Asylum) who have worked on amazing titles such as Baldurs Gate and Fallout! I have spent years in front of Baldurs gate so it was a great experience to meet him.

Find out more about The Ball here: www.theballthegame.com
Download Unreal development kit for free here: www.udk.com

School project: Board game

2010-10-03T22:47:00.005+02:00

Our first school project at Futuregames Academy is now complete!
The class was split into smaller groups, mine consisted of three graphic designers and four game designers working together to deliver a board game within one week.

The project was to create a the board game for 2-6 players, 30-45 minutes playtime and it should be inspired by the theme: suggestion, of course it also had to be a fully working game with an easy to understand game manual.

The goal of our game is to get from the start possitions at the edge of the game board to the center, there the player pick up a coordinate card that show to which of the eight exits the player have to escape through.
During all this time ghosts are constantly chasing the players, event cards are helping or slowing the progress and opponents are also able to block paths with doors that require specific colored key cards to be opened again. There is allot of tactics and tricks in the game and you could potentially give your opponents allot of trouble.

Overview of our board game!

We had allot of fun creating this board game and spent something like 900-1000 SEK on materials, printing etc to make the project possible. Thankfully we got 500 SEK from the school as a budget for the game!
The money we spent really makes a difference though the game looks and feels really top quality.

Our board game is tested!

This Friday our game was tested by the Swedish game industry:

Almir Listo (Project leader at Bajoum Interactive / Teacher at Futuregames)

Tove Enghed (Level Designer at Fatshark)

Patrick Berglind (Lead game designer for a Microsoft touch surface game)

Petter Sköld (3d Artist at Splash Damage)

Åsa Roos (Lead game designer / Teacher at Futuregames) was leading the whole project as well as the game testing.

We students got allot of good feedback from them! A huge thanks to the game industry people for sharing their experience with us. To be able to talk to them, is always exciting and rewarding.

The winning board game!

The winner of the board game competition had a brilliant game idea where you actually play on the outside of the game box and are able to use all sides with magnets as your player piece, at some points in the game the cube rotate.

The price for winning the challenge was a trip to the Swedish game developer DICE office and a lunch with one of there project managers. Huge congratulations and well deserved! :)

Thanks to my group for the wonderful teamwork!

Violence in games

2010-09-23T21:21:00.005+02:00

Sadly this video was taken down and I cant find it anywhere else.

Do violence in games affect the players, and IF so, how?
How far can a designer go when creating a game? What responsibilities does a game designer have?

Below is a documentary on the subject, first they talk allot about Mortal Kombat and Grand Theft Auto but they also discuss the "snuff" game Manhunt and other things from different perspectives.

I don't think normal violence in games affect players but just watching the kills from the game Manhunt make me feel sick, actually. I have not played the game but it seems to be full of unnecessary violence and murders just for "fun" and "entertainment".

Some of the content of this film is violent (obviously) and this documentary is also very American, you have been warned. :P

I still found it very interesting and recommend you to watch it.
Grab some popcorn and watch this 1 hour 25 min long documentary about game violence.

"Moral Kombat takes a look into the controversial subject of violence in video games. Director Spencer Halpin shows the constant conflict between the game creators' first amendment right to make a violent game and the imminent threat that violence poses on the next generation. In addition, the film is full of the latest green screen and high-definition technology that allow watchers to actually envision the world of gaming. Filled with interviews from lead game designers, politicians, parents, and psychologists, this film provides a candid take on the influence games have on youth today."

Design tour: World of Goo

2010-09-13T16:44:00.004+02:00

Today I came across this great design tour of the game World of Goo by WolfireGames on youtube, if you want to learn some about basic game design such as user interface, game atmosphere and gameplay progression this is definitely a good video to check out!

Level design basics

2010-09-10T23:42:00.003+02:00

Now I thought it would be fun to share some of the things I sent in when applying to Futuregames Academy.
Below is a short video of a level I designed during my quality assurance in games course at Gotland University.

We had an assignment to create a building in Hammer Source SDK editor. (Used to create levels for Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Alien Swarm and many other games).

The assignment in short was:

Create a working Half-Life 2 map with the following features:

Building with two floors
Stairs to the second floor
One door that opens by a trigger
Glass windows
A balcony
Player starting position

We had a one week deadline to learn how to do triggers etc and complete all parts of the assignment.

This was my first real attempt to do something in Source SDK, I created allot more things then was required in the assignment, but I learn much and had allot of fun. I believe this assignment is a good way to start learning about level designing and it really helps in bug testing to have knowledge of what could go wrong when mapping.

The goal I had for the map, after completing the assignment objectives was to give it a creepy feeling, as if the church was haunted or something.

I tried to do this with game objects (props) from the Half-life 2 game. Examples of this are the trees with bare branches, the broken statue, and the doll forgotten on the church bench as if a child left in fear.
What I believe really add some feeling to the map is the lighting combined with the skybox and weather effects with the rain.

Preparation for upcoming roleplay evening!

2010-09-06T17:40:00.000+02:00

My friend Sanna is taking the role as our dungeon master for a night!
She wont tell us what rules or system she will use, so that makes it extra exiting.

She have prepared a roleplay adventure and sent us players some questions she made that will determine what kind of character we will be playing.

"Your hear the sound of someone rushing towards you, what are you doing?"

   1. You wait where you are, someone might need help!
   2. Starts running towards the sound, with your weapon ready, it might be an enemy!
   3. You don't want to be seen and hide as fast as possible.

"You are trapped with two enemies in front of you, what are you doing?"

   1. You send your bodyguards to deal with them.
   2. Use speed and reflexes to dodge there attacks and run away as soon as possible.
   3. Takes out a weapon and slay them both.
   4. Hides and waits patiently for them to leave.
   5. manipulate them to attack each other instead of you.

"Is your character able to kill another person?"

   1. Yes, unless I have a use for him/her.
   2. Yes, if he/she is between me and my goal.
   3. Not unless its necessary, everyone have the right to live.
   4. I try to avoid it, bodies attract to much attention.

I found this kind of character creation method with questions to be an interesting and fun way to decide what role and behavior you will have in the game.

I am looking forward to play this game in the near future, and might ad a new blog post about it later.

Unity 3d

2010-08-26T15:39:00.000+02:00

Today I had my first look at Unity 3D, Game development tool. We will be using it some at school so I figured I need to get some basic knowledge of it.

I started looking at some very basic tutorials and found the ones from TornadoTwins youtube channel to explain it in a simple way with good descriptions.

I downloaded the program and will try to create something from the tutorial.
Below is the first part, completely basic, additional parts with more advanced things is linked in his videos.

Go to Unity 3D website where you can download Unity for free!

Its getting closer!

2010-08-04T15:48:00.000+02:00

I just came home from a six day trip to Rome and as soon as I got inside the door I checked my inbox... and yes! I had received another e-mail from Futuregames Academy with some more information!

All old students have returned from their summer holidays and the time for us new students is getting closer.
The education and my new exiting life starts the 21th September and I will usually be at school from 09:00 - 17:00 Swedish time.

Its hard to grasp the reality and realise that I got accepted to this amazing education and I am both proud, exited and nervous at the same time.