James Allsopp - Game Designer

Temporal Analytics's - Does it work?

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 15:52:00 +0000

So corporations and agencies such as the Google and the CIA are investing in Temporal Analytics's. We are even giving it ago, but does it really work?

If you don't know what Temporal Analytic's is don't worry, it hasn't seen much of the light of day. It's basically a system which mines huge amounts of data from the internet or other sources and correlates it into specific sets of metrics. For example; who, what, where. Using a variety of comparison methodologies it can result in a product which can relate to the future. In layman's terms, it should "aid" in predicting the future.

>An excellent idea however seems too farfetched to actually bring anything of use to the board for policy making and policing our state. However further investigation into Temporal Analytics's has brought many corporations to using this "experimental" system to observe the suggested outputs and analyse the date compared to real-world events. Sectors such as finance, product/marketing, defence, weather and medical services have all now started to begin in-depth research into this new system. I for one have been testing this out for some time, unfortunately the results are inconclusive currently due to the time taken to bring any useful results, however it does allow for a driver in a new age of model based prediction.

Situational Awareness Trainer - British Forces

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 15:24:00 +0000

The SATBF allows for the soldier to be challenged in a situation which doesn't require combat skills. Dealing with the media is a prime concern when soldiers are in theatre. This trainer puts the soldier in intense scenario where their decisions will effect their ability to control the situation.

Release Info:

A military simulation that tests responses in a high-risk situation and enables players to learn from mistakes.

The user takes the role of Sergeant Major part of a British convoy on route through Baghdad. One of your front vehicles halts and radios in that a civilian, a child, has been hit. A crowd starts to gather and the press are on there way to the scene. Soldiers stand awaiting the users order - jeopardise the mission and call in medical assistance or ignore the causality and continue?

Scores will reflect how well you handled the situation and the image of the British forces that you presented to local people.

Benefits to using the trainer within the military sector:

Training without the costs and risks of running live military exercise
Realistic and immersive battlefield environments to simulate a conflict
Games can make training accessible to a very large number of soldiers across the world
Building team work especially in multiplayer environments
Games build concentration, improve eye-hand coordination and attention – crucial to real time combat
Encourage visualization, experimentation and creativity in finding new ways to tackle the situation
Enables engagement in activities otherwise too costly to resource or too dangerous, difficult or impractical to implement in the classroom

Back from the dead

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:00:00 +0000

I completely forgot about my blog, and have come to start updating it again. I noticed over the past month there has been a great increase on visitor traffic, so I think it's best to keep this updated.

Coined a new word today

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:07:00 +0000

Internal Game-play Advertisement

Is used when describing advertisement that drives player behavior within a game environment. Advertising mechanisms are used to lead players to decisions and actions. Internal game-play advertisement allows the designer to have some control over the user experience.

something which is alot fo fun

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:46:00 +0000

Public Portfolio

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:00:00 +0000

Still alive, however working on the new blog.

Here's my public portfolio. Along with some game credited shots and other work related to 3D and 2D mediums.

http://s286.photobucket.com/albums/ll84/jamesallsopp/

Something People Kill For

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:40:00 +0000

Well in reason, I've noticed a few people arround the forums havn't much of an idea on hwo to structure a MMO design document. Well to be truthful it depends on the designers and how they want it layed out however i've come accross one of my design documents and have taken out the context just to show anyone looking for a basic structure for such a big project. Hope this helps :)

Click here

Live and Kicking

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:15:00 +0000

You got it in one,

After a huge workload off my shoulders i'm able to touch the internet explorer button (or firefox.exe) to open the internet up and get back in touch with my blog and MMO community. Fear not i've kept myself upto date on the latest technology and design theories so i'll try not to be to out of date with my new articles.

Stay tuned to the blog from tomorrow onwards. Hopefully i'll be able to pick 30mins out of my busy development schedule to get some new articles up.

Oh and yes the project myself and the team have been burning on for past 5-6 months is near release ;)

more to come soon....

The A-Team Are Back

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:09:00 +0000

Few days ago me and a few designers were sat down stairs in the studio making coffee. We walked up stairs to our desks to find to our amazement the A-team van just opposite our studios. "Harbouring terriosts are we?"

Most of us had a good laugh, but it still hasn't moved... at all!

Maybe we are under watch be the A-team.

Some of the team say they have spotted BA Baracus in the local supermarket probably buying some hardcore cupcakes.

New Job

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:10:00 +0000

Last week I went for an interview for a game design position, later to find out two days later to be offered the job to be in charge of a new project. I can't realy release any info on it yet, which is a shame as it's a very exciting concept and am happy to be on the project.

Hopefully more to come in later months on some infomation.

What Do You Get If You Cross An Ex SEGA Rally Artists With Shockwave?

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 07:48:00 +0000

You get Xcar - City Racer.

I decided to look into Shockwave games. Now that the internet seems to be booming with big buisness's making a-lot of money off these web based games, i thought it would be a bit of fun to see if i could have ago at web game making. To be honest I realy enjoyed it. I had complete control over my own little racing game. Below is screens from my little game project: Xcar - City Racer.

I'll upload the game soon when I get some free time. I have another one in the pipeline as well.

MMO 2.0, Yes 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 02:54:00 +0000

So here we are in this era of web 2.0. Is it a technological break through or are company's just claiming they have it on there business plan to make millions?

Well to be honest web 2.0 is all about connecting, merging and social. So why we all are seduced to this web 2.0 demon? Well it’s supposed to make our lives on the net easier or even real life. We will be able to access all sorts of social things from our mobile devices as-well as build a huge network of sites which link to one thing. With blogs and rss feeds and MySpace pages all in one. We can access data easier...

Moving on, We like web 2.0 well some of us do. So there's always around the corner of the talk of MMO 2.0. Many people are reading going what?

Exactly what is MMO 2.0?

Well for one thing it's a integration of the web in the massive multiplayer online game. As MMO maps are huge we could very well be seeing MMO's adopting the Google Maps technology so the game map is displayed with cities and towns and even player housing locations. I'm sure that would make it a-bit easier. We could turn on our mobiles and boom our MMO map will be on there constantly changing thanks to Google map software, but it isn't just Google maps there's more MMO’s can adopt to make them more interesting and social (as you kind of guessed now) web 2.0 is Social.

Many players love to write stories and record there journeys. Many MMO's don't even have the journal feature let alone anything else advanced. What happens when you need something and there's no one around? Well the solution could be hitting MMO's very soon. Wiki's seem to be the top choice for collaborative information. Developers could build the basic wiki and let the players fill the advance stuff in. Many community sites for MMO's are like this. Star wars static’s are one of a kind for info on all SWG stuff, from items to city contents it's all there. Problem is it requires all this link clicking ect. So why not Wiki our information? Sure would make life easier.

Now many MMO's will start to undergo this step soon. Tech is getting much better. One example would be BigWorld Tech who is now supporting mobile platforms. So say you've just killed these level 10 monsters and need to get back to home town to meet with friends, but oh you got work to go to. Well sitting on the bus you load up the MMO on your mobile (it won't be fully graphical based yet) and navigate your character to your hometown ready for you to meet your friends when there on. Accessibility is the word here. MMO's are internet based. Mobiles, PDAs, ifones, Internet points all have the option of the internet so why not make our MMO's to be accessible on it. Some MMO's I myself am working on one in production at the moment. Use a web browser based client. Meaning no download require you just type that address in, login and play. What does that mean? Well it means I can load it on my mobile, my ifone and even go to a internet point around London and play it from there.

Now this is still a prototype and I know only one MMO to have this in working alpha at the moment. Couldn't we start to command our avatars in the game from IM? An msn type IM were you can have all your MMO friends as-well as the ability to command and navigate your avatar. That is still a very early concept and requires a web browser based client from my knowledge.

Dynamic worlds are kind of obvious but seeing I’m making a list of the MMO 2.0 I thought I would add it. Dynamic worlds in MMO's are here at the moment although there not greatly done we can start to learn from virtual worlds such as second life how popular a evolving world is.

Last but not least the Social aspect. It's pretty obvious we will be having MMO's with features for players such as blogs and podcasts along with the fan sites but digging deeper into 2.0 meaning we can start to look on giving players a MySpace page environment (all ran by the MMO company) players could have social networks of different guilds, races ect. Helps players gain more friends. You could post up your daily screenshot or maybe a YouTube type section for players to upload that awesome battle with a level 40 dragon they had. Video sharing and other media sharing are starting to get more and more popular. People are creating social networks because of this new way to share info and media. That's a big hook for a MMO to get players. The good thing as-well many MMO's have already huge variety of ready made social networks so giving them something cross between MySpace/YouTube/flickr could top most the MMO market out there.

I myself am aiming on the MMO 2.0 concept. Hopefully in a few years time this will be a normal aspect to MMO development. Although at the moment MMO's are starting to dye in my eyes. Virtual worlds are taking over. So we need to rise up to MMO 2.0 development and help give the players a more social and fun experience.

Vehicle Concepts

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:11:00 +0000

I came accross this video on Sclipo. Showing off how easy it is to make vehicle concepts just from basic shapes in photoshop.

Going Up In The World

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:32:00 +0000

Yesterday I was added to Ryan Shwayder's bloginati. With bloginati people such as Raph koster and Richard bartle being part of it. I'm very happy i'm being recognized to a industry standard and beyond. Also happy to have my name with the bloginati group.

www.bloginati.com

Adobe CS3 Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:27:00 +0000

It was nice to mingle with some movie and games industry people at the conference. I found Adobes new line to be very productive towards many graphical industry's such as the game industry. Some products stood out from the rest. Sound Booth and Premier are one of my favorites along with photoshop's new element of supporting 3D in it's interface. Also the vanishing point has be re constructed so we are now able to build virtual sets and the example we were shown of putting a flat plane CD cover on a 3d model all in photoshop.

My highlight was me winning a In Class Room book from the prize draw, shame it wasn't the actual creative software line which was first prize.

Virtual ME - Revised

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:28:00 +0000

Today I'm announcing a small project i've been working on for a-bit.

Virtual ME is a Virtual World Inside A widget. For those of you who don't know what widgets are, they are small handy little icons/flash/apps that can be placed on your desktop. Many give you live weather, news, and game info.

Virtual ME is the first Virtual World in Widget form, and anyone can create there own Virtual World using it! Virtual ME runs off a 2D Tile based format although in your personal virtual world you can link objects and portals to your blogs, websites, wikis, videos, audios.

You need some small experiance with editing via a text pad to create your very own world. Although I will be supplying tutorials for everyone to get started.

Currently Virtual ME is in Alpha Stages. BETA will be announced soon so keep your eyes pealed!

---- Revised ---

Virtual ME 2.0 is now a project name for a MMO (IDEA) based on my theory of MMO 2.0. The project supports many prototypes and thoeries in development for a unamed MMO title i'm currently working on.

Virtual ME 2.0 currently supports any device that can harness the power of flash. Meaning you will be able to play "Project X" on Mobile, Laptop, Blackberry, iFone, PC.

More infomation comming soon.

The Old Classics

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 03:08:00 +0000

The Games That Started It All Off!

These are all widgets. Follow the links to the source site were you can get the classics for your site/blog or myspace.

Space Invaders

http://www.springwidgets.com/widgets/view/102

Asteroids

http://www.springwidgets.com/widgets/view/107

Pong

http://www.springwidgets.com/widgets/view/127

Pac Man

http://www.springwidgets.com/widgets/view/126

Frogger

http://www.springwidgets.com/widgets/view/125

Virtual Game Conferences

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 01:38:00 +0000

The Side Project -

I recently founded a small group called "VGC" (Video Game Conferences). What VGC is intended to do is bring the games industry conferences to virtual games such as Metaplace, Second-Life, Multiverse Community Worlds.

VGC conferences will allow developers from Indie and Commercial ventures to show off there games and technology within virtual space. Also there is added sections for invited speakers to come along and perform live tracks for Design, Art and Programming. Targeting the virtual world as a venue is a brilliant choice due to there being more people will be able to attend from all over the world without leaving there computers. Developers won't have to travel to present there games. Plus it's open to Independent developers as-well as commercial ones.

VGC plans to give virtual venues the makeover venues with booths, Stages, Conference rooms, Lobby areas.

Currently VGC has it's first conference planned. Although there is no information on targeted virtual world yet.

More to be announced soon...

Areae Inc Announces Metaplace

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 22:53:00 +0000

Some fine news we have today on Raph Kosters company Areae Inc. They have just announced there new project Metaplace. Below is a bit about meta place from the official site:

Metaplace! That's what!

Build a virtual apartment and put it on your website. Work with friends to make a huge MMORPG. Share your puzzle game with friends. We have a vision: to let you build anything, and play everything, from anywhere. Eventually, anyway. We have to finish it first. www.areae.net

More to come soon..

Revisiting Classics

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 21:38:00 +0000

Recently I've been looking at some of the old games i used to play to see how they were and still are enjoyable to this very day. I've been mostly looking at the mechanics of each title and assessing on there "Fun Factor" as-well as other things among the design elements of the games.

Crazy Machines
Developer: Pepper Games
Publisher: Viva-Media
Site: www.crazy-machines.com

Firstly I looked at Crazy Machines. Although many of you may of thought I was talking about major old games I still am but old compared to me. Crazy Machines is named the wacky contraption game. The game incorporates PyshX with its genre Puzzle game. The aim in the game is to solve the puzzle to complete each objective.

An objective may be get the ball from one side of the screen to the other. Then you get given a set of all sorts of crazy items to get that ball from one side to the other. Below is a level screenshot from the game.

My Overview:
Game Type: Puzzle
Game Play: Open Ended
Play Time: 10hours Max (Depending on Player)
Design: Medium (Physics Part Makes Is Hard)

Conclusion:
Although a simple idea its a real classic in my books, keeps any player boggling there brain for hours on end.

Clonk Planet
Developer: Clonk.de
Publisher: Self Published
Site: www.clonk.de

Clonk planet is still one of my favorites. Made by Clonk.de starting off indie they have now brought Clonk into a complete franchise. Clonk Planet is one of the famous 2D building games in my game collection. Clonk Planet is now freely available on there site. There new Clonk game is turning Clonk 3D.

My Overview:
Game Type: God Game
Game Play: Free form with limits
Play Time: 5hours Max (Depending on Player)
Design: Medium

MAD: Global Thermonuclear Warfare
Developer: Small Rockets
Publisher: Self Published
Site: http://www.smallrockets.com

My all round favorite out of the three. MAD: GTW was one of the most addictive games I've played. It's a shame though it was left at just a one off release. It had big potential and all the upgrades ect. It could of undergone more options. MAD:GTW had no game play flaws the only problem i see fit was it wasn't big enough. You could reach top with all upgrades on around 2hours game play.

My Overview:
Game Type: God Game
Game Play: Has around 3 different tracks to take
Play Time: 2hours Max (Depending on Player)
Design: Has some complexity

Well although this post isn't relevant to many I've posted it any way. Maybe it will get some of you trying out these titles or give you inspiration to go back to your old classics and start playing. Makes a change from the high tech generation games.

Next Week - Adobe CS3 Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:07:00 +0000

Next week myself and Chris will be attending the Adobe CS3 tour in Cardiff at Cineworld. The Adobe tour is mainly for myself to meet up with a few contacts, but also to learn some new techniques for adobe design and photoshop. I will be taking my camera and also doing a short term write up of how the event went. I'm sure Chris will be having some fun with Blue Screens and CGI. Look out next week for the blog post.

Nano - The Short Story

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:17:00 +0000

Heres an extract from "Nano". Nano is a game idea written by myself. I started it off as a novel then brang it into the gameing world. Nano has still yet to have all of its infomation released. Heres the start of the short story. Mostly the introduction:

It’s been ten years since the Templar have stepped foot on Earth. My people are forced to live in hope of there return. At this time I sense the stars have yet to re align for seeing our future is impossible. We can not live in fear anymore. It’s time to rise up against the Coretex and regain power and then, yes then we can cry out for our saviours to support us on this journey to freedom.

As I walked to my writing desk I caught a glance of a transport vessel appear out of the thick black clouds. Horrible events flashed before my eyes, all I could feel was pain in my head. I held my hands over my eyes trying to stop these terrible mind tricks. It must have been a few seconds after all I can remember was waking up against a large crate. I remember having the feeling of dirt in my eyes, I started to rub them, they started to bleed. I screamed out in pain, “my eyes” I cried “my eyes”. Blood dripped down my face like tear drops, something had happened “I know” I said to myself. Something must of happened, I suffered serious pain to the back of my head, all I remember was my daughters voice. She sounded distressed. I tried to delve deep trying to remember but my mind wouldn’t let me. I knew if I let it heal, in time I would be able to regain some part of my memory.

After two minutes the bleeding from my eyes stopped. My eyes were still sore but something just wasn't right. I could feel something growing at the back of them. I was paralyzed in pain for a few seconds, It felt like sharp thick needles growing inside my head. Ripping and curling through my skull, it started to die down after a few minutes. My left arm was bruised and I didn’t have much feeling in it. I looked down at my clothes, my red robes which were once rich in colour were now tattered and ripped. What I did worry about was my hands. Then didn’t seem normal, they had a metallic feel to them. I clenched my right fist but my hand started to hurt. I quickly opened it back up and held it up to the sun. Suddenly these huge wires shot out from my wrist, up into the air and into my shoulders. My eyes started to burn, I shut my eyes in terror of pain. The flash backs started again. It was like a electrical surge running through my body which i couldn't control. I opened my eyes and stepped forward, in-front of me lay my home city in ruins. It was as if a sand storm had come and taken away its beauty. I stood on the ledge looking down at the place I once called home. I wondered to myself would I ever find out what’s happening to me? And then I woke, what a terrible dream. Then my eyes started to hurt…

MMODesigner.com Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:52:00 +0000

I got asked to join the unofficial Multiverse talk cast. I'll be talking about teams with MMO production and also the Multiverse toolset and how we can look to the future for a ultimate editor or still have the tools separately which can be time consuming at the best of times.

You can listen or download the podcast using the link below:

Download Multiverse Podcast 4

Click Here

Update on Behind Cover Design

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:13:00 +0000

I've been all over the place with different projects, helping people out and my own hobby projects. I've now started to draft up the design of the whole Beach Landing level. Below is 3 design maps showing overal gameplay and placement of items such as ammo and medic packs.

Brushing Up On FPS Level Design

noreply@blogger.com (Apple) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:03:00 +0000

I've recently been looking into level designer positions for various companys arround the UK one struck out was a company in london doing a MMO FPS. I had an interview last friday and hopeing to get some good feedback from them. Recently i've be submerged into this FPS design frenzy. Here are some shots of a level in progress.