Drawing with Pixels

When this baby hits 88MPH you're going to see some serious stuff fall off!

2011-11-10T20:37:00.001+00:00

Well it's time to get started on A4069 and what better place to start then with your brand new ride. The 1995 3-door Ford Fiesta!

Yes this highly reconstructed car is what you will be driving in A4069. With it's new age CD player and sleek design this puppy is ready for the open road.

Hopefully I will start work on the teaser trailer for later this month so is to put a footing on my plans. Peace out!

A4069 First Concept

2011-11-02T18:15:00.002+00:00

Well it is just about time to start on my next project. Named A4069 which is road name for the Black Mountain pass the game will be a look into the beauty of Driving and solitude. With music accompanying you as you drive this famous road along with visuals which coincide with the music and the player. There will also be scenes of reflection where the main character takes time to reflect on their life up until now.

Below if the first concept for the game the night time level where Light trails playfully lead you to the end.

I'm really excited for this and see this as "That Game company's" game "Flower" but with a car. Watch this space.

(Larger version can be found here)

The Horror the Horror

2011-10-20T19:55:00.001+01:00

I have just got onto an MA animation course so this means I have another year to get my act together. This is great news for me because it might get rid of my shame of having a 2:2 Result for my BA Hons. At the moment I'm very very late to get in 3 weeks late but in fact. but catching up has been smoother than I had expected.

I had recently done a presentation of my project "All Alone" Which has changed allot since it's last incarnation. Now instead of a FPS with no action it is a Stealth RTS. The visual style will stay the same but the gameplay and the interface will be completely changed. I'm enjoying this but I must be sure to set limits I might not even do this project for my MA, unless I can find enough people to help me out.

The other Game project I have in the works is known for now as "A4096". Now A4096 is a road in mid Wales also known as the "Black Mountain Pass" which was made popular be Top Gear a few years back. What does this even mean, well this is a driving/art game think "Flower" by "That game company but with a car. Although there is no racing and it isn't heavy on metaphors instead it is all about the joys of driving and solitude. I want to make music a key factor in this by using artistic visuals like light trails and colour as a driving force (Pun not intended). I still have little idea on how to do all of it but it is a nice little spark and hopefully the wood is dry enough to actually set alight. Watch this space.

As it is nearing the end of October that means only one thing, Yanks have fun eating sweets while I have fun at Game City playing the video games. I have my business cards ready and I am looking forward to show off what I can (getting drunk and spending money in "Page 45" is also on the agenda).

I have also been caught up in Haunted houses over in the States. They not only look like fun but They seem like a great idea by looking into how to get an interactive audience to react. I would like to go over to "Halloween Horror Nights" over at Universal Studios Orland and get some ideas for scaring an audience for a horror game.

Sorry for the lack of work and pictures but getting on this MA has been a top priority for men and I am also in the really early stages of concept hopefully soon I can get something out soon. in the mean time have a Brushie.

Lighting cont'd

2011-08-30T22:54:00.004+01:00

Well I've finished the Tutorial a little slower than hoped but it's done. Here are the results.

Overall I'm pleased but I would of liked to finished them sooner. Also I want to focus my attention onto environment art now. I have a project nagging at the back of my neck based on my love for abandoned buildings and the Med School's New blood 2011 Album.

Unfortunately I have yet to complete my two other projects, Project Night light and the Farnsworth House. So that Will have to wait till Later, I also got work experience that is completely Irrelevant to anything I want to do (cheap labour for them)

Let there be light

2011-08-15T01:13:00.004+01:00

Okay Not a super productive week as I have been doing a lot of odd jobs around my house (painting furniture mostly).

I have been able to practice my lighting techniques. I've looked at Maya Essentials magazine to help me out. There are a whole load of useful stuff in there.

(Sunset Render Time to render 1 Hour and 10 Minutes)

I have also been brushing up on my Texture painting (get it Brush, painting). Thanks to this great but pricey Gnomon tutorial by Paul Campion. I have only completed half of the tutorial as the second half is based on faces and I want to leave it for when I might need to focus on characters.

Link

(Shark tooth)

The fact of the matter is that I have little time to work on my technique as I being dragged away from it whether it is by doing odd jobs around the house of the distraction of working from home.

It's over

2011-07-27T12:17:00.007+01:00

It has been half a year since my last post. I have been too busy to much of stuff in my free time but now I'm out of University with a miserable 2:2. What brought me down was my Dissertation which I foolishly made on sound and music. In all honesty though there were other "Distractions" including a new television show involving Small Equines.

Now I'm out I'm just looking for a job any job. I have already sent out a few portfolios but no response yet (No surprise). In the mean time I have decided to work on my CGI skills and build a few pieces of work. whether they are art or just tests I hope they can build up my portfolio. The first of these is called Project Night light. Basically it is a recreation of a scene in the for-mentioned show a fantasy throne room. Stereotypical I know but it is a good place to look at bump, normal and specular maps.

The Second is my attempt at recreating the Farnsworth house. It's simple geometry, open plan and minimalism is perfect for not only practice but lighting tests.

Both are in their early days and I don't know when they could be completed.

I am also looking into making music as a hobby. I have already Fiddled around with FL Studio but now I'm looking into LSDJ and program that lets you make music through the sound card of an old Gameboy. I need this because If I am just focused on one thing then I loose all of what little personality that I have.

Hopefully I will find a job and then I can get some money, it will be even better if I can find a job making games.

Aftermath

2011-01-30T22:20:00.003+00:00

Well the Concept doc is done, Game Jam over and now the real work begins.

A lot of written work has been done but I have been foucused on how to get to work. I think I have some idea of how to do it but I have a lot of work to do.

We Game Jam for me was ok. several problem had turned up on my account but eventualy I became a sort of Merc. If I was to do it again I will only be able to work on 3D projects (Not easy when making a game in 48 hours.

to top it off here is the final Concept shot for FP3

Blarghifragle

2011-01-19T01:59:00.005+00:00

Well it has been a long time since I've updated this blog. so far I can't get any sleep and I'm entering the Global Game Jam on the 28th of Jan two days after my birthday. the reason why I'm typing really is because I have just finished a concept for my final year and I impressed myself (not saying much) so bask in it's awesomeness.

A Change of Plan

2010-10-18T18:09:00.003+01:00

Things didn’t turn out as I had planned for the week. For a start I have completely scraped my idea for a game based around Zero G platform/Puzzle game, sort of “Portal” meets Dead Space in which the player is placed in a Zero G environment and needs to traverse different obstacles and traps in order to reach their goal. To aid them they would be given tools like a mid-air break and a grapple.

On the meeting on Tuesday I pitched my idea to the rest of the class. I had originally put a video up on my facebook page to ask people if this was any good so a few people knew what I was planning. Time came and when I announced it not a major uproar of applause, no Ticker tape parade and no piles of naked women on top of a mountain of money. Well I might be getting off point; basically everyone had good and bad ideas.

A lot of people had already formed groups so if I was to have anyone on board pickings would be slim. After listening to everyone’s “Elevator pitches” I aloud my mind to choose which one held the most. I had no intention of doing this alone as I have heard many stories of people working on their own not even getting something out the door so to speak

The one game that stuck in my head was Charlotte Gyseman MC Esher FPS. The one thing that really got me interested was the abandoned building art style she had mentioned. I for one love that particular style not just in games but in art and films.

So if you want to see more of this then here is the projects blog .

Last Week

2010-10-05T21:12:00.007+01:00

Well summer is up and it is back to Uni thanks to the Ryder Cup giving us another week off. There is a lot of things to go on including work on all alone Eurogamer Expo and Uni Work so lets get at it.

I'll talk about all alone first. There has been a lot of progress on this even though the writing is not yet complete there has been some great suggestions from these guy who are doing a great job of helping me out.
Keriann Nelson- http://tudocs.ning.com/profile/KieranNelson
Jamie Boyle- http://tudocs.ning.com/profile/Jamie
of course I want to keep my cards close to my chest so no spoilers.

As for the game itself I'm finding coding very hard so I need to keep on working on that. on the Levels themselves I have one more map to go. It's been great experience and has really improved my Maya skill even if the models are simple as they can be.

Music wise I have gotten permission to use music from this great artist Named Kilton:
http://soundcloud.com/urlyd-recordings.
His songs sound amazing and fit so well with the game I can't wait to use them.

I have also made new posters here:

More in game!

As for Uni work I'm a Little bit unsure I have two ideas in my head either a Zero G puzzle game or a Music game for the Android/IPhone where you collect icons into baskets to complete a song.

As for my dissertation I want to have a look at marketing in games especially for the Halo series as during the realise of Halo Reach there were amazing marketing campaigns some viral and some more public. it might not be a bad thing to look at really because if it wasn't for Alfred Hitchcock's marketing for Psycho it might not of been the classic we know today.

I also went to Eurogamer Expo in London for the Friday, Got up at 5 in the morning just to get there. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but I did have to wait an hour to play "Brink" (Which was worth it) unfortunately I didn't get a looking with my portfolio but I got some great advice from the guys over at Rare. Apart from "Brink" I enjoyed playing Need For Speed Hot Pursuit and Crysis 2. I played others but those three were the best.

So one more Year then I have to work. I have no idea what is going to happen but as I always say...

"The only easy day was yesterday".

Straight from the hippie's mouth

2010-09-09T04:01:00.005+01:00

Smile and Obey

2010-09-03T18:51:00.007+01:00

I've decided to show off some of the propaganda posters for All Alone. I love the of the second world war and Soviet Union propaganda posters which had a lot of minimalism in their design. I also made them like this to give the player about what time this was set and how controlled this place was. Hopefully I can make some more soon.

New Logo now I'm like a real Game Designer

2010-08-23T14:49:00.003+01:00

Hay Boys and Girl I've being scouring the one sea that is the Internet and I've done some interesting things. for one I'm going full steam ahead with All Alone and getting really excited.

I have even Made a Logo for myself if you look down there you can see it for yourself.
I have also been playing Kane and Lynch 2. I will say it is best bought as a rental but it is a good rental at that. A very short campaign but with some really cool moments.

Farm and Industrial

2010-08-18T17:40:00.007+01:00

OK midway through and here is some of my progress I have had to get some help by using some great models from Turbosquid. in the writing side I have found for some reason the soundtrack to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky to be a great Muse. the biggest problem is keeping to a theme. The main books I'm using to help our are Sara Kane's play "4:48 Psychosis" and (Strangely) Max Brooks "World War Z". "4:48 Psychosis" is a strange play not only for the content but also in the way it is written no definitive characters although there seems to be three. the writing has been refereed by many as Sara Kane's Suicide note, very dark and misleading. My former tutor David Surman had pointed me to this play so kudos to him.

"World War Z" is a Zombie Horror written after the events of a global outbreak of Zombies. So why has this influenced me? The way it is written is just like an after action report to any war and in doing that gives the impression that you have been locked in a bunker all this time and have been given this to know what has been going on in your absence. one very importance scene I have taken influence from is where the author is visiting a young woman in a mental institute who has regressed into a child way of thinking. a very strong scene and shows how mentally destroying a situation like that can be. I hope to recreate the same atmosphere in this game as well with the writing especially in the later parts.

Now I am now looking for any programmers or Musicians to help out in any way possible. Musically I am looking for something similar to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76JMTvB5Vwk&p=5915B9CCD0DA343F&playnext=1&index=3. If you can help that will be great.

P.S.-How to make a Cult

A little treat

2010-08-11T01:48:00.004+01:00

High Guy a lot of little things have been done but I want you guys to see for yourself so here is a link and tell me what you think.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QVUGNRU1
The main thing is that I haven't put in any of the writing yet and I need props for those.

Back from France Bringing gifts

2010-07-27T23:08:00.011+01:00

OK Guys, and more like Back from holidays and it was great got a tan on my skin some I'm just a little less plain paper some not so white paper.

Any way Picked up some graffiti mags which you can't get over here in the UK and I love them I wish some one would make them available over here and in English.

I wanted to get a video out for "All Alone" to give people a better picture of what it will look like. I have only got the visuals down and quite pleased.

All Alone from Tim O'Connell on Vimeo.

Week 3

2010-06-20T22:13:00.004+01:00

Unfortunately it's been quite a busy week for me looking for work and making good excuses. I've mostly been working on the script trying to get enough lines of dialog to spread across the game. I'm looking for people to help out hopefully programmers and musicians so any help is appreciated. some few more screen shots just for the hell of it.

Week 2

2010-06-15T20:48:00.007+01:00

Temple Interior

Temple outside

Basic Building Interior

Basic building outside

Well 2nd week and I'm keeping up, lets wait till next week. The main problems I have been having is with the writing. Basically if I can't get the writing up to a certain level the this will all be for nothing so it is a real conundrum so far. Hopefully I will get this sorted out before next month. I've started with the buildings now. The Temple is complete and a basic building is complete which I will fill with props.

Lazy Boy making experiance

2010-06-09T18:48:00.006+01:00

I have been planning to sit on my arse allowing it to ferment all through the summer but my arse was having none of it and told me to do some work over the summer. So I've decided to make a short project based on my Video "Abandoned". So what will it be it's mostly a love letter to Chinese Room for their awesome mod "Dear Esther" the first thing is the title, I wanted to call it Abandoned but this will be a bit to Brash so I've decided on the lesser title of "No one here". The game play itself is more of an experience nothing serious and I might not even if have a game play mechanic (if I can't find a programmer for cheap). Finally the visual style, because I am crap at everything I want to make it as simple as possible. I 'm going for a monotone look which adds to the idea of being alone and void of life.

I want to update this on a weekly basis so I actually complete it and get feed back from anyone who stumbles onto this.

Des Bois Finished

2010-05-24T14:42:00.000+01:00

Flyer Back

2010-05-14T16:29:00.002+01:00

A Failiure before your eyes

2010-05-13T05:21:00.001+01:00

Today technology has improved so much that you can see individual skin pigments eye lashes and other small details to character. So why are we still seeing games where characters are waving their violently just to shake someone’s hand? In many films Emotions are played out though the characters especially with body language rather than dialogue. One of the most influenced scene comes from Martin Scorsese’s 1990 hit “Goodfellas” where the character Tommy DeVito played by Joe Pesci confronts one of his friends by asking how he was a “Funny Guy” a unnerving scene as we know they are violent men but also how Joe Pesci played the character in a brilliant way as to establish his dominance within the group. So why is a scene like this not in a game there are many characters that take influence from Tommy Devito but there hasn’t been a scene which really makes you worried about their next move.
In many games story takes a backseat along with character performance to engage an emotion with the player. The most popular being fear as it is a primal emotion used as a defence mechanism. Other emotions such as love, trust sorrow take a long time as it requires a strong relationship to a character.
“Arousal is a very general physiological process, and, as argued by cognitive labelling theorists of human emotions, in order to create emotions out of arousal you need cognitively to specify, to contextualise the arousal, in order to elicit emotions.” (Media entertainment: the physiological of its appeal, By Dolf Zillmann, Peter Vorderer, 2000, p201) I believe this is an important notice to get down before I progress, the idea that we build media on our primal instincts Fear, Lust, Pity ect. Even if film are shorter in length and are yet able to get even the hardest emotion out of the viewer while a lot of gamers don’t even bat an eyelid.
In games it falls to the Level design to provide these emotions along with music but can this be the only way of creating emotions within the player. With games providing a new way to tell stories I feel many designers stick to knowledge gathered from cinema and not books or even theatre and this stops them from experimenting. There are two emotions I want to look at loneliness and being at a great event. The first has been used to great effect in games using the environment rather than characters with effects like sound and lighting. The second is rarely used in games but it is something that is also is about environment rather than characters.
I don’t just look at using characters to portray mood but also how to use that to effectively give a player an incentive to carry out a particular action without prompting and somebody else to tell you what to do (Mission Control). I feel this could have several benefits the main benefit is to give the player a greater sense of accomplishment when they complete said task. One other benefit I’d hope as a result of this would be the engagement of the player in the video game will be stronger and this would link to stronger emotions to the characters that inhabit the world.

Personal observations
In a Linear game such as Metro 2033(2010, THQ, 4A games) and Half-life 2(2004,EA, Valve) I noticed very little in the way of objectives even if a character told you to go to a certain place there is almost no more dialog for the rest of the level or several levels. But in a lot of these situations there are only hostiles to fight against and no support. When a player had a companion they were constantly telling the player to attack or to stand down.
There are some games especially online based games like “World of Warcraft”(2004, Actiision Blizzard) and the “Battlefied” series where you have several objectives at once and the player has to make a choice of whether to defend one location or attack another. There are several factors that make the player come to a decision one might be team work, another might be to improve their ranking and in turn allowing the player access to weapons or tools that will benefit them at a later time. It might even be the idea of being the hero some who goes against all the odds for fame and glory.
Can we use this in single player games? Even though AI is all around the player sent to locations by path nodes, animations and codes. In many cases they are so primitive they are an Obstacle to get from one place to another. Certainly wouldn’t feel dismay if one of these NPC were to be terminated. This to me is a problem, as game designers I don’t what these NPCs to be terminated I want them to die. The player should feel sorrow and change their playing style because they have lost someone they hold dear. But even in Multiplayer games this is a problem because a game can be restarted but films and books can be revisited so how come it isn’t a problem for them?

Back to basics
I don’t want to look at writing for games because I believe that we need to leave this childish action hero style of acting and aim for a serious look at acting and body language. After all that is how films had started. I think we have been spoilt in the way of technology so that the games industry has become the spoilt son of Film who wants to so much like it piers but tries too hard.
In the first generation of films there was no sound and the film quality was so poor as the equipment was had operated they look like black and white show reels. So directors used pantomime actors and comedians for their films in order to get a message across even when text was introduced directors preferred to use these types of actors.
Fast forward a few years and the introduction of sound soon saw the end for a lot of these actors’ careers. In 1926, Jack Warner, then head of Warner Bros studio, declared that talking films would never be a commercial success. Silent films, he argued, had an international appeal, a visual language that transcended the spoken word. They allowed the audience to invest their own meanings, imagine their own dialogue. This obviously was not the case and sound was a revolution in how films would now be made.
Later on new techniques were being used like camera angles and height, Transitions and later colour. This allowed directors for more dramatic scenes without the need for actors to over perform. By tilting a camera up or down you could make a character as menacing as a bear or as vulnerable as a kitten.
Theatrical types
There are different types of theatrical types each posing an importance to a story. Though I want to focus on two of them Pantomime and Realism.
Pantomime
Many people think that this is just something that comes around during Christmas but it is a lot deeper than that. Pantomime started in ancient Greece where the performer world perform using music (normally Flute) and wouldn’t speak letting their bodies tell the story with over the top expressions. It proved to be extremely popular.
When the English adopted Pantomime in the Early 18th Century it was first used as shorts between Operatic pieces. It later grew into pantomime we know today.
Realism
As the name suggests Realism theatre is all about creating a believable performance for the audience. Realism theatre was born in Russia during the 19th Century and was helped by the father of modern acting Constantin Stanislavski.
Stanislavski created methods for actors who were to embrace this new form of theatre and is the definitive method to realism acting. The system is based on an actor being "in the moment" but always staying one step away from complete belief. He felt that it is important that, whilst the actor should experience and show the emotions of the character, it is very important the actor still stay detached.

Proposal
What I want to know is what we need to do to get the best experience out of characters whether they be highly detailed or simple humanoid shapes using only their body language and how that will impact on the player. Understandably in the early years of games we’ve had problems due to graphics limiting us to basic moves with ridged joints. Now with the use of more sophisticated CGI software which is more accessible to animators and Motion Capture.
For a long time the CGI first animations were not created by animators but by scientist who had numerous PHD’s in sciences. It wasn’t long though until 1979 when George Lucas set up a Computer Hardware company named Pixar. They employed their first animator John Lasseter and their first short film “The Adventures of André and Wally B” (Pixar, 1984).
During the process new techniques were being created by the technology and John Lasseter would think of new ways of using that technology. “Art Challenges technology, the technology inspires the art” (John Lasetor, The Pixar story, 2009). This rings true to me and certainly a lot of game designers has formed to this one being Hideo Kojima
With his unconventional and experimental approaches to storytelling in games including interactive scenes that have often tried to break the “4th Wall” many of them failed but they are still memorable as they have created a stronger connection the game world. The problem with Hideo Kojima though is that the stories are very exclusive only lending to those who wish to peruse it making it richer.
A newer game “Heavy Rain” created by the French studio Quantic dream. Has an extremely strong focuses on story and have tried to implement it with controls that correlate with the actions on screen. The game has had mixed reviews even during its production as nothing before has been done to this level.
There is still a lot of experimenting needed to be done as this is still a very young medium. Something that requires participation, you are required to complete a task to receive the next part of a story, scenes where the player can move around in a scene, a player can also break a game completely removing themselves from the games work (Shooting support character on purpose, falling through scenery or even being at the wrong place at the right time).
What will I need to look at though? I firstly need to see what moods I can create by using the environment. For that I want to look at two games “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat” (2010, GSC World) and “Burnout Paradise” (2008, EA Games, Criterion Games). One is a solitude game set in the Russian wastelands of Chernobyl the other is set is a bustling city of the USA full of people racing cars like psychos.
I want to see the reactions of player when put into these worlds how have their playing styles change and what they feel playing these games. I want to then use that information and create a specific scenario which a player can participate and then I can gage their reactions on where they are in that scene. I also want to see how the level of communication between the player and NPCs affect their play styles.
To do this I will create a sort of “Crime scene” environment set around a riot on a street. Set during three different times before, during and after then from different points one from the rioters another from the police and another as an outsider (Reporter, resident or helicopter pilot)
I not only hope that this will help Directors but also actors and screen writers. We are still holding close to films but we need to be adventurous and if needed create a whole new way of delivering stories in games.

Hand outs Take 1

2010-04-26T19:04:00.001+01:00

My Showreel For Game Grads

2010-04-16T23:24:00.004+01:00

Timothy O'Connell 2010 Showreel from Tim O'Connell on Vimeo.

A weekend with Unreal

2010-04-10T23:13:00.004+01:00

I'm just playing around With the Unreal Developers Kit and I really like it really hope I will be able to use it next term.