Mon 1 Dec – Sun 7th Dec
- Reading and analysis
- this is a good one – https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/better-game-design-through-cutscenes
- https://spacedraft.com/help-center/cutscenes-that-make-the-cut
- https://www.numberanalytics.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-cutscenes-in-game-design
- take aways
-
Focus of the week: intro cutscene – from the reading, playing and planning…
Mon
Tues
- Project work 1
Wed
- Game play – continue with current game and notes etc.
- Play for an hour – make notes
The Legend of Zelda – Link’s Awakening – Opening cinematic/title
Well, they are called ‘cut scenes’ I think…
- Establishing shot
- a silhouette of a boat on a stormy ocean – the sounds of rain – dramatic music
- rain comes in sideways
- lightning flashes
- Close up on character 1
- Link holding on to a mast
- lightning flashes
- Establishing shot
- boat continues to centre of screen
- this time – lightning strikes the mast
- a white flash – white out and hold…
- Establishing shot
- a beach – with a forest and mountain in the background
- character 2 walking on the beach – they stop
- they continue, hesitantly, coming across character 1, appearing to be lying unconscious on the beach
- character 2 approaches character 1, and hesitantly nudges them
- based upon he coming title, we can assume that character 1 is Link
- they freeze…camera pans up…
- Title loop
- camera pans up the mountain – it has what appears to be a giant egg sitting on top of it, dwarfing the whole area
- camera settles on the title – we hear the classic game series theme music
- we stay there – with glinting appearing across the words
- this loops until the player presses a button
As part of this introduction, a few questions are implied as it proceeds, which I would argue is the key purpose of the intro cinematic, leading to the title…
- Where are we?
- Who is the person who has found us?
- What has happened?
- What’s the egg?
- Why do we care?
These are the things that are established:
- Mood established
- Style established – use of texture and tone as well as solid colour to build up the composition
- Not certain of gameplay
- Narrative elements are established
A few of these questions are answered directly in the opening minute or so of game play:
- We are on a strange, unfamiliar island
- We find out the characters name (and who they are NOT)
But, as these questions are answered, more come out of them…
Takeaways for Subliminor
- Establish a set of questions that the player asks after watching it, to help drive interest
- It is not intended to answer questions, but to raise them…
- Establish an invitation for the player to play, in order to start answering to questions
- Its a call to action…
- Establish who the player will be
- Establish the mood
- Establish the style and look
- Establish the world
- Hint at gameplay, but this is not vital…
- Keep it short and to the point
- Only add as much detail as becessary – texture and tone can go very far…
Thu
- Project work 2 – Pre production –
- Do up the Concept for teaser cut scene…
- Thumbnail and storyboard cut scene
- What are the key questions I am hoping players will ask
- where is this place?
- what can we do?
- who are we?
- How about this:
- start with a storm
- clouds part onto the view of the place
- character walks on to screen from bottom onto the headland
- they stop
- sea mist rolls in
- cut to the iconic rock
- title is revealed
- end on title loop
- loop of wind gusts in background
- mocked up a three panel sequnce – took pics – now to run it past a few a few people and find out what questions they get from it…
- results to come!
- RESPONSE 1 – suspense – awe – trepidation – changeability – what is it? – mystery
- RESPONSE 2 – ready to go – whet appetite for the story world – have a taste – good that it showed not told…
- Yes! This is what I was hoping for! My enthusiastic narration may have helped
Fri
- Project work 3 – set up the subliminor site ready for the animation etc. DONE
- URL: subliminor.com – domain set up and all good – should be propagating now… DONE
- set up discord channel etc. – https://discord.gg/qX5A7Jeh DONE
- set up a vimeo channel for putting up test videos/prototypes etc. – gotta pay – don’t seem to be able to make a new channel on youtube… annoying!
- so, maybe I will host it on google drive?
Sat
- Finish off tasks or, if done – start another task…
- do the zotero connection thing
- fix why my phone can’t sync to blog any more… no odea why, but now its fine…
- icon/logo – design to work at small scale…
- developing a visual style
- what are the immovable constraints
- what do we need to draw from
- i like the way in b and w graphics they slowly meld from the black describing the texture to white describing it
- purposes – in game – cutscenes
- https://twinwingames.com/guide-to-2d-game-art/
- look at analysis of things i like as well as devligs by those that inspire – pedro medeiros
- how do they handle detail and readability in backgrounds, scenes, etc. characters, props – size, detail, animation, scenes etc. textures, tone etc. scale
- https://www.patreon.com/posts/gamedev-city-97987324
- patreon
Sun
A quick catch up session
My style taste journey
- I think its a good place to start
- One of the earliest games i remember falling in love with was Dark Castle (1986)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Castle) on my cousin’s very old mac… we had a vic20 and an apple 2c, but the graphics on that were just totally up my alley – no idea why… maybe because WE couldn’t have them because we didn’t have a mac… Having looked at the 16 colour versions of it – I think it looses a lot
- In early high school, i remember being drawn to an Albrecht Durer book – in particular, the etchings – again, it was the crisp black and white, the spare and refined use of line – EVERY line worked hard and had a purpose – it fascinated me that you could see before your very eyes, a visceral, tactile illustration – yet it was still totally bamboozling how it was achieved…
- Our family also had an MC escher book, which I loved to look through
- Lore of flight was a book that had copius amounts of black and white exploded and cutaway diagrams
- Encyclopedia set – the one that had all the illustrations in it – little micro worlds on a particular topic – for example, all the different types of animals in a particular area etc.
- Love of cinema – The Lighthouse – loved the square format – the B&W
- Also, a big fan of silent era black and white films – Nosferatu, Faust, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari etc. –
- Games
- GB
- Windsor McKay – Black Hole – Crumb – Chris Ware – Joe Sacco – Basil Wolverton
- Hiroshige (and other japanese woodblockers…)
- Can you see a theme?
- The O’Reilly book covers are always a favourite
- Its no surprise that I want to do pen and ink drawing!
Takeaways
I seem to particularly respond to styles that are very spare, every line has a purpose – you mind is drawn in to the style
More detailed sketches for intro cutscene
break down the intro into the parts
The approach – shape – light – detail (this bit depends on the purpose and context – e.g. if its in the background – consider limiting this, possibly to 0
- storm clouds – side on view – start with a series of circles – on mass, they have a flow because they are in a group- light from above/behind top left –
- pedro says: Start by thinking in groups of spheres with a flat base
- calm clouds – side on view – limit detail as it is in the background
- rain – side on view
- wind whisps – side on view
- sea mist flurries – side on view
- waves on beach – 3/4 view – these are distant, only need to be a few curved lines…
- rock with logo – side on view
- calm scene of the bay – headland in distance – side on view – refer to initial sketch –
- calm scene of the bay – the main rock bits…3/4 view
- top half of character from behind – 3/4 view
- sparkly/glinty sand – side on view
Aiming for the style that has as few outlines as possible – e.g. transitioning from one shade to another doesn’t have an outline (I mean, why do that???)
Get reference…
https://saint11.art/blog/pixel-art-tutorials/#Clouds
Interestingly, the b.g clouds here are just the thing I think: https://saint11.art/blog/pixel-art-tutorials/#Ruins
This is the one for the character: https://saint11.art/blog/pixel-art-tutorials/#TopDownWalkCycle and this one: https://saint11.art/blog/pixel-art-tutorials/#TopDownRun
2 tone
This is where I stall…
The doing…
- Hour 1 – document and update log of things done (this page)
- Hour 2 – add tasks to the next one… (include a link to it from here…)
HOUR 3 and 4 – Tutorial/learning thing – do that tute in the GBStudio world building book
Lesson for the week – stop going down irrelevant rabbit holes – keep focused on the purpose of the week…
QUESTIONS
keep adding them, and keep rolling them over…
- develop initial style guide as a starting point – develop a starter style guide – link to pinterest
- mockup website – it will be charcoal black – with a square in the middle – that is the ‘game screen’ – it will be 2x scale ()
- set up pipeline – 1. work on local machine – using VScode 2. commit to gitlab – 3. posted on site
- mockup intro cutscene in aesprite
- add intro cutscene to
- do the tutorial
- tidy up the game design doc
- create icon for discord etc. – a shape that reads properly
- examples of multiple ways of accessing game world data – not necessarily the SAME game rendered for different devices and platforms – but ways of accessing the game world using different APPS on the SAME device/platform…
- looking at ways of interacting with the gameworld – via handheld devices – what are some solutions from different games?
- how could i incorporate paper mechanics and cutouts?
- build in 30 mins of drawing activity every day please! and then, on to watercolour etc.
- add in a place to capture questions/tasks that need to be investigated/done and can be added to the list every week…
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