Final Lab (CS 1107)

As dictated by the sheet of paper in front of me, the final lab presentation I have just assembled must be linked to in this style:

(( PRESENTATION ))

In addition to this, I must now apparently embed it, as it will follow immediately after this sentence, which I will be ending as of right now.

Finally, though this may strike you as slightly nonsequitur, I have finally been told to link to my favorite professional Internet site. As this would be "not-safe-for-work" by most people's prudish standards, I will instead link to GamaSutra, a web site that promotes videogame news and analysis in a smart and sensible fashion.

To anyone reading this post, I appreciate you keeping up with this blog; by no means will this be the final post appearing on MTA -- I've put far too much effort into the supplementary graphics to have it just be for a single semester's class! Stay tuned, everyone; there's bound to be an update here sooner or later. :3

CS 1107 Lab Assignment: Review for the Final

As the semester draws quickly to a much-deserved close, the students of this course have been compelled to compile various trinkets into workable presentations, and embed them here alongside a lovely paragraph of our impressions of the class.

To be frank, since I put myself into the class at the very last minute for the sole purpose of rounding out my earned credits to a not-so-even 16 for this semester, I didn't really put a lot of thought into my choice -- so it came as a sudden surprise that I'd signed up not for "Intro to Computers [in a scientific setting]", but "Intro to Computers [in general, for people who haven't consistently worked with one since they were six years old]". Even so, I learned a few things -- especially toward the back half of the semester, during which I finally learned a few marvelous tidbits (such as what the term BIOS stands for). It also helped prepare me for the base-2 notation assignments I would later face in CS 1309 - Problem Solving and Computer Science, giving me yet another opportunity to hold myself above everyone else for being slightly more simple-minded than I am.

Given the purpose of this course, I have no complaints about how it was laid out. It gave me an excuse to work in a light programming environment and focus a fair amount on game design; I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to someone as experienced with computers as myself, unless they (like me) had problems accommodating student loan requirements due to missteps made in a prototypical college career more than five years ago. I'd like to thank my professor (Christine Bakke) for putting up with my horrible lateness and crazy excuses; she's a very talented professor, even if she did refer to me with the incorrect pronouns a few times. :3

Presentations:





Finally, a bonus video of a bunch of awesome nerds messing around with emulators:

Game Development Happenings

This week has been heavily laced with programming for me! I have, here, a few screenshots of things I've spent a few hours on each:



1) Chapter 3 of The Game Maker's Apprentice: Galactic Mail. In it, you pilot a slow-turning ship through a starfield to deliver mail to planets, avoiding asteroids along the way. The book encourages you to make the ship pilot like molasses, for some reason; the game is very difficult to beat unless you jump directly from planet to planet, abusing one of the central mechanics. Even so, it taught me how to use named variables to sort out movement parameters, and how to use multi-layered .gifs to create dynamic sprites -- both useful skills I intend to exploit in the future.



2) Chapter 4 of the Game Maker's Apprentice: Lazarus! Despite its somewhat cool-sounding name, it's a stupid game about stacking falling crates. However, it taught me one important thing: when creating a character, you can easily make him/her a series of connected objects that only appear under certain circumstances and, if the transition is seamless, no one will be the wiser! When I read this, a supernova of ideas went off in my head, which are all saved on a Google Document to which only I have the working link. ;3



3) All this work has made me decide to mess with Photoshop to create a series of sprites for that Dream Tower demo level, the concept art of which I uploaded to my Picasa a while ago. This is all the work I've done so far: Fritz standing/running, and four ground sprites to simulate perfect diagonal surfaces. I haven't gotten to animating or programming any mechanics for these, though -- I still have quite a few chapters to go before I stand a chance of having it control how I want. Still, this was fun! I hope I get some more time to continue this work in the near future.



4) I started messing around in Scratch at home! I came up with a few ideas for making this into something you'd call a "game" -- I'm rather proud of them, actually -- but there are a couple of things I need to figure out first. Still, exciting! (the sprites are mine, of course)

CS 1107 Assignment: Post About Alice

Above is a screenshot of the web site for Alice, a classy-looking programming language developed at the Carnegie Mellon university. Much like Scratch, it was created as an object-oriented interface through which students can learn the basics of computer programming in a fun and helpful environment.



Unlike Scratch, however, Alice is capable of rendering three-dimensional objects in real time. Students pick from libraries of 3D objects -- many user-created, others provided by massive companies like Electronic Arts -- and arrange and animate them as the student sees fit. Personally speaking, I don't like to work in 3D; the complexity of the graphic elements can be very complicated and lack the longevity desired of a truly lasting product. Despite this, Alice is clearly a helpful resource for those who don't feel the same way as I do, and for this reason its existence alone should be commended.



They also have a separate program called Storytelling Alice! It is focused less on game development and more on higher-level animation scripting, making it more ideal for telling complex stories. Again, for those who prefer not to have their stories told by set clusters of pixels in the shapes of robots, vikings, or cute animals, it looks extremely recommendable.

CS 1107 Assignment: Scratch Game 1

The three images that follow are from this evening's CS 1107 assignment! We actually did something related to game design: we messed with a scripting mechanism by the name of Scratch, developed by MIT for the purposes of teaching beginner's code in a safe and object-oriented environment. As I am just starting to code outside basic HTML, this is a somewhat valuable resource to me.

Tonight, we messed around with scripting mechanisms; we came to a point where we learned how to program character movement and established global actions. Screenshots are below; more will follow.

CS 1107 Assignment: Second Survey

Last night, after a fair amount of struggling, I came up with a second survey through Google Docs -- one that features subject matter equally relevant to this blog. It's about the prevalence of digital distribution in the realm of video games, and the opinions of those who use it. It can be found here, if anyone reading this would like to take it as well.

The results can be found here. Of the three people I've surveyed so far, all of them are deeply into video games; as such, their response to question 1 is unsurprising. The rest of the answers are fairly spread out, though; I personally find it interesting that none of the three participants could come to a consensus on the ideal price/content allowance of a download-only game. Such a survey would be useful, should a project of mine get off the ground-- until then, however, I'm content with this as a student project.

CS 1107 Lab Assignment - Survey Created with Google Docs

In class, we were assigned the task of creating a survey through Google Docs related to the topic of my blog. It is available here -- apologies if the answers are at all limited, as they were composed in the span of around 40 minutes. Even so, I'm rather proud of it; this has the potential to provide an interesting cross-section of my potential audience, should I ever decide to get into coding something one of these days. Additional note: If I actually receive any responses outside those mandated in class, I will be unbelievably surprised.

Located here are the results from the survey. If I know the Internet like I think I do, this will assuredly end in people from vicious web forums responding to the survey with names that are eerily similar to graphic expletives -- but only if they find it first.

CS 1107 Assignment: Website Related To Topic

This week's Intro to Computers assignment is to write about a web site that relates to the topic of my blog. With that in mind, I show you...


SelectButton, a home of fantastic and exciting game discussion.

At first glance, it may appear to be a run-of-the-mill enthusiast forum dedicated to discussing the minutiae of a given topic -- and in many threads, that is indeed the case! However, there is a strong undercurrent to their lowercase ramblings: in many cases, their discussion focuses on the how and why of game design, rather than fannish talk about the next big thing. New games are discussed frequently, but with a critical eye and an awareness of the games that have come before them. In an industry constantly focused on the next big thing, this is a surprisingly uncommon perspective to have!

Discussion often strays to talking about how a game "feels" -- how the atmosphere is represented, how the controls and animations are handled. This is also difficult to find elsewhere, and is one of the reasons why I read it every day. It even has a subforum where you can submit your own game designs and receive valuable feedback from people who are genuinely interested in helping you, which is particularly valuable for a budding artiste like myself.

CS 1107 Lab Assignment - Paint and Blurb

Star Guard, as viewed by someone on floating fuzzy psychadelics.


RunMan: Race Around The World -- the cruelest version available, where he must race around an infinitely escalating interior spiral.

The images above have been tweaked, twisted, and refracted through the marvelous program Paint.NET, which is totally free and strikes me as far more hospitable and functional than Paint for Windows (a shocker, I know).

This is a non-tweaked screenshot of the Blurb webpage, a self-publishing website that specializes in printing full-color photo books. What interests me about it is how easily it suits itself to the publication of comics (a field in which I have moderate levels of independent experience) -- and they apparently have no standards for visual fidelity, as is evidenced by the example on display.

CS 1107 Assignment: Spreadsheet Related to Topic

I spent the week racking my brain for possible implementations of my topic in a spreadsheet format, only coming up with the solution when the deadline was fast approaching. The end result is this, a summary of all the resources behind the games you can make with the aid of the Game Maker's Apprentice book.

A few chapter numbers are missing; this is because these chapters revolve around philosophies regarding level design and coding, the resources for which are used to tweak projects from previous chapters. Still, this is interesting; the ideal demonstration of a video/computer game, as created by the Game Maker's Apprentice, has 18 graphical assets (sprites, backgrounds, and icons) and around 6 sounds (mp3s, midis, and waveforms). With the development time of each game in the book looking to be close to 1 to 3 hours with prefabricated graphical assets, I can easily see creating a completely original working equivalent in a day or two, once I've grown experienced enough.

CS 1107 Assignment: Art Design in Independent Projects

Good evening! Set to non-stock jazz music this time, the above Animoto film is a video collage of still images from independently-constructed video games, and serves as a picture of how art and gameplay styles can vary in profound ways between projects of varying size and shape. Even in the realm of larger games (like World of Goo and AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!), every example was made with a small team driven by their own internal passion to create, unsubsidized by corporate dollars. I don't like how the names of each game's creator(s) have been clipped off in processing, but it'll have to do now; a comprehensive link list will be coming later.

In other news regarding my personal development as a game creator, progress has been incredibly slow -- though only because I've been spending so much time studying for the three midterms which have passed! My manual is still here, waiting to be opened; all it's going to take is a little push.

Development Update

Right! I have purchased a copy of The Game Maker's Apprentice, a technical manual by the creators of the Game Maker program of which I happen to hold a professional license. The program is as easy to use as expected, with the first chapter of the manual providing simple enough instructions one can use to navigate the drag-and-drop interface. Progress is slow only due to the upcoming midterms, but I've successfully gone through the opening bits and made the book's first game off resources gleaned from the included CD -- a sparse introductory experience known as Evil Clutches:


As an assignment for my CS 1107 class, I've recorded a demonstration of a process I intend to use numerous times in completing actual independent games of my own -- the process of creating transparent "sprites": two-dimensional objects with invisible backgrounds, which can be manipulated and adjusted as the game program sees fit. This video was recorded in CamStudio, edited with VirtualDub, and compressed with Mediacoder. Music is "Fade Out", by Jazzanova off their album "In Between".

Game Ideas and Workspace Photographs

As though the previous post wasn't enough, I have since uploaded to my Picasa folder a series of images related to my heroic ambitions. Twenty pictures are in the gallery at the moment, though more may be uploaded soon. There are two game concepts within, which I'd like to touch upon here: S-T-U-N-G, a legacy graphic adventure loosely in the style of the older entries in the Leisure Suit Larry series of games, and Dream Tower, a two-dimensional platformer based vaguely on the fluid movement mechanics found in Mirror's Edge. Also included are five photographs of my current workspace and the enormous binder from which many of these images are lifted.

It should be noted that the assignment was for twenty images, but the emphasis was on the notion of getting a camera out and snapping some photographs related to my project or any related subject matter. However, when it comes to graphics in the context of game design, I found it very difficult to come up with any further reason for breaking out the camera, or any other items of which pictures could be taken which would have any remote connection to any project I could make. In any event, please read, experience, and enjoy.

Game Concepts

Methods of Game Programming

So, I've established in the opening few posts that the independent creation of a graphic design portfolio is the highest priority for a budding game industry professional such as myself. For now, I have two priorities:

• To come up with the concept for a game (or series of games) which would suit the creation of stunning graphics to add to the portfolio.


• To come up with a low-impact method of demonstrating these graphics in a real environment. The most effective way of doing this, naturally, is to include them in an actual game. This also has the benefit of exposing me to the process of game creation, and any requirements for video game graphics of which I am currently unaware. The "low-impact" aspect of this endeavor cannot be emphasized enough.

If the prospect of one burly woman such as myself creating a game sounds ambitious, that's because it is. However, several solutions exist on the Internet to make this a slightly less ambitious goal for someone primarily with graphic artist experience such as myself:

1. 
   
   Adobe Flash
   
   Pros: Immense levels of versatility, excellent for testing animations/animated sequences; can be used with all sorts of media
   Cons: Atrociously high price tag, primarily for the creation of Web-based multimedia presentations; though amazing games can be made with the interface, it requires every interface element to be manually programmed in great detail


2. 
   
   Multimedia Fusion 2
   
   Pros: Extended lineage of game-creation programs (from the creators of Klik & Play); ease of use; Kayin Nasaki was able to create I Wanna Be The Guy with a limited knowledge of programming
   Cons: High price tag for the purposes stated in this blog; Kayin himself describes the interface as "limited" and "clunky"


3. 
   
   Game Maker
   
   Pros: Very little experience needed; introduces the user to basic programming mechanics in an object-oriented manner; unlimited trial version
   Cons: More versatile elements are locked in trial; needs complicated workarounds for the purposes of including more nuanced mechanics


4. 
   
   RPG Maker
   
   Pros: Makes console-style role-playing games with relative ease
   Cons: Clunky, extremely limited; uses cheesy pictures of large-breasted anime girls to market product; no desire whatsoever to create RPGs

For the purposes of this blog, Game Maker will work marvelously. The license is cheap (a mere $25), online tutorials are commonplace and widespread, and it seems versatile enough to allow me to easily showcase my graphics in a working environment.

So, that's that for this entry! Coming up next: Game concepts!

Presentation 1 (Statement of Intent)

Good morning/afternoon/evening, whenever you are. Through the second session of the CS 1107 class, I have created a presentation via Google Docs to present a general thesis and explain the purpose of this blog. The presentation goes into distinct levels of detail, but in a nutshell, it deals with the practice of what I intend to eventually do for a living: design characters, interfaces, and graphics for video games. Formerly incomplete, after only an additional hour or two of labor, it is now finished and available to view. Please do so and enjoy.

First Post! (blog description)

Good evening; if you've navigated here, you have either stumbled onto this web page by accident in the intent of digging up some serious dirt about me, or you're simply involved in the Bemidji State University CS 1107 class (Introduction to Computers), which involves the creation of a blog as a creative tool. Under the pretense of supplying content for this page, this page will introduce elements of my graphic design portfolio, as I build it over the course of the next few months.