Why don't you level up.......

Live coverage of this exciting journey into Level 2 will now continue over on :

http://darren-matthews-pdgdy2.blogspot.co.uk/

Later on this channel will be a awfully long documentary on the contents of the waste paper basket under my desk..............

...and relax

Woohoo.. I made it to the end of my first year back at college and I can safely say I've loved every minute. This time last year I was wondering how everything was going to play out, what would the school be like, what would the other students be like...etc etc.

It's been tough juggling a full time job and college and predictably some things have had to be sacrificed but I wouldn't change it for the world.

We now have 3 weeks holiday and then time to start again. So I'll quickly fit in a quick bit of partying, a quick holiday and a bit of sleeping, maybe even a game or two. Then back to it full steam ahead

See you all on the other side.....

Doom xx

...click render and make a cup of tea

I've now completed the final assignment of the Game Art Module. On my last post I was describing how I had got to the stage where I was ready to UVW unwrap the completed model. This can be quite a lengthy process and it's only then you realise you should have modelled it in a different way. Oh well, I suppose that comes with practice.

It was only after I had unwrapped my model into about 26 different maps that Emel (our tutor) told us that it was better to try and get them unwrapped into 1-3 maps, as this would save on memory space when you came to put it into a game. Ooops, I'll have to remember that for next time. Never mind. I farted around with them for a bit and managed to get them into 4 in the end (head, body, arms and legs). Here is an example of the body map.

Once this was completed, I then had to set about texturing the map using Photoshop. Here is where all those art skills come into play. I quite enjoyed this, but remembering which sections apply to which part of the model was confusing, so had to keep referring back. Anyway, here is the same map once I had textured it.

It's quite easy once you know how. I applied the same principle for the other UVW maps and then imported them back into 3DS Max and as if by magic, they appeared in the right place on the robot.

No for the clever bit. As you can see all the textures look ok, they are all a bit flat so you can now a technique called bump mapping where you can use the same unwrapped UVW map and paint on it in monochrome to show the height of texture, a bit like on a terrain map. For this I thought I would show the back of the robots head as if he'd had a bit of an accident.

So here is the original texture.

Here is the bump map .

And here is the final result when it's all wrapped back on the model and rendered.



Of course no robot is complete without some where to live, so I threw together a couple of quick sketches of a location. I took inspiration from Hadleys Hope (you can never go wrong with an old classic)

And I came up with these.

It was then just a case of, as before, modeling, unwrapping and texturing. This time I was a little more adept as it :P..... so then I just added a couple of light sources, a camera, and plonked my robot in the scene and this is the final result after rendering....

I've now started playing around with animating the scene, but that's going to have to wait for another post.



Lights, camera, action......

...G-Force

Just thought I give a bit of an update of how the Game Art module is going...

We are currently on Assignment 3 which is to design and create a 3D robot using 3DS Max.

You were allowed to choose any kind of robot so you can imagine there is a whole spectrum across the class.

I thought it would have been cool to do some highly humanoid type robot at first but because we have to do the whole thing, including modelling, unwrapping and texturing, that this could get overly complex very quickly. Plus I don't have an infinite amount of time to do all this. With this in mind, I reined in my ideas.

I have taken inspiration from a robot from a 70's Japanese Anime / American remake cartoon called Battle of the Planets (originally called Gatchaman for you nerdy types). The robot's name is the show was called 7-Zarc-7.

I started off by doing some rough sketches to get a basic idea of what I wanted to achieve.

Then I trolled through the internet and found some interesting textures that I may want to use later on. I then painted a quick picture in Photoshop, where I put together some of the textures into a reference image.

I then moved into 3DS Max and have modelled the image. This has taken much time and many expletives....

The model is now ready to be UVW unwrapped and textured. I shall be doing that this week.

I'm happy with how it's all going at the moment although I still struggle a bit remembering how to do certain tasks with 3DS Max but this is to do with not knowing what the correct term for the task that I want to achieve is rather than the actual doing it. As you can probably above see from the amount of menus, icons and options 3DS Max has in it... I'm sure it's just practice though....

I post an update when the next stage is done.... ;o)

...High Five or Death

So I'm actually quite chuffed at the moment... Finally got our results for our Game Programming module and I got 95% A*...Get in !!!!

I kinda thought I would be fine with this as I do web programming for a living but it's always good to get confirmation now and then ;o)

The module was split into 3 parts : C# programming, technical document and 2D game using XNA.

I got 100/100 for the C# programming, for the technical design I got 35/40 and for the 2D game I got 56/60.

High Five.....

And so it begins...

So we've started the game art module now. This is what I'd been waiting for.

We've had a module timetable where the assignments come thick and fast which was a shock but hey ho, I'm not complaining.... Just get on with it I say :o)

So far we've done some basic sketching and Photoshop work. First assignment was to do a storyboard. I tried to be a smart arse and do it in Photoshop as well as just pencil which had mixed results. Faces defeated me in PS but I guess it's just practice. (see Evil Cher for evidence of this)

The current assignment is a haunted house interior. We've been shown more techniques for brushes etc in PS so high hopes for this one.

Moving on to 3D work in 3DSMax next week...EEK !!!

I'm going to chart my progress in this module on deviantART, so for anyone that's interested you can find my gallery by clicking here Doomster73's deviantART Gallery

...Say hello to my new friend

This is Bob

Bob and his friends are my new characters from my latest programming assignment entitled 'Reach For The Sky'. I have no idea where this title came from but due to the annoying way Visual Studio sets some things in stone, it's stuck. (I must remember this fact for future reference).

So since as this 2D platform game is set in the sky due to the title (cue little fluffy clouds), I may as well have fruit and 2nd Prize roller skating trophy up there too (that's perfectly logical... right???...)

As for Bob's mates, or rather his devilishly evil enemies, they consist or rather a stupid looking blue faced....er.... thing ! and of course the obligatory 1970's space hopper. The inspiration for these characters was not, as you might think, the latest Moroccan herb but actually from a tiny little notepad I bought from Paperchase. It had lots of strange looking doodles on it and I thought, they'll come in handy one day and the next thing...Ta Dahhh, they now have their own game world to play in.

We were told that as we had not started the game art module yet, that we could "borrow" sprite sheets from the interweb but having found a few a thought, sod this, I'll have a crack at the animations myself. So I scanned in my new kooky friends and then set about making them move in Photoshop(Version CS6 Beta no less) I used a couple of existing animated sprite sheets I'd found as a reference guide but managed to do it in the end. I'd wouldn't say they are quite Pixar standard but they serve a purpose. Quite happy with them.

When it comes to the coding, it has had it's ups and downs. I now only have a couple additional items to add but it's mainly debugging and commenting now (not a favourite pastime... ).

I've tried to use and demonstrate all the XNA features and coding constructs we've been shown in this module and think I have used 90% of them. To what quality though, I'll just have to wait and see.
I've used multiple classes including abstraction, overloads and inheritance (stop showing off...) Also, sprites, collision detection, alpha blending, animation, rotation (well nearly), projectiles, sound effects and game states... I think I may have crowbarred some of the these elements in, just to show that I know how to use them and this could have been at the expense of the overall game play. But I think at this relatively early stage of the course, it can be forgiven. I'll wait for the feedback on that one...

I think now looking back on the module that it may of helped, even if not a popular choice, that maybe a lesson on vector maths may have been useful. I know I'm a web programmer myself and I do work on finance systems but the concept of vectors and what to do to them to achieve a certain behaviour has kind of made my head bleed. We've only been dealing with 2d vectors too at this point and the thought of having to deal with 3d ones later is kind of putting me off doing it next year :-/

Perhaps I'm over reacting though, I kind of get the basics now, and maybe just practice practice practice should be the best approach...

Sooooo, assignment hand in next week, need to tidy up the technical design document too but not too worried about getting it done in time. Then I'm done for programming this year...
Next module - Game Art - Time to make pretty things......... :o)

I am the sexiest pigeon.....coooo cooooo....

Oh my lord, I have seen the future of gaming and it is pigeons in street sweepers. Tonight's lecture basically devolved into watching you tube videos of Japanese pigeon dating games and the most bizarre simulator games ever....awesome....

But seriously, have been doing game programming for nearly 9 weeks and now it's time to turn our minds to assignment 2, a 2D XNA game. We have to come up with a basic concept of what we would like to do, whether it a scrolling shooter or platfrom or puzzle game...anything really, it's up to us BUT do remember you have to bloody code the bugger !!!!

I think I'd like to code some kind of scrolling platform game, in the style of Doodlejump or the old classic "Rainbow Islands", with slightly less rainbows........er....."Islands" then.... Not entirely sure I get my head around the gravity thing though even though a couple of the guys in the class have commented and think it's easier than it is.....(Probably true and my head is over complicating the issue as usual )

There is a platform game in my XNA book, so I might code that and see if I can get my head around it.

Will speak to Matt on Thursday and see what he thinks...

So, just time for a quick go on Delivery Truck simulator before bed me thinks......

Revenge of the pig....

Thought I'd post a little update on how the programming is going as had quite a satisfying lecture tonight.

The first few weeks have been ok and have taken me back to basics with a gaming twist, just console applications and the like. These have really not caused me any issues (being a programmer fnah fnah) but tonight we started learning XNA.

This was the bit I've been waiting for, as I can honestly say I never used it before. Although, it looks quite daunting when you open up a new project, it's actually relatively simple, once it was explained... and the most statisfying part was by the end of the lecture we had achieved this..TADAAAAHH!!!!

I know......I can see you saying it..... "OMG this is just like the new Battlefield or Assassins Creed" but honestly, such a sense of achievement in very little time. You can control the Firey Pig and Knife independently with the keyboard....true that's about it but I'm well chuffed :o)

This is definitely a boost for now..... Catch up with me next time kids, when I've had a nervous breakdown as it just becomes exponentially difficult.... Mwahahahahah!!!!

...Fantasy Finally

With only days to go until I hear the sound of fabulous new premium Final Fantasy dropping through the letterbox and with me getting a tad giddy at the prospect, I thought I would channel the excitement into an extremely short Exposé on my, frankly obsessive Final Fantasy world I live in.

This really doesn't have been be explained to my closest friends who I repeatedly bore (and drag to concerts etc...) but for those who didn't know....ahem.....

I'm not going to bore you to death with the history of my obsession....yawn....zzzzzzzzzz

I'd actually just like to draw your attention to the latest FFXIII-2 soundtrack of which I had imported from Japan !!! (...arm and a leg would have been cheaper...) I just have to tell someone about it before I explode so it might as well be you !!!

This 4 disc masterpiece composed by Masashi Mamauzu, Naoshi Mizuta & Mitsuto Susuki, I have to say pleasantly blew me away me as it's not the usual FF offerings is really different. They have gone hardcore uproar.....and I LOVE IT !!!

Yes, there is still the usual orchestral themed masterpieces and emotional ballad tracks which are the main staple of final fantasy. In between though they have come up with level & area themes that are a mix between chillout grooves that mix into hardcore house and drum 'n' bass versions which are credited as "agressive" mixes which I can only assume are for when the gaming action turn into a battles, as it inevitably does in FF. I'll have to wait and see...

I was also surprised that all the lyrics are in English, especially for an import. (I'm not going to mention at this point, good old Leona Lewis on the previous FF XIII soundtrack... as that was surely someones idea of a joke and surely the real reason, FF XIII got so much stick......damn I just mentioned it....)

The text inside the box isn't in English however so still no idea what they are talking about (I never did get the hang of Japanese Kanji...)

Anyhooooo, click on the links to get an idea of the diversity of this fabulous 4 disc masterpiece (I did not upload to YouTube myself by the way, as that would be naughty and I'll leave that kind of behaviour to others...ahem)

• Caius's Theme (Your typical Final Fantasy Orchestral Goodness...)
• New Bodhum + Aggressive Mix (The new and improved style - dance mix kicks in about 5.25...)
• Worlds Collide (Another of the new style with ridiculous lyrics sang in, I think they call it rap ;o)...)
• Xanadu, Palace of Pleasure (And this is obviously 80's American Comedy TV Show theme tune without a doubt...)

Although it's not surprising an outrageous fan like myself hasn't stopped listening to this album, as they can't really help it, I can't wait to see the tracks in there proper places in the game... So for now I think this little outburst has satisfied my FF pangs until I lock myself in a room on Friday with my limited edition FF XIII-2 PS3 game and spend another 140 hours of my life moogling with the chocobos.
Right, where did I put my Yuna outfit...???

Aaaah, that's better.... ;o)

010100111101010100101010101

After an extremely successful Game Design module (...still doing the occasional jig btw) it's time to turn my hand to programming and put my Bender head on (well my other one anyway....)

This is the module that I am least concerned about since as I do web development in my day job, so programming is part of that.

The first lesson started with the obligatory "Hello World" which I must have done a million times in a million different languages (exaggeration inserted for effect) times before and I expect that the first few weeks not to be too taxing on the brain for me at least.

But I am not about to be all dismissive about it either. It's good to go back to basics every now and again, as I have no doubt picked up some incredible bad habits along the way and I definitely don't "know it all".

I'm really looking forward to learning XNA, which I have never used before and also, I'm only guessing about how you would actually code games at this point. I could be barking up the wrong tree...

Matt seems cool and knows his stuff so looking forward to seeing how the module progresses.

So for the time being.... Console.WriteLine("PLAYER ONE READY");