Final alongside the Draft

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High Poly in Maya

Low Poly in Maya

High Poly Draft in Unreal

Here is a rough version of the gun that I made in Maya and Quixel and imported it into the Unreal Engine. 

Rendering the High Poly Asset in Maya

Research into High Poly Model - Triple A Model Winter Submission

Using ZSpheres in ZBrush

Today in the session we were told that we were going to be going back into ZBrush, something that I have loved using so far, and were going to be learning about a tool called ZSpheres. We were told that ZSpheres where a fantastic way of creating a mesh if you didn't have one prepared in Maya before hand. This was something that I was much too eager to learn, as it was creating a basic template ready for us to sculpt over the top. Also it would help when it came to getting the shape of the thing that we were trying to construct, as Maya takes a lot of work to the get the shape of something right, this seems to be a much more simpler way of getting to that conclusion.

It was very interesting when it first came to looking at the ZSpheres  option menu. The idea is that the spheres themselves are like a brush and when you have played them, you can change the size of the sphere to fit the model shape that you want. Also when you stretch the spheres, many more appear and you choose to edit anyone into a pivot and send a section of the spheres into another direction.

Looking at how to create ZSpheres.

Creating the Top Part of the Mesh.

Finalising the Last Details.

The Full Mesh has Been Created.

Painting the Mesh So We Can Edit It.

The End Result of the Day.

What you Can do with ZSpheres.

Looking Into Game Mechanics On Current Board Games

This session was all about delving into the mechanics of a board game. We would look into games that currently existed and what made them a success in their field. The aim of the session was to play these games and pick out what makes these games enjoyable. It will also be very helpful as we could take aspects off of these games and apply it into our own.

We all bought board games in to the session, though we could only pick one to play as everyone had bought games in but most were 2-6 players. Me and a group of classmates had decided that in the end, we would play the board game "The Best of TV and Movies Logo Game". 

The Best of TV and Movies Logo Board Game.

The idea of the game was that you had to answer random trivia questions about TV and Movies, the more answers that you got right, the further that the player progressed. The game did not involve any die, it had a much more interesting system. The first question that you answered was orange. This meant that if you got the question right, you proceeded to that square. The same thing happened if you answered the Blue, Purple and Green squares as well. The counters are very simple, just to notify the player were they are on the board. Once the player gets to the very end, they have to answer a whole side on the card in order to win the game.

How the board looked while playing the game.

We started to play the game and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. This game tested our general knowledge and was great practise all round. It was simple to follow the rules and it was enjoyable. Even after a couple of hours, we didn't want to leave the game. This is something that I want to incorporate into our Winter Submission.

At the end neither of the teams won the game as we all could not answer a full side of a card, but that would not stop us enjoying ourselves. This was a great exercise and has definitely help, especially when it comes to picking that game apart adn discovering what makes a game succeed.

Creating a Paper Prototype and Our Own Board Game

We were told today that we were going to be looking into the idea of a paper prototype, what it is and actually making one ourselves. To start the session off, we had to grab a sheet of grid paper and construct our own  board game. As we were in our groups for the winter submission, we had to each discuss what game that we could construct and a set of rules that we had to follow.

In the end, we decided that the game that we would make would be a mix between Monopoly and Risk. The player had two separate boards, one being set for the player to advance round, where as the other had the players castles on. As the player advanced round the board, they would pick up items that would help their castles at different stages. These would be things such as arrows and boiling oil. The winner was the last castle standing.

Constructing our own board game.

The board was simple enough to construct, using grid paper to block out the board, which also was a simple square. The map in the middle was a few circles that were dotted around. You can see in the picture above that we wanted to use a combination of orange and green for the board squares. We also ended up making counters by drawing stick men and castles on.

The last thing that we were told to do with the game was to actually play it. So we managed to get hold of a dice and start to play. The game played quite well and it was enjoyable to play. In the time that we had to construct the game and come up with the rules, I felt that we did a good job with it

Mapping out the paper prototype.

The next thing that were told to do was make a paper prototype. This is when a developer will make a paper version of the game that they want to make, this will help them locate any errors, any mechanics that they wish to put into the game and find out if there is anything missing. 

This paper prototype that we were going to make had to be a shooter, so we had to construct a map from overhead view. This meant that we could move the counters evenly and not one person would have an advantage. When we made the map, we made it symmetrical on each side, this meant that there was no advantage to any player. We used a clicker on that our tutor had found on the internet to move the players, every time that we heard a click, we could move our player. If we were in sight of another player, we could shoot by shouting bang.

Playing our paper prototype.

This whole experiment was a fantastic way to test if the game could work. Just by doing this on the shooter, we found many different problems already. This is something that we will defiantly use when it comes to the winter submission game as it could reveal elements of the game that we are missing that we are not fully aware of. It will also tell us what we could add to the game to make it an overall much more enjoyable experience.

EGX - Birmingham Conference

We were fortunate enough to visit the EGX conference in Birmingham this weekend. This was quite important that we attended the event as it was a yearly show case which presented to the goers what new games were coming out. Not only this, but it also ran talks by game designers, such as Mike Bithell, the creator of Thomas was Alone. There was also a careers fair, which was most important that we had to visit.

Me Playing Total War Warhammer.

The first thing that we decided to do was head towards creative assembly booth, where the new game that they were working on, Warhammer Total War, was on display with a level in which you control a set of dwarfs, fighting Sevres goblins. After having several battles on the game, I really couldn't wait for it to come out. I was so impressed with the game I ended up talking with one of the staff members at creative, just talking about the game and the course that we partake in, where he directed us to the careers fair.

Controlling the Dwarfs.

At the careers fair, several companies had set up stalls, with many members of their teams talking to people interested in the game industries and the jobs that were offered. We ended up talking many different members of the Creative Assembly team. This was great as we managed to get an insight of what the industry was like and the people in it. They gave us many helpful tips when it came to creating a portfolio and what they, as a company, where looking for in a student when it came to employment.

After an hour and gathering as much information as we could, we decided that it would be best to move on, where we wanted to see what the current games industry is currently pushing out and developing, so we can see what sort of level we need to get to. There were many games on display that hadn't even come out yet, but the main ones that we picked out were Star Wars Battlefront, Tom Clancy's The Division and Assassins Creed Syndicate.

We decided that we wanted to attend one of the talks. In this one Mike Bithell was going to answer a Q and A from a speaker and fans. This was great as we got to see what had inspired him as a game designer and what, as upcoming game designers, to aim for, when it comes to being an indie designer. I managed to record the whole of the session, which I have added to the blog post, which was extremely interesting.

A to Scale Spider Queen.

After the session we walked around the whole of the complex and had a look at even more games. One interesting section was the Independent games that were on display. This is something that I am inspired because at certain stages, this is currently what we are, a bunch of people that want to make games. It was interesting watching people play these games as they were really getting stuck in, something that they really enjoyed, which is want I want to create.

The day as a whole was such a fantastic experience and I cant wait to go next year, but next time we will plan to go there, we will have to go there for several days, as the queues were many hours long. But overall the day was fantastic and I cant wait to go again.

Creating a Combat Knife in Maya

Starting off in ZBrush

In this session that we had with Robin, we were told that we were going to start some sessions on ZBrush. This is something that I had been looking forward to for a long time. ZBrush is very similar to Mudbox, a program that you sculpt, like clay. The reason as to why I am looking forward to using this program is it is used throughout the industry every day, where as when it comes to Mudbox, mostly indie developers use the program. In ZBrush you can produce much more detailed pieces of work using more tools. 

ZBrush Central, great website for ideas.

To start the lesson off, we were told to go onto ZBrush Central, a website that shows off pieces of work that have been made using ZBrush. This was a great eye-opener, as I could see how detailed the program was and what fantastic pieces of art could actually be created, using it wisely.

You can choose a template.

When you open the program, you get given the chance to select a template. These are just set so that if you have trouble constructing something like a body mesh in Maya, you can just select a template version and sculpt straight onto that model.  This is great for when you need help coming up with ideas, or if you are desperate to have a head start by having the model ready. Today though we are told that we are going to use a ready made head mesh sp we can see everything that ZBrush has to offer.

Importing a head mesh.

Importing the head mesh was not a hard thing to do. All we had to do was select "Import" button on the right side panel and click on the OBJ that was made in Maya. Once this was done I was given a brush that would produce a copy of this head. If I really wanted to, I could make hundreds of these just by clicking the mouse button, but today, I only wanted the one.

Applying different tones to the mesh.

I was told that the first thing that I was going to do was to change the color of the model itself, this means that if we were going to sculpt into the model, the features that we do sculpt are going to be a lot easier to see in a different tone. We don't want the tone to be too light, but at the same time, if the tone was too dark, it would be hard to see the shadows and depth that the features create when added to the model. In the end we had decided that we were going to go for the average color, which was a dark orange. We were told that this the perfect color for modeling as it fits the criteria perfectly.

Sculpting the Low Poly model.

I started to have a go at sculpting into the characters face, just to see the effect that it would have on a low poly model as this (about 2000). AS there is not much to work with, the brush pulls all of the faces, depending on the brush size, giving it a dramatic effect. This does not help if you are trying to create detail. This means that we have to up the poly's on the model, which gives us much more significant areas to work with, it does this by making them smaller and smaller, but increasing the poly count.

Increasing the Amount of polys to add detail.

The poly count has been increased slightly, but you can already tell the difference that I am getting from playing around with it. The model as a whole has become much more rounded, meaning that the faces are not visible, also if I started to sculpt we can put in a fair bit more detail, but at the moment not enough. If I concentrate on a area too much with the brush, it starts to become distorted. You can see on the neck and the shoulders you can differentiate the polys from the base model.

Over 3 million tris.

We have not got it up to its highest maximum value, which is 3 million polys. This is extreme when it comes to polys and will defiantly not be able to be used in the game, as it could crash the entire thing. The whole point in doing this is so we can get the detail and then bake it on to a low poly model, which will replicate the detail to look high poly. We want an extremely high poly model to sculpt into so we can create significant detail. As you can see in the picture above, the model itself is much more rounded out and looks exactly like a head. I started sculpting out circles, creating boils, just to see what effect this would have on the skin. At this amount of polys, creating detail is not a problem and doing something to one side of the face doesn't affect the other, which is something that we would like to see.

Changing the Alpha of the brush to create an imprint.

The last thing that we learned about was the use of the alphas. This was very important when it came to ZBrush as it was like a template that the brush. For example it we wanted a brick like texture, you would select the alpha that suited it. and apply it to the model. It was extremely easy to use and will come in much use over the rest of the course when it comes to doing detail in the model. On the image above I had used the rocky alpha on the top of the head, which looks very detailed.

I have had a lot of fun when playing around with ZBrush. It is ultimately something that I want to use in the future a lot more and this session has only encouraged me to use it a lot more. I will definitely find the time to use it, the most likely scenario being if I wanted to make in-depth detail, like scratching paint and dents and a metal object, then baking a high poly onto low poly, this will be the first place that I turn to.

The Idea of Game Mechanics

We had our first session with Andy Bosson, our new course leader. The idea of the lesson was that we were going to learn the originality of game mechanics, going all the way back to the first recorded board game. This was a great subject to look into as good game mechanics are key when creating games, if the game doesn't work and isn't fun, people aren't going to be playing it. Also many games have their own originally game mechanics which is a key selling point.


Early board games were around nearly 5000 years ago. One key game that stood out for me was the very first recorded board game called "Senet". In the game you have to get your characters all at the end while making an "S" shape around the board. This game developed and produce the idea of the game called " Backgammon", known all over the world and has many different interpretations, whether that be on the computer or on a board.

The Game of Senet.

Another game that we looked at was "The Royal Game of Ur". In the game the player had to reach the end, very much like the game of "Senet". It is officially classed as a racing game, where the player has to reach the board's end before the other players do. It was developed 4600 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia (Now known as modern day Iraq, Syria, Turkey). Again reincarnation of this game still exists and is play today.

The Royal Game of Ur.

Andy decided that we were going to be set a task, which was going to be analyzing a modern board game and the mechanics that the game has. We were also going to create a new set of rules that could be put into the game and add a new character skill, like what you would gave from being a certain character.

Analysis of Monopoly.

I worked with a partner and we decided that we were going to analyse the game of Monopoly. We were given a sheet to write down the rules of the game out. The basic rules are the players go round the board while buying properties and charging rent, In the end, the player who has the most money and is not bankrupt, wins the game. There were many different opportunities for us to explore in this game when making up our own rules. One of them was that we liked the idea of having a current events card. Draw this card and it affects the whole game, like the introduction of inflation and global warming. A character feature that could be introduced is the character having their own bonuses, like the hat having extra money to begin with or the car going around the board faster.

I really enjoyed looking into the subject of game mechanics, seeing how games work and play and the history behind many of the games that we play today. This is a subject that I would love to continue on, as I feel that it is important now for game designers to know the roots and backgrounds for the games we make today.