New Blog

You can now follow me at www.jhealy.net

I’ve started a games masters so I’m much more active on that site.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 & Transformers G1: Awakening Micro-Reviews

I had said I’d review bad company 2 but I realised there are far better game journalists out there, instead I’m going to do 2 micro-reviews and post some of my thoughts on these games from an aspiring designers point of view.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2(PS3)

I’ve had a few weeks to get to grips with Bad Company 2 and I have to say I love it! I’ve only ever played previous Battlefield titles a handful of times but the experience has always been good. Bad Company 2 is no different, however it is a game divided between the single player and multiplayer modes.

Single Player -

In the single player mode the story plays out as a very generic shooter, that’s not to say it isn’t entertaining but it lacks some of the tension and excitement found in games like Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2. Destructible environments are a nice addition but the lack of intelligence by your AI teammates and the laser like accuracy of the enemy can lead to frustration. There’s actually not all that much to say on the single player campaign without going into excessive detail, if you’re only going to play single player and you’re not a big FPS fan then it’s probably not worth parting with your hard-earned cash.

Multiplayer -

Bad Company 2 really comes into its own when being played online, the game modes offer variety and hinge upon teamwork. Rush, Conquest and Squad Deathmatch all rely on players working together and a good team is often the difference between success and failure. I found myself massively engaged in battles and wanting to prove my worth within a squad, dragging your squad down almost feels like failure. In ways I think it makes for a highly social FPS game, made even more so by the use of headsets and a few friends.

Meanwhile the array of vehicles and player classes allows for varied play styles, although getting to grips with piloting some of the helicopters seems to be a skill in itself! With all this armour and firepower the destructible scenery interacts with players to an amazing degree and allows for tactics that are out-of-bounds for almost every other FPS on the market.

For complete FPS newbies I can see this being a tough game to get into but for players looking for something more that run and gun tactics it’s an ideal purchase.

Score: 8/10

Transformers G1: Awakening(iPhone)

When I was growing up all I wanted was Transformers and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles toys, back then this game was the stuff of dreams. Nowadays of course this game is pretty low tech compared to the AAA franchises on PS3 and X-Box 360. Technically there are a few areas that could be improved but the style works and as a game its rewarding and enjoyable.

This is the first game I’ve ever paid money for and thought “With enough time and dedication I could make something like this!“.  I feel that this game showcases how simple mechanics, tied together with pleasing visuals and a decent story can give great results. The game itself has given me a lot of game ideas and with a programming challenge on gamecareerguide.com at the moment I might actually implement a design prototype.

The game focuses on turn based action and generally pits 2 transformers against each other with support from their respective Autobots/Decepticons. Levels range from puzzle types to battles and resource acquisition, at times the game feels a bit like giant robot chess. Cool!

The game is fun but replayability is low for anyone but transformers fans, if you can pick it up at a good price I’d recommend it.

Score: 7/10

Back(For Real This Time)

Ok, ok, so I know I promised last August that I was going to update more regularly and I haven’t, well from now on I’ll post some progress regularly and I’ll have a better idea of what I’m going to do in the future. If the above sentence has put you to sleep then you may want to click the image below to play a number guessing game(It still has a few quirks but I’m reasonably happy with it so far).

Click the image above to play

The above game was made using the book “Foundation Game Design with Flash” by Rex van der Spuy which I have found to be a great resource in opening up the power of flash as a game design tool. I’ll write-up a full review once I’ve finished the book but I’ve found it great so far and there’s an advanced edition out in may.

Outside of flash I’ve been learning more on Maya and have ordered a couple of books to speed up my learning. I’ve found the UI in Maya to be great when compared to 3ds Max, of which I have some experience in from my work in Product Design.

Quick Turret Design and Render in Maya

The turret above is taken from a tutorial on Tutorials Central and can be found HERE. I made a few changes to make it a poly model instead of a NURBS model but it was fairly straightforward although not perfect by any means!

As far as game design goes I’ve been reading up both online and books and in general trying to keep an open mind and write down ideas when I have them. I’m working on 2 board game designs, one of which is getting into a high fidelity prototype stage and the other is still very early design phase, however the second is almost an evolution of the first but in a very different direction. I’ll post progress up here as they continue.

I also have an idea for a little flash mini game/interactive story that’s based on breaking into the games industry which would be done in episodic content.

Other than these I’ll post up a review of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 some time next week.

Thanks for reading,

John

Resumption of Regular Service

This is a short update to say that regular service is back and I hope to be posting much more often from now on- I also have a few ideas to help improve the blog and I hope anyone who already visits makes it a regular stop!

I look forward to hearing peoples thoughts on my new plans!

Game Design

Portfolio Project as Part of the Game Design Course

• Generate ideas for game to develop further(In progress)
• Develop the chosen game via playtesting and on paper prototypes(1 month)
• Develop a game maker version of the game for my portfolio(2 weeks)

LittleBigPlanet Board Game

• Decide whether it is worth developing further(1 week)

Independent Games Co-Op

• Set up an indie dev group and work as project leader/designer(4 months)

Work on writing Game Design and Concept Documents as required(Continuous)

Level Design(Follows from Game Design above)

Unreal Editor

• Create level concepts(3 weeks)
• Plan a level for 2-4 players(2 weeks)
• Create the level in UnrealEditor(2 months)
• Test Level(2 months)

Other areas of interest(Concurrent to above)

• Improve blog by adding more content and a regular list of blogs to read
• Read art/drawing books
• Sketch more regularly
• 3d Studio Max practice
• Photoshop
• Z-brush

Mixed News

So I’m sure my thousands of adoring fans are wondering why I’ve been so quiet lately…. I may have exaggerated my number of fans by infinity!  Well I had been doing well on UnrealEd and was confident to start work on my first full, albeit small, level when low and behold I got a blue screen of death.  Long story short I need a new hard drive which is due to arrive in the next few days and I’ll find out whether I’ve lost everything or if I can recover most of my work.   I await its arrival cautiously optimistic!

And the good news I hear you crying? Well no actually I don’t hear anyone other than my own keyboard but that’s neither here nor there.  Well the good news is that my entry for the most recent Game Career Guide Challenge was highlighted as one of the best entries, you can read it HERE!

Until I get my laptop up and running again I’m not sure I’ll have much to add to this blog, I was working on a design concept document for a modern warfare-esque real time tactics game so hopefully that’s alive on the old hard drive and I might post it up here for people to see.

Keep it on the down low!

John

First Design Competition Entry

Well today I completed my first entry into a game design competition- hopefully the first of many, I hope it should be a good learning experience.   Its a competition over on the  Game Career Guide website(Great website with lots of resources- it come HIGHLY recommended).  The title is “Change Mario’s Career” , I won’t detail my entry until the competition is over but I wrote up a short game design concept document(500 Words) and I’d love some criticism on it once the competition is over.

I’m still working on UnrealEd and things are starting to get tough now that I’ve been introduced to Kismet and Matinee.  I’m trying to do an hour of tutorials on UnrealEd per night and a good bit of time designing games, levels and reading books on the subject.  My enthusiasm for the subject remains strong and I’m still trying to find time to play my favourite games- Killzone and LBP anyone?

I’ll keep it short tonight and leave you with an image of my re-imagined(slightly ) Mario character.  A million points for anyone who guesses his new career?

Guess his career for a million points!

Dipping My Toes

I have often found that the difference between success and failure at a task is determined by a complex relationship between motivation and resources.  For example, if I wanted to become a professional skier I would have an immensely difficult task regardless of my personal motivation- Ireland receives a few inches of snow each year and the cost of living at a European ski resort is outside of my pay bracket.  On the other hand if I had to learn about Hannah Montana for some unknown reason and was located beside a vast resource of information on Hannah I would find it extremely difficult to take in any details as my interest is utterly lacking.

I hope the overly elaborate analogy above hasn’t put you off and hopefully it will help you understand my current excitement about this new endeavor of mine.  I picked up the Unreal 3 Collectors Edition this week and by working with the bundled tutorials from 3DBuzz I’ve managed to get that great feeling of progress and optimism that only comes when motivation is high and resources are plentiful.  I have no doubt that without the 3DBuzz tutorials my progress would be far slower.

Everyone who's completed the 3D Buzz tutorials will recognise this scene.

I’m sure a lot of the people who read this will recognise the above scene.  It was all done within a couple of hours in UnrealEd and using the supplied VTM’s.  It is really amazing the results that you can get from a small time investment and I look forward to doing more work with the tutorials and with more time.

I ‘ve also been reading Challenges For Video Games Designers by Brenda Braithwaite and Ian Schrieber and The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and design by Flint Dille and John Zuur Plattens, I would recommend both books as good starting points for a game designer- maybe starting with Challenges for Video Game Designers and once you get up and running on a few of the challenges take a look at The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design.

I hope this gives you guys a bit more of an insight into how things are going for me thus far!

-See you on the flip side!

A Change of Plans…

Following a post I placed on Game Career Guide I have realised that it may be a better idea to focus  on  game design as opposed to art/programming. This means that my list of skills is going to change a bit from what I posted earlier- I’ll now be focusing on the game design elements as much as possible.

I’ve decided to order Unreal Tournament III: Collectors Edition as it comes with a DVD that runs through the UnrealEd(A program that allows you to add new content to the game) and I’ll try making a few levels using the DVD and online tutorials.  I’m excited about this as it means I should see some fruits of my labour sooner rather than later.  I might even pick up a copy for the PS3 to play a few custom levels against my housemates.

Level Design Fun!

I’ve enrolled in Ian Schreiber’s Game Design Concepts which is taking place this summer and I think it will be a great opportunity to get some games design experience outside of what I’m doing by myself.  Once the course gets going I’ll make a few updates with my progress, cheers Ian!!!!

I’ve started to keep a small game design notebook with me most of the time- I’ve done a few sketches of level layouts and weapons design and written down a few ideas that popped into my head.   Until UT3 arrives I’m going to work on a game design document for a game I’m interesting in making but that I know is currently out of my reach but this serves as a motivational tool for me.  I’ll post it up here once I’ve got a decent document together and I’d love to hear any input that you guys might have.

Happy Camping!

I want to do a job I love!

Behind every post you’ll see on this blog there is one thing that really motivates me and that is the prospect of working at something I love. I’m an engineer at present and while it is enjoyable at times it’s not something I love- I don’t have any drive to design a better holding fixture if I’m being honest. What I do have is the drive to create something that people really enjoy, a great experience.

I want to teach myself the basics of programming and design for games- I’m under no illusion that I will be able to code the next blockbuster nor design massive open-world environments. Rather I hope that over the course of a year I can become proficient and a good prospect for a potential employer.

The skills I want to achieve are as follows:

• Programming: C++ basics, a few simple games to aid my understanding of programming languages.
• Character and Environment Modelling:  Using a program like 3ds Max or similar to create game content.
• Level Design:  Using UnrealEd to develop some level concepts.
• Game Design:  Using Torque Game Builder to develop some game ideas.
• Documentation:  Develop a game design document for a game I really want to create
• Portfolio:  Use this site to develop a portfolio for when the time comes to look for a job.

I don’t really know enough about the learning curves for most of these objectives so as yet I see little point in giving exact deadlines but as I delve into each area I’ll start posting dates by when I expect to have completed certain tasks.

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

For now I’ve started some C++ tutorials and plan to start some modelling at the start of May.  Expect the next few posts to be on the highs and lows of learning C++ as a complete beginner using a few books and the Internet.

Keep it country!

Hello world!

Welcome to the My Game Design Blog! I figure Hello World is the best way to start this blog as it was the first thing I learned when I began learning C++ a few days ago. I’ll post up some details of my aims and objectives along with how I hope to achieve them once I have the blog looking better.

Check back soon!

Very useful...