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
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This seems like a great plan. How’s the progress going? I’m also currently trying to build a prototype version of one of my game ideas using Game Maker and I’d be interested in finding out how you are getting on with this and other projects.
To be honest Kayleigh I think I tried to bite off more than I could chew but I suppose to err is human.
Alot of the things I have kept but others I really haven’t followed up on. I’ll go through the list as a kind of postmortem for myself.
Game Design
-Generate ideas for game to develop further: PROGRESS-I have more ideas written down in notebooks and scraps of paper than I can develop. I’ve got one high level boardgame prototype and one early stages that probably both need finishing.
-Develop a game maker version of the game for my portfolio: PROGRESS- I decided against game maker and have been learning flash, I realised flash was more verstile and easier to deploy for the type games I’d like to make and I’m really enjoying AS3.
LittleBigPlanet Board Game PROGRESS- See above, gameplay is well developed really just need to finalise and run a few more playtesting sessions.
Independent Games Co-Op PROGRESS- Decided against this due to my inexperience.
Work on writing Game Design and Concept Documents as required(Continuous). PROGRESS- I have some concept documents no full GDD yet.
Level Design(Follows from Game Design above) PROGRESS – Working on level for UDK, currently at BSP phase.
Unreal Editor
* Create level concepts(3 weeks) – DONE
* Plan a level for 2-4 players(2 weeks) – DONE
* Create the level in UnrealEditor(2 months) – IN PROGRESS
* Test Level(2 months) – ON GOING
Other areas of interest(Concurrent to above)
* Improve blog by adding more content and a regular list of blogs to read PROGRESS- Going to move to a wordpress.org hosted blog.
* Read art/drawing books – ON GOING
* Sketch more regularly – Doing a lot more sketching these days.
* 3d Studio Max practice PROGRESS- Working with Maya instead of 3ds Max, going good.
* Photoshop – Using as required
* Z-brush – Not started, will wait until/if i get more compotent in 3D
Sounds like you’re doing well. I agree with the switch to Flash instead of GM as it will be easy and fast to release your games and run within browsers which is a major bonus. But I like using GM myself. Hopefully I’ll get fairly good at it with my current project, its only a short game after all.
Your level design progress sounds good too. That will definitely improve your chances of getting a design role. I’m quite impressed that you’ve actually progress with a lot of things concurrently. I’ve decided against this as I was spreading myself too thin, so after this project I’m whole heartedly committing to one project at a time and seeing if that improves the quality of my work.
Good luck!