Year 2 - Unit 4 & 5: Originate, develop and research an idea for a game - Task 2

Unit 4 & 5
Originate, develop and research an idea for a game
Task 2

(Links to content in blue links)

At the beginning of our idea creation I was actually in a completely different group so I missed out on the original ideas, however with my first group I took part in all of the generation. As there was only two of us in my first group I was given the task of creating the documentation for more than just the one idea. I had to create the mood boards and mind maps for the original 4 ideas, the first idea in a mind map was the one my teammate ended up choosing to do alone, it was called Demons of the Crest. It was a game that was simply put to be Big Trouble in Little China gone Dark Souls style, in this padlet I came up with the idea for the first two bosses, one was called Artemis (The Fallen Keeper) who once lived in the lower district of Silvercrest as a Gravedigger and the other was Faine (Shadow of the Abyss) who was the former priest for the Church of Silvercrest. I came up with some music ideas for the different types of scenes, the intense boss battles and fighting scenes should have symphonic metal in the background and dark ambient music for the loading screens and resting periods. The second idea was for a game idea called Rise of the Crest, this was one hundred percent my favourite idea because it was based on the mechanics of the game Uncharted. In this idea I came up with the ideas for the enemies to be Chinese Ninjas that fight you in a Chinese forest where the light seeps through the trees. The art style of the characters and environments should be 3D and photorealistic like what is found in the Uncharted games, combat mechanics include the use of guns, explosives, melee and the possible use of a bow and arrow. Sound effects that should be implemented were also included in this padlet, they consisted mostly animals, combat and objects. The target audience was also included to be towards any gender of the age 16 and above, this was because of the intense combat, take downs and the open gender tag because of the diversity of having the choice to be either a male or female protagonist. The third idea was called Kombat of the Krest and was never fully completed however we got as far as defining the art style which would appear to be 2.5D, the whole game idea was inspired by Mortal Kombat hence the name. The forth game idea was called Jackman, this game did not get any mood board ideas as I moved groups however, this game and the other three have fully completed mind maps that are shown below:



When I moved groups I did miss the first steps of coming up with the ideas however I was still given the task of making a padlet for each of the 4 ideas. After being filled in on what ideas they came up with I expanded them with some mood boards and further ideas, I created the padlets off of the Game Ideas document they created at they created at the very start which wasn't fully finished so I had to flesh out the ideas further on my mood boards. The first idea they came up with was a game called SUM TING WONG, as a padlet I included where it shall be played which was within the streets of Chinatown within of the many restaurants in that surrounding area and when it was set, 1980's. The second idea I developed was for a game called Big Truck; Little China, it would be an action adventure game that started in Canada's Western provinces. After starting in British Columbia you eventually end up in San Francisco's China town. You play the infamous Jack Burton who is employed as an Ice Road Trucker in British Columbia and Alberta, along your journeys you get in bar fights by night and the more you get intoxicated the better your fighting skills will be. You would also be able to interact with gas stations to gain fuel and a place to stay overnight, overnight thieves may attempt to steal cargo or your truck. The third idea was for a game called Jenny's Prison, this story starts off in China during the Japanese occupation in WWII, you are captured during the battle of Khalkhin Gol, instead of being transported to do 10 years of hard labour you are recruited into the Soviet Army to fight on the Eastern Front. After all of this ordeal you survive only to discover something much worse in the ruins of the Nazi concentration camps. The forth and final idea was called Jack and Cthulhu, this was the idea we decided to go with, we felt that it was best choice mainly because this had the most fleshed out ideas. It would be the easiest to actually pull off and create, it also had a lot of potential to go further and gain more content. You would start off in New Orleans, specifically The French Quarter and Jackson Square which is within the state of Louisiana. Jackson Park is a historic park within the French Quarter, this will be the centrepiece for the beginning scene of the game. You will play Jack Burton who's truck is taken by a cult, once following the cultist to the end of a pier not far from Jackson Square, your truck falls off with Jack holding on, you are taken by teleportation to New Zealand. Once in New Zealand you find yourself within a huge bayou, you must fight off all the enemies and then teleport to R'lyeh. In R'lyeh you will be given the task of stopping an enemy from awakening Cthulhu. Another team member (Sam) created the mind maps which also helped create the mood boards:

Sum Ting Wong
Big Trouble; Little China
Jenny's Prison
Jack and Cthulhu

We did a survey that asked the public questions relating to video games and our ideas, we had a total of 23 responses to the survey with a mix of people who played games and who didn't. The thing that we didn't clearly think through enough was probably the fact that we didn't tell everyone about the actual game idea so the first question about whether or not people were interested in our game came out as the majority (54.5%) saying they didn't know enough about it to form a strong opinion. We only got 17 responses to the gender question so I do not believe that all of the results will be 100% accurate, with 58.8% being female and the other 41.2% being male or identifying as another gender. We added the gender question after asking our class to complete it and they answered the rest so if the responses were accurate the idea that our target audience would be mainly male would be correct. However, on the question that asks how old they are the majority being 73.9% said that they were 16-21 so out target audience age wise was completely spot on and we should cater to a wide audience. Another question that played in our favour was the one which asked what was people's favourite genre of game with Action-Adventure being the top choice at 60.9% choosing that, this is the genre of game ours shall be. The least popular choice of game genre was sports which has nothing to do with our game so we definitely have that upside. 30.4% of the people we asked said that they only play 0-5 hours of games a week, our game should only last under an hour so this works for the masses. The second highest choice was 21 hours plus at 26.1%, this means that our game can still be used by them but it just might not take up all their game time. The PlayStation platform was the most popular for people to play on at 52.2%, our game would only be on PC, luckily this option came second with 43.5% of the people we asked using it. 91.3% of people we asked said we asked said that we should include Easter eggs and collectables in the game, this is what we hoped for because we had a lot of fun coming up with the ideas for them so if no one wanted them it would all go to waste. 73.9% of people thought 3 levels was just the right amount to have however 21.7% of people thought that it wasn't enough so we will now probably think about adding one or two more if that doesn't overdo it. Relating to the playable characters 82.6% of people thought we should have more than just the one so we will probably think about adding another character, when asking who we should add if we choose to 68.2% of people thought it should be Gracie Law.

The constraints we had to consider were the time limit we had, I especially had to worry about this because I had to do my new groups and my old groups work in the same time it took everyone else to just do the one. This issue resulted in our first game ideas not being very fleshed out or in depth, however I feel as though we have managed to pull it all off in time. Costs never really became a problem through the process, this was because things like bubbl and padlet are free services so the develop of just the ideas was not difficult cost wise. Having three people in one group may seem a lot easier than working alone and in some ways it does, however trying to co-ordinate everyone and what they have to do can become very complicated. You can only go and certain distance with the ideas you bounce off each other but it does help to flesh out the original ideas. Resource wise is again very similar to the cost as well, we had the resources that we needed, this mainly consisted of our computers to work on and pens and paper to organise ourselves.

The legal and ethical considerations we needed to think about were things like privacy, this and data protection basically protect people from their information being shared with anyone, including ourselves. The survey we took kept the names of everyone private with it being anonymous, things like this are what made it a private and safe process. Race discrimination will not be tolerated in our game and we will have characters from all backgrounds and they won't be all stereotypical. Things that are more copyright concerns shouldn't have to worried about because as far as we know our main idea is completely original. However, the idea R'lyeh being a place and Cthulhu existing are not, not only this but the major copyright concern would be Jack Burton and Big Trouble in Little China. This is because we do not have the rights to create a game from the film, however because it will never be publicly released or available for purchase, neither of these issues should arise. I go into a little more detail about legal and ethical consideration with our first ideas here.

Year 2 - Unit 66: 3D Models for an Asset Library - Assignment 2

Unit 66 - Assignment 23D Models for an Asset Library

(Links to drawing in blue)

Stimulus:

The brief we were given is to create a game that is based off the film Big Trouble in Little China. We then gave ourselves the brief of creating separate parts of the game each whilst still working together.

Ideas:
Before I started creating my first NPC I did quick sort of brainstorm or mood board, this was for a character called the servitor of the outer Gods. It included the colour palette I decided on, basic sketches have been included of all the different parts of the creatures body, these included the tentacles and suckers it uses to smother its victims. Any of the colour was done with some basic oil pastels that were blended into the acrylic paper. After that first basic brainstorm I then developed this idea to a more in depth and clearer diagram of the main two different angles/perspectives. I did this in charcoal to try and use the smudge it creates for the haze that is shown over the creature, the haze grows as your sanity level decreases. This idea was then completed with a fully shaded side view that clearly shows what different parts of its body the enemy has. I used a basic sketching pencil in 2B and some blending stumps, I also used the stumps on the two documents before, once to create the haze effect and another to blend the colour of my oil pastels together. Although this creature is not an original idea it was developed in an original way, once I had the basic concept nailed I then added details that I could not research. The front view was something I made up and I messed around with the different scales of its body. I feel as though that when I go to create this in Maya I will struggle with the polygon count as it is a very detailed creature. Each of us in our team decided to the concept art for one of the main enemies each, one large, medium and small, this assured us that we could do some work independently and have a chance for our creativity and flare to shine through. This creature will appear only in R'lyeh, this is because it is only a water based enemy, it will serve as Cthulhu's minion and there should hopefully be many throughout the level that you must defeat. This was one of my final ideas because it was the first one that I had the intention of using, once starting its generation I realised how much I loved the idea of going further. I had to set the first two sketches with hairspray to avoid the colour/charcoal from transferring or smudging. Time Lapse for the first drawing of a servitor of the outer Gods. 
I then did some concept art for Gracie, this was one that completely came from my mind. I decided that I didn't want her to be like she is in the film, I wanted her to be more of a calm companion that could really see into the hearts and eyes of Jack and the enemies. This is why her concept art/sketch contains her cross legged and mediating, as a 3D model I like to hope that she will be wearing the clothes in my drawing and she won't be too difficult to create. Gracie never really had much development because her figure was made up, I started drawing what I wanted her to be and it just slowly developed into who she is now. Whether we actually use Gracie in the game is an idea we are still playing around with, however I personally feel like it could help the game gain a few more woman players.
Jack Burton's concept was probably the least thought out but most detailed drawing I did, I created the art from scratch with an action shot as a reference to base it off. He is decked out in his basic outfit from the film and is drawn in biro, biros are one hundred percent my favourite media to draw in however they are very hard to clean up if you mess up. I did slip up around his fingers on his right hand, I had the mistake of making them way to large in width, luckily with the use of shading I was able to define the hand further and more or less recover the drawing from its near fate. Biros are hard to work with because you can't use them like pencils to shade, no matter how much more or less pressure you put on the pen it will still be the same shade. To overcome this barrier I had to use a cross hatching technique to add depth to his finished character. 
I'm pretty sure the first sketch I did was of Cthulhu and this was an idea that we had as a group, he is probably the main reason anyone would really want to play the game. He is character who will be extremely large so the polygon count of his 3D model will have to be kept at the back of our minds at all times. Much like the servitors of the outer Gods he has a lot of tentacles, especially hanging from his haunting face, this is the thing that I really I had to focus on with his concept art because it's the most noticeable part about him. To achieve this I used shading to make his tentacles more pronounced, I only did his head as I wanted to create something that wasn't copied and the only way I could think of doing it without going in over my head.
The first environment concept art I did was of the pier, this was created before we decided to set in New Orleans so it isn't the most accurate drawing,  I saw an image pretty similar to the one that I drew that I decided to base my sketch off. I made my pier with the intention of it looking as though you were on it with the perspective used, it started off as a simple pier but then I added the foliage in the back with the water to add a little more detail as it was so plain without it.
I then created a willow tree with a uni-ball liquid pen, this media was surprisingly hard to work with as it smudged so easily. I started off creating the tree trunk but I then realised if I carried on this way it was be smudged within seconds. I left the trunk to dry and once it had I went from the left to right creating the weeping branches in a simple fashion. Once it was all dry I went back in and added shading with small lines going up the branches and trunk, without this it looked bare and unimportant. 
Surprisingly, the last thing I did was create a storyboard, once I had a sound understanding of our main ideas I felt that I could create a storyboard that fit our needs. The story was based on what we wrote as a team and I did some very simple sketches to add further illustration to what was being written down. I wrote the plot down first, numbering it in chronological order in coloured ballpoint pen. I then added the simple drawings at the end, I can't really explain much further what I wanted to get from it but you can just view it  as I think I made it very self explained.

Legal and Ethical considerations:

One of the legal things that we did consider was the copyright factor, this was not an important worry as unless our game was published the models would be ok to copy. However, although legally it wouldn’t matter the work still would’ve been plagiarised  and it wouldn’t be credited as our own work. Ethically wise I know that confidentially is not such a key thing to focus on, especially in games creation and 3D models. It protects the information of people involved, this could affect anyone we had take part in a survey to determine whether or not people would actually enjoy our game. They would enter things like their age, gender and other personal questions, this would be under the data protection so they wouldn't need to put their name or address for their own safety. Decency would contain what is considered acceptable, whilst 3D modelling this will include properties like nudity, blasphemy, violence and sex. Even when I created my first ideas I had to consider how I annotated them, any swearing would not be acceptable and may seem like the creation is not a serious process. Drawing and models shall not contain nudity or sex, our game has been given a target audience of the age 16, any game containing those would have to be used my gamers over the age of 18. The representation that I use is widely diverse and involves all genders, race, sexuality and religion. The reason I, and many developers, decided that it should be so inclusive is because the game then aspires to much more of a wider audience, also it avoids the possibility of a bad name for the game based on a sexist and racist front with the character art. If I were to relate this to the brief the most obvious issue would be not succumbing to the stereotypes of the Chinese people and culture, luckily the only real link to the film is Jack Burton and his truck so we have a lot of leeway with the character development and environments.

Specification:
Our target audience is the male gender who are above the age of 16, the maximum age will probably be around 30 however that does not exclude people over that age. People who enjoy the voodoo following and are fans of Big Trouble in Little China will also be included as well as people who enjoy action adventure games. The reason it will be towards people over the age of 16 is because children who are under that age and witnessing the violence would make the game be considered inappropriate. The visual theme of our game is very photorealistic, the first scene will be based off a real place so getting it to look perfect will require studying photographs of the place and making the environment and 3D models look realistic enough. The main character is Jack Burton who has swept back hair and a muscular body, this should come across in the game as strongly as possible without going over a specified polygon count. However this is one constraint of the many, the larger the polygon count the larger the file size. Having a high imagine resolution is of course quite a key part to the immersion of a game but again comes with a cost, large file sizes and even the possibility of it not being to run or render on the PC being used. If the output size is large then the export and import time will take a very long time, not making it worth the wait. File types can be a large issue, if you don't use all the correct types then you will most likely have issues in the future with getting everything to work together and opening files in the right applications. File sizes are what everything basically comes down to, large file sizes cause the issue of opening and exporting in a slow and ineffective way.

Year 2 - Unit 66,67 and 68: Understand theory and applications of 3D

Unit 66,67 and 68
Understand theory and applications of 3D
 Task 1

Applications of 3D:

Fantastic Beats And Where To Find Them
3D CGI/VFX
2016

Models represent a physical body in 3D, they use a collection of points in 3D space and they are connected by many varies of geometric entities. These may include triangles, curved surfaces, lines etc. They can be created by hand, algorithmically or scanned and then be extended with definition using texture mapping. Many computer games used pre-rendered images of 3D models as sprites before computers could render them in real-time. They are used in many fields with the main ones being the medical industry, movie industry, video game industry, science sector, architectural industry, engineering and also the earth science community. Product design within the 3D world is very helpful for any company trying to come up with initial and final ideas. A company can figure out how they would like their product to look without spending a lot of money of resources they don't necessarily need or are sure about. Also, they can develop their ideas with flexibility and next to no restraints or losses. 3D Animations consist of models that are built on a computer monitor and then 3D figures are rigged with a virtual skeleton. The limbs, mouth, clothes, eyes etc. of the model are then moved by the animator on key frames. All frames must be rendered after the modelling is fully completed. In most 3D computer animation systems an animator will create a much simpler representation of a characters anatomy, this generally looks much like a skeleton or a stick figure.3D in TV and Film is often related to CGI which stands for computer-generated imagery, this is the application of computer graphics to create realistic images. Much like computer animation the term CGI counts both static scenes and dynamic images. It is used for creating scenes and special effects, the best way to explain this is to think about a TV show or film that had something that couldn't possibly be seen in real life (not animated). Perhaps this is something mythical like a dragon or a fairy, however something like a rhino or an elephant could also be like this as I'm sure it must be cheaper and actually possible to have a CGI elephant and rhino next each other rather than the real ones which most likely won't get on well! This also joins into VFX. The use of 3D in games is very large as I'm sure you can imagine with the majority of major games being in this dimension. I have talked more about how 3D is applied in games here:

https://sarahsgamesdesign.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/year-2-unit-70-computer-game-engines.html

Displaying 3D polygon animations:

In-depth Graphics Pipeline

Local Illumination vs. Global illumination

API's (Application Programming Interface) are basically messengers that tell systems what to do. Specialised versions have been created to ease all stages of computer graphics as they have proved to be extremely important to computer graphics hardware manufacturers. They provide a way for programmers to access the hardware in an abstract and more or less new way. Examples of API's are; Direct3D which is a low-level 3D API that is part of DirectX and can render 3D graphics in applications like in games, it uses hardware acceleration if it actually available on the graphics card;WebGL which is a web-based API that renders 3D (and 2D) graphics and can be used in any compatible web browser without the use of plug-ins, it can be mixed with other HTML elements and can also be combined with other parts of the page or within the pages background; and OpenGL which is a high-level API that renders 3D (and 2D) vector graphics, it is most often used to interact with a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and was released in 1991 with it having around 17 versions that have been out. The Graphics Pipeline is a conceptual model in computer graphics that describes what steps a graphics system needs to render a 3D scene to a 2D screen. Some things involved in this are; clipping which removes parts of the image that aren't visible in the 2D screen and only the primitives which are within the visual volume need to actually be rastered; lighting which is where scenes can place light sources around to make the lighting of objects look much more realistic; projection which has the ability to transform the view volume into a cube with the corner point co-ordinates, occasionally the other target volumes are used as well; rasterisation in which all primitives are rastered and the grid points also called fragments for the sake of distinction with one fragment equalling one pixel in the frame buffer which corresponds to one pixel per screen; and shading, the most important shader units are pixel shaders, vertex shaders and geometry shaders. Rendering techniques include ray tracing which provides realistic simulation of lighting over different rendering methods. It effects like reflections and shadows are difficult to simulate using other algorithms, they are natural results of the ray tracing algorithm and models mirror reflections well but the diffuse reflection is approximated. Radiosity is a second rendering technique with models diffusing reflections accurately but mirror reflections are ignored and it attempts to simulate the way in which directly illuminated surfaces act as an indirect light source. Rendering engines convert 3D wire frame models into 2D images on a computer, Mental Ray uses and supports Ray Tracing, and Arnold is based on Ray Tracing technology. There are two types of major lighting with Indirect (Global illumination) being the first, it is all of the inter-reflected light in a scene. It is also an approximation of real-world indirect light transmission and an example would be if light spilled into a room through the space at the bottom or side of the a door. The second is Local illumination (light sources) where it is only the light provided directly from a light source. Examples of this method are if there was a spotlight on a stage or the sun shining directly on a solar panel. Applying texture is like applying wrapping paper to a present and it is done by having every vertex in a polygon assigned a texture co-ordinate. Fogging is a technique that is used to give an impression of distance, it achieves this by imitating fog. Objects faded out will be the ones that are further away and if there any even further a away will not be in view at all, this can save processor power. Pixel shaders are components that can be programmed to work on a per pixel basis and they take care of things like lighting and bump mapping. A vertex shader is programmed using a specific assembly-like language, they are orientated to the scene geometry.

Geometric theory:

The construction of a face that could make up
a polygon using vertices and edges.

Vertex is the basic object used in mesh modelling, which is a point in 3D space. This whole theory focuses on creating and editing 3D objects.  Two vertices connected by a straight line of any size will then become an edge. Edges are known as the connection between two vertices and can make a face with a closed set of edges. Curves are often made with multiple lines joining up with vertices very closely. The simplest polygon will probably be when three vertices are connected to each other by three edges which forms a triangle. The more complex polygons are created out of many of these, or just as a single object with more than 3 vertices. A group of polygons which are connected to each other by shared vertices are most likely going to be referred to as an element, each of the polygons making this up are called a face. It may be possible to create a mesh by manually specifying vertices and faces but it much more usual to create meshes using a large amount of tools. It is possible for two faces to exist at the same location. They are made up of three vertices, a face will always be a triangular shape, it is basically the face of a shape where the edges and vertices have been created. This is all needed to understand the Mesh Construction shown below:

Mesh construction:

The elements of a mesh

The construction of a simple mesh
using a primitive cube shape

It is a technique that is used in 3D modelling, the model is created by modifying primitive shapes to create a rough draft before creating the final model. Simply it is the process of making certain objects with polygon meshes, as shown on the right the elements are vertices, edges, faces, polygons and surfaces like there are with any 3D models. Extrusion modelling is the usual method to model with, it is also referred to as inflation modelling. You could create 2D shapes which trace the outlines so the model would then be symmetrical . It is widely used by 3D artists because of how easy it is to use. Box modelling uses two simple tools; the subdivide tool which splits faces and edges into smaller pieces, this is done by adding new vertices; and the extrude tool which duplicates vertices whilst still keeping the new geometry and is still connected to the original vertices. Extrusion modelling is often referred to as inflation modelling, this is were the user creates a two-dimensional shape which traces the outline of an object, this could be from a photograph or a drawing. Common primitives are probably the most basic polygon models that 3D software can make, this makes it easier for the user of the program to create models by using this as a base. Some of the most common standard primitives that we use in Maya are spheres, cubes, cylinders, cones, planes, prisms, pyramids and pipes.

3D development software:

Halo 4 - Energy Sword made in Maya
2012

Autodesk 3ds Max is a 3D computer graphics program which is used to make 3D animations, models, games and images. It has modelling capabilities with flexible plugin architecture, it is often used by video game developers, Tv commerial studios as well as architectural studios. Maya is an animation, modelling, simulation and rendering software that provides an integrated toolset. It is used for animation, environments, motion graphics, VR and character creation. It has been used in the first Chronicles of Narnia film, the South Park series and the video game Halo 4. Mudbox is a digital painting and sculpting software which gives 3D artists with a tactile toolset for creating and modifying 3D geometry and textures. Some file formats that are currently used within the modelling industry are; .3ds which is used by Autodesk's 3ds Max which aims to retain only the essential geometry, lighting and texture data; .mb is used by Autodesk's Maya software, mb stands for Maya Binary and it contains 3D models, textures, lighting and animation data; .lwo is used by LightWave, the files contain objects stored as meshes and also features polygons, points and surfaces; and .C4d files have 3D models created with Cinema 4D, it will contain a scene which has one or more objects with position, pivot points, meshes, rotation and animation information. Plug-ins are basically add-ons which can be applied to a modelling software.

Constraints:

Lara Croft gaining in polygon size over time along with
the systems as they can handle the higher quality.

The polygon count of a model can majorly strain a project as the amount of polygons you should use heavily depends on the quality that you require and the platform you use. On a mobile devices somewhere between 300 and 1500 polygons per mesh would give the best results and on a desktop it should be anywhere between 1500 and 4000 depending on the ability of the PC. There is a possibility you may have to reduce the polygon count per mesh if the game has a lot of characters on a single screen. The file size is also a large restraint due to how large models and textures can create huge file sizes, this would mean that the uploading, downloading and general loading times will be increased as well as the amount of storage the user will need on their device. Lowering the polygon count is a way to reduce the file size. The rendering time is a heavy constraint with pre-rendered the 3D image or animation is rendered over a long period of time. This could be only a few seconds, minutes or hours, and in some bad cases a vast amount of days. Real-time rendering typically uses a GPU and is most common in video games. The 3D image is created on the fly. 

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_modeling
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-generated_imagery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebGL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct3D
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_3D_graphics_libraries
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_pipeline#Clipping
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendering_(computer_graphics)#Techniques
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texture_mapping#Texture_application
https://sites.google.com/site/stevenwinspearunit41/assignment-1/displaying3dpolygonanimations
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/832545/what-are-vertex-and-pixel-shaders
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygonal_modeling#Geometric_theory_and_polygons
https://lukebeech.wordpress.com/geometric-theory/
https://www.slideshare.net/halo4robo/mesh-construction
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/modeling/meshes/editing/duplicating/extrude.html
http://3dthebasics.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/mesh-construction.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodesk_Maya

Year 2 - Unit 4 & 5: Game idea development & Pitch - Task 1

Unit 4 & 5

Game idea development and Pitch

Task 1

Contractual - 

Contractual Brief

With a contractual brief you would have sign it, once signed you are then forced to agree to all terms written inside the brief. It must be exceedingly descriptive, this is because it should describe exactly what is required by you and what you should do to complete the task. It would mention multiple factors of the brief that would need to be considered, these things could include; the time frame, this could be short or long depending on the brief at hand, perhaps if someone was creating a soundtrack it may possibly take nowhere near as long as someone who must create an entire game alone; the pay, a smaller and quicker task probably wouldn't include as much pay as a lengthy task which would take more effort; deadlines, which again like the time frame could be short or long depending on the severity of the task; and the job requirements, this is a pretty obvious part of any brief. This sort of brief is generally used if in a situation the client has a lack of trust with their employee or if a large sum of money is involved. These seem pretty obvious once you realise that if you were to break any of the terms you could face legal action.
This brief could be used in the game industry if a development team was approached by a publishing team, the publishers could write up a contractual brief for the developers to fully create the game. This would most likely be a contractual brief because there would be a large sum of money involved so if the employee broke off the contract they would lose the money and face further charged rather than it being blamed on the client.

Negotiated -

Negotiated Brief

If a brief is negotiated it gives more lee way to the employee from the client, this is because you can alter basically any part of the briefs aspects. Although some people argue that all briefs may be negotiable this one in particular is almost entirely up to the employee. This could be for many reasons but the most obvious is that the client is open to new and interesting options and ideas. From this brief you can gain the opportunity to gain more use of your creativity towards the project and have more control yourself over what must be done. If you go to your client and ask to negotiate you  would have to come to an agreement or arrangement that would still satisfy both your needs. Things that could be negotiated could possibly be things related to the time period given, pay, hours that must be put in or maybe even the original ideas that you would have to work off. You must remember that the client and yourself both have the same amount of right to change it and you shouldn't push ideas as you could lose the project all together.
The most likely time that this brief would be used in the gaming industry would be if a developer went to an artist to ask for some concept art or the finalised work. This would be because a development team might not have their own ideas or they might not be good enough.

Formal - 

Formal Brief

In a documented formal brief it should outline what specific things                                    should be combined into the specifications of a service or a product. Much like a contractual brief it should be set out clearly and structured within a neat and orderly way.Because it is formal the language that should be used in it must be formal meaning no abbreviations nor slang. Inside it should clearly state what the employee must do by being clear and thoroughly explained. Ways of clients making their briefs look more professional can be achieved by having their own logo on it. The main reason that this is different from a contractual brief is that it is not always classified as a legal document. It is classed by clients as a slightly more relaxed type of brief and only includes the most important information but it is still explained clearly without having any unwanted information involved.
This type of brief would most likely be used within the gaming industry if a publishing team met together and made some formal decisions or ideas towards a game they are publishing. Generally this would occur strictly within the workplace because they may not feel the need to legally bind people in their own company to a contract because they could just be let go but they should still have the same amount of detail in them so the work is done well enough.  

Informal - 

An informal brief is probably the most easiest and quickest to come up with when creating one as it can be as simple and as quick as you would like it to be. It can be made in any way, some examples may include; a piece of text, whether this be a small word document or a literal text message; an email, just a few lines or maybe a few words depending on the extent of the task; or it doesn't even have to be written it can just be more of a verbal agreement. A verbal agreement could even just be within a meeting where nothing is too important and is not required to be legally binding. It generally only includes just a request of work from someone, because it is so simple it is most likely to be used when very little money is involved or if its simply between friends. One of the most renowned things these briefs include is slang and abbreviated words. This, of course is the exact opposite of a formal brief because it uses very informal language and most likely will have a few grammatical errors.
If this brief was to be used anywhere in the gaming industry it would probably be used if two game developers from the same team came to agree on working on a certain part of the game together. Something like this would only happen if the two are close and have a lot of trust in each other and their work.

Commission -

Commission Brief

If you were to use a commission brief you would know exactly who you want to hire to do the work for you. This means you are able to save time and money for looking at potential employees as you can just go straight to the company of your choice. This method would be used instead of going to a tender with your brief. Clients generally only usually gives commissions to a company to fulfil a brief if the client has established relations with. This is used most likely by a large corporation (or one bigger than the other to employ a smaller or independent company to do the work for them. These is normally just as detailed as a formal or contractual brief.
If this brief was to be used in the games industry it would probably be used by a developer like Toby Fox (who created Undertale) to employ a freelance artist such as Temmie Chang to create the art for his game. Toby is an indie developer so he may not be what we call a big company but he has made enough of a name from himself to be the best example I could find. 

Competition - 

Competition Brief

A competition kind of brief is probably the most different as it is opened to all of the public and a wide range of production companies depending on what they want done. The reason that this is so popular is most likely to do with the fact that it allows a wide range of people who have a spectrum of talents to create a product based on the brief they were given for free. Only the winners of the competition will get the prize or whatever reward they are presented with. This means that the client spends a lot less money on a product as they do not have to pay anyone for the wealth of ideas that they are presented with unless that is stated so in the brief sent out. There should be a set deadline in which once that deadline is reached anymore entries sent after are discarded and the ones that were sent on time are judged and then the winner is announced and taken in to be published by the client. 
If a competition brief is used  in the gaming industry it is most likely going to be because a large developer like Valve asks the public to create some sort of music or other element of a game. The reward they would probably give could be anything from just a simple credit in the end/beginning title, to earning royalties themselves from the work the winner did. However competitions like these are rarely open to everyone unless its an indie company, larger companies tend to only open their competitions to slightly smaller companies. This is probably because they would much rather spend as little time rifling through the entries unless it would do the company well within the public eye. This then would make it more of a tender brief.

Tender - 

Tender Brief

A tender brief is very similar to a competition brief, because the client posts a brief that is only open to outside companies. These companies will then pitch their ideas to the client for the work, the best will then be selected and given the opportunity to work for the client. They will then be able to develop their ideas and create the clients project. The client tends to post an advertisement on a site like http://www.tendersdirect.co.uk/ which basically says that they require a product to be created. Within the pitch from the possible employee they tend to initiate a brief, budget and then a proposal.
As I stated in the above section about competition briefs these are only really used by companies of an equal standard, knowledge and popularity. In the gaming industry a company like Naughty Dog could have written a tender brief asking for a publisher to publish some of their games like Crash Bandicoot or Uncharted. If this had have happened Sony would've been one of the publishers to reply asking if they could publish the game by pitching their conditions and they would've been the company that Naughty Dog chose to go with.

Co-operative -

Co-operative Brief

You use a co-operative brief when it is two or more companies who are working on the same task, this has probably been done for a number of reasons with the most common being multi-skilling as well as deadlines that are tight. One company may not have resources to complete an assignment on their own and if a deadline is short hopefully two companies will be able to finish the work with  successful timing. The two or more companies must work in unison and as a team to complete an assignment, if it is not done well then the client will be hesitant to reemploy either sides of the team whether it be alone or together.
If this brief was to be used in the games industry it would most likely because two developing companies come together to create a game. There could be one Animator working with an artist and a musician to create a part of the games cut scene and they must work together to sync up their different parts and create an amazing result inside their group.

Reading a brief - 

When reading any type of brief you need to be able to recognise what kind of brief it may be, when you know what kind of brief it is it makes it a lot easier when you have to come up with ideas and also when you have to create the product itself. The main things that you will have to take into consideration are; the final dates, when would you have to be by and also how could you meet them; the timescale, how long do you have to complete the task at hand; ca actually do it; and what is required equipment wise or would it need any special requirements. If the brief is not read properly the employee could do a terrible job and the client could either not hire them again or pay them less than was stated.
In the gaming industry everyone would probably have to read a brief at one point in time, one company may be employed by another company and will have to check that they actually have the resources to complete the task at hand. This could be important whatever situation they are in, whether that be that they are creating just some concept art or the whole game. The brief much be met to the clients standards.

Negotiating the brief - 

Like said in negotiable briefs, all briefs can be negotiated to an extent so when you first have one you should always do your best to read carefully through it to make sure if there is anything that you would like to change as it may not be possible for you to do alone or at all. Negotiating can be a crucial part of any brief mainly because if something is not possible or it could cause you more negatives than positives (like causing you to lose money rather than gaining a profit). Things you may want to negotiate could be the time frame as it may be too short and therefore not possible for a timely completion or maybe if the budget is way too small and the project eats up more of the budget than you can afford to lose. If the brief is legally binding then the chances of it being changed after it is finalised are very slim and if you cant complete the assignment because the constraints are too tight then you could face legal action. This proves how important it is to plan ahead and figure out what you need to achieve the main goal.
In the gaming industry different members of a company may need to ask for a larger budget due to resource costs, this could be the programs that are used or the equipment they need. They could ask for a time extension because they may not have enough of a team to get it completed on time or small technical difficulties such as if the rendering times may be too long. 

My Brief - 

The brief that I have been given is probably an informal brief but is also very negotiable. I have been asked to create an original game based on my story ideas I came up which was based on the film Big Trouble in Little China. The game will be developed for the platform Windows PC and I will be  expected to present 4 game ideas at the start. They will be then narrowed down to one which will be chosen to create a full design document on. My final idea will be pitched and I will be given full feedback before I begin my production. Over the course of its creation I will be expected to document weekly logs detail what process the game has gone through. The things I will need to create my game will be my initial ideas which are all document on paper and in Word Documents, I also have a few concept art ideas on physical paper that are hand drawn which will help in the creation of my models. Possibly the most important thing I will need is a Windows PC, this is because not only the majority of programs I will use are only available on the Windows platform but also because I will need to test run games. I will also need programs and applications these are; Microsoft Word, I can use this to further my initial ideas and also come up with new ones and make notes/adjustments on there; Microsoft Excel, this is a great program to use to organise, log and plan out progress over the next few weeks and keep track of deadlines using the built-in timeline template; Maya, this is a modelling software that I can use to create digital objects, characters and vehicles for my game; Unreal, a games engine that I can use to actually code the game in C++ and create the environment; Google Chrome, I use Google Chrome as main browser because it makes life easier when transferring work from college to home as all of my bookmarks are in once place, not only this but its also the best resource to find research like finding inspiration and creating music, art and textures, its also the best and quickest way to find help; Adobe Photoshop, this the best way for me personally to create detailed concept art using a graphics tablet; and last of all Microsoft PowerPoint, for presentations and pitches this is probably the best method to use.

Opportunities - 

The opportunities that I will gain are the new skills that come with process I must take, I have in front of me the opportunity to learn so many new skills that will help me later in life, such as, using programs like Maya to learn how to do 3D modelling or Unreal to learn to program in a new language. I will also expand my knowledge at digital art skills in Photoshop and hand drawing skills when creating my concept art. I feel as though I can have some self development over this project as maybe it can help me figure out which part of games design I want to carry on doing next year. I will also have a variety of different skills after working on each set as multi-skilling. There is a possibility that I could gain contacts if I enquire to companies about things that I want to learn about or get advice on if I put myself out there. The experience I could gain would over everything I learnt and worked, I am working in a team so I can gain experience in that and also what its like to create a game from the roots up with the art, programming, animation and modelling etc. I will learn to communicate with my team mates and be able to merge all of our ideas and work together. If I can put on my CV I created a game it could look amazing on there and could definitely help me get a job by seeing all the skills I have gained through the process. Also the different things I worked on can go inside my portfolio and show off my many skills.

References:

http://jamestedder.net/unit-4-5-creative-media-production-management-project-working-to-a-brief-in-media-1718/
https://prezi.com/p7qr3kj8o4ph/contractual-brief/
https://www.slideshare.net/veggieburgers4lyf/different-types-of-brief-16919081 

Year 2 - Unit 70 - Computer Game Engines - Assignment P1 and P2

Unit 70: Computer Game Engines
P1 and P2-

P1 - The purpose of Game Engines and their advancement over the years:

2D:

Pac-Man for the Atari 2600
1982

2D computer games consist of 2D graphics, these are the computer-based generation of digital images. They are from most two-dimensional models, they are mainly used in originally developed applications which were upon drawing technologies and traditional printing. These include things like typography, technical drawing and advertisements etc. These techniques started sometime within the 1950's which were based upon vector graphic devices. This later developed into being the soul of many games, especially in the first ever video games from brands like Atari. Back when the first games for the Atari 2600 were created they didnt have game engines like we do now so they had to 'talk' directly to their hardware. They did this using a machine code, this code is called Assembly language. So unlike the games I have used as examples below, games like the original Pac-Man were much more complicated to make if you didn't really know much about computer hardware or coding.

Undertale key characters
2015

One of the most notable games of 2015 was Undertale, it is a 2D game created by a developer called Toby Fox. The game engine that he used to develop his game was GameMaker: Studio. This Engine only can be used to create 2D games. At first this game was only released on PC through Steam but as its popularity grew, so did it's audience. Last month, August 2017, the game was released on the PlayStation4 and PS Vita. This proves that just because a game looks basic doesn't mean it actually is. GameMaker Studio was known as Amino until 1999, Game Maker until 2011, GameMaker until 2012 and Game Maker: Studio until this last year. It uses drag and drop action sequences to allow easier game creation, however it allows more precise coding with its own sandboxed scripting language known as Game Maker Language. Without features like these, who knows if Undertale would have even been created?
zs c

Corpse Party
1996

Corpse Party - Blood Covered:
Repeated Fear
2016

A game called Corpse Party (Corpse-Party (PC-98)) was also created using another game engine that only supports 2D games back in 1996 using RPG Maker. It was only released for a Japanese exclusive home system known as NEC PC-9801.  The game was recreated, enhanced and released in 2008 and was know as, 'Blood Covered.' Unfortunately the game engine that was used has not been disclosed as of yet, however it is believed to be/like RPG Maker in the fact that it was 2D and looks extremely similar. This remake makes it obvious of the changes and popularity in 2D graphics of today. They included more characters, updated graphics (probably the most significant addition), professional voice actors and larger maps. Later on it was enhanced even further and renamed, 'Blood Covered: Repeated Fear,' finally it was released internationally under another new name. Plain and simple, 'Corpse Party.' The fact this 2D game was released on so many platforms in so many countries just proves how 2D games are loved and adored still, even with such amazing 3D graphics. They aren't disappearing anytime soon and are perfect choice for any new game creators. More 2D only game engines are; Adventure Game Studio, Buildbox, Game Editor, Infinity Engine and LÖVE.

3D:

3D computer graphics in the
development stage

3D graphics use a three-dimensional representational of geometric data that will be stored in a computer. These could be stored for viewing later or they could be displayed in real-time. There are three basic steps to 3D computer graphics creation:
1. The 3D modelling - this is the forming process of making a computer model of an object's shape.
2. The layout and animation - this consists of the placing and movement of any object within a scene.

Battlezone for the Atari 2600
1980

3. The 3D rendering - The image is generated by the computer using calculations based on light placement, surface types and many other qualities.
The first big 3D game that was an actual success was a game called Battlezone which was released in 1980 as a tank game. It used vector graphics to create itself which is very much like Asteroids. You can clearly see how 3D graphics have developed over the years just by simply comparing Battlezone to any game I have used as an example below. We have gone from just using simple vector graphics to the smooth and high definition that we have as of now.

The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
1996

The Elder Scrolls III: Marrowind

Bethesda are a developing company who are known for many things most of them good (The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series) however, some are bad. Bethesda have used basically the same Game Engine for so many years. At first XnGine (developed by Bethesda themselves to use in-house) was used in the 1990's up until 1999, it was a 3D engine which had support for higher resolutions and in 1998 it was made compatible with 3dfx graphics cards. The first game they created using this engine was Terminator: Future Shock in 1995, it was also the first ever PC game to use the mouse-lock interface which was initially unpopular but over the years has gained a positive reputation. The last game to use this engine was a game called NIRA: Intense Import Drag Race in 1999. This engine also housed 3 of The Elder Scrolls games (The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (1996), The Elder Scrolls Legends: Battlespire (1997) and The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard (1998)). The second game engine they used was NetImmerse who was the predecessor to Gamebryo and as of today I can only find one game they made using this engine and that is The Elder Scrolls III: Marrowind. When you do any research on NetImmerse it always leads back to the Gamebryo engine, speaking of which...

Gamebryo - LightSpeed update
2012

The third game engine they used was Gamebryo, They released two games on using this engine for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows, these were Fallout 3 in 2008 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in 2006. Gamebryo is written in C++ and caters to almost every platform that was still used in vast amounts (Wii, PSP, Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 2,3 and 4, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo DS, IOS and Android). This game engine has a proprietary license (owned by an individual or a company) and is available to be used some of the biggest developers for a price.The reason I say they have used basically the same engine is because all of the engines may have different names but they are all just slightly updated ripoffs of each other.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim vs Fallout 4 graphics using the
Creation Engine.
2011 vs 2015

The latest game engine they used is the Creation Engine, this is a engine that was created for Bethesda themselves much like XnGine which again has a proprietary license just for Bethesda as an in-house engine. Supporting the copycat theory this engine is based off the Gamebryo engine so its basically the same engine but with slightly more impressive graphics. The engine was released in late 2011 but has only had two games created with it, these are The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in 2011 and Fallout 4 in 2015. In between these two games Bethesda enhanced the graphical core of the Creation Engine b y addidng more features like a a new type of rendering and they also worked with Nvidia to add volumetric lighting. This update was showed in the new graphical content of Fallout 4 compared to Skyrim. The Creation Engine can create games for the following platforms:

• Windows
• Nintendo Switch
• PlayStation 3, 4 and VR
• Xbox 360 and Xbox One

Quake family tree
As of 2013

Quake
1996

Another game engine that was made by a development team was the Quake Engine, it was created by id Software to power their game from 1996 called Quake. This game featured 3D real-time rendering which was true to its claim. It was the first true 3D game which used a special map design system, this pre-processed and pre-rendered some elements of its 3D environment and  the second Quake engine (id Tech 2) was based on the first Quake Engine. It was written in the C code and Assembly language and can  create games for the following platforms:

• PC
• Amiga
• PowerPC Macintosh
• Nintendo 64

One of the most popular game engines, if not the most, is the Unreal Engine. This proved extremely well by the amount of games that have been created using this engine, that of around 750, over the past 4 engines. It only supports the creation of 3D games, with the majority of  these games you would've heard of and its first release was 19 years ago in 1998. The developers are Epic Games and there have been four different versions of Unreal and each one has had many different changes and helped it grow it's reputation.

Rune - Unreal Engine 1
2000

The first version that came into the world was, of course, Unreal Engine 1. The one main difference between the games created with the first engine and any of the others is that many people say that the enemies are a lot easier to spot and kill! Also the 1st engine created big and unrealistic lens flares. This engine was originally was made for the 'Unreal' game, the engine and game were released together 3 years after the development started. Software and hardware rendering were present in the beginning software as well as collision detection, coloured lighting and an initial version of texture filling. There was a provided level editor called UnrealEd that was created with it, and support for real-time constructive solid geometry operations in 1996 and it allowed mappers to change the level layout 'on the fly.' They added real-time direction illumination and light sourcing during the creation in 1995 and 1997. at first it only had support Microsoft Windows, Mac and Linux but later 'Unreal Tournament' widened the platform to the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast with support of Secret Level, who are now known as Sega Studios San Francisco. In 2000 Epic updated the engine with many improvements like higher polygon count models and architecture, a skeletal animation system and large-scale terrain support. It quickly became popular due to the modular engine architecture and the scripting language called UnrealScript which made it easy to mod. You don't need to spend a fortune to create and mod your own games, engines like Unreal are free and allow basically anyone to mod their games as well as creating (not until UE3) their own for a price. This nature meant the engine could be extended and improved over the multiple generations of games we have been faced with. This was stated by Tim Sweeney in a 1998 interview with a magazine called 'Maximum PC'.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - Unreal
Engine 2
2004 

The second version debuted in 2002 with the game 'America's Army,' the basic structure was used from the last engine but the renderer was completely re-written. It also had new features added like the Matinee cinematic editing tool, export plug-ins for 3D StudioMax, Maya and the Karma physics engine which is a tool by Math Engine that powered the the ragdoll physics in Unreal Tournament 2003. It also featured an updated level editor called UnrealEd 2 and was shortly followed by a third version (unsurprisingly called UnrealEd 3). Other elements were updated, these contained improved assets as well as Xbox support. UE2.5 was an updated version to the original UE2, this improved rendering performance and added vehicles physics, a partical system editor for UnrealEd and 64-bit support in 'Unreal Tournament 2004 which was all new from UE1. An updated specialised version of UE2 was used for 'Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict' on  the original Xbox platform. This version was called UE2X and it featured optimisations specific for that console. In 2011 Ubisoft Montreal revealed UE2 was running successfully well on the Nintendo 3DS.

DmC: Devil May Cry - Unreal Engine 3
2013

Unreal Engine 3 had its first screenshots presented in 2004 even though it had already been in development for the past 18 months. It was apparently released in 2007 and unlike Unreal Engine 2 (which still supported fixed function pipeline) Unreal Engine 3 had been designed to take advantage of fully programmable shader hardware. All lighting calculations were done per-pixel, instead of per-vertex. It had supported gamma-correct high-dynamic range renderer and initially this version only had platform support for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. iOS and Android were added in 2010. 'Infinity Blade' was the first title for iOS and Android had 'Dungeon Defenders' as theirs. OS X support was added in 1022 and that same year it was announced that the engine would support Adobe Flash Player 11 through stage 3D hardware-accelerated APIs and that it was also to be used in two Wii U games which were 'Batman: Arkham City' and 'Aliens: Colonial Marines'. Windows 8 and Windows RT support was added in 2012 and Epic teamed up with Mozilla to bring Unreal Engine 3 to HTML5. In four days it was able to port the engine to JavaScript and WebGL using the asm.js and sub-language and Emscription compiler. Throughout UE3's lifetime many large updates have been incorporated, these include a global illumination solver, improved destructible environments, soft body dynamics, large crowd simulation, iPod Touch functionality, Steamworks integration, a real-time global illumination solution and stereo scopic 3D on Xbox 360 by TriOviz for a company called Games Technology/ DirectX 11 support was finally demonstrated with the 'Samaritan' demo in 2011 at  that years Game Developers Conference.
Although UE3 has been quite open for modders to work with, the ability to publish and sell games made using UE3 was restricted to owners of a licence towards the engine. In November 2009 Epic released a free version of Unreal Engine 3's SDK (Software Development Kit) called the Unreal Development Kit that was available to all of the public. In December 2010 it was updated to have support for making iOS games and apps.

The Park - Unreal Engine 4
2014

In  August 2005 it was revealed that Unreal Engine 4 had supposedly been in development since 2003. Up until 2008 it was only in development with a single man, Time Sweeney (founder and CEO of Epic Games. Video of the engine being demonstrated by technical artist, Alan Willard, was released on June 7th 2012 to the public. It targets the current eighth generation of consoles, PCs and devices running Android which was announced sometime around January 2014. One of the new major features planned for UE4 was real-time global illumination which would eliminate the need for pre-computed lighting. This however, has been replaced with a similar but less resource hungry algorithm previous to the release for all platforms. this was mainly due to performance concerns on next generation consoles. It includes many more new developer features to reduce iteration time, and allows updating of C++ code whilst the engine is running. A new 'Blueprint' visual scripting system allows for rapid development of game logic without using C++, and includes live debugging. The result of this is that there is a reduced iteration time and less of a divide between technical artist, designers and programmers. Epic Games released Unreal Engine 4 with all of its tools, features and complete C++ source code on March the 19th 2014. On the 3rd of September 2014 the Unreal Engine Marketplace was launched, this allows users to buy and sell community-created content of all shapes and sizes. In addition to all the previous free content, this new marketplace came with some varied asset packs including full-scale environments, characters, animated meshes, prefab C++ code, props, sounds, materials and many more asset types as well as free tutorials and demos. The next day it was released to schools and universities, this included personal copies for students enrolled in video game development, computer science, art, architecture, simulation and visualisations for free. Since the 2nd of March 2015 it has been available to the public for free with any and all future updates included. It also has a selective royalty schedule for those who wish to publish anything. Its currently available for use on Windows and Mac to create games for the following platforms:

• Windows
• macOS
• Linux
• Steam OS
• HTML5 
• iOS
• Android
• Nintendo Switch
• PlayStation 4
• Xbox One
• Virtual Reality (VR) - SteamVR/HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, Google Daydream, OSVR and Samsung Gear VR.

The Stanley Parable
2011

A company called Valve have their own in-house game engine called Source. It debuted in June 2004 with Counter-Strike: Source which was followed almost instantaneously by Half-Life 2. Its successor, Source 2, was announced in March 2015 with the first to use it being Dota 2. Source originates from the GoldScr engine which itself is a heavily modified version of the Quake engine. John Carmack (the owner of Quake engine) even wrote on his blog in 2004, "there are still bits of early Quake code in Half-Life 2."
The source 2006 branch was a term used for valves games using technology that peaked with the release of 'Half-Life 2: Episode One'. HDR rendering and colour correction were first added in 2005. This required the engines shaders to be re-written. 'Episode One' added Phong shading and other small features.

Left 4 Dead
2008

Source 2007 branch illustrated a complete upgrade for the Source engine to the release of 'The Orange Box'. An in-process tools framework was made to support this, it also supported the initial builds of 'Source Filmmaker'. The facial animation system was hardware-accelerated on modern video cards for much better quality. Support on PC was completely unstable as an experiment until 'Left 4 Dead' was released. Valve then created 'The Orange Box' Xbox 360 release in-house. The support for it is full integrated into the main engine codeline. Valve released all major game titles on OS X along along with the release of the Steam client. Their first game to support Linux was 'Team Fortress 2' in October 2012 with a closed beta version of Steam.
As long ago as May 2011, Valves possibly largest project was developing new content authoring tools. Included in this was Source 2, they stated this would replace older and more outdated tools. This could allow content to be created quicker and more efficiently. Valve announced that they would be using a new in-house physics engine named Rubikon. This would be used to replace Havok and will visualise the physics in the engines tools and would get rid of the need of having multiple windows open. They intend to make the engine free foe game developers to use as long as the game will be published on Steam. It supports the creation of games on following platforms:

• Microsoft Windows 
• OS X
• Linux
• Android

How have the features of game engines evolved?

Nokia - Snake
1997

Sims FreePlay
2017

A mobile game is a video game that is played on a feature phone, smartwatch, smartphone/tablet etc. The earliest known mobile game was a Tetris type of game on the Hagenuk MT-2000 from 1994, in 1997 Snake was launched by the company Nokia which proved to be one of the most successful mobile games in history and has become one of the most played video games. Snake can be found on over 350 million devices worldwide. However, nowadays mobile games are mainly downloaded via an app store but a few are still preloaded onto the device itself when it is bought. Downloadable games were first put forward commercially in Japan with the launch of a new platform: NTT DoCoMo's I-mode platform in 1999 which then travelled around the world as a craze in the early 2000s. Graphic rendering is the process of generating an image from a 2D or 3D model by means of a computer program, these images could be photorealistic or non-photorealistic. The results by displaying an image of such can be called a rendering. A scene file will contain objects in a precise language or data structure, these will contain geometry, viewpoint, shading information as a description of the virtual scene, lighting and texture. This information is then passed to a rendering program to be processed and then outputted to a digital image or raster graphics file. Collision Detection typically refers to the problem of detecting the crossing of two or more objects, for a long while video games had a very small number of objects to treat so checking all pairs was easy. In some 2D games the hardware was able to detect and report overlapping pixels between sprites in the game with ease. 3D games have used spatial partitioning methods and for a long time one or very few spheres per 3D object for the tests. Almost all games use a collision feature and they often get resolved using simple rules. AI (Artificial Intelligence) is intelligence displayed by machines, in video games it used generate responsive/intelligent behaviours mainly in NPCs will human-like intelligence. One of the first examples of AI is the game of Nim made in 1951 and published in 1952, in the year it was made it was advanced technology. Whereas now AI technology seems like such a basic part of any game made. The sound in a video can be anything from a simple beep to know you've been hit to a full blown soundtrack. Simple synthesizer pieces are still common most game music includes full orchestral pieces and popular music rather than just 8-bit short melodies. Game physics involves the introduction of the laws of physics into a game engine, these tend to make the effects seem more realistic to the player/observer. You can use a physics engine that can provide a general simulation of certain physical systems, these include; rigid body detection, soft body dynamics, and fluid dynamics. Cross-Platform, also known as multi-platform software or platform-independent software, can be computer software which can be divided into types; one which requires individual building or compilation for each platform that it can support or the other which can can run directly on any platform without special preparation.

Components:

Animation Systems add motion to rendered objects and entities, in some engines animated meshes are called Skeletal Meshes. This is because bone-based skeletal animation is the mechanism for making the animation of the objects in the game happen.This system may be used for multiple things such as making a basic players movement seem more realistic by playing around between Animation Sequences, create moves such as scaling a mountain, apply damage effects or facial expressions, or directly control how bones transform. Middleware is computer software that provides services to software applications which go way beyond what the operating system is capable of. It is often named as "software glue". It makes it easier for software developers to execute communication and input/output, this then allows them to focus on the point of their application.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undertale
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpse_Party
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPG_Maker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_engine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_engine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_development_tool
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_(game_engine)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stanley_Parable
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_Engine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_computer_graphics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2D_computer_graphics
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/the-evolution-of-3d-games-700995
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XnGine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamebryo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_Engine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_game
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_engine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-platform#form_software
https://docs.unrealengine.com/udk/Three/AnimationOverview.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middleware