War Card Game

Rules:

Operational:

• The Game must be played with a minimum of 2 players
• Deck is divided evenly between players
• Each player reveals top card
• The player with the highest value card takes both cards and places them on the bottom of their deck
• If cards are equal, players reveal their next card. The highest card takes all the cards.
• The first player to run out of cards is the loser.

Constituitive:

• Players must reveal cards at the same time
• If tied,  war is active.  The next card wins all

2=2

3=3

4=4

5=5

6=6

7=7

8=8

9=9

10=10

J=11

Q=12

K=13

A=14

If each card was given a numerical value, there is a total of 104 per suit and a total of 416 per deck. Therefore, the person to reach a numerical value of 416 is the winner.

Implied: 

• Don't conceal cards form opponents
• Don't hit opponents
• Dont steal opponents cards

War Card Game Variants

My variants of War:

1:

- Deck is shuffled and divided evenly between players
- Players take top 5 cards from deck, these are in the players hand
- players have a choice of 5 cards to play each round
- The player with the highest value card wins and puts both cards on the bottom of their deck
-Each round the player takes a new card from the top of their deck so that they always have 5 cards in their hand. The exception being when a player does not have 5 cards, in which case all cards are held in hand
-The winner is the player to obtain all the cards

2:
-Deck is shuffled and split into multiple piles (2 or more)
-Each round players draw a card from whichever pile they want
-player with highest card wins, winner of round takes both cards and puts them in a "win" pile.
-First one to get all the cards wins

Constituative and Implicit rules remain the same.

Potential Problems: What happens if a player has one card remaining and "war"occurs? This goes for the standard version of war aswell.

What does it take to get hired?

In the previous post I outlined the basic skills required to be an environment artist. Those skills as well as a strong portfolio and relevant experience are essential in getting hired.  Environment art, along with every other role in the games industry is a competitive field. Instead of asking what does it take to get hired, more important questions are:

What does it take to be a good environment artist? and How can I make myself stand out from all the other wannabe artists?

Anyone can learn the skills required to be an environment artist, but in an an ever more competitive field, standing out from the competition is a must. While researching on the topic of standing out from the other artists, a few people mentioned the relationship between modelling and texturing and how these should be viewed as an equal partnership. Texturing is just as important as the modelling process and an equal amount of time and effort needs to be spent on it. Many junior artists are guilty of pouring all of their effort into modelling and slacking on the texture work. 

I've done this... A lot.

As well as strong texture work, it is important  to show diversity. Experience creating models photo real textures and hand painted textures will make me more desirable to a potential employer. Showing strong  visual story telling and composition skills will also make work stand out.

It's important to show all of your work; finished model, wire frame, flat textures, normal maps, ambient occlusion maps, UV unwraps etc. This shows understanding and competence in creating models, someone looking at my portfolio will see that I understand how to do all of these things already and independently.

It is a good idea to show a broad range of knowledge and skills outside of those required to be a good environment artist. Showing an understanding of other areas within games design can make you more desirable  especially to a small team.

Being active on social media and blogging regularly can help to get your work out there and get noticed.

What do I need to improve on to best myself as an environment artist?

My research has shed some light into the steps i need to take in order to improve myself and make myself more attractive to an employer. Based on my research I have been able to formulate this list of goals I need to meet in order to move forward.

• Give equal attention to both modelling and texturing when creating 3d models. This can be achieved by timing myself on how long it takes for me to complete a model and then dedicate an equal amount of time and effort to the texture sheet. Timing my work will also teach me to be more time effiecient when working, with more practice I should be able to achieve desired results within a minimal amount of time, skills which are desirable within the industry. Creating props is a good way to do this as most will not take that long to model but will help me practice both modelling and texturing.
• Create higher poly models. The models I create are typically very low poly. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, I can create models very efficiently because of this. The downside to this is that I feel that my models are lacking in detail. It is important for me to properly familiarise myself with using Mudbox and learn how to use it.
• Start thinking about my portfolio. While I am creating work constantly for university projects, it would be beneficial for my to work on a few personal projects outside of university with a strong emphasis on quality and efficiency. 
• Time Management. Time management is currently the weakest aspect of my work. For as long as I can remember I have been horrible at doing this. Fortunately it is a relatively easy area to develop. Creating timetables focusing my day around working is the solution, providing I stick to the timetable of course.

Industry Research

Desired Role:

Environment Artist.

Role Description:

An Environment Artist specialises in the indoor and outdoor locations of a game. An Environment Artist is responsible for the overall visuals the player will encounter on screen. Environment artists may be required to build and texture anything from architecture, terrain, foliage and props.

The role of an environment artist is not black and white, however. The job description is likely to differ from studio to studio and knowledge in other areas of game design will be beneficial when applying for jobs.

Key Skills:

• Knowledge of 3d software such as 3ds Max and Mudbox
• 2d texture creation
• Drawing/ Painting
• Knowledge of Architecture
• Experience working with level editors such as UDK
• Time Management
• Teamwork and Communication skills
• Understanding of the latest techniques and trends
• Accepting of feedback/ open to new ideas and concepts

Environment Artist Job Roles and Progression

Junior Environment Artist
Salary: 18-20k

Environment Artist
Salary: 24-28k

Senior Environment Artist
Salary 34-37k

Board Game

Back of Cards

Board Layout

Felix Baumgartner Game Play Test 1

We were presented with 3 options to use as a starting point for our game: Felix Baumgartner Space Jump, London Olympics and Gangam Style.

We decided to use the topic of Felix Baumgartner and his jump from the edge of space as a basis for our board game. The board game Arrima utilises chess pieces in order to play. Inspried by this we decided to use pieces form an existing board game. 

The game revolves around building towers from jenga pieces. The taller the tower, the more points. Each player is given 100 adrenaline, which acts as currency. Adrenaline can be used to purchase more block from the pile to add to your tower, or it can be used to purchase cards. Each card has an adrenaline cost, a player may use as many cards as they like per round providing they do not use more adrenaline than thy have. A player can hold onto up to 5 cards at any one time.

Contemporary Design Essay Project Plan

Contemporary Design Essay Project Plan

Essay Title and Question

How have the issue of climate change and sustainability affected contemporary architecture?

Why I will answer this question

I watched a video and a TED talk with architect Bjarke Ingels in which he states the biggest problem facing the next generation of architects is climate change and sustainability. I found his ideas of ‘Hedonistic Sustainability’, to be particularly interesting. This idea questions the misconception that sustainability means sacrifice. Hedonistic Sustainability is defined as “sustainability that improves the quality of life and human enjoyment”. I will question Hedonistic sustainability examining whether sustainability is a moral burden and how much, if any, we have to sacrifice to achieve hedonistic sustainability in a design. Bjarke Ingles talks about architects having to design an ecosystem and shows his Danish Pavillion design as an example of how we can achieve hedonistic sustainability. Global warming and climate change are the biggest problems we face in the world, they are not limited to designers and they are serious problems that the world faces as a whole right now. Because of these reasons, it is important to examine climate change and understand how we can overcome it.

Key research areas

      Evironmental Design/ Environmentally friendly designs

Hedonistic Sustainability

Climate Change: why is it an issue for designers

History of green architecture

Problems with green architecture

Examples of architecture that embrace hedonistic sustainability

Current Laws/ legislations regarding design and climate change

Project Timetable

Date	Work
31st October	Begin research into key research areas and collecting information.
7th November	Continue collecting research, recording it all on blog.
14th November	Begin to plan essay structure and continue collecting research on blog.
21st November	Begin writing first draft using contact time when possible
28th November	Complete first draft, use contact time for improvements to essay. Continue recording all on-going research to blog.
5th December	Start making amendments to essay for final hand in.
12th December	Have all research recorded on blog and final essay completed

When Video Games Invade Real Life

I watched a TED talk with Jesse Schell about the future of games and how games are slowly creeping into real life. I found this talk highly interesting and very disturbing at the same time.

Schell talks first about the unexpected success of social games such as Mafia Wars, Farmville and Club Penguin. These games are attracting to the user because they allow you to play with your real friends, they aren't just a virtual world anymore. Even outside of games there is a huge demand for reality, for example, reality TV and organic groceries. Schell talks about how authenticity is the most important aspect of products today. Technology and virtual worlds have cut us off from nature and people have a real hunger to reconnect with it, which is why reality is so important in today's market.

Schell goes onto talk about how games have already begun to slowly creep into our everyday lives with things like weight watchers points and air travel points. He mentions a virtual pet in his car that grows the more petrol you save, which has real effects on the way people drive. I think this is the most important point of the whole talk, the idea that rewarding people with virtual points for actions can have real effects on peoples behaviour. As an example, drinking Dr Pepper could reward people with 10 points each time they have a can and could award bonus points for drinking 5 in a week. This keeps a consumer interested in continues use of a product and increases the chance of a repeat purchase. Schell closes by saying that if everything we do is monitored by sensors and awarding us points, that we may be inspired to be better people.

I really enjoyed this talk, I think it gives insight into where games are going in the future. I can't say that I would look forward to a future with a total gamification of life. Sensors watching our every move and awarding us points and 1ups for everyday activities seems a breach of our personal privacy. It's quite unsettling that this may be a future we cannot avoid. I do, however, find it very interesting though that we could actually become better people if this was how the world worked, by being rewarded for positive actions. The total gamification of life would merge the real and virtual world and potentially inspire people to be better, but I think the issues of privacy are too great to ignore.

Link to talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade_real_life.html

Good Design and Bad Design

Good design and Bad design

It is hard to say exactly what makes a good design and what makes a bad design, it is completely subjective. A piece of design that is aesthetically pleasing for one person may not be for another, in reality a good design is one that meets the requirements given.

Good Design - Google.com 

Google.com is an example of good web design. A simple colour palette and layout does not distract the user from any information on the website. A good design should avoid being fashionable, this way the design never feels antiquated. Googles logo has changed very little since the company began, the same goes for the layout of the website, not much has changed since it all began. Googles logo is timeless which is why it has stayed the same for all this time, similarly coca-cola is another a great example of good logo design it too has changed very little over the years.

Google from 1998

Google from 2012

Google.com is a website that we are all very familiar with and will most probably use every day. However, even if someone isn't familiar with google it's unlikely they would have any problems using it. All the information on the website is no more than 2 clicks away.

Accessing features other than the search engine are displayed at the top of the page.

If you have an account set up with google, it can be easily accessed from the google homepage allowing you to view your profile.

Google is one of the best pieces of design we use day to day. It's simple aesthetics and ease of use make it one of the best websites around and why it is an example of good design.

Bad Design - Al Yaqoub Tower, Dubai

Al Yaqoub Tower is a 60 storey replica of Big Ben currently under construction in Dubai, UAE and is a great example of how not to design a building. First of all the building is in terrible taste, it looks tacky and the fact that it is a rip off cheapens the whole design. Unlike Google's logo and webpage layout, the design of this building is far from timeless. This building looks bad now, imagine it in 20 years from now.

Other Bad Designs:

Anything by Anish Kapoor, in particular, the ArcelorMittal Orbit built for the London olympics:

Also Olympic related, the London 2012 mascots:

They look like the weird offspring of Sauron and the Teletubbies.