Tabletop Game Process- "02 Deconstruction"

For the second part of the tabletop game process we had to choose a game and deconstruct it down to it's basic gaming formula ( not as completed as it may sound). I had decided to go with a game called Punch! and played it through a few times with a friend. The game is located here if you're curious- Punch! And here are my findings from the play-throughs:

• Goal of the game: The goal of Punch! is to KO the other player's Boxer to win a round ( the game consists of playing 3 matches which are 3 rounds each). From there a player must then KO their opponent's Boxer for 3 matches to win the whole game.
• Core Mechanic: Each round a player uses ten cards to use against their opponent until one of them is KOed. The stamina card for each players boxer may account as well. The player must KO their opponent by lowering their Stamina bar to 0.

     

• Space of the game: The space within the game is a 2D. The cards always stay on the table and are situated accruing to if they're in use or not ( as in they're in a discard pile, are a part of the main draw deck, or are in the player's hand for active usage in a round). The space is also discrete as both players have an agreed set border for where they place their cards for when they're in use or not.
• Objects, Attributes, and States: The main objects within the game are the 64 cards. Each player receives 32 cards. within each players deck are:

             - 5 Punch cards marked with 1. 

-Attributes: Punch opponent and take away 1 point of their stamina.

-States: Card color and points are static.

             - 5 Punch cards marked with 2. 

-Attributes: Punch opponent and take away 2 points of their stamina.

-States: Card color and points are static.

             - 5 Punch cards marked with 3. 

-Attributes: punch opponent and take away 3 points of their stamina.

-States: Card colors and points are static.

             - 5 Do Nothing cards marked with a 0. 

-Attributes: Player gains 1 stamina point if their opponent use any non-Punch card like Block, Do Nothing, or Dodge and Punch Back. 

-States: Card colors and actions are static.

             - 5 Block cards marked with an X. 

-Attributes: A player can block an opponent's Punch card of any power.

-States: Card colors and actions are static

             - 5 Dodge and Punch Back cards marked with -/*. 

-Attributes: A player can avoid an opponent's Punch card and can then inflict them with a punch of equal power. For example a player uses a punch of 3 so the other player with a Dodge and Punch Back card will punch back 3 powers.

-States: Card colors and actions are static.

             - 1 Boxer stamina measuring card.

-Attributes: The stamina card has 10 total points.

-States: Card color is static. Stamina points on card are dynamic as they are always change depending on if the player gets a hit.

             - 1 Blank cover Boxer card.

-Attributes: The cover card is primarily used to cover the stamina card as a player loses stamina points.

-States: Card color is static. Card placement is dynamic as it's always moving depending on how many stamina points a player loses. 

• Operative Actions: The basic actions a player can make depend on which cards they choose to use which are:

          - Punch

          - Dodge

          - Punch Back

          - Do Nothing

          - Players also have the ability to choose their cards from their deck after shuffling an may look at them and choose which one to use for each round from there.

• Resultant Actions: There are many resultant actions possible:

           - Both players may put down Do nothing cards and no stamina points are lost.

           - One player may earn a stamina point when they play a Do Nothing card as long as their opponent uses a Block or Do Nothing card.

           - Both players may place cards down with equal or unequal punch powers and end the round in a double KO. No one wins as a result.

           - A player may play a punch card with a high power and KO their opponent who may have a low stamina score in that turn.

          - Both players may place either place a Do Nothing, Block, or Dodge and Punch Back card at the same time and each doesn't lose stamina points that turn.

• Notes for Rules: Each match consists of 3 rounds. There are 10 cards taken from each players main deck which will be used to play each round. After a match the cards are then reshuffled. 

         - The best 2 matches out of 3 wins the whole game!

• Skills Learned: Players may learn how to tell bluffs as they watch their opponent before they put down a card.

          - Players may also learn how to strategize their move sets based on predictions for each round they play.

           

• Role of Chance in game: Each players deck is shuffled before a round begins so the odds of picking a certain card are then up to chance. However, as a player can look at the ten cards they use for each round they put the fate of their draw upon themselves as they choose what card they want to put down. They don't however know what their opponent may place so that can also be seen as a form of chance as what card you choose to place may be a good or bad play when you see what your opponent put down. 

                       

Case in point. Here I drew a block card because I anticipated a punch card but my opponent ended up instead using a Dodge and Punch Back card.

Tabletop Game Process-"01 Exploration"

It's a long way away before we can even start our actual game designs for our tabletop games but in the mean time we're starting out by experimenting with and exploring the different games out there to get an idea of what we can do with our games eventually and what we should look out for and avoid. So here's a list of some of the games explored by myself and others so far:

Game 01- "Bad Grandmas"

Range in Complexity- The game is easy to learn and play. It helps that the whole game can be understood by reading just one page of rules, movements, and how the game mechanics function. The goal of the game is simple: Each player selects a card from the deck and puts it face down. They then turn it over and whoever has the strongest card (based on the points established on each card) wins the round. Whoever has the most points by the end of the game wins.

Design- The design of the cards is readable and stylish. Each Grandma card is comedically illustrated and unique so it adds some flavor to the game.

Print Out Difficulty- Not hard what so ever. It shouldn't even take ten minutes to cut out the whole thing since it's just a basic deck.

Like or Dislike- I liked the game and found it fun to play with my friends. It enjoyable as well to just sit and watch others play it. It's also a quick game to play if you're into fast paced gaming. The first game I played with a classmate lasted less than 8 minutes.

Bad Grandmas

Game 02- "12 Realms"

Range of Complexity- Medium. There are a lot of rules and moves to remember. This isn't the type of game for anyone who doesn't want to have to play for a long while and keep track of their character's skill points and other necessities.

Design- The design of the game is actually visually striking. The map, character cards, Dark Lord cards, tokens, etc. are all detailed and eye-catching and fit with the theme of the fantasy style battle/adventure game of 12 Realms.

Print Out Difficulty- There are a lot of pieces to print out and cut. The amount becomes even larger if you use more than one Realm map.

Like or Dislike- I didn't like the initial game because my friends and me literally spent more time reading the game rule manual than we would actually playing the game itself. Also, some of the rules need some slight editing as they might be confusing to read at first.

12-Realms

Game 03- "Unbound- Endless War"

Range of Complexity- Easy to learn and definitely fun to play. After doing a couple rounds with another player the game becomes better understood and then the real fun begins as you try to take each other's bases

Design- Most of the pieces are simple hexagons with space areas, events, and base designs illustrated onto them. The smaller token like pieces serve as the units which you'll use to move about the hexagon plane as the game progresses and eventually use them to battle against the other player's units to take over their base. There's even a card for each player that has an simple list of the rules and card actions you can take during your turn in the game.

Very considerate to design a mini-rule page for each player.

Print Out Difficulty- Easy. There are a number of pieces but they're not hard at all to cut out since everything is basically the same shape. Time to cut out everything should be less than 10 minutes.

Like or Dislike- The game is really fun once you really get into it and try to outsmart and strategize your opponent. My friend and me played a game that lasted almost an hour because we were having a good time with it. It's just a good game too play too if you like to be competitive and use simple strategies.

We started like this...

 And ended with this. 

I won by making it to my friend's base with a number of my little units as seen here. This is actually a good example of what a gradually progressed game should look. The turned over hexes here are ones which can't be revealed until you move a unit to that piece FYI.

Hexit-strategy

What did I learn so far?

• Keep your game simple enough that a player doesn't find it too much too handle.
• Don't have so many rules that you end up spending more time trying to understand them all or remembering them than actually playing the game.
• Give the player the ability to make a certain number of choices within the game to keep it interesting. For example: Give the player the chance to manipulate the game board in a small way like moving pieces around or adding a piece to it to give them an advantage. The Endless War game was good with this.
• Make a game fun! You shouldn't have a game where the player just wants it to end because of sheer boredom.
• DON'T MAKE YOUR GAME RULES HARD TO UNDERSTAND. It shouldn't be a mystery to read through a gaming manual and have to interpret everything. 

Character Sculpt 01: Tarsol

Decided to do a Zbrush sculpt of a creature I designed some time ago. Nice to see the transition from 2D to 3D for this guy.

Zbrushed.

Some different points of view.

Real World Observation

It's amazing what you miss everyday when you're not looking very closely at something. If you want to understand mechanics and environment you really have to first look at the world around you and see how everything interacts. No Matter How Small It May Be. By maintaining this habit daily I bet you'll have the eyes of a detail-loving hawk. Well maybe not but it's a great habit to nurture because you'll be able to see so much.

For my RWO(Real World Observation), I sat down in a lobby at my school's student center here for three 1 hour sessions at different points in the day to see how many people would use the staircase or the elevators. I got a lot of data from this observation surprisingly.

So here're the basic stats I ended up with:

It appears that, despite what I thought would be the opposite outcome, the stairs were used more than the elevators. From experience I can say that using the stairs is actually faster than the elevators so that could be a factor to consider for why some people may have used it. That and the stairs only go up to floor 2 and 3.

When actually using the elevators people appeared to favor the 5th and 3rd floor the most. The 5th being one of the forming areas while the 3rd is where most of the classrooms and labs are located. 

When using the elevator to go down most people preferred going straight down to the 1st floor lobby. The 3rd floor was yet again the second pick.

I managed to make some easy conclusions from various other observations too but this data is what I'd like to consider the "main" event. So, it looks like when choosing between the stairs and elevators people would most likely go with the stairs while using the elevator a person will be going to either the 3rd or 5th floor if going up while the 1st if coming down.

Zbrush Playaround 04

Head Scraps

Some old head designs for a Scifi race of tentacle heads.

B.F. Skinner, Gaming, and You!

In case you never took a Psych course or perhaps a class in high school let me tell you a little something about Mr.Skinner. To summarize, and keep this post from getting too long, Skinner is most known in the world of Psychology and behaviorism for his research on what is called operant conditioning.

Operant conditioning is a learning/behavioral method that occurs through using rewards and punishments for specific behavior. By using this one can make an association between a behavior and a consequence for any behavior which occurs.

Notable example: A mother gives her child a cookie every time they he/she does their chores for the day. The child associates doing chores with earning a cookie. Most likely the child will continually do chores and expect a cookie as a reward so the behavior that comes from this will continue unless the reward is not given or changed to something the child may not like.

Positive and negative reinforcement are two aspects of operant conditioning that are used in every day situations. Positive reinforcement is where something of a reward is given for performing a certain behavior, like the cookie example I listed. By reinforcing a behavior with a positive outcome it will probably continue.

Negative reinforcement is the opposite though where a behavior is continued in order to avoid anything that may cause an unpleasant outcome. Like for example, say there's an office worker who hates having to talk to a his boss who always happens to be in the exact area he needs to walk through to get to his desk to work. To avoid the annoyance of having to interact with his boss the worker will  always walk the other way or find a way around so he doesn't take the path that leads him into his boss. This behavior of always using other paths to avoid his boss will continue until his boss stops hovering around his work area.

I hope this is somewhat informative so far. So onto the games. Now what do games have to do with Skinner's research? Well, operant conditioning is very important in gaming you see. Players are rewarded for performing certain behaviors like making achievements, collecting gold/points to get an item they always wanted, beating another player in a game or beating a game itself. They are also punished for certain behaviors like cheating or "trolling". Gamers are constantly going through operant conditioning situations. By adhering to the research of operant conditioning it's more than possible to effect a player's behavior for whatever game they may be playing like PvPs, cards, video games, etc.

Zbrush Playaround 03

Got into using the Zpheres to help create a more unique looking sculpt. He's really rough right now but I'm diggin this little guy and his back appendages. I also played around and made a new Z-sphere character to play with later when I have free time again.

Steve Hickner- Do's and Dont's of Storyboarding

The legend himself Steve Hickner gave a couple big talks at the school here recently and holy cow were they informative. So here's a basic list of what he talked about in his lecture on storyboarding :

• Good framing is important.
• DO NOT under-board. At least 2 boards are essential for an expression and 3 for an action or sound effect.
• DO keep vital information in the frame. Leave no important information that could be essential for the story out of the picture!
• DO NOT cut off characters at joints or awkward places within the frame. For example, keeping the frame of a face from the inside of the forehead to the chin is good but if you go either way from that it could look weird. 
• DO use the Golden Egg. The Golden Egg Rule is your best friend- Don't push a character out of it. Actions within the golden egg should not be to the side.
• DO NOT keep every shot at eye level. Create diverse angles to spice up the shots and create interesting visuals.
• DO place characters in interesting places for a cool eye trace from cut to cut.
• DO separate planes totally-> Foreground, Middle Ground, and Background. Focus on what's important.
• DO watch perspective.
• DO line up images that are connected to an action.
• DO visualize everything that matters.
• DO logical actions and visuals. Everything in your shots should make sense.
• DO put emphasis on important motifs and visuals.
• DO always consider the camera and where it is placed in a shot.
• DO opposing actions! Like jump cuts.
• DO create readable cuts. The viewer shouldn't have to watch a scene again and again to figure out what's going on.
• Very important. DO consider the amount of shots you need to communicate an idea.
• DO go for emotional impact. You want a viewer to feel a connection to your work.
• DO show a clear direction in the story.
• DO establish a relationship between characters.
• DO establish where everything is located in a shot. Centralize important visuals.
• REMEMBER, the shorter your shots the more drawings you need, especially for actions.
• DO cut anything out that isn't important.
• DO consider the characters and props you want to use for a story.
• DO NOT distance from the main character or narrative.
• DO NOT block characters from interacting.
• DO connect narrative points!

Revers Edit Work

Not a couple weeks back we had to do a reverse edit analysis on the game trailer for Assassin's Creed Revelations for class. Along with it we had to draw thumbnails for each shot we looked at and went into detail about. So here's the basic storyboard-esque thumb nails I put together for the assignment, which i might add was lengthy but awesome.

Zbrush Playaround 02

Still getting used to using Zbrush. I like to sneak some practicing when I don't have too much work to do. Whenever I have free time though from now on I plan on working on this guy and actually finishing him up.

Some Basic Film Terms

So today's blog post is going to be a little section about what I've learned in regards to basic visual terms in film. I'll go over some simple shot types and camera movements. So here's the lowdown kiddies:

• First we have the shot. A shot is basically everything you see within the frame from when the camera starts rolling to when it ends or "cuts". Every scene you've witnessed in a movie or show is constructed of a number of these. Types of shots include:
• Long Shot- This is a shot that includes a large visual area in the frame like a landscape, large crowd, or basically a wide space. Basic setting and characters can be established with this kind of shot.
• Medium Shot- This is a shot that's smaller than the long shot. A Medium Shot usually displays a subject from the waist up, a la medium since you see half of the subject in the frame.
• Close-Up Shot- This is a shot reserved for a close up view of an important object or a subject's face. This shot type is very intimate when used to hone in on a character's face. It's used to display how a character feels in a significant moment as the camera focuses on their facial expressions.
• Extreme Long Shot- Basically a Long Shot but covers a much larger space. Good example would be when Mount Doom is shown at the end of the second LOTR film as Sam and Frodo look on.The shot is especially huge and you can see how far the characters are from their destination.
• Wide Shot- This i where a subject's whole body is visible. It can also be considered a long shot in a way since you may be watching a scene where a character's whole body is visible but there's a large space visible as well.
• Now for camera movements. 
• Pan- This is when the camera moves horizontally on the screen as it goes from either left to right or right to left. Usually used to guide the viewers eye or follow something.
• Track- Like pan but the camera is placed on a dolly to move across the screen. You can tell the difference between this and a pan because when a camera tracks it stays on the same camera plane from the beginning to the end of a shot. 
• Tilt- This is when the camera moves up or down. Its very notable in scenes where a character looks down or something is hovering above the frame as the camera either moves up or down to move the viewers eye to it. 
• Crane- Literally a crane shot is when the camera is placed on a crane and is usually lifting up and away from an area in a shot. It gives an above view of what's going on in a shot.
• Handheld- Just as it says, this camera movement is more unstable than the others and looks as if the scene is being shot from a handheld camera, which it usually is.

And that's all for now! Hope you enjoyed this little lesson.

Zbrush PlayAround 01

After getting some great advice on using the Zbrush program from a friend I was able to get the hang of finally sculpting. I'm going to have a lot of fun practicing with this!

Getting Started With Maya

So for my 3D class we've been playing around with Maya and getting used to the controls before we get into our big project. At first I really had no idea what to do even with the aid of the tutorials. Usually I just play around with everything in a program to get used to it but I had a bit of a jam with getting started on actually making practice objects. 

I think this best represents how I was in the beginning:

After a couple hours of orienting myself with the keys and looking for various shortcuts to make the process go along faster I started to get a little handle on the Maya controls and I started to really enjoy playing around with the program!

Oh look, buildings everywhere!

I think I was aiming for a clock like structure here for the roof.