Naim Zuki
AND218 | Preproduction Practice
Nick Lewis
Game Design Development
28/09/2021 - 18/01/2022
LECTURES
Lecture 1 | Introduction to Preproduction Practice
Walking into the animation studio for the first time was extremely
nerve-wracking. I felt like Linguine from Ratatouille when he first walked
into the kitchen. This is fitting because in no time did we all have to start
cooking up ideas for our semester-long project, ie. a game or an animation
pitch.
As an introduction to the module, Nick (our module leader) explained that
Preproduction Practice is an important exercise to get the class
accustomed to the current expectations in the Games and Animation industry. It
involves creating a long and detailed Design Pitch which will be presented to
the lecturers as a mock pitch presentation at the end of the semester. By
doing so, we the students are expected to develop the creative skills needed
to develop engaging animated content resulting from experimentation, research,
development and by acting upon feedback and self-reflection.
Lecture 2 | Character and Writing
How memorable are your characters? This is an interesting conversation
starter when discussing the development of a game or an animated series pitch.
The general goal to achieve in this process is getting the players or viewers
to care for the characters enough to remember them after they're done with the
game or series. If a character is written well enough, the audience would be
able to describe them in a single sentence, which could also be known as
a log-line. Below are a couple examples of character log-lines,
see if you could guess who the character is without looking at the answer
(marked in bold).
A boy wizard begins training and must battle for his life with the Dark
Lord who murdered his parents. —Harry Potter
A player can use their creativity to build construction out of textured
cubes in a 3D procedurally generated world. —Minecraft
When building a character or writing
treatments, it's important to stress several key points that would help flesh out their
relationship with the game's or series' narrative. Those are
physical description (will your character look simple or
complex?), emotional description, motivation (Why do they
do what they do?), wants & needs, and
interaction with other characters. In the lecture, Nick emphasised the
importance for us to think about how our characters interact with one another.
Especially characters with completely opposite personalities. Everybody is
somewhat different in their own way, and each person acts differently
depending on who they interact with. This could be because of the difference
in motivation, social skills, or even the level of relationship. Implementing
this amount of detail in our characters would create a dynamic cast and a
robust narrative that would potentially intensify the audience's emotional
experience. Such an example would be Aang and Zuko from Avatar: The Last Air
Bender and Vi and Jinx in Arcane.
Fig. 1.0, Types of Characters to Include in Your Novel, (Image Courtesy of
mycaptain)
Fig. 1.01, Sample Character Design Sheet, (Image Courtesy of Francesca
Natale)
Lecture 3 | Defining Your Style
The mere-exposure
effect explains that people tend to like art that is familiar, but there have
to be some elements of mystery to make them engage in the art. When defining
your style, it's very important to consider where your inspiration
comes from and who your target audience is. An impactful art style must
be one that has a good balance between elements that are familiar and
unfamiliar to your audience. A couple great examples would be the Lego Movie
(mixes CG animation and stop motion animation) and The Amazing World of
Gumball (combining 2D and 3D elements in one big series).
Although, there are some rules that have to be followed when building the
style of your animation or game. Those are consistency, unity, and in-world rules that the characters have to adhere to in
order for them to exist in the same world. As an animator, it's your job to
create a style that not only complements the narrative but also fits with the
studio's budget and project goals. You have to ask yourself: What do you prefer? What do broadcasters prefer? What sells? What fits your
budget? What style fits your concept? Does it make a difference?
Fig 1.02, Snapshot from The Amazing World of Gumball, (Image Courtesy of
Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe)
Fig. 1.03, Snapshot from Into The Spiderverse, (Image Courtesy of Sony
Pictures Animation)
Lecture 4 | Character Design
A design will only be as good as the reference upon which it is based. Before
any actual character design concept, the process must start by developing a
mood board of what the character would look like. The more
detailed the mood board is, the easier the designing process will be.
What would the character wear? What is the character hairstyle? How does
their personality carry in their physical looks and behaviour? Will they
look realistic or stylised? Is it a funny character or a serious
character? There is no one-size-fits-all approach when designing a character, but
knowing what questions to ask during the research process would
immensely help in choosing the right reference for the design. Once the mood
board is complete, it's then time to converge and make choices on exactly how
your character would look like. This is where the drawing comes in. Remember
to always reiterate the design and never settle for the first
drawing!
If the audience recognises a character just by their silhouette, then it's
a good character design. Building the character silhouette is a great technique to start
designing your character. It gives you the opportunity to think about the
character's measurements and general shape design without having to worry
about the small details. It also allows you to think about how your
character's personality would be reflected by their body shape. Once you've
filled an entire sheet of paper with silhouettes, then it's time to draw the
underlying shapes and break down the form of your character and make it
three-dimensional.
Fig. 1.04, Shapes for Character Design, (Image Courtesy of TB Choi)
Lecture 5 | Game Pitch Practice
& Character Development
Nick began the lecture by surprising us with a presentation practice! The key
idea when giving a good design pitch is to keep it simple. Focus only
on the important parts of the design pitch and compress everything within 5
minutes. The animation and game industry is an extremely competitive field, so
being able to deliver your ideas effectively is important to keep the client
engaged with your ideas without overloading them with information.
Another example of the same concept is called an
Elevator Pitch, which is essentially a brief, persuasive speech that one uses
to spark interest in what the organisation does. It should be interesting,
memorable, and succinct. Although the elevator pitch in this context is about
presenting a game or series ideas, the elevator pitch is universal for any
situation where you need to quickly introduce an idea (or yourself) to anyone
within a short amount of time.
"Imagine a world where dangerous creatures have killed most of the human
race, leaving just a small percentage of the population left in hiding,
struggling to survive — only these survivors can’t make a single sound because
the quietest noise instantly attracts the creatures. My script is called ‘A
Quiet Place’ and tells the story about a post-apocalyptic world where a family
is forced to live in silence while hiding from monsters with ultra-sensitive
hearing. It all builds to the final moment of the wife having to give birth
while her family has left her alone. And she has to do it in silence to avoid
triggering the creature’s sensitive hearing. And the father has to sacrifice
his own life to save his children by drawing the creatures away from them with
a scream! It’s ‘War of the Worlds’ meets ‘Hush.’” —A Quiet Place
After our little presentation practice, Nick then focuses on the further
development of our character. In a game design document, each major
character in the narrative should have a
character turnaround and a character expression sheet.
The turnaround consists of an accurately measured full-body view of any
given character, consisting of a three-quarter pose, front pose, side pose,
and finally a back-view pose. The character expression sheet should include
any basic expressions that the character would portray within the entire
game or series, ie. Happy, Sad, Surprised, Fear, etc. The purpose behind
this section is to flesh out the physical appearance of the character and
their personality.
Fig. 1.04, The Four-Step Elevator Pitch for Job Applications, (Image
Courtesy of Indeed)
Fig. 1.05, Sample Character Expression Sheet, (Image courtesy of Walt
Disney Animation Studios)
Fig. 1.06, Male Anatomy Turnaround, (Image Courtesy of Precia-T)
Lecture 6 | Storyboard & Animatic
Storyboard (noun); A sequence of drawings, typically with some directions
and dialogue, representing the shots planned for a film or television
production. It's a visual outline of a film or animation. After working on
the script, typically you should already know the flow of your project. Now
it's time to translate the flow and ideas into a comprehensible and image
sequence. The goal behind this is to have enough information that someone
who has never read your script can look at it and know what's going on.
Storyboard artists use a wide range of mediums, both traditional and
digital, to convey ideas, it doesn't have to look pretty or polished, as
long as it delivers the story well.
Fig. 1.07, Storyboard Cheat Sheet,
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MvhjeLDmvV-7SNTw5L9RS2vYWcH83e6z/preview
Lecture 7 | Presentation and Final Touches!
As we put our final touches to our game design document and design pitch,
Nick gave us one more pep talk to help us gain some confidence for the final
presentation. A good presentation has clarity, confidence, and
concise information. The PowerPoint presentation is there to help us
deliver the presentation smoothly, it shouldn't be treated as a script.
Remember to breathe! Practising and rehearsing for the presentation would
help your brain be prepared for what you'll say inside the meeting room.
Then he stressed some very important points to keep in mind before the
presentation: Don't OD on coffee (impossible for me),
what's the worst that could happen? No one Died? You are the expert in
the room. Don't worry if you go wrong. And most importantly, fake it till you make it!
BRIEF
Module Guide: AND218 Preproduction Practice
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17Xs7ZWLlhQPIh5F6syQbnu9UDEHI7s3b/view?usp=sharing
A Game Design Document is a highly descriptive living software design of the
design for a video game. A GDD is created and edited by the development team
and it is primarily used in the video game industry to organise efforts within
a development team. For this semester, AND218 Preproduction Practice would be
focused on creating such a document.
I was a little culture-shocked when Nick told us that we'll only have one big
assignment for the entire semester, I guess I'm too used to having overloading
amounts of projects jammed within 14 weeks, so this was a nice change of pace.
I knew I haven't drawn anything since February 2021 because I was too busy
designing stuff for Taylor's University, so this would be a good challenge to
get myself back on track.
Idea Exploration
During class, we were first tasked to brainstorm some ideas for our game and
present them to the lecturer before the session ends. I was left sort of stuck
and didn't know which direction to go to, especially since we're making a game
for children that are 12 and younger. But as I went and did some research on
games that have taken popularity within the past several years, I noticed that
children's games focus on visual and auditory stimulation that would keep
them entertained. However, there are some that take it a step further and
include an emotional element into the gameplay, appealing to children's pathos
and creating a connection that would keep them thinking about the game even
after they've finished playing it. That's I recalled a specific game that is
well-renowned to be an incredible visual and auditory experience while also
having a spectacular and emotional storyline.
Fig. 2.0, Journey, (Image courtesy of Thatgamecompany)
With a PEGI rating of seven, Journey was the perfect inspiration for my
project. I have never personally played Journey but I have always loved
adventure games that have a mysterious aura around the characters and lore
ever since I was a kid. It's reminiscent of games like Shadow of the Colossus
and IO.
Game Synopsis
After the session, I started writing down some ideas and drafting a couple of
game overviews for Nick to review. I created a quick mood board to get the visuals
going and started sketching some landscapes. I followed Nick's advice to focus
on the gameplay first before thinking about the story or characters, so I
extracted pictures of landscapes and thought about gameplay mechanics and
overall game idea.
Fig. 2.01, Idea Exploration Moodboard, 29/09/2021
Fig. 2.02, First Game Idea Concept, 01/10/2021
Game Idea Number One:
The Silhouette stands over a ledge and looks over to the lighthouse
illuminated on the horizon. There’s something alluring about the lighthouse
as if it’s calling towards them. The game’s premise follows the adventure of
The Silhouette as they travel towards the lighthouse, exploring deep valleys
and twisted rivers trying to decipher what makes the lighthouse so alluring.
The player follows through The Silhouette as they learn more about the lore
of the land, unearthing footprints of mythical creatures that shaped the
rivers, valleys, and tombs that are scattered across the unmarked world.
Game Idea Number Two:
Fig. 2.03, Second Game Idea Concept, 1/10/2021
The story follows the protagonist who befriends a wounded dragon in the
sacred Hundred Islands lake. The Dragon explains that his brother betrayed
him to steal his right to the throne in the gates of Syurga (Heaven, in
Malay) after their father’s demise. The Dragon explains that his brother,
Rakshasa is the evil half of the brethren and his place on the throne would
throw the world into chaos. Frightened in front of the deity, the
protagonist bows and offers his service to the wounded Dragon, starting
their journey to stop Rakshasa’s reign.
Mood Boards and Visual Development
After getting my first feedback from Nick, I got a little excited about the
creative direction I wanted to follow for the semester. I started expanding my
mood board for environments, characters, and props, until a point where I was
satisfied with my work. It took a couple of weeks and a lot of back and forth
between me and my friends until I'm finally able to take a step back and give
the little nod of approval at the number of references I've collected.
Following my first game concept, I've chosen the pictures for my environment
moodboard based on a couple of elements, the first being the iconic
lighthouse, which also serves as a homage to Sunderland's lighthouse
over at Roker Beach. The second is a vast and exciting landscape idea to
generate ideas for environment concept arts that I'll develop in the future.
And finally, a somewhat clear subject, to make sure that I'll keep composition
and story in mind when I'm drafting more ideas for the game.
Fig. 2.04, Environment Moodboard, Final Edit 10/01/2022
As for the character and the art style, I wanted my characters to have a very
flowy look to them. Something that would draw the player's attention when
they are in-game and exploring the landscapes. So I looked into robes, hoods,
and baggy fashion trends and their origins. I find that the Japanese
kimono looks extremely attractive while also having a minimal look to them,
which is great because it doesn't demand too much of my time to learn and
draw, considering the time limit.
Fig. 2.05, Art Style Moodboard, Final Edit 10/01/2022
The face, however, was a very interesting thing to look into. In Journey,
Jeneva Chen, the creator, mentioned that the game was about the connection
people form with one another in their journey through life. The game company
settled on a system that allowed players to game together anonymously,
stripping them of any pre-existing notions about who is behind the
controller and encouraging the players to accept whoever they come across in
the game. There is no lobby, no HUD, no voice chat and no text channels. The
concept was extremely sound and players all over the world confess that
Journey captures human connection extremely well. I was very fascinated by
the concept behind the game and wanted to somewhat pursue that level of
emotional detail in my idea.
But instead of focusing on the connection between two players, I wanted to
focus on the connection the player would build with the main character. Let's
talk about
Vanilla Characters. Some examples are Harry Potter, Toru Watanabe from Norwegian Wood, and
Kafka Tomura from Kafka on the Shore. All of them are great on their own,
but what they all have in common is that their personality is simpler
compared to the rest of the cast. Making them familiar and typically
relatable, giving the audience the opportunity to step into their shoes and
create an intimate experience between them and the story.
I played around with the idea of having a faceless protagonist but realised
that it's too simple for the assignment's requirements. So I settled on
putting a mask over my character's face. Literally allowing the audience to
imagine themselves behind the mask and living the game as if reality.
Fig. 2.06, Character Moodboard, Final Edit 10/01/2022
Character & Environment Design
In this section, I'll be focusing on the development of the game's two main characters: Sil and Ren. Sil, short for Silhouette, is the game's main character and the character the player will control. Ren is Sil's friend who waits in the lighthouse at the end of the game, which I'll cover more later.
If there's anything that I was anxiously not looking forward to, it would be character design. I haven't had the most experience drawing figures or animals throughout my life so I knew this was going to be a challenge for me. I mean, just look at this initial concept art I drew for the main character a month after the semester started.
Fig. 2.07, Early Character Concept Art
Nevertheless, I tried my best to look for references and learnt bits and pieces of anatomy whenever I can. However, I made sure not to stray far away from the mood boards and to stay true to the visual style I've created for the game thus far. I experimented with different head designs: with and without hoods, different robe looks and looked at mage designs from various artists to understand how I should approach designing my character. The following compilation is organised chronologically, from the earlier drawings to the latest.
Fig. 2.08, Character Concept, 14/11/2021 - 20/12/2021
Fig. 2.09, Character Concept, 14/11/2021 - 20/12/2021
Fig. 2.10, Character Concept, 14/11/2021 - 20/12/2021
I particularly liked how adding ribbons or tails to the character makes it easier to imagine them floating and fluttering in the wind. For the final design, you can really tell the influence kimono has on my costume and I added a face covering to further shroud the character's face. Although, the legs look a bit jacked for a peaceful traveller with a hidden past. Which I thought was kind of funny, so I gave him a staff so he looked more like an action figure.
Fig. 2.11, Ren Character Concept, 20/12/2021
Moving on to the turnaround, Ren's design stayed consistent throughout the process without any changes to the original sketch. I wanted to save the colours for later because I tend to overthink my colour theory but alas, I didn't manage to provide the colour design before the deadline. So below is the finished Ren character turnaround in black and white.
Fig. 2.12, Ren Character Turnaround, 29/12/2021
Designing the mask for Ren's face is yet another problem to solve. In one of his feedbacks, Nick mentioned that providing a face-less character would be tricky because that means I have to think of other ways to convey the character's emotions. At first, I was considering giving the character crazy body language that would convey their emotions without needing facial expressions. But as time was running out, I had to resort to building a mask with some basic features to allow for some expressions.
Fig. 2.13, Ren Face Concept, 11/12/2021
Fig. 2.14, Ren Face Concept, 11/12/2021
Fig. 2.15, Ren Face Concept, 12/12/2021
Fig. 2.16, Ren Face Concept, 13/12/2021
Fig. 2.17, Ren Face Concept, 18/01/2022
Fig. 2.18, Ren Facial Expression Sheet, 19/01/2022
From Top Left to Bottom Right: Happy, Sad, Surprised, Confused.
For the environment concept art, I was running late to designing them as well, so I've done most of them in a stylised black and white form. Although towards the end, I still wanted to create some coloured environment mockups for the document because I have to do my work justice and put in that extra bit of effort.
Fig. 2.19, Environment Concept, 03/01/2022
Fig. 2.20, Environment Concept, 03/01/2022
Fig. 2.21, Environment Concept, 03/01/2022
Fig. 2.22, Environment Concept, 20/01/2022
Fig. 2.23, Environment Concept, 20/01/2022
After I've made the last two concepts, I didn't like the outcome very much, my painting skills still haven't caught up with my ideas yet (curse my non-artistic hands) so I turned towards Adobe Illustrator where I can do some digital art clearer and faster. I designed an easy landscape art using vectors and some trusty illustrator tools and lo and behold, finally something in colour that I can use as the title page for my game.
Fig. 2.24, Final Environment Mock-Up, 23/01/2022
Pilot Script and Game Narrative
I started my writing process by looking for inspirations from other fictional works I know. It took some time to research what narrative would fit my target audience, but I eventually recalled a couple of storylines that came from my favourite author right now: Haruki Murakami. Murakami is an incredible writer that has a very distinct writing style; there's one particular book that stood out to me which is Norwegian Wood, and it became one of my main inspirations in writing the script. The following is a quick summary of Norwegian Wood's story:
Norwegian Wood is the story of Toru Watanabe, a young man who is damaged by the suicide of his high school friend, Kizuki. Toru falls in love with Kizuki's tortured girlfriend, Naoko, who is isolated in her own mind. When she goes into a mental hospital, he promises to wait for her.
Much like Murakami's writing, I wanted to create a story that appeals strongly to the audience's pathos. In my case, I wanted my audience to experience a close bond between Sil and Ren while also adding an element of disparity at the end. It would add another dimension that hopefully would grab the audience attention and leave them wondering at the end. Additionally, I also intend to introduce the idea of loss and grief to such a young audience group because I want them to learn how to deal with the problem in a positive way. Obviously, more research into the issue has to be done but very often (I imagine) it's difficult to teach emotional intelligence to children because they rely more on sensory stimulation. So I hope that using video games as a learning platform would somehow benefit the emotional growth of my audience.
Three-Act Story Synopsis
Sil met with their friend in their hometown, where Sil finds Ren writing music at the pier. Ren is a lonely and troubled soul that struggles with making friends and channels their emotions through writing songs. They quickly became friends after Sil approached Ren and they would spend time with each other every time they saw each other at the Pier.
One day, Ren stopped coming to the pier and both of them stopped seeing each other. However, in the time that they spent together, Ren has grown very fond of Sil and sends them letters and songs once in a while. In the letters, Ren explains that he wants to travel and write better music to bring back to Sil.
Sil, after they stopped receiving letters from Ren, decides to travel and reconnect with Ren, hoping that they could once relive their days at the pier. During Sil’s journey to find Ren, they saw the Lighthouse and hoped that they could find Ren there, writing music and enjoying the salty breeze. While travelling, Sil writes in their journal how they felt towards their memories together and how they regret never having the courage to reply to the letters.
Reaching the Lighthouse, Sil saw Ren's notes but Ren was nowhere to be found. Sil walks along the beach and finds Ren's guitar (undecided musical instrument) beside some unsent letters and songs, realising that Ren has committed suicide by drowning in the ocean. Sil crumbles to the ground as they read Ren's unsent letters and songs filled with bitterness and pain towards themselves because their music felt ingenuine to them.
As the player reads through Ren’s unsent songs, they realise that Ren’s music is the game’s entire soundtrack. Sil has made it their mission after the grief of losing Ren to finish Ren’s work. And the game’s entire soundtrack is Sil playing the songs Ren would want Sil to hear.
Cinematic Trailer Script
Fig. 2.25, Cinematic Trailer Script Final Draft, 30/12/2021
Storyboards
Fig. 2.26, Mood Board Art Style Inspiration
Fig. 2.27, Storyboard Practice, 07/12/2021 - 14/12/2021
Fig. 2.28, Storyboard Practice, 07/12/2021 - 14/12/2021
Fig. 2.29, Storyboard Final Draft without Description, 03/01/2022 - 17/01/2022
Fig. 2.30, Storyboard Final Draft with Descriptions, 20/01/2022
Animatic
Pitch Presentation
Additional Documents Created throughout the semester
FEEDBACK
Week 1 | Game Ideas
For game 1, the imagery draws the player into the narrative really well.
The idea of a single object/building/feature (whoever it may be), that
draws the player further into the game work well. Things to develop are -
what ' checkpoints/features' are involved where the player gets an idea of
progress? Later on, the assignment involves three character turnarounds,
bear in mind that you'll need three characters, so think about what these
could be. Watch out that the main character doesn't turn too much into the
one from Journey :)
Look at games that don't have much exposition/verbal/written narrative,
and see how they draw the player in.
Week 2 |
Week 4 | Story Synopsis
Think about the different checkpoints in the game, what would drive the
player, specifically children, forward to complete the story. What would
the checkpoints look like and what game mechanics would be involved in
these checkpoints? A good start would be to come up with a reward system
that would give players gratification for completing a section of a game.
An example would be subtle changes in the environment whenever the player
achieves something, eg how the background music tone changes, the character
might express some sort of positive reaction or even some changes in the
character's clothing.
REFLECTION
FURTHER READING
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