E3 Impressions

Well, last week was certainly very eventful, fun, and exausting. In case you don't know what E3 is, it stands for Electronic Entertainment Expo. It's the biggest video game trade show in the world, where over 50,000 people come to LA to see the latest and greatest games coming out. At it, I got to see and play some great games, check out all the booths, but I also was able to make some great connections with some people that work at Sony Computer Entertainment. But before I talk about all that, I just wanted to briefly share my thoughts on the initial press conferences from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.

Microsoft

Let's start with Microsoft, because they went first. It started out cool. Showing some great games: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Gears of War 3, yada yada yada. My favorite game demoed was actually the new reboot of Tomb Raider though. Now that game looks absolutely amazing! Oh and they formally anounced Halo: 10 Year Anniversary; which looks really cool. The same Halo we know and love from 10 years ago, with slick new graphics. Oh, and they showed Forza Motorsport 4, but I mean... it's a racing game. I'm just not as into those enough to really say much about it other than that it looks really good visually and stuff.

Left to right: Gears of War 3, Modern Warfare 3, Tomb Raider, Halo: 10 Year Anniversary

Then... you know what happened? Kinect. It took over the whole show. Next thing we know we are getting a demo of Mass Effect 3, with Kinect voice support, along with some interesting reveals, such as: Ryse (was codenamed Kingdoms, made my Crytek), Fable: The Journey, Sesame Street, Star Wars, Dance Central 2, and some other stuff. It just seemed like it dragged on for a bit, as the rest of the show was about all these new functions for Kinect, and new games using it. I don't have one, so my interest in those games is dimished.

Left to right: Mass Effect 3... ah screw it, you can read the titles yourself right?

A couple of the Kinect games looked cool, and I gotta say, the Sesame Street game looks really cute, but at the actual expo I was watching some people play the Star Wars Kinect game, and there were times when the player would be making the motion asked for on the screen, yet the game would not respond. So it seems as though there are some parts that seem broken.Of course they still have a few months to iron out some of those issues, but still. Something else that concerns me, is the fact that when you are swinging the lightsaber and such, it seems as though you don't have control of where you actually go. You take out one enemy (in our case, mostly droids), and the character will for the most part automatically move to the next target; taking out any choice the player would have of who to attack when. There were more portions of the game than just lightsaber fights, and on foot sections, such as space combat sequences, but I didn't see any of that being played.

Also, just from the press conference, Ryse actually looks like it could be really cool. It's a melee combat styled game taking place during the era of the Roman Empire I believe, where you are actually lunging and blocking with your arms as though you were swinging a sword and shield and such. This wasn't on hand at E3, so all I have to go off of is the short clip they showed of it at the press conference, but one of the representatives said that the player will probably have a controller in their hand, so that you can still control where you are moving. So it seems that Ryse will avoid my previously stated concern about the Star Wars game. It's also worth noting that since it is Crytek developing Ryse, that it will be a very good looking game most likely.

The Fable: The Journey game just looks like a bit of a missed opportunity. It seems to be mostly an on rails shooter... set in the Fable world. Strange direction to take the Fable games if you ask me. However, Peter Molyneux (head of Lionhead, the developer, and Microsoft Games Studio Europe) did say that the version that was shown actually was a dumbed down version, taking away a lot of the player's choice in movement or something like that. So who knows, maybe it will turn out good anyways. I can at least say it has my attention. As for the other stuff... I mean there's Dance Central 2 (now with 2 player support), and some other stuff that I personally don't really care about. Haha. Last thing with Kinect; Mass Effect 3 looks really good of course. Did I really have to point that out? I grouped it with the Kinect games because they showcased how you can use the mic in the Kinect for voice commands and choosing dialogue in the game. No really, this IS the last thing with Kinect. Ubisoft showed the new Ghost Recon game, and guess what? It supports Kinect! They have some cool features, but other than them being "cool," I'm not really sure if they will really contribute to the quality of the game itself.

So to summarise, Microsoft's press conference was... good at first, and interesting at some points with the Kinect titles (Ryse, and Mass Effect 3), but it did feel a little bit like the core game was getting left out if you don't have a Kinect. ANNND one big announcement came at the very end.

Are you serious?!

Ummm... let me just say I'm extremely excited. We finally are getting to move the main plot forward. Enough of this prequel crap. I want to know what happens now that the Covenant is over with and the Flood is supposedly destroyed! I want to go to the planet Onyx and find the missing group of spartans! See what kind of mess or whatever they have gotten themselves into. Halo: Reach was a great game, don't get me wrong, but we all already knew what happens. Reach falls. But with Halo 4 we finally get back with our beloved Master Chief and sink our teeth into something knew, where we don't know what's next. Things have just been a bit too framiliar as of late with the past 3 Halo games (ODST, Halo Wars, Halo: Reach).

And I think I'm just gonna go ahead and post this... cause it's already pretty long. Part 2 coming soon! I'll likely talk about Nintendo and Sony in one, cause the Nintendo one wasn't as long and didn't have as much meat to it aside from the new console they announced.

Portfolio and Joining a Team

Hey all! Once again, I think it has been a while since last I posted anything on here. Just wanted to give a quick little update on what I've been up to.

Well, I have continued to work on that same goblin character I've shared with you guys the past couple posts on here. Mostly right now I've just been creating a low resolution model for the character, so that it would actually be usable in a game.

Here are a couple pics so you can see what I have modeled thus far. The boots still have yet to be optimized and cleaned up, and I still have to model the backpack, claw, goggles, and stuff, but he is coming along pretty nicely I'd say.

Front View

Rear View

I will probably go and optimize him a bit more, but like I said, he's coming along. :)
In other news, the video of the level I made a few months back, Windy Village, has officially past 3,000 views!! Woohoo! Here's a link if you haven't seen it already:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS3ouX11Rzc

Now for some even more awesome news. Within the past couple weeks I have officially joined a mod team! What's a mod you ask? Well, basically you take an existing game on the PC; in our case it's a game called Crysis, and you and others will create your own content, modify (see where the mod part comes from??) it, and you can basically create your own game if you and the team work at it enough.
Before I say anymore, take a look at this trailer they put together a while back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNFeE8mIlxQ

Pretty cool huh? That was released in 2009, but they have made it even cooler, revising on it, adding new stuff, yada yada yada.
So the team has been working on this mod for a long time, like 3 years now, and they have done an outstanding job thus far. Very impressive work they have done. The role I will play in all this, is I will be creating, at first, some missile pods, with varrying sizes and such, then I will create something really cool. It's called battlearmor. Here is a link of a couple examples of some variations.
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Gray_Death_Scout
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Gnome

But yeah, so I'm going to be modeling out a set of battlearmor, that the player will use, while they are outside of the mechs (the giant robotic walking tanks). In fact, you see examples of a certain type of battlearmor in the very beginning and end of the video. Those little short guys (or short compared to the huge mechs!). And just to clarify, this isn't an actual job. I'm just volunteering for all this, as is everyone else on the team.
So yeah, that's mostly what's going on right now. I could share on some other stuff, but it would probably go on for a while. And... nobody would want to read something that long. Haha.
Hope you guys enjoyed this one, and check back for more, and I plan on sharing my thoughts on E3 (electronic entertainment expo), which is coming up this next Monday! It's where people in the game industry show the new shiny games that will be coming out, and where companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo announce new hardware and such. Phew. Ok. Done!

The Goblinator

Hey all! It seems it has been a while since I've been on here. A lot certainly has been happening lately over the past couple months or so. Ranging from the earthquake in Japan, the uprising in Libya and Egypt, the tornadoes in the southern states (especially Alabama), and the death of Osama bin Laden. Bum bum bum.

I could always talk a lot about each one of those situations, but that would take forever. I'm just thankful for the victory over our enemies, and terrorrism in general. Yet, always keep those affected by the tragedies in your prayers. They still need them and will for a long time to come.

Now that I have that mostly out of the way, I have a quick little update on my most recent project. He's been slow coming, but moving along none the less. I've recently finished sculpting every part of him, and have also finished painting him and adding texture to him. You can see it below!



Front view



Front view

So that's what he looks like right now. Pretty exciting, ay? So this is the super crazy high resolution version of this goblin guy. He comes in at 23 million polygons. Needless to say, that is way too many. Like... 23 million too many. I basically need to get him down to around the 20,000 mark or somewhere around there, so that he could actually be used in a game.

I know, you might be thinking, wouldn't he lose a lot of that smooth detail, creases, bumps, dents, and such? Well yes, but what you do is, make this texture call a "Normal Map." This will basically take the high resolution detail of the model, and create the illusion that it still has it all by manipulating light, and making it bounce in specific directions to create depth where there really is no depth on the lower resolution model.

Ok, I just nerded out a bit, but if that little bit was interesting, then you can check out this link that explains it a lot more thoroughly. http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap

But anyways, that's a small little update. I'll likely have more on him soon. Let me know what you all think!

Adventures of Ignatius

Off somewhere in a distant land called LA, in a backyard there is a turtle. This turtle's name is Ignatius. Most of his life he has been cooped up, in a small brick area in the shape of a rectangle. Daily he is brought different food ranging from lettuce, carrots, lettuce, and whatever else a turtle eats. This life was good for a while, but after a period of time, once he came out of a long hibernation over the winter, something had changed inside of him. Suddenly he wasn't just contempt to live in this brick and mortar rectangle he had lived in for oh so long. No, now he desired to see what was just over those walls.

One day, after not being fed for a while now, he grew desperate not only to see what was over the wall, but was also getting desperate for food as well. Mustering all the strength he possibly could, he manages to find his way over the wall, defying all those nay sayers who said he could never do it. You see, he was a very small turtle, with very stubby legs. But alas, despite this, he overcame the challenge and at last he was free... or he was free compared to where he was before. I say compared to simply because as he climbed over the wall, he found yet another wall as an obstacle. This one was many times higher than the one he had just overcome. Even so, he was very pleased with his little victory.

One of the first lands to be explored outside the brick wall was none other than the land of the giant sticks and twigs. It is actually very curious why he even decided to journey in this strange land, but a curious turtle is a curious turtle no doubt. Ignatius struggled to find whatever it was he was looking for, as he moved awkwardly through the sticks. Realizing just how unsuited for this kind of travel he was, Ignatius began to find a rout out. Only... it seemed much harder to get out than he thought it would be.

Eventually Ignatius manages to find his way again, nearing the edge of this treacherous land. The only problem was, that at the edge it seemed to be quite a far leap down to safety.

Taking the biggest breath he could, Ignatius gathers all the courage a turtle could, and he takes the leap. To his great surprise he lands actually quite fine. All that fear had been for nothing it would seem. With that land explored and officially checked off his list, he goes back to living a mostly regular life.

After a while of this, he eventually decides to pay a visit to this larger than life wall he first spotted when he overcame that treacherous brick wall. As he is on his way there, he can't help but feel his true destiny lies just beyond. Who knows, maybe he would find his long lost family of turtles he never knew he had? These thoughts, and many others bared down on him on this long trek. After many long hours, here he was, before the mighty wall.

As he came to the wall, all he could think was, "I just know my destiny lies beyond here..."

That was the last anyone had heard from Ignatius. Not a soul has seen or heard from him since. Who knows, maybe he really did do the impossible and escape? Maybe he was really just all show, and he was really a rare breed of super turtle able to leap a hundred feet in the air, thus easily overcoming the enormous wall. If he did find his way out there, I can only hope he has managed to avoid the thousands of barking dogs and speeding cars that are out there in LA.

So cheers to you Ignatius. Perhaps we will see this mighty turtle again. Only time will tell.

Coming and Going, Up and Down

We all have our ups and downs. I have my ups and downs. Sometimes I am inspired, I find myself bursting with passion, wanting to create something as these amazing ideas come to my mind. I find myself inspired and my ambitions sore, that progress will be made, and that my destiny is just around the corner and that breakthrough is nearly at hand. Or rather, the beginning of the fullness of my destiny. But really, we are all in our destiny in one phase or another I believe. Maybe we mess up, and we find ourselves learning from mistakes, so that we won't make those mistakes again. Those lessons learned from those hard times are critical. Or perhaps we might be in the very beginning of becoming who we are meant to be. But we are in our destiny, always and in some way or another.

We all go through that, well I do anyways. You go so high, and you feel as though God is behind you pushing you. Then there are those times when we wonder what happened. We look around and wonder why everything is so hard all the sudden. Why inspiration or hope is lost in your heart. Maybe you feel alone. Maybe you feel as though there is no point to carry on with what God had created you for. As though your giftings and callings have no effect. That has happened to me many a time in some way or another, yet I always find myself back at the top, breathing in the air God created for me.

Why am I saying all this? I'm not really sure. The inspiration is just there for it. May as well strike while the iron is hot right?

All this to say really, that these things happen to me on the occasion. I might start a project, get it done, then totally lose all inspiration to continue on. Carrying on your own after so long can take its toll at times. Then I will get over it, and push into God. With this He gives me inspiration to meet my goals, even if they may seem incredibly far away at the time. But I know that each step takes me closer and closer to that shining light off in the distance. Likely most of you have similar feelings and experiences happen to you at some point.

With all that said, I would like to loop you all in on what I'm doing. I may not know exactly whats going to happen when, and I may not know when the breakthrough financially (and everything else) will come, but I know that it will. With that, I continue to hone my skills.

And now... Maybe as well show my progress right?

So... basically here is the latest work in progress of what I'm doing so you all can see what it is I'm doing. I usually have some big goal for what I'm working on, but this one is just kind of for fun (still for my portfolio and very much a work in progress).

By the time I'm done with him, he will have pants (yay for pants!), maybe some shoes, a glove on the left hand I think, and who knows what else. He's kinda a steam punk goblin inventor adventurer kind of guy. : )

Also, if you have stuck through to this part, I have officially posted the video of my Wandering Knight character on Youtube. Check it out! And before I go on, I'd just like to thank Tyler Smith for the contribution to this video. He made the music!

If you'd like to see more, then just check out my newly redesigned website: 

http://www.tylergoll.com

And here are just a couple pics of him.

And there we go! Thanks you guys for checking this out, and check back later for more! :)

Games Learning from Film

As time has gone by, a lot of games have gotten more and more impressive, as you no doubt at least got a glimpse from my last post. Something that has been driving this, has been the use of many film techniques in games.

I was getting lunch with one of my friends just the other day who works in the game industry. One of the things we talked about was the ambitions of game designers to try and take a scene from a movie that was intense and was one of the favorite parts of a particular film, and try to apply it and recreate it in a game. As he pointed out, it actually became very clear that you can't just take an idea from a film, copy, paste, and play it and it turn out as suspenseful and glorious as it was in the movie. Why is that?

There are a couple of reasons, and these are things that the game industry really needs to learn, myself included in how to avert the problem. One reason it might not capture the spirit of that moment someone is trying to recreate in the game is simply because of narration. No, I don't mean having a voice narrate the game or movie for you. What I mean by that is things like camera use and such.

In film, the director has ultimate control what the viewer is seeing. He can elude to something, letting the viewer see the problem or danger, yet the character not knowing about it just yet. This builds up tension for the viewer. You can do this in a game, but most of the time it just isn't the same. I think in large part of this is because of control. The player is in control of the actions of the character and the player is also in control of the camera pretty much at all times. In fact, much of the time, the player seems to take on the identity of the character in the game, making it to where once something is eluded to the player, he or she can pretty much instantly respond to that situation, already knowing that there is a problem or something creepy around the corner. Whereas in film, the viewer sees whatever it is to see that isn't revealed to the character, and the viewer can't influence the actions of the character in the film. They are left to see how it will unfold as time progresses, requiring time, patience and such. This time between when the viewer is shown the creature (or what have you), and when the character finally encounters it is often very crucial to building up the tension in film. It builds anticipation.

You can achieve lot of tension in games by using and manipulating sound of course, and that certainly is a good way to go about it if you are trying to scare the player or something, but outside of horror or thriller type scenarios, I would say it can't be used as effectively.

So what's the point in all this? I don't know. This is just something that is on my mind. Something I want to do when I create a game is to really create a game that marries the best of game and film techniques together. If that is done, if the balance is just right then the results could be awesome! The reason for such importance in the balance is because it is a game after all. You don't want to make a game that is so directed, where it is almost like the game designer is in control of the camera and the characters most of the time. If that is the case, then the game designer almost may as well become a film director or something and go make a film, because games are very interactive in nature and they would pretty much defeat the purpose of the player "playing" and game.

There have been numerous instances where I'll be playing a game, and I'll be like, "What exactly am I supposed to be doing again?" Or I will just get a little lost in the story, why certain characters are performing certain things in the game. Often times I will be like, "Well they could have developed that whole part a bit more, done this, this, and this." And it would have been communicated so much better. The player would have a deeper understanding of what is going on, or might have a deeper understanding of the motivations behind the character and things like that.

So there is a balance to be found. Some games dance the line a little too close to becoming film, and other games hardly even try to incorporate techniques of film and such into it even if it would have benefited it a lot. Of course, there are those good ol' game that don't need to focus on that stuff, that are just a lot of fun to play, and story might just not be the focus of the game.

This is all just really interesting to me. I'm trying to think about how I could really communicate emotion effectively through games. I just know that mastering some of this could be key for me later on, so... yes.

Anyhoo, that's all! Phew... that was a lot.

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Game Tech - Ever Evolving

Today is a time of every changing technology. As you no doubt have seen in many recent games, they keep getting better and better looking. Well, that's one thing that has been on my mind a lot lately. The game technology has been getting better and better as time has progressed. The top tier game developers these days are finding ways to squeeze every last ounce they can out of current hardware. Some of the results are absolutely jaw dropping. Also, it helps that some of these games are some of my most anticipated games of the year (Uncharted 3, and Rage namely).


I posted the best examples just below so you can see what I'm talking about. Just a warning though, some of them are kind of violent.


And just noticing how small Blogger is showing these videos, you may as well just click on the videos and watch them on Youtube. Silly Blogger... 


Crysis 2 Trailer

Uncharted 3 Trailer

Gears of War Trailer

Battlefield 3 Trailer

Rage Trailer

A big reason why I've been thinking about game technology lately, is because of a particular demonstration that has been put together that showcases what mainstream games will be capable of looking like in 3 to 4 years. I could get all technical here, but suffice it to say, lighting, hair, skin, depth of field, etc., is all going to get incredibly realistic looking and run in real-time (no pre-rendered stuff for a cut-scene or what have you).

The demonstration I'm talking about is titled "The Good Samaritan." In fact, the same game engine powers this demonstration as what is used in Gears of War 3. The main difference is that Gears 3 uses 6 year old hardware, whereas the demonstration is using state of the art hardware. This is also the same engine that I use when I'm creating a level and such. So that peeked my interest all the more! 

Once again, posted below, it can be kind of violent, so don't say I didn't warn you. :)

Good Samaritan Trailer

Looking at all these games coming out, and especially the tech demo, it makes me think a lot about the future and how I and others will utilize it all in the future. Pretty crazy to think about, yet pretty dang exciting at the same time.

So count this as a sign to look out. Games are going to start looking as good as movies like Rango (a beautiful animated film) and such. Don't be surprised if I end up working on stuff of this caliber eventually. ;)

Side note: I have finished the video for my knight character, and have officially sent it off to my buddy (Tyler Smith) to put some music to it. Stay tuned for when it is finished and I post it!