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Digital Playtesting and Introduction to 2D & 3D Art Production

Learn how to conduct digital playtesting of game prototypes, as well as the basics of 2D and 3D art production using Adobe Photoshop and Autodesk Maya.

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Digital Playtesting and Introduction to 2D & 3D Art Production

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  1. Game Design LESSON #9: Digital Playtesting Introduction to 2D Art and 3D Texturing Notes on Game Audio

  2. TODAY: 1. Digital Prototype Testing/Sharing. 2. Introduction to 2D Asset Production: Adobe Photoshop for Painting and Photo Manipulation 3. More 3D Asset Production: Autodesk Maya #2: 3D Object Texturing. 4. Notes on Game Audio

  3. PART 1a: DIGITAL PLAYTESTING SET UP (10 minutes): • Teams Choose Tables • Set up game digital prototype on 3 laptops. • Decide initial Observers (1-2) and Players. • Discuss: 1-3 points/instructions to share with visiting players? Write them down!

  4. PART 1b: DIGITAL PLAYTESTING PLAYTEST ROUND #1 (20 minutes): • Observers stay to manage playtest, Players find other games to play. • If team chose 1-3 instructions, give them. • Players attempt to play prototype (5-10 min). Observers take notes! • Players fill out questionnaire (5 minutes). • Time permitting, discuss answers.

  5. PART 1c: DIGITAL PLAYTESTING TEAM MEETING (10 minutes): • Convene at your team table to discuss observations and questionnaire answers. • Discuss Production goals for the next week (next top priority Backlog items, potentially influenced by tester experience/ observations) and divide work equitably.

  6. PART 2: Digital Art Production • Adobe Photoshop (monthly charge). Use a tablet (recommend Wacom Bamboo). 3D texturing, 2D character sprites, background art, and VFX sprites: painting and photo manipulation. Also consider PaintoolSai, ArtRage, Krita, or Gimp. • Autodesk Maya (free with .EDU email at students.autodesk.com). 3D character, prop, environment modeling, surfacing, and animation.

  7. PART 2a: Photoshop: 2D Art ProductionColor Scripts: Choose a Palette

  8. PART 2b: Photoshop: 2D Art ProductionColor Scripts: Characters, Environment, VFX

  9. PART 2c: Photoshop: 2D Art ProductionDrawing and Painting! • New file: 12”x12”, 72ppi • New Layer #1: [b] for brush, change size with [ and ], drawa quick/silly character. • Open 2D_ColorScripts.PNG for color reference. • New Layer #2 (above): hold [Alt] to pick colors, paint 5-10 colors in a corner for a palette. • New Layer #3 (below): Paint Bucket fill with medium color. Paint skin and clothing colors, highlights and shadows with brush. Use 30% opacity with [Alt] color-picking to blend.

  10. PART 2d: Photoshop: 2D Art ProductionBlending Modes: Change Saturation to Control Focus • Open 2_DullPhoto.png. • [Ctrl]+[j] to duplicate layer. • Set Blending Mode to Overlay. • Set Opacity to 60%.

  11. PART 2e: Photoshop: 2D Art ProductionPhoto Manipulation: Copy/Paste, Clone Stamp, adjust Hue/Saturation, Edit/Transform • Create a new file: 2048 x 2048, 72ppi. • Create a Monster by combining body parts into this new file. • Hide the Background layer and save as a PNG: (“Fleshbeast.png”)

  12. PART 3a: Maya Texturing: Hypershade

  13. PART 3b: Maya Texturing: Hypershade

  14. PART 3c: Maya Texturing: Hypershade

  15. PART 3d: Maya Texturing: Hypershade • In Maya, Spacebar-tap into Front View, View/ Image Plane/ Import Image to select your Fleshbeast.png from the Photoshop exercise. • In Perspective View, select and move the Image Plane backwards. • In Front View. Open Mesh Tools/ Create Polygon Tool. Trace your creature with a rough shape, hit [Enter] to complete. • RightclickHold on your shape to choose Face component mode. Select the face. In Modeling Toolkit, hit [Extrude], pull the geometry out to make the form 3D (Increase Thickness or pull on blue Z axis). • Open the Windows/ Rendering Editors/ Hypershade [Blue sphere icon]. Add a Blinn Material. In the embedded Attribute Editor find Color and click the checkered square. Add a “File” node. Click the manila folder and add your Fleshbeast.PNG. NOTE: RightClick the Blinn in the Material library to Graph Network for easier viewing. • MidMouse drag the Blinn material onto your object. Hit [6] to view. • Open UV/UV Editor to view UVs. If needed, apply UV/Planar on Z. • File/Export Selected as FBX. Load both FBX and PNG into Unity.

  16. PART 4: Intro to Game Audio: DISCLAIMER:I am not qualified to teach you or anyone how to make professional Game Audio. I am not a musician, I have only a layperson’s ear, and I possess only a limited understanding of how to generate audio assets. The purpose of this talk is not to show you how to make professional audio work, but instead to inspire creativity and start getting a sense of the parameters, scope, and importance of audio in games. 7 games worth studying for their excellent sound design https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/318157/7_games_worth_studying_for_their_excellent_sound_design.php

  17. PART 4a: Intro to Game Audio: Two Principles Consider two guiding principles of Game Audio:1. FUNCTIONALITY: Audio must communicate, to serve the game design. At the very least, it should reinforce player status; if they are doing well or poorly, the audio should communicate this. Ideally, a player should be able to experience much of the game with their eyes closed. QUESTION: How might audio communicate players status?2. IMMERSION: Audio must theme the game: communicate a sense of time (when in history), place (country, culture), and the situation (wartime, etc). QUESTION: How can audio deliver time, place, and events?

  18. PART 4b: Intro to Game Audio: Two Principles “SFX make it real, music makes you feel” -- Marty O'Donnell (Bungie’s Halo, Destiny, etc) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeivgFd-2oQ (if excited about game audio, watch this lecture by him!) Both Music & Sound FX can serve functionality and game design!

  19. PART 4c: Intro to Game Audio: 3rd Principle Oh, and consider a third guiding principle: Branding. Certain IPs have developed a signature sound: consistent use of music that can be identified throughout their films, games, etc. For example, Disney music typically includes a "flat six resolving upwards." By the way, much of these are notes from George "The Fat Man" Sanger (author of Tasty Morsels of Sonic Goodness, recently at Magic Leap, and best known for music composition for games like 7th Guest and many, many others).

  20. PART 4d1: Intro to Game Audio: Dynamic Audio A powerful way for music to contribute to game design is to implement Dynamic Audio, which is music (or sound effects) that change (gradually or suddenly) based on game conditions and events. Decreased player health can be indicated musically by reducing the number of instruments instruments or changing to a minor key. Imagine the music growing sadder and more faint as your character bleeds out. Progress through a particular space or challenge can be indicated with changing tempo. Imagine the beat increasing incrementally as you manage multiple challenging movement or attack combinations in a row. NOTE: All of these should also be indicated visually (using character animation, changing lighting colors, etc.) to reinforce player feedback, and in case the game is played without audio or someplace noisy.

  21. PART 4d2: Intro to Game Audio: Dynamic Audio Consider how dynamic audio serves design in the Horror SciFi game Dead Space. In one scene, the player finds a massive corridor. They walk through it slowly (due to the corridor vs node principle). As the player progresses, lighting gets subtly more and more red, and the music gets subtly more intense-- upped tempo, more bass-- to very slowly increase tension and stress. The player is hardly aware of it, but they are primed for a fright. When the huge monster jumps out to rip off the player's face it feels more impactful because the music helped prepare the character for fear and dread. You are not required to use Dynamic Audio this term, but to do so someone needs to learn a plug-in like Wwise to script those changes and events where new or altered audio will be layered-in, and everyone needs to install the plugin (free for students).

  22. PART 4e1: Intro to Game Audio: SFX Sound Effects (SFX) part 1: • “Foley work” is recording real-world sounds for your game, often using found or household materials. • A melee game would likely need footsteps, grunts, and impacts of fists/ weapons, which can be recorded with real-world analogues (hitting a pillow, a steak, etc). Actions like using magical powers, getting a power-up, jumping, and events like winning and losing, all should have their own sound or music (as well as a visual indicator, both for added impact and in case the sound is turned off or the game is played somewhere noisy). • Be creative and open in seeking your sounds! The laser blast sounds in the original Star Warswere made by recording the impact of a metal bar hitting lamppost support cables, and then adjusting the recorded sounds in studio audio tools.

  23. PART 4e2: Intro to Game Audio: SFX Sound Effects (SFX) part 2: • Record someplace with no background noise: a basement or secluded bathroom can be effective. Be wary of air conditioning/heaters. Read this blog for recording advice: https://bit.ly/2hHMDDA • PLEASEdo not get locked in, lost, or hit by a car. • Modifythe sounds you make in your editor, like adding a reverb effect to create the illusion of large or small spaces. • Sounds can be more realistic or stylized. Consider Pacman’s iconic movement “wacka-wacka,” or Mario’s coin-catching “bling!” Sound. FX can define a game as much as visuals!

  24. PART 4e3: Intro to Game Audio: SFX Sound Effects (SFX) part 3: • Avoid ear fatigue by creating a variety of sounds for each purpose, and playing them randomly or in sequence. For example, the “step, step, step” of walking can get monotonous if it is the same sound repeated, a bit better if they alternate between two sounds, and even better if there are four or more slightly different sounds that play at random for each step. • Like with art assets, all audio files should be created as crappy placeholders as early as possible in production, and then replaced each week as more final assets are created. An easy/funny way to generate sounds quickly is to record speech: onomatopoeia like “pew-pew” or actually saying the words like “laser blast!” or “step-step.” Also, like everyone else in the team, audio content creators are expected to contribute new assets EVERY WEEK, and to learn how to implement their audio assets in game so they can provide packaged prefabs to the team if desired, not just .WAV files.

  25. PART 4f1: Intro to Game Audio: Music Music Composition, part 1: • If you have a team-member with experience composing music, they should compose multiple songs to try in your game. A song often starts with a single instrument, and then layers in others to reach a climax, and then returns to a simpler ending. Try major keys for happy music, and minor keys for sad music. • A basic concept of composition is theme and variation: introduce a melodic sequence that can then be variously played (in different scale or tempo, with layers of different instruments, backwards, etc) to create complexity and harmony. • An important character can have a theme (like the Empire’s theme in Star Wars), as can places (like a player’s home base, or the menu screen), but all the music fro your project should feel like it is part of the same world. This can be accomplished by sharing instruments, scale, or variations on a theme between songs.

  26. PART 4f2: Intro to Game Audio: Music Music Composition, part 2: • Consider how particular instruments you choose will communicate a sense of culture and time. What instruments would you use for a carnival, for a game in different countries (Spain, Russia, Uganda, China), to evoke outer space, wartime vs peace, or low-tech vs advanced tech? • Consider how speed (tempo) and volume can effect the mood of the piece, and can guide how quickly the player is expected to move and react. An underlying beat, for example, can by dynamically increased to ramp up the tension in a scene. • LOOPING: Game music typically needs to loop: easily transition from end to a re-start, to fill time as the player makes decisions or completes challenges. Avoid repetition fatigue by creating longer songs (around a minute at least) and with variety by playing similar songs in sequence. • If you have no-one on the team with any experience in composition, and no one is interested in learning it, then consider this trick: decent, ambient, non-melodic “music” can be created by randomly plunking the black keys on a piano (the black keys provide the most “accessible” scale).

  27. PART 4g: Intro to Game Audio: Tools/Software • Record your SFX Foley work with you cellphone. • For Unity, save all files as .WAVs. • Audacity is a free program with audio recording and editing tools, available for PC and Mac. It includes a variety of useful effects like reverb. https://www.audacityteam.org/ • Don’t have a piano? There are many free keyboard web apps available, like this one made in Unity: https://recursivearts.com/virtual-piano/ • Macs also come with GarageBand, which can handle all music creation and audio editing. • Tools for dynamic audio that work with Unity (and are free for students), as described by industry professionals: • Wwise:"Box of paints and a canvas“ (the best) • FMOD: "Box of crayons and a sketchbook" • Fabric/Alias: "Typewriter and a mailbox“ (simple/ functional)

  28. Production Scheduling: Course Milestones • Due Week 8: Paper Prototypes: “Fun” • Due Week 9: Digital Prototypes: “Quantity.” • Due Week 11:Full Playable Prototypes: “User Clarity.” • Due Week 12:Revised prototypes: “Fun.” • Due Week 14: Prototype Complete: Multiple levels populated, bugs fixed, full Art and Audio. • Final Presentations: Playable Game and Marketing materials: Trailer, Website, Press Release, Icon.

  29. Due Next Week: HOMEWORK #9: Final Game, 2nd Digital Prototype TEAMS: • Divide Unity production work evenly (art/audio can be concepted, but submit all assets as placeholder “greybox” art and “scratch” audio for playtesting). • Meet with your team at least twice to discuss progress, solve problems, and consolidate build. • Test clarity with at least two new players. • Submit second digital build to class next week. Individually:Progress Report #2: Submit typed page: What you agreed to produce, what you accomplished, self-evaluation/related screenshots.

  30. Have an Outstanding Week! And don’t forget to email us with questions: Instructor: JASON WISER JasonWiserArt@gmail.com Available an hour after class and daily email.

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