Here's a little Contrast

Apparently the next generation is finally here as if anyone remotely involved in gaming didn't already realise...

And free on the PS4 (with one year of PlayStation Plus subscription at £39.99), comes a little game called Contrast. This puzzle platformer from Compulsion Games, plays with the use of light and shadow to progress between levels. I've not had a great deal of chance to play with it so far but from what I've played, the concept is intriguing. The character you play is able to shift between a shadow on a wall and a physical person which opens up the world to some incredibly innovative perception. Whether it be to traverse across seemingly impossible gaps or avoid threatening enemies, the way the light/shadow play is used is neat and (for lack of a better and non-repetetive word) charming. I've been looking at creating that 2D side scrolling platformer but was struggling to think of a quirky enough gameplay mechanic that would fit nicely onto an iOS device so I think I've stumbled across a winner here (or at least the idea of one). Take a look at some examples of Contrast here:

Surprisingly this isn't a far cry from another new title this month, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, where Link is able to turn into a 2D painting to move along walls and slip through gaps in bars to reveal new areas. There'll be more on that soon though, I'm currently compiling a list of games that have similar mechanics to Contrast and that's made it on the list so far.

More Research

These last couple of posts have been a case of going through my list of research and posting up what I had at the time. I've altered the dates so they show roughly around when I was looking into things so at least there's a bit of a thought process. This post, however, will look completely off topic.

I found this article online a few days ago while rummaging around in my bag of Google hyperlinks relating to the search term 'charming game'. It's a review of the game Foul Play, which is possibly the most British game. Ever. I can't fully explain it without showing you so head on over to YouTube to take a look at the hilarious and yet incredibly entertaining gameplay of Foul Play.

Having spent the past few weeks failing miserably at modelling and texturing in Maya (I know it's not that hard but I'm new here okay?), I started to eye up simpler solutions to my woes. Here is Foul Play, a side scrolling brawler, where the gameplay revolves around a one Baron Dashforth in his attempts to regale the stories of his Daemon hunting days to a theatre audience. This entertaining game is a little break from the norm when it comes to the typical conventions of charming but it still has some wonderful elements. An interesting narrative, describes the story to the player as they progress through each stage whilst beating up baddies and racking up 'Splendid!' combos. Also the simplicity of having the backdrops and scene props fall into place and drop down really adds to the feel of the game.

Here's some screenshots for you to have a butcher's at:

So linking this into work I want to be doing, I'm thinking of maybe a side scrolling game so it's easy enough to control and build without having to develop a full 3D environment should be a good springboard from here. Whether this is something I'll apply to other games to try and change the tone of them or whether this is just something I'll work on from scratch is a story for another day I suppose.

Inundated with iOS

So there's more iOS games than I remember which have the same appeal so I've decided to go off track a little here and direct my attention to where it looks like 'charm' has been applied to a currently existing franchise. I'm using F1 Race Stars in my Contextual review so I thought it'd be appropriate to put it in here.

In case you weren't aware, Codemasters make both the 'F1 (Insert year here)' titles and 'F1 Race Stars', the latter of which is, basically in essence, Mario Kart. This led to the team who developed the F1 games, applying an alternative style to their popular F1 title, making it a totally different game in its entirety.

Aaaaand here's F1 2013 for a little comparison:

Yeah you can see the difference...

What..? You can't? We'll pretend that the obvious needs pointing out then shall we...

So quite obviously the art style is vastly different in comparison, even just looking at the racer models, the difference is clear. Having the lower polygon models for the 'Race Stars' racers definitely gives off the charming feel, not to mention the colours are much brighter and have much less gritty realism about them when put against the 'F1 2013' title. Even the gameplay (which is hard to show here so just click this link to take a look on YouTube) has a more 'karting-esque' feel to it. Codemasters officially said that they were looking for F1 Race Stars to be more about 'entertainment' than 'simulation' which definitely gave them some room for creativity here.

From this one example, it seems that, when applying certain aspects to games, it can drastically change the outcome of the tone and feel of how it plays, looks and sounds.

Looking into 'charm'

What games have we seen so far then? Wide Sky, Zack & Wiki and The Legend of Zelda to name a few. Fortunately, with connecting this to my Literature and Contextual reviews coming up in a couple of months, I've started looking at more iOS games which fall under the same category.

A game I've had for a while now is one called Lili, a really colourful adventure puzzler for iOS. It came out about a year back and if I'm not mistaken it was featured on iTunes' App Store as an Editors Choice (might be wrong about that though, no quotes please). It's a pretty fun game with really attractive stylistic art. Characters are also quirky which makes it for a fun game to play all round. Take a look:

I can outright say that this is definitely a game to play if you've not had the chance to yet, and better still, it sits on the App Store at a modest £1.99 so go now young followers, adventure awaits!

... Oh you're still here?

Alright then, on the researchy side of things, the modelling is a mixture of low and high poly, with the main environment being low and the character modelling on the opposite end of the spectrum. That being said, the game still looks gorgeous. The blocky, flat colours lend to the charm of Lili like we've seen in other games before and the detailed texturing on Lili herself makes it really enjoyable to be part of her character. Besides, who doesn't love a girl with glasses?

A note for the future

I suppose this note is for personal reference if nothing else but since I've got little to no experience in any game engine software, it's probably time I brushed up on my skills.

I've now got the task of creating a small object (in Maya) like a chest or something and texturing it in three different ways. First I'll take a look at a 'painterly' way with using thick square brushes to give it a nice roughly designed feel to it. This style will be very similar to that seen in the video, 'Meet Buck'. Next I'll try a style similar to that of 'The Backwater Gospel', something I've quite liked since Josh showed it me. And finally taking a look at detailing it in a way similar to 'Zack & Wiki' which I've spoken about in a previous post, so that should give me a little headway on getting some physical work cobbled together.

A little more depth

Last post, I talked about three different games/scenes and how they're charming in different ways, and there are a great deal of games that follow a similar pattern or method to produce this effect, let's take Zack & Wiki for example. Released in the UK in 2008, this Wii game has quite easily been overlooked by many people but the style of art present in the game is something that really hammers it home when it comes to looking at 'charming' design.

The use of colours in this level really make the environment stand out and give it a sense of danger. Having flat coloured textures coupled with the lower poly models makes the scene incredibly bold.

Contrasting the lava level, this scene can show the range of environments that can be made from using even such basic colours and texturing techniques.

Even in a completely different setting, these chunky models and bold colours keep within a very specific style. Additionally, the character models of both Zack and Wiki have thick black borders around them. While this is present with some of the environment, it lends to make certain parts of the game stand out more.

Thick black borders are also quite a big thing for many cel shaded games such as 'The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker', 'Borderlands', and 'Eternal Sonata'. Each of these have incredibly beautiful art styles but don't necessarily fit under the same category as Zack & Wiki. It's evident that it's not just the textures and art style (while this does seem to be a major contributor), that turn a game into one with charm.

More thought, I think, is needed here.

Dom's Rules of Charm (or lack thereof)

I've taken to looking at how games can have the word "Charm" pinned to them, you know, those 'quirky' games that have a certain something about them that makes you really enjoy the experience as a whole. I've noticed that these games have a habit of cropping up on the iOS and Android App Stores so that might be something to note for the time being.

"Royal Revolt" from Flare Games has some really nice stylistic designs which really stand out to me as quite 'charming'. The co-ordiantion of the flat colours and the simple models make it look visually appealing without making it look boring and simple.

On the other hand with "Wide Sky" from Marcus Eckert, simplicity is exactly what's needed to make the game work. Simple graphics combine with subtle colours and a light interface to create a scene necessary to make the game graphically appetising (and yes I tried so hard not to turn that into a pun).

Sure there are those iOS games that we can relate to as being charming but what about those other platforms that have games that could fall into the category? I know the above image isn't strictly Blizzard's handiwork, it was however, one of the winners from the student design competition they run every year. Coming from an imaginative lady called Ashleigh Mills (you can check her out at http://www.ashleighmills.com) this 'Mage' coffee shop ticks all the right boxes for me in the 'charm' category. The vibrant textures combine nicely with the low poly models to give a really nice 'cosy' atmosphere to the scene.

Like I mentioned in another post, I'd like to head down the environment route so taking a look at how art styles, models and textures could aid to the 'feel' of the games should put me on track to cracking the code. Back to the internet I suppose...

Why all the questions?

So after sitting down for a couple of hours and chatting about what's going to happen over the course of the next 13 months, it's been narrowed down to asking a lot of questions and going in circles for most of the first semester (well I imagine that's how I'm going to spend it anyway).

I'm thinking of heading down an environment modelling design route since that's always been a part of games I've admired. That moment when you step out into a vast world full of dense, cluttered buildings or sprawling, vibrant landscapes is one to make you step back marvel at the depth of creativity present. Aside from this, I've always loved very stylised art. It's becoming a widely adopted trend in and around iOS games and I think that the style lends very well to the simplicity to many of the games available on that sort of platform. Hopefully this will give me a starting point to move from.

Fourth time's the charm.

Ok so from the top of my head I can count this to be my thir... no fourth blog I've started from scratch for educational purposes. I have a worryingly persistent habit of starting things and never getting round to maintaining them so my other blogs have pretty much been short-lived, each as barren and void of any activity as the last. This time I'll keep on top of it though seeing as I do quite like blogging and I'm sure it will be more than worth keeping this one going this time around.

This'll be just a short background into me I suppose so I'll try not to waffle on for too long. My name's Dom and I'm originally from a little town just outside of Manchester called Whitefield. I studied Graphic Design, English and Computing at Holy Cross College in Bury and continued on to do a Bachelors of Arts in Graphic Design at UCLan. Ever since I was a kid you couldn't pry me away from any form of video game for more than 10 minutes at a time and so that's probably why I've steered toward doing a Masters in Game Design, additionally, over the past five or so years I've had various jobs working at GAME, funny how things turn out really isn't it? Apart from that, I love to go out with friends whenever I can and I have two cats who are quite honestly backwards to put it mildly. That's really about it for me, nothing too out of the ordinary for a 21 year old male if I have the stereotype down right.

Over the course of this blog the name 'emby' will most likely crop up from time to time (note the big 'e' logo in the header), originally it was supposed to be an identity for a blog in my second year at university and it's just stuck with me ever since. It's tied into my e-mail addresses, online profiles, characters in games, just kind of everywhere really so that'll be why you may see it around so much. The word 'emby' comes from the sound of my surname initials 'M-B' (Mercer-Brown) and it sounds a little like the word ember and I have a soft spot for fire so it fits in quite nicely really.

And now it wouldn't be an 'emby' blog if it didn't have a customary photo of one of my cats so here you go, this is Tilly: