Week Five: SO MUCH FREEDOM!

    I always feel like I’m completely weird when it comes to working. I don’t like working with people I live with, there’s too much freedom in a project! But I do feel I have proper reasons. With too much freedom, I struggle to find a foundation to build upon. When given a brief in industry, there would be at least some structural start such as ‘Sci-fi’ or ‘80s’. With a project where we can run free, it terrifies me! Where do I start? What can look impressive? What’s original, believable? Brief starts like this tend to set me back due to the amount of research I had to amass and the topics I have to cover, this often involves looking at how something works in real life and apply the physics and mechanics to the game asset. For this project I looked into understanding how a machine gun and Gatling guns fires. Understanding this mechanic allows me to break it down and replace it with objects, materials or other suitable systems from that time period. This gives the asset a more realistic feel and look which keeps the immersion for the player.
    The breaking of immersion can be a sign of poor game development, on both the artistic side and the developer, so understanding physics and laws in the real world can allow us to break and bend some of these rules without the destruction of immersion occurring.
    This start has affected the flow of my work, with a lot of time spent on just research. This ate into my time for iterations and has set me back. I’ll have less time to model and texture, which is an issue for me as I’m not too good at texturing and wish to improve.

    Outside of University work, I managed to do a study of Feng Zhu’s work which I’m quite happy about. I mainly focused on understanding how to make an interesting picture via composition and being able to break down the piece into simplistic forms. I also learnt a lot from his usage of values, where minimum amounts of black and white are used and a heavy focus on the greyscale colours. I did add some colour afterwards just to tidy up the piece, but I feel I need to get my greyscale foundations correct before I push into colour.

Week Four: An Extension of Last Week

    I’m going to continue on with the same topic as last week’s blog post about the issues that went wrong extending into a post mortem to help me grow into a better team member.
    I personally found this group project to extremely difficult in comparison to the first one and I believe it all comes down to the issue that three out of the four members of the group lived together. This at first could be considered a bonus. Working together with flat mates means more time together to improve upon your work, but I found this to be untrue in the case of me. I considered myself to be an introvert due to my difficulty in being around people for long periods of time and liking to being left alone. Unlike with the first project, I could go home and relax away from work. This was something I couldn’t do with the second project. I would return home and my team members would be there meaning I had virtually no time away from them to have a break. We basically brought the work back with us, and we would only talk about that when we were back.
    I also had an issue with one of the team members, who I felt complained about every decision that was made such as the implementation of asset swap to mirror industry as to get into good practices. This team member would also tell me I was wrong frequently, such as in the layout of the files which we were taught to do last year. I’m usually fine dealing with people like this but without a break this person became overbearing. As I’ve often dealt with people in the past like this, I was able to get away from them by going home, I was unable to with this certain member and it just became too much. Working with this same person in the future I’d probably go out after lesson for a while to get away.
     For myself, I need to be more organised and produce a design document throughout the project so I don’t leave it until the end of the project. This caused a lot of stress for me at the end, having to write the group design document and the personal document. The recording throughout the project will allows me to articulate my thoughs on the project and allows me to think about how to push the designs and models further daily. Stepping back and being able to look at everything produced each day allowed me to write about how to tackle the project the next time I come to it.

Week Three: I'm Running Out of Names For This

    Third week down, close to finishing my second group project. I’ve learnt a lot from this group project in comparison to the first one, there is a lack of communication, and this is an incredibly important element in which we struggle in. Unlike my team members which have turned to complain about one another (including me) on their blogs, I feel that I need to dissect why these issues have occurred in the first place. If we do not stop to think about these issues then this circle of backstabbing is going to continue.
    The biggest elephant in the room is the lack of communication, on Friday one quote sums up this whole issue, ‘I assumed you knew’. I first started the group project by producing a ‘idiots checklist’ on what to check at each stage of producing assets to allow for the next person in the chain to move straight onto the next stage. This was ignored by at least half the members of the group. When we did communicate we often didn’t do it in such away that everyone could understand, or issues were just not communicated in general. Often elements was described in a way that was ambiguous which does not work in a team situation, and sometimes terminology was used which everyone did not understand confusing some group members. Work became rushed and finished to a poor standard when we would inform members of the group we were waiting on their assets. I was told by the next member of the chain that they were waiting on my assets, yet I took my time to finish as I did not want the next person to have to fix it up as in the end it would extend the time spent on the model. When we did speak about issues, it became a shouting match, I’m guilty of this. I do feel though that this would often happen after a ridiculous statement or answer was replied with, one moment of this would be a dislike of a room due to the colour of it, and not the aesthetics of the architecture. Yes a colour could affect this, but the overall form should shine through.

The colour’s not the best, but the focus on lighting is superior to the Clockwork Orange scene we did first, as well as the architecture which has a heavy focus on symmetry which makes it more interesting.

    Another issue was organisation, although we tried to be, we kept falling short. Much like with the check list eventually being completely ignored, our organisation was on and off. Sometimes we would all show up, other times people wouldn’t even show up. I’m guilting of not telling people that I wouldnt be able to show up at the last moment as I live with a couple of flat members so I assumed, yet again this key word appears, that they knew I wouldn’t be able to make it.

    Doing another project like this, I'll be focusing more on group organisation and group communication as this is currently my weakest element.

Week Two: Electric Boogaloo

    I struggle with having to write weekly blog post more than I thought I would. I’ve always been that person who never really like to write about themselves or in any personal extension, and already in my second blog post, I feel I have nothing really to write about. I guess it’s best to continue with talking about the group work I touched upon last week. I’m further behind on the project than I like to be, we had difficulty on settling on a room to model, jumping between ‘A Clockwork Orange’’s home invasion scene which takes place at the beginning, and rooms such as the Star Trek TOS Bridge, Speedracer’s living room, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and finally the green bathroom from the Shining. Due to only settling on a room at lunch time Friday, I feel we lost a weeks worth of work, as I was working on the room up in till the change. If we had changed earlier we would have had more time to work on the new room. The previous’ rooms work is part of our development so it’s not all lost, but I just feel we could have changed earlier.
    I feel this issue of thinking I’ve done enough comes from my negative mind set, I would be lying if I said I wanted to change it. Having a pessimistic and negative view on the world means I don’t have to deal with being let down, or disappointed, yet when something positive happens I’m over the moon, yet I do feel this mind set severely affects my viewing of my work. I’ve become incredibly critical of it, picking it apart, losing confidence, but this brings with it the understanding of what I’ve done wrong, yet I fail to act at the next part of tackling on how to improve this. I think this also plays into the struggle of persevering what is too much work, I always think I could do more in the end. electric

    In other going ons, I’ve taken on a interest of Satchell Drakes work, influencing my writing with his work philosophies. At the start of his series, Anti Semantics, he introduces a typographic quote by William Strunk and E. B. White
    “Vigorous writing is concise, this requires not that the writer makes all his sentences short, or that he avoids detail, but treats his subject only in outline, but that every world tell.”
    I aim to now evolve my writing to follow this philosophy. Allowing me to extend my vocabulary and reduce the amount of detail I delve into, yet still producing an informative piece.

New Year, New... Start?

    My first week back and we weren’t eased back in. We were given a project in Game Production, in groups of six and produce assets for a Nordic theme tavern. We were each to concept an item for the scene, being a bench, a table, a shield, a cooked hog, cutlery with tankard and plate, with the final asset being a barrel. We would pass the concept to the next person who would model it, then pass the model to the next person who would unwrap it, with this process continuing through the texturing stages and feedback stage, until placement into the new engine, Unreal 4. The creators of the engine did an amazing job with the software with it being more user friendly and more aesthetically pleasing. Not only did we have an upgrade to a new engine, Photoshop and 3DS Max was upgraded becoming creative cloud and 2014. But this new engine also brought a new way of texturing assets. Rest in Peace diffuse, I’ll always remember you, but now Albedo takes your place, while specularity has now become two maps, roughness and metals. My opinion of when I first saw this change, was that it was going to be easier to texture assets, and have a more accurate and aesthetically pleasing results. 

 

Ignore the metal. Dat wood texture though.

    This change came around due to the new PBR in Unreal 4 which is quickly becoming an industry standard. 3ds Max currently cannot render the new way of texturing and so we use Marmoset to see our end result without placing it in engine. 3ds Max 2016 should be scripted with the ability to see the new PBR rendering, as it’s one of the main asset building tools. And with all of this going on, I managed to get to play with Z Brush which is an incredibly fun and brilliant tool to use which produces amazing results.
    Along side this weeks project, in visual design we were introduced to our next project for three weeks, recreating a scene from a film still. After many film ideas, we settled on Stanley Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’, home evasion scene. I really like the open plan design of the house, and the panning shot helped to reveal more of the room, allowing for a more complete idea to create it.

    With this new uni year, a lot has changed, not only in where the industry is moving to, but the whole structure of the course. Game production and visual design has become more intertwined, instead of separate projects for each part of the course. I fear for the first years though. In my first year, we had a new project every week where we would draw something different in Visual Design, I’ve heard that the students this year will have less time to develop their visual library, which I feel with negatively impact on them in the long run. But I do believe that the course changes will be beneficial for the second and third years, and the change in critical studies to writing every week about the week is an improvement. No research, no surfing the web to try to discover the source material, no long, boring blogs on history, but a reflective piece every week to help build up our communication skills.

Conference Day

    On the 2nd of April, we were all invited to a Game Art Conference day in order to improve on our writing skills. This involved becoming better at analysing, being able to write when we don’t want to and learning to become objective. I found the conference day helpful for me, but I felt I could of maximised it’s help by going to sessions which were aimed at the things I struggled with, but there was a problem with this. I didn’t know what I struggled with, because I struggle with almost everything, especially confidence, which luckily enough there was a session for that.
    I went to the following sessions;
    Word Art: Using Words Creatively - This session is to get you thinking expressively and conveying meaning to a reader with a creative use of language.
    How to Write When You Don’t Want to Write - This session invites discussion on the experience of trying to write when you don’t want to write when you don’t want to write. It offers practical strategies for overcoming ‘writer’s block’.
    The Tools of Visual Practice and Using Them in Your Critical Writing - This session will help you use the skills from visual studies to connect to analysis in your blogs.
    Confidence Building for Success - For students to share ideas on what helps (and hinders) academic confidence and to come up with ideas and actions to build confidence.

    Two of these sessions helped me out greatly, which was ‘the tools of visual practice and using them in your critical writing’ and ‘writing when you don’t want to write’.
    In tools of visual practice we were taught to use language to produce an literate representation of our ideas in our heads, using emotional and descriptive words to produce it. We used the game, the Last of Us as our basest for our ideas. We described the look of the sky, the ground texture, character, smell, light, ambiance, taste, temperature and emotion of our ideas. During this session one of our tutors, Mitch, choose one of our ideas and painted it via Photoshop within two hours. It’s amazing.
 

Asda is not Walmat in America, it’s Asda. Also I wish I could paint like this.

    Within, writing when you don’t want to write, the idea of using sticky notes with your ideas written upon them, then placed on a wall allowing you to order them to produce the framework for your post.
    While the other two sessions didn’t really help me, Confidence Building for Success and Word Art: Using words creatively. With the latter, we spoke about using a thesaurus to use words we wouldn’t usually use. Back in year 9, I worked out this technique and used it frequently in my English work, allowing me to help expand my lexicon. Where as in confidence building, it didn’t address the reasons why I didn’t want to post. Reason’s such as being afraid that the things I write would come across as stupid.

    Overall, I found the day useful as two of the sessions really helped me. If I went to some of the session which were more suitable for me, I probably would have learnt a lot, but I can definitely see the helpfulness of the services to others.
    I want to say a thank you for everyone who was involved in the production of the day. These session which we’re kindly put on for us by the staff members of our course and the university’s library and counselling service.

ANALYSIS INTO A JOB ROLE: 3D CHARACTER ARTIST

    For this blog post, I’m going to be analysing a job role for a Concept Artist. I’ve always loved to draw characters, exploring worlds, with its plant life and animals, how the architecture formed and how the economy grew to support it. Gods and Religion. Weapons and wars. Understanding how patterns form between all these elements and implementing them, forming a realistic culture.
    Now the reason I’m rambling about what I like to draw is in one of our seminars, we were asked what our dream jobs would be and how we would act upon trying to reach it. Our tutors recommended that we look at the companies we played most of their games from, and ultimately my favourite companies came down to Valve and Bethasda.
    I’m a massive Fallout 3 fan, I’ve put 100s of hours into walking the Washington Wasteland. A waste of time for some as I could have been doing something more productive, but I enjoyed it. All of it. Fighting super mutants. Raiding raiders dens. and exploring the wasteland for supplied. But this wasn’t the only Bestheda world I inhabited. I lived in Cyrodiil as a rich Khajiit in Skingard and helped to stop the return of Molog Bal. And lived in Solitude in Skyrim as a Dovahkiin High Elf with my Wizard Husband.
    I’ve escaped from Black Mesa, defeated the leader of the first wave of combine forces on Xen. I’ve escaped from City 17, then went back again to save the people enslaved by Dr. Breen. Escaped the explosion of the Combine tower, before trying to get contact with a large headquaters of the rebels. I’ve completed tests after tests, defeated an psychotic A.I.

    So looking at these two companies jobs, I ended up choosing 3D Character artist from the Valve Corporation.

[1] http://www.valvesoftware.com/jobs/job_postings.html

   
Breaking down the Role:

    This job asks for a wide range of skills and understanding of numerous elements relating the usage of media, both traditional and digital, as well as understanding the application and ability to apply the fundamentals of art, being form, shape, colour, light, mark making and composition.
    The job also asked for five or more years of modelling experience in film or games, meaning that I’ll need to amass an online presence, and portfolio showing my ability of modelling, texturing, optimised UV spaces, and the wireframe. I also need to show my concepting, how I came to the final idea, and any issues that appeared in the application of turning a 2D plane into a 3D sculpture, this maybe the effect of gravity on hair, or the head’s movement being inhibited by a piece of armour.
    The hardware needed for this job ranges from understanding HTML code to using Adobe Flash. As I did two years of Graphic Design, I’m quite familiar with Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. Adobe Photoshop is another software I’m quite fluent in. I need to be able to use shortcuts in ZBrush and Mudbox, saving time whenever I can.
    I’ll need knowledge in art. Different art movements throughout the years, using bits I like from them. Being able to emulate the style if needed.
    The ability to be able to collaborate with others, revise and improve characters quickly yet still maintain a high standard.
    As I would be collaborating with team members, I need to improve on being more well spoken and maybe softer spoken to come across a bit more relaxed. I also need to become a bit more mature to other people's emotions.

My goals:
- Improve on all work
- Become better at optimisation of UV spaces
- Become better at producing low-poly typology on surfaces via getting rid of typology that doesn’t affect the overall silhouette of the object or person, and implement interesting and realistic textures (This depends on the style I’ll be told to implement).
- Improve on anatomy. Muscle structure, skin tension and flow, and finally skeleton structure in humans and animals.
- Being able to communicate my thoughts and feelings about a concept without it coming across as being confusing or rambling.
- Become better at rigging, and understanding what causes deformation and how to correct it.
- My most important goal is to get faster.

VALVE CORPORATION: EXPLORATION INTO THE COMPANY - PART 3 - STEAM

[1] STEAM (2003) Steam's logo [Online Image] Available from: http://the-ripple.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Steam-Logo.png [Accessed 26/04/2014]

     Steam is currently the most popular digital distribution site, having over 75 million[2] registered users as of January 2014 with the daily number of users online, fluctuating between 3.5 Million to over 6 Million users[3]. The service is known for a large range of games, it’s mod workshop where the community help to provide mods to improve the game, friend features allowing for easy access into matches, insane sales with amazing offers, early access allowing developer to fund their game while in development and gaming statics allowing us to see what are currently the most popular games and how many people are playing them.

    In 2001, Gabe Newell left the development of Half-Life 2 to work on Steam[4]. It’s theorised that some of services’s initial foundations were built on the concepts originally conceived in the development of Prospero[5]; if you didn't read my first blog into the Exploration of the Valve Corporation where I spoke about this concept, you can find it here, but for this post I’ll be repeating information about it. 

The Two Bots, One Wrench Experiment
[6] VALVE (2008) Two robots from the Two Bots, One wrench experiment [Online Image] http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110522173627/half-life/en/images/e/ed/Two_bots_urine_bottle.jpg [Accessed 26/04/2014]

    The theory that some of Steam’s concept came from the Prospero project, is because Valve is known to reuse concepts from previous works, such as the Two Bots, One Wrench directed design experiment (COINED BY GABE NEWALL)[7]. The results of this experiment was used in Portal 2 and Left 4 Dead. The visual aspects of this excise was implemented into Portal 2, where the A.I. results, ended up being scripted into Left 4 Dead. The goal of the technology demo was to further story telling, by getting the A.I. to react to the player’s actions, unscripted[8][9][10].
    The original concept of Prospero involved having it distributed online. Steam’s main function now was more than likely, an natural evolution of this element. With distribution the main element, a friend list would be the next course of action, and then the ability to get into matches with them. Valve also originally had issues with updating their online games, causing many users to be disconnected for a long periods of time. To get around this, the service would allow games to update automatically and implement a stronger anti-piracy and anti cheat measurement[11]. 

    Steam was announced in March 2002 at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California. It was presented as a distribution network, with the code name being Grid and Gazelle.
    After a successful beta with over 75,000 testers[12], the service was launched to the public on September 12th 2003, getting ready for the release of Half-Life 2. The service before the release of this game, was only really useful for playing mods such as Counter-Strike or Day of Defeat[13]. When Half-Life 2 was released, Steam was mandatory to play the game, acting much like a DRM (Digital rights management) and Anti-Piracy. Though when some players logged on to play the PC version of the game, Steam’s servers crashed unable to cope with the flood of launch day users. This resulted in large delays and meant that some players couldn't even play the game, let alone install the game they’d been waiting five years for. One user even complained of not being able to log into his Steam accounts as it was just too busy[14].

Steam's Front Page in 2007
[15] STEAM (2007) Steam's Front Page in 2007 [Online] Valve. Available from: http://www.steampowered.com/v/static_web.php [Accessed 26/04/14]

    This is a long way from Steam now, being able to cope with millions of players online constantly, delivering updates for games on a daily basis, and being able to keep gamers connected in large multiplayer battles. Games from countless developers and publishers now line Steam’s shelves. Different genres, single or multiplayer, free-to-play or just buying the game itself. Steam will have games for you. But it wasn't like this, it took two years from it’s initial full release for third party games to reach Steam, with the first group of games being from the publisher Strategy First[16].
   
    As the popularity of Steam grew, it brought with it a huge community. We now get to use amazing free mods which are virus free, furthering our gaming experience and having reviews from the community, letting other’s warn us about their bad purchases.
    Tagging was added to Steam on the 12th of February 2014. The idea of tagging came across as Valve felt that the community could curate Steam better than they could. These tags could be used to recommend other games you might liked based on the games you have played recently[17]. The results of leaving people to create tags? Hilarity.

The tags on Final Fantasy VII when the tagging was first implemented.
[18] STEAM (2014) Tagging system before the report system was introduced [Online Image] Available from: http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--KPtP912V--/c_fit,fl_progressive,w_636/19fl35j0kkp5hpng.png [Accessed 26/04/2014]

    ‘Nanomachines, son’, ‘Procedural Death Labyrinth’, ‘Git Gud or Die Tryin’’, ‘Walking Simulator’ and ‘Hats’(One of my personal favourites) are a some of my favourite tags which sprung up within hours of this implementation. But some tags, were just outright abusive. ‘Diva Dev’(Relating to the incident involving Phil Fish leaving the Industry) and ‘Not a Game’ (On Dear Esther) were some of the tags that ended up warranting a report system, implemented two days later[19][20]. Most of the abusive and nonsensical tags were removed from Steam, even taking the arguably helpful, ‘Nanomachines, son’ (This meant that the main character was a mixture of a human and a robot) away. But this hasn’t been the only incident that has happened this year.
    There’s currently a debacle occurring with Steam’s front page, where games from years ago are being put as brand new releases. Although these old games are new releases to Steam, there should be an option where you can only see the games that are brand new and haven’t been released in the past. The issue with quality control with the release dates actually go back to as far as 2010 as I've found, where the original Sonic the Hedgehog game for the Sega Mega Drive or Sega Genesis, was released on June 23 1991[21], while Steam says 26 of October 2010 was it’s release date[22].
    But this hasn't been the worse part, recently the quality control of Steam has fallen drastically, with games that could be considered shovel ware showing up on the front page, but some of the worse offenders has been publishers, selling other publishers games via Steam. This is odd, as to get your game on Steam in the past you had to show you we’re highly reputed[23]. This has lead to the Steam community complaining about this issue[24] as well as many known figures on the internet talking about this issue, such as John ‘Totalbiscuit’ Baine and Jim Sterling[25], a writer for Destructoid and the Escapist Magazine. Developers themselves have spoken up about this flooding of Old games onto Steam. Mel Kirk of Zen Studios spoke to Totalbiscuit about these issues, saying:

 “ Your item text ... Being on the front of the new release list or any type of visibility on the store front is extremely valuable, and yes, we always see a lift in sales when we are in this position. There is no doubt you will see better sales when you are in these key positions.”

Steam's Front page on March 19th 2013
[26] STEAM (2013) Steam's front page as of March 19th 2013 [Online Image] Available from: http://web.archive.org/web/20130319072119/http://store.steampowered.com/ [Accessed 26/04/2014]

    Steam is still an obvious role model for Digital Distribution Service. Having a layout which shows us up coming games, games currently being released, their insane sales, featured games, top sellers, games under a certain price and Early Access games, all presented in a orderly fashion. But back when it was difficult to get on Steam was the best time. It showed that quality control was there and that the consumer was protected to a certain point, especially with the review system, the quality assurance was there and as a consumer, I felt protected. Now, I have to go back to doing heavy research on a game, just so I'm not scammed out of money by the publisher and left with a game I can barely play.
    But with this going on, I'm not going to stop using Steam. Steam has so much right, the community loves and respects it, and the reason we complain about this massive flood is because we don’t want our favourite thing to be ruined. Fearing it will turn into a dumping ground of shovel ware, and losing all prestige it had before for games.

Bibliography

[1] - STEAM (2003) Steam's logo [Online Image] Available from: http://the-ripple.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Steam-Logo.png [Accessed 26/04/2014]

[2] - CONDITT. J (2014) Steam has 75 million active accounts [Online] JOUSTIQ. Available from: http://www.joystiq.com/2014/01/15/steam-has-75-million-active-users-valve-announces-at-dev-days/ [Accessed 26/04/2014]
[3] - STEAM (2014) Steam's user stats [Online] VALVE. Available from: http://store.steampowered.com/stats/?snr=1_steam_4__110 [Accessed 26/04/2014]

[4] - ANONYMOUS (2006) Development of Half-life 2 [Online] HALF-LIFE WIKI. Available from: http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Development_of_Half-Life_2 [Accessed 26/04/2014]

[5] - HODGSON, D. (2004) Anomalous Materials. In: HODGSON, D. et al. Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar - A Behind the Scenes Look: Prima's Official Insider's Guide. Roseville: Prima Games. pp. 9 - 11

[6] - VALVE (2008) Two robots from the Two Bots, One wrench experiment [Online Image] http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110522173627/half-life/en/images/e/ed/Two_bots_urine_bottle.jpg [Accessed 26/04/2014]

 [7] - ANONYMOUS (2006) Directed Design Experiments [Online] HALF-LIFE WIKI. Available from: http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Directed_Design_Experiments [Accessed 26/04/2014]

[8] - COMBINE OVERWIKI (2011) Two Bots, One Wrench Video #1: Bathrooms and Urine [Online video] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUEVA1BZfuE&hd=1 [Accessed 26/04/2014]

[9] - COMBINE OVERWIKI (2011) Two Bots, One Wrench Video #2: Danger: Crane Over Head, Shabby Crate and Random Items [Online video] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD9g8Fu9vt4&hd=1 [Accessed 26/04/2014]

[10] - COMBINE OVERWIKI (2011) Two Bots, One Wrench Video #3: Urine and Leprechaun [Online video] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4cs56s0e-Q&hd=1 Accessed 26/04/2014]

[11] - LEE. J (2008) The Last of Independents? [Online] GAMESINDUSTRY. Available from: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/the-last-of-the-independents- [Accessed 26/04/2014]

[12] - WALKER. T (2002) GDC 2002: Valve unveils Steam [Online] GAMESPOT. Available from: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/gdc-2002-valve-unveils-steam/1100-2857298/ [Accessed 26/04/2014]

[13] - PLUNKETT. L (2013) Steam is 10 Today. Remember When It Sucked? [Online] KOTAKU. Available from: http://kotaku.com/steam-is-10-today-remember-when-it-sucked-1297594444 [Accessed 26/04/14]

[14] - http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33791921

[15] - STEAM (2007) Steam's Front Page in 2007 [Online] Valve. Available from: http://www.steampowered.com/v/static_web.php [Accessed 26/04/14]

[16] - STRATEGY FIRST (2005) Strategy First to Deliver Multiple Titles On-line via Steam. [Online] Available from: http://www.strategyfirst.com/press/1924-strategy-first-to-deliver-multiple-titles-on-line-via-steam.html [Accessed 26/04/13]

[17] - STEAM (2014) Tagging Overview [Online] Valve. Available from: http://store.steampowered.com/tag [Accessed 26/04/14]

[18] -  STEAM (2014) Tagging system before the report system was introduced [Online Image] Available from: http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--KPtP912V--/c_fit,fl_progressive,w_636/19fl35j0kkp5hpng.png [Accessed 26/04/2014]

[19] - HERNANDEZ. P (2014) The First Day of Steam Tags Is Both Funny and Sad. [Online] Kotaku http://kotaku.com/the-first-day-of-steam-tags-will-make-you-laugh-and-cr-1522262945 [Accessed 26/04/14]

[20] - JASKO. J (2014} 10 Steam Tags that Proved This is a Bad Idea. [Online] GAMEZEBO Available from: http://www.gamezebo.com/news/2014/02/13/10-steam-tags-prove-bad-idea [Accessed 26/04/14]

[21] - DOBSON. J (2006) Sonic the Hedgehog Celebrates 15th Anniversary. [Online] GAMASUTRA Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9832 [Accessed 26/04/14]

[22] - http://store.steampowered.com/app/71113/?snr=1_7_7_151_150_1

[23] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLNh5HPbQPo  

[24] - http://steamcommunity.com/app/281260/discussions/0/558750985835487258/?insideModal=1

[25] - http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/8753-Steam-Needs-Quality-Control

[26] - STEAM (2013) Steam's front page as of March 19th 2013 [Online Image] Available from: http://web.archive.org/web/20130319072119/http://store.steampowered.com/ [Accessed 26/04/2014]

VALVE CORPORATION: EXPLORATION INTO THE COMPANY - PART 2 - CINEMATIC NARRATIVE WITH GAMEPLAY

 

[1] VALVE (2004) Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance [Online Image] Avaliable from: http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100426164516/half-life/en/images/1/19/Gordonalyx2.jpg [Accessed 24/04/2014]

    Kill the aliens that enslaved the human race. Escape from a lab controlled by  a psychotic A.I. These two stories can ultimately be boiled down into one sentence, yet these are the storylines to two games that can be considered to be one of the most influential and popular games. Half-life and Portal.
    It’s clear that Valve helped to pioneer the cinematic story telling experience in games, when the games I spoke of above are often held in high acclaim with gamers and critics[2][3][4][5][6][7][8].

One of Ratman's Dens.
[9] VALVE (2007) One of Ratman's Den [Online Image] Avaliable from: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100611154805/half-life/en/images/d/dd/Testchmb_a_13001.jpg [Accessed 24/04/2014]

    Portal communicates the lore by using insane scribbling and picture clippings, lining the panels of a small decrypted rooms hidden in test chambers. Ramblings of someone with decreasing mental stability help to guide Chell through the later tests, before abruptly ending when the Sentry Turrets are introduced. The small den’s show evidence that someone had inhabited them for long periods time, with makeshift beds, cans of food and bottles of milk and water. One even contains a makeshift shove. The walls often have foreshadowing, such as the placement of companion cubes placed over the heads of people, and even ‘The cake is a lie’ scrawled across the panels[10][11].
    This is essence of Cinematic Story telling, using the world and actions to explore the narrative, rather than dialogue. As Alfred Hitchcock has been quoted saying:

    “In many of the films now being made, there is very little cinema: they are mostly what I call ‘photographs of people talking’. When we tell a story in the cinema, we should resort to dialogue only when it’s impossible to do otherwise. In writing a screenplay, it is essential to separate clearly the dialogue from the visual elements and whenever possible, to rely more on the visual than on the dialogue[12].”

 

Concept of Chell meeting GLaDOS.
[13] VALVE (2011) Concept of Chell meeting GLaDOS [Online Image] Avaliable from: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100307232018/half-life/en/images/1/11/Chell_facing_glados_concept.jpg [Accessed 24/04/2014]

    Interaction between GLaDOS and the player helps to add to the story without it being just exposition which can get lost in all forms of media. We are given a look into the mind or programming of this A.I. We’re allowed to explore the character, shown that she’s not just plot device, but a three dimensional character, with motives and emotions.
    The gameplay mechanics are a key part in holding up the narrative, we are taught by stepping on the button, it opens door, but stepping off it, closes the door, telling us that we need to acquire a weigh. Triggered by the button, a large container looking out of place in the ceiling, releases a box, the weighted storage cube which becomes a key element in the later stages, as the companion cube. The companion cube goes on to teach us an important mechanic involving the final battle. All of this is done without dialogue, allowing the player to discover the mechanics themselves[14].

Breen on the Breencast on the clock tower in City 17.
[15] - VALVE (2004) Breen on the Breencast [Online Image] Avaliable from: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091026103546/half-life/en/images/c/cd/Second_Breencast_close.jpg [Accessed 24/04/2014]

    There are drawbacks to a heavily narrative game. A strict liner format takes away the players feelings of control and replayablilty. Without any ability to affect the storyline, the game does not need to played a second time. You know the story, you had your emotional experience with it, what’s the point in playing it a second time? I feel Half-life 2 and especially the sequels suffered from this issue. But, also these games did so much right.
    We are greeted with Dr. Breen, the main anatogist of the series. Breen is not just an evil person, although looking at his motives we are can argue about this element. But looking at Breen, he justifies his reasoning, to himself, but even more so to the player. He gives speeches which you can choose to watch or just carry on.

    “Did the lungfish refuse to breathe air? It did not. It crept forth boldly while its brethren remained in the blackest ocean abyss, with lidless eyes forever staring at the dark, ignorant and doomed despite their eternal vigilance.[16]”

    It’s not just good guys verses bad guys, it muddies the water. Breen think’s he’s doing what’s best for humanity, allowing them to ascend into the Combine empire. Where as you fight beside the rebels to try to break free from the Combine’s grasp.
    When simple the narrative is done in an exciting and intriguing way, can be considered superior to a complex plot told in a broken, disjointed way. With an obvious start to endpoint, without any complexities that might confuse the player due to the way it’s presented, the story can ultimately be more engaging.

Biblography  

SOURCES

[1] - VALVE (2004) Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance [Online Image] Avaliable from: http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100426164516/half-life/en/images/1/19/Gordonalyx2.jpg [Accessed 24/04/2014]

 [2] - GAMERANKINGS (1992) Half-Life 2 [Online] GAMERANKINGS Avaliable from: http://www.gamerankings.com/pc/914642-half-life-2/index.html [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[3] - DULIN. R (1998) Half-Life [Online] GAMESPOT Avaliable from: http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/half-life-review/1900-2537398/ [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[4] - METACRITIC (1998) Half-Life PC [Online] METACRITIC Avaliable from: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/half-life [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[5] - METACRITIC (2004) Half-Life 2 PC [Online] METACRITIC Avaliable from: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/half-life-2 [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[6] - METACRITIC (2007) Portal PC [Online] METACRITIC Avaliable from: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/portal [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[7] - METACRITIC (2011) Portal 2 PC [Online] METACRITIC Avaliable from: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/portal-2 [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[8] - ADAMS. D (2007) Portal Review [Online] METACRITIC Avaliable from: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2007/10/09/portal-review [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[9] - VALVE (2007) One of Ratman's Den [Online Image] Avaliable from: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100611154805/half-life/en/images/d/dd/Testchmb_a_13001.jpg [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[10] AONSHIX (2009) Narrative Narcissism; Half-Life [Online] Avaliable from: http://metacritical.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/narrative-narcissism-half-life/ [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[11] HAGGARD. D (2007) The Art of Narrative in Half-Life 2 [Online] Availiable from : http://danielhaggard.com/70/the-art-of-narrative-in-half-life-2/ [Accessed 24/04/2014]

 

[12] Weis. E (1982) The Silent Scream - Alfred Hitchcock's Sound Track Rutherford: Dickinson University Press Avaliable from: http://filmsound.org/silentscream/chapter1.htm [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[13] - VALVE (2011) Concept of Chell meeting GLaDOS [Online Image] Avaliable from: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100307232018/half-life/en/images/1/11/Chell_facing_glados_concept.jpg [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[14] RICARDO AFONSO (2011) Portal, Complete Walkthrough. [Online Video] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxOQDo_tHNY [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[15] - VALVE (2004) Breen on the Breencast [Online Image] Avaliable from: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091026103546/half-life/en/images/c/cd/Second_Breencast_close.jpg [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[16] VALVE (2004) Breencast [Online] Avaliable from: http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Breencast [Accessed 24/04/2014]

GAMES 

VALVE (1998) Half-Life [Online, CD] PC, Playstation 2, Xbox. Washington: Electronic Arts Inc.

VALVE (2004) Half-Life 2 [Online, CD] PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3. Washington: Electronic Arts Inc. 

VALVE (2008) Portal [Online, CD] PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3. Washington: Electronic Arts Inc.

VALVE (2011) Portal 2 [Online, CD] PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3. Washington: Electronic Arts Inc.

VALVE CORPORATION: EXPLORATION INTO THE COMPANY - PART 1 - THE BEGINNING, THE DELAYS AND THE TRUTH

[1] VALVE (1998) Valve Logo [Online Image] Avaliable from: http://semiaccurate.com/assets/uploads/2011/09/valve-logo.png [24/04/2014]

    Valve, the brain child of Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington[2]. Throughout the years, many talented and creative men and women came together to produce some of the most memorable and creative games. Doug Lambardi, Robin Walker, Marc Laidlaw, all the programmers, artists and writers that spent years making Half-Life, Portal, Counterstrike, DoTA, Left4Dead, games that have made such an impact on the community and video games themselves, changing the way first person shooters and cinematic narrative is now presented.

    In August 1996, Newell and Harrington, two retired Microsoft Developers with 30 years under their belts, came together with a love of video games. Settling into an office in a small Seattle suburb of Kirkland, Washington, Valve hired it’s first employees. Taken from the ranks of the Quake Modding community, these young programmers and level designers, the essence of the gaming community, helped to produce one of the most ground breaking games, Half-life. With the licensing of the Quake engine in hand, the team was split into two and each, set forth in their production[3].

The heroine of Prospero
[4] VALVE (1996) The Heroine of Prospero [Online image] Avaliable from: http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100418212431/half-life/en/images/b/b2/Aleph_1.jpg [Accessed 24/04/2014]

    One team worked on ‘Prospero’. A game which was originally concepted to come out after Half-life. It was exploration based with an intricate storyline and psionic combat. While the other team worked on ‘Quiver’. A first person shooter which emphasised on Aliens and Adrenaline. This was the base for Half-Life.
    As Quiver started to take over some of the initial goals of Prospero’s, morphing the latter into a Massive Multiplayer game. The game would have a mixture of Valve and user-created worlds, each running on a different server. Other elements for Prospero were concepted, such as online distribution for it, a server browser and a friend finder. These elements were later implimented into Steam, which I’ll be speaking about in depth in later posts. As Prospero mixed with Quiver, it’s atmosphere and narrative was adapted into the game[5].
    During the production of Half-Life, the Quake 1 Engine had to be heavily modified, with most of the code being rewritten such as the A.I. and the audio output had to be heavily modified. This became the GoldScr engine[6].

Half-Life 1, Sector C's Front Desk
[7] VALVE (1998) Sector C's Front Desk [Online Image]. Avaliable from: http://cd1.leviathyn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/halflife.jpg [Accessed 24/04/2014]

    As Half-Life was set to be released in 1997, Newall and Harrington could see that the game was still incomplete. With the addition of Prospero’s atmosphere and narrative, the game needed to be refined. An extra year was given to the dev team as the founders felt Half-Life was not going to be good enough for release. On November 19th 1998, Half-Life was released through Sierra, who went on to create the expansions to this series as Valve started to work on a new engine, Source.
    Development of Half-life 2 begun in June 1999. Ideas about the sequel involved Gordon fighting the combine forces on Zen, and the version we know, eastern European city setting. Two years later, Newell left the development to work on Steam, allowing the dev team to work by themselves and explore ideas. The following year Newall announced Steam to the public[8].

Half-life 2, Dr. Breen's office
[9] VALVE (2004) Lighting effects in Breen's office from Half-Life 2 [Online Image] Avaliable from: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090604225421/half-life/en/images/5/5e/Half-Life_2_Dr_Breen_Office.jpg [Accessed 24/04/2014]

    During 2003, Newell announced Half-Life 2 at E3 in February, with Steam releasing the same year on the 12th of September. But something marred this year. A hacking. Source’s code was leaked online as well as the Half-Life 2 maps, showing that Half-life 2 is nowhere near completion. In October, Newell wrote an apology letter for now having to hold back Half-Life’s release date from September to April 2004, due to the leaked levels and coding. As April came around, Half-Life 2 was once again delayed, causing Kevin “Fragmaster” Bowen, the founder of Planet Half-Life, to leak inside information he was holding about the theft. It turns out that the hacking had nothing to do with Half-Life’s delay, and was used as an convenient excuse for the reason that the game was not going to be finished before September 2003[10].
    Pressure begun to grow within Valve, since the release of the information, so Newell let the truth out. The leaks had nothing to so with the delay of Half-Life 2, while emitting that the delays was his fault. He was too unrealistic about it’s progress, and the closer they got to the release date the more obvious it was that the game wasn’t going to be finished in time. But later that year, November 16th, we finally got Half-Life 2.

    Although I condemn Newell actions in lying about the leaking being the main issue of Half-Life 2’s delay, I can completely understand why he did it. He probably got excited about Half-Life 2 with all of the brilliant work they were putting into it, and so announced an extremely optimistic release date which turned out they couldn’t make. Developers often get abuse, just for making a game or being in the public eye. So saying that the leak affected development time is a legitimate reason for making your fans wait and minimising the amount of abuse. If your game was leaked, changing it would be for the best, as people would have seen the screenshots, and if the game worked, played it. When it came out he lied, the employees at Valve, especially Newell, all would have faced abuse. All of this due to his fear of disappointing the fans and receiving more harassment.
    Being transparent in situations like this is the best. By not trying to hid anything from the fans, they will have more respect for you in the long run. You’re fan base will grow. With them knowing your not there to cheat them, they can enjoy your games, instead of going in with a shield up, wondering what you’ve done to ruin their franchise. They are the people who will stand by you. If you have to delay a game to make it better, do that and explain why. Transparency is the best cause, and no matter what you’ll do, expect backlash. Valve now as an amazing reputation for making games, even if we have to wait, we’re not disappointed by them, and of course, Steam with it’s sales. I feel Valve learnt a lesson from this, and that's why we have limited information on Half-Life 3. The team doesn’t want to let us fans down, and so feel it better not to confirm or deny it’s existence.
    As I feel like I’ve now rambled on for far too long, I want to leave you with a line that’s stuck with me, said by none other than Gabe Newell in 2004:
   

“10 years from now, people will look back at Valve and see a company who genuinely cares about the games and the people who play games. We did not cut corners and yeah may never have shipped on time, but at least lived up to it’s responsibilities to moving things forward.”[11]

Biblography

[1] - VALVE (1998) Valve Logo [Online Image] Avaliable from: http://semiaccurate.com/assets/uploads/2011/09/valve-logo.png [24/04/2014]

[2] - CAPRIOLE, A. (2008) The History of Valve [Online] PLANET HALF-LIFE. Available from: http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Articles.Detail&id=121 [Accessed 23/04/2014]

[3] - HODGSON, D. (2004) Anomalous Materials. In: HODGSON, D. et al. Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar - A Behind the Scenes Look: Prima's Official Insider's Guide. Roseville: Prima Games. pp. 8

[4] - VALVE (1996) The Heroine of Prospero [Online image] Avaliable from: http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100418212431/half-life/en/images/b/b2/Aleph_1.jpg [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[5] - HODGSON, D. (2004) Anomalous Materials. In: HODGSON, D. et al. Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar - A Behind the Scenes Look: Prima's Official Insider's Guide. Roseville: Prima Games. pp. 9 - 11

[6] - BOKITCH, C. (2002) Half-Life Code Basis [Online] VERC Collective. Available from: http://web.archive.org/web/20070301012630/http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?go=q1_or_q2 [Accessed 23/04/2014]

[7] - VALVE (1998) Sector C's Front Desk [Online Image]. Avaliable from: http://cd1.leviathyn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/halflife.jpg [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[8] - HALF-LIFE WIKI (2006) Development of Half-Life 2 [Online] Available from: http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Development_of_Half-Life_2 [Accessed 23/04/2014]

[9] - VALVE (2004) Lighting effects in Breen's office from Half-Life 2 [Online Image] Avaliable from: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090604225421/half-life/en/images/5/5e/Half-Life_2_Dr_Breen_Office.jpg [Accessed 24/04/2014]

[10] - CAPRIOLE, A. (2008) The History of Valve [Online] PLANET HALF-LIFE. Available from: http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Articles.Detail&id=121 [Accessed 23/04/2014]

[11] - REDDIT (2014) Gabe Newells Quote [Online Image] Avaliable from: http://i.imgur.com/mSFmMM1.jpg [Accessed 23/04/2014]