Underground comics. Fabulous Furry Freak Brother: "The Idiots abroad"

I liked underground comics. Where  the overall theme of the comics centers around humor, with characters usually portrayed in a variety of social statuses, professions and time periods, ranging from beggars and office workers to actors and ancient warriors, which allows for a wide variety of scenarios to explore.

I had lots of personal connections with "Freak borthers" because i am travelling a lot and thats what i have been doing all my life, and there are lots of situations that did happened in real life that are the same as in the comic, that people might found offensive and not right, but they do happen in real life. I think overall i liked Undergroudn comics genre, because it is about the world is and it has more realistic connections on personal level, compare to other comics.

A Contract With God by Will Eisner Review

First of all, I like the way the author drew the character and thestory,  the line work is really powerful. The story which is about a religious man giveing up his faith after the death of his young adopted daughter. 

It is fascinating how Will Eisner dramatizes Hersh's trudge home through a downpour, an element of graphic-novel grammar Eisner manipulates better than anyone else ever has — stagger the imagination. The viewer can truly feel the main character seemingly reaches his breaking point. Overall, it gives me a feeling of isolation and despair. And also, i think i can relate to that despair and isolation in some way, because being a Ringling student with all the tough deadlines coming up can be hard.

Assessment

What is your reaction to the text you just read?
Watchman written by Alan Moore is fascinating piece of very artistic graphical novel. I wouldn't say that i enjoy it a lot but there is definitely something fascinating about it that makes me want to read more.  There are lots of going on in Watchman it has the level of complexity that not every comic book has. There  are lots of symbolism and elements that  can be related to everyone life on different levels. I love how the comic discovers and reflecting the complexity of human emotions and relationships. I think it is fascinating how unique this comic book is. Considering that it was written in the 80s during cold war and  it's story reflected contemporary anxieties and satirize the superhero concept in one way or another. Which to me, feels very unconventional. I think the concept of the super-hero is dissected as the heroes are stalked by an unknown assassin and one hero dies and the overall story of  super heroes reunion to prevent their own destruction makes shatters the image of support heroes being always right, over powered and saving everyone. And thats why i think Watchman is a great comic book, but i don't necessarily admire reading it.

What connections did you make with the story that you read? Discuss with the elements of the story you could make.



What changes would you make to adapt this to another media?

Since i am in Game Art, i would loved to take take the Watchman into games, however there would be quite a bit of tiny clean ups to be made for the story in order to match the gameplay better and have more interest for the player. To start with, i think there should be more about the death of one of the heroes, that will not only help to established the story better for the game, but also will make the player more connected to the character itself and will feel the reason and meaning to fight.

Understanding Comics Review

Chapter II's idea seems fascinating to me. It is about what we notice in comic books, and how images communicate to us. He mentioned that the artist can embrace any particular way to make realistic,unrealistic or surreal cartoon images of people and objects andto express their emotions of the character or story. Additionally, the greater the personality a comic has, the more simplistic it is. What i found out is that normally we see a lot of icons around us in more simplistic terms, very straignt forward and right to the point, which makes it easy to notice. And this is exactly what comic book needsin order to catch the viewer's eyes. However, after I read The Arrival by Shaun Tan, I feel comic can be realistic, and it should be done in realistic way. If Shuan Tan drew the comic in a simplistic way, it would have lost lots of emotions and cinematic feelings to the story and wouldn't have a such strong connection to a lot of people.

I liked how Scoot Mccloud said about picture, when they are more abstracted from 'reality", they require greater levels of perception, more like words.When words are bolder, more direct, they require lower levels of perception and are received faster more like pictures.

However, I think it is impossible to decide what is faster because it depends on the artist. A good comic artist knows when is the right time to use the picture, and when is the right time to use a simple word.

Prince Valiant, Vol.3

The incredible artwork of Hal Foster makes Prince Valiant a true treasure to read.Being able to go through his adventures was fantastic experience. I have looked at Prince valiant Volume. 3 and i was fascinated by the high quality of the art and storytelling. I think perfection has been achieved in Prince Valiant. The art style is just mind blowing but i liked story telling more. I enjoyed how  Prince Valiants adventures is one cohesive story without any interruptions. I was fascinated by Valiant's obsessive search for his bride-to-be Aleta throughout Northern Africa, with stops in Jerusalem, the Arabic deserts, and, inevitably, a harem which Val must infiltrate. I enjoyed his adventures through the Mediterranean, the Near East, sub Saharan Africa and Europe and what i like the most it all feels believable. Which allows the reader to be totally emmerse in the adventurous world of Prince Valiant.In other words, it is fantastic artwork with great adventure story.

The Arrival by Shuan Tan

“The Arrival”, tells a story about the journey and reunion. The young father leaves his home to create a better life for his family in a new big city full of opportunities, eventually the entire family got together and the new city became the new home.I enjoyed the photorealistic human figures,that evoke the intimate feelings of my overseas experience. I am from Ukraine, and this is my senior year in the United States at Ringling College. I went back home twice a year during summer and winter, but the summer is really short while missing is very long. It wasextremely hard for me in the first year, I am like the young father in the comic book, I go to the new land alone, I have to speak the new language, and I have to meet the new people. Sometimes, it is really hard to talk with my family about what is happening to me or what is new in school, because of two different cultures. But, I am glad that I made the decision to come to Ringling. It enriched my knowledge and my experience,as well as, enlarged my vision.

Commercial for a level that i made for a battle combat game Shootout. The goal of the commercial was to use a combination of cinematic cameras and gameplay footage to create  an appealing commercial of the game level. The music was chosen using killertracks and voice over were done by me. Also, i had to do the simple logo for my level, which is the last part of the video, it shows the name of the game and level.

Rough plan for the game commercial. I am planning to start with the environment shots so that the player has a better understanding of the setting, and move on to the gameplay footage. I am thinking about dynamic music for the commercial, because i will have a lot of explosion and destruction in the commercial.

As the final assignment for my Programming class i have to do the boss fight for my adventure game that i did earlier. To start with i have to research and analyze the technical aspect of classic adventure game boss battle.

Visual reference of the World of Warcraft characters N'Zoth and Yogg-Saron.




The video that i found on the Youtube that i used to look at some boss mechanic that i am interested in.

Our boss fight will be a few phased boss fight, i am planning to do 3 stages.

The Horsehead boss mechanics where a player has to hit an run is what i want to do for my first stage, i am thinking about an objective where a player has to weaken the demonic creature by destroying it's tentacles, i am going to use the same mechanics as a Spiky block ( when a player comes close enough a tentacle will slash the grounds doing AOE damage in the area), i am also inspired by Illaio's Q ability from League of Legends by Riot Games.

The Barba gameplay  helped to figure our how i want to have a tentacle from the ground mechanics to work.

I liked The thunderbird mechanics where the projectiles are falling on the character in the random patters, i think is it a crucial boss fight mechanics that i should have. However, it should be horizontal not vertical. I am thinking implementing this mechanics when the characters achieves something, for example destroying a tentacle. Also, i am thinking about making a boss invulnerable when the projectiles are cast in the early stages, when the battle progresses more projectiles are spawn and more frequent.

Velkoz from League of Legends by Riot Games as a main reference for projectiles.

Star Guarding Syndra sin from league of Legends by Riot Games.

I like the idea how the character throws little creatures at enemies, and also when the character unleashes the barrage of orbs at the enemy. I want to have the stage of the boss fight where the boss will spawn enemies in the same manner, and also he will spawn orbs and if they are not destroyed by the player in the certain amount of time, they will attack the player, or if the number of spheres will get to 5 for example, the boss will launch the projectiles.

I am also thinking about implementing shield/health pick ups for the boss battle, in a way that when the boss used an ability or after he uses an ability that is beneficial for the player.

For one of my stages of the boss fight the player will be forced to enter the shadow realm ( one of the game mechanics that i have in my adventure game), where he will have to fight enemies and when the mission accomplished, the player can leave the shadow realm and continue fighting the boss.

Game play of the final version of my level for the Combat Vehicle game. This project was fun, but it had a lot of challenges that wasn't easy to overcome.
The USP of my level is the Dam that can be destroyed, which leads to water rise that opens a route to the island from where the bomb can be launched, with every launch more bombs are spawned.

Screenshots of the environment:

How will the level change over time?

The pressure plate in the middle of the map will cause one of the four events to trigger, which will force place to react fast in order to survive.

I haven't decide on the final ideas, but there is a list:
- water rising that will do damage over time, players can escape it staying on the high grounds.
-heatwave that will do damage to everyone who isn't inside.
-spawn mines on the map
-airdrop mines
- the gas wall that shrinks over time
-day becoming night, lowering the visibility
- gas inside, 2 pressure plates




Visual Style:
Sci-fi inside and jungle for the outside.




Rough map idea:

Rough ideas for pick ups and some obstacles:

The rough three stages of damaging smoke:

 The rough three stages of water rising:

Visual reference for how jungle will coexist with the sci-fi architecture.

As a part of my programing class tutorial, i learn three different ways of how to do a projectile for a weapon, line trace, projectile and physical object. I learnt that the line trace is the easiest way to do a projectile and it is used for fast moving projectiles that follow a steady path, such as machine gun or energy beams, lasers and etc. The projectile movement is good for projectiles that can change their direction but you don't want to depend it on physics or for homing projectiles.Where as physical object is good for something like a grenade or any other projectiles that can bounce of the surface.

As my initial idea i wanted to use simulate physics for a grenade, so that i can have the grenades bouncing off the surfaces or splitting in more projectiles as it hits a surface.

However,  i decided to change it to a homing projectile using stuff that i learnt from the tutorial, however the obstacle was that the tutorial only showed how to home on a single target ( set before the game starts), which makes it impossible to change within the game. In order to overcome that obstacle i decided to use the line trace to set a target for a projectile to hit, and after a small delay the projectile with home onto a target using a projectile moving. As a result I combined two ways of making a projectile for a weapon and created a system weapon for my gun.
















Particle ideas for my weapon:

Adventure Game that i made as the assignment for my Game Design and Programming class. The main goal was to get familiar with the fundamentals of top-down level design and build up the knowledge about the game production pipeline. It was really fun assignment and i really liked working on it. However, i had to remove a lot of stuff just because if would make the level way too big and make it really hard to complete with in the 4 minutes of play time.

Adventure Game

Story: You are one of the moon spirits that are trained to become huntress in the Never Garden Palace.  While you are on the quest to hunt down pray the meteor strikes the palace, killing everyone but you and as you found out later, your teacher. You know that it wasn't just a coincidence, because the meteor also brought monster and dark spirits. The entrance to the palace will be blocked my inscriptions and in order to get through them a player has to explore the dungeon where the meteor fell. When the artifact will be found the player can enter spirit world, and it will help solve the incoming puzzles.

Location: Snowy rocky terrain.

Time of the day: Dusk/ nightfall. For dungeons and caves it will be night, most light will be come from plants and rune marks on the ground/walls/stones and god rays.

Style: Ancient architecture, ruins.

I want to have cold atmosphere, therefore there will be a lot of blues and cyan. 

Objectives and exploration areas where a player won't experience any threat will be yellow/orange/greenish in order to have a warm feeling and peaceful atmosphere, which will also be a contrast to cold and dark areas. The torches/lanterns will show the objectives.

Color Palette

Reference images for mood/ atmosphere:

Character design:

Weapon Designs:

Rough Enemy designs:

Rough Level layout:

A player will start in a forest, where enemies are weak but frequent. 

The first objective will be to get back to the palace, but since the entrance will be blocked, a player has to explore the cave, where he can find the artifact that will assist on his journey and allowing to enter the palace. Where a lot of puzzles and stronger enemies are awaiting. Completing all puzzles will allow the player to find the room with the boss, where a player can prove their skill. 

This is the slime spiky block that i made for my programming class. i had to animate and program the falling and the smash of my slimy block. In addition to making one block, i made another one (red), which has to be baited out, because it falls faster and smaller.  I also used those spiky blocks in my sidescroll game.

The tutorial level for a a platformer game. This level is basically a start introduction to the core mechanics of the game and teaches a player how to get through different obstacles. The level start with really basic obstacles, such as a basic jump, spikes and disappearing platforms and as a player progresses through the level the difficulty of the obstacle increases. The level is set in a cave, which is inhabited by slime creatures, which are also 2 types of obstacles that will smash the player if stays near them.

This is my level design, for the game that i will be making in my Game Design. It has interacting mechanists, moving and falling platforms, pendulums spikes and obstacles that shoot projectiles. The level should take 3 minutes long for inexperienced players to complete.

Video game tutorial exploration

Before starting thinking about my level for a 2D platformer, i had to look at good tutorial level in a 2D sidescroller Platforming game.
I choose Electronic Super Joy because it has really good phasing, it gives enough instruction of the controls, however it is up to the player to figure out the best ways to utilize them. It is also nice that this level has more than one obstacle and the difficulty will increase as a tutorial level will progress, it starts with basic short jump and go into wider jumps in addition to smashing enemies.
Also, this level has a really story integration, where other characters will tell you what is happening and how do to things.

This is the basic level layout that i made for Electronic Super Joy:


Screenshots:

Game Teaser Planning

As the last assignment to close up the semester we are tasked with developing a game teaser for out finished levels. I have been trying to find a balance between showing the gameplay and the environment with its beautiful vistas. However, i found it quite challenging to find the right balance between the two, because my level is action-packed, yet the environment is quite resting and heartwarming. 

With this being said, i am planning to start my teaser with a calm shot of the initial tomb room ( player spawn room), since the room is deem and the focus will be on the torch it will create the mystery and will give that feeling of the tomb. Then, i am thinking about slow transition to a different room, with a game footage to increase the phasing of the teaser, showing the abilities ( power-ups) that player can have. Basically, i want to start with a slow, calm and warm shots and go in to more intense and faster shots, to create the feeling that everything that around the shrine is calm, yet can be destroyed if you won't succeed.

For the script i have to change some of my in game lines, in addition to adding some extra information about the story.

I created some rough story boards to get me started on the teaser.

Dishonored 2 Game play teaser

The reference teaser for my game. I chose this trailer because of it's focus on different actions, which can be related to all the different abilities that a player can use in my level. In addition to the small glance on the environment.

The link to the trailer.