First draft of Learning Agreement

What do you intend to do?

In this project I will be creating a series of environment art pieces to create a whole new area in the 'Red Dead Redemption' world. I want to create a series of artwork to portray a whole new environment that the player could visit with the main character to extend onto the main storyline. Using research into the time this game was set I want to recreate an event that would serve as an interesting and unique add-on to this already vivid world.

A key area at this time which I want to recreate is the 'Ocean of Fire' endurance horse race which took place in Saudi Arabia. The artwork will portray the journey of the character across the ocean to this foreign land, as well as the places they will visit before and during this great race. Overall, I want to produce 8 strong finished environment pieces, as well as progress sketches to give the feel to this new world.

How do you intend to do this?

I will begin conducting research into both the game and area I want to set my concepts. From this research I will gather a collection of reference images which I can refer to in my drawing. I will first create small hand drawn sketches of small areas of the environments, such as buildings, tents, people, horses as well as plants etc. From these hand drawn sketches I will progress to importing them into Photoshop and transforming them into digital images. Then from this I can begin to create my large environment studies, experimenting with techniques and styles.

Why do you intend to do this?

The bustling and beautiful world of 'Red Dead Redemption' is vast and unique. However, the world in which it is set is limited to its style. Through this project, I can expand this world and create a new life and feel to this already beautiful game. Using my idea, I want to recreate the desolation and despair these riders felt during this 3000 mile long race, and give the viewer an idea of the loneliness and difficulty of this feat.

Assessment Work:

I will be submitting the following for assessment:

• Learning Agreement
• 5 2D Large Environment Pieces
• Pre-Production images (Digital and Hand-Drawn)
• Project Blog
• Project 500 word evaluation
• Self Evaluation

Schedule of Work: (to include the deadline for submission of assessment):

• Research, collecting reference images and blogging findings (Ongoing throughout project)
• 2D Hand Drawn images of small assets, locations
• Digital pre-production images
• Technique and Style experimentation
• Digital paintings
• Create a small design document of progress and labels
• Complete Evaluations and Blog work

Submission: 10/05/2013

Resource Requirements:

I will be using the following programs for this project:

• Sketchbooks with pencil and pen
• Photoshop
• Graphics Tablet

Timetable for BA6

I am being organised! So this is my Calendar for the whole of BA6 starting from our project Briefing on the 11th March. I have given myself more time than I think I will need for things so that I'm not panicking, and may get more work done in the long run. 

March

April

May

More Refined Idea for BA6

BA6, Game Idea and Research

The idea of creating a new part of the game for 'Red Dead Redemption' is one that draws me in, as the artwork can be beautiful and detailed. I will research historic events that could be a possible idea, and if I end up creating something new then that will be where it takes me. First of all, I will do some research into the game, where it is based, when and close areas in this time which aren't featured in the game.

Red Dead Redemption

Based in 1911 in the Western American Frontier (The Wild West), the game follows the story of John Marston and his quest to get his family back. The main areas in the game are:

• West Elizabeth - Features Blackwater in the game, the main area of civilization. This is where the docks are, and where John came in on his boat.

• New Austin - Also known as the Frontier is the largest area of the game, and features areas such as Armadillo.

• Nuevo Paraiso - Mexico, contains a different landscape to the other two, and contains a few areas within.

Ideas

One idea that grabs my attention is looking at the memoirs of Frank. T Hopkins. This legendary endurance rider raced his horse Hidalgo in the 3000 mile long race in Arabia in 1890. This endurance race started in Aden then led its riders along the Persian Gulf, then turned west along the borders of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Syria. An Idea that came to me was that the player could take the boat at Blackwater with a horse and enter the great race. The player would then have a few missions a long the way and complete the mission. This will create a whole new art style and look to an already existing game and give it a whole new area for the player to explore. 

BA6 first ideas

Its BA6 time!!!

So BA5 is over now and its time to think about what you want to do for BA6. For project 1 the brief is:

Whatever you want to do:

• Choose your own learning outcome, based on what area of games you want to focus on, 2D or 3D.
• Create a learning agreement which has a solid amount of work towards an outcome. 
• Decide on one learning outcome which sums up what you want to focus on. (Concept Art)

So, focusing on Concept Art you have the following choices for your final outcome to work towards:

• One large detailed piece of Environmental concept art
• A collection of concepts for a new game design
• Working towards a gameplay video of the whole start to our previous game concept

Focuses on creating detailed and professional environment art and using different techniques.

1. One Large detailed piece of Environmental concept art:

• Lots and Lots of reference images.
• research into the environments you want to look at
• more research into the one you decide to do
• lots of rough practise images
• research into textures
• final concept, large scale with lots of detail!

Gives the opportunity to create a new unique concept and be unshackled in your artwork.

2. A collection of concepts for a new game design:

• Think of a game genre you would like to explore
• Do some research into originality of your idea, and find some concepts for similar games
• do a design document for gameplay ideas 
• reference images!
• Environment art concepts
• character concepts
• a few final images showing the overall feel of the game
• a design document outlining the gameplay idea, narrative and art style

Follows on from your previous concepts and lets you use different pieces of software to create a trailer.

3. Gameplay video of The Osaka Case of Helianthus Annuus

• Continuing where you left off from BA5, create more artwork for a gameplay video
• using some animation create a trailer for our game
• use your work from BA5, plus do more research
• collection of artwork and screens
• final trailer for our game, featuring gameplay examples and cut scenes. 

Post this onto your Blog, and think about what are the benefits of each one. Decide on one to do and start on some research but your brief isn't until March. Be thinking about what you want to do though and be thinking of ideas in your head. A few ideas off the top of my head:

• New concept, focusing on a time period that hasn't been explored entirely (Western, Victorian Britain etc.)
• A large detailed image of American plains.

500 word evaluation

Working together with Liam, following up on our previous game design document has lead us into creating part of our game in depth and giving life to it. As Liam focused on the 3D side to this project, this gave me the opportunity to help him out with floor plans and concepts for rooms etc. I designed the exterior and interior of the flat in depth, using lighting and colour to create the mood we wanted in our game. The joint collaboration meant that we would get more work out of the time we had, and with our joint vision, we knew what to create. The main source of our joint work would be the floor plans, as I helped him by creating a floor plan for him to make in 3D. I set out where everything would be placed, and from this he could place 3D assets and make the room whole.

I am really pleased with how my 2D Art has come out. I worked harder this time around to find many pieces of reference material before I began my digital painting, and I found that this made it all a lot easier to complete. The gameplay side of my work had me looking at how we can make our game different, and also a challenge for the player. I looked back at how we had originally made the game play out and thought it sounded too easy for the player. The original concept was to have pieces of evidence that the player must find in the flat, three pieces would be picked up and the rest were unimportant. The player would be told which pieces were important and the character would automatically pick them up. After discussion with Liam we decided that this was no fun, and is far too easy for a detective game. That is when we decided to have a new gameplay mechanic, which would be the option for players to pick up any of the pieces of evidence in the flat. They would only be able to collect three items, so they must choose which ones they think are the most important. They would then be given a score at the end of the level. This also makes the gameplay experience more unique to the player, and if they miss an important piece of evidence they miss out on a cut scene linking to the narrative and case. This can mean that if a player misses lots of pieces of important evidence, the case takes them longer to solve altogether. It also means players are more likely to repeat the game after they have finished to try to get all the cut scenes and gain 100% completion.

After changing bits of the gameplay, I moved onto created a start menu and examples of our game. I enjoyed this thoroughly and am so pleased with the outcome. Using Premiere Pro I gathered sounds and music that fitted the mood of our game and with a mixture of effects and lighting, our game idea had finally come to life.

Rest of the Evidence (Unimportant)

This is the rest of the evidence the player can find in the house. These are pieces of evidence that aren't 100% relevant to the case and the player must decide what is the most relevant.

Evidence Image 2 + 3

Another piece of important evidence is a blood stained knife found in the Kitchen. 

Found in the Bedroom is a Journal, another of the important pieces of evidence.