JENOVA'S BLOG:GameArchives

March 5, 2008

Hurricane X 2 trailer

My friends who I used to make game together with left their jobs and started up their own studio in China. They entered XNA dream build play competition last year with this game. Though they didn't win any publishing deal, they are still trying to finish it. I was lucky to get a copy of the game. It is already a solid demo. I'm eagerly waiting to see more...

Posted by Jenova at 1:38 AM | Comments (1)

December 19, 2006

Three flOw video capture uploaded (hot FPS)

Never tried to play my own game on a good computer, the FPS is so high which totally blows. You can watch the other 2 after this one is finished.

Posted by Jenova at 2:04 AM | Comments (0)

December 1, 2006

Vote flOw for Game Shadow Award

I guess this is a little bit late. flOw was nominated in the Game Shadow Award for innovation in visual effects and audio design three months ago. The competition takes form in public voting.

The deadline is 15th December, 2006 and I got a notice today that currently flOw is 120 vote away from the top 10 which is totally my fault since I haven't told anyone about it -__-

Do you think flOw deserve the award? Then Vote now!
http://www.gameshadow.com/awards/feedback.asp

If you needed any more convincing to vote, one lucky voter will win an Ultimate ATI CrossFire Gaming Kit with a retail value in excess of $2,000.

Posted by Jenova at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2006

flOw entered SlamDance GGC

I can't believe a year has pasted since the last SlamDance. I have no trouble picturing those exciting moments from the last trip simply because ... urgh ... flickr? -_- The old school radio station, the French food and Rick's argument seems just happen yesterday.

This year's finalist are much more competitive than last year. Check out the list. Braid, Everyday Shooter, the Blob are all games I respected. I feel three-months-made flOw a bit too simple for a competition like this.

Posted by Jenova at 6:10 PM | Comments (0)

November 27, 2006

flOw and TGC on Wall Street Journal

Game Theory
How a Grad-School Thesis Theory
Evolved Into a PlayStation 3 Game

Eager gamers don't need to scour eBay or retail outlets to sample a game for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3. Thanks to a graduate study on "flow theory," a prototype of a future downloadable title is already finding success on the Web...

Full article here...

So far this is the best article I have ever read that fully explains what flOw is. Kudos to the reporter Aaron Rutkoff.

Oops! Slashdoted...

Posted by Jenova at 8:06 PM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2006

flOw PS3 at gamer's day

As it gets close to the PS3 launch, we see more and more media coverage about flOw PS3. In spite of the fake trailers made of stolen preliminary videos, we see many positive reactions. Even though it is not a surprise, it still feels like a dream when you see our energetic Kellee on the gamespot interview.

Posted by Jenova at 12:32 AM | Comments (4)

July 13, 2006

Food for Hungry Gamers

I accidentally ran into this post on digg.com today.

It's called "Down home cooking with DS" as below

It instantly reminded me of "Cooking Mama". But looks much more practical. Considering I'm a starving single, I would definitly buy one. Hope it's imported and translated. I guess you all can feel the special charm in products like this. With the new pink Nintendo DS, this game will capture yet another group of new gamers after Nintendog and Brain Age.

And here's another video showing how the "interactive menu" will interact with the user and really increase the quality of communication.

Posted by Jenova at 1:12 AM | Comments (1)

April 8, 2006

What am I playing now?

The Elder Scroll IV: Oblivion
It's one of those games spilling passions from the makers that I'd like to devote my time to immerse myself in. So far 15 hours are gone...

Posted by Jenova at 2:06 PM | Comments (3)

April 5, 2006

"Ever17" an interactive novel with the most stunning story I have ever seen

"If you want to tell a story in video game, how can you tell it better than other traditional media like novels and films?" As a game designer and artist, I have had this question for a long time. I couldn't find any strong examples to prove that till I played Ever 17.

Ever 17 was first published on Play Station at August 2002, then on PC and DC at 2003. Theoretically, it falls under Japan's Dating-Sim games. In Japan, fully 25% of computer software published belong to a unique genre of game called "bishoujo games" ("pretty girl games"), which are usually a kind of love simulation game in which you try to become romantically involved with beautiful anime characters as the object of the game. As a rule, you have different girls you interact with as the story develops, with many different endings, one or several with each girl. They're very challenging and very interactive, with everything from lovable, goofy anime characters to romantic love and heartbreak to very erotic sex. In Japanese these games sell tens of thousands of copies at $88 per copy, despite the fact that they're censored with a mosaic.

However, Ever 17 doesn't have any uncensored content, yet still stayed on top of the selling list for a long time. The reason behind is its mind twisting story. It generates such enlightenment after player play though the game.

The first time experience feels like a well written escape love story (like Titanic). The second time you go through the story again but choose different branches, it ends up like the movie A.I.. The third & fourth time the story seems altered. Player will play through another character's perspective. Each time player plays through, more and more questions rise. Then the fifth time, everything become clear. I don't want to expose the story, but it's something related to 4-D life form. Unlike Matrix, it's so well thought that there is no logical flaw in it.

If you are interested in interactive narrative, or have the time to enjoy a 12 hours mind tricking experience. Give Ever 17 a try. It's highly recommended...

Posted by Jenova at 1:50 AM | Comments (5)

March 15, 2006

"flOw" gallery

In three days, "flOw" got more than 100,000 visits from all over the world. Fans started posting screenshots about their creatures, which turns out to be a very artistic collection.

Posted by Jenova at 2:54 PM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2006

The Video Game Revolution on PBS

Not only has a well done website documenting the history of video games, this is going to be on TV this month. I don't have a TV, but I want to see it. -_-"http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/history/index.html

Posted by Jenova at 9:46 PM | Comments (2)

March 8, 2006

"flOw" is online...

"flOw" is a simplistic game created as a practice of "player oriented flow adjustment", methodology defined through my thesis research - "Flow in games". (WIP)

Your play experience and feedback will be a huge contribution to my research, meanwhile, it will be fun =).

Posted by Jenova at 8:15 PM | Comments (1)

January 15, 2006

We are in IGF again!!

With the former success of Dyadin. Much discussed Cloud is going to be in Independent Game Festival at San Jose this year. USC IMD's second punch at the IGF.

Posted by Jenova at 7:01 PM | Comments (1)

August 26, 2005

Advancing Your Career in Game Development: The Women's Perspective

Advancing Your Career in Game Development: The Women's Perspective
September 10, Seattle

Learn how to break in and advance your game industry career, in four panel discussions with
top experts in the field. This seminar will provide useful information for women and men,
as well as new and veteran game developers.
Program topic include:
1. Breaking In: How to Acquire The Skills and Get That First Job

2. An Array of Career Options

3. The Ultimate Challenge: Balancing Work and Personal Life

4. The Executive Perspective

A free one-day Women In Games International event, sponsored by Microsoft Game Studios, International Game Developers Association (IGDA), Game Developers Conference (GDC), DigiPen, Girls in Games, Mary-Margaret.com, WomenGamers.com, BusinessWire and ThemePark Studios. Presented in cooperation with the Women in Games Conference in Dundee, Scotland.

Conference is 1 pm to 6 pm on Saturday, September 10 at Microsoft,
15120 NE 40th Street in Redmond, WA.

Attendance is free and space is limited.
Attendees are invited to reserve their spot by registering online today.

Speakers include representatives from:
Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Game Studios, Monolith Productions, Real Networks, LimeLife,
Her Interactive, Sony Online Entertainment, Wild Tangent, Mobliss, DigiPen

www.WomenInGamesInternational.org

Posted by Jenova at 9:27 AM | Comments (2)

July 8, 2005

The MMO Goes 'Mainstream'?

Here's a discussion about whether MMO is mainstream now. In my opinion, it's already mainstream in Asian market. In North American people realizes the power of a good MMO by playing World of Warcraft. Most people who played World of Warcraft ignores other PC games which proves the advances of MMO as a arising genre......
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050701/hong_01.shtml

Posted by Jenova at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

May 18, 2005

What you should not miss at this E3

I don't want to show all those big brand and sequals here. There's something freshy and cool that I wish you guys can enjoy.

Okami
From the creater of Viewtiful Joe. Really interesting to see a game closely bind the story and the creative stroke mechanics togethere.

Shadow of the Colossus
My favorite in this E3, the trailer can't give u the experience. You have to play it. There is some new emotional things coming from that game, powerful and beatiful.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Cool is all I want to say.

Flagship's Hell Gate
Although only developed 1 yr, the developer of Diablo and Diablo 2 have already made this game extreme addicting without story and quests. The highlight is nearly everything are randomly generated. So you will never feel the same each time you play it.

Posted by Jenova at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2005

Introduction to the World of Warcraft - Open Mic in CTIN 542: Interactive Design & Production

Having played and tested World of Warcraft for about a year, I'm very honored to introduce this marvelous game to you all, what it is, why it rules and how it is made.
Download World of Warcraft.ppt

Posted by Jenova at 9:00 AM | Comments (0)

February 9, 2005

Student Postmortem: 6mSoft's Romeo and Juliet

I saw this on Gamasutra.com, it's a very ambitious project. Their experience is worth for sharing.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050204/gilman_01.shtml

Posted by Jenova at 7:46 PM | Comments (0)

December 22, 2004

Cloud Boy

When I took the interview about the cloud game, Tracy gave me this very interesting idea. Instead of Jupiter alien, why not a little boy. Yes, it would be a very dream like theme. Little boy fly between the clouds. So I started do some sketch......
And here is Yun (meaning cloud in Chinese), the potential avatar for the cloud game.

Rough Story

Partly affected by my own experiences, Yun is 7 years old. He has serious Asthma since he was born. He can not leave the ward without doctor's permission. But he is very optimistic to his disease.

Instead of watching TV, Yun's favorite hobby is watching the clouds and day dreaming. He is fond of reading nature science magazine (only the picures) and guessing clouds with Fei. Fei (meaning fly in Chinese) is a 6 years old girl who shares the same ward with Yun.

Yun always believes he can fly, though doctor told him it's just his daydream. One day, some people (maybe god) tell Yun that Fei will lose her life in seven days unless some one can clean the air and clouds around. Yun started his dream travel to save his best friend......

Posted by Jenova at 11:59 PM | Comments (10)

December 17, 2004

Cloud Game Prototype Update

I'm still testing the pacing and the number of clouds in the map. Have a try, get all the clouds together...

Posted by Jenova at 12:13 AM | Comments (0)

December 16, 2004

Most Rewarding Experience....?

Make sure your sound is on.
http://uk.download.yahoo.com/ne/fu/attachments/bubblewrap.swf

Don't forget try manic mode and refresh sheet.

"Need more...."

Posted by Jenova at 3:30 PM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2004

Pictures from ALT+CTRL Independant Game Show

This Thursday, I and people from SEE group in ICT had a field trip to UCI to watch the Alt+Ctrl Indie Game Show. A lot of independant games, mods and machinimas are there.

The all known Waco Resurrection impressed people by the voice input design. "I'm David Crush..."

Jared Leshin is addicted to a pig bulldozer game from the Indie Game Jam.

Aimee Dozois is playing the gorgeous fairy tale like puzzle game. Sorry I forget the name. Everybody love the little girl and the dream like world.

What am I doing? I'm faster forwarding the machinima DVD. A lot of game stunts there too.

An unreal tournament 2004 mod. You pick up kawayi toys to win the game instead of shooting.

Best game in the show. Spider! from Indie Game Jam. Two player controls two spiders on a single web. They can pull silks, cut web and catch flies. The whole web is simulated by spring. The physics is so great. The chaos from cutting and weaving the web is so fun to watch. I'm totally into it.

ICT folks.

Posted by Jenova at 5:29 PM | Comments (0)

November 18, 2004

Half Life 2: Thoughts

After about 10hrs play, I finished Half Life 2. A lot of people call this game the best first person shooter made ever. I do have to agree. I am amazed by the quality of both technology and the art development of this game. And no bugs from my experience.

With the life like animation and 2hrs long in game scripts. Half Life 2 gave me a new experience about storytelling. It is not interactive story telling from one perspective, because the story is one story, you can not change it or avoid it. On the other side it is an interactive experience, a very immersive story that you played as the main character through the whole game. You have an illusion that Doctor Freeman is yourself. There is no cut scenes, no talking head. You watch the whole story happened from first person view.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the ending quite much. And the G-man's true identity. I wish someone else who finished this game can clarify it deeper. Anyway, here is some real-time scene from Half Life 2. Pay attention to the details, they are all moving in the game.

Posted by Jenova at 12:20 AM | Comments (0)

November 9, 2004

Character Sketches for Cloud Game

Here is my friend, Mengya's sketch for the human and alien in the cloud game, going to be abstract and stylized. Her sketches are always very inspiring.

Arms maybe removed.

peasant & police

Posted by Jenova at 6:57 PM | Comments (2)

Character Sketches for Cloud Game

Here is my friend, Mengya's sketch for the human and alien in the cloud game, going to be abstract and stylized. Her sketches are always very inspiring.

Arms maybe removed.

peasant & police

Posted by Jenova at 6:57 PM | Comments (2)

November 6, 2004

Recruting - Cloud Game for EA Grants spring 2005

Download
Game Description & Core System

I am currently working on the Team Prospectus. There are a couple people who already showed interests in this project. We welcome helps from anyone who is interested in making and playing this game. Currently we need people who are capable and confident for the following position:

producer
game designer
lead engineer
graphics programmer
game-play programmer
2d/3d artist
writer

If you are interested in any of the postion above. Please contact me at xinghanc@usc.edu or (213)-210-1756

View potential contact

Posted by Jenova at 11:58 AM | Comments (2)

November 4, 2004

Interesting Gravity Game

http://homokaasu.org/gasgames/game.gas?21

Simple rule generates complex results. This is what we were talking about on CTIN 488 - Emergence

Posted by Jenova at 11:42 AM | Comments (9)

November 2, 2004

Dyadin Comics

Here are some comics I did for the IGF game "Dyadin" this week. Although it is not a narrative game, these comics serve vague backgrounds and tasks. And I like some of the drawings very much.

Posted by Jenova at 11:05 AM | Comments (9)

October 26, 2004

On going proposal for a cloud-play game

Here is a rough idea about a game design for the EA grants coming next spring. I'm still working on the paper prototype and looking for potential teammates. If you are interested please drop me an email: xinghanc@usc.edu

==================================================================

Jupiter - Cloud Mania

Introduction

You must have played enough sand & mud. It is time to play cloud!

In "Jupiter", you play as a refugee from the dying Jupiter and need to create a "homelike" environment on earth. Yes, your ultimate goal is to create an infinite storming climate "Red Spot" for your companies. However, to create your new homeland, you have to conquer the weather on earth as well as the creatures and aggressive human beings.

As a pioneer from Jupiter, you have enough techniques to deal with the atmosphere on earth and use them as your energy source. From basic creating and shaping cloud Gozzilas to forging a magnificent hurricane, you can create and learn all kinds of weathers on earth, such as rains, fogs, snows, hails, all kinds of lightening, storms, tornados and huge hurricanes beyond the memory of men.

You started from the South Pole with a small wind current, and finally create a none-stop ground lifting hurricane above the United States.

Game Feature

1. Ground breaking game-play object (Cloud & earth weather)

2. Educational content living with the game-play (Game rules based on earth science & meteorology)

3. Right hemisphere play + Left hemisphere play (Creativity + rational strategy)

4. New way for game interaction (Intuitive hand gesture input)

5. Challenging graphics and simulation programming (None reference in history)

6. Challenging art direction (Abstract but easy to project reality, destructive but low violence)

Game-play Architecture

Jupiter consists of three layers supporting different game-play.

Virtual Cloud-box

On top of the architecture is a sandbox. Sandbox is a widely used feature among the game developers. It is an environment which allows player to play and create almost anything they want in the border of media.

You must have played guessing clouds in your childhood. It is our instinct to imagine and create. In Jupiter, a virtual cloud-box offers players a spacious sky as their canvas and realizes the dream of shaping your own clouds. You can casually create funny looking clouds or use cloud to draw light and shadows. This promise the possibility for self-forgetting gaming experience which we called the right hemisphere play.

Besides creating, players can also play all kinds of weathers with the knowledge about meteorology gained from the game. They don��t have to follow the goal in the game. Instead, they can be cold-blooded invaders or a friendly neighborhood protecting the earth��s environment.

God-like Empowerment

Continuous Rewarding

Core Systems

The whole game runs upon a highly autonomous system which simulates the basic meteorology phenomenon.

To be continued...

Concept for tornado

Cloud Types

More cloud reference...
A wonderful photo report of storms...

Posted by Jenova at 12:00 AM | Comments (5)

October 11, 2004

Try out my CTIN 488 Project, Gold Rush Gang

Download & make your Game Map and Play!!?

Title: Gold Rush Gangs

Authors: Jenova Chen & Charles Mallison

Target Age: 10-18

Target Audience: Enjoyers of soft strategy

Number of players: 3

Time required: about 15-25 minutes

Equipment: One Hex grid board (9 grids radius)

One deck of cards

3 Nickels, decorated to represent Professional Thieves

6 dimes, decorated to represent Amateur Thieves

13 pieces of paper, decorated to represent gold

RULES

OBJECTIVE:

You control one of three rival gangs of thieves. Your goal is to achieve dominance in the illicit gold market by being the first to steal 8 sacks of gold from the board.

UNITS:

To steal gold, you have three units to control, two Amateur Thieves and one Professional Thieves. Amateur Thieves move faster than Professional Thieves, but Professional Thieves are much stronger in combat.

ACTION POINTS:

� In order to move your thieves, you have to spend Action Points (AP). Amateur Thieves cost one AP to move one space while Professional Thieves cost two AP to move. All units take two AP to move once they pick up any amount of gold.

� At the beginning of the game, each player gets five AP per turn. Use your AP wisely between your units. It won�t last to the next turn.

� Once you bring X sacks of gold back to your base, the AP you can spend in each round will instantly increase X.

STORE & BANK:

� Gold is the only resource and the objective for the players. There are three neutral stores at the border of the map where you can find one sack of gold.

� A heavily guarded bank is in the center of the map holding three sacks of gold. In order to steal the gold from there, you have to use at least seven AP to break the defense. Once the defense is broken, there is no need for other player to break it again. If the gold from bank drops on your way back, it will return to where the bank is.

GOLD:

� Every gang has a total of seven sacks of gold. Each Amateur Thieves guard two sacks of gold while Professional Thieves guard three sacks of gold.

� Before the game starts, all the players have to deploy their thieves with gold on the map. They have to be deployed in their own territories. There has to be at least three grids in between your units at the beginning.

GOLD RUSH:

� You have to protect your gold from being stolen and steal enough gold (at least eight) from store, bank or your opponents in order to win.

� You can only carry one piece of gold a time.

� You can not pass through gold with gold in your hand.

COMBAT:

� During movement on the board, when multiple opposing units are in adjacent grids the combat will start. The player who starts the combat will be attacker.

� Outcome of combat is decided by drawing cards. The player who draws the highest card wins. In the event of a tie, the attacker wins. The Ace card is the lowest card. The King card is the highest.

� Amateur Thieves can draw one card in the combat while Professional Thieves are able to draw two. When friendly units are adjacent to each other, you can draw more cards. For example, if a Professional Thief and an Amateur Thief are next to each other, they can draw three cards when combat occurs.

� At the end of combat, the losing unit is returned to his home base and must remain there for one turn. This only applies to the one unit which either attacked or defended. While the unit is incapacitated, leave it on the color grid in the base.

� Any gold the losing unit was carrying remains in the space the unit was except the gold from the bank.

PROCEDURE

1) At the start of the game, players will draw one card each to determine who will have the first move.

2) On the first turn, each player places his stores and deploys his thieves.

3) Players will then alternate turns until one satisfies the requirements
for winning. Game ends.

Posted by Jenova at 12:45 AM | Comments (0)

September 30, 2004

Unreal 3 Engine released new screenshots

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=173208

From what I've seen, unrealED seems to have a shading network like maya now.

Posted by Jenova at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)

September 9, 2004

More Screenshots of SASO in ICT

Here is a sentence of my summer work at ICT. The following shots are all captured from Unreal Tournament 2004.

Poor Residence & Sand Storm

Tile Factory

Camels

Posted by Jenova at 2:59 PM | Comments (0)

More Screenshots of SASO in ICT

Here is a sentence of my summer work at ICT. The following shots are all captured from Unreal Tournament 2004.

Poor Residence & Sand Storm

Tile Factory

Camels

Posted by Jenova at 2:59 PM | Comments (0)

September 7, 2004

Flash Game blows me away finally

I haven't seen such a professional game on Flash for long. I spent about 2 hours on it. Really neat and good sound effect. Try it out to see what I'm talking about. The level up is still the most classic reward setup, which the IGF game I've been working with needs to be implemented currently.

http://www12.plala.or.jp/nextframe/flash/bs.html

Posted by Jenova at 2:17 AM | Comments (0)

August 12, 2004

CAVEUT, an easy CAVE solution

This Summer, I was doing intern at ICT. We used a game Mutater in Unreal Tounament 2004 called as CaveUT in one of our project. With simple setup, I can have Unreal Tournament running on a hemisphere screen with three projectors.

The CaveUT is a simple MOD which allows up to 32 rendering spectators, which means you can use as many projectors as you need to form a Cave. ZML has 14 screens which is really a good location to setup certain Cave. And by useing UnrealED, it's really simple to build a virtual world and put it into a Cave environment.

http://www.planetjeff.net/ut/CaveUT.html

If you guys want to try it in the ZML. Look around for a PDF of the documentation� there�s an installation section in there that will get your on your way. Download the mod from here:

http://www.planetjeff.net/ut/CaveUT2003.zip

My colleage John DeWeese at Institute for Creative Technologies did an optimization for the Mutator for UT2004. Download the UT2004 one from here:

http://www.ict.usc.edu/~deweese/CaveUT2004_update1/CaveUT.u

Posted by Jenova at 10:26 AM | Comments (4)

SASO Project at ICT

I'm working on building the environment for SASO project at ICT. It's a training program for US officers to learn how to communicate and deal with Iraqi civilians. Although we are using Unreal engine, there is no guns and actions in SASO at all. The only interaction is communication with your translaters, drivers, quad members and the civilians.

The goal for this training is to find a murderer who killed four US soldiers. However you can not rush into Iraqi civilian's residence without proven evidence. The secondary script is currently being edited.

Here is one of the scene I did a month ago.

Iraq Coffeeshop

Posted by Jenova at 8:29 AM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2004

IGF Game Visulization & Visual Kit Design

Light Building

Dark Building

Labyrinth Concept

Black & White Storm in the Twin Tree Garden

The 10 Min before the Big Bang

Player Movement and Ping

Posted by Jenova at 10:53 AM | Comments (1)

May 26, 2004

Coexisting World

Concept test for the game we are developing right now. Light and Dark coexisting worlds are mixed on the same screen.

Light & Dark mixing
-----------------------
Dark

Light

New Version using refraction effect and aura
---------------------------------------------------

Posted by Jenova at 8:15 PM | Comments (0)

April 29, 2004

CTCS 564 FINAL PAPER

World of Warcraft:
MMO Game�s Future & Influence

Posted by Jenova at 1:04 PM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2004

CTWR 518 Final Project

"Cockroach":
An Interactive Narrative Practice

Posted by Jenova at 1:07 AM | Comments (2)

April 25, 2004

Pattern, Pattern, Still Pattern

For a long time, I had been confused by the fact that I liked playing Tetris when I was young, but could not convince myself rationally why I liked playing it. From the study in CTCS 564, I got a reasonable answer to it. That obviously is Pattern.

People playing Tetris are trying to reach certain kind of pattern, which is psychologically or biologically comforting. Although I can�t tell why this happened on human body, I agree it happened on me.

We always talk about the reward in the game and the satisfactory feeling for game players� pay and payoff. However, Tetris is different. No rewards but the meaningless scores, no story, graphically not interesting, simple rhythm and midi sound. But why do so many people addict to it? The answer is pattern. But how does pattern work? I started to anatomize my experiences.

When a player is trying to reach certain patterns, he or she has to concentrate on their actions. During this highly concentrated situation, people can realize an oblivious ambit of themselves, forgetting all the pressure out of this pattern making process. On certain aspects, such action can realize the same effect as film and other entertainment for fun do. So, does pattern ensure the success for game design? Not absolutely.

People�s requirement is endless. Most hard core game players love Tetris, but today few of them would agree to play Tetris alone. Thus game designer tried to give the Tetris a second life. In China, the online Tetris competition was very popular, Besides the pattern, players have reward of the satisfying from beat the others. But still, the game player who have played splendid 3D games could not enjoy the symbolized Tetris any more. One Chinese player with ten years game play history said:� I won�t waste my time and money on cheap entry level game.� So has the pattern game stopped in front of the hard core players? The answer is still no.

Looking at the popular game around today, patterns are everywhere.

First person shooting game is a pattern making game. By analyzing the most popular FPS game, counter-strike, you can find player�s pattern everywhere. Players fire AK-47 always in a certain rhythm in order to reduce the bias while shooting. When players buy weapons and armors, they press different hotkey combinations just as pianist playing their keyboard. Tactically, different players have their own pattern on moving, assaulting and defending. During the regular rounds of fighting, shooting and dieing, they all reach the level of forgetting themselves.

Real time strategy game is a pattern making game too. Psychologically, player tried to reach a balanced pattern of resource gathering and units building. Physically, by using the hotkey and mouse to command the units, most RTS player liked clicking mouse and keyboard in their own rhythm even when there is no need at all.

Racing game, action game and fighting game are all pattern playing. A pattern of using brake and turning, a pattern of different action combination and a pattern of combo and special move, they help player concentrate on their games, also provide a wide possibility for different patterns and players.
Pattern seems existing everywhere. When we design game, making some patterns in game design maybe an unconscious action. In my opinion, to consider pattern as an important game elements when we design a game need to be emphasized.

A Game Journal from Jenova Chen

Posted by Jenova at 4:47 PM | Comments (0)

FarCry: Break the Ceiling of Game Genre

On this year�s GDC, Ubisoft�s Farcry became the eye candy of various graphic cards manufacturers. Gamers talked about Farcry everywhere. But the most interesting part they talked about was not the game play or character or stories. This game is a complete technology experiment.

Before Half-life 2, Doom3 and Unreal 2 engine release, Farcry engine is doubtlessly the best and the most realistic one on the market today. The graphics in the game could be described as photorealistic. The physics engine and different effect simulation stunned all the player. For example, when a grenade explodes beside you, your ear will be filled with tingle until half a minute later. You vision will become blurred in order to simulate the dizzy eye sight. The AI is highly advanced in the game. NPC will talk to the player and communicate each other. Overall, the game play experience is rather a military rehearse than a traditional first person shooting game.

Farcry reminds me of the relationship between technology and digital game entertainment. It is a loop like all the other entertainment media. While a new technology came out, because it was new, public will like to spend money on it, because of their curiosity and vogue. But after a shoot period, when all the people had got used to this kind of technology, they started to criticize the lack of content and connotation. Certainly, Farcry is in one of these new technology waves, and it caught the right time. If half-life 2 or doom3 was released last year, Farcry will definitely be buried by these big brands. Because of Farcry was the first new generation graphical advanced game, everybody wanted to try it and raised their thumbs for the unheard-of experiences.

In Will Wright�s game design chart, Farcry could not break the boundary of the traditional game territory. However, the reaction from the public is similar to the reaction for a new game concept. FPS has already become a peak of game genre. The vertical change of this peak with the technology breaks the boundary of the ceiling. Besides looking for new genre in the unknown territory, to improve the existing height of a game genre is also considerable and practical method. However, there are limited inventions in the industry, how many games can share the benefits from technology creation? Compared with that, concept creativity is more accessible to the game designers.

A Game Journal from Jenova Chen

Posted by Jenova at 4:03 PM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2004

Cockroach Project Started

Environment Setup

Script example

///////////////////////////////////////
//Back Ground Info //
///////////////////////////////////////

//Shon's mystery
Alex: Jill?
Jill: Huh?
Alex: I'm tired.
Jill: (Look at Alex)
Alex: I hate to say this, but I'm tired.
Jill: (Pause)You can return at anytime.
Alex: Jill, you can't stick to this.
Jill: (Stare at Alex)
Alex: What? What are you thinking? He was dead, you know it. Shon's dead.
Jill: (Silence)

//Rally point and short of water
Jill: (Sigh)
Alex: How much water have we got today?
Jill: Two gallons, not even enough for us to reach the next rally point.
Alex: It's not bad, we are still alive at least.
Jill: (Silence)
Alex: Sorry.
Jill: Never mind, it's not your fault.
Alex: (Look out of the room)

//Birth places
Alex: So...Where are you from?
Jill: Old NewYork.
Alex: Really? I've never believed it was still existing.
Jill: Not until we left.
Alex: (Pause) I'm sorry.
Jill: What's your homeland? United City?
Alex: No, actually, I came from another city. I bet you don't know it before.
Jill: The third mobile city.
Alex: Oh, man, how do you know that? You must tell me, how?
Jill: By friends.
Alex: Oh no, it's impossible. Who are your friends?
Jill: (Ignore)

//Room Info
Alex: These greedy bastards. Is this the place to sleep?
Jill: This is a cabin.
Alex: Sleep on the table? My godness!
Jill: (Ignore)
Alex: Well, this is the only one we can afford though. I wish we can earn more water tomorrow.
Jill: We have to.
Alex: All right, all right.

Posted by Jenova at 1:42 PM | Comments (0)

Cockroach Project Started

Environment Setup

Script example

///////////////////////////////////////
//Back Ground Info //
///////////////////////////////////////

Posted by Jenova at 1:42 PM | Comments (0)

April 1, 2004

The Philosophical Roots of Computer Game Design

Ernest Adams, freelance game designer and popular game industry commentator, spoke with great humor on Friday afternoon about philosophy, literature, and the need for new heroes in the video game world.

The Pre-Modernity of An Emerging Art

The game industry, Adams said, is in a conflicted state of being. At its heart, the industry is a technical place, composed of rectangular boxes and rectangular thinkers whose technological determinism stunts the creative growth of the medium. We believe so strongly that our technology is thousands of years more advanced than the rest of what's out there, Adams said - and yet the rest of the world sees our ability to tell stories as thousands of years behind that of other mediums.

And according to Adams, we are. Videogames are in their pre-modernity, he said, beginning an extended literary metaphor. Our Virginia Woolfes and James Joyces, the people who experiment with the art form and raise the state of the art, have yet to emerge. The world is only just beginning to understand that video games are an art, and thus we still reside in the pre-modern space where heroes and demons battle one another in the black and white reality of our ancient ancestors, with emotional apotheosis still an epoch away.

Steam Engines, Hobbits, and The Failing of the Matrix

It is rumored that the PS3, said Adams, will be one thousand times as powerful as the PS2. Does that mean PS3 games will be one thousand times as entertaining, or the experiences one thousand times as deep? Adams likened the technological development of gaming to the emergence of steam-based technologies in the Victorian era. Those innovators must have found their time very exciting, he said. Yet if steam trains had been used for entertainment, engineers would have been fools to think that a thousand times more steam would mean a thousand times as much entertainment.

Referring to Tolkien's mythological sources for The Lord of the Rings, Adams joked that the guiding vision of the videogame industry is, in essence, to create "Icelandic Nerd Poetry." How, he asked, can we expect gaming to be considered among the world's great art forms, when most of those world's great artists would feel uncomfortable even attending the Game Developers Conference? Tolkien, the greatest of luddites, would have hated GDC, Adams said, noting that the man would have reviled the "nerdiness" of the game industry as epitomizing all that is wrong with technology and industrialization. And yet, said Adams, we worship him.

What we need, Adams said, is to transcend the struggle between the experiences we create and the technology with which we create them. There is a disconnect there, he said, and pointed to the Matrix sequels as the quintessential example. Here we have a set of films that emphasize style over substance, form over function. These films are created using the latest and most amazing of visual technologies, and yet they absolutely fail in terms of narrative. That, he continued, is the core paradigm of the game industry.

The Search for New Heroes

The solution, said Adams, lies in shifting our view of which kinds of people will be the ones to push the limits of our industry. We need new heroes, he said. According to Adams, programming and technological innovation will always be at the center of what we do, but we need to turn our respect and admiration to the visual artists, sound designers, and creative thinkers who have the vision and confidence to synthesize technical innovation with aesthetic sensibilities, if we are to keep moving forward.

Once we do that, he said, the bar will begin to rise on the aesthetics underlying our games. To rise above the level of "Icelandic Nerd Poets" and outgrow our Victorian roots, we need to begin creating games in which the heart leads the mind, and in which technology and creativity are in harmony. Only then, Adams said, will the hearts of the public open before us, and finally lead the way to a post-modern video game era.

This is quite what I've been thinking for a long time. When technology become overwhelmed in film and game industry, we have to remind everybody the importance of art and creativity. Besides eye candy, what people care more is the content, and it will never be made just by technician.
-Jenova

Posted by Jenova at 5:02 PM | Comments (2)

March 26, 2004

GDC 2004

I'm so lucky to be able to go to the GDC held in San Jose recently.

Independent Games Festival Awards & 4th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards (Civic Auditorium)

The festival was really successful. When the audience saw their favorite games show up on the nominated and played on the huge screen, the applause was no worse than that from Oscar. Yes, it was gamers' Oscar. Knights of the Old Republic and Prince of Persia III are the big winner this year. Although my favorite Beyond Good & Evil didn't won any prizes, it was nearly nominated in all the awards.

Though I'm a game hard core who spend 4 hours on game play everyday. I still met a lot of new games on the festival. After the festival I went to tried all these new games. Viewtiful Joe is the most impressive one. Fascinating fighting and slow motion, humorous film and comic style attracted everybody passed by. And the highlight of Viewtiful Joe was that it is a perfect game not only entertain the player but the audience behind the player.

Interesting Input Devices on GDC
Tracking Glove

Don't be confused with the glove used in Virtual Reality. This glove is fairly cheap and simple. By connect two wire on the gloves, the mechanic tracking ball can feed back the two hands positions. The latency is nearly zero. This device completely fit one of my game concept about a combat simulation. And the game on the screen is a boxing game. After tried the game, I felt that the game-play I imagined is realized in this game. The total prize including the glove only cost $90. I highly recommend you guys to try it.
http://www.in2games.uk.com/testsite/index.php

Tracking_Sabre

From the same company of the gloves above. This sabre was actually a handle, which offers two point poistion so that you can countrol the katana in the game demo. But it didn't support yaw, which is a big problem to simulate real fence.
http://www.in2games.uk.com/testsite/index.php

Mobile Key

This tablet support more than 25 isolated keys. User could assign different key on the keyboard to the tablet here. They also support macro which means u can arrange a serial combination of different keys to one key. Although the manufacturer claimed it was designed to simplify the players input method and offer them more comfortable composition of the keys, I found another useful area for this invention. Instead of put these keys on the board, why not stick them on the other devices or even on hands? However, the manufacturer said these keys are now only working on the tablet. Fortunately, they have the technology and available to do further development.

Eye Toyish Input

It works just like eyetoy, but the game they put in use is different from eyetoy, you have to use your body to control an aircraft.

Other Comment
Simplified Facial Modelling

This is a new British company. Different from FaceGen, this facial modelling software can scan the photos and make model by itself. You can also export one emotion to other faces. It is not a mature product, but will be great helpful in large number of 3d characters required game.

Unreal Tournament 2004 Editor

As I expected, Unreal Tournament 2004 renew the Unreal editor. The particle system and the mount system have been improved a lot. We can try more interesting and more complicated design in this engine.

I was lucky to be photoed in Yahoo News

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040325/480/caps10303252230

Posted by Jenova at 9:47 PM | Comments (1)

March 5, 2004

An interesting flash interactive adventure game

http://www.freshsensation.com/samorost.swf

Posted by Jenova at 1:10 AM | Comments (0)

March 1, 2004

The Business of Computer and Video Games 2004

DFC Intelligence will release its latest report on the interactive entertainment industry, The Business of Computer and Video Games, in mid-March. This report looks at both historical and future trends and has an analysis of the major players in the video game food chain: hardware manufacturers, developers, publishers, retailers and consumers. This month we thought we would provide a brief overview of some key points discussed in the report.

Video Game Consumer Growth: Dire annual holiday warnings to the contrary, there has been a strong sales increase in the video game market over the past few years. The good news is that there is still plenty of room for growth. Household penetration of console game systems has not substantially increased in recent years. DFC Intelligence estimates that the number of U.S. household with a video game system has gone from 34 million in 1994 to 45 million today. On top of that, over 25% of video game households only own an older system. Therefore it seems clear that much of industry growth has come From increased usage with existing customers. There are still plenty of new customers waiting in the wings.

The Interactive Family: Sales figures indicate that there is clearly increased usage of game systems within households. Interactive entertainment is no longer just for the kids, it is now for the teenagers, and increasingly the parents, many of whom grew up with Atari and Nintendo systems. This means more households have several users, own multiple systems and have a tendency to purchase more software per system (higher tie rates). It also means that the system targeted to the broadest demographic may be the most attractive to the growing number of households with multiple users.

Worldwide Market Growth: For a company to be successful in the interactive entertainment business it must operate on a worldwide basis. Five years ago this was not the case, and some companies could do well focusing on a single market such as the U.S. or Japan. In recent years, the importance of the Japanese market has declined and much of the market growth has come from North America, Europe and emerging worldwide markets. Sony, with the PlayStation, was the first company to build a solid business in all three core regions (Japan, North America and Europe). Successful companies will imitate Sony's worldwide outlook. The next growth challenge for interactive entertainment companies will be to expand into emerging markets while maintaining growth in core markets. Emerging markets include South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, mainland Asia, Australia, Eastern Europe and others. Some of these countries like Australia and South Korea already have substantial interactive entertainment industries. In other emerging countries consumers have only been introduced to games for the personal computer or via illegal, pirated software. In the next few years, the console manufacturers are likely to make a major push to enter markets like China and Russia.

Soaring Development and Marketing Costs: The need to expand on a worldwide basis is critical because of the soaring cost of video games. Today's games have entire teams of programmers, graphic artists, game designers, producers and audio technicians. Many games have expensive licenses, utilize Hollywood talent and have high-quality soundtracks. Consumers now expect non-interactive introductions and cut scenes that feature movie-quality computer-generated graphics and/or video with live actors. To get consumers to notice these high-end titles usually requires a marketing budget that equals or exceeds the development budget. As an average game reaches development costs of $5 million, DFC Intelligence estimates the breakeven point is reaching 500,000 units. Unfortunately, only about 5% of SKUs will reach that level in the U.S. This means to be successful it is critical that companies 1) develop for multiple platforms and 2) release titles on a worldwide basis.

Consolidation: When DFC Intelligence started publishing reports on the game industry in 1994 almost all analysts were predicting major industry consolidation. At the time the U.S. console market was dominated by five publishers (Nintendo, Sega, EA, Acclaim and Capcom). Ten years later, the industry is as fragmented as ever. The names may have changed, but industry consolidation has not yet occurred as many predicted. Instead the recent trend in mergers and acquisitions has been for established publishers to buy small development boutiques. The big change of the past three years has been that Electronic Arts has replaced Nintendo as the perennial market share leader.
Retail Scene: As part of our research DFC Intelligence closely analyzes and personally visits over 20 retail chains. In our surveys over the holiday 2003 season we found that retail penetration of video game products has definitely expanded (see our December article) and price points have become very consistent. However, not all chains are equal. The biggest disappointment is powerhouse retailer Wal-Mart, which really surprised us with its poor selection and shoddy merchandising. In fact we were so shocked we visited several Wal-Marts, only to find them all consistently bad. In sharp contrast was mass merchant Target which had a solid selection and some excellent sales. Another big change we found was the improvement when retailers go from mall-based locations to strip-mall neighborhood locations. The leader in this area is GameStop (a merger of Babbages, Software Etc and Funco). We were also impressed with Game Crazy. Falling behind somewhat was Electronics Boutique (Target actually had a better selection), although we will say that the strip-mall based EBGames stores are a major improvement over the traditional mall-based locations. To summarize some of our findings we present the best and worst of U.S. video game retailers.

Best Selection: Amazon.com/ toysrus.com, Best Buy, Toys R Us, GameStop, Target
Best Prices: Costco, Amazon.com/toysrus.com, Target
Best Service: GameStop, EBGames, Game Crazy
Best Overall: GameStop, Best Buy, Costco, Target
Biggest Up and Comers: GameStop, Game Crazy, Costco, EBGames

Worst Selection: Sears, Sam Goody, Tower Records, K-Mart, CompUSA, Wal-Mart
Worst Merchandising: K-Mart, Wal-Mart, KB Toys
Worst Overall: K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Sears, KB Toys

Hollywood Part 3: Back in 1994, the interactive entertainment industry was undergoing its second major flirtation with Hollywood. This was the multimedia era and Hollywood studios were investing in anything interactive in a big way. The major studios, by and large, got burned and retreated from the interactive entertainment business in the late 1990s. Well in 2004, one of the biggest stories is "they are back." The difference this time is that the marriage between Hollywood and video games may actually be a long lasting, albeit turbulent one. Hollywood ways have become an integral part of the interactive entertainment industry. This includes expensive licensing deals, negotiating with agents, packaged deals for movies/TV shows to games and even vice versa, game soundtracks, star talent in games and of course trailers featuring computer generated movie-quality videos that add nothing to game play. Consumer spending has shown that, as video games go Hollywood, they can significantly expand their appeal. However, at the same time, it means a huge increase in costs, risks and potential pitfalls. DFC Intelligence predicts that while Hollywood may be here to stay, many of the game companies that flirt with Hollywood may not.

The Business of Computer and Video Games, scheduled for release in March 2004, is a detailed 500+ page report designed to provide users a comprehensive overview of how the interactive entertainment industry functions. Coverage includes:

� A historical analysis of the six major cycles of the video game industry.
� An overview of console, portable and PC-based hardware systems.
� A look at individual hardware systems of the past ten years.
� An discussion of the differences between different markets throughout the world.
� The top-selling games of the past ten years.
� A complete analysis of game genres.
� An analysis of what makes a game successful.
� Consumer demographics and profiles.
� The players in the industry food chain, including developers, publishers, distributors and retailers.
� A look at development issues.
� Detailed business models showing different break-even scenarios for developers and publishers. Scenarios are broken down based on sales level, publishing structure and cost of licensed content.
� A complete look at the retail chain, including analysis of individual retail chains.
� Results of retail chain price point survey.
� Marketing elements, costs and case studies.
� Analysis of major trends.
� A comparison of video games with other forms of media, including the music and movie industries.
� A discussion of emerging distribution channels.
As part of our ongoing research efforts DFC Intelligence is delivering free monthly briefs on hot topics in the interactive entertainment and video game industry. You (or a colleague of yours) have signed up to receive these briefs.

Posted by Jenova at 11:58 AM | Comments (1)

February 19, 2004

Thoughts from Three Corridors

Thoughts from Three Corridors
Analyze of a custom game map in
Warcraft III: Region of Chaos & Warcraft III: Fronzen Throne
by Jenova Chen

http://www-scf.usc.edu/~xinghanc/RecentProjects/Analyze%20of%20Three%20Corridors.htm

Posted by Jenova at 12:45 AM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2004

2003 Game Development Salary Survey

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20040211/olsen_01.shtml

The designer and artist are always less value than the programmer, unless they are 6 years "old".

Posted by Jenova at 9:24 PM | Comments (0)

February 3, 2004

Bio-Feedback on Game Input

I've tried a new released game which use bio-feedback which means your heart beats and your blood underskin to control and complete the gameplay.

This game is designed to teach the player how to practice Yuga. While most game are designed to let the player be exciting or attracted by the game, this game is encourage the player to be relief.

Here is the link,
http://www.creativelivinginstitute.org/info.i?cmd=builder&pageid=32

Posted by Jenova at 5:01 PM | Comments (1)

January 21, 2004

Let There be Clouds!

Fast, Realistic Cloud-Rendering in
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight

You're standing on rolling hills beneath a brilliant blue sky. You look up and see huge spherical white blobs suspended a few thousand feet in the air. What's wrong with this picture? Perhaps you could use a better cloud-rendering system.

In videogames that simulate outdoor reality, realistic clouds can be one of the most compelling aspects of the scene. Clouds can also set the mood - dark thunderheads for an ominous scene, light puffy clouds for a happy mood. Michelangelo spent years perfecting the heavens on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, but we need to render realistic clouds in milliseconds. Fortunately, we have more advanced tools to work with. This article describes the cloud modeling and rendering system that ships with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004:
A Century of Flight

Clouds in the real world consist of many types, such as altocumulus, stratus, and cumulonimbus, and cloud coverages ranging from a few sparse clouds to a dense, overcast sky. Our cloud system models this range of cloud types and coverages. Microsoft Flight Simulator allows users to download real-world weather and see current weather conditions reflected in the game graphics, which means we need to generate compelling visuals to match any scenario that could occur in the real world.

The interactive nature of games necessitates that clouds must look realistic whether the camera is far away, next to the cloud, or traveling through the cloud. Another requirement is that we need to render at high framerates. Microsoft Flight Simulator supports a wide range of machines, from the latest PCs to those dating back several years, and the performance must scale to this spectrum of machines.

Clouds need to be shaded appropriately to emulate both sunlight and light reflected from the sky, especially for games such as Microsoft Flight Simulator, which take place over the course of day, spanning dawn, midday, dusk, and night. We model the dynamic aspect of clouds by introducing a method to form and dissipate them over time.

Previous Work

Over the past 20 years, graphics researchers have modeled clouds in many ways, including cellular automata, voxels, and metaballs. They also modeled cloud animation via fluid dynamics. There are two reasons that these research techniques have not been widely adopted by games. The first is performance. Many of these systems produced screenshots that were gorgeous but required multiple seconds to render. The second is lack of artistic control. Imagine that you create a cloud by running a set of fluid dynamics equations. You examine the results and decide you would like a wispier top on the cloud. You must then iterate through cycles of adjusting variables such as air humidity and temperature, and recomputing the equations, which can require hours and still may not produce the visual effect you had in mind.

Realistic results in cloud shading have been achieved by simulating the scattering of light by particles as it passes through the cloud, known as anisotropic scattering. This produces accurate self-shadowing and interesting effects such as the halo when the cloud lies between the camera and the sun. We created a simple shading model for our system, forgoing these effects in exchange for fewer computations and higher artistic control.

Many flight simulation games have featured clouds, recent examples being Flight Simulator 2002, IL-2 Sturmovik, and Combat Flight Simulator III. A common approach is to paint clouds onto the skybox texture, which has minimal performance overhead, but such clouds look two-dimensional and never get closer as the camera moves toward them. A better solution is to draw each cloud as a single facing sprite. This solution looks realistic from a stationary camera but produces anomalies as the camera rotates around it. A few recent games use clusters of textured particles, similar to our system. Some use unique textures for every cloud, which has a high video memory cost as the number of clouds in the scene increases. Other systems use small blurry textures, which results in clouds that look volumetric but lack definition. All of these systems also lack the ability to form and dissipate clouds.

Our system was inspired after hearing a GDC talk by Mark Harris, who developed Skyworks, a real-time system that created volumetric clouds from sprites. Harris dynamically generated an impostor for every cloud and achieved speeds of 1 to 500 frames per second. He also modeled the fluid motion behind cloud animation. The limitation of his system is that it cannot render large clouds, such as cumulonimbus, or dense scenes of overcast clouds, due to the prohibitively high video memory cost of generating large impostors. Our system is able to address this limitation. In addition, we tackle the problem of scaling to multiple cloud types.

Cloud Modeling

Given that we want immediate visual feedback and full control over the final result, how can we design the artistic pipeline for modeling clouds? We model each cloud as five to 400 alpha-blended textured sprites. The sprites face the camera during rendering and together comprise a three-dimensional volume. We render them back-to-front based on distance to the camera.

We wrote a plug-in for 3DS Max that creates cloud sprites based on a 3D model composed of boxes. The artist denotes a cloud shape by creating and placing a series of boxes, using default 3DS Max functionality. The artist can create any number of boxes of any size and can choose to overlap the boxes.

Figure 1. A custom tool within 3DS Max allows the artist to set properties and generate cloud sprites.

The plug-in UI contains an edit field to specify the number of sprites to generate. To create denser clouds, the artist would set a number which is proportionately higher than the size of boxes in the model. Wispier clouds would be created by setting a lower number. There are generally 20 to 200 boxes for each 16-square-kilometer section of clouds, and the number of sprites per box can vary between 1 to 100, depending on the density. The UI also allows the artist to specify a range for the width and height of each sprite, and choose between categories (such as stratus and solid cumulus) that determine the textures that will be automatically placed by the tool onto the sprites. Figure 1 shows a screenshot of the tool UI.

The artist presses a button in the plug-in UI to generate the cloud sprites. The plug-in creates a list of randomly placed sprite centers, then traverses the list and eliminates any sprite whose 3D distance to another sprite is less than a threshold value (the "cull distance"). This process reduces overdraw in the final rendering and also eliminates redundant sprites created from overlapping boxes. We have found that a cull radius of 1/3 of the sprite height works well for typical clouds, and 1/5 to 1/6 of the sprite height yields dense clouds. Figure 2 shows screenshots of a cloud model made of boxes and its corresponding sprites.

The plug-in creates an initial model of sprites, and the artist can now edit them within 3DS Max. Having achieved the desired visual look, the artist uses a custom-written exporter to create a binary file containing the sprite center locations, rotations, width, and height, along with texture and shading information. These files are loaded during game execution and rendered.

Textures

To create a dozen distinct cloud types, we mix and match 16 32-bit textures for both color and alpha (see Figure 3). The flat-bottomed texture in the upper right-hand corner is used to create flat bottoms in cumulus clouds. The three foggy textures in the top row are used heavily in stratus clouds and have a subtle bluish-gray tinge. The six puffy textures in the bottom two rows give interesting nuances to cumulus clouds, and the remaining six are wispy sprites that are used across all cloud types.

Figure 2. Artists use boxes to build the shapes of clouds (left), and then let a custom tool in 3DS Max populate the boxes with sprites (right).

By creating interesting features inside the textures that resemble eddies and wisps, we are able to create more realistic looking clouds with fewer sprites. We place all 16 textures on a single 512x512 texture sheet, which spared the cost of switching textures between drawing calls to the video card. We automatically generate mip-map levels for this texture from 512x512 down to 32x32. To create more variations from these 16 textures, the artist specifies a minimum and maximum range of rotation for each sprite. When the binary file is loaded into the game, the sprite is given a random rotation within the range.

In-Cloud Experience

We would like a seamless in-cloud experience that looks consistent with the cloud's appearance as viewed from the outside, which does not often come with the commonly used technique of playing a canned in-cloud animation. In our system, as the camera passes through a sprite, it immediately disappears from view. We encountered a problem because the sprites rotated to face the camera, and during the in-cloud experience, the camera was so close to the sprite center that small movements in the camera position caused large rotations of the cloud sprite. This resulted in a "parting of the Red Sea" effect as sprites moved out of the way of the oncoming camera.

We locked the facing angle of the sprite when the camera came within half of the sprite radius. This removed the Red Sea effect but caused sprites to be seen edge-on if they locked and the camera then pivoted around them. Our solution was to detect the angle between the sprite's locked orientation and the vector to the camera, and to adjust the transparency of the sprite. The negative side effect is that the section of the cloud near the camera appears less opaque.

Posted by Jenova at 11:28 PM | Comments (0)

What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of NPCs?

By Ernest Adams
Gamasutra
[Author's Bio]
January 16, 2004

Although I don't agree with his conclusion, I still agree with his analyse for the 3d & 2d Character designing, especially the Bond stuff. It really make the idea clear by using these examples.

BTW, have you guys played Postal? Fiasco Character.

==================================================

What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of NPCs?

I haven't designed many characters over the years - certainly not action characters. In an action game, the avatar character's appearance is all-important, because he or she will be in front of the player 99% of the time. Whether it's someone tough like Lara Croft, cute like Mario, goofy like Crash Bandicoot - or a mixture of all three, like Ratchet - the visual design of the character dominates other considerations. Toby Gard has written an excellent introduction to the subject in his Gamasutra article "Building Character". Non-player characters (NPCs) tend to get similar, but less detailed, treatment - their visual appearance is tied to their role, and their role is usually either hostile or helpful, with nothing in between.

Steve Meretzky, too, has written an excellent Gamasutra article on character creation. His article, called "Building Character: An Analysis of Character Creation" discusses visual appearance and motivation as well. He offers a useful list of questions to which you should have answers if you want to create a character with a background, a person who seems to have some depth.

That guy in Postal.

There's something of an open question about how detailed an avatar character should be, because the avatar is, after all, a stand-in for the player. Most of the time they only do what the player tells them to, so their decisions are the player's decisions. Avatars have to be at least reasonably likeable, and somebody that you want to keep alive rather than actually kill off yourself (like, say, the guy in Postal). Avatars used to be a complete cipher with no personality at all, but lately they've been getting more detailed, and players don't seem to be complaining. But the place where we really have freedom to explore characterization is in the design of non-player characters. That's where the player will notice it most, and that's what I'll concentrate on in this column.

I want to take Meretzky's discussion a little farther. We often speak of characters in fiction as possessing "dimensions" - "I didn't like that movie, the characters were completely two-dimensional," and so on. What do we actually mean by this? Not spatial dimensions, obviously. Rather, we mean that the characters are lacking in some quality that would make them seem more human. I believe that the quality lacking is variety: intellectual, behavioral, and above all, emotional variety.

I'm going to propose a system for classifying characters according to their "dimensionality." It hinges upon the idea of emotional variety. Rather than try to give a formal definition, I'll use examples from the James Bond universe that I think will illuminate the idea.

Zero-Dimensional

A zero-dimensional character is one who exists in fixed emotional states, without any variability. In the Bond world, any of the Big Bad Guy's nameless henchmen is a zero-dimensional character. Ordinarily they're only alive for about five seconds, from the time it takes them to see Bond and shoot at him, to the time it takes him to shoot back and kill them. Their only emotion - if you can even call it an emotion - is a desire to kill Bond. Occasionally, for comedic effect, Bond turns the tables on them in some clever way and causes them all to run away in panic. They have no sliding scale of feelings; they just have a "hate state" and a "fear state."

In a video game these NPCs are usually found as enemies in simple action games like platformers. Not only do the characters have fixed emotional states, but those states are only relevant to the player. They have no affection or enmity towards anyone else; they don't help their buddies or even grieve when they die. In fact, they're usually not aware of them at all. The only thing they know about is the player.

One-Dimensional

A one-dimensional character has a sliding scale of emotional expression. We use this a lot in games: an affinity relationship characterized by a single variable. With one number, you can define an emotional state that runs from hate to neutrality to love, like this:

Figure 1: The emotional state of a one-dimensional character is easy to understand and predict.

In a Bond movie, this is the Big Bad Guy's love interest. She's innocent but deluded. Somehow the Big Bad Guy has managed to keep his army of ninjas, hidden missile base, and plans for world domination secret from her. (BBGs seem to prefer girlfriends who aren't too bright.) She loves the Big Bad Guy, or at least likes him enough to hang around with him, and she dislikes Bond because he's a cocky show-off. Eventually Bond is able to prove to her what scum the Big Bad Guy is. Her affection for Bond goes up, and her love for the Big Bad Guy slides down to hate. (This make's Bond's eventual triumph sexual as well as mortal - not only does Bond kill the BBG, but takes away his girlfriend too.)

Bond girls are not subtle; certainly not fully human, but they're marginally more interesting than a 0D character. They occasionally show a little anger or pride, and they quite often show fear, but their only meaningful emotion is a sliding scale between love (combined with loyalty) and hate. They have two of scales, one for Bond and one for the BBG, and they usually work in direct inverse proportion. No Bond girl ever regrets the loss of her relationship with the Big Bad Guy - the good times they used to have together, their hopes of starting a family, and so on. That would add an additional dimension that Bond movies don't explore.

This is about the level of the more sophisticated adventure game or RPG characters. Each character has an array of single-valued affinity relationships, one with the player and one each with the other NPCs in the game. The player's actions can cause that value to change, and this is reflected in the character's behavior. Less often, the other NPCs can also act to change their affinity relationships with each other as well. However, most NPCs are not designed with a desire to be liked. They don't make much effort to improve other NPCs' opinions of them.

Two-Dimensional

Now we're beginning to get somewhere. A two-dimensional character is capable of feeling a variety of emotions along a variety of scales, as long as they don't conflict with each other. In the Bond world, this is Bond himself. Bond enjoys a great many things: good food and wine; driving fast cars; taking great risks; promiscuous sex. He dislikes the KGB, drug barons, and megalomaniacs. He has a sense of duty, but not much of honor or patriotism. He feels a vague obligation to rescue his bed partners when they get taken hostage, but that's as far as his commitment goes. He only occasionally loses his temper, mostly when someone tries especially hard to kill him. (It doesn't bother Bond when someone tries to kill him once or twice. It's perseverance that really annoys him.)

The important point about Bond's various emotions is that they are never inconsistent, because they don't interfere with each other. Bond is never of two minds about anything; never uncertain what to do; never faced with a moral dilemma. If he does have a conflict of emotions (having to kill a woman that he has slept with, for example), he has a clear rule for resolving the problem: duty trumps love (or lust), and he never mourns about it afterwards. All that Bond really faces are challenges to be overcome one after another, like - ah-ha! - a player in a video game. They're mostly physical challenges, rather than emotional or intellectual challenges, anyway. Bond's emotional mechanisms are quite adequate to deal with the types of problems that he encounters.

Many years ago I had a job in which I had two bosses. One was honest but thoroughly unpleasant; the other, friendly but a bit of a scam artist. It was a weird situation. But there's nothing that says honesty must accompanied by good manners. We consider them both to be virtuous and so we expect them to go together, but they don't have to. Although these qualities are not emotions, it's a good example of a pair of variables that don't interact with each other.

Figure 2: A two-dimensional character's various personality attributes don't necessarily need to be in synch with each other-a good or bad guy could be quite dishonest, yet sickly sweet and polite at the same time.

In the world of videogames, The Sims is probably the game that most closely approximates 2D characters. The behavior of each Sim is governed by a variety of feelings and needs. Not having seen the code, I don't know exactly what mechanisms are in use, but I can tell by observation that the Sims are capable of feeling affectionate, jealous, angry, bored and so on. If they do experience contradictory emotions, there's a rule that determines which one governs their behavior at the moment. Unfortunately, their animation is not sophisticated enough to reflect a complex internal state. You can't tell the difference between a Sim who's cooking dinner while feeling jealous and one who's cooking dinner while feeling bored. Only the double cone over their heads gives a clue to their mental state, and it merely displays a univariate "happiness" value between red and green. (If Maxis had wanted to, they could have used the entire RGB color space, and displayed three values in the same mechanism; but that would have required the player to remember that blue means sleepy while yellow means alert, or whatever.)

Three-Dimensional

For a three-dimensional character we have to leave the Bond universe entirely--because it doesn't contain any. A fully three-dimensional character has the complex hodgepodge of emotions that we all feel, including some that are directly contradictory. A 3D character can love and hate at the same time. Children abused by their parents often experience this condition, which does bad things to their heads.

Figure 3: A three-dimensional character is much more human like than those discussed earlier, and adds realism to the gameplay.

This is an extreme example, however. Three-dimensionality doesn't mean that people are psychotic; it just means that they have a wide range of emotions and, if the circumstances are right, they can occasionally be faced with conflicting impulses. This happens all the time in real life: a person can be honest but greedy, find a lot of money, and have to deal with the contradictory emotions this creates.

I'm a big fan of the sea-novels written by Patrick O'Brian, two of which were recently made into the Peter Weir film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. The books are set in the British Royal Navy of the Napoleonic Wars. They're filled with high adventure, but also a great deal of 19th-century science and culture. Most important, however, is the interaction between the two protagonists. Captain Jack Aubrey is bluff, cheerful, and politically conservative, a brilliant military tactician whose eye for the ladies and financial na�vet� tends to land him in hot water ashore. Dr. Stephen Maturin, the ship's surgeon, is irritable, perceptive, an enlightened liberal (he believes in radical ideas like democracy, of all things), a hopeless landlubber, and an opium addict. In spite of all this they are great friends, lovers of good food and good music, and vigorous opponents of Napoleon - Aubrey from his se