I Return - With More Japanese!

Well hello there!



Seems this blog was highly useful in allowing me to both collect letters after my name in the form of BSc and permit me access to Honours year! So I have resumed it for Glorious Benefit of Honours Project!

So this year's project looks like it will centre around the localisation of Japanese games. I've been looking for an excuse to step up the rate of my learning, so why not tie it to something that will force me to panic learn. Nothing to worry about there, right?

Specifically, for the first part I'm looking to analyse the history and highlights of localising games. Such games to look at could be Zero Wing's famously bad translation; or the Final Fantasy series' localisation, giving the player freedom to imagine this could be representative of anywhere in the world; and Persona's localisation, keeping their games rooted firmly in Japan. Another view could be to analyse the refusal to localise Mother 3 and Nintendo's regionally split opinion on Operation Rainfall.

I'm also looking to attempt a localisation of my own of, say, the Final Fantasy Type-0 demo. Specific details of what I'd look to do would come after discussing it with my my supervisor, one Doctor John Sutherland, but I'm thinking I'm probably going to try making a series of documents detailing translations, with subtitled videos of things like the opening cinematic. お楽しみに！

Week 10 - Jamie Was Too Scared!

(During the talk, Jamie was to display this picture for the Perfect End to the presentation. But reached an 'it's over, just sit down' mentality. For shame! As a result, I have posted it here to ensure the picture isn't going to feel overly rejected.)

Good golly, the snow! The snow, it's everywhere! Ensuring I don't slip and become concussed was priority one of the day for me. Huge success. Other's priority was to ensure concussion and avoid the presentation, but seems they failed, thus we got on with it.

Not too much to say, really, I feel the practice paid off rather well, as we said everything we wanted to say, didn't really stumble over our words and even got a nice wee team picture!

Meanwhile!

We'd already gotten a few responses to the questionnaire I'd fired out, though some of them went out as a Word document before I had finished the Google Documents version, which I wasn't aware had the option of being able to have the form embedded in an email. As a result, I filled about 5 or 6 out into the Google Documents version before moving on to overseeing Jonny and Euan's progress with Blender and Chris' progress with map building in Unity for the prototype.

Things seemed to be going rather well, but uneventfully in general, as the rest of the week was spent on more Java. Actually getting a bit panicy about it, as I'm not the strongest coder in the world, thus a bit impatient that there's not more time to spend on coding to create a more room for errors.

Week 9 - Huzzah For Busy!

(Rather random, unrelated really to the week, but was actually a rather enjoyable week none-the-less. Perhaps next week's blog will explain more, depending on Jamie's willingness to go through with a joke; will explain next time if he doesn't!)

Rather a busy week for us all this time around! Having decided that our design document is to be in for this week, we set about trying to create a greater level of presentability to it, mainly just fixing the formatting of the text and adding in some of Jonny's finalised concept art. And yet, despite last year's documents being hosted on Wikispaces, I had forgotten what a struggle it can be to format the site; so very counter-productive and frustrating it can be to change a font size!

Another thing that Jamie and I got onto this week, especially, was the scripting of Unity. We'd been doing tutorials to an extent up until this point, but we were looking to get the basis of our prototype done, allowing for the other three to properly input their assets.

After being able to find a basic model (which would actually be used just in the prototype, thinking about it, it's a very, very basic model of a human after all), we set up camera and movement controls, basic rules of the world like collision detection with fencing (so people don't fall off the side of the map), regulating the angle of an incline the player could scale, and, awaiting Jonny's assets, the ability of switch between the different models for the different paths.

Finally this week, we were preparing for the talk we have to give next week on our progress and planning for the project. Jamie had already made up a rather spiffy Powerpoint presentation, so from that we went over what we would be saying, which was rather a nice thing to do, because thinking about it sometimes it does feel like we could be doing more, so sometimes it's good to be able to look back around this time before the big panic mode comes along and remind ourselves we've done a lot.

So when Friday came along, the design document looked to be in a rather nice, appealing layout, one we'd be willing to submit. Now, how to do that? Post it on one of John's Wikispaces? If so, which one of the half-dozen? Wait, we email him it? Oh, phew, good, panic over ...

Week 8 - We Need To Do What Now?

(Watched Haruhi Suzumiya this week and while I did rather enjoy most of it, I must agree with others when they say the series of episodes called Endless Eight, which featured a time loop with a scant level of plot progression across all of them, was rather naff.)

This leads me to a thought at the moment: Haruhi felt that there was something key missing from summer that forced the time loop and I have to wonder if perhaps myself, and others in the group from Kitsune, are feeling a bit of burn-out after not really having a holiday over the summer period. It shows itself most in Java, where I find it difficult to engage with the coding side. Still, though, the projects do tick on ...

And Derek this week made sure of it. We were asked for self-imposed deadlines for our key pieces of this module's coursework and reminded us that, actually, we need a marketing analysis done. Fortunately, this is where I have some experience; I had organised one from my group from the second year design project.

Having originally created an updated version of the previous questionnaire I had, I spoke to Gordon Bailey who recommended the functionality of Google Documents, especially the ability to automatically generate graphs, which would definitely come in handy; the questionnaire has a variety of differing question types and allows for multiple choices to select.

We also spent more time fleshing out our design document and technical document on the Wikispaces page, adding more detail to the characters and any win / lose conditions.

You know, I honestly didn't notice until this point that this is the eighth week's blog post as well ...

Week 7 - Phil Fulfils His Debt Obligations

(He's a very lucky penguin. That is all.)

This was a rather slow week for us all; out time was focused a bit more on Alistair McMonnies' module than the other two, which means that I spent most of the time on this module going over the extra concept art Jonny had done, checking any updated concepts and new monster designs.

I also helped set up and add some of the documentation to a new Wikispaces website we will use for our group's submissions.

Now, if you excuse me, I have to watch more Saki, who's super-power seems to be extendo-arms and a left eye you could cook a Sunday breakfast on.

Week 6 - Pierce The Blog With Your Drill!

(Watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann at the mo; over the top awesome never gets old.)

This week, I figured out what to do with the Deva Path! Huzzah!

In the end, it made sense to have the Deva Path work on puzzles, similar to the type found in the Cloister of Trials in Final Fantasy X, or Phoenix Wright-type detective work.

With that, I set to work on the personalities for the Paths themselves, based around the same core emotions as from the original Buddhist cosmology. The Deva Path is based around pride, the Asura Path is based around jealousy, the Animal around ignorance, the Preta around desire, the Naraka around anger, and the Human could have all or none in varying measures.

I also started working on the control scheme for the game, mapping them around a PC's keyboard and mouse setup.

~~~~~

Keyboard

Key Used - Action

W/A/S/D - Move up/left/down/right

Space Bar - Interact with platform or secret/climb

1 à 0 number row - Bound skill activation

Esc - Key Menu/pause

i key - Inventory

Arrow Keys - Navigate menu

Enter Key - Select menu option

Tab Key - Enemy lock-on/cycle between enemies

Mouse

Button Used - Action

Left-click - Enemy lock-on/select menu option (only)

Right-click - Auto-attack/use inventory item/use skill (only)

Scroll-wheel - Zoom in/out

Week 5 - Art Isn't An Explosion! D:

(I bought Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja: Storm 2 when it came out. Unfortunately, the catchphrase of one of the bad guys, "Art is a blast," was poorly translated to, "Art is an explosion." The destruction of this pun, to any Brit, should be seen as a great loss.)

The game seems to be coming along rather well this week. Having worked on the general concept for each character, 5 of the 6 have their core gameplay figured out.

• The Human Path seems to be gearing more towards the exploration and free-running side than combat.
• The Animal Path is towards a physical combat, similar to a Rogue from classic RPGs like Warcraft.
• The Asura, or demi-god, is heavier physical combat, similar to a Warrior.
• The Naraka, or demon, a magical combatant specialising in fire and ice attacks.
• The Preta, or hungry ghost, is a scavenger of health and other items, and can reveal hidden interactable objects.

When it comes to the Deva Path, I'm still unsure of how to progress, so I'll have to think on it over the weekend. Possibly something to do with puzzles, but how that would tie in with his personality ...

I also went over the concept art of the Paths with J and Jonny. Deva was pending by the end of Friday, and Animal was needing a bit more work, so we discussed the changes to be made for the next version of the concepts.

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Concepts Discussion

Human

Name: Ashoka

Age: 24

Hair: Shorten hair, more 'monk-y'. Would cut it before leaving.

Build: Expand the waist.

Potential concepts: Monkey from Enslaved, monks from Dragon Quest IX, Prince from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time game.

Preta - Hungry Ghost

Expression: Tormented & forlorn, blank eyes with little detail - pupiless.

Build: Extend neck & legs while maintaining thigh thickness / try Casper-ish whisp legs in separate concept.

Face: Less teeth - more gums-y.

Naraka - Devil

Build: Concept with full body, could keep original as effect.

Concepts: Hork-bajir (from Animorphs), Ifrit from Final Fantasy 10, Paradrager from Jade Cocoon 2.

Asura - Titan

Personality: Out to prove himself, inferiority complex, jealous of Deva, could cover self with divine symbology & jewellery.

Build: Less muscular (possibly give to Naraka?) to just a bit more than the human.

Concepts: Love Machine from Summer Wars, Kilik from Soul Calibre 3.

Week 4 - Bansho Ten'in Bitches

(Have you ever seen Summer Wars? I recommend it, it has such a brilliant art direction and has introduced me to the wonder-game that is Hanafuda Koi-Koi. Is it too late to change to making a game of that instead?)

Wednesday has a break-through of concept proportions. J has come up with the idea of using Buddhist mythology (do they even call it mythology? Do now, I guess), which has been something a few of us have enjoyed in anime such as Naruto, though we're hoping to keep it closer to the original than being a loose interpretation.

We've been considering specifically the 6 different paths life could take depending on the good or bad karma built up in previous lives: either you could be a human, animal, a ghost lusting after something from a past life, a demon 'spending' amassed bad karma, a demi-god such as a titan, or a god similar to the flawed Greek gods.

Within the game, we'd have the main character be the Human Path, being the most identifiable to players visually from the start. As I had said before, Naruto would be a key source of inspiration in some ways, from the character Pain as each Path of his has very unique abilities. Deciding which Path will do what is going to be tricky, so one doesn't overpower the others and you end up playing it all the time.

With this in mind, we actually decided that this type of game would be best for a 3D environment and wouldn't really work as a 2D world. As a result, despite our initial hesitation with Unity, we're going to look into using it. A network of other groups using Unity has been set up, both through Tudocs and Google Wave, so we at least have a level of support to aid in our learning.

Anyway, other than that, spent the time gloating that Azusa beat Nagi 1516 votes to 1339. Chris had some choice words for me.

Week 3 - Yes We Nyan!

(I put a bet on at the end of last week: Azusa Nakano would win Anime Saimoe, with 3 rounds left to go. Betting in the quarter finals did receive some scorn, though with her progressing further since that bet (albeit with my side-bet of Shana beating Nodoka Haramura proving to be wrong; I have to now watch Saki), I still feel confident I could be victorious.)

This week has been rather coding heavy for Advanced Web Games with Alistair. Much of our time was spent trying to remove screen flicker from movement based on user input, which of course was caused by assorted people trying to help code and ended up causing conflicts. That's our story, mine and Jamie's, and we're sticking to it.

On the side of design, we assigned group roles this week as well as finalising the choice of platformer. We're beginning to veer towards a 2D game, though not finalised that just yet; it's more in consideration of the fact that our knowledge of Javascript is still rather low at this stage, so 2D would perhaps be easier to script, though with the drawback of restricted gameplay.

For our roles, with J being the project leader, Chris and I were placed in charge of design, with myself being the lead designer and Chris being the level designer. Euan and Jonny were put in charge of art, with Jonny being character concept artist and Euan being environmental concept artist for this phase. Suits me to a T, this one.

By Friday, Azusa is facing off with Nagi Sanzenin from Hayate the Combat Butler, so I could still be vindicated from the disbelief of Chris and Paul Bradley. We shall see ...

Week 2 - Subete wa Bekon to Yoideshou

Week 2 has been about bringing the group together and sharing ideas on the basics of the game: which genre was the first thing we discussed.

Looking to create an original IP, we did not have any particular concept going into the project, so decided to consider each of our interests in terms of genre. Discussing each of them in turn after creating a list, going over the pros and cons of making a game in each genre, a platformer appeared as a top preference for the group.

Of course, it was not an instant selection from that point. We decided at that point to go out and research various different types of platformer games; Sonic 4 had just been released, so this was my first port of call. While it was full of it's previous musical charm, I did find that the pacing of the game was very off at key points, so it did put me off creating a game based around a fast pacing.

Other games suggested for research included Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank and, the one I researched as I actually own the series, Spyro. Compared to Sonic, the obvious difference is the inclusion of 3D, which is another worry for another day: should be seek to go for 2D or 3D environments?

Spyro has been a game I enjoyed playing a fair bit in the past, so a game similar to it is one I definitely feel that I could get enthusiastic about creating. I also do start to feel like, compared to a 2D side-scroller, a more open, 3D world, would be a game that could lend itself to more unique ideas we could develop.

Having discussed some of our findings, we decide to do a bit more research into Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank and Spyro over the weekend; I'm looking for specific core gameplay and additional features such as collectables and the overall tone of the game to gauge a style for us to make.

~~~~~

3^rd Year Games Dev. - Games ideas/Roles

Game Genres

• Chris: Survival horror, Stealth, Platformer

• Euan: Platformer, Puzzle, RPG

• Phil: Platformer, Fighting,

• Johnny: FPS, Platformer, 2D Game

• J: Platformer, RPG, Over the shoulder Shooter

Winning Genre: Platformer

Traits

Survival Horror - Design

Positive: Strong Atmosphere, Black Humour,

Negative: Hard to pull off, Difficulty in wide spread marketing, Repetitive, Lighting would have to be pulled off well, Music would have to be heavily atmospheric.

Stealth – Design

Positive: Not done too often could be viewed as a fresh take, could be fairly challenging, after figuring out AI the rest of the game would follow fairly easy,

Negative: AI would need to be heavily in-depth, will get repetitive, if not balanced well could turn out wrong,

Platformer – Design

Positive: Fairly large term a lot could be implemented and experimented with, could be done in both 2D and 3D rather well, a large markey still exists for the genre, once a single level is created it would be easy to create more of them, easily referencable, would be easier to pull off compared to other genres, easy to implement with the available dev tools,

Negative: A lot of games has been made in the genre causing it to have been a bit overdone, a viable story would be relatively hard to implement, difficulty may be hard to balance sometimes,

Puzzle – Design

Positive: Could be geared towards either a pick-up-and-play or story rpg games, if done well would be easily made addictive, length may not come up as a problem depending on the type of game, large market for the genre

Negative: Would be hard to come up with either unique, challenging or fun puzzles, a long development time may be needed to come up with good puzzles/justifiable story,

RPG – Design

Positive: Like platformer it's a fairly large genre, a large fanbase/market,depending on the type of RPG we can easily generate more content, if implemented well it can turn out great, a lot of roles available during development,

Negative: Overdone as of late, can get repetitive, the development time for an RPG can get fairly lengthy, a picky market/fanbase,

Fighting – Design

Positive: Fairly large market and fanbase, not a lot of innovation required during some aspects, if only an online vs game not a lot of AI would need to implemented, would be easily done as an adaption or geared towards a certain style,

Negative: If no AI was needed then a lot of networking would need to be done, could become repetitive, market could also be heavily competitive, no frame of reference for available games,

FPS – Design

Positive: A lot of different themes/times/areas could be easily implemented for an FPS, market for FPS is very large compared to every other genre, once AI is figured out the rest of the dev. Would be easy, tools that we could use are nearly all geared towards an FPS,

Negative: Overly done to hell, would be fairly hard to become distinguishable from the existing games, some physics and AI scripting may prove to be problematic,

Game Design Module - Week 1

Within the first day, I had joined a team consisting of myself, Jamie Boyle, Euan Smith and Chris Roberts, and Jonathan Callahan joined the following day. With the exception of Jonathan, we had worked together before on Kitsune, a games company which I co-own with a fellow student.

In the first week, we spent some time discussing the possibility of integrating previous resources existing from work in Kitsune, including input from other members of Kitsune, however we eventually realised that it would be best, due to Euan no longer working for Kitsune, and Jonathan having never, to start a new project with a clean slate.

We also decided on the genre of game to create and the environment to create it in. Unity, being a rather strong and popular development environment, we decided to create the game using it; it could also aid us in learning the Java module for Alistair McMonnies.