My Print and Play Game: "Club of The Titans"

The link to my PnP game: Club of The Titans!

Below there is a beauty shot:

Very Old Sketches and Paintings from 2010

There are also some drawings I did 2 years ago, I just throw them here.They might be rough but they record the development process of my drawings.

Some Sketchbook Drawings

Some old sketchbook drawings that I did during my first semester at Ringling College of Art and Design, I used charcoal sticks and ball pens to draw them.I like charcoals and ball pens a lot, I really need to improve the line quality of my drawings. Line qualities is my major focus right now.

 

"The Lens of Transparency"

One thing I forgot to tell you guys is that we have been reading a book called “The Art of Game Design”, which it was written by Jesse Schell. That book really helps me a lot on my print and play project. This book comes with a set of cards that each card has a few questions that relates to game design. Last Friday, our teacher asked us to draw one of those cards and discuss the questions on it. What I got is called “The Lens of Transparency” card, here are the questions that I got:

"The Lens of Transparency"

Q1: What are the players’ desires? Does the interface let the players do what they want?

I think my game heavily rely on the quality of the graphics on the board and the cards. The style of it is just playing games and having fun. I think this is also normally what we desire from a board game. My goal is just having my player laughing all the time while they are playing. Some convincing illustrations can greatly enhance their experience of playing. I paid most of my time making fancy graphics on my game board, the illustration really matches the theme of the game: casual, funny and black humor. My players get very excited when they move their chess pieces on a colorful map.

Q2: Is the interface simple enough that with practice, players will be able to use it without thinking?

Yes, my map looks colorful but very clear and organized. What a player needs to do on each step has been clearly stated.  They do not need to worry too much and memorize too much to play the game. Different spots on the map have their own unique color.  Even though I have plenty of different spots, players can understand them all easily.

Q3: Do new players find the interface intuitive? If not, can it be made more intuitive somehow? Would allowing players to customize the controls help or hurt?

Yes, I had one of my friends played my game last night. That was his first time to play it. He can always know what he should do when he lands on some special spots, because what he is supposed to do have been clearly listed. There are some steps that have further descriptions; I typed them on the map somewhere next to those steps. Therefore, my map is very intuitive. Players can change my map as long as the changes do not affect the mechanics. Players cannot change the amount of a specific spot, for example, there are 4 “Magic Card Shop” spots on the map, and players are not allowed to change the amount of those spot, because it could change the balance of the game. However, they definitely can move those 4 “Magic Card Shop” around.

Q4: Does the interface work well in all situations or is there case (near a corner, going very fast, etc.) when it behaves in ways that will confuse the player?

My game is preferably played by 4 players within 1 hour. If there are only 2 players, they might leave 1 or 2 game mechanics that they did not go through after they finish one round. However if 2 players play another round, they are slightly going to go through all mechanics. But the map does not confuse my players in any cases.  

Q5: Can players continue to use the interface well in stressful situations, or do they start fumbling with the controls, or missing crucial information? If so, how can this be improved?

Yes, my players will not lose themselves even when they feel stressful. One of my friends last night was playing my game; he was watching documentaries, doing his sketchbook and playing game with me at the same time. He was stressful because he was doing multitasking but he did not start fumbling with the controls or missing crucial information, because a player’s action in each turn is similar, they just need to remember to place a trap first, using magic if they can, then roll the die. However, he always loses a game because my game is pretty strategic too, players need to focus and think their movements.  

Q6: Does something confuse players about the interface? On which of the six interface arrows is it happening? 

No. the interface of my game does not confuse my player when I was testing my game.

Medium Prop: A Islamic Lamp

Here comes my medium prop: A Islamic lamp! This is the first time I ever applied Normal Maps and Specular Maps on my model. I used Crazy Bump to generate all of these. They turns out not that appealing, but I am going to fix my lamp later. What I learned from this assignment is that modeling and texturing are equally important. Good textures are the keys of making your models look appealing, at the same time it avoids you to make your models too complicated. I pulled an all-nighter to just create texture for it. Here are two screenshots from UDK:

Rolled Up Rugs and Other Simple Props

Finally I finished my rolled up rugs and other simple props a few weeks ago! Once again, they are going to be used by my classmates later. I was very excited of making them. What I learned here is to be a good modeler, I must keep my model as low-poly as possible. You could manage to model some fancy stuff with 10 thousand faces, but if you are only given 1 thousand faces, can you still make them that fancy? I am lack of experience of keeping my models low-poly, but I am learning, good luck to me! Good luck to all of you, dear visitors!

Game Trailer for "Assassin's Creed"

Here is a link of a game trailer that I made for "Assassin's Creed", it is one of our school projects, which we were given 20 minutes footage from the game, we were asked to use Adobe Premiere to create a 1 minute short trailer. It is a project I did long time ago, I really enjoyed myself. What I learned from it is the way how you cut your shots is extremely important. A few nice cuts in your trailer could really give your audience lots of visual enjoyments! I had fun of making it, I hope you like it too. Have a good day guys!