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Get Outta My Way!

Splash Screen for Get Out of My Way!, a colocative fighting game on the combiform platform.  This is the splash screen that I put together for the game.  I can draw poses now!  Get Out of My Way, featuring Johann and Mariya!



High-Res Alien

I'm still working on a stylized splash screen for Get Out of My Way, and I've got a new high-res alien (a bit fat).  

The Green/Red Pilot



I sketched out a pilot today, and thought I'd do a color test for her.

S Class Warships

A quickie tonight, to get my mind working around that space-schmup I'm going to develop.  These spaceships are going to need some weapons, arent they... I can just hid laser lenses in that front edge xD

Games User Research Summit, GDC 2012

My GDC trip this year is shaping up to be a lot more exciting than I'd expected it to be.  I'm enjoying the chilly San Francisco breeze (I miss it a little), and marveling at the city architecture.

Tuesday I attended the Games User Research Summit, and definitly learned a few things:

On Touch Interface
Visual assets for touchable buttons should be at least 7-9mm in width.

The visual asset should be at 60% of the touch target size.

Three ways to classify Interfaces are by their Freedom, Precision, and Direct Manipulation.

Intuitive is misleading, because everything is learned.  Familiarity and Awesomeness is a more efficient targets.

On ABC model of attitude
Affect -> Emotion
Behavior -> Action
Cognition -> Thinking

Each of the three affect the other, and recursively affect themselves.  They are immeasurable because this state is always changing and in the moment.

Behavior is observable while Affect and Thinking can only be intuited.

Media can affect one of these aspects to influence another.

Bartle's Player Types and Biometrics
A researcher presented a study that he did on players of a trivia game, as requested by the developers.  He quickly realized that the data that was needed required observation of the four Bartle player types in relation to one another.

It is important to note that the decision to use Player Types: Killer, Explorer, Achiever, and Socializer, were a result of the data, and determined to be fitting after properly analyzing player behavior under their target behaviors.

The researchers watched for the interactions between two players and measured the frequency of:
Shared awareness
Requesting Info
Shared History
Shared Sucess
Shared Failure
Team Optimisation
Trash Talk
Self Indulgence

ABC in Games
During this talk I realized that this would allow me the vocabulary and surface understanding to put one aspect of Spectra into words.  The purpose of Spectra was to place players in a situation where they would have to help the other player, their partner.  My intended result would be that these repeated acts of kindness would influence the player's emotions and thoughts about each other.

The game never yielded an answer, as I haven't observed enough play sessions of it, or run lab tests with specific player-types, but I have had good reaction to the premise and players tell me that they enjoy the game.

Maya =X

OK, so I finally tested the murky waters of the 3D world.  6th semester out of 8 here at USC, it's a good time. I feel like I can comfortable learn the software, and that makes me happy.  For the past three years, I've only ever worked on drawings and 2D animations.

Taking this course is like dipping my toes into the 3D environment, making sure that the temperatures aren't too cold.  I'm so deep in my 2D work right now (it's only getting more and more exciting!) that my focus is still in that direction, but I'll be learning Maya steadily!

Modeling is pretty fun!  For my next step, I want to model a character.