Unit 78 Assignment 1 Ciaran Morton

Artistic style treatment

In this document I am going to be covering several different topics based

on the game that I am going to be designing and the graphics/visual style
of the game I am going to be designing. Below is a list of different items I
am going to be covering in this document.

Artistic style used in computer games

Photorealism
Cell shading
Abstraction
Exaggeration
Anime and manga

Computer game graphics

Pixel art (2D sprites, 3D isometric sprites)

Concept art
Characters
Weapons
Vehicles
Environment
Texture art
Background graphics
Walls
Forests
Clouds
In-game interface
Head up display
Print media art

Game packaging (console cover/box)

Box cover (DVD container)
Manual,
Label
A3 poster

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Unit 78 Assignment 1 Ciaran Morton

Artistic style used in computer games

In the sections below I am going to write sub headings for each of the
items listed under Artistic style in computer games, in these paragraphs
below I am going to talk briefly about the subject on a whole and mainly
talk about how my games graphics and designs will use these features.

Photorealism

Photorealism is where a games characters will look identical to the voice

actors of the characters in the game, a great example of this is the game
Beyond Two Souls, this is because the voice actors are the games
characters; This is shown in the
image to the right where one of
the main characters is modelled
after William Dafoe, this character
is also voiced by the actor William
Dafoe, in the image to the right
there I a screen shot of the
character that modelled after William Dafoe and another image of the
actual actor to the far right.
This shows that the modelled version of the actor is quite realistic in
comparison, this may not look like it from the images above but the game
is intended to be played on a PlayStation 4 and a smart TV which has a lot
better specifications than the computer I used to create this document,
also the game has not been rendered and compressed down like the
images on this document.
In my game I am creating images/graphics for I have decided not to use
any photorealism at least not with actual people, instead the game I am
creating is going to be a first person survival horror game where there
arent going to be any people and as it is first person I am not going to
create any characters, instead I am only going to create
monsters/enemies for the game.

Cell shading

Cell shading is mainly about shading in the games, e.g. 3D games that
use shading/shadows to add depth to the games. In all/most next gen

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games shading is a must as it adds depth to all the aspects and objects of
the game, an example of this Is in the image to the right.

In the image to the right it shows the shading

around the floor along with light cascading from
the windows, this is all used to add depth and
realism to the game, these are just very small
details that add together to create the image to
the right, an example of this would be to imagine
they werent there in this image everything was
the same but the shadows and light sources were
gone, then the vines (plants) werent there either, then the windows
werent there, then the objects in the middle of the room, then the
different colours/textures on the wall this is how the room originally
looked, then developers went through the room adding small details that
add up to make the game look realistic.
In my game I am basing the graphics outside, Im also going to add in a
lot of depth and shading and cell shading, this is because I am creating a
game that is going to be extremely realistic and based on the timeframe it
will be released by late 2019 so I will be aiming at releasing the game as a
6K HD game meaning the graphics will be 6 * 1024 pixels per inch

Abstraction

Abstraction graphics in video games is the

opposite to photorealism, this is because
photorealism is where the graphics look
almost identical to IRL (real life) in
abstraction it is very different to real life
e.g. cartoon based, abstract art etc. A
great game which describes abstraction
perfectly is the Unfinished Swan, an image
of this is to the right. This image is of a screen shot from within the game,
this game is a great example of abstract games as it is where you play as
a swan who throws black paint to reveal pathways and objects, this is
where you start in a blank space and cannot see ANYTHING, everything is
white/invisible and you have to throw black pain over the
environment/objects in the environment to make them visible.

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Unit 78 Assignment 1 Ciaran Morton

As I mentioned in the photorealism section I am making my game as

realistic as possible therefore I am not going to make the game or any
aspect of the game abstract.

Exaggeration

Exaggeration is used a lot in video games as it

helps with plot and keeping people interested
in the story line of the game, if games did not
exaggerate cut scenes, fight scenes, plots etc.
the games wouldnt be as entertaining to the
audience. An example of a game that
exaggerates a lot of its story is some of the
games I used to play like: Devil may cry
(series), Final Fantasy (series) and games like
Resident Evil (series) and Silent Hill, these last two are horror and
exaggerate to build tension and create a better atmosphere, the screen
shot I have used to the right is of a Final Fantasy boss battle from Final
Fantasy 14 final boss battle, this is a great example of exaggeration as the
final fantasy 14 final boss battle includes the biggest boss of the entire
game, the weapons will be the final weapons biggest available this
scene/section will be filled with giant enemies and massive
swords/axes/other attacks.
I will be using some form of exaggeration in the game, this is not really
going to be shown in the images I create as I cannot use ANY images from
the internet and I am going to have to take images on my own and edit
them myself. An example of exaggeration I could use is having giant
enemies roaming around in the distance e.g. silhouettes of the giant
enemies off in the distance towering over trees. This will not be in the
graphics I produce as I do not have that long to take the images photo
shoot and edit and finalise editing in time to meet the deadlines.

Anime and manga

Anime/Manga is another game graphic genre this is based on the

Japanese graphic novels called Manga and the traditional Japanese
cartoon style known as Anime, this is implemented into some video
games, examples of this I know of include Final Fantasy as it can be
classed as a style of Anime The image of the Final Fantasy 8 game cover
is to the right. This game is a good example of Anime/manga as the
graphics on the cover and within the game are a lot like anime due to the

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fact it was created in 1999, this shows that it is

older and the technology used to create
realistic video games (photorealism)was not in
use while this game was created, in this genre
hexagons were still heavily used in order to
make video games up.
As I have mentioned several times, I am
creating a heavily realistic game, therefore I am
NOT going to be using the anime/manga style in the game graphics I am
creating, instead I am going to be creating some realistic graphics.

Artistic style used in computer games conclusion

To conclude, the sections in artistic style used in computer games

(Photorealism, Cell shading, Abstraction, Exaggeration and Anime and
manga.) All of these sections cover the artistic style of games, artistic
style basically means what the game looks like e.g. a realistic game, an
abstract game, a cartoon game etc.

Computer game graphics

In this section I am going to be describing several different graphics and

how they are/are not going to be used in the game and game graphics I
am producing.

Pixel art (2D sprites, 3D isometric sprites)

Pixel art is commonly used on 2D games,

the 3D games do not use pixels as they
need to by curved/rounded off to give a
3D effect, the 2D games are commonly
older/retro games such as Mario games,
to the right is an image of an original 8
bit Mario game which is pixelated. This
image to the right shows the 2D
graphics, the 3D graphics have evolved
since this era, the 3D graphics used to be made out of hexagons, the

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current graphics are made up of photorealism that is software that track

facial movements and all the other aspects in order to produce a model
that looks exactly like real life.

In my game, as I have mentioned several times over I am going to create

a realistic video game, this means that I am going to create an extremely
realistic VR horror game, this means that I am using the 3D and not the
2D, mainly because horror games need to be immersive and the VR is
basically made for 3D style games as 2D style games would not work with
the VR as it has to be from a first person perspective and as 2D foes not
have the third detention the game would be a line down the middle of the
visor as the game would consist of up/down access and left/right access.

Concept art

Concept art is what developers create before they start work on the game,
this is the design stage where they decided exactly what all the assets
(enemies, characters, objects, scenery, textures etc.) are going to look
like, this ensures everyone working on the game will develop the exact
same graphics and make sure each person doesnt create a different
design.
I am creating some graphics on my own, this includes taking several
images and editing them and finalising them (ensuring they are perfect on
editing) on my own, to do this I am going to draw out several different
images on paper and describe what the image is, this is going to be the
concept art and I am going to paste it below
once I create it and
find a way to import it
onto this
document.

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Unit 78 Assignment 1 Ciaran Morton

Above are the concept art, these show the

different images I am making in the next
assignment, these are all illustrated and described
in full detail on the pages I have included in with
this submission (in case the images above cannot
be read). The images I pasted above are the
concept art for this assignment.

Characters

In video games, the characters are planned out in great detail I

mentioned characters when explain
the story boards and this is correct
as the characters need a big in
depth description along with a lot of
concept art for what the character
will look like, the image to the right
is of a character from Halo, the
character to the right is of the
finished design and the characters
on the left are of the concept art on the finished character.
As I mentioned, my game is going to be a first person VR horror game,
this means that there wont be any one else, there wont be any
characters to create as first person means that I dont have to design a
full character avatar, all I need to create is arms/hands along with possible

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a persons body just for the effect or VR as when people look down they
will see the persons body.

Weapons

Weapons in games are massively varied, this could be

as small as a knife in one game to a massive sword in
another, an example of smaller weapons in the image
above the image to the right there is a small hand
held knife whereas the image to the right is obviously a lot bigger, this is
the difference in size, then there are different types e.g. knife, sword, gun,
magic, powers etc. Due to this I cannot go into detail about all of the
different weapons in video game history without making this document a
few thousand pages long (no exaggeration).
In the game I am creating a few weapons will be available by creating
them from supplies or using the supplies on their own e.g. sticks/branches
combined with lighter fluid and rags will create a torch which will mainly
be used as a light but can also be used to burn things.
In the image to the right there is an image of
a torch, this shows one of the weapon type
objects that can be created within the game,
as I am unable to use ANY images from the
internet I am going to have to make a torch
ILR and take pictures holding it in the woods
while it is dark to actually get any decent
images to use for the next assignment, as
well as this I dont have very long to edit the
images so if I could use images from online I wouldnt be able to edit in all
of the light and shadowing myself within the deadline as I only have a few
Adobe packages and they dont really do that much.

Vehicles

Vehicles in games are quite common, especially amongst games like the
GTA series. There are thousands of different games implemented
throughout gaming history, these include basically every vehicle (car,
train, boat, plane, space shuttle etc) invented and a thousands of fantasy
ones from Marios floating clouds to giant aerial crafts on Super Smash
Bros. Just like weapons in games, I would have to write out thousands of
different games and all of the vehicles included in them if I had to go into
detail about vehicles, so the main thing is that they usually make traveling

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in video games a lot faster. The image to the right is of the car at the start
of Final Fantasy 15, this is just an example of vehicles in games.

In the game I am designing graphics for I

have not decided on if there are or arent
any vehicles, there might be an animal that
the player can use to travel around faster
later on in the game but this is not going to
be shown in the images I am making as I
cannot use ANY images I havent taken
myself so I wouldnt be able to design the
weird/horror creature I wanted to.

Environment

Environments
in video games
are what the
surroundings
are e.g. war

torn/apocalypse/town/winter/summer/raining etc. this is basically one of

the main parts to most video games, an example of this is Final Fantasy as
the game will travel around a lot and change from one environment to
another a lot, this is good as it involves a lot of change and keeps things
interesting, the image to the right is of two images of the environment
from the newer Final Fantasy 15.
These images above show how the environment sets the scene for the
game, another example of a game that changes its environment a lot is
the Last of Us, this is because it moves around a lot too and is always
traveling to different locations.

In my game I have decided to make a forest/field style environment

whereby there will mainly just be a lot of darkened forests and some filed,
this game will be a free roam as there arent really any objectives but to
survive, there will be very rarely small huts the player will randomly
find/that will randomly spawn in and the player will be able to live in them,
the player will also be able to take down/cut down the trees in order to

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gather supplies and kill the enemies or mobs in order to gather food to
survive on.

Texture art

Texture art is common in video games as texture packs are basically a

bunch of images/textures in a folder that
are assigned a code, then each of the
objects are also assigned a code, if the
code matches up then that object is
coated in that code. The image to the
right is an example that shows an object
and a texture being used together to
make an asset.
As I am creating a realistic game so I am not going to use textures, this is
mainly because this is the older method of creating games, in the game I
am creating I am planning on using the latest techonohly and softwares,
this means that when the game is released in late 2019 the graphics will
be 6K HD as the technology will have advanced since I started creating
the game.

Computer game graphics conclusion

To conclude, the sections in this task are all about graphics of games, this
is similar to artistic style as they are both
basically about what graphics are going to be
used in the game, an example of this is the
texture art section of this assignment as this is
about the game and what the objects in the
game will be covered in, the image to the right is
he image taken from the texture art section, this
image shows the art style/graphics of the well in
the game.
The main theme of this section is the game on a whole and all of the
objects and assets within the game along with what they will look like, this

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may sound similar to the first section, but at a closer look this is more
oriented around the objects and assets within the game with a small
amount of detail into what they look like.

Background graphics

In this section I am going to write about background graphics, all of the

sections below will include a description of the subheading and how it
does/does not link in with my game/graphics for my game.

Walls

The background graphics in video games can be broken down into several
different categories such as objects, walls, interactive objects, characters,
enemies, mobs etc. In this
section I am going to
describe walls, in certain
games there are building or
houses or rooms in which
the walls are going to be
detailed, an example of this
is the walls are going to be
made out of different things
e.g. wood, metal, concrete,
brick etc. The image to the
right is of Resident Evil 7,
this shows the wall that looks dilapidated

In my game there are only going to be a few hut type buildings that rarely
spawn in, these are going to be built out of wood, this means that the
walls in the game are going to be wooden.

Forests

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Forest/forest areas have been used in

thousands of games, basically this is
where the game has an area where
there is a lot of trees, an example of
this is a section in beyond two souls
where you have to escape the police
image to the right.
In the image to the right it shows the
woods as a dark place, this scene of the game also involves heavy
rain/bad weather.

Clouds

This section is going to be quite short as the clouds in video games are
mainly there to make things seem more realistic, commonly there can be
tied to the weather in video games and some next gen games will use
clouds and shadows together as clouds will cast shadows on the ground
below.
Another way to look at clouds in games is the cloud referring to an
online space where people from around the world can play and compete
with each other, in this aspect
the cloud refers to an online
aspect in games, GTA 5 is an
example of both weather clouds
in games and online clouds, the
images to the right are of
weather clouds and servers in
GTA 5.

In the game I am creating it will only be available in single player to keep

the atmosphere, however if it is requested in online a lot then I would
probably release an online version within a couple of months after the
release date.

In-game interface

The in game interface is basically what the game is like once you start it
e.g. on GTA 5 there is a section where you can access a phone and read
emails, texts, call people, access the internet and order items within the

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game, on top of this there is a pause menu

which is in the image to the right.

In the game that I am making I will design a

detailed pause menu like on GTA 5, basically
meaning I am going to have a few different
options throughout the game, I am also
going to have to make an inventory and a
way to access the inventory. Also I am going to have to make/create a way
to create items and a way to access the creating items aspect of the
game.

Head up display

This section is all about extra assets on screen, this includes assets such
as health bars, weapons, mini maps and other assets that stay on screen
while the player moves around, I have several different examples for all of
these as there are a lot of iconic and small games that include these head
up displays, to start the two main examples of health bar are doom and
super smash bros. The top image to the right is the image of Doom, the
bottom sections on the image show the health bar which is an iconic head
up display.
In short, all of the head up displays are items on screen that give the
player vital information such as health, position in the map, amount of
ammo left, sometimes controls for the game so it is easier to play and
other smaller/less used assets. The image to the right is the main head up
display in GTA 5, this shows a mini map with a health bar and stamina bar
under it, this game also includes a star
head up display that shows if the police
are hunting you down, it also includes a
phone that can be brought up and
interacted with the player and also a
weapon Hub that is shown when the
player presses one of the shoulder
buttons on the controller (L1). The image
examples of these are3 shown below and
labelled below. The image to the right
shows ALL of the head up displays, the
middle and bottom right disappear and show up with holding in a button
to bring them back up, the bottom left and top right are the two that stay
on screen all the time.

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Unit 78 Assignment 1 Ciaran Morton

Background graphics conclusion

To conclude, the background section is mainly about all of the larger

assets in the game, the walls, sky, forests etc. these are mentioned under
graphics as they are commonly used as backgrounds as they are quite
large, this means that they are good at covering up the ends of the map,
the sky is under background as unless the player is indoors the sky will be
visible above the player, this is the roof of the maps background as it
covers the roof of the map and stops the player from seeing the roof of
the map.

Print media art

In this section I am going to cover all of the sub headings listed on the first
page of this document, I am also going to specify how this links in with my
game or how it isnt linking in with my game in the paragraphs below.

Game packaging (console cover/box)

Game packaging is very important when

designing a new game, this I what is
going to be on the cover of the game.
Stereotypically the cover will include an
image from a scene from the game with
the main characters on the image and
some large font with the title, USP and
one line sales pitch for the game, the
image to the right is of a shelf at a shop
full of video game covers.
The game cover I am creating will be a
very simplistic cover of a landscape with a large building in the
background surrounded by enemies and the bottom/base of the image will
be a forest. The text/title of the game will break up the forest and the
image of a field leading to the hills where the large building is surrounded
by enemies.
Here are a few examples of game packages, these are just the images on
the outside of the games box, these images below show how the games

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were packaged, all of these will show important information like what
console/platform the game is for (e.g. PS4/Xbox 1/ PC etc.) The examples
below are from a selection of different platforms as shown on the
annotations of the box

Box cover (DVD container)

The box cover and the game packaging are the

exact same thing, the only difference is the
packaging didnt specify the box, this is the plastic
box the picture is around, these are all basically
the same apart from they might be available in
different colours. The image to the right is of a dvd
box.

As the game I am designing is a PlayStation exclusive the

box is going to be blue as PlayStation 4 games are all in
blue with the covers of the games around them.
The box covers are all different colours based on the
platforms that the game is released on, the
Xbox 1 game boxes are all green as the
Xbox logo is green, the image to the right
shows the Xbox game box.
The PlayStation box is blue as like Xbox it
follows the same colour scheme as their
logo, this image example is the blue box to the right.

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Manual

Every/most games will come with a manual, this is a small booklet telling
you how to set up everything e.g. graphics options, text options, subtitle
options, language options, difficulty options and all the other smaller
options available.

In the game I am creating I am going to have to

design a booklet type document that very
simply explains how to work and play the game
and how to use ALL of the features within the
game, an example of this is having the booklet
repeat in lots of different languages so that
there isnt a language barrier.

Label

The game label and the game cover are the EXACT
SAME THING! This is because the label is the
graphic/image displayed on the front of the cover in
the shops/shop shelves. I have already described what
this is in the cover section. The image to the right is of
a DVD/game label.
As well as already describing what the cover/label
already is I have also written on what my cover/label is
going to include.

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A3 poster

Typically, older games will have included a poster

which is a graphic or character from the game, this
was popular in the GTA series where the games
included a small poster folded up in the case of the
game. In the image to the right it shows the posters
from the GTA games. In these images to the right it
shows the posters that used to be sold with a copy of
the game, another example of this is the poster from
GTA 5 where there was an image of characters on one
side and an image of the games map printed on the
other side.

I was not planning on giving a poster with my game but I could design a
few and distribute them along with the game.

Print media art conclusion

To conclude, the print media section is basically about the packaging of

the game and the extra content in the box of the game, this includes
posters as they are additional content and also cost barely anything to
produce so it doesnt add much cost to the actual game.

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