David Merrill demos Siftables

Model with Intent

I’ve had the opportunity of managing a number of interns at 3E Games and I recently asked an intern about his experience working with us this summer. He mentioned how he wasn’t accustomed to having to be a perfectionist with his work. In his only prior experience working with a team to develop a game he did not have to build 3d models in any particular fashion thus he seems to encounter some difficulty in understanding how and why he should touch up his models with greater consideration and precision.

I was a little surprised by his interpretation of the techniques I had been teaching him. I wanted for him to understand why I wanted him to model so attentively because while it is my job to get the interns to produce useful art assets it is also important they learn to improve their craft, and I have always genuinely wanted for my interns to learn something valuable from their experience working with me. After giving it some thought I realized where I had gone wrong; I mistakenly referred to my techniques and criticism as “nitpicky”. While I used the term jokingly, it gave him the impression that my criticisms shouldn’t be taken seriously or that they were merely petty opinions.

Based on my experience of having interned at Illusion Studio Inc and having read numerous articles and online discussions constructively criticizing particular models or detailing effective modeling techniques, I’ve noticed that most modelers in the industry model with great intent and consideration. What I mean by intentional modeling is that every vertex in the model has to exist for a reason, not just because the software happened to create the geometry a certain way. For instance, when you chamfer an edge (or perform a similar editing function on geometry) the software may create extraneous vertices around neighboring edges or just strange, incidental geometry. The software, as useful as it is, doesn’t have the design or practical sense of cleaning up the geometry or creating it in the most functional way. The software doesn’t know any better, but the modeler does. A modeler must construct 3d objects consciously and with purpose to where, as I said, every vertex must exist in space for a reason. If a vertex does not have a reason for being where it is it should be removed. The same goes for creating new vertices; if there is an area on the model that needs more definition so that it reads better—so that it gives a more accurate, realistic, or characteristic appearance to the object—new vertices should be created where necessary. It’s true that this can be more time consuming but it refines one's aesthetic sensibility and helps optimize the model for gameplay.

In general, it is always good to be conscious of anything we encounter, whether it’s an emotion we’re feeling, an event we’re witnessing, or something we’re creating. In order to learn, it must be understood that it's not perfectionism or trivial criticism, but rather an astute sense of aesthetic judgment. This is something I think all modelers and artists must learn, strive for, and practice.

Informatics: Improving the World Through Videogames

As entertaining as they are, I’ve long seen videogames as a unique medium with which to create interactive works of art. Most similarly to films, everything comes into play with videogames—graphic art and design, music and sound, storytelling, voice/gestural acting, and more. Lately my view of videogames has expanded even further whereby I believe they have the potential to improve society.

For instance, Jane McGonigal (Reality is Broken) sees videogames as an incredibly powerful tool in activating inherent desires. In her studies, she has laid out four reasons for why people play games: the ability to have satisfying work with a clear goal and sense of purpose, the opportunity for growth and betterment with timely and propitious feedback for accomplishments, interaction with peers where teamwork and trust is rewarded, and a sense of greater purpose, real meaning, or community, where individual actions contribute to a larger and more meaningful resolve. McGonigal believes that by understanding these motivations videogames can be used to help our society do more fulfilling work with more meaningful payoffs. If that idea seems a bit unrealistic, take a look at this: Games that Launch Companies, Games that Heal: Q&A with Jane McGonigal.

There are still more examples of real world applications of informatics (defined by Indiana University’s School of Informatics and Computing as “the art, science and human dimensions of information technology). Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy has been used to help soldiers recover from post-traumatic stress disorder. The simulation technology allows therapists to safely expose patients to potentially traumatic-event experiences slowly and progressively. In doing this patients are allowed to more effectively interpret emotionally arousing stimuli and overcome some of the challenges or fear responses of PTSD.

And then there is of course exergaming, which may have been the unintentional result of games like Dance Dance Revolution. After the Wii was released developers took quickly to the idea of producing games that encourage exercise or movement. Lending to its success, parents appreciate the games as much as their children and many have purchased the Wii specifically to use exergames games such as Wii Fit.

Videogame art and design is one of my passions, but I do believe that some games are more helpful to society or more meaningful than others. I want to put my time and effort into something that will positively contribute to the community and improve the world as we know it.

Casual Games Guiding the Industry

Over the past decade, the videogame industry has made some tremendous strides that have enveloped it into our mainstream media and culture like never before. What used to be the typical vision of a pasty-faced, pimply, four-eyed nerd is now merely an out of touch stereotype; today's videogamers are everywhere and anyone.

For a while, in the late 90s, games had been focusing on better graphics and more visceral experiences. It was a natural progression as technology advanced, and many gamers were excited about “next-gen” titles that boasted life-like ultra-realism. One game in particular that is emblematic of this period is Crysis, a first person shooter whose major hook was its advanced graphics engine. Upon the game’s release it gained exceedingly high praise from most reviewers, but the bias of such reviews is questionable, not only because most of the reviewers’ largest advertisers is Crysis’ publisher, EA, but also because the game proved to ultimately have no lasting effect. Some reviewers saw past the graphics and understood the game for what it turned out to be, with one reviewer saying “Crysis is like the gal that guys love to look at, only her Mensa score complements her measurements” (Elliott, 2007). Overall it is a well made game and delivered on its promise of graphic realism, but it lacked memorable gameplay and served as an eye opener for the industry that graphics are not all that is important in making a great videogame. As next-gen games began reaching their peak, others in the industry had already strayed away from this to create games with more ease of access which would spur an unprecedented change in the industry.

Casual games allow people to jump into them and play without having to spend too much time learning controls or following an elaborate plot, and the Wii and mobile devices brought casual games to the masses like no other platforms had before them. The Wii’s remote, which was largely underestimated at the time, allowed for people not used to playing games to pick up a controller and use it more intuitively than a standard console controller, where the characters in the game easily match the natural movements performed by the player. The Wii therefore brought into the fold a demographic that wouldn't otherwise play videogames. Mobile phones have also helped bring casual games to a larger audience. Now, when someone who normally wouldn't consider himself a gamer finds himself waiting for a bus or business meeting, he might download a game onto his phone to pass the time. No longer do people have to sit at home hooked up to a video game console to be gamers. Mobile games have existed for a while, but they're a lot more established now and have become a big market.

Because of the casual players the Wii brought into the industry, other platforms that feature more involved games and that require a higher level of player commitment, such as the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, have begun to lose momentum. For a while, the PC platform was thought to lose popularity, but, with casual gamers putting the Wii console in the lead, it is not unreasonable to predict the hardcore gamers moving from consoles to the PC, where multiplayer games have gained the most popularity with intense online shooters such as Call of Duty: Black Ops and MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft (Noer, 2008).

While the industry had largely been dominated by experienced hardcore gamers, it's now time to welcome causal gamers with open arms and understand how this demographic is advancing the industry.

Resources:

1. Noer, M. (2008). The Future of Videogames. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/08/future-video-games-tech-future07-cx_mn_de_0211game.html
2. Elliott, S. (2007) Crysis. Retrieved from http://www.1up.com/reviews/crysis