Charlie Roberts
IMG Year 2 Portfolio
FutureProof - Job Roles
For this project, and also the next project, there are a total of five different job roles that will be needed to look into.
These roles consist of:
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Marketing
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Writing
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Art
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Audio
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​Level Design
This page will show a brief run down of what each role would involve, as well as the two roles I would like to research for this project, and then apply for during the next and final project.
Marketing
This role would include one - two members creating assets for the purpose of advertising the game. This role includes in a wide range of tasks, some of which being posters, trailers, networking, game art work.
The marketing team are also placed the responsibility of promoting the exhibition event that will be carried out at the end of the final project, which is a rather important task, as the whole reason for this event is so the public can see what the course teaches and involves. The team will need to market the product according to it's audience, to allow the maximum effectiveness of the advertisement.
Some of the tasks carried out for this role will be talked about further under the Marketing Role page (As it is a role I intend to research further).
Writing
The writers / writing team will be tasked with producing the writing tasks for the video game. These tasks would consist of the games story, the character scripts / dialogue, and also back stories.The writer(s) will also be required to work closely with all other job roles, as the work produced by the writers needs to be used to allow the other roles to create and produce effective work for their respective role. Additional tasks in the form of bonus content may need to be carried out, ranging from game guides, to story quests, to character journals.
Some of the tasks carried out for this role will be talked about further under the Writing Role page (As it is a role I intend to research further)..
​Art
The artists are tasked with producing most of / if not all of the graphical content for the game. They create the different graphics such as characters, items, buildings and even vehicles (effectively everything in the game). The artists will be required to work closely with the writing team and designers to make sure the the assets / graphics being created suit the setting and story created for them, so they actually fit in the game and work effectively. There are three main sections of work that the artists will need to carry out. These three tasks consist of concept art, asset art, and animation. One of these tasks can be prioritized over the other two (depending on the individuals interests and strengths), although each member of the art team will need to produce some sort of work for all three tasks.
One of the tasks that would be required of the artists would be 3D modeling and rigging. During the morning lesson of Friday 23rd of November, we all had a quick lesson on the basic of rigging.
To being with we added a cylinder object and scaled it by clicking the cylinder while being on the polygons tab and then using the scale tool. Then we clicked on the rigging tab, and drop down, and then selected the 'create joints' tool. Once this tool was active we could create joints within the object. This was easier to do when xray was turned on the object. Once the joints were added they needed to be combined to the object, which was carried out by:
Joints + object selected > Skin > Bind skin
Once this was complete, the joints could be rotated using the rotate tool to represent movement of the joints.
Another role that would be carried out by the artists would be modelling and animation. This would be the process of making a model have an animation for when a specific action of carried out (e.g. character walking / running animation).
During a class workshop, we got to try character animation ourselves. We were provided a ready made model, which contained the joints needed to animate a mode, and we could play around with these joints to see the different positioning and movement we could make the character model do.
Design
The design team have a wide range of tasks to carry out during the project. They are required to create level design blueprints, and then designing the world itself, importing the assets created by the art team, designing and creating the games control system (as well as any mechanics within the game, such as combat) etc. During the early stages of the project the design team are required to create prototype world designs and then during the later stages of production they are required to work on the world creation itself, but more specifically the coding of said world.
Scripting - 08/01/19
One of the tasks that would need to be carried out by those carrying out this role would be scripting within unity. This is where an object is given a specific function or task.
For this tutorial task, we needed to make a light that would turn on when the space bar was pressed.
To begin with we opened up unity and created two 3D objects. the fist being a plane, and the second being a sphere. We then moved the sphere so that it wasn't merging with the plane.
The next object we created was an empty object, which we renamed to 'Light'.
Next we needed to make it so the object named 'Light' was actually a light. this was carried out by, with the 'Light' object selected:
Add component > Render > Light.
Now we had a light object that was just constantly there. However we wanted to make it so the light only came on when the space bar was being pressed. To do this, we then needed to create a script.
First, of course, we needed to create a script:
Right click in assets panel > create > C# Script
Once this script was created, we then needed to change was the script contained. To do this the script was opened (double clicking on it). The script could then be edited to make the light object do what we wanted.
Now we had a light object that was just constantly there. However we wanted to make it so the light only came on when the space bar was being pressed. To do this, we then needed to create a script.
First, of course, we needed to create a script:
Right click in assets panel > create > C# Script
Once this script was created, we then needed to change was the script contained. To do this the script was opened (double clicking on it). The script could then be edited to make the light object do what we wanted.
Since it was a tutorial, we were shown what we needed to implement into the script to make the light work as intended, but we were told the key things to remember when writing scripts.
This was that when a '{' was used, always enter the closing '}' before writing what that section of script involves. This is because the script needs to know what section each '{' and '}' are for.
If the code were to be translated, it would basically say that if the space bar is pressed, the light will turn on. Then if the conditions are anything else (e.g. space bar not pressed) the light would remain turned off.
After this the light worked as intended, where when the space bar was pressed, the light would turn on. And if it wasn't pressed the light would remain off. Although there were still some additional elements that can be played around with, such as the intensity of the light and the could. Both of which i changed.
I changed the lights colour to red, so it was more visible, and then changed the lights intensity to 5.
Audio
The audio team will be responsible for the sounds used within the game. The types of audio that they would produce would include Foley sounds, soundtracks, and even soundscapes.The audio team has the important task of creating sounds that effectively reflect the characters / world, and help set the atmosphere of the game on a level that the other roles cannot do.
My interests and thoughts on these roles
After looking into the roles available for the next project I have a better idea of the work that would need to be carried out for each respective role. Before looking into any of the roles, I had thought that I didn't really have any interest in any of the roles, meaning I was rather stuck when it came to picking the two roles I'd like to try to go for when the final project arrives.
However, after looking into the different roles, I can at least narrow down my choices, as there are various tasks that I would struggle to produce effective work for.
One role I feel would be difficult for me to carry out would be sound design. I feel as this would be a rather difficult and unsuitable job role as I currently have very limited experience on sound design software (Audacity), and have no musical skills in terms of instruments.
Another role that I feel is unsuitable for me would be the art team. I feel like I would produce work that I could be happy with as the only designs I have modeled were simple low poly assets. Additionally, my art skills are rather lacking, meaning a section of this role (being concept art) would be rather difficult for me to complete at a high level.
After this I was left with three roles that have somewhat of an appeal to me. One of these role is the design team / level design team. This somewhat appeals to me as for the first project we were required to created level design blueprints and then try to create a level / world using that blueprint, and because of this, by using my current knowledge I'd have a better idea of what is required of me when doing this task. However, the coding aspect of this role would need to be researched and learnt so I could carry out the work when needed.
Another role that appealed to me was the writing team. However, my reason for this appealing to me was different than the others. When thinking about the games I play and enjoy, I thought of League of Legends (Riot Games, 2013). This game is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) and therefore lacks a main story line. However, what interests me, and appeals to me is the lore (backstory) that has been created for each individual character within the game. Before my phase of reading the champion lores, I would say I had little to limited interest in writing, and the effect it can have. but after reading about the fictional characters that had such a deep and interesting story, I am rather interested in the role of writing, to see if I could create a similar character that interests people not because of the gameplay, but because of the character(s) themselves.
The final role that had somewhat of an appeal to me would be the marketing role. Although I have mixed feeling about this role. Currently, my skills on the software that would be needed for this role (Photoshop and Illustrator) are rather lacking. However, on a personal level I do have some interest in the different forms of marketing. Additionally, I feel as though marketing would be a good life skill to learn / gain experience in, as I'm currently unsure as to whether to continue games design at university, but marketing could have a wide range of uses.
The Two Roles I Will Be Aiming For (Currently)
After looking into the five different roles that will be included in the final project, and the world needed for said roles, my current decision for the two roles that I will be aiming for are:
1. Writer
2. Marketer
I have went with the role of writer first, as I feel that this role is the most achievable for me out of the two. I know for a fact that I would be required to do quite a bit of research to allow me to gain a greater understanding of how to carry this role out effectively, but I feel as though I could carry this role out.
My main inspiration is definitely the character stories for League of Legends (Riot Games, 2013) as it is these stories that actually give me the motivation to read (which is in turn thanks to the game, which I thoroughly enjoy).
The second role I will be aiming for / applying for is the role or marketer. I have decided to go with this role,as I feel that the skills gained from this role would be extremely useful in any industry, which would be useful as a life long skill. However, as mentioned earlier, my skills in the software are rather basic at the moment. However, hopefully they will develop during the course of this project, and be at a level where I could produce effective work.