Online Portfolio

danieljturnerportfolio.weebly.com

Portfolios - Tailoring Them To Companies

The two companies I had chosen to tailor portfolios are very different so I needed to think about what work to include.

For an application to an indie developer I think that it would be important to show a diverse array of knowledge and work, whereas for the larger company show more specialized work. This is because in indie companies most employers have two or more roles and being flexible is a good advantage; however in the large companies job roles are more specialized so it’s good to come across that you have exceptional skills in a chosen field.

This is why for Lunar Software I included more rigging and animation work, even though it is not amazing and far from being that of a professional animator standard it shows that I have knowledge outside of my environment art specialization. I also included some art from a game project which has a completely different style to the rest of my work to show that I am capable of other art directions.

For CCP I kept all the work related to the art and theme of space and sci-fi to show the best of what I can do in a project like EVE Online.

Below are a couple of examples I used.


Lunar portfolio examples:

 

CCP portfolio examples:

 



CV

Company Analysis - AAA

It took me a while to find a company which I felt would suit my skill set and main portfolio pieces but CCP are the creators of the massively popular EVE Online, a spaceship themed game seemed like a wise choice. I found out a lot from there website as they have wrote a lot about the companies admissions and goals. This can be found here:
http://www.ccpgames.com/en/company/about-us

Below is a report on CCP in under 250 words.

CCP is a video game developer and publisher with studios worldwide. The company has approximately six hundred employees across six locations.

CCP was founded in 1997 with the aim creating a massively multiplayer game and becoming a world leader in the MMO scene.

There first game EVE Online was released in May 2003 and has won numerous awards and critical praise worldwide establishing CCP at the forefront of the MMO genre. This could be because of their approach and view on how these types of games should be created and what they should achieve. They believe that MMO’s are ‘virtual realities’ which are for creating experiences unable to be attained in other forms of media.

CCP ‘encourage respect, dialog, interaction and cooperation on a deeper level between its employees and customers’ to develop and maintain the quality that their fans have come to expect.

As well as the games they produce CCP also have built what they have named the Carbon Framework. Carbon is the code all CCP games run on and has been developed over the years through testing and real world use, something they call ‘battle testing’. This in house engine and source code isn’t available to use by any other studio.

CCP merged with publishing giant White Wolf in 2006, this move allowed physical products such as strategy guides, enhanced collectable card games, role-playing systems, and novels based on EVE Online world to be produced.

Company Analysis - Indie

To research and discover more about this small indie developer I browsed the companies web site and Steam Greenlight aswell as its own site, links below:

http://www.lunar-software.com/

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92985806

http://www.routinegame.com/

Below is a report on Lunar Software in under 250 words.

Lunar Software is an independent games company situated in the UK near Preston. The entire team consists of three people.

The company was founded by Aaron Foster while he worked part time at a teaching job at University. It was here that while working on a prototype an idea formed which inspired his first game, and lead to the founding of Lunar Software with Aarons partner Jemma Hughes. Shortly after commencing work on this new idea they agreed that to take the game to the next level a programmer was required for more complex game mechanics and gameplay. A programmer approached them and after working on his game for several months he was taken on board. Now the team of three have set up a small studio at home.

The company has no released games to date but is currently working on a horror survival style game which takes place in an abandoned moon base. The game is titled Routine and has been Greenlit on Steams Greenlight and has built up a large following of fans who are anticipating its release on steam in the future.

The game is built using UDK, a game engine which has recently became more popular with indie developers.

The team has recently stated however that the project has begun to go under a redesign which has inevitably increased the amount of content and work needed for release, causing the project estimated milestones to be pushed back.

Research - Current Market and Competitive Analysis

After presenting the three concepts to others and tutors I collated the feedback from each idea and found that the most popular was Systems of Influence.

This real time strategy game isn't like others but there are a few games which have some similarities even if they are minor or used in another way to my idea.


Sins of a Solar Empire

Genre: Real Time Strategy
Developer: Ironclad Games
Publisher: Stardock

Summary:

In Sins of a Solar Empire, you are the leader of a civilization embroiled in a galactic war, fighting for the survival of your entire race against relentless foes. Your success will depend entirely on your ability to manage your empire and command your vast fleets of starships to victory.

What it is comprised of:

• Exploring the map, keeping intel on enemies recent and scouting new planets.
• Resource gathering, collect the three resources required to build and construct.
• Attack enemies in large scale battles, the game is mainly combat focused.
• Upgrade planets directly or build supporting structure in orbit.
• Research new abilities.

Conclusion:

Sins of a Solar Empire is a deep and tactical game with many areas of gameplay from combat, construction, resources and research. It shares a similar theme with systems of influence in the fact that its set in space and in solar systems. This is where the similarities end, Sins is a rts heavily focused on combat and is a complex pc title aimed at rts fans and hardcore players.

What I am trying to do with Systems of Influence is create a easier more casual game to ease new players into the rts genre and offer hardcore fans a more relaxed quick match gaming option.

Star Wars: Empire at War

Genre: Real Time Strategy

Developer: Petroglyph Game

Publisher: Lucas Arts

Summary:

Star Wars: Empire at War is a real-time strategy game that takes place in the Star Wars universe. The game features a brand new style of play to make things a bit more realistic. Instead of building workers, gathering resources, and recruiting individual units, players are granted resources based on how many planets the player controls. Controlling worlds increases a player's cash flow and provide unique bonuses depending on the planet.

What it is comprised of:

· Battles both in space and on planets.

· Managing planets and resources.

· Offensive and Defensive bonuses.

· Construction of bases during planet side battles.

Conclusion:

Star Wars Empire at War may of been one of the first rts games of last generation to change the way units and resources are gathered and may have well even inspired later games. The way planets generate a certain amount of resources depending on various factors is somewhat how the planets work in Systems of Influence however in my game concept this resource income is also affected by the structures and abilities that players use.

Star Wars EaW also features space battles and a heavier focus on combat over Systems of Influence and the Star Wars brand may have turned off a few players.

Development - Concept Documents

Here are three concept documents based upon my initial game ideas.

Global Havoc:

Systems of Influence:

Stand Off:

Development - Initial Game Ideas

Based upon my report on the Threat of Nuclear War from last semester I began to come up with several game ideas, these ideas are not detailed or fully fleshed out. I came up with five ideas, my main aim to summarize the game concept within one or two sentences as I felt that if I needed more that the idea wasn't concise enough or I didn't know what direction I was going in.

Although the game concepts are based upon a report about the threat of nuclear war on governments and populations this didn't mean my idea had to be about nuclear war or stick to a strict theme set out by my report. Some of the ideas listed below play with ideas of propaganda, influences and deterrence which I briefly touched upon within the report.

Idea 1

Genre: Management

Summary: The player assumes control of a small secret base which can be upgraded, expanded and customised. The aim is to use available resources to control civilian populations around the world with a variety of events ranging from subliminal messages in TV advertisement too Mayan dooms day events.

The goal of all this is too create panic and unarrest around the globe with the use of threat to the world in the end goal of sparking conflicts, riots and general havoc.

Idea 2

Genre: FPS/ Multiplayer

Summary: A fast paced online fps in which teams must infiltrate military bases and destroy ICBM’s before they are launched.

Idea 3

Genre: RTS/ Multiplayer

Summary: Players each represent an ideology/culture and must use tactics to spread their ideology across planets and solar systems.

Three factors control an ideologies influence on a planet: economic, cultural and military. These three factors also come into play when two ideologies conflict on the same planet/ continent players can engage in economic, cultural, and military struggle to try to eradicate the influence of the other ideology.

Special events and tactics can be employed to aid in the spread or defend a player’s ideology such as military deployment, propaganda, nuclear threat, etc.

Idea 4

Genre: FPS

Summary: Teams collect resources and construct powerful weapons in each of their main bases. Once constructed the weapon can be fired at any area one the map excluding the main team bases. The area which the weapon effects once detonated becomes hostile to the enemy teams for a short period but has no effect on the team who owned the weapon.

Idea 5

Genre: Survival

Player is put in a post nuclear war environment with a small shelter. The goal of the game is to survive for as long as possible. Items can be collected to craft and upgrade tools and building materials.

The main threat in this world is from other humans. Deterrence is the best defence. Just holding a gun will make you a greater threat and deter other characters, even if the gun contains no ammo.

Project Plan