Year 2 Research / Log for game

This project we are asked to create a game mainly focusing on the mechanics of the game and the core game style.  I have started to look at certain games with the 3d and 2d look to them, also looked in the core game style of them and what sort of mechanics they have with them.

I have looked into terraria and i have looked at how the could of been created, the mechanics of the game and the core game style. I am recently playing terraria so i am very familiar with the game aspects which we are meant to cover within the project and apply within our own game. Terraria is a 2d sandbox which has no win or loss factor to it, so is it a game? I would say no because a game with a win or loss factor is because you are able to achieve the win the game or not. However terraria on the other hand does not, due to its massive exploration and repetitive game style it is not classed as a game, it is a sandbox. The main objective of the game is to collect certain items, such as go mining and get ores which ables to upgrade certain weapons to help you survive. The game has spawning feature, however allows you to choose a certain mode to play on which gives you different out comes on your items when dieing.



Journey is another exploration game where you go through different environments and survive. However at the end of the game if you repay it the story will change. I found out the second i played it that i was helping other people survive not figuring out myself. The game allows you to roam freely and choose your own path ways. It is more about the exploration on the story.
The art style within the game is very unique because the environment and objects within the game have been drawn digital and then put into a game as sprites. The art is done using many different medias, however the most popular one would be photoshop due to its extended software uses and professional tools added to the software to give you better quality work.

Art Styles

I have started to look in  depth with the core art style of the game and what i would like mine to be like. I have looked at game such as trine which is a 2d platform game, However has a 3d effect to it with give it depth and a optical illusion look.  The colours also are very vibrant and colourful which makes it look very aesthetically and attracts you to the game.

I like the game art of terraria because it is very simple texture but makes the game very addictive. The textures are simple but there i many different colour to make it very aesthetically pleasing.

The texture of the objects can be very simple or high resolution like the game  elder scrolls online.



The elder scrolls online is a exploration game which has had detailed textures which give a different aspect to the game, for instance it gives and more serious feel to the game and gives it depth unlike terraria. Elder Scrolls online is 3d game so it has had to time and effort put into it so the out come will become much greater.



Log and Medias 

Log: For the first week i started to do a mind map and come up with some thoughts and process for my game. I started to choose what my game way going to be able as a basic thought and came up with the ideas of an exploration / puzzle game.

For the second week of my project i started to sketch down certain ideas and designs for character and environments. I know that my game was going to be a exploration game to i chose to d different environments such as a desert , jungle and waterfall styled one to give it a imaginative idea.

The third week, instead of focusing on my environments i started to come up with monster ideas and character for my main character within the game. I used the game call binding of Issac to reefer back to when coming up with ideas because the game has many different and unusual monster / character through out the game which helped. I look at the monster and then started to do some pages of my own ideas instead of relating it to the game.

The Four week of the project i started to look at the art styles of what my game could be portrayed as and what types of medias i was going to use to do that. I started to look at photoshop because i wanted my game to have a cartoon effect but also have depth and tone to the characters and environment so i thought photoshop would be a great media to use. However i still wanted to experience using other media so i and a go at using acrylic paints for my a jungle environment and also used pencil, to sketch out ideas do do some final pieces with. I personal found acrylic paints quite hard to use, however this will not stop me from practising with them and become more found of how they are applied on paper and the techniques used to portray certain piece of Art.

Week five was the week of where i started to produce my final design pieces of my game i mainly focused on the art style of the game, environments and character because i think that i can be able to explain for about my game with the key aspects in it.

 Week 6 / 7 was where i started to finish off my work and look at what i could improve so it will be easier to self evaluate my work. I also started to think about how i was going to present my work on the board to present to my tutor. Then i mounted all my work to present to my tutor and explained about my game and the final designs.

final model rendered print screens

These are a front view and side view of my rendered and textured final sword design. I have made the textures bright and vibrant to make it stand out. It is amined at a king beserker warrior so i made certain parts of the sword gold to make it look wealthy.

Final Year Project Research

Fantasy reseach and artists

This is my moodboard which has helped me to understand more about fantasy and what kind of technical design i want to make. I have decided to choose to make a 3D model which is going to be a detailed sword, so i researched images which could help me bring a design together. I have chosen drak imags and ones with sharp edges becasue i want my sword to be detaied and related to choas/deamons.

I started to reseach about certian artists which are in the fantasy theme and how they use certian medias to protray there images with imagination. All the games such as Skyrim, Lord of the rings, Dark souls, Finsl fantasy all have artist which have came up with the ideas for them and this is what i am going to lean towards.

Yoshitaka Amano
Yoshitaka Amano  is the artist for all the final fantasy games, he is a japense artist and he specialises in character design, coustum design, illustarter and scenic designer. He worked for many compaines which he specialised in, however in the 1990's he became independent and started to create series of games which the were the final fantasy games. Yoshittaka Amano uses different medias but mainly uses paints and pens for all of his drawings.

This is a image of the man himself. The image shows that Yoshitaka Amano uses fine linesa to create detail within the drawing but also to create a fluqid background with thicker pens. In this image you can see that Amano is starting to add the detail within the drawing to make it stand out and more proffesional. Amano uses watercolours for the background to make it blend in with the fine liners to make it look proffessional.



This is an image of a piece of art that Amano did for the final fantasy game. In this image he used water colours for the basic colours to blend them together to make it look fluid and contrasting. Then  he would go over the fine edges and detail with a varitey of fine liners to bring depth to the draing and give each paret a sharp look to make it look professioanl and real.

How ever this is a drawing that is also done by Amano. He uses a

differnet way of expressing his imagination on to by with watercolours.

As this image shows  he has used a fine brush and statred to build up the layers using not so much colour but more water to make it blend with the imagr and give it a fluffy effect. This allow you to be able to focues on the main parts of the image such as the characters becasue, he has gone over them with pencil and fine liners to give them depth from the background. I am going to try and copy this artits style, of the way he uses his medias. I will do an image of my fianl sword design using these medias and copy his style of how he applys it the the paper.

Ray lederer

Ray lederer is the artist for the skyrim game. He designed most of the megority of the game from the: setting within the game; the weapons and content and also the weaponms and hbow it is displayed. He had a massive imapct on how the game was designed so i wanted to focus on him because of that and also because he uses mainly photoshop or any other digital art software to create a finalised image. I want to be able to create a final sword drawing however using his style of photoshop.

 This is an image of one of his piece of art that he has designed. As you can see he as built up his layer gradually to give the drawing depth. He has used light colours for the background and drak colours for the charcters in the middle to make thne stand out more and make you focus on that straight away.

This image is also designed using photoshop. When designing my final sowrd using photshop i am going to copy the style of this artist by looking at how he used certain textures to create the 3d effect with the bevel of the blade. I will also use a different colour to red to bring the darker shades of colours out of the page and give the image depth. I will focus on whioch way the light source is coming from the page and aplly the diffent tones of colours depending on that. The light source in this image is com ing from the top left on the page so this artist has made the otherside of the image darker.

After researching about the way different artists use certain medias it has made it more confident when i am going to create my own images with these stylle and also helped me realise that art is all around us and can be applyed in many different ways. I have allwaysed used pecil when createing a image but noiw learinign about this it has helped me come out of my comfortzone and want to practice and experiment for with different types of medias.

2D Game project evaluation and Media evaluation.

Evaluation of 2d game project

I first started out this project by researching about educational games and what was are on the market today. This was really helpful because it gave me a feel of what kind of game I can create. We were allowed to create a game from the age range of 14 and under. I decided to choose a game which was aged around 9-10 years old because when researching around that age the violence and way the game style is fits perfectly with my game I was thinking about. I knew that I wanted a platform game so I looked at the style of platform games and how they work however; also thinking about how I can incorporate the colours and theme of my game with the platform look.

When I started to draw out my initial ideas, came up with different characters for my game, what my game could be about, the colours I was going to use. I had a little go on the software which we was going to use which was could construct 2. I wanted to see how the platform mechanics work, the 8 direction mechanics, and the click and move worked. I came up with a page of ideas for this style of games and decided to still stick with my platform idea. I also drew ideas for my character I was going to use, the questions and what the game was going to be based on. I then started to development on these 3 pages of initial ideas and annotate them in detail. This then helped me come up with my final game levels which I drew out. This part of the project went well, I made sure my drawings were detailed and there was enough drawing to help me come up with 2 good levels. I add colours to the two final pages to emphasis how much my game would stand out and be appropriate the age I was targeting at. After these concept drawings it made it much easier for me to start on my game and do the mechanics within the software.

Making the game was the best part of the project because I enjoyed making the game and learning how other the tools can make a 2d game for phones and smart tablets. I first started to practice using the software so I could understand how to make a simple character and platform which would then lead me in the direction to start making the base of my game. It took me 3 weeks overall to make my game, it consisted of a start menu, instruction page, level1, level2 and an ending screen. I wanted to make it a very interactive game and not just forced with education. So I make it very interactive but adding questions which you had to answer by looking at facts. You had to answer questions in different way which made it more interactive and exiting for the player. The mechanics of the game was pretty hard but after my second week of using the software I started to learn how to do advanced thing without having to research it. For example near the end of my game I wanted to be able to have a pickup which then, would allow you to use a lever to make a platform go down. I figured that out within 5 minutes of thinking of the idea because I felt I was advanced at the game and the mechanics. I drew out all of my game from Photoshop which took most of my time to do but I think it paid off because I did it all from scratch.

I used 3 types of medias within my 2d game project; Photoshop, pencil/coloured and pastels.

I used Photoshop for all my game drawings and image because it helped me come up with ideas for my game and it was much easier to express my imagination on the page. The advantages of Photoshop is that there are so many tools you can use, which helps you create detailed to simple and basic drawings.

I used pencil/coloured Pencil for all of my drawing on paper. I used pencil because it is great to use on paper because it allows you to go into great detail and create image which cannot be created with pen. You can shade and blend with then which bring images to life and makes them look professional. The coloured pencils helped me emphasis how colourful my character of my game was going to be and the environment.

I also had people test my game. I made feedback sheets for them so it would be much easier for them to fill in. I asked certain questions which would give me the best feedback possible. I got good rating from them and they have helped me improve on certain points. I have added for questions in my game and change the collision of the character so it runs smoothly 

2D Game project research and first thoughts and ideas.

2D Educational Game Research

2D educational games are a great way to get young ages to learn about certain subjects without making it boring.  There are many 2d educational games for all ages in the retail industry which help with different subjects within the school policy.

The Main retail 2D games which help with all ages are Brain trainer, Cooking Mama, Sudoku, Art

Academy and free games on the computer such as the BBC bit size website which is a website for all ages which want to learn about education but by playing games. When I was going through my years of school education I used this website and the games on there were puzzle, maths, science and English games.

Brain trainer: Brain trainer is a game for the Nintendo ds game and is aimed at all ages which teaches you about Maths, English and memory. It is a game which allows you to change the settings to your personal standards, such as change the difficulty of the questions and also test you on how clever you are gives you a rating and what age you are working at. This is a great feature because it allows you to be more competitive and train yourself to be for clever. The instructor in the game is called ‘Dr Kawahima’ and he talks you through all the game and gives you tips on how to improve your mental arithmetic’s.

Cooking Mama: Cooking Mama is a game for the Nintendo ds/Wii, it teaches you how to cook certain food, manage your time when cooking E.G How long a cooker has to be on for. It also teaches you what food it healthy and unhealthy. The game is aimed at 3-10 year olds which allows them to have a generally knowledge of cooking and how the process works for future references. It is a 2dgame which is cartoony and colourful which makes it aesthetically pleasing for a younger audience.

Sudoku: Sudoku is a game which tests you with your use of numbers. It is aimed at 12 year olds and up, you have to fill in a square with number from 1-9 and have to only have that number within the rows around it or the

number will be in the wrong place. The game takes patients and hard mental numeracy but when you complete it you feel proud and it keeps your brain active which is great for teenagers up to elderly people. 

This is an example of what Sudoku looks like and how you have to complete it. There are different settings which you can customise to suit your metal difficulty of the puzzles, such as the number of squares you have to complete and the amount of numbers you have to use within each box. It is not suitable for young children because it Is a very complex puzzle game.

Advantages and disadvantages

There are many positive points towards educational games. It helps you to concentrate better because you are enjoying playing the game without realising you are learning different key points for a certain subject within your education. The educational games are great for young children aged 3-11 because they get distracted easily so this is a great way to keep them focused and learn with ease.

The disadvantages of educational games is that some students can get distracted very easily because they do not the game as seriously so they don’t learn anything to do with education. In a way it is a way of getting out of education for some people.

What the game could be about?

I have looked at certain subjects what my game could be about. Maths, English, science and history are the topics which I want to choose out of. After researching about history educational games, I found out that they could be about flags to important dates or even important events. This helps me because it gives me a better view of what my game could be about. There are many educational games about maths science and English because they are the 3 main subjects you have to learn at school.

The game styles which I could use?

After I had a look at the software I am going to use I found out that there is 3 types of game styles you can have Platform, 8 Direction and Click and Drag. I researched on the internet about these styles of games and there are many educational games use drag and click, so I want to either create a game around platform or 8 Direction gameplay style.

This are the icons within the software which I am going to use. I have got images of these to show how they looked and link that with my reseach. These are great features within the software because now I can start to think of what game style I want to use and expand on my initial ideas.

Basic thoughts/ideas

After looking over my research and what kind of games are out there, I have decided to create an educational platform game which you have to answer questions related to History and maths. When you answer the certain question correct your will be allowed to pass through certain doors, however if you answer the question incorrectly you will have to face a certain consequence. The game will be aimed at 9 year old because the colours and the game style will be mordant violence suitable for a young age.

This is an image of how the games colours will make it aesthetically pleasing and will attract a young audience which my game is based at. I want to give my game a retro kind of theme to make it follow the platform style games.

I have research what aspects are in an 9 year old rated game and started to come  up with some initial ideas on paper and what my could be about. After researching about educational games and what certain aspects are in them I found it easier to come up with ideas for my game and now understand how appropriate my game has to be for a 9 year old.

I am still not sure what subject my game is going to be about but I am slowly coming up with initial on paper and what my could be about. After researching about educational games and what certain aspects are in them I found it easier to come up with ideas for my game and now understand how appropriate my game has to be for a 9 year old.

Primary and secondary images research science fiction

There are two types of images primary and secondary

Primary images
A primary image means that it is an original image. It means it is a record of event written, spoken or photograph by a eyewitness or near the time of the event. It also means recorded by first hand knowledge of the facts.

This is a image of the original Mona Lisa which is in a museum in paris. This is an example of primary imagery because it is the original Mona lisa which makes it a primary image; however this is took by someone so it is secondary image because it is not the original and not took near the time of the painted was finished. This also can stop copy right because you will be about to tell between primary and secondary imagery.



Secondary images
A secondary image means that it is not a original. It is a written record of the event that was created long after the event occurred. Usually by someone not directly associated with the event.
Secondary sources is mainly photographs because they are taken after you have already captured the moment in reality.

When i research concept art i use them for ideas to create my own ideas which then would be primary imagery because it is different from the original.

photo shop final horror enviroment. (Darkness)

Evaluation of project

Overall i enjoyed this project and how it was based on horror. It was a challenge to create a map following the different ways a horror map is presented however i think i create a small but good map that followed most of the horror genre features. I think that my drawing were good and i came up with some ideas for each phobia. I liked using all the different types of medias and learning how to use different techniques when applying them to paper.

Through out the project i came across a lot of challenges. It was very hard a first to get to grips and understand the basic of UDK. I had to research sometimes on how to do certain things within udk because it was difficult and always a challenge however I was progressing and learning different bit as i was going along.

This is an image of my kismet, this is one of the thing which i struggled with and took some time to get to grips with. I went on the internet and research how to add a torch into the game, also how to add moving doors. However i had to ask my tutor for help because i struggled to make to wall come together and kill you on kismet. It took some time to figure out but in the end my tutor showed me an example of in in udk which helped me a lot.

Overall i think that my project went well and i have learnt the basics of udk and how kismet is a big part within it. I still find kismet hard for a few thing but i have been practicing and figuring out thing for my self.  If i had to do this project again i would make my map a bit longer so it was not as short and easy to play, even though the project was about how i could use udk and what i have learnt from it. I would also add more jump scares.  I would also come up with some more initial ideas and development of ideas to help me come up with more ideas for my map.

Feed back from level testing.

Horror game test sheet   Name: Reece Foster

Tester: Alex

What rating would you give the game out of 5 and why?

4/5

What did you find good about the game?

The setting was good, nicely populated. The metal statues are ominous and I felt like something was going to happen involving them.

What could be needed for improvements?

Make it a bit longer so you can include more scares, maybe use more sounds to build up tension as terror is worse than horror as a feeling. Didn’t get that the phobia was claustrophobia.

Overall what did you like about the game and why?

What I already said.

Horror game test sheet   Name: Reece Foster

Tester: Arran

What rating would you give the game out of 5 and why?

4.5 This is because it is well done but there could be some improvements made.

What did you find good about the game?

I thought the sounds in the game were good. The map made me feel claustrophobic which the level was designed for.

What could be need for improvements?

There could be more challenges rather than just walking.

Overall what did you like about the game and why?

I thought overall the map was good and well done. The jump scare was good and the wall crush at the end was a nice addition.

Horror game test sheet   Name: Reece Foster

Tester: Ashely

What rating would you give the game out of 5 and why?

3 because it made me feel claustrophobic in the small areas

What did you find good about the game?

I liked the graveyard it adds tension

What could be need for improvements?

More jump scares

Overall what did you like about the game and why?

It was good, a lot of claustrophobia and darkness

Horror game test sheet   Name: Reece Foster

Tester: Karl

What rating would you give the game out of 5 and why?

3.9

What did you find good about the game?

The use of sound and only one jump scare which is good as too many jump scares can bore players and there is good tension

What could be need for improvements?

More lighting

Overall what did you like about the game and why?

Good level, good sounds and good use of the player moving around a course e.g the crouching and dropping to a new level.

 Horror game test sheet    Name: Reece Foster

Tester: Luke

What rating would you give the game out of 5 and why?

4, because it had a lot of depth and the theme was kept consistent throughout.

What did you find good about the game?

I liked the claustrophobic feel of the map when the walls close in.

What could be need for improvements?

More challenges in the game (e.g. jump puzzles)

Overall what did you like about the game and why?

I liked how the phobia was kept consistent and the house had an abandoned feel.

Horror game test sheet   Name: Reece Foster

Tester: Shaun

What rating would you give the game out of 5 and why?

4 because of the intensity I felt while playing. It made me feel like there would be something horrifying just around the corner

What did you find good about the game?

The game had good uses of different effects like the visual effects and also the audio one’s. also the statues were positioned well so I felt like they were going to do something.

What could be need for improvements?

The level is very short and the ending was disappointing.

Overall what did you like about the game and why?

Yeah it was good.

After all of the feed back a review of my level i plan to improve the level by adding more jump scares such as statues in many places and make the environment of the game feel more horror themed.

Evaluation on types of medias

After using the types of medias i was going to use, i found that it was easy to use after a while and i learnt what the purpose of them were and how i should use them when applying them to paper.
I chose to use photoshop, charcoal and pencil in the end for my final three piece for my horror environment.
Charcoal was hard to use at first because, i kept on smudging it and having to tidy up my work every so often. However after a few times practicing with it i finally got to grips with how it was applied to the paper and what techniques i had to use when using this type of media. I found it a little bit hard working out how much pressure to apply to the page. The charcoal pencils are great for creating a dark horror scene so if found it much more easier than using watercolours. I will use them in the future for dark objects and images because i found that that is what their purpose is for and they are great for it.

I also used photoshop for one of my other final pieces. I enjoyed this style of media the most because, it was very interesting to use and was very self explanatory. I really enjoyed using a wacom tablet because it was very different but it took a while to get used to but i enjoyed it in the end. I helped me to create a dark environment with lots of unusual shapes because the software had a variety of tools and features which allowed me to do that.
However i had a few problems throughout this software. First of all i had to restart five times because i did not get used to using layers, because when i did the out line of the environment and had to shade with colours however, every time i tried to colour in the blank spaces and go close to the outlines, i kept on going over them and ruining the template. However after i got to grips with using layer i found it easy and simple to use. I will use photoshop in the future not just for drawing but also editing images and coming up with ideas. It is a great piece of software to use when coming up with your own ideas or editing other images to make your own. It is a piece of software that allows your imagination to run wild and express it thoughts.

My finally media that i used was pencil. I used pencil for my last choice because i wanted my final piece of work to be up to a high standard and have a detailed image to it which a pencil allows you to do. I enjoyed using pencil because it is one of my most favorite media to use because i understand the purpose of using it and the techniques which are involved. I like pencil because it is a great tool to blend with and gives off a smooth and fine finish.
However the only down side and problem i had when using pencil is , when blending and smudging the graphite in the paper, if you pressed to hard you can leave a mark and will not be able to get it out which happened to me, so i had to start again.
I would use pencil in the future for detail drawings and for drawing out quick ideas like a brain storm. It is also useful for bring the image to life with coloured pencils.

Types of medias for my project

I research and used different types of medias in college so i could get familiar with them and understand the techniques on how to use them. I used a variety of medias such as pencil, charcoal, watercolours, alcohol pens, pastels and Photoshop. At home i also used watercolour pencils which was much more harder to use then watercolours.

Charcoal has many different key attributes. The charcoal is a very soft a brittle media which allows you to blend the charcoal into paper and create variety of different tones. This is a great media for a dark background and making two dark colours blend together to create smooth and professional finish.
Watercolours have a very unique style when using them. Use have to be careful on how much water you use so it does not ruin the page. They have to be dealt with care and use small strokes with a fine paint brush. They are good for creating a blended effect for a environment or scene.
Alcohol pens are great for creating a watered out look effect. The dark tones allow you to create images such as silhouettes. They have types of tips so you can get in small corners and can use them for large spaces such as silhouettes.
Pencil is a very popular and easy media to use. Pencil is great for fine detail art and blending two colours or tones together to make them contrast.

This is an image of a charcoal background. As you can see charcoal is easy to blend with and can create dark spaces and light with flow smoothly throughout the environment.

Research: Mood board, Phobias and Brain storm.

This is my mood of horror environment where phobias have taken place.
I have looked at all the types of phobias which horror scenes/environments have in them. The phobias that i looked at are Claustrophobia, Achluophobia, Dementophobia, Acrophobia, Xenophobe.

These are the main five phobias which i found when researching  and they gave my some ideas for my horror environment project.

Claustrophobia is where some does not like to be in small of tight places where they can't get out which makes they feel like they can't breath and is trapped. This is shown by the image at the top left of my mood board. 
I have came up with some instal ideas from this research and have drew out some concept piece which show tight narrow corridors, small rooms, lifts and a brick room. The brick room is a good example of claustrophobia because brick is solid which a human can not break with physical force so they feel like they are trapped and can not get out.

Achluophiba is where some one who has a fear of dark places and always like places to be lite up. I have gave to examples of this on my mood board. I came up with some initial drawing ideas and  made a grave yard with a bridge to another place. This gives the feel of the dark is hiding something in the distance which makes you think what it is and you feel scared.

Dementophobia is the fear of going mad/insane. When researching about this I came up with some initial ideas where different environments look different and usual which give the viewer a though of are they going insane. This scares a lot of people in reality and I have shown and image of a red rose with blood coming out of it, and also a man with mouths on his hand.

Acrophobia is the fear of heights and is one of the most common phobias people have. After I researched about this phobia and found some images of people standing on cliffs and high places I came up with some initial ideas. I drew out a bridge going from one place to another and high up. Also a walk way around a cliff which is narrow. This shows how I have used the fear oh heights in 
different ways and how it could be used in a horror environment. The heights gives you a thought of what is below you and how high up you are.

Xenophobia is the fear of the unknown and the power of supernatural. This phobia was great for giving me ideas because this phobia was easy to like with the other phobias which gave me other ideas. I came up for my initial ideas a grave yard which was fog, these gives the user a sense of fear and fright and makes they not want to go any closer into the mystery of the unknown.


After researching all these phobias it has helped me out on thinking about ideas which I could use to develop and also add into my game.

Game Engine case study Rework horror. Unit 67: M1,M2 Unit68:M1

Red= Improvements

What is a game engine?
A game engine is a piece of software that allows you to design and create a game simply without going through the trouble to hard coding it. A game engine allows you to add models and objects into the engine which will then allows you to use them in the game. They still have to code some of the game but it is not all coding and can do it to their liking. A game engine allows you to create high quality games, and also game engines have may different tools to use so the possibilities of making objects and maps and endless. The Unreal Development Kit allows to create all different kinds of genre games and and has updated technology which allows you to create industry standard games.

Different gaming aspects?
There are many types of tools and aspects in a game engine. Graphics rendering, Animation systems, AI, Physics and Sound. These are the main aspects in a game engine and these are basically the core features for making a game without these you can not make a high standard and quality game.

Graphics rendering
Graphics rendering is a tool in a game engine that allows you to add objects and images, and turn them into pixels which allows you to see them when playing a game. When you are playing a game you can change the resolution, this means that graphics rendering takes place and depending on what the settings are the rendering will take place and make a certain amount of pixels. The more pixels there are the more high quality and detailed the image will be. When rendering a object in a 3D software you need to make sure that all the faces of the polygon is selected so you can UV map it and start to unfold the mesh.

Animation Systems
Animation Systems is a tool within a game, that allows you to make a rendered object move in the way you programmed it. you can move individual parts of an object to make it as realistic as possible. If there was no animation involved in a game engine you would not be able to move different parts of the character in the game. The software Maya is great example for animation because you have to move the model/rig and set a frame for a certain amount of seconds. It is not 

AI
AI stands for Artificial intelligence. This means that AI is used to stimulate human like intelligence such as the behavior of a human. AI is a robotic copy of a character in a game. This allows the game to come to life and make you feel like you are in game with a real life person. Without AI's in a game there would be not campaign which is the filling of the game. You also need AI's to test certain things with a game such as seeing if the bullet will destroy a certain objects.

Physics
Physics engine is a computer software that allows you to create object to do certain thing that would happen in reality, such as adding a collision to a object to you can't go through it. Also Physics engine focuses how a person moves and makes decisions. This is where physics engine allows you to do that to an object and bring it to life to  make the game look as real as possible, such as when making a character's arm move, move it so it looks like it has a bone structure such as a elbow or shoulder.

Sound
Sound is a key feature in a game engine. Sound brings every game to life a makes you feel like you are the character in the game. There are many types of sounds you can add into a game to make it come to life. When creating a game in a game engine, you can add sound to individual aspects such as, the sound of the movement, the environment of the game and so on. Without sound i think that you would not get the same thrill and enjoyment as you would without sound.

There are many types of game engines such as 3D, 2D and mobile game engines.

3D Game Engines
3D game engines are more advanced and have more features than any others. Games these days are mostly done on a 3d game engine. 3D game engines are the most popular type of game engines such as UDK Frostbite and the Cry engine are all 3D. These are used to create high resolution games and also provides the best game graphic quality. A lot of console and pc games are made form 3d game engines.

2D Game Engines
2D game engines are mainly used to create most platform games such as the mario games and sonic. They have not as many tools and features but still do the job. The graphics are not as great because they are not in three dimensional and don't need as much quality. 2d game engines and generally used to create most indie and arcade games. Mario and other platform games come under these types of genre.

Mobile Game Engines
Mobile game engines can be 2D or 3D, however they are used to create most of your apps for your phones and tablets. The mobile game engines allow you to create many different types of game but wont be up to the high quality standard as most pc and console games. They are still done on a computer. Udk is a great example for this because udk can be used for a 3d and mobile game engines software which is a bonus and has many features.

All of these features i have spoken about are extremely important because without them you would not be able to create a game. They are all linked together so for example if one of though element is not in the game engines it would not combine together and create a full potential game.  

Red= Improvements

Collision Detection
Collision Detection usually refers to the computational problem of when  two or more objects collide with each other. While it is most often associated with its use in Video Games and other Physical Simulations, it also has applications in Robotics. For example in a game you have to have collisions on certain items because if you don't the player could just walk out of the map and crash the game, so when the game company's are going to release a new game for retail they have game tester that will test certain points over and over again to make sure the collision of each object is correct and that there are no bugs. 

These are to examples to explain how collision works in reality and in a computer generated game.
The first image shows that in game collision have to be precise and programmed to not allow certain object pass through another object at certain speeds. As shown on the first image, in one frame the object has skipped the collision detection because of how quick it was travelling so they need to be more precise in creating the collision and not set it to default for certain objects and test/evaluate each fault. I looked into the software i am going to use which is UDK and i found out that the model which is going to have the collision has to be created in Maya and  imported into UDK because it allows a much more precise collision and will stop all objects passing through each other at certain speeds,movement and much more.

However i the second image i have chose, is a group of snooker balls. This is a good example to show how collision works, because when to balls get hit together they bounce of each other and don't pass through other object if solid.  So when creating collisions on a game engine they need to make sure that everything is precise and acts like it would in reality.

Culling Methods
There are many different kinds of culling methods within game engines however the main ones that are constantly used when creating game are Occlusion culling, Back face culling, View Frustum culling and Portal based culling. Culling means to not render anything that is not necessary to optimize the full potential 

Occlusion culling 
Occlusion culling is when you are rendering an object but it cant be seen because they have been obscured by other objects so you use Occlusion to disable the process. The Occlusion process will go through the scene by the camera and then camera will show what parts will be seen in the scene so it can be removed and not rendered.

Back face culling
Back face culling is used when there are to many polygons in a scene and it works out which ones are not facing the viewer because they are not necessary if you cant see them. Getting ride of the polygon faces you cant see helps you render the object and gets rid of memory traffic that could build up.

View Frustum culling
View Frustum culling is when objects are left outside of the viewing Frustum so it gets cut of f so the geometries bounding volume is outside the view of what you can see.

 Portal based culling
Portal based culling is where a 3d scene can be split up into cells and joined together by portals. portal culling works best in 3D scene where objects are not clear/visible such as a dark cave or a foggy environment. The camera will render a room however because there are visible portals in the room it will start to render the room behind it because of the size of the Frustum.



The importance of game engines and how they have such a big impact in life.
Game engines also have a huge impact on life and many people don't realize. Half of the UK (33 million) play video games on a day to day bases. Game engines allow use to create 3D models and 2D environments which we could never do before. Without game engines there would be less jobs out there, less people on internet because of no games and a lot of people would not be able to be creative and express there thoughts and come up with the latest games out there today.

Game engines can create games to tell a piece of history and let you interact with it. For example 'Call of duty world at war' is a game which is fun to play, however it tells you the history of the second world war and how the Nazi army started to conquer different parts of the world. This example shows me that game engines can create a documentary  about history which is not boring and allows younger ages to understand clearer and interact.

Game engines are all ways around us because they can make animations and TV adverts which is a big thing in the TV industry because they make money from putting they on TV so they need game engines. Game engines mainly are for creating game but some other things as well.

Billions of pounds goes into new game engines and company's making them because it is such as big trade and it is slowly becoming on of the most demanding jobs to be in out there.