UAL Level 2 Diploma in Creative Media Hopwood Hall College Arts and Performing Arts
Games Design Skills and Production Techniques! Units Covered: Unit 1 Introduction to creative media methods and skills Unit 2 Introduction to production techniques in creative media Project Start: 07/09/17 Project Deadline: 12/10/17 ASSIGNMENT AIM AND PURPOSE: You will be introduced to a range of methods and skills used in the industry as well as developing an understanding of the skills necessary to both record and communicate your ideas. You will be provided with an introduction to production processes and technical skills used in games development, their particular characteristics and the related skills necessary to support your own production work. ASSIGNMENT SCENARIO: You are a new intern at a 2D Indie games company. They will expect you to develop your practical game production skills and techniques to show how you would be a valuable games employee when you finish your placement. You will cover traditional and digital pixel drawing, sprite animation and 2D game mechanics. During this assignment you will need to complete on-going evaluations against the range of new skills you learn, how you have developed and the methods you used. Your evaluation needs to be saved as a Word document with all tasks together named appropriately e.g J.Snow_Evaluations.
UAL Level 2 Diploma in Creative Media Hopwood Hall College Arts and Performing Arts
iLearn Activites To compliment your in-class learning you are to follow and complete the following Pluralsight course in the iLearn centre and in your iLearn sessions and at home. You will need to download the course exercise files and will hand in your completed tutorial work with an overview of the skills learned within your final unit 1 and 2 assessment. You will learn how to harness the power of Adobe Photoshop CC to create superior images and artwork. This course is the first in a series designed to help you master one of the world’s most popular software applications. You can download the exercise files either from the Pluralsight course itself using this link https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/photoshop-cc-fundamentals/table-of-contents Or you can go to: My Computer - U: Drive staff/student shared area - Games Design - Games Level 2 and download from here chapter by chapter EVIDENCE REQUIRED FOR SUBMISSION: • Digital evidence of completing each module in the Photoshop CC Fundamentals course • All completed course files from the course
UAL Level 2 Diploma in Creative Media Hopwood Hall College Arts and Performing Arts
TRADITIONAL PIXEL DRAWING:
Task 1 You will be required to draw: - Minimum of 1 A3 sheet of colour pixel thumbnail characters and objects sketches based on any retro 2D game e.g Mario, Sonic, R-Type, Zelda and Double Dragon etc Task 2 Choose 1 character and 1 related object to develop into a final pixel style art piece: - 1 Final A4 pixel variation of character concept in colour - 1 Final A4 pixel related object concept in colour HINT Your thumbnails should help you to influence your final drawings Task 3 Evaluation of pixel drawings and skills developed. This needs to include your thumbnail and final drawings for comparison. EVIDENCE REQUIRED FOR SUBMISSION: • • • •
Thumbnail sheet Retro character Related character/environment object(s) Traditional drawing evaluation
UAL Level 2 Diploma in Creative Media Hopwood Hall College Arts and Performing Arts
DIGITAL PIXEL DRAWING:
Task 1 Using Photoshop recreate your character and related objects from your final pixel traditional drawings. These need to be A3 print-ready and 300 dpi. - 1 Final character concept in colour (portrait) - 1 Final related objects concepts in colour (landscape) Task 2 - Evaluation of digital drawings and skills developed comparing traditional artwork to digital and the tools you used to create your final piece. EVIDENCE REQUIRED FOR SUBMISSION: • Pixel Character • Pixel object(s) • Digital drawing evaluation All files need to be JPEG and PSD format and appropriately named e.g duke_nukem. jpg
UAL Level 2 Diploma in Creative Media Hopwood Hall College Arts and Performing Arts
2D ANIMATION:
Task 1 Before you start you will need to download all of your chosen sprites from: http://www.spriters-resource.com/ (or your own chosen website) Task 2 Using your own choice of sprites from Spriters Resource, you will be required to create as a minimum the following animation sequences in Fireworks or Photoshop: -
Walk Cycle Run Cycle Jump 1 animation of your choice
Task 3 - Evaluation of animations assessing smoothness and timing of each one EVIDENCE REQUIRED FOR SUBMISSION: • All animation cycles to be saved as an animated gif from Fireworks or Photoshop, appropriately named e.g duke_nukem.jpg • Animation evaluation
UAL Level 2 Diploma in Creative Media Hopwood Hall College Arts and Performing Arts
2D GAME ENGINES:
Task 1 Before you start you will need to download the following resources from It’s Learning in Unit 1 Introduction to creative media methods and skills - Download the game assets provided in unit Introduction to creative media methods and skills Task 2 You will be required to make and complete 3 games using Game Maker: - Breakout - Pacman - Space Invaders Follow the instructions in the Game Maker book to make your games. Make sure that you bug test them thoroughly to ensure they work! Task 3 Evaluation of 3 games success comparing the games that you have made. Assess the skills you have developed, commenting on any problem solving you had to complete, refer to the 3 games with screen shot examples. EVIDENCE REQUIRED FOR SUBMISSION:
• 3 games exe and Game maker file (Game Maker files appropriately named e.g duke_nukem.exe) • 2D game engines evaluation
UAL Level 2 Diploma in Creative Media Hopwood Hall College Arts and Performing Arts
Assignment Week
Assignment Tasks
WEEK 1 04/09/17
Induction and introduction to assignment brief. Start of traditional drawing
WEEK 2 11/09/17
Traditional and digital drawing and evaluation
WEEK 3 18/09/17
Digital Drawing and evaluation Animation and Evaluation
WEEK 4 25/09/17
Game production
WEEK 5 02/10/17
Game production and evaluation Prepare files for digital hand-in on Its Learning
UAL Level 2 Diploma in Creative Media Hopwood Hall College Arts and Performing Arts
This assignment covers the following grading criteria: Unit Unit 1 Introduction to creative media methods and skills
Unit 2 Introduction to production techniques in creative media
Learning Outcomes
Assessment Criteria
1 Understand a range of methods and skills in the development, delivery and communication of a creative media activity.
1.1 Demonstrate the use of a range of methods and skills in support of a creative media activity.
1 Understand a range of production processes and skills in the development and delivery of a creative media activity
1.2 Communicate ideas to support the development and delivery of a creative media activity. 1.3 Assess the effectiveness of communication methods and skills to develop ideas in support of a creative media activity. 1.1 Select and compare, through experimental application, a range of production processes in support of a creative media activity. 1.2 Demonstrate the use of production processes and skills to affect outcomes in creative media activity. 1.3 Assess the effectiveness of selected processes and skills in creative production.