Cutscenes: Do they actually matter?

Cutscenes in videogames have been around for a very long time. they were often used as  rewards for completing a level or to advance the story. However in this day and age cutscenes seem to be getting less and less relevant.

With graphics becoming more and more realistic in gameplay, cutscenes just seem like a waste of time. More game designers are integrating gameplay into cutscenes, such as quick time events in Resident Evil 4 and the choosable dialogue in Mass Effect. Perhaps Cutscenes are being seen as a relic from when video games tried to emulate films.

Could the future of advancing storys be through pure gameplay such as the scenes in Half Life 2? Of course cutscenes are still around to this day , but they may be a thing of the past eventually.

Initial idea decided

After a moment of deciding, we have decided to go with Alex's idea of a steam punk setting with a girl finding and fixing a broken robot.

Right now we are still in the concept stage, developing the characters out and getting into the mindset of the setting. We have agreed to also put the 'Surveillance bot' from initial planning into the scene as we all enjoyed his design.

As we all want to work on different parts of the scene, we have decided to roughly split the work by characters. I will work with the 'Surveillance bot', Alex will work with the main robot and Sophie will work with the girl. I am sure we will also be splitting the work on other parts as well.

New Team and Initial Ideas

For this module I have made a team with Alex and Sophie. Not only are they very talented and hardworking but I also teamed up with them in a previous module last year so I was confident that we could work well together. We then started on brainstorming some initial ideas for the game cinematic using the three subjects (Surveillance, Exchange, Stolen) that we were given.

We all had many ideas including mobster trade-offs, classic cops and robbers, kids stealing ice-cream, characters based on the zodiac, skeletons stealing bones, robots stalking people and so much more.

Team Buddies

In video games, cut-scenes are used for a variety of different reasons and are shown in many different ways. They are often used as rewards for players who have gone through a part of the game, or as something to help explain a mechanic or move the plot forward.

They can utilize the game engine to show the cut-scene or it could be a pre-rendered scene using a completely different software. Some allow the player to keep control of there characters and let them choose what they want to see, while others use 'quick time events' to integrate gameplay into these normally unplayable scenes.

I have been looking at the intro to one of my favorite games on the PS1: Team Buddies.

The scene is pre-rendered and serves to introduce the characters and concept of the game. I chose to look at this as it has very simplistic characters and could be easily replicated by someone like me! The game throughout has small pre-rendered scenes at the end of every set of levels. These act as a reward and as an introduction to a new character you can use. They were often humorous and lampooned various movies such as The Terminator.

Approaches in Games Industry

The start of the design process in games is a very important stage and can affect the entire game when finished. There are various ways to begin the design process, such as using an existing IP. There is also a 'me too' element to design process, which sees game companies making similar products to successful companies. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with this, very good games have come out this way. Most new ideas come from mixing and matching existing ideas, there is nothing new under the sun after all.

Research and development is also important in game making. When an idea is formed it is important to research into this idea by searching for things similar to it and things related to it. You also need to think of the genre and feel of the game you are creating, are you making a horror game? Is it for adults or children? These are all things that need to be addressed early in the game making process.

When the idea and research has been all put together it is time to create concepts for the game. Most people think of art to give inspiration for certain scenes, but concepts can come in other forms as well. Basic cubed out levels, scripts for the story, sound prototypes, all of these help build the concept of the game and inspires the game makers.

Moral Kombat

During a session, we watched Moral Kombat, a feature length documentary about the history of violence in video games. The film goes at great length charting the history of violence in Games, giving a balanced view for each argument, though I personally believed that the film leaned against violence in videogames.

Violence in videogames has been discussed many times over its history, many people complaining that this violence causes real life violence in children. However, I disagree with this standpoint. In this day and age millions of children have been shown violence in video games, and barely any have repeated the actions in these games. I think that most children can differentiate violence in a video game
and real life violence and the idea that they can't comprehend the difference is a little insulting to their intelligence.

I believe the rare moments of history where video games have influence people to cause violence are in people who have other, deeper factors affecting them as well, it is foolish to assume that a video game alone could affect someones mind so radically. Much like movies and books, violence has always been around in our media, just because Video games are a new media doesn't make it suddenly much more dangerous.

Floating Island

Unity Web Player | Web version

« created with Unity »

Finished level

I have now textured the fence posts which means everything is now textured in my level.

Finally I have added a toon outline around the objects to fit with the light hearted cartoon style I was going for.

Particles and Textures

I have done a lot since my Crit. I have now replaced all of the boards with a textured white wood. I have also added some particle effects to make it look like magic is preventing you from falling off the edge, fitting with the Sceneography well.

I have also textured my house, adding windows a door and boards to it.

Finally I have added a tree texture and leaves to the trees. The other tree will soon have these new textures as well.

Final Crit

For the Final crit I managed to get the texture work for the roof/hat done. For the crit we walked around the room, testing everyone's games and writing out criticism for each game.

When we had finished I had gotten a lot of notes and suggestions for making my world better, the most prominent being that the wind sound effect is a but jarring with the rest of the levels mood. There were also some quick fixes that I needed to do, such as adding colliders to certain things.

I will try and implement these suggestions and improve my level as much as possible for when it is finally released.

Grass and Music

I have now added boards to all of the Fence posts, I have also added an invisible wall around the entire floating island to prevent players from falling out of the world.

I have also fixed the problems with my Big Crystal! I fixed this by triangulating the entire mesh and setting all of the normals to always face outwards, eliminating any backface culling.

I have now added a texture to the ground, I have emulated the texture style of Skyward Sword to get a nice cartoony style.

Finally I have added sound to the entire enviroment, with water sound when you get close to the pond and wind sound effect where ever you are.

Big Crystal

I have now replaced the large placeholder cube with the new crystal. However there are some problems with this, as the model is complicated, some faces have disappeared. I will have to make sure to fix this as soon as possible as the Crit is coming up.

Fence, Dock, Water

I have now added fence posts around the island, I still need to add boards connecting all of the fence posts though, I also still need to texture them.

I have added water to the pond, I will need to add sound and texture on the ground to make it look more blue.

I have detailed out the dock to make it look more natural I still need to texture them though.

Floating Gorund In

I have now replaced the terrain with a Maja object, it is now rounded and seems like it's floating in the sky. I used the Boolean tool to create indents into a cylinder, creating a simple path and area for the pond.

Wizard Hats and Trees

I have made more progress on my Unity level. I have added a simple skybox to the scene, though I would like a customised one, I am not sure on how to make one.  I have modeled out the roof for the house and the trees around my path. I have also added my tutorial tree into the scene, though I will be editing it later. The trees and the roof are not textured yet, I am putting these in right now as a crit is coming up and I'd like everything I've done so far to be up for show.

I will also need to add leaves to my trees at some point.

Crystal Building and Prototype

I have started on my level, first building my enviroment using cubes and shapes in Unity. I am using the terrain tool to create the ground but I will eventually have to replace it with a Maya object as I can't create round terrain.

I created some simple crystal shapes in Maya and gave them a simple texture. I added a transparency filter in Maya but it wouldn't translate in Unity.

 
So Instead I used a unique shader for the crystals called FX glass. Not only did this make the crystals see through, but it also made it shiny and warp things when looked through it. I am very pleased with how this has turned out and will use it for the rest of my crystals.

Final Concept and Floor Plan

I have produced a final concept for my floating island enviroment. After the tree tutorial I decided to make the trees have multicolored leaves as it makes the environment feel more magical and fit the feel I am going for.

I also produced a simple floor plan based on this concept to help the modelling process.

Floating Island Moodboards

I have decided to develop my fairytale idea. As the location can only be a limited size, I decided that a floating Island in the sky could be a good idea.

I decided to make some mood boards for how I'd like the island to look and what style i'd like it to be.

Already I have begun to develop some ideas, using crystals, wings and vivid colours. I would like to do more development for the building on the island, I'll need to know who lives there and how this will reflect in the building.

Ideas mind map.

I have made a mind map showcasing some ideas that I have for the location. I am not sure I I want to the the Kirkstall Abbey location as I think I could do better with a more imaginative and unique location.Ideas that I quite like are the B-movie style UFO crash and the floating island.

Design Inspiration and Gathering Material

When looking for inspiration for my game environments, it is important that I look from a variety of sources. While we have three options to choose from (crashed UFO site, fairytale scene, Section of Kirkstall Abbey) they still provide room to be imaginative and creative with them (with the exception of Kirkstall, which is a recreation).

I shouldn't simply look at other video games for inspiration, I should also look into all forms of media and real life for my environment. Since the environment I will be creating will not be a game and simply an area to walk around, I can afford to put a lot of effort into how the location looks.

While looking at mainstream AAA video games for inspiration is good, I should also look into the independent side of gaming. Since they often don't have to worry about publishers and making massive profits, they can be free to make more unique and stylised games.

It is also important to develop my ideas by drawing in my sketchbook and doodling on the computer with a tablet. While I may initially think these drawings aren't so good, they are important for the development of the ideas and don't need to be perfect drawings.

A good idea for gathering materials would be to create mood boards for my ideas. That way I can identify key elements and moods for the environment I create very easily. It is also good for communicating me ideas to other people.