well i think it is safe to say that the Challenge #4 is now out of our hands. maybe this is the time to look to the next one and not have the huge grap bettween the Challenges like before. what do we all think. Should Challenge #5 start the ball rolling now so that the Challenge will up in about 4 weeks, not 8 weeks??
environment... meh.. thats more in the realm of design, but yeah, it could be interesting to come up with a bunch of level objects and place them in a scene.. This type of thing would be more suited at a level design comp.
Characters are generally the most complex things you'll encounter in game art.. I think sticking with them is the way to go.
well, today i started my next spare time project, the environment of a 'fighting game level', target is <5000 triangles and 1024x1024 texture space.... just needed to pad out my portfolio with an environment piece
like the RTS units idea though. 6 units, total of 2000 triangles, total of 512x512 texture....?
quote:Originally posted by Malus
Probably a good idea to make it more open, like the topic example Makk used above pirates, they can be anything from cyborgs to black beard to disneys Hook but they still have decent constraints.
Malus: that was my point :), I left the fantasy out because I figured it was a given, in that we were dealing with demons.
I have a friend that wanted to join in the comp, but was turned away by the medieval/fantasy setting.
Pirates I think would be perfect, given the release of that new movie thats out.. Whats it called.. Tomb raider 2 (bwahah - yeah i kid - and yeah, not funny), depending on what kind of timeline we set, we can probably get more coverage for ourselves. (from fanboys searching for 'pirate models' through google maybe?)
Just a thought.
I think we should steer away from a character based challenge this time unless it's something light-hearted. All challenges have been character based so far and most of them fantasy based.
I like that RTS idea -- choose your own theme, though. Will allow for more interpretations.
Doords idea of doing something like normal mapping is great as well. For those of us that have always wanted to do it but haven't tried, this a prime opportunity.
To David Coen: Wouldn't a fighting game level have more than 5000 polys? I mean, the character counts for Playstation's Tekken 3 was 3000 polys per character. Doord has floated numbers in the 15000 range for characters in DOA3, so I wonder what the limits are for levels?
My idea for challenge is:
'Abandoned ruins' - build an environment within set poly/texture limit.
David Coen's idea for a 'fighting environment' would make for a good challenge as well. If we're still set on doing characters (coz they're fun!) then perhaps design a character that fits with it's environment and model it to suit console specs?. Probably harder than it looks. ie - Ken Masters SF2 background doesn't really fit him, although Guile's and Vega's do.
Someone (Doord I think) came up with the idea for the last challenge to design a level or character to fit in with an existing universe of an already released franchise/title.
Quite a good idea really.
Contestants would provide 2 images for reference to allow judges to see how their work fits in well.
Then they would model and texture in that style, after providing a concept.
Perhaps we could be limited to 5-10 game series to choose from so we dont get 'super happy go now japan obscurity title + alpha.'
Or even a variation on the ideas - a pirate ship (again, space through carribbean/disney), a pirate and an environment asset (eg the blind legless seadog tavern or the yet-to-be-constructed microsoft death star ;-)
On the coders-using-models idea, random terrain/map generation and rendering has to be one of the most popular hobby projects among programmers - could combine nicely with the modeller challenge if you guys would be willing to allow sumea coders to use the models.
How about this for something different: Sumeans pick a partner to do their challenge with. Duties for whatever the challenge are split between them in a set way or decide for themselves?
Encourages teamwork as well as responsibility. If one team member slacks off, well -- it's a call for the other team member whether they want to pick up their teammates ass.
I find the idea of collaboration with others interesting. I'm not sure how all dev houses work but as I understand it, some places have division of labour on the assets.
I saw something interesting on a forum ages ago, i think it was a mapping forum.
One level designer would make 1 room. They would then pass the room onto the next in the list who would add a room (without modifying the original). This continued for about 12 people. It was interesting to see whether people conformed and built upon what was already there, or just went their own way. I remember it being a very interesting level.
I'm not sure this applies to a challenge. It was however very cool because peoples' talents were all going into the same product.
Maybe each entry for the comp should be a response to a sequence of stimulai.
I dunno. Maybe i've got someone thinking =D
Cheers
quote:Originally posted by Doord
Should Challenge #5 start the ball rolling now so that the Challenge will up in about 4 weeks, not 8 weeks??
The reason I prefer long breaks inbetween challenges is that it gives those who took part in the last challenge a bit of a breather before heading right back into it again. I wouldn't want you guys to burn out! Ultimately, it is up to you guys when you want the next one, but I think a bit of a break inbetween challenges is a good thing. It'll also build up anticipation as well, and having challenges so far apart makes them an event, rather than an activity. The thing I would hate for people to do is say "I'll give this current challenge a miss, the next one is right around the corner".
quote:Originally posted by Makk
I think Jonathen's idea about the partners could be cool. But what happens to people who dont get picked??
Perhaps the option to work as a team could be the option. More creative control by yourself, but also more work to do, hence a tougher deadline. So entrants have the choice, but it's not mandatory.
Alternatively, we could put all contestants into a hat and souri can randomly draw out the pairs although I think it'd be best if people do the choosing themselves.
quote:Originally posted by Souri
The reason I prefer long breaks inbetween challenges is that it gives those who took part in the last challenge a bit of a breather before heading right back into it again. I wouldn't want you guys to burn out! Ultimately, it is up to you guys when you want the next one, but I think a bit of a break inbetween challenges is a good thing. It'll also build up anticipation as well, and having challenges so far apart makes them an event, rather than an activity. The thing I would hate for people to do is say "I'll give this current challenge a miss, the next one is right around the corner".
yeah sounds like the way to do things, I was just thinking that if we started talk about it now, we could come up with a cool idea that everyone would love to do and get more people again. Also I like to see what people want to do, you can start to tell what the people here at Sumea are into and what type of art they enjoy.
Also I'm not sure what other games developers do, but here at irrational, we have only really the two areas of art, asset builder, asset animator. I'm not sure what other studios do, would be nice to know.
But at the AIE tell you they have different modellers to textures, and I haven't seen it done. I know it isn't done but the contract studio working for irrational also.
i just made another thread about this... the idea of having a team project challenge
([url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=968"]Link[/url])
quote:Originally posted by Makk
I think Jonathen's idea about the partners could be cool. But what happens to people who dont get picked??
We've talked about partnering up (two artists in each team) in previous challenge discussions, and what I mentioned then was that by partnering up with someone, you essentially halve the amount of entries for the challenge. It would be good if we'd have at least 10 entries for something like that, and that would of course require 20 participants who will finish their entries - something we haven't been able to reach yet. Also worth noting is that if one person fails to complete their work, it'll mean two people are out of the challenge.
i like smeg's 'pass the level' idea. it dosnt have to be a chalenge though, we could just set it up as a little side project type thing. it would be cool.
as for the teams, even if their are only say 5 final entries that wouldn't be too bad i dont think. though there are less final submissions there are still the same amount of contestants. and i think the teamwork part will be the biggest draw, and seeing what other teams can come up with.
as for the rts idea with several models - rts games are generally very low poly/simple models. just submitting four i don't think is very interesting. i would rather see a limit of between 4 to say 10, and we can make any amount between. this way it's more of a collection. also the poly limit should be for each unit, not the whole - in an rts game you can have a lot of units at one time, of the same or different types. perhaps set certain unit paramiters (eg. infltry XX tirs, light units XY tris, heavy units XZ tris) and you mush have at least one of each, and no more than 2 of each, or something (maybe once you've done two of each you can fill the rest of the unit limit with whatever, but only 1 more of each type - basicaly to stop people onlymaking heavy units, or whatever has the higest poly count avaliable).
and that's all i can think of at this time[:)]
Ok this is just an idea that will probably be shot down in flames as it would be a bit of a task to do but? here it is anyway.
The idea.
Create a small collection (3 or 4 models) of RTS style models ie low poly count small textures etc. You would have to create an infantry unit a basic vehicle, a heavy vehicle, and a flying unit.
But the idea being that we pick a common setting/theme and divide the factions amongst us.
The thing that I think could be cool with this is that at the end we would have collection of basic models that could be turned by some of our coders (it they are keen) into a simple RTS.
Just thought I?d put it out there.
Pantmonger