Game Design LESSON #9: Digital Playtesting & Introduction to 2D Art and 3D Texturing

TODAY: 1. Digital Prototype Testing/Sharing. 2. Introduction to 2D Asset Production: Adobe Photoshop for Painting and Photo Manipulation 3. More 3D Asset Production: Autodesk Maya #2: 3D Object Texturing.

PART 1: DIGITAL PLAYTESTING SET UP (10 minutes): Teams Choose Tables Set up game digital prototype on 3 laptops. Decide initial Observers (1-2) and Players. Discuss: 1-3 points/instructions to share with visiting players? Write them down!

PART 1: DIGITAL PLAYTESTING PLAYTEST ROUND #1 (20 minutes): Observers stay to manage playtest, Players find other games to play. If team chose 1-3 instructions, give them. Players attempt to play prototype (5-10 min). Observers take notes! Players fill out questionnaire (5 minutes). Time permitting, discuss answers.

PART 1: DIGITAL PLAYTESTING TEAM MEETING (10 minutes): Convene at your team table to discuss observations and questionnaire answers. Discuss Production goals for the next week (next top priority Backlog items, potentially influenced by tester experience/ observations) and divide work equitably.

PART 2: Digital Art Production Adobe Photoshop (monthly charge). Use a tablet (recommend Wacom Bamboo). 3D texturing, 2D character sprites, background art, and VFX sprites: painting and photo manipulation. Also consider Paintool Sai or Gimp. Autodesk Maya (free with .EDU email at students.autodesk.com). 3D character, prop, environment modeling, surfacing, and animation.

Photoshop: 2D Art Production Color Scripts: Choose a Palette

Photoshop: 2D Art Production Color Scripts: Characters, Environment, VFX

Photoshop: 2D Art Production Drawing and Painting! New file: 12”x12”, 72ppi New Layer #1: [b] for brush, shrink with “[“, draw a quick/silly character. Open 2D_ColorScripts.PNG for color reference. New Layer #2 (above): hold [Alt] to pick colors, paint 5-10 colors in a corner for a palette. New Layer #3 (below): Paint Bucket fill with medium color. Paint skin and clothing colors, highlights and shadows with brush (make larger with “]”). Use 30% opacity with [Alt] color picking to blend.

Photoshop: 2D Art Production Blending Modes: Change Saturation to Control Focus Open 2_DullPhoto.png. [Ctrl]+[j] to duplicate layer. Set Blending Mode to Overlay. Set Opacity to 60%.

Photoshop: 2D Art Production Photo Manipulation: Copy/Paste, Clone Stamp, adjust Hue/Saturation, Edit/Transform Create a new file: 2048 x 2048, 72ppi. Create a Monster by combining body parts into this new file. Hide the Background layer and save as a PNG: (“Fleshbeast.png”)

Maya: 3D Art Production: Hypershade #1

Maya: 3D Art Production: Hypershade #2

Maya: 3D Art Production: Hypershade #3

Maya: 3D Art Production: Texturing In Maya, Spacebar-tap into Front View, View/ Image Plane/ Import Image to select your Fleshbeast.png from the Photoshop exercise. In Perspective View, select and move the Image Plane backwards. In Front View. Open Mesh Tools/ Create Polygon Tool. Trace your creature with a rough shape, hit [Enter] to complete. RightclickHold on your shape to choose Face component mode. Select the face. In Modeling Toolkit, hit [Extrude], pull the geometry out to make the form 3D (Increase Thickness or pull on blue Z axis). Open the Windows/ Rendering Editors/ Hypershade [Blue sphere icon]. Add a Blinn Material. In the embedded Attribute Editor find Color and click the checkered square. Add a “File” node. Click the manila folder and add your Fleshbeast.PNG. NOTE: RightClick the Blinn in the Material library to Graph Network for easier viewing. MidMouse drag the Blinn material onto your object. Hit [6] to view. Open UV/UV Editor to view UVs. If needed, apply UV/Planar on Z. File/Export Selected as FBX. Load both FBX and PNG into Unity.

Production Scheduling: Course Milestones Due Week 8: Paper Prototypes: “Fun” Due Week 9: Digital Prototypes: “Quantity.” Due Week 11: Full Playable Prototypes: “User Clarity.” Due Week 12: Revised prototypes: “Fun.” Due Week 14: Prototype Complete: Multiple levels populated, bugs fixed, full Art and Audio. Final Presentations: Playable Game and Marketing materials: Trailer, Website, Press Release, Icon.

Due Next Week: HOMEWORK #9: Final Game, 2nd Digital Prototype TEAMS: Divide Unity production work evenly (art can be concepted, but stay as greybox for testing). Meet with your team at least twice to discuss progress, solve problems, and consolidate build. Test clarity with at least two new players. Submit second digital build to class next week. Individually: Progress Report #2: Submit typed page: What you agreed to produce, what you accomplished, self-evaluation/related screenshots.

Have an Outstanding Week! And don’t forget to email us with questions: Instructor: JASON WISER JasonWiserArt@gmail.com Available an hour after class and daily email.