Spontaneous Sunday - LIMBO

Welcome to another Spontaneous Sunday! Sticking with last week's theme of indie games, this week I have played the oft-praised indie side-scroller LIMBO (2010, Playdead, OS X). Like last week's game (The Escapists), I picked up Limbo in the recent Steam Summer sale for a fraction of its original price!

"Limbo is a puzzle-platform video game developed by independent studio Playdead. The game was released in July 2010 on Xbox Live Arcade, and has since been ported to several other systems, including the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows. Limbo is a 2D sidescroller, incorporating a physics system that governs environmental objects and the player character. The player guides an unnamed boy through dangerous environments and traps as he searches for his sister."

- Wikipedia on LIMBO

What do I expect from the game?

LIMBO is a game that its almost impossible not to have heard of if you have any interest in gaming or game design. I have heard a lot about the game from various sources, and the name has cropped up a lot during my research into atmosphere in games, so I have been wanting to play it for a while. It is no doubt a hugely successful indie game. I've seen quite a bit of gameplay footage, so I am interested to experience the visuals and atmosphere for myself, and also to see exactly how it feels to play the game.

I expect that the game's strongest features will be its unique visual style, which consists of black-and-white tones and a simplistic approach. LIMBO is often cited as being an example of "games as art", so I will be paying close attention to the visuals and themes to see if I agree with this view. I expect that the atmosphere will be another strong feature. Of course, atmosphere in games is the focus of my MA research, so I will be look at how the different elements of the audio-visual experience are used to create atmosphere.

When it comes to gameplay, I am much less sure of what to expect because I've never played it before! I expect that due to limitations with the silhouette/black-and-white visuals, the gameplay might have to be quite simple - there's only so much one can do with silhouettes in terms of creating interactions, e.g, colours can't be used as a feature of the mechanics. I have heard that it is quite a difficult game and the player should expect to fail often. I've also heard that the game is quite short. I am interested to jump in and see if what I have heard about LIMBO is correct!

First Impressions - What do I think of the game in its first few minutes?

Upon launching the game, LIMBO greets the player with a simple start screen, bearing the game's title. The screen prompts the player to press any key, then the gameplay begins immediately. The player character - an un-named boy - lies on the floor of a forest. Pressing the movement keys opens his eyes, which light up in the darkness, and he stands up. The player receives no instructions of any kind. Of course, as is almost universally the case in side scroller, the player must go right - however, I began by going left instead because there's usually something hidden just to the left of the start point in side scrollers, and LIMBO is no exception - I found some kind of egg-like object, cracked it, and gained a Steam achievement. Then I set off to the right of the screen.

First view of the game world.

The player begins to be faced with challenges and interactions quickly and steadily in the early moments of the game. In the game's first chapter, the player soon learns how to move around, jump and interact by having to traverse a spike-pit, solve a couple of simple puzzles and climb a rope. The simplicity of both the game's visuals and the gameplay itself are immediately apparent at the start of the game. The complete lack of instruction is perhaps a questionable design choice. The controls are very simple indeed (see the control screen below), but I still had to check the control screen to learn that interactions are performed by pressing the Alt key. Alt seems like a strange key choice for interactions. Met with the first obstacle that needed to be interacted with, I tried clicking both mouse buttons, space, enter and several letter keys before giving up guessing and checking the controls. This broke my immersion, and could have been avoided by the simple addition of some on-screen instructions.

The game's atmosphere is clear and strong from the start. The audio and visuals are minimal, but unique and striking. At the beginning of the game, the player is given no information about the world that they are exploring, the character they are controlling, or the reasons behind their actions. This, combined with the silhouette art style, gives an impression of not seeing the full picture, which triggered a natural curiosity within me. However, the game's eerie music, hard-to-see dangers and almost film-noir style also made the game feel instantly unnerving. The interesting mixture of emotions that LIMBO creates drew me into the game quickly and completely.

The first puzzle/interactive object in the game.

The game's earliest puzzles are simple but imaginative and varied. The early puzzles are obviously quite easy, but they are not boring because they are quite creative. Some examples of early puzzles include rowing a boat across a pond, then dragging it out the water so you can stand on it and reach an otherwise-unreachable platform.

The game's dark side soon begins to creep in, with an unidentified object - presumably some kind of body - hanging from a tree and attracting flies that appears early in the game. The dark side also comes through in the player-characters death animations. The un opening few minutes of the game effectively set the scene for what the game is about and how it 

The ominous hanging object is one of the first hints of the game's dark themes.

What do I like about the game?

LIMBO is a game of many well thought-out and well-designed features which combine to create a unique experience that grabbed my attention. The most immediate positive feature is the visuals and atmosphere. This is what the player experiences first, and the game's aesthetic and mood overarches the experience as a whole. The visuals are also probably the game's biggest unique selling point, and it works to the game's advantage that the visuals are so striking, because it will get player's talking and facilitate word-of-mouth exposure for the game. As an indie developer, exposure is crucial to a game's success.

LIMBO is a veritable masterclass in simplicity. The game's visuals are of course a major example of simplicity, but this simplicity is also carried over into other elements, such as the gameplay, narrative and UI. There's something about the lack of story and visual information that makes the game feel uncluttered and not distracting, and therefore easier to take in. Seeing environments, objects and characters only in silhouette gives the player an enhanced sense of space and their surroundings, while the game's physics system means that every object in the environment moves and reacts to input accurately. This adds a sense of realism and control over the surroundings. Though the game takes place in a 2D plane, there are different layers of level art in the foreground and background which add a sense of depth to the game environments. Also, the camera acts dynamically as the player moves through the game world; zooming in and out, panning left and right and blurring the foreground so that each shot is framed effectively, which has a surprising amount of power over the mood of each section.

The subdued visuals allow the quality of the gameplay and audio (two very strong features of the game) to shine through. The audio is similarly minimalistic, but very effective and atmospheric. There is not much music to speak of, only a more ambient, vaguely-musical backdrop. This works to the game's favour as it serves to set a mood of unease without distracting the player or trivialising the experience. Sound effects, meanwhile, make up the majority of the game's soundscape - and they do a good job of it, too. The lack of complicated visual information means that the game has to rely more heavily on sound effect to set the scene, and it achieves this beautifully. Each sound effect is of very high quality and clearly communicates what is happening. The sound effects definitely boost the game's atmosphere massively.

The game's atmosphere is another strong suit, and I can now tell exactly why LIMBO's name comes up so much when researching the subject of game atmosphere. The game's atmosphere finds itself at a rare crossroads of simplicity, unease, bleakness and innocence. The minimal visuals, detailed audio, interesting world and well-balanced gameplay all help the game's atmosphere to soar. The consistency of the game's aesthetic (both in-game and in the UI) helps to tie the atmosphere together. The player will occasionally run into other human characters, who are often hostile. During the first half of the game, the player is pursued by a giant spider. These sections of the game really inject a sense of peril and fear (especially for arachnophobes like myself!)

The gameplay and puzzles are consistently well-designed. The puzzles are only ever of a small scale, and are mostly quite easy to figure out. This means that the player is not left struggling for long periods of time in one area, thus halting progression. The game feels nicely paced because you're never in one section for too long, thus you always feel like you are getting somewhere. There is also a very welcome lack of backtracking and repetition, which are problems that puzzle games often suffer from. The puzzles are also varied, and the game always seems to have new tricks up its sleeve with which to challenge and entertain the player. Puzzles generally involve a handful of set actions, such as moving objects, interacting with levers to change things within the environment, avoiding dangers and so on, but there is definitely sufficient variety to how the designers use the puzzle-building tools at their disposal. The player will find themselves dying a lot in this world, often due to hidden dangers that are often surprising and unavoidable. This both adds challenge and keeps the player guessing about everything in their path.

Danger is everywhere in the world of LIMBO.

The player-character, an unnamed boy, suffers some rather gruesome deaths, from falling in spike pits, to drowning, to being impaled by the giant spider. The gruesome deaths add personality to the game and the setting, giving the environment a bleak and unforgiving vibe, while not being too graphic because the character is simply a silhouette. The game has a wistfully dark mood that radiates from every element. This helps to make the experience of LIMBO stand out and stick in the player's memory.

What do I not like?

LIMBO undoubtedly has many positive points, but I have identified one problem with it. That problem is that the story is almost never divulged to the player. Had I not read a bit about the game's plot before playing it, I wouldn't have had any idea who my character was, where I was, or why I should care about progressing through the game. This could have affected my enjoyment of the game as it played out, and I may have gotten bored without any story motivating me to continue. The game should really have offered some subtle narrative details at the start, and every-so-often thereafter, so that the story unfolded more noticeably as the game continued.

At the time of the game's launch, some critics and players raised concerns over the length of the game in proportion to it's price. Some people thought that it wasn't long enough to warrant its price tag of $15/15 euros. Now, I feel like I am exempt from this concern for two reasons, firstly, I didn't pay full price for the game (I got it for about £2), and I haven't finished it to fully appreciate it's length (I got about halfway through in 2-3 hours). But I can see how this could have been an issue at the game's launch, especially with it being an indie game, which are inherently risky ventures.

The chapter select screen.

The lack of proper introduction to the controls was also a minor issue. Had there been some in-game prompts showing the controls at the very start of the game, the player could pick up the controls instantly and not have to check the controls page like I did. It's only a really small interruption, of course, but it could have helped the start of the game to be more streamlined.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I think that LIMBO is a very strong and unique indie game that has some valuable unique selling points, namely the minimalistic visuals, strong atmosphere and creative puzzles. LIMBO is unlike any other game I have experienced. It lacks so many classic game elements and systems, like scores, different game modes, character interaction and unlockables, but it doesn't seem to suffer at all from the lack of any of this. In fact, LIMBO might even be better off without them. I can definitely see how one might argue that LIMBO is an example of "games as art". Though for me, I found that it was hampered slightly by the lack of narrative. Having a more fleshed-out narrative could have helped the game be even more engrossing and artistic. I suppose this could have undermined the designers vision for the game though.

I am glad to have finally played LIMBO, having heard so much about it before today. As it is such a unique beast, it has been hard to digest it all in one sitting. I'm halfway through now so I will likely finish it off in the next few days and study it some more!

Ilkley Moor Research Trip

So last week, I was not required to attend uni due to a Berlin trip taking place that many of the students and staff of the Design school attended, so we had a bit of an unofficial reading week, and we were encouraged to go on some trips to aid our research. (This also meant I wasn't able to do a Spontaneous Sunday this week as I was too busy, but it will return next week!).

As my new 3D environment project focuses on stone circles, I decided to take this as an opportunity to go and see one with my own eyes, and I set to work researching stone circles that I could visit. I soon discovered that a stone circle called the Twelve Apostles exists on Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire. This is not far from my girlfriend, Chloe's, hometown, which was handy because it meant we could go and visit her family during the free week and also go and see the stone circle. It all worked out very well!

I printed out a route and some maps that we could follow to reach the Twelve Apostles stone circle ,and Chloe and I got the train to Yorkshire on Wednesday. We went on our trip to Ilkley on Saturday.

Here's some info about the Twelve Apostles stone circle:

"The Twelve Apostles is a stone circle near Ilkley and Burley in Wharfedale in West Yorkshire, England. The Twelve Apostles consists of the remains of a stone circle with a diameter of about 15 metres. The circle originally had between 16 and 20 stones, but it is now reduced to 12 stones. The stones are made from the local millstone grit. All of the stones were fallen by the mid-20th-century and were lying loose upon the ground. At the centre of the circle was a small mound, which may have been the disturbed remains of a burial cairn.

In 1971 a group of amateurs made an unauthorised attempt to re-erect the fallen stones, but the stones soon fell again. The stones have since been re-erected.It is not clear who re-erected them, nor when. The site suffers severe visitor erosion, as it was formerly hidden beneath heather, but is now in an area of bare trampled soil. It is regarded as one of the most damaged prehistoric sites in West Yorkshire."

- Wikipedia entry on the Twelve Apostles

Before getting the train to Ilkley.

We approached the Moor from the North, from the centre of Ilkley where the train station is located. Our walk would take us up the northern approach, past the White Wells cafe located on the ascent, and up some stone steps before reaching the top of the ascent and the Moor proper. We would then walk south across the Moor to the stone circle. We saw lots of interest stuff along the way including Victorian graffiti carved into rocks, cairns, streams, and some nice views of the Yorkshire countryside and towns such as Ilkley and Bradford.

White Wells cafe on the ascent to the Moor.

Victorian Graffiti

After about two hours of walking, we arrived at the stone circle itself. It lies about 380 metres above sea level, and its location offered amazing views. We had been able to see very far for pretty much all of the walk, but the views from the circle itself seemed to be the most impressive of them all. The location also felt like the spot that was most exposed to the elements. It was very windy and it began to hail soon after we arrived at the stones.

Twelve Apostles is not the most impressive stone circle that one can visit, and it has been heavily affected by human activity and interference, but it was still very cool to see a real example of what I had been researching for the past two weeks. I took a moment to take in the sights and try and place myself in the viewpoint of the ancient people who will had placed the stones there. This experience will hopefully help me to pinpoint the feeling that I want to evoke from the atmosphere of my 3D environment.

Making our way back down to Ilkley...

Our trip to Ilkley Moor to see the Twelve Apostles stone circles was a really fun and insightful experience. I think that seeing a stone circle in person, and the pictures that I took, will help me with my environment art project.

There's a load more pictures of our trip over on Imgur, check them out by clicking here!

First Week Reflections and "Spontaneous Sunday!"

As I'm sure everyone is aware, today is Sunday! Which means that my first proper week as an MA student is coming to an end. It's been an exciting week and I thought I'd make a blog post to reflect on whats happened. I'm also going to be talking about something new that I'm going to be doing called "Spontaneous Sunday!", more on this later.

Week Recap

So on Wednesday we had our first proper session, which was a couple of hours long and involved an intro to the course from tutors Josh and Jim. We were given the assignment to create a blog and make a post with an introduction to our skills, aspirations and plan for the year to come. I quickly set about doing this and had it done a couple of days later. It was definitely a useful exercise as it got me thinking about my strengths and how to put my skills to good use over the coming year.

On Friday, we had a morning lecture that gave an overview of the module that we'll be doing from now until December. It's a research module that involves us looking into an aspect of our field of study and writing 1500 words about it. I've decided that I'm going to look into how atmosphere & immersion are created in games through the use of environment art, audio, lighting, graphics and so on, so I'll be starting my research into these areas very soon.

On Friday afternoon we had a 2 hour session which involved an open discussion about everybody's ideas of what they're going to study. After each idea, the group weighed in with their thoughts and suggestions. This was one of the most rewarding experiences of the week for me. My peers are definitely deep thinkers when it comes to game design and hearing everyone's contributions in an open discussion was great - it's refreshing to be back in the games studio and amongst fellow designers and like-minded people!

Introducing... "Spontaneous Sunday!"

This year I have vowed to play as many new games as possible in an effort to broaden my mind and inspire myself. To this end, I've decided that every Sunday I'm going to play a few hours of a game that I have never played before and then make a blog post on my thoughts, what I like and dislike and any design lessons that I take from it.

The first title to get the Spontaneous Sunday treatment is Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China (2015, Climax Studios / Ubisoft, Xbox One).

The game's front end.

"Assassin's Creed Chronicles is a series of video games in the Assassin's Creed franchise. The series consists of three games developed by Climax Studios, to be published by Ubisoft. The games feature new protagonists and a design that is new to the franchise, a 2.5D world inspired by traditional brush paintings. The first entry is China released on April 21, 2015, on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One."

- Wikipedia on the Assassin's Creed Chronicles series

What do I expect from the game?

I didn't know a lot about this game before playing it. I vaguely recalled hearing that it's a console port of a mobile game but later found out that wasn't correct - the game was released to PC, PS4 and Xbox One in April 2015. Of course, I expected it to feature Chinese themes and culture due to the setting and name of the game. I knew that it was a 2.5D game and I was interested to see how the AC franchise translated into 2.5D. I expected it to be a slightly more "arty" and less realistic art style. I also expected it to be more puzzle based that the mainstream, 3D Assassin's Creed titles.

First Impressions - What did I think of the game in it's first few minutes?

Upon launching the game, the pre-front-end splash screen showed the Unreal Engine logo. I wasn't aware that it was made in Unreal and this interested me because it is my engine of choice. I later discovered it was made in UE3 and not UE4 - this means it is probably going to be one of the last games to be made in UE3 as UE4 was already out when the game was released in April 2015.

The front-end was instantly familiar as it was similar to the other more mainstream Assassin's Creed titles. I started a new game and read a short prologue. The game is set in 16th Century China, a setting and era that I've never seen before in a game. The intro cutscene was brilliant. The cutscenes in the game are still images in a classic oriental art style, with voiceover on top of it and it works very well - I was instantly impressed by this and it reminded me of the Three Brothers story scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The intro cutscene.

What do I like about the game, what does it do well?

The art style instantly appealed to me. All the textures are hand painted and the models are low-poly. We were encouraged to hand-paint textures in my BA course so I liked the textures in the game. The game features a female protagonist named Shao Jun. It's the first Assassin's Creed game that I have played that features a female hero. The developers approach the characters gender well in terms of mechanics - Shao Jun is more acrobatic and stealthy than the male characters of other AC games and this is reflected in how she moves and attacks. She has a "shoe blade", I weapon that I think is very unique. The assassination animations are great - one features Shao Jun getting the enemy in an arm-lock then driving the shoe blade into his head. This was brutal, unique and unexpected in a very good way.

The developers did a very good job of transferring the classic, well known Assassin's Creed free-running/acrobatic movement style into 2.5D, and it works better than I expected it to. In fact, all the classic AC mechanics are there including eagle vision, hiding spots and distraction techniques and they all work very well. The dev's must have put a lot of thought into how to pull it off and I admire their work. Animus Shards also return as a way of encouraging exploration. Everything feels familiar in terms of mechanics, but the setting, the well-designed protagonist, and the game being 2.5D keeps the game refreshing.

Eagle Vision features in the game and is well implemented.

Each short section of a level gives the player a bronze, silver or gold rating depending on their performance. This does a good job of giving the player feedback on how they are doing and positively reinforcing success while also adding replay value to the game in an un-intrusive way. The game also does a good job of encouraging the player to be stealthy - which is essentially the crux of the AC series - by making it quite difficult to come back from being detected. Once a guard engages you in combat you can sustain very few hits before being defeated. This plays into the idea of the assassin being better in stealth than full-on combat.

What don't I like about the game?

I think that the game's art style is great, but the environments could benefit from a slightly more varied colour palette - there's a lot of beige, brown and washed-out red. I also noticed that the level design quite often relies heavily on killing or evading guards and there is a lack of puzzles - I can't remember playing a section that was purely puzzle and featured no guards. When there was puzzle elements, such as using a throwing knife to cute a rope and lower a drawbridge, it was enjoyable, but these moments were few and infrequent.

Final Thoughts

A 2.5D AC game struck me as an interesting concept and it was very interesting to play and to see how it was all done. The setting and character are unique and interesting. Overall it's an enjoyable and attractive game and the mechanics are nicely implemented, despite them essentially being originally designed for 3D games.

Playing the game got me thinking about the differences between 3D and 2D games and the nuances of adapting the same mechanic to fit both. This must have taken some serious design skill.

That concludes the first Spontaneous Sunday!

One last thing...

The cherry on top of an already good week came in the form of the release of LEGO Dimensions year 2 content. I worked as a QA tester on this game during my 4 months at Tt Fusion over the Summer and I feature in the credits!

My name in the credits of LEGO Dimensions year 2 content.

That's all for now!

Introduction & Aspirations

Welcome to my new blog. Here I will be documenting my journey as an MA Games Design student at UCLan. I will be studying full time for 1 year and, if all goes well, graduating in Winter 2017.

First, here's some info about myself. I am a 22 year old aspiring games designer from Cheshire, UK. I have been passionate about playing and designing games my whole life - as a kid I would draw level designs and character on any scrap paper I could find. In my teens, I began to create mods for Bethesda games and simple levels in Unreal Engine. I started my Bachelor of Arts degree in Games Design at UCLan in 2012 and graduated in 2015 with a 2.1 grade. I then took a year out and worked on some personal projects and also worked as a QA Tester at Traveller's Tales for 4 months over Summer 2016.

I have returned to study Games Design at Masters level so that I can continue to develop my skills and further my career after graduating. I would like to be able to get a job as an environment artist in an established studio such as Traveller's Tales, Rebellion or Bethesda (the ultimate goal!). Alternatively, I might pursue a career in QA and eventually try to advance to a senior role. I also hope to develop my 2D game skills so I can release app games independantly.

My first task is to answer some questions about myself, so here goes:

What skills do you bring to the MA?

I have been interested in playing and designing games for my whole life, and have gained and developed many skills up to this point.

I specialise in 3D modelling, prop/environment art, 2D games and audio and music for games. These are the areas in which I am most skilled. I first began to really delve into 3D modelling and environment art when I was in my 2nd year of BA study. 3D modelling seemed to come naturally to me and I quickly became used to using Autodesk Maya and Unreal Engine to create scenes and environments. My final honours project in 3rd year was a 3D diner environment, created in Maya, textured in Photoshop and built in Unreal Engine 4 - check out some pictures of it here.

A presentation shot from my honours project - "Diner in the Desert"

I have been creating 2D browser games in Construct 2 since June 2015. My first game was a simple, single-level platformer called Spaceship Mechanic. My other games include Puck, which is a 2 player Pong clone with an ice hockey theme, and Snowman Creator, a seasonal dress-up game that allows players to make custom snowmen. 2D game creation has become on of my favourite things to do and I hope to become skilled enough to make my future games available on the app market. Because I got into 2D games after all of my 3rd year work was finished, I have never submitted a 2D game as part of my university work.

Screenshot from Spaceship Mechanic - my first browser game.

My 3rd main area of focus is game audio and music. I have been producing music for over 3 years and I create all the music and audio for my 2D games myself. I also sell music online for others to use in their own projects - some samples of this can be heard here. I also produce non-game music as a hobby under the name Denim Kid.

I have many other skills that I picked up during my time as an undergraduate: I have a deep understanding of game mechanics and gameplay systems and game concept origination. I also have experience in character design, digital painting and concept art.

Finally, I have 4 months experience as a QA Tester at Tt Fusion. This was an incredibly valuable experience for me. It helped me to better understand how games work, how studios operate and how to better diagnose and solve bugs in games. I am a credited QA Tester on LEGO Stars Wars: TFA and LEGO Dimensions (Year 2 content).

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens credits

What interests you?

A collage of my favourite games.

The aspect of playing and creating games that interests me the most is the creation of immersive, fascinating, richly detailed universes and environments, which is why I chose to specialise in environment art. I enjoy games that tell stories through the environment. Atmospheric games with attractive environments are my favourite games to play and I aspire to achieve atmosphere and immersion when creating my own games.

I am interested in how ambience and immersion are created through the combined use of environment art, lighting, particle affects, audio and music and so on. I am interested in level design and quest/dungeon/puzzle design.

In terms of playing games for own enjoyment, I am interested in games with historical settings and themes. I also enjoy challenging, goal based games for the sense of achievement that they offer. Games with quality audio and soundtracks also appeal to me. My favourite genres are role playing games, real-time strategies and first-person shooters. I am predominantly a console gamer. I play on Xbox 360, Xbox One and PS2. I occasionally game on PC. I enjoy same-console co-op ("Couch Co-Op") and multiplayer.

Outside of games, I am also interested in films and TV, history and music. I like looking at buildings and considering the thought that goes into the planning of public spaces/cities. I find that visiting museums and historic places and being in nature also inspires me.

What is your initial idea for your MA study?

I have a few ideas for what I would like to study for my MA.

I am considering looking at how real-world medieval history/culture has influenced the design of RPG and RTS games, for example, how Norse architecture influenced environment art in Skyrim, fictional representations of real-world weapons, medieval tactics in the Age of Empires franchise etc. This would allow me to combine my interest in RPG/RTS games and history and would help me to develop my own design skills. This would involve researching medieval history, military history, lifestyle, culture and so on, and seeing how this is portrayed in video games and how it influences design.

An example of a game featuring medieval settings/themes.

Another possibility is to look at how toys-to-life games could be brought to the mainstream and to a wider audience, e.g, marketed towards adults rather than marketed mostly to children as they are currently. This is something that I often pondered while working on LEGO Dimensions at Traveller's Tales and I think that my experience at Tt would be useful if I took this route. This would involve looking at games marketing and demographics and the potential of toys-to-life games, which is a relatively new and potentially lucrative concept.

LEGO Dimensions. A successful toys-to-life game.

My final idea is to look at how atmosphere and immersion is achieved in video games. As an environment artist, this would be an interesting and useful line of research. I would research how all the different aspects of a game, including environment art, mechanics and audio, come together to make an atmospheric game. I would also look at how films, TV and museums create convincing environments and experiences. This would help me to become a better environment artist, which is one of my future career aspirations.

By the end of the MA course I hope to have an in-depth knowledge of games design that will allow me to pursue my career in the industry.

What things are you going to look at?

I want to look into immersion, environment art, 3D modelling, texturing, games marketing, mechanics and audio. I also plan to look at things outside of the world of games design. Things like architecture, design of vehicles/products/furniture, history, art, films, music, nature and anything else that could help me to become a better designer.

Activities that I could do to help develop my knowledge and inspire me include:

playing games of varying genres on different platforms and games from different generations // attending games conferences // talking to my peers about game design ideas // reading books, magazines and articles // watching videos and software tutorials // visiting museums and art galleries // researching art and design principles // visiting new places and environments to broaden my mind and change my perspective // playing board games, physical games, sports etc // creating 3D models, environments and 2D games // listening to music and game soundtracks that inspire me.

I'd like to come out of the MA course with an indepth understanding of my areas of interest that will allow me to continue my games industry career in the future.