My first talk was for Game for Children.
I came half way through, but it was still insightful none the less. The main topic floating around the panel was gearing the game towards the 12yr old sweet spot. At this age the child is becoming more independent from their parents. They look for more approval from their friends. They are also extremely capable of using the technology; not only on a basic level, but can achieve and execute complex tasks using technology in games. One of the professionals in the round table suggested to always gear the concepts towards a more mature level if you're on the fence about how complex to make it. 12yr olds don't want to be talked down to like children. They can understand and complete tasks better than usually perceived. At the same time, a tween may not understand the complexity of the narrative at hand in the current game, but can appreciate the gameplay none the less. Also, by gearing games at that target age, the game lends itself to a broader range of audiences. The little sibling and the teenage sibling can also enjoy this type of game. Games for this age are imaginative and fun, yet can include complex gameplay such as roleplaying.The 12yr old mark is also a great target for brand engagement. They are getting an allowance which give them their first taste of financial freedom. If the game is an off product from a show, the brand will most likely have merchandise, which the child will be able to purchase.
Another topic at this panel was the topic of accessibility for disabled children. One way to go about this is to make the game multi platform. This way, if the user is more able to use an ipad over a keyboard, it enables access to the title easier.
For games towards toddlers, it creates another topic of approachability. Besides the age gap between teen and toddler, the UI is changed as well. Rapid prototyping and playtesting should be the number one focus for this market. Children at this age can only handle one core game mechanic at a time and do it well. So, by giving the child visual and auditory clues to interact with the interface, this helps the child understand and learn how to play the game. Spoken commands and mechanics are too complicated at that age. The screen should only help the child with mechanics if the child is fumbling with the screen for a certain amount of time. Then, there is a time out where the game provides a visual directional cue for the child. Another way to help the child interact with the game is having a character on screen, such as Elmo to give reward and visual encouragement.
The last topic at this round table panel was the question of parental involvement through games. Culturally, America is accepting of educational games for children of all ages. Germany, for instance, is not so accepting. The games should show significant value for the child's cognitive ability with the technology as well as usability for parent/child gameplay. Other cultures may view educational games as redundant, and takes away from children's imagination.
My second panel was bringing Epic Characters to Life with Substance and UE4, featuring Paragon's character pipeline.
The main take away from this panel is that the materials used must be tilable and have custom nodes for edits such as color. In Epic's Paragon library, there are roughly 400 materials that are borrowed and interchanged for every champion. Each character has around 20 b/w masks each for roughness, grunge, and details per material. Each material has their own layer in Substance Painter. There are champion specific materials as well. The biggest challenge for the artist team is color, roughness, specular, scratch mask, grime, and skin texture (Skin is too complicated for this time frame and therefore not touched in this panel specifically). Their team stresses to work simple and get complex out and work nondestructive. The character model may change within release (every 2 weeks!) so its best to not get too invested in details until it's completely green-lit.
The first custom featured is an Ivy (Soul Caliber) type fighter fused with a ice mage. She uses various metals on her skins, but has a character specific ice material made for her. This material, like the rest of the library, is transferred seamlessly into UE4 and applied in various ways. The ice texture uses a UV panner to get that extra life and readability in game.
The second character featured is Crush. He's a retired military robot unit who is now used in street fighting. The team showed his complicated process. They first apply a basic metallic material (Sand cast Material) on his surface. This stage is to let the artist experiment and explore possibilities. The first metal has minimal wear. Then they applied the more specific variation metals such as the difference in rivets and joint metals. Then a base material (old paint). After, a paint layer (base grafitti texture material) is applied on top. This base paint material on his normal character model is bubbled and chipped in certain areas. To apply this look the team uses a mask and then puts it into UE4 from substance to determine how damaged and bubbled up the old paint looks. The mask is based on a linear gradient, from white to bubbly ripped look to the right. After the base paint material and the texture material, a scratch layer is applied from a mask. Then a grunge filter from a mask. Scratch and grunge maps come after the base materials since they are external/environmental damages applied. Height maps are heavily used to show the depth for the believability in these materials. Jumping back into the pipeline, after those layers are applied, the character's power thrusts in his hands/ back are addressed. The artists applied rust by his thermal power boosts. And finally the character gets an emissive on the power thrusts/boosts to show the power inside of him. It's an equally the most challenging and fascinating character for the team to tackle at the time.
And finally the last topic given was their snow material for their seasonal skins. The snow is a tillable procedural mask. The snow offset mask is first made in substance painter and then has a snow filter with mask generator applied. So, in UE4 the team can tweak how much snow is layered on the character and where it is applied (through heavy crevice buildup or in a dusty powder layer). It was truly mind blowing for me. Especially since they expressed to stay simple the entire panel.
The main take away from this panel is that the materials used must be tilable and have custom nodes for edits such as color. In Epic's Paragon library, there are roughly 400 materials that are borrowed and interchanged for every champion. Each character has around 20 b/w masks each for roughness, grunge, and details per material. Each material has their own layer in Substance Painter. There are champion specific materials as well. The biggest challenge for the artist team is color, roughness, specular, scratch mask, grime, and skin texture (Skin is too complicated for this time frame and therefore not touched in this panel specifically). Their team stresses to work simple and get complex out and work nondestructive. The character model may change within release (every 2 weeks!) so its best to not get too invested in details until it's completely green-lit.
The first custom featured is an Ivy (Soul Caliber) type fighter fused with a ice mage. She uses various metals on her skins, but has a character specific ice material made for her. This material, like the rest of the library, is transferred seamlessly into UE4 and applied in various ways. The ice texture uses a UV panner to get that extra life and readability in game.
The second character featured is Crush. He's a retired military robot unit who is now used in street fighting. The team showed his complicated process. They first apply a basic metallic material (Sand cast Material) on his surface. This stage is to let the artist experiment and explore possibilities. The first metal has minimal wear. Then they applied the more specific variation metals such as the difference in rivets and joint metals. Then a base material (old paint). After, a paint layer (base grafitti texture material) is applied on top. This base paint material on his normal character model is bubbled and chipped in certain areas. To apply this look the team uses a mask and then puts it into UE4 from substance to determine how damaged and bubbled up the old paint looks. The mask is based on a linear gradient, from white to bubbly ripped look to the right. After the base paint material and the texture material, a scratch layer is applied from a mask. Then a grunge filter from a mask. Scratch and grunge maps come after the base materials since they are external/environmental damages applied. Height maps are heavily used to show the depth for the believability in these materials. Jumping back into the pipeline, after those layers are applied, the character's power thrusts in his hands/ back are addressed. The artists applied rust by his thermal power boosts. And finally the character gets an emissive on the power thrusts/boosts to show the power inside of him. It's an equally the most challenging and fascinating character for the team to tackle at the time.
And finally the last topic given was their snow material for their seasonal skins. The snow is a tillable procedural mask. The snow offset mask is first made in substance painter and then has a snow filter with mask generator applied. So, in UE4 the team can tweak how much snow is layered on the character and where it is applied (through heavy crevice buildup or in a dusty powder layer). It was truly mind blowing for me. Especially since they expressed to stay simple the entire panel.
Alumni mixer: I networked with some fabulous alumni and touched based with my current peers.
Epic Party: Met the lead Designer and the Producer of a mobile game I play. It was awesome. Also lost my voice for the entire three days because of it.
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