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tokiro07 · 3 years

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Thinkin’ about the term Soulslike again (though I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about it here)

I really dislike the idea of naming genres after specific games on the basis that it leads to stagnation in the development of games and doesn’t actually tell you anything about those games if you aren’t already familiar with the source

Metroidvanias, for example, by and large either try to perfectly mimic Super Metroid or Symphony of the Night to the point where a lot of them will practically use the same upgrades with different visuals or names in my experience, rather than reimagining or refining the core experience of exploration and discovery (some people have called these games Sprawlers, but I like to call them Explorers)

Roguelikes, fortunately, have now boiled down the genre to just two major, generalized mechanics, procedural generation and permadeath, but for some reason have retained the name even though they are nigh unrecognizable as “Rogue” games anymore. Some Roguelikes have even cut down on the permadeath with a persistent upgrade system that have resulted in them being called “Roguelites,” even though they already had nothing in common with Rogue aside from being Procedural games

“Soulslikes” at the moment seem to be leaning towards the former for the most part, though they are slowly but surely drifting away from that. Now, I haven’t played many Soulslikes, but from what I’ve seen, almost all of them have the following:

a limited, slow-use health restoring item

a currency that is dropped upon death (usually retrievable at the point of death)

a checkpoint area designated for the usage of said currency, recovery of the health item, and/or upgrades and customization (these may vary, but there’s usually a combination of these) BUT also restores all of the enemies in an area (if applicable)

enemies with high damage output but consistent predictable and exploitable attack patterns

combat heavily based around animation speed

a dodge or parry mechanic that helps give the player control over the pace of the battle

obscure lore often told through environmental storytelling or vague item descriptions

Dark Souls itself also has several elements that are frequently seen in its clones, but not necessarily all of them, including:

character customization

variable weapon builds

an RPG-style leveling system

a stamina-bar that recovers over time

an item that increases health and allows for a mechanic that makes combat easier at the risk of inviting some form of danger

a semi-open world that encourages familiarity and creates shortcuts over time

With all of these elements, Dark Souls itself is effectively an Exploratory Action RPG, with its world functioning similarly to a Metroidvania and while having a customizable/upgradable character that can perform real-time combat. The question is what Dark Souls does differently within these genres that makes it unique, much like how Rogue differentiated itself from other turn-based RPGs of the time (procedural generation and permadeath)

I think when most people think “Soulslike,” they think games that emulate the look and feel as closely as possible, like The Surge or Nioh for 3D games or Salt and Sanctuary or Hollow Knight for 2D. These all, to my knowledge, use similar kinds of currency systems and combat systems

These systems have led to people like Yahtzee Croshaw labeling Soulslikes as “Recursive games”, on the basis that they encourage one to throw themselves at one challenge again and again until they learn it by heart, often through asking the player to specifically face the thing that defeated them rather than go another way.

While I see the argument here, I think that this definition is actually too broad. A linear platformer will do the exact same thing, but if you die repeatedly to a specific enemy or obstacle in a Mario game and keep trying until you get it, does that make Mario a “Soulslike” game? Not at all, but any video game that has a failure state is, by its very nature, recursive. Not all games do this, but all that do can’t be referred to as “Recursive games”

Dead Cells, for example, inherently lacks this feature. Sure, its procedural nature promotes a “just one more go” mentality, but what you’re doing is inherently different every time. You aren’t facing the same challenges, as enemies and item builds are always different. However, what remains is the combat-style

I’ve always felt that the most important part of something being similar to Dark Souls is the enemy encounters that are dictated by health/stamina management and pace control. Because this is so heavily rooted in Dark Souls’ unique method of combat, I’ve been referring to it as a Precision Combat game, as precise inputs and timing are often necessary for survival, and an understanding of how both the player and the enemies behave is necessary for progression

What muddles this is that we already have terms like “Action” and “Fighting” to define specific genres, and those terms are just too close. Fighting games are, in a sense, Precision Combat games that remove everything extraneous: no level progressions, no upgrade systems, just pure mechanics in typically one-on-one battles against a specific character being used by an opponent. Action games, however, basically mean anything that has some kind of combat encounter in it at all, allowing it to span Platformers, Fighters, Shooters, Brawlers, Puzzlers, anything, so much so that it’s a near pointless concept. One could argue that by calling something a Combat game, it immediately implies a greater focus on the precision of the action, thus making the “Precision” in Precision Combat redundant. We could also call it “Precision Action,” but that comes with its own problems

Many games have had precision action elements since the inception of gaming. The most notable that I can think of from the NES days would be Ninja Gaiden and The Mysterious Murasame Castle, both of which require quick reaction time and strategic attacks, generally not allowing players to simply brute force their way through. However, while these could strictly speaking be called Precision Action games, that doesn’t mean that they are “like Souls,” nor do they resolve the fact that modern games are taking inspiration from Dark Souls’ unique mechanics to spawn a new genre. It just becomes the same problem that Recursive had: it can apply to too many things that already exist rather than honing in on what makes Dark Souls itself unique

A friend of mine called Dark Souls a “Strict” game on the basis that the failure to act in a precise manner is entirely on the player, that Dark Souls is “tough but fair,” but honestly I think that’s just a fancy way of conveying the same idea.

In the same conversation that Recursive was introduced, Yahtzee’s associate Jack Packard suggested that Soulslikes be called Fight-or-Flight games to highlight the decision making process that the player goes through: “do I have the right items for this encounter?” “How far am I from the checkpoint?” “Should I avoid the enemies to preserve health, or fight them to get their drops?” Jack and Yahtzee determined that this couldn’t work because the player can’t run from boss encounters, and thus those moments remove a core gameplay element that Fight-or-Flight would imply. I, however, think they were on the right track

For one, the bosses are the very reason one has to consider whether to fight or flee in the first place; there is always going to be something that the player needs to save their resources for, something that they can’t flee from, so the question is what to do in the moments where that choice is available. However, I think there’s a way to potentially reconcile this issue while retaining the high focus on player choice: Risk/Reward

Now, many games have elements of risk and reward, particularly procedural games where if the player is having a good run, they may want to play more cautiously, but “Soulslike” games have a particular way of baking these sorts of choices into every single moment. Every attack animation is a risk because they’re exploitable by an enemy, every usage of the healing items is a risk because they’re exploitable, every enemy is a threat that can cause the player to lose their precious items, every enemy attack, even from bosses, is exploitable but reacting to them may leave the player open. “Do I attack now?” “Do I heal now?” “Do I fight this enemy?” “Do I run past them?” “Do I use my currency on this upgrade/item, or save it?” These are all ideas that are present in other games, but Dark Souls and its contemporaries utilize it in such a specific way that I think one could make the argument that it’s their defining feature

Risk/Reward also has the benefit of removing the necessity for combat altogether, whereas Fight-or-Flight explicitly states that combat is an element of it. This could allow non-action games to potentially recontextualize Dark Souls’ Risk/Reward mechanics into something else entirely, similarly to how Toki Tori 2 took out Super Metroid’s action-centric upgrade system and replaced it with a consistent moveset used for puzzle-solving, and all “upgrades” were actually moments where the player would discover new ways to use what they already had to progress

I don’t necessarily think Risk/Reward is a perfect solution, as like I said it can technically be applied to a lot of other games (ex: in any turn-based RPG, one can choose to attack, defend, or heal, risking the enemy’s actions), and it’s not the most elegant thing to say (ex: to encompass all that Dark Souls is would require calling it a Risk/Reward Exploratory Action RPG), but I think it’s a step in the right direction

If nothing else, it helps make it clear why a game like Sekiro, which removes nearly all of Dark Souls’ mechanics and even boils the combat down to a single weapon type, can still be considered a “Soulslike;” moving the enemy into a vulnerable position potentially leaves Sekiro vulnerable as well, but the player needs to take that risk to win a fight

I’ve also seen the word “dynamic” used to describe the combat in both Dark Souls and Sekiro, which ties back into what I was saying about controlling the pace of combat. This could also work and may be useful in conveying the idea of decision making, but it may have more difficulty in translating to other genres. That said “Exploratory Dynamic Action RPG” sounds better than that mouthful I said before, even if it’s still a bit long

It may be years before we get a good answer to this question, and it really will be determined by what elements survive the refinement process and remain recognizable, but for now, I think I’m going to start trying to work either “Risk/Reward” or “Dynamic” into my conversations about Dark Souls until I hear something better

#dark souls #soulslike #video games #genres #analysis #my analyses

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mi5016callumspence-blog · 5 years

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Reflective essay

The animation industry is a very broad and diverse industry with many roles to be filled in all aspects from concept design to modelling and post production. After looking into the industry and what I currently enjoy doing I determined that I want to start off by working on the modelling aspect of process. With my aspiration being to work in games industry specifically creating models for vehicles, weapons and other objects. Throughout this essay I will reflect on how I began tailoring my portfolio for this as well as personal branding that will allow me to best present myself to the companies I have researched. I thought initially about freelancing work as it would give me a better range of projects to keep my interests peaked, however it also doesn’t give me the job security that I am looking for, moreover it would mean working on projects that I would not be fully interested in all the time and I feel like I should focus on a specific aspect that I want to work on to fully put my effort behind to produce the best outcome. It is for this reason why I decided to work on developing myself to work as a modeller.

This part of the industry the work is very much focused on the technical aspects of my work and from the contacts I have talked to in the industry the work is mainly what they focus on when looking at potential recruits. As they have to make sure you aren’t going to be slowing the team down due to the strict deadlines. This kind of regimented work place appeals to me for being my entry into the industry as it would give me more certainty in my employment and give me a constant work load to use to gain experience and develop the level of my work. When I began to think about what I want out of a job I had to think of a range of things I want in a job including the key elements of the workplace I want to work in. In this case I wanted to be a part of a large of a team with a chance to progress in both ability and the role I have in the company. This sense of teamwork is important to me as I a feel as though I work well in a team and the sense of comradery in making something is personally very rewarding to me.

In researching the role I wish to fill I gained a better understanding of how my portfolio should look and what to include in it. Mostly, the content of a modeller’s portfolio should consist of completed models with breakdowns of how you accomplished it with the software that you used. For example having a model of a radio with the initial model in maya then the transition into either mudbox or substance designer to produce the details. Furthermore to show from research on those already in my desired field of work, the more highly sought after creators also show full uv maps of the objects. Therefore, this makes up most of the portfolio I have created for this unit as well as some other bits of work I feel are of note to showcase more of a broad range of skills.

I want to present myself as someone with a broad range of skills across the whole process of modelling for games and animations, with no specific style of modelling to best work in my favour as it means I will be able to work on a variety of projects ranging from the cartoon, more exaggerated style to the more realistic work the is required with a lot of games currently.

Working in this industry I am aware that I will have to present myself as a useful asset and have my work place ethics in check. As I will be one amongst a decently sized team I will have to be punctual and meet the deadlines assigned to me. Moreover, I must insure that the ethics of the company I work for a line with my own and don’t produce content I wouldn’t want to associate myself with. Although, as most companies end up producing games with multiple age restrictions that explore several sensitive subject matters this will be hard to avoid and I may have to become accustomed to having to work on things that may not be completely within my own ethics.

In constructing my work for this module I have tried to remain in an area of limited ethical debate, having my work be mostly one dimensional to focus on the technical aspect of it rather than start a debate around it. However, in instances where the subject matter of a build could be called into question I have done my best to express to the people that the work I am putting out is simple an exercise in creativity and in ability to produce technically sound work. In addition to this I will be responsible for following personal copyright laws in my personal work and make sure I avoid replication of already existing work. I will also have to be careful as when working in a team I will have to be assured that, if and when I chose to leave my initial job, I am within my rights to use pieces of work that I had a part in creating for my show reel and that I properly document what it was I had a part in and that the company is open to the idea of me using aspects of their products in said show reel.

In order to gain a place in the industry I have begun to develop a stronger online presence by making am Instagram, website and a link’d in page. Specifically focusing on the Instagram page as this is the easiest way to begin to network. In order to develop this into a page that will be taken serious I started a modelling series where I produced a hundred different models in a hundred days which has begun to develop some interest with some small studios getting in touch with me.

In addition to this I have taken steps to create a personal brand in order to better sell myself to the companies I have researched. I have made designs for web based branding and physical branding such as business cards and a stylised cv. My logo for these is a piece of geometry created in mash then taken into Photoshop to be painted over to make it into an impossible shape. This both represents the aspect of the industry I want being a use of 3D. Yet it also represents a theme of technical ability and a bit of quirkiness which I feel is the most accurate representation of myself in terms of how I want to portray myself in the future. The theme across my branding is to be sleek and professional, as a modeller your job is very technical and straightforward and as a result this is reflected in their personal branding as far as my research into the subject has shown.

This is then also link into my portfolio as it is to the point with turntables of my works with a variety of styles. These include breakdowns of the models as this is the most simple and professional way to showcase my skills as a modeller. In this I wanted to show case the broad range of styles in my modelling.

As far as my show reel and CV, I have learnt from people in the industry that they get a lot of CV’s a day and that while through the work in this module I have learnt the importance of a strong personal brand and standing out from the crowd, the most important thing the games industry focuses on is the work you produce and the software you are capable of using. Moreover, they are more concerned at the entry level the work you have done in your own time rather than the work you have done for your degree therefore, my personal work will make up the most of my portfolio. For the future however, I feel as though it would also be prevalent to continue to work on other things on the side to construct a CV that showcases me as a better-rounded individual so I can easily transition out into other things if I feel that solely modelling is not for me. In addition, I feel that with the choice I have made for myself with my future a CV is somewhat of an import step as I will be applying the traditional way rather than the freelancing route of having to make a website that is not only of showing my work but also to be used as a business platform. This therefore will be something I will look more into in the future using the research I have done in this module as a base line for a working website.

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isaacbewleystopmotion · 5 years

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For our stopmotion, we decided to create it based off the classic platformer Mario games in 2D so we could use pixilation/cut-out stopmotion techniques to add movement to an environment similar to ones found in those games. We mainly referenced from older games such as Super Mario Bros. as these games had the style and perspective that we were going for, and they held the right amount of charm that would fit our stopmotion and contribute to the ‘hand-made’ effect we were going for.

Using Super Mario Bros. and other similar titles as reference, everyone in the group created unique and original pixel blocks of our own design to use in order to emulate the style of the Mario levels. We used an online program named Piskel to create them, and after drawing the blocks we transferred them into Adobe Animate and created our final environment using the grid tools to lay down our blocks consistently.

The final idea for our stopmotion animation was a platforming game level inspired by the likes of classic Mario and Sonic games, using cutout stopmotion to add a person running and completing the level. We arrived at this after discussing the different methods of stopmotion, and combined with our love for classic video games we decided that cutout animation would be excellent for creating an animation like this. We considered pixilation to create something similar but in the end we realised it would take too much time by far and the effect could be more easily achievable with cutout.

Obviously, we were heavily inspired by games such as Super Mario Bros, Limbo, Coma and the first Sonic the Hedgehog games, although we took into account some newer 3D games such as Mario Odyssey and the mix of 2D and 3D from Sonic Generations. Since we were doing cutout animation we decided that the classic games were more important to study, so we focused mainly on the 2D games when considering designs and inspiration. Our final block designs were mostly inspired from Mario although we used colour schemes mostly inspired by Sonic. The more bland and stark colour schemes of Limbo and Coma did not fit well with our vision for the project, so we discarded the designs we made based off of those games.

Originally we used a DSLR and a greenscreen to film ourselves doing various actions, such as running and jumping. The goal from this was to take the frames of thes videos and use them in the stopmotion, but we ran into technical difficulties when the images turned out blurry and unusable. In order to overcome this issue, we instead filmed Theo’s sibling doing the various actions and put the frames into Photoshop to cut around and use for the animation. This was a success and we were able to use those frames in our final animation, although we did waste vital time when doing this and this may have negatively impacted our final piece.

We learned a lot of things during this project, especially when it came to teamwork and understanding the capabilities of each other when we worked in a team. Prior to this project we knew little about the different techniques and methods for stopmotion, and researching them enabled us to make the decision to try out these alternate methods and use them for our final piece. While researching these methods we learned which ones we would clearly not have time or skill to finish properly to a suitable level, such as proper pixilation or claymation, and this helped us decide to do computer-aided cutout stopmotion instead. This helped us a lot as we saved time and managed to complete the task efficiently and to a decent standard which we are happy with - the experience of working in a group also helped with this as we could effectively share out the tasks and make sure everything was finished with our combined teamwork.

If we could do this project over again, I think I would do more research and try to work more efficiently. Despite working as a group we had some difficulty in finishing and agreeing on what to do for the stopmotion which held us back and may have effected the quality of our work, and next time we should try to avoid this to make sure our work is up to standard. I also would consider trying out other methods of stopmotion as cutout stopmotion is common and it is hard to do many unique and original things with, and I would definitely consider methods such as pixilation and shadow animation as these would be a fun challenge and provide good opportunities to create a more memorable and interesting animation.

Despite this, I am content with many aspects of the stopmotion animation we did. The work we did on the individual blocks of the background shows how hard we worked and the effort we made to show our inspiration and also make it unique - we also spent a lot of time taking the images we used for the actual stopmotion and cutting them out in Photoshop, and I think the effort we took for this shows in our work and gives it a certain charm of its own. In the future we should continue to put a lot of effort into our work so that the final piece reflects our motivation and love for what we created.

While there are plenty of good aspects about our piece, not everything is perfect and there is clear room for improvement. I dislike that we didn’t manage to do much dynamic movement with the technique we used, although that was the disadvantage we already considered when deciding to use cutout stopmotion. In future if we ever did stopmotion again, I would for sure consider other methods first as although cutout isn’t too difficult it is hard to create interesting movement with the strict 2D limit we have.

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