Additional Information

Project:
Platform 21

When I approached the unit of Games and Play I was quite excited. Just purely as much as that. I planned on taking the unit for 2 semesters so far, looking forward to seeing what it contains and what I could learn. Unfortunately, this semester was extremely heavy as it was the key for reaching one of my destinations: going on exchange. Nevertheless, I knew the lecturer and figured that the unit will encompass a wide range of topics that will fit just exactly within the theoretical boundaries that may be within my realms of interest. Unfortunately, I prefered to learn of a more practical approach, which... well, let's just say that I found a way.

The unit of study included 4 elements. A presentation on a specific topic regarding games (as a topic). Development of a Concept Game in a team and writing an essay. In this subpage I am supposed to talk about the concept game so I will follow the subject. Our team decided to pursue the idea of creating an educational game (which was the purpose in the first place) of learning about the history of Sydney with a particular significance placed on the old, extensive canal system that is spread throughout the entire city.

Our team has developed a rich and abundant concept, however. Each of us actually took a relatively ambitious approach as each of us developed a more sophisticated presentation of our idea. Our team member even created a trailer based on an animation created in Maya, an environment in which professional animations get create. However, I decided to go even further and come up with an actual playable mockup. Despite that I lacked skills in creating an actual game, I took upon myself to use a set of tools the use of which I already seldom knew.

I used the game Crysis from 2007. Launched its editor, which ran on CryEngine 2, a fairly advanced engine (Especially at the time), with a truly compelling graphics and technological features that still remained up-to-date even in the contemporary times. I loaded a map and built a level with the use of existing in-game objects. I referenced in the educational materials what I used and how I approached the project. And after the presentation I showcased a quick demo of how the game could look like.

Basically, Crysis was ideal. The setting was placed in Sydney, which years ago used to be fairly green, basically a jungle, the environment of which is present in the game itself. Nevertheless, the focus was on a system of tunnels, the objects and complexity of which I tried introducing. A range of rooms, tunnels, including old railtracks, trains and rooms used for antiflooding purposes were introduced. I even managed to feature an entity, AI following the player. All in all, we went beyond what was required from us and the presentation made quite an impression. Me on the other hand? I just was pleased that I managed to pull such a thing off as in theory it might sound semi-convenient. Yet, it requires the knowledge of how the system works and which objects are actually present in the game itself. The graphics that are in the first document on top of this page are actually screenshots taken from the game. I guess I'm not the one to say any of this, but these are quite compelling, ain't they?