Isolating Game Elements: Screenflow

Games work as any ordinary application available at any app market out there. Most people think about making games like an exotic adventure leading where no other human has gone before. And it is true somehow! However, to discover all creative activities a game project might offer, first we have to stick to reality and see games like any other application. What is creative and innovative might be beyond the basics of game production.

The Isolating Game Elements series brings to you everything about game design as independent elements. Gameflow is part of it and provides consistency to your project. Analyzing general game screenflow helps you think about a game from a most remote point of view possible. Suggested structure presented at Figure 1.0 introduces a basic game screenflow.

Figure 1.0 - Although it isn´t something new, this is a General Game Screenflow
proposition to help designers involved in a game project to visualize
whole general screens.

The Company Logo screen (1) is well known by most of gamers. This screen usually displays the company´s logo for a few seconds, plays some music and game flows automatically to next screen. Konami has always the same company logo screen displayed for years. Remember that the function of this screen is to present information about companies involved in the game production process. Inserting more than 2 logos, unless carefully thought, might result on a crowded screen where no information is absorbed.

Main Menu screen (2) is, well, the center of unplayable things at a game. You can go to any screen, configure things and get things ready to start the game itself. Usually, this screen provides a little bit more information and is thematic. As a designer, you must convince players that they are entering into a new reality and it might involve character fonts, colors, textures, patterns, sounds and a convincing logo. The player must get excited to see what happens next, even in a screen that was supposed to be not so cool. Options´ screen (5) includes everything related to configurations and purchases before the game starts including sound and special effects volume, color configurations and specific things. Also, from Main Menu screen (2) player might have option to leave the game.

Games usually have similar menu
screens.

Either arcade machines, video games or mobile games,
main menu has to be simple and intuitive to help player
start interaction.

Main menu is also a place to invite players to try the game,
it is a chance to show what´s coming next and why player
should press start.

Main Game screen (3) is where all party happens. Game´s core runs exactly there and because of that, it is not subject of this article. However, we must pay attention to always leave some options for the player to leave this match after it gets started (9). Also from that screen, if the player has to configure anything else that hasn´t done at previous screen and anything specific from the game while it is running, it has to be available at Game Options screen (6). Main Menu and Main Game Screen are the Gameflow´s Hub and almost every screen might run around it.

Show clearly to player that the match is about to begin.

Use sounds, graphics and animations to know that from

this point, the focus is on the game.

When game´s core is running leave a quit option easily
available to player.

After the game gets played, there will surely be a result of this match: either positive(4) or negative (10). Even if a game seems to have no end clearly, it must have. Usually, player is complimented if some goal is reached or gets some regret message if this goal isn´t reached at all. Although "Game Over" message comes to our minds when we talk about Screen #10, most of recent games try to avoid this term to not be so aggressive to the player.

When game ends and player reached some goal, some compliment is needed.

The same way, make it clear that the player hasn´t reached the game´s goal.

Of course you’ll have to invite him to play again afterwards. Don´t be rude. =)

Pay attention to inform player´s performance. It´s important to catch
player´s attention and keep him coming to play again.

There might be lots of variation from this gameflow screens. As a designer, pay attention because details really make difference when we talk about games. And from this basic gameflow, you can do your homework faster and find some time to spend with innovations, Proof of Concepts (POC) and things with a different approach.  

Isolating Game Elements: Doing the right thing in arts

It is very hard to talk about art. It is so wide and broad that is risky to explain part of a thing and forget to explain other. However, there is some simple rules that can keep us running on right track even when we don´t have under our control a subject so free and abstract as art. Once you have an idea on what your game will be about, as a game designer, take a note of all ideas, try to sketch some screens, things that you think might be nice to have in the game, desired interactions and then it would be smart to call your best friend and ask him what he has to say. This process is pretty similar to a brainstorm.

Discover what you like the most when you see a picture or something
else. When you know it, you will be able to expand your knowledge
on this subject and perhaps improve your design skills.

Origins

If you sketch things that you saw somewhere else, try to figure out its origins. If you write down anything that might help you in this tasks, also think of where it might come from. Then you are ready to go a little further. It is a very important activity from where you might find things that you really appreciate or, in that case, that you considered relevant. If perhaps you find out that Baroque style fits in what you intend to design, spend a little more time researching it and putting apart things that might be useful.

Don´t be affraid to take notes or sketch thing. It´s natural and
helps you to record insights at any time.

Adequate things

One gold rule at beginning of a design stage is: Find adequacy in everything you do. If perhaps your game is set in Baroque ages, try to stick to this period of time when you do your searches, select your charset and adornments, pay attention to some clothing rules. It is also a good start and makes you look an expert in this matter. If perhaps you intend to create the next Metal Gear, again, stick to militar and war patterns. Game is just a slice of reality, and it can be a good convincing start.

If you will work on a game project about Persia, it would be
wise to start looking around to find some Persia references.

It helps you to build a convincing design and don´t take
so much time to do.

Thinking over your sketches

Once you have in hands couple of sketches, writings and all results of your research, it is time to get them all and think over. It might sounds crazy but spending some time just watching sketches from your own might bring up new insights over it. Personally, I spend this time listening some music at a local coffee bar and just taking a look at them, browsing somewhere on the internet, drinking a little coffee. Just seeing where this activity might lead me. And bingo!, you find amazing things to complement your work.

Taking a break contemplating your sketches and notes helps
you to improve your concepts and get them sharp.

Pinterest, Google Images, Tumblr, Instagram, Youtube and Wikipedia offer a good companionship at this level of the process. You end up discovering new things, learning others and improving your project. These are just examples of where you can go while think over your project. There might be a couple of different address you can discover by yourself.

Creating game projects having relations among all your sketches and notes is a good step to have a consistent design. It gives you a steady environment where you can go beyond this starting point securely, try new things and go back if something weird just happens. At this stage, things that doesn´t match isn´t a good element, keep that in mind. Art itself has no boundaries so, we created fictional boundaries to ease our process. Few people start doing things amazingly coherent and cool. It is a exercise that people serious to getting into game design should do regularly, freely. ;-)

All characters and brands in this
article are properties of their
respective owners. This is a fictional
text and has nothing to do with any
official schedule neither implies
into anyone´s oppinion unless
expressed otherwise.

Isolating Game Elements: Graphic Art and Games

Games has everything to do with graphics. Even when a game isn´t all about graphics, it had some graphic related choice to be made previously to get it done. It isn´t a rule, but most of games out there has this relation clear. Although most of game designers have not an art background to support them, they handle with it quite well. However, when you take decisions consciously things runs pretty smoothly.

Bread and Butter

At one moment over a game conception, it was right there at someone´s mind. No matters exactly where this idea came from or if it is original. It was just an abstract idea, untouchable and it needed to find a way to come to reality. So you have to find a way, a media, to bring it to reality. In case of games, it is like idea is the butter and media is the bread. Both might exist independently, but when they are put together, things get way much better. And according to the bread, things might get tastier.

Even when it isn´t made consciously, every game had been influenced by some art movement. During the conception process, usually we call upon what we know or had been in touch that might fit on what is intended to be exposed. There is a plenty of bread out there and, according to previous references, this blend can have a whole new taste.

Getting Inspired

Getting inspired by art isn´t exactly such a hard thing to do. Information about almost everything is available on the internet. So it is easy to take a look at some History of Art book or website. A good starting point, however, should be on a  History of Art overview article.

As reference of important art movements, bellow is described lots of references from them. Remember that each movement has a reason to exist and putting yourself on a person back at that time´s shoes would be a good experimental exercise. Checking further geographic and historic information is a plus to hit the road about art.

Baroque architecture.

Surreal painting from Vladmir Kush.
Square Enix crew might have been inspired by paintings like
that to create Final Fantasy series.

Cubism, Realism, Barroque, English Barroque, Cubism, Surrealism, Dadaism, Art Deco, Classicism, Minimalism, Art Noveau, among others, would be a nice reference to start your studies. Grafitti as a current art expression is a good reference to be studied. Also, pay attention to western and eastern arts and influences because at this stage, the broader, the better.

Cubist painting from (c) Thomas C. Fedro

Classical paintings might be helping
currently games to be realistic.

Curiously, when we start looking over all those pictures from each style, surely some reference of appreciated things and not so much appreciated things come up. Pay attention on it because it is a good way to refine our taste of Art. This is a continuous process that everyone might keep paying attention on our spare time. It is pleasant to understand all those movements and where we might get it applied on our work.

Also studying entire Gutemberg´s history and Typography´s  evolution and contribution to the press and all sort of things related to this amazing process is handful to build your knowledge about Art. His role to change the way information is spread around the world is priceless and must be considered part of any study. It might sound weird but character writing way, shape and composition is also considered a form of Art.

Paintings, painters and artist´s life in general is also a good way to study art because most of them used to be controversial, innovating and had quite interesting life. Spend time wandering what they had been doing back at their times, their difficulties and efforts to express themselves is a good theoretical exercise to start getting serious about studying art.

Assassin´s Creed - Unity - Hystorical commitment
to improve player experience.

Out of this world - vectorial and minimalist
art used in this amazing game.

La Abadia del Crimen - famous spanish game took
over the world back in the 80´s.

Collecting as much information as needed helps when it is needed to create a consistent graphic ambient to have a game running. In this first stage texts, our commitment is to collect information to apply them accordingly into game projects. Paying attention on elements that must match and follow rules imposed by ourselves, combining among them is a good signal that this text is taking desired effect.

Art has autonomy to reinvent itself.

Human kind has been through so much when it comes to History of Art that is almost impossible to cover every inch of it just taking a look. And would be smug of me discuss about it in a brief and amateur text. Consider this text as a contribution to get started in this world and remember that it isn´t intended to transform you into an art expert but only to be in touch with it when you are designing games.

All characters and brands in thisarticle are properties of their respective owners. This is a fictional text and has nothing to do with any official schedule neither implies into anyone´s oppinion unless expressed otherwise.

Isolating Game Elements - Art in the games

A game is a curious blend of Graphic Art, Music, Literature and Code. It is a multimedia product because each of the described items has autonomy on its own. Only when these items are put together and under certain conditions it might be considered a game. That´s the reason why studying games might be a complex subject. When it comes to creative process, the broader the better. So how to study a subject that is a blend of other complex areas? Lucidity is the key to this problem.

If doing games was an equation, it would surely help us to see more than meets the eye and start thinking analytically. With this equation as a starting point, it can be possible not only to analyze a game but also to subdivide equation members to find their correct classification. It can also help us seek further information regarding a specific area that was hidden behind the game as a whole.

Just as a theoretical exercise, consider all sentences as true and generating different expression subjects:

Graphic Art + Literature = (Installations, comic books, illustrated books, others*)

Graphic Art + Music = (Animations, others*)

Graphic Art + Music + Literature = (Movie, others*)

Graphic Art + Music + Literature + Code = (Game!*)

(*)Results are countless, so "others" always has  to be an option.

Literature

Inside a game, literature can be considered any element directly related to written expression. That said, all explicit elements such as score, character dialogs, numbers and any displayed messages can be considered Literature. There are also elements that have no need to be shown and that might be classified as Literature: Characters descriptions, game plot, text drafts.

Words and Texts are important part of games.

Any work involving translation and localization of texts might be classified as Literature when it comes to game design and development. For people curious about improving skills in this specific field, it is recommended to attend Literature and Arts basic classes at any university. In addition, Geography and History classes can help students to broad their basic knowledge about it.

Graphic Art

Any form of non-written and inaudible message expressed through draws, images and sketches can be considered Graphic Art. Same as Literature, there might be explicit and implicit GA. It embraces any sort of animation and paintings under any technique. It includes icons, characters graphical representation, charset, 3D models, screens, layout design and balance.

Although there isn´t a main component of a game, it is reasonable to say that GA deserves a little highlight in the process. Any form of graphic expression can be used to influence game production. Among others, Baroque, Realism, Naturalism, Cubism, Surrealism. There is no rule to get influenced.

The Last Judgement (Michelangelo).

Putting historical styles apart, an important tool to influence art on games is Color Theory. It is important to work objectively with colors. Sometimes, it is not so easy to work with colors when you are not used to. What seems to be a natural ability at some people skills might be a complete disaster with others. It classifies colors according to certain rules so, when Color Theory is used, designer can rest assured that, at least, regular work was delivered.

Curious people about improving GA skills can attend drawing classes, painting classes, animation classes available at any university. In addition, Art History classes, Aesthetics classes, Print Art classes and related subjects can help students to broad their knowledgment about this GA.

Music

Music is responsible for providing the whole ambient a game needs to push player into the game. Basically music in games can be divided in two: Background Music (BGM) and Auxiliary Sounds. Similarly Music has the same importance at games as it has at movies.

Music and Sound Effects expand player´s game experience

People curious about improving music skills should attend classes at any music institute or school or might go to a music university course if the intention is to become a musician.

Code

Coding involves whole support system to present a game. Code might get analyzed as a means of expressing the game itself. However, most of readers are involved with technology activities at some level and going straight to the point might be better and practical to our purposes.

Code involves game logic, game structure, game screen layout, databases, game programming, security issues, hardware and software connections, quality control tests, code optimization and more. Basically it seems that code activity involves the delivery of the game as a product. The group in charge of coding has a huge responsibility in a game process because game will get delivered from their hands.

Although it is very precise and technical, coding involves art at some level. If we consider that Michelangelo was very concerned regarding human anatomy proportions and that coding activity involves the art of putting every element of a game together, working fine, properly balanced and keeps it running, that coding activity involves getting all part of music, graphics and text to create a new product, it is art indeed.

Art at producing games

Creating games involves areas that are sometimes out of the designer’s knowledge range. This text exposes how to find at ordinary world all information and help a designer might need to accomplish a project. Once all resources are at hand, the whole game creation process becomes easy to get designed, produced and published. Designing a game involves balancing all game´s equation members and testing it insanely to check if desired result meets delivered result. Possibly there might be remaining points that were forgotten, please let me know so it can get fixed.

Clarification

Any written expression might also be considered as a graphic expression. Ideograms would be precisely the place where graphics and texts meet. However, to ease our analytical process, it was decided to explain them apart. In time, there is also a place where sounds meet texts. Any music with voices could get analyzed as a text at some level. Here again, it was decided to classify music with voices as Music and not as Text although there are surely some texts on it.

What if Nintendo goes mobile?

Nintendo is undoubtedly known for its games and consoles. A traditional company that is pratically videogame´s synonymous. For years and years, Nintendo seemed to be unbeatable and its income was enough to keep things running fine. Franchises like Mario and Pokémon were strong and a valuable reason for users to purchase its consoles. However there might be something weird happening to the company recently. It seems that its consoles hasn´t same appeal and its audience is migrating gradually to other devices.

Nintendo´s Radar?

Seems that Nintendo doesn´t appreciate looking beyond videogame market. What matters to them is offering cool consoles and good games focusing on child or teenager audience. And it seemed to be an appropriate strategy. Mario, Zelda, Pokémon: does anyone doubt Nintendo´s vocation? Thanks to Shigeru Miyamoto, a bunch of well designed titles provided cash flow enough to Nintendo expand and finance its empire worldwide.

Despite of being a specialized company, Nintendo should have to pay attention around and develop new products constantly. Videogame market is promising but there´s a lot of novelties out there when it comes to technology market. Perhaps Nintendo should have taken a look in the neighborhood: Apple was leading a true revolution on whole markets like music, mobile devices, tablets and personal computer. Google was introducing its Android OS into countless devices, spreading its Chrome browser and taking over advertisement market right behind our noses. Minecraft and GTA were becoming more and more famous among players. Whatsapp was attacking carrier operator´s income source and Instagram was reinventing photography. Meanwhile, Nintendo seemed to get busy with an accelerometer for Wii joystick and also if Pokémon would be White or Black.

Will Nintendo survive by following mainly videogame
market and get so specialized in a specific market niche?

Game market was back in 70´s and 80´s a novelty but it has become today´s commodity. Nintendo used to move fast and was tuned with its audience. Nintendo was very sharp on doing beautiful devices, with nice features and games to supply the market. It was novelty. It was, somehow, technology. But consumers are never standing still when it comes to technology market and seemed that Nintendo took a nap on the top of market. What was cutting-edge technology started to spread around and became gradually popular.

Emulate or not emulate?

Emulator´s advent was ignored by Nintendo. And as a company affraid of the unknown, started to chase emulator´s creators instead of embrace them and try to figure out what was this new frontier. A lot of new applications could be produced emulating other devices. Who knows what would be the impact of releasing a Super Nintendo Game Service on Google Play or App Market? What if you could play Super Mario Bros on your Samsung device? It would, at least, spread Nintendo brand and attracting users to get to know and purchase Nintendo´s products.

Everybody knows that today´s children are tomorrow´s grown ups. Nintendo didn´t. For some unclear reason, they simply ignored tons of children that became adults and still loving its products. Customers that didn´t care to spend hours in a line to purchase Nintendo´s consoles and that could surely tend to try any product with Nintendo brand on it. Adults that purchase videogames, mp3 players, tablets, clothes. Taking a look at Sanrio´s backyard would give a slicest idea of all sort of thing Nintendo could have worked on.

Design Design and Design

Why on earth would a company try to enter in a market steady and with strong competitors as mobile market was back at 2006? Apple did. After getting some experience on small devices launching Ipod, Apple simply decided to develop its own mobile phone. The rest of history all of us know. Same risk could take Nintendo back at that time with all knowledge of its portable devices: they were cute, well design, robust and with a large audience that could risk purchasing a "N-Phone" just because it had a Nintendo logo on it. However, it seems that Nintendo could still take this risk nowadays...

Imagine a device as well designed as Nintendo DS or Wii console where you could play a game, make calls, listen to musics, take pictures, record some videos and connect to internet? A device you don´t have to worry with a battery-life or if it will explode on your pocket. It would be surely a dream coming true that could be brought to reality soon. Although a little bit late, it is still feasible to design a device like that or at least, take advantage of a part of this concept. Nintendo still strong, even running a risk to get kicked out videogame console war on next decade.

Going mobile can be a good opportunity to reverse
recently losses and get income and profits back on track?

Nintendo and Apple has both a wide fan base that could defend them aggresively. Loyal fans could be turned into regular customers when it comes to mobile market allied with Nintendo´s power brand. It also can rescue the company from the dark side of losses and perhaps bring its operation to generate profit to stock holders. Nintendo is well known to return from the ashes as it made at Wii´s launching occasion. Nintendo just have to get back on track and return to create technology and not run behind it. The big question remaining here is: "Why Nintendo didn´t do it before?"

All characters and brands in this
article are properties of their
respective owners. This is a fictional
text and has nothing to do with any
official schedule neither implies
into anyone´s oppinion unless
expressed otherwise.