GAME LAB: Studio for Experimental Asset Creation
Professor AURIEA HARVEY
M.A. IN GAME DESIGN
IULM, MILAN
2017-2018
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
GAME LAB: Studio for Experimental Asset Creation, is a weekly work session where we learn to utilise digital, analog, and hybrid tools to create the sensory elements which make up Videogame worlds. Using any and every means at our disposal we will better understand the world we are living in and worlds we are creating. A large part of taking a project from concept to completion is problem solving: What you are trying to make vs. what you can actually make. If you don’t know how to do something, let’s try it. We will look at games and artworks, discuss how effects are achieved and how they affect the overall goals of their created worlds. We will develop our observational skills, hone ideas to a fine point, and delve into no software left untested methods, for 3D, VR, animation, sound, scanning, capture, input, and output.
COURSE FORMAT: Class will consist of creation prompts and crafted responses to your ongoing projects. We will keep research notebooks to record our experiments along the way. We will be develop working methods, refine skills and present results to each other. Attendance is mandatory. 3 Tardies = Absence, 3 Absence = Fail. Though we will be using our laptops and phones constantly, non-class related chatting and surfing is not allowed.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students will develop a general understanding of various technical methods of asset creation and how these can be used in Videogames.
1. To create with sensitivity for the audience.
2. To work creatively, and enjoy the work.
3. To clarify ideas through Art.
4. To overcome technical limitations. Or when to admit defeat.
5. To better understand what assets are necessary for completion of your Videogame, and how you will get it all done.
ASSIGNMENTS: There will be weekly assignments with results ongoing. Come to class, with your laptop, prepared to work.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Software and Hardware manuals. Various lectures, videos and tutorials.
SOFTWARE: I will instruct with Blender 3d but students may use their 3d package of choice. We will experiment with such software as: Kinect/Skanect, AgiSoft PhotoScan, Allegorithmic Substance Painter, Zbrush, Audacity, Brekel Software, Unity.
SCHEDULE:
WEEK 1: Introductions - Come with a brief (5 min.) presentation of you and your work thus far. What attracts you to Videogames? What else are you making? I will give a short lecuture about my work and the methods we will use in this class.
Excursion/Homework: Public space - Observation in Milan. Find a special place in Milan, using notebook and phone, make a study of its sights, sounds, smells.
WEEK 2: How to get things done - Discussions of typical types of game assets and the problems of making them. Digital craft. The asset you want vs. the asset you get. 3D and software review.
3d capture
Homework: Private space - capture something intimate. How can you make us feel that intimacy
motion capture
WEEK 3: Landscapes
WEEK 4: Time
WEEK 5: Self directed project, problem solving
WEEK 6: Self directed project, problem solving
WEEK 7: Self directed project, problem solving