Ultimerse Dev Blog

Our showcased PAX Aus demo went live today - would love for you to try it for free and see if you enjoy. We'll be patching later this week to remove the timer and correct any bugs people come across but for now, the team are taking a well earned break after a crazy games week here in Melbourne!

Get it here!

Hey guys, I’m Thomas.

I’m a developer at Ultimerse and a graduate from the Academy of Interactive Entertainment and I’m here to discuss some of the topics I feel are important in game dev; Documentation, Creative Thinking and Listening to your Team.

Documentation:

What I like to see when it comes to development is a bountiful amount of documentation. To me, it is an essential in any team based environment, not only to be a guideline but also to be the answer to any questions someone may have about the general development of the game.

I have personally struggled in many projects (even solo ones) if general documents haven’t been well thought out or constructed in the first place. 

Documentation is important!

Some of the most crucial information that I find needs to be documented are:

A Simple Core Loop

Relevant Pipelines

General Design and Direction of the Game

Schedule 

Checklist for tasks

(A core loop is a set of actions that determine how the game flows, it’s practically the games heart. It is what makes the game fun, exciting, challenging and anything else in between. When it comes to planning a game, this is one of the first things you should make!)

Documentation is an important asset to any developmental team and is crucial to make sure everyone is on the same page, so don’t underestimate it!

Fake it till you make it:

Assets:

One of the first lessons learned when it comes to general game dev is ‘thinking creatively’. For example, repurpose older assets, be resourceful. If you don’t have the right assets to fill up a scene to how you envision it, what I have found is that you shouldn’t be afraid to reuse assets in unique ways (like flipping them upside down) to get a similar effect. Until you have the newer assets, placeholders aren't a bad thing! Sometimes when things aren’t working, just hide them behind a giant wall and deal with it later during polish - this is always an option.

Feel:

How about if you want a cityscape setting but don’t have the scope to construct a whole city? By using some creative thinking - blocking off roads, making roads curved or even by limiting the camera position, you can create the feel of a living city, without having to allow the player to explore it.

Once More With Feeling!

All creative teams have different personality makeups and finding the right synergy can be tough. Everyone brings their own beliefs and values to the table, and discussion is the only way to filter through conflicting ideals. It’s important that everyone’s voice is heard and that everyone can make a contribution to the team. This doesn’t mean you’re not critical - but it’s about also being mindful that people put a lot of emotional investment into their creative work. Nothing is worse than feeling forgotten or helpless within a team, so always try to be an inclusive and as positive as possible!

Collaborating with other people has its moments, sometimes you can get on other people's nerves or say things you don't mean. However no matter what you do, always try to be inclusive, make sure everyone is involved in the project, that everyone is trying to think of cool ways to improve the game and the dev experience, and that EVERYTHING is documented. Take those extra steps to try to make the community a better and happier place! If you can get a team to agree on a documented, detailed plan, you can deal with any disagreements or roadblocks along the way with ease. It keeps everyone on track, accountable, and ready for action. 

You’ll likely see more from myself in future, but please follow me on twitter at @TSafarewicz where we can discuss my professional weebhood.

Hello! My name is Lucy, I'm a designer and resident coffee addict at Ultimerse. In this Dev blog I’ll be discussing the primary differences and similarities I’ve found, between designing and creating art for a 3D Virtual Reality gaming space versus my experiences designing and creating art in a 2D space. But first, some background info on me…

Prior to working in my role at Ultimerse and on Paperville Panic, I completed a diploma and then a degree at two respective art schools (RMIT and Melbourne Polytechnic) and then launched into a year-and-a-bit long venture into the big, wide world of freelance graphic design and illustration. During this time I drank a disgusting amount of instant coffee and produced work for some pretty cool clients.

Needless to say there is a pretty big jump between creating work for a 2D composition for a once-off design brief and creating work for an on-going 3D product, let alone one for virtual reality. Everything from team structure, to workflow, to the actual skillset you apply to your work changes. You’re still creating art for a brief, but this time your audience can literally engage with your work on a previously inconceivable level. Which leads us nicely into our first point…

The Cube Has Six Sides

When designing for 2D space, you create your composition thumbnails based on the subconscious idea that your viewer will only engage with your work from one angle, that angle being what the viewer sees in front of them. Sure, as 2D designers you can play with this concept to create some truly interesting viewpoints that distort your audience’s perception of what they are seeing, but ultimately your viewer engages with what is directly in front of them. In VR this completely changes - whatever you design will be viewed from all angles, both flattering and otherwise.

To address this, when concepting you must think of all the different ways the object/building/etc. you’re designing will be viewed and how it will look to someone engaging with it. Will the object look ugly from one side? Will the object have a hidden meaning/joke/reference/etc. on one angle, but not another? How will viewing this object from one angle affect your player’s gameplay experience? The cube has six sides now… well, it always did, but now all six of those sides are visible.

Art Team ASSEMBLE!

Freelance workers are an odd breed, you go from working in your home office in isolation, wearing PJ pants and not having brushed your hair for a day (or maybe that was just me?) to working at a desk in a large, multi-storey building with board meetings, working along a team of professionals wearing the best of Target’s office workwear range. During this time as a freelancer bouncing from job to job, while you do bond with the art teams to an extent, it’s often done through email, Skype, and random in-person meetings with 10 other strangers.

When it’s time to hand over your work it’s emailed or drop-boxed to someone you may not have ever really talked to in-person, and before you know it, you’re on your way to the next job. While feedback is given on your work and you implement it, if your work is hand-passed onto another creative after you have completed it, you rarely get to engage with them. It’s a very cut and dry process.

It goes without saying that this completely went out the window once I began designing for Ultimerse. Previously, in my experience as a freelance creative, designing and creating - while sitting next to the person who would put their spin on the work I’d concepted - just didn't exist.

When designing 2D work, in most cases, you see it through from conception to the very end product. As my skills are 2D based and I’m privileged enough to work closely with a great 3D team (Justine @jdinutella and Angie @ilpickle), the work is concepted in the 2D space and then has to be sent to the 3D team to create in a 3D space.

This means that the concepted work must be able to communicate to a second creative person, working in a different art dimension: what it’s role is, how it works, and what it looks like. In theory this is very simple, in practice it can be difficult. A 3D artist needs to know these three pieces of design communication in order to not only realise the design, but also so they can inject their own artistry into the design. The design will take on a life of it’s own birthed out of the creativity of the art team, so it is vital when working in the 2D space with the initial concept design that it is clear in its intended purpose. Things will change person-to-person, but the core of the design must remain strong from beginning to end.

Colouring Book: Hard Mode, Textures.

In illustration, frequent discussion is had about process. Thumbnails are drafted and pitched, pencilled work is produced and approved, the work is inked by either traditional or digital means, and finally, the work is coloured to completion. This process changes when working in a 3D space. Individual objects/etc. are concepted and this conception can happen in a variety of ways from sketchbook scribbles to rendered art to rough 3D sculptures. Once this concept is approved, the 3D team steps in, creates a final model all the while putting their own spin on the design, and finally, the work often travels back to myself for texturing.

Personally, I like to liken the texturing phase of creating for 3D to the ‘colouring’ 2D design phase. And as any colourist will tell you, it’s about more than just colouring in-between the lines. Unlike colouring in a 2D space your final texture design has to look equally good up-close as it does far away. Your audience (if our playtests are anything to go by) will attempt to engage with the final product in almost every way imaginable, so consistency in the texturing is vital. Texturing is also what ties your design all together - it’s what determines how an object is constructed and how the player perceives it to be. A model of a truck can dream big and become a moving van or a top-secret FBI mobile spy facility or anything else you want it to be, simply with a new texture.

Much like designing objects for a 3D perspective, while textures are created in a 2D space, the designer must think of how each texture will be viewed from each angle of the object and how that viewpoint communicates the object’s purpose to an audience. Are the textures dirtier on one side because of wear and tear? Does this texture have to have a vital, semi-hidden piece of information/a joke/reference/etc. for the player on one side of it? What does this object’s texture communicate to our player about the world it inhabits? Textures, when added to their respective 3D models communicate so much about the world they live in to the player.

In Paperville Panic textures play an especially important role, our world is arts, crafts, and paper, and a good paper texture is what communicates this to our player. Paper, surprisingly, isn’t flat colour, and when treated as such doesn’t fit the brief, so by using repeat patterns, certain colours, and photoshop effects we can create a paper texture that communicates effectively to our player that they are engaging with a crafty paper world.

2D and 3D design have as many similarities as they do differences. My experiences as a 2D freelancer informed how I shapeshifted into my role as a game designer at Ultimerse, and I'm hoping that for any artists, designers or illustrators this was helpful!

Remember in times of creative doubt, put the kettle on and try again in five minutes and ask yourself what your work is communicating, you’ll feel re-focused. Plus you’ll have a delicious hot beverage in your favourite mug!

I’ll be updating here from time-to-time with the rest of the Ultimerse team so be on the lookout for more of our blogs! But if you’d like to see what I'm up to in-between blog posts, please follow me on twitter @LucyCrimefightr.

Hi guys, Meredith here!

Just before Angie says hi, I wanted to give a quick update on the game and where it’s at.

Game Progress

We’ve made some massive progress over the past fortnight. We’ve had to revisit our scope (not the first or realistically the last time) and ended up completely redoing an entire level scheme, which the team smashed out. Now, we’re refining to try and increase clarity for the player in terms of where they need to go, what they need to do, what they can and can’t interact with. We have a pretty clear idea of where we’re at and where we’re headed, but like anything in game dev, there’s been several challenges.

We’ve had repository issues, bugs cropping up, anything and everything imaginable that have severely impacted the delivery of certain things. The team has definitely had a tiring fortnight but being the legends they are, they’ve shaken it off a la T-Swift and pushed on to make incredible progress, still with a smile on their faces.

Angie and Justine have been working hard on some new animations for our Paper people to give them as much personality as possible.

Extra Bits and Pieces

We have some deadlines we want to meet for putting things together, but first and foremost the game is our number one priority. Like any project though, so many elements are relying on each other, so we have to do everything in tandem even if it’s not the easiest way to go about it. We’ve nearly finalised our sound list and are making progress on the games script. We definitely want a narrative element, but we’re wary of the fact that our game isn’t necessarily perfectly linear, so we have to be careful with how we approach character lines and progression in that sense. It’s funny how hard it is to be funny when you have to concept it out of very little, and especially working out what does and doesn’t work in a VR environment in terms of humour.

Marketing

On the marketing side of things, I’ve been in the deep end planning for PAXAUS - the event is a massive moment for us and will be our first opportunity to really showcase the work we’ve put in, and we can’t wait. There’s a lot to do, from co-ordinating booth materials, to working out our layout, to ordering swag, to determining who will be working when and more. That last week of October is HUGE in Melbourne for gaming, with Melbourne International Games Week, and I’ve ended up literally booking a hotel for the entire week as I fully anticipate not sleeping. Bring it on. 

Anyway - that’s all from me this fortnight! Over to Angie :)

Hi I’m Angie! I definitely do not have a problem with naming conventions.

I’m currently completing a Bachelor of Games Design, whilst working at Ultimerse. I work alongside my twin sister Justine. We make all the 3D assets and animations for Paperville Panic. I’m currently undergoing the struggle of balancing working full time and studying simultaneously, and I’m going to talk a little about my new ‘experiences’.

  Working with people is hard. 

Collaboration is a learning process, nobody just gets together and instantly synergises, it takes time to understand your team. Everyone works differently and it’s important to spend time learning people’s working habits,  that way you can create an efficient workflow. As they say, ‘communication is key’.  Learning how to communicate well is a skill that takes a lot of time and practice. Working in a creative team, of course things will never go 100% swimmingly. There will (almost) always be creative clashes in any group dynamic. No group is perfect, and that’s okay. 

Sleep! 

Sleep is super duper important, if you're not well rested it will reflect in your work, make sure you give yourself some comfort time. Good rest will reflect in your work and you’ll feel generally more pleasant and be less grumpy.

Agile Workflow.

Agile is weird, but it works well for us creatives. Different people have different workstyles and perform better under different circumstances. Doing an Agile work frame compared to waterfall (concept then create) is a strange but weirdly refreshing approach. Your planning, research, production and implementation are all happening at the same time, like game design wasn’t chaotic enough! It’s like doing a game jam but all the time. Agile’s limitations forces creativity and it teaches you the valuable skill of thinking on your feet. It’s not for everyone but it’s definitely something every gamedev or creative should try.

Balancing uni and work.

Managing uni work and work work has been one of the most challenging things I’ve ever had to do. Time management has never been my best skill but here’s a little insight into how I’ve been trudging through it. Monday evenings are TV time/rest time, I let myself chill out and watch new shows that come out and relax. Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Weekends are my uni days and every other day is a Ultimerse day. The hardest part about this is I’ve had to spread myself across multiple games rather than focus on one. I’d like to consider myself a hard worker but I have to make sure I take care of myself and avoid burn out or over exhaustion. Agent Cooper once said give yourself a small present everyday, whether it be a cup of coffee or a slice of apple pie, and you’ll be better off for it. (Twin Peaks represent!) 

Scribble!

Lastly I’m a firm believer that everything should be documented. Write down everything! 

Even if it’s just a doodle in your notebook it’s probably useful, it might spark a good idea for the future or help you keep on top of your endless task list. Document your progress, document your ideas, document your feelings just write that shit down. 

This time last year I was preparing to wrap up at university.

Now I’m writing you all a dev blog. For anyone stumbling onto this Dev blog with no background information, I’m a developer working for a company called Ultimerse. We dabble in a few things here and there, but have just begun our foray into the games industry, leading with our first VR project, Paperville Panic.

Paperville Panic is a game with, well, panicked paper… for the most part.

Elevator pitch; you’re a firefighter and things are both highly unstable and highly flammable at all times - mix in a paper society who doesn’t know any better and you have yourself an idea of our game. 

Introductions almost aside, I’ll be writing devblogs fairly regularly for the duration of the project, starting here with this one, getting all of you up to speed. This is a world of firsts for both the company and its members. One thing everyone on the project shares is the fact that it’s our first time working in VR, and that can lead to the majority of our major problems, so as a lighthearted introduction, here’s a list of things we have experienced and learnt from in the crash-course that is the first 6 months of our development cycle.

1. Prototype

This is oversaid and underheard, and goes for all projects, not just VR.

Everything needs to start at a prototype. Need more specifics? Let’s delve.

A good game is often one with a solid foundation of simple techniques, if it doesn’t work at a base level with simplistic controls, its probably won’t work once you start buffing it down and polishing it back up. In VR this part is vital, because when somebody inevitably starts thinking “This isn’t bad, bad - it could just use something more” you encounter the problems of ‘Where to put that cool new thing’. The thoughts often go somewhat like this,

Lets add ‘x’ character function to improve that. What key can you bind it to?

Right, well what about a tool that does it for you? How do we avoid cluttering the toolbelt?

Can we have an inventory? Well of course we can, but how do we flow from our current looks to one that can allow pop ups that go with that system?

And at some point, with much deliberation, you either think of a great solution, or work around the problem.

This will happen one way or another, but is worsened to the nth degree if you don’t begin with that solid foundation we spoke of earlier, so prototype. Prototype, playtest the prototype, play it yourself, play the prototype until you can't do anything but see its flaws, and when those flaws seem trivial, you have a nice slab of concrete to build on. Or biscuit, if you are more of a cheesecake guy.

B. Take some time to experiment with new tech.

This is VR! The world is your oyster, even literally if you want to make a game about aquatic life (send me screenshots though).

Being excited to start your new project is fine, it’s a good thing, but before you start getting deep into the nitty gritty, take a week and do research. Take another week and just think about cool stuff. Nobody has time to innovate once they are on a tight deadline, so use the time you have before the project begins to do try and set the next trend, be adventurous. For example, movement in VR is quite limiting right now, and most projects (ourselves currently included) are falling on teleportation to move around. When we were deciding on prototypes, we had ideas that revolved purely around abstract methods of movement, even if they didn’t get picked. Make a game that ships with a real set of monkey-bars, who cares! The ideas that you can leave with at the end of that time could definitely be worth more than what you put in. Successful innovation gives its own reward, just look at games like Climbey.

So take your time, the genre is new enough that there is still a fair chance you think of something no-one else has.

Three. Don’t get attached. 

A simple fact of life in the industry, things need to be prepared to go in the trash at a moment's notice. I’m writing this blog right now, and afterwards it needs to be approved, and if it doesn’t, i’ll do it again. That happens, so don’t be surly Shirley, and try not to take it too personally, chances are the individual who asked you to move on has had to do the same thing at some point.

 Saying all of this, the does NOT mean you shouldn’t put in the love your game needs and deserves, otherwise people will notice that too. Treat each asset you make like a child, love it and keep it clean. But when I say child, I don’t mean yours. I mean like, a cousin’s or something. I’m bad at analogies. The point is, at some point it might have to leave, so a healthy detachment is a good thing. 0100. Speaking of keeping it clean.

Please, for the love of god and meat pies, keep your work clean. Name things well, comment your code, freeze your transforms, and give things parent objects so the aren’t thrown lose all around the shop! You never know when someone else needs to take over your stuff. Whether it be a bug, or some modelling help, someone else could need to see your work, and if it’s as messy as my bedroom it will take a lot longer for them than it would have to make it tidy in the first place. Also, trying to attach an object to a script or vice versa takes so much longer when somebody's been too liberal in placing some ~200 objects in between them.

This also goes for the workspaces themselves. Don’t keep a collection of mugs on your desk, wipe down your Wacom after you use it, keep a packet of wipes for any especially sweaty playtests and everybody will thank you. This one’s just housekeeping, sure, but do it anyway. Finally. Make a friend. The games industry is the biggest strength of the games industry. Everyone is helpful, close, friendly, and ready at a moment’s notice to give the help you might need. I mean, that’s why we write these dev blogs in the first place, so you can learn from our mistakes.

So go network! I was told by a very wise man that if you are dedicated to your networking, a programmer can easily live off of the free pizza and beer found at all these cool get-togethers. It’s much easier to get a foothold when you have people to give you a leg up. Hit up PAX, strike up a conversation (hopefully during their downtime, PAX, so I‘m told, can be very stressful), go to some talks from industry professionals and tell them they did a great job, and you could be glad that you did. Even if you don’t make a contact, the advice they give is valuable.

A throwaway tip; don’t reinvent the wheel.

Especially early in the prototyping phase, don't be afraid to use assets from the store, or a friend. And if eventually you decide you really can't use ‘x’, that doesn’t mean you have to reinvent the wheel, just make your own wheel but, I dunno, use an octagon instead of a circle.

DON’T DO THIS THOUGH  

(credit https://violetaabshir.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/evil-old-man-stealing-a-wheelchair-wheel/)

That’s all for this first Paperville Panic devblog. 

They won’t all be this long but I thought I should lead with something special, and you’ll find many more blogs with more helpful tips like this within arms reach thanks to the power of Google, so if you don’t feel quite, and if you don’t know where to look I like this one.

Keep your eyes and ears out for Paperville Panic and more dev blogs. Talk to you all soon, Aidan.

Hi there!

We are Ultimerse and we’re in the middle of making a game called Paperville Panic. It’s a virtual reality title where a completely unprepared town made entirely of paper is hit by its first ever fire, and it’s up to you to save it.

We figure the best way to say hi is with our friend on the swings, Milkman.

He didn’t have any legs at first, but with the magic of game dev, he now has legs. Godspeed, little Milkman. Godspeed.