Tsolias vs Zombies 3D Official Blog

The official blog of the iOS game Tsolias vs Zombies 3D is now available.

Visit here: www.tsoliasvszombies.blogspot.com

Ones to watch - year 1 prop designs

First year student Rebecca Michalak has been developing her skills in the basics of 3d modelling in Maya and digitally hand painted textures.
Below, are a few rather interesting prop designs that she has produced.

One to watch - year 1 - seamless wooden panel

Over the Easter break I'm going to be featuring individual pieces of work that I feel deserve some attention. They may be simple textures or props or full level designs or 3d scenes. The thing they have in common is potential.
To start this series of posts, I'm uploading a simple seamless texture, that has lots of appeal for it's hand drawn quality, effective wrapping and chunky style. It's reminiscent of the art style of  Walt Disney's101 Dalmations, and that's always a winner in my book ;)

Created by year 1 student, Jamie Boyes-- seamless wooden panel. Lovely contours on that wood.

BAFTA nominations for Games- Ones To Watch

Our very best wishes to 'Evolved Ape' for reaching the BAFTA nominations for Games-Ones To Watch in association with Dare to Be Digital.

The winning game on the night was 'Tick Tock Toys,' so congratulations to 'Swallowtail' - really well done :)
I'm sure our Games students and staff from Uclan who attended the fantastic event all had a wonderful time.
See video - click on image below

Uclan Student Drawing group

Self initiated drawing group for Games Design organised by student, Jarkko Kouva.
Each week a group of students meet up for a 2 hour drawing session on a Friday, in addition to their classes.
They continue to explore anatomy and other areas of drawing. This helps them to develop a wider visual understanding and compliments their digital skills. All students welcome.

Roll and Smoke 3D now available on the App Store!

The sequel to the most realistic virtual smoking simulator is back with many awesome features.
With amazing 3D graphics, smooth animations, smoke physics and many more.

Roll your own cigarettes and then smoke them, or learn how to roll in this very realistic app!
It is also a good way to stop this bad habit.

Roll and Smoke 3D teaches you step by step how to roll a cigarette with a simple interface and amazing, full 3D graphics.
When you have your cigarette ready you can smoke it.
Or you can just smoke one from the beginning without the need to roll one.
You can select 'what will you smoke' like: Cigarette, Hand-Rolled Cigarette, Cigar or Tobacco Pipe.
You can even change the lighter or the ashtray!

While you smoke the cigarette if you hold the device in flat position an ashtray will appear to get rid of the ashes.
The smoke reacts and moves based on the accelerometer orientation changes.
When the cigarette ends you can drop it by simply tapping on it.

Roll and Smoke 3D takes full advantage of the multi-touch and the accelerometer.

GamesDesign packs launched on ‘Granimator’ App by ‘UsTwo’ for ipad

Award winning London based company, ‘ustwo’™, known as the 'Studio of Dreams™', has gathered free packs from international artists to fill the Granimator App with a variety of styles and choice. ustwo™ is a digital design studio that delivers pioneering user experiences as digital partner to the world’s leading brands. They are proud to support emerging talent in the gaming world.
Uclan’s Games Design course is excited to announce that 2 of their packs have gone live on Granimator™ which can be downloaded from iTunes.
Read More on Uclan's newspages
 
The Granimator™ is a graphic wallpaper creator with a difference. The player can select a choice of shapes, styles and backgrounds which they can draw onto the stage and edit to create wallpapers. Each shape has a sound that can be varied – background music also to the fun of the App.
 
‘Retro Romance’ Artist Pack by Games design Course Leader, Bev Bush, is created from her own vintage doodles from age 14. is a genuine snapshot taken from aspects of 1970s British girls' pop culture.
 
As a teenager, Bev loved the picture stories in 'Jackie' Magazine and drew endless images emulating the comic style. Chicks with long eye lashes and flicked hair arrange dates with hip guys who say ‘Hey’. Mix these with doodles and speech bubbles and you get a real blend of ‘Retro Romance.’
 
‘Cannon Fodder’ Artist pack by Games design students at UCLan that has been produced for the Granimator™ App on the iPad. It’s a mixture of the styles and skills taken from a cross section of student images.  Here creatures that can only be described as ‘Cannon Fodder’ reside in a world of varied digitally painted backdrops, alongside a medley of weapons and three dimensional props. These are stereotypical images that come together in an assortment of combinations with gaming sounds and music by Chris Bush, MA student at York St. John University to create snapshots of current trends in gaming culture.   

Hack To The Future, BBC Media City 5th March 2012 « Teach Computing

Hack To The Future, BBC Media City 5th March 2012 « Teach Computing,
Uclan Games Design Course in collaboration with the BBC and Alan O'Donohoe, Leader of Computing; IT, Our Lady's High School.

On Monday 5^th March, 8 of our games design students went to the Hack To The Future event,

with 80 year 8 pupils (aged 12/13years old) hosted by the BBC at Media City, Salford. The aim was to provide an opportunity for children to engage with digital creators of today, and raise an awareness of the potential that computing science offers to children.

We took part in a session called 'I'm a Game Designer,' in BBC Quay House, main screening area.

Uclan Team: 

Bev Bush, Jake Carney, Ellie Bibby, Lindsay Gurr, Georgina Cronshaw, Adam Ellis, Daniel Scholes,Jarkko Kouva and Ryan Sampson
BBC staff were very helpful in coordinating the session.

Course leader, Bev Bush gave a presentation show-casing the development of games and the games design students talked about their work with visual examples

Aim: to give pupils an overview of game design.

Q&A - opportunity for pupils to ask questions

Group Work: 

The second part of the session involved a task for the pupils to achieve in small groups- This being to develop aspects of a game design activity centred around games creation without computers.

Below, pupils try out the games student artist pack, recently included in a selection of downloadable packs for the Granimator iPad App by 'ustwo™'

Click here to read more about the day