Aaron Foster's tutorials

The second challenge for our year 2 Games Design students as they created and set up the art assets for their playable level designs was to design, build and texture, 3D meshes in Autodesk Maya and
import them into the UDK engine to create a convincing environment.
This process of importing the assets into UDK was made much easier
for them due to the video tutorials that Aaron Foster has created
which they can access online.
Aaron is part of the games staff team at UCLan but he's also the founder member of Lunar Software An independent games company
based in the UK

 Aaron's inspirational work can be viewed at his website

After graduating from the BA Games Design course at Uclan,
Aaron spent 2 years working as a professional 3D Environment artist for
www.Eurocom.co.uk on projects such as G-Force and Disney Universe
but then chose to set up his own company to pursue his love for game development as a whole.
Aaron's team are currently working on their first title that will be a commercial release
aimed towards the PC market through steam.
Aaron has a real motivational influence on the students through his teaching and the work that he produces.

Peter Bottomley's 'Kismet' tutorials

Part of the challenge for our year 2 Games Design students as they created and set up the game play for their Playable level designs was to learn how to use 'Kismet' in the UDK engine, so that they could introduce some interactive content.
This was made much easier for them due to the tutorials that Pete Bottomley provided.
Pete is not only an ex graduate student but he has completed his MA in Games Design and is also the co-founder of  
'White Paper Games', a small game development studio based in Manchester, UK.
They develop games for multiple platforms and are currently working on their first title, Ether. Pete is part of the games staff team at Uclan and
he has recently had a series of tutorials published at
World of Level design  
with an introduction to Kismet

Playable Level Design and Creation

This year 2nd year BA (Hons) Games Design students have had the pleasure of working with UCLan's Music Practice students on a collaborative project which involved the creation of art assets and  game design for a playable level, incorporated with original audio designs of music and sound effects. 
Games students designed and built their art assets in Autodesk Maya and imported them into the UDK engine where they used Kismet to develop the interactivity of their levels.
 
The work shown below illustrates  a range of the projects that were produced.
GAMES DESIGN -  Saija Sipila

MUSIC Composition - Chris Bush, York St John University

See Cinematic play through film below  

and more at..
YouTube links

Arctic Greenhouse Design Principles 

Arctic Greenhouse walk through 

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 GAMES DESIGN - Anthony Lo 

MUSIC PRACTISE - Berry Moore

See films on YouTube in links below  

Forsaken

Forsaken - Gameplay 

 

GAMES DESIGN - Emma Smith   

MUSIC PRACTISE - Tim Lowe 
See films on YouTube in links below  
UDK AquaSol 2   
AquaSol Gameplay 

 

Tape it - Now available on the App Store!

Tape everything, tape them fast, tape them in style and get combos to maximize your score!

"Tape it" is a unique original and very innovative game.

The objective of the game is to score as many points as possible by sticking with tape the broken shapes that pass through the screen at certain points. More points will be rewarded by making combos.

The tape has limited size so you will have to perfectly tape each shape to increase your tape size and the combo meter. Run out of tape and it's game over!

Swipe your finger across the screen to tape the moving shapes. Avoid the 'X' spots on the shapes or you will lose your current combo and 500 Points!

Two modes are available to choose from. Arcade and Panic Mode.

Unlock cool new tapes and amazing backgrounds by completing specific challenges.

Tape it - iPhone Trailer

Tape it is a new original and very innovative iPhone game.

The objective of the game is to score as many points as possible by sticking with tape the broken shapes that pass through the screen at certain points. More points will be rewarded by making combos.
The tape has limited size so you will have to perfectly tape each shape to increase your tape size and the combo meter.
Run out of tape and it's game over.

The game will be available soon on the iPhone App Store!

Year 10 GCSE class visits Games Design at Uclan

Tuesday 28th March 2012– was quite a day for our year 3 Futures students
as they were challenged to present their Futures Games ideas and Apps
to a group of 14-15 year old pupils.

Principal teacher, Alan Donohoe, brought his Year 10 GCSE Computing class from

Our Lady's High School, Preston for an afternoon visit to the
Games Design studio at UCLan to help judge various aspects of the work,
including, quality of artwork, ideas, marketability, presentation etc.

For the school review of the event please visit this Blog LINK
The feedback session was a valuable experience for Games students
as it helped them to pitch their concepts to a particularly discerning audience
and created a situation with only 4 minutes each, where they had to
sell their ideas in a concise, clear and convincing way and impress the judges.

One interesting observation that came from this was that the games students
who were the most animated and spoke the most clearly,
engaging and empathising with their audience, were the ones
who received tho top marks from the pupils.

The event would have been more fun for the pupils if they had
also had a chance to do some games design work on the day,
but as we were against the clock, we plan to invite some more
school children to the Games studio very shortly,
where they can take part in some games design activity of their own.

Below are some images of students giving their presentations

Principal Teacher, Alan Donohoe offers some feedback and pointers.
Watch video here.