SA school opens game design course

That's great and all, but visual asset creation isn't the be all and end all of game design. In fact, it really doesn't matter. We've had visually superb games that have failed and then we've had games like Minecraft with minimal art assets.

All this focus on animation is taking the spotlight off what we should be focusing on: real game design. If a game is bland and boring with placeholder art it'll be bland and boring with even the best art.
 
Ser_Bunnylot said:
That's great and all, but visual asset creation isn't the be all and end all of game design. In fact, it really doesn't matter. We've had visually superb games that have failed and then we've had games like Minecraft with minimal art assets.

All this focus on animation is taking the spotlight off what we should be focusing on: real game design. If a game is bland and boring with placeholder art it'll be bland and boring with even the best art.
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I have to disagree with you on that one, animation and art is the most important aspect of the game. You can have some of the most gorgeous environments, but if someone sees the bad animation all that is for nothing.
Diablo3 with of been dead (for real) if it wasn't for the well done animations.

Another thing is if you can't contribute to the workload of making a game, you won't be able to make a game.
 
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hideinlight said:
I have to disagree with you on that one, animation and art is the most important aspect of the game. You can have some of the most gorgeous environments, but if someone sees the bad animation all that is for nothing.
Diablo3 with of been dead (for real) if it wasn't for the well done animations.
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I disagree. A unified art style and pallet is important but it doesn't make the game fun.
 
czc said:
I disagree. A unified art style and pallet is important but it doesn't make the game fun.
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If GTA V were to announce that they are gonna keep everything the same, except that they decided now to downgrade the graphics to be closer to GTA3, animations and all, and decided to make all textures 256x256.
Would you still be interested in it?
 
hideinlight said:
If GTA V were to announce that they are gonna keep everything the same, except that they decided now to downgrade the graphics to be closer to GTA3, animations and all, and decided to make all textures 256x256.
Would you still be interested in it?
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I would be disappointed if they did that, but I would definitely still want to play it. One of my favourite games from last year has some of the worst graphics I've ever seen, yet I couldn't stop playing it because it was just too much fun.

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Eugene said:
I would be disappointed if they did that, but I would definitely still want to play it. One of my favourite games from last year has some of the worst graphics I've ever seen, yet I couldn't stop playing it because it was just too much fun.
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Agreed, Hotline Miami was super fun. Uber awesome gameplay and awesome sounds, accompanied by a good story. That's what makes a game, not some shiny graphics.
 
hideinlight said:
I have to disagree with you on that one, animation and art is the most important aspect of the game. You can have some of the most gorgeous environments, but if someone sees the bad animation all that is for nothing.
Diablo3 with of been dead (for real) if it wasn't for the well done animations.

Another thing is if you can't contribute to the workload of making a game, you won't be able to make a game.
Click to expand...

I didn't mean that animation isn't important (I just said it didn't matter in game design). I'm just hung up on numerous articles on MyGaming, and the general public perception, that game design = animation. In the context of game design animation is just one cog in the works.

What I'd like to see is a real game design course offered by a school. It would probably have subjects like psychology, mathematics, programming, research, marketing and some other gaming specific ones like level design and history in addition to animation.

Until I see that I don't buy that this teaches any form of game design. All it does it give you ONE possible avenue to pursue if you want to work for someone else (aka pursuing a "career") who actually does real game design.
 
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Hi there,

We'd just like to clarify, as the article misrepresents us somewhat.

We are a dedicated entertainment design school - that is, we train students on the fundamentals of art and design, for films, games and media.

We do not train game design at all. We train art and design, for games and films - that is, the visual conceptualization for the game and film.

For those unfamiliar with concept art and pre-visualization, think about set design, costume design, creature and vehicle design, environment conceptualization and more - these things form a visual basis in order to pre-visualise the worlds, characters, creatures and machines that will or may be in the final production.

Other names for what we train are: Conceptual Art, Visual Development, Pre-Visualization, Production Design, and Entertainment Design

For more on this field, see the below:

http://www.artsketch.org
http://www.cghub.com
http://www.cgsociety.com
http://www.idrawgirls.com
http://www.conceptart.org
http://www.massiveblack.com

Thanks for your time,

DAS Team
 
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