Property Balancing.

Outlining the properties for each of the unit types (enemy and player) is very important in order for proper balancing to work.

I outlined Unit type, the cost to make each of them, the attack, attack speed, defence, max shield of each unit at 4 levels and the damage type.

I also did the same for 7 different types of enemy.

These statistics now need testing to check the balancing in play.

The following charts are for the Player Units and then the One Bakkar Units.

Unit Faction	Unit	Cost	Attack (L2/3/4)	ATK Spd/Sec	Def (L2/3/4)	Max SHD (L2/3/4)	Damage Type
109th	Fealoke	N/A	4 (6/8/10)	1 (1/1/2)	12 (13/14/15)	5 (5/6/7)	M/H
	Maddox	N/A	3 (5/7/9)	1 (1/1/2)	12 (13/14/15)	5 (5/6/7)	H
	Soldier L1	20	2	1	9	4	H
	Soldier L2	35	3	2	10	5	H/L
	Soldier L3	50	4	3	12	6	H/L
23rd	Vortex	N/A	4 (6/8/10)	1 (1/1/2)	15 (16/17/18)	6 (6/7/8)	H
	Soldier L1	20	2	2	13	6	H
	Soldier L2	35	3	3	14	6	H/L
	Soldier L3	50	4	3	15	7	H/L
205th	Jin	N/A	3 (5/7/9)	1 (1/1/2)	12 (13/14/15)	5 (5/6/7)	H
	Isolde	N/A	2 (4/6/8)	1 (1/1/2)	12 (13/14/15)	5 (5/6/7)	H
	Soldier L1	20	2	1	9	5	H
	Soldier L2	35	3	1	10	5	H/L
	Soldier L3	50	4	2	11	6	H/L
98th	Sparek	N/A	4 (6/8/10)	1 (1/1/2)	15 (16/17/18)	6 (6/7/8)	H
	Clara	N/A	4 (6/8/10)	1 (1/1/2)	15 (16/17/18)	6 (6/7/8)	M
	Soldier L1	20	3	1	13	6	H
	Soldier L2	35	4	2	14	6	H/L
	Soldier L3	50	5	2	15	7	H/L

	One Bakkar Name Difficulty /10 Pay ATK ATK SPD DEF Max SHD Grunt 1 10 1 1 3 2 OB2 2 12 1 1 3 4 OB3 4 16 2 1 4 4 OB4 5 20 2 2 4 5 OB5 7 24 3 2 5 6 OB6 8 28 4 2 6 7 OB7 9 32 5 2 7 8

Ken Yeang - Environmental Design

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&tok=NJ3q2UD1ar7wA82qu1xjpw&cp=6&gs_id=m&xhr=t&q=ken+yeang&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bpcl=38625945&biw=1191&bih=947&wrapid=tljp1353339733815010&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=e1OqUOSPCKvO0AW_1IGQDw

Perspective, Distance and Depth

 Key words and Definitions

Linear Perspective

Based on lines - the edges of objects. The receding edges are projected into space and continued along until they meet a point on the horizon line.

Atmospheric Pressure

The effect air has on light passing through it. The more air, the more noticeable the effect will be. The most common example is the way the colours of objects in an outdoor scene shift towards blue as they get further away.They also lose contrast and sharpness.

The Horizon Line

A Horizontal line which represents the height from which the artist is viewing the scene. It can be anywhere. Everything above that is being looked up at, everything below is being looked down upon.

The Vanishing Point

A point on the horizon which all parallel lines from an object converge. There can be more than one vanishing point depending on perspective.

One-point Perspective

Occurs when you and all the objects are parallel to each other. Like looking down an isle in a cathedral. The edge closest is the leading edge.

Two-point Perspective

This occurs when the angle of objects are at an angle to you, not parallel. There will be 2 vanishing points.

Three-point Perspective

Is similar to two-point, but the third vanishing point is above or below the horizon line.

The Vanishing Trace

Is a point above or below the horizon line for vertical objects or along the horizon line for horizontal objects. It is used to determine correct and even spacing for objects.

GUI systems.

Here is a collection of links to various sites I looked at regarding HUD, GUI and Menues

Menu systems

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCPWd7roTNw

H.U.D Systems

http://feedgrids.com/originals/post/a_look_through_14_beautiful_video_game_hud_designs


http://devmag.org.za/2011/02/02/video-game-user-interface-design-diegesis-theory/


fourth wall

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4086/a_circular_wall_reformulating_the_.php

Ui Design - what gamers wants

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4286/game_ui_discoveries_what_players_.php

Designing Your Organism Interface

• Look at your main avatar - "the hero". Describe how it feels to be the hero
  • Example: Badass, Confident, Fearless, Aware
    • Is your hero "aware" of being an elite soldier? You have to make sure the player feels aware! How do you handle enemies outside the screen, enemies behind the player, enemies behind trees, etc.?
• List the functions you know must be present in the UI (without regard to how it will eventually be implemented)
  • Example: Crosshair, Health, Ammo, Mini-map, Weapons inventory, Objective locator
• Start designing a preliminary interface
  • Map your "must haves" to different interface methods, diegetic, HUD, etc.
• Review your preliminary design by asking: "Will this UI allow me to be aware of 1, 2, 3 and will I feel A, B, C when I do it?"
• Iterate on your UI design until you can answer the above question "yes!"
  • Remember that UI comes in many forms, Audio, Animation, HUD, effects - mix it up!

(Where 1, 2, and 3 are your must have functions and A, B, and C are how it should feel to be the hero.)
In the last step you are bringing the avatar and the organism together by designing interface solutions that will make the player actually feel and behave the part assigned by the game.
It could be argued that "feeling badass" is not mainly achieved with UI but that depend mostly on the interpretation of UI. It might not be achieved with a 1999 HUD, but with a skillful implementation of various UI components from various categories tailored to fit the experience I would argue UI has everything to do with feeling badass!

Exerpt from :
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4286/game_ui_discoveries_what_players_.phpAge Of Empires 3: UI 
 





Diagnostics on the bottom. Map, Health of Units, skills of units at the side...

Unit specifics are located in the middle.


The panel which changes the most is the right hand side panel. This panel is for Unit orders and skills.

A quick break down of the AoE3 HUD

Pepakura

Pepakura


"Pepakura Designer allows you to create paper craft models from 3D data.

Pepakura Designer is developed in Japan and has been translated to English.

This software is open to the public as shareware so you can download and try it freely although some advanced features are limited until you purchase a license key."


Pepakura could be used to construct the play pieces of the board for a board-game version of the game.

War Rooms, The War Board and Stratergy Board Games.

The War Board

War boards generally feature playing pieces which are moved around the board in representation of the moves. Borders are marked with pins and objectives are flagged.

Pieces need to be designed to represent the buildings, objectives and forces moving.

What can be used as a physical representation?

Stratergy Board Games

Board games like Stratego, Risk and Carcassonne use little pieces to move about and be positioned on the map.



Within Stratego, the pieces are all shaped the same but have different pictures printed on in order to allow players to play with a degree of secrecy. The opposing player cannot see the piece's type until attacking.

In Carcassonne, all the pieces are distinguishable. The playing board is constructed by the player as they go by choosing and placing different tiles down on the surface. The strategy in the game is about where the tiles are best placed in order to gather the most amount of points, and then to bolster those points with the working pieces which are represented by people shaped markers.

In Risk, the playing pieces are represented by models which are clearly different. The other players are clearly able to see which pieces are where.

Silhouette Design - Games Environment and Assets

Original Article

Humans read shapes and silhouettes in order to identify objects.

Silhouette designs create items and buffer environments which are:

• Strong Shapes wise
• Memorable
• Recognizable
• Quick to read from a distance
•  Stand out
• Appealing
• Original

"How to Design Your Environments with Strong Silhouette?

The beginning of silhouette design should be very loose.

Think of abstract shapes. Strong shapes. Grouping of masses.

Pay attention to quick reads. Major to minor shapes."

"Iterate and push your designs. You can simply fill in an object or a building with black and duplicate it dozens of times. From there begin to push each silhouette to various areas in design. Spend few minutes on each and move on the second one. Push it in a different direction then the previous one. "

"Focus on the silhouette and its shape. Do not add any details into the silhouette. Let your imagination fill in the rest of the design for the interior of the silhouette. Once you have a strong and appealing silhouette, you can begin to add interior detail and explore its design further."

                                                                   

6 Steps to Silhouette Environment Design Article

6 Steps to Silhouette Environment Design:

• Additive and Subtractive (painting and erasing)
• Transform (flip horizontal/vertical)
• Transform (perspective, distor, warp etc)
• Liquify Tool Filter
• Combining Techniques
• Copy/Paste Overlap