hi all
so, there is a discussion launched i didnt expect, but okay, discussing things is never a bad habit. ok, so far as i read it, it seems that things have been settled in from a toplevel, and well, i ll explain some important things to you now, especially winter. here we go.
* look and feel: are you familiar with that expression? the look and feel of an artwork, design, whatever is the emotional representation of the shape, the material, the effects and so on. if you have a shape in front of you, this form is telling you a story immediatly. it is stimulating your inner archetypes, things we all share in common. we instantly know, if a shape looks elegant, brutal, cunning, friendly, and, well, foreign, strange and so on. the form transports a feeling.
* visual categorization / design guideline:
with a settled "look and feel", you can bundle artworks into visual categories. those are instantly representating the affiliation of e.g. a model. by developing a designline, kind of a red strand, which is involved in every design of a defined category (e.g. "the aliens"), the player gets the impression, that there is actual a difference between the factions, in this case between the aliens and the humans. if alien technology looks and operates the same way, like it does in human terms, you drop an entire possibility for having an impressiv and strange visual guideline, and, more important, for transporting the feeling by look, that these things actually did come from outer space.
you can find good up to perfect examples for such design guidelines in famous settings, from lord of the rings to starwars or startrek. you instantly recognize a startrek ship for being not only from startrek, but if you have a watch some episodes, even by which race the ship is built. - (perhaps i have to add, that i dont like startrek personally, but it is important to put away the personal taste, it differs anytime anyway from person to person, neither do i personallyn like the way the ships look in startrek. but i appriciate the afford, the designers put into the look itself and how well it works) - you will recognize an ork weapon in lord of the rings simply from the shape, also an elves design, because the are following a principle. and this is important to make the bigger ensemble not only more beautiful, but throughout such similarities, the race, the faction, the parts of the story becomes believable.
in companies it is called CI (cooperate identity), in works of imagination like stories and movies, games and so on it is a question of good or bad design. so, there must be a CI, or otherwise it is just thrown together and it becomes a bad and bland mix. lets call it alien indentity, AI.
* clichés
stereotypes are very useful, too. we all have the predefined stimuli in us. for example, and this is one of the most obvious ones, alien beeings, which look like greys and flying saucers. if we see a shape, which is very general an flying disc, it seems instantly foreign and alien. i say in very general ways, because the shape itself doesnt have to be just the used ufodisc, we are familiar with. if it follows the directive just very very approximatly, it is appealing.
sure, you dont have to use such clichés, they are a tool, nothing more.
but here, in ufo:ai, there is a break. the aliens look almost exactly like the used general alien design, but you want the rest to behave different. this is not fitting together, it doesnt feel right.
if you want to differ from the cliche, which you arnt, you have to invent something really different. consider my example of humans vs. humans in a near future of solar system colonisation. or make the aliens work different, mechanical invaders, which think they have to rescue all our pentiums and amds from slavery (a missunderstanding, for sure), or a symbiosis between giant slugs and telepatic worms, which attack, because two legged beings are considered as blasphemy in their society, anyway. these examples are just sucked out of the fingers, and for sure it needs far more time to develop such a setting.
* technology differences:
ok, as far as this discussion goes, the aliens should have the same tech level in general like the humans have. ok. thats a different approach and, well, i appriciate the affords. but: it doesnt need the aliens anymore. for me it seems like the alien invasion is just an excuse, again you are using a stereotype (alien invasion) and mixing it all up with something different. for example, if the techs should really be similar in general, a storyline with e.g. a human colony in solar sytem, attacking the earth because of political or cultural differences would be far more appealing in case, the two factions share the same evolutionary standards. for me, and please for that let me define, it is just my opinion, but one, which i consider as elaborated.
and now for my favorite:
* realism!:
realism is fine. mostly. but at points where realism acts as a break and stops, metaphorically, the motion, it is a bad thing. so, let me define what we have:
** an alien invasion from outer space
** psi warfare
** mankind in the near future, united in big power blocks
** spaceships, travelling faster then light
and so on. this all isnt very realistic, or, in other word, nothing we have encountered yet.
hell, it is a good thing, that imagination leaves room for those, and, in my opinion, for even more. IF such things are possible, why not even more? because a hand full of students of aerodynamics will tell their friends: "hey, you know, this shape isnt very flyable.." never. its a game. its NOT realistic in first instance, jsut because of the setting itself. if realism acts as fun-killer, because everything unusual, or everything we are not used to in reallife, is kicked out, realism is out of place. and the look and feel, the design guidelines, i was talking before, are tons more important then a so called realistic approach. dont forget, im talking about the particular alien invasion here, if the setting is different, this point is partwise antiquated. but for ufo : ai, is persists. the aliens should be foreign, strange, different, but with banging them down to something very familiar, the stay one thing: humans. and thats bad.
glowing green lights in the texture, and some spikes wont help very much here.
is allright, if you want to design the human side of the story most realistic, well, we can define the realism here, we know, how our technology works and how it looks like. but for a strange species from outer space, we cant make such decision about WHAT is actual realistic here. if everything should be "real" in terms of our horizon, of our level of science, change the setting, otherwise it wont fit together.
* target audience:
ok, as you perhaps know, im running my own company for animation, design, industrial design, production design and so on since 6 years now, and there are quite many things i havent really realized, when i founded nathan : inc. for example, the importance of the target audience. if you are doning something for a greater public, you are automatically aiming for a particular group, your target audience. and, to be successful, you should aim good. here, in ufo ai, besides the xcom players, your target audience are those, who expect aliens to be alien.
yes, i know, it is no commercial project, but anyway, there are competitors, too, and success isnt something, you dont want, is it? so, my advice is at least to consider, what your players like to see.
again, this goes for the setting. if you have something different, then you can be far more unique, but an alien invasion and a xcom style game isnt unique at all. but you cant make it something special by putting the strange creatures from outer space on a level, which we can explain with nowadays physics and styles.
-> and now for something different: in the wiki, there is NO information about the storyline, almost none about defined guidelines, what the aliens are, how they work, besides the standard alien stereotypes which the antareas (sorry if misstyped), being the masters and others being the pets.
how can you expect, that someone throwns hour after hour on thinking, planning, drawing and designing something for the greater good for nothing, and then kick it back with words like "not in storyline, cant be" or "i wont accept in any terms", without revealing the concept? sorry, i have to say this, and that is not the way, a free project works.
and, in addition, you cant expect everything fitting your personal taste in visual ways, you can only do that, if you are a client and paying for the time, the designer is investing. then it is your right to act so, and its correct, for sure. but as long you are dealing with people, who are investing their precious time because of enthusiasm, such a behavior is not a team play.
i dont want to spill bad blood, and sure you can use the models, i already transfered like the chaingun + ammo, shotgun, buildings, and so on. but designing aliens which feel like something transformed from human to anywhere in space, isnt the thing im looking for. i didnt know that in first instance, because, and thats my criticism, the info is either hidden somewhere or simply not online at the ufo:ai page. creating a look in such restrictions doesnt work with me in general. thats boring. sorry.
so, my plea is to put the whole concept in the wiki, make easy-to-navigate links to particular parts of it like technology of aliens, what you never would accept designwise, etc, so another creative designer KNOWS that, before taking out the pencils and hook him / herself onto it.
pls note again, that this (i think constructive) criticism isnt a personal flamewar, a thing someone must mention on the world wide web so nobody is agonized, its my opinion, mixed with my point of view on design, my experience. if everything is strictly settled in, then its allright with me.
ka
