Campaign Creations

NOTE - This project is considered dead/dormant. I will, however, make videos upon request. Without any such requests, no further MGEC material is scheduled to be recorded at any time.




What is the GEC Primary Series?

GEC stands for Gameplay Elements Concept, my methodology to approaching game design. It encompasses reviews of existing games, modding, and many elements inbetween. With this video series I'll be talking indepth about games, specifically in regards to making games, and mods. I'll be talking about most subjects I have experience in with the general goal of providing insight into that methodology and my overall approach to design. I'll talk about subjects like motivation and workflow to give an idea how I handle challenging projects.

The GEC Primary Series is not intended to be used as a guideline or tutorial, but a food for thought series to provoke inspiration and critical thinking for personal projects.

Note - Many of these have background noise due to my fan. It is very possible that at some point videos may be revised for superior audio quality or more structured content.

Introduction
I talk about myself, some of my work, my approach to projects and what the GEC primary series is about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnz7qHuOev0

I'll be releasing videos in Waves, where each wave contains a series of subjects divided by videos. When the list of videos grows to larger amounts I will then organize them by general subject.

Wave 1

Spoiler

* Choosing Music
I talk about my mindset when choosing music for my projects such as Black Sun: Salvation and the conceptual rebuild of Salvation, Retribution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ITONwYBuB0

* Aspire
I talk about my lifelong struggle with aspirations and motivation, and how I tackle these subjects. This is a personal subject indeed. From the darkest of days to the slowest of years, this battle never ends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9BI8UbLAaw

* Project "Apex" Concept
I talk about my Apex campaign for Starcraft 2 and what I had hoped to accomplish with it, including demoing concepts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoIoB9rE9Fc

Wave 1.5

Brush work & Logic thought process with Starcraft 2 Terrain
I talk about my approach to terraining and laying out maps in Starcraft 2, and what I want out of them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QLUyDvvs90

Wave 2

Spoiler

* Planning, Conceptuals, & Goals
A lengthy ramble about how I plan projects, my conceptuals for projects, my goals, and some random stuff related to figuring out how tackling a big project could be like. I talk about Apex, 2042, and others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujFt6uGDyTg

* Casting Demon's Souls (Discussions)
Introducing the Discussions subsegment is a relatively short editorial about Demon's Souls. Interested in my mindsets about casting? They aren't so noble or lighthearted as you might think...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=547pXImoGWY

* 2042/Starsworn - Establishing The Genre (Starsworn)
A video that talks about Action RPG's, my 2042 game design, and Starsworn, an alternate variant. This is the first chapter of the Starsworn subsegment and talks about an imaginary UDK project and what it could be about. Demonstrates Dante's Inferno and God of War to help us get a grasp on the genre. A look at how I may introduce a project, analyze a project, and adapt my designs to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6m5GB1nvkw

* 2042/Starsworn - Establishing Our Concept (Starsworn)
Chapter 2 of the Starsworn subsegment. This gets into a mechanical overview, talks about the bonuses and cons of various mechanical systems in the gameplay of an ARPG, what I am aiming for with environments, and the reasonings behind some adaptations of these systems as seen in Guild Wars 2 and other such games. This sets the stage for our future videos that will talk about non-mechanical elements to much larger extents, like RPG concepts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZZFMj0zwiQ

Wave 3

Spoiler

* 2042/Starsworn - Progression (Starsworn)
Chapter 3 of the Starsworn subsegment. In this segment I talk about World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, and progression. I have a discussion with Marhauk, one of my old raiding buddies, about various elements intertwined with the average RPG and how the games define progression.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJNEPfrrzk8

* 2042/Starsworn - Mechanics Considerations (Starsworn)
This next installation of the Starsworn series demonstrates both Tera and Rift, focusing on a variety of mechanics and overall introducing what these games brought to the MMO genre, and what impact those systems had on the overblown genre. I talk about combat mechanics in Tera to an extent, introducing the concept of collision volumes and rolling/dodging. I then move on to Rift, and discuss world elements and other misc stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_UCmy2mHWc

* Introduction to Graphics and Modeling with 3ds max
In this video I summarize the differences between sprites and models and then move into the UDK and 3ds max and demonstrate the basics of modeling and most of the tools in max I use to make all of my models.
http://www.gameproc.com/meskstuff/LP/mgec_graphics1.mkv

The Projects

Three major projects are made note of in this video series. They are as follows,


Black Sun: Retribution is a feature-length independent movie. It was discontinued in quarter 1 2014, since the character modeler I depended on refused to help.


Apex is a conceptual Sc2 campaign that was destroyed by the 1.5 patch. Since then it has been partly recovered, and remains in a constant state of design flux. The chances of it actually being worked on again are next to zero, and it is only used as a theorycraft centerpiece. Apex was revised heavily and a new design child, called Apex F, was conjured in 2014 and remains in slow, active production.


Starsworn is an evolving design originating from my first Warcraft 3 projects, and eventually settling as my premiere RPG/Action RPG game design. It is conceptualized to be a UDK project, but its design methodology forms my most important framework for gaming everywhere. It will never actually be attempted as a project because I am an idiot and can't learn basic skills.






Old OP

Greetings. I am currently in the production of creating a developer video series intended to provide a vocal (and sometimes visual) commentary on the way I produce projects of many different types and tackle a lot of different challenges, like aspirations and motivations. The series will be released in segmented chunks separated by subject and delivered by youtube. I currently have a small list of subjects I will be tackling for my initial release, but the reason I open this thread ahead of time is to gather subject suggestions.

Currently, my list is as follows;

General
- Designing a project type & the connotations of genres
- The 2042 design concept & goals of that project.
Graphics
- The graphics theology of 2042 and the importance of using technology and avoiding bad art "styles" (like d3). Readability, culling, and other important subjects will be talked about.
- IskatuMesk modeling game assets with 3ds max (I'm not a good modeller so I doubt anyone will learn much, but it's been requested)
Audio
- Remastering & mangling existing audio to create new effects & general engineering
- Voice acting, practice and improvement methods, recording conditions, & processing voices
Computer AI
-

What kind of subjects would you like me to talk about? I'm open to creating pretty much anything proejct specific or not, as long as it's within my skill level to talk about.

Looking forward to 3d modeling & audio myself.

Greets,

With the completion of some sub projects I will be pushing ahead to start putting this together. I completed but intend to revise the Aspiration video, I have an introduction complete, and I have a choosing music food for thought video largely complete.

Currently, Lav is working on something a little larger that I plan to take advantage of and integrate this material into. I don't have an ETA, but I figured I may as well get this show on the road before I completely drop out of custom content.

Nice. Can't wait. Was a fan, and always will.

I'm nearing completion of the first wave of videos. They will be as follows -

Introduction - I introduce myself, some of the work I've done, and talk about about the GEC primary series and its goals.
Choosing Music - In this video I talk about my mindset behind choosing music for my mods, campaigns, and for Black Sun: Salvation.
Aspirations & Motivation - A lengthy discussion about aspirations, what they stand for, and keeping motivated, as well as my personal struggles with both.
Apex Concept - In this video I'll be talking about the core concepts and ideas for project Apex, a Starcraft 2 campaign.

Where should I be checking for an update Mesk? Will you be announcing it upon release?

I have edited the OP to include the first four videos.

This is awesome. Are you still working on Apex?

Since they withheld startools from 1.5 there is highly unlikely to be any work on Apex ever again unless an update for the 3ds max plugin happens.

/e

Whoops, looks like 1.5 deleted all of my campaign mod data. I have a backup so I only lost like a month of work before the project died. Awesome.

IskatuMesk wrote:Whoops, looks like 1.5 deleted all of my campaign mod data. I have a backup so I only lost like a month of work before the project died. Awesome.

Yeah I know, same thing happened to alot of people. No warnings or anything. The recycle bin is what saved me. -____-

DAMN U BLIZZZAAAARDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!! AHRGGAGAHGAHTHAHAFGAJAAAGGGGAA!!!!!!!!!!!

Just listened through "Apire". Mesk, man, I thought I was alone. I also have exactly what you were talking about in there.

Well, maybe not exactly, but others could say our shoes have the same brand.

I don't even wear socks, much less shoes. :3

Greets, production has begun on Wave 2. Two of the productions for wave 2 will be;

- Introduction to graphics, and how they work, how they contribute to my design philosophy. Complete with a look inside the UDK and a look inside 3ds max.
- Introduction to audio, how it works, and how it contributes to my design philosophy. I'll be remixing audio streams for example videos to demonstrate concepts and ideas and I'll also be taking a look inside Audition, Vegas, and Acid.

The remaining potential productions are yet undecided. As I have not been able to model anything for a long time, my plans to make my asset modeling video anytime soon are not likely to go through.

I suggest you should create a sfx composition video, not an sfx creation video (that audio video of yours), but rather something along the line of how sfx should portray a particular element, how to balance audio so you don't have overwhelming amount of noise in "the sea of sounds", or how sfx+musics+voice acting relates with graphics, story and gameplay in a particular scene... Basically a little more in depth representation of what you said about audio production in the "Making of Black Sun"... I can create sfx fine, but that is what I think I'm really struggling to understand.