Finishing/Repair &; Wang Dan

The concept of 3A used to be very popular, but now everyone doesn't like to hear it, after all, many people will think that this is a concept word with a false head and a brain, too far from the actual project.

At the CGDC (China Game Developers Conference) a while ago, Liao Junhao, art director of Tencent TiMi Y1, shared a lot of ideas and operation processes on how to implement the lofty concept of "3A" into actual mobile game projects.

He has been in the industry for more than 25 years, and before joining Tencent TiMi, he worked for Eastern Star, Konami, Impei Digital and Ubisoft China, where he made important contributions to several well-known game products and participated in 13 triple-A projects. At present, he is mainly responsible for art design, art direction, IP creation and overall visual quality control in TiMi Y1 Studio.

He thinks that a concept that can't be implemented must not be a good concept. The so-called 3A sense is actually composed of different elements: one is the authentic and credible design derivation; the second is high fidelity and low complexity; the third is small but beautiful; the fourth is texture and light and shadow; the fifth is film and television expression; Sixth, the last, the concept of the character, and the form of storytelling.

Liu Junhao has participated in the triple-A project

The following is the full text of the speech:

01

What is tonality?

Today I would like to share with you one thing - tonality. The so-called tonality is what are your style characteristics and core elements as a game, and then around tonality, we do the process from concept to landing.

I used to work mainly on triple-A console projects at Ubisoft, and Counter War: Future was the first mobile game I did. Today's sharing has three parts: First, how to do high-concept design around tonality? Second, how to implement it? Third, how to make a triple-A feeling on a mobile game.

How is "Counter War: Future" tonal? Tonality is more like a place, an event or a person to me, what is the mood and the feeling and first impression it gives you? For example, "Dune" is a desert with iconic creatures and very representative and gives people a feel.

For Counter War: Future, how do we define tonality? We can distill it in three words: player fantasy, keywords, and core elements.

Player fantasy refers to a very fascinating future world, a realistic and immersive concept of traveling through time and space, and a hearty mecha battle, which means that mecha is a very key tonality of the whole game. Then further refine the keyword "science fiction" of the whole game.

Finally, we look for the core elements of the game, which is often the core pillar of the overall game's art style.

Among the four core elements of "Counter War: Future", the first is the near-Earth future. This is the most central expression of the science fiction theme. We built a sci-fi and immersive environment around this, whether it's a space elevator floating in a confined space after a disaster, or the moon with a unique visual experience. The visual identity is the high-concept content of the game, a visual spectacle.

At the same time we have made a very fascinating, crisis-ridden no-man's land on Earth. The concept of no-man's land identity is vegetation, which is very beautiful and dangerous. In the sky, you can also see more spectacular scenes, such as the aurora, the vast earth, and all kinds of fantasies, creating a mysterious, beautiful and dangerous small world as a whole. After satisfying the player's fantasy, we will combine Chinese elements to provide players with a sense of déjà vu.

We created an art style called Chinese assembly, where we combine things with different functions and assemble them into something with another function. We will use the most humane and down-to-earth way to express the concept of a Chinese town in a no-man's land.

The second element is steel fantasy. This is the most important element of the game, because the mecha is a unique design in the PC game of Counter War, and it is also the core gameplay experience of Counter War: Future.

Of course, in addition to mechas, we will also design a variety of visual representations for different camps, to show some large-scale infrastructure content that can reflect the self-confidence of contemporary China, for example, you can see this giant tunnel, large-scale photovoltaic power station. Eventually, we'll be incorporating a variety of infrastructure, including weapons, vehicles, ships, ships, and other mechanical elements to best satisfy players.

The third element is the space-time cycle. This is the anchor point of the game's high concept, and it provides a solid premise for players to travel through time and space. At the same time, we will also take this element as the most important point of the entire game promotion, and we hope to make this element the most unique visual memory point of the game. It allows players to experience completely different game content and cultural atmosphere in different worldviews or different timelines.

The fourth element is the illusion of the vastness. The vastness and illusion created by the mutation of the ore is also one of the core elements of Counter War: Future. Rifts, mutated monsters, and various illusions greatly enrich the visual experience of the game, and also bring more unique and interesting gameplay experiences. In the vast area, we have created strange and beautiful ecological vegetation, mushrooms and fungus carpets that have become gigantic due to mutations, strange luminous special effects, and various anti-gravity wonders. Use these unique visual elements to create a fantasy world full of contrasts, beauty, and twists.

At the same time, through the packaging of the vast illusion, we also have more space and freedom to restore the relatively unreasonable and even magical IP elements in the counter-war terminal game, such as the ice dragon.

Once we had these high-concept packages, we would try to fit them into a concept art KV to determine the tone of the game.

02

How does tonality land?

I don't think a concept that can be implemented is definitely not a good concept. Many students come from different companies and different projects, and everyone will encounter such a problem: it is difficult to land.

Why is it so hard to land? First, there is a lack of landing references; second, the lack of quality standards; Third, there is a lack of industrialization processes.

The first is a systematic reference guide. We will have an art bible (design bible) to put all the content related to game art together, so that everyone in the project, including the boss, can clearly understand what the art direction of the game is, what kind of things I want to do, so that everyone's goals can be highly unified.

Bible is actually a relatively upper-level thing, if you want to land, I would suggest that you use more style guidance to complete the details of each branch, and summarize the specific design language of the material, such as shape and color, to help the team better understand the requirements and framework of the design.

For many concept paintings, in fact, many times we don't just finish the original painting, the work is over, more importantly, you have to do a decomposition and split of the elements, so that the scene art or asset students can roughly understand what we want to do and what kind of effect should be presented. So more often than not, we will take screenshots from a first-person perspective in the game, and then make the original drawing based on the screenshots, rather than drawing them completely in the air.

I would like to recommend one thing to you, which is a more systematic landing reference. The left side of the picture below is to say what I want, and then disassemble it from different dimensions, and then tell you which of all these contents are the most important for me, such as mood, composition, lighting materials, and so on. On the right, after the things in each scene are completed in stages, I will ask everyone to rate their work, even if it is a newcomer, after a few rounds of such scoring, in fact, the understanding of the content and quality of what they want to do will be a great inspiration.

The second is to set a quality standard for the product. Many students will say, you are so demanding, what do you really want?

In the early stages, we'll set the standard with concept art. The most important point of conceptualization is to verify whether the concept can really be implemented, and what methods and technologies we need to use to achieve such an effect.

Maybe some big factories don't need this, because everyone is more confident. But I would recommend some teams that may be younger to use more of this way to verify the content they make, whether it can be implemented or not, and use these small slices as a tool for verification.

In the process of validation, we will continue to improve the industrial process, and all pipelines can be iterated more quickly.

03

What is 3A Sense?

Next, let's move on to the third part - triple-A mobile games. First, let's take a look at a demo of "Counter War: Future" that we released in the first half of the year.

While there may have been some criticism, the feedback we received was pretty good overall. In our opinion, one of the more important points is to let everyone have a feeling of "3A at a glance". I think it's a very good evaluation for a mobile game to be recognized by players as a triple-A level.

Next, I would like to share with you how we create a triple-A experience on the mobile game platform.

Personally, I think that the so-called 3A sense is actually composed of different elements: one is the authentic and credible design derivation; the second is high fidelity and low complexity; the third is small but beautiful; the fourth is texture and light and shadow; the fifth is film and television expression; Sixth, the last, the concept of the character, and the form of storytelling.

What is a credible design derivation? Any overhead design needs authentic references and inspirations.

In the case of Counter War: Future, we chose to use the terrain and ecology of Hawaii as a reference. Why Hawaii? I had just returned from a trip to Hawaii and I was very impressed by the landscape and geology. It is equivalent to us doing a lot of preliminary research, which can be used as a reference to ensure that the real and credible geomorphology and geology are presented in the game.

On this basis, we will rigorously scrutinize and create. For example, in the uninhabited land on the earth, what kind of differences will there be in its topography and ecology before and during the five years of the catastrophe? Or how will it evolve? We need to deduce in order to create a relatively credible post-disaster scenario.

In addition, on the basis of the real ecological environment, we will also define plants with different degrees of variation through a design called ecological slice, so that they look real and credible, and the variation form is reasonable and reasonable. At the same time, we will express the vitality of the game world through the diversity of vegetation.

Through these methods, we make the changes in the world in the game seem relatively plausible and believable.

Next, let's talk about what high fidelity and low complexity are. I've also been pushing the idea of high fidelity and low complexity within Y1. In fact, high fidelity and low complexity mean about the same.

First of all, in terms of design ideas, I will use two works as examples, the first is "Transformers", and the second is called "Edge of Tomorrow". Personally, I don't particularly like the Transformers movie version, and I think the old anime looks better. Why? From a design point of view, the film version lacks white space, looks very complicated, and the outline is very cluttered. I prefer the design of the old anime, which will find a balance between intricate details, generalized shapes, and details, but only in some relatively specific areas, areas that will make you notice.

Similarly, the Edge of Tomorrow movie is a good example. To me, the design of the shape actually seems strange, especially in terms of proportions; He shows too much detail. In contrast, the shape of the old version of the anime has a sense of science fiction and is also very elegant, and the details are placed in key parts, such as the joints.

So in the mech design, we will pay a lot of attention to balance, like all the details, will not be evenly tiled throughout the design, but put in its rightful place.

At the same time, we also hope to have a very good contrast between simplicity and complexity - not all designs are simple, and not all designs are very cumbersome. In addition, the portrayal of all these details should be real and credible. Our materials and colors will also be more or less affected by some "NASA-LIKE". This style of painting, which focuses on the balance of texture and detail, is very suitable for presenting triple-A quality.

Therefore, the high fidelity we pursue actually refers to color, light and shadow, post-processing, etc., and we use this technique to set off the environmental atmosphere and picture effect; The low complexity is that we don't get too focused on the details.

Let's talk about small and beautiful vs big and empty.

Three years ago, we were very ambitious and wanted to make a 10km × 10km map; After a year or two, it becomes a 4×4 graph; After another year, it became 2×2, in fact, we don't use 2×2 much, more maps similar to 2×1, and maybe even continue to shrink later.

Because according to the composition of our team, in terms of scale and ability, we designed a gameplay that is not enough to support a very large map design. The new map we designed is actually only 1×1 in size. But combined with this kind of terrain, we can create a relatively compact gaming experience.

So for us, instead of making a big and empty world, we should pay more attention to the condensed small and beautiful. It's the same with level design, and one of the most common questions I ask is: does the space the player have to be that big? I think there's a very important rule in this - on the basis of meeting the planning needs, we should try to make the space as small as possible.

Next up is texture and light. It is the most direct embodiment of 3A quality. From model assets, to scenes, characters, etc., we put a lot of emphasis on the presentation of texture and light and shadow. However, in different lighting environments, it is not easy to ensure that there is always a very good and uniform texture and light and shadow performance. Therefore, standardized asset management and standardized working environment are actually very important.

Next is the visual expression of film and television. For example, we use visualization tools that are common in the film industry to help create new game experiences, such as a good player experience, which often includes foreshadowing, ups and downs, twists, and other expressions like movies; Color is also a powerful way to evoke emotions, so we also use different color schemes to bring different psychological feelings to players; Film and television also include the use of lenses and post-production special effects, which can not only make the game picture have a cinematic texture, but also enhance the realism of the picture.

In terms of storytelling, we will use environmental storytelling to reinforce the entire worldview and the representation of the character's narrative background. The advantage is that it expands the basic space for art students to freely express their personal aesthetic and emotional concepts.

In some commercial masterpieces or the film and television industry, it is a common method to insert advertisements or brand logos. When I add it to the game, it not only enriches the scene, but also strengthens the narrative of the whole environment, and the player will wonder which faction it belongs to, what area it is in, etc., and it also serves as a guide for the player.

The last thing I want to talk about is the in-game player perspective, which is very important. Everyone should know that one of the big problems with scene maps and concept maps is that they don't help much for landing.

So when I do concepts, I do it more from the player's point of view, such as in the form of FPS first-person game perspective. Because it's a way to respect and restore players and the market. Large-scale, large-format, large-contrast drawings like the ones just mentioned are indeed beautiful, but they are more in the early stages of high concept. When I went to guide the landing, I didn't think it made much sense.

When we review a project, we may tend to pay attention to how many beautiful pictures there will be on Artsation. But I can tell you responsibly that most of them renovate the content in the early stage to make such a picture. This is often not the case with the diagram that actually guides the player or guides us in our day-to-day work.

I hope that everyone can pay more attention to the art presentation from the perspective of players in the game, and I also wish everyone can create more high-quality and high-income game works. Thank you.

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