PROJECT REQUESTS: FILM GAME CONVERGENCE AND GAME DESIGN CONCEPTUALIZATION

“Spider-Man” and additional “Star Wars” are IP I would like to work on. Incorporating Gensler and NBBJ architectural wayfinding principles in the digital environments on “Spider-Man The Movie: The Game” for the Sony PlayStation was initial graduate research, followed by “Auto-Rigging Dinosaurs in Python” at The Ohio State University ACCAD program; as an advisee of the ACCAD Director who was the former head of Animation at The Ringling School of Art and Design. Ideally, I would develop a technology that automates the character rigging process of the same character in a feature production (“SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER VERSE”), a visual effects production (“SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME”), and a video game production (“SPIDER-MAN: PLAYSTATION 4”), with one common joint based naming convention where the divisions’ three separate assets could use the same animation data on all three divisions. If this were in addition to the creative direction for the designs of the environments for PlayStation IP, that film game convergence pipeline that I design for Sony would also incorporate a modular setup system for all PlayStation properties. In this scenario, through a graphic user interface that I would engineer, if a team at PlayStation wanted to technically construct a character that is for say a biped, they could mix and match Sony Imageworks film “Spider-Man” arms with PlayStation “Drakes Uncharted Fortune” spine and “God of War” legs… all through drag and drop code. This is similar to the QA work I did on ILM’s Block Party Oscar winning rigging software at Lucasfilm. This should pay seven digits through salary, stock, and bonus: up to 10 million annual. I am guesstimating, for Sony, based on what I’ve seen online in regards to quality of product, I could complete this modular design, which would work in Autodesk Maya, for Sony in approximately 8 to 12 months with two to three engineers assisting which would handle more of the algorithmic work load- with me handling the code structure. This modular system should handle “skinning” as well and would be adaptable to add more features. Note: this developed technology could also be developed on other Intellectual Property such as Halo (XBOX and TV show), The Lord of the Rings (WB GAMES and Film), Harry Potter (WB GAMES and Film), Batman (WB GAMES and Film), and Star Wars (Lucasfilm Games and Film). This should save company character cost by a third, and have a common animation library to save additional money. With a core library system, a PlayStation developer should be able to test their converged rig from PlayStation Seattle on “Ghost of Tsushima” with a walk cycle from Los Angeles PlayStation’s “God of War”, and be able to export and build both in game. It is possible that this work could be completed by developing another PlayStation Studio for "convergence" out of Columbus, Ohio. However, the engineers brought on board would need to be qualified with previous AAA video game or Visual Effects experience: ideally having studied from a top 10 ranked engineering school such as Stanford, UC Berkeley, MIT, or Carnegie Mellon. This core team of three to five eliminates the Sony studios reinventing the wheel every time and saves development money… Dr. Boba Octavius... Caesar.

 

The second challenge I would like to tackle is the one that this blog is centered on. As the Wizarding World of Harry Potter expands in games and films, more exploratory content will need to be produced. By the films alone, the majority of the scenery has taken place in England. As DLCs for expansive video games get developed, it is possible that more “Hogwarts” style schools will pop up in different cities throughout the planet in this world: a school for the students to attend, and a shopping area (Hogsmeade) for them to purchase supplies in retail. What would be the challenge, would be to first identify where all of the different school locations would be (Rome, Moscow, Chicago, Paris, Tokyo, Prague, etc), identify what the key features of the architecture of that time period are per city (maybe in 1900 in Tokyo a lot of Bamboo was used on the roofs of first level buildings as opposed to brick in Prague), and then design plugin technology based on object oriented programming where you take a base design of a Harry Potter building in Hogsmeade, that JK Rowling would approve of, of course, select the object, execute the operation, and through procedural design the building would change to that city’s period architectural style. The workflow would then be, spending twenty hours on a base polygonal building, then through this technology, instantly procedurally designing a new building based on that style cutting your design production in at least half per building. So, if there were a Hogsmeade in five cities, and a stylized building took 40 hours to create the long way, and a base building prior to the technology took twenty hours, and each Hogsmeade had thirty buildings in it, as opposed to the art team having to spend (5 cities X 40 hours per building X 30 buildings) or 6000 hours, they could use this technology for (1 city X 20 hours per building X 30 buildings) 600 hours, then run the technology through the instant design… and 6000 hours of environment art design would be completed in 600 hours. This base tech could then be applied to other games outside of Warner Bros, including if there was a multiverse Spider game for PlayStation or multiple planets in Halo. Like I had mentioned in a previous blog, as games expand and the cost to produce the mass levels of these games does not get added into value of the budget in regards to additional staff, the tools designer or chief visual officer, that can write the technology to procedurally generate the large amount of quantity of objects needed to complete the level will become the most important person in the pipeline.

 

 

 

TITLE: "ALICE'S REVENGE"- A NEXT GEN CONSOLE VIDEO GAME PITCH

STORY WRITTEN BY BRENT J. ZORICH

PROBLEM ADDRESSED: "Lack of IP for next gen consoles using strong female characters that could be enjoyed equally by men and women. This would also use RIGR/ BZP PRO engineering setups to keep costs to a minimum.”

GAMEPLAY MECHANICS: Title initially plays like "HALO" third person shooter then eventually moves to an "Assasin's Creed" or "Lord of the Rings: Shadow of War" style of combat.

ROUGH STORY SYNOPSIS:

ESSENCE IMAGERY                                                                         Alice is a little girl from Asia, and her and her sister’s family are tied to the Asian mob. Alice’s mother, Yukiri Chen, is diagnosed with a bone cancer while living in Hong Kong. Her husband, Alice’s father, Dr. Tomasso Chen, a medical engineer, injects experimental nano micro biotic robots that fight cancer cells into her blood system. The robots do not work according to plan and cause a cyborg type allergic reaction in her body, causing Yukiri to not act human. Yukiri, presumed to be deceased, leaves Hong Kong and travels to Columbus, Ohio, discovering the hole to Wonderland, previous to the traditional Alice in Wonderland story. Due to her robotic strength, she murders the Queen of Hearts, pre traditional “Alice” story, and assumes the role as the new Queen of Hearts….. with Alice not knowing. Alice was sent to live with a foster family in New England in modern times, with her sister Christina being sent just outside of Columbus, Ohio (eventually with Alice moving to Columbus). The traditional “Alice in Wonderland” story takes place, Alice escapes. Due to the body armor and mental deterioration, The Queen of Hearts is unrecognizable to Alice. In order to secure her life so the cancer does not take over her body, the heads of the other three klans in Wonderland (Diamond, Spade, Club) dismember Yukiri, the new Queen of Hearts, limbs due to them being intimidated by her, with her controlling the most powerful army, and donate a single limb (1 arm, 2 legs, and second arm as a weapon) to Yukiri making her more of a fighting Queen (looking similar to a General Grievous from Star Wars). The Klans: 1. The Diamonds are selfish, greedy, and wealthy among the four klans, tall and lanky, typically bankers in Wonderland, paying the Spades at a minimum to maintain the Hearts mechanical army which they also fund.     2. The Spades are lower in society, withering, spreading rumors, and trying to use wit and charm to plant thoughts in the Queen of Hearts, similar to a Grima Wormtongue in The Lord of the Rings, hunchbacked and cowardly; willing to do anything for money, and typically trying to convince the Queen to give them a leg up over the Diamonds.     3. The Clubs are pure brutes, large, strong and fierce, with a build similar to a cave troll in Lord of the Rings: unrelenting, unintelligent, and unapologetic, and easily able to be fooled. The Spades try to manipulate the Clubs to give them a boost in society over the Diamonds and Hearts, but the Clubs often become tiresome of their antics and eat them.     4. The Hearts are mindless and mechanical, serving the Queen who is part droid due to the cancer treatment. Each of the Queen’s limbs has spikes protruding out of it that she “stabs” victims body parts to to wear as ornamentation. The only way to weaken and kill the Queen, is to remove the spines from each of the heads of the three other Wonderland klans (Diamond, Spade, and Club), and stab the respective artificial limbs killing her off.   Main story: At the age of 14, Alice’s sister Christina is kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by her former nemesis, the Queen of Hearts, Christina and Alice’s mother. The white rabbit appears in Columbus, Ohio, to tell Alice. Alice, helpless, leaves Columbus vowing revenge and returns to the Asian mob in China, strengthening mob ties, ninjutsu, weaponry, poisoning techniques, and advanced laser guided armor piercing techniques. She trains in Kung Fu for a period of 10 years becoming a master. Alice returns to Columbus, Ohio, to go to the “Wonderland” hole, meet the white rabbit, and infiltrate the Queen’s palace... In a Ripley from “Aliens” meets Oren-Ishi from “Kill Bill Vol 1” similar storyline, only to find that the white rabbit has been executed for treason, who was previously going to show her the way through Wonderland. Previous to the execution, while being tortured, the white rabbit told the Queen that Alice was coming back with modernized warfare to wipe the palace out. The Queen sent out a beacon to different plants and creatures throughout wonderland to emit a toxin in the air that can kill a human. As apart of gameplay, Alice must search each level of the game for a timed antidote for the following level that will enable her to proceed through the game. Alice must go into Wonderland and must kill the head of each family (Spade, Club, Diamond) and use their spines to stab the Queen of Hearts limbs, thereby rendering her helpless and being able to kill her. Ultimately, she tricks the Queen of Hearts to entering a portal for the main boss fight in the end, and the Queen is brought to the underworld of Hong Kong. The final boss fight takes place in Alice’s Chinese family’s dojo with the mob family patiently sitting, expecting Alice to kill the Queen in front of the mob avenging Christina. During the game while exploring each level, Alice must fight off the four families' minions in order to get to each family boss to kill, ultimately leading to the Queen of Hearts at the end. As apart of gameplay level design, the first level in wonderland is toxin free, but Alice must search for the antidote for the following level as each board passes, killing enemies and bosses along the way. As Alice progresses in the game, the toxins make her weaponry less effective, ultimately relying on the martial arts and hand to sword and flame tactics that she learned while in China. Each level is timed due to the air toxin antidote expiring and as the game progresses she must rely more on stealth to kill as opposed to distance firing. The game play mechanics begin like "Halo", but eventually the combat system is more "Assassin’s Creed."

MONETIZATION: Direct installs sales, monthly charging cycle, in game purchases for additional weapons and armor. Duel playable level. Character customization for enemies (ability of friends to scan their heads on enemies bodies so you can fight them, playable, in game).

PLATFORM: XBOX, PC, Macintosh, Playstation, potential IPAD

POTENTIAL EXIT: Lucasfilm, Sony, Microsoft, Warner Bros