If uncontrolled, changing requirements can overwhelm even the best-planned effort, and quickly put your project in trouble. By completely understanding your original design, all change requests, and the people involved, you can avoid feature creep without ever saying 'No' to a request. The first part of Hugh Hancock's article on game engine cutscene design looked at tool design, overall project management, and content creation for cutscenes. Game developers are coming to the realization that newly found graphical power can be harnessed not only in traditional gameplay sections, but also to replace the horrendous expense of prerendered cutscenes with in-engine cinematic sequences. Hugh Hancock provides insight into some of the most common mistakes and omissions made in real-time cutscene creation, and points out a few pathways to truly cinematic cutscenes within game engines.
Game developers are right in the middle of inventing an art form, and the rules are vague.
Some of us assume that we must also invent our own system of dynamic visual expression, because those rules seem vague as well. This article is a primer aimed at designers and artists who need to incorporate cinematic sequences within their games in order to drive a story or heighten the impact of their title, and who have little knowledge of how to proceed. Not to worry, this is not Dianetics for the software guru but rather one small development technique, a process that can have immense impact on the quality of software you produce. As the curtain rose on the 42nd Annual Grammy Award ceremony, the legitimacy and expectations of game music rose with it. The game industry is, indeed, a competitive one, and quality talent is vital to success.