waywo What Are You Working On?

[a Chunk 389]

12 hours ago, Soldat Du Christ said:

What about the nld cube?

 

I like it.  It's probably the best one of those that have 'NLD' in them.  I'm not sure the NLD is needed though.  One of the issues with including it is that it becomes redundant if it's added by the 'Next Level Design' test in the sites header.  So yeah, I'm not completely ruling it out, but not totally on board with it either.

[a Chunk 389]

More examples:

 

 

 

[Soldat Du Christ 237]

Wow, i just watched the clean house mission from the new cod on youtube, now i'm wishing i had just got the game and played without knowing

[icyhotspartin 283]

3 hours ago, Soldat Du Christ said:

Wow, i just watched the clean house mission from the new cod on youtube, now i'm wishing i had just got the game and played without knowing

It's better to watch than to play, believe me. A close-quarters, one-lane mission, 5 or 6 NPC teammates with the timelessly bumpy CoD player collision is not fun at all. The whole question is "when am I allowed to shoot the middle eastern women", not "should I shoot them at all". There are no real consequences if you kill a non-combatant, it just loads a mission fail state.

 

Same goes for the first or second mission, in London. The first thing I did was shoot the terrorists as they opened the back of their van, since they were cleary brandishing weapons in a country with strict laws against the ownership, sale, licensing, and use of weapons like the ones they had. I thought that was the challenge of the level; shoot the terrorists before they are able to carry out an attack in the middle of the city. But no, you literally cannot shoot the terrorists as they open their van, stopping them before they detonate their bomb, or you'll be accused of breaking the rules of engagement.

 

To hamstring real soldiers with arbitrary international law bullshit is one thing, but to hamstring an action game with those same rules and without some kind of clear, narrative explanation why - like actually getting blocked by a separate van, or something, is inexcusable to me. Of course, the consequence of this is that you must slog through the Piccadilly Circus shooting all the plainclothes Arab men holding LMGs, while doing your best to not shoot the Asian women in pantsuits and the other plainclothes Arab men who don't have guns. It's absurd, and doesn't carry any weight because you are forced into it even though you have the tools to stop it.

 

Veiled comments on the state of life and warfare in the age of international bureaucracy aside, the most interesting mission was the second-to-last one. Non-linear, stealth, with interactive environment and semi-believable AI response. Player Choice and Measurable Consequence. It's like they played the first couple missions of Halo CE and had an epiphany. 

 

Edit: I take that back - it was incredibly uncomfortable to watch, because the guy playing was deliberately going for the double tap on the corpses, even though this is totally unnecessary in any mode of the game, and puts the whole experience somewhere in the uncanny valley.

[Westin 147]

2 hours ago, icyhotspartin said:

It's better to watch than to play, believe me. A close-quarters, one-lane mission, 5 or 6 NPC teammates with the timelessly bumpy CoD player collision is not fun at all. The whole question is "when am I allowed to shoot the middle eastern women", not "should I shoot them at all". There are no real consequences if you kill a non-combatant, it just loads a mission fail state.

 

Same goes for the first or second mission, in London. The first thing I did was shoot the terrorists as they opened the back of their van, since they were cleary brandishing weapons in a country with strict laws against the ownership, sale, licensing, and use of weapons like the ones they had. I thought that was the challenge of the level; shoot the terrorists before they are able to carry out an attack in the middle of the city. But no, you literally cannot shoot the terrorists as they open their van, stopping them before they detonate their bomb, or you'll be accused of breaking the rules of engagement.

 

To hamstring real soldiers with arbitrary international law bullshit is one thing, but to hamstring an action game with those same rules and without some kind of clear, narrative explanation why - like actually getting blocked by a separate van, or something, is inexcusable to me. Of course, the consequence of this is that you must slog through the Piccadilly Circus shooting all the plainclothes Arab men holding LMGs, while doing your best to not shoot the Asian women in pantsuits and the other plainclothes Arab men who don't have guns. It's absurd, and doesn't carry any weight because you are forced into it even though you have the tools to stop it.

 

Veiled comments on the state of life and warfare in the age of international bureaucracy aside, the most interesting mission was the second-to-last one. Non-linear, stealth, with interactive environment and semi-believable AI response. Player Choice and Measurable Consequence. It's like they played the first couple missions of Halo CE and had an epiphany. 

 

Edit: I take that back - it was incredibly uncomfortable to watch, because the guy playing was deliberately going for the double tap on the corpses, even though this is totally unnecessary in any mode of the game, and puts the whole experience somewhere in the uncanny valley.

I had a similar thought about the second to last mission. I just assumed they saw the potential in the earlier night mission and decided to upscale it, while simultaneously paying homage to like 4 separate missions we had in past Modern Warfare titles.

 

On that note, while I love subtle reference (key word being subtle), I would rather see the creation of entirely new formats for missions. At a certain point in every franchise, the product seems to harden and start repeating itself in an attempt to recapture those special moments. Don't get me wrong, the new Modern Warfare executes these ideas to a higher standard, but it's still the same set of ideas. The sniper mission, hold and defend missions, the stealth mission with an NPC helping you from a distance, and so on. It even uses the 'civilian' format in the Piccadilly terrorist attack, which could be closely compared in, in essence, with No Russian. All in all, the story was fine, the gameplay was probably the best we've seen in a Cod campaign, but it severely lacked weight when compared to how it was marketed and talked about by the people who played it early, and a big reason for that is how directed your character is. Like you've hinted at, even if a terrorist attack is something tragic to portray, it would make much more of an impact if we were allowed to make mistakes and even try to prevent it, only to have it inevitably take place.

[MultiLockOn 134]

52 minutes ago, Westin said:

I had a similar thought about the second to last mission. I just assumed they saw the potential in the earlier night mission and decided to upscale it, while simultaneously paying homage to like 4 separate missions we had in past Modern Warfare titles.

 

On that note, while I love subtle reference (key word being subtle), I would rather see the creation of entirely new formats for missions. At a certain point in every franchise, the product seems to harden and start repeating itself in an attempt to recapture those special moments. Don't get me wrong, the new Modern Warfare executes these ideas to a higher standard, but it's still the same set of ideas. The sniper mission, hold and defend missions, the stealth mission with an NPC helping you from a distance, and so on. It even uses the 'civilian' format in the Piccadilly terrorist attack, which could be closely compared in, in essence, with No Russian. All in all, the story was fine, the gameplay was probably the best we've seen in a Cod campaign, but it severely lacked weight when compared to how it was marketed and talked about by the people who played it early, and a big reason for that is how directed your character is. Like you've hinted at, even if a terrorist attack is something tragic to portray, it would make much more of an impact if we were allowed to make mistakes and even try to prevent it, only to have it inevitably take place.

Beautiful post

 

Edit: @icyhotspartin yours as all, love it. 

[icyhotspartin 283]

53 minutes ago, Westin said:

I had a similar thought about the second to last mission. I just assumed they saw the potential in the earlier night mission and decided to upscale it, while simultaneously paying homage to like 4 separate missions we had in past Modern Warfare titles.

 

On that note, while I love subtle reference (key word being subtle),

Funny you say that, I just watched all the main enemy deaths from the last 10 CoDs, and they all involve a quicktime knife or a revolver, and sometimes even a jumpy "oh no it didn't work!" moment. Talk about repetitive - even James Bond movies weren't that repetitive or frequent. Like, sure, every one of them had Bond lock himself in somewhere with the girl, but at least the villain deaths were varied - Moonraker had the little end tags, too. It was FUN, not murder murder, murder, blood, intense pain...

[no god anywhere 66]

Speaking of the campaign I screencapped a post from reddit that might be interesting to some of you. Unfortunately I cant link it because the mods kept deleting it.

 

Edited November 8 by no god anywhere

[icyhotspartin 283]

24 minutes ago, no god anywhere said:

Speaking of the campaign I screencapped a post from reddit that might be interesting to some of you. Unfortunately I cant link it because the mods kept deleting it.

 

 

Why would they delete this? It's basically real, the embassy mission was Zero Dark Thirty, and there was a raid a couple weeks ago with night vision goggles to kill the dude who took over for bin Laden. Is Reddit owned by China now?

[Buddy Jumps 58]

What I'm working on:

• El Bronco
• Theme: "Wild West town" destroyed due to a seism and landslides
• CoForge with @Box_Hoes

 

 

(lighting not generated; nova effect atm for better visibility)

 

 

[Soldat Du Christ 237]

 

This one hides the NLD in a subtle but clever way

 

 

 

Same thing but the cube has complete edges, the NLD being emphasized by orange but still incorporated into the cube in a subtle way

 

 

 

The one i made earlier but more refined

[a Chunk 389]

Just messing around with that first one...

[Soldat Du Christ 237]

57 minutes ago, a Chunk said:

Just messing around with that first one...

The blue line gets rid of the orange line thats supposed to define the L

[a Chunk 389]

6 minutes ago, Soldat Du Christ said:

The blue line gets rid of the orange line thats supposed to define the L

Hmm... I wasn't look at it that way at all...
I was seeing the L as one of the two marked in red in this image:

 

Looking at it primarily as if the dark grey color on the left is the N, the light grey in the top right is the L, and the blue in the bottom right is the D.

Like so:

[MultiLockOn 134]

I just want to say that all the supposed meaning and "depth"comes from making a weird abstract shape is basically meaningless. Its completely jumps over the foundational reason behind a good logo in favor of random lofty design intents that frankly - no one cares about (not at all different than any other design practice, just like level design). The abstract shape path, including the ones I mocked up, are forgettable at best. I could do a Google search right now with any random words and come up with a dozen websites on the first page alone that have a modern font and some meaningless shape that you'll forget. 

 

The Nike logo is better than Addidas because it's an idea, it's something you recognize. Closer to a metaphor than some weird physical representation of goals. As buddy pointed out, the Apple logo is a good example. And (I think) the anvil/hammer is still a better candidate than anything we've seen follow it for the same reasons.

 

Can we see some ideas in vein of that line of thinking. A cube with manipulator handles like Chunks been posting is probably closer to being on the right track. Just off the top of my head I'm thinking of random tools used in the process of making things- woodworking tools perhaps. The hammer and anvil. An ink quilled feather on parchment. Idk, something in that direction maybe. 

[Soldat Du Christ 237]

3 hours ago, a Chunk said:

Hmm... I wasn't look at it that way at all...
I was seeing the L as one of the two marked in red in this image:

 

Looking at it primarily as if the dark grey color on the left is the N, the light grey in the top right is the L, and the blue in the bottom right is the D.

Like so:

 

This was what i had in mind when i made it... the reason why i think this is better is because each letter is clearly designated to 1 of 3 different faces.  It's clean and subtle

Edited November 9 by Soldat Du Christ

[no god anywhere 66]

Heres an idea i was playing with tonight. So youve got the cube, the arrows, NLD letters, not too complex, etc. Could add a grid or wireframe overlay into the lettering or a ton of other stuff really but would prefer some feedback first.

Edited November 10 by no god anywhere

[icyhotspartin 283]

Adidas logo still looks a little bit like a shoe @MultiLockOn, so they’ve got good identity and form there - but you’re right re. abstract stuff. I’d much rather see the arrows on something referencing x;y;z  axis markers, but that cube still doesn’t represent the building or the growth inherent in the name.

 

My previous sketches attempt that with a  takeoff from an anvil’s head, and try to structure the anvil itself in a way that conveys motion upwards and forwards. Those are the ones on the orange background, for reference

 

edit: @no god anywhere yes re. arrows, I dig

[Soldat Du Christ 237]

3 hours ago, no god anywhere said:

Heres an idea i was playing with tonight. So youve got the cube, the arrows, NLD letters, not too complex, etc. Could add a grid or wireframe overlay into the lettering or a ton of other stuff really but would prefer some feedback first.

Make each letter fit into the 3 faces like the example i gave chunk in my last post and it will be good

Edited November 10 by Soldat Du Christ

[a Chunk 389]

Just an FYI for everyone, as I mentioned earlier, I won't be rushing into a decision on this.  I really, really appreciate all of the ideas that have been shared. If it's not obvious already, I'm generally going to be vague in my comments towards specific ideas. My intent isn't to mislead anyone into thinking I like or dislike an idea. My entire goal is to generate a large pool of ideas to pull from. It's certainly possible that our logo may take ideas from more than one concept.  So by all means, everyone please continue posting your concepts, and riff off of other concepts that have been shared. When I interject, it will typically be in an effort to get different variations of things that have been shared. Don't take it as if I don't like the existing concepts that have been shared, OR as if I'm going to go with an alternate concept that I've asked for. Again, I'm only interested in generating as many ideas as possible at this juncture.  So hopefully everyone understands where I'm coming from.

 

With that in mind, @no god anywhere I like it.  Did you try any versions that have the arrows originating at the base of the letters instead of part way up? 

 

Also would be interested to see a version that has the L & D like you did them here:  

 

 

 

[Ｋａｎｔａｌｏｐｅ 76]

17 hours ago, no god anywhere said:

Heres an idea i was playing with tonight. So youve got the cube, the arrows, NLD letters, not too complex, etc. Could add a grid or wireframe overlay into the lettering or a ton of other stuff really but would prefer some feedback first.

TBH I like how the very top right one looks. There's no need for any outlines, just clean shapes with well defined contours. I'd vote for that one in a poll

 

edit: I like how the D for Design sorta provides a foundation. It feels more sound than the one Chunk reminded everyone of because of this, and the arrows uwu

[no god anywhere 66]

11 hours ago, a Chunk said:

Just an FYI for everyone, as I mentioned earlier, I won't be rushing into a decision on this.  I really, really appreciate all of the ideas that have been shared. If it's not obvious already, I'm generally going to be vague in my comments towards specific ideas. My intent isn't to mislead anyone into thinking I like or dislike an idea. My entire goal is to generate a large pool of ideas to pull from. It's certainly possible that our logo may take ideas from more than one concept.  So by all means, everyone please continue posting your concepts, and riff off of other concepts that have been shared. When I interject, it will typically be in an effort to get different variations of things that have been shared. Don't take it as if I don't like the existing concepts that have been shared, OR as if I'm going to go with an alternate concept that I've asked for. Again, I'm only interested in generating as many ideas as possible at this juncture.  So hopefully everyone understands where I'm coming from.

 

With that in mind, @no god anywhere I like it.  Did you try any versions that have the arrows originating at the base of the letters instead of part way up? 

 

Also would be interested to see a version that has the L & D like you did them here:  

 

 

 

Thats what i originally tried but without wrapping the D underneath there is no frame for the arrow and it loses shape. Im basically using negative space to build the arrows. Making the size of the L's foot twice as fat and cutting it in half looked awful so i had to find a more creative way. I could underline the cube (with lines or the hammer and anvil possibly) to build the arrows but theyd both look bad imo.

 

Before this idea i tried tons of other stuff throughout last week that didnt work. Soldats idea was the first thing i tried but that just looked bad. Tried building cubes/NLD lettering with the hammer and anvil as negative space. Tried 3D which just looked like a shitty N64 logo. Tried making cubes into speech balloons with people icons and variations of those concepts to express level design discussion. None of the above ideas checked enough of the "boxes" that need to be filled and still look good; identification, simplicity, versatility and the means of achieving them.

Just some extra thoughts: Unfortunately Next Level Design as a forum doesnt have anything that can be used in a logo to identify visually besides some kind of representation of discussion, the process of level design or the name itself. Without at least two of those you cant truly recognize what the logo is meant to be representing.  The logo should be simple and versatile too so that you can slap it wherever and it always clearly stands out, can stand in place of the websites name without needing further identification, and can easily be stylized wherever. For example It should play well on paper in black and white, really small or large, over an image as a watermark or tag, in the header with the website name, on clothing or whatever else. With all of the in mind thats why i ended up with what i have above and its also why i posted so many versions. It can work well in a plethora of ways without losing its character.

 

To everyone thinking about logo designs please consider these ideas more, especially versatility.

 

 

 

 

[MultiLockOn 134]

12 hours ago, no god anywhere said:

Thats what i originally tried but without wrapping the D underneath there is no frame for the arrow and it loses shape. Im basically using negative space to build the arrows. Making the size of the L's foot twice as fat and cutting it in half looked awful so i had to find a more creative way. I could underline the cube (with lines or the hammer and anvil possibly) to build the arrows but theyd both look bad imo.

 

Before this idea i tried tons of other stuff throughout last week that didnt work. Soldats idea was the first thing i tried but that just looked bad. Tried building cubes/NLD lettering with the hammer and anvil as negative space. Tried 3D which just looked like a shitty N64 logo. Tried making cubes into speech balloons with people icons and variations of those concepts to express level design discussion. None of the above ideas checked enough of the "boxes" that need to be filled and still look good; identification, simplicity, versatility and the means of achieving them.

Just some extra thoughts: Unfortunately Next Level Design as a forum doesnt have anything that can be used in a logo to identify visually besides some kind of representation of discussion, the process of level design or the name itself. Without at least two of those you cant truly recognize what the logo is meant to be representing.  The logo should be simple and versatile too so that you can slap it wherever and it always clearly stands out, can stand in place of the websites name without needing further identification, and can easily be stylized wherever. For example It should play well on paper in black and white, really small or large, over an image as a watermark or tag, in the header with the website name, on clothing or whatever else. With all of the in mind thats why i ended up with what i have above and its also why i posted so many versions. It can work well in a plethora of ways without losing its character.

 

To everyone thinking about logo designs please consider these ideas more, especially versatility.

 

 

 

 

I didn't know you were so good at graphic work man, good stuff

[a Chunk 389]

Testing Discord/Site Integration.  This is only a test...

[no god anywhere 66]

38 minutes ago, MultiLockOn said:

I didn't know you were so good at graphic work man, good stuff

I assure you im not. I just have looked up tutorials for gimp and inkscape enough to manage. Anyone here could manage just as well. Very easy freeware.