Reflection

In my first blog post for this project I stated:

"my perspective, lighting, digital painting,anatomy, environment art and ability to create artwork of quality in a short period of time – are all no where near where I want them to be. I'm going to have to really push myself this year if I want to achieve a professional level by the time I graduate."

My goal was for my art to be at a professional level by the time I graduate.  I feel I've achieved this - to an extent.

During semester one I made sure I was constantly improving on my art fundamentals via daily observational drawing and timed life drawing sessions which not only helped improve my environment and anatomy skills but also helped me to train myself to draw greater quality in shorter time periods.  I do however wish I'd dedicated more time to developing my perspective and lighting abilities as, though I feel they have improved through the occasional study, I feel they have not developed as rapidly as my other fundamentals this year.

My 2D asset creation skills have also certainly developed over the course of the year.  I feel confident in working in a variety of art styles which is an extremely important skill for a junior game artist to have as they will likely be working under an in-house style developed by a company's art director.  The speed of which I create such assets has also drastically improved without having to sacrifice quality.  This is also an incredibly important skill to have due to the tight time constraints of a game art pipeline.  My animation skills have also improved significantly which was an area I felt I was severely lacking in.  Our Global Game Jam game, Revenent - which I worked on as a character animator- was even nominated for this year's BAFTA New Talent Award!

However, as I am currently finding out through the joys of job hunting, it is extremely difficult to land a job as a games artist without examples of 3D asset creation in your portfolio.  Despite this, I don't regret dedicating this year to developing my 2D skillset as I feel the improvements I have made have made in this field have been worth it and I'm quite happy to dedicate my post-graduation time to improving my skills in 3D software.

I should also note that, though I didn't state it as a goal at the beginning of the year, I've seen a lot of improvement in my technical and game design abilities.  Though I worked with a programmer on the project I took responsibility for optimising the art assets, implementing scenes and setting up the general framework for the game.  I'm in no way ready to go off and make games by myself (and to be honest I love being part of a team too much to do that anyway) but I'd like to think that this experience will aid me in becoming a much more efficient developer as I believe it is important to have at least a basic understanding of the workload of your team members for collaboration to be really efficient.   I also learned a lot about game design, have a solid grasp of its basic fundamentals, I now appreciate how challenging it can be to get across ideas to other disciplines and fully understand how important it is in the creation of engaging experiences - No matter how pretty an art style is, without some level of agency in a game world players will lose interest quickly.  I didn't anticipate just how much code and design would contribute to the atmosphere of a game (you can't just stick some fog on top of a scene and call it spooky!) and I feel I have a much greater understanding and appreciation for these disciplines as a result.  

My main regret in the project is not using Unity as opposed to GameMaker.  Though Unity may have been arguably more difficult for an artist to fully grasp, it is a lot more industry standard than GameMaker and I feel I would have learned a lot more from a technical standpoint which as a result would have added to my employability.  

Regardless, when I first came to Abertay University I had never even used a graphics tablet so I'd like to think I've came a long way in my time here.  In four years I have experienced working under a variety of different game art roles, gained a lot more confidence in public speaking, experimented with a lot of different art styles, discovered my passion for game development and- thanks to the skills I have learned at university- have two shipped titles under my belt before even graduating.  As an artist I still have a long way to go before I can really call myself successful and I know I will be constantly learning and improving my skillset throughout my entire career, however I am confident that I have the potential and determination to get there.

Ritual - A Micro Postmortem

Below you can watch the final gameplay footage for Ritual.

In September of 2014 I saw a lack of 2D horror games on the market and wanted to know why.  I knew I wanted to make a 2D horror game and I knew I wanted to help get rid of the stigma that suggested they couldn't be scary.  The result was a short prototype for a 2D horror game entitled Ritual where the player takes on the persona of a sister looking for a little brother in a haunted school.  To get him back she must undertake a ritual that opens three portals to a demon realm that must be closed within a short period of time - whilst being pursued by the game's antagonist.


What Went Right

1.  Art Direction

The art direction contributed to the horror atmosphere - a gritty colour palette, the use of overlays that created visual obscurity, the use of art assets conveying environmental storytelling and the incorporation of uncomfortable, saturated colours to represent danger.  To ensure an effective art direction, the general art style was developed via the creation of "art prototypes" consisting of a tree asset rendered in a variety of distinct art styles.  Viewers were asked which styles they felt were most suited to a horror atmosphere and this process was repeated with further iterations until the current art style was chosen.

2.  Merging of art and game design

After playing a lot of horror games and reading lots of academic literature on the subject, I concluded horror atmosphere is key in inducing fear in a player.  This is due to the cognitive science theory of the Two-Factor Theory of Emotion which, when applied to horror games, states that when a player feels stress in a horror game - usually due to jump scares or a high difficulty level - the surrounding  horror imagery/atmosphere causes them to mislabel this stress as fear.  In Ritual this stress is evoked through the implementation of timed gameplay sequences where the player must close portals to a demon dimension within a short time limit. Aside from an appropriate horror art direction, horror atmosphere is evoked through triggered events (animations, sounds, jump scares) strategically placed throughout the environment (see the purple rectangles in the screen cap shown below).  These arguably successfully conveyed appropriate levels of tension as having images unaccompanied by sound and vice versa sets the player on edge for faster paced areas of gameplay i.e. scares such as the chase scene.

3.  Scope

At the beginning of the year I was extremely ambitious and the following diagram was created to represent the initial level layout:

Whereas the current level layout is represented here:

Knowing when to scale back was invaluable. It left three weeks for the polishing of art assets and condensed gameplay down to less than five minutes, a convenient amount of time for the showcase which also depicts how horror atmosphere can be created in 2D games even in a condensed environment,

What Went Wrong

1.  Not enough focus on promoting the game/myself as an artist

Throughout the project I didn't have much of an online presence for the game, failing to take advantage of popular online game development trends such as the #screenshotsaturdays hashtag on Twitter.  Whenever I did I failed to communicate what exactly the screenshot was of or what it was for (I had quite a few people contact me who were interested in the project but couldn't tell what it was about!)  In retrospect having the game logo or my website URL overlaid on released screenshots would have been very beneficial.  Developing a self-brand further would have also likely have aided my online presence.

2.  Technical Limitations

Halfway through the project I was no longer able to work with the initial programmer and "recruiting" a new programmer who had not been as involved was difficult as time had to be spent going over ideas.  Having an audio designer and programmer who were essentially working for free was also problematic as I felt I didn't want to take more time from them than necessary which hindered iterative development in game design.  For instance I really wanted to play with the idea of breaking the fourth wall in the climatic event for the game however I was more concerned with having a playable prototype than experimenting with gameplay elements that would have required further time-consuming outsourcing.  For this reason there are also still a couple of (non-game breaking at least) bugs in the final build that in a regular development team environment would have likely been fixed.

Conclusion

I feel Ritual had a lot of potential that I couldn't reach as I have only just begun to scratch the surface of this topic and I would love to work on a 2D horror game again with an actual team behind me in order to fully utilise all the techniques I have learned this year in horror atmosphere creation.  It's a really exciting time to be a 2D artist in games as we are seeing the likes of games such as The Banner Saga, Child of Light and Rayman Legends that truly harness the raw horsepower of high fidelity visuals and smoother frame rates that 2D development allows for. These attributes to a game development pipeline result in shorter game art time-frames and allow for extra time that can be used for artists to truly utilise and develop the a games art styles.  Developers of 2D horror games- who typically stick to a standard pixel art style- can make use of this and it is hoped that more professionals will become invested in this area of game development and create successful, truly atmospheric 2D horror titles.  As a result fans of horror games will have a larger variety of horror games to engage with and the creation of “scary” 2D horror games will no longer be viewed as “impressive” by critics- It will simply become the norm.  

Screenshots 25-04-2015

I've had a lot of difficulty getting the game "finished" this month for a few reasons, the most obvious setback being losing the initial programmer.  However the final code is in (I managed to rope a programmer I worked with on Ubiquity/Duality to help) as is the audio and other than that I've just been been polishing this month and working through the issues with my art I brought up in my last post.

I'll make another post after this with gameplay footage along with some of my final thoughts on the project however for now I wanted to talk about how I tackled the sort of art block I was having.

Menu Screen 

The primary typeface I've been using for the branding of the game is an opensource font called "Figa" which I've edited to be a bit more readable.  I decided to keep the menu screen pretty simple as I want the focus at the showcase to be on the actual game.  However in retrospect I should have experimented a bit more.  

Forest Area

In my last post critiquing the game as a whole I addressed the issue of my tree designs potentially being too bright for a horror game.  However I felt having darker trees felt a bit too visually harsh and lightened them again, though the trees do become ever so slightly darker the closer the player gets to the school.  I've also lightened the background slightly, added more white mist and lowered the opacity of the flickering vignette overlay so it's a bit more subtle.  Another important change to the game as a whole is the addition of a letterbox overlay.  I really like how cinematic this makes the game feel and even though it's not that noticeable I think it's just a nice touch.

I've also added in some spatial tutorial elements which I'm quite pleased with - I'm going for a clean but glitchy aesthetic to compliment the finale of the game.

Hallway

 
The hallway is looking a lot better although I'm still not totally happy with it and can't really put my finger on why.  The colour scheme is a bit dull despite the little splashes of purple and teal I tried to include to avoid that and the scrolling fog looks a bit too solid.

Basement Corridor

Blurred the background and added a low opacity black overlay on top to make this area seem darker and eerier.  I've also added some little hand prints in the background to lead the player to the "Ritual Room".

Ritual Room

The most important addition to the ritual room has been the feedback animation to be triggered after the player presses space and "activates the ritual" i.e. timed gameplay sequence of closing the three portals.  Ideally I would have animated the player character doing something such as touching the red stain on the floor however I ran out of time.  Instead the ouija board in the background begins to glow slightly (this glow was way more obvious in previous iterations and as a result looked really tacky so I toned it down), the salt pentagram on the ground begins to pulse a sort of red glow and a demon arm will appear to try and grab the player as a sort of warning for the chase sequence that happens once the player leaves the room.  I also tweaked the candle layout (sooo much of my time in the level editor this year has been spent tweaking candle arrangements!) though it could probably do with a few more just to really kick up the cult-y vibe I'm going for.  I've also added quite a few bespoke animations that the player will trigger in this area such as blinking eyes in the hole in the wall, rats running across the hanging chain and the china doll in the background falling to the ground for no reason.  I think these really help add to an unsettling atmosphere and those who have played the game have commented that the doll in particular is "pretty creepy".

I'm really not happy with how the ouija board turned out, it looks a bit bland.  If I have the time I might change it to look like a more traditional ouija board that's been nailed to the wall.  Aside from that though I'm satisfied with how this area has turned out.  I fixed the scale issue by messing about with the size of the wall in the background, making the room a bit shorter and enlarging the foreground asset so that the enitre scene feels a bit more claustrophobic.

Classroom

I'm pretty satisfied with this room too although the environmental storytelling isn't as chaotic as I initially envisioned.  However sticking to a colour scheme of teal and rusty reds worked really well I feel as it doesn't feel too overpowering yet is still murky enough to pass for horror.

Limbo

I intentionally didn't add the letterbox overlay to this area as the finale of the game is where I wanted the fourth wall breaking elements to come in to play.  I didn't have time to implement this quite as I'd like to have although I think the uncomfortably bright colour scheme and glitchy animations game out really well.  The "tree ghosts" come across a bit forced though and their blobby, shadow designs aren't exactly scary.  If I'd had more time they'd be a lot more complex. I've also had people comment that the game ends too soon after the brother character is taken by the enemy.  Ideally I would have had a sort of cutscene at this point showing a more emotional reaction from the two characters once they see eachother and then the enemy running at the player after it consumes the brother, with the screen fading to black just before it reaches the player.  I also wanted to include some sort of enemy slowly creeping towards the player as the game begins to slow their movement which I feel would have really added to the tension.  However once again, I've ran out of time to do a sufficient job on that.

Overall I'm not very happy with this area.  The layout in general just seems a bit stale.  I think I might mess about with the foreground assets and add some more fog in an attempt to get that claustrophobic atmosphere back.
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Degree Show Exhibition and Poster Design

I've been busy designing a poster for my game to be shown at the degree show next month.  I started by looking in to commercial posters for both horror video games and film.

I definitely prefer the more minimalist approach as it ties in with the idea of playing with the viewer's imagination which has been fundamental in my approach for creating atmosphere in my project.  However I feel Ritual is obviously not distinct enough to pull off something as minimalistic as the Evil Dead poster above.  I love the idea of incorporating moody lighting such as that depicted in the Alan Wake poster and I also love the hyper contrast of The Blair Witch Project poster.  The Evil Within poster also makes great use of negative space with just the right amount of gore.

After some super rough sketching of ideas I then moved on to creating some polished thumbnails and asked people what their favourites were. 

Most people seemed to prefer 6, saying the composition was simple but effective and withheld enough information for them to be both interested and creeped out.  

I gave the first iteration (above) to an artist friend who gave it a really useful paint-over which led to my second iteration which I posted online for the internet to tear in to:

General crit:

- It looks like the boy is being hanged (bit too edgy for a student exhibition, oops.)

- Add some rocks and mud etc coming off him to show he's floating

- Shoes are too dark and act as a focal point as a result
- Make the trees at the side more curved to give the composition an ovel shape
- Add a black overlay to the boy to give him more mystery
- Make the "May 2015" type smaller or change it to the primary typeface.
- Typeface is too clean in comparison to the illustration
- Add a splash of colour for more visual interest

- Add smoke or fog around the boy to give him more substance and suggest a light source

Still playing about with colour however this is the latest iteration (will edit this post with the new one when it's finalised):

I've also been considering the general layout for my degree show space.  Below is an example from last year of the space I've been allocated.  I really like how Rebecca included the decorative mirror fragments here as it gives a nice sort of personal touch (as opposed to just sticking up a bunch of posters and leaving it at that) however I can't really think of anything appropriate in relation to my own project.

I've made the following mock up of how my posters will be laid out (A2 portrait for the main poster, A4 landscape for the rest with an A5 sheet underneath the main poster describing my project):

At previous degree shows I've noticed that the mounted posters always stand out the most and look a lot more professional so I really want to do the same for mine.  All my images will be mounted on 5mm foam mount and I'll hopefully have a little stand for a sketchbook and business cards.  The images I've chosen to showcase will be displayed in chronological order from top to bottom, beginning with early art test examples, concept art and finally some screenshots of the game.  When we were showcasing Strawberry Thief last summer at Protoplay festival, Sophia ordered Strawberry Thief printed fabric to hang over our stand and underneath our poster.  It was simple but effective and I think adding this sort of extra element to a display can look really classy.  I'm hopefully going to be able to purchase a small sheet of black chiffon fabric to hang over the stand I want to put my sketchbook and business cards on but honestly it depends on my funds (fourth year/graduating is hella expensive.)

The biggest issue I'm having at the moment is all of my test prints are coming out super dark.  I've had a similar issue with my business cards too (see the designs below).  Despite them coming out fine in previous test prints before sending them off to moo.com, the designs turned out super dark and I'm really not happy with them.  I also didn't factor in time for self branding, choosing to focus more on Ritual and its promotional materials for the showcase.  In retrospect this was a mistake as I'm supposed to be selling myself as an artist rather than the game as a commercial product.  However for future ventures in to business card design I've learned to stick to brighter, more print friendly colour schemes.  After getting some feedback on previous iterations of the current card design someone also suggested I include more whitespace for people to potentially write on.  I considered this however as these designs are solely for the purposes of the degree show (like I said I'd much rather develop a brand for myself than simply throw some old concept art on a card) I felt it wouldn't be too much of an issue.  On a similar note, I'll also be much more considerate of my general layout next time (because look at how boring it is and how off-centre my information is, urgh!).

So yeah, printing-wise I may have to heighten the white levels like crazy in all my images and just hope for the best when I send them off.  As most of my work been digital this year the majority of my sketchbook will have to consist of printed off images which I imagine will have the same problem.  I'm sure I'll find a way around it.  Probably.

Finally, I should also mention that I have a website now!  I'm quite pleased with how it turned out - I wanted to keep it quite minimal and the geometric shapes look clean and neat and I feel my current branding works really well as header.  Though on the other hand, the sides look pretty empty and would maybe benefit from some sort of subtle background element.  Definitely want to develop a more in-depth brand after graduation.

Semester 2 - Final (Ungraded) Progress Presentation

Posting this super late again but a few weeks ago we had our final ungraded progress presentations.  I've went over the content in previous blogs so I won't bore you with the usual captions I add. However in this presentation I discussed: my colour script and how saturated colours represent danger, the concept of breaking the fourth wall in games and how I'll be applying it to the finale of my own game, gameplay storyboards and how I've been getting across my ideas with the new programmer and finally I showed footage of the latest build and gave some self-critique over it.

Breaking the Fourth Wall and Ritual's Finale

Something I've been really interested in lately is the idea of breaking the fourth wall in games.  I've been trying to come up with ways I can mess with the player during the finale sequence of Ritual and the idea of having the game suddenly glitch out really intrigues me so I've been looking in to the concept of fourth wall breaking in the medium of games more in depth.

Traditionally the fourth wall refers to the imaginary wall between the audience of a theatrical performance and the stage.  To break the fourth wall involves breaking the suspension of disbelief by addressing the audience directly, mentally removing them from the fictional universe they are immersed in. 

In videogames the actual fourth wall is unclear.  Conway (2009) explains “When you play a game, you fulfil the dual role of audience member and performer on stage” – the player is both the viewer and the participant.  Kirkland (2007) agrees with this statement, acknowledging that “Consumer’s presence outside the text is frequently, even perpetually, acknowledged in a manner universal in other popular forms of media”.  For instance, it is often necessary for in-game tutorials to break the fourth wall in some form.   User interfaces are often presented in a non-diagetic or spatial format, on a plane solely for the player/viewer as opposed to the characters of the game world.  

Throughout the years many developers have explored the use of this technique in game design.  The horror genre is “ideal for exploring deconstructions of videogame text” (Kirkland 2007) as the genre excels at subverting conventional game design in support of an often twisted or supernatural narrative.  There are several areas that can be addressed in terms of breaking the fourth wall in videogames.  Firstly, the player character may directly refer to the player.  Examples of this can be found in Silent Hill 3 (Konami 2003) where, should the player choose to make the game’s protagonist Heather look in to a toilet bowl, she will turn to the screen and exclaim “Gross! Who would do something like that anyway?”.  Kirkland describes this as both “comic and chilling” and points out this use of fourth wall breaking is suited to horror as it reminds the player the fate of their character is in their hands.  Another method of breaking the fourth wall involves the game itself displaying self-awareness as a videogame.  For instance during a nightmare sequence in the narrative of Max Payne (Rockstar Games 2002) a note left by his deceased wife reads “You are in a computer game, Max” and in the recent Playable Teaser for Silent Hills the fourth wall is broken directly by having one of the puzzle pieces the player must search for hidden inside one of the menu screens.

Perhaps one of the most interesting uses of fourth wall breaking in horror game text is an example found in Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem and the use of its sanity metre mechanic.  Should the player let this metre deplete too much a number of intrusive gameplay elements may occur such as blurred on-screen overlays or eerie sound effects.  However one of the most extreme consequences for this involves the manipulation of the user interface, such as the occurrence of false messages stating game controllers are unplugged that all of the information on the player’s memory card is being erased. Taylor (2009) states that “horror games often use the interface to subvert typical play and to challenge conceptions of game interface design”.  This is an especially interesting use of breaking the fourth wall in horror as it questions the relationship between the player and the game and suggests the horror of the game is so real it is not only happening to the player character but to the player themselves.

If implemented efficiently, designers of horror games can make practical use of breaking the fourth wall in their games in order to enhance atmosphere.  Though an element of this breakage is already present to some extent in certain videogames through the presence of UI elements on a separate plane to the game environment, the fourth wall can be broken through the player character addressing the player directly or the suggestion of self-awareness by the videogame itself.   Doing so can create feelings of confusion and paranoia in the player that can only support a horror atmosphere.

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As mentioned in a previous post, saturated colours represent danger in the game so I want the "limbo" area to be a sort of distorted version of the forest area with a very intense colour scheme.  I took a screenshot of the forest and messed about with it in Photoshop:

I really like how the sky turned out in that last one and how the bright cyan contrasts with the lava-like oranges and reds.  However the purples and greens come across as too friendly so I plan on having the foreground and trees appear more dark and sinister.  For the glitch effect I'll take snippets of the environment and add noise and animate segments distorting and place theme around the environment, with the effect growing more intense the further the player progresses, with error messages occasionally popping up in the same way as the ghosts do in the beginning of the game.

Dissertation Update

First draft for my dissertation is done.  The content of my dissertation currently consists of:

1.       Introduction

2.     Contextual Review 

2.1    Art and Stylisation in 2D Games

2.2   The Horror Genre in Videogames

2.2.1     Horror Wrapping Versus Horror Simulation

2.2.2     Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

2.3    Influence of Horror Film on Games 

2.3.1          Camera Angles 

2.3.2          Gore  

2.3.3          Narrative

2.4    Player Point of View in Games 

2.5    Player Agency and Pacing 

2.6    Breaking the Fourth Wall 

2.7    Monster Design 

3.     Methodology

3.1 Research Methods and Findings

         3.1.1 Relevant Literature and Case Study Findings

         3.1.2 Practice Based Research

3.2 The Project Artefact

        3.2.1 User Testing 

        3.2.2 Critical Analysis 

        3.2.3 Future Work

As the minimum word count is 6000 and I'm now over 11, 000 I've had to cut down my dissertation significantly.  I've taken out the Narrative sub-section of Influence of Horror Film on Games as I personally didn't put a lot of emphasis on narrative in my artefact.  My supervisor has also suggested taking out the section on Breaking the Fourth Wall.  This is an area I'm really interested in however it is a rich enough topic that it could be a dissertation in itself and I m already bad enough for rambling in my academic writing! I'm also now no longer carrying out any formal user testing (though I have been getting feedback from players throughout development) as my supervisor has pointed out that self critique should be enough for the methodology section.  On to the second draft!

Ritual Build 11-03-2015

This is the build for "Ritual" as of 11-03-2015.  Excuse the dodgy frame rate, my laptop apparently can't handle screen capture software.

I'm pretty disappointing with it to be quite honest.  I feel like my art hasn't improved at all since first semester and if anything has gotten worse,

Forest area

I got some feedback from a friend who saw a previous build who pointed out the trees are too bright for a horror game.  I've darkened them here but I feel like they create too much contrast now.  Perhaps a sort of dull, greyish purple will work better.  I'll have to experiment.  It also feels a bit too cluttered so I'll play about with removing some assets and see how it feels.  I also still need to tweak one of the tree assets that looks unnaturally straight.

A few people have pointed out the flickering overlay is uncomfortable on the eyes, however these folks have only seen the video with the temperamental frame rate and everyone who has played the game so far has found it appropriate.  However one person who played the game did say the flickering isn't random enough so I'll try work out a way to have it randomly flicker.

Hallway

Obviously quite bare at the moment due to being a work in progress however I feel it would really benefit from some blurred foreground assets in order to give a better sense of enclosure and isolation.  I've also thought about adding a letterbox frame to the game for a similar reason.  Won't be too hard to mock that up to get an idea. The floors are also maybe a bit too bright and should at least be darker nearer the top of the asset to give a better sense of depth.  Perhaps I could add a bit of subtle perspective to the asset itself too.  I also find the doors don't exactly scream "school" so more iteration is required.  Also not sure if that purple colour is really working, seems too "pretty"... May have to rework my colour palette for this area again.

Basement Corridor

I think the flickering works well here and could maybe do with being totally dark at certain points to take more visual information away from the player as they're being chased by the enemy.  Also need to make it more obvious you have to press space at the ends of the corridor to enter and exit.  The neon graffiti should have a glowing animation or something just to give the room a bit more life.  Might be interesting to experiment with tilting the floor at an angle however I'm not sure how this would work via code with the player walking horizontally.  The pipes in the background also seem a bit "stuck on"  will have to create a bunch of other subtle assets to integrate them better.

Ritual Room

Really not happy with this one.  The entire scale just seems a bit off.  I showed the concept art for this to Ryan a couple weeks ago and he pointed out the composition as a whole needs more diagonals to break up all the straight lines.  I feel the skirting board I've added to the bottom of the wall is a major part of the problem as it's too big for the scale and thus visually confusing and also breaks up the image too much.


I think the portals look nice though!

Next Steps for art asset creation
- Finish hall assets/tweak current layouts
- Play about with character scale
- Polish overlays
- Feedback animation/tutorial for Ritual area
- Bespoke animations

Gameplay Storyboards

One of the main challenges I've come across so far on my venture in to game design is getting across gameplay elements to other disciplines on a team.  As an artist I'm obviously a very visual person so I thought I'd try storyboarding my gameplay.  They're pretty basic but speed and clarity were the priority here and (hopefully) this gets the job done.