When playing games, i have noticed many things that assist me in completing the level/quest. One very obvious thing is that in some games, there are "invisible walls" so that you can't get to certain areas. Obviously, in games when you can pretty much go anywhere, this isn't posssible. Another way, for example in Fable 3, is to make a trail on the floor for the character to follow to the required destination. There are also the obvious things such as paths, minimaps, compasses etc...
The environment influences the game very strongly. Survival/horror games always look dark and gloomy to influence fear as something could jump out at you at any moment. The biggest way to set the mood in a game is with the enviroment. If everything is bright and sunny and then there are suddenly dead bodies everywhere, you are going to stop and think "Hmm, something isn't quite right here." The environment is the first thing you notice.
Well, of course there is a balance between realism and stylisation that supports the player's belief in the game. If the game is about aliens, then the environment has to also be unrealistic as aliens haven't been proven to exist yet. If alien's were for example, in a super market, it wouldn't fit. But also, at the same time, there has to be some realism as if something is too unrealistic, it would seem ridiculous.
An environment i would say i particlarly like is the world in the film, Avatar. It is so unrealistic however I can almost believe that this world could actually exists. I think this is because, even though everything is so fantasy based, it still has some similarities to our world. For example, there are a race that represents human beings, wild animals and vegetation. This race however, are more primative than us, they hunt for their food and they have no technology as we do. Another thing that is similar is the fact that they still love and communicate with each other very effectively.
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Personal Review of the year.
I think the main part that I have enjoyed about my 1st year and uni is how much we can socialise with each other. Instead of just sitting in a classroom like at school and college, We go out into Leicester to draw with each other. We also communicate through Facebook to help with all of our work. I have also enjoyed learning new things such as everything to do with 3D Studio Max and I have also learned so much about drawing.
At the beginning of the year, I struggled with the work load. The transition from college to university was very hard for me and I quickly fell behind with my work. I therefore, had a lot of work to do during the christmas holidays. I then swore to myself that I would try and keep up woth my work all the time and in semester two, I didnt have nearly as much work to do during the Easter holidays. I also feel like I havent learned enough to do with 3D Studio Max as I feel like we were required to learn a lot of information in a small space of time and I feel like I am missing a lot of this information.
To help me to improve on my skills and so that I dont forget everything I have learned, I will practice over the summer. I need to practice on my 3D work for definate, especially texturing. I also need to work on colour theory as I am always afraid of using colour in my drawings and I think this is also why I struggle with texturing. Finally, I will try to find out as much information about 3D studio Max as possible including such small things as shortcuts to shorten the time that it takes me to create something.
I really do hope that I pass my 1st year at university as I really do want to get a career that I enjoy doing. The main reason why i went to university is because I dont want to be stuck in a dead-end job, doing the same thing every day for the rest of my life. This is why i aspire to be a game artist as there is a new challenge every day.
At the beginning of the year, I struggled with the work load. The transition from college to university was very hard for me and I quickly fell behind with my work. I therefore, had a lot of work to do during the christmas holidays. I then swore to myself that I would try and keep up woth my work all the time and in semester two, I didnt have nearly as much work to do during the Easter holidays. I also feel like I havent learned enough to do with 3D Studio Max as I feel like we were required to learn a lot of information in a small space of time and I feel like I am missing a lot of this information.
To help me to improve on my skills and so that I dont forget everything I have learned, I will practice over the summer. I need to practice on my 3D work for definate, especially texturing. I also need to work on colour theory as I am always afraid of using colour in my drawings and I think this is also why I struggle with texturing. Finally, I will try to find out as much information about 3D studio Max as possible including such small things as shortcuts to shorten the time that it takes me to create something.
I really do hope that I pass my 1st year at university as I really do want to get a career that I enjoy doing. The main reason why i went to university is because I dont want to be stuck in a dead-end job, doing the same thing every day for the rest of my life. This is why i aspire to be a game artist as there is a new challenge every day.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
Elements of game design, part three: character
Well my favourite books and films of all time are definately the Harry Potters. In the books, I love the characters as the author vividly describes and makes them show their feelings a lot. My favourite character is Ron Weasley as although you can tell he is quite scared and has always been "the loser" of the group, he is still determined to help out Harry with all the danger he gets into. This almost definately scares him so much and it makes me almost proud of him that he would go to these extents to help out his friend. It shouldn't make me feel like this as he is a fictional character!
I think the main techniques that are used, is the way that the character's act in certain situations and the way other character's act towards them. This is done using the script, the acting and the appearance. For instance, if a character is a typical looking geek, with glasses and freckles, you are going to feel sorry for them, especially as it is likely that they will be bullied etc. However, if this geek, is saving the world or something, then you are going to think they they are awesome. So it doesn't just depend on one thing to make you react a certain way about a character.
I love fantasy stories, films and games as everything is new, interesting and sometimes never been seen before. For instance, Avatar, is one of my most "Oh wow, that is the awesome thing i have ever seen" films xD. In films, I also love special effects as if done good, they look amazing and so realistic whereas it doesnt actually exist. As i have already mentioned, I love the Harry Potter books and I think this is mostly because the author has created an entire world which is unrealistic but she has made it realistic as it could actually fit into our world.
Sorry that this blog has been pretty much a review of my favourite films and books, but this is the way i ended up waffling on about :P
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Elements of Game Design Part 2- Art direction for games
After researching on the internet, I found the job description for an art director from http://my.safaribooksonline.com/159200430X/ch11lev1sec2?portal=oreilly. "In professional game art departments, the art director is the captain of the ship. Art directors are generally responsible for setting the visual tone, quality, and style for the game. They are at least indirectly responsible for every object, texture, level, character, and effect that appears in a game."
They have to consider what every element in the game will look like from all points of view and that everything seen in the game keeps the overall ambience alive. Overall this means that they are pretty much in charge of the whole scenary in the game and how it looks to the player.
Art directors are pretty much responsible to all of the game artists. This includes people making the characters, scenary, lighting and sounds. They have to make sure that everything works well together as different people are making different things, everything could end up not looking good together.
Of course an Art Director is a creative role! Well firstly, it has the word "art" in the title (only joking). An art
director needs to know a lot about art itself and not just about games/films. They more than likely do a lot of drawing an painting to get an idea down onto paper out of their head about what they want a scene to look like. As they are in charge of what the while game is going to look like, they have to be very creative especially if they need to figure out why something doesn't quite look right.
Art direction in films and games can be similar or different. A similarity for example is that everything still needs to be taken into account (characters, scenary, lighting etc...) however a difference would be that in most games, everything can be seen from all angles so everything has to work well no matter which way you look at it. In films however, the person watching it can only see the scene from the way that the creator wants them to see it from.
I think I would need to develop a lot of qualities to be an art director. Knowing about composition, perspective, lighting, colour theory are just a few examples of what I would need to master. I do have a basic knowledge of these at the moment but not enough to be an art director. I think that these skills will come naturally as I continue this course and carrying on doing tons of drawings and paintings.
They have to consider what every element in the game will look like from all points of view and that everything seen in the game keeps the overall ambience alive. Overall this means that they are pretty much in charge of the whole scenary in the game and how it looks to the player.
Art directors are pretty much responsible to all of the game artists. This includes people making the characters, scenary, lighting and sounds. They have to make sure that everything works well together as different people are making different things, everything could end up not looking good together.
Of course an Art Director is a creative role! Well firstly, it has the word "art" in the title (only joking). An art
director needs to know a lot about art itself and not just about games/films. They more than likely do a lot of drawing an painting to get an idea down onto paper out of their head about what they want a scene to look like. As they are in charge of what the while game is going to look like, they have to be very creative especially if they need to figure out why something doesn't quite look right.
Art direction in films and games can be similar or different. A similarity for example is that everything still needs to be taken into account (characters, scenary, lighting etc...) however a difference would be that in most games, everything can be seen from all angles so everything has to work well no matter which way you look at it. In films however, the person watching it can only see the scene from the way that the creator wants them to see it from.
I think I would need to develop a lot of qualities to be an art director. Knowing about composition, perspective, lighting, colour theory are just a few examples of what I would need to master. I do have a basic knowledge of these at the moment but not enough to be an art director. I think that these skills will come naturally as I continue this course and carrying on doing tons of drawings and paintings.
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Elements of game design, part one: from Pong to next-gen…
Well, when I think of the word gameplay, I think of how good the game is to play overall. An Oficial definition from Wikipedia is "Gameplay is interaction with a game (in particular, video games) through its rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and player's connection with it. So basically, it is the overall game experience, what makes a game fun or challenging to play.
Game design is the process at the beginning of a game being created. It's process consists of coming up with a game idea, designing some parts of it, test these parts to see if they work well, if they do, design and create the rest of the game. Game design can therefore be a long process if things don't work well together for example, if the characters designed don't fit with the environment. This can be quite bad if there is a tight schedule to get the game done in.
Game design is definately not a single person's responsibility. One person only has a limited number of ideas due to their cultural knowledge. Therefore, there needs to be a group of people contributing ideas and designs to being creating a game. What makes a game belong to a certain genre depends on the gameplay. This includes the camera, lighting, environment, characters, sounds, text and speed of gameplay. This means that all genres of games have pretty much the same things thrown into them but all of these aspects are designed differently. For instance, a side scrolling fighting game doesnt need much camera work but a lot of work has to be done on the environment and a RPG has to have more work done on the storyline than anything else.
When I play a video game, I find the storyline very important if it is an RPG. When i'm playing a game on my own, I want to find it entertaining. However, it doesnt really matter if it is a multiplayer game because most of the fun comes from playing it with your friends. Also, the genre of the game is very important as I dont like RPG fighting games such as DragonAge. I find it too repetitive and boring. I find it hard to play games/levels that have a timer or something chasing you, for example, Pacman. These sort of things make me sweat and my heart beat very fast and I panic waaaaay too easily. Overall I like a challenging game that has a good storyline but also has a lot of variety through the game.
Game design is the process at the beginning of a game being created. It's process consists of coming up with a game idea, designing some parts of it, test these parts to see if they work well, if they do, design and create the rest of the game. Game design can therefore be a long process if things don't work well together for example, if the characters designed don't fit with the environment. This can be quite bad if there is a tight schedule to get the game done in.
Game design is definately not a single person's responsibility. One person only has a limited number of ideas due to their cultural knowledge. Therefore, there needs to be a group of people contributing ideas and designs to being creating a game. What makes a game belong to a certain genre depends on the gameplay. This includes the camera, lighting, environment, characters, sounds, text and speed of gameplay. This means that all genres of games have pretty much the same things thrown into them but all of these aspects are designed differently. For instance, a side scrolling fighting game doesnt need much camera work but a lot of work has to be done on the environment and a RPG has to have more work done on the storyline than anything else.
When I play a video game, I find the storyline very important if it is an RPG. When i'm playing a game on my own, I want to find it entertaining. However, it doesnt really matter if it is a multiplayer game because most of the fun comes from playing it with your friends. Also, the genre of the game is very important as I dont like RPG fighting games such as DragonAge. I find it too repetitive and boring. I find it hard to play games/levels that have a timer or something chasing you, for example, Pacman. These sort of things make me sweat and my heart beat very fast and I panic waaaaay too easily. Overall I like a challenging game that has a good storyline but also has a lot of variety through the game.
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Game Review
Well my next task is to write a game review and present it as a presentation. As I am not sure when I have to do the presentation, I am just going to dump a few sentences here to help me later on when I complete my presentation properly.
What genre is it?
This game is an RPG. It is in third person view however you do only play one person through the game.
What happens and most importantly, what’s it like to play?
As with every Legend of Zelda game, the princess gets kidnapped by Ganordorf and your aim is to go and save her. In each game however, the storyline and gameplay is slightly different. In this game, you start off as a child working to get three stones to open the Temple of Time, obviously going to different areas and defeating different bosses to obtain each one. Once you open the Temple of Time however, it turns out to be a trap set by Ganondorf and you then wake up 7 years into the future. You next task is to then go and defeat the bosses at each of the Temples and awaken the sages to help you defeat Ganondorf. The worse temple is the Temple of Water. You have boots that make you sink and walk on the bottom of the water and this game decides to make you have to change to these boots every two seconds! Once the sages are awoken, you are then able to defeat Ganondorf and his other form (who i always thought looked like a pig), Ganon therefore freeing Zelda.
I think this game is amazing to play as it takes very long to complete and there are a lot of puzzles to figure out. This makes is my type of game, i'm not keen on games where you have to just fight or shoot people...
The only problem (apart from the Water Temple) is that if you get stuck on one little thing, you are unable to carry on the game. I overcame this by asking my friend what to do next as she had completed the game before :D Although i suppose you could look on google for a walkthrough...
What is the game, and when was it released?
The game I think I will be reviewing is The Legend of Zelda, The Ocarina of Time. However, I haven't played this for a while fully as I played it when I was younger. I have played bits of it more recently on my friend's PC but it isn't the same. The game was released on November 21, 1998 on the Nintendo 64.
This game is an RPG. It is in third person view however you do only play one person through the game.
What happens and most importantly, what’s it like to play?
As with every Legend of Zelda game, the princess gets kidnapped by Ganordorf and your aim is to go and save her. In each game however, the storyline and gameplay is slightly different. In this game, you start off as a child working to get three stones to open the Temple of Time, obviously going to different areas and defeating different bosses to obtain each one. Once you open the Temple of Time however, it turns out to be a trap set by Ganondorf and you then wake up 7 years into the future. You next task is to then go and defeat the bosses at each of the Temples and awaken the sages to help you defeat Ganondorf. The worse temple is the Temple of Water. You have boots that make you sink and walk on the bottom of the water and this game decides to make you have to change to these boots every two seconds! Once the sages are awoken, you are then able to defeat Ganondorf and his other form (who i always thought looked like a pig), Ganon therefore freeing Zelda.
I think this game is amazing to play as it takes very long to complete and there are a lot of puzzles to figure out. This makes is my type of game, i'm not keen on games where you have to just fight or shoot people...
The only problem (apart from the Water Temple) is that if you get stuck on one little thing, you are unable to carry on the game. I overcame this by asking my friend what to do next as she had completed the game before :D Although i suppose you could look on google for a walkthrough...
Monday, 10 January 2011
Writing about Games, Previews, Reviews, Commentary and Lies.
The main issue that faces reviewers is that they must write without being biased as it is very easy to do so. Even if they do not like the game, thousands of other people out there may think that is it the best game ever. Therefore, reviewers need to look at games from all people's point of view.They also tend to pick out faults such as glitches in the game and the developers of the game get blamed for it as there is not much they can do after it has been released or close to being released. This shows that the game developers and the game press are 2 completely different groups are people that are not working together. I'm assuming that the game magazie that they work for pays their wages.
I think that an objective ranking system for games should be neccessary as, like i said before, different people like different games so even if a game is given a bad review in a magazine, a lot of people may still like it. To overcome to "bias" problem, other people should also play and review the game and then talk about what they like/didn't like to give more of a fair review. This may be hard to do as game reviewers are constantly under stress according to Kieron Gillen. "The rush from issue to issue leaves little time for serious contemplation. The second a magazine is finished, then the next demands your attention." This shows that reviewers barely have time to think about and write one review, let alone more than one.
Well I didnt know what the NGJ was before this, therefore, I looked it up on wikipedia. This is their definiton; "New Games Journalism (NGJ) is a video game journalism term, coined in 2004 by journalist Keiron Gillen, in which personal anecdotes, references to other media, and creative analyses are used to explore game design, play, and culture." I like the idea of this. To me, it sounds like it is made more personal so people can relate to it more. This type of writing is subjective.
As i mentioned above, this type of writing can feel more personal to the reader. I mean, i know that i would prefer to read a game review like this instead of one going on about how good the graphics are and such. I know that the graphics are a major part of the game, but all i'm doing is finding out whether it's worth playing or not- i dont particularly care about the graphics at that moment. What makes game more fun is the inside jokes you have with your friends about them and the small things that you find funny.
Other types of game reviews are video trailers, stragedy guides and previews and they can be found is a variety of places but mostly online or in certain magazines.
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