The Portal

Germania update

2010-03-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

Ive basically completed the 3 main buildings of my level now so ive just got to do more work on the surrounding walls of the level. The two images here are of the existing reichstag building that is already been built but that the city of germania would have been built around. The other building would have been the quarters of hitler or known as the fuhrer's palace.

Germania main statue

2010-02-12T03:51:00.000-08:00

This piece of work is going to be in my main plaza area. I made a few design changes to the orginal blueprints i was working from so decided to place a giant bronze statue of an ss officer on horse back. Also i wanted to ad a link to the programme that i think reminded me and also inspired me to do this project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQLQsk06OYI&feature=related

upcoming project

2010-01-06T16:32:00.000-08:00

History is a subject which fascinates me quite abit and always gets me thinking especially when thinking of subjects like war and conflicts. I was always annoyed at school when the history that was taught were of such boring subjects. like for instance i always remember being taught on the indians of america and i don't really remember anything that really fascinated me about it, as it wasthe boring parts that teachers focused on. Like i would have much liked to learn about battles between cowboys and indians, over things like how indians drove buffalo over cliffs. My point here is that if schools had taught more interesting subjects like on the great british empire or on either WWI or WWII then i would have been drawn to this subject but unfortunately it was never a subject i chose for my GCSEs.

So as history is a subject i never truely studied, i found myself getting interested in certian parts like i mentioned earlier partically towards subjects of war. It was during the summer period that i started go watch more of tv channels that i wouldn't usually watch like the history channel. I discovered a programme based on WWII that gave a basic run down of the timeline of events during the war.

This is when i started to notice that even my work was starting to be influenced by what i was watching as one project i did during the holidays was the hells angel project and decided to create a nazi biker. this was just a project i wanted to do as i wanted to test out displacement maps using zbrush, but this is where i learned the mistake that i couldn't have triangles on my model to make the displacement map in zbrush :(.

then with the upcoming release of inglorious bastards i found that i was getting more inspiration from the nazi regime and things like how they used propaganda amongst other things. thats when i recalled watching a programme years ago about how nazis would construct a new city if the war was won by germany and that city would be germania. This is what my upcoming project will be based on. in it i will try to show how if the city would have been built how it would be used to show nazi supermacy and dominace.

the importance of playing with your work

2009-12-09T19:32:00.000-08:00

Usually when im doing a 3d project on max i find my self doing the work and adding the maps that i want the piece to have and then if im satisfied i would usually leave it, though if i do notice problems i will try to resolve them to finish the piece off.

However recently i have been purchasing different books which shows me some of the great 3d artists out there at the moment. Like one book i have called digital art masters covers a wide range of digital artist, so isnt necessarily just confined to game art. but even so when looking at some of the work produced it just inspires you in your own work. i would start looking at a certain artist in this book and they would then give a brief description of how the produced a piece of their work.

in the case of pieces of work that is produced in max the artist may inform you on some of the effects they have used that you wouldn't necessarily have thought of, so then this leads you to start playing around with your own work even if its just testing things to see if it would work. tats what ive started to notice more about how ive been approaching my work. i know that I should never be satisfied with my work and that its best to always think of ways to imporove the piece.

i have found this attitude to be really helpful though as even with tampering with things that your testing, you can find things by accident. Like for instance i finished producing a treasure chest and even though i had added all the maps that i wanted and i was quite satisfied i still proceeded to test different effects on it and it was through this method that i discover how to create an ambient map over a bump map. It wasn't like i found some tutorial on the internet or some thing that i read about in a book, but was something i learnt simply from playing with the piece of work to see what worked. It just goes to show how even when yout think you have a piece of work that is finished, that you can improve on it if you have the tiime to play with it.

film and games

2009-10-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

I know i haven't really been blogging that much recently, but i would like to think that the start of a new term will mean that i can get back on track with this blogging business, at least for the next few days anyway as i have had topics which i wanted to blog about, but just didnt due to me tinkering with pieces of work im unsatisfied with and me not being much of a writer.

Anyway i wanted to start writing about some thoughts that have been recently goin through my mind that i wanted to share with you all. Some of the major influences when producing ideas or designs for me have been through films, i get to see alot of films free anyway which is a big bonus when working in a cinema. But its always good to see that games can also influence films as i noticed in a film i watched a few weeks ago. The film that i'm writing about here is district 9, now this film i believe was always going to be closely influenced by games as the director was originally suppose to start work on the halo movie before distrubution rights made the entire project collapse and the director then moved on to make this movie.

When district 9 starts it all seems like a film and a quite different one at that as i found the racist remarks against the aliens referring to them as 'prawns' was an interesting touch along with the general behaviour towards the alien inhabitants. Then halfway through the film the main protagonist manages to accidently aquire an alien arm. Now to me this is something ive never seen in a film unless you want to include the original fly film, but in that case the character was left with the disadvantage of having their new body part. in District 9 however the character with the alien arm had the advantage of using alien technology and to become an almost unstoppable force in the film. This is where i think designers had the most amount of fun designing the weapons. It was at this point that i started to realise that most of the weapons were as though they had been taken straight from games. For instance there was a mech suit that had a gravity gun, that would fling pigs with powerful force at enemys that seem to have been taken from half life and tesla guns like in wolfenstein, though the gun in the film didnt just shock but would result in the victims guts exploding across the walls!

When i had finished watching it was then that i realised that this film easily could have been a game instead of a movie and now since this thought passed through my mind ive been making these comparisons with other films. like a few days ago i watched irobot, then whilst watching it i remembered how Will Smith actually has a bionic arm. this then immediately started me thinking about games like bionic commando or prototype. Even thinkin off the top of my head i know there are scenes in G.I. Joe where characters get to wear suits that make you run as fast as a car and let u jump over a train, which sounds more like a game scenario to me.

I guess my point to all this is that the line between games and film are thinner than i once thought. i knew that games and film were becoming more alike, we all know that some games have started to use actors as characters in game. but i just didn't realise how much similar they are these days. This then gets me started thinking about how nothing really seems that original anymore. it just seems to me that things are just taken from other peoples ideas and they are changed a little bit then they claim that the idea is original. Like i can understand where people like Peter Jackson are coming from who say that films like district 9 are original, but at the same time i dont agree with this statement as like i mentioned this film has taken ideas from games like half life and claim that its an original piece of work.

Assistance of concept artists

2009-04-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

When i started on the concept of this piece, i started without using any form of reference material which was probably not the best of ideas. However i pushed on with this concept which was the idea of having this mini hideout amidst the mountains in an alien environment.

When looking at this piece of work i could see that there were problems but sometimes it is quite hard in determining exactly what the problem in the image is. I then found this problem to be even more harder as i hadn't actually used any reference.

At this stage i was really struggling to complete the image, so i therefore started looking at other artists to see how i could improve my work. An artists that is really influencing me at the moment is Gary Tonge who can create some fantastic landscape pieces of work. I quickly realised by looking at his work that my own was missing alot of shadow. I therefore incorporated the shadows into my work and actually started adding more details to areas like the sky which i felt was a little bland before.

I feel like the resulting piece of work is a vast improvement in comparison to my earlier image, which is all thanks from the aid of the masters in the industry!

Trouble with perspective? use max!

2009-03-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

I just thought i would post this message out there for reference for the other game artists that are out there, that might be struggling with perspective, especially when it comes to more complex structures.

When i was producing designs for the land, sea and air yacht project, i managed to produce a side image that i really liked, however i found that i was struggling with the perspective on the design and when putting pencil to paper i found that i wasn't progressing any further in getting the design into perspective. i therefore decided that i should create a model of my design to achieve the correct perspective.

However i felt that actually trying to create something out of clay or paper would be to much time consuming, that when i remembered reading about the concept artist Gary Tonge and how he would use software like 3dmax to create complex designs which he found hard to put into perspective. i therefore went through this process and found that it really help me to finalise my design. It just goes to show that from time to time we all can struggle with perspective even the professional, but its good to know that 3d max can be not just for game production but can assist in visual design as well

The resident evil issue

2009-02-08T04:53:00.000-08:00

Resident evil series has now reached its 5th edition and is due for release in March. But an interesting issue about this game at the moment isn't anything to do with gameplay, but the politically incorrect points that has been raised by a few critics, that the game is racist. Now just because the game is set in africa and that the protagonist in the game happens to be white does not necessarily mean that the game is racist.

I have managed to play the demo of the game and you do play as the protagonist Chris Redfield having to kill mainly black zombies, however in the demo there are still a variety of different race of zombies to kill. An example of what one critic wrote was that black people in the game were depicted as inhuman savages and that the protagonist was attacking these zombies in military clothing, which implies to me that this critic believes that the whole idea of the game is the slaughter and genocide of an ethnic group.

The funny thing is that issues like this wasn't raised during the production of the 4th Resident evil game when an american is roaming around Europe killing Spanish zombies. If roaming around africa killing zombies is racist then isn't killing spanish zombies just as racist?

Issues have even been raised about Sheva who assists the protagonist through out the game, as even though she is of black origin, the character has been criticised for having a lighter skin tone by another critic.

Its a shame that this has all become a big issue and i hope that the end product of the game is designed exactly how the developers want it to be. Because at the end of the day i wouldn't want the developers to change or cut parts of the game and make the game not as good as it was originally intended. As this game is intended for entertainment purposes so in reality all the designers should worry about is to make the game as most entertaining and realistic as possible.

Critic's links:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/resident-evil-5-hands-on-chapter1to3?page=3

http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/resident_evil_5.html

films as lectures

2008-12-17T14:04:00.000-08:00

At first i wasnt too sure about showing films in lectures, considering that i work in a cinema when i go back to my home town, means that i see quite alot of films anyway. I usually enjoy when outside lectures are brought in to give their input about the industry. so it was quite a change when we suddenly started watching films almost every week. I even thought about bringing in my own drink and popcorn then relax.

but then after a while i forgot how we are all influenced, by films and how they can inspire us to produce interesting pieces of work. I can relate to this as i realised that watching films like city of lost children and dark city which are films that have more vibrant colours in, that kinda breach the reality of the sort of colours that you would normally see. Films help us artists in many other ways aswell like for example camera angles and the way in which these films create atmospheres and perspectives.

However this has now lead me to think about other ways in which films have influenced us and our lives. I admit at times i do steal phrases from films and imitate them in general conversations at times, wheather its phrases that express philosophys on life that i relate to or even if its just silly little phrases that you can relate to with friends. It just reminds me how much our environment determine the way we grow and help to shape us into the people we are, as it effects all our sense to inspire us and evove different emotion.

week 24 assignment

2008-04-20T05:38:00.000-07:00

I feel that this year has been a great learning experience for me, as i think that Criss's classes have been especially helpful as alot of the things taught have magnified my drawing ability.

However there are always ways of improving my work. I really like the idea of introducing a medical artist to the course, as it will help to break down the anatomy of the body, making it easier to draw in perspective. I have recently found that this type of process is very useful in creating something in perspective, as it really makes you think about the object observed in a more three dimensional manner.

I think it has been great to learn about art in a scientific perspective, like for instance with colour theory. I feel that this process gives a greater understanding of how we see colour. I would therefore like to see a scientific explaination on other subjects like on lighting and how light moves over the body or objects.

I would just like to note a little bit of critisism that when thinking about spatial foreshortening that there should be a mentioning of perspective as well. As anyone who is finding it difficult to understand this concept may find it easier if they use lines of perspective as well, just as a method of breaking down the figure. I generally feel that the use of perspective lines when applied to a character is something ive only just discovered through a book i bought.

But all in all i think ive learnt alot this year with drawing and the use of new programs like 3d max and photoshop.

Week 23 assignment

2008-04-20T05:17:00.000-07:00

sweet i like the sound of no blogging this week. just means that i can focus more on my drawing studies!

week 22 assignment

2008-04-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

the expansion of businesses has always been an interesting topic to me, the most interesting part of expanding companies is the way in which they try to get ahead of the competition by identifying niches in the market. its this original idea that helps the business grow and if it is successful this one idea can propel the business to a new frontier resulting in high profits. A great example of this is with the inventor James Dyson, who created his own business because of his revolutionary idea of removing the bag in a vacuum cleaner. This one idea made the Dyson a home brand name that became leader of the market in the UK alone.

It is this ability to reach these new frontiers and the competing businesses to adapt to the change that helps the market to increase further. These are factors that are present in most industries, this includes the gaming industry. Examples of this currently in the market comes in the form of the Wii with its interactive qualities and in the case of PS3 and XBOX 360 with its technological advancements.

I therefore find it interesting to wonder what will be the next new frontier for gaming be, as potentially there are multiple ways in which the gaming industry could advance, but not all ideas are feasible or even successful, which means any idea has its risks.

Therefore the new idea put forth at the GDC by Michel Guillemot that games will now be a firm presence in the mobile industry is a little sceptical. Games on mobiles have been around for quite some time now, I remember playing the game snake on my mobile when i was a school, which was a popular game at the time. It will therefore be interesting to know how Guillemot will attempt to exploit this new territory. I am aware that currently Games like Sonic the hedgehog are available on mobiles. But with technology advancing further could games that are PSP standard be placed on mobiles?

The main advantage for games on a mobile is that firstly everybody in the 21st Century has a mobile phone. Mobile phones are now a necessity of life and even have a wide range of diverse tools. Mobile phones can now access the internet, used as a calculator, used as a camera and may now be used for games.

However there are still risks that need to be considered. Games that can be accessible on mobiles, will still be available on other platforms like the PSP. Like the mobile I know that i can put the PSP in my pocket, so therefore if a mobile reaches the standard of games which is of PSP quality, why should I get a mobile that is primarily a gaming device, when i already have a PSP and a (non gaming) mobile already?

There are many different frontiers that the gaming industry could approach to increase the already growing market. However I am unsure as to whether the mobile industry is the correct route, but only time will tell if gaming will be common among mobiles. Who knows they may even introduce multiplayer gaming over Bluetooth or the internet!

week 21 assignment

2008-04-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

I find that reflection is a general necessity in life even in situations that life places us, you find that if you think about the event that sometimes revelations can appear to you. Even if its just a simple result like learning from your mistakes. A great example of something like this is in the case of my brother. When he was younger he would make friends with a kid whose personality would clash and would therefore inevitably lead to arguments and fighting. However after a while my brother would then become friends with the kid again and the result would be exactly the same. It still amazes me that there are people like this in everyday life and all they have to do is think about what they are doing.

In my case I find that sometimes I reflect too much at least when applied to general situations of life. Usually when a problem is at hand I will assess the situation and think of outcomes that range from the optimistic to the most pessimistic of results.

However when considering my work i must admit that at times I wont do too much reflection. As I would usually just create a design and move on to my next subject instead of attempting to improve the previous design. Nowadays though there seems to be a lot more reflection especially at least from Chris's class. I believe that the tutorials that Chris gives to us is a form of reflection and even the tasks set like the layout project, aided me to think in more of a reflective manner.

One of the main reasons I came to university was to grow and evolve as a person. I know that most people think of university as a place where you party and lounge around, but you find that in life the things we enjoy the most are usually bad for you. Even when you just consider food, you find that chocolate, takeaways and fatty foods all taste great. but the food that’s actually good for us like salads and vegetables don't excite the taste buds like the other foods.

There is a quote from the film 'Weather man' which relates to my general concept of life 'Do you know that the harder thing to do and the right thing to do are usually the same thing? Nothing that has meaning is easy. "Easy" doesn't enter into grown-up life'. When you look around you at wildlife in general, life for them is survival of the fittest. But when i look at the human lifestyle you can see that many of us aren't thinking of life and death situations consistently. I think that the hardship of the human lifestyle is to keep challenging ourselves and gaining more knowledge.

I believe that if the potential is there that you can do anything. That is why I’m here to challenge my own artistic abilities and attempt to make them stronger!

week 20 assignment

2008-03-28T05:16:00.000-07:00

When the word creativity springs to mind i would define the word as a constructive process that doesn't necessarily have to be an original idea, which would contribute to a finished result. Therefore i believe that anyone has the capacity to be creative. It is therefore interesting to me that the definition for creativity has changed over the years and that there still is varying views on the meaning of creativity.

I also believed that creativity is something that people are usually born with, however according to Jeffrey Baumgartner there are 10 steps to increasing creativity. which would include steps like listening to Bach, writing ideas in notebook, don't watch TV, exercise, reading etc. Whether or not any of these conclusions are true or not i cannot say, however when it comes to steps like writing ideas in notebooks i think that this concept is more about maintaining your creativity ability and collecting your ideas. Along with steps like reading i believe that this doesn't necessarily boost creativity, but rather fuels creativity with the production of new ideas.

Even when considering technical constraints in games, there are still ways of being creative. For instance lets think about old games like sonic and compare them to games like Halo. both games are popular and have their creative differences. whereas one game relies more on its gameplay for creativity like sonic reliance on speed, then you have games like halo which also has a creative gameplay by its use of equal effect of damage by use of weapons, melee combat and grenades. but Halo is also creative by taking advantage of the console that it was designed for making the game more visually effective, at least when considering its latest instalment. So even though one game has one technological advancement over another they are still both creative for different reasons.

it is also interesting to find that creativity has a close relation to mental disorders like schizotypal, which shows that even though some people can't function properly in society that they make up for it through their creativity, proving that people with mental disabilities are just as valuable to society as well as everyone else.

However i'm starting to think that for one to be creative the ideas that they generate have to be original. Beforehand my thoughts on creativity would lead me to believe that a child playing with coloured brick creating interesting shapes and patterns as a creative process, even though any child can create interesting patterns with coloured bricks but the question of, is this process creative still eludes me. So i started to think about this question from points of perspective.

I know that anyone can place coloured bricks in the same pattern as a child would and from an adult perspective this wouldn't really be considered as creative, as many people have witnessed children playing with coloured bricks creating shapes and forms that they may have seen before. I’m starting to believe that because adults have gained more knowledge and been influenced by their surrounding environments, that some of the processes they witnessed aren't original from their perspective. Whereas with a child their knowledge and influences are very limited and the shapes and patterns generated may be a new concept from their perspective may be an original idea.

so therefore creativity may just depend on perspective and thinking of an original idea that you personally never thought of and exploring that concept further down other avenues.

week 19 assignment

2008-03-26T11:45:00.001-07:00

There shall always be advantages and disadvantages on the varying educational systems for students in the gaming industry. like for instance a trained graduate entering the game industry would be in a position where they are more industry ready, as they have been trained to handle the situations that employees of the game industry face all the time like working in teams.

Whereas someone with a liberal arts background of education wouldn't necessarily be an industry prepared candidate, as the education they would of received is more generalised. This then means that a liberal arts education candidate has an advantage of diversifying the work that they commit to in the industry. An example of this in the industry is that some companies look for artists that can also do programming, With an education background that includes mathematics, computer sciences and design, this strongly suggests that a liberal arts program is more suited to this diversifying of work.

However like I mention before these courses also have their disadvantages. the biggest drawback for the liberal arts candidate is that this person hasn't actually been trained to work in the industry, this would therefore mean that companies would have to spend money on training these new employees to integrate these candidates into their new working environment. Then when it comes to trained graduates who have basically become trained specialists in their field, it becomes a lot harder for them to diverse into other areas like programming.

I feel that it depends on the company that is hiring and what they are looking for. Just like many other businesses and franchises, companies will always try to find ways of beating the competition. Whether its finding specialists or generalists or even both, you will always find that parts of the industry will be in different positions. Say for instance that one company has difficulty in producing ideas, then they may be advised hiring an employee with a liberal arts background as in the games industry it is common for producers in the industry to have this type of education. Whereas another business may not have a strong enough workforce to cope with the demands of the industry and may look for trained graduates. Therefore ultimately i believe the industry is composed of a mixture of the educational backgrounds to become successful.

Week 18 assignment

2008-03-17T07:56:00.000-07:00

Sound has always been a factor that has been present in computer games. Even when considering the earliest of games like pong. However sounds used in computer games today have evolved vastly in comparison to pong where sound would be used to indicate an action or effect, also the sounds created would be basic one or two tone sounds showing that at this time only simplistic sounds were implemented into games. Whereas in games of this generation music and sound is essential to gameplay as sounds are not only used for an action, but music is also incorporated into games to set the mood of the game.The film director Danny Boyle has even quoted that 70% of a film relies on sound and music to become successful, which just goes to show how much films rely on sound, and as more and more computer games of today come closer to simulating films the more they shall rely on sound to create a mood making a more effective gaming environment.

Even looking at the credentials of composers like Bill Brown you can see that their music varies over to different genres of games much like they would for films. Like for instance Bill Brown has composed horror music for 'return to castle wolfenstein' and then composed more action based music for C & C Generals. However i noticed that this composer has also crossed over into film and composed dramatic music for the film Ali, which just goes to show that professional composers are used in both film and games of today.

It is also interesting how music also influences other artists, like the song good times has been an influence to artists like queen, sugarhill gang, grand master flash and even Duran Duran. Showing that music can be taken and evolved into new forms and used for other mediums like games and films.

moments in my own gaming history where sound has played a vital role has been in the game Alien Vs predator as the marine class. This class of the game was easily the scariest and most exciting role, as the sound of the movement sensor that the marine has usually panics the player especially when nothing can be seen visually. these occasions would usually occur when battling aliens in a dark corridor!

Week 17 assignment

2008-02-27T07:06:00.000-08:00

All computer games needs the fundamental core software that is the game engine to run the game. Game engines are an important aspect of gaming and is essential piece of software needed to monitor and control the way a game looks and moves.

There are many different key technologies that are associated with game engines that range from model shaders to HDR. However as the game industry is an increasing competitive market, businesses must find ways of adding more to their game engine, espically now that we have next gen gaming.

for instance an upcoming game called project offset is designing its own game engine to implement more graphic technology into their game. Offset is leading the way for introducing their new mothod of capturing motion blur into their engine. this along with technology like voulmetic lighting, sub-surfacing scattering and physics proves that quite alot of programs are used in games of today. Then you have textures from specular and normal mapping which adds more detail to games.

as for subtractive and additive editing, the difference between the two is that subtractive takes away from a fill space, whereas additive introduces objects to an empty space.

the main advantage to game engines is that once they have been created, they can be used again by other game developers to create new games, which is an effiecient and low cost method of making a game. A great example of this is in the game half life as the engine was used to create various different mods like CS and Day of defeat. However the disadvantage to using a game engine is that once it has been created its more costly to change the engine and would be cheaper and more effiecient to start from scratch.

week 16 assignment

2008-02-21T16:41:00.000-08:00

Gaming these days seems to be part of an everyday lifestyle. Even if at some stage of your life you may drift away from gaming, it seems that games is an essential part of life. The article on gambling helps to support this claim as this activity has been around for generations. Its also interesting to know that gaming isn't only used for entertainment purposes, but can be used to improve abilities like hand eye coordination.

I personally am more of an internet gamer, and enjoy online game play and the interaction with other online users. though i have occasionally been places where i can participate in a LAN match with local friends, i personally like the fact that i can play with people from around the world. Playing games online is so quick, easy and don't have to be played at length unlike a story based game. By this i mean that i can play games like counterstrike, that doesn't have a storyline and rounds last at a maximum of 5 mins, which can be useful when i want to blow off some steam. however games with storylines can sometimes make you inmmersed in the story and you end up playing long than you planned.

Another interesting part of online gaming is becoming part of clan. during my experiences on online gaming i have been apart of clans on different games. Clans are a great way of meeting new people and then getting to know them. For instance i have a friend in Sweden that i meet during my time in a clan for the game jedi knight jedi outcast, with which i am still in contact with today even though i haven't played the game in years.

Gaming has also been a medium used for other purposes, like for instance america's army is an online game used to recruit potential candidates for the army. Which shows that game culture is powerful enough to be used for purposes other than just entertainment.

Week 15 assignment

2008-01-17T06:49:00.001-08:00

At the moment it appears that the game industry is a growing industry especially when considering that in the past this industry employed less people then currently. This shows that more money is being invested into the industry, then you also have the increased sales of games at 76.3 % by the retail firm Game over the Christmas period, which further indicates the growth of this industry.

As for the employees of the game industry, so far the only links I have found seem to be mainly negative comments on the industry. Common faults on the industry noted by employees have been that there is no sense of ownership over their work and that there is less room for creativity. It is factors like this which can effect motivation in this industry and could be another reason as to why this isn't quite a stable industry for employees to work in. However comments made aren't entirely negative, as the prospect of working on big hit games can be very rewarding knowing that the employee has been directly involved with shaping the game.

I think that the biggest challenge that the games industry must face is the ability to retain its employees, as it seems the industry struggles with pleasing areas of the industry like for instance programmers. The impression I get about programmers is that they usually work in the industry for short periods of time. Then you also have the problem of loitering employees after a project has been completed, which once again proves that this isn't an entirely stable industry.

Week 11 Assignment

2007-12-11T13:15:00.000-08:00

In the past when i've heard the term gameplay, i've always considered this meaning as how the game is actually played, which seems like a simple defintion to me. This would include things like game mechanics and how you would process an action.

Therefore I am reassured that my own personal view is closely similar to the definition given on the wikipedia website. However i do think it is strange that the term is meaningless, i perhaps think that the reason behind this is that games are more interactive then other activites. As even an action command processed through the game world effects AI or the surrounding environment.

I believe that gameplay is an important part of game design, that even narrows down just to simple factors like the game interface. Like for instance when thinking about game controllers and the buttons you press just to process an action, when you create the desired action you don't want to constantly press multiple different buttons just to process that single action. I think that simple factors like this are important in helping you decide on whether you actually like the game.

I reckon that there is mostly likely a basic guideline for gameplay, like i mentioned before about not making the mechanics of a game too complex so that interest is lost (at least for entertainment purposes). However i don't think that there is specific rules that must be followed, as gameplay varys depending on the game genre, though i must admit that gameplay over a certain genre type is very similar. Even though there are games with experimental gameplay this doesn't mean that they are necessarily successful. however i have found that slight changes in gameplay have been used to gain the edge over the competition. An example of this is in RTS game Battle for middle Earth, as at the time they had created a new interface of processing actions, which resulted in quicker gameplay. This new interface now happens to be current in all RTS i've seen recently.

Week 10 assignment

2007-12-05T03:44:00.000-08:00

i think that movies and books help us to create strong connections by using the protagonists perspective. I believe this applies especially to books, as books usually give a strong insight into the mind of the protagonist.

however there are other reasons as to why characters are engaging in books and films. i Sometimes think that interaction between characters is important. shows and films like friends or Star Wars i think do this well, as they are both very popular. Like for instance the original Star Wars films are much more popular then the new editions as i feel that the characters where much more interesting that had very different personalities and backgrounds.

Personality and background i feel is an essential foundation needed for characters, which leads onto how the individuals feel emotions and how they react in certain situations. This therefore means that acting is still important for characterisation as they need to express their emotions strong enough to establish the connection so the viewer can empathise with the character.

this means that scripts have to be carefully complied together, as the character needs to think and act the way they were originally designed ( unless of course if developments happen during the story that alters the characters way of thinking). I think that scripts are more involved with creating the story than creating the characters, as the story just places these characters in the situation and then the foundation of the character design is used to determine how they react. i therefore believe that the script revolves around the character design.

I especially enjoy the original Star Wars films as they have an assortment of different characters which i believe makes it so successful. With these films you find that each characters has not only different characteristics, but also different abilities. For instance you have the loyal and strong wookie, then you have characters like the jedi and sith that have unnatural abilities. But then this film introduces a character like Han Solo that doesn't necesarilly have any special abilities, but makes up for it though his personality and characteristics.

Week 9 assignment

2007-11-27T11:40:00.000-08:00

In the past I've never really considered controllers as an important part of gameplay, as i would normally relate controller ergonomics as a topic more associated with users that play games consistently over a long duration. But now that i think about it i believe that some of the best designs for controllers originate back into the nineties when designs were a little less complicated in comparison to ones made today.

Thinking back to my first console the Sega mega drive i felt that the designs for this controller were very comfortable for various reasons. i felt that the mega drive controllers were lighter then those made in the present, also as one of the links provided noted that the controller was shaped more circular then others at the time, which provided a more comfortable experience.

In comparison to later models of controllers like the xbox and n64 i found these controllers to be rather bulky over the simplistic mega drive controller. especially when considering the n64 controller as there was the added feature of the rumble pack that could be attached making the controller heavier and more bulky.

However i do feel that only in the latest models of controllers has ergonomics even been considered, at least in the case of the xbox360. Compared to the earlier design of controller the xbox 360 controller i feel fits nicely into the hands, with the added wireless feature makes freedom of movement alot easier. I also think that the positioning of the triggers in the latest model to be more comfortable with no stretching of my digits. I also think that the design of the xbox 360 controller has had alot more thought put into it as i think it is one of the best visually pleasing controllers to date.

When considering the ps3 controller i think that not alot has changed from its predecessor. i think that the boomerang idea should have been released, but because of the concerns raised at its unveiling sony decided to play it safe with a model designed closely to its previous controller. I think this is a shame as sony could have gone for this more comfortable design, but unfortunately we shall never know.

As for the future of game controllers i think that nintendo revolutions idea of using movement to interface with games is steadily becoming more popular. I know that the Nintendo Wii already uses this type of interface and i think that the involvement of physical movement helps you to become more immersed in the game.

Week 8 assignment

2007-11-21T04:19:00.002-08:00

Storylines have always been an integral part of gaming ever since i have played games. I feel that especially in adventure/action games this is particularly true, as it is rare to have a game where you recklessly slaughter people for no reason at all (apart from the exception of postal). Therefore i think that basic storyline are essential for games to set plots for our hero to at least be motivated to undertake the task at hand.

However i do think that a strong storyline isn't always necessary. Like for instance David Freeman who spoke about games like GTA as being 'sandbox' is genuinely true. Yet even with a basic storyline GTA is still very successful, the reason for this is because with these 'sandbox' games you are given the option of choice. It is often in these games that you get the oppertunity to explore the environment or choose which missions to participate in.

Whereas the problem with some storyline games is that they funnel you into a specific direction and you can't decide on which areas to explore, i find this particularly noticable with games that don't have a gripping story plot.

Then you get games like Half life and you don't even care that there is a single exit out the room, because it has a great story. I remember when i played half life and i would constantly see the mysterious man wearing a suit in a room through a window and i kept playing just because i wanted to know who he was and what his involvement in the story was.

Therefore i ultimately enjoy games that have branching storylines, as they not only have a storyline, but you also have the choice as well. Even though Marc Laidlaw disapproves of these types of games because once they have been played they aren't usually replayed (which is true). i think that games like Silent hill or Knights of the old republic are fantastic because you know that the ending of your game will be totally different from a friends, because at some point you made a choice that differed from their own.

Then there are games like postal which i mention before, where you literally do anything you like. You can run for president or run around the streets urinating over people until they vomit or maybe even decapitate someone set their head on fire and kick it around the streets. With this game there is a great amount of choice, however because it lacks any sort of plot i found that i quickly got bored of this game and is it major flaw, which proves that games truely do need a plot even if its a basic one to be successful.

wEEK 8 ASSIGNMENT

2007-11-21T04:19:00.001-08:00

Week 7 Assignment

2007-11-14T15:07:00.000-08:00

Art direction has always been an interesting profession to me, as really art directors are the core designers of the project. The impression that i've recieved about art directors is that they get the freedom to set their own design as a baseline for other artists, in which they work around and further develop the original idea. I think this is great as this shows that the art director isn't limited to just his designs, but gains the points of view of others that the director may not have thought of, that could be complementary to their original design.

However this position also proves that the art director has a great responsibility as they are afterall the leading creative designer. Even though the art director is the main artistic creator this doesn't mean they are at the highest level of the heirarchy. They would have to answer to artist managers who set budgets and deadlines, then we have the developers of the original idea for the project. A good example of this (at least in film) was a documentary i watch on the creation of General Grievous in the latest Star Wars film, in which George Lucas Would approve certain designs for the character and whittle them down to his favourite pieces.

Nonetheless I do think there are subtle difference between the game and film industries of art direction. With film i think that Art direction is simply just creating the foundation and directing ideas. Whereas with game there seems to be more involvement. Like for example the art director Phillip Bossant would have to do playtest and sort out coding issues, which would even occur in the film industry.

I think that a key aspect to becoming a good art director is communication. Communication is vital because an art director doesn't create designs solely on their own presonal creations, but is rather a gather of others ideas. Therefore good communication and relationships between co workers is very important, as essentially a better relationship will result in higher motivation leading to greater results from their peers. This is one of the main resaons why I think that any industry that employs art directors prefer experienced workers of the field, as an art director doesn't just have the resposibility of being a creative thinker but also needs to be confident, a good communicator and have the ability to take risks.

Week 6 assignment

2007-11-10T08:44:00.000-08:00

Gameplay has always been an important aspect of games. I always thought that gameplay was to do with the layout of control within the game, so i can agree with Chris Crawford in that there is really no definitive meaning for gameplay. but what is certain is that gameplay is all about the involvement of the player interacting with the game.

Crawford also makes some other valid points in that programers can't become artists, as creativity is something that you are born with, therefore programmers can't diverse into an artistic direction unless they have that creativity. This then means that game artists at least have that opportunity to create their own game with no interferance by other indivduals (though this might not necessarily be a good idea).

However i think that game development differs alot now, in comparison to the early development of games. As games have continuously become more complex in design then the original atari games, i think that there is more specialisation in this industry. By this I mean that developers are more likely to stick to their specific field of expertise, like for instance a programmer just sticking to programming. So with developers sticking to their specialised areas makes the company assume that the final product should be a game of high quality.

When it comes down to designing other genres of games i think that the principles of the design doesn't really differ. Of course the designs are going to be different, but i don't think that this would affect the process of how the game is going to be made.

If i'm playing a game I always seem to enjoy the challenges involved. I think this is a main reason for why I participate in online gaming as usually the opponent isn't computer AI. But even if I am playing a console game especially ones I enjoy like Devil may cry, I will complete the game on medium level and then progress to a harder level. In this game I remember at reaching the first boss on this hard level and dying after being hit 3 times, then to make things even harder when I attacked this boss it's health meter barely moved. However I persisted in what seem like an impossible task and eventually managed to defeat this boss and eventually the game, then because i achieved completing this insane mode i was granted the benefit of unlimited devil trigger, which lead me to hours of enjoyable ass kicking for all the suffering the demon minions had caused me!

Week 5 assignment

2007-11-09T08:08:00.000-08:00

It is true to state that a mojority of games journalism now exists on the internet, rather then through magazine publishing in current times. I even remember when i use to purchase game magazines for my N64 and then slowly transitioned over to the internet to read reviews (though i didn't really notice it). However i feel that game magazines have one strong advantage over internet reviews which wasn't mention is that they have demos. For instance i remember when i was young always buying game magazines just for the demos, especially if they aren't accessable elsewhere. I even have a friend that buys xbox360 magazines so they can recieve the demos which aren't downloadable through xbox live.

As there are now more innovative ways of reviewing games that are present over the internet and less consumers purchasing games magazines the question now is how do publishers make profits? I feel that even through the internet there are various ways in which publishers can achieve profits. The first is through memberships, there are various site available that have free membership. However there are always advanced memberships available where customers pay so much a month, and get exclusive downloads and other goodies that are for these specific members only.

However just like in game magazines the developers of games know that consumers will read reviews on games before buying them ( i am included in this category of people). Therefore wherever there are games journalists wheather it be through magazines or the internet, there will always be advertisements. Even when on an internet games journalist site attempting to read a review, you are always interrupted by pop ups advertising the latest release.

I think that giving scores to games is an impossible task, as these opinions are usually determined by a certain point of view. As I've noticed all publishers have different opinions that differ from others, sure they many be similar but just like with all individuals we all have different tastes. Also with graphics increasing with each generation of gaming you can't necesarilly grade a game with full marks for visual effects, as within the year there will always be a game with increased graphics.

However I do enjoy how these new games journalists have found new ways of reviewing games. like for instance the context in which the article 'A rape in cyberspace' was set really struck me, whereas if it had presented in another way it may have made me laugh. Which shows that this form is of writing is very powerful yet very opinionated.

For me i feel this is a reason as to why im more of an objective writer rather than a subjective one. As i think that subjective writers always try to influence the way you are thinking, to side with their points of view. whereas objective writers just give you the facts and lets you create your own decisions.

Week 4 assignment

2007-11-07T08:22:00.000-08:00

Now that the gaming market has grown larger in comparison to 20 years ago, I can understand how companies have become increasingly competitive within this market. It seems to me that businesses like Sony and Microsoft are attempting to monopolise this market, by claiming their consoles the xbox360 and PS3 are the most technologically advanced. However I have seen various different games that can be played on these consoles, which show to me that they aren't as graphically magnificant as they make it out to be, though they are still better than its predecessors. I believe that it is these consoles high definition capabilities that makes them so formidable in this market.

Back home in sunny Wickford my family owns a HD television and I have been amazed by many programs that I've watched in HD, because of the amount of detail HD picks up especially in distant lanscape environments. It was through these means that I encouraged a friend to acquire and play their console the xbox360 through a HD TV. I found that the quality of the game was greatly increased making the gameplay more enjoyable. I would also like to add that whenever you have been looking around in say shopping centres have you noticed that when there are promotioning these consoles that the display units always have HD TV sets, which just goes to show that these consoles need HD to get the best gaming experience.

The idea that publishers pressurise developers to produce sequals and movie games is terrible but true. i hate it especially when developers have to rush games just so that they can release the game in time with the movie. Then with sequals you always find that the games are far too similar to its previous title with some extra items or abilities to still keep you interested. It is rare to find a game of a film or sequal that lives up to its title. This then means there are less original games that can be developed, which could potentially push gaming into a different direction.

However there really have been some great developments in the gaming industry. like for instance I'm really anticipating the euphoria game engine as this means that the gaming world is becoming more like reality as the program actually simulates the properties of the world. so that wood when breaks spliters like wood or if a NPC falls off a building they will cling onto an edge. I think that this engine is a great idea and shall be looking forward to the new GTA and Star wars game.

As i really enjoy my pc games i must say that i notice developments further in on this platform rather than on consoles. So for this platform i really have noticed the difference in game graphics. I really remember how great the new doom game look graphically in comparison to half life. Another game i think looks great is FEAR along with it's bullet time system, in which you could use justto see how great the models and environment looks.

Eventually though i believe that the limit of gaming shall be when you can enter a game and become so immersed in it, that you believe whats happening around you is real. I suppose that I think gaming will evetually head towards something like the matrix (but without machines attempting to exterminate the human race), where you could interact with others within this computerised world.

Week 3 assignment

2007-10-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

The development of games throughout the 80's and 90's shows to me why gaming has become as popular as it is today. Whereas in the beginning gaming was more simple with games that incorporated little graphics and were quite repeatative. However the strong point about these earlier games is that they wasn't necessarily attempting to imitate real situations as at this time the majority of popular games where situated around spacecraft or missles apart from the exception of pong. I can see how development of games at this period was slow at first because there is plenty of other interactive activities that may have been more challenging and exciting, all that this industry needed was for companies to realize the potential for gaming.

However gaming eventually developed to the point of creating characters in game which still at this point used basic graphics, but still these designers had created a player-character relationship rather than just being an object. This development then went further especially during the 90's as this saw the rise of iconic characters like Mario and Sonic, which i feel helped to promote console games during this era.

Throughout this period of the gaming industry saw other new creations like the introduction of different varieties of games that hadn't been seen before. Gamimg was getting more complex and saw the existance of RPG, RTS as well as shoot em up games. Which now meant that there are games that suites the players tastes, as not everyone enjoys the same type of game.

Games like RPG were then developed further to create MMORPGs, which then opened a new window of oppertunity for gamers as now they could socialise within games bringing a whole new aspect to gaming. Online gaming was a huge incentive for me when i swapped from console to PC gaming as i could regular play with friends and opponents that weren't stupid like making gameplay more challenging. Online gaming was also another method of meeting new people, for instance i now have friends in different parts of the world like Sweden and Germany!

Another reason as to why games are so successful to date is because the industry created games on various different platforms. Whereas in the past games were produced on computers, in the 80's and 90's games saw the transfer onto television sets via consoles and eventually onto handheld game consoles. This meant that gaming was now easily accessable as you could even take games with you where ever you travel, Which helps explain the reason for the decrease of arcades.

With these reasons in mind as well as the increase of graphics and realism in games shows just how gaming has expanded to this stage, as even though the principles may be similar in the past as it is now like for example achieving a goal. i think that gaming had evolved alot as gaming is now a more competitive and social interaction. Especially when considering co-op and online gaming.

Week 2 assignment

2007-10-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

The birth of graphical gaming is a subject that I haven't truely thought about in the past, though i do remember when i was younger seeing the old atari 2600 consoles as I have an uncle that has one to this day. But because the visual graphics for console in comparison to the current consoles of that time could not compete i didn't appreciate the origin of games as I would do now.

what interests me about early computer games is how they were designed by people that possessed degrees or worked in laboratories and saw the potential of the gaming experience. As this form of entertainment interaction was a niche market, though there was plenty of other interactive entertainment like pinball, this sector of the market was unexplored. Also the designer of one of the first games A.S.Douglas acquired a degree in human computer interaction, which shows that the man had a great understanding of the experience that gamers should recieve from a game. I feel that without people like Douglas or Willy Higginbotham the gaming industry wouldn't have progressed as much as it has today, as they introduced the idea of games and worked hard to develop them, and ultimately i think that because they were passionate about their games they succeeded.

I remember being dedicated to games when i was very young, my first console was the sega mega drive and the first gamei played was Sonic the Hedgehog. I still love Sonic though they don't bring out games like they use to. The Mega Drive is my most memorable Console as there were plenty of classic games i use to play like streets of rage or Golden axe. There have been other consoles to though like the playstation and the N64, but i feel that i got more into gaming when i discovered PC gaming.

I remember one time arguing with a next door neighbour as i was defending consoles, whilst he was promoting pc games. however a few years later i encountered the game Counter strike which changed my gaming lifestyle, because not only could i play games now, but i could collaborate with friends online and kill the enemy (or just kill my friends). i think that it is online experience of gaming that has encouraged me to keep playing games, as i would participate in clans and matches for various different games, though i haven't been in clan of any game for a while now. im happy to add that my most recent game is portal, which is a very addictive but enjoyable game that i purchased which i shall play now i've finished this blog!

Week One Assignment

2007-10-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

Blogging is not really a regular way of communicating with other people over the net for me. If I'm honest I'm use to Writing via Msn messenger with friends, as i've always liked how the program is an instant messaging service. there have been other programs used like Msn that I used alot like for instance ICQ, but in the end it was Messenger that till this present day is my constant connection to the web.( i use this program more than looking at E-mails.) So therefore Blogging is more of an objective rather than a personal thing as it's something I'm unfamiliar with. I would also say that I'm not much of a writer, meaning that i only write when i have to. Like i mentioned before i use instant messaging programs over E-mail, so the only times that i've done any writing recently is on essays for my previous course! This then means that i do find it a little strange starting a blog as this now means that anyone can read what i have written (though they might not necessarily be interested), however i do feel that blogging is alot easier than essays as they are a less formal way of writing. i would also like to add that at least with blogging you don't have to worry about printing on to paper and wasting ink, which will save the environment and the money in my pocket!