Week 17 assignment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.