Uint 1 Pre production

Unit 1: Pre-Production Techniques for the Creative Media Industries – Finance – Task 2

Self-Financing

Making a game will cost a lot of money, to buy development kits, recording software and expensive equipment. So if you make a game that lots of people really like, then publishing companies will want to buy it, which will return lots of money and maybe you’ll make profit. It can be risky though because if your game isn’t popular, no publisher will want it, all the time and money you put into making that game are essentially wasted.

Indie Funding

Indie funding is very smart because it can cost nothing or cost very little to create a good game. The creator can create the game in their spare time whilst gaining money from a day job. This may mean that the game will take longer to make. There’s a funding source called ‘The Indie Fund’ which was created by a group of independent game creators that are widely successful.   

Crowd Funding

A hugely popular website called ‘Kickstarter’ is a crowd funding site that gathers money from donators of the public for certain products or services. Lots of games get funded this way because it obviously funds the game, but also shows how many people are willing to pay for the game which means the game already essentially has been bought by some people. 

Grants

Grants are basically loans, where people can loan money from grant companies so that the people can create their business and start earning money, then that company will pay back the grant so others can take out loans. However, grants aren’t always given. Lots of people want grants so grant companies give the grants to people that they think will be successful.

Publisher

Publishers will find games in development that they think have potential and they will help them create the game and distribute it. Video game publishers are responsible for their product's manufacturing and marketing. A huge publisher such as ‘Activision’ publish thousands of games.

per production techniques

Unit 1: Pre-Production techniques for the creative media industries – Finance – Task 1

Hardware

Unreal Development Kit – this development kit is very popular in the gaming industry due to the fact that hundreds of games have been made through this development kit.

The unreal development kits are free, but you will have to pay royalties when your game is released. If you earn £3000, you have to pay 5% to ‘Unreal’.

The minimum requirements for Unreal Development Kit are:

Processor:                         2.0+ GHz processor

RAM:                                  2 GB system RAM

Hard Drive Space:            3 GB free hard drive space

Operating System:          Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista or Windows Vista 64 SP2

Unity Development Kit – this development kit is also very popular due to the high quantity and quality of games produced that were created on this kit. There are version that are free, but some features aren’t available to those users unless they pay.

The minimum requirements for the Unity Development Kit are:

OS: Windows XP+, Mac OS X 10.7+, Ubuntu 12.04+, SteamOS+

Graphics card: DX9 (shader model 2.0) capabilities; generally everything made since 2004            should work.

CPU: SSE2 instruction set support.

Web player supports IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari and others.

iOS: requires iOS 6.0 or later.

Android: OS 2.3.1 or later; ARMv7 (Cortex) CPU or Atom CPU; OpenGL ES 2.0 or later.

WebGL: Desktop version of Firefox, Chrome or Safari

Windows Phone: 8 (available but deprecated for 5.2), 8.1 or later

Windows Store Apps: 8 (available but deprecated for 5.2), 8.1 or later

This development kit costs £75 a month if you have the professional kit, but there are other kits to choose from such as the free version.

Game Maker Studio – this development kit is more for starter game developers and it only can produce 2D games. This kit is free, but there’s a professional and a collection version which requires payment. It also costs to port your game to consoles and devices.

The minimum requirements for Game Maker Studio are:

Program:

Windows XP or above

512MB RAM

128MB graphics

Screen resolution of 1024×600

Internet connection for some features

Windows:

Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8

512MB RAM

128MB graphics

Mac OS X

Mac OS X computer required for export

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

1GB RAM

Autodesk Maya 2015 – this development kit is mainly used to create and modify models for a game and render them. This kit is free, but there are alternative options.

The minimum requirements for Autodesk Maya 2015 are:

Operating system

Microsoft Windows 7 (SP1), Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 Professional operating system

Apple Mac OS X 10.8.5 and 10.9.x operating system

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 WS operating system

Fedora 14 Linux operating system

CentOS 6.2 Linux operating system

Browser

These browsers are recommended to be the most recent version.

Apple Safari web browser                                          Google Chrome web browser

Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser              Mozilla Firefox web browser

My idea for a game (Work in Progress)

this is my idea for a game that i started to work on. Its a platforming 2D game about a guy escaping from prison. You have to avoid getting killed by the objects and also try not to be caught by guards.

this is just a rough idea.

Pixels in Video Games

Pixels in Video Games

A pixel is a single point in a digital graphic image. The word pixel means ‘picture element’ Computers arrange millions of pixels in rows and columns to display images at high resolution. Monitors use pixels that are made of three different coloured dots, red green and blue. They are all located in the exact same point. Some monitors make the coloured pixels look blurry or fuzzy because the monitors can’t converge the three coloured dots.

If the digital image has lots of pixels, then they will flow together and look realistic. If the image doesn’t have a lot of pixels, it will have low resolution and look unrealistic. The quality of the monitor will determine how many pixels can be displayed, meaning how high the resolution will be. Some systems such as ‘True Colour’ use 24 bits per pixel, which lets them use millions of different colours. These systems use 3 bytes to store a pixel’s colour, but most display systems use 1 byte to store a pixel’s colour, which means they can only use 256 different colours.

Intensity

Each pixel is stored in the computer with a pixel value which shows the brightness and colour of the pixel. A bitmap is a file that “indicates a colour for each pixel along the horizontal axis or row (called the x coordinate) and a colour for each pixel along the vertical axis (called the y coordinate).”

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/pixel

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/pixel

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/pixel.html

Computer Games Graphics

Computer Games Graphics

Pixel Art – 2D Sprites, 3D Isometric Sprites

Pixel art is a digital form of art that uses raster images to create characters, props and environments. A 2D sprite is a digital graphic that can be moved on screen. In gaming, the sprites will have lots of different stances to show the character doing something different such as running. Running will include a few different stances to show the character’s left foot going forward, and then the left. This is so that the character has movement in their actions which makes the game look more realistic and interesting.

Concept Art – Character, Weapons, Vehicle, Environment

Concept art is a form of illustration that shows of something or someone in a video game. Concept art usually starts with a few drafts of a character or model, and then more in depth 3D models of that character or prop. This can show the development of a character. The picture below shows the different stages of a character’s development. First there is the draft or idea, then it is coloured and shading may be added, then the character is turned into a 3D netting which can then be shaped and then finally coloured and detailed.

Texture Art

It is a texture artist’s job to create a lifelike texture for a 3D computer model so that the model is appropriate for the environment. They also do so for objects in video games so that the environment looks better. Most of the time, texture artists replicate real textures but in some games such as sci-fi, they may have to make their own textures. The more in depth and the more detail put into each creature or prop, the better because it adds variation the game instead of the player seeing the same textures over and over again.

Background Graphics – Walls Forests Clouds etc.

These are the graphics that cover the background that is on screen such as a forest or a building. These settings usually set certain themes or emotions for the player, due to the high detail put into the backgrounds. They are commonly used for ascetics and are not interact able. Here’s an example of a highly detailed background graphic. Some games recreate real places such as ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ recreated the pier in Los Angeles called the ‘Santa Monica Pier’.

In-Game Interface – Heads up Display, Health Points, Ammo

In-game interfaces show the player their current status. Usually bars for health, lifes left, level and ammo are in most games, but some games have different bars and numbers too such as stamina. These interfaces are commonly in the corners of the screen so that they aren’t in the way of the gameplay. Some games such as ‘League of Legends’ or ‘World of Warcraft’ has a huge interface covering most of the corners of the screen. Another really common interface is a map. Thousands of games use this because it makes sure the player knows where to go at all times. Here are some examples.

Artistic Styles in Video Games

Artistic Styles in Video Games

Pixel Art / Retro

Pixel art, also referred to as 8-bit is an artistic style that is used mainly in video games in the 1990s, due to the technology in that time was limited and some games now. Some games that have been recently been produced use this art style. I think this art style is particularly effective because for older users, this art style may bring them nostalgia, and I think that the art style may bring a comedy aspect. This specific art style uses raster graphics. An example of a recent release is ‘Starbound’.

Photo-realism

Photo-realism is an art style that focuses on creating a realistic world in video games, as similar to the real world as possible. This art style continues to advance due to the higher grade equipment being created. Lots of photo-realism games recreate real places. A good example of this is ‘Call of Duty’ or ‘Battlefield’. These games are about wars and they take the character to many different real locations such as London, Berlin, Afghanistan and many more. These 2 different games also almost compete to be the more realistic looking video game. Some people view a game’s quality by how good it looks, which is why these companies try to make the most realistic environment.

Cell Shaded

The art style of Cell shading is used to create a comic themed world and is used to create images that look almost hand drawn. This art style uses realistic features and mechanics, but does not exaggerate the looks to the extent of the photo-realism art style. This art style may be used in highly story driven games, because the cell shaded environments may make the user feel as if they reading a comic. A good example of this art style is ‘The Walking Dead’. This game is very story driven, with each character having a very distinct backstory and emotions for each other. This game in particular is a horror. Successful horrors have to display all types of different emotions very well, otherwise the characters seem uninteresting and not life-like to the users.

Abstract

The abstract art style uses geometry and vibrant colours to produce a colourful and interesting result. This art style is said to be the opposite of photo realism because it does not use any realistic features. It instead involves unrealistic shapes colours and settings to provide a fun and interesting feel. The game ‘Geometry Wars’ uses various shapes to create the player and the enemies in the game, and uses lines to create the playable area.

Exaggerated

This art style makes the characters seem somewhat realistic but they also include lots of unrealistic features. This art style is used in many anime or manga shows and games due to its high popularity in japan. Games that usually have this art style are Role Playing Games. Usually, the characters have exaggerated features such as huge eyes, huge hair or muscles.