unit 78 pre planning a computer game

Unit 78
Games Design L3
Morten Holland
James Tedder

Pre-Production and Planning for a Computer Game

I will be outlining the pre-production and planning stages that are included in the creation of a computer game, such as the one I’ll be making in my ‘Games Design L3’ course.

Finance

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 publishers such as ‘Activision’ publish thousands of games.

Equipment

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

Publishing

Steam

Once finished, games will have to be posted onto websites so that they can be bought. Popular places such as ‘Steam’ have a section called ‘Steam Greenlight’ which is where independent game developers can be discovered and become successful. They can even be bought while the creator is still creating it, or while it is going through Alpha or Beta stages.

ID@XBOX

ID@XBOX (standing for Independent Developers) is a program made by Microsoft where independent game developers can post their games so that other scan play, give feedback and buy them. The new Xbox One can also be used as a development kit.

PlayStation

Users can sign up, register their company and then start to publish games for the public to play and give feedback on. The PlayStation 4 can also be used as a development kit.

These are the requirements to self-publish:

Proof of Corporate Entity

Obtain an Employer Tax ID Number (see www.irs.gov) (Recommended)

Static IP to access Developer Support Systems

You must be physically located in US, Mexico, Central America, South America, or Canada.

Personnel

The personnel team you will need will include the following job roles:

Animator                                                                Lead Programmer

Assistant Producer                                               Level Editor

Audio Engineer                                                     Marketing Executive

Creative Director                                                  Marketing Manager

External Producer                                                Product Manager

Game Designer                                                     Public Relations Officer

Game Programmer                                             QA Tester

Games Artist                                                         Technical Artist

Lead Artist                                                            

Here’s a link to my blog-post on what each of these jobs are about:

http://mortenslc.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/unit-78-games-design-l3-james-tedder.html



Time Constraints

Making a game can take a very long time and your client brief may ask you to meet a deadline. It is crucial to meet deadlines and manage your time efficiently because it makes you look very unprofessional and problems may start to occur. For the game I am working on, I am trying my best to meet all deadlines.

In a company, you will have to consider the times certain employees/co-workers are available encase you need them for a project. This also goes for equipment and work spaces. You will have to plan ahead of time so nothing gets done late.

In the process of making a game, its important to the get the basics (sprites, animation, movement etc) working first before adding extra features. This is important because if the deadline date has been reached and the game doesn't work, the client won't be happy because you will have wasted a lot of time.

Materials

To create a game, you will need a lot of materials for the staff and some programs and software for the devices used in the process. Some physical materials needed may be keyboards, monitors, mouses, mouse pads, chairs. Some non-physical materials may include Maya Autodesk, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Fireworks, Unity, Unreal Engine. Materials also links with finance a little, in the sense that you need money to buy other materials to use.

Facilities

You will need a some sort of facility to create a game. Usually, the better the facility means the better the quality of working space, which means your game's overall quality will be better. For more in depth games, you may need spaces for motion capture, spaces for recording audio, spaces for testers, artists etc. For the game I'm making, I will only need a classroom with a computer to produce my game.

Contributors
Contributors are heavily linked with the financial part of game creation. One form of contribution is a sponsorship. Sponsors help you promote your game and can provide you with money to create it. Sponsors can help a little, or a lot depending on how well known the company or product is. I will not be using any sponsors in my game.

Codes of Practice

Codes of practice show the views of the company on certain subjects such as equality (of races, gender, religion), contracts and duty of care. Having a good set of codes of practice is good because that way, the public can't slander the company or accuse them of unethical acts, because of the protection of the company's codes of practice.  'Ofcom' and 'Press Complaints Commission' are most commonly referred to but here are a few that are more specific for the gaming industry:

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)                   British Interactive Media Association (BIMA)
 Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)      Pan European Game Information (PEGI)

Job Roles

Unit 78
Games Design L3
James Tedder
Morten Holland

Job Roles in the Gaming Industry 

Animators

The animator’s job is to create multiple frames which then can be put together to give a character or object the illusion of motion. Animators tend to work on 2D games, 3D games and stop motion animation. 

Computer generated animation also appears in the film industry and television.

Animators also create the movements of the characters when they interact with other people, props or environments.

Things that may be helpful for this job:

Have knowledge of traditional and computer 2D and 3D animation techniques

Be creative and imaginative

Have knowledge of full motion video (FMV)

Be able to work as part a team and also on your own initiative

Be able to take responsibility for organising your work within the production schedule, managing files and meeting deadlines

Understand the production process

Be able to communicate effectively with other teams and disciplines is essential

Have some knowledge of programming

Be able to reveal attitude, emotions and mood through a character’s movement and behaviour

Understand the timing and appearance of human and animal movement and facial expressions, and be able to lip sync

Be able to create memorable characters that will appeal to players

Have spatial awareness and a feel for movement over time

Have knowledge of the relevant health and safety legislation and procedures

Audio Engineer

The audio engineer creates the soundtrack to the game, along with the character voices, ambient sound and the background music. The audio engineers will talk to the creators and discuss what sounds and music is needed, find source material from audio libraries, create new sounds with specialized equipment, and finally use equipment to integrate the sounds into the game.

This job also requires someone who will follow the client brief in a very in depth way so they can produce the right music for the right part of a game.

    

For this job, you will need:

Be able to create music

Have sound engineering skills and have the technology to do so

Be able to work independently or effectively as a group

Have a sense of timing

To have a feel for the atmosphere of games

Be able to work to deadlines

Creative Director

Creative directors are in control of the overview and look of a game. This role plays a big importance when it comes to making decisions on big parts of how the game plays, or is played. 

They are also in charge of the quality of a game, which means managing the assets such as the type of music, art style, audio and gameplay used.

For this job you will need:

To be able to help, guide and inspire workers to create the best product possible

To be able to make hard decisions about a game that may affect its budget or quality

Have a passion for games

Understand what the public finds appealing in games

Have great communication skills

Have great presentation skills

Have a big imagination and creativity

Have an understanding of the financial aspects of game development

Game Designer

A game designer will create the core aspects of a game, such as how it looks, how it plays and what the story is. 

This job will require the ability to work with lots of groups in this industry such as the artists, audio team, programmers etc.

For this job, you will need:

Have storytelling and narrative development skills

Be creative

Be able to receive and give constructive feedback

Be able to communicate with all members of a company to produce a game

Have an awareness of the various games platforms and technologies available

Be able to think systematically and strategically

Have an understanding of the basics in programming, such as ‘Scripting’

Have a good grasp of a range of 2D and 3D graphics animation packages

Have basic drawing and visual design skills

Be able to present an idea visually and on paper

Game Programmer

The game programmers are the technical side of the gaming industry. These people are in charge of making the game actually work by inputting codes for each character, object, enemy, etc. this job can be very hard because it requires lots of trial and error and a big understanding of real world physics so the game can seem realistic.

For this job, you will need:

Skills at programming at C grade or above

Be highly organised

Be able to work independently or as a team

Have good communication skills

Have a good experience working on different devices or consoles

Be able to listen to instructions and meet a deadline

Have a good understanding of game play

Game Programmer

The game programmers are the technical side of the gaming industry. These people are in charge of making the game actually work by inputting codes for each character, object, enemy, etc. 

This job can be very hard because it requires lots of trial and error and a big understanding of real world physics so the game can seem realistic.

For this job, you will need:

Skills at programming at C grade or above

Be highly organised

Be able to work independently or as a team

Have good communication skills

Have a good experience working on different devices or consoles

Be able to listen to instructions and meet a deadline

Have a good understanding of game play

Level Editor

Level editors create interactive playable areas for segments of the game. This includes landscapes, architecture, structures and objects in the level.

For this job, you will need:

To be able to visualize areas and layouts

To be able to 3D model

Have a grasp on video game design principles

To have an understanding of programming and scripting so you can work with other members of a company

Have a good understanding and experience in using world editing tools

Have a good knowledge of different gaming platforms

Be well organised

Be able to work independently and as a team

Be creative and be able to use your own imagination

Have excellent communication skills

Have a passion for games and an understanding of its theory

Be able to pay close attention to detail

Market Manager

A market manager is in charge of promoting a game to increase the amount of the public that know of the game and increase the amount of game sales. You will need to have the management skills to lead and motivate a team.

For this job, you will need:

A great understanding of the market in the gaming industry

How to promote a product effectively

How to conduct market research and be able to understand what it shows

Have very good communication skills

To be able to work independently and as a team

Be well organised

Have great managing skills

Product Manager

Product managers are very similar to marketing managers, in the way that they both operate to increase game sales through marketing. The product manager implements marketing campaigns to further increase game sales.

For this job, you will need:

To be able to work well as part of a multi-disciplinary team, both in terms of being managing relationships and communicating within a company

Have strong negotiation skills in dealing with external partners and suppliers

Have a good working knowledge of the games market, in terms of market breakdown, targeted audience and competing products

Be able to manage a marketing budget

Be able to predict product sales and analyse sell-through performance after a game is released

Have strong presentation and communication skills

Have good knowledge of games and the games industry

Have knowledge of the requirements of the relevant health and safety legislation and procedures

QA Tester

This job involves the tester to test the game, looking for bugs and reporting them so they can be fixed, essentially fine-tuning the game to give it a better final quality.

For this job, you will need to:

Be analytical and methodical

Have a good knowledge of games titles on the market so that you can evaluate a game against its competition

Have an understanding of how games are put together and how the different elements of a game contribute to the playing experience

Be able not only to identify and record a problem, but also to try to work out what is causing it

Have excellent communication skills, including tact in dealing with other members of the team

Pay close attention to detail

Be persistent and patient

Be able to play games for long periods

Have good negotiation and conflict resolution skills

Have a passion for game playing

Have knowledge of the requirements of the relevant health and safety legislation and procedures

What is a brief?

Unit 78

Generate Concept Art Ideas for Computer Game Graphics

What is a Brief, your own brief and market research?

A brief is a set of instructions given to a person about a job or task. For the topic of gaming, this may be very short and may let the person be creative, or the brief may be very in depth saying exactly what the client wants.

Someone's own brief may include an idea someone has been looking into, including some concept art, an idea for a game, scripts, textures, locations, mood-boards and more.

Market research can be done a few ways. One way is for someone to look into what games are successful at the moment, and maybe create one of those types of games. You can also look into what makes those games successful such as a game's progression system, mechanics or modes. 

Generating Ideas

The very start of generating ideas for a game starts with brainstorming. Start to think what game you think you would enjoy making, or a game that lots of people would enjoy. Then you would start to think of game assets such as character names, back-story and their goals. What the player's character will try to achieve and how they would go about doing so. Writing information or sketching characters can then progress your idea of the game until you have a basic idea, which can then be put into more detail.

Some people will find generating ideas much easier after finding inspiration from music, television, films or other games. This is known as research. Many people find inspiration and then collect lots of images and put them into a mood board.

Thumbnail sketchings can be very useful to a creator because it lets the creator show what they have created to others and ask for people's opinions to make the character more likable. 

This is very similar to concept drawings. Concept drawings are basically drawings of anything in a game or related to a game. This can be a character, enemy, weapon, location or object. Concepts can also show for example the progression of a character in someone's head.

Copyright Act
The current act is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The law gives the creators of a game or game assets in this case, the rights to control the ways in which their material may be used.

Libel

The terms 'libel' and 'slander' are commonly referred to as "defamation." It is deemed as a wrongful act to harm another's reputation by defaming them or their product/services. 

Females in Gaming

Females in a huge amount of video games are often portrayed negatively by exaggerating their sex appeal to please a mostly male audience. A very obvious character which has been exaggerated is 'Lara Croft' from the game series 'Tomb Raider'.  Most female gamers find this offensive and this must be taken into account when creating female characters.

Equality in Gaming

Lots of different races, genders and religions have been used in video games but not all games portray the topic positively. Some religious individuals may find the way a game promotes a religion offensive, which is another thing which must be taken into consideration. 

Generate Concept Art

Be Able To Generate Concept Art Ideas For Computer Game Graphics

What are Computer Digital Graphics?

Computer digital graphics are essentially are the assets that create a game.
Digital computer graphics can be any image that is on the internet or on someone's computer, but in gaming, this can be:

Concept Art
Sprites
Textures
Backgrounds and Playable Areas
Heads Up Display (HUD)
Print Media

Concept Art 
Concept art can be of anything in a game such as character models, weapon or object models, locations etc. They are drawings and sketches of
They can also be shown in different artistic styles such as 'Cell-Shaded', 'Retro/Pixel', 'Abstract', 'Exaggerated' or most commonly Photo realism. Here's an example of concept art:

Sprites
Sprites are a series of digital images that create the illusion of an entity such as a human or animal. Here's an example of a sprite:

Textures

Textures are an image that is wrapped around an object, character or landscape. It is used to make something in a game look more realistic and to suit a theme or picture the creator has in their head. Here's a few examples of textures for a landscape:

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are images that can be put behind a playable area to simulate a more realistic game. Some games use a blue sky with clouds for example. The playable area is in the fore ground, and the image is used as a background. Here's an example:

Heads Up Display

Heads up displays are what graphics are fixed onto the screen such as a health bar, stamina, lives, ammo etc. Some games use a lot of these, some use a little amount of these. Here's an example:

Print Media

print media is essentially anything that is printed that is used in the gaming industry. this can be anything used in advertising such as a poster on a bus or bus stop, or it can be the images on the front and back of game covers, Here's a few examples:

Graphic Specification 

Client Needs

Client Needs are the same as a Client Brief. A client brief is a document a client will give to a worker so that the client's ideas can be put into action. the client can say what they need such as 3 levels for example. The client could ask for a character concept or maybe a weapon sketch.

Thumbnail Sketching

Thumbnail sketches are basically sketches such as concept art for weapons, locations and characters. Here's an example of a thumbnail sketches:

Audience 

This is the target audience of a game, meaning who it is aimed at. This may involve a PEGI rating to determine what ages are suitable to play the game. This can be effected by how much drugs, violence and nudity is included in a game. Another specific to think about when thinking of your target audience is the gender of the audience. 

Composition
composition is the way you create a type of art such as music composition, artistic composition, or in this case, digital media composition. To compose some form of art, the creator must be inspired by something else such as a piece of music, an image or a maybe a film.


Visual Styles
Visual styles can be based around lots of different themes such as Cell-Shaded, Photo realism, Retro, Abstract etc. They can also be heavily influenced by types of colours too, such as a photo in black and white may be about a serious topic, and a colourful photo may just be there to be visually appealing.

Typography
Typography is a type of art or an art form in which the creator uses words that make up the shape of an object. This is a good art form i think because people can really show their opinions on subjects through typography. Here's a image of a piece of typography art:

Technical Considerations
These are the things that need to be considered for creating or saving digital graphics. They may include:
File Format - JPEG, PNG, GIF
File Size - Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte
Names of Files
Management of Files - Organisation and Storage of assets
Intended Output 

Assignment 1

Morten Holland 

Wayne Gallear

BTEC Games Design L3

Assignment 1

Genres in Video Games

FPS (First-Person Shooter)

The goal in any first person shooter is to kill enemies through the eyes of a character, usually a soldier. The enemies can be AI or in some modes other players across the world.

The ‘Call of Duty’ series is a perfect example of this genre. This game has a very linear, fast paced campaign where the player advances to the next part by clearing the current stage. The story for this game is that the player follows two different soldiers in different wars. One soldier’s story is set in 1986 to 1989 in the cold war, and the other soldier’s story is set in the year 2025 when the second cold war starts.

 The very popular part of this game is the online player versus player modes where 2 teams are competing in game modes such as capture the flag. The player also levels up by killing players and helping with the objective such as capturing the flag or planting a bomb on enemy equipment.

This game uses the ‘Black Ops II engine (Heavily Modified IW 3.0)’ to create the playable environment and the character models in the game.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty:_Black_Ops_II#Synopsis

This game’s competitor is the ‘Battlefield’ series. Both games compete to be the more realistic and fun first-person shooter. Both games are incredibly similar, but each game has something that the other doesn’t or maybe doesn’t excel in. ‘Battlefield’ is commonly saw as the more realistic looking game with its graphics, but ‘Call of Duty’ is commonly saw as a fast paced type of fun.

 

 

RPG (Role Playing Game)

Role playing games involve controlling a pre-made character or a player created character through a story or set of quests which tell a story and level up the character. These games usually are set in a fantasy world or a science fiction world.

The game ‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’ was developed by ‘Bethesda Game Studios’ using the Creation Engine, built specifically for the game. This engine was made to create future ‘Bethesda’ games and replaced the ‘Gamebryo’ engine.

“The game takes place in Skyrim, a province of the Empire on the continent of Tamriel, amid a civil war between two factions.” The two factions are the ‘Stormcloaks’ and ‘The Imperial Legion’. The first scene starts with the player on his way to be executed, when a dragon interrupts the process and allows the player to escape and start his or her journey.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_V:_Skyrim#Plot

In my opinion, I don’t think this game has any competitors but ‘Fallout 3’ is a very popular RPG. It uses very similar features to ‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’ and many who like either game, will like the other.

Simulation

Simulation games try to make the most realistic scenarios and most of these games don’t have a set goal. The game lets the player control the character play freely.

A good example is ‘Train Simulator 2015’. It doesn’t give specific goals but lets the player do what they want to. The game uses a first person camera and lets the player interact with the dials, buttons and levers in the train.

The game is developed by ‘Dovetail Games’ and was created on the ‘PhysX’ engine. These simulation games mostly release on ‘PCs’ and ‘Macs’ due to the many buttons on the keyboard representing the many in-game controls.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_Simulator_(Dovetail_Games)

This game doesn’t have any competitors is a sense, but there are a lot of simulation games out there about other experiences such as farming in ‘Farming Simulator 2015’. Lots of these simulation games are made by the same companies.

 

Strategy

Strategy games involve the player to advance armies and cities to become stronger so that the player can then fight over armies.

‘Civilization V’ is a strategy game where the player leads a prehistoric army to advance across a generated map, expanding their cities and upgrading defenses. The game is turn-based meaning that the player has a limited amount of options before the computer controlled army will take their turn. The game will end when x number of turns have ended, and the player with the better civilization will win.

The game was developed by ‘Firaxis Games’ on the ‘Firaxis LORE’ engine. This engine belongs to ‘Firaxis Games’ only and is used to create lots of strategy games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_V

‘Hearts of Iron 3’ is a competitor of many strategy games like ‘Civilization V’. Both games fit very well in the strategy game genre.

 

 

Sports

Sports games involve fast paced, highly competitive gameplay in which the player controls one or more athletes in various sports such as football, basketball, golf etc.

‘FIFA 15’ is a popular choice in sport gaming. This football game lets the player play ready-made teams against other teams or player created teams. The player can choose to do career mode which is against AI or play other gamers online across the world. The ‘Player versus Player’ game mode is the reason this game is so popular due to the high competitive play against friends or strangers. The player can improve their team by buying packages in the store which contain players which have higher skills in certain areas. The reason why ‘FIFA 15’ makes so much money is because players can buy packs with in-game currency earned, or use real money to buy packs which saves time earning them. This game’s competitor is the ‘Pro Evolution Soccer’ series.

The game was developed by ‘Electronic Arts’ on two different engines. ‘Ignite Engine’ for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, and the ‘Impact Engine’ which is for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 users.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_15

 Music / Rhythm

These games get the player to press buttons to a rhythm. These games can usually be played with others in competitive or co-op modes.

‘Guitar Hero 5’ is a rhythm game which has five colours running down the neck of a guitar. The game has its own controller in the shape of a guitar for more interesting gameplay. The player must press the correct colour when it hits the bottom of the neck and strum the guitar at the same time. The game includes real songs by real artists such as songs by ‘ACDC’ or ‘Kings of Leon’ and has five difficulties which the player can progress through. The aim of the game is to get as many points as possible by correctly hitting as many notes as you can, and to pass the song by not missing too many notes. This game’s competitor is ‘Rock Band’ which is also a rock based music rhythm game.

The ‘Guitar Hero’ series was created by ‘Neversoft’ and published by ‘Activision’. The game ‘Guitar Hero 5’ runs on the ‘GH Engine 2.0 ’.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Hero_5

Fighting

Fighting games use a side on camera to view the fight between two characters. The health of the characters are displayed at the top of the screen and the time left is also displayed.

‘Super Street Fighter IV’ is a classic and a great example. This game involves choosing a character (pre-made), and then fighting other characters in the game. The game has lots of combos to learn so they can do more damage to the other fighter. The game also has a ‘player vs player’ mode. This mode is used in many fighting game tournaments, just like its competitor ‘Mortal Kombat’.

Puzzle Games

Puzzle games are games that make the player think of a solution to a situation so they can progress to the next part of the game. They can use lots of different camera angles such as birds-eye-view, first person or maybe third person.

A very popular game such as ‘Portal 2’ is a good example of a puzzle game. The plot to ‘Portal 2’ is that you are a test subject and have been forced to participate in tests so that the player can progress to the next room. The main tool you use is a gun that shoots portals that the player can go through and transport to the other portal. This may seem like a simple idea, but the testing chambers can actually get very difficult.

 The player is deep in a huge testing lab, and in portal 2, a story element is added, in which the player tries to escape the testing facilities. The game also had a co-operative game mode, where the player can play with another player to progress through the testing chambers.

This game doesn’t really have any competitors due to its originality. But here’s another great puzzle game anyway. ‘Thomas Was Alone’.

Text-based Games

Text based games are games that involve lots of reading and decision making. The player is told a scenario, and the player must write what they think the character(s) should do.

The most famous games for text based games are ‘Zork’ and ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. These games are both quite old now but are still games that come straight to people’s minds when the words ‘text based games’ are heard.

Trivia Games

 

Trivia games are games where the player or players are asked questions and the players must answer to gain points. Lots of trivia games are based off of television shows.

‘Trivial Pursuit’ is a trivia game that is based off of a television show. In this game, the players gain points which eventually make a ‘wedge’ which can be slotted with 5 other wedges to create a circle, winning the game. The game has six different topics of questions. ‘Entertainment’ ‘Sport and Leisure’ ‘Art’ ‘Science’ ‘Geography’ and ‘History’. This gives everyone a chance to show their knowledge of a subject.

Impacts and Psychological Factors in Video Games

Negatives

Excessive playing time:

Playing a game for an extensive time can be seen in a negative light and viewed positively for a number of reasons. Many people view long gaming sessions badly due to it decreasing the amount of social and physical interaction, which could lead to the gamer not knowing how to socially interact anymore, or for the person to become lazy or gain weight. In some cases, people have been known to die due to the fact that the gamers are not getting any exercise or meeting their diet requirements. This link talks more in depth about all the reasons why extensive gaming is bad.

http://www.babycenter.com/404_can-spending-too-much-time-playing-video-games-hurt-my-child_69631.bc

Social Isolation

Gaming can lead to social isolation if gamers do not talk to people (in person or online) which can have lots of negative effects on young people. It may lead to kids and teens becoming social outcasts and the gamer may not be able to function in social interactions. Many people think this is the main cause of gamers performing violent acts on others in the world. They spend many hours a day on their own in most cases, with only the violent characters in video games to interact with. This gives the impression that the gamers are being heavily influenced by the characters in video games. This link provides facts and figures as to why this idea may be wrong, and it also highlights the good that can come from gaming.

http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/104226/gaming/video_games_as_isolating_activities.html

Cost

Many people view gaming in a bad way due to the fact that gaming takes a lot of some people's’ time away and not getting anything useful at the end of it. Some may also agree that gaming can cost an astounding amount of money per year on the gaming system, the games and the accessories. This can add up to a significant amount when you factor the broadband costs, electric bill and the cost of television or monitor being used. This link shows just how much the gaming community is willing to spend on their systems in order to game.

http://www.andovercg.com/services/waste-money-on-gaming-computer.shtml

  

Separation from Reality

Playing games too much can eventually blur the lines between reality and gamers’ obsessions. Many cases have been looked at which portray gaming negatively due to the separation of reality, such as the many stabbings from game releases such as ‘Manhunt’ by a company called ‘Rockstar North’ (which has been banned in many countries), and the highly infamous ‘Grand Theft Auto’ series. This in particular game series is widely viewed as the main reason why games are bad for you. People see that suspects play video games and they jump to the conclusion that the reason for the crime is gaming. It is a common stereotype among gamers. Separation from reality is some forms can be good, for example some people use gaming as a coping mechanism and as escapism against their real world problems, such as depression. This link is about just one of the crimes committed which blamed gaming.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3934277.stm

Positives

Benefits (hand-eye coordination, brain training)

Gaming has been known to increase people's’ hand-eye coordination due to video games needing fast reactions. A good example of increasing hand-eye coordination is the ‘Nintendo Wii’. This console requires the user to mimic realistic stances to perform various tasks, such as playing golf in a game called ‘Wii Sports’.  Some modes in this game need fast reflexes such as skiing, which is something that can even be put to use in the real world. The ‘Nintendo Wii’ has also been used in the rehabilitation of patients, helping them recover quicker and improving in body movements. Some games such as ‘Brain Training’ on the ‘Nintendo DS’ even train the brain to develop in some ways such as reading and mathematics skills. This link talks more in depth as to what gaming can help people in.

http://www.contentedwriter.com/games-hand-eye-coordination/

Thinking and Strategy Skills

Studies show that gaming has greatly increased many gamers’ strategic skills. There is an article which talks about how a British study from Queen Mary University of London and University College London. They made a group of people play ‘StarCraft’ which is a fast strategic based game in which the player controls a troop to fight enemies. They made the other group play a non-strategic game called ‘The Sims’ which is about creating a character and live a normal life in a house constructed by the player. After and before both groups had played 40 hours or more on the games over a six to eight week period, they were tested to see what their current skills were like. The results were that the ‘StarCraft’ players were quicker and more accurate in performing cognitive flexibility tasks than those who played ‘The Sims’. The whole article holds more information and is in the link below.

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/playing-video-games-boost-strategic-thinking-article-1.1433812

Future Impact

The gaming industry is continually growing, creating more jobs for gamers. People are creating thousands if not millions from putting their content of them playing and talking about games on ‘YouTube’. A great example of this is a Youtube channel called ‘Let’s Play’ or ‘Rooster Teeth’. The creators such as Geoff Ramsey have built a company from the ground up and employed many gamers to work for them, helping them create content for the viewers. Also, a new service is available for gamers called ‘Twitch.tv’. This is a service where people can play games and viewers can watch it live and interact with the player by typing in the chat, donating to them or subscribing to their channel. Here’s a link to some information on the growing gaming community.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/sean-plott-explains-why-twitch-is-so-successful-2015-3?r=US&IR=T

Impact on ‘mainstream’ Application Development

The gaming world is always expanding, such as the invention of the ‘Xbox One Kinect’, or the ‘Nintendo Wii’ game remote. These devices basically try to turn the gamer into the controller, reacting to their movements.  This not only can be fun for gamers but also helps some keep fit. Other inventions such as the ‘HoloLens’ creates holograms of the in game world. Many inventions can impact gamers and companies very positively, giving the gamer a more immersive and fun experience, and the companies make millions from the thousands of purchases. This link explains the ‘HoloLens’ more.

http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/microsoft-hololens-explained-how-it-works-and-why-its-different/

In conclusion, the majority of the gaming industry and community is great, with the exception of few murders and game addictions that are all caused from excessive playing time and the separation from reality. in my opinion, the gaming industry is viewed in two ways. one way in which people don’t know how much good can come from gaming such as charity live streams (this is mostly viewed as by the older generation), and the way where people know how much good can come from the gaming industry.

My Game

So this is the sketch I made for my 2 dimensional plat former game on ‘Paint’. The graphics aren’t great and there isn’t a lot of detail but changes can be made in the future. The art style I chose to go for is a ‘Retro’ or ‘8-bit’ and I chose this art style because i am a huge fan of that style, and it is fun and easy to create characters or objects in the style. The first level area is in the confines of the grey walls.

The character in the orange outfit is you, and you must traverse the level without touching harmful objects such as the spikes, or being caught by any other characters. To the left of the playable area, you can see my idea process and the inspiration I took from other games or images. I have also used arrows on some parts of the image to show where a moving object or character will move to and from, such as the blue enemy.

The player will be moving and jumping to traverse the areas and I have had thoughts of adding in features such as pressing buttons on walls to open doors. I have also had ideas for the final room of the game, such as a boss battle in which the player will have to dodge projectiles and press buttons to kill the boss enemy. Also, for the background of the indoor levels, i will use a grey tiled texture so it looks like flooring, and for the outdoor levels, i might use a dirt or mud texture to show you that your outside.

Story

For the start, I was thinking if I can create a small cut scene in which you see the player being thrown into a prison cell and him shouting “I’m not supposed to be here!” and a prison guard says something like “How original. That’s what they all say.”

But Dave was not supposed to be there. He had been framed for a crime he hadn’t committed. Dave never could have killed someone… until now. Dave’s entrapment in prison had screwed with his head, and now all he wants is revenge on the man who framed him.