Task 10: Elements of game design, part three: character

I think each character in TV or in films that play their character need to act totally different to their own personality, which I think is a very difficult task. There are some actors who have to live in a completely different environment to get comfortable with a certain characters personality. For example; an Indian movie called Radio, the protagonist had to live with radio presenters to get to know how to act like the radio presenter. I think this is a huge task for actors to change their personality for a role in a movie which lasts for about an hour and half, and what makes it harder for the actor is the fact that he spent weeks in a completely new environment and the TV show, film or even a game was not successful.

I think actors that play a role in an action movie where the hero has to defeat the villain is the one that I feel that really connects to me, as I always want the hero to win over the villain. I think this is because most films have the character do good deeds at the beginning to make you like the character from the very beginning and then a villain comes along and kills his parents which make you hate the villain and then begin to love the hero even more. Stuff like that really gets me to feel for a certain character.

In order for the character to be popular the script needs to be strong and be understandable to the actor and the audience. The script plays a huge role on a character as it shows what the character needs to act as and make his personality his own. The character also needs to wear suitable costumes to fit in with the mood of the script to show the audience how he is feeling through the use of his clothing.

I find action and adventure movies the best, as I love it when the hero and villain are battling it out for something they desire. I have come to love this sort because I have been watching it from the very beginning of my existence and I love to watch movies that have some sort of action in it.

Task 9: Elements of game design, part two: art direction for games

The art director is in charge of the main visual designs that are seen within a game and how it connects to the audience through the art side. The art director also works closely with the art team to be a member of the team and also be the inspiration to the team. The art director works directly under the production designer, however the main director of the game is responsible for the art director he needs to report back to the main director on how the project is coming along, so it is vital for the art director to give feedback to the director.

The role of an art director is a creative role as I think anything to do with the word ‘Art’ means being creative so I do think that art director means being creative. He needs to be full of ideas and be an inspiration to other art members.

There are various similarities between games and films in art direction, as they both need to have a creative mind and have the knowledge and urge to make it the best. In films the Art Director needs to create something which is real and can be touched by the actor and is made in a much bigger scale than games, however in games the art director needs to create something which is not real and therefore can create an object which may not have existed in real life.

If I wanted to become an art director then I would need to have loads of experience in working in a game company as a lead artist and need to have a game published in to the market. I also would develop on my skills as an artist and try to build my knowledge as being a creative mind. As I believe an art director needs to be creative to be successful.

I am getting used to the amount of work I am given each week as at first I did not know what to focus more on visual design, game production or critical research. But it’s getting better, trying to get most of it done within the required time.

Task 8: Elements of game design, part one

The term Gameplay is used to distinguish how a particular game is played, whether it is something original or something different. I also think Gameplay is used by reviewers to give scores or to rate a game. It’s mainly to see the experience in which the player had whilst playing the game. I think the companies who are making good games that turn out to be popular in both sales and reviews are the leading companies with the best Game design, some worth mentioning are Square-Enix, Epic, Valve etc.

Game developing takes place after the normal procedures are complete such as the initial sketches and designs, then the developer can know and understand what to work on. A game designer needs to accomplish and achieve a variety of issues alongside loads of calculations to develop a game. Game developing is not about singularity however some developers do prefer working on their own which is understandable as they would rather develop something which is entirely in their own concepts and ideas. But I would prefer working as a team and it broadens the ideas and thoughts.

I think different genres do require different game design as they would all be the same in the way the game plays, moreover game design is a vital part in creating a game so being the same in all games can be a bit repetitive in the way the game plays and looks.

When a game is released every game has its own unique game play, this is a must so it is very important. For instance; Gears of War has its own sort of game play, its targeted towards the older generations looking at teenagers and above. Parents will not let their 9 year old play this game because of its violent game play. Parents will know this by looking into the games game play and game design.

I really do not mind if a games graphics is like totally bad, however the game needs to have a seriously good plot line and needs to have smooth game play. A game that had a really good story line was a classic Final Fantasy VIII, I know the graphics are not very good but the story and game play still makes me want to play it.

Task 6: Writing about Games, Previews, reviews, commentary and lies

One of the issues that games journalists face is that not everyone or should say not every gamer would be on the same side as the journalist. What I mean by this is that if a journalist wrights a review and gives a game a rating of 6/10 and mentions a lot of bad aspects, a gamer can say that the review is wrong and should be given a higher or lower rating. There’s even a few times when there have been conflicts between reviewers as to who is right and who is wrong. Some journalists can also be biased, as they can review a game which they like and give it a high score just because they like the game.

If a journalist is part of company such as IGN; then IGN would pay them their salary. However if a journalist is a free lance then he/she would put their review on some sort of webpage or even send a copy to companies. This in turn might make the company see if he/she is a good reviewer and hire them.

There are lot of games that are incorporating the use of the ranking system this is mainly because it allows the users to rank their characters according to their desired needs. I do not really think it is necessary; however I think it does drive sales. This is because a gamer could rank up as much as he wants due to the time he spends playing the game. A gamer can also become emotionally attached to the character he/she has built and nurtured for so long equipping him with new items and perks. Even the big developers have incorporated this technique such as Activision with Cod: Black Ops. They see a potential in the ranking system and more developers are going to use this technique.

I think as a writer there’s a lot of aspects I can improve such as; they way I write and using the right term to explain things. But I think I need to improve on trying to get my point of view to the reader and also trying to implement my feelings across to the reader.

Task 5: part 4 my personal history

The year 2000 and onwards was the year were I actually began to be interested in not just playing games but also researching about the game industry. As I bought my very own console the Playstation 2, the only reason why I bought Sony’s Playstation over the other competitors; Nintendo, Sega and dreamcast, is because Playstation was the console that had all the games and backing from the third party developers, and the fact that nearly everyone who loves games had one whether it be the first or second console.

The reason why Nintendo did not do so well with the Nintendo cube is because it had very few support from other developers and most of its games were child oriented, which is why it lost my attention in purchasing one. However, the only product that got my attention was the Gameboy series; in 2001 they introduced the Gameboy Advance which maintained Nintendo’s market position. Shortly after Microsoft Corporation seen the loss of Nintendo and Sega, and introduced the Xbox. The Xbox was not a big success at first but the release of Bungie Studios Halo became an instant hit with the consumers, and the game still is a hit with game becoming a global franchise with current gen console Xbox 360.

I think as the year’s progress the game industries are going to see more demands from consumers and some not meeting those demands and thus getting bad reviews and feedback. Also the cost of developing these games is expanding rapidly and if games do not sell as they should more companies will be closed and companies will be bought from other businesses.

It’s time to dream...

I do not want games to be a matter of playing something I want them to be real, I don’t mean realistic graphics, I mean playing it without a TV. I want to be able to touch, feel, smell everything that is going on. When someone dreams it’s like they are in another world were everything and anything is possible that’s what I want to see. I want to be able to customize a character and use that same character in all my games, I want to be able to talk to that character in the middle of playing Halo 164 – Combat Massively Evolved. I want to see games that use the whole entire world as the environment even having a showdown in my back garden, using my dad’s car for a quick escape. That is what I want to see.

Task 4: History of computer games part 3: 2000

The gaming world has come a long way since the early days when gaming was just being introduced to the gaming audience. It has also developed in terms of cost and funding each game. In the early days PACMAN for the 2600 game console, also known as the Video Computer System (VCS) was made for $100,000. However in the 21^st century that would probably cover for the staffs wages, this brings me to another point; there was only one person who was involved in making PACMAN, which took him couple of months to make. A successful game i.e. Halo can take over a year to make and would require over hundreds of people.

I hear lot of people saying that $100,000 back in those days was a lot of money compared to know as developers are spending millions in putting a game in to the market. It took about $40 million to make Halo 2 and sold over 8 million copies. The cost of making games is one of the major issues concerning the game industry as the cost will keep on rising year upon year. Also the time it takes to put games on the market is rising and will rise in the future. Final Fantasy XIII took about 5 to 6 years make, everyone was expecting the game to be faultless but it was one of the crappiest ff titles around (my opinion).

I think more and more people are going to demand their games to be released earlier, or release them a bit later but needs to be perfect. When gamers have to wait a long time they sometimes lose interest in games and simply do not buy the game, or they might just get a pre-owned copy. Pre-owned games is another problem that companies have to face now, as more people are only buying pre-owned games. This may be because the game itself costs too much or they do not see the need in buying a brand new game when they can buy it a lot cheaper.

There are a few developers who are combating against pre-owned games, Polyphony Digital have now made exclusive content available for those who buy new copies of games which I think is a good way in making gamers buy new games.

A history of computer games; Part 2: 1980s – 1990s

It was not until the 1980s were the video game industry picked up real competition as more and more publishers found out that making games which looked and played similar to each other could make them some money. Thus, one of the gaming pioneers EA (Electronic Arts) was born, along with other publishers. Sadly not all of the companies survived, many survived roughly about 20 years; but EA still lives and in my eyes conquers today. Pong was the first commercially available video game made in 1973 by Atari, but it was not until the 1980s were it reached the mass audience as more people played it on their home systems using computers like the Commodore 64, Apple II and Atari 800.

I am actually quite surprised at the amount of genres that were available to play at the time, such as adventure games, fighting games, racing games and the list goes on. Even sound and speech comes alive in this era in a game called Stratovox.

In the late 1980’s the UK was in a strong form in the gaming market, as personal computers were offered more power over price, such as the ZX Spectrum and the Amiga. Online gaming was also coming in to play with users sharing information with other computers.

I just remembered one of my all time favorite game called Guardian Heroes which was only released on the Sega Saturn, I so wish they do re-make of that game on XBOX Arcade or the PSN, better yet SEGA SATURN 2, if they do I will defiantly buy it on the first day.

I am not really playing any games at the moment (don’t want to get distracted from work), but I do sometimes play Call of Duty from time to time, just so I don’t lose my touch of WHOOPING EVERYONES ASSESS………ermm… got little over my head then.

Task 2: A history of computer games, part one: 1950s - 1970s

During the 1950s – 1970s there were a lot of computer games which incorporated the use of university mainframe computers these games were actually developed by individuals as a hobby in which they enjoy and have fun in creating. One game which exploited the use of fun games was Spacewar, this was programmed by a group of university students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), including a student named Steve Russell. Russell was born in the United States in 1937. Steve Russell is a programmer who is well known for creating the game Spacewar with a few students at MIT. Steve Russell programmed Spacewar on the DEC PDP-1, a relatively new computer in 1961. Spacewar is recognised as the world’s first “shoot -‘em’up” genre, which is actually quite interesting as I did not think the world’s first shooter game would be so simple.

In my opinion I think Steve Russell would be one of the first to have fun with a computer, because it was after Spacewar when everyone took notice of the huge capabilities that a simple computer can have. I think in a way Steve Russell pioneered something great in which a person can have fun by just sitting at home in front of a computer. This is still being used 60 – 70 years later and will be used for many generations to come.

I do not think it strikes me as significant, however I am very fascinated by the way in which the development of games has come such a long way in a short period of time, and I know the evolution of games will keep on expanding in the coming years. I am very curious on how games will look and play in about 20 – 30 years. 3D has been introduced to gaming and it is slowly but surely having an impact in the gaming world. I wonder what’s next after 3D......the most obvious answer would be 4D.duhJ. But I am thinking more about how we see, interact and feel each game, and each genre would have its own unique capabilities.

We are now on the third week; I do not know how these weeks have gone by so quickly, but I feel like I have learnt so much in such a short period of time. I thought it might be overwhelming to take in so much but everything soon kicks in to play. We recently watched Vision of the Future in Chris’s lessons. In all honesty I would not watch something like that in my own time, only because I do not want someone to tell me how the future is going to operate I would want find out myself and make my own future. In addition this is the second time I have watched this movie because I watched it last year before I broke my arm and turned in to a mini Wolverine.....ooohh yeeaaahh.

By Junadur Rahman

About Junadur (Juned)

My name is Junadur Rahman but I hate being called Junadur because it sounds like a typical Asian name which is hard to pronounce, I would rather be called Juned. It’s just plain and simple and it’s my REAL NAME. Right enough with my name.

I was actually doing this course last year, but due to a nearly fatal injury on my left arm I had to re-do the year again because I missed a lot of lessons. About my arm; I shattered both of my bones so I had an operation where I have had two metal plates inserted in my arm............................cool? not really, it left me with two humongous scars and hurts now and then, aaahhhhh. The only good thing about my metal plates is that people call me Wolverine, which is sweet.

When I was 5 or 6 years old I got my first copy of Street Fighter II which was the first game I played and which got me addicted to video games, I played it on the Sega Mega Drive using cartridges for games. The most recent games I played were Halo Reach, CoD-MW2, Final Fantasy XIII etc. After Sega Mega Drive I got the Sega Saturn for my seventh birthday which came bundled with Street Fighter II Collection, I really had most of the consoles including handheld ones. I was not a great a fan of Nintendo, infact I only had one console from them which was Nintendo Cube, I had the Cube for about a month and sold it I only got it to play Resident Evil. I also had the Nintendo SP which was also not good. I then started to get the Playstation consoles starting with PSOne, PS2 and Currently the PS3. I play all sorts of games which brought me in buying Xbox and the Xbox 360.

The thing that makes me play games today is the sheer excitement I get from playing my favourite games with my family and friends. And also the drive and passion to one day get involved in creating a game, and say to my self I created that character or I made that game what it is today.

By Junadur Rahman (Juned)