Sunday 9 December 2007

Creativity part 4

The question I wish to observe today is: do you have to be playful to be creative?

In theory I would answer yes, as there has to be some imagination and toying with ideas to produce something. However what can you really count as playfulness and creativity, or are the two terms so similar that they count as the same idea? Why is it that some adults become serious in all aspects in their lives whereas some do not? Has this got anything to do with creativity? Why am I asking so many questions?

As children we all play, children always do, it’s how they learn. Children mimic those around them and “play” at being those people such as doctors, mummy and daddy, cops and robbers etc. As a child I loved going to school, as all we would do is play games, finger-paint and do tons of arts and crafts and that all I pretty much remember about infant school. Being a kid is about as free as your ever going to get in terms of your mind and perception of oneself as all that your expected to do is bumble about being silly and constantly wanting to play.

I didn’t really like the academic side of things (mostly maths – can’t stand the subject, and everyone has calculators now anyway). I loved reading, writing and drawing always have done and hopefully always will do. So do I argue the fact that my personality was always playful and creative or do I argue that society and the people around me shaped it?

Research predicts that having large families might hinder creativity and playfulness at early ages, as children will be expected to be helpful around the house and could sense the stress of their parents and thus not be as willing to be as spontaneous. Well since I never was from a big family I don’t really know if this is true or not, but I was from a single parent family and I was always asked to do more around the house then my brother and I could always pick up when my mom was stressed or worried, which kind of kills any creative pursuits you want to do at the time.

Being a child you have more freedom, as there is no pressure, as soon as a child grasps that their actions will have long-term consequences such as exams, it will change the reality of the situation and start shaping the child long-term aspirations, influences and effect leisurely pursuits and career choices.

I was fortunate enough to live in a home where the pressure wasn’t as concentrated as perhaps other families, however since my brother was pretty much a drifter and didn’t particularly like studying it was left to me to do the family proud and go to university and get straight A’s, so no pressure there.

My belief that everyone does have a degree of playfulness and creativity, it might be shown in their sense of humour, their job or even in little doodles they do whilst taking notes from a lecturer. However it’s the real life constraints that are constantly hindering people from being more playful with thoughts like “ I can’t do that I have work tomorrow.” Or “ I can’t do that, the washing up needs to be done.” In the end it becomes so routine that they stop thinking of anything truly creative and just get on with real life. Once reality and pressure interfere then the expressiveness of the individual suffers. Sometimes it could be the opinion of oneself, such as doing something thought of as “unprofessional” and not wanting to get in trouble can stifle creativity and playfulness.

I think it is time to draw things to a close but first to end this self-debate with a conclusion. I think that all children are playful, it’s something you’re born with not made, however the choice to indulge in ones own creativity is affected by family, society and pressure. If discouraged at an early age then it might fade out however if encouraged with creative pursuits and pastimes then the level of creativity will grow as the individual explores their own imagination and what they can achieve with it. I like to think that happened with me since my dad wanted me to be a doctor yet since he didn’t live with me had had no influence with this ideal so I was left to my own devices and indulged in what I enjoyed. Hence why I’m on this course pursuing a creative career, with my playfulness and imagination still in tact.

Friday 7 December 2007

The Golden Compass

A few friends and I watched the Golden Compass on Wednesday, so there might already be a few blog posts regarding this topic on other people’s blogs.

I was quite pleased going on a Wednesday since it wasn’t very busy and also I could use my trusty Orange Wednesdays ticket, which is two tickets for the price of one.

Another thing is that I have never read the book, I wanted to, I just never really got round to it. So unlike the others that were comparing the film to the book and parts that had been cut out, I was blissfully watching the film unaware of anything like this.

As far as the film goes I thought that it was quite enjoyable, the whole setting was really intriguing and creative, I loved the idea of the Daemons walking along side a human and if the human died the Daemon would explode into dust.

There were some really nice touches such as Marisa Coulter (played by Nicole Kidman) when she slaps her Daemon across the face and ends up with a slap mark on her own face, things like this made the universe seem more real.

The casting was very fitting, the adults did a superb job however the kids came across a bit flat, but kids in films aren’t known for great acting anyway. The lead Lyra Belacqua (played by Dakota Blue Richards) was well suited to the part but as mention was a bit flat in parts. Having Ian McKellen play Iorek Byrnison, the armoured bear felt a bit strange as though it didn’t quite fit, although he still played a very good part.

My view as a whole is that it truly is an enchanting film with some awesome creative ideas and scenes, the cast generally play the parts well, the cg in some parts is excellent but some times it did look a bit off and not quite right especially with the Daemons. I think if I had read the book then I would have been disappointed as everyone that had previously read the book were complaining that it didn’t match up to it. However the movie did reel me in to this fascinating universe so I will be buying the book shortly.

Thursday 6 December 2007

Creativity Week 3


Time to take another jab at all this creativity malarkey, I thought I would try and shed some light on what I consider my own unique creativity.

Truth is I’m not even sure what it is, I’m one of those people that are still desperately seeking it. I believe that my problem arises from my lack of self-confidence, so even if I do anything creative I tend to deny it and will continue to think of my work as a poor effort at best.

I never have been the most confident person, I find it difficult showing my work to other people and I find it hard to talk to people I don’t know. I constantly think of myself as screwed because in this industry I’m hindering myself by not showing my thoughts and being quiet. For some reason there is some sort of emotional blockade going on which stops me from voicing my opinion. I will often deny that I have anything to say which is often not the case, I want to voice my opinion, I want to tell you my ideas but I just haven’t figured out a way to do so. I am not a void of no emotion and no ideas.

So what the hell has this got to do with creativity, well I guess in a way everything, being creative and using different media to show my ideas is my way of telling everyone that there is something more to me, the thing if I can help it I wouldn’t show my work until it is completely perfect in my eyes not yours – which leads me onto my other creative problem.

Artists are their own worst critics and unfortunately this is all too true with me. Since I don’t think my work is good, I don’t think anyone else will, therefore I don’t show it. I always wait until last to show my work in group crits in art class and in 3D when going to lunch I always make sure that my Max work is not on display, just in case anyone would get a glimpse at it.

This lack of confidence in myself is a hinder to say the least, it is an automatic disadvantage, I never used to be like this, however I have never been around such creative peers before, so I do feel out of my league sometimes, but I guess that is the same with most in class.

My theory is it’s either sink or swim, I could be like a deer caught in headlights – to afraid to do anything or I could do something about it. Heck! I am trying but it never feels enough.

I often wonder if I have enough creativity to survive this industry, but at this rate I wonder if I’d even have the confidence to even get as far as getting into the industry.

Well this has by far got to the most emo post I think I’ve ever done, but I wanted to explain some things and get it out there I guess.

It least it has something to do with creativity…

Monday 26 November 2007

Creativity part 2

For my next battle with creativity I thought I would do a bit of a history lesson, my idea is to share what I consider creative times in mankind’s past. I thought I would spend some time thinking about this partly because it is interesting and partly because I want to see Beowulf, (as it revolves around the 6th century) mind you I don’t want to see it because of the time line it was based around, I want to see just how bad it really is.

Anyway I digress from the point I was trying to make. I could tell you when mankinds first signs of creative thought were noticed, or recite some interesting poetry but it wouldn’t of have much thought put into it really.

The first thing that I would like to mention is the Tiki statues. These statues belong to tribes that border the South Pacific Ocean and are carved out of wood, they are placed to mark and protect boundaries to sacred places of worship. Why are they interesting? Just take a glace at them and I think that you’ll agree that they captivate straight away. Anything that resembles human form but blatantly isn’t has an eerie feeling about it. They also come in really interesting and tribal shapes and sizes. Like the heads on Easter Island there is something unsettling and eerie about them, which is perhaps why I like them so much.

Another thing that I would like to mention is Norse mythology, it was only after playing age of mythology that I really got interested in mythical legends, so it proves that games ARE good for you and that everyone should play them. Anyway I wouldn’t say that I’m only interested in Norse mythology, every religion has a wealth of interesting, morel and diverse stories, all these legends and fables enlighten the communities. In a way living in all this modern technology strips away communities and everyone sits in front of a computer to do their talking, any interesting ‘fable’ is usually some video on Youtube. We live in an age where we don’t need to hear about David and Goliath or Jason and the Argonauts since we all have Xbox 360’s. I’m probably going on a tangent here and completely going off the subject and ranting about old-fashioned values and such so I’ll talk about something different now. I always loved learning about history and was an avid fan of those horrible history books. Another historic age that I liked would be the Tudor age, as a child I often thought what it would be like living around that time, my guess is that it would have been a lot like Neverwinter Nights – or so I believed, except there would have been no mages or 5+ swords back in those days. Perhaps this is why games with strong senses of historic influence always appeal to me, such as Neverwinter nights or Fable.

Since there was limited technology and such everywhere had a strong sense of individualism and originality which doesn’t really happen these days since land is limited and such things, which is why the past is so fascinating, as it is so diverse. It seems that the closer people get with communicating, the world seems to get smaller and smaller, the modern man is less and less interested in religion as they used to be and the morels of man seemed to of changed, the future is focused on technology. Which, since I am doing a career, which didn’t even exist a century ago, is a good thing- there are far more opportunities for people that are trained in new technology.

I guess I could say that I find a lot of things creative such as games, art, books, films etc, but I bet everyone does. In inspiration, the past is always intriguing and will probably always be looked upon for creative ideas.


Sunday 18 November 2007

Creativity Part 1

Alas I admit I haven’t done much blogging for a while so my skills might be a bit rusty, it took me ages to try and remember my password to even log on to blogger, which wasn’t the smoothest start for sure.

The task at hand is to try and write about creativity although we have already tried to do a post on that earlier last year this time is to get deep enough and try to understand it enough to pan out six weeks worth of blogs.

Since this post is the beginning of those posts I thought I might as well start at the beginning of creativity and what it means to me. I shall start at the beginning of my creativity and how I ended up doing game art as opposed to other courses.

My parents were not exactly the creative type; they worked in office-based jobs and didn’t pursue any higher education. On my dad’s side there is very little creative pursuits or creative careers. However on my mom’s side there is about 5 generations of women who all specialised in arts and craft such as knitting, sewing and such, however this was only the women as all the men had heavy labour jobs. My brother and I were always encouraged to do our best at anything we tried our hand at when we were growing up however we both didn’t really excel in anything worth noting, I wasn’t particular sporty nor academic. Teachers always noted that I was a bit of a day dreamer and enjoyed creative writing and anything that wasn’t constricting on what I was expected to produce.

Growing up my aspirations were to be doing something theatrical or writing as although I had always enjoyed art I had no inspiration to go through with it and take it any higher. However at my school there wasn’t really any encouragement with art , this followed on from primary school to secondary school where your imagination is limited by the school curriculum. In my secondary school years I found myself most frustrated with art since I had found something that truly had inspired me, dare I say it…anime. Perhaps a cliché in this day and age, since it seems that everyone is into it and Japanese animation is very popular on today’s television. However when I watched for the first time, it seemed like no one knew about it, it was like my own private inspiration source, however cheesy it might seem like now. I increasingly wanted to do my own stuff, find my own style but never really had the chance to do that in secondary school as it was very strict, anything unconventional was frowned upon and discarded. The teacher was very narrow-minded and traditional and all the art projects were centred around copying another world famous (and dead) artist. It was exceedingly mind numbing stuff and I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of school to go to college.

Except that it wasn’t really that much better, it was more work, more pressure and even more Van Gogh. I wasn’t even on a fine art course, it was a B-Tec in Art and design. Well I don’t think I’ll talk about those two years and skip straight on to University.

I think the difference struck me immediately since I was so use to teacher leaning over my shoulder and breathing down my neck so it was quite nice to have freedom and a bit of an escape from that. It was like being thrown into the deep end since I was so used to having each lesson structured minute by minute that only having a loose brief to work to was a bit of a shock to the system, my guess is that many people felt the same way.

Alas I feel as though I am straying from my initial thought on creativity, the point that I am trying to make is what creativity means to me as an individual which is the freedom to explore my own ideas not somebody else’s. I don’t think it’s particularly creative copying somebody else’s work, to me that is stifling. I want to work with creative people to share unique thoughts and work on interesting projects. Creativity to me is freedom to express my thoughts and views yet also to think of new ways to explore a subject or topic. Creativity is such an evasive topic to discuss as it can mean so many things but still be unique to one idea about it.

Sunday 22 April 2007

Another Video



I don't think I really need to explain this...

Week 24

The last blog…

Damn it came a lot quicker then what I was expecting…

Well what do I think of the course as a whole?

Like any course it has its strengths and weaknesses, so first I would like to point out it’s strengths.

I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to meet likeminded people that share the same interests and humour. I like the fact that someone actually from the industry is teaching us, there is a difference between someone who knows the industry and someone who thinks they know about the industry.

Despite my complaining I’ve actually grown quite fond of blogging, it’s more fun and relaxed then writing an essay and I’m starting to get a bit more confident with my posts, I also believe that my skills at writing have improved because of them.

As a whole the course mimics the industry it’s teaching us about, it’s creative and enjoyable which is what I want from my course.

Now for the things that I would like to see some improvement in…

The Computers constantly crashing or not having the right programs installed. This was an irritating problem to a lot people, I hated having to switch computers over and over.

I would love to see handouts on the techniques that Joel uses. It’s so easy to miss something the first time round. I’m not suggesting that you have to print out 30+ for everyone in the class, just print one copy and it gives the students to choice to photocopy it for reference, that way it’s a bit more cost effective and I’m sure it would save Joel going over and over a tricky technique to individual students.

Now what I would like to see…

I really want a soft modelling and clay module next year, I believe that this would give us a distinct advantage over the other universities when trying to get a job, also it doesn’t limit us to just getting jobs in game art – we could do animation or set design regarding claymation jobs.

Learning the traditional art skills in good fun but I would also like to learn more about digital art as it’s an area that I want to conquer.

More games would be nice, but I’m betting everyone would say that.

What about a mini fridge…

Or a Bar…. (It’s a good idea..really)

Anyway to sum it all up. I’m really enjoying the course and I’m glad that I decided to come here.

Woo.

Week 22: The GDC

After poking around looking for events to do with the GDC I stumbled across an article that made me ponder and think of the relevance that it has to do with me.

Here is said article. Click
It’s all about the future of PC gaming, which sparked my interest as I’ve always thought of myself more as a PC based gamer rather then console however luckily I have an assortment of consoles and a high end gaming PC so I’m not in the situation where I only have one or the other.
They say that PC games are becoming less and less popular and aren’t making as much profit as they used to, in some cases I do agree as since many games now aren’t limited to just strictly PC or console, it is more affordable to have a console that costs £300 instead of a PC which can cost over £700. So why get a PC when all the games you want are on the other consoles?

If I was writing this about 2 years ago then I could of answered that with this answer; Well computers games have Internet gaming, better graphics and not to mention you can listen to your mp3’s whilst playing –wonderful.
However that answer simply won’t suffice anymore since the next gen consoles also allow you to have a lot of the freedom that a PC has. You can place music easily on the 360, the DS has Wi-fi capabilities and the PS3 graphics could rival that of a top-performing computer.

I would agree that a PC is costly, it takes up room and gives you the blue screen of death when your right in the middle of something. It’s a bit of a temperamental piece of technology however that doesn’t mean that PC’s have had their day.

I use my PC for everything, work, music, videos and games. Some games are just meant to be on the computer, some of the games I’ve played in my lifetime appeared on computer and consoles and the console versions just didn’t live up to PC ones – I believe that this is partially true for MMO’s, RTS’s and simulation games.

The keyboard and mouse would beat any controller in terms of complicated games where there is a lot of buttons and stats to press, these type of games wouldn’t work on consoles so I believe that the PC is still safe for a little while longer.

If I had to pick between a computer and a console I would still opt for my computer despite the drawbacks such as having to upgrade your system and paying for the expensive software, which you won’t get with a console.

So what am I trying to say?

Well the bottom line is that there is a decline is the PC market due to the affordability (PS3 aside…) and simplicity (just plug in and play, no installation required) of consoles. However due to social and addictive games for example World of Warcraft, The Sims etc I doubt that the market for PC would grow so small that it would jeopardise PC gaming.

Saturday 17 March 2007

A hybrid of sorts



All I can say is thank you Robot Chicken <3

Sunday 11 March 2007

Week 21: Where do you want to go and how do you want to get there?

Well for this blog it’s time to look back upon the last few months and reflect if I’ve learnt anything from being on the course.

First I’ll start with 3dsMax: Although most of the time I might not show it I do actually really enjoy working in Max and have been fairly pleased with my results so far. When I look back upon the wheelie bin project and how daunting everything seemed at the time it’s quite encouraging to see how much not only myself but also a lot of others have improved in leaps and bounds. I would love to have the technical knowledge to be a bit less constricted when making objects in Max however I’m sure that will come in time. I wouldn’t say I’m confident in Max however I am competent in the program and will put time and effort into what I’m making in order to achieve the result I want. I’m pleased that we have deadlines in a way because I can be a bit of a perfectionist and spend time tweaking bits here and there, which no one can even tell what I’ve done.

Next it’s Art: I did feel at first very much out of my league on the first few weeks of the art class, at the time it seemed everyone was a professional artist compared to me however that feeling soon passed and I began to feel comfortable in class and with my skills. It seems odd but as soon as I moved to my halls I didn’t feel very inspired or motivated as much as I had been over the Summer, I think I’m experiencing an Artists Block at the moment. I would enjoy Art class more if I wasn’t so critical of my work, I find it very hard to take complements about my work and will often struggle to find what exactly is good about it, although I’m no where as bad as I used to be. I really enjoyed the workshop that we had and the more sculpture related work such as making the wire men as this was a nice break from the more traditional work, I would also enjoy trying my hand at soft modelling (Hint hint).

The Art Style Guide: I was feeling fairly creative when I was working on the art style guide however I would of loved to have gone more in detail with it and maybe produced some concept art for it. I was quite saddened to hear that it wouldn’t be marked however I do think it was an interesting experience and I would like to do it again at one point or another.

Specifications etc: This is just a quick word on the document related part of our 3dsmax projects. I would love to put more detail in my specifications and timetables however when we were doing the bin, it was such a small object that it didn’t need a massively detailed specification so it was kept quite simple. Now I’ve got my head round the process of writing a specification I’m think I could write a thorough in-detail specification like the second years have done.

And lastly,

Blogging: I enjoy writing blogs when I get round to it and posting silly things and well just making it a bit more personal. I wish I could write longer blogs but I’d most likely waffle on and on and write about trivialities and bore the reader to tears, also I guess my grammar could be improved. However the actual blog writing and research itself I find quite interesting and not extremely difficult although I would say my overall downfall with my blogs would be the fact that I’m hardly ever on time with them, I think it’s a preference of mine to do two or three at a time as I find this helps me really concentrate and I find that I can write longer however I will try harder to keep more up to date in the future.

Well all in all, I would say that I’m really glad to be here and I’m quite pleased with my work. It’s also an interesting opportunity to meet people who share the same interests as me. I want to get a good job out of this is my primary concern and contribute towards making creative and interesting games – and play them for free.

:3

Week 20 Creativity

Creativity –for all those that took any sort of art class whether it was fine art at some college or even finger-painting in infant school all of us at one point or another have some idea what the word means and what the word means personally to us.

It’s another one of those ambiguous words that everyone has a vague idea about but it isn’t a word that can be pinpointed exactly by definition. Well for starters I might as well have a look at the word that Creativity stems from which would be quite obviously Create. Humans are the only beings on the planet with extensive ideas and imagination at their disposal. We as a species have harnessed small, quick thoughts and turned them into something imaginative and/or functional, just take a look around your room; every item has been thought up, refined and made by one person or even a group of people. The power of humanities thoughts have given us The wheel, the light, cars and the Xbox 360, if we as a species didn’t the imagination and intelligence to create then we wouldn’t exist as we do today.

I’ve heard the word creativity being said to me all throughout my artistic life and it is always a nice compliment to hear that you’re creative. Creativity can apply to anything as it stems from a creative thoughts process linked to ones imagination, it doesn’t just apply to art which is what it is usually associated with – it applies to creative writing, cooking and even accounting.

Looking at the word Uncreative can help define what the word creative actually means. The word uncreative is linked with words like; undaring, controlled, cautious and conventional – not particularly a nice word to be associated with. This means that creative minds more daring, think out side the box and tend to be more open minded with their thought process and ideas. We wouldn’t of got so many good books/movies and games if no one thought up these ideas and pushed their idea to the limit of their imagination.

Games as a media is ideal for showing creative gameplay, storytelling and art – No other media works quite as well as pushing the boundaries of creative and technical power. The increase of technical intelligence over the up and coming years means that creative thinkers in the industry will have no technical restraints when making a game. As a species I believe that we will only increase in imaginative and push our creative ideas as it seems that every one thinks that everything has already been thought up and done – quite a pessimistic view on the value of our future creative thoughts – I say that they aren’t thinking hard enough.

Certain games have a wonderful creative flow in not only their visual style but also in their gameplay and make use of the technical capabilities very well. Lost Magic on the DS used the DS stylus pen to make the player actually draw the magical runes on the screen, which was quite a dynamic part of the game play. Story line and character development it always seems that any of the Final fantasy series seems to win – hands down, which in my opinion I would agree. For visual style and imaginative character concepts Psychonauts is one that particularly stands out as the whole theme of the game was the mind which allowed designers to create fitting mental environments for the character that the player was in, for example; Milla Vodello is a 60’s-70’s inspired character and her mind is just one big party with dance music, flower themed furniture and bubble blowers. Brilliant! Another title that intrigues me visually is LittleBigPlanet on the PS3, a very interesting visual and playing style where the backdrops look like they are made out of cardboard and you can bounce on oranges etc.

LittleBigPlanet


Games give the designer and in some cases the player to really create and explore more with their ideas and imagination which at the end of day what can be better then that.

Week 19

The main question for today is; who is more employable – The art graduate with no experience in main computer programs such as Max and Photoshop or the University Graduate who knows everything.

However it isn’t really as easy when it comes to that as it boils down to the company and to the individual.

The Art Graduate: Having a blank canvas to work with and train up could give the employer to monitor how the employee is learning, in doing this the employee is taught that companies way of doing things. However training is expensive and takes time and the game industry is a fast paced industry, so not many companies are going to be able to spend enough time needed to teach properly. However it could be a good investment training them up except when they decide that they don’t really like the games industry and move on to work in film in something. Bottom line is I guess having a nice clean artistic person to work up with who doesn’t have somebody else's way of thinking embedded into them is all nice and good, however companies simply don’t have the time to train to a great standard. The bonus for having an art graduate is that their open minded, creative and enthusiastic however won’t have the technical side to back it up.

The University Graduate: Having gone to University and trained up with Max/Maya and Photoshop this person is going to have knowledge about modeling, texturing and animating. This person can dive straight into the industry and not need to have extensive training at the company’s expense. However since this person has been trained up in University, the techniques that he/she knows will be influenced and affected by the Tutor’s knowledge, which is fine if the Tutor knows his stuff however if the Tutor has poor skills this might have an impact upon the student thus churning out a poor employee. Since artistic skill wasn’t particularly involved when learning Max/Maya the student might not have any knowledge on colour theory or anatomy, the fact that he/she can model a human in Max/Maya is employable however modeling a human with incorrect proportions, isn’t.

The Verdict: I think it’s pretty obvious what the answer is. Having two students relying on one side of games design will result in a poor result. Creating and understanding games includes areas such as Art, Technical knowledge, Social knowledge, psychiatry and architecture. When I look at it like that then I know that our course has got the balance working in their favour since everything we learn in both our lessons with Joel and our lessons with Chris bounce off each other quite effectively, the knowledge learnt in one class can be applied to the other. I believe that this is what employers are looking for, a knowledge of both Artistic and technical and skill in both areas.

Sunday 25 February 2007

Week 18: Music in Games

Game Music

I would admit that I have a very large amount of game music on my iTunes, in fact I probably have an equal share of game music to any other of my music. My friend and I are both planning to play Final Fantasy 10: Hymn of Fayth at our funerals, as we both love Nobuo Uematsu’s work in the final fantasy series. Which brings me to another point the importance of music and sound in a game. Music sets the tone and the atmosphere in the game and can be compared to horror films such as when they use violins to heighten the mood and when the victim opens a door only to find….absolutely nothing.
However if the music isn’t done quite right then chances are it will hider the players experience as such music (especially when looped over and over (FF7 battle music I found partially annoying)).

http://www.errormacro.com/2006/08/the_worst_songs_in_video_games.php A link saying the top 15 worst songs in history, fairly amusing.

I adore Final Fantasy music however I also find that Martin O’Donnell’s work on the Halo series particularly good and of course listening to WoW’s Legend of Azeroth still gets me pumped up.
Of course a powerful and popular score for a game can result in success and can lead to the music being available to purchase, such as the Final Fantasy series for example.
However due to the increase in popularity of games in general, the music of such games have caused a car out for concerts and thus forth the first Symphonic Game Music Concert was held in 2003 and conducted by Andy Brick and 3 other concerts have followed and due to such popularity have sold out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphonic_Game_Music_Concerts

However sound is important in a game, creating mood; for example having no sound or very little sound can create a feeling of loneliness whereas having a game full of quick beats etc will get the player amped up to fight or for some action.
Dialog and therefore speech comes under this subject, as a bad voice actor can make a game a bit irritating however in some games where they get round the whole problem of getting the language just right just make up their own language such as The Sims and Okami where they just speak gibberish.

However due to being on a game course I thought I’d leave you with something everyone should enjoy.

Cats and Dogs

For all those posting cats recently...



Alright I'll post a cat as well...



:3

Week 17: Game Engines

Game Engines are the core of a game, it deals with the technology part of a game due to the fact it works with animations, scripts, physics and rendering. Using a pre-existing game engines makes things a lot more cheaper for developers to work with as create a game engine from scratch will be extremely time consuming and not cost effective and if it’s already been made and works extremely well then it makes more sense to buy this little boxed game engine and make the art for it.

These Game engines also allow a game to be released on a range on consoles and operating systems thus maximizing market potential. There are also many other engines that work towards creating components like architecture, sound and trees (FMOD, SpeedTree). A game engine can have many uses and in some cases aren’t always used for games exclusively, it can be used for architectural purposes and demos. However the extremely highly sought after engines include the Unreal Engine, Doom and Havok however these engines being so popular and all, come with a hefty price tag, the cost for the Unreal engine is estimated to be more than $700,000, yet still cheaper then making your own and chances are it won’t be as polished and bug free as this engine.

So here’s a link of all the goodies that you’ll receive for blowing $700,00 (or £356,433)

http://www.devmaster.net/engines/engine_details.php?id=25

oh and for further reading into engines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engines


The Warcraft 3 engine will set you back a nice $3,750,000 and it is an interesting note that World of Warcraft (<3) uses the same but improved engine. Having the game components and the engine separate means that it can be sold to other developers for well…a hell of a lot of money.

A growing trend in games, though mostly PC is to include level editors so that users can create their own custom content and levels such games include Unreal, Neverwinter Nights and perhaps the most popular user content heavy game; The Sims. Providing an editor of such adds a different and more create aspect of playing a game and will hold the interest of a player for longer.

Have some more bad humour

Alright last bit of WoWness – well for a little while anyway.

Gnomes on WoW come in many different forms but all of them are annoying and have pink hair, their hair is so pink that it is annoying in it’s own right. So have some more WoW jokes showing my dedication to the eradication of these insanely annoying character class..

What's blue and flies around the room?
A gnome with a punctured lung

What’s pink,red, and silver and runs into walls?
A gnome with forks stuck in its eyes

What’s pink and red and sits in a corner?
A gnome playing with a razor blade

What’s green and yellow and sits in a corner?
The same gnome three weeks later

What’s pink and red and gets shorter by the minute?
A gnome rubbing its head on a cheese grater

What’s more disgusting than a pile of dead gnomes
The other gnome eating its way to the top

What’s worse than ten gnomes stapled to one tree
One gnome stapled to ten trees

How do you make a dead gnome float
Take your foot off its head.



Gnomes…….ugh.

On a WoW related note

Just doing this because I’m bored but according to an online quiz it turns out that I’m a cow.







Tauren Druid

f-tauren.jpgdruid.jpg


Tauren, the not-very-gentle giants of the Horde, stand out above the rest.
Pastoral at heart, they may feel the need to defend their fields - or their honour, if someone were to insult their fuzzy, glossy coat.


As a druid, you tend to be relaxed and accepting -
though if there is something you don't want to do, then you won't do it
- simple as that. You're an easygoing and versatile person.


Find out your
real-life WoW race and class
at QuizGalaxy.com



I meant a Tauren! Geddit?! Funny, no….. Ok I’ll stop.

Since it’s a while before I go home for another WoW weekend and also to see my family I decided to post some WoW related jokes…because jokes are good. Jokes make people smile. Smiling good yes?

Anyway..

Why didn't the undead cross the road with the chicken?
-...he didn't have the guts. Harrrrrr!

What do undead Tauren say?
-Boo.

What do you call a Tauren with no legs at all?
-Ground beef

Q: How do Tauren hide in the forests?
A: They paint their balls red and hide in apple trees.
Q: Have you ever seen a Tauren hiding in an apple tree?
A: No, it works!!
Q: How did the gnome die?
A: Picking Apples

What do you call a Tauren who's "shaking hands with his best friend"?
-Beef Strokanoff

How many gnomes does it take to paint a house?
-It depends how hard you throw ‘em

What do you call 10 gnomes buried up to their necks in sand?
-Not enough sand.

...yeah.

That's enough of that for now.

Week 16: Gaming Cultures

Anyone that knows me at all will know that I will spend this whole post ranting about how great and godly WoW is. I shall try to refrain, I really will.

Ok screw that.

WoW is god. <>

Alright being serious, most of my years I’ve spent in one gaming culture or another, I’ve met some of my best friends through games and I still find it intriguing how easy it is talking to someone you’ve just met about their favourite games. Pretty much like everyone else, I adored Pokemon and me and a few others would play at lunchtime in school. Another culture I got involved in was NeverWinter Nights, spending my time testing online friends modules.

I met two very good friends through a large conversation about Final fantasy and Devil may cry. One of which is my flatmate and follow guitar hero buddy (when her brother was manager at Game, he hooked up the two guitars and let us play all lunchtime- we so sold that game.)

Belonging to a game is much like a clique at high school in my opinion as there are many different sub groups much like games, it’s like the Horde and Alliance are Goths and Jocks in the game based world…
Which brings me on to WoW I guess, I’ve been playing it since August so I’m a late coming to the whole WoW experience as my computer at the time simply could not run it however I would agree that the game should be re-named to World of Warcrack as it is highly addictive and I’ve lost many, many hours to this game doing mindless quests. However it is an extremely satisfying and addictive feeling killing the Alliance my only grievance is that I can’t play it any more because of my halls.
I belonged to a female gaming forum at one point where one of the members kept badgering me to play Guild Wars, to which my response was to hiss at her and scuttle back to my WoW cave.


But I’m not addicted….I’m a WoW enthusiast.

I guess knowing the fan history behind a game includes you in it’s culture, so I shall leave you with the Leeroy Jenkins fan history.




Leeeeeeeeeeroy Jenkins!!!

Week 15: The Game Industry

The Industry has seen a huge growth in this past few decades, it has become a case where nearly every home has a computer and access to the internet, if not you might be considered a lowly cave dweller worthy of being shunned by modern society because you don’t know what “LOL” means. Harsh but true.
The industry has grown in terms of more advanced gameplay, graphics, people working on a title and budget. There is a huge amount of money to be made if done well seeing some titles edge into other areas of popular culture (Tomb Raider the movie, Diablo Books, World of Warcraft trading cards, Halo figures and Final Fantasy music collection). It is quite safe to say that every kid from the 1990’s will grow up surrounded by a game of some sort.
The view of gamers and games have changed from the generic fat, over 40, balding game enthusiast living in his mom’s basement to well..nearly everyone. The market has divided into many different sub markets and you can get a game for anyone.
Game and GameStations are cropping up in every town, almost like Starbucks –except without the overpriced coffee. Of course with this huge increase in market, the money and the budget has also grown – rivalling the movie industry. However since everyone nowadays wants everything done at super lightning speed, games need to be released quicker with polished graphics, an amazing score and inventive gameplay and be affordable to the consumer (not that easy to do). As a student hoping to get a job in the games industry I have to realise that my job in theory could go to someone in outsourcing, it’s not affordable to have all these highly educated employees doing the same job that someone on the other side of the world could do – and do it a lot cheaper too.

Another point that I wanted to make was where the industry might go. With technology increasing in complexity it gives the designer more scope to really let loose with their imagination however we’ll easily see saturation in the market as games and ideas just get repeated and hauled off as some new game. Popular games of yesteryear will just get remade and done up with fancier graphics and not to mention the many, many games that will get sequels and trilogies in order to make more money out of a title.

Still for the moment I’m intrigued to see what will happen next, perhaps the merge of many different ideas and genres. However if the game industry ever starts to run out of ideas and merge Mario and Star Wars together or Link in a GTA set up then I’ll give up with the industry and retire to Tahiti.

Week 11: Game Play

The word gameplay seems a bit of an empty term to loosely describe elements in a game. Many different people from different backgrounds will make their own assumptions about what the following term means, which makes it a hard term to pin point exactly. Gaming magazines and articles will often rate gameplay but it’s a lax term to describe and even to rate as their interpretation of what is “gameplay” might differ considerably between your view and mine.




However in my own opinion I guess that this quote is the one that I mostly agree with. “Ambiguous term for the total effect of all active game elements. Refers to the holistic game experience and the ability of the game to command the attention of the player.”

Game Play is the sheer core of a game, the foundation if you will. Strip a game of it’s music, graphics and storyline and chances are that it won’t be such a satisfying play however if the game play is done correctly, theoretically you still would play it. Having a look back at early games such as Pong and Space Invaders where there was no storyline, very basic graphics they were still huge hits and considered old favorites because simply the gameplay offered a huge reward to the playing, buying into human nature of being competitive and wanting to achieve. Those games didn’t need fancy music artists to lend their vocals to the games, it didn’t need Ragdoll physics (not that it was available at that time but you get my point) and it didn’t need a witty and clever script to accompany it.
My point is that the old school games of years past is as close to sheer gameplay as you can probably get as all those games had to offer was good gameplay. It’s an important factor in any game as it is the very foundation of a good game and if done right then a player will keep returning to the game – thus equaling a success.
Game Play is how a player experiences the game, what that game means to a player, how successful it can keep the attention of the player through numerous hours and what a player can get out of the game, which should be enjoyment above all else.
I don’t really trust the word “Game Play”, as it is such a broad term and in this day and age where there is so many different genres of game and so many different types of gamer. More games that are targeted towards casual players offer such a uniquely different approach then games targeted towards the hardcore market. Compare say Brain Training to Ninja Gaiden, how would you rate the gameplay between games such as these where the player is getting something completely different?

In short my belief is that Game Play is a loose term for player involvement and experience however I’m sure that many have came up with their own conclusions about this term in which it is not a case of right or wrong as the term is so ambiguous that there is no defiant answer.

Monday 15 January 2007

Oh My God!

If I could give one piece of advice it would be that dropping a TV onto your brand New Xbox 360 is not a good idea.

Yeah guess what happened to me when I got home…

I was taking the DVD cable out of the back of the TV and because the TV is only a really stupid smaller wheelie stand… well it was an accident waiting to happen let’s just say.
I moved the TV only ever so slightly and it unhooked from the stand and because I couldn’t hold the weight of the TV it fell onto my arm and onto the Xbox.

I caused I think about £1,500 worth of damage as it left a large dent in the laminate floor. When my mom finally cooled down she came in with the great news that my Xbox is completely unharmed apart from a little mark from the TV, however the TV was a bit screwed up but it still worked.
Thankfully the TV screen didn’t smash and it didn’t do more damage to the Xbox because the corner landed on my arm instead. My left arm was completely out of action, as I couldn’t hold it up without it going numb so I think I sprained it slightly.
Lucky the TV would still turn on and seemed to be fine except that the edges were bright green and it would turn itself off every few minutes – yeah it was fine…

One of the strangest things about me is that I have horrid bad luck followed by extremely good luck. When I was packing my Xbox up for Uni I had to unplug the cable from the back of the TV and had move it slightly in order to do so. Well I turn the TV back on and low and behold it works perfectly, no green edges and no turning itself off. I fixed the TV without really doing anything.

Good Luck, no?

Impulsive nature

Today is the day that I welcomed a new member into the family. Did my mom give birth? Did my Dad get re-married? No – I finally bought my Xbox 360.
I’ve been playing to buy one since the first shreds of news appeared on the Internet however when the launch came and went I still found myself without one as I simply did not have the money and with no wealthy benefactor to donate, I patiently had to wait.
However all that has changed as now I have my next-gen baby. Go me!!
I went into Merry Hill with plans of shopping and as usual wandered into Game to browse and despite the plenty of conversations my mom about waiting just a little bit longer until the price goes down, I decided to conveniently forget all about that and buy one with the student loan and Christmas money.
Bought an extra controller, Enchanted arms and Ninety Nine Nights. I’m also really pleased with the fact that Game has their point card system meaning that now I have £17 to buy another game with.




Happy days are here again.

Monday 8 January 2007

Week 10: Game Play and development

As human I believe that we are all inclined to enjoy a good story whether listening or even telling a story of our own. Therefore it is almost a fundamental rule in gameplay to have an engaging storyline with characters that we find interesting and appealing.
Most if not all successful story driven games achieve such success due to character development and engaging the player. Gaming is falling alongside other storytelling media such as films and books. We sometimes have to look at a game as an interactive book.
An example which I personally think is worth having a look at is Fahrenheit designed by David Cage. It is a almost a new genre, a movie-game. Although it is far from achieving the look of a movie it certainly does invoke a new sense of gameplay as the player has an almost psychical experience as a lot of the game requires intense use of the controller.

It also features three primary characters with a twist. One is a murderer and the other two are cops so the player is trying to catch himself and yet also escape. Although it’s far from a perfect game I do believe that is on the right track when it comes to create a new way to perceive and play games.

When it comes to characters, if I can remember a game character 20 years on from now then I believe it to be highly successful however it’s not all down to the games. It’s a clever business practice to market a popular game character via a blockbuster movie (Tomb Raider), TV series (Sonic the Hedgehog), MacDonald's toys (Mario) and plush toys(Pokemon). In a way to reach the target audience the easiest way is to flood every avenue open to them to ensure that the market will see as much of the product as possible.

However it’s not all about business is it? When it comes down to storyline and characters the genre most looked at would be RPG’s such as Final fantasy etc. When so many hours is placed in a game it’s hard not to remember a character. Too many times have I came across a game when the main protagonist has had no appeal that when something good comes along chances are you’ll remember it.

When trying to sell a game that relies heavily on character development and storyline - you must create a hybrid of a book, movie and game and balance all aspects. Character development is crucial, if the game starts out with an happy,easy going protagonist then after seeing his town blow up , girlfriend die and dog runaway, and if he remains the same person completely unaffected by the events I would wonder what the hell was going on. It’s important to anchor characters with humanity as I don’t want to play a game where I can’t relate to a character in one way or another, that would make for a really boring and therefore unsuccessful game.

Week 9 Games technology

It is hard to believe just how developed and profitable the games industry has become. In less than 60 years the game industry has quickly developed to such a common everyday thing in our lives, in this day and age it is becoming the norm that every youth owns some sort of console one way or another.
The industry is extremely successful and therefore highly profitable with higher standard then ever before for game play and graphics. Lucky we are to be able to see such a fast improvement in both these areas over the past decade or so.

So let us have a look at the history of this technology,

The early 70’s were the launch of the video game console with the extremely successful game PONG placed a lot of attention upon the newly developing industry. It was only in the late 70’s that Atari would release its Atari 2600 VCS, which introduced cartridge based consoles. Although the industry was met with many hardships such as two crashes it would stabilise in the 80’s due to Nintendo and it’s NES.
Some of my earliest gaming memories were on the Atari and the NES, I was especially fond of Duck Hunt because of the gun however a lot of people can say the same thing.

The fifth generation of consoles consisted of Sony’s PlayStation One, the Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64.The jump in technology meant that both the PlayStation and the Saturn started to use CDs over the old technology of a cartridge. The Gaming industry would continue to use CDs over the years and then moved on to DVDs. The industry was booming and with growth of technology the acceptance of home based consoles was cemented.
In the next few years the industry would see the rise and fall of Sega’s Dreamcast which was the first internet ready console with built in modem, advances to computers and handheld consoles, the console wars and the information super highway.

However I don’t believe that the industry would where it is today without the use of the Internet. Microsoft has benefited with its Xbox online capabilities and it’s very successful Halo franchise. Although the PlayStation 2 also had online capabilities it wasn’t as well received as the Xbox with online play. This also applies to handheld consoles as the DS and PSP both allow for online play.
The next generation consoles (Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3) has seen an even further and higher advance of graphics and technology. All online enabled and the arrival of new wireless controllers that read via infrared and blue tooth.

As an industry the gaming market has realised its mass appeal and therefore has produced games towards different markets an example of this is the Nintendo DS lite in a pink version along with the game Nintendogs; targeted at younger females.


Not only has the industry jumped in leaps and bounds when it comes to technology (the 8-bit era seems almost primitive in comparison to today’s standards) it also has moved forward in terms of marketing and recognizing it’s mass appeal in modern society.