FUCK DIS FILM SHEYET

A poigniant title I'm sure you'll all agree.

This is mainly onto the point of why we are writing blogs about films. And no its not just because I didn't write my blogs about them for the first 12 weeks. Its more to the point of analysis.

You see we're watching this films on wednesday and then we are dissecting them into seeing what it is that makes them good. In a film its either Camera work or set style. It gets a bit repetitive in that respect. I'll admit that some of the stories are good too but is it only that the films are good because theyre using a different story to everything else that comes out and thus requires greater effort than the other rubbish.

As it was discussed at the beginning of last year, games are becoming a huge player in the entertainment industry, almost grossing as much as films themselves. And thats what they are, interactive films that last between 10-60 hours. So why can't we be looking at games instead of films? I don't see film studies students looking at games.

Sure, I've been alerted to the point that its because its easier to get 70 people watching a film, since watching is all you need to do, compared to 70 playing a game. Games do need to be experienced. So why not just write about a new game every week that has shaped us for who we are and what we think are the best games of our times? I got into gaming pretty late so I missed out on alot of the N64/PS1/DC era and a lil behind on the GC era too but now I'm keeping up but I've played a huge number of games, many that are good for many reasons. Looking at them now there is Viewtiful Joe; a comic book style fighter, Smash Bros Melee; an epic nintendo fighting game and Pikmin which is an amazing concept which has hardly been done before and thats just the first 6 games I looked at. 

Films, with all we've seen, seeing something new becomes few and far between. We should get into learning about games. Besides, its all well and good to watch a film but playing a game and seeing how things are done, how things are made and what it is that sets them apart. Even from playing Beyond good and Evil for 90 minutes I saw so much more about that game then i did before and it still looks amazing 7 years on. So inspiration, collborating ideas throughout our blogs about games we may not have even noticed before. Mitch pointing me out to syndicate wars, a great matrix-esque concept. If each first year has one game like that, imagine how much we could learn.

Beyond Good and Evil

So I was talking to my friend about Ubisoft, then about this, remembered the steam sale, saw it was £3.50 and purchased it there and then.  To be honest so should everyone else.

Beyond Good and Evil follows the story of photographer and owner of the lighthouse, Jade. With her green jacket and lipstick and short hair to boot, she isn't overly sexy but seems pretty normal. She looks after orphaned children at the lighthouse, keeping them safe from attacks by the Domz (Galactic menaces) along with her uncle Peyj, a pig, or Sus Sapien. Probably uncle through lots of care and living together.

The story opens with a Domz attack and meteors falling across Hyllis. One of the meteors crashes in front of the lighthouse and the Domz inside take control of the children. Jade has no choice but to fend them off and this begins the start of the game.

The game is pretty short numbering in only 4 main areas and clocking in fully at maybe 9-10 hours however the game is pretty unique by most standards. Its an action/adventure/stealth game. You can explore a decently large part of the world, fight domz and other monsters and sneak around Alpha section facilities in order to expose the truth to the world. That is only after Jade is recruited by the rebellion to show the people of Hyllis who the Alpha section (their protectors) really are.

For a game of its time BG&E looked quite amazing. Everything was nicely drawn, textures were believeable and the landscape was pretty serene, if mostly flooded by water. The stylised parts of the game include most things being rounded or off centre. Not much in the game is parallel to something else, giving a really smooth look overall. The characters are also pretty different by the standards 7 years ago. There are goat, pig, shark, walrus, cat and Rhino sapiens. Special props to the Rhinos for owning Mammgos garage and also being jamaican rhinos too.

Overall likeable characters and great character development through Jade, especially after you return from the Slaughterhouse. The lighthouse destroyed and the children taken, there is nothing left for Jade anymore, considering Peyj was taken earlier. So you get a Space engine off the Rhinos and jet into space to save the world :D Then it took them these 7 years to tell us there would be a sequel. Bout time considering the ending they left us with.

Anyway, another factor of the game is the camera. The initial mission is to get money and this is issued by the science people to take photos of every animal in the world. Its pretty good when you take into account there are about 50 or so different animals to take pictures of, this includes the people, the enemies and general world animals. Its always great dodging a bosses attacks just so you can get a photo of them. Then the bigger meat of sneaking into Alpha Section bases of operations so that you can get proof that they are not as great as they say. Taking photos of certain crates and Alpha Section members with their helmets off really draws you in. Seeing the boxes for the first time you realise its worse than you thought, then seeing them in the slaughterhouse being packed for the moon is even worse. They mustve taken half the population. Its quite an emotional journey and spurs you on to rescue them and Peyj. By the end of the game, you've made a big enough difference to the people of Hyllis that no one believes in the Alpha sections and an uprising has started. 

And to think, this was just one planet out of hundreds that the Domz and Alpha Sections are at

Current progress

These are the points on my 3D that I got up to last night. MY self portrait is pretty self explanatory while my environment is now my back garden. I'm going to try and make my props work well even though that area is really cluttered its pretty hard to find a decent composition without changing the entire scene. I'll be seeing what I can get away with modelling and what can be alphas and hopefully improve my quality of texturing.

Gonna do an airship for my vehicle, something small-ish. Not too busy either.  Skies of Arcadia style too. Gotta scan in the orthos and thatll be good to go. Seems pretty easy to do in 3 weeks really.

I do really want to work more on my sackboy, actually i might do a bit tomorrow

Children of Men

Children of men is set in 2027. It is a ruined future in which no children have been born since 2009. Due to the decrease in population in some of the third world countries, they all move to the UK and the americas in hope of a cure and company.  This isn't the greatest idea as factions created chaos and violence throughout the country.

The film opens with a news report telling the death of Baby Diego, the youngest human on the planet. Why someone would shoot him, we do not know. Maybe one of those circumstancial celebrities like big brother winners who think they're famous but really aren't. But most of the time we don't even have a point for celebrities, theyre famous people who have gotten above their post. There is nothing wrong with famous people, the game creators, authors or illustrators but the people who relish the limelight for kicking a ball around a field better than others are pointless. We need to idolise the people who have talent. Heck not even the gold medal winners get as much attention as your average Primier Leaguer. Yes I hate football.

Back to the story, Theo Faron takes the day off work to see his friend Jasper. They talk and eat and smoke and have a great time in this bad future. It is on his way home that Theo is abducted  and taken into a newspapered room.  It is here that he is asked to join in the activites of the rebellious group to reform the country. Theo refuses to help and is let go, it is only when he is thrown in at the deep end and asked personally by Kee to help, that he does.

From here, Theo, Miriam, Kee, Luke and Julian drive through the countryside to escape to the coast, from the coast they will send Kee to a Sanctuary where she will be save and even help restore fertility to the planet. They leave in a single car yet get attacked by a group of Forest dwellers, who can hardly do anything running to it with just sticks. There is one dirt bike however that catches up to the car and fires through the windscreen. Even though it was a little obvious to duck at this point, Julian gets shot through the shoulder and dies shortly after. Its a little strange having the death of a main character happen casually like it did and then still being inside the action to accept it. It was a good idea to have a section in the forest where Julian was buried and Theo needed time to himself to grieve her death. 

On the road, they find a little settlement which promises to help take Kee to the coast and then to the people she needs to get to to be safe. They all go power crazy and decide to kill everyone except Kee and claim the glory. Theo takes his group and they escape to Jaspers, then arrange to be arrested and put into the immigrant slum town.  Unfortunately while on the immigrant delivery bus, Miriam is thrown out into one of the stations along the way while protecting Kee whose waters have broken.  As the bus drives off we get to see the timeline of the people taken off at this point. Their heads are bagged and knocked to the ground in front of everyone, they are killed in front of the cages and finally their bodies are thrown onto a corpse pile. It is only to be assumed that this was Miriams fate too.

They get to the slum town easily and Theo delivers Kee's baby in an empty shack room. This may have been to recreate the nativity, having such a simple birth for something so special. There is no time to dawdle as it seems the inhabitants from oversees are going to start an uprising against their overseers. It wont be safe to stay still and it is also the pefect distraction to get to the coast unnoticed.  A dash from the room Theo and Kee were staying in to the coast begins  but alas, they get stopped by the evil people from the shack that wanted to kill them before. They wheel off Kee (in a wheelchair at this point) and are told to execute Theo, the gypsy lady who gave them the room and an indian guy who knew the way. Unfortunately the indian guy is the first to go but fortunately the group gets ambushed and the Shack people are forced to fight. Theo runs off and discovers a large building that Kee is inside and gets inside just as it becomes underfire.  Kee is found inside the building along with the Shack Dweller leader. He weakly tries to get Theo to hand over the baby one last time, commenting about his sister and how beautiful they are the whole time firing through a hole in the wall. Theo takes the chance to escape but gets shot in the shoulder before the shack leader is hit by a tank shell. The baby cries and it causes everyone around to stop and look at the baby.

Theo leads Kee down the stairs, the whole time the baby cries and the people stare and sing. Near the bottom they encounter the soldiers who call a ceasefire. The baby is carried between the lines of soldiers who pray and look on in amazement until someone decides to ruin the magical moment by firing a grenade. From here, Theo and Kee are given a boat by the gypsy lady and row out to the buoy, before the sanctuary ship appears, Theo gives in to his injuries and dies.

This film is quite well done in its camera work. We saw the making off and how they'd rigged up the car to have a camera pass through it without once having to stop the filming. How they hid everything and got it all to flow so well i dont know but it was very interesting to see how it was done. The again if i hadn't i never would have noticed.

I'd also heard that many shots in this film were done in one take, such as the driving section and the climax near the end of the film. From the point the group first see the fighting until Theo gets shot is more than likely one take and that is around an 8 minute take. The giveaway are the blood spatters on the camera lens which do decrease in number within the minute after they're splattered onto it. 

I also read on Wikipedia that the book is totally different to the film. Kee doesn't exist in the film at all and Theo's government position is more evident. The fish use him to ask for change in the world rather than delivering the pregnant woman to the coast. Also the father of the baby is known and overall the film seems less like a journey and much more like an Overthrow of a powerful figure.

The film itself is a good one, its filmed well and the story is easy to follow, even if there are alot of characters. The sets are well designed showing a great contrast between the forests and the bombed out cities. 9/10, could have been better if we;d seen the making of second so that we didnt have to see almost every scene 4 times

Twas the Fortress before christmas

It was the night before christmas

And all through the house

Not much was stirring

Except for a mouse

It was pointing and clicking

And aiming and shooting

Killing all the soldiers

Who were rocket jumping

But then on the Bridge there was such a clatter

I sprung from the fort to see twas the matter

I dashed through the halls, 

ran like the wind

Shooting the enemy and protecting my kin

Then out on the bridge what do I see?

A sentry gun, not one but three.

I thought to myself this is quite a feat

But I should run before I get turned into meat

I dashed back inside and gathered the troops

I needed to tell them of my awesome dupe

We'd be rid of those sentrys once and for all

And after this, intel for all

We set up the heavy and medic and demo

The pyro and soldier waiting for the get go

Zed three I press, Go Go Go he cries

And forward we charged though it took a few tries.

I AM THE UBERMENSCH came one cry

HAHA LITTLE BABIES as the bodies began to fly

The uber was activated

The plan was initiated

A screen of tracers and smoke filled the screen

It was all fuzzy and fluffy, like a christmas dream

The damage from  our team beat all the records

So soon we'd have all the rewards

Then the stickies landed at their knees

Then exploded they did, one then two then three

Our team all jumped and filled with cheers

The enemy respawned and were adorned with jeers

We had one, we had prevailed on this christmas night

For sure it was great and quite the site

And as I left the server to all I said

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

Brazil

Brazil is another film in the Dystopian future series, lets face it, they're pretty cool.

The main gist of the film is a single Administritive error gets Harry Buttle arrested on Christmas day and then killed for illegal maintenence on heating fixtures. This is all due to a single fly in the printing room causing the T to be a B. So of course when this is discovered that it was the wrong man, the department has to fix things before it gets to the higher ups. 

The head of the lower down department is quite useless when it comes to anything involving computers or sorting things out so he calls to Sam Lowry to help with the matter. A technical wiz, even if he downplays his skills, assists with everythign and is told he can be promoted if he wants. Being the modest man, disliking most of the work he does and the environment hes in, denies it and sticks to his easy job. As he meanders through life he dreams of escape, grass and freedom from technology and the city. Sam is a form of angelic knight, able to fly and is always saving a certain girl from any dangers that might befall her. A complete contrast to his normal life where he blends in, being as meager as possible just to get through life hoping his dreams will come true.

On with the story, in an effort to correct the error by the department, Jill, the Buttles neighbour, tries to file an error report but is being given the run around by being told to go to two different places to get a form filled out. This girl is the one from Sam's dreams, albeit she does not have the long damsel-in-distress hair, and he frantically looks around to find her but alas she is not there. He carries on through security and meets one of his old friends, Jack, who know works in the department above him. Jack urges Sam to take the promotion yet he once again declines especially since he has to fix the Buttle mess. Later that day, he drives out to the Buttle household to personally deliver compensation money to the family. However he is attacked by the distressed son. In a daze he notices the hole in the ceiling and sees Jill looking through. He is overjoyed and dashes aroudn the apartments to find her deluded by love. Once again she is gone driving off in her large jeep. Lowry gives chase in his little company car, probably the most determined hes ever been in his life.

Unable to convince her to love him back, he returns home to find two of the official heating engineers destroying his repaired home  and later on, they claim it as their own until repairs are done, meaning never. A day or so after that Harry Tuttle, switches the oxygen pipes and the sewage pipes, thus flooding the engineers suits with sewage and drowning them and consequently exploding over the entire apartment. A prime example of Tuttles renegade nature and his sense of humour too. That same night, Jill appears to Sam for help. At this point she is suspected of setting the bombs around the city that have happened recently. A slight crack of weakness in Jills constant hard of nails personality. Sam of course promises to help her out. He appeals to get his promotion into Information Retrieval in order to see and change Jill's file to Deceased. It is a few days prior that he discovers his friend Jack is the man responsible for disposing of criminals and Buttle of course.

Following a truck chase through the city, Sam and Jill are inevitably captured, then released and able to spend their one night of loving passion together. Luckily this wasn't a gratuitous scene of sex *cough*underworld*cough*. Sam believes that he has finally fulfilled his dreams and rescued the girl of his dreams and they can live happily ever after however they are awoken the next morning with paratroopers tearing into the room, much like the same as Buttles arrest. The soldiers have probably done this so many times they can run it off perfectly. 

In the cell, Lowry is confronted by the president of the company and told that Jill is dead. Sam realises that this is only because he changed the records the other night. As a viewer you feel happy that she is still alive only to be told "Well it seems she died twice". Quite breaking when you know that Lowry's world has now collapsed and he is sitting in a stupidly large room, rocket silo size, strapped into the single chair ready to be tortured by Jack. Sam pleads to be released and not tortured however it falls on deaf ears and JAck begins. Fortunately Tuttle, and the rest of the illegal heating engineers (bizarre heroes) abseil down the stupidly large walls to save Sam. They escape the building suffering many casualties but manage to get to the borders of the city. Strangely Tuttle is surrounded by newspapers and somehow consumed by them, then breaks into his mothers friends funeral. His mother looks about 34 and is chatting up all the waiters there uncaring that Sam is in the room too. Paratroopers break in from both sides surrounding the room but Lowry falls through the coffin and into the truck of Jill. Estactic that she is still alive, they drive off into the sunset for their happily ever after, safe from pursuers.

To which the camera fades back to the stupidly large room. Lowry still sitting there, a hole through the middle of his forehead, singing the main theme to the film.

A very powerful ending especially since you are lead to believe for 10-15 minutes that he does escape and gets the girl. Alas, in a technological society, there is no way that a Heating Engineer renegade is going to be able to save you every time.

Lowry is added to the list of those arrested, and taken care of by Jack. A great film, I thoroughly enjoyed it. But why the baby masks? They're just freaky.

New work time

Fuck everything I've done in 3D so far, it was essentially just crap.

So lets restart it.

Environment: Just outside my back door where we keep the washing line, greenhouse, gueinea pigs and rabbits. Going on a smaller scale with no foliage because that is the worst thing ever.

Vehicle: A Skies of Arcadia style Airship. I'll have to draw up a concept today. This will now look like something more than a bunch of primitives. Looking at it its essentially true. Good in 2D, fails in 3D that idea.

Self Portrait: Have reliable 7 1/2 head orthos to work from including a 3/4 view. With a 2 and a half weeks left to do everything, lets see if I can manage it. I probably could if I cut out the procrastination and the TF2

Dunno what it was, but being told I was one of the worst in the year made something click and now I feel inspired to work. It all came together really, this could have been one of my "Yes moments"

As for my Sackboy, I hope i get this done in time too, I don't wanna miss out on such a competition. 

Dark City

Dark city is a film about a dystopian future and like many other dystopian films, it features the colour black and green heavily. I have no idea what makes the gas or the water green though.

It was released in 1998 and almost written by Alex Proyas. For a film that doesn't use CG for it's main effects, it looks really nice and was a nice change of pace from Night of the Hunter and Carnival of souls. The main effects being the buildings in the city collapsing down into the ground and then rising up again as a completely different building.

The original plot of the film is that John Murdoch wakes up in a bath (full of purple water) unable to remember anything. He slowly makes his way outside of the bathroom, slipping on wet puddles as he goes and notices a syrienge on the floor. Also on the floor is the body of a woman, covered in blood. The phone mysteriously rings and the voice introduces itself as Doctor Schreber who tells John to get out of the hotel he is in. A bit like the matrix at this point, a person you don't know telling you to leave the building that you're in otherwise some bad men will get you. Following the instruction , John flees the hotel and ends up in a cafe, ducking away from the police who enter after him. He is questioned as he leaves but the prostitute from outside steps outside and rescues him. She takes him back to her place with the intend of 'doing business' with him. He suggests that he may be the prostitute serial killer but she doesn't care. Upon seeing a child in another room, John promptly makes his exit back home to his wife.

Later on in the film, John discovers he is the Serial killer but knows he didn't kill anyone. A new quest to discover Shell Beach comes into the film as Murdoch talks to people he knows about finding Shell Beach. A taxi driver says he knows where it is but doesn't know the exact route to it so can't go there and the subway train is an express train that doesn't stop at the station that is meant to be the change for Shell Beach. John takes it upon himself to walk there and encounters a sign that is above the entrance to the place but the tunnel below it is a dead end. Frustrated, he climbs the sign and encounters the strangers who need to kill him because deep down, he knows too much. Once again, alot like the Agents in the Matrix. John uses psychic powers to kill all but one of his attackers. Throughout the film he discovers that the time of the world stops at midnight, which is alot like Persona 3 and its Dark Hour. During this stopped time, the cityscape changes along with the people, with one injection, they become someone else. The buildings changing isn't done with CG at all, just with models of the buildings and it looks pretty great for what they've done. IT still seems to be in the scene and believeable even though it isn't anything we would ever see.

During his travels, John meets Detective Bumstead, great name I thought, who upon meeting and learning about John's predicament realises that he is indeed right. Why is it always nightime in the city? When was the last time he went outside the city? When was the last time he went to bed and slept? When two people find common ground like this in films, they must join together to find the answers. Doctor Schreber also joins with them, more through blackmail and threats of death if he didn't join. This is only because he has been working with the Strangers and discloses that they're Aliens studying human nature, whether they can be left alone or have to be taken care of. The aliens need to know for they will fully die out without such knowledge. It is also revealed that Murdoch shares the psychic ability Tuning which the aliens use to change the city. Its a good concept and alot like the matrix in that the Operators are allowed to change certain things inside the matrix without being a direct part of it. But of course both films have technicalities like operators not being able to go into the Matrix again and the Aliens can't interefere with the Humans or it'll ruin the experiment.

The experiment which was explained when Murdoch, Bumstead and Schreber destroyed the wall to Shell Beach yet only found space outside of it. The Dark City is alot like a hamster cage which houses humans so that they can be examined at all times but also changed, added to or taken away, to see how the inhabitants react. Though the humans in the film are injected with a serum which turns them into someone else: a policeman one day, a serial killer the next etc. Along the same lines, its pretty sad that you can be trapped in such a small place for eternty (The city is just a floating city in space) much like pets. The smaller ones that hardly get to leave their cages, it must get really boring.

Though Murdoch does have the power to change things through Tuning them yet is taken down by the Aliens to be used to house the collective minds of all of them. Dr schreber injects him with a liquid which is not the memories as planned but Murdochs memories to help him learn how to Tune better. John breaks free and destroys the lair of the Aliens killing many in the process before taking on the Head Honcho, Mr Book. The aliens do have good names too like Mr book, Mr hand, Mr wall. Simple names that are actually pretty good and hide alot of personality about them.

Murdoch and Book break out through the ground and into the sky above and duke it out using Mind Lazers. Its a bit like the end of Matrix Revelations but with less physical contact. Mr book then explodes and the Aliens promise never to interfere again.

John, quite happy with how things are gone, and in true film fashion recreates the one place that he'd longed for, Shell Beach. The outside of the city is flooded and sand is added so essentially it is now Light City (since he brought back the sun too) and Shell Beach. Wonder if he changed the subway and the taxi drivers so that they drive there. 

I kinda wonder how people can easily change from one occupation to another literally overnight. Surely any injuries would carry over into the next day and the subject would be curious how they got these things? Along with children, we do only see the Prostitutes child but I will assume there are more around. You can't change too many memories or you may even forget your own child in time. 

Also with Murdoch, is he really from Shell Beach, or are the memories of him growing up there a part of a serum he'd been injected with? The video clip of him there and the colouring book he made could be props made by the aliens and his memories written to believe he wrote these.

Ala: Is Deckard Cain a robot or a human?

Mmmm coco pops with hot milk

I really want some now >_>

You miserable meathead

More like Home been. Its nice to be back home in a house with double glazing but in gaining such things I lose out on being able to put on the heating whenever and also my internet is 40times slower than that of my Leicester house. Lifes a bitch.

I've also been kinda keeping up with my self professed work schedule for the holiday. A blog a day and some drawing. I'll restart my self portrait tomorrow along with drawing my own face from different angles. Hope Heather and Chris mail me back soon, would be nice to get more detailed feedback.

On a related note: How many people live in Midsommer for there to be no regulars and for no one to move out?

This film on right now called Duel is actually pretty gripping and all it is is a guy in his car trying to pass an oil tanker, for 15 minutes now. For some shots you put the camera on the outside of the car so that it looks into the car and doesn't move at all, its like it's green screened but not. Old film too, not usually to my taste but it certainly keeps me looking away from this blog. I'm pretty sure the guy in his car is gonna get killed by that tanker at some point though.

Damn that is one fast oil tanker. Also some camera shot with the camera on dollys next to the tanker and car looking up at the wheels it looks really coo. Someone sure thought about this. 

Can tankers really do 85mph back in the 70s? Cue dramatic music and pushing 95mph/ This is some serious deja vu on this point. Aww, he skidded off into a fence and thus ends the most exciting 20 minutes of my evening.

Nothing else really that exciting to write about. I'm sure I'll do more interesting things once I get the whole day to myself. And monday ill see about skecthing people down the town centre but I'm sure like last time, it'll be pretty difficult as nobody wants to stand still. Otherwise ill have to draw some of the shops and buildings around there.

Holy cow, this film is about a murderous Oil tanker. This film may well be worth watching the end of. IMAGINE THE MIND GAMES. A FILM WITH ONE MAIN CHARACTER. I wanna go pop some corn but the tension this film is generating would break my leg if I even stood up.

Ben Mathis week

It's always a pleasure to have a professional from the industry come into class and go through their general work flow on a project. I wonder if it would be possible to get other people to come in and do such things as when it comes to an art based course, being told by the pros how they do it, isn't always descriptive enough.

That boy does like his keyboard shortcuts though.

Seeing how he did things was quite eye opening such as how he had the basic model for a skeleton done in around one morning then the entire model done by the end of the second day, tweaking and all. 

He really knows some niche stuff that I may not have learnt otherwise such as using layer adjustments instead of applying the same filters to the layer itself. Now I just have to find a way to get it to only apply to an area. Thinking about it, using a normal selection may be what i need. It makes complete sense as there have been times that I've wanted to use an original image but adjusted it for a lil too much to make it unusable again.

Turning off the bounding box in 3Dsmax is also a helpful thing. I say helpful but that thing hardly had a purpose anyway. If it does maybe itll become apparent but I don't think ill find myself saying "I wish that bounding box was here. IT would make this so much easier"

His texturing was pretty first class too. I'm glad he likes having pixellated textures too as thats almost a special thing of having a low poly model. Its an extra style that adds more than it takes away. And how he painted it was quite impressive too, I may have missed some of it but I did keep looking up at his final result as he was going. His little talk on the antialiasing and mip maps (painting the texture sheet the primary colour in the texture instead of black) is bound to be useful in the future.  I was also surprised that you could paint in 3D in Cinema 4D. I used that very program in College but considering that our tutor had no idea about what he was doing, let alone 3D, we didnt get very deep into that one. But perhaps it didn't have that functionality back then...I'd like to get my hands on it now though.

Wish I coulda seen him using mudbox, that woulda been the icing on the cake. Then again, we already got more than our monies worth as he gave us insights into the industry, how to meet people and approaching them for jobs. As always its not a what you can do as much as a who you know kinda business. Better make sure I don't make any enemies on the course  .

All in all I would have worked on that WoW project too but considering I'm not a stickler for WoW I didn't want to join in. It wouldve been the 100th Night elf female dark knight anyway. These Game artisans competitions are pretty good sometimes. I still have to finish my mini racer, along with a pixelly texture. That and my Sackboy of Persia but with all this work I set myself up for doing over christmas, hope I can find the time before the new year deadline.

Roll on tomorrow where more art is bound to happen

Night of the hunter

Night of the hunter was an interesting film especially since I kinda dislike black and white films. Taking out the colour takes out some of the charm of films and removes a whole dimension. However it does make strong the contrast that its given. Many of the scenes at night  are lit well showing only the characters lit compared to the rest of the scene. The first scene that shows this is the Reverends shadow appearing on the wall of John and Pearl's bedroom. A towering shadow that enveloped most of the light in the room showed him in an ominous light. Looking out of the window showed the Reverend standing by a street lamp looking at the house, singing one of his hymns, as if to decieve that he was still a holy man.

The film opens with a brief message of about trust. Not everyone is trustworthy and this of course leads to the reverend. Just because he seems believable doesn't mean he is. 

Ben harper, a minor character, runs back to his house and tells his son John about the money he has just stolen. He's hidden it inside of his sister's, Pearl's, doll.  John isn't able to tell anyone under any circumstances until he comes back. This of course startsa thrilling film of cat and mouse for the greedy reverend to get his hands on the money.

The reverend has the words Love and hate tattooed on his knuckles. He uses these as a way of winning people over and misleading people into thinking hes a good man. His tale says that man is strong and the hate grows but eventually love wins overall. For impressing some of the townspeople he is invited to the town picnic. A few days later at the town picnic he get John aside and interrogates him. He repeats this later on after he marries their mother as an excuse to getting closer to the money. 

Of course it would be very hard to forget the strangest scene in the film when the river water is as clear as a glass of the liquid. John and his friend Birdie can perfecty see his dead mother sitting at the bottom of the river in a car. Just why is the water so clear? Water is never as crisp and clear as that. Hilariously stupid mistake really.

Not wanting to live the rest of his life being in fear of the reverend, he takes Pearl into his repaired river boat and goes downriver, even sleeping on the boat as night falls.  They spent the rest of that night in a barn hiding from the Reverend who rides in front of a magnified moon on a horse. His black shadow creating the perfect threat merely 100 yards away.  The next day, they come into contact with Rachel Cooper who looks after a few other abandoned children.  She takes John and Pearl under her wing only if they work on the farm for their keep. John reveals the tales and Rachel promises to protect them if the Reverend comes near.

That night he does and Rachel upholds her promise, guarding the front porch with her shotgun. The two of them sing the hymn that the Reverend has sung throughout the film. Its as though this song is their fighting, both of them singing to show how determined they both are to win. The lone candle that lights up Rachel goes out and the Reverend makes his move into the house to get a hold of John and the doll once and for all. 

At the end of the film, the Reverend is arrested and the scene plays out exactly the same as when Johns father was arrested. The police wrestle the adult to the ground, John shouts "Don't..don't" and collapses onto the ground in tears. This shows us that even though the reverend is a terrible person, John things of him like his father or at least somebody that he cares about so much he doesnt want to see them in prison. Later shown by John not pointing out the Reverend in court, letting him run free.

The film ends with it being Christmas at Rachel Coopers. It is like the light at the end of the dark tunnel that was his journey. And with the money no longer in his possession, the "Reverend" can no longer bother him.

Colours

The 9th floor resides in grey tones with hints of blue everywhere

The 8th floor is mostly yellow with brown wood everywhere

You can never unsee it

Christmas Checklist

Things to do:

Environment: Edit colour palettes

Change bench model to fix textures and alphas.

Add more bushes, plants and shrubs.

Fix back bushes into a subtle bush

Light and Render

War of the Worlds: Give diagrams as to what it is

Fix bump maps and add speculars

Add blue energy orb

Light and Render

Self portrait: Improve head modelling (lower poly etc.) Side and 3/4. Draw over a face photo to get edgeloops

Bigger hands and improve foot structure

More relaxed pose

Get decent textures

Rig

Light and Render

Blogs: Carnival of souls, city of lost children, children of men, donnie darko, Brazil, Dark City, Blitz, Rare and Ben Mathis talks. General progress and interesting things

2D: 2 pages of sketchbook work a day to flesh out projects. Work on Bradgate and Interesting location paintings. 

Finish sculpture

Interesting person, R+D (faces, bodies, gestures, anatomy, proportion), war of the worlds

Learn Mudbox, read tutorials, learn more

Sackboy of Persia

A quick render, an older render of my model with a quick texture on it. I suppose when i find the time between everthing else ill get around to finishing it off.

My new version has a wooden sword, a rounder scarf and slightly cel-sahaded texture with an outline. 

3D in a real world environment?

Found this on gameartisans. Seems that alot like the Eye Toy, (or the eye of judgement thing) we can put 3D models in a real world space without having to green screen things.

Wanted to put it here just so that I remembered Video Here

Guitar Hero World Tour: Bike Hero

Guitar Hero World Tour: Bike Hero Video

This just has to be shown to the nation. Even if nobody reads this, I'm going to keep it here so that I can remember this for all time

Week 24: Feedback

Personally, I feel that the course has actually been a great piece of learning, even for the first year.
This should be pretty evidenced by the work in my presentation. The progression of how well I've come around to understanding things and how the world looks is just so new.
High school didnt teach me about perspective in art or any of the things I've learnt this year. I only picked up the perspective and technical drawing from when I was in DT graphics.

Life drawing was especially useful. When coming to interviews at uni they shunned my drawings even though I had spent at tops 3 hours on 8 different life pictures. In college we had a model for just one morning but now I really understand anatomy and things make so much more sense and the progression for that, I think is a big step

I can't really say the same for my photoshop work. Mostly that has been a "Fuck off and find out" style principle. I had basic knowledge to paint things and definitely learned alot more about rendering and colour theory. Some things would be nice to know, such as how to use other brushes and things like that. Layer principles, how the Adjustments work and which filters are useful.

I don't know what happened with Mike and the Guest Lectures since January. There was some pretty useful stuff in there. Hope they restart next year.

Maybe some Air Con for the labs its getting pretty  damn hot in there >_>
Sorry, that had nothing to do with the course.

I guess there isn't really too much more to add. I agree with the going out more and the sculpting ideas. Traditional media? No way. Not unless you want pencils and crayons every submission.
I would say more freedom too but I guess we get that in the second year what with the levels and whole Queens project.

So yeah, I'm good and thats my list of things, its pretty small but I'm sure everyone else may be thinking the same thing

Week 22: GDC

THE FUTURE OF MMOs.

This turned out to be something I wouldn't mind giving a look to even over the development of Super Smash Bros Brawl. But it is the MMOs that take up alot of my time, even if I play the fake ones too.

At first we only really had MMORPGs and those worked well with their levels and social marketplaces and they are still being released today. Heck, even the old ones are still doing well. There are still loads of people on the Diablo II servers and dotted around on every MMO to exist. It's hard to say what really attracts people to mmogs. It could be the sense of achievement of reaching a certain level, it could be being strong enough to take on the hardest of bosses or it could be finding rare equipment and being the richest player in the game. The majority of MMOs that I played were like that and after quitting the grindfest that was maple story, quiting, rejoining, then going to play the extremely-fast-leveller but unpopular to get the party bonus, then going back to maple story, then quitting for the same thing but better called LaTale then leaving because it was in Korean then back to maple and finally off it because its more addictive than crack.

Now the two MMOs I play are Lunia which goes for level based gameplay over grinding. It still has grinding in a sense but favours skill and combo making to proceed. Getting into a new level and running through to the end and taking out the boss is worth it and the usual getting stronger every x levels. The other is TF2. One that isn't an RPG but an FPS. I believe that with halo and all other multiplayer FPSs is that shooting other people is more fun than CPUs. I have outrageous fun on TF2 tricking myself into thinking I have l33t scout skillz. Its as addictive as those RPGs yet there is no ranking system, or equipments to strive for. The only thing per round to aim for is being top of the leaderboard and even then people dont care about the points they get. The gameplay is just that fun.

From another angle there is Eve. I haven't played it but my college friends have and they just love it. Set in space, you mine for ore and treasures, learn skills over the course of the day even when not playing and upgrading your ship.

It's odd how all kinds of genres are being upgraded into MMOs nowadays. Thinking of it, even the 2D fighting games have been converted in the likes of Grand Chase. Sure its anime styled but for a fighting game it did look exciting much like Street Fighter online but with swords and spells.

In the future there is more than likely going to be MMOs for every genre of games. Racers will be online, choosing people to race against, upgrading your car and modding it. Maybe even forming racing clans or their own race teams.
With the success of Second Life, there may be other casual mmos springing up. Those with no real objective, just to do things you couldnt normally do in life. Meeting new people and having fun.

A point: I read recently that games coming out may well ignore subscription fees altogether in the future. With the introduction of cash shops to purchase new clothes/weapons to upgrade your avatar there may well be a revolution in how everything is done. This is the kind of thing that could break the industry.
Maple STory had a CS that just gave you equips with looks and no stats but also things like pets which looted for you and revive stones. It seems fair enough to me but on the other hand it could be more like trickster where if you don't pay real money, you can't catch up to those who do as they get better stats on their purchased items.

Personally I kind of hope for an online Jet Set Radio. May happen, may not happen. A sequel at least would make me happy T_T

Week 21: Reflection

IT seems pretty apparent that if a student doesn't do any work they will ultimately not learn anything. Sure you can be told what things look like and how they work but without going over it and trying it for yourself, you're never going to remember it.

ITs a useful thing that we learn something and then do an excercise about it. For visual design we learnt about single and double point perspective and produce images and also paintings with those techniques. Looking down the river has helped show how things disappear into a point even though i do still struggle with getting all of ground within a third of an image. Tricky seeing it in halves then squeezing it down but i will work on it. Two point perspective is used when viewing the corner of an object such as a building and then looking down into everything besides it.

3Dsmax excercises are useful to help drill those tools into your head. Being familiar with the professional practises is a great idea for getting us in line for moving on up. Working with tris and polys and doing texturing styles is great, especially to learn this early. Personally I 
would like to know how to set out texturemaps properly so that no space is wasted and people dont look down on you for bad usage.

Tieing in with that. I know we have to learn some things ouselves but perhaps a little bit of photoshop tutoring wouldn't go amiss. During summer I will definitely aim to up the quality of my digital paintings and work on my anatomy. I do draw bodies alot more realistically than i used to. I understand how things wrap together but there is still more i can learn. How muscles move  and restraints of the joints.

To add to that I will work on some 3D stuff, modelling a couple of toys i have and work on two areas. A shrine and my bedroom to have a go at modelling and texturing full environments and assests. I'll also have renders and objects to put towards my portfolio.

Also Ill be joining in on Del,Dan's and Mike's SUMMER WORKOUT if it fully goes ahead. Those guys work hard so if i follow in their footsteps itll really help me step up my game to at least be better than college standard when it comes to art

Weekly Design Challenge

Looking up on Kotaku, there is a link to a new challenge for game developers/designers/whatever.
It may be something worth entering each weekn or even just give it a look in to see what people are coming up with.
This weeks is to come up with a new functional RPG character. I'm not sure if the contest requires any art but it's only the first week. We'll know soon enough.

Without further ado, here's the link http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/521/james_portnows_design_challenge.php

So we will see what happens with it and I'll see what happens and perhaps update the blog with winners and things like that

Week 20 Addendum

Just felt like addinga bit more after being told the first one was pretty negative.
Of course there are so many different ways that creativity can be shown.
Damien Hurst managed to cut a cown and its calf in half and call it art. Nothing like that has ever been done before. Its really unusual that seeing the insides of a cow is acceptable in the form of art and can even become the competition winner. I personally don't see how it is arty but somewhere along the way someone decided to produce sculptures instead of paintings and after that all kinds of other things that have made art alot more than images.
Along the course of time so many things have come about and it is all through creativity. We wouldn't even have music if a person didnt believe making noise could have a purpose or produce something pleasant to the ears. Hell, we wouldnt have nearly anything we have today if nobody had used thought to adapt to surroundings or to better themselves.

Same applies to gaming. There are clever minds who want to up the power of consoles in order to produce games that look more realistic or even more surreal. Its a wonder that we even have consoles at all even more surprising we have games that have progressed up to almost realistic standards. As I mentioned before there will be a point when games aren't really games anymore. Besides, having realistic games sort of defeats the point of games in the first place, right? The only realistic game I own is Need for Speed: Underground 2 and that was bought for my sister. I play the games for the escapism. To experience something that somebody else has imagined. All those storylines have been a fragment of a humans mind.

Looking arround, someone has harnessed electricity so that we can view moving pictures on a piece of glass. A box in the corner is able to give me heat at the flick of a switch. I'm even writing this blog in a language you can understand because language has been developed and words were crafted and given purpose to define things and name things.

I suppose that in the more positive side of creativity, though a bit vague, nothing apart from the sky and the grass and soil and water has just happened. Anything you see is because someone created it, refined it and gave it to us. So as I said before, we can all be creative, as much as anyone weve heard before if we give ourselves the time to.

Week 20: Creativity

Well it's the big subject and it is something that everybody is in possession of. Creativity is an anomally really. It is something that is hard to put into words or describe since it can come in many different forms. This can be from cooking a brand new meal to solving a maths problem to thinking up a new species of creature to put in a game.

I suppose the most prominent form of creativity is the Arts. All manner of things such as dance, music and art itself. Anyone can go to a theatre and see a brand new play that is the genius of the playwright. The story and characters can be completely new and different from anything else that exists and that makes him creative. This is just an example of an obvious form of creativity.
(I'm gonna be sick of this word by the end of the blog)

Not everybody is so outwardly creative. There are so many other ways of showing it. There is nobody on the planet who would not be able to think up of an idea for a story. These people may not have the tools or equipment to follow through their ideas but certainly it is better than having all the tools but no ideas. Sure this is contradictory to my other statement but many people do get blocked alot of the time. I personally want to create something new but more than likely, decide not to do it because its so cliche, would seem like copying someone else or just that it was a fleeting idea and didn't have enough flesh to it.

Thinking of games today, all of the big mainstream titles don't seem creative because there are just too many of the same things. Looking across the room at my DBZ game, I recall that all the games in the series are the same but with more characters. As far as I know this is the same as almost every sports game that is out there. Sport can only get more real therefore perhaps someone will be creative and think of the next step for sports games. Or games as a whole. Nintendo have broken the tried and tested 'use a controller to play' ethic with using a stylus to control the DS and a remote which has numerous attachments (1) to free the arms and give a sense of immersion. What did we have before that? Rumble. Right now its still really all we have with the odd bit of shaking the wii mote or six-axis to get the feeling that we're there.

We always say how we want to get new styles of playing games and it makes me wonder; do we not get new ways to play because developers know what works and it earns them money? Or could it be down to people not thinking outside the box? Some games nowadays do push the boundries. This could be in the art style like when cel-shading was first introduced. IT could be in the storyline engrossing the player into always wanting more. It could be how we actually play the games with peripherals like light guns and guitars coming out. Surely if we pushed the limits that we have now, we would have all sorts of brand new things that will change gaming forever.

How far can console gaming really go before it isn't home gaming anymore? Nintendo certainly can't go back to a standard controller after the Wii and I dont think microsoft or sony will think twice about doing something similar to get up there with Ninty. I ask for immersion but the most extreme immersion is a simulator which defeats the point of home gaming. I don't have room in my house for an F-Zero machine nor do I want to run on a treadmill everytime i want to go somewhere in my game. In response to the point, yes creativity is limited alot by availiable technology. Right now we don't have time machines or human teleporters. Hell, we don't even have the flying cars we were promised back in the 60s. Then again, are we really limited with what we have or are we limited by what we believe we can do with it. I'm pretty sure before cement was invented that you could build a house out of sand and water (and other stuff).

Maybe if we got everybody in the world together and sat down to work on a problem, or were given a solution to solve we'd get billions of ideas. Those billions of ideas can be joined together and developed to produce the solution we need. There are not two people who think alike so therefore we can get so many ideas there is bound to be one that works and can actually be done.

We don't need to leave these things to our modern day genius' or even those of the past. We all have the potential inside of our brains to come up with ideas. Using the ideas we can overcome problems. Once that set of problems has been overcome, you're evolving and new things are happening. Materials are being used differently, people have different views towards anything and everything. Seeing something, and being inspired to merely think of anything is creative.

Week 19: Edumaction

Hmmm, this is a troubling subject and as a start I thought I'd go wandering around game sites and seeing what jobs they had avaliable. For Sega, all the jobs in the last 12 months ask for experienced applicants. Its a tough thing to ask for experience when those fresh out of college and uni aren't going to have any. They have the skills able to move out into their respective fields and yet can't for another 2 or 3 years because its hard to find a job unless they've worked before. Blizzard require those who have worked for a minimum of 3 years to work on WoW or a next gen MMO that they are in production with. Both LucasArts and Blizzard have added an additional requirement of having produced some games in the past. I guess it wouldn;t be too hard to meet the requirement for this in those 3 years you have worked though.

So to be honest, it is a tricky subject for educators to handle. I'm sure the smaller companies would enjoy having those individuals who are very creative to give employees some idea of what to model for the game in question. Inversely, other companies may want this creative person to imagine and create a full model of their idea.  
Therefore it becomes essential for those tutors out there to consider what it is that helps students be creative and gear a course towards that. Somewhere along the way it does help to give a basic or strong knowledge in the standard software for the industry. (In ours it would be 3DSmax/Maya, Photoshop and something like Zbrush). An understanding of those programs is sure to give students an upper hand when it comes to finding a job even if it isnt something an employer looks for. It is merely a plus and shows that a person is alot more adaptable to any job or task they are given.

On the other hand, the creative hand, it is something that is hard to teach. If you tell someone exactly what they are meant to be doing, 
you haven't taught creativity in the slightest. You need to get the right balance of pushing someone in the right direction to get them 
going and helping with ideas along the course of the process. "Who is this/ what do they do/ where do they come from" are questions that can begin the process and give the idea of research. In essence, it is research and seeing things that inspire creativity. Somebody could see a plant one day, be completely inspired by it and adapt it into a weapon, for example. Then when you can do this for any given objective that is when creativity is achieved. Alot like enlightenment, A grades and jobs.

I suppose, as the point of this task, it is pretty hard to give somebody the qualifications to apply for all the game-y jobs straight away, especially with the hierachy, but if you can give them fundamentals and then some, they are sure to have options open to them. Of course once these options are taken, it is then up to the company and individual to provide further technical education in the industry.

Week 18: Sound in Games

This weeks blog task asked about Sonic Landscapes. I didn't know what such a thing was beforehand but now I do. A Sonic Landscape is the layering of sound to produce the effect of a 3D space. I found a useful link on the Bethesda website which fully explained what it was and how it was produced using the example of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. To gather an idea of what he meant, I ran to youtube to find myself a video of what he was describing and fully understood what it was. Unfortunately, the video didnt have the footsteps which were described. I was hoping for something like Kingdom Hearts where its easy to hear every footstep, even with all characters wearing oversized clown shoes. I know most games nowadays do have footsteps but KH just had them cartoony sounding. It was nice.

Of course sound is used in many other contexts during games. We have gunshots, swords clashing, firing magic, opening doors and gates and all other manner of trees and winds howling. In an ideal game, a player will not notice the sounds that go on around him. MAking things as seamless is the job of everyone in the games industry. If something stands out, it probably is wrong. When sounds are like those in real life and seem entirely natural, we become integrated in the game and fully feel everything going on around you.

When it comes to the best Sonic moment in my history, I can't really pinpoint a moment as they never really stand out to me. Thinking back, the majority of games I've played don't tend to have these Sonic Landscapes for many different reasons. If I had a 360 or a PS3 I may notice but looking at the games on my shelf I really cannot see that many that have it. In recent years I would have to go with Zelda: Twilight Princess. Riding across Hyrule field on Epona is pretty awesome, hearing those Wyverns in the sky and the constant thundering of the footsteps really immerses you into the game. Or, as I prefer, Lake Hylia. The tranquil music that plays in the background which goes perfectly with the ambient water babbling away. If you swim around in the lake towards the waterfall, the sound begins softly and turns into a loud roar while sitting right underneath it. In the middle of the lake the cannon shop, crossed with the music hut also layers into casual water and plays over the top of the lakes BGM.

ANOTHER HONOURABLE MENTION: During bosses and mini-bosses in The Wind Waker play a chord everytime Link's sword connects with the enemy. I really loved that. An example of it is shown here

Week 17: Game Engines

Basically a game engine is an application or software that compiles multiple elements and physics to create the game. Much in the same way that you bring graphs and words into powerpoint to produce a presentation.

Many game engines are out there in the world today and it seems they are certainly getting a lot more realistic. Using the example of the Havok engine, Valve have produced games that allow characters to go flying in the right direction after being hit by rockets and becoming limp after losing life. Then again, there are many cases where the character will become a completely limp ragdoll leading to do wierd poses, and others when characters will bend over backwards into a wall when dead. At least you can shoot these ragdolls off buildings and crowbar some corpses so they jangle around. Perhaps the character deaths arent the excel of the Havok engine but it was definitely made to have suitable physics for general items laying around the area so that they could bounce around realistically. Tires and wooden boxes react as they would if they had been fired across a room with a gravity gun.

According to what I have found on the internet this subtractive and additive editing is about how you build things. Additive editing is when you start off with nothing and put things into it. Using the example of editing video, additive is when you begin with an empty timeline and then you fill it up with clips. Subtractive editing is once you have a  5 minute movie but need to cut it down to 3 minutes. At least that was my understanding  of what id read up about it.

As with most things, buying an already existing game engine it saves you the effort of having to make anything yourself and this will cut down your production times by so much as you can put things in and itll be done. However you are kinda stuck with the physics of what has been programmed into it. If this doesn't fit the game you want to make then you are kinda stuck.
Of course the advantages to making your own are the opposite. You can make things and characters move the ways you want them to but you'll need to take the time out of your project to make this engine.

As a side note, the new Euphoria engine being used on the force unleashed could well be the future. Having the character do a different motion everytime depending on whats happening. HItting a wall and showing the impact the way you really would do from any angle rather than just one wall hit animation. Characters reacting to their environment is also a large bonus and reacting to one stimuli and also reacting to another at the same time. (Stormtroopers being force-lifted and then thrown into a wall and crushed by a rock). So when The Force Unleashed comes out, I'll be able to see how great having a real life simulation is in a game compared to multiple animations.

Week 16: Gaming Cultures

I guess it is true to say that there are gaming cultures in the world today. The initial ones beginning with playing dungeons and dragons in a group on wednesday nights. Rolling the dice to see if you beat a monster or fell to your death from the top of a mountain. Following that there is Warhammer and other tabletop games. These can feature in large tournaments and its hidden depth being that you can choose any class and paint them however you want. (Well, according to some colour schemes).
In the spirit of tabletop games there is the faithful Trading Card Games but I will not get wrapped up in making friends during a childrens card game.

So, gaming, a very popular thing nowadays and you can't say otherwise. There are limitless groups for games, much like there are for films. People can be in cultures depending on the genre of games that they play. The majority of games today are First Person Shooters so you will have loads of people who look forward to their mute and faceless heroes trudging through all the corpses he made. Racing games which are going strength to strength visually but i don't see how you can really refresh the genre. And the Role Playing Game where unlikely hero/anti-hero goes on a daring quest to stop someone they know from ruining the world.

I personally don't play racing games apart from Mario Kart as the handling is far too realistic for my kart racing brain to handle and those neon lights. I try and avoid the FPS at the best of times but damn Valve for bringing out those awesome FPS's of theirs. I purchased the Orange Box and finished portal rather sharpish and only within the last 3 weeks have I played and finished all the current Half Life 2 games. BUT THERE IS ONE MORE: Team Fortress 2 completely changed the genre for me and got me into the FPS. Its just something to do with the graphics and playing as a team that makes it more bareable than other games. So for one, I belong to the TF2 culture. I try and remain on top of funny videos and machinima, pictures and comics and even the control point podcast (Whose group ive joined and need to play with more). I could even tell you that the Female Scout model has been released after being a WIP for so long and that it actually works fully in game. I've made some friends over the game that i play with sometimes and those who I know, namely my best friend Andy, and Phil from the class.

Finally, I am a large fan of the MMORPG. Anything that looks relatively cool and interesting will get a try or a look in from me. (as long as its free). The first MMO I played was Maple Story because it was the only thing my pc could run. I played it solo for a while before I started making friends and joined a guild who I became friends with. Mainly they lived in the US so i didn't play with them much and also that they were too high a level for me to party with. Good friends in the guild being Ann from Texas, Chris and Erica who shared an account and Meep who i've totally forgotten the name of. Finally Reese, who I've been talking to for almost a year now but never met. She only lives in birmingham too, so perhaps one day.
Next was Trickster but that became boring quickly due to it being in open beta and not many people from gamefaqs playing. It was a quiet guild and i didnt know many.
Then it was Lunia. Played that for a bit, stopped and playing it once again, in amognst all that TF2 action.

I guess thats it so in summary I belong to the RPG, MMORPG and ever so slightly, multiplayer FPS games.
Generally, as long as i don't have an overload of work to do, or I'm not entirely shattered or it's 3 in the morning I will try and play either Lunia or TF2. Lunia for long periods and TF2 if I'm in the lab or need a quick game. An addict? Perhaps but for 42 hours as a scout in 4 months, I really should have more than 15 points. T_T

Week 15: Game industry

In recent years the game industry has gone from strength to strength. Especially since it has only really boomed in the last 20 years which is wierd as it was only 9years since Pokemon Red came out. (Fun fact there) Gaming companies have sprung up all over the place in those 20 years with
Nintendo becoming a global franchise, same with Sega, Capcom and Square Enix. It has even grown
so large that there are now second party developers (companies owned by bigger ones) have joined
in the game.

If you ask people inside the industry what they are feeling about the direction games are taking, they'd say that it is pretty exciting. With existing hardware being able to do much more than it did before leads to so many more possibilites. This is even in all fields of development like music and marketting. Games are also reaching a larger audience than it did as those who grew up with games are now at the age they can introduce their kids to them and with more casual friendly games being made, it is certainly a more generalised industry than it was before.

To the game industry, coming from a money and audience point of view, these family games are great business but to the hardcore gamers, who do it because they like games and not bcause they are now like films, these kinds of games are a cancer. You could look forward to a game being released for your console and it would be a good game, with many good games inbetween. Nowadays, the DS is turning into a IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH station with every great game being punctuated by a brain training rip off and the Wii is unfortunately going the same way but having cheaply produced games that the whole family can get involved into. Off the Nintendo front, developers are backing away from the PS3 because its games take too long and to make and far too much effort for lacklustre profits. Which would in fact be decent profits if the PS3 wasnt such high end.

In the future we can look forward to thousands of cheaply made games with crappy touch/motion controls improving our physical and mental health.
/Rant

Week11: Gameplay

Gameplay is a term that gets thrown around alot and doesnt really have any certain meaning to it. In one instance it can literally be how a game plays (fast, smooth etc.) or what kind of things youll be doing in a game (puzzling, racing etc.). So all in all its a hard term define but I prefer to thing of gameplay as what sorts of things you get to do in a game. "What is Smash Brothers Gameplay like?" "Its a large beat em up with loads of nintendo characters around a 2D stage" Or at least thats how I'd define it. The general gist of what the game is.

So when it comes down to 'do you design the gameplay or game first?' it would easily be the gameplay. Boiling it down to Half Life 2, it is much easier to say Gordon Freeman has to run and survive (To be honest I really have no idea whats going on in HL2) from the bad guys. Once youve got that point, you can easily design your bad guys and then the locations he would be running through and then your genre can be chosen from the appropriate ones. It would be much harder to say "Lets make a shooter" and then build a story around that.

Of course you will most always come up with a concept for a game before designing the other things about it and what the game will allow you to do. I read up on the Gamasutra links and a game was produced that was about flying through the clouds and making friends with all of them. Then it was designed to be a slow relaxing game rather than a time or point based game.

Much like the above game titled "Cloud" in the future games will tryand introduce new types of game play. One such title is Endless Ocean which was just released and has the player swimming through the ocean taking photos of all the speices and that is all. In the future, after all the conventional genres are burnt out, we will hopefully see new ones bringing in new and exciting game play.