Story Boarding

As it turns out I should first off consider using a different method for Story Boarding as my rough sketches don’t look too well under the camera.

However the story that I have drew up is that of a man being aided by a mechanical battle suit, linked to the theme I pulled out for making a game out of another form of media, I picked iRobot with some story elements from District 9, the original version.

1. The man is being shot at, hiding his head below a wall.

2. Looking up and hearing a robotic voice.

3. The camera switches around to the front of the Mech.

4. The front of the Mech pops open with a hiss and cloud of smoke.

5. A full frontal look at the mech opened up.

6. The man dives for the mech, dodging bullets.

7. A close up of the man stepping up onto the mech’s leg.

8. The man gets strapped into the mech.

9. The front of the mech closes back up.

10. POV from man inside the mech, game starts.

 

The last picture is just a little clarification, it only occured to me when I finished how Iron Man it looks colour wise.

 

Character Design

When it comes to character design I have learnt that one of the key things to keep in mind is research about your characters, who are they? Why are they important? What makes them defined as a main character or not?

One artist I have looked at for inspiration is Brian K. Vaughan who Gareth pointed me to, a comic book artist who has both unique character and bizarre attire for them.

Here is an example of one of his characters, having a flashy regal costume, not to mention the interesting television monitor for a head.

One method I am using for inspiration is also a website called Stumble Upon which takes you to random pages related to specific topics you put in which can show you things which you hadn’t even thought about before.

Logos and Shops

 

After being shown some of the differences between good digital media and bad displays of it, I have taken a picture of a few shops near where I live, all of which show a number of good or bad qualities. They also show me some ideas for things like props and attention to detail when it comes to constructing a real life setting within gaming, the world is not perfect and graphical signs are placed next to hand scrawled product places and offers all around us everyday.

I have linked my logos work with my 3D modelling which will be elaborated on later.

More Sketches – Figures

An Intro to Games – Presentation with Reflection

http://prezi.com/4_sxwe-jsv5c/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Link to the presentation via Prezi.

With the response I got back immediately after completing my presentation I took one main thing on board, leave my humour out of it. As much as it appealed to my felllow peers, it diminished the proffessional appearance if I were to present in such a way to someone who would be considering hiring me. As much as I aimed my presentation at my fellow students, if it came to a potential job offer I know I would not present something with a glibe attitude. As much as I like using comedy when knowing my audience, as Gareth pointed out if I were to use that and not know who I would be presenting to and their taste in humour, it would be a detriment to my progress. Even though I know this, it was a push to tailor my next presentations to be more proffessional.

Besides that I thought my communication skills were very good, I only recall losing my place once towards the end, otherwise I never missed a beat from one subject to another.

Games Design – Heads up Display

Some concept ideas for a HUD that revolved around a military shooter that involved giant robots. Taking some ideas from other Mech games and FPS games.

Cats – logbook 7

The final log in CATS for now, this time delving into more what I expected the lectures to be about and that is the Critical Perspectives of the world around us.

This involves the links between users to video games and the web, introducing the concepts of critical perspectives, looking at significant theories and theorists and analysing our culture within this field.

Critical perspectives is useful for game designers as it allows us to get an understanding of what is happening with the interaction of a gamer and the end product. The 2 theoretical perspectives we looked at were Psychoanalysis, developed by Sigmund Freud and Feminism, something I have touched on in the past. Having studied Feminism, the psychological aspects and even Marxism I had an idea of what we were going to be discussing.

Watching a video on Silent Hill and it’s new hand held version, something that I had a fairly strong biased opinion on considering the advert was meant to show how scary the game was, it only highlighted why it actively kicks itself when thinking about it’s predecessors. Nevertheless points that were made consisted of a personal avatar, some thought this elevates the fear factor as you grow attached to your character. A clothing option, believed to be aimed at a younger audience since it is far easier to frighten a child than appeal to an adult gamer who followed the series.

Feminism was something I was more excited about as it’s usually a fairly jolly topic to discuss. Again watching a clip of Tomb Raider, the character Lara Croft being shown as I have put in previous logs, an unrealistic perfect female role model. Though she doesn’t quite hold a candle to Bayonetta when it comes to gaudy outward appearances, the character was clearly meant to be appealing for someone who raids tombs for a living.

Psychoanalyses was first used as a way to diagnose patients with mental problems, when using it to analyse Silent Hill, earlier in it’s history the player would follow the story of the character progressing through their own versions of hell and fighting their inner demons. An example would be the “Abstract Daddy” boss that symbolizes by hanging over the player on a bed to show the way the character took abuse from them. While now it’s simply, how fleshy and spider like can we make things look which lacks any form of symbolism.

As for feminism, it can be summed up with the perfect image idea I mentioned, or the massive strives in gaming such as being able to now play as a woman online in Call of Duty. As much of a controversy this caused, I really don’t consider it the next step in equality.

Cats – logbook 6

The final part of looking at Digital Culture, this lecture was focused on the future of digital culture, though I have already made my predictions in the last log, I will be relating it more to my games course this time.

What is the future of the virtual revolution?

How can I explain when there are few words I can choose, these being Cyberculture, Gamification and Social Media. (Also I was listening to Erasure while writing this.)

Cyberculture is a vast beast currently, ranging from Facebook, Twitter and other forms of Social Media (I will get to that later) such as Reddit. Having a near infinite number of examples to choose from, there is no doubt one within a fingers scroll away on a facebook wall, it is the culture that has emerged from our constant connectivity and documentation to the internet. Sites such as Youtube can go from a home video to being viewed and talked about between millions of people, shared for anyone’s viewing and enjoyment.

Gamification is something that has been around for quite some time, a very early example could be your days in school and that faithful game of tig (Or tag/tiggy depending where you come from!) the simple concept of one person being ‘it’ and having to chase and tag another as the designated chaser. Today gamification can be seen in mobiles, applications in particular with scores and global leaderboards has made some apps that track how often you visit a cafe, a competitive game.

Lastly Social Media, this is anything from TV to the internet, radio and so on. Anything that has or uses information for people to access is something I would consider social media, though it could be limited to things that are simply for enjoyment like cute animals.

So what does the future hold? An example we were given were driver-less cars, though flashy, I went rooting around for some other interesting leaps in technology recently that will be affecting all of us, one being the multi language translator applications for phones. In essence there will never be a language barrier soon, or interpreters for that matter as phones nearly have the capability to successfully fill this role.

Another possible technology that could revolutionise the gamification world are technologically enhanced lenses for your eyes, being able to display things as if they were really there in front of you. I know I can see a crowd of people with glowing eyes looking like they are trying to keep an invisible ball up while waiting for the bus. This idea has been explored in a game already though it was more related to the Google Glass, the game was Heavy Rain, having mini games that projected images from the users retinas. Futuristic classy stuff to say the least!

The next thing to look at was “The Rise of Social Media” and to consider the ethical implications in relation to the use of social media. For example Blackberry, blackberry developed a system much like text messaging except it was free called “BBM” or “Blackberry Messenger”. It is believed that this was used during the “London Riots in 2011″. The police where looking at Facebook and Twitter to try and find out information about what was going on, but they ignored BBM and it is believed to be the main method of communicating during the riots.

After a little more dicussing we were shown 2 TED Talks on the Future of Social Media and the Future of Gaming

The first by Jane McGonigal and the idea of time in relation to gaming or anything in our lives, putting hundreds of hours into something will produce results. The numbers shown were fairly ludicrous as statistical figures usually are but it was compelling to think about nevertheless. If everyone was perfectly focused enough to make every moment productive the world may be a much different place. On the other hand 400 hours clocked in on a game has been a wonderful time.

The next was by Sherry Turkle, being what I would describe as a pretty typical response from an older generation about social media and it’s effects on people. Social technology being a hinderence on our actual social abilities to communicate with one another when it comes face to face and the idea that in a few years it will become the point where the only way to communicate will be through a post on the internet. An ambitious bleak way to think about it, as much as I agree that people turn to the phone when there is nothing to talk about, there are many pictures showing a standard train back in the 1920s, this being everyone reading a newspaper to themselves. I believe the only thing that has changed is the shape of the newspaper.

Cats – Logbook 5

A short continuation of last session rounded up which we did not cover, this being the idea of thing en mass, such as Mass Production or the Mass Media.

For this case we took a deeper look at what Mass Communication is today and it’s components. These being:

The System, the term for where the communication originates from, such as a radio broadcast..

The Product, the object that receives the communication.

The Audience, this is everyone who listens or watches to what is being broadcast.

Mass Production of messages can also be referred to the Mass Repetition of messages.

Of course when it comes to Mass Communication the television was the most dominant force during the 90s, becoming the beacon of every home much like the radio had been. Although we have come on from gathering round the television as if it were an event and generally have it on in the background if watching the news etc. The invention itself is a stride in technological communication however, giving mass coverage of global news to millions of people.

Right now I would consider the television is starting to also be out-dated by hand held devices and the ever approaching google glass, which will have constant connectivity to the internet and everything broadcast to it. There are many theories and extensively written explanations about mass communication including McLuhan’s views about what mass media is doing to us, though as technology progresses to the point where we may all be walking around with what is practically an iPhone strapped across our face, blocking out the real world, it is a very real message.

Ending on these thoughts the rest of the lecture was the following to Modernism, this being Post-modernism and New Media. Again another ism to define a time period, Post-Modernism was developed in the 1970s to outline the changes in the 1960s in out western society. There were a few distinct differences in art for example, slowly becoming the post modern era to keep up with our ever changing culture.

Going back to technology and how we utilize it, we have been using technology for various forms of art with the addition of things like Photoshop, creating digital paintings with merely a wireless pen that can speak to a sheet of plastic that can replicate the fine details a brush can do. When associating it to Mass Media and Feminism, Photoshop has had a detrimental effect on our culture, this being the unrealistic looks of models and celebrities that are made to look perfect with the aid of the magical effects of photoshop. Seeing these images everyday on the front of magazines or newspapers, women in particular are a prime target for Mass Media to almost control a fake ‘standard’ of what beauty is.

For the rest of the session we discussed about the Digital Revolution and how as I’ve already pointed out, the internet is fast approaching being everywhere on your person at all times, once finished we watched a video entitled “The Virtual Revolution” which also touches on some of the view points I have made.

Cats – logbook 4

Going over the results of my Visual Analysis task I got the results I expected, the only fault being forgetting to put my name on the paper, but for the actual focus of the paper it was pretty much perfect, selecting something out of the ordinary that I had a good deal of knowledge with being a good idea. Comparing how people of the time reacted to the Demonology including the production of the play Macbeth and how demons and witches are used even in today’s games that are placed in a magical setting.

 

Onto the main part of the lecture it was about Modernism and the concepts around it and how it would help us understand our Digital Culture and the history behind it. The various areas Modernism are usually related with are:

Modernity, essentially the comparison of our modern life to how it was before the Industrial Revolution.

Modernisation, which is what Industrialisation was.

Modernism, 1880-1960 was a huge leap in technology where culture also changed along side it.

Post Modernism, 1960 onwards.

 

The Industrial Revolution was a huge change to the social and economic parts of the UK, bringing with it many jobs, though dangerous as they were. Even though it created many problems, people were working and buying the products being produced, with mass production meaning more could be made for more profit. This still rings true today in some places, though factory work is accompanied by larger businesses and more often than not coming from other countries. The social changes in this were prominent too, women and children going to work, shorter life expectancies etc. However when speaking about our modern society, gaming is becoming a much more entertainment dominating area with some games greatly out selling most movies. Modern technological advancements are being made everyday, from the new wave of consoles in our chosen study or something to a scientific breakthrough, it was believed we would have hover boards by now after all! Lastly the political sides of things can be sporadic at best, a good example would be the impact on Newcastle with the closure of it’s factories from the industrialization era and how it has affected the whole area.