Storytelling

Storytelling

To begin this blog I have decided to start with a short definition of what storytelling is.

Storytelling

Is the conveying of events in words, images, and sounds often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture and in every land as a means of entertainment, education, preservation of culture and in order to instil moral values. Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot and characters, as well as the narrative point of view.

http://www.answers.com/topic/storytelling

I have researched into Stories and the art of which they are written. During my research I came across a man called Joseph Campbell, who wrote a book called ‘The Hero with a Thousand faces’.

It is from this book that many great Poets, Artists, Film makers and musicians have been inspired, such as Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison and George Lucas to name but a few. Most notably was George Lucas’s work on his series of ‘Star Wars’ films. Within these films the characters that build up the story are particular to the writings of Campbell’s ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’, for instance you have Luke Skywalker who is the archetypal hero, Obi-Wan who is the ‘wise old man’ and Darth Vader who is the Villain or the Devil. There are several others in the film and other films follow suit in the same way such as ‘Lord of the Rings’, here you can clearly see the trickster at work in the form of ‘Gollum’.

I feel that a strong story is something that can capture the imagination and people’s desire therefore I do think that storytelling is important within its specific genre, whether that be games or films, definitely films. However sometimes within games there is no need for a story line at all. This is usually the case when it comes to sports games, however to contradict myself, there is still certain characters within even sports games, Heroes and Villains, can come in many forms and stories don’t necessarily need any words or oral dialogue to be deemed a story at all. A story can be so through many different forms including images, dance, music and imagination provoked through a convergence of media. A simple football game has my team of heroes, of course, the opposition team of villains and the referee who is the wise old man, yeah right! Campbell’s model can be applied to lots of situations and makes the basis for a perfect story. Having said all of this I feel that within games it isn’t always obvious, so therefore not always that necessary, but it does give the game a lot more depth. I think the bottom line is it depends upon the type and genre of game that it is.

There are some story lines that, without them, the game or film just would have been pretty poor or cheesy. The game ‘Max Payne’ has a superb revenge story line as it tells the story of a man hell bent on finding out who murdered his wife and new born baby. Similarly to this is the film ‘The Crow’, with its story line following the chance given to a murdered man to come back from the grave to avenge his murder and his fiancée’s murder. These types of story lines really immerse you into the film or game. They make you want to jump into the main character’s role and they really play upon your emotions. These stories give a sense of meaning to the characters that are portraying them.

There are many excellent films out there that have some truly captivating story lines and I would like to maybe pursue creating stories through games design later on in my career. There are also so many good films out there that could have been used to create equally good games from, as many have been, some good some bad.

They say ideas are cheap but a bad idea can cost alot of money!

Art Direction

Art Direction for Games

I have researched into what it is that an Art Director does and who they are responsible for as stated below.

Video game art directors are responsible for the quality of art incorporated in the video games produced under their supervision. They need to have a background in fine arts, so that they are knowledgeable about the technical aspects of drawing, texturing, and coloring. They need to have a good amount of creativity, as they are often required to visualize how a particular section of a game would look once it is finished.

Video game art directors usually manage a team composed of both amateur and experienced designers, and as such, having management skills is always advantageous. They are often required to work closely with people having different skill levels. Video game art directors also need to be open towards suggestions from other team members. In a large team, every member is likely to have a unique opinion regarding how a particular level should be designed, or how a texture should be incorporated in the game environment. It is the job of the art director to take all these suggestions into account, select the best one, and develop it further with personal inputs.

http://careers.stateuniversity.com/pages/7775/Video-Game-Art-Director.html

I think that Art Direction is one of the most important jobs when it comes to creating a Games Designer. Without the correct colors, tones, contrast, style, realism, well researched historical facts and correct lighting, a game or film for that matter, can be a failure. The need to make sure that things are correct for the era or specific day are what makes games or films visually stunning.

For example ‘Medal of Honor’ on the PS2, depicted the WW2 Normandy beach landings and it was most important that the Art Director tried to make the gamer feel as if he was really going to war, otherwise it would have been highly criticized due to the fact that it was such an important event in history. In parts of this game, such as the beach landings, the Art Director has presented the scene in a cinematic tone, making it almost an exact replica to the 1998 film ‘Saving Private Ryan’ by Steven Spielberg.

For me this was cleverly done as the film was a massive success and its opening scene was shocking and realistic to say the least. In the game it felt almost like it was wrong to be playing, for fun, as a character that would of almost certainly of died on that beach, making the experience a realistic one. When this kind of feeling is evoked it tells me that the game or film has been carefully planned and that, more importantly, the Art Director has done his job well.

The qualities that I feel that I need to develop to become an Art Director in the future would probably be to be an excellent researcher, a competent 2d artist and to be better at analyzing visual designs, my own or otherwise.

Games design

What is Games Design?

For this week’s blog I have been asked to look into Games design. Here is a definition of Games Design.

Game design is the process of designing the content, background and rules of a game. A document which describes a game's design used during development may also be called a design document. Professional game designers specialize in certain types of games, such as board games, card games or video games.’

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

Often when referring to Games Design the term ‘Gameplay’ is used. This is a term used to describe what the game is like or another definition would be to say

Gameplay is a term most commonly used to rate, or score the quality of the experience had by the gamer while playing a particular game. The term gameplay is often found in game reviews where a score is given based on player experiences during the interaction with game.

http://isp.webopedia.com/TERM/G/gameplay.html

Other elements of Gameplay include

Boss
A boss is the enemy at the end of a level that a player must defeat to continue to the next stage. Typically, bosses are more graphically elaborate and difficult to defeat than other intralevel enemies.

Bot
A bot is a computer-controlled player that is designed to behave like a human player. They are implemented by gamers through multiplayer selection screens when it's inconvenient, or not possible to play against an actual human opponent. Bots use AI routines to simulate human actions, but they generally lack in the strategy department.

Combo
A combo is a combination of moves, usually in a fighting game, which can be chained together into an unblockable sequence. Skilled players will have a multitude of combos at their command.

Cut Scene

Cut scenes are periods of dramatic development that intersect the action sequences in a game. They are rendered in still pictures or video and are usually accompanied by some type of dialogue. In most action games, cut scenes serve as the only form of plot progression.

Deathmatch
The multiplayer mode in the original Doom for the PC was called "deathmatch" by the game's creators, and the term has since become the gaming industry's label for the multiplayer game in all first-person shooters.

Frag
A kill in a deathmatch game. Like the term deathmatch, the term frag originated in the PC game Doom but has since become a slang term that can apply to a kill in any multiplayer first-person shooter.

Latency or Lag

In online multiplayer games, latency describes the amount of time it takes data to be sent from the player's machine to the server and back again. Measured in milliseconds, latency is typically the amount of delay the player will encounter between the press of a button and the resulting action onscreen. For instance, if a player's latency is 100 milliseconds, and the player fires a weapon, the weapon won't register as having been fired in the game world until one tenth of a second after the button has been pressed. Latency has traditionally been an issue for only PC players to deal with, but as consoles move into the age of the Internet, it will become an increasing problem on that side as well.

Level
Also known as "stage" or less commonly "board," a level is one self-contained, consistently themed area of a game. It can contain various enemies, power-ups, missions, challenges, and/or a boss.

Miniboss
Also known as a midboss, a miniboss is a minor boss character situated somewhere in the middle of an action game level. A miniboss isn't quite as powerful as the boss of a level, but it packs a bigger punch than regular enemies.

Multiplayer
A mode of gameplay involving two or more players. Multiplayer can be carried out with multiple people playing on the same system or over the Internet. Almost all competitive games include a multiplayer option.

Perspective
The position of the camera relative to the player's character. First-person perspective denotes a view from the character's own eyes, while third-person perspective refers to a camera position somewhere outside the character, usually floating behind the character.

Ping
The amount of time it takes a packet of data to be sent from a gamers’ machine, to an online server he or she is playing on, and back. This time contributes to the player's lag. With console systems heading into the online realm, this will soon be an issue for video gamers as well as PC gamers.

Physics
In a gaming context, physics represent the rules implemented in a game world that govern how objects behave. For instance, if a character jumps, the arbitrary amount of gravity in the game will determine how high he can jump and how fast he will fall back down. Some recent games have provided very realistic physics modelling in their game worlds; a character might throw a stone to knock a tin can off a table, and both objects will fall the same way they would in the real world. Sony is seeking to make this type of realism standard in PlayStation2 games, as both the system and software Sony is providing to developers make realistic physics easier for game creators to use.

Plot
An element all too often missing from video games, the plot ties events together into a coherent story. Games that manage to convey a well-designed plot approach movie like status, such as Final Fantasy VIII, Metal Gear Solid, or "Resident Evil 2".

Power slide

A technique in racing games that lets the player swing the rear end of his car outward in a turn to diminish the loss of speed. A power slide is accomplished by skilfully manipulating the gas and brake simultaneously.

Power-up
An item in a game that grants the player temporary powers. Power-ups can enhance a character's weaponry, strength, speed, life, or a variety of other attributes but is usually removed either after a set amount of time or when the character dies.

Single Player

The mode in a game meant to be played alone by one player.

Split screen

Split screen refers to a mode exclusive to multiplayer games wherein all players play on the same screen. It splits the screen evenly among the number of players currently playing the game. Split-screen mode is notorious for making a game more difficult, as it reduces the visible area of the game and sometimes warps the players' surroundings. You can usually split the screen horizontally or vertically, depending on your preference.

http://uk.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/defining_games/p4_01.html

Some of the top game designers in the world are people like Zachary Clarke who designed GTA, Jade Raymond who designed Assassins creed, Amano Yoshitaka the character artist for the Final Fantasy series, Kojima Hideo the games designer for Metal gear solid and Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura and Yoshikazu Yamashita the developers for Wii sports.

Development of games is undertaken by a developer, which may be a single person or a large business. Typically, large-scale commercial games are created by development teams within a company specializing in computer or console games. A typical modern video game can cost from USD$1,000,000 to over $20,000,000 to develop. Development is normally funded by a publisher. A contemporary game can take from one to three years to develop, though there are exceptions.

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

The way in which Commercial games are usually made is shown below.

1. Core Team

A group of people whom come up with the general concept of the game. Numerous meetings will occur in which the group brainstorms about the game; figuring out not only how it will look, but also how it will work. The core team is in charge of the production schedule as well, which describes the tasks each person is assigned and when they most do them.

2. Game Breakdown

Every detail, task, job, and deadline about the video game is broken down into components and then added to a bulletin board. This board acts as the nerve centre throughout the games production.

3. Artistic Concept

Artist’s sketch out the games characters & backgrounds with a very basic level of detail. These sketches are what the graphics artists use to create the characters and backgrounds in 3D on the computer.

4. Development Team

This team uses the latest in computer animation technology to bring life to all of the game's elements; adding colours, textures, shading, and even movement. This team uses the 3d characters and backgrounds created by the graphics team.

5. Programming & Engineering

This is the bread & butter of the game development stage; because without this part, there would be no game. Suffice it to say, the programmers & engineers make the game work. Their coding is what holds the game together and allows the player to actually play the game.

6. Testing

This is the final and most crucial part of the development process. This phase is to see if everything is working properly and as it should be. Testers will check for bugs and glitches and try to find potential problems.

The game testers won't merely be playing the game and seeing if problems will find them -- it's the other way around, as THEY will be the ones searching for the problems. The testers will do everything and anything possible in the game to ensure there is no abnormal situations or circumstances; walking through walls, disappearing, enemy AI problems, cinematic errors, you name it. If the testers miss ANYTHING, it could mean disastrous consequences -- in the form of profit loss -- for the company releasing the game.

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Are-Video-Games-Made---The-Process-From-Start-to-Finish&id=1490898

I feel that when designing games the fundamentals of the design to the specific genre stay the same, however, when looking across genres the design changes accordingly. For instance when designing a survival horror game, the game will need to be considerably different to that of, let’s say a sports game. However the design of games can cross over genres at times for instance you could design a basic platform adventure game in the same way as a survival horror platform game. The difference starts with things like the sound, style, lighting, art and so on. For me the way that a game looks is very important as it creates the world in which, you as the gamer, are immersed in. I particularly like games that look and feel real especially in certain genres of games such as survival horrors, as this adds to the experience. The look of a game can be the deciding factor as to the target audience which it is intended to be relevant to, sub genres such as comedy will be clearly shown with correct artwork and style. This will be done at the designer’s discretion and if researched correctly, can make the difference between a top selling game and a brain fart!

NGJ

Jon King

New Games Journalism

As I have began to read about “New Games Journalism” or “NGJ” I have realised that it is a form of expressing an opinion based solely on the individuals experience whilst playing a particular game, or in other words it is a model of New Journalism applied to Video Games Journalism.

People who write NGJ face two major issues whilst writing their reviews of games which are,

1. If the Journalist is employed by a particular company and he or she is writing a review of one of that company’s games then the review will almost certainly be a biased one, therefore the review isn’t worth the paper that it’s printed on!

2. The amount of time needed to complete some of the games on the market is vast. Reviews will often be written after the journalist has only played a small section of the particular game.

It seems to me that people who write NGJ are paid by the companies that have made the game that they are reviewing. However it is also a useful tool for the competition in terms of the way that a company can pay people who write NGJ to write a poor review of a rival company’s game in order to manipulate the consumer market. Sometimes it can also be random people writing their own thoughts and feelings on a particular game or game related issue, maybe in order to try and improve the games that are being made by constructive criticism. It’s hard to tell. I believe we live in a “money driven world” which is rife with corruption and it’s probably true to say that most of the NGJ stuff that is available to read is written to influence, in one way or another.

I have read a piece of NGJ called “Shoot Club: Saving Private Donny” and found this piece of writing particularly interesting. It is about using computer games to influence a teenagers mind. Quite a current issue I think. When reading it you kind of get the impression that the kid in question wants to join the army, like his older brother. His brother was injured badly in Iraq and the kid talks like its cool to be in the army. The adults mentioned in the piece are worried that a game that they are playing is going to influence him that much that he will want to join the marines and follow in his brother’s footsteps. So to change his mind they all decide to shoot Donny, in the game, every chance they get. Even if they are on his side, to make him see that war isn’t all what it’s cracked up to be, those Americans love their friendly fire!

It’s not too bad a read and it has a message within its humour, which seems to say that war is bad and that needs to be remembered even though they play games which have mindless violence in them. I’m not sure whether this piece of work was written from a true experience of not. It seems to be a true experience but who knows, it could be written by someone on the payroll of the people who developed the game for all I know.

Having said all this it does make you think about several different things in different ways. I can’t help but feel that its true worth is something to do with the money men, but hey maybe that’s just me looking for a conspiracy! I think that the bottom line is you take whatever it is that you’re looking for out of whatever it is that you’re doing and that games or films or music or anything else is just a scapegoat for people’s wrong doings.

When it comes down to a writers use of objectivity and subjectivity I’m not sure which I value more. I do like to look at the facts and figures in regards to the matter as it is something that you can relate to others with, therefore being objective is something that I value. However being subjective is a more interesting way to express a personal opinion and, I think makes for a more interesting read, giving the reader ideas and views that he or she otherwise might not have had before. I think that both are important.

I feel that I know a little more about the world of “NGJ” now and have started to think about the way in which I would like to improve my writing. In regards to the “Saving Private Donny” piece I would like to incorporate a little more wit into my writing, as the writer did there. Other than that I think that the more I write the better that I will become.

I forgot to discuss the issues surrounding objective ranking systems for games sales. I do not buy into the consumer psychology of, if its number one then it must be good! I’m sure that from time to time objective ranking systems do get it right and the best game does get to number one, but it’s the same across the board when it comes to media based products. The market is driven, predominately, by the people who advertise the most and this is a fact of life. Anybody who has more than a couple of brain cells to rub together must see this dam evil!!! Therefore I feel that ranking systems are an effective tool in terms of business, they must be or they wouldn’t use them. However ranking systems can be manipulated to suit and so I never bother with them.