Computer Games Design Blogs - by Adam Woodhouse

Thursday, 5 May 2011

And so the blogs of my first year of Uni come to an end... onto films!

Tomorrow is the day that the work on my blog is taken away and marked for academic purposes and as a result this is going to be my last blog post from my first year of Uni... it's hard to think that in just over 2 weeks my entire university course first year will be over... it's been such a fun time and have met some awesome people though doing so...

Anyways, as my year one farewell has pretty much been said, onto my final blog post which is one that based on films... I am doing this as I thought I had done one on films but it turns out I haven't - I've done music and TV (Monty Python in particular) and so onto films we go. In a similar manner to my friend Matthew who is on my course too I thought I would do a series of top 10 or top 5 films of various types. I will explain at the end of each type why I like the number 1 film of that category the most... just because I can... so without further delay lets go on.

Top 5 Action Films

Underworld
Sin City
Equilibrium
The Matrix Reloaded
Face/Off

Underworld is possibly my favourite film ever... while I admit it is flawed in certain areas I just can't help but love it to death. It is the film the propelled my love of Vampires to new levels until I became a Vampire fanatic. It is a brilliant action film about the war between vampires and werewolves (or Lycans as they are called) starring Kate Beckinsale as the Heroine 'Selene' (in a nice leather outfit I might add ;)... anyway...) - it has awesome action scenes, an interesting plot and storyline... it is an epic film.

Top 5 Comedy Films

Hot Fuzz
Dodgeball
Anchorman
The Mask
Dogma

Hot Fuzz is like the ultimate comedy film. Starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and being the second in their Blood and Ice-Cream trilogy along with director Edgar Wright it is a comedy film about the police service and the mysterious murders going on in a supposedly quiet rural town. It is very well written and is just a joy to watch, plus at the end an epic amount of action is projected into the mix making the film just superb.

Top 5 Comic Book/Superhero Films

Kick-Ass
Blade
X-Men: The Last Stand
Spider-Man
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Kick-Ass is a film based off the comic series of the same name made by Mark miller and John Romita Jr. It is a comic series notorious for its violence, language and, in-particular, it's young child assassin Hit-Girl. The film of the comic was developed alongside the comic and is a very faithful adaptation that changes the story in certain places but only to make it work on film. The film mixes a great amount of comedy and action to create an excellent film... and failing that you get to watch Chloe Moretz as Hit-Girl which is just pure epicness in a can.

Top 3 'Epic' Films

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Avatar
Gladiator

Epic films are often a great mixture of many things but ultimately they are lengthy films that focus on the story and the events of what it was that took place. They provide a great sense of drama and are good at making you feel and believe in what you are seeing, immersing you in the world even if it is fantasy. Lord of the rings does this better than any film I've ever watched, closely followed by Avatar - you believe you are in Middle-Earth undertaking the journey with Frodo... The only reason I picked top 3 here is because, due to the nature of the films, I haven't seen many of them.

Top 5 James Bond Films

Goldeneye
License to Kill
Live and Let Die
Moonraker
The World is not Enough

The James Bond franchise has 22 films in it now and, being a massive James Bond film fan, it would shameful not to include them in their own top 10. Goldeneye was my first experience with James Bond and for that alone it will hold its own place in my heart, but above that it had some of the best villains in a bond films and it introduced Pierce Brosnan to the world of James Bond and he is, in my opinion, the best James Bond of them all.

Top 5 'Other' Films

Pulp Fiction
Fight Club
Reservoir Dogs
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Other films is just a place for films that are not any genre in-particular (just masterpieces of film-making) or I don't have enough films of that type to make it its own category. Pulp Fiction is regarded by many as one of the best pieces of film-making there is and it easily Quentin Tarantino's best work - no questions asked. It's hard to place your finger on why it is so good... it just is - it is brilliantly unwritten and the way the plot unfolds in Tarantino's mismatched fashion of jumping back and forth across characters makes it a work of art.

Top 5 Horror/Gore Films

Halloween (Original Version)
28 Days Later
Saw
Wrong Turn
The Ring (Japanese Version)

I do like horror/gore films very much, but due to the nature of them it is hard to pick why I like them or what makes them good films... I guess whatever makes you wince, jump or feel suspense the most is what makes them work. In Halloween, John Carpenter began a film franchise that, over time has steadily declined but began with an epic horror film that made you do all the things mentioned above.. especially all the while as you had the white-faced terror that was Michael Myers chasing after you all the way through to the end... being seemingly indestructible.

Top 5 Game Films/Game Adaptations

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Resident Evil
Doom
Tomb Raider
Pokemon: The First Movie

Game films are known for often not being very good amongst critics... this is for various reasons... a lot of the time I don't see the films as bad films in their own right but not as good as the games on which they are based... guess that's the Games Designer in me though. Its obvious Advent Children would be my favourite Game film given my love of Final Fantasy but despite this I actually believe it is a very good film for numerous reasons. It is a CGI marvel with stunning visuals, it has one of the best cast of voice actors I have ever heard with each person making the characters their own and it actually has some very well done sections of action and dialogue.

Top 10 Films of all Time

Underworld
Kick-Ass
Sin City
Goldeneye
Avatar
The Matrix Reloaded
Pulp Fiction
Blade
Hot Fuzz
Lord of the Ring: Return of the King

So there we have it, my top films of every type that I could think of or care to write about in this blog post... So, anyways, 'til next time - that's all folks!

Tuesday, 3 May 2011

Essay Number 2 - Complete FINAL version

This is the last version of my essay that I'm going to put here, I submitted my essay today so this is purely up here in-case anybody fancies a read of the finished article.
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In the making of games, many design issues need to be thought out and considered throughout the games entire production to ensure that the end result is a game that appeals to the right audience. This is true and even more so in the development of educational games, such as the Key Stage 1 game that I am developing as a part of my group project along with others, where the games have to captivate the audience for a purpose other than enjoyment and truly benefit them. This essay will discuss the major design issues that were faced in the making of our game, Circuitry Absurdity, which helps Key Stage 1 children learn about electrical circuits and components within them.

The most important issue that I believe was faced is one that is encountered at the very beginning of the design process which is the game concept itself. When thinking of a game that needs to be educational and fun at the same time you need to make sure that the idea that you come up with is one that can do this, thus the concept becomes a key design issue. Our game of Circuitry Absurdity is a puzzle game that gets children to make circuits as quick as possible by connecting batteries to various components by placing wire pieces around obstacles. This concept is one that allows the game to be educational as it teaches them how circuits work with batteries supplying power to components and can only work when the circuit is complete and it also allows it to be fun by adding elements of puzzle-solving and competitiveness with time-based awards.

The issue of Concept in our game as a design issue was thought out carefully governing all other aspects of our game, it determined the story behind our game that would make it appeal to the audience and the gameplay that would follow. Concept is what makes a game from the ground up with other elements being incorporated based around it. If we hadn’t made our game how we did, it could have resulted in a game that appealed to the wrong audience, no-one at all, or not have any educational merit behind it.

To understand concept is similar to understanding what makes up a game. In the article ‘I have no words I must design: towards a critical vocabulary for games’ by Greg Costikyan (1994) Costikyan establishes the key aspects that make a game summarising it as “An interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle toward a goal.” The concepts for games are based around this premise and try to match up to and/or meet this definition if what a game is. Our concept is one that should do this and also have the added benefit of being educational.

The next major design issue that was faced follows on from the concept of the game which is the aesthetics of the game. How the game looks is a very vital part of making the game appeal and it is something that came up greatly in the making of our Key Stage 1 game. If a game is supposed to be aimed at older audiences a more mature, realistic, gritty art style is more appropriate whereas if the game is aimed at children the art style needs to be cartoony, bright and colourful. In our game we decided to use the cartoon style of Jimmy Neutron as an influence and this decision helped us establish the artistic direction of our game, thereby helped overcome a key design issue.

Once we had an idea of how we wanted our game to look, we had to develop our own style based on this and as one of the artists in the game this design issue was placed heavily in my care. As our game is based on the fixing of toy circuits and showing how electrical power flows from batteries into components, these also influenced the look of the game as circuits and electricity feature heavily. It can therefore be said that the art style of our game is an issue that was overcome due to the drive of our audience and the concept of our game but was also thought out carefully to help as make a good, captivating game.

Our choice to use an already existing artistic style can also be attributed to remediation, something we were taught about as a part of our course. While this knowledge was taught to us after we made the decision, it is a good example of it nonetheless and an example of how it can be very effective. The term of remediation comes from the works of Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin and their article ‘Remediation: Understanding New Media’ (2000). Its uses are many and beneficial as with our game where it helped us realise our art style. Once the art style of our game was established we had to make sure that the look and feel of the game was one that appeals to boys and girls.

The next design issue that came up in the process of making our Key Stage 1 games is the issue of Gender, this links with the art issue as colour and style of the visuals differ between boys and girls. Gender is an important part of designing games as generally speaking boys and girls have different likes and interests and therefore the game needs to be designed in such a way that both of these types of like can be addressed. The main demographic of gaming in general is mostly male but at Key Stage 1 this isn’t the case as much, therefore when designing our game it must clearly suit both genders sufficiently rather than making a game that clearly appeals to males or females.

In our game, to make it appeal to both genders we initially decided to have a male and female option for player characters; however, as we decided to make our game have the child as in the in-game character rather than having an in-game representation we had to think way to make the game appeal to both genders. In the end we decided that the best way to avoid this issue was to make the toys that the child was fixing be a mixture of toys that either boys would like, girls would like or appeal to both. This decision was a quick and easy solution that can easily fix most games and in the case of our game it worked perfectly and saved us lots of work in the long run.

Looking forward to the next design issue that we came across which is mechanics, in regards to gender we came across the issue on which boys and girl learn to play games. In her book, ‘Gender Inclusive Games Design’ (2003) Sheri Graner-Ray states that boys learn to play games with a hands-on approach, jumping straight into the game and playing it whereas girls learn to by playing tutorials or reading through manuals. Therefore, we had to think of a way of teaching children to play our game in an optional manner – so that the boys could skip and just play if they so wished. To do this we included an optional tutorial that would take them through the game, this is how we overcame this design issue and also shows how gender links into the mechanics of gameplay.

As stated, the next design issue that occurs in our game is related to the mechanics of the game and certain gameplay features. In games for younger audiences you must make sure that the game is not too complicated for them compared to an 18+ game where it is safe to assume that all the players of game should be able to get their head around all aspects of the game, albeit with maybe a couple of tutorials outlining the basics. Mechanics is a very large part of making many games and as such I will break it down into 2 sections; menus and interactivity and the core gameplay.

Our game is driven by many different menus and contains text-based narratives detailing wrong moves and how to play the game. As our game is for Key Stage 1 children however, we had to bear in mind that the child may not be able to understand certain words or blocks of text – ultimately the simpler the text, the easier it will be. This issue arose at one key point in the making of our game, particularly the tutorial. Initially we made the tutorial very text based which was easy to follow for us and other people of our age but it turned out in practice that Key Stage 1 children found it difficult to read and it was too long-winded. Thus we had to change our tutorial to one which had more pictures detailing various gameplay aspects and ultimately also included an interactive tutorial where they were taken through the processes of the game. This proved to be more successful and we were able to use this as a building point for the rest of our game, making the game more picture-based than text and as a result making it easier for children to play.

The core gameplay mechanics were easier to work out as we knew the children would have to build a circuit with different tile pieces, however, we needed to make sure that they were able to this and had to be careful with the complexities of the circuits. We also needed to make sure that the time limits on the circuits were suitable, for example, people of our age were able to complete the first level’s circuit in less than 20 seconds but this doesn’t mean Key Stage 1 children will be able to. This proved to be the case as upon doing a play test the times taken were greater, not too long that it seemed they were severely struggling but enough that we knew it needed to be changed.

Mechanics of a game as a whole ultimately lead to fun that is achieved in the end. By this I mean that it is the mechanics of a game that drives the player forward, they see the game through its aesthetics and ultimately they should get fun out of it. This idea of understanding how a consumer gets the most out of games is discussed in the article ‘MDA: A formal approach to games design and games research’ by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc and Robert Zubek (2004) where it is established that Mechanics lead to the Dynamics of gameplay that is then seen through the visual Aesthetics. In our game we can see that we tried to cover this by setting up a visually appealing game but focused on the mechanics of the game to make sure that the game was fun and enjoyable.

In conclusion, as with any game, we came across numerous design issues and had to overcome them to make our game work. An interesting point to note with these issues is that the aesthetical issues were thought out with reference to other children’s interests and the mechanical issues were overcome by getting the game play tested by the audience. These two ways of getting past design issues are slightly different, but, ultimately both look at what appeals to and works with the audience outside of video games and then applying that knowledge to the development of games.

Design issues cannot simply be overcome with a simple fix and must be thought out carefully with each aspect of the game getting looked at and improved as a separate entity which, together, comes to make a game as good as it can be. These design issues are ones that aren’t specific to our Key Stage 1 game and can be applied to any game and even other mediums, so exploring the design issues faced in this essay can ultimately be greatly beneficial in the future.

Word Count: 1998

References

Bolter, J., Grusin, R., (2000), Remediation: Understanding New Media MIT Press.
Costikyan, G., (1994), I Have No Words & I Must Design: Toward a Critical Vocabulary for Games, Interactive Fantasy, Issue 2, pp 25.
Graner-Ray, S., (2003), Gender Inclusive Games Design, Charles River Media.
Hunicke, R., LeBlanc, M., Zubek, R., (2004), MDA: A formal approach to games design and games research, Discovery, Vol. 83, Issue 3.

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'Til next time - that's all folks!

Saturday, 30 April 2011

The down-side of brilliant technology

This blog post comes from a cross of sheer randomness and boredom. Basically, this blog post is going to talk about technology and how, despite it being brilliant, wonderful and almost necessary in the world today is in-fact full of many things that make it worse... At the same time though you have to remember that despite this I don't hate technology, I love it, its just certain aspects annoy me.

The life of Technology
There are many forms of technology in the world, some for practical uses and some for entertainment purposes - phones, iPods, computers, games consoles, TVs, etc - all of them have been developed over the course of recent history and have their specific roles in our lives. Its hard to imagine in a lot of cases just how humanity survived without the technology... I know that they did but I couldn't imagine living without it... Despite this however, for me personally and I'm sure for almost everyone else, technology has been the cause of so many problems in my life... And it is these problems that make technology a burden to us as well as a blessing, and whats worse some of these problems are trivial things but they annoy us anyway - and without the technology a lot of these problems couldn't even arise in the first place.

The ever dwindling battery
Battery life is a common problem brought about by technology and one which causes the most problems and most annoyance. Any form of device that is portable requires batteries to work and it is inevitable that the power of these batteries will eventually run out... and yet when it happens it normally seems to be at the worst time... like just when we find we are going on a long journey, for example. As well as this, batteries provide annoyance through forced spending for more of these portable sources of power... This annoyance has since been removed with rechargeable batteries or in-built rechargeable batteries but portable technology causes this problem in the first place.

From this though we are led onto the problem that is simply... batteries can't cope with technology. Batteries powering older devices from the early 1990s for example seem to last forever however, as you get to batteries in modern cameras of Nintendo 3DSes they have a battery life of just a few hours... and this again leads to the aforementioned battery dying problem, only now it happens more regularly... and you get angry thinking 'Why is this happening? Surely they could get more powerful batteries!?' and this is true... With the increase in power of technology it is obvious that the drain on battery life will be greater so why don't they include more powerful batteries?

Why won't you work!?
Yet another common problem with technology is the fact that... it simply cannot work at times. Your TV could lose signal, same with your phone, your game could crash or a program on a laptop decides not to work as planned. Technology isn't perfect it will have flaws, yet we get so angry if we miss something or lose something because technology decides to fail on us... Think about it if something non-digital doesn't go right, you get annoyed but carry on because you made a mistake, but if technology goes wrong we have a tantrum and rant and rave at anyone and anything about it. I mean, if your phone doesn't have signal so you can't send a text or ring someone for whatever purpose, even if its really important... its annoying but inevitable due to the way the technology works but we still hate it. And yet, only a couple of decades ago we didn't have this technology so we couldn't even text someone anyways...Technology is brilliant, up until the moment it fails us...

The flow of information
Due to the internet and TV we can find almost any piece of information we wish and can do it at almost any time... this is a wondrous thing and is great benefit to us all. At the same time the cost of being able to access this information has a price, many prices in fact. Due the abundance of information we believe almost anything we see or hear about online and because anyone can see this information it spreads... everywhere... It is generally the case that you hear something bad on the news and the information that we get influences us greatly... and ultimately nothing comes of it. One example of this is the spread of knowledge regarding illnesses... we are told all of this information about some form of deadly virus or whatever which is helpful but because we become overloaded with this information and believe anything about it no matter how distorted we panic too much... And then ultiamtey, not much happens and it suddenly dies away leading us all panicing over nothing.

At the other end of the spectrum, the rise of technology allowing us to get information leads to people getting their hopes up and then ultimately have them shattered or not live up to their over-hyped expectations. Games and films are one example of this, in the past I wouldn't know about a new game or film coming out until i read it in a magazine or glanced upon it in a shop and this led to no pre-expectations, I would just go and get a game or see a film because it looked good. Nowadays though, I hear about any and all games and film YEARS before they come out and see endless trailers showing me promises of pure epicness... and then the game or film is realsed and more than half the time I am left disappointed - I may still love the game or film to bits but due to the over-hype it never lives up to what I expected ending in disappointment.

The end result
So there we have it a few of the downsides to the benefits of technology... Technology is brilliant and most of the time it helps us - end of - and without it life would be harder. But it has inevitably caused more problems to arise that wouldn't otherwise exist... and because technology is a core part of our lives these problems occur all too often.

This is my final word on my blog, for a while... the blog assessment itself is due in this Friday and inbetween then and now I have other deadlines that I have to work on... So, for the foreseeable future, 'til next time - that's all folks!

Wednesday, 13 April 2011

Remediation

Right, it turns out I was right, there is in fact another lecture based blog post; and here it is! This is just a short blog post as the last lecture topic is something that is simple to understand, therefore leading to a small blog post about it. That's not to say it's not important though... remediation is quite important in the development of new ideas.

So, let's begin! Now, what is remediation? Remediation (in terms of media and entertainment) is the use of one medium or idea that originated in one area in another, such as a medium or idea that started and was developed on radio being used on TV or films. Remediation itself isn't a difficult process but making the remediated idea work and stick is another thing - just because an idea works in one medium doesn't guarantee it will work, it could completely fail. However, in contrast, it could be the complete opposite and the idea could be improved and taken to new heights by moving it to a new medium, such as with Soap Operas that began on the radio but truly bloomed once they moved to TV.

That was essentially the gist of our last lecture, learning what remediation was - however, on from the above we also learnt different types of remediation which is linked to immediacy and hypermediacy (will talk about these in a moment) and then, more directly related to our course, the development of 'Techoludic films' which are a form of remediation between films and games.

Immediacy is where the media tries to make you forget that you are looking at something that isn't media at all... for example within the media of photography photo-realistic images emerged... pictures that were so real it made you feel like you were there, it makes you forget its just a picture. However, this practice can be remediated, for example, the artist Ralph Goings is a painter who paints photo-realistic paintings - they look so real you forget that you are looking at a painting. This is an example of remediation where the idea is directly copied in a different medium but the method of doing so is completely different; this is more prevalent with immediacy.

Hypermediacy is where the media the media makes it abundantly clear that the item in question isn't real. For example, the internet and the pages within it are obviously not real, they provide us with various information, entertainment, etc but it doesn't immerse you so you think you are in the internet with what you are seeing. The conventions of this are adopted elsewhere though, with examples such as rolling news streams that are displayed on news websites being displayed at the bottom of news reports that are shown on television. The idea is copied from one medium to the other almost directly with no changes at all to the core idea (another idea being video game HUDS which, while different, remain the same concept at the core and this HUD is adopted in other mediums) - this is more prevalent in hypermediacy.

Finally, on to Techoludic films... these, as stated above are films that take on the conventions of video games, a good example of remediation, a middle ground of immediacy and hypermediacy (most films do this, as they immerse you in the world and nature of the film and you do feel like you're there but, depending on the setting of the film, you are aware of the hypermediacy of the film because you know it could never happen) and also showing how remediation itself has different forms.

Technoludic comes from a combination of Technology and Ludus (latin for play) which is why they are linked often with video game remediations in films or vice-versa. One type of Technoludic film remediation is one where the film isn't like a game but makes subtle links to games and their technology, commenting on the escape of the real world and losing yourself in another reality... films such as The Matrix do this (look up the premise of the film if you haven't seen it). It doesn't mention games at all or seem relevant at first but you can see the concept when you look at it closely - these type of Techoludic films are ones as commentary; they show links between the 2 media without directly using the other.

The second type of Technoludic remediation is where the film is an ordinary film with games appearing for illustrative purposes, the film isn't about them at all but the story ideas and aesthetic look of the film is taken from video games, for example, Blade Runner. This type of film is one as a quotation, they incorporate ideas from the other without actually changing the core principle of the original media.

The third type can technically be broken down into 2 parts but they are both the same thing, in this case the type of film is Technoludic films as adaptations of games (or vice-versa); a core and very direct form of remediation. The two halves to this are films based on games, for example, the Resident Evil films series, Tomb Raider, Dead Or Alive, etc - these adaptations are apparent. The second half is more subtle but technically an adaptation - in this case the film has an entirely original premise and storyline but takes the ideas of games to make it, for example the film Run Lola Run. The film is entirely original, not based off a game, etc, but it contains many elements taken straight from a game, such as multiple storylines inter-linking, multiple lives, character selection... and it works too.

So, there you have it, my final lecture based blog post and its on Remediation... a very useful thing to have existed as it has produced many interesting works of media that wouldn't have existed if everything had to stay where it was created. This most likely won't be my last blog post as I may chrn out another random one or two before the deadline for this module on 6th May... after which I will most likely still blog anyways as its a good form of showing off my work and stuff. So, yea, anyways, 'til next time - that's all folks!

Thursday, 31 March 2011

Gender in Games and Game Development

Right, this will be my last blog post (or possibly second last) that is based off a lecture, all following blog posts will be random things done by me or simply more pictures of my work from other modules. This time the lecture that we had was about gender, such as who makes games, what these games are made for and who they are made for and, through doing so and looking at statistics, the results are quite different than expected.

The first thing that we looked at was the segregation that appears in the games industry, namely what the split was between males and females in different aspects of games development. To help us with this we looked at an article by J.Prescott and J.Bogg titled 'Segregation in a male-dominated industry: Women working in the computer games industry' whose article also looked at research by other people. The article revealed that in 2009 women represented just 4% of the games industry workforce which is a drop from 12% in 2006... That figure surprised me, not in the fact that the number was clearly favouring men, but due to the sheer scale of the split... I mean, I knew there was a split, but 4% of 9000 employees in the UK (figure taken from the article as well)... that's only 360 women...

From this were asked if we thought this led to any consequences of games that get made or who end up laying said games... This led to a task where we were given the top 40 best-selling games for the week ending March 26th and we had to say which gender the games were all made for; Male, Female or for both. The result of said task ended up with my group picking 21 games for men, 18 for both genders (5 slightly leaned more towards women) and just 1 for women... This was somewhat expected but it was interesting to see a somewhat conformity in this among the class as a whole with the exception of Nicola and Kayleigh (the only 2 girls in our Computer Games Design course) who had the vast majority of games being aimed at both genders and a more balanced split of games aimed only at one gender... while it still highlighted a lack in games that were considered aimed for females it did show how gender itself can offer a different view point.

Ultimately, this task then further high-lighted, going on from the fact that women generally aren't the ones that are making games, that 'men make manly games for men' and showed that genre appears to be a key factor in the 'audience' of the games... FPS games, war games and Sci-Fi games were generally put in the male category, party and social games were considered a mixed gender and ultimately, no games that we consider girl’s games even came up. It also showed that the representations made in the games also determined the audience, game targeted at men and strong male heroes generally with few women in them except those that were perceived as either in need rescue or those that are sexy... in contrast party games were shown to have a choice of character, animal characters or 'cutesy' themes.

After this we discussed the roles of women in games in more depth, building upon the ideas of being damsels in distress in need of rescue (Princess Peach from Mario) or 'sex-kittens' (Lara Croft, all the women in Dead or Alive) that makes men play games to ogle them. In contrast to this there were also other depiction that showed the women as being strong (Lara Croft again)... however, this raised the issue of if this is the case what are the ACTUAL statistics of people who play games and not just what we perceive based on stereotypes and cultural knowledge.

Finally, we were given a set of statistics that allowed us to see age groups that played games, what types of games they played and how often. These statistics showed us that the split of gender in those that are actually playing games is in fact very even such as (M/F) 99/96% for 8-12 Yr olds, 97/86% 13-19 Yr olds, 83/76% for 20-34 Yr olds and so on. The difference occurs in how much they play said games, where it is shown that males play games for a larger amount of hours per week than females - this could show that girls tend to get games they can pick-up and play for brief intervals as opposed to boys who play games that they get into and play extensively.

None of these thoughts are set facts and of course are open to interpretation and speculation... these are merely my thoughts drawing on the facts that are given. As I said earlier, I know there is a definitive split in the gaming industry; this is naturally evident in society and can even be seen just by being on my course here at Uni... 2 girls in a class of 30 people (and according to our lecturer there are about is about 1 girl that applies for the course in relation to every 10 boys). In my opinion, most games are designed with a much more masculine direction, multi-gender aspects are included or incorporated where possible but the developers know that it will be mostly males who play there games so that's what they do. I'm not saying women don't play said games as I know they do and evidence shows they do play games a lot, but as is the case, it doesn't seem that they mind the games being developed in this way... Maybe by developing a game that appeal to men, female gamers get dragged in and enjoy it too and to change it would not only upset the current core demographic but actually annoy those that the change could be trying to appeal to... Again, all this is opinion so it doesn't really matter.

So there we have it, my last lecture based blog (or second last) post on gender in games. So, anyways, 'til next time - that's all folks!

Tuesday, 29 March 2011

3D Modelling - An update

Just a quick update to show what I've done in the 3D modelling unit of my Games Design course as I've mentioned it in the past but it was at an early stage and therefore couldn't show my work... so I guess now I'd better do it. My 3D model is of my rubber duck that I received from my friend Matthew for my 18th birthday... and it is a very large rubber duck! The 3D model itself it pretty good, it could be a better but considering that this is my first real experience with 3D modelling at all I'm quite proud... also it's not quite done yet and needs touching up a bit.

From doing this I have come to realise that I appear to be a bit of a Jack-of-all trades in this course but a master of none (except for perhaps inventing stories and ideas where I am definitely above average (no arrogance intended)) as in all my units I am doing well at them but don't shine in relation to others - Tom Weaver in particular is a very good artist, Joe Kinglake is a brilliant coder and Tom White is an expert 3D modeller (look at their blogs... they're very good).

So yea, here's my duck.

So there we have it... a rubber duck... the main things that need work are blending his head and body together and making his wings more prominent and defined.

So anyways, 'til next time - that's all folks!

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Tom Weaver's Blog - http://weaveswonderblog.blogspot.com/

Joe Kinglake's Blog - http://joe-kinglake.blogspot.com/

Tom White's Blog - http://tomwhiteucs.blogspot.com/

Sunday, 27 March 2011

Music and stuff - yep, I've done games, TV and film, now onto music

Right, I'm in my flat, on my own, bored and needing motivation to do some work and not really finding it - then it occurs to me, stick on some music and do a blog post - it's work so it's appropriate. And also, it does play into games as well as I will talk in-part about music in games as it's where my music history began... so without further ado let's begin.

Games music and where my music likings began
Right, first things first, let me explain that the reason that I am doing this topic as a blog post is partly due to us needing to have a variety of mediums of blog post topics and because, as I said I'm listening to music as we speak and felt inspired to write a blog post related to it. So we begin my musical tour with the music of video games, from as far as I can remember the music in video games have always stuck out to me - from the second I first turned on my Sega Megadrive and played Sonic 2 and I heard the BGM (Background Music) of Emerald Hill Zone for the first time and thought 'This games is awesome!'

As I was only young (only about 5 years old) I didn't understand at the time the significance and joy that the music had but as I have grown older I realise that the BGM music that gets played in games is a crucial part of them, they can add to the emotional response that we get from pivotal story points, build up suspense in horror games or simply just be good music worth listening to. The music in games is not only well thought out for these purposes, if you listen to a lot of game music on its own your notice that it is just very well composed as well played music or simply very catchy tracks... it is an unappreciated genre of music really as the effort that goes into it is amazing.

Obviously, sometimes tracks do miss the point or just aren't fun to listen to, purely having their use in the game and thats it. Even so, the music in the games that I have played over the years has helped shaped my future musical likes as, listening back to music in games and noting my favourite tracks from various game soundtracks it should be noted that many of them are upbeat, rock-orientated tracks. This may just be coincidence, but as I discussed a week or so ago with some friends it does seem that many people who are considered 'Geeks' or like video-games heavily in general typically do prefer Rock and Metal genre - it is my believe that the music in the games itself may have slightly influenced this (obviously not immensely as that'd be stupid).

Looking at my personal preferences with game music, tracks from games such as Koei's Dynasty Warriors, Final Fantasy (I had to mention it right...), Super Smash Bros, etc feature heavily in my favourites. Tracks such as JENOVA, One-Winged Angel, Otherworld, Dark Messenger, Force You Way from Final Fantasy; Theme of Lu Bu, Power & Glory, Dual NRG from Dynasty Warriors; Fire Emblem (Melee), Multi-Man Melee 2 and Dreamland 64 from Smash Bros... All these are awesome tracks and all have rock-related styles (Links will be included at the end for those who wish to listen).

For a long period of time I listened to game music and not any 'regular music', it was only since I start 6th Form when I was 16 that I started taking an interest in regular music and, what a surprise, the type of music that I liked was rock. This goes to show that game music is important, it shapes how we play games and can even influence the music that we listen to in later life.

Real-Life Tracks in Games
Right, off the bat of BGM music in games we move onto tracks from real-life that appear in games. This has become more of a staple in recent years, with big games developers getting big names in the music industry to either record music tracks for games or use already made tracks in their games. These tracks go to show that even 'real-life' musicians and music can see the influence and appeal of games and their music. The music might not be needed in a game but people think 'Wow, band x put music in that game? It must be good then' this shows how music can have a powerful effect and how the worlds of music and games collide.

Again, a lot of the time the music that gets put in-games relates to the style of video games music but sometimes not and even these tracks still show that music is a powerful medium, and for games to incorporate it well shows real promise for engaging with players. Personal favourite tracks that have appeared in games or written for them are REDEMPTION by Gackt for Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, This is War by 30 Seconds to Mars for Dragon Age Origins and Invasion From Within by Tsunami Bomb for Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (again, links will be below).

This also leads to real-life influences, even more-so than ordinary game music as people who play games hear tracks from well known bands and musicians and can start to like them through gaming - again, this also shows influence in musical styles that people can begin to like.

The Bands and music of today
Right, this section has little to do with games at all really, its just me talking about bands that I like - the element you have to remember is that my musical taste has been inspired from video game music... thus it makes it relevent.

So, the first band to talk about really with any significance has to be my favourite band Muse. I first heard Muse through my Step-Dad and Mum who also like it, though at the time I never cared for it or listened to it much but once I started to take an interest in music I remember certain tracks that had lodged themselves secretly in my mind, I listened to them again and then the musical obsession began to grow. I listened to them more and more and ultimately realised 'Hey, I actually quite like this music stuff' and from there I have gone on to get almost every song they've ever done and even go and see them live - the one and only bad I have been to see I'm ashamed to say.

Muse are a brilliant British Rock band with a very diverse style supported by the vocal talents of Matthew Bellamy and his use of Falsetto and Vibrato and the 'electrical' sound style they achieve. They are a true icon of the British music world winning numerous awards in various categories. Muse are the band that set me on my musical path and I don't regret it at all...

Onto other bands now, I'll try and bunch them together with those that are of a 'similar' style (as much as possible, and most are different in their sounds as a whole). The next group are more 'traditional' rock bands such as Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures and Bon Jovi. These bands are all well respected in the rock world and have been around for many years still going strong, they're the sort of bands where if you removed the lyrics from the songs they play you could imagine bits being used in games as BGM.

Alternative Rock is a genre of music that I like very much too, not as traditional as the groups above, having sounds more similar in style to Muse (as they are Alternative Rock too) and having a particular lyrical style (that often gets linked to Emo for no reason...). These bands include My Chemical Romance, 30 Seconds to Mars, Panic! At the Disco and Fall Out Boy - all of these bands are very modern, emerging in the 21st century but becoming immensely popular and popularising the genre. The music of these bands are very diverse and varied but seem to popular among game likers for unknown reasons...

Punk Rock is another one of my favourite genres, having a very quick tempo they are generally very catchy and uplifting - Punk rock ultimately led to the rise in Alternate Rock too which is why I like it so much. The bands that fit this genre that I like are Sum 41, Green Day and Good Charlotte. Do the punk pre-cursor of these bands they generally are met with some form of antagonism due to the sterortype of 'punks' but this really isn't the case - just another set of Good music.

Finally, this last group is for oddities and the only one which contains Metal rather than Rock (I'm much more of a rock person than a Metal person - Metal is often too much for me...). There's Rammstein (German Metal), DragonForce (Power Metal) & Garbage (kinda Alternative Rock but a bit different). These bands are all very good but being a bit of a variety for me compared to my standard styles of music. Metal is often very heavy, has a very quick tempo and is very loud... this is why I tend not to like it as much, as I said, it's too much for me.

So there we go, a look at how I went from listening to game music and then how I started listening to ordinary music, a look at how game music is a heavy influence on this and ultimately the type of music that resulted from my experiences. Below will be links to all the aforementioned game music and also my favourite tracks (or two if I REALLY can't decide) from each of my favourite bands. So anyways, 'til next time that's all folks!

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(With Muse I could have put almost anything... Plug-in Baby and Knights of Cydonia get an honourable mention)
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