Tuesday 16 December 2008
you've already hit the wall
Game play is essentially how the game plays but it isn't necessary that simple; if a game have a very simple interface then this may make the game restricting and boring but if to complex then the game becomes unplayable. A good definition of game-play is ‘the quality of the players interaction with the game’ in my opinion good game-play has controls which you don't have to think about so that your hands move subconsciously to the keys/buttons. This is especially important in racing games as by the time you realise that you have to brake then found the button you've already hit the wall. The best games are designed by people which enjoy designing games but also have a thorough knowledge of producing them. But also testing games you might be overlooking something that is fundamentally wrong which sticks out to another person. Everyone involved in making the game plays a part in its success, some people have more responsibly than others but this is it be expected. To the games developer it started with a good concept and moves on with trial and error, a game needs to be refined to make it better. When i play a game i like to be absorbed by it, i want to be able to learn the controls quickly, i like puzzle which aren’t impossible. (after spending three hours on the same part i tend to give up on the game completely) To a certain extent different genres requires different design principles, for a racing game hour long levels would be tedious and unless its your thing but its a niche market, however if a strategy game level is only three minutes long then you cant get into the mind set of the game. All games need the basic elements of reasonable graphics, game-play and sound.
Sunday 14 December 2008
New Games Journalism
New games journalism is personal, sometimes brutal and subjective but it’s honest which is rare to find, it’s about how the game makes them feel instead of just statistics.
Project Gotham City Racing 3 article is unrealistically complementary. Throughout the review he is saying how wonderful the game is and then when on to give it a8/10 which if he likes the game as much as he makes out that he does why not give it a 9 or 10/10. Well I when on to read the comments on the article and one stood out particularly ‘as good as it is, its loading times are obviously a problem. Especially having to load to restart.’ This wasn’t mentioned in the review but that’s not what bothered me ‘boomboxdan’ replied saying this was an issue but that he would now give it 9/10 which seems insane why after recognizing a fault would you want to grade it up.
So I figured I should look into Eurogamers scoring system (the score is the opinion of the writer on the overall company) a 10 is supposedly reserved for a game which they believe is the best to date in that genre. They on average give a way three 10’s a year which does seem quite a lot if they are following the ‘best in genre’ policy. 10’s are classed as a must buy as with a 9. A 1 is classed as something you should avoid and is about as much fun as anthrax. The scoring system seems unnecessary but if is going to be done it should have a strict scheme so that a high quality isn’t rated the same as a mediocre game.
I agree with kieron Gillan on ‘the worth of a game lies in the gamer not the game’ everyone is different and as a result different turn on and offs. If in the morning your partner looks like a zombie then a zombie game will probably seem less scary and just funny. This is something that statistics can’t gauge or predict so in a way they then become redundant.
I think there should be a middle ground between both types of journalism something which shows personal views whilst doesn't sound like their talking to a neighbor. But on the whole I prefer new games journalism; it’s at least entertaining!
Project Gotham City Racing 3 article is unrealistically complementary. Throughout the review he is saying how wonderful the game is and then when on to give it a8/10 which if he likes the game as much as he makes out that he does why not give it a 9 or 10/10. Well I when on to read the comments on the article and one stood out particularly ‘as good as it is, its loading times are obviously a problem. Especially having to load to restart.’ This wasn’t mentioned in the review but that’s not what bothered me ‘boomboxdan’ replied saying this was an issue but that he would now give it 9/10 which seems insane why after recognizing a fault would you want to grade it up.
So I figured I should look into Eurogamers scoring system (the score is the opinion of the writer on the overall company) a 10 is supposedly reserved for a game which they believe is the best to date in that genre. They on average give a way three 10’s a year which does seem quite a lot if they are following the ‘best in genre’ policy. 10’s are classed as a must buy as with a 9. A 1 is classed as something you should avoid and is about as much fun as anthrax. The scoring system seems unnecessary but if is going to be done it should have a strict scheme so that a high quality isn’t rated the same as a mediocre game.
I agree with kieron Gillan on ‘the worth of a game lies in the gamer not the game’ everyone is different and as a result different turn on and offs. If in the morning your partner looks like a zombie then a zombie game will probably seem less scary and just funny. This is something that statistics can’t gauge or predict so in a way they then become redundant.
I think there should be a middle ground between both types of journalism something which shows personal views whilst doesn't sound like their talking to a neighbor. But on the whole I prefer new games journalism; it’s at least entertaining!
The Future......
Games are becoming more and more expense to create and of involves massive teams, the problem with this is that smaller companies cant afford or cant find the funding for some of theses multi-million pound projects and are a risk of being swallowed by larger companies.
Games Developers are driven to create good games which are intuitive and exciting however publishers on the whole are looking for large returns and sure fire profit makes.
Games which have been based on movies or comics already have a captive audience and therefore are more or less guaranteed to make a profit, there is a similar situation with Sequels of pervious games such as Devil may Cry and Devil May Cry 2. if games enjoyed it the first time round then they are likely the buy the sequel.
This is all well and good for a while but there is only so long this can happen before there isn’t any new game to make sequels of. New games are needed to create diversity and a fresh look. Sequels as often within the film industry often don’t live up to the expectations of the audience. But from a publishers point of view new risks could mean possible losses and also require more advertising. EA games only released one new title this year and there the giants, they have the money to and should be investing in new and different games.
Due to pressures from publishers Developers are having to create more cross platform games in order to get their funding, as a result of this new software has been introduced to make this slightly easier, one of these programs is Citroen’s Renderware 3D development (Burnout 3:Takedown used this program)
I would like to see games in the future to have better Narrative and creativity so they weren’t so generic. I like RPGs but I also like a reason for the Violence instead of the whole game is based on the idea that everyone must die which in itself seems like Sadistic satisfaction.
Games Developers are driven to create good games which are intuitive and exciting however publishers on the whole are looking for large returns and sure fire profit makes.
Games which have been based on movies or comics already have a captive audience and therefore are more or less guaranteed to make a profit, there is a similar situation with Sequels of pervious games such as Devil may Cry and Devil May Cry 2. if games enjoyed it the first time round then they are likely the buy the sequel.
This is all well and good for a while but there is only so long this can happen before there isn’t any new game to make sequels of. New games are needed to create diversity and a fresh look. Sequels as often within the film industry often don’t live up to the expectations of the audience. But from a publishers point of view new risks could mean possible losses and also require more advertising. EA games only released one new title this year and there the giants, they have the money to and should be investing in new and different games.
Due to pressures from publishers Developers are having to create more cross platform games in order to get their funding, as a result of this new software has been introduced to make this slightly easier, one of these programs is Citroen’s Renderware 3D development (Burnout 3:Takedown used this program)
I would like to see games in the future to have better Narrative and creativity so they weren’t so generic. I like RPGs but I also like a reason for the Violence instead of the whole game is based on the idea that everyone must die which in itself seems like Sadistic satisfaction.
Middle history
In July 1980 Atari released the infamous Asteroids which was one of the first games ever to be copyrighted. Asteroids along with Pac man and Space wars became invading everywhere in the form of coin operated arcade games. Adventure, RPG’s and strategy games became to popping up everywhere such as Empire and Age of wonders. Towards the later 80s fewer games where released however new companies started to arise such as Lucas Arts.
When the 90s hit new ideas started arriving about the ways programming, the interface and Graphics. Along with theses new ideas new companies started arriving which are still recognisable today such as Westwood and Bullfrog. Games were becoming more and more popular and actually started to become profitable which is in part due to the popularity of games such as Doom and Underworld.
Pac man was release in Japan in May 1980 and was a simple but compelling maze. Pac man is a 2D maze were the character ‘Pac man’ eats the dots whilst avoids the ghosts which kill the character. As the levels progress the levels become gradually harder but there is no real end to the game however on the 255th level a bug makes the level almost impossible as only half the screen is visible.
Doom is a RPG were the player takes the role of a hardened ‘space marine’ and have to travel to different planets and destroy the evil creatures which threaten to destroy anything, finally he has to go to hell and destroy all the creatures…alone.
Both Doom and Pac man both have been amazingly popular but the advancement in technology has allowed for completely different kind of game play in doom. There is only 13yrs between the games but in the short history of games this is like a century. Pac man has short levels which have a simple goal, the whole level is also visible, doom is more like a novel, it is split with episodes and within each episode are the levels. The creatures are satanic and the game goes out of its way to scare the player.
Games and Technology have always gone hand in hand, as computers became more advanced so did the games, however a side effect to this is that less attention is being paid to the narrative and more to the Graphics. I have come across some visually stunning games but if the game is shallow with little narrative I lost interest quite quickly, nowadays we should look back on these games and try and take some of the qualities to create somewhat more compelling games.
When the 90s hit new ideas started arriving about the ways programming, the interface and Graphics. Along with theses new ideas new companies started arriving which are still recognisable today such as Westwood and Bullfrog. Games were becoming more and more popular and actually started to become profitable which is in part due to the popularity of games such as Doom and Underworld.
Pac man was release in Japan in May 1980 and was a simple but compelling maze. Pac man is a 2D maze were the character ‘Pac man’ eats the dots whilst avoids the ghosts which kill the character. As the levels progress the levels become gradually harder but there is no real end to the game however on the 255th level a bug makes the level almost impossible as only half the screen is visible.
Doom is a RPG were the player takes the role of a hardened ‘space marine’ and have to travel to different planets and destroy the evil creatures which threaten to destroy anything, finally he has to go to hell and destroy all the creatures…alone.
Both Doom and Pac man both have been amazingly popular but the advancement in technology has allowed for completely different kind of game play in doom. There is only 13yrs between the games but in the short history of games this is like a century. Pac man has short levels which have a simple goal, the whole level is also visible, doom is more like a novel, it is split with episodes and within each episode are the levels. The creatures are satanic and the game goes out of its way to scare the player.
Games and Technology have always gone hand in hand, as computers became more advanced so did the games, however a side effect to this is that less attention is being paid to the narrative and more to the Graphics. I have come across some visually stunning games but if the game is shallow with little narrative I lost interest quite quickly, nowadays we should look back on these games and try and take some of the qualities to create somewhat more compelling games.
Sunday 12 October 2008
Early history of Games
It seems there is some confusion into who created the first computer game, so far I have found a couple of ‘creators’ William a. Higginbotham created a demo of a ball which rebounds I think this website was referring to ‘tennis for two’ which was created in 1958 however another website claims the first game concept created by Ralph Baer in 1951 but he never created the game until 1966 which by this time others had created primitive games such as ‘space war’.
The inventors of video games didn’t always think about patenting their ideas straight away which would have made the history a bit easier to follow. they all had the same goal to provide entertainment and see what they can do with the technology; people will always try to stretch what the computer can do and dream to do more with it. For example Star Trek’s Holodeck one day might be a possibility, to create a completely intractable virtual environment and is a dream, like being able to teleport. For me that was the most fascinating thing about star trek and had me contemplating the possibilities of a computer.
I think the first game I ever played was Golden Axe I remember never being able to get very far with it(well I got stuck on the second level)this was a common theme throughout my attempts at gaming until Red Alert and Spyro. With Red alert I only played skirmishes so Spyro was my real starting point, it was the first game I ever completed, I was so excited and proud of myself, and probably the reason i’m doing Game Art now. Spyro was so different from the games my brother played, it wasn’t so dark and scary (I still freak out at Resident evil) and was just what I wanted from a game, well that was ten years ago now and I find myself playing the games I used to be terrified of. But I do play a variety of games from the Sims two to Mass Effect. I have never really got into the army style shooter games but I do love command and conquer and red alert. I have found that games which are based on my interests such as fairytales and vampires I find much more compelling than others. Vampire: the masquerade is one of my favourites, I have heard so many people slate it but still I love it, I think its because for I short while I get to play and become a vampire. Another which I played continuously was American McGee’s Alice. Its games like these I lose myself in completely, (and all concept of time which really got on friends nerves) their games that I play for, I will go through plenty of average games and then find another amazing one, for those games that just capture your imagination, that you can’t stop playing.
The inventors of video games didn’t always think about patenting their ideas straight away which would have made the history a bit easier to follow. they all had the same goal to provide entertainment and see what they can do with the technology; people will always try to stretch what the computer can do and dream to do more with it. For example Star Trek’s Holodeck one day might be a possibility, to create a completely intractable virtual environment and is a dream, like being able to teleport. For me that was the most fascinating thing about star trek and had me contemplating the possibilities of a computer.
I think the first game I ever played was Golden Axe I remember never being able to get very far with it(well I got stuck on the second level)this was a common theme throughout my attempts at gaming until Red Alert and Spyro. With Red alert I only played skirmishes so Spyro was my real starting point, it was the first game I ever completed, I was so excited and proud of myself, and probably the reason i’m doing Game Art now. Spyro was so different from the games my brother played, it wasn’t so dark and scary (I still freak out at Resident evil) and was just what I wanted from a game, well that was ten years ago now and I find myself playing the games I used to be terrified of. But I do play a variety of games from the Sims two to Mass Effect. I have never really got into the army style shooter games but I do love command and conquer and red alert. I have found that games which are based on my interests such as fairytales and vampires I find much more compelling than others. Vampire: the masquerade is one of my favourites, I have heard so many people slate it but still I love it, I think its because for I short while I get to play and become a vampire. Another which I played continuously was American McGee’s Alice. Its games like these I lose myself in completely, (and all concept of time which really got on friends nerves) their games that I play for, I will go through plenty of average games and then find another amazing one, for those games that just capture your imagination, that you can’t stop playing.
Wednesday 8 October 2008
Thoughts on Blogging
I have decided to look into http://lindarella.blogspot.com/, I viewed a few before this but this caught my eye. It’s not writing with perfect spelling or grammar but I continued reading, the blog showing today’s entry started ‘Beginning to love his little wife….’ Well I read on thinking it was going to be a scandalously story of affairs or polygamy but no, it was about her husband’s new car. The woman who is writing this blog seems to be writing a personal account of her life for future reference it covers holiday and her general life, it is quite sweet really, and she seems happy which at 9.30 in the morning is always nice to read. She writes in blocks sometimes she won’t write for weeks other times there is more than one entry for that day. She is from what I’ve read happy, in love, underestimates herself.
It seems that blogs are public diaries; everyone I have ever known to write a traditional diary would be horrified if someone else read it even if it was a perfect stranger. But I have never been one for diaries, their would be the first couple of entries which were written with enthusiasm and thereafter it became a boring account of the days events and within a month I would give up on it.
I don’t honestly know how I will get along with blogging as writing has never been my strong point, but what’s the harm in it, at the worse I will make myself look like a fool which I manage to do on a day-to-day basis anyway. It will hopefully help improve my writing so I might as well give it a go. As for the blog being public I don’t mind that, i’m not sure why but at least it not like my attempts and a diary in my earlier years, this time I know its out there for anyone to read and so I don’t have to burn it afterwards.
It seems that blogs are public diaries; everyone I have ever known to write a traditional diary would be horrified if someone else read it even if it was a perfect stranger. But I have never been one for diaries, their would be the first couple of entries which were written with enthusiasm and thereafter it became a boring account of the days events and within a month I would give up on it.
I don’t honestly know how I will get along with blogging as writing has never been my strong point, but what’s the harm in it, at the worse I will make myself look like a fool which I manage to do on a day-to-day basis anyway. It will hopefully help improve my writing so I might as well give it a go. As for the blog being public I don’t mind that, i’m not sure why but at least it not like my attempts and a diary in my earlier years, this time I know its out there for anyone to read and so I don’t have to burn it afterwards.
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