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Evaluation - Final Major Project

Pre-Production

As the project began it became evident that the writing team, whom I am a part of, would be the first to begin inputting work. I noted in my “Pre-Production - Final Major Project” post how a brief had already been set in line. However, it needed further development until it could be properly utilized by other departments. In order to solve this we communicated among ourselves and began to form notes on what would define our game’s setting, characters and story; the process of which began during the Christmas Holidays showing the general dedication to our work. Being able to speak with other members of our class proved useful in reassuring the quality and contentment regarding our work. Therefore, as our course was split into two classes (A and B), myself and the lead writer ventured over to Group B once the story was built to a reasonable standard to present and gain feedback. These were recorded in the “Pre-Production - Narrative Notes” blog post though I am now in a position to comment on some of the impact Group B’s feedback has had on the project, from a writing perspective. Persisting in my own attendance also ensured that I did not place a lack of communication upon myself.

The concept of a “Giant Golem” was applied to the Woody Hills level as multiple golems would guard the Witch’s Hut, resulting in combat scenarios to progress. Later on, describing the Golems in my work for the GDD, I initially wrote that they work throw pieces of themselves at the player as a long-range attack. A long-range attack was necessary to compensate for their slow speed, otherwise they may be too easy to defeat. When I spoke about this with the Technical Director it was revealed that this would not be viable to due to targeting issues. A resolution to this was the suggestion to instead have the Golem rise jagged rocks beneath the player; it was easier to program and would still serve as a long-range attack. Thus, the change was implemented.

Production

Having the writing team working towards the same overall production piece allowed us to discuss and cross-reference our work more effectively. For example, two of my colleagues found that they both had The Shadow Man mockingly refer to Marbles as “furry friend” in their own sections of the script, unbeknownst to each other. After discussing the matter with them, and later reflecting on it, I weaved the term into my own script in the most natural way I could muster; my colleagues continued this pattern in their later scripts. This is important because while giving The Shadow Man a recurring joke he draws from, for his own amusement, improves character believability forcing such a matter can have the opposite effect. Given that ‘Eliza’ is in a fantasy world with concepts such as magic, speaking animals, animated inanimate objects, anthropomorphic fish and parasitical shadows we can only allow for a certain gap in the sense of disbelief. Breaking this sense of disbelief disconnects them from the artificial reality of our game and may have an effect on how seriously they perceive the rest of the content. After all, it is hardly our goal to devolve the experience to a stage where the audience is searching for further errors in writing rather than enjoying the content for what it is.

Exhibition

The exhibition for our project ‘Eliza’ took place at Colchester’s Firstsite Art Gallery from 30th May - 4th June. During the opening night students and their families were invited for an evening of reflection upon the work being shown as well as the course in general. While not being part of the set-up crew I covered the Thursday morning (1st June) of the exhibition, as it was organized on a group-slot basis throughout. Within this I maintained the area by re-shuffling various paper-based documents/images as well as assisting colleagues with visitors; the opinions expressed were positive, if a little vague. I could have combated this by pressing for information but that could risk making them feel uncomfortable; the middle ground here was to refer to the writer’s questionnaire section, leaving the decision to them. After all, some may simply have nothing insightful to say other than their mere enjoyment.

Image Source/Credit: https://callumreeve.tumblr.com/

Having a typewriter on the Writer’s table was an effective means of drawing in visitors to a section which had no visual content to catch their attention. Some had a brief peruse of the scripts and character bios while there but the younger attendees who came by were predominantly focused on typing. I can understand to an extent that reading through numerous pages of flat text may not be the most appealing concept to a child; whom our game is primarily targeted at. Perhaps interactive experiences that incorporate our work (story, characters etc.) could have been utilized through items such as a digital graphic novel. Though if that was created in collaboration with the Art-Team it might be debatable which table it would serve on. Another solution could be offering dramatic readings which may have revitalized the subject matter through its alternate translation.

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Toy Store Script - Source Material

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Research - Narrative Structure - In Progress

As a writer of the script responsible for crafting part of our project’s narrative it would be wise of me to refine said process via research. More specifically, I shall be looking at the ‘Three Act Structure’ used in traditional storytelling. Perspectives I’ll be dealing with on this matter are Dille & Platten with ‘The Ultimate Guide to Storytelling’ and Skolnick with his ‘Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know About Narrative Techniques’.

Travelling back to 335 B.C. when Aristotle penned ‘Poetics’ is where we’ll find the origin of this concept; “A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end” [1][3], as Aristotle says, is the general basis of the three-act structure. Skolnick states how this doesn’t just apply to the most obvious context of plays but to “virtually every fictional work you’ve ever experienced” using examples such as Star Wars, Titanic and The Matrix as support; the challenge here seems to be to disprove this statement, which I have not been able to thus far. These three acts “all relate to its conflict” [1] acting as the setup, confrontation and resolution, respectfully. Elaborating upon this, plot points would form between acts 1/2, a call to action, and 2/3, the sight of victory [1].

On the other hand Dille & Platten prefer to start with a beat-by-beat system, stating that “to design it like a roller coaster” [2] is the best advice they can give. In regards to the three-act structure they prefer to reserve it for the end under the logic that “trying to force game stories into traditional structure can inhibit the creative process” [2]. With this outlined system I could use Dille & Platten’s knowledge of the beat-by-beat process followed by Skolnick’s knowledge of the three-act structure and apply it to my screenplay in the project; this would increase its validity in an academic sense.

Though it should be said that aside from this project any research which allows me to utilize new perspectives and concepts will aid me in future endeavors, ranging from education, career and day-to-day existence. Nevertheless, my priority is to finish the script with what I have learned and then post it on the blog; thus acting as a source material referencing my practical work.

Bibliography

Dille & Platten, FD & JP, 2007. The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design. 1st ed. United States: Lone Eagle Publishing Company. 

Skolnick, ES, 2014. Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know About Narrative Techniques. 1st ed. United States: Watson-Guptill Publications.

http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics.mb.txt

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Game Design Document - Character Profiles - Enemies

I originally made this document in Microsoft Word as my section of the GDD (Game Design Document). This would be sent to other members of the writing team, including any others who required it, via e-mail prior to finalizing. It would serve well to have it present here in my blog as evidence of my work.

Fish Bandits

Along the sub-routes of the sewer network... travelers, who cannot travel on the surface, will sometimes be accosted by Fish Bandits. These amphibian creatures assert that because they’re avoiding official channels they would have stolen treasures/resources which they could take for themselves.

The Bouncer

The Frog-man Bouncer of Gregory Gills Social Club has been employed since the establishments opening. He knew Gregory Gills fairly well though rarely has the opportunity to speak to him nowadays due to both parties being busy with work.

Trickster

The Trickster was an experiment conducted by the Witch to craft more resourceful beings from inanimate objects and for them to create subservient objects to serve in turn; this would create less work for the Witch. The Trickster has a reasonably short height comparable to a child. It was obtained by the Witch from the Toy Store long ago. As such, the Trickster’s first impulse upon escaping the Witch is to return there.

Toy Soldiers

These traditional wooden Toy Soldiers act on behalf of the Trickster. Manufactured on the same line, they look fairly similar except for their varying colour schemes. As they are not directly animated by the Witch they are less powerful.  

Golems

Creatures of stone, the Golems were constructed by the Witch to guard her domain from outsiders; this is the only impulse they act on. Each is magically linked to the entrance of the Witch’s Hut meaning that access cannot be granted until they are all destroyed. The Witch will destroy and reconstruct her creations each time she is required to pass through. While tedious her magic is not affected.

In combat Golems have been known to stamp the ground; these shockwaves cause jagged stones to arise beneath their opponent. The Golem’s stone body gives them strong melee attacks as well as resistance to damage; this compensates in a way for their slow speed.

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Production Diary

In the levels that have been outlined for the game I had been assigned to write the script for the Toy Store. This is subsequent to the Sewers/Fish Bowl Lounge level and prior to the Gatehouse/Woody Hills level.

So far I have been pleased with Celtx’s service due to how it has presented the formatting in a way which, from my perspective, makes it clear to the user how each form of text should be interpreted to apply ideas. Such a thing shortens the delay before being able to produce content, thus increasing productivity. However, this perspective would hardly be useful if I didn’t support it with evidence.

In regards to the Master Scene Format I have outlined in the introductory post of my production diary Celtx has adhered to it [4] and can therefore be cross-referenced with sources [2][3] such as the one above [1] without conflicting. Concepts such as presenting a foreign language [3][5] and professionalism [2], while not immediately relevant to this project, may come of use to me in any potential ensuing works of screenplay. One section of a website referring to dialogue was quite useful to me in that I’ve learnt the term for the punctuation ‘...’ is ‘ellipsis’ [5][6] which I’ve sincerely always been curious about; I can use this when deconstructing language as part of an analysis in the future.

An introduction to the script such as this sets the context to the area and story elements within it. After all, I cannot presume that those on my course would read the previous levels if they weren’t relevant to their current task; this also counts for my own. As I wrote of the Toy Store in my pre-production I was apply to apply the description as required.

As I continue working on the script (past the point of introduction) I will ensure that the dialogue remains consistent with the other members of the writing team deriving from our shared pre-production as a whole. For the moment, however, I must divert my attention to writing the character profiles for my section of the GDD. This isn’t necessarily a negative as I could use what I write to further inform the dialogue depending on the context.

Bibliography

https://www.writersstore.com/how-to-write-a-screenplay-a-guide-to-scriptwriting/

http://www.storysense.com/format.htm

downloads.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/screenplay.pdf [Download link]

http://www.screenplayology.com/content-sections/screenplay-style-use/1-1/

http://www.storysense.com/format/dialogue.htm

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ellipsis&oq=Ellipsis&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0l5.2526j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

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Production Diary - Introduction

For the Final Major Project this ‘Production Diary’ will serve in documenting physical evidence of my work with supporting analysis. As this is the first post I shall speak briefly on the field of script-writing and the website my team is using for such; doing this will put future posts in context.

As I am new to this field and don’t hold much information about script-writing I shall have to rely on interpreting information from external sources. In a historical sense, script-writing originated in the form of brief ‘Scenarios’ that set the context for films which, in the 1890s, were just as brief [1][2]. These would be used in marketing and “helped exhibitors explain the story to new, inexperienced spectators”[3] before they watch. As films became longer with more nuanced narratives it heightened the “importance of scripting as a conceptual tool”[2] in production. 

Edwin Porter’s ‘The Great Train Robbery’ from 1903, with scenario written by Scott Marble, is cited as as early example of the ‘Master Scene Format’ used today; though dialogue was absent[1][2]. As time progressed concepts such as synchronized sound and multiple shots in one scene morphed it into the modern screenplay; not to mention other historical factors such as Hollywood.

Celtx is the name of the service being utilized by the rest of the writing team and I. The service describe themselves as “The all-in-one system for video and movie planning” on their website [4]. As we are only using Celtx for linear script-writing we can apply the standard version to the context of video-game writing without any issue.

You may have noticed ‘NEW! GAME EDITOR’ on the website’s top toolbar though this addition won’t launch until Spring 2017 [5]. Whether this is after our project finishes or just before we won’t have the time to make use of it. Considering that their specialized packages such as Storytelling and Episodic Productions are paid it seems likely that this, as a specialized service, will also be paid. If this is to eventually be included in the ‘Schools’ package [6] then perhaps my college would consider requesting a quote for it; not that I’m attempting to influence their decision without context of areas such as financial and general management.

Regardless, my next post will be covering the start of production and demonstrate how I apply the writing team’s pre-production to inform its creation.

Bibliography

https://thescriptlab.com/feature/category/screenwriting-101/3147-the-history-of-the-screenplay

http://www.screenplayology.com/content-sections/screenplay-style-use/1-1/

Raynauld, Isabelle. “Screenwriting” in The Encyclopedia of Early Cinema. Edited by  Abel, Richard. NY: Routledge, 2005. Pgs. 834-838.

https://www.celtx.com/index.html

http://go.celtx.com/game-editor

https://www.celtx.com/schools.html

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Pre-Production - Game Description Topics

As with some of the other Pre-Production posts I have produced, this was originally circulated within the Writing Team internally prior to me uploading it here.

Shadow Man

There exists a rare form of magic where the user draws power from their own shadow. As the user becomes more powerful so does their shadow; gaining intelligence which can eventually surpass the user. Because of this the user may become unknowingly manipulated by the shadow. This is not to say that they cannot become respected companions, however. You would simply have to earn it. Only the current host can see their arisen shadow. If the shadow strays too far from the host while attached their form will be lost, resulting in the shadow’s destruction. The user cannot raise another; they are left without a shadow.

A part of this magic is that when the user dies, or becomes extremely close to death, the bond between user and shadow is broken to preserve the shadow. This results in the shadow attaching to the next closest person to them even if they have no ability in magic. If the shadow is very unsatisfied with their current host they could attempt to bring this on intentionally; a king or legendary warrior could be just as useful to them if they got close enough. Such a thing can be done multiple times.

[This is merely an idea. It can be discarded or edited. The Shadow’s owner would be a Shadow Wizard. Also note that it would require the Shadow Man to manipulate Eliza into a state of near death next to his owner if he wanted to go back to him. In terms of what we wanted for the character, however, I believe this is an effective justification. It also explains the nature of what a shadow man is and their origin.]

The Shadow Man’s bond with his owner was broken in a head-on car collision with young Eliza’s family. At this point Eliza’s parents were already dead so The Shadow Man became linked with her. The Shadow Man deeply respected his owner and as such his first impulsion was to find him. He knew that his owner survived the crash as he was seen limping from the scene after attempting to look for his shadow.

Unfortunately, The Shadow Man was now trapped in an orphanage with this young girl. Even if he was to convince her to escape Eliza was far too young to be able to surpass the challenges of the outside world. Eliza was aware of this herself and knew that the Orphanage was the only secure home she could have now despite its poor condition; she refused the mere idea of leaving. Shadow Man’s master was known to the city and wouldn’t be able to enter to search there for unknown reasons. All the Shadow Man could do was to wait until Eliza was old enough to escape.

Toy Store

The Toy Store is the only prominent manufacturer and retailer of toys in the city which Eliza enters after exiting the sewers. It was founded early in the city’s history and controlled most of the market before any worthy competition could arise. As you might expect the building is very large; towering over all of the other nearby stores.

In terms of the interior design you can expect to see regular aisles of toys past the similarly aisle-like tills at the front of the store. Various rooms sprout from the main section of the store each differing in size, shape and toy specialization.

Toy Store – Boss Fight

When progressing through the Toy Store level Eliza will occasionally be pestered by the Trickster, a puppet whom seeks enjoyments from playing his pranks on others. The nature of these pranks is fairly harmless though they inspire a great level of irritation in Eliza and her companions. This gives the group an additional motivation in regards to capturing the Trickster.

Compared to the rest of the store the ‘Boss Fight’ area shall be in a reasonably open oval-shaped room at the far end.

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Pre-Production - Narrative Notes

The following notes were recorded on the 11th January 2017 when the lead writer and myself, members of Group A, traveled to Group B to relay the writing team’s progress in creating the characters/story. While I recorded the notes the phrasing is mostly derived from the lead writer. We then engaged in a discussion with Group B and took several suggestions from them.

Eliza – Protagonist

Parents dead- car crash head on collision

Shadow man flings off the guy hits into girl thus saving her from death

She gets sent to the orphanage the shadow guy is seen as an imaginary friend

The survivor of the car crashes shadow latches onto the girl, he feel tremendous guilt thus keeping the latched onto the girl

Shadow represents- Guilt, loneliness, companionship which the man yearns for

Eliza

She is aged 13

Midnight purple, fluorescent, midnight blue hair colour

Long hair

Shadow Man

Wants be reunited with his owner

Willing to lie to get his own way

Cares for the girl but feels home sick as he know this is not where he belongs

Cat

Speaks English

Guardian for character/placeholder

Loyal companion

Household cat, aged 4 time of

House is no longer occupied, fears being taken away

Seeks out owners

Finds main character in the orphanage

The reason for the cat to hide is so they don’t take the cat to the pound as they don’t allow pets

Marbles, black cat with multi-coloured eyes

Gregory Gills

Fish out of water

Bullied at the orphanage for being different

Gets flushed down the toilet by other kids

Has trust issue and dislikes surfaces dwellers

The sewage people take him in as one of their own  

He builds the nightclub/speakeasy as his dream was to socialise with others and also he wanted to repay the people with the sewer  

Original name Gregory Mills the bullies called Gregory Gills which he later took on and embraced

Group B Notes

Mainland detours to bypass sewer obstacles (mental barriers)

Crossroads – multiple choice

Visual storytelling – environment

Progressive brighter colours

Giant Golem

Gregory Gills – Hostel

Lorelei Amelia Thorne

Player – Shadow form – set points (help sneaking)

Art style sources – Limbo, Franbow, Don’t starve

Environment effects on player

Saboteur

Orphanage is seen as a prison

Shadow man is kind of like an imaginary friend

Has to retrace steps in order to progress this angers the shadow man as she keeps on getting side-tracked

Storyline

Level 1

Starts at the orphanage

She wants to leave

Shadow man says how he can reunite her with her family

They seek an exit

They find a pipe that leads to the sewer that allows them to escape

The cat doesn’t feel like this is a good idea however due to her being stubborn about going to find her parents there is no way of convincing her to stay.

Level 2

They proceed down to the sewer

They seek a way out of the sewer to head onto main land

They find out that the nearest way out is the speak easy run by Gregory Gills

In order of them to proceed they would need to complete a task set by Gregory 

The task set for her is to revisit the orphanage to retrieve something that belongs to Gregory

Alert system (when captured Eliza gets sent back to the orphanage)

Animation of police taking her back

Animations 2.5D (idea)

Giving places the German names for them for example Large river called Nebenfluss that means large river in German thus giving an educational feel to the game (idea)

Search mechanic

Sneaking

Puzzle oriented

Try making the fetch quests not seem like fetch quest

Missing child, police looking for her, moves around in sewers

The guy at the end offers closure and maybe a trinket that belongs to her parents

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Codex Entries - In Progress

The writing team has the responsibility of writing the characters as well as the general world lore. We may go into more detail, or include other information, which cannot be represented within the game itself. To this end I would propose a system in which information about regarding...

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Pre-Production - Final Major Project

While The Final Major Project is typically taken on an individual basis it will instead function as a group project for our course this year. As a member of the writing team there are several tasks that I shall need to complete in the Pre-Production stage of the Final Major Project. These include the Character Profiles, Narrative Structure and the World Lore. Aside from this I would need to carry out my own primary and secondary research into other writing-related matters. 

Essentially, the Character Profile is an analysis of our characters’ personality and their place with the game world. Narrative Structure will determine how the story/plot is portrayed such as whether it is linear or non-linear. To have World Lore the writing team and I must create fictitious history of our game world; this would involve areas such as buildings, cities, factions and cultures. Once the Pre-Production work is completed the Production stage can begin. For the writing team this would take the form of a script. This could detail the vocal and visual interaction of our characters with each-other and the world in a written format.

Before any of the writing team, including myself, come to touch upon the narrative several elements of the game have already been decided; this was in the previous term prior to the project’s official start. The leader of our course had decided the game to be in the genre of Action/Adventure due to versatility and game engines; it shall also be third-person in order to see our whole player model.

Our course was then subjected to vote on age, rating and theme. The primary theme is Fantasy with Mystery and Comedy as secondary themes (whose relevance may vary) and an age rating of 7+; though 12+ is a secondary target audience. Further voting decided that our protagonist would be a 13 year-old girl with an animal companion (likely a cat) and a humanoid companion. Groups from the course were made to devise ideas for the setting; the result of this is a story in a Gothic-like world. Our protagonist, a Gothic-dressed orphan, would set out to find the truth about her parents’ mysterious accident long ago.

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Evaluation

Concept Art - 2D Assets

This was the concept art for the user interface; each row represents a concept for a consistent style of design. While each part (Player, Objective, Map) unites to form the UI they would still technically be separate assets.

I could have increased the usefulness of the concept art by filling out more detail rather than using text as a placeholder. The top version for the user interface seemed, in my opinion, most synonymous with Sci-Fi in its design. However, a college student’s ill-informed presumptions on the conventions of Sci-Fi are hardly a compelling argument.

Concept Art - 3D Asset

These are multiple concepts for the ‘Alien Power Source’ that would have powered the alien vessel in my theoretical game. Due to how the drawings were scanned it it has been lightened which has made visibility of the outlines difficult in some areas.

The top left item was simply a sphere. Because this would’ve only required a button-click to produce, negating any basic skill, it was disregarded. On the other hand, the concept to the right is a transparent cube containing water. This would have required knowledge of transparency and fluids that I did not have enough time to acquire. Similar to the last, the bottom right is a container that contains a powering fluid so it encounters the same issues. The writing was an attempt at an alien language. I’m not a linguist so could I think of little more than jumbling and flipping letters of the Roman alphabet.

For the bottom-center concept I considered using a battery as it should be easily identified as a power source by most playing the game. Unfortunately the narrative flaw was that a mundane battery is a clearly human item. The alien force are planning to invade Earth for the first time, thus making it impossible for them to have stolen and reproduce it beforehand. You might say that my audience of 7-11 year old males probably wouldn’t care about such an inaccuracy. Perhaps their suspension of disbelief can handle it. Perhaps they wouldn't even notice. That could all be correct. Despite the validity of this argument the model itself was still deemed too simple to produce; it is more or less a cylinder inside a cylinder.

I was then brought to the bottom-left concept. I chose this because it seemed to be of a reasonable complexity to justify some level of skill in Autodesk Maya. Another conclusion was that the rigid geometric shape would align with the preferences of my target audience shown in my research topic of Minecraft, which implores the use of such shapes. Such a style can be compared with Super Meat Boy; the simple and retro style could potentially bring a secondary target audience to my project. As long as it does not lead to the alienation of the former it would be wise for me to draw from it. 

2D Assets

Adobe Illustrator was used to create these 2D Assets. As there wasn’t a rhombus shape in the tool bar I started by spawning a square and resized it as necessary. I used the selection tool to select the top two corners and skew them to the right, resulting in the rhombus shape. I repeated this process for each asset. After that I assigned either a solid colour or a gradient as shown above. 

Some detail was added to the map using the line and paint tool; text was also added to the objective asset. The image for the objective was left blank as it would have been contextual to the specific task at hand. The player image was also left blank. This is because our player character would be 3D, like the game itself. While the intention would be to have a still image of the 3D character as the image this could not be accomplished without a literal model at hand. A human astronaut would not be possible for me to produce under constraints of time and ability.

3D Asset

This 3D asset was made in Autodesk Maya. The decision of the colour scheme was based on the connotations of an alien-robotic race; the grey represents their metallic casing whereas the green is commonly used in electronic devices to signify it is ‘powered’ on. 

From the beginning of the project I have been taught on matters which shall help me develop as a person in my future education and career. Being educated on the Harvard Referencing system and how to form a bibliography will allow me to enrich the academic value of my writing for areas such as research or contextual analysis; beforehand I merely relied on in-text referencing. By performing research I realized how it could assist in combating potential issues before they came to fruition as well as further clarifying my intentions of my project. This could then inform the pre-production. The acknowledgement of such a relationship will better prepare me for any projects I may do in the future, hypothetical or otherwise. While never having used Autodesk Maya before I was given the opportunity to do so in this project for the practical work. It is clear that the experience from this project would be of great assistance if I had to use it in the future. Even if I didn’t work with Autodesk Maya directly it would allow better communication between myself and those who do; discussing matters on their own level would enable a clear vision of how our concepts would collide.

In conclusion, the project was successful in the implementation of its design. While the research would have assisted in the quality of the project it could have been improved by carrying out more dedicated articles to pursuit greater knowledge; this would be followed by applying the information back to my target audience thus creating primary research.

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Unit 11 - “Future Proof” - Advisory Blog Post

In regards to completing this task there are several areas I need to cover. First of all is writing a personal statement. 

As a personal statement is a formal piece of writing it would be wise to ensure the proper use of punctuation, spelling, syntax and whatever else the English Language has at its disposal. It should also be said  to avoid colloquial terms such as “awesome” or “dank” if you don’t want the admissions officer/ employer to face-palm themselves. Even if you are not constricted to the 4000 characters and 47 lines set by UCAS on their application I’d suggest being as efficient as possible. Your personal statement merely acts to further inform the decision on whether or not you are appropriate for the place. Every sentence should be another reason for them to accept you. 

The general idea of an application is to fill out relevant information, mostly about yourself, that the other party (company/institution/university) desires/requires. Not all sections on the UCAS application are mandatory to fill out; when it comes to job applications this may vary. This information could still be of use if filled out, however. For example, the UCAS application gives you the option to select someone for ‘Nominated Access’ which allows them to act on your behalf with your application if you are unable to. If something relatively tragic doesn’t happen to you than this won’t come into effect.

In an interview you could lean forward slightly to imply that you are interested in what the interviewer has to say. Though I can’t take credit for that point; I overheard a teacher relay it to a student in secondary school. One would hope you’d already be interested considering your interviewer is deciding your fate for the role/place you, presumably, desire. Conversely, you would make it clear you are feigning your interest if you over-exaggerated your body language. At the very least we can take the point of putting consideration into your body language in general.

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Secondary Research - Existing Products - Audience

Minecraft. It is a game where, surprisingly, you can partake in occasional bouts of mining and/or crafting. 100 million copies have been sold as of June 2016 [1] with a score of 93 out of 100 on Metacritic [2]. 

The age rating of the game is 7+ due to “non-realistic looking violence towards fantasy characters” as well as humans which are “not very detailed”. It also claims some sounds/images may frighten young children [3]. This allows my age range of 7-11 year old males to play the game. 

Minecraft’s simplicity and creativity has made it quite accessible with examples of merchandise being marketed towards both younger and older players on the Minecraft store. For example, you can see apparel featuring both child and adult models. Earrings, Leather bi-fold wallets and bumper stickers are available alongside small plush toys, foam tools, and licensed Minecraft Lego sets [4] (which represents a symbiotic relationship between those two companies).

As much as my focus should be on specifically targeting 7-11 year old males it is important for me to consider how other demographics view my product; especially if they show an interest. If I could find a way to appeal to them without alienating my primary target audience I would be able to increase my theoretical game company’s profits at a heavy rate; though this merely applies to secondary target audiences.

Minecraft, on the other hand, has an ability to appeal to a broad age range allowing consumers to grow up with the franchise with the same level of engagement throughout; perhaps until they even have their own children, introducing them in turn. It is one thing to grab the attention of an audience but by holding them for years --decades, even-- you ensure a maintenance of cultural relevancy that guarantees exponential growth of the fan-base just as much as the profits. The amount you’d gain from this might be enough to buy yourself a mansion where you dismiss your servants by throwing money at them. In the case of Minecraft’s founder, Markus Persson, that would be over $1.5 billion USD at September 2014, alone [5] .

Joking aside, it would be critical that I take marketing just as seriously as the game production. While I wouldn’t be able to extend to the long-term strategy of a franchise such as Minecraft I should remember it started as a small indie game in itself. The best that I can do is take advantage of current resources such as social media and attempt to form a community. From there the interaction made would likely expand word of the game providing more players, and thus more profit, to work with for a dedicated advertising campaign.

Now that I’ve written on the matter of target audience my final area to look at would be Theme. In addition, I need to focus on crafting 2D and 3D assets from Concept Art; I would come to expect those in the near future.

References

We've sold Minecraft many, many times! LOOK!. 2016. We've sold Minecraft many, many times! LOOK!. [ONLINE] Available at: https://mojang.com/2016/06/weve-sold-minecraft-many-many-times-look/. [Accessed 18 October 2016].

Metacritic. 2016. Minecraft for PC Reviews - Metacritic. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/minecraft. [Accessed 19 October 2016].

PEGI Pan European Game Information - Advanced Search . 2016. PEGI Pan European Game Information - Advanced Search . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.pegi.info/en/index/global_id/505/?page=7&lang=en¶ms=global_id%2F505%2F&searchString=minecraft&global_id=505&id=509#searchresults. [Accessed 19 October 2016].

minecraft.net - Home. 2016. minecraft.net - Home. [ONLINE] Available at: https://minecraft.net/en/store/?ref=m. [Accessed 16 November 2016].

Financial Post. 2016. Minecraft founder Markus Persson: From ‘indie’ tech champion to potential billionaire on Microsoft deal | Financial Post. [ONLINE] Available at: http://business.financialpost.com/fp-tech-desk/post-arcade/minecraft-founder-markus-persson-from-indie-tech-champion-to-potential-billionaire-on-microsoft-deal?__lsa=5a1d-2a89. [Accessed 19 November 2016].

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3D Modelling - Autodesk Maya - Mapping

In preparation for the production of 3D assets in Autodesk Maya we have been made to learn some of the functions within the software. Most recently: Mapping.

When I say ‘mapping’ I refer to ‘bump mapping’ and ‘normal mapping’; these are applied to a model to give the illusion of depth. There is also ‘displacement mapping’ which alters the geometry of a model giving it true depth rather the mere illusion of such a thing.

I will say that following should only be regarded as a test. It is, unfortunately, completely unrelated to my project.

First of all, we were asked to find an image from the internet and turn it into a ‘normal map’ using a specific website designed for such a function. I cannot recall the name of the website but after this... dog... was found it was destined to enter the machinations of the aforementioned website and return anew.

This is when this, mildly terrifying, version of the image was born. When applied to a plane (flat surface) in Autodesk Maya it would attempt to portray the depth of its original form.

Naturally, my next step was to spawn a plane in Maya and apply the ‘normal map’ to it. This gave the plane an illusion of depth with certain areas appearing raised and lowered. The issue was that the original image could only be vaguely recognised considering that the plane was still in its naturally grey form with no sense of colour. By applying the original image as a texture on top of the ‘normal map’ it could be determined just how much the added depth would enrich the image.

This is the final result. At the very least it shows my ability/progression within Autodesk Maya. I’d say that in near future we should be looking into textures in a greater extent; learning how to produce them in Photoshop or Illustrator. Whether this image has been ‘enriched’ is something I’ll leave open to debate.

Although it is clear that the answer is yes.

[collegeblognobodycaresabout-blog]

Secondary Research - Existing Products - Genre

In preparation for my upcoming hypothetical game I must conduct my own research into existing products. I shall structure this by looking into a game with the same genre, then follow with theme and target audience individually -- relating back to my own work of course. Otherwise I’d fail the course miserably and be resorted to performing tight-rope on the poverty line of society.

Because I don’t want to make the post too large, as well as allowing myself to post more frequently, this submission will focus solely on an example of Genre. 

The first game that I decided to research was 'Super Meat Boy' which is a level-based platformer. In each level you navigate through a trap-riddled environment relying on the practice of wall-jumping. The game is rated 12 due to “Realistic looking violence towards non human looking characters” as well as online functionality on the Xbox 360 version [1].

“Meat Boy is a big throw back to a lot of super hardcore NES classics like Ghosts 'n Goblins, Mega Man and the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2“ [2]

The above was said by Edmund McMillan, a designer of the game, who refers to the notoriously high difficulty of Meat Boy and its inspirations. I should clarify that this interview was in 2009 when they were first developing Super Meat Boy for WiiWare. ‘Meat Boy’ was the original prototype made in Adobe Flash before it was eventually reinvented as a full-fledged game sold within the industry: Super Meat Boy [2].

Click on this link if you want to play ‘Meat Boy’ (It is a free browser game)

By presenting a modern option for those who enjoyed the challenge of the NES era Super Meat Boy has found a target audience it can appeal to. My own target audience of 7-11 year olds, however, would likely become quickly frustrated and disengaged due to the difficulty level. I must be careful to set an appropriate challenge for them as anything too hard, or too easy, will cause them to lose interest in the product.

In theory, I could run a focus group of those within my demographic (After being DBS checked, naturally) and allow them to play several prototypes of the game each at a varying difficulty. The version that was the most engaging to the most participants would be chosen to proceed with. I could then run additional focus groups for various aspects of the game as required.

Aside from the difficulty I can also learn from the intuitive controls, simple goals, and short level-based structure. All of these areas are those which I believe are important in order to appeal to my target audience, who are children after all.

For future posts regarding the ‘Existing Products’ I shall begin researching into them when I am able. My next post will likely be on a different research area that I have not yet covered. Beyond that I have nothing more to say so, regretfully, I must say farewell.

~The End~

References

PEGI Pan European Game Information - Advanced Search . 2016. PEGI Pan European Game Information - Advanced Search . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.pegi.info/en/index/global_id/505/?searchString=Super+Meat+Boy. [Accessed 16 September 2016]. 

Nintendo Life. 2016. Team Meat Interview - Super Meat Boy - Nintendo Life. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2009/02/team_meat_interview_super_meat_boy. [Accessed 01 October 2016].

[collegeblognobodycaresabout-blog]

Designing for Audience, Genre and Theme

The title seen before you is Assignment 1 in my second year of the Interactive Media and Games course at Colchester Institute. Pairs are each given an audience, genre and theme; they use this to make 2D and 3D assets for a hypothetical game. Individual research must also be conducted into their given area to support the project.

My partner and I were dealt with a Sci-Fi platformer aimed at boys aged 7-11. Examples of Science Fiction, such as Star Wars, and platformers, such as Terraria, have both been especially successful at targeting this demographic. By binding these together I believe our game would also be a success, if it was to see the light of day.

You may have noticed the rather large logo above which represents Autodesk Maya. This software will be used by the class to create 3D assets for our hypothetical game. We started with it today, following basic tutorials, activities and just experimenting in general. At this early stage we were spawning simple shapes, such as cubes and spheres, to morph and re-scale. My partner drafted some potential assets to be made and proceeded to create a contained laser. I followed with a glass jar though, as we had not yet learned how to mimic glass, the best I could do was something which resembled a opaque cylinder.

Now, I’m aware that photographic evidence would speak volumes more than the short explanation of our work above. To this I say that I shall update this post or at least provide the necessary evidence elsewhere. If the latter is the case I will provide a link to the specific post.

Other than that I believe this post is concluded. My next blog shall continue through the initial stages of this assignment. I shall also cover Assignment 2 in the future as we are moving through both units simultaneously. It regards our plans post-college such as Careers and Universities.