P4 Critical and contextual awareness

Marc work:

16 bit game research: 

Overlords new mansion 

• I picked the game because the screenshot looked fun and intriguing, because it had nice colour contrast and good looking art. 
• It is an action adventure platformer, with challenging mechanics. 
• The platforming is fun and challenging. 

• Make the landing of the jumping a bit better, because it’s a bit hard to land jumps sometimes. 
• The hook for the game could be that the game is fast paced and when you die you respawn quickly. 

32 bit game research:

One way the fifth generation changed the experience by being 3d so you now have depth of field in a video game, and you can now move (in some 3d) in all directions, which was new at the time because 16 bit before the fifth generation sort of had 3d games but not what 3d games are like in the fifth generation.

Another way the fifth generation changed the experience could be how graphics didn’t really improve, because in 3d games (in the fifth generation) they have polygons and when you add texture to polygons its not as clear as say a 2d character in say a 16 bit game because they are flat so they have no depth.

16 bit

32 bit

6th generation:

1: which consoles did you play on or own?

    I have never owned a 6^th gen console, but I have played many 6^th games and love them, I have played them via ports and pc releases.

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2: which handheld did you own

I have never owned a 6^th gen handheld either, but I have also played many 6^th gen handheld games.

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My favourite game from gen 6 is probably halo 2 because the game was very ahead of its time, and it was incredibly fun to play. The Halo series as a whole revolutionised the gaming industry because of how it utilised the second stick on the controller for first person shooters on consoles, also the enemy ai in halo is amazing, smart and hilarious. The story in halo 2 is amazing and the narrative of also being a “bad guy” is amazing aswell.

the seventh generation:

The seventh generation of video game consoles started on the day November 22, 2005, with the release of Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Then Sony Computer Entertainment’s PlayStation 3 on November 17, 2006 and Nintendo’s Wii on November 19, 2006, the following year.

Some new features the seventh generation had:

• HD graphics:

The seventh generation of consoles (except the wii) used the hdmi cable which let them have hd graphics of 720p, hd is good and all but, it sometimes might have lagged the game or the developers may have had some draw backs because they are working with this new hd technology.

• Online:

The seventh generation of consoles also had online functions, most games made in the seventh generation had a online function because it makes the life of the game longer and keeps the game fresh and still playable. But if you had a bad wifi connection (which many people had) the game would be extremely laggy and unplayable, most of the time you needed a ethernet cable to play the game properly.

motion controls and movement:

In this era of video games the video game industry was “revolutionised” with motion controls, the wii was the first console to start this craze, the fact that the wii had this new feature, made it sell incredibly. Due to the success of the wii Microsoft and sony tried to profit of motion controls as well but failed, sony launched the playstation move it worked but not as good as the wii did because it was quite expensive and also everyone and there grandmas had a wii by that point. Microsoft also launched the connect which had no controllers at all which was the main reason why it failed also because it was worse than the move and the wii, so in the end the wii still did the best in this era even though it was not hd or super high performing it just had a ground breaking feature that sold millions.

reflection:

I have successfully gone through the key generations of video games and technology, I think I have gone into the right amount of detail in my work to describe, the generations of video game technology. What was good about the experience is that I now have a grand understanding of the video game generations as a whole, nothing really was bad about the experience though. Another thing I can take out of this is that I can now use my new knowledge of the video game generations and apply it to my work in the future. If I had to do this part of the project again I would go into more detail when describing the key aspects of the generation and maybe go into the limitations more.

Ray tracing:

Ray tracing is a light rendering technique that looks incredibly realistic. It is an algorithm that can trace the path of light, and then simulate the way that the light interacts with the virtual objects it ultimately hits in the video game’s world.

Types of ray tracing:

• Ray traced shadows 

Ray-traced shadows are shadows that HDRP generates by tracing rays of light from the following Light sources: Directional. Point. Spot.

• Ray traced reflections 

Ray-Traced Reflections is a ray tracing feature in the High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP). It is an alternative, more accurate, ray-traced solution to Screen Space Reflection that can make use of off screen data.

• Ray traced global illumination 

Ray-Traced Global Illumination is a ray tracing feature in the High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP). It is a more accurate alternative to Light Probes and lightmaps.

Games that use ray tracing, and what type:

• Battlefield V – Ray traced reflections  
• Metro Exodus – Ray traced global illumination 
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Ray traced shadows 
• Stay in the Light – Ray traced global illumination and reflections 
• Quake II RTX – Ray traced global illumination 

Ray tracing improves the realistic aspects for a game, it makes games look amazing with these new lighting effects, also it improves the way developers make games because using the ray tracing technique might be better then doing others, and of course it makes your game look amazing.

Future of gaming technology: Virtual reality

The vr is a piece of gaming technology that is quite new in the gaming industry. The vr is a headset that the player puts over the head and then it takes them into the game, the vr lets players feel like they are more emersed in the game, but the vr is also very expensive. Even the cheaper ones (that don’t work that well) come at around £200, which is quite a lot for something that doesn’t work that well. the vr uses gyroscope technology, (which is also used for motion controls on the Nintendo switch joycons) gyroscopes senses motion and simulates it in the game.

The vr will change the experience for the users in the future because of how revolutionising the vr is, most games in the future might all use vr because games that are very atmospheric and immersive, would be perfect for the vr and help the player feel more immersed in the game.

Resident evil 7 was fully playable in vr which was not done that much with other games. (making a optional vr game)

advantages:

• The vr is really good at immersing the player in a game, (from using vr myself) it was extremely fun, to play games that worked well in vr.

• The future of vr will be better, video game companies are trying there best to make vr affordable, while still making the game playable.
• It might be easier for the developers to make vr games because they do not need to make a player model because you won’t see it.

disadvantages:

• Vrs (that work well) are very expensive, and take a lot of effort to set up correctly, so they are not quite consumer ready.
• The cheaper vr headsets don’t usually work that well, for example play station vr is really glitchy sometimes, and often freezes and just turns itself off sometimes.
• It might be harder for the developers to make vr games because they are made for completly different perspectives, which is hard to program the movement of the head aswell.

reflection:

I have successfully gone through the future of video games and technology, I think I have gone into a good amount of detail into the future technology of the gaming industry. What was good about the experience is that I now have a good understanding of the future technology of video games, nothing really was bad about the experience though. Another thing I can take out of this is that I can now use my new knowledge of the future video game technologies and apply it to my work in the future. If I had to do this part of the project again I could probably included more pictures and maybe do some more research.

Key differences with 3d and 2d engines:

Movement:

In 3d you have a wide range of movement, because in 3d you can go in all directions of movement, your movement is not that restricted in 3d games. But in 2d games you can just move left or right, so you are very restricted in 2d unlike 3d games.

Environment:

In 3d games the area can look more realist, atmospheric and more alive, while in 2d games you are restricted to so much less because you are only looking at something with one angle, so fine details and areas can’t be easily put in like in 3d games.

Controls:

Similar to what I said in movement in 2d games you can just go right or left, but it might be better in some cases because it is simpler and easier to understand, but in 3d you can go in literally all directions, so the movement possibilities are endless.

Licences for game engines:

Game engines that are available to the public usually are free if you are going to use it for non profit projects, but if they are making games that are going to be up for sale then they might have to pay for the software.

Unreal engine:

The first-generation Unreal Engine was developed by Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games. Having created editing tools for the shareware games ZZT (1991) and Jill of the Jungle (1992), Sweeney began writing the engine in 1995 for the production of a game that would later become a first-person shooter known as Unreal.

                                                                        -Wikipedia

Throughout the years unreal engine has had many updates, to adapt to the new technology. Today the latest version of unreal is the unreal engine 5. Unreal Engine 5 was revealed on May 13, 2020 with expected launch in late-2021, supporting all existing systems including the next-generation consoles PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Work on the engine started about two years prior to its announcement.

En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Unreal Engine. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_Engine#:~:text=The%20first%2Dgeneration%20Unreal%20Engine,person%20shooter%20known%20as%20Unreal.&gt; [Accessed 3 December 2020].

One game that uses unreal engine, is the video game fortnite. Fortnite is made by the video game company epic games. Fortnite uses the unreal engine, which is very fortunate for fortnite because the unreal engine is very versatile and fortnite has been ported to many deferent consoles and mobile devices, so unreal engine was probably the best option for fortnite even though when fortnite was first in development they had no intensions of porting it to multiple other devices.

fortnite on pc with rtx on

fortnite on mobile (which looks very impressive for a mobile game!)

fortnite on nintendo switch

reflection:

I have written about video game engines and how they are used, I think I have done enough work on how game engines are used and adapted for games. What was good about the experience is that I now have a decent understanding of hoe game engines are used, nothing really was bad about the experience though. Another thing I can take out of this is that I can now use my research into video game engine and apply it to my work in the future. If I had to do this part of the project again I could probably just right more on more games that uses certain video game engines.

Chris work:

Critical Perspectives:

The Heroes Journey:

The hero’s journey is a template for stories, that involve a hero who goes on a big adventure, wins a decisive crisis and comes home changed or transformed. The hero’s journey was popularised by Joseph Campbell’s theories on hero myth pattern studies. he describes the narrative pattern as follows: A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man. Also a hero’s journey usually have different archetypes of characters, these include: a hero, the shadow, the mentor, the herald, the threshold guardians, a shapeshifter, the trickster and the allies.

The hero’s journey steps:

THE ORDINARY WORLD. The hero, uneasy, uncomfortable or unaware, is introduced sympathetically so the audience can identify with the situation or dilemma. The hero is shown against a background of environment, heredity, and personal history. Some kind of polarity in the hero’s life is pulling in different directions and causing stress.

THE CALL TO ADVENTURE. Something shakes up the situation, either from external pressures or from something rising up from deep within, so the hero must face the beginnings of change.

REFUSAL OF THE CALL. The hero feels the fear of the unknown and tries to turn away from the adventure, however briefly. Alternately, another character may express the uncertainty and danger ahead.

MEETING WITH THE MENTOR. The hero comes across a seasoned traveler of the worlds who gives him or her training, equipment, or advice that will help on the journey. Or the hero reaches within to a source of courage and wisdom.

CROSSING THE THRESHOLD. At the end of Act One, the hero commits to leaving the Ordinary World and entering a new region or condition with unfamiliar rules and values.

TESTS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES. The hero is tested and sorts out allegiances in the Special World.

APPROACH. The hero and newfound allies prepare for the major challenge in the Special world.

THE ORDEAL. Near the middle of the story, the hero enters a central space in the Special World and confronts death or faces his or her greatest fear. Out of the moment of death comes a new life.

THE REWARD. The hero takes possession of the treasure won by facing death. There may be celebration, but there is also danger of losing the treasure again.

THE ROAD BACK. About three-fourths of the way through the story, the hero is driven to complete the adventure, leaving the Special World to be sure the treasure is brought home. Often a chase scene signals the urgency and danger of the mission.

THE RESURRECTION. At the climax, the hero is severely tested once more on the threshold of home. He or she is purified by a last sacrifice, another moment of death and rebirth, but on a higher and more complete level. By the hero’s action, the polarities that were in conflict at the beginning are finally resolved.

RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR. The hero returns home or continues the journey, bearing some element of the treasure that has the power to transform the world as the hero has been transformed.

For example Halo combat evolved’s archetypes: 

Hero – master chief 

Shadow – the profits of the covenant/ the grave mind of the flood 

Mentor – Cortana  

Herald – Captain Keyes 

Threshold guardian – covenant/ the flood 

Shapeshifter – maybe Captain Keyes because the flood takes over his body and turns him from good to bad. 

Trickster – grunts 

Allies – the unsc (marines who help you) 

Halo combat evolved’s hero’s journey steps:

• THE ORDINARY WORLD: halo sort of misses out this step which is perfectly fine, but you could argue that the start on the unsc ship is the normal world of the future, where it’s in space and militaristic.
• THE CALL TO ADVENTURE: Captain Keyes (which is definitely the herald of the story) starts master chief on his quest to stop the covenant
• REFUSAL OF THE CALL: master chief doesn’t really have a refusal to go on his adventure but when he crashes on to the halo ring then I guess it stopped the adventure for a bit.
• MEETING WITH THE MENTOR: throughout the game he speaks with his mentor Cortana.
• CROSSING THE THRESHOLD: master chief landing on the halo ring and exploring the ancient world of the forerunners.
• TESTS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES: master chief helps his allies face of the covenant on the halo ring.
• APPROACH: master chief finds the cartographer which helps him on his journey to stop the covenant.
• THE ORDEAL: master chief encounters a bigger threat than the covenant, the flood a zombie like alien lifeform which is incredibly strong in numbers and can infect millions.
• THE REWARD: master chief found out what needed to be done to stop the flood, but to do this he needs to go on one last mission.
• THE ROAD BACK: master chief goes back to the place he started from the pillar of autumn to blow up halo to stop the flood.
• THE RESURRECTION: master chief sacrifices his life to save the galaxy, he makes it out of the pillar of autumn just before the place blows up, saving the galaxy.
• RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR: master chief returns back to the unsc base and the galaxy is saved for now…

the hero’s journey in movies: Star wars a new hope

Starwars a new hope is a prime example of what the hero’s journey is, George Lucas (the creator of starwars) wrote the story with intensions of using the hero’s journey format because he believed it was a great way to tell a story and in my opinion I believe it works quite well as well.

The Ordinary World

Luke Skywalker is living a normal and humble life as a farm boy on his home planet of Tatooine.

Call to Adventure

Luke is called to his adventure by two individuals — R2-D2 and Ben Kenobi. Luke triggers R2-D2’s message from Princess Leia and is intrigued by her and the message.

When R2-D2 escapes to find Ben Kenobi, Luke follows and is later saved by Kenobi, who goes on to tell Luke about his Jedi heritage. Kenobi suggests that he should come with him to Alderaan.

Refusal of the Call

Luke refuses Kenobi, telling him that he can take Kenobi and the droids as far as Mos Eisley Spaceport — but he can’t possibly leave his Aunt and Uncle behind for some space adventure.

Crossing the Threshold

When Luke discovers that the stormtroopers searching for the droids would track them to his farm, he rushes to warn his Aunt and Uncle, only to discover them dead by the hands of the Empire.

When Luke returns to Kenobi, he pledges to go with him to Alderaan and learn the ways of the Force like his father before him.

Tests, Allies, and Enemies

After Luke, Kenobi, and the droids hire Han Solo and Chewbacca to transport them off of Tatooine and onto Alderaan, Kenobi begins Luke’s training in the ways of the Force.

Wielding his father’s lightsaber, Kenobi challenges him to block the shots of a small training remote. At first, he can’t do it. But then Kenobi gives him a helmet to wear that has a blast shield that blocks his view of the remote. Kenobi teaches him to reach out and trust his feelings. Luke blocks three shots from the remote — blind.

The Approach

The plan to defeat the Galactic Empire is to bring the Death Star plans to Alderaan so that Princess Leia’s father can take them to the Rebellion. However, when they arrive within the system, the planet is destroyed. They come across the Death Star and are pulled in by a tractor beam, now trapped within the metaphorical belly of the beast — The Galactic Empire.

The Ordeal

As Kenobi goes off to deactivate the tractor beam so they can escape, Luke, Han, and Chewbacca discover that Princess Leia is being held on the Death Star with them. They rescue her and escape to the Millennium Falcon, hoping that Kenobi has successfully deactivated the tractor beam.

Kenobi later sacrifices himself as Luke watches Darth Vader strike him down. Luke must now avenge his fallen mentor and carry on his teachings.

The Reward

Luke has saved the princess and retrieved the Death Star plans. They now have the knowledge to destroy the Galactic Empire’s greatest weapon once and for all.

The Road Back

Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, and the droids are headed to the hidden Rebellion base with the Death Star plans. They are suddenly pursued by incoming TIE-Fighters, forcing Han and Luke to take action to defend the ship and escape with their lives — and the plans.

When they are triumphant, they realize that the Galactic Empire must be tracking them. But they have no choice but to race against time to take the plans to the Rebellion and prepare for battle.

The Resurrection

The Rebels — along with Luke as an X-Wing pilot — prepare to take on the Death Star.

The Rebellion and the Galactic Empire wage war in an epic space battle. Luke is the only X-Wing pilot that was able to get within the trenches of the Death Star. But Darth Vader and his wingmen are in hot pursuit. Just as Darth Vader is about to destroy Luke, Han returns and clears the way for Luke.

Luke uses the Force to guide his aiming as he fires upon the sole weak point of the deadly Death Star, destroying it for good.

The Return

Luke and Han return to the Rebellion base, triumphant, as they receive medals for the heroic journey. There is peace throughout the galaxy — at least for now.

The heroes journey in spider-man (2002):

Ordinary World

Peter is a skinny, wimpy, thoroughly relatable high school senior. He gets picked on by his classmates, he has a BFF named Harry, and he’s madly in love with his neighbor, Mary Jane. He lives with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May in Queens. They’re kind of corny, but they’re loving surrogate parents for Pete.

Call to Adventure

On a field trip to the Columbia University science department, Peter suffers a bite from a genetically engineered super spider.

Okay, “suffers” is probably too harsh a word here since that gnarly looking spider bite gives Peter a set of rad superpowers: enhanced strength and speed, the ability to crawl up walls, web shooters, and precognition. Peter is physically transformed into a buff dude capable of stopping the bullies that once picked on him. He’s capable of stopping criminals, too.

Refusal of the Call

Peter refuses to use his enhanced abilities to stop a robber who holds up the wrestling tournament Peter just participated in. In this moment, he’s called to use his superpowers for good; when he lets the robber go, he essentially says, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

And his uncle winds up dead as a result. Whoops.

Meeting the Mentor

On graduation day, when Peter is missing Uncle Ben something fierce, Aunt May reminds Peter that Uncle Ben loved him and knew he was destined to do great things. In effect, she represents both herself and Ben now, mentoring Peter by proxy and reminding him of his values and what he’s fighting for.

Crossing the Threshold

Peter gives Spider-Man’s costume a much-needed upgrade, and Spider-Man hits the streets of New York, stopping criminals left and right. Gone is the bitter teen who refused to stop a thief.

Public opinion about Spidey and his crime-fighting motives are mixed, but he’s officially made his presence known to the denizens of New York City…including a certain glider-riding supervillain.

Tests, Allies, Enemies

Peter’s chief allies are his best friend, Harry, and his oldest friend, Mary Jane, with whom he’s also secretly in love. The whole situation is complicated by the fact that once Peter and Harry become roommates after high school, Harry and Mary Jane start dating. Sorry, Pete.

Peter’s #1 enemy, as Spider-Man, is the Green Goblin. Gobby firmly believes that people are terrible: they’ll never appreciate the sacrifices you make; all they’ll do is betray you. The Green Goblin proposes that he and Spidey team up and become allies, presumably in chaos and destruction, fueled by their bitterness over being taken for granted by the world.

Throughout his journey, Spider-Man faces several tests. The first big one is stopping the Green Goblin when he crashes Oscorp’s World Unity Festival. He’s too late to stop Gobby from blowing up Oscorp’s board, but he saves Mary Jane’s life, as well as the lives of countless ordinary citizens.

Later, the Green Goblin shows up at the Daily Bugle and hits Spider-Man with knockout gas. He doesn’t kill him; he takes him to a quiet, little out-of-the-way place and proposes that they team up. Next, the Green Goblin lures Spider-Man into a burning building. When Spider-Man formally declines his offer to be partners, he and the Green Goblin throw down again.

Approach to the Inmost Cave

This is where our hero prepares for his biggest challenge. In Spider-Man, it’s also where our hero eats turkey. At Thanksgiving dinner, when Norman spots the cut on Peter’s arm, he realizes his son’s pal is his nemesis, Spider-Man.

The stakes have officially been raised. Now that Norman and the Green Goblin know Spidey’s secret identity, they know how to focus their attack for maximum impact.

Ordeal

When Aunt May is attacked, Peter faces his greatest fear. With his identity exposed, his loved ones are no longer safe. At least the Green Goblin doesn’t know that he loves Mary Jane. Yet.

Reward (Seizing the Sword)

Peter and M.J. have an intimate heart-to-heart in Aunt May’s hospital room as Aunt May, Peter’s only family, rests—and eavesdrops—peacefully. Peter tells M.J. what he told Spider-Man about her (i.e., that she’s, like, the most awesome girl ever), and Mary Jane and Peter hold hands. Aww.

The Road Back

The Green Goblin kidnaps Mary Jane and holds her hostage on top of the Queensboro Bridge. See, Harry, not knowing what he was doing, told Norman that Peter is in love with M.J., which means the Green Goblin knows exactly how to get to Spider-Man. Whoops.

Spider-Man comes to M.J.’s aid and rescues her. He also saves a tramway car full of innocent kids in the process after Gobby tries to force Spider-Man to choose between the two. Spider-Man: all about that multitasking.

Resurrection

The resurrection is where the hero returns order to the world and ends the conflict. Here, it’s when Spider-Man defeats the Green Goblin once and for all. Technically, we suppose the Green Goblin kind of defeats himself since he’s impaled by his own glider after Spider-Man dodges it, but still.

With the Green Goblin gone, Spider-Man/Peter can breathe easier. We’re sure that pesky little matter of Harry vowing to avenge his father’s death will just resolve itself, right? Right?

Return with the Elixir

Peter returns to his ordinary world a changed man. When M.J. confesses her love for him (finally), he tells her he’ll always be her friend. He tells the audience that he’ll never forget Uncle Ben’s words—”with great power comes great responsibility”—and that he’s got a job to do because he’s Spider-Man.

It’s his gift because he can stop crime and save lives, and it’s his curse because he can’t live happily ever after with M.J., 2.5 spider-children, and a white picket fence.

source: Shmoop.com. 2021. Spider-Man Hero’s Journey | Shmoop. [online] Available at: <https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/movie/spider-man/analysis/heros-journey&gt; [Accessed 20 January 2021].

reflection:

I have discussed the use of the heroes journey in the media and also my own projects, I think I have done enough work on how the heroes journey is applied to films and video games. What was good about the experience is that I now have a good understanding on how stories are made for games and films/ books, nothing really was bad about the experience though. Another thing I can take out of this is that I can heavily apply the heroes journey formula to my game design projects in the future. If I had to study the heroes journey again I would probably warp the formula a bit more to suit more story even more.

representation:

What is representation: Representation is how media (such as movies and videogames) deals with and presents gender, age, ethnicity , national and regional identity, social issues and events to an audience. The media have the power to shape an audience’s knowledge and understanding about these important topics.

Representation is important because it gives us different views on how cultures and stereotypes are portrayed in society and the media. Representation is also important because of how people can be offended by the way they are portrayed by their race, personality or sexuality, obviously the stereotype of them would be negative to get people offended by it. For example: the video game we happy few represent this dystopian version of Britain were the Germans won the second world war, it portrays Britain to be in a great depression because of how the Germans are controlling the country. The British people in the game all have a massive British stereotype, which isn’t really offensive but it is quite comical. People could argue that the police in we happy few have a negative stereotype, by the way it represents in the real world how society is being metaphorically controlled, but that is because in the game they are actually being controlled by a drug that lets the people higher up control society in the game. If the designers of the game tried to make the stereotypes and representation more positive it wouldn’t really work because the British representation is the main style and factor of the game.

The police (bobbys) in we happy few

representation of strong female characters in starwars:

Rey

Star wars has many female characters, some of them are represented correctly and some are not. A big example is the star wars character: Rey is the main character in the sequel trilogy of star wars movies, before this star wars has had many female characters in all shapes and sizes but the sequel trilogy was the first trilogy to have a lead female character, the issue with Rey was that she was written horribly  (probably because of the 2 different directors that had different ideas of the trilogy that don’t correlate with each other) but basically Rey was  stupidly overpowered for no reason, yes she was a jedi but all past jedi before the sequel trilogy had many years of training to become a powerful jedi but Rey just instantly became the most powerful jedi with literally no training at all, its an insult to the female star wars community because the first lead female character in star wars was a Mary sue (a female character that is overpower for no reason at all), the character Rey is a prime example of how not to do a strong female character, like I said before though, star wars has many other strong female characters though, for example: Cara Dune, Cara Dune is not the lead character of the Mandalorian show but she is a main character, she is a quite strong character, but it is justified by her backstory of being a ex rebel shock trooper, which means she has had years of training to  be a trooper and that is why her strength is justified because she has had past training, but rey literally has just no training before picking up a lightsaber and uses it as if she’s a jedi master, which is totally not right.

Cara Dune

reflection:

I have discussed how video games represent things in the games, I think I have done a decent amount of writing about how people, cultures and other things are represented in video games. What was good about the experience is that I now have a good understanding on how stories are made for games and films/ books, nothing really was bad about the experience though. Another thing I can take out of this is that I can apply the research that I did on representation to my work in the future. If I had to study representation again I would probably write more on how things are represented in other media.

Applying critical perspectives to my own work:

The heroes journey applied to my own project:

Heroes Journey Stage	What will happen in your story?
Ordinary World	Earth. The year is 2099, the military has had reports for years that there is life beyond our world, we are unsure if these other beings are peaceful or not, but that doesn’t matter to the people in power, we are ready for an attack on Earth.
Call to adventure	Millions of ships come into our atmosphere, the government did not care if they were peaceful, they opened hell fire upon them. You have been trained by a young age to fight in a situation like this. The space military have ordered you to be put into enemy’s territory on Earth.
Refusal of the call	Most of your friends in the military are dead, and you are Earth’s finally hope due to how advanced the enemy ships are, the entire world is counting on you.
Meeting with the mentor	Your captain will guide you throughout the game, helping you figure enemy weak points and other ways to help you progress.
Crossing the threshold	The character will get into the directional cannon vehicle (name not finished yet) and will be dropped into the enemy’s new base on Earth.
Tests, Allies and Enemies	The character will have many close calls, going through the massive alien base, killing many bosses and going through waves of enemies.
Approach the innermost cave	At this stage the character will go to the final area of the enemy base, this is where he will fight the leader of the aliens.
Endures the Ordeal	The character will have to fight the leader but fails and is sent to the Alien prison in the base.
The Road Back	The character will be saved by the captain and then will have a new final upgrade for his vehicle which will help him defeat the Alien leader.
Resurrection	The Alien leader is astonished he made his way back and unleashes his full potential, but the main character you play as fights back and kills the enemy leader.
Return with the Elixir	The Earth is saved for now and the rest of the Aliens flee the planet without a leader.

I created my story using the heroes journey formula because it’s fits the whole theme of my game very well. with my game being the world verses aliens, and you play as a powerful hero, the story was quite easy to make using the heroes journey formula because of how you have hero going through all these stages throughout the story. If you made a game about being the bad guy it will be hard trying to apply the heroes journey, for obvious reasons being if you are playing the villain the roles are reversed and the result would be quite the opposite.

representation applied to my own projects:

In my work I have shown representations of the military/ humanity and aliens, in my game I represent humanity/ the military as good people, and also show them as heroes of the earth, because they are saving it by stopping the aliens. I represent aliens in a bad way though because most people would assume aliens are bad I just made them evil, to make the player instantly know they are enemies, because my enemy design is very alien like (because they are aliens).

I made my character quite the stereotype of strong, male hero but I wanted him to simple be just that because most games that were released on the nes or in the 80’s have characters just like this and didn’t really feature say a female lead character, because most games (in that time) were mostly played by younger boys. The only game I can think of that has a lead female character (from the 80’s) is metriod that has the lead female character Samus.

Maybe I could have made my main character female, to represent the female gaming community, so that they have someone to relate to in the game, but it might come up as very forced, so maybe if I added a feature were you could change the gender of the main character so everyone would be happy.

Lee work:

Production Contexts  

Context   

AAA Games	Indie Games
The Legend of Zelda  Super Mario 64  Doom  Halo	A Hat in Time  Celeste   Cuphead  Undertale

2. Choose two of the games from the list above that are (if possible) the same type of game (e.g. RPG, Sports, Racing, Shooter, etc.) and list the main differences for the games under each of these headings  

Case Study 1 – AAA and Indie  

Indie – minecraft  

AAA – doom eternal  

	AAA  Doom eternal	Indie  minecraft
Budget  (What was the budget for the games?)	$90 billion	$2.5 billion
Graphics  (What type of graphics to the games have?)	The graphics are very advanced in doom eternal, and on par with other modern games at this time.	Minecraft is very stylised and doesn’t have very impressive graphics, but they are still well made.
Scope  (What is the complexity like?)	The main campaign is around 25 hours, (without struggle and collecting the collectables) while the game does have an endless mode and a online mode, so there is a lot to do in the game.	Minecraft is a big game with many things to do and create, you can take your time and do everything or you can beat the ender dragon as quick as you want, but there is also a wide range of multiplayer and achievements.
Audience  (Who is the target audience for the game?)	18+ doom is a very, very gory game, you basically play as a demigod who tears through millions of demons in hell.	Minecraft generally has a young audience but, many adults play it as well there is a wide age range for minecraft because of how simple the gameplay is.
Technology  (Which engine does the game use?)	The engine was made by the publishers for the game.	The engine was made by the publishers for the game.
Platforms  (What platforms is the game made for?)	Pc and all modern consoles (the switch will get a port)	Pc, consoles and mobile.
Publisher/Studio  (Who made and published the game?)	Bethesda	Mojang
Gimmick/Innovation  (Does the game have an innovation or gimmick?)	Doom eternal has many new mechanics that split it from your average fps, like the glory kill mechanics and a wide range of other features you would not see in a normal fps.	Minecraft is a simple survival game but it does it in a good way, there isn’t millions of items in the game (like other survival games) so it lets the player know exactly what they need and why which keeps the game fun and interesting.

Case study 3 – Production Locations  

Game from Germany – assassins creed   

Game from England –  Batman Arkham Asylum  

	Germany	England
Graphical Style  (What style of graphics does the game use?)	Dark and realistic.	Dark and creepy amosphere
Characters  (What are the main characters like?)	Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad  He is the man character and he is shadowy and mysterious.	Batman and his villians  Batman is a superhero vigilante who dresses like a bat to stop crime, he looks intimidating and bold.
Gameplay  (What is the main gameplay like?	There is a lot of stealth and parkour around a city in Italy.	You fight a lot of enemies with some stealth and boss fights, there is also exploration and puzzles in the game.
Story  (What are the main beats of the story?)	You play as a man in present time who uses a machine to go back in time to live with his ancestors to uncover mysteries of the past.	You play as batman stopping the villains causing havoc in the arkham asylum.
Player Choice  (What sort of choices doe the player have?)	The game was quite mainstream but the average age is around 12+.	The game is dark and quite scary at some points so the game is around a 16+.

Game industry contracts: thoughts  

There are different types of contracts sometimes a contract can last though the full development of the game design process from when the development starts all the way up to when the game is released, or there are other types were you develop specific things for the game, for example they could voice act for a game and then they are done, because they would not be in the entire video game development process if they just did some voice acting.  

Game industry pay:   

The game industry pays less for the people in the smaller jobs and pays more for the bigger jobs for the development of the game.  

Game industry working environments:  

Working environments depends on the boss of the working place they might be strict and make you work a lot of hours, without having that much breaks, but some can be nice and respect your free time.  

What I have learned today:  

One thing I have learned today is that the pay for game design jobs are a lot higher than I expected, before today’s lesson on the video game industry I thought that the video game industry weren’t payed that much but from what I have seen, they are payed a lot more than what I originally expected. I was right about how bigger roles in the game design industry get payed more than the smaller roles though.  

Another thing I have learned in today’s lesson is that contracts are really important. Contracts are extremely important because of how the people who right them (the employers) slip in small details that give them an advantage over you. For example: they can write something about owning all the ideas you come up with while working there and sue you and claim things you have made, the might still be able to do this after you don’t even work there anymore.  

The difference between AAA and indie games:  

AAA games and indie games are different because: AAA games have a way bigger budget than indie games, so that means they can have a bigger marketing standpoint, a bigger team of developers and publishers who publish the game for them. Indie games on the other hand have a small team of probably less skilled and new to the industry developers, a tiny budget compared to a AAA game, (indie developers also use Kickstarter so they can even get a game idea in development), and usually won’t have a publisher. Because Indie games don’t have a big budget like AAA games they have to innovate a lot and they can’t just have beautiful realistic graphics like AAA games, so they usually have to do simple or pixilated graphics and the graphics also usually have to be stylised. One more thing is that usually indie game developers take inspiration from classic games so they can intrigue classic gamers to play there game to feel nostalgic or feel welcome to their style of game.   

PRODUCTION CONTEXT:

Why would a game be made under either of the production contexts?​  

It depends on who wants to make the game, if a  AAA studio wanted to make a game then they would just put their budget up and make their game in a big studio with many people from different areas of game design. But if an indie developer wanted to make a game they would usually have to start a Kickstarter or a go fund me page to gather enough many to get their game idea going. And indie team would only consist of a couple people though, unlike a AAA studio where they would have many people on many different types of jobs that go into the development of a game.  

 What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the different productions contexts?  

One advantage of being in a AAA studio is that you probably would always have a specific task to do. But that is a disadvantage in an indie studio because they would have a way smaller team than a AAA studio, so that means that  they would not have specific tasks and that might be stressful for the developers.  

A advantage of being an indie developer could be that having a smaller team might be better because you could socialise more with your team and also work better together because you might know them more, which would make it a disadvantage also in a AAA studio because everyone is focused on their own thing and department they might not be able to share ideas and then the game might become a mess because of so many cluttered ideas.  

 What is the relationship between AAA and Indie?​  

The relationship between AAA and indie is quite normal, and they just respect each other I would imagine, but sometimes a AAA company has worked with indie game studios for example Nintendo worked with an indie game company to make cadence of hyrule, which was a mash up between the legend of Zelda and crypt of the necromancer, which turned out to be a great game and the two companies have a really good relationship as well now.   

Main characteristics of Japanese games: the legend of Zelda ocarina of time 

Art style: 

The art style of the legend of Zelda ocarina of time has quite anime/ manga style to it (especially in the production art for the game). So the legend of Zelda having a manga and anime style shows it has quite a Japanese feel to it. 

Mechanics: 

the legend of Zelda has a wide range of fun mechanics, but most are puzzle, based because the game is a action/adventure/puzzler because in Zelda you explore big dungeons, with each having a new mechanic that adds fun to gameplay. 

Character types: 

There is the average character traits in the legend of Zelda like the hero/ princess and villain. 

Genre: 

The genre for the game is action adventure which most Japanese games where at the time. 

Research on where survival horror games where made:  

resident evil:  

resident evil was made by capcom, and capcom is based in japan. Which is strange because the Japanese usually make games based for kids and not really horror games or also shooters, because most games with guns in where made in the western area, because of their obsession with guns. So when resident evil it was quite surprising that the game was made by a Japanese company.

Case study: comparing the context of game developer studios 

Location:

The location of where the video game company is based is very important. One reason why location is important is that people need to live in that area to work there, if a person wants a job in the video game industry there has to be a game making studio in the area that they live in, or they will have to relocate which can be a big issue for many people for a wide range of reasons, for example: family. Another reason why location of the video game studio could be that in some regions certain themes in video games might be banned, for example characters that might have stereotypical character traits might be highly offensive to a certain type of people. One more reason why location is important could be the language, when a game is going to be globally released it might have to have translators change the text in the game to a different language, or even the voice actor crew might have to fly to a different country, to get the voice actors they need to play a certain role but in a another language for the audience that lives in other countries.

Technology:

The technology a video game company has to use to make their game is also very important. Most video game development studios need on average (per developer):

• A high end pc – to run the game engine they are designing the game on.
• A dual monitor setup – one to focus on the game engine, and the other might be used to show the game or other things to help them make the game.
• Keyboard and mouse
• Desk area – maybe even a work cubical space.

If a video game studio had poor equipment they will not be able to make the game to their best ability, meaning there game might fail to meet the required expectations and also fail as a whole. Giving a video game company better technology might gain the game more sales because if they have better equipment to make the game it might mean they can make the game look better, and when a game looks good (graphically) it usually means more sales.

Budget:

Budget is probably the most important part of a video game studio, because everything about the studio depends on how big the budget actually is. If the budget for a video game is low that means that the studio would have:

• Less workers/ poorly skilled workers (maybe unexperienced first time game developers).
• Worse equipment/ technology – which in turn means that the computers they use would not be able to run a high video game engine (or even be capable of making one).
• Worse marketing campaign – so no one would be able to see or find you game because it would be hidden behind the thousands of other game that where released in the same month.
• Poor quality work environment – meaning your workers would not want to work there, if the place is old or poorly kept, and also video game developers basically live in their workplace because of how busy their job might get.

Keeping those factors in mind it shows how budget is the most important factor that goes into a game developer studio, because if the budget is high you basically have 50% going to marketing a the other half goes into everything else which is quite shocking to think about.

En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Video Game Development. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_development#Localization&gt; [Accessed 1 December 2020].

2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypZZTIOR__Q&gt; [Accessed 1 December 2020].

reflection:

I have written about development context and how it effects the industry, I think I have done a decent amount of writing about how development context effects the game industry. What was good about the experience is that I now have a good understanding of how different contexts effect different developments, nothing really was bad about the experience though. Another thing I can take out of this is that I can apply this new knowledge of development context and use it in my projects in the future. If I had to study development context again I would go into more detail when explaining the different points that can change the way a game is developed.