My future

Where do I want to go..

Right ok before you start reading further I suggest you read the link I found first on cognitive reflection and decision, because this may sound weird but it’s pretty much how I’m always thinking, not that sophisticated but there on a more social level.

To explain that I’m one of those people who’s destiny it seems to be to see or hear every scenario imaginable happen in life to a person whether it be through me or my friends. By the scenarios I mean love, events, jobs, etc literally everything. I’ll then think about every possible solution I know of or can create to deal or solve the scenario at the best approach, tends to be why a scenario of life changing proportions approaches me I take great time and care in making a decision on how to go to and through it.

So best to start really as to how I came to the decision at doing game art at DMU. I’d never really thought about what I wanted to do as a career until second year college just did what interested me and that I enjoyed. Love art so chose that path of destiny. Anyway originally I thought about doing animation, I enjoyed doing it and the endless possibilities of what I could create. Enjoyed the important word hear. After the years of hearing my parents moan about how much they hate their boring jobs that their now stuck with, poor them, I decided I wanted to do a job I was interested in and would enjoy so anything creative was really on the table for me.

I came onto the DMU game art course because I got a great impression from the beginning about it. Well run, educational and importantly something I’ve an interest in.

Now where do I go from here? Good question. I’ve an interest in both sides of the course concept and 3d modelling, I’ve liked the idea of character designing and creating things realistically that don’t exist since I was eight. So it can go many ways for me really and in a time like this economically beggars can’t be choosers. In either case I want to develop my skills and learn new ones either side of the spectrum, progress and make things more effectively. In the end I may choose a preferred path to go down but for now I’d rather look at all the scenarios and solutions......

..........that includes looking at people who I’d like to work for or with for that matter. For now I’m sticking .

http://www.google.co.uk/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUK317&q=reflection+and+decision&btnG=Google+Search&meta=lr%3D

Level Up

Thoughts on first year and ideas for the second....

Well admit-ably the first year of game art for me hasn’t gone how I thought it would of, that’s not to say it went badly necessarily. Its definitely had its ups and downs. Having no labs to work in for the first 7 weeks stopped me being able to see the software side of the course which I was really interested in seeing. Also so I don’t know whether it was miss interpretation or just me but I got the wrong idea with the blogs as I thought they were just going to be personal things each week not assignments, me I hate writing as it is but I was slightly annoyed at this oversight. However in the end I’ve found them rather enjoyable learning things I never even knew so they were a good help, just a problem when it comes to time management with them.
All the rest though I’ve found really brilliant, some experiences I was reliving like blind contour drawing (shudder) but all the same an enjoyable course, I wish however my bad time management hadn’t effected me so making it harder for me then it should of been.

Second year though even more to talk about really, what’s in store, well hopefully me reorganising myself will lead to a much more productive year as well as me improving on the skills we’re using, however to improve next year’s experience I’d really like to see and do more group activities, this I think would help improve many people’s way of thinking and broaden their creativeness through brainstorming and development, fun to. I’d like to do more 3d sculpture assignments in different mediums as well like the paper and wire projects we got at the beginning of the year. Also much appreciated would be more trips out as a group and more lecturer, one to one, time, as I feel we don’t do enough of that each week.

I believe those ideas entwined with the successful parts used in year one can make the course an even better, more enjoyable and educational course.

Sound in Games

Sound in games

We all love a great gaming experience, there are different things which contribute to the game which make it a good experience, and sound is one of them. Sound does many things in a game as it does a film, as it tries to put you into the game, that’s what modern games are trying to achieve these days is it not?.

Sound sets the atmosphere. Different tempos and beats create different eras and feels, for instance a soft slow and gentle beat which may quicken for a love scene to something loud, fast and heavy for an action moment say in a war game. And then of course you’ve your sound effects to objects and people in the games. Bones breaking to a car exploding their all there to make you feel and make it seem as if your there experiencing it for real, why do you think surround sound was invented? All these little are there to make things so much more entertaining and real, even full length tracks get people into the game setting the mood of things and at times making you feel as if your almost dancing in the game to the music. People such as Joe Hisaishi, Yuzo and Jasper Kyde make tracks just for games and make our gaming world so much better, some songs you’ll find are great to game to my personal favourite is time to dance by panic at the disco, makes me think I’m playing Kingdom Hearts 2 again which also to me has an amazing sound track.

Now if sound/music can make you do and feel like that then surely they’ve done their job brilliantly whilst making the game, sometimes I wonder if they come up with the music before they even think of the game.

http://www.aintitcool.com/?q=node/34360
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinji_Orito

creativity burning with a passion

Creativity burning passion

When I spoke of creativity a few weeks back one point came up in conversation that I believe I didn’t really pick up on in the blog entry...... Passion.
It’s so simple but yet so key to someone being creative. Passion is really one of those greater pushes we have that makes us do something, do it or get through it, depends how passionate you are about what it is your using your passion to do.

We talked about creativity being the process of creating something whether it is new, old, improved, with a purpose or without. Thing is without passion to do something why would you bother doing it in the first place, why be there if you don’t like it or have an interest in it. So with passion and of course motivation, but passion in itself can be motivation saying that, you strive on to do what you do so when it come to creativity the more passionate you are the more creative you are the more ideas you produce that flow from your passion. Bits like when Ms Trunchble said cookie had poured all her blood and sweat into that big chocolate cake from Matilda, you pour your creativity and passion into your ideas and designs. If you’re that passionate about something people say it always shows, and so it should through your creative pieces and designs.

You have however like with your creativeness got to think of your passion like a fire you got to keep it burning strong so you should make sure you keep topping up the fire wood by doing things whether they be hobbies, activities or collecting things otherwise you’ll see things slump, your creativeness dwindle and your passion die out. If you got it you must keep it. It’s easier to lose something then it is to find something.

Tools in Play

From the first game we had a controller to play it, though one of the web links shows pong to have the first controller it was tennis for two actually that started it off. They may have only been block with dials and buttons but that’s a controller isn’t it, if it controls something it’s a controller, same in life just different principles.

Over the years though controllers have come in all shapes and sizes, some more awkward to use than others. Every time there’s been a new games system released a new, more improved in performance controller has come out with it, in cases this is true in others it’s been a letdown. We had a thing of increasing buttons on a controller to decreasing them again, a load of ups and downs really.

I can’t say I have an opinion on how the older controllers like the SNEZ and N64 handled, though i did use the them once or twice my history doesn’t show me into gaming fully till much later in my life. The more modern ones I can comment on though. Listing through them all they all have good points but also have faults. Nintendo for instance. The Game boys, for me, wore my tips out pressing low risen buttons against plastic where as the GameCube’s, though many people complained of this controller, worked for me except after constant use of the second analogue stick, that was saw. Xbox was huge I always insulted the sheer size of the thing saying it was impractical. The play stations problem for me was its unneeded shape; to me it made a challenge of reaching buttons. But even with the insults I could still comfortably play with these controllers.

Now days I’ve got the Wii and 360 remotes to juggle, and may I say wireless controllers are a blessing, never pulling over your console with fear of breaking it... oh heaven. Over the two I’d chose the 360 due the fact that all the buttons are in reaching distance, you don’t have to grow another thumb to press the Y button, and it fits comfortably in your hands. The Wii though wireless is again awkward. The length of the remote make hard work to press button and having to aim the controller at the sensor whilst trying to shoot someone to death is a cup of tea.

But this is how things are develop isn’t it. We make, we play, and we progress. Though the controller will be around for some time to come in my mind but the next step to going wireless and controller free I think is in the hands, play games with movements of our hands, like gate control in Zion in The Matrix.

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050523/console_timeline/http://ps3.qj.net/The-Ergonomics-Behind-the-PS3-Controller/pg/49/aid/503http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/gaming/productdetails.aspx?pid=091http://wii.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=6355&pg=1&comments=full

Storytelling

Stories used to be told round a fire centuries ago, these days there told and depicted in so many ways and through so many mediums. Games are just one of these mediums. The whole point of a story is to put an image in your head, the better the story the better the image and so the more your dragged in. The same principle applies to games. I find there are a couple points of having a story behind a game. It sets the scene of the game, the atmosphere, it’s what drags us into the game making us play on to find out what happens next, you’ll find a strong story will attract loads of gamers in just by the trailer. The story also helps portray the characters. It helps to bring them alive as if real human beings; emotions, personality and so on. Most films have it easy as actors/esses already being human have the life inside them so don’t need to be portrayed so harshly if you see where I’m coming from.

Obviously you need to play the story right as every story has a beginning, middle and an end. Jump to the straight to the end then there’s no point playing on, you know what happens. Start in the middle and you get people lost, no one knows what has happened or where you’re going. So if you play it right you can create sequels. Halo, Call of duty, Red Alert all big well known games with more than one game to them because they stories have been played in such a way that they can be continued, each time intent on revealing new plots, characters and schemes. As long as the story’s good of course, you can end destroying a whole franchise by going cheap on the story; it’s one of those corners that shouldn’t be bent round, without a story, you haven’t got a game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Payne_2:_The_Fall_of_Max_Payne
http://uk.gamespy.com/articles/596/596254p1.html
http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/jun98/lazy2.htm
http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Interviews.Detail&id=10
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/forum.asp?forum_id=32

Out With The Old Inter The New

Ever since the birth of Electronic Games magazine there’s been reviews, reports and criticisms of games, new companies under different names have entered the arena doing the same things for years, maybe this is the problem.

The bringing of the internet has seen many things change in the world. Communication, finance, shopping, advertising and so on. Now while this has an up for most people it has or still can put out the older methods that people have used or relied on for years, human ‘creativity’ for you. The NGJ is internet based, so apart from being easier to get and by the way cheaper there’s a personalised side to them. Now I’ve bought game magazines for years but just recently discovered NGJ and one big noticeable difference I can tell between the two is that there is a distinct border line. The magazines seem to focus on the games whereas people doing NGJ’s, well they add a personal touch to it. You get the dish on the games from them but you also get the gamers point of view , you can connect with them, it’s not just some person whose been told to play a game and give feed back ..... Boring.

From what I’ve read off the links to me the magazines are failing because they live in corrupt world. Their told what they have to write about, what their allowed to research, all controlled by the money men, the guys who fill their pockets with the big note whilst the readers get the loose change. They tighten budgets to save money, restrict working hours on magazines so not a lot of good stuff goes into them and personally I think the only reason (conspiracy wise) that the game ranking system exists is to encourage people to buy the latest games meaning more money for, guess who, the money men.

I can only imagine they’ll get worse with sales plummeting against NGJ’S growing in popularity. Thing I prefer about NGJ’s is they explain things in my language as if they actually speaking to me as a person that to me is the most single and key unique feature to me which is making them out best magazines. I can right like that, I find it more compelling against what seems to be puppet talk in Magazines.

http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/?page_id=693

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=62798

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/game_culture/2005/03/ten_unmissable_examples_of_new_games_journalism.html

http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/?page_id=3

http://shinyshinyshiny.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_shinyshinyshiny_archive.html