Favourite Game Presentation

In the first weeks of the course we were asked to do a presentation about or favorite game.

Personally for me my favorite game is Hearthstone, we all decided that we liked the game and decided to create a power point about it. 

we explained that the game is a card game that pitches creatures against one another in the main aim to get your opponents health points down from 30 to 0. 

We explained that there were many different class types to choose from and that each character has a different ability that can be used on your opponent each turn. Also each class has specific cards that are exclusive to that class for example the mage has an arcane explosion; this card deals 1 damage to all of the enemy cards on the field. 

For my part of the presentation i decided to talk about all of the different buyable content that can be purchased. In hearthstone there are many different things you can buy from adventures to cards.

Hearthstone has 3 buyable adventures these consist of multiple challenges that the player must face in order to progress through the adventure. There are normally 5 wings to the adventures these having 4 opponents and a final boss at the end. Each final boss if defeated grants you with a reward, this is normally a special card that can be implemented into your own deck.

As well as the adventures, you can buy different card packs. 1 standard card pack costs £1.49 or 100 in game gold. however you can buy more than just one card pack at a time. its possible to purchase 40 packs for £39.99. In the packs you are guaranteed to receive at least one rare card in each pack.   

Board game evaluation

Evaluation of the Board Game

For our board game we decided that instead of creating a board based around one game IP we decided that it would be a challenge but we really liked the idea of having multiple game IP’s in one board game.

We decided on creating a multi-IP board game with each game having 2 27x27cm squares on the board. As there were four of us in the group we each did a game IP of our choosing. I chose to do need for Speed based on the fact that it’s a very competitive game and also because I could include many different aspects of the video game into the board game.

In order to create the board game we needed to decide a couple of this before we physically started making it. The main thing we needed to understand and come to terms with was how the game played. We decided to go with a simple first to the finish game with 2-4 laps depending on the amount of players.

The game will be playable by 2-4 players at a time, the amount of players determines how long the game plays for, if there are 4 players then only 2 laps of the board have to be completed however if there are any less than the amount of laps needed to win the game will change accordingly.

As we were planning the board game we wanted something to set ours away from everyone else’s, we thought of what exactly could be done to really make it unique and exciting and came up with an idea to make the board game 3D. Now I know what you’re saying, how is that going to fit in a box? What’s going to be 3D about it? We thought about how exactly we could create it three dimensional and figured that if the board game folded in a certain way then we could have it as a box that contained all of the 3D pieces. For my part of the board game I created some three dimensional buildings and also a small bridge that could fold up onto one of the buildings and fold into the box neatly.

Another unique selling point to our game is the simple fact of it being more than one game in one, personally I haven’t really seen many board games that combine 4 different game IP’s into one simple board game.

The board game is also suitable for young ages, however the complexity of the game may be a little confusing for younger children. If I were to rate this game, I would give it a 7+ PEGI rating simply based on the fact that there are many different elements to the game and any younger than 7+ player may become confused as to how to play the game.

In our board game there are three types of cards, there are creature cards; these cards are drawn when a player lands on a creature card tile on the board, these cards can benefit all players for example one of the cards could be that all players move 1 space. Random draw cards consist of action and consequence cards these are shuffled at the start of the game and drawn from the top when players land on a random draw card. Action cards allows the player to possibly do something to their position on the board for example a speed boost could move them 2 spaces along the board. Consequence cards however do the opposite, these cards can effect a player in a negative way possibly making them miss a turn or move back spaces.

Overall I think the creation of the board game was fairly easy, everyone in the group was given their own section that had to have at least one 3D aspect to it, the sections had to be easy to navigate and visually appealing. I think that our board game had a very strong link towards what our game IP’s were (Mario, Pokemon, Need for Speed and World of Warcraft).

Time management for this project was done very well in our group I think, we were organised, time efficient and also had the project set up and ready to go once it came to testing them.

If I were to do this project again personally I think that having more time to create better visual assets would be better as we had to come up with different ways to allow us to create the 3D assets for each section.

Business of the games industry - 2

Game Development Process. 

In a games company there are many different roles that cross over and effect alot of other people. 

• At the head of the snake you have the publisher, the publisher is king and makes any major decisions. 
• Below the publisher are the senior development team, these people devise strategy and manage the development of the whole project including IT, Media and marketing.
• Below the senior management teams there are the admin support and development support teams.
  -The admin support team has many titles under it mainly IT, HR& Recruitment and Legal
  -The Development support team also has many different titles under it however its main focus is quality assurance and anything directly with the product and its development. 
• Alongside the support teams there are  Project managers/Directors and Producers. All of these people ensure that the product is coming along smoothly and make sure that the development teams have everything they need. 
• Under the producers/ Project managers there are three managers.
  -Technical managers; these manager the workflow from the programmers and ensure that programmers meet their deadlines.
  -Creative Managers; these managers also manage the workflow but from the artists. also making sure deadlines are met.
  -Design Managers; these managers manage the workflow from the level designers and make sure that any deadlines they have are met as well. 
• Artists work under the creative manager, among the artists are alot of different fields from concept art to 3D modelling. its their jobs to create all assets and art related materials. 
• Programmers work under the technical managers creating the mechanics for the games for example the UI and AI. 
• Designers work under the design manager, the designers create the levels that the game will be played in and can also the story. 

Milestones

There are three types of milestones within a games company, firstly you have the Pre-Production milestones; these milestones determine planning, visual preparations, possible prototypes. 

Alpha Milestones: These milestones are the creation of the game essentially. creation of all Art assets, Code and level Design are all milestones. 

Beta Milestones: these milestones are in the testing and debugging phase of the game creation. Possibly Downloadable content. 

What is SCRUM?

Scrum is a system that allows all of the three development teams (Programmers, Artists and Design) to come together and to inform each other of what you are going to be doing for the day, this helps keep track of where people are and also allows others to find out whether or not someone else possible mistakes will effect them. Scrums are normally held everyday with a weekly scrum at the start of the week. 

Product Backlog

The product Backlog is a high level document of the whole project. it determines any major decisions made, required resources and possibly better equipment that they could use. it is an open document to all in the games company and is editable by anyone. 

The Business of Games (1)

Many people think that the games industry is an easy, fun place to work and not just that an easy one at that. There are many different ways of getting into the games industry however if you do not know how the industry works then whats the point in being there?

How does a game actually get to the shelves?
There are some essential steps to go through before the game can be sold on the market.

Firstly you need some sort of idea, this will be called a pitch, from the pitch you will get ideas as to what your game can be and how its going to be developed.

Second of all. the idea you have needs a plan of how it will play and any essentials it needs. this could be anything from sounds, characters or even the story.

Thirdly, Your idea needs to be created, in order to create the game it need to be paid for. this is so you have the staff and the specialists you need to create the game in your development team.

Once the game has been made then it can be marketed, this is when the game is advertised to the public whether that is through a tv, radio, trailer or on the internet it needs to have a nice visual appeal.

finally, the game can be sold to the consumer, this can be done in many different ways whether its through kickstarter, steam or in a retail store.

Developer's Pitch

The developers pitch involves a lot of elements. for example one of the main elements will be the Product Overview Document; this is a document that outlines all aspects in the game, this could be genre, what platform its played on, key features or unique selling points.

The developers pitch could also include artwork, a demo of the game, any previous games the company have worked on and even a high level production plan.

Publishers

The first thing you and your team must keep in mind is that the publisher is king. they say whether or not they want a certain aspect in a game because ultimately they are the ones funding you. 

Publishers have certain considerations once hearing your pitch, they have to decide whether or not they would like to put their own money towards this game, whether they think its going to be a success and if so if they can tie the developer into a deal to be exclusive with them. 

Does your game have the 'X' statement? 

Does your game excite the consumer? 

Will your game be unique?  if it is why, how and is it worth the risk?

How do publishers keep control of whats going on and make sure that the game is out on time?

The publisher gives the developers money but with the money comes milestones, if the milestones are not met then the developers dont get the next lot of money to proceed with the creation of the game. 

Both Publishers and developers look at consumer habits, what the most popular genre is, what age range are playing the most games, what people who are stereo-typically thought to play games spending their money on and other demographics that are accessible from the government.  

Game Genres Powerpoint

In our Games Genre lesson we were asked to create a power point in groups of 4 about a game genre of our choosing.
Me and my group chose to do a presentation on RolePlaying games. We decided to talk abou this genre because we all really liked the games that conform to the genre and also becuase we thought that being a very open genre we could really explore it and see what the boundaries were.

We spoke about how the genre came about and how it has developed over the years with new games coming out each year. The role playing genre crosses over with alot of different genres, the most common being the action genre.

We also spoke about the different aspects that makes a game conformed to the roleplaying genre for example, roleplaying games have alot of exploration to them, giving players the liberty of exploring the map as they are playing the game. Another aspect of the roleplaying genre is that quests and character progression become harder and advanced while playing the game. for example in skyrim challenges and quests get harder but as you play through the game different weapons and skills are awarded to the player to balance the two out.

personally I think that the presentation went really well, i think that for my section of the powerpoint could have been alot more detailed and fleshed out as it didnt take me very long to say my piece.

Board Games

Board Games

In the fifth week of game studies we learned about the origins of games, board games.
Board games date back to the prehistoric times when Neanderthals were learning the functions of the world.
We don't know what the first board game was but we do know that dice and figures were made to play the game from curved pieces of stone.

Senet (3100BC)

Senet (meaning game of passing) is a board game that was played in ancient Egypt by royalty and people of wealth. it is believed that this game is a race game and gets players to race against each other. This board game is one of the oldest board game that we know of and that people know how to play today. 

Royal Game of UR (2600BC)

The Royal Game of UR is a board game that dates to 2600BC once again being an Egyptian board game, it uses three dice and two sets of counters one being black and the other being white. 

Many of the rules for the royal game of Ur are not known however it has been universally agreed that the board game is a race game. 

Mahjong (500BC)

Mahjong originated from china, played with 2-4 players, mahjong is a game of skill, calculation and strategy. The game is played with 144 tiled which are all based on chinese characters and symbols. Each player starts with 13 tiles taking tiles, exchanging and discarding them until they complete a legal hand, group or a head. Mahjong is similar to the western card game 'Rummy'.

These are just some of the many different board games that started the evolution of games we know today. Board games today allows families and people with common interests come together and be entertained. as the years have gone on from senet and mahjong board games have become more accessible, easier to play and more importantly they cater for alot more people.

So, Why are we currently in a golden age? 

We are currently in a golden age of board games for many different reasons. 

One of the main reasons board games are getting more and more popular is the internet, people can use the internet to promote their games, use kickstarter to sell the games and even offer a try before you buy to customers. 

Violence in Video Games

Violence in Video Games

In the Fourth week we had a discussion about Violence in Video Games and whether it entices people to commit violent acts. 

Personally for me i believe that violence in video games cannot encourage people to go out and kill for no reason. If they are thinking of acquiring a weapon and committing an act of violence then they are not in the sound of mind and need mental help.

Video Games do enhance hormones in the body such as adrenaline and  endorphin's when playing however there is no scientific evidence to prove that someone had played a violent game and instantly wanted to commit an act of violence once the had stopped. 

In the Media there are many different cases where video games have been blamed for the cause of massacres. One prime example is the Columbine Massacre that took place on April 20th 1999. The Game that was blamed for the sudden change in character in the two individuals who committed the massacre was the video game 'DOOM'. It is said that the two individuals had created a level which was based on their high school.

Violent Video Games should NOT be played by children. The Statement is clear and should be obeyed by all parents and law abiding citizens that are part of the united kingdom. The GRA (Games Rating Authority) issues ratings for all games that are recognized and sold in the united kingdom. the games are given a PEGI rating to the suited target audience. A PEGI rating is a system that allows consumers to know exactly what can be expected from a game, whether the game is violent, has profanity in, features drug abuse or if the game has certain features that are not suitable for certain ages. These ratings are there for a reason, to ensure that children arent witnessing the content that certain games have in them and also it allows the parents of the children to monitor what they are playing. However, Since this system has been introduced more and more parents are deciding to buy their children the games that are rated for adults only which exposes the children to the content of the game.

How can this be controlled and monitored?

There is no solid way to monitor what children are playing these days but if the parents of the children are knowledgeable about these games and know that their child could possibly be playing graphical games that are intended for 18+ then I believe that parents would think twice before buying their child a game that they shouldn't be playing.   

Game Genres

Gaming Genres

In the third week we spoke about different gaming genres. how they could be different and how they capture their audience. 

For example, an Action game gets its audience by having high action packed scenes in the trailer but also promises a fast paced environment in which the player can enjoy and experience over and over again. 

There are four main genres in gaming: 

- Action Games: these involve physical challenges for the player or character being controlled. 

- Strategy Games: These games involve a lot of mental,tactical and logistical challenges.

- Role Playing Games: These games are very tactical, have an element of exploration in them and also have economical challenges. 

-Real World Simulations: These can range from anything from sport games where the player has real world physical tasks e.g. Tennis or it can range to flight simulators, where a virtual lesson is taken with rear to exact replica environments. 

- Construction/ Management Games: These games can be anything from building a town and progressing into a city to a game where you are the sole manager of say a football team and have to draft players to make your team more advanced so you can rank in the leader boards. 

-Adventure Games: Adventure games have a certain element of exploration to them with a problem solving element as you play too. 

-Puzzle Games: Puzzle games challenge the Logic of a player and present different puzzles for the player to solve in order to pass onto the next level. Usually Involve a high score or leader board. 

Hybrid Games

Hybrid Games involve more than one genre, for example an Action-Adventure game involves both Action and Adventure. 

Hybrid games are mostly action based games and include both a story and puzzle throughout the game. A good example of a Hybrid game would be Tomb Raider; the Tomb Raider series are hybrid games on the basis that they are primarily action games however they are crossed with the Adventure genre. 

At the end of the lesson we were asked to come up with a presentation about one of these genres that we would be presenting to the class in week 7. 

What is a Game?

What is a Game?

In the second week we learned about what a game is and what makes a game a game. 

what is a game?

A game is something that can be played by either one player or multiple. 

A game has rules and regulations. 

A game can be played either digitally, physically or mentally. 

Games have Objectives that the player aims to complete. 

Games have boundaries whether this is physically like level or conceptual like time or rules. 

Why do people play games? 

People play games for many different reasons depending on the game that they are playing of course. For example, someone could play a brain training game to challenge themselves at memory games and to improve their mental skill. Another example could be someone playing a Racing Game, some people play racing games for the challenge and others play them for the action and satisfactory of winning.

What is a Player?

The player of a game is someone who is actively controlling what happens to their character, for example if i was playing Mario kart and i was playing as Mario i would have control over Mario's car steering him in the correct direction and also trying to hit other players.

A player makes Decisions and are invested in the game unlike NPC's (Non- Player Characters) that are controlled by the computer or games console.  

Ludology & Narratology 

Ludology is the study of games and gaming, especially video games. it focuses on the action and events in a game instead of the narrative, theme or conventions.

Ludology is the study of design of games and how they work. The mechanics, gameplay and how the game is balanced. 

Narratology is the study of game narrative, theme and its conventions. Its the study of the theory behind games and how the audience of a game/film react. Tzvetan Todorov believed that there were 5 main sections to a story:

1. Equilibrium ; at the start of the story there is a calm, a peace with no interruptions.

2. Disruption ; something disrupts the calm and breaks the equilibrium. 

3. Recognition; this is when the realization that a disruption has happened.
4. Solution ; the characters come up with a solution to the problem.
5. New Equilibrium ; peace is restored and a new calm comes about.
These 5 Stages can be rearranged into any order as long as there is a beginning and an end. it does not matter in which order the beginning and end are either.  

Week One - Modules

Week One - Modules

In the First week of Game Studies we were introduced to what modules we will be studying through out the coming weeks. 

We were told about Grades and what percentage is equivilent to each grade: 

Below 40% is classed as a referral, this means that you havent passed the module however if you would like to appeal then it can be put to a board of admins that then determine whether or not you can resubmit the assignment otherwise you will have to do the module again next year. 

40-49% equals a pass, this means that the work you submitted was good enough for you to pass the module. `this grade means that you got a Third on the module. 

50-59% is equal to a second div 2 this means that your work was good enough to be graded as a second but not good enough for a Second Div 1. Also means that your work was better than satisfactory. 

60-69% is equal to a Second Div 1 Grade; this means that your work was very good and although there was room for improvement it was still good enough to get a high grade. 

70-100% is classed as a first's Grade, this is the highest grade achievable and means that the work you submitted was up to scratch and was excellent. 

This Grading system is pretty straight forward and allows for students to be able to aim high and produce some top quality work.