Story and Character

I have read many books and played many more games, the most memorable characters for me are the characters I could relate to. A good character is one that has a very detailed background and one who goes through so many emotions and experiences that the player can feel emotions for. For some characters that are going through hardships, you feel sorrow, whereas difficult enemy characters can stir hate in your soul.

•The character’s natural activities, as part of his or her job.
•The challenges that these sorts of actions suggest.
•The character’s primary emotional attitude, and how that is displayed visually and in language.
•The character’s visual appearance and movement animations, both voluntary and involuntary.
•Attributes and powerups that might affect the character’s abilities, and how they grow.
•The character’s natural environment and enemies that may be found there.

Game designers use the list above when creating a character in order to create emotional bonds between the character and the player. Game designers must ensure that they know their character intimately so that no detail is lost from the characters lifestyle.

Although a lot depends on the aesthetic appeal of a character, a lot more of the revealing the characters personal life depends on the script. A good script allows the player to discover more about character through gradual progression of the game. A good script also makes the character go through key points in their story that makes them feel emotions and this in turn makes the player feel emotions towards this character. Sorrow when something bad happens to them, joy for them when something good happens to them etc.

Personally I love a good RPG game that gives you a background story but allows you to play out the story of the character yourself. For instance, one of my favourite games is Fable for the Xbox. This is because you start off as a boy in a village, but then your family gets killed. Then throughout the game you make choices which decide the personality of your character. I find this amazing as you can play the game over and over making new choices and ending up with a character with a whole new personality. What makes this so great is that your personality around you so that if you’re evil, people will fear you’re whereas if you’re a good guy they practically worship you. Its having the power give your character its own story created by you that makes a game fun for me.

Ergonomics

Out of the many consoles I have played I found that the Sega master system probably had the easiest controllers to get a hang of. It was so simple even for me when I was like 4/5 years old. A simple two button control system with a d pad was just so easy to work. Whereas nowadays the average console has around 8 eight buttons, a d pad and 2 analog sticks. No wonder everyone’s mother struggles at the very thought of playing on a console nowadays. Whereas I imagine it would have been a lot easier for an inexperienced gamer to work out the controls of the earlier consoles.

Out of all the platforms released today, I find the Wii to be the most aesthetically appealing. It looks almost futuristic with its blue might and its sleek design. It also looks perfect next to almost any TV.

I think that the future of interaction with consoles will be based on emotions and movement. I believe that in the not too distant future with the ever increasing understanding of the brain, Console Company designers will discover a way of controlling games with our thoughts. I also believe that consoles will be based around our senses so that not only can we see and hear the world inside the computer game, but we will be able to smell and taste it. The way of the controller and joystick is on the extinction path already with Sony inventing the Eye Toy and Microsoft releasing project Natal the human being is the controller of the future.

Story writing

I find that most games that progress through levels in a game often need a strong storyline in order to grasp the gamers attention and to stop them putting down the controller through boredom. The main reason I buy games is for the story, of course i enjoy the graphics and the game play but for me the best part about playing a game is the way i can step into someone else’s shoes through a story.
I definitely feel that a storyline makes for a better game, as i find that the story is the reason the player wants to progress, to find out what happens in the end. I find that the human race a species love stories, we grow up with them, it’s a good story that can bring out emotions in us and keep us hooked.
However, it is true how some games have no stories, but it usually these games that require interaction with other people, in games such as second life. However, are the actions on second life creating the players own story?
I feel that as a player of a game the story does happen to you but the way the game and story plays out makes you feel like you’re making the story happen.

Art Director

The art director oversees the whole design process of the game to make sure that the game designers are creating manageable goals for themselves. The art director unifies the vision and goal that they want their team to work towards. The art director is the one person who has a fixed knowledge of what the overall finish of the game is going to look like. To ensure that their team sticks to the theme set the art director makes decisions that affect the visual appeal, contrast features, psychological appeal and anything else that creates an appeal to the target audience within the game.
The art director works closely with the art manager to ensure that the project schedule is met and that all artistic goals are manageable. The art director must give constructive feedback to their team so that there is visual consistency across all assets. They also help with all problem solving. So in short the art director is a lieutenant in charge of a small band of soldiers and it is their job to keep their teaming working to the best standard as well as keeping schedule ensuring the team work together to produce the best and most relevant stuff they can for the project.
The art director needs to be as creative as their team so that they themselves can see what needs to be produced to make the game aesthetically appealing. They also need to have a sense of leadership as well as teamwork; this would be greatly improved with social skills. This is so that they can connect well with their team to create a harmonious but productive environment to get the best out of the game designers.

Below

Ooooooooo....scary. Do ghosts not kill for the simple pleasure of killing anymore? Why is there always some cliché back plot that just dilutes the tension? The best thing about the film was the portrayal of madness spreading through the crew. I found that the whole explosion thing seemed just like a shortcut way to kill so many characters instead of actually making it a little more interesting such as a desperate escape from the sub that goes wrong, something a little more visually grasping. Worst thing...... The way over the top smg scene of the guy running slow mo over the sub marine, a little too much as the main build up of the suicide is over and that just tries too hard to drag out the action. As a game designer I would like to see how I could create the sense of psychological disorder within a game to help build up tension.
I give below 7/10.

Game Design

Game design is generally the overall experience of playing a game excluding factors such as movement and challenges. It is the common was to describe and review how ‘good’ a game is.

Game design is a process that must be done throughout the making of the game. It must be there at the start of creation so that the idea and intent of the designer can be produced and worked on. From this the design must be researched and designed with the main intent in mind. The designer must ensure that they have a clear idea in their head and what they aim to bring to the consumer. This is one of the most important stages in game development. But as development continues the designer must work and rework the designs to create the set pieces and characters that bring forth and show the idea and theme they are aiming for. Even when the game is in its final stages the game designer must continuously rework the design to add and remove and improve the games look and feel.

As this is a lot of work for one person many companies will have a team of game designers who will work on an idea together.However, it is not unheard of for a singer game designer to work alone to ensure that the idea does not get diluted in any way. The teams will usually work on a subject or a genre that they are all interested in. This allows the team to work as one and all see the way the game design is working towards. This also allows the company to have different teams developing different games at a single time that are completely different genres. This is because genres of games have different principles in terms of design. This is because many genres concentrate on the way the game is played in an otherworldly environment changes, whereas other game rely on history and current world events to guide the development process. The designers must also decide how the genre of game they are designing for can satisfy the consumer and how they can incorporate that into a game. A racing game for instance makes the gamer feel good when there is a lot of speed and crashes in the game, whereas fps games rely on getting the perfect kill and the thrill of mayhem.

I personally look for a game to bring out emotions in me like fear, sadness and joy by using the storyline. A game that can make you feel as if you are part of the game and it is you and not the character that is doing everything in the game.

Black Hawk Down

Before it broke, i found the film visually stunning the way they portrayed modern warfare from all views of the battlefield. The acting in the film was top notch as it combined the comedy of the banter between the soldiers with the seriousness of death in the field. The director used the locations way to show how wars are fought in enclosed areas and the troubles soldiers face. This combined with the views from helicopters and the view from the command centre allowed the viewer to see all the different things that were occuring around the city. The visual effects including the explosions and the graphic scenes of dying men really made me feel close to the action and allowed me to feel what the soldiers were feeling when they saw their dying comrades. all together 8/10