The games Industry Wk 15

So how is the industry doing?? Whats going on in the world of games creation? Well I would imagine a lot and not so much at the exact same time.

Review the current economical climate especially in England, and well ask almost anyone in business and there not going to say that its going all that well, yes England is now something ridiculous like 0.1% in the black out of recession but that really doesn't mean that industry has the same stability as what it used to, in fact I would probably think that not much has changed and that it will still be a while before anything amazingly drastic does change within most industries.

All though my own knowledge of the gaming industry isn't by any means extensive, and so I know it is something that I will have to look into in more detail. From my own general knowledge there a number of different areas within a gaming company, the licensing area, so the area in which the company can get a certain title or the confirmation of getting the rights to produce a title. The second area which is the creative area, where artists and designers dream up the ideas within games. The third area is sort of the game programmers and engineers, making the game components compatible in game. The fourth and final area is the publishing area, advertising, and marketing which control the distribution of the game worldwide.

Problems within the market that may affect its future is the economic state, yes I said this earlier, but it is a big problem at the moment, closures in this country happen all the time or so i keep hearing, but then what if all of England big hitters go down? Seriously that could lead to major repercussions within the English market we'll all have to move to America just to become employed, sounds good!! The thing is there will always be a need for the skills we are honing and in this industry, and well that in theory could make us employable in any area of the games industry anywhere...

The Snow and The Cold!!!

I thought I would take the time to explain about the difficulties and advantages of working in the snow.
Well first off its bloody freezing so it makes it incredibly hard to keep warm, and as a result you can't really draw as well as you could within warmer conditions. Obvious I know, but I can't really rave on how much this is a hindrance on presenting work, I really struggled at bradgate to produce anything and significance merely because of the weather.

Advantages within the limitations of the cold weather are that different scenes can be created, and colder colours can give a colder scene, emphasis can also be seen in warmer areas of the piece, with the use of warm colours. Claude Monet used hot and cold colours to emphasise shade and scene in his paintings, some of this can be seen in his paintings in the snow, but he was also good at painting normal hot and cold scenes.

colder tones are produced in blue and warmer colours are used in the wall and ground.

Creativity Wk12

OK lets talk creativity!!!

I suppose creativity has many different forms and shapes, creativity can be an idea that you have when your walking down the road to your local shop, creativity can be the local statue of a coal miner, it could even be that painting you've got on your wall that your grandad painted back in his hay-day. The main thing with creativity is how it is perceived, does the viewer see it as creative??

There have been many artists throughout the last century that have produced art that is controversial but it has been submitted and so someone out there must find it influential and perhaps creative.

As an artist I myself am influenced by the cubist period, I don't really know why i was drawn to the Cubist movement, I loved the use of shape and colour involved within the artwork but I also appreciated the geometry in the artwork as well perhaps I thought that the use of shape in the picture was creative but I had to think about what the picture had within it for me to appreciate it more.

I suppose creativity is all a state of mind, or more perhaps someones opinion within their state of mind, its also more of a masses sort of thing, if a group of people like something or something is liked by many people it will be seen as creative and it will also be liked.

I think creativity has many different faces within the gaming market, perhaps gaming or rather the production of a game reflects that of creativity, every area of game production from its start to it finish flows with creativity, conceptual art work screams creativeness, 3D work character and level design is also creative because 1 it is artistic and realistic at the same time, this to me is creative because of the amount of time and effort someone has spent creating this masterpiece it is almost like creating artwork, and waiting to see how many people like it eventually leading to a rating.

How do I as an artist be perceived as creative, well I suppose I need the fundamentals first, as Chris keeps saying, to be good in this industry you must be amazing at the basics, but I would imagine that this wouldn't do on its own, to truly become creative I would have to produce good pieces of work and impress my superiors. Saying all this though would I really have to do all that to be classed as creative? Is it a state of mind or people's opinion that define someones creativeness?

Understanding creativity and making something creative revolves around cleverness and interesting people in the area the you are working in, but its also the way someone presents their work and he style in which they produce their work, in my honest opinion i don't think creativity can be measured easily, but there are many forms of creativity out there and each is unique in its own way.

Gameplay Wk11

Gameplay the art of playing a game? Or just the motion of playing a game and getting through it?

Hmmmm

Well considering gaming and the general gameplay of a game, I would have to say that most games that anyone ever plays are very linear, in fact even some of the best games that have come out so far such as Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Batman Arkham Asylum are anything but free storylines... I don't think anyone can really say that they are bad games because they've pushed gaming quite far but it can be said that you can't choose what happens with the certain parameters within the gameplay. You don't choose the ending you just get to it, and to me that seems right, but I can't help but feel that I want more.

I suppose there is no such thing as unlimited gameplay, but the imagination can provide a huge scope as to how a game could be made. Do games developers stick to what they are doing and keep the gameplay the same? As in start middle end? Or do they try and mix it up a little and give it more freedom? Is it even possible to change the way gameplay is produced.

I suppose i'm being a bit one sided within this approach, there are certain games out there that can offer an almost unlimited gaming experience. Star wars The Knights of The Old Republic offered the player a long and immersive gaming experience but the best thing about it was that you could do whatever you wanted really, but this game like all others does have an ending and is still set to the basic plot line start-middle-end.

Gameplay is important and it does define how the game is played and how everything happens within a game, I think a game should be more of an experience than a short story, but it has to be gripping as well as long which would prove a large challenge to any games producer!!

Elements on the game Story and Character Wk10

It is interesting to finally come across the topic of characters in gaming, characters in most ways make the game and in some cases they can ruin the game, there are also many good examples of games where characters have greatly improved a game and it storyline, good examples of games that do this are, Zone of the Enders, Metal Gear Solid and Final fantasy.

Games have to have organised and well thought out story lines for them to be, so realistic characters have to be convincing to interest and keep the player involved with game and it plot line. Characters in games have to be realistic compared to the games storyline, you can't exactly have a cave man as a main character in a sci-fi epic!!! (though it may prove to be an epic game) another thing to realize is that swanky graphics and amazing cut scenes cannot make up for bad characters and poor story lines.

Some games like to unveil themselves as great stories which can be similar to that of books or movies, some games can pull it off, I got Assassins Creed 2 the book for christmas Ive only got half way through it, but it's one of those books that I can't put down. The story is interesting but the thing that makes the book is the main character "Ezio" it describes his troubles and how he has to quickly grow into a man to become the next "chosen" assassin. This sort of writing probably shines through in the game and will more than likely hook the player to play the game to see how the story unfolds, and also see how the character grows throughout the game.

The best sort of stories are those that keep you hooked, like I said with the "Assassins Creed" book you don't want to put it down and so the same method should be implemented in games. The best storyline has to be one that you don't want to switch off one you can't leave because your so engrossed in it and that simply makes a good game!