Friday, March 11, 2011
Week 9, Assignment A - Reflections on Gaming presentation
We presented our idea for a game in class the other day: MechWars, a tactical, first-person robot combat game. Obviously, some of our points may not have come across as well as they could have through a hastily made PowerPoint presentation and a relatively short explanation. I'll attempt here to strengthen our presentation.
First, I don't believe that the idea of just how much customization would be available to the player was really stressed enough. The extent to which a player's mech-unit could be altered to fit their particular aesthetic tastes or play-style was intended to be a wide extreme. We actually spent quite a while discussing exactly how this would be achievable through in-game options and menus, so I feel like we could have spent more time on it during the actual presentation, though I figure it seemed like an afterthought to some of the others in the group, rather than a main focus.
Second, I think the concept of the number of available game modes--and how they would function--could have been described better. It kind of ended-up sounding like just another first-person shooter, Call of Duty knock-off, which is exactly what we were trying to avoid when conceptualizing. We wanted to introduce a wide variety of game modes from which the player could choose to play when accessing the online-multiplayer capabilities of the game; to allow for some rather interesting match-ups. I feel like it could have come across better if we hadn't used the same names so prevalent in other games: such as Deathmatch, King of the Hill, and Capture the Flag--and instead came up with something more original.
When it comes to describing games, there's four major points to hit on: Goals, Mechanics, Objectives, and Rules. I believe that the most difficult of those to describe would be Mechanics, for a number of reasons. Oftentimes, a game's mechanics will be the most complex part of the game--at least, in a non-casual setting. The controls, for one, are usually going to grow more and more complex in direct relation to the growth of the game. In our game, the player is piloting a giant robot. This would pretty much ensure a complex control scheme, or maybe a steep learning curve: easy to pick up and difficult to master. As the technology through with games can run increases, one will pretty-much find that the number of actions that the player-controlled character can perform will also increase. Despite this growth, the Goals and Rules of a game generally stay at around the same complexity, such as, "Kill the enemies," or, "Plant the bomb in their base within five minutes."
First, I don't believe that the idea of just how much customization would be available to the player was really stressed enough. The extent to which a player's mech-unit could be altered to fit their particular aesthetic tastes or play-style was intended to be a wide extreme. We actually spent quite a while discussing exactly how this would be achievable through in-game options and menus, so I feel like we could have spent more time on it during the actual presentation, though I figure it seemed like an afterthought to some of the others in the group, rather than a main focus.
Second, I think the concept of the number of available game modes--and how they would function--could have been described better. It kind of ended-up sounding like just another first-person shooter, Call of Duty knock-off, which is exactly what we were trying to avoid when conceptualizing. We wanted to introduce a wide variety of game modes from which the player could choose to play when accessing the online-multiplayer capabilities of the game; to allow for some rather interesting match-ups. I feel like it could have come across better if we hadn't used the same names so prevalent in other games: such as Deathmatch, King of the Hill, and Capture the Flag--and instead came up with something more original.
When it comes to describing games, there's four major points to hit on: Goals, Mechanics, Objectives, and Rules. I believe that the most difficult of those to describe would be Mechanics, for a number of reasons. Oftentimes, a game's mechanics will be the most complex part of the game--at least, in a non-casual setting. The controls, for one, are usually going to grow more and more complex in direct relation to the growth of the game. In our game, the player is piloting a giant robot. This would pretty much ensure a complex control scheme, or maybe a steep learning curve: easy to pick up and difficult to master. As the technology through with games can run increases, one will pretty-much find that the number of actions that the player-controlled character can perform will also increase. Despite this growth, the Goals and Rules of a game generally stay at around the same complexity, such as, "Kill the enemies," or, "Plant the bomb in their base within five minutes."
Week 8, Assignment B - Written Reflection on the Hero/Villain assignment
Here's my heroine, Lucina:
And here's my partner's villian, Fulton:
I don't have the video files for the animation anymore, so I unfortunately cannot post those. Luckily, most people saw them in class.
I'm supposed to provide critiques for the designs of:
At this point in time, Joe doesn't appear to have posted anything to his blog other than his character's names: Disco Dave and The Man. I can't picture what they look like at all, as my memory doesn't quite stretch that far back, so I'll simply assume that they're awesome based off of their names.
James has pictures uploaded of "Mr. Moneybag$" and "The Tax Man"--his team's hero and villian--but no video. I do, however, remember the animations for these from class, as they were pretty well done. There was an interesting sense of weight conveyed through the size of the characters, as well as the props they used to beat each other with. The affinity between both characters--considering that they both fight with a stick, both are rather burly, and both are related to money--is countered by the contrast of their conflicting morals and ambitions. All in all, it was a rather interesting piece.
It appears as though JT has also not uploaded anything related to this assignment. Lucky me.
I don't have the video files for the animation anymore, so I unfortunately cannot post those. Luckily, most people saw them in class.
I'm supposed to provide critiques for the designs of:
At this point in time, Joe doesn't appear to have posted anything to his blog other than his character's names: Disco Dave and The Man. I can't picture what they look like at all, as my memory doesn't quite stretch that far back, so I'll simply assume that they're awesome based off of their names.
James has pictures uploaded of "Mr. Moneybag$" and "The Tax Man"--his team's hero and villian--but no video. I do, however, remember the animations for these from class, as they were pretty well done. There was an interesting sense of weight conveyed through the size of the characters, as well as the props they used to beat each other with. The affinity between both characters--considering that they both fight with a stick, both are rather burly, and both are related to money--is countered by the contrast of their conflicting morals and ambitions. All in all, it was a rather interesting piece.
It appears as though JT has also not uploaded anything related to this assignment. Lucky me.
Week 7 - Written Reflection on the Video Joke Assignment
Our first video joke took more of a mature theme, with references to "spicing things up in bed", and the like. This was done in an attempt to appeal to our intended, college-age audience. As for visual effects, there is a utilization of movement, seen in the character's passing of gas over time--with his squirming and the scrunching of his face being representative of the obvious chaos in his bowels. Also, his movements as he prepares his meal, as well as during its disposal when he is finished, indicate the innate secrecy of his actions.
There is also a clear example of tension and release in the video. The period of time during which the character is simply laying in bed, blindfolded and haphazardly passing gas, building tension as the audience wonders what consequences of his flatulence are to be. This tension is released when his girlfriend returns and removes the blindfold, revealing the camera crew and the punch-line.
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The second video played with the concept of lines. For one, the character is featured walking the same diagonal path in multiple areas--not necessarily connected, but linked through the presence of the familiar linearity of his route and the angle from which he is shot. His striped shirt creates an affinity with the prevalent, straight lines throughout the video, such as door-frames and tables. Often, the straight lines are used to direct your attention towards the character, through their contrast with the more curvilinear shapes. Examples of curvilinear objects used are: the table from which he orders his beans and the bowls in which the beans come; these lines are made out to represent the more dubious aspects of the video.
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