And to combat my list of Heroes, here's a list of my favourite villains.
10.Deadpool
9. Mystique
8. Carnage
7. Doctor Octopus
6. Harley Quinn
5. Lex Luther
4. Venom
3. Magneto
1. The Joker / Bane
It was a tough decision between the Joker and Bane for the top spot. On the one hand there's the Joker, a complete psychotic that can't be understood or reasoned with, a man who's impossible to consider as either sane or insane and the murderer of the second Robin. And on the other hand there's Bane, a criminal genius that's completely addicted to super steroids, making him Batman's psychological equal and physialogical better, not to mention that in his first appearance in the comic books he not only releases all of Batman's greatest foes from imprisonment but also deduces the Bat's real identity and breaks his back, leaving him for dead.
Thursday 5 May 2011
For the Good of the People!
As a fan of pretty much everything comics related Iv'e composed a list of my top 10 Super Heroes and Masked Vigilantes.
10. The Flash
9. Punisher
8. Spiderman
7. Iron Man
6. Wolverine
5. Blade
4. Judge Dredd
3. Hit-Girl
2. Rorschach
1. Batman
In my opinion Batman is the greatest Hero of them all, born into a life of wealth luxury he could have simply dealt with the death of his parents the standard rich, young bachelor way, excessive drinking, partying and hooking up with countless models. Instead he decided to clean up the crime riddled streets of Gotham, with no powers but an almost infinite supply of gadgets and a mastery of martial arts.
10. The Flash
9. Punisher
8. Spiderman
7. Iron Man
6. Wolverine
5. Blade
4. Judge Dredd
3. Hit-Girl
2. Rorschach
1. Batman
In my opinion Batman is the greatest Hero of them all, born into a life of wealth luxury he could have simply dealt with the death of his parents the standard rich, young bachelor way, excessive drinking, partying and hooking up with countless models. Instead he decided to clean up the crime riddled streets of Gotham, with no powers but an almost infinite supply of gadgets and a mastery of martial arts.
Brains!
I have always been a fan of the supernatural and fantasy creatures. I love Vampires, except the ones that sparkle, I'm fascinated with Werewolves and the majority of other mystical creatures give me great pleasure. But the one thing that I love more than any other has to be Zombies.
The idea of the dead coming back to life and hunting the living down for food has always entertained and thrilled me, no matter what medium they are used in, and so I have decided to discuss those poor infected souls in all of their forms of life. To bein with I will discuss the different forms Zombies take before going on to discussing them in each of their mediums.
Traditional Zombies
Traditionally, Zombies are slow moving corpses that hunt the living, attempting to devour their flesh. They tend to be created through freak accidents with radioactive substances, biological experiments gone wrong or ancient curses. The disease/infection is passed on through bodily fluids, usually in the form of a bite or a scratch. Once the infection is in the victims system it shuts down their bodily functions, often taking the form of a fever, and once the victim is dead the virus reanimates them. The reanimated corpse has no memory of its past self and is driven by an unsatiable hunger. The only way to kill this form of zombie is by destroying the brain, although given enough time the zombie will eventually decay to a point where it can no longer function.
New Age Zombies
New age Zombies share alot of similarities with traditional zombies, they are usually created/infected in the same manner and are usually killed using the same techniques. However, this form of zombie is not a slow lumbering corpse like its traditional counterpart, they still maintain a lot of their motofunctions, primarily the ability to run. This means that they tend to be a harder zombie to kill as its hard enough to get a head shot on a stumbling zombie, let alone one that is sprinting towards you.
Which is Best?
So, which form of zombie is better, the crazy sprinter that will devour you in seconds or the slow, lumbering wretch that will eventually catch up with you and rip you to shreds. Personally, I would have to say the Traditional Zombie is better, mainly because if there was a zombie outbreak at least then I'd stand a chance of killing a few before my untimely end but also because I get more of a sense of dread when faced with a slow moving unstoppable force that will come for me eventually than the quick, but still brutal, death at the hands of the New Age Zombie.
Infected or Dead
Along with the creation of the New Age Zombie has also come the 'new diagnosis.' The majority of zombies become infected and then die or are considered dead, mainly due to the fact that they cannot be harmed or stopped by anything other than the destruction of the brain. However, a new breed of zombie has cropped up that becomes infected but does not die, these forms of zombie tend to follow the New Age Zombie guide. The infected share all of the characteristics of a dead zombie except that they can be killed in all manner of ways, such as drowning, chemical gasses and general harm to the body.
Which is Best ?
I prefer my zombies to die befor they try to eat me, not least because it gives me a bit more time to get away. The fact that the infected can be killed so easily removes a lot of the horror and dread and just makes them seem like a bunch of mass murdering canniballs rather than the undead.
Zombies in Film
The first zombie film that I will talk about is Night of the Living Dead, by zombie legend George A. Romero.
The first of many zombie films directed by George A. Romero, Night of the Living Dead focused on a group of people barricading themselves in an isolated farmhouse against numerous zombies. Made in 1968, this film began the cultural fascination with zombies and is still considered one of the best zombie films of all time.
The second zombie film is Dawn of the Dead, by Zack Snyder. Sharing the same name as Romero's second zombie flick, Dawn of the Dead shared several similarities as the characters barricade themselves inside a shopping mall and spend most of their time browsing the shops for the items that they wanted before the outbreak, in a satirical look at consumerism. The big difference and one that completely alters the style of the film from its predecessor is the use of New Age Zombies instead of Tradional Zombies. As zombie films go, this is one of the better ones, however, the use of this form of zombie means that the film doesn't hold the same level of suspense and fear as Romero's.
And the third zombie film that I will talk about is 28 Days Later, by Danny Boyle. In a complete overhaul of the zombie image, this film begins with a quick look at an animal testing facility where the apes in captivaty have been given large doses of 'rage.' The viewer gets a quick look at the beginning of the outbreak as some would be saviours of the apes are infected as they open the cages. The story then pans to the central character, waking up after a coma to find the hospital he is in and everywhere else deserted, it's not long before he runs foul of zombies and renegade soldiers. The reason I've included this film in the blog is because of the style of zombies used, they aren't the Traditional or New Age Zombies but are instead the infected. This was the first film to feature such zombies and had quite an effect on viewers the first time round, however, due to the fact that the zombies are just rage infected humans means that this cannot be considered a true zombie film and yet it cannot be sorted into any other category.
Zombies in Television
The critically acclaimed series The Walking Dead recently premiered on british television, bringing viewers a more realistic and emotionally world ravaged by a zombie apocalypse. The Walking Dead shares a similar opening to 28 Days Later as the main protagonist wakes up in a hospital bed several weeks after the viral outbreak. The zombies featured are a cross between the Traditional and the New Age Zombies, as most of them are slow and lumbering but a few (I'm guessing the most recently infected) are able to clumsily trot after their prey, it's not quite the sprinting that many zombies seem able to do now-a-days but it adds a bit of tension not knowing just how fast a zombie will be able to persue you. The biggest success of the series has to be the fact that each episode plays out slowly, building up each character's personality so that the audience feel connected to them and their plight, but at the same time is able to deliver gory and violent scenes that keep the audience interested. This is a balance that very few films seem capable of doing.
Zombies in Games
The most well known zombie franchise in existence, the Resident Evil saga has been infected and devouring for many years now and has a lot of diversity to offer when giving the player chances to claim a few headshots. The first three games all offer the same variation of zombie, the Tradionals, with a few genetic monstrosities thrown in to add some extra difficulty. These three games are notorious in handing the player very little ammunition and so forcing them to take their shots carefully and to try and conserve ammo. This style of play helped bring the survival horror genre to the forefront of gaming.
However, the next two Resident Evil games completely changed the formula, although technocally still zombies, the enemies in these games were more like mutated plants attached to the enemies heads and the idea of conserving ammo and trying to survive was thrown out and replaced with your standard action/adventure game.
Zombies in Literature
I never used to be a fan of zombies in literature, I always prefered vampires and demons over the mindless ghouls, until I was enlightened by two books which have since become two of my favourite books of all time.
Both books are written by Max Brooks and take a serious and realistic look at everything to do with zombies.
The first book is called 'The Zombie Survival Guide,' and is designed to help the reader prepare for a zombie outbreak. It covers every subject that needs to be considered when facing such an event. The weapons that the reader should take interest in are carefully reviewed, explaining all of their good and bad points and saying how effevtive they would be at killing zombies. Brooks explains to the reader the perils of every portential safehouse and what key supplies are needed, as well as the amount of each needed. He also delves into the history of zombies and speculates on their origins as well as giving the reader a detailed anatomy of the typical zombie. The book finishes by exploring all of mankinds clashes with zombie outbreaks, delving into great detail on who was involved and how they managed to survive.
The second book is called 'World War Z,' and is a detailed account of a world wide zombie outbreak that left hummanity on the brink of extinction, as told by a handfull of survivors in key areas of the world. The depth and realism that these books bring to the reader, is shocking and makes it seem almost possible for such an event to occur. I thoroughly recommend that everyone read these books, mainly so you'll be prepared just in case a zombie apocalypse does happen.
I hope I have decently informed my loyal readers on the zombie menace and their various incarnations, come back soon (and in case of a zombie apocalypse, good luck).
The idea of the dead coming back to life and hunting the living down for food has always entertained and thrilled me, no matter what medium they are used in, and so I have decided to discuss those poor infected souls in all of their forms of life. To bein with I will discuss the different forms Zombies take before going on to discussing them in each of their mediums.
Traditional Zombies
Traditionally, Zombies are slow moving corpses that hunt the living, attempting to devour their flesh. They tend to be created through freak accidents with radioactive substances, biological experiments gone wrong or ancient curses. The disease/infection is passed on through bodily fluids, usually in the form of a bite or a scratch. Once the infection is in the victims system it shuts down their bodily functions, often taking the form of a fever, and once the victim is dead the virus reanimates them. The reanimated corpse has no memory of its past self and is driven by an unsatiable hunger. The only way to kill this form of zombie is by destroying the brain, although given enough time the zombie will eventually decay to a point where it can no longer function.
New Age Zombies
New age Zombies share alot of similarities with traditional zombies, they are usually created/infected in the same manner and are usually killed using the same techniques. However, this form of zombie is not a slow lumbering corpse like its traditional counterpart, they still maintain a lot of their motofunctions, primarily the ability to run. This means that they tend to be a harder zombie to kill as its hard enough to get a head shot on a stumbling zombie, let alone one that is sprinting towards you.
Which is Best?
So, which form of zombie is better, the crazy sprinter that will devour you in seconds or the slow, lumbering wretch that will eventually catch up with you and rip you to shreds. Personally, I would have to say the Traditional Zombie is better, mainly because if there was a zombie outbreak at least then I'd stand a chance of killing a few before my untimely end but also because I get more of a sense of dread when faced with a slow moving unstoppable force that will come for me eventually than the quick, but still brutal, death at the hands of the New Age Zombie.
Infected or Dead
Along with the creation of the New Age Zombie has also come the 'new diagnosis.' The majority of zombies become infected and then die or are considered dead, mainly due to the fact that they cannot be harmed or stopped by anything other than the destruction of the brain. However, a new breed of zombie has cropped up that becomes infected but does not die, these forms of zombie tend to follow the New Age Zombie guide. The infected share all of the characteristics of a dead zombie except that they can be killed in all manner of ways, such as drowning, chemical gasses and general harm to the body.
Which is Best ?
I prefer my zombies to die befor they try to eat me, not least because it gives me a bit more time to get away. The fact that the infected can be killed so easily removes a lot of the horror and dread and just makes them seem like a bunch of mass murdering canniballs rather than the undead.
Zombies in Film
The first zombie film that I will talk about is Night of the Living Dead, by zombie legend George A. Romero.
The first of many zombie films directed by George A. Romero, Night of the Living Dead focused on a group of people barricading themselves in an isolated farmhouse against numerous zombies. Made in 1968, this film began the cultural fascination with zombies and is still considered one of the best zombie films of all time.
The second zombie film is Dawn of the Dead, by Zack Snyder. Sharing the same name as Romero's second zombie flick, Dawn of the Dead shared several similarities as the characters barricade themselves inside a shopping mall and spend most of their time browsing the shops for the items that they wanted before the outbreak, in a satirical look at consumerism. The big difference and one that completely alters the style of the film from its predecessor is the use of New Age Zombies instead of Tradional Zombies. As zombie films go, this is one of the better ones, however, the use of this form of zombie means that the film doesn't hold the same level of suspense and fear as Romero's.
And the third zombie film that I will talk about is 28 Days Later, by Danny Boyle. In a complete overhaul of the zombie image, this film begins with a quick look at an animal testing facility where the apes in captivaty have been given large doses of 'rage.' The viewer gets a quick look at the beginning of the outbreak as some would be saviours of the apes are infected as they open the cages. The story then pans to the central character, waking up after a coma to find the hospital he is in and everywhere else deserted, it's not long before he runs foul of zombies and renegade soldiers. The reason I've included this film in the blog is because of the style of zombies used, they aren't the Traditional or New Age Zombies but are instead the infected. This was the first film to feature such zombies and had quite an effect on viewers the first time round, however, due to the fact that the zombies are just rage infected humans means that this cannot be considered a true zombie film and yet it cannot be sorted into any other category.
Zombies in Television
The critically acclaimed series The Walking Dead recently premiered on british television, bringing viewers a more realistic and emotionally world ravaged by a zombie apocalypse. The Walking Dead shares a similar opening to 28 Days Later as the main protagonist wakes up in a hospital bed several weeks after the viral outbreak. The zombies featured are a cross between the Traditional and the New Age Zombies, as most of them are slow and lumbering but a few (I'm guessing the most recently infected) are able to clumsily trot after their prey, it's not quite the sprinting that many zombies seem able to do now-a-days but it adds a bit of tension not knowing just how fast a zombie will be able to persue you. The biggest success of the series has to be the fact that each episode plays out slowly, building up each character's personality so that the audience feel connected to them and their plight, but at the same time is able to deliver gory and violent scenes that keep the audience interested. This is a balance that very few films seem capable of doing.
Zombies in Games
The most well known zombie franchise in existence, the Resident Evil saga has been infected and devouring for many years now and has a lot of diversity to offer when giving the player chances to claim a few headshots. The first three games all offer the same variation of zombie, the Tradionals, with a few genetic monstrosities thrown in to add some extra difficulty. These three games are notorious in handing the player very little ammunition and so forcing them to take their shots carefully and to try and conserve ammo. This style of play helped bring the survival horror genre to the forefront of gaming.
However, the next two Resident Evil games completely changed the formula, although technocally still zombies, the enemies in these games were more like mutated plants attached to the enemies heads and the idea of conserving ammo and trying to survive was thrown out and replaced with your standard action/adventure game.
Zombies in Literature
I never used to be a fan of zombies in literature, I always prefered vampires and demons over the mindless ghouls, until I was enlightened by two books which have since become two of my favourite books of all time.
Both books are written by Max Brooks and take a serious and realistic look at everything to do with zombies.
The first book is called 'The Zombie Survival Guide,' and is designed to help the reader prepare for a zombie outbreak. It covers every subject that needs to be considered when facing such an event. The weapons that the reader should take interest in are carefully reviewed, explaining all of their good and bad points and saying how effevtive they would be at killing zombies. Brooks explains to the reader the perils of every portential safehouse and what key supplies are needed, as well as the amount of each needed. He also delves into the history of zombies and speculates on their origins as well as giving the reader a detailed anatomy of the typical zombie. The book finishes by exploring all of mankinds clashes with zombie outbreaks, delving into great detail on who was involved and how they managed to survive.
The second book is called 'World War Z,' and is a detailed account of a world wide zombie outbreak that left hummanity on the brink of extinction, as told by a handfull of survivors in key areas of the world. The depth and realism that these books bring to the reader, is shocking and makes it seem almost possible for such an event to occur. I thoroughly recommend that everyone read these books, mainly so you'll be prepared just in case a zombie apocalypse does happen.
I hope I have decently informed my loyal readers on the zombie menace and their various incarnations, come back soon (and in case of a zombie apocalypse, good luck).
Wednesday 4 May 2011
Top Films
I realise that all of my blog posts have been entirely focused on my course and so I decided to make a list of my top films, I would just make a list of my top 10 but as I'm a film fanatic I decided to make several lists in different categories as well. Just bear in mind that all of the lists will probably change within the next few months.
Comedy
1. Happy Gilmore
2. Anchorman
3. South Park the Movie
4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
5. Dodge Ball
Action
1. Die Hard
2. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
3. Goldeneye
4. Total Recall
5. Sin City
Horror
1. Event Horizon
2. Alien
3. Psycho
4. Pan's Labrynth
5. 30 Days of Night
Sci-Fi
1. Aliens
2. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
3. The Matrix Reloaded
4. Star Wars episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
5. Blade Runner
Superhero
1. The Dark Knight
2. Kickass
3. Ironman 2
4. The Incredible Hulk
5. Spiderman 2
Zombie
1. Zombieland
2. Shaun of the Dead
3. Land of the Dead
4. Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero not Zack Snyder)
5. 28 Days Later
Creature Feature
1. Aliens
2. The Thing
3. Predator
4. Jaws
5. The Host
Game
1. Scott Pilgrim (too many game references to be in a different genre)
2. Tomb Raider
3. Tomb Raider 2
4. Doom
Animation
1. South Park the Movie
2. The Lion King
3. Toy Story 3
4. Hercules
5. Shrek 2
Top 10 Films
1. Pulp Fiction
2. Die Hard
3. Fight Club
4. Happy Gilmore
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
6. The Dark Knight
7. Aliens
8. Event Horizon
9. American History X
10. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Comedy
1. Happy Gilmore
2. Anchorman
3. South Park the Movie
4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
5. Dodge Ball
Action
1. Die Hard
2. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
3. Goldeneye
4. Total Recall
5. Sin City
Horror
1. Event Horizon
2. Alien
3. Psycho
4. Pan's Labrynth
5. 30 Days of Night
Sci-Fi
1. Aliens
2. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
3. The Matrix Reloaded
4. Star Wars episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
5. Blade Runner
Superhero
1. The Dark Knight
2. Kickass
3. Ironman 2
4. The Incredible Hulk
5. Spiderman 2
Zombie
1. Zombieland
2. Shaun of the Dead
3. Land of the Dead
4. Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero not Zack Snyder)
5. 28 Days Later
Creature Feature
1. Aliens
2. The Thing
3. Predator
4. Jaws
5. The Host
Game
1. Scott Pilgrim (too many game references to be in a different genre)
2. Tomb Raider
3. Tomb Raider 2
4. Doom
Animation
1. South Park the Movie
2. The Lion King
3. Toy Story 3
4. Hercules
5. Shrek 2
Top 10 Films
1. Pulp Fiction
2. Die Hard
3. Fight Club
4. Happy Gilmore
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
6. The Dark Knight
7. Aliens
8. Event Horizon
9. American History X
10. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Tuesday 3 May 2011
Gender in Gaming
In the last of my critical game studies lectures, the topic of discussion was gender in gaming, focusing on the statistics of boys and girls that play games and who we percieve to play games. As the class consitis of roughly 25 boys and only 2 girls the discussion and overall atmosphere tended to be biased towards the thinking that almost all gamers were boys.
However, when reviewing the official statistics of gamers, we found that the spread was alot more even where almost an equal number of girls played games to boys, in fact the statistics even showed that older woman played more games than teenage boys. This largely comes down to games such as solitaire and bejeweled being hugely popular amongst the older demographic.
Although I agreed with the statistics on the percentage of gamers in each demographic, I hugely disagreed on the amount of time each group was said to play video games. I mainly disagreed with the fact that it said that on average teenage boys played games for roughly 6 hours each week, which works out at about 52 minutes a day. The main reason that I disagree with this is beacuse I play games for atleast 20 hours a week, minimum. I know that me playing games for that long doesn't effect the overall statistic, but almost everyone I know that's a boy, either teenager or young adult, plays atleast 12-15 hours of gaming a week. If it had said that they were young children or a bit older, I would have agreed with the statistics but as they were teenagers, I'd expect the average time spent playing to be higher.
We also discussed who we percieved to be gamers, which sparked an interesting debate on who everyone thought the stereotypical gamer was, in which everyone strongly disagreed that the stereotypical gamer was a an unsociable teen hiding in their parents basement. We all aqgreed that although this may have been the image of a gamer back in the 80's and early 90's when the medium was still trying to break into everyday life, in our current age of next gen consoles and the explosion of casual games, this image couldn't be further from the truth.
We also discussed the role of women within the games industry, where it came as no surprise that more men than women were currently working within the industry. What did come as a surprise however was the difference between the two, for example 95% of the design team was male and only 5% female.
The biggest question that comes to my mind when seeing these statistics is, how does this affect the content of games? Seeing statistics like this helps back up the theory of boys dominating the gaming market as it looks like 'boys making games for boys.' More often than not, the content also helps back up this theory as the articles on the two links below show.
http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/114/1143135p1.html
http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/116/1160730p1.html
This was just a quick exploration into the gamingh demographic and I'm hoping that by the time I'm working in the industry things would have changed for the beeter as I believe that more girlsn in the industry and playing games will bring more diversity to games and the more girls that play games will distance gamers worldwide from the stereotypical teenager living in their parents basement.
However, when reviewing the official statistics of gamers, we found that the spread was alot more even where almost an equal number of girls played games to boys, in fact the statistics even showed that older woman played more games than teenage boys. This largely comes down to games such as solitaire and bejeweled being hugely popular amongst the older demographic.
Although I agreed with the statistics on the percentage of gamers in each demographic, I hugely disagreed on the amount of time each group was said to play video games. I mainly disagreed with the fact that it said that on average teenage boys played games for roughly 6 hours each week, which works out at about 52 minutes a day. The main reason that I disagree with this is beacuse I play games for atleast 20 hours a week, minimum. I know that me playing games for that long doesn't effect the overall statistic, but almost everyone I know that's a boy, either teenager or young adult, plays atleast 12-15 hours of gaming a week. If it had said that they were young children or a bit older, I would have agreed with the statistics but as they were teenagers, I'd expect the average time spent playing to be higher.
We also discussed who we percieved to be gamers, which sparked an interesting debate on who everyone thought the stereotypical gamer was, in which everyone strongly disagreed that the stereotypical gamer was a an unsociable teen hiding in their parents basement. We all aqgreed that although this may have been the image of a gamer back in the 80's and early 90's when the medium was still trying to break into everyday life, in our current age of next gen consoles and the explosion of casual games, this image couldn't be further from the truth.
We also discussed the role of women within the games industry, where it came as no surprise that more men than women were currently working within the industry. What did come as a surprise however was the difference between the two, for example 95% of the design team was male and only 5% female.
The biggest question that comes to my mind when seeing these statistics is, how does this affect the content of games? Seeing statistics like this helps back up the theory of boys dominating the gaming market as it looks like 'boys making games for boys.' More often than not, the content also helps back up this theory as the articles on the two links below show.
http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/114/1143135p1.html
http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/116/1160730p1.html
This was just a quick exploration into the gamingh demographic and I'm hoping that by the time I'm working in the industry things would have changed for the beeter as I believe that more girlsn in the industry and playing games will bring more diversity to games and the more girls that play games will distance gamers worldwide from the stereotypical teenager living in their parents basement.
Friday 22 April 2011
Essay 2
With particular reference to the readings you have undertaken this year what are the major design issues you have faced in developing a game for Key Stage 1 children?
Throughout the development of the Key Stage 1 game, there have been many design issues that needed to be covered in order to make a game that would appeal to the target audience as well as being suitable for them and covering the targets of the assessment. The majority of these issues were discussed and solved during the initial design and development stages of the project, where we discussed as a group what we wanted to create and also what we thought we would be able to create. Setting a limit on what we were going to do was important in stopping us from over reaching and helped us focus on the core issues that we needed to consider in the design of the game.
After several meetings amongst the group and occasionally the project managers, we had embellished the original idea of having a haunted house game by making it a progressive room to room learning experience where the player had to solve various puzzles, all related to the KS1 curriculum, in order to reach the games boss and escape the house. We eventually decided that the layout would consist of a series of levels that the player would progress through by completing a series of puzzles.
Greg Costikyan’s article, ‘I have no words & I must design,’ was a useful source in helping us solve many of the issues of designing the game such as the player’s interaction and the use of goals and struggle in making an enjoyable and challenging game for the player. As the game was intended to be a learning experience, player interaction was fundamental in the design of the game. Without allowing the player to fully interact with the game we, as game designers, would have failed to give the player the learning experience we had promised and would have failed to make an enjoyable game. This issue was easily resolved as each level of the game has two puzzles that the player has complete control over to help them fully interact with the game, along with the ‘side mission’ of collecting cookies that are scattered throughout the game and the fourth room of the game being a fully interactive mini-game.
The main goal of the game is for the player to guide the character to safety and escape the house; however, in order for the player to do this they must complete individual goals within each level, the goals being the completion of puzzles. In order to keep the goals interesting as well as informative for the player each puzzle is different so that the player feels that they are progressing through the game and achieving their mission, rather than being stuck in an endless cycle.
The struggle that the player must face in the game comes from each individual puzzle that they must complete in order to progress and then the boss in the final room who must be defeated in order for the player to escape. The struggle needed to be in keeping with the player’s abilities and as an interactive learning game, needed to be relevant to the player’s needs, therefore each puzzle and the questions the boss asks the player where focused on the KS1 curriculum. Using the curriculum to help us design each challenge made the overall design process easier as we knew what issues we needed to cover in order to make the game relevant to the target audience.
Another theme in games that Costikyan said was an important design feature is endogenous meaning, which is a term for any in game object or currency that is only relevant within the game but that the player feels that they need or want. Endogenous meaning is an important part of any games structure, it helps immerse the player in a game and is often important in motivating a player to complete certain goals or tasks. When designing the game, we could not find a suitable way to include the use of money or a shop within the structure of the game, and could not find any reason to include some sort of upgrade system but we still felt that the player needed something that would make them value the world within the game and so the ‘side mission’ of collecting cookies was created. The cookies don’t really hold any value in the game and certainly don’t outside of the game but the collection of as many cookies as possible, gives the player a sense of accomplishment.
The character design was left to me as one of the artists and in order to create a character that I thought the target audience would like I spent a fair amount of time researching different character styles. One of the styles I looked into was the Scooby Doo characters as our game shared several similarities with the cartoon; I also looked at video game characters like the sprites from the Pokémon games and various creatures from the Mario games. As well as choosing a suitable design for the characters, I had to create two characters, a boy named Alvin ‘Al’ and a girl named Anita ‘Annie’, in order to make the game more acceptable and open to both genders. The design that I settled on for the two main characters, Al and Annie, resembled South Park’s characters, sharing the overly large heads and having their walking animations as the ‘hopping’ walk. For the boss character, I decided to use the Boo ghost from the Mario games as my template, this seemed to be the most suitable form for the ghost to take as it wasn’t too serious or scary and fit in well with the cartoony style of the game that we were trying to create.
Another article that was a valuable resource when designing the game was ‘Formal Abstract Design tools,’ by Doug Church, which had a strong segment on the role of story in designing games. This was an important issue to cover as an important feature in any game is the story, whether it’s a simple narrative or an epic yarn, story is what pulls the player into a game’s world and immerses them in it. During the design process we felt that it was important to include a story to keep the player interested and to explain how the character had ended up in being trapped in a basement in the first place. Within the actual levels of the game there is no story driving the player on as we wanted the player to focus on the puzzles and the mission of escaping the house.
As we had decided not to include a narrative or any other form of story within the structure of the levels, cut-scenes were added at the beginning and end of the game. The opening cut-scene was designed to introduce the player to the characters and show how they got themselves into their current predicament and the end cut-scene was designed to show the players success and show the player a happy ending for helping the character escape.
A very important issue to cover when designing the game was what art style to use; we wanted the style to be appropriate for the target audience to keep them interested in the game and so went for a cartoony style, with similarities with various children’s programs such as Scooby Doo and similarities with games such as the Mario franchise.
Every level within the game is meant to be from a different time period and so it was important to keep a link between each level to avoid confusing the player or making the game look like it had been patched together. Each level shares similarities with the level before, such as the background from the first level being almost identical to that of the second level. The colour scheme used is also of importance, bright colours were used for most of the game to fit in with the cartoony style but between levels there was a strong contrast of colours to show that the player was progressing through the game, for example the Egyptian level is filled with bright yellow slabs along the walls and brightly coloured hieroglyphics, whereas the second level has grey bricks along the walls and bright red pots scattered over the floor.
The layout of the game was an important issue to discuss as it needed to be presented coherently for the player to help them track their progress through the game. The player simply moves from either left or right, depending on the level, completing each puzzle as they come across it before progressing to the next level. The layout style can be considered to come under spatial segmentation, which is when player progression is controlled levels and/or checkpoints within those levels. Spatial segmentation boils down to three main areas; level structure, aesthetic design and background, such as having a rolling background as the games first three levels have and a static background for the fourth and fifth levels.
The components that make up spatial segments aren’t necessarily included as they are part of challenge segmentation, which is where the puzzle element of the game comes from, both forms of segmentation are discussed in length in an article called ‘Rounds, Levels, and Waves: The Early Evolution of Gameplay Segmentation’ by Jose P. Zagal, Clara Fernandez-Vera and Michael Mateas. Although in each individual puzzle the player doesn’t have to face waves or bosses, the combined puzzles of each level act as mini bosses that must be defeated(solved) in order for the player to progress to the next level, where they will have to repeat the process to progress even further through the levels.
The final two issues that were of a big concern during the design and development process were pacing and possibility, two important aspects of games that are discussed at length in the an article by Marcos Venturelli called ‘Space of Possibility and Pacing in Casual Game Design – A PopCap Case Study.’ Pacing is the speed of progression and flow within a game and possibility is the number of options that are available to the player, as designers we have to consider both as one when designing a game in order to find the right balance for the game’s purpose, for example casual games have a high pace and very little possibility whereas big budget console games have a slower pace but a much higher possibility factor.
When designing the KS1 game, we tried to give the game a fast pace so that the target audience wouldn’t get bored but gave them some possibility. As the player cannot control the character, just completing the puzzles, and there is a linear path to follow, the game is forced to progress at a faster pace. In doing so, we gave the player very few possibilities, their path is straightforward and they cannot stray from it, meaning that the only true possibility in the game was the amount of cookies the player collected, how many tomatoes they threw at the man in stocks in the mini-game and how fast they completed each puzzle.
In conclusion, there have been many issues to consider when designing and developing the Key stage 1 game, covering every aspect from the art style to the core game mechanics. As a team, I believe we have successfully dealt with these issues in a way that has made the game more suitable to its target audience and its initial objectives, to help Key Stage 1 students learn their curriculum. I believe that many of these issues could have been overlooked had it not been for the various articles that I and as a team, we used to help us find and solve them.
Thursday 17 February 2011
Kill the Rabbit!
For the flash game assessment that I was set, I originally planned on making a tower defense game about Vikings pillaging a Church. At first I loved this idea and was quick to make all the artwork so I could begin coding the game. However, I soon realised just how complicated a tower defense game can be and so decided to come up with a new idea, plus most people were planning on making a tower defense game.
After a bit of thought I decided to make a shooter, I quickly came up with the idea of an old man sitting on a park bench who begins to lose his sanity and the only way to get it back is to kill rabbits. It's a bit of a random storyline but the coding is quite simple so I should actually be able to make the game work and who doesn't like shooting rabbits.
I've added 'Satanic cowboy' by Dog Fashion Disco as the background music because it's kind of crazy and when you shoot a rabbit it has the notorious Wilhelm scream. Enjoy!
After a bit of thought I decided to make a shooter, I quickly came up with the idea of an old man sitting on a park bench who begins to lose his sanity and the only way to get it back is to kill rabbits. It's a bit of a random storyline but the coding is quite simple so I should actually be able to make the game work and who doesn't like shooting rabbits.
I've added 'Satanic cowboy' by Dog Fashion Disco as the background music because it's kind of crazy and when you shoot a rabbit it has the notorious Wilhelm scream. Enjoy!
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