Game Stories

Game Stories

After reading Bob Bates article on the guide to a hero's journey, I have come away with two main points. The first is that the idea of creating, developing and adding a myth into your game isn't as difficult as it seems, as Bates outlines in the first half of the article, myths are a huge part of our daily lives and we are surrounded by them in Religious Faith, Manners and in contributing to society. Bates makes a great point when he talks about comparing drugs to Myth-Substitutes as the user would feel the need to take narcotics to eith create myth when it is not there or to discover new ones in the most real way, through their own perception of reality. The second point i have taken is that creating a hero also isn't as difficult as it may seem. While Bates uses mainly mythological hero's in this article, the same principle can be thought of for comic books and superhero movies. Bates references a list of qualities a hero can posses and of course, just as in mythology we could think of David (Goliath's victim), Beowulf or Cú Chulainn for an example that we all heard about as children, we can also relate many of these points to a hero such as Spider man, although he may be a much more recent creation, a true hero none the less.

 Screen grab from Bob Bates Article 

In the Article 'What Every Game Developer Needs to Know about Story' I believe that John Sutherland is campaigning for a revolution in Gaming. He talks about how movies could have died had they tried to continue feeding on the amusement and 'New Toy' feeling as he put it. Movies had to evolve into moving picture stories to compete and overtake the live stage performance as the best way to tell a story. I do believe it is possible to create this change again from movies to games. The growing complexity of stories in games is proof of the world willingness to feed on the juiciest story, with no real loyalty to its medium in which it is told. For many, it is now far more pleasurable to play a game about a world war 2 hero, essentially becoming the hero rather than watch even their favorite movie star act the story out on screen for a single 3 hour movie. With the advancements in VR and AI, it is becoming more and more accessible to portray real, complex and intriguing stories within a game. The TV show 'West World' is a good example of humans being sucked in to the idea of being so intuned with the story, they are willing to give anything to live it. In my opinion, the key to a truly great game is to bring the player as close to the story as current tech allows.

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

I feel i have definitely benefited from the blog comment feedback that i have received. Many comments have simply just been nice messages from peers and some have given some good advice and supplied some good, constructive feedback.
On some occasions i will admit that I have found myself just shooting out a paragraph on someones post about how I have enjoyed reading their thoughts and are interested by their game design ideas etc as i was behind on blogs and wanted to get something down. it is only in the last few weeks that  have realized the potential these comments can have, it is rare that we are encouraged to actively critique each others work as we progress through assignments and often I wouldn't bother to pass comment on peoples work, rather just compliment on things i like. in this case it gives a platform to sit and read through blogs and see someones progression and view their work as it improves while offering advice and criticism that they otherwise wouldn't hear.

Overall i would say that the blog comment feedback is a really positive and a great idea. It allows students to give feedback, share ideas and give constructive criticism in order to help other students improve and create. The main positive i see to this is that students are encouraged to visit other students blogs to comment, and in turn end up learning a lot about their own blogging by comparing other students work to their own whether deliberately or subconsciously. one downside to the comments is that sometimes the comments become another blog upload crammed in each week and students don't put a lot of thought into giving constructive advice and end up just giving empty compliments drawn out to fill a word count. that said, i would definitely recommend students to visit others blogs, learn from that experience and leave some advice or ideas on how the student can improve or what they are doing well as this is a great way to learn!

I like the randomizer idea as it encourages students to visit students blogs outside their class group and friend group

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Looking back on my reading and writing blogs i feel that although I may have missed a few uploads on these topics i have definitely benefited from writing these blogs. the reading blogs give an opportunity to look at relevant subjects and information that i would probably never just come across while surfing the web or wouldn't even know to look for them while researching.
The writing blogs also help get ideas from my mind down in words which helps to develop ideas and progress as its easier to move on when things are put down in writing. I would have liked to work on more of these as they are a great way to show progression and research of game design info.
I feel i have fallen behind considerably in this lecture as a result of not being able to fit in almost daily blog posts or coming to Sunday and realizing i haven't been able to complete any blogs ahead of time and having to prioritize important uploads. I am not happy with my progression so far in the design of my game but I'm hoping i can pick up the pace on design and development and make a game that i am proud to share.

Gamification Model Canvas

This is an example of one image i like as it shows how a simple table created to outline a tool used to aid in my game development can be simple and effective in laying out essential and useful info into a graphic which can then used to compress full pages of information into a few strong points that can be easily recalled and used when needed.

I think it would be good practice to keep up the reading and writing blogs as they are good for keeping track of progress and can double as a notebook to keep ideas and notes of important info while creating our game.

Unity Free Tutorials

Unity tutorial

For this weeks unity tutorials I wanted to browse through the Jimmy Vegas YouTube channel to find some tutorials that I would be able to alter to use in my own game. The two I found and that I have included in this blog is the tutorial on a sniper scope image that can be added to the players view to give the effect of looking through a snipers optic and also an addition to the HUD of my game with the tutorial on creating a Sky rim influenced health bar. i liked the idea of creating the sniper scope as it could be easily manipulated into other useful game elements. the main one i had in mind for this would be changing the sniper scope to a set of binoculars, a telescope or even night vision, by changing the view to have a green tint and extra brightness. It would be possible to use the same C# script for all these ideas with the image covering the screen and a zoomed image in the cutout of the instrument used. I could implement this idea as a means of allowing the player to be able to see either farther or in a certain environment and I think this would really be a cool effect.

                                         Scope tutorial from Jimmy Vegas' video

The other tutorial i watched was for a sky rim inspired health bar. this would be a great inclusion for my HUD in my game and this idea could be personalized with the png and colored bars used to fit the theme of my final game. Again it would be possible to use the same C# script used in the video with some minor tweaks to blend with my game.

I look forward to exploring more of Jimmy Vegas' Unity tutorials on YouTube and seeing what great tips and ideas i can add to my game. Jimmy Vegas' YouTube channel can be found here

Final GDD

Final GDD

My Final GDD can be found HERE.

As i did not get a chance to start my GDD last week I tried my best to fill out my dundoc GDD with as much information as i could based on the topics. I did not completely understand some of the topics but I have tried my best to create an in-depth GDD for my final design. I look forward to adding all the design elements i have mentioned into my game design and hope to get a good start on creating the foundations for my game. I think using this Dundoc is a great way to really structure what one plans to include in their game and it then allows me to begin thinking about how i will go about the process of creating the game. Outlining things in this way is especially good as design changes or additions can be made freely without having to go back on work you've already done, i plan to use this Dundoc as the wire frame for all my additions to design and development as i construct this game.

Games Decisions

Games Decisions 

I really enjoyed reading Daniel Cooks Blog on 'cozy Games' as it gave me a new way of thinking about game design. The idea of a Cozy game is that instead of basing design and game play around battle, survival and immanent threats, cozy games allow the player space to breath while playing, instead of playing to improve battle skills for example their aim could be to gather abundant resources, develop relationships with characters or other players. Cozy games are synonymous with abundant resources, warm colors, small worlds, changing seasons and other elements to inspire nostalgia and a feeling of safety and comfort for the player. visuals play a big part in cozy games. warm, soft and natural colors all add to the cozy feeelig of a game. Audio is another medium that can be implemented to add to the coziness of a game design, using familar, natural sounds to relate to the player. The use of Natural and familiar materials can add to the coziness of a game such as the woolen aesthetic of the game 'LittleBigPlanet '.

                                          LittleBigPlanet image taken from flikr

The way the characters communicate in a game can greatly affect the emotions the player will feel while playing, having long, unimportant or meaningless conversations between characters can add to the safe, familiar feeling of relationships we enjoy in real life. Harsh commands and dominating, asserting characters would be avoided in a cozy game and the interactions with this character would always be an unpleasant and undesired experience for the player. creating vulnerabilities and weaknesses to characters such as old or young age, disabilities, roles ie priests or peaceful monks and maternal or paternal characteristics can all add to the coziness of a character in a game.