Games Design Level 3 Blog
Friday 23 June 2017
Unit 4-5 Assignment P3P4 1617
Unit 4-5 Assignment P3P4 1617
Since the start of the year the development off our game has changed drastically. Below are the initial ideas we had based on the brief.
Gameplay: For our first idea we decided to create a game based on the style of gameplay found in the Devil May Cry series and a style of fighting based on the popular JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series' "Stands", spirits with special abilities that appear from a user and fight. The demographic we would be aiming for would be a teen audience due to the violent nature of what we are aiming for but the lack of intense gore we feel stops it becoming a Mature Only game.
Protagonist: The protagonist Kenny Lown (K.Lown) becomes possessed by a demonic clown spirit after trying it on in a costume shop, be begins making his way through town and becomes driven to murder all in his way. In combat the clown spirit emerges from K. Lown and does the fighting.
Starting Weapon: Because of how we chose to we wanted the style of combat to be we decided the player's starting weapons, wielded by the clown, are a giant hammer melee weapon, and Water Balloons, a low impact projectile weapon. Due to the nature of the appearance of clowns being ridiculous and the juxtaposition that creates when compared to the murderous intent of the clown spirit in this project we decided that the weapons should have a "silly yet sinister" feel to them.
Unlockable Weapons: In order to vary the player's combat some of the possible unlockable weapons would be Balloon nun-chucks melee weapons, Balloon Rapier melee weapon, Cartoon Chainsaw melee weapon,
handkerchief chain with low damage, good range, able to pull enemies closer as well, and custard pies as a mid impact projectile weapon and an upgrade from the water balloons.
Items: In order to keep with the Devil May Cry style of gameplay, we decided to try and incorporate many varid items for use in combat such as;
Acid Flower (activates on low health, cancels enemy attack to prevent death, one time use)
Silly String (use to immobilise enemy's for a short time)
Trap whoopee cushion (enemy triggers it, cloud of gas released and damages enemy)
Candy floss (Candy Floss S heals %33 of your health, Candy Floss L heals %75 of your health)
Puppet Show (distracts enemies for a short period of time)
Balloon Dog (tracks enemies, pops on impact and deals low damage briefly staggering enemies)
Snake Tin Prank (Trap that damages single target when triggered)
Save Point: As the save point, in order to keep the clown them, the save point we want to use a circus style tent.
Enemies:
Stage 1: Skaters
Stage 1 Boss: Skate Leader
Stage 2: Jocks
Stage 2 Boss: Coach
Stage 3: Biker Gang
Stage 3 Boss: Biker Leader
3D model dersigns: For this project we decided to base our 3D models off those found in the game JoJo's Bizzare Adventure: Eyes of Heaven.
Idea 2 Survival Horror: After stumbling across the crash site of a crashed alien space craft the player is knocked out by a strange clown and soon wakes up on an operating table, the player then has to try and escape from the nightmarish alien Clowns and the horrifying experiments they're trying to perform on you.
Idea 3 FPS: one of our back up ideas is a simple FPS more based on the movie Killer Klowns From Outerspace, where you play as the hero of the film as you chase down clowns after they kidnap your friend Debbie.
What Changed:
As the year went on it gradually became more apparent that due to time constraints as well as the technical limitations we had that it wouldn't be possible for us to achieve the goals set out within our first 2 ideas so instead of a third person beat em up/hack 'n slash or a straight up survival horror we decided it was best to use the basis of the third idea, a First Person Shooter, but wanted to attempt to blend in some of the elements of idea 2 and set it in a more interesting setting than a standard town. Thus i ended up setting the game on an island prison. This prison, including all the cells, walls, bridge, gate, guard post, benches and basket ball hoops, were made from scratch in the 3D modelling software maya the parts of the environment such as the islands and water however were created using the features available in the Unreal engine 4.
I also therefore had to change the story of the game, instead of playing as one of the heroes of the film the player now plays as an inmate of the prison who is awoken by a sudden scream, he goes to investigate to find his cell door suddenly unlocking, he then exits the cell and finds a dead guard and after picking up his weapon he spots the first clown shortly before finding out that everyone is already dead and he must now fight his way out if he is to survive. The size and amount of levels also had to change to fit the new setting as now instead of three separate levels of intermediate size I decided it was best to have one very large level with a detailed environment, thus the prison two separate was given multiple floors filled with cells, a large courtyard with a great amount of benches as well as some basket ball hoops for the prisoners that would be there, a large bridge stretching from the main island to a sub island with a guard booth and many other bridges and islands going off into the distance. Sadly I also had to remove the high number of unique and interesting weapons that I wanted the player to be able to find as they no longer had a place within the game, instead using a simpler gun. Next the player and enemies had to be coded to perform the actions such as enemies chasing the player and doing damage, enemies dying upon being shot, adding a health bar for the player, and having the player respawn and begin again in the starting cell upon death. During development I have had to deal with many bugs, some of which i have sadly been unable to identify the cause of and fix, others that were fixed include problems with the enemies being destroyed upon the player killing them where they would simply keep coming instead as well as issues with getting the health bar to appear on screen.
Improvements;
Whilst we were able to accomplish a great many things in creating the game there are several notable improvements i would have liked to have made. The first is an idea from earlier in development where i had wanted to add a mini boss for the player to fight which would have been larger, dealt more damage and took several shots more to defeat than the standard enemies. I also wanted to add a far greater amount of textures as most models sadly look rather plain with a simple chrome look to them but every time we tried to add new textures unreal would crash and lose large amounts of data. I also wanted to add items player to be able to use many different weapons with different perks and weakness for fighting the enemies. The lighting is another area i wish i had been able to improve in order to give the environment a far creepier feel to them so as to make the threat from the enemies feel greater. I also wanted to add a skyline off towards the background of the map so it looked far less barren in the distance. As well as this we had also created a clown model in Maya and downloaded a second one that we wished to use as skins for the enemies though sadly we were unable to get the animations to work so they had to be left out, as well as models for dead guards and inmates we had wanted littered around the environment. I would also have liked to add a death animation for the enemies so they do not just despawn suddenly once defeated. I also wanted to a bug that is still present where the player will take damage for no discernible reason. Lastly i wanted to improve the way the water texture flows as it is rather visibly choppy.
Evaluation:
I feel that where different from the initial ideas we had the game still fits the brief of being based on the movie Killer Klowns From Outer Space as the prison setting itself was inspired by the scene in the town jail.
3D model dersigns: For this project we decided to base our 3D models off those found in the game JoJo's Bizzare Adventure: Eyes of Heaven.
Idea 2 Survival Horror: After stumbling across the crash site of a crashed alien space craft the player is knocked out by a strange clown and soon wakes up on an operating table, the player then has to try and escape from the nightmarish alien Clowns and the horrifying experiments they're trying to perform on you.
Idea 3 FPS: one of our back up ideas is a simple FPS more based on the movie Killer Klowns From Outerspace, where you play as the hero of the film as you chase down clowns after they kidnap your friend Debbie.
What Changed:
As the year went on it gradually became more apparent that due to time constraints as well as the technical limitations we had that it wouldn't be possible for us to achieve the goals set out within our first 2 ideas so instead of a third person beat em up/hack 'n slash or a straight up survival horror we decided it was best to use the basis of the third idea, a First Person Shooter, but wanted to attempt to blend in some of the elements of idea 2 and set it in a more interesting setting than a standard town. Thus i ended up setting the game on an island prison. This prison, including all the cells, walls, bridge, gate, guard post, benches and basket ball hoops, were made from scratch in the 3D modelling software maya the parts of the environment such as the islands and water however were created using the features available in the Unreal engine 4.
I also therefore had to change the story of the game, instead of playing as one of the heroes of the film the player now plays as an inmate of the prison who is awoken by a sudden scream, he goes to investigate to find his cell door suddenly unlocking, he then exits the cell and finds a dead guard and after picking up his weapon he spots the first clown shortly before finding out that everyone is already dead and he must now fight his way out if he is to survive. The size and amount of levels also had to change to fit the new setting as now instead of three separate levels of intermediate size I decided it was best to have one very large level with a detailed environment, thus the prison two separate was given multiple floors filled with cells, a large courtyard with a great amount of benches as well as some basket ball hoops for the prisoners that would be there, a large bridge stretching from the main island to a sub island with a guard booth and many other bridges and islands going off into the distance. Sadly I also had to remove the high number of unique and interesting weapons that I wanted the player to be able to find as they no longer had a place within the game, instead using a simpler gun. Next the player and enemies had to be coded to perform the actions such as enemies chasing the player and doing damage, enemies dying upon being shot, adding a health bar for the player, and having the player respawn and begin again in the starting cell upon death. During development I have had to deal with many bugs, some of which i have sadly been unable to identify the cause of and fix, others that were fixed include problems with the enemies being destroyed upon the player killing them where they would simply keep coming instead as well as issues with getting the health bar to appear on screen.
Improvements;
Whilst we were able to accomplish a great many things in creating the game there are several notable improvements i would have liked to have made. The first is an idea from earlier in development where i had wanted to add a mini boss for the player to fight which would have been larger, dealt more damage and took several shots more to defeat than the standard enemies. I also wanted to add a far greater amount of textures as most models sadly look rather plain with a simple chrome look to them but every time we tried to add new textures unreal would crash and lose large amounts of data. I also wanted to add items player to be able to use many different weapons with different perks and weakness for fighting the enemies. The lighting is another area i wish i had been able to improve in order to give the environment a far creepier feel to them so as to make the threat from the enemies feel greater. I also wanted to add a skyline off towards the background of the map so it looked far less barren in the distance. As well as this we had also created a clown model in Maya and downloaded a second one that we wished to use as skins for the enemies though sadly we were unable to get the animations to work so they had to be left out, as well as models for dead guards and inmates we had wanted littered around the environment. I would also have liked to add a death animation for the enemies so they do not just despawn suddenly once defeated. I also wanted to a bug that is still present where the player will take damage for no discernible reason. Lastly i wanted to improve the way the water texture flows as it is rather visibly choppy.
Evaluation:
I feel that where different from the initial ideas we had the game still fits the brief of being based on the movie Killer Klowns From Outer Space as the prison setting itself was inspired by the scene in the town jail.
Thursday 22 June 2017
Unit 66-67 3D Modelling & Animation – Assignment 3
We have been tasked with creating a 3D model based on the brief we were given for our game and with the brief we have been given being 'Killer Klowns From Outer Space' i have made an evil clown model.
To start the model I loaded in a reference image as an image plane. I used a rather standard human body shape as a reference to get the basic silhouette of the model. I started with a polygon cube and changed the amount of vertical and horizontal subdivisions the cube has in order to make the process both easier and to get far greater detail on the model before selecting features such as the faces, edges and vertexes to pull and move each segment into the right place. After i had the polygons of the model in the right place i used the smooth feature too round the edges of the polygons and make it generally more visually appealing. I applied the same process for the limbs on the left side, neck, head and the waist.
Then i edited the head so a portion would dip inwards slightly, creating a mouth. After I had done this I went about duplicating the parts that needed to be done. I selected the appropriate parts all at once by holding shift and clicking on each part, then I selected the duplicate special feature from the drop down menu, after editing some of the info about the parts it created a mirrored duplicate of each part which i then moved into place. This feature saved me a great amount of time and reduced the chance of errors making the limbs on the other side unsymmetrical.
Next I removed the image plane as i no longer had need of it and then simply edited some of the dimensions and way each part was placed in order get the slightly inhuman look I wanted. After this I selected the entirety of what i had made so far and then used to combine feature to group all of the parts together as one larger mesh.
Following this I began to create the attire for the clown by using images of clowns such as depictions of Penywise the clown from Steven King's novel 'It' and the clown outfit the artist David Bowie wore in the music video for his song 'Ashes to Ashes'. i then used simple polygon spheres that i had flattened slightly on certain sides to create the large bulbous shoulders, then I took some far more flattened polygon spheres to use as the ruff like collar of the clown's top as well as the large bottoms of his gloves. After I used some polygon cylinders I edited as the basis for the baggy shorts the clown wears.
The next step was adding the details and features of the clown. I decided i wanted to give its face a somewhat cartoonish look so chose to go for large and striking yet simple shapes. I once again took a polygon sphere as the nose for the clown before taking more spheres and adding them down the front of the clown's top in order to make it seem less plain and bland. Then using more spheres I began making the eyes by flattening and stretching them out to create the large cartoony irises and then taking yet more spheres and shrinking them down and flattening them down in order to make the pupils of the eyes. Then i used a polygon ring to make the lips which I had to stretch and bend in order to fit the shape of the mouth. Next i added polygon cones for the hair on the head before finally adding more cones to use as fangs in order to make the clown seem more sinister.
The final step was texturing the clown. I highlighted the whole model and used the separate feature to make each individual part once again easily selectable so that i could give each part the texture it needed. The way I put the texture on was by selecting the part and then choosing to add new favourite material to it then selecting the lambert option from the menu that appeared. Certain areas such as the hair, skin and body merely needed a change of the colour of the lambert but other parts like the gloves, shoulders and shorts required me to upload an image in order to get the texture of cloth that i wanted on those areas.
Additional: This was actually the second version of the model I created as I had initially struggled with the creation of the model as I was relatively new to using the software. Roughly two thirds of the way through creating the first model I became very unhappy with what i had made and decided to scrap it and start again, thankfully being more experienced with the software i was able to create a model I was far happier with in a considerably quicker time. Though i am pleased with the finished result i would have liked to create a more detailed hair a,d a better shape for the head.
Next I removed the image plane as i no longer had need of it and then simply edited some of the dimensions and way each part was placed in order get the slightly inhuman look I wanted. After this I selected the entirety of what i had made so far and then used to combine feature to group all of the parts together as one larger mesh.
Following this I began to create the attire for the clown by using images of clowns such as depictions of Penywise the clown from Steven King's novel 'It' and the clown outfit the artist David Bowie wore in the music video for his song 'Ashes to Ashes'. i then used simple polygon spheres that i had flattened slightly on certain sides to create the large bulbous shoulders, then I took some far more flattened polygon spheres to use as the ruff like collar of the clown's top as well as the large bottoms of his gloves. After I used some polygon cylinders I edited as the basis for the baggy shorts the clown wears.
The next step was adding the details and features of the clown. I decided i wanted to give its face a somewhat cartoonish look so chose to go for large and striking yet simple shapes. I once again took a polygon sphere as the nose for the clown before taking more spheres and adding them down the front of the clown's top in order to make it seem less plain and bland. Then using more spheres I began making the eyes by flattening and stretching them out to create the large cartoony irises and then taking yet more spheres and shrinking them down and flattening them down in order to make the pupils of the eyes. Then i used a polygon ring to make the lips which I had to stretch and bend in order to fit the shape of the mouth. Next i added polygon cones for the hair on the head before finally adding more cones to use as fangs in order to make the clown seem more sinister.
The final step was texturing the clown. I highlighted the whole model and used the separate feature to make each individual part once again easily selectable so that i could give each part the texture it needed. The way I put the texture on was by selecting the part and then choosing to add new favourite material to it then selecting the lambert option from the menu that appeared. Certain areas such as the hair, skin and body merely needed a change of the colour of the lambert but other parts like the gloves, shoulders and shorts required me to upload an image in order to get the texture of cloth that i wanted on those areas.
Additional: This was actually the second version of the model I created as I had initially struggled with the creation of the model as I was relatively new to using the software. Roughly two thirds of the way through creating the first model I became very unhappy with what i had made and decided to scrap it and start again, thankfully being more experienced with the software i was able to create a model I was far happier with in a considerably quicker time. Though i am pleased with the finished result i would have liked to create a more detailed hair a,d a better shape for the head.
Unit 67 – Assignment 4 Task 1
For our game we have been tasked with creating am animation as a custcense or advert using Maya for our game. I have chosen to create a cutscene that would play when the player reaches the end of the level.
The scene starts off on the bridge to escape the island prison they were held on as the player character looks at a clown enemy they have just killed in game. They then hear a sudden noise and look up, they see an identical enemy and raise their gun only to find that they have run out of bullets and are defenceless. Panicking they drop their gun and look back towards the clown enemy as it throws a car at them before the screen abruptly cuts to black, indicating the player has been killed.
The scene starts off on the bridge to escape the island prison they were held on as the player character looks at a clown enemy they have just killed in game. They then hear a sudden noise and look up, they see an identical enemy and raise their gun only to find that they have run out of bullets and are defenceless. Panicking they drop their gun and look back towards the clown enemy as it throws a car at them before the screen abruptly cuts to black, indicating the player has been killed.
However the videos for task 2 are different from this way the story board depicts the animation as i was working in a group with Luke Anderson and the he animated this segment where as I ended up animating the part he had storyboarded out as can be found on his version of this assignment.
Tuesday 20 June 2017
Unit 6 Task 1 P3: Audience response to Media Products
For this assignment we were tasked with gathering information on how violence and disturbing imagery in games effect the people who play them and the preconceived notions of what the effects would be. We researched other studies looking into the effects of games and conducted a survey of our own in order to gather data. The data we gathered yielded these results:
Of the people we asked most of them answered that they were between 18 and 24 with smaller amount commenting that they were 17 and under. this told us the most popular demographic for games appears to be late teens and people in their early 20s. Of this age group we discovered an overwhelming majority of the players were male, telling us that the appeal of video games is one that appears to still register stronger with males than females. We also found that among those who play games the most common amount of time spent playing games was between 10 and 20 hours per week with our research indiacting that the genre of game that most people play and spend long periods of time on are RPGs (Role Playing Games) closely folowed by FPS games (First Person Shooter games) and a small majority of these gamers prefer to play casually as opposed to competitively. This tells us that the most common demographic of gamer is a male in his late teens or early 20s that plays RPGs for between 10 and 20 hours a week most likely in order to relax due to the casual nature of their way of gaming. We also discovered that games often have the ability to frustrate the people playing them with one of the most common ways this happens is when the player achieves a fail state in the game. Our data also indicates that this frustration has often lead to the gamers who took part in our survey showing their momentary frustration in a variety of ways from simply turning off the game they are playing to throwing expensive pieces of hardware at a wall. Though almost all of the people who took the survey said they experienced this momentary increase in frustration and aggression l significant majority of them reported it having no long term effect and the rage they felt very rarely if ever staying with them outside of the heat of the moment, and where most of them reported this short increase in aggression most reported that they felt very little to no other effects from games with the most they felt they might do is slightly desensitise them to more graphic imagery as they may have seen similar scenes in a video game.
Audience Theory:
Of the people we asked most of them answered that they were between 18 and 24 with smaller amount commenting that they were 17 and under. this told us the most popular demographic for games appears to be late teens and people in their early 20s. Of this age group we discovered an overwhelming majority of the players were male, telling us that the appeal of video games is one that appears to still register stronger with males than females. We also found that among those who play games the most common amount of time spent playing games was between 10 and 20 hours per week with our research indiacting that the genre of game that most people play and spend long periods of time on are RPGs (Role Playing Games) closely folowed by FPS games (First Person Shooter games) and a small majority of these gamers prefer to play casually as opposed to competitively. This tells us that the most common demographic of gamer is a male in his late teens or early 20s that plays RPGs for between 10 and 20 hours a week most likely in order to relax due to the casual nature of their way of gaming. We also discovered that games often have the ability to frustrate the people playing them with one of the most common ways this happens is when the player achieves a fail state in the game. Our data also indicates that this frustration has often lead to the gamers who took part in our survey showing their momentary frustration in a variety of ways from simply turning off the game they are playing to throwing expensive pieces of hardware at a wall. Though almost all of the people who took the survey said they experienced this momentary increase in frustration and aggression l significant majority of them reported it having no long term effect and the rage they felt very rarely if ever staying with them outside of the heat of the moment, and where most of them reported this short increase in aggression most reported that they felt very little to no other effects from games with the most they felt they might do is slightly desensitise them to more graphic imagery as they may have seen similar scenes in a video game.
Audience Theory:
Hypodermic Needle Model - The Hypodermic Needle Model attempts to report and explain the occurrence when media is able to affect an individual to the point where they go out and recreate the actions or events they have seen in real life on either a large or small scale. Whilst extremely rare, it has happened before but can also be linked to mental health issues in those instances with a famous example of this being an where someone murdered another person after over extensively playing the highly violent game Manhunt, however due to only a single person and not the numerous other players that have also played the game committing similar actions the accusation that the game was responsible was found to be untrue by court in which the accusation was being examined and was dropped.
With the large amount of gamers who report playing mature and 18+ games from young ages like 14 and 11 and most of these said people being largely non violent people it would suggest that the vast majority are not affected by games in this way.
Uses and Gratification Theory - The Uses and Gratification Theory is used to try and explain why someone is drawn to specific media, whether it is caused by the stimulation from accomplishing a goal such as completing a game, the challenge they must face to complete said game, the competitive nature of facing off against other players, a simple way to pass the time, or escapism and allowing one to briefly feel free of reality. Many suggest that violent games will not lead to violent actions such as crimes as committing these violent crimes doesn't offer the same type of stimulation as it does in a game where actions are almost completely consequence free, making the player less likely to feel things like guilt over their actions, the challenge in conquering a difficult goal is also highly detached than the challenge in performing a violent crime like murder, the competitive nature of team shooters where one strives to get the most kills in a match is highly unlikely to be matched due to the incredibly unlikely nature of one such violent individual knowing someone with the same level of malice and violent impulses, and the escapism factor isn't nearly as attainable due to actions such as murder having huge consequences.
Passive or Active Consumption - Passive or Active Consumption occurs when someone listens to a media outlet and takes everything as its presented to them without questioning any of it. This can lead to further issues in cases of a person having been previously unable to develop their own sets of morals or suffering from mental illness, which while highly unlikely are some of the very few plausible ways one might be influenced to enact violence on others due to media such as video games.
Effects Database:
Exposure to Explicit Sexual or Violent Content - On the market today their are a high number of violent and highly sexual games, however there have been many steps taken in order to prevent children from gaining access to such materials. One way this has been achieved is by putting an age restriction rating into video games where children under the age rating of the game are unable to acquire the game and access its contents, the only real way around this is if an adult or older person were to buy the game and hand it to the child however these actions would then leave the blame resting solely on the adult's shoulders.
Effects of Advertising - Effective advertisement is used to make people desire a game and long to play it with a famous example being the viral marketing strategy that was used to sell the game Dead Space 2 in which several mothers were invited to watch gameplay of the game in order to catch their reactions of appal and disgust, which was designed to appeal to the more rebellious side of teenage customers.
Health Concerns - Over the years video games have had many health issues linked to them, some like aggressive or violent actions and behaviour are inconsistent with research at best but other accusations have also been levelled that they encourage a generally more lazy lifestyle which can lead to obesity and the corresponding issues. However other studies show that video games can help improve things like eye sight and the ability to track multiple objects at once.
Censorship Debates - Many organisation have also protested various video games insisting that they need to be either censored or outright banned, this can often be for violent or sexual content as well as having a political message some are opposed to or just being seen by some to be in some way offensive. However movements have also sprung up to counter the censorship and banning of games as many people see it as an attack of free speech and a way of censoring art as well as ideas and beliefs.
Responses:
Negotiated - An instance where the player may be given many ideals and views to choose between and come to their own conclusion whilst leaving the possibility for the player to interject their own views, which can help make a player more invested in a game
Preferred - The Preferred response is where a game tries to elicit a certain response from the gamer, such as agreement with an ideal or disgust at a more disturbing scene. An example is how many games avoid glorifying violent acts so that the player can be aware of their abhorrent nature.
Oppositional - The oppositional response to a game may be disagreeing with a message it or its characters convey to the player. There are no reported incidences of people being moved to violent or criminal actions due to this reaction as most people are often able to deal with other having opposing and conflicting views with their own.
Participatory - The key interactivity of video games makes participation the player needs to take the biggest difference between other forms of media like television, the downside of this is that it has lead video games to be accused of being negatively influential more so than things like movies and music. One example of this is how on 25 June 2003, the teenage Buckner stepbrothers Josh and William Aaron Hamel and Kimberly Bede via gunshot. Soon the game GTA 3 began being blamed wit people insisting that the violent thoughts and actions were put in the boys head by the contents of the game. However these accusations were once again dismissed due to the lack of other players effected in a similar way.
Cultural Competence - This refers to how a game goes about adjusting to different regions and cultures. Obvious examples are when a game changes the language its played in or adjusts names and items to fall in line with the culture of the new target audience more easily.
Fan Culture - Fan culture refers to the communities that form from fan response to games, this can include things such as fan made content based on the games like art, merchandise, mods, forums and often even additional content like games based off the preexisting franchise. This fan made content usually makes a community stronger and makes people outside that community more interested in the game the community is based around. The kind of content created based on the franchise can be more adult, violent, or family friendly depending on what kind of franchise it is based around. Though not all fans and their creation will generate a positive view for the product, such as how the infamous columbine highschool shooters had created their own level based off the popular game doom in which they recreated their school and used it to plan their attack before carrying it out. Whilst not entirely indicative of any original franchise it can bring a huge amount of negative public attention and help give the original franchise and games as a whole a bad reputation.
Conclusion:
To summarise i feel that the evidence pointing to video games causing violence is weak and inconsistent at best and the conflicting evidence that there is no direct causation between violence and video games being far stronger shows that the impact of video games causing one to become violent is entirely dissmisable as the panicked outcrys of many who are simply opposed to the popular form of entertainment with no real scientific backing. Video games have huge markets and are the world's biggest entertainment industry so when someone that happens to play a video game commits a violent crime the immediate reaction shouldn't be to blame a benign form of entertainment like video games and should be evaluate the other factors in the perpetrators life. With as broad a market as games have it should be no wonder some less than savoury characters would end up playing them from time to time. Besides that i feel that video games are a fun and creative hobby that create far more enjoyment and good than harm.
Wednesday 5 April 2017
Unit 6 Assignment 2 Critical Analysis Of A Video Game
MGSV Critical Analysis
Ever since the original title on the MSX computer system the
Metal Gear game series was always a big name title for whatever system it was
hosted on but with the progression from 2D into the 3D Metal Gear Solid series
it became a truly stand out and revolutionary title, changing the gaming
landscape with incredibly tense stealth focused gameplay, the latest and
greatest of graphics at the time of each instalments release and a serious and
complex story that helped push games from the days of simple stories involving
plumbers saving princesses in bright cartoony worlds to the multitude of dark
and emotionally impactful stories. The fifth main instalment in the MGS series,
Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain, was released for PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360,
PS4 and PS3 in 2015 and follows the story of Snake (otherwise known as Big
Boss) between the events of MGS Peace Walker and the very first Metal Gear
game. MGSV is easily the largest and most ambitious game in the series with its
incredible graphics, the new systems and gameplay mechanics and the shift from
linear and tightly woven environments to large open world maps as well as a
mission based structure. The game has 3 primary locations, the recreation of
Mother Base that was destroyed at the end of the previous game, an area in
soviet occupied Afghanistan wilderness, and an area of war torn wetland out in
Africa.
The game follows the previously established militaristic Sci
Fi art style the series has used since its inception but now with more of a
1980s style to a lot of in game objects with many varying and fascinating
designs of characters, locations, vehicles and other in game items giving the
game a highly unique look. The models and textures in the game are incredibly
detailed and highly realistic which were all created from the ground up by the
developer, Kojima Productions, use the FOX engine, also developed by Kojima
Productions, to run at a smooth and constant 60fps on PC and current gen
console which all adds together to make one of the best looking games to date.
The way most of the realistic looking characters and animations were able to be
created through techniques like real wold modelling (where the likenesses of
objects and people are used to create in game assets) and motion capture from
the biggest movements to small facial expressions which helped to make each of
the characters feel life like and real. As well as great visuals the game also
has amazing sound design with realistic sounds found in every action from the
sound in each weapon and footstep as well as even small insignificant items in
the environment like a glass bottle or bucket that the player can bump into and
knock over creating a sound that will alert a nearby guard and ruin an attempt
to sneak into an enemy stronghold. But another key part of the sound is the
dialogue in the game which is backed up by fantastic voice acting which can
help to convey all kinds of emotions and subtleties the characters may have,
the in game dialogue also can hint and lead the player to small in game
objectives or shed some light on the events of the story. The core gameplay
itself retains the series famous stealth focus and heart pounding tension as
players are encourage to take the stealthiest possible approach to each to each
mission and use a wide range of weapons items and techniques to avoid being
detected and be as nonlethal as possible to earn higher rankings and rewards
for each mission. Being detected by an enemy will give you a brief period of
time, dubbed Reflex Mode, to silence the enemy before all the enemies in the
local area enter combat mode in which the enemies will be aware of your
presence, request reinforcements and hunt you down, making any mission far more
likely to end in failure and lowing your overall rating. However the player has
the option to hide from the enemies and wait as they move through phases of
them searching the area for you before entering alert mode where they return to
semi normal patterns of patrolling but are more aware of your possible presence
and eventually returning to their unaware state where they will take normal
patrols and be less suspicious of anything they see or hear.
The game makes another departure from series norms as well by giving the normally solitary Snake an AI companion to take with him on his missions, these companions range from a dog who can find and mark enemies and items as well as create distractions for the player, the beautiful sniper Quiet who can scout out an enemy outpost, be used to take out specific targets or fire upon any enemy in her range, to a the mechanical D-Walker used as a speedy means of transport across the map, with each buddy having their own strengths and drawbacks players will get best results by strategically selecting which buddy is best suited for each mission. The now large open world maps also feature day night cycles which will change how easy it is for enemies to spot you as well as what formation and the amount of guards will be in any one area, adding an extra element of strategy to the missions not before used in the series. The game will also use environmental events and changes such as sandstorms in Afghanistan that make it harder for enemies to spot you, but drastically reduces the visibility the player has as well, or the rainstorms in Africa that where they do little to obscure the enemy from seeing you they will help cover up the sound of your movements making it easier to sneak up on an enemy.
After waking up from a coma after 9 years in 1984 Snake is
forced to deal with the fact he has lost his left arm shortly before the
hospital he is in is attacked by unknown soldiers and a strange fellow patient
helps him to safety before mysteriously disappearing before being rescued by
returning fan favourite character, Revolver Ocelot. From there the story takes
a 2 act structure and focuses on a small cast of characters and their
psychological scars as they struggle to recreate their private military company
that was attacked and destroyed in the last instalment and their attempt to
take revenge on those who attacked them as they uncover a worldwide conspiracy.
The character you play as and that takes centre stage is Snake/Big Boss, a
legendary soldier who after being betrayed by the country he swore loyalty to
and his former military unit had previously attempted to start his own private
military corporation, but was attacked by the organisation created by his
former friend and commander, Major Zero. Now after these events he views the
world with far more disdain and bitterness thus making him far more open to committing
seemingly immoral actions in order to meet the ends he’s after.
In the events
of the story Snake has a small number of
comrades that help him, Kazuhira Miller, Snakes second in command and one of the commanding officers in his private army who was there when their base was attacked nine years prior and also suffered many injuries in the helicopter crash that put big boss into a coma, now blinded by his anger towards those that attacked them he consistently encourages Snake to be to show little mercy and use any means to bring them closer to their overall goal. Alongside him is Snake’s old ally and right hand man, Revolver Ocelot. Ocelot serves as a constant counterpoint to Miller, offering different and often less brutal solutions to the objectives and problems in the game, this representation of one acting as the angel on your shoulder and the other a devil separates how we see the actions taken by the characters as a whole, with Ocelot’s logic governing his emotions and Miller’s emotions governing his logic leaving Snake caught in the middle of their conflicting ideals. Sadly the villain, Skull Face, is quite arguably the weakest in terms of character that the series has had, whereas most villains in the MGS series have had their own fairly complex motives and from certain angles can be argued to be less villains and more than antiheroes the main villain of MGSV where having his reasons he views as logical and acceptable, these do not translate well to the player and make him seem like a generic genocidal madman rather than a complex and nuanced character.
comrades that help him, Kazuhira Miller, Snakes second in command and one of the commanding officers in his private army who was there when their base was attacked nine years prior and also suffered many injuries in the helicopter crash that put big boss into a coma, now blinded by his anger towards those that attacked them he consistently encourages Snake to be to show little mercy and use any means to bring them closer to their overall goal. Alongside him is Snake’s old ally and right hand man, Revolver Ocelot. Ocelot serves as a constant counterpoint to Miller, offering different and often less brutal solutions to the objectives and problems in the game, this representation of one acting as the angel on your shoulder and the other a devil separates how we see the actions taken by the characters as a whole, with Ocelot’s logic governing his emotions and Miller’s emotions governing his logic leaving Snake caught in the middle of their conflicting ideals. Sadly the villain, Skull Face, is quite arguably the weakest in terms of character that the series has had, whereas most villains in the MGS series have had their own fairly complex motives and from certain angles can be argued to be less villains and more than antiheroes the main villain of MGSV where having his reasons he views as logical and acceptable, these do not translate well to the player and make him seem like a generic genocidal madman rather than a complex and nuanced character.
During the game the characters will touch on their
philosophies about what is right and wrong, what it is to be alive and the
place of soldiers in the world. The game also touches on dark themes such as
the use of child soldiers, torture and biological warfare which may make some
players uncomfortable but overall adds to how genuine and gritty the dark world
the soldiers of MGSV inhabit, with heavy subject matter like this its rather
clear that the intended audience is supposed to be more mature and probably anywhere
from the ages of 18 and above with very little of the game aimed at anyone
under that age range. Whilst not the best story in the franchise it is solid
and has good pacing up until the end of act 2 where the game abruptly stops,
though when compared with many of its contemporaries it still has a highly intriguing
and compelling narrative. Since its release it has come to light that the final
act of the game including a climactic boss battle was cut from the game due to
time constraints and is now only featured as an extra where the player can view
the assets and parts that had been finished up to that point. This lack of a
true ending leaves the player feeling rather incomplete and that the game was
released in a rather unfinished state.
In summary while the game has a few may have some rather
large issues and is not as revolutionary as previous titles with one of the
least interesting stories in the series, it still offers hours of entertainment
for players and is well worth picking up.
Tuesday 21 February 2017
Unit 71
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nG6h4UHhHnyknC3yAoUib61AZQL8jesNneG-FwRTx7c/edit?usp=sharing
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