Stimulus

STIMULUS

What is a brief?

A brief is a set of requirements given to someone about what needs to be included in that finished products. Briefs can either be very strict with a set list of things that must be done in certain ways or very free with just a general idea of a concept, allowing the creator to be highly imaginative with what they do.

Client briefs are those given to you by the person you are working for to create their desired product whereas own briefs entail tasks and goals you set yourself to accomplish for the product.

Looking into products already on sale and other factors surrounding the market can be a great source of information to work from. Market research like this is a key part of any products development

Ideas Generation

An easy way to find inspiration and a new perspective on what you want to create is brainstorming, where by a creator will use anything that inspires them whether it’s listening to music, playing a game, looking at things others have created and much more

Mood boards are a collection of images and items gathered and placed together intended influence a person in the style they will take with what they create.

Thumbnail Sketching is a technique where an artist will sketch a small drawing as a quick way of exploring multiple ideas in a short time frame, helping them develop their ideas quickly and efficiently

Concept drawings are used to present an idea that someone wants put into the product. Concept art covers all aspects of things found in games like characters, objects, weapons, environments and much more.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Copyright law is used by creators and artists to protect the product they have created, stopping others from simply taking their creation and using it as their own or anyone simply ripping them off in something that is created later.

Libel is a false statement put forward in an attempt to slander or damage a person or company’s reputation or public image. This can distort the view of the public and be highly damaging to the person(s) in question.

The debate about female characters in games is an old one with many people siding many different ways on the issue. Generally though games tend to over sexualise female characters by often giving them very revealing outfits or making their proportions take a very high focus with an early example of this being Lara Croft, though she herself was shown to be in control of her life and never needing to be rescued by a man constantly creating the conflict between the ideas of whether she’s an example of the objectification of women or not

Things such as race, religion and other factors have to be approached very cautiously when creating a game as not to create a product that is deemed offensive by anyone in order to avoid negative repercussions.