Quick note, im having trouble with week 6 task- Gameplay/design its really baffled me so im going to take my time with it. :)

Storylines

Of all the games I have played, I cant think of one that hasnt had a story, Or, I have
forgotten the storyline.
There are games where you can just point and shoot for points, and games that give you a
reason for pointing and shooting.

Many miniature arcade titles dont have storylines, they just give you something to do. Id
call these time killers unless you are like well into it.

I think large titles need stories, or they wouldnt give you a reason to play. yes, I played
Spyro because I wanted to save all the little cute dragons. And once I had forfilled that
task, I get to go to a big mess about level with no meanies.

However, I wanted the game to continue. And easily bored knowing I cant do anything else for little Spyro. So I started a new save.

Of all the games ive played (dont laugh) I've only
ever completed:- Spyro 1/2, Tekken (the lot), DMC1, DMC2, ZOE1/2, MGS2/4. Oh and SSX
tricky.

Why?

Spyro- I found the Spyro series funny and entising at that age. I loved it to death. I also
loved dragons to death. And spyro was such a colourful and beautiful game. I might go play
later, even the music is awsome. Each world had their own inhabitants with their own
problems. And on spyros journey to complete his task, he helped others.

tekken- Each character had a really cheesy storyline which I couldnt resist but discover. I
wanted to see how their storylines continued, and eventualy discovered that all they ever
want to do in every game is become king of the iron fist. Bah. But the fighting will always
be addictive.

DMC- i dont remember the storyline as much, but loved the visuals and the gameplay. The
story of the first 2 games did keep me going somewhat but i dont remember why.

ZOE, I LOVE MECHAS, and gud ol' Shinkawa's magical art direction and genius, to me, made
the most beautiful future based game ever ever. The storyline was dark and believeable.

MGS- Intricate some think rediculous, but I loved the storyline and the design. What is it
with me and Konami in particular??

SSX tricky..... Well, this game didnt really have a storyline. Each character had a bit of
background. That was it. the rest was just amazing. I will be getting a ps3 version of
whatever they come up with next.

Enough of that..

I did feel that as the player it was my duty to make sure the character gets their job
done, and always felt bad when they died. Yes, I did. I loved these games because I could
get attached to them. And i really did. Writing this now has made me realise what I like in
a game... And that I havent found any games for a while that Ive actualy been attached to!!

Art Direction

I once saw a mini documentary on a fairly new game, about a guy who is able to shapeshift his limbs, and roams around a very dark new york.

I dont remember what the game is called, nor if it has been released yet.

However, The intervieweees explained the the role of an Art Director was to make sure the style brief of a game is kept to. I had always wondered, If all artists have diffferent styles, how do they keep the game's art design consistent? Well, now i know!

Anyway, the art director, had produced the most amazing concepts for a dark smogy/sinister version of new york. His team had said his concepts were so vast it would be very difficult to produce the game to that scale, However, they did manage to create such a game.

Moving on, the general role of an art director is to take in the specs of a new game, and break down the work and tasks between his/her team. They also make sure that the games art is kept consistantly styled, so that nothing looks out of place in the finished product.

I dont think the role differs from films to games or anything else that would require an art director. As long as the set style for the product is maintained, the job role is the same.

In order to become an art dirctor in the future, you would have to develop awsome time managment, a keen eye for knowing when something starts straying, in order to save time, and a working way of keeping all the team members on track.

Personaly I wouldnt want to become an art director, as I just love drawing and bringing things to life. I wouldnt enjoy a role such as this. I wouldnt mind being told what to do, but I wouldnt like telling others what to do!!

Flower Fishies

Underwater world is simply amazing where everythings so flowy and pretty and only %2 is known about anything below see level :D (Apart from Holland.)

Now, I squeezed a few ideas outta the sponge and got this fishy. Once again, based on an orchid, and a koi fish. The point was to make it streamlined and pearly, because im obsessed with perelescence. I say Koi, as the Platinum has an amazingly sheeny body. However the build of my concept is rather reverse to a koi.

The first took 30mins, the second just under an hour.

i want to get quicker because I feel im not doing enough peices :S

Click teh thumbs for detailzes.





I promise week tasks soonies!!! :)

2pt Perspective

My first final 2pt perspective for chris, seeing as hes given us another week im gunna develop another character and another scene.

MSN really smells at teh mo and i am so tired. bluddy 6am wake ups!!!! And upstairs loo's!! Daargh!!!



Im not sure if this angle demo's 2pt properly :S but I like our ol' Cathederal and find it the only interesting building in cov. I see the copper sculpture as cute lil' 'badge' for the building.

If youve never been to coventry cathederal, Here are its best bits:-

Tame squirrels come up to you for food (and healthy pigeons be nice to em they are really cute :)

Its enormous.

Inside it has such beautiful stained glass windows. I think they range from hues of red pane by pane thru the spectrum to blue and purple. But youcant take photo's. And they aint no typical christian fluffy farty posh art style (even though that is also pretty)
Example1
Example2
Example3 (Gorgeous e.g)

theres thi sstrange cyledrical building which you walk into, and my god, YOU WILL FEEL WEIRD.
theres this really strange and horrible 'vibe' in there. I dont like it and havent been in there since.

I think its the best looking building ever built for the time it was built.

the dude who carved the glass etchings into the glass died of glass inhalation.

...

cant think of anything else. Go there and if you do wear your DMU sweaters cos coventry's uni is directly opposite hehehehehe.

Now, I feel I must now state, I am a SPIRITUAL AGNOSTIC. I dont believe in everything about religeon, but I dont judge people either. I have always liked the Cathederal for its design and prettyness. Certain aspects of relegion I have strong views on, and I dont believe the bible / holy books is just a story. Ill leave it there lol

AYUS! :)

When sometimes stuff gets you down, you can get into a rut, but always remember you are your own self and being, and you will always be strong enough to push for what you really want.

And hey when it hits the fan, slap on a song that makes u feel like you can take on the world XD

My current faves, They've made me feel alot better and are lovely for me to draw along to :)



(bellydancin vid couldnt find another decent version without bellydancers or anime lol)



From turn a gundam. Will make you weep or howl. Either way for me its a very majestic song and so beautiful.

chin up when its down!! :)

Vegetable faeries and excitements

Yellow,(quite)

Just been drawing veggies and fruit people all morning trying to think up somthing for my organics project. This was much fun. heres the current results, more will ensue xD



I think this bloggie is the best bet for posting umm whats the word... the proccess of finals :S. So yah.. Ive probably already said this. Lol.
Emm... excitements, IM GOING TO TROPICAL BIRLAND WHEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I love birds, and some people know i want a birdy pet. So if i get some close encounters with parrots (alongside mum) we may be convinced.

Birds fascinate me. They just so colourful pretty and smart. And sweet. Bird brains is a compliment in my eyes *_*

I've two tasks to do so, before I post anything else ill do those. I have alot to post including some strange questions ive asked myself. (that arent particularly answerable).

Also once ive done all of chris's mini tuts I will post them at once.

Addiu :)

Gamecity......

Didnt enjoy it.

Im pissed off even more by the fact that not once was I asked to see my wrist band, which I payed £20 for, just because I didnt get an NUS card.

So it goes like this-

I either didnt see any info on the site with regards to where to go to get your band, or what time it starts, or whats on? It probably was there but I looked and couldnt find.

We go to an info spot and he tells us to go to the market square. Wa hoo, we find banners and a not so ready gamecity, okay, fine they are still setting up.

We then get a prgramme which actualy te;lls us whats going on today.

When we got out band we headed upstairs in this club to see what was happaning. This bit really annoys me.

A woman introduces somone, who, has made a mod of CS called blockh. A game about irish politics.

NI has a lot of problems and conflict, and everyone knows that. First, the woman went into the politics and how certain areas of NI have murals painted on houses arguing for and against sides etc, and how the mod has these murals in one spot. Nice. She also went on about how war is sanitized through gaming, and how games make war fair. Thats the biggest pile of poo ive ever heard. war is happening, innocent people do die, and humans, kill and are getting killed, by eachother. When people say games are just games, sure they are, but this stuff is actualy happening.

She then talked about war and 'terrorists' and said a little about middle eastern war games. But, she mocked them. The US army's official game was american army I think, anyway the video had a little of thats gameplay, and how 'good' it was, and it was self advertising, yes, GLORYFYING WAR ANDD KILLING *eh hem* (id say okay for an onliner, gfx wise) then gameplayed a game from middle east. Fair enough, the graphics were poor, aswel as the animation, but once it was finished, and everyone done laughing, she said 'thats our games compared to theirs). SO FUNNY, that one game about killing others is better than another. It isnt. To me.

A game is out that updates with scenarios that are/have actualy happened, that you can play through. Good Idea, but the whole 'lets carry on killing' business has really started to bug me recently. I was sat there thinking this is really horrible.

So anyway she eventualy reaches the end of the presentation, and asks for questions. One guy asks 'dont you think blockh will fuel the debate'

She said, no it is meant for players to take out their frustration online instead of in real life.

But at the end of the day, nothing will beat the real thing, and problems wont get solved through playing a game. And what if a nationalist gets auto-placed on the loyalists side? har har?

I love games like socom and halo, but ive always, literaly, felt sorry for the characters when they get popped. In my head 'they are just acting'. Once again people tell me its just a game, I know but................

Im just sick of this war advertisement, and how people go on about killing others will bring peace. >?<


We then found some of our 3rd years *waves* and played some indipendantly made games. There were som really sweet ones. But we didnt stay there for more that 15mins and 10mins of that was spent chattying bout the course, which I enjoyed, as i havent bumped into any 2nd or 3rds yet :)

Seeing as we had to walk from building to building to find stuff, each time we went through the square, we saw pleeeeeeeenty of passers by, without wristbands, soaking up the action.

the most productive part of the day was the gamemaker workshop, where i sat through the hour painting a dragon on one of their laptops, (As Mark didnt do anything with gamemaker and messed with flash instead LOL XD) whilst going though the game maker program and making a mini game. I must admit i did like the program and think im going to attempt a mini game.

We went to subway after then went home.

I might complain and ask for my money back.

Writing about games.

First of all, I would like to mention how rediculous I think the games press can be, in particular, two ranking programs ive seen, one earlier this morning.

To me, its not 'smart' or 'funny' to rank MGS in top spot for 'stupidest storyline' or 'most annoying character', possibly just because this game has always done so well?? seriously. It's clearly an awsome series and I can only think of immature reasons why they would do that. p.s I love MGS but im not a hardcore fan.

It appears that games magazines have little time to complete an issue, and within that time must keep up the promises made in the last mag, for what would be in the next one! So essentialy, reviews have little time to really appreciate, properly, a game they are reviewing, unless, the developer gives them enough info and buzz to possibly get them playing a bit harder.

Perhaps if they had more time, there would be less consistency in game ratings.
Ive always thought, dont listen to what anyone else says about it, go review it yourself. Not everyone has the same tastes, and even if you have some sort of training in how to rate a game (sheesh) your still not going to have the same taste. I dont think so anyway.

As with all press, the games press is lazy. And so developers would need to give them as much info as they can about their game in order for it to get played and reviewed well.

As for NGJ, Im not sure where I stand. Im indifferent about a lot of things, but I dont think NGJ is the best way to go for the wider audience, when it comes to reviewing a game.
These reviews are interesting to read, funny, sometimes silly, but they are only the players personal experience. Once again, this is really no help to someone else. its about them and how they felt about it, not how every potential player will feel about it. It might aswel be a short story.

To me, if you want to let others know what a game is like, tell them uniformley, so that everyone will understand, instead of making it into a story about you and the game.

For me its always been 'oo looks good ill try it', and Ive not been dissapointed with a game that I liked the look of just yet. Perhaps im playing for all the wrong reasons XD

So ill always say try it yourself! Theres enough trade-in schemes isnt there?? :D