Animation Brief.

For my animation I am going to create a Trailer to portray my game. I am planning to make it as similar to the storyboard as possible, taking into consideration that it might be a lot more difficult to make then first thought, I will create the whole animation in Maya.

To make my animation I created a Desk Lamp in Maya, it is made up of several bits including Cylinders and Cones. In order to make certain shapes I would use the Extruding tool, and the WER keys to enlarge shapes and shorten shapes. The animation is all built into Maya and was fairly simple to make. I also coloured the objects I had used using Lambert colours, I just added a Lambert mesh on top and recoloured it to a yellow. I started off the Desk Lamp using a Cone and Cylinder shape and just extrude and enlarged the shapes until I was happy with the final piece.

I then decided I wanted to create a little story about a defunct Desk Lamp model that has become self aware, woken up in the Manufacturing area and realised that his model of Lamp has been taken out of commission and all of his models will be sent to a furnace to be destroyed to make room for the new supreme model.

As you can see there is two conveyor belts in the scene, one headed for a Red pipe to be destroyed (in a finished product I would of liked this conveyor belt to lead to a furnace) and another conveyor belt that leads to a Green pipe (Again, in the finished product I would of liked this to lead to a Distribution Centre.) The active Lamp realises where he is heading and decides to make a leap of faith across the room to make it to the other conveyor belt for safety. He would then plan an escape out of the factory and would of started a Toy Story styled story.

I was inspired by the scene in Monsters Inc when Sully and Mike were sent into the room with thousands of Doors all being sent to different places and they have to jump across to other areas in order to find Boo's door.

Evaluation.
I am pleased with the completed product, if I had more time I would of liked to change the pipes and add more lengthy conveyor belts that sprayed across the whole scene. I would of also changed the colours between the good and bad lamps to differentiate them, I would of also added a nice background instead of the default Gray Maya one. Overall though I am pleased with the final scene considering it was my ever attempt at animating on Maya and also only took me about a hour or two.

Killer Clowns Animation Brief

My target for my animation is portrayed in this following storyboard:

As you can see, in the first scene a Clown Tent would be flying through Space plummeting towards Earth, this would all be animated in Maya.

In the second scene, the Tent would crash into Earth and everyone from far and wide comes to see what happened, Press Vans surround the scene and Police begin to erect barriers and move onlookers to a safe distance.

Suddenly it pans up to a top down view of the City as shown in the third box. You see from right to left the roads and pavements swarmed by a army of Clowns, almost in a slapstick style, the swarm destroys everything in its way until the entire shot in filled with Clowns.

In the fourth box we see fast shots of Clowns from all-over vaporising humans, eventually the shots get faster and faster until it pans until the next screen.

In the fifth box after the quick transitions of all the Clowns vaporising humans it suddenly stops and everything goes quiet as there is a slow panning shot of the entire town, desolate and vacant. Buildings in the surrounding areas are battered and the local Tesco has all it's windows smashed. A ball of tumbleweed rolls by.

In the final scene there is a close up shot of a sizzling teddy bear that a vaporised child has left behind, to the right of the screen steps a Cowboy boot, the music stops and the screen quickly glows black. The Killer Clowns logo smashes onto the blacked out screen and The Passenger by Iggy Pop plays loudly.

Animation Brief

Overview Brief:
The overview of my game is that Killer Clowns have arrived from Outer Space onto Earth in attempt to conquer your planet and have captured your friends, family and neighbours. The main Objective of the game is to kill waves of enemies and progress to the next level until you reach the Clown Tent which is their base and have to kill a end-game boss to destroy the Clowns and repel their attack.

Objective:
Clowns are running around the town with weapons and they look like Aliens from 'Destroy All Humans', when they shoot the humans they vaporise them and are then transferred into the Clown Tent in cocoon like objects. They swarm around the town and eventually it's a desolate place with tumbleweed. One guy appears in the distance and it's you, the main character.

Schedule:

Concept Art:
This is some original concept art for my game:

A concept for a weapon that a clown would use, eventually turned out probably to difficult to actual put in my game.

                 A concept idea for a map within my                     game, again probably too difficult                         to actually make in my game.

Some concept art for a Clown enemy in my game, once again, turned out too difficult to actual create in my game but I did take basic ideas from it such as a big head and slim body.





Padlet:
This is a link to my Padlet, it has lots of ideas that me and Harry were originally going to use but for reason or another decided not too, some ideas will be used but most not:
https://padlet.com/zootmcdoot1/9undiks6se8z

Analysis of The Warriors Video Game

I will critically analyse The Warriors video game. I will analyse Genre characteristics, Narrative structures and the representation of characters. I will discuss the target demographic and audience and also talk about how the Genre of this category of games has developed since and because of this game.

Basic Analysis.
The Warriors video game was released for the PlayStation 2 in October 2005 by Rockstar (more specifically Rockstar Toronto). It is loosely based on the 1979 movie of the same name which was based on a 1965 Novel of the same name. I say based loosely because the video game has added original stories to fill out the game and also because the movie and novel share very few similarities and all names are mostly original to the movie.

Graphics:
The graphics are nothing special by today's' standard and even at the time weren't anything new or amazing. The game engine used was Renderware which was also used to create games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and many games in the popular Tony Hawk video game series.

(Left to right: Mercy, Cochise, Swan and Fox)

Sound:
The sound in this game was really good in my opinion, I still remember every lyric to a lot of the music used in this game because of it using very upbeat, aggressive songs to make you feel pumped to fight. A lot of the actors from the original film were used as voice actors for the Video game with the exception of a few who were either too busy at the time or in some cases had since passed away since the original movie. All the songs in the game were memorable and were never over-used to the point where you went off them, this is one of the songs in the game that I still listen to because it's such a good song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m48_b0VQa7U&t=66s

Construction of Content:
The content in this game as previously stated was taken from the original film and novel. With the addition of a added backstory that was used a sort of prequel to the movie and also each individual characters backstory which was never touched upon during the movie. The game is set out as a story and the story progresses as each level is completed. The story is really great in my opinion, I really like it because I can relate to each character of The Warriors gang in different ways.

Codes and Conventions:
Rockstar still make very similar games to The Warriors in the way of Violent and Action packed games. The early entries into Grand Theft Auto show a lot of similarities to The Warriors such as, the same engine was used to create the games, a third person view of the main character is very similar, having a mini-map at the bottom left to indicate new mission areas and bonus objectives, completing missions to progress through the story and having a free roam open world section in both games (although GTA's is a lot more expansive). In The Warriors, Once the game is finished there are extra mini-game sections you can complete, one of them is a Arcade Machine that is found in the Club Hangout that starts a Double Dragon, Side scrolling beat em' up styled mini-game called Armies of The Night where you play as Swan and have to beat each stage, fighting gangs from the game (see below). Another mini-game that can be found in the Club Hangout is Rumble Mode in which you can select any gang from throughout the game and create matches. For instance you can have The Riffs fight The Warriors in locations found throughout the game in a Arena styled match (see below). These added mini-games really make the replay-ability great, especially because you unlock Special characters to use in Rumble Mode by completing Bonus missions during the main story missions.





                           Rumble Mode

    

Armies of The Night

Narrative Structure:

The Warriors are a street gang from Coney Island, Bronx in 1979. A high profile gang named The Riffs call upon their leader Cyrus to organise a meeting with all the big gangs from the Bronx area, the goal of this meeting is for all the gangs to stop fighting one another and band together as one huge gang to overthrow the Governments and Police Force. After not being invited and feeling under-appreciated, The Warriors try and make enough moves to gain notoriety and be invited to the meeting. The movie and novel don't touch on this aspect as they both begin at the start of the meeting.
The game begins 90 days before the meeting, showing the origins of The Warriors and how they completely destroyed their rival gang The Destroyers and their gang leader, Virgil. After many missions of helping bigger gangs with errands and missions usually consisting of humiliating or plainly killing smaller gangs they eventually attract the notice of a big time gang, The Saracens who subsequently put in a good word with The Riffs and get invited to the the meeting. The game at this point follows the story of the Movie and Novel.

The Riffs Street Gang in the Movie.

On the night of the meeting in front of hundreds of different gangs, Cyrus is fatally shot by Luther, the leader of a relatively unknown gang named The Rogues. The Warriors scout, Fox see's this happen, Luther is just about to shoot Fox for being the only eye witness when he is blinded by Flood lights turned on by a tipped-off Police Force. In the commotion Luther shouts that the Warriors leader, Cleon is the one who shot Cyrus. The Riffs hearing this news beat Cleon and his fate is left unknown although suggested that he is beat to death. The Warriors, unknown of being key suspect to Cyrus's death and Cleons' fate manage to regroup. The Warriors war-chief, Swan is delegated leader after much disagreement by another War-chief Ajax who believes he deserves to be Warlord, they begin to make their way home.

Swans stare-down with Ajax.

Cyrus's death becomes widespread news quickly and The Riffs put a hit on The Warriors through a Radio broadcast, the gang are still unaware of this.
After a gang called Turnbull AC's fail to kill The Warriors they manage to escape onto a train back to Coney Island. The train is stopped in Tremont and moving on-foot they encounter another gang who they humiliated prior called The Orphans, their leader Sully makes peace with Swan and allows them to walk through their territory unharmed, his girlfriend Mercy mocks The Orphans for being pushovers and tries to instigate a fight between the two, after a confrontation and a Molotov Cocktail, The Warriors embark on another Train back to Coney Island with Mercy following.

Swan and Mercy

The group arrive in Brooklyn Station and are discovered by the Police after a chase ensues, the group is split up and a Warriors member, Fox gets thrown into a oncoming train after wrestling with a Police Officer. Swan and three other members escape outside and a fight then ensues with a big time gang The Baseball Furies. The Warriors emerge victorious. Walking through Riverside Park, one member of The Warriors, Ajax becomes sexually aggressive towards a woman sitting on a bench. After she reveals to be a undercover Police Officer he is arrested and The Warriors lose another member.

Fox being thrown on the train tracks.

Meanwhile at Union Square, disbursed Warriors: Rembrandt, Cochise and Vermin encounter an all-female gang named The Lizzies, after following them back to their base they learn the truth about them being the suspect for Cyrus's death and The Lizzies attack them. After once again escaping near death. The separated Warriors contemplate why they are suspected of Cyrus's death and begin to doubt them ever making it back home alive.

Cochise about to be attacked by The Lizzies.

During this, Swan and Mercy share some brief 'romance' and are then followed by a another local gang called Punks who roller-skate around the station platforms, after both groups of Warriors reuniting they bait the Punks into a toilet and beat them all up. Meanwhile The Riffs learn from a local tip-off that Luther was really the one to shoot Cyrus and The Warriors had been framed.

The Punks leader, Vance preparing for a fight.

The Warriors finally arrive back on Coney Island where The Rogues are waiting to fight them. Luther then admits to Swan that he was the one to kill Cyrus and Swan suggests they have a one on one fight. Luther then pulls out a gun and Swan throws a switchblade into Luthers' wrist, disarming him. Then The Riffs arrive in full force to kill The Rogues and make peace with The Warriors. Luther and The Rogues are surrounded by abundance of Riffs. The Warriors walk down the beach of Coney Island whilst a Radio DJ apologises to The Warriors for falsely calling a hit on them and claims all they can do for them is play them a song.

The Warriors ending scene, walking along Coney beach.

My Analysis:
I think the story to The Warriors is amazing and is the main reason for my love of the game, along with how well the game plays and the solid characters, it is one of my favourite games of all time. I like the story because of how well it portrays someone who has been wrongly accused, instead of them trying to prove their innocence they accept their fate and fight back.

The major conflict in the story is set up once Cyrus is killed. Instantly catapulting The Warriors into a fight they didn't want or deserve. The way that the meeting scene is done is really captivating and you relate to The Warriors because you know the full story of what happened. It makes you really want to see The Warriors succeed to prove everyone wrong but also prove to themselves that they are a strong force.

The characters in the game are introduced as they are seen throughout the story with the game pausing, zooming into their face and showing their name on screen. (see image below)

As the story progresses more characters are introduced until they have all been introduced.

The story is moved along as the motive for The Warriors to get home increases, you as a viewer or in this case the player want them to get home so you are motivated for them to tackle any task they are challenged with. You as the player are normally the main character in the action for instance playing as Swan whenever he is available so you are the most important character in each scene. This means that you normally take control of the rest of the Warriors by using commands such as 'Wreck em' All' which gets all your gang to fight the enemy, 'Scatter' which makes all your gang split up and hide which is useful when you are being overwhelmed by enemies and 'Lets' Go' which makes all your followers follow you. By doing this you are the main character in all levels and feel the most pressure to guide your followers to complete the mission, you are essentially liable for them surviving or dying.

The conclusion is set up when The Riffs are tipped off about The Warriors not being guilty of killing Cyrus. This starts the chain of events for the gang to finally be relived of being attacked by every gang in sight. The major conflict though is the final battle with Luther, in the video game it is set up more like a boss battle with Luther having a bar of health and you having to hide whilst he shoots his gun and when he reloads you throw knives at him until his health is depleted.

Again similar to the last point, the film resolves the major conflict when The Riffs are tipped off and The Warriors aren't being hunted. They are finally back home in Coney. In the film the tip off scene is shown as a cut-scene as is the part where The Riffs apologise to The Warriors for setting a hit on them. It is quite impactful because you as a player are relived to not have to fight anymore and can finish the game.

Representation of Characters:
The main characters in The Warriors Video Game are:

Cleon - Warriors Warlord and Co-Founder
Swan - Warriors Warchief and subsequent Warlord.
Ajax - Warriors Warchief and Heavy Muscle.
Rembrandt - Warriors Graffiti Artist.
Vermin - Warriors Muscle and Co-Founder.
Snow - Warriors Heavy Muscle.
Cochise - Warriors Member.
Cowboy - Warriors Member.
Fox - Warriors Scout.

Virgil - The Destroyers' Warlord

Luther - Rogues' Warlord

Cyrus - The Riffs Warlord/President.
Masai - The Riffs Warchief and Subsequent Leader.

Mercy - Orphans Leaders' Girlfriend and Swans Love Interest.

The main Warriors characters are represented in a bad light really with the first 10 minutes of the game being a tutorial mission consisting of beating up homeless people, smashing shop windows and stealing their goods, stealing car radios, mugging pedestrians and taking 'Flash' which is a drug bought from dealers in the game is the only source of regaining health.

The whole game consists of fighting and killing using any means necessary, whether it be Baseball Bats, Knives, Bottles etc. which of course makes the game very violent from the offset. The characters in the game are quite stereotypical because they fit the common assumption that the street gangs from the Bronx during the late 70's and 80's were violent criminals.

Individually the characters do fit a stereotypical genre of category, for instance you have Ajax who's job is the muscle of the gang. He is quite aggressive towards both men and women. In the first scene with him you see him sexually assaulting a woman and later on gets arrested for again sexual assault. Throughout the game he is portrayed as the toughest member and is the only character during the distinctive Pre-Meeting scene that seems up for a fight. During the Baseball Furies scene he suggests the idea to stop running and fighting, going on to single handedly knock out 2 of them.

Another character that fits a stereotype is Rembrandt, in the game he is the newest member of The Warriors (unstated in the movie). He is hired as the Graffiti artist and is probably one of the weakest members of the gang in terms of fighting. He is stereotypical because he is often left behind or ignored in normal debate, being the youngest and weakest member this is stereotypical.

Audience/Target Demographic:
The target demographic I would assume would be adults that are fans of similar titles of Rockstar, at the time the popular games were Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and GTA: Vice City. These games are notable for attracting a lot of attention due to their graphic and violent nature and The Warriors is very similar. Fans of the movie and novel would also be targeted. The way they did this was stick to the source material and keep it as real to the movie and novel as possible. These sort of games were played by under 18's, for instance I played these games when I was about 10 or 11 and so did all of my friends. They become talked about and well known by younger audiences for showing violent material and become popular and deemed cool by younger audiences too.

In the trailer for the game it shows all of the things you can do in this game, starting off with throwing Molotov cocktails, beating people up, grafitting, walking around in gangs. Although I didn't find about this game through the trailer I know I would of been very attracted by just the first 20 seconds. This kind of violent game would of been appealing to me at that age and is one of the reasons I asked a older relation to buy it for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAvldhE4FnU

Genre Analysised:
The genre of this game is probably consider an action-adventure/beat em' up game. I would compare similar titles like Grand Theft Auto and Bully (Both made by Rockstar). The genre hasn't changed too much in my opinion over the years. The quality of the game play has vastly improved, take Grand Theft Auto V for example, the concept of the game from GTA: SA hasn't changed that much, you still play as a criminal, committing crimes, fighting, killing, stealing anything and everything and completing missions. However now there is much to do behind the scenes. The maps have become much larger and there are hundreds of little mini games such as Bank heists, Street/Sea/Air races, Tennis, Golf and even watching virtual TV. Nowadays the missions are more fleshed out and interesting and the graphics have vastly improved in 10 years. Looking back on these old PS2 graphics they look a lot worse than I remembered them, but graphics on games do age fast and rarely past the test of time, even GTA V now being 4 years since it's initial release on console, the graphics are starting to looked dated already.

I think people expect interesting characters and missions from this genre of games, these games are usually fairly long and have lots to do so you want to be enjoying the missions and liking the characters. Nowadays they expect a wide world of exploration and huge maps filled with neat little extras for you to find. When it comes down to it though, these games are similar when you strip away the fine details and fleshed out open world aspects. A series like Grand Theft Auto will always have fans and will always sell a lot of copies because of how popular they have become. I will always buy the latest release whether it's been critically hated or loved.

The Warriors is similar to this and holds up alongside the Grand Theft Auto series in my opinion. It is not as well known and compared to GTA; SA doesn't have as much open world elements to keep you playing and playing even once the story is complete. The difference is that The Warriors had source material to stay true too to. They couldn't of gone of the beaten track and added elements that may of ruined the story of the game. Grand Theft Auto is a completely original idea so they can go anyway they want to go with it and make it as interesting each time as they want.

(Left to Right: Cleon, Rembrandt, Cochise, Cowboy, Ajax, Vermin, Swan, Fox and Snow)

Positive & Negative Effects of Video Games.

I will explain the effects of Video Games, I will give evidence for and against them and provide evidence from numerous articles about the debate. By the end of this Blog you should be able to decide whether you are for or against Video Games and have evidence to support your reasoning.

Positive Effects:
The most positive effect of Video Games in my opinion is that it naturally enhances your hand-eye-coordination immensely. I can vouch for this argument because I've noticed in my own experience that my reactions have improved from playing video games. Fast paced games such as Call of Duty are a strong example of a game needing quick reactions with the fast paced game-play. These games improve sensor-motor skills which is essentially relying on your eyes and muscles so they operate correctly, although everyone will start as a novice to these skills, activities such as fast-paced video games can enhance these skills to a expert level. Think of it like riding a bike or driving a car, at the beginning you are overwhelmed by all the things you have to think about; after time and practice you will be able to do all of these things without even thinking about it. 

To support this I have found a interesting article that touches upon a recent study that proves that video games can help your hand eye coordination. The study found that surgeons who played video games for at least three hours a week made 37% fewer mistakes and performed the procedure 27% faster than those who did not play video games. Surgeons that play video games have a lot lower chance of making a mistake while performing a procedure. It is recommended that surgeons play a specially developed video game before surgery in order to 'warm up'. 

Read the full article here:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/surgeons-play-video-games-to-prepare-for-surgery/


Another big advantage of Video Games is that playing them will especially on a Computer will give you experience using computers and general technology, this is handy to have in this day and age. If you are so inclined you could also take it one step forward and make your own computer which lots of people do, this will definitely increase your knowledge on how computers work and control, this can lead to many jobs such as IT Technicians if you would like to go down the route of fixing the hardware or software of a computer but in general could lead into jobs like Games Design, Web Designers and Software Designers just to name a few.

To support this I will actually use my own experience; I have played video games throughout my life, they have been one of biggest hobbies and always a go-to escapism. I have seen through this passion with learning to become a Games Designer. I have also built my own personal computer completely from scratch with little to no help except the odd YouTube video. Without my interest in video games I would not ever of pursued either of these things and this supports this advantage.

A quite overlooked advantage of Video Games is that they can help with English Language, whether it be spelling certain words, learning the meaning of words, pronunciation of words or just expanding your own vocabulary, if you have subtitles on during game-play, without realising it you are picking up new words or further understanding already learnt words.

My support for this advantage is a direct paragraph from a website about using Video Games to teach English, this articles summaries my statement:

"When playing these kinds of adventure games, it is like you are watching a movie, but you are controlling the main character. This is excellent for your English because your character is going to interact with other characters in the game, and you have to understand to be able to pass all the missions. If that’s not a good enough way to practice your English, technology has made the game playing experience even better with online games. Some online games like Counter Strike or Warcraft can be played in teams with people from all around the world. With this technology, people are communicating with other teammates from different countries, strategizing their attacks, working together to complete the game, and practising a lot of English at the same time."

Full website here:
http://reallifeglobal.com/english-for-life-learn-english-with-video-games/


My final advantage for Video Games is that they can extremely benefit you learning a real life job, they do this through a genre of games called Simulation Games. These games can vary from Farming Simulator and Car Mechanic Simulator to Flying Simulator. There is absolutely thousands of these games out there that give a real life insight to these jobs. For example, Euro Truck Simulator; in this game you control a heavy goods vehicle, the aim of the game is to drive from place to place delivering goods. You will drive around first person in a truck, getting stuck in traffic, waiting to leave junctions and actually exploring real life places in real time. The amount of realism that goes into these games is immense and can lead some to pursue these jobs in real life.

My support for this also comes direct from a website called 'iPilot', their main aim is to overcome peoples fear of flying through Flying Simulations:

"Are you afraid of flying but you would like to fly on holiday or a business trip? Visit us at our iPILOT store! We would like to explain you how an aircraft works, which sounds you hear during the flight, the tasks of a pilot and consider also your individual fear of flying at the same time.

We can hopefully reduce your fear of flying in a simple way in our flight simulator. After a talk about your personal fear of flying and the explanations mentioned above our pilot will demonstrate different situations during a flight."

Full website here:

http://www.flyipilot.co.uk/fear-of-flying/

Negative Effects:

I guess the main negative effect of video games is that some say it can make mainly children very violent towards others in real life, this is because of  people seeing this violence in Video Games and trying to replicate it in real life which is obviously wrong. 

To support this negative I will be using a News story that I remember growing up, it is about a young teen who beat his friend to death with a hammer after supposedly seeing it in a game called Manhunt: 
"It was also a heavy factor in a murder in Leicester after a 17 year old boy killed his 14 year old best friend after beating him to death with a hammer in the same way it was shown on the games, his friends had stated that the 17 year old murderer, Stefan Pakeerah was obsessed by this game and it played a huge part in the violent murder. A spokesman for the Entertainment Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) responded to the accusations by stating "We sympathise enormously with the family and parents of Stefan Pakeerah. However, we reject any suggestion or association between the tragic events and the sale of Manhunt. The game in question is classified 18 by the British Board of Film Classification and therefore should not be in possession of a juvenile. Simply being in someone's possession does not and should not lead to the conclusion that a game is responsible for these tragic events." During this event many retailers pulled the game off the shelves such as GAME and Dixons'. Rockstar were quoted as saying "We have always appreciated Dixons' as a retail partner, and we fully respect their actions. We are naturally very surprised and disappointed that any retailer would choose to pull any game. We reject any suggestion or association between the tragic events and the sale of Manhunt."

This comes from a Blog I actually wrote about the whole Manhunt series and the controversy around it.

Full Blog Here:
http://fr0gsblog.blogspot.com/2016/03/controversial-games-manhunt.html


My second Negative for Video games is that excessive playing of Video Games can make people, again specifically younger people quite isolated and socially awkward. This is of course not very good because you should communicate people in real life because it's healthy for you. Hibernating in your room for days on end isn't going to do you any favours in the long run.

To support this, I include this article'This measured the social skills of a child addicted to video games to one not addicted: The results showed that generally, there was a significant difference between the social skills of students addicted to computer games and normal students. The conclusion was: As the study results showed, addiction to computer games may affect the quality and quantity of social skills. In other words, the higher the addiction to computer games, the less the social skills.

“It’s important to know the long-term causal effects of violent video games, because so many young people regularly play these games” Bushman said. "Playing video games could be compared to smoking cigarettes. A single cigarette won't cause lung cancer, but smoking over weeks, months or years greatly increases the risk"'

Find the full article here:
http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/12/11/negative-effects-of-violent-video-games-may-build-over-time/48918.html


My final argument for Negative effects of Video Games is that fairly similar to the previous point but holds its own as a separate effect. That is (again children) can become very distracted due to playing Video Games. For instance if they have been playing Video Games the previous night then it could highly influence how well they concentrate in school the next day, especially if they haven't had a lot of sleep (again due to playing Video Games). This is of course bad because children need to study hard when growing up if they want to eventually be successful; daydreaming and not engaging yourself fully won't get you very far.

Although not entirely relevant to this but still shows that children can be highly influenced by video games which in turn has a part to play on their education: This article estimated how many children would cheat on a game that could win them free iPads.
"After played the game, the teens were asked to solve a 10 item logic test in which they could win one raffle ticket for each question they got right. The raffle tickets could be used to win cool prizes. The teens were told how many answers they got correct and had the opportunity to take the appropriate number of raffle tickets out of an envelope containing many tickets whilst not being watched. However, we knew how many tickets were in the envelope so we could determine if a player took more than he or she had earned. Results showed that teens who played a violent cheated more than those who played non-violent video games - over 8 times more."

Full article here:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/get-psyched/201401/violent-video-games-decrease-self-control


My Opinion and Summary:
My opinion is that Video Games are both negative and positive for different reasons and there is none and will never be any proof that solidifies either points but personally I think the Positives outweigh the Negatives; my opinion is of course bias because I play Video Games and even study to design them. The most solid proof for me is that it comes entirely down to the person you are; the majority of people who play video games understand what is right and wrong to take into the real world. There have been serial killers and psychopaths long before Video Games and Television, ultimately these two sources have become a scapegoat for uneducated people to place blame on, that is wrong.

Object Orientated Design.

Concepts & Principles:
Normally Object Orientated Design (OOD) would begin after completion of the creation and would be used to flesh out initial ideas. Assets are often re-used in Games Development, for instance Foliage is re-used often when making a scene; Duplicating Tree's and Bush Models. Also Player Models can be re-used like for making background characters in a crowd for instance. When it comes to maintenance, it's more to do with the upkeep than actual game. You have to make sure that everything is working fine and is all up to date. Before you hand it to Quality Assurance. This means that if you are for instance given a certain time frame to complete a piece of work or part of the project then you will have to be efficient to complete it within the time limit. When working in a big group or a pair for instance then communication is key. You will need to be speak to each other to discuss ideas and express opinions for already set ideas. Sharing details is also important because you will need to both be on the same wavelength and working towards the same goal. Make sure that the final product is a Quality Product and that is fully patched and there are no bugs.

Game Objects: 
Game Objects are what a sprite is assigned too when using 2D Game Software such as Game-Maker. Objects have all the physics in them, for instance: They can contain settings for when you press left or right on your keyboard, the sprite will move. Weapons are exactly the same; they are created as Sprites but essentially come to life as Objects. You can code weapons to shoot objects like bullets whilst making it a Object. Rooms are basically Levels and Scenery is created just like Weapons.

Object Properties:
Within the Object Creation you can edit all sorts of things, you can essentially edit the whole thing and this is where the main Object comes to life. You can change the colour of your sprite and also the size of it, for instance if you're making a boss as opposed to a common enemy; you will probably want to make the Boss larger. You can also edit the Health a object has, in this example I'm talking about the difference between a common enemy and a Final Boss, a Final Boss would usually have increased Health to make a harder challenge. The speed is another thing you can change, because the Boss is bigger and has more Health, it might be slightly slower compared to the common enemy. Think of a Goomba as apposed Bowser.

Actions & Events:
Mouse and Keyboard Events are the main way of moving, interacting and progressing in a game, for instance in most standard PC games of recent times; WASD moves the character, E will usually interact unless it's been bound otherwise. This will all need to be coded, in basic format you could make it happen on Game-Maker by Setting W to move the sprite forwards for instance and S for backwards, etc. You can also set a Object to a destroy another Object when they make a connection, think of Snake on the Mobile Phone, when one pixel of the snake touches a pixel of the wall it is destroyed, this is set in the Events section in Object Mode. Timers and Scoring can also be set here, in a different scenario, when a Bullet destroys a enemy, you will get points in the corner of the screen for instance and this can also be set in Events.

Inheritance:
Inherited Events essentially means that if one Object changes it's method of events, it can be inherited by other sprites. Certain behaviours can be altered too, such as a dice rolling a fair amount, it can also be set to only roll 6's or roll more often then normal. Overriding events take place when a certain code is activated making a Object change its behaviour.

3D Modelling a Killer Clown in Maya.

To Start, I began with setting out my 3 Templates; a Side, Front and Top View of my design for extra guidance when modelling. I renamed them with the appropriate names to make it easier later, I'm also trying to get into the habit of renaming everything to make everything a little simpler.

Next, I textured these 3 Templates with the appropriate texture. As you can see in the below image, I have changed the materials on all 3 Sides so I can essentially trace my model around the image.

After that, I started extruding and moving the cube around which will eventually be my model. I moved it using the Panel Layout Tool or by pressing Space Bar which shows me a Perspective, Front, Top and Side views. As you can see, I have had to move the Top View image out a tiny bit because it wasn't in line with the others. I have also applied a Transparent material to my Cube so I can see through it and trace around the base image.

Next I started to begin modelling the Torso. By using the Scale and Move tool and just solely selecting the Vertices of the Model I can essentially mould my shape however I want. You can already it start to see it taking shape of a Torso just by following the lines within the image. I have also added an Edge Loop going down the centre of the Torso, the Edge Loop just adds another line so I have more ways to mould my model, it will also come in handy later when I'm rounding out my model.

In the next step, I began to start modelling the waist, neck and also the head. As you can see in the below screenshot, the model is beginning to resemble more and more like an actual human shape. The head looks fairly jagged and blocky still at the moment but it will be all smoothed out at the end. To model these bits I just again used the similar tools; Extrude to pull out new bits of the model, Move to move around certain edges or vertices, Scale to change the shape of certain edges and vertices and finally the Edge Loop tool to add new edges for a smoother and more precise finish.

In the Next Step, I had to delete half of what I have done. This way when I select the remaining side, I can select Edit>Duplicate Special and make sure it's set to Instance and -1.00 for the scale setting. I do this because from now on everything I extrude or Scale on one side will be duplicated on the other side, this is helpful because I won't have to do each leg and arm for instance and also that I know that both legs will be identical this way.

Then I began modelling the legs, this is a fairly simple step because as I stated previously I only needed to do one leg and the other would automatically be duplicated. I also began modelling the foot. Like before the main tools I used was the Scale, Move and Extrude. I have also added in more Edge Loops so I can round out the leg to make it look more human.

In this step, I started modelling the arms, I used the same techniques as in my previous steps. I added a Edge Loop all the way down the arm for ease in rounding it out later.

Next, I started to create the hand, it looks a little bit stupid at the moment because its just one long arm but I am going to now start to make the fingers and thumb. To get to this step I just extruded out the arm into the wrist and from the wrist, extruded out into the hand. I have also added edge loops for extra rounding later and Scale and Move tools to make sure everything is in line according the Base Image.

As you can see in this next screenshot I have progressed fairly well with the fingers and I have completed the thumb. In order to mould to thumb I extracted from the hand using the faces and rotated the thumb to sit inline with my image. I had to move the Rotate Axis using the Insert Key. Next I started making the fingers, using again the Extract tool I modelled the index finger. In order to make the other fingers I will just Mesh Tools>Extract the finger to make it a separate object and then Duplicate (Ctrl+D) it instead of having to make each finger, this will save a lot of time.

Now I am nearly finished, I have just completed the hand with all the fingers, I just duplicated each finger and scaled it down and moved them around so they are all fitting properly. In order to connect the fingers to the hand, I firstly combined the fingers to the hand and then used the Append to Polygon Tool to seal a gap between the hand and fingers. As you can see, it turned out fine.

This is my final screenshot, I have just duplicated the other half of the body and combined them together just as I did with the fingers. I then pressed 3 which smoothed out everything and made it all look clean and good.

Evaluation:

Personally, I feel great about my model, the only thing I would change is it if I had more time I would of textured it accordingly. I am happy about how it looks though. The roundness of the head is good as I was slightly worried it would look too cubey at the end.

Harry Hopkins reviewed my project and said "Very good model, very ambitious could be textured but I don't really mind because the model makes up for it!"

YouTube Video

This is the link to my Graveyard Prototype I made in Unreal Engine 4:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeqEDRPeUNo

Different Artistic Styles in Video Games.

Realistic:

Rust:

Rust is a Multiplayer game in which you play online with others from around the world. It is essentially an Open-World Survival game in which you gather resources, build a base from the resources, build weapons from these resources and survive against the environment such as heat, cold and animals such as Wolves and Bears, the main threat though is other players.
The style in Rust is Realistic with the proportions of player models correct to a human body. I like this style of game as it can easily captivate you into a different world. The sense of escapism and in captivation is very appealing to the players.

CounterStrike Source:

CounterStrike Source or CSS is the predecessor to the now immensely popular CounterStrike: Global Offensive or CS:GO. It is a First Person Shooter, Multiplayer game which is primarily for PC. It is similar to games like Call of Duty were you are a soldier with a gun and your objective is too kill the enemies on the other team. The teams are Terrorists or Counter-Terrorists. The art style is also Realistic although the graphics are now dated, the player models and objects are designed to portray real battle situations. The game interface is 2D such as Ammunition and Live Map. The art style was fairly revolutionary when it was first released in 2004.

Non-Photo Realistic:

Grow Home:

The developer of Grow Home has stated regarding the art style: "Another big influence came from Wall-E and other Pixar movies that rely on a lot of softly reflected light. Unlike 'realistic' games where you want to differentiate each surface and give them a unique feel, I wanted every surface in Grow Home to have the same soft, velvety look. This is where I reveal my ultimate secret art weapon... our lead coder Andy Buck. Andy is an artist too and his background is in visual FX and shader trickery, and he wrote an amazing shader that does all of our Fresnel and time-of-day effects. This means that every surface accurately reflects the colours of the sky dome according to it's angle." I think this sums up the art style beautifully.

Photo-Realism:

Grand Theft Auto 5:

This is a game that has photo realistic graphics, this means essentially that a simulated scene appears indistinguishable from a photo or by extension, real life. The main difficulty of Photo Realism is processing power. To make movies like 'Avatar' and 'Life of Pi' appear photo realistic, each frame of the movie is pre-rendered. That means that the digital models and scripted motion in a virtual scene are compiled into frames (usually 30 frames per second) and touched up, a process that can take hours per frame. But video games don't have that kind of time because the action in a scene has to respond dynamically to player input. Video games have to render their graphics in real time, usually at a rate of 60 frames per second. I think GTA5 did this extremely well with even 2 years later thinking that it has the best graphics on a video game. It has hardly any to none at all input lag and runs at a smooth 60 frames per second an a decent hardware machine.

 

Exaggeration:

Final Fantasy 10:

FF10 is a game that has exaggerated graphics, meaning it essentially looks like real life but has been exaggerated to not look a little bit fantasy. You can see this with the clothing, it almost a fashionable but has been exaggerated to make the characters memorable. The hair also stands out a lot because it is normally quite crazy colours or very flamboyant. The weapons are also out of proportion with them being extremely large or bright colours. They also hold magical powers. This graphic style is very appealing because it is bright and in your face. The landscapes also draw you in because they are very beautiful and large. Nintendo is a company known for exaggerated graphics with characters such as Mario with him being super small and then super big after eating mushrooms. It is unrealistic but appealing to players. They are also very popular with children. Anime or Japanese Animation is also a widely used art style that is considered exaggeration because of the out of proportion facial expressions and body types.

Female Protagonists' in Video Games.

They are represented well in my opinion and the whole debate on whether characters such as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider are overly sexualised is ridiculous. If the accusators had actually played the games they would realise she is never portrayed in a sexual manner. Her sexuality or gender never plays a part in the stories of the game. Quite frankly the games could be completely switched with a male Protagonist and you would not be able to tell the difference between them. The reason people debate whether she is overly sexualised is because she has large breasts and a thin waist, but what is wrong with seeing nice looking women in Video Games? Duke Nukem is portrayed as muscly and manly but no-one ever kicks up a fuss about him. The accusators should praise Lara and the Eidos Company for bringing women into video games as a strong lead role and for knocking down the barrier of it being a 'Mans' World'

Similar Games.

My Game:

Title                                                                                                                    Killer Clowns

Genre                                                                                      Survival, Horror, Action, Adventure

Selection of Content                                                                 Dark, Exploration, Post Apocalyptic

Construction of Content                                                               Enemy Waves, Fast-Paced, Gore

Narrative Conventions                                                                            Linear, Survival, Infected

Codes and Conventions                            Health and Ammo, Objective Based, Weapon Assortments

Target Demographic                                                     18+, Generally Male Audience, Young Adults

Example 1:

Title                                                                                                                The Last of Us

Genre                                                                                   Survival, Horror, Action, Adventure

Selection of Content                                                               Dark, Exploration, Post Apocalyptic

Construction of Content                                                       Linear, Narrative, Char. Development

Narrative Conventions                                                                  Story Driven, Survival, Infected

Codes and Conventions                                       Health and Ammo, Cover Shooter, Objective Based

Target Demographic                                                     18+, Generally Male Audience, Young Adults


Example 2:

Title                                                                                                             The Walking Dead

Genre                                                                                     Survival, Horror, Action, Interactive

Selection of Content                                                       Dimly Lit, Dark, Undead, Post Apocalyptic

Construction of Content                                      Story Decisive, Infections, Narrative, Char. Develop.

Narrative Conventions                                                                  Story Driven, Survival, Infected

Codes and Conventions                                      Character Based, QuickTime Events, Player Choices

Target Demographic                                         18+, Male and Female, Young Adults, TV Show Fans



Marketing:

The Last of Us:
The way that The Last of Us was marketed was it was originally announced in 2011 by Sony at Spike Video Game Awards and was highly anticipated. Although a Easter Egg was put into Uncharted 3 announcing Last of Us in a in-game newspaper previously. A Trailer was then released which showed a lot of Ellie and how she progresses through the game showing her quite civilised into a cold blooded killer at the end. It shows a lot of violent action to promote its graphic nature but also shows a nicer side with the character bonding of Joel and Ellie. The main way it was marketed was through trailers and through press demo's. They announced specific details about the game as development continued. Three trailers were released as development continued slowly showing new aspects of the game. A advert was shown during AMC's The Walking Dead Season 3 Finale. The final pre-launch trailer was shown at E3 2013. The game was aimed at Zombie Game fans and pretty much any video game fans. It was also aimed towards young adults and gamers over 18, with it being advertising during The Walking Dead it was obviously also aimed towards their fan base with both being zombie apocalypse based.

The Walking Dead:
The Walking Dead was originally announced as a 5 Episode Series with approx. monthly releases, originally going to be released in 2011 but like most games was pushed back to April 2012. There was an original trailer released which showed the TV Shows Creator, Robert Kirkman talking about the game and a montage of all the characters in Season One. It showed barely any actual game-play I am assuming because they hadn't developed a whole lot of it to show. There was also a DLC Extra called 400 Days which was a short series of 5 episodes, each episode following a different character. This was released as something for fans to play whilst they waited for Season Two, it wasn't critically appreciated with most players saying that it was too short and had little to no continuity with the First Season. Season Two was marketed pretty much the same with it being a follow-on from the first series, the first trailer was much the same as the debut trailer for Season One with not much game-play but more of a story explaining what you will be facing during Season Two with the main character, Clementine making a few appearances. I would assume it was marketed to Interactive Game fans and also The Walking Dead TV Show fans. With the first series doing so well the second series was even highly anticipated with consumers playing the games without watching the TV Shows.


Our Game:
Our game would probably be marketed very similar to The Last of Us I would imagine because it is a similar style of game with it being an apocalypse. If money was no object I would release a Teaser-Trailer at a Game Convention like E3 but I would go the secretive way like Valve do which really builds up anticipation with the game and any information on the game is highly anticipated and becomes wide spread when announced. I would probably just release one trailer with not a whole lot of information on it's release but make sure the trailer has some really compelling aspects that will get consumers hyped up. I would probably aim my game at people around my age, late teenagers and considering it would probably be a 18+ rated game it would have to be aimed towards older people too. If I had to advertise it like a normal company does I would choose when I advertised it carefully, such as advertising on YouTube ads on gaming channels because that is the fan base I want to attract. I would probably advertise it on TV too, on TV programs that are popular with that similar fan base like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

YouTube Video

This is the link to my Graveyard Prototype I made in Unreal Engine 4:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeqEDRPeUNo