Final game

Final Game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S17G-laArKw

(i have no Mic and at the time of recording the sounds were never picked up)

In my game there are no enemies or threats to you however the constant darkness and the limited visibility i believe makes for an interesting and fun game. The objective is to collect four fallen relics from the Killer clown spaceship. By retrieving all four you will be able to progress to the next level and area in the game. The glowing beacons are used to highlight the return to the main area and within that area i added a regeneration area which would serve to replenish your health however due to time constraints and the fact that i have implemented nothing into the game which well take away your health it is just a useless feature. I wanted to make a damaging area out side of the safe zone which would slowly deplete your health until you were dead, giving the game another challenge as well as trying to find objects in dim conditions. I decided to not add any physical enemies into the game because i wanted the player to feel a slight twinge of terror from nothing more than the Ambient sounds which consisted of menacing laughter (although faded and with an echo effect), the sound of a child crying (which will deactivate once you get into a certain distance of the trigger) and more. The gun doesn't have a appropriate use now however i wanted to make it use flares which will disappear after a set time. I never figured out how to do that so it is just a rather useless object on the screen. In my game there is a lot of emphasis on lighting, the objectives would glow slightly, marking the appearance. I intended to randomize the spawn location but sometimes it would appear in impossible places to reach or they'd appear somewhere very easy to discover that it takes away the whole feeling of searching and could ruin some of the more fun features on the map. So instead i placed them in some moderately well hidden places or hard to get to places.

Limitations and how/if i overcame them
My first problem came from the fact that i could not work from home so whilst i was at home i spent more time creating models which were all a wasted effort as i could not import them unto Unreal. My original concept for this game was to have 10 enemies chase you and would gradually get faster the longer you taken and the lights would be able to regenerate your health if you are stood within a certain distance of them. There would be no way to kill the enemies so you had to avoid them in dismal lighting conditions and the only way you could determine where you were would be the beacons near the safe point.


Evaluation
I believe that the lack of illumination within the majority of the map and the lack of lighting in all but a few select ares, mixed with the fog and sinister sounds can give it a chilling atmosphere. Although there is no challenge to be found in this game (other than the time it takes to find the objectives). If i could of done anything different it would've been sticking with my original plan and that is to have a single enemy follow you which could/would harm you and it would be your objective to survive him as well as find the objectives. Like the Slender man games.

Analysis of a computer game

Critical Evalauation Of Shadow Of Mordor

Shadow of Mordor is an Hack and Slash RPG game which takes place in a fantasy world set in the Lord of the rings films/books. The game takes place between the Hobbit trilogy and the Lord of the rings trilogy. You play as Talion and the aim of the game is to avenge the deaths of your family (and yourself) by killing the three main bosses. 

Shadow of Mordor has several ways you can play the game although most choose to either confront the enemies head on and slice your way through many enemies or to simply avoid as much as you can and completely the objective without being seen. Your methods of completing the missions will affect how you play the game. Your enemies will give you unique dialogues depending how you undertake the challenges. 

The focal point of the game is it's unique "Nemesis" system will allow unique gameplay through every encounter. As you progress your enemies will adapt and this helps bring each Shadow of Mordor fresh start into something unique.
The game design is often dimly lit and dirty looking which adds to the look that something nasty has happened/is happening here. The enemies themselves look fierce and foreboding which also clearly shows that they are your enemies and that you'll be fighting them often

The story of this game i thought was quite linear and i thought it was boring because it seemed repetitive at best. I believe that this game would appeal to somebody who is a fan of the Lord of the rings and hobbit films but i don't believe it offers much to anyone else who doesn't like them. I believe this game is aimed also at young adults.

For a hack and slash game there is nothing special about it other than the nemesis system which could alter the enemies perception of you and how you fight. It is a basic hack and slash. 

It is Photo-realistic/exaggerated art style and i think that it matches the overall feel of the game well, the game is dark and full of dull colours dominating all of this are greys'browns and reds. Green and brown are the most common colour of the enemy, along with chalky white enemies, each gives them a rather ghastly feel to them and most are mutilated or scarred in some ways but all are ugly.  The buildings are all very rustic as you'd expect, most of the enemies seems illiterate mostly or profoundly stupid with the exception of a few. Whether these are supernatural enemies or just intelligent regular enemies. 

I believe the most the most prominent hack and slash RPG games series would be the Diablo franchise. Compared to the Diablo series i would say that Diablo has more story and more things to appeal to gamers. Such as customisation to your items (changing the appearance of some items to look like others...only in Diablo 3) and multiple armor and weapon choices you can equip and choose from. Where as in Shadow of Mordor you cannot change what your armour or weapons look like. In Shadow of Mordor you have talents which can increase your effectiveness in aspects of the game, such as better stealth take-downs or it can make you better at fighting large groups of enemies. Both games have boss fights which nearly all hack and slash implement into the game to make it challenging. Most bosses reward better loot but in the case of Shadow of Mordor you gain power-ups for your weapons. You do get power-ups for your armour and weapons in Diablo however these come in the form of gems

I think for a hack and slash game it only partly delivers when compared to the likes of Diablo, i believe that there is a lack of story and i think it fails to draw the audience into the game. There are only limited options for customisation within the game, i think that the lack of customisation can hinder a game greatly. In conclusion i think that Shadow of Mordor is a above average game for gameplay mechanics but in terms of the game-play itself i would say that it falls short in some ways.

Unit 6 Critical approaches to gaming P3

Unit 6 Critical approaches to gaming P3

Upon researching the effects of violent video games in people younger people i believe that there are some positive effects and some negative effects with playing video games.

I created a survey where i asked a series of questions asking there views on the effect of video games and what effect they feel it has had on there life. The majority of the people believe that it has an effect however they feel that video games are not the sole cause of. Everybody who participated has played a violent video game at some point in there life. When asked what emotion they feel the most whilst playing video games most responded with happiness or some form of excitement.
The overall average time the people who i asked play video games there are a few which answered with 100+ hours a week which is obsessive however the average between everybody was 43 hours a week (this is still obsessive) bit not to the same extent. Spending that much time could be damaging to your physical and mental health. However not everybody who spends an obsessive amount of time on a video game will cause you to be bloodthirsty killer even if the only games you play are violent. For many playing video games is a way to social or distract you from your own personal problems in the real world. There are studies which also show it can improve your reaction time and your attention to detail which can be used to train surgeons and other people who requite precise and skilled movement in there hands.
There are mixed answers to whether people feel they have been desensitised by playing video games, 60% do feel they have been desensitised in some way but all of them do not believe that video games have made them violent or aggressive. They do feel that video games can desensitise people but do not cause violence, this can be backed up with the fact that ever since the rising popularity of video games, crime has also decreased. 

Unit 71: Object-Oriented Design for Computer Games

Concepts and Principles
When creating a game your blueprints what you input into your game have to easy to read and understand. For example if you were to create a blueprint for a spawn rate of an enemy, Simplified understanding means how easy it is the read and understand or how easy it is to identify what you were trying to achieve. If your blueprint is hard to understand then it can open many problems for the future if you some reason you had to go back and show your blueprint to someone else or you have to explain what you did, they may find fault if there are a much easier way of doing the blueprint of it it simply not understandable.
 Another important aspect is ensuring that your blueprint is easily reusable. This is useful in case something happens to your work and for some reason you have to remake or edit a existing blueprint. By being able to reuse it means you can recreate and adapt the current blueprint to suit your needs.
 Naturally if your blueprints are poorly maintained you will not be able to replicate or make necessary changes to them if it was needed because they may be damaged in such a way that you'll have to completely remake it. In addition to that it's always important to check your game and your blueprints for any issues because if some are found, you can fix them as soon as they are found. If you are able to maintain your game and remove any issues that appear you will be efficiently be able to deal with any future problems which appears, meaning you solve the problem which arises faster and with no hassle from any pre-existing problems.
In my game and in many other games you often create objects based on real structures or objects, for example creating a building. Many would find a reference image to give you a foundation on what you want to design it on. However when you create an object in a game it doesn't have to follow how you'd expect an object react in the real world which'll allow you to make all kind of weird and wonderful fun effects on the object in the end.
 When creating a game it is very important to make sure all of the aspects uphold a certain degree of quality inside of them.

Game objects
Sprites are 2D images of an object or character. When using Gamemaker you created the sprite to act as the shell for the object in which inside of this "shell" you would add all of the coding inside. When you were using Gamemaker you had to create multiple sprites of the same character or weapon if you wanted to animate your characters. Characters within your game are often yourself (and others if you're playing with a friend) and interactive NPC's such as bosses or helpful allies. Normal enemies are not usually considered characters. A weapon within a game should be designed in a unique way as a sprite and ideally it would have different effects or do something different to the other weapons in the game. Ideally you would apply the same logic to the scenery as well. Sometimes in a game youget power ups which will alter your character in a way to make a few tasks  within them easier, for example Mario where you collect the mushrooms and other things to give you a unique effect.

One of my characters

One of the many power ups from Mario

Object properties
Many games have a set amount of health you are given in a game, this can be increased with power up or with a certain event triggering. Some bosses will either speed or or slow down when you damage them enough. In most games the bosses are either faster than you and they rely on you dodging there attacks more however some bosses which are slower may deal more damage making you needing to dodge less but each dodge but it could be crucial that you succeed in dodging. On some games when the enemies take a certain amount of damage they start acting sluggish. I believe the aim of this is to make the enemies seem more of a challenge as you damage them further or vice versa.

A boss fight

Actions and Events

Mouse and keyboard events are usually how you move around and interact with objects inside the the game. Usually WASD are how you walk (W is forward, S is backward A is left and D is right). These are usually easy to code when using Gamemaker all you had to do was set the specific key to do a certain action (such as setting W to move forward) and then that was finished. The other keys such as E to pick up or interact with other objects or the Space bar to jump can also easily be implemented inside the game. An easy way to gen an object to destroy themselves is by adding a collision event in. For example when a bullet is fired it'd destroy itself and/or the wall when it hits it. A few enemies or levels have time you must beat them, if you fail there is a high chance you will fail or not get any kind if substantial reward.

A timed event in Diablo 3

Inheritance: 

Inheritance in an object means that when a certain event is triggered it can be reused by another object or character, i think a good example of this is that when you die in a shooter game you can usually pick up the enemy's weapon and use it yourself and so the cycle continues.

Unit 66, 67 – 3D Modelling & Animation

This is my first melee weapon for my game, a corroded axe with a curved blade for hooking onto flesh or possible dismemberment. I started by creating hilt. I used a cylinder polygon with 8 subdivisions along it's width and 8 along the depth. I used the extrude tool to add on the little nobly point the bottom of the hilt and i used the make hole tool to create a small hole at the bottom of the hilt as well. These are only for decoration purposes but they can be used to show where the player

 will grip the weapon. For the blade i used the extrude tool and elongated the selected edges and pulled them apart. I used to inset edge loop tool to all me to add a curve into it and I then used the smooth tool to give it more polished and sharp look. 

This is a shed i'm going to add into my game. It is going to be a spawn point for a weapon, most likely a melee weapon such as the axe from above. I intentionally made it look empty because the setting is in a abandoned forest/rural region and it's either everything has been looted or has been missing. I started by creating a 4x4 2d place. I extruded the edges upwards to create a box shape and sealed it off by extruding the edge again to drag and create a smooth roof. Inside i created two cube polygons and made them a very slight difference in size just to fill up the empty space. I used to insert edge loop tool and extruded the edge to create the shelves. The weapon will be placed on the shelves so you can pick it up once you see it.

The next model is a Rifle and i plan for it to be one of the few ranged weapons in the game, naturally the ammo is going to be in a limited supply as well. I used a M1 Garand Image plane to model this off of and the is constructed from a cube polygon, stretched out with 3 subdivisions in height, 4 in width and 2 in depth, there is also a cylinder which has be cut in two and a small pipe polygon for the barrel of the gun. For this object I used the extrude tool and edge loop tool to create the majority of the object, but for the other polygons i had to use the merge tool to combine them together. This may be found 

This is a memorial area for my game, I created it by two Cube polygons and giving them an extra 4 sides and then duplicated it to form two steps into it. The middle resembles a kind of coffin or perhaps a hidden entrance into somewhere. On the top of the coffin is something what resembles a trident or a set of three torches. The back of the memorial is sealed off by a wall and on the side is two sets of cupboards.


I could improve all of these by adding or changing a paint to them and few textures to flesh them out. But during this time i have learnt how to use Maya better and how to create more detailed models

Unit 69 Assignment one- Drawing concept art for computer games

Why Concept Art Is Useful In Any Video Game

Concept art is used in games as a possible rough sketch for a model and /or a environment. They can be used to generate ideas or to create a certain mood in a area or object. Concept art is a idea you have in mind for video game (it's often written about or drawn roughly) and will be useful for when you develop your final product because you have an idea on what you're aiming for. Many artists will get inspiration on a creating concept art by reading the plot to gain a rough idea on what the mood of the environment and/or character should be like.

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/community/conceptart/               page 9

The picture above shows the first stage of creating concept art (which is creating a rough drawing). The picture above is concept art for a elf race in the Warcraft games. The next step is usually passing it off to a illustrator to create a more detailed image in preparation to create a 3D model. This piece of concept art is quite early in creation but the general feelings i get from this is the feeling of them very in touch with nature and perhaps there home is in a woodland setting. The image above makes me feel slightly intimidated because the faces of the elves are so unusual and to me they almost look fierce.

This is a more detailed image of this particular elf race.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/0a/b1/63/0ab16357bcc9aa8354e6bdbbcf28b5f1.jpg

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This step is very important for creating character models because it will give the people who designs them a much better idea on what and where details need to be added. As you can tell from the two images above  there have been many changes. Foremost amongst them is the change in facial features. The male does not have a set of antlers and both do not have leaves in there hair. There clothing and weapons do make them look primal which suits them well because in the game they mainly live in wooded areas. The uses of the colour green in the background amplify's this feeling additionally the male elf's long beard and there clothing adds to this.The main colours here seem to be brown, purple and green and to me these colours completely add to the feeling of them being primal and/or deeply connected to nature.

These are the male and female character models for this particular race.
http://www.scrollsoflore.com/gallery/albums/wow_renders/Night-Elf-Male-Warrior-2.jpg
http://oi61.tinypic.com/dvlilj.jpg

The picture above shows what the models look in game. I think the main differences in from the concept art and the models is that the male looks less muscular and much less primal. Since the game has many sets of weaponry and clothing which would allow you to modify what you look like.



The Feelings Generated By These Images
The main feelings generated by the first image was the feeling of them having a strong relation to nature, I feel this way because of the of the antlers on the males head and the leaves in the females hair. This feeling is amplified by the second image because of the color of the clothes mostly because I associate the color brown with trees and dirt.

A Elf city
http://cdn.playbuzz.com/cdn/d50f2b06-6390-4370-8529-3c2245ac58c5/94d64e10-58d5-4875-87b0-d25355b29d95.jpg


This is the main elf city in world of warcraft. Because of the abundance of trees/shrubbery and water i feel that this greatly adds to feeling that they're heavily involved with nature. When i looked at these images one of the first things i noticed was the abundance of the colour purple (especially in the second and city image) and to me the colour purple symbolises mystery and magic.

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