Okay so I realise as well as anyone I haven't updated in a little longer then I'd prefer but what can I say I've been busy with work/doctors/other annoyances etc, but am back now y'all.
Okay so last time on 'Steve Takes Control' i was still working on the evolution of my games without narrative development. The central issue of that aspect of my work was exactly how bereft of narrative the ideas had to be. When I started developing my ideas it struck me that environments,characters and even titles suggest narratives so I endeavored to work through the extra scrutiny. After a back and forth with JT (Josh Taylor for the unenlightened few) discussing my ideas and developing what worked I believe the 4 ideas are now in place, albeit with working titles.
Legions: The finalised version of my 'risk vs reward' top down shooter where the player must shoot objects increasing their strength and size (thus an easier target), however their high-score will not be 'banked' until they self destruct.
Countdown: Originally I planned this as a trivia based tower defense game however now it features integrated spacial task instead to broaden it accessibility, which also allows the mini-game elements to fit some-what into whats going on.
Power-Cut: This is the now finalized version of my puzzle platformer where the player must conserve their power while trying to reach the goal point of each level, with bold movements like double jumps expending more power.
Night-fall: I suppose this would be called a survival game, the player controls their character while they move environment objects around a 2d plane before night-fall. When night comes so does a mysterious creature the player must hide within their makeshift forts and hope there days preparations keep them from being noticed by the creatures.
So there we have it that is that side of the spectrum covered now onto developing something on the flip-side. Our initial idea was for me to write an interactive story (therefore narrative with little interaction). However I instead will be pursuing the concept of narrative which is almost clear by the characters, environment and setting. Though the idea remains aloof at the moment I think I will look into games aimed at younger audiences, as these games must be instantly appealing and fun in order to keep the attention span of the young whipper snappers!.
Peace Out!
Friday, 28 October 2011
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Level 6: Clarity
So that last going on 2 weeks have been a bit hazy as I pondered and pondered about these games with no narrative ideas, on top of the already cloudy subject of where I am aiming to go in terms of my masters development and research no less. However the last few days have ended up providing as the title of this post suggests clarity.
In terms of the game ideas I was inspired by my brothers suggestion of the fact old arcade games didn't feature any 'proper' narrative, which made me consider modern arcade games as well. To this end I have been working on my ideas while taking into consideration what makes modern arcade games (like those found on PSN and XBLA) fun and accessible. I think I now have a rough idea of 2 of my games from my original root ideas put through the ringer of this new perspective. The other 2 ideas however are still very embryonic I have some ideas of genre and small ideas but generally they still need a lot of development.
Then in terms of avenues to pursue for my masters, I have decided I would quite like to look into the idea of narratives which are built and molded by the gameplay and actions of the player. This will include games where the player alters the course of a limited narrative (eg Mass Effect), the player building their own story within an existent convention (eg UFC or Fight Night) and the player (and potentially friends) building their own story out provided parts (eg Civ 5 and MMO titles).
Overall I would interested in studying this area because I think that players tend to develop stronger emotional ties to game experiences if there is some sort of personal investment within it.
In terms of the game ideas I was inspired by my brothers suggestion of the fact old arcade games didn't feature any 'proper' narrative, which made me consider modern arcade games as well. To this end I have been working on my ideas while taking into consideration what makes modern arcade games (like those found on PSN and XBLA) fun and accessible. I think I now have a rough idea of 2 of my games from my original root ideas put through the ringer of this new perspective. The other 2 ideas however are still very embryonic I have some ideas of genre and small ideas but generally they still need a lot of development.
Then in terms of avenues to pursue for my masters, I have decided I would quite like to look into the idea of narratives which are built and molded by the gameplay and actions of the player. This will include games where the player alters the course of a limited narrative (eg Mass Effect), the player building their own story within an existent convention (eg UFC or Fight Night) and the player (and potentially friends) building their own story out provided parts (eg Civ 5 and MMO titles).
Overall I would interested in studying this area because I think that players tend to develop stronger emotional ties to game experiences if there is some sort of personal investment within it.
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Level 5: The Day My Finances Forgot
After disappointingly missing a contextual trip to Manchester with the Games Design peeps (as well as other masters people though i don't know them) due to complete lack of funds i decided to concentrate my day masters work and research.
This first order of the day was collecting further research material for my upcoming literature and contextual reviews. Due to the contemporary nature of my areas of research I am confined to looking at other games and narrative media rather then traditional design, a fact which i'm not upset about it has to be said. I'm currently thinking of using LA Noire and Minecraft as my game examples as I believe they have plenty of related material and are 2 opposite ends of the Narrative/Ludology scale.
My second task was a continuation of a project I discussed with Josh on tuesday. In order to contrast the narrative pieces I have been looking over I decided it would be an interesting task to develop 4 game ideas that feature no underlying narrative. After much pondering I came to the conclusion that inevitably there will be some layer of intrinsic narrative to the designs as this can't be helped so my main goal is to create ideas with no extrinsic narrative. (so not a set narrative and back story etc)
Though the ideas are still very embryonic I'm currently thinking as follows; (some more in-depth then others)
Basic Tower Defense - A fairly stripped down (narratively speaking) tower defense game featuring several rows of oncoming enigmatic enemies coming to attack your unidentified bastion.
Survival Game - Basic enemy killing game with your mystery hero fighting hordes of random unspecified creatures.
Puzzle Game: Still nothing solid though following the usual concept of narrative having little impact in puzzle games it seems logical to create one if possible.
Mystery Game 4: This one is still completely up in the air I have several extremely small ideas but nothing I have encapsulated as yet.
So there are my current development ideas as I said these may well change but they make sense to me at the moment so I shall pursue for the moment.
This first order of the day was collecting further research material for my upcoming literature and contextual reviews. Due to the contemporary nature of my areas of research I am confined to looking at other games and narrative media rather then traditional design, a fact which i'm not upset about it has to be said. I'm currently thinking of using LA Noire and Minecraft as my game examples as I believe they have plenty of related material and are 2 opposite ends of the Narrative/Ludology scale.
My second task was a continuation of a project I discussed with Josh on tuesday. In order to contrast the narrative pieces I have been looking over I decided it would be an interesting task to develop 4 game ideas that feature no underlying narrative. After much pondering I came to the conclusion that inevitably there will be some layer of intrinsic narrative to the designs as this can't be helped so my main goal is to create ideas with no extrinsic narrative. (so not a set narrative and back story etc)
Though the ideas are still very embryonic I'm currently thinking as follows; (some more in-depth then others)
Basic Tower Defense - A fairly stripped down (narratively speaking) tower defense game featuring several rows of oncoming enigmatic enemies coming to attack your unidentified bastion.
Survival Game - Basic enemy killing game with your mystery hero fighting hordes of random unspecified creatures.
Puzzle Game: Still nothing solid though following the usual concept of narrative having little impact in puzzle games it seems logical to create one if possible.
Mystery Game 4: This one is still completely up in the air I have several extremely small ideas but nothing I have encapsulated as yet.
So there are my current development ideas as I said these may well change but they make sense to me at the moment so I shall pursue for the moment.
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Level 4:Practice Makes.......Marginally Better
In an effort to start getting myself into some real practical activities the last few days have involved more dabbling within the foreboding Unity engine to which i'm still only a basic user.(better then knowing nothing i suppose). Installed within Unity upon its download is a template game called Angry Bots, consisting of 1 third person shooter level for to experiment with. So experiment I have been, this has consisted of finding various components within the engine and script thus swatting up my knowledge on all that may be useful before I jump head first into trying to create my own ideas.
(Some where in that cluttered mess is my sense of comprehension)
The unfortunate thing about game and level design as an individual discipline is the there not the 'showiest' of disciplines mean our work doesn't start getting particularly visible until its in its latter stages. Such things are the nature of the beast however so it can't be helped but I will endeavor to practice where possible.
Aside from my Unity playing I have also been scouring various sources for a plethora of sources for me to use within my literature and contextual reviews which we were informed of on friday. I already have quite a selection of articles and journal sources but the more the merrier I say. It may be a step outside of the usual realms of the design schools but I will still produce a suitable essay of my analysis of the ludology/narratology debate.
(Some where in that cluttered mess is my sense of comprehension)
The unfortunate thing about game and level design as an individual discipline is the there not the 'showiest' of disciplines mean our work doesn't start getting particularly visible until its in its latter stages. Such things are the nature of the beast however so it can't be helped but I will endeavor to practice where possible.
Aside from my Unity playing I have also been scouring various sources for a plethora of sources for me to use within my literature and contextual reviews which we were informed of on friday. I already have quite a selection of articles and journal sources but the more the merrier I say. It may be a step outside of the usual realms of the design schools but I will still produce a suitable essay of my analysis of the ludology/narratology debate.
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Level 3 - The Genre Problem
After briefly paddling into the choppy waters of emotions in video games, I have momentarily paused that train of thought in pursuit of one of my initial thought topics which I now believe has yet more importance then I gave it credit for.
"Does the genre of a game affect the importance of narrative, and how?"
I have been pondering this since I first thought of it it during our first 'proper' masters class, though yesterday I found myself considering the actual depth of the question. Initially I thought it was rather cut and dry, genres such as sport and puzzle game had less regard for narrative as say role-playing or adventure games. However as I look further into the depths of narrative as an idea I find it less so. I was particularly intrigued upon reading this blog post about Minecraft ( http://blog.failbettergames.com/post/One-Hundred-Miles-of-Solitude.aspx), the post by an author known as Alexis expresses the idea of Intrinsic and extrinsic narrative in video games.
This dictates that the extrinsic narrative is one which is set from the beginning and already in place, whereas the intrinsic narrative is the circumstantial narrative built by the player as they play through the game. Upon reading the article the narrative concept resonated with me in regards to my genre question, in that perhaps different genres put more importance upon either one of these genres or both as a whole. Through that way of thinking the sports and puzzle games I previously thought had little concept of narrative perhaps just have a more variable form of intrinsic narrative (for example in FIFA the narrative built would be the goings on in the individual matches).
I will continue to think about this and I have tasked myself with conjuring prime examples of each genre and trying to figure what their individual narrative consists of.
I will also try to properly reference this article, I just need to figure out the correct method to do so.
"Does the genre of a game affect the importance of narrative, and how?"
I have been pondering this since I first thought of it it during our first 'proper' masters class, though yesterday I found myself considering the actual depth of the question. Initially I thought it was rather cut and dry, genres such as sport and puzzle game had less regard for narrative as say role-playing or adventure games. However as I look further into the depths of narrative as an idea I find it less so. I was particularly intrigued upon reading this blog post about Minecraft ( http://blog.failbettergames.com/post/One-Hundred-Miles-of-Solitude.aspx), the post by an author known as Alexis expresses the idea of Intrinsic and extrinsic narrative in video games.
This dictates that the extrinsic narrative is one which is set from the beginning and already in place, whereas the intrinsic narrative is the circumstantial narrative built by the player as they play through the game. Upon reading the article the narrative concept resonated with me in regards to my genre question, in that perhaps different genres put more importance upon either one of these genres or both as a whole. Through that way of thinking the sports and puzzle games I previously thought had little concept of narrative perhaps just have a more variable form of intrinsic narrative (for example in FIFA the narrative built would be the goings on in the individual matches).
I will continue to think about this and I have tasked myself with conjuring prime examples of each genre and trying to figure what their individual narrative consists of.
I will also try to properly reference this article, I just need to figure out the correct method to do so.
Friday, 23 September 2011
Level 2: Getting All Emotional
Through what various bits of reading and research I have done thus far and my own experience I have started considering something which strongly affects the players enjoyment of both a game and a narrative (perhaps in different ways?). That being those little things we all have, emotions.
We as human beings have our very lives molded by our emotions, suffering through times of sadness and anxiety and cherishing our happy and fun moments. Therefore its only natural that as video games strive towards more grandiose goals it is these emotions which must be acknowledged and catered to in order to grant the gamers a truly engaging experience.
At this point I should clarify this doesn't necessarily mean each our characters need to have complex personalities and personal demons, whats important is how much we emotionally invest within the characters because that is where we can really derive memorable and rewarding experiences.
Few out there would outline Mario as a particularly deep character he seems to have fairly simple goals (Save *Insert Appropriate Princess Here*) and he doesn't say all that much. Yet we still invest emotion into him, countless of us gamers enjoy the antics of the mushroom eating simpleton not because we particularly relate to him just because he wields a certain innocent enjoyment. Perhaps with characters like Mario and the contexts in which they fit into an immediate likability is all that is really required for us to click. It may be worth considering here that using the Mario example, such game series have always been aimed at being 'fun-for-the-whole family' which likely explains the limited complexities within.
However we must consider the deeper narratives which the industry seems to be steering towards. One game which drew a great amount of emotional enrichment out of me was Mass Effect 2. I'm well aware Mass Effect faces some scrutiny from the more critical out there as it boasts freedom when the player can still only create limited variations on the main plot. To me however the enjoyment wasn't from the main plot at all it was all the smaller parts. After carrying my character from Mass Effect 1 into 2 it instantly just felt like a continuation of my own chronicles, with even seemingly minor things still adding to the experience. ME2 is packed with small callbacks to the characters experiences in the previous game, and this is what made it feel individual to me. Then through my interactions with the characters (especially those from the previous game) I felt like I had built bonds with these characters each had there own identities and idiosyncrasies that made them who they were. Now I am well aware such moments where there is no prepared dialogue involved me saying hello hearing the same response then leaving, but it didn't matter these characters didn't need to feel like real people for me to enjoy them. Despite knowing they aren't real and therefore I had no 'real' emotional link to them, when the chance came up I could lose these allies in the final mission I did all I could to prevent fatalities. Which I think is enough I never needed them to be totally lifelike they just needed enough emotion for me to engage with them.
These thoughts are however mainly aimed at those genres which bare a lot of consideration to narrative, genres such as sports and racing games rarely (though occasionally) include a narrative as such the main goal essentially being just to win. Which isn't to say such games don't affect ones emotions, I don't think I could argue the emotional investment all those fans out there put into their games of FIFA with there friends I've seen my own brother undergo an emotional rollercoaster even over the course of one match.
However even as I write this I find myself wondering are these emotional investments that different, is my emotional attachment to my Commander Shephard as we save the galaxy any different to my brothers attachment to his Sheffield Wednesday team as hes playing a tournament with his friends.
Its clear even as I'm only scratching the surface of this deep subject matter that the complexities within shall need to be compartmentalized in some form in order for my understanding to improve. Indeed I may find the ideas which I have fired out here to be anomalous once I start delving further. Firstly I feel I must investigate the enigmatic idea of emotional investment, both towards the characters within the game (eg Mass Effect) and also the investment in the players own action within the game (eg FIFA).
We as human beings have our very lives molded by our emotions, suffering through times of sadness and anxiety and cherishing our happy and fun moments. Therefore its only natural that as video games strive towards more grandiose goals it is these emotions which must be acknowledged and catered to in order to grant the gamers a truly engaging experience.
At this point I should clarify this doesn't necessarily mean each our characters need to have complex personalities and personal demons, whats important is how much we emotionally invest within the characters because that is where we can really derive memorable and rewarding experiences.
Few out there would outline Mario as a particularly deep character he seems to have fairly simple goals (Save *Insert Appropriate Princess Here*) and he doesn't say all that much. Yet we still invest emotion into him, countless of us gamers enjoy the antics of the mushroom eating simpleton not because we particularly relate to him just because he wields a certain innocent enjoyment. Perhaps with characters like Mario and the contexts in which they fit into an immediate likability is all that is really required for us to click. It may be worth considering here that using the Mario example, such game series have always been aimed at being 'fun-for-the-whole family' which likely explains the limited complexities within.
However we must consider the deeper narratives which the industry seems to be steering towards. One game which drew a great amount of emotional enrichment out of me was Mass Effect 2. I'm well aware Mass Effect faces some scrutiny from the more critical out there as it boasts freedom when the player can still only create limited variations on the main plot. To me however the enjoyment wasn't from the main plot at all it was all the smaller parts. After carrying my character from Mass Effect 1 into 2 it instantly just felt like a continuation of my own chronicles, with even seemingly minor things still adding to the experience. ME2 is packed with small callbacks to the characters experiences in the previous game, and this is what made it feel individual to me. Then through my interactions with the characters (especially those from the previous game) I felt like I had built bonds with these characters each had there own identities and idiosyncrasies that made them who they were. Now I am well aware such moments where there is no prepared dialogue involved me saying hello hearing the same response then leaving, but it didn't matter these characters didn't need to feel like real people for me to enjoy them. Despite knowing they aren't real and therefore I had no 'real' emotional link to them, when the chance came up I could lose these allies in the final mission I did all I could to prevent fatalities. Which I think is enough I never needed them to be totally lifelike they just needed enough emotion for me to engage with them.
These thoughts are however mainly aimed at those genres which bare a lot of consideration to narrative, genres such as sports and racing games rarely (though occasionally) include a narrative as such the main goal essentially being just to win. Which isn't to say such games don't affect ones emotions, I don't think I could argue the emotional investment all those fans out there put into their games of FIFA with there friends I've seen my own brother undergo an emotional rollercoaster even over the course of one match.
However even as I write this I find myself wondering are these emotional investments that different, is my emotional attachment to my Commander Shephard as we save the galaxy any different to my brothers attachment to his Sheffield Wednesday team as hes playing a tournament with his friends.
Its clear even as I'm only scratching the surface of this deep subject matter that the complexities within shall need to be compartmentalized in some form in order for my understanding to improve. Indeed I may find the ideas which I have fired out here to be anomalous once I start delving further. Firstly I feel I must investigate the enigmatic idea of emotional investment, both towards the characters within the game (eg Mass Effect) and also the investment in the players own action within the game (eg FIFA).
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Level 1 - A New Start....
So this signals the start of the blogging thats particularly important, as I embark on a journey of self development through my masters studies. I suppose these posts will inevitably come across as more serious then any previous blog writing I have done, but I will endeavour to keep them entertaining while also addressing the relevant work. I always think a blog should present itself like it would you speaking, however that rarely seems true in my case due likely in part to my rather fast and frantic method of conversation (Needs to be addressed?).
Anyway so today marked the 'proper' start of my masters studies where we really start doing our own stuff (We were about on friday but it mainly consisted of a tour of Preston, strange Lancashire beer, and parched peas). It did however involve an impromptu session of getting to know the masters classmates I'll be going through this with which was a big plus, and we got on fairly well I would say so thats a bigger plus.
My chosen area of study for my masters will be narrative and gameplay and how they come together, what has been termed as ludonarrative. This will involve more in-depth studies into the 2 individual areas of narratology and storytelling within various mediums and the various elements which make up ludology (the study of games and their design). The 2 areas have sparked a fairly recent line of debating, consisting of 'narratology vs ludology' suggesting which of the 2 is more prevalent, important or even to a degree relevant. At this point in time i'd like to think that neither are mutually exclusive and the potential is within the combination of the 2, however whether this is eventually the case remains to be seen.
Within my studies of these areas I will also look into the 'Silent Protagonist' debate, the conversions between areas of media (eg movie to video game, video game to comic), the effect characters, environment and genre have upon the 2 and other mediums of game such as board games, pen and paper role-playing games and 'choose your adventure' style gamebooks. These studies will then branch to further areas of relevant research which will all ideally contribute to the final body of work (whatever that may be).
After firing out all my related ideas I have chosen for the moment to look into whether the genre of a game impacts the importance of the narrative. Which from the get go I thought sports and puzzle games would be examples of genres which by in large don't feature a large amount of story and rely solely on gameplay or in the case of sports games the faithful recreation of the real sport. Whereas a genre such as an RPG would seem to rely very heavily on narrative which is usually the force which drives the character and enhances the experience in such games.
Well this post has turned out longer then expected but I suppose and introductory post will tend to do that, so for the moment I will continue mt research and post again when any breakthroughs come to mind or when I have enough research to make another blog post necessary.
P.S I'm aware the level system in my titles has a slight wif of cheese but I consider okay when not pushed to the extreme, plus I figure it will be an easy way of documenting my posts in chronological order if for whatever reason I should have to. Also certain elements of my writing may make more sense if emoticons were usual however a friend once informed me they are unprofessional *sad face* (Ignore that relevant last emotion)
Anyway so today marked the 'proper' start of my masters studies where we really start doing our own stuff (We were about on friday but it mainly consisted of a tour of Preston, strange Lancashire beer, and parched peas). It did however involve an impromptu session of getting to know the masters classmates I'll be going through this with which was a big plus, and we got on fairly well I would say so thats a bigger plus.
My chosen area of study for my masters will be narrative and gameplay and how they come together, what has been termed as ludonarrative. This will involve more in-depth studies into the 2 individual areas of narratology and storytelling within various mediums and the various elements which make up ludology (the study of games and their design). The 2 areas have sparked a fairly recent line of debating, consisting of 'narratology vs ludology' suggesting which of the 2 is more prevalent, important or even to a degree relevant. At this point in time i'd like to think that neither are mutually exclusive and the potential is within the combination of the 2, however whether this is eventually the case remains to be seen.
Within my studies of these areas I will also look into the 'Silent Protagonist' debate, the conversions between areas of media (eg movie to video game, video game to comic), the effect characters, environment and genre have upon the 2 and other mediums of game such as board games, pen and paper role-playing games and 'choose your adventure' style gamebooks. These studies will then branch to further areas of relevant research which will all ideally contribute to the final body of work (whatever that may be).
After firing out all my related ideas I have chosen for the moment to look into whether the genre of a game impacts the importance of the narrative. Which from the get go I thought sports and puzzle games would be examples of genres which by in large don't feature a large amount of story and rely solely on gameplay or in the case of sports games the faithful recreation of the real sport. Whereas a genre such as an RPG would seem to rely very heavily on narrative which is usually the force which drives the character and enhances the experience in such games.
Well this post has turned out longer then expected but I suppose and introductory post will tend to do that, so for the moment I will continue mt research and post again when any breakthroughs come to mind or when I have enough research to make another blog post necessary.
P.S I'm aware the level system in my titles has a slight wif of cheese but I consider okay when not pushed to the extreme, plus I figure it will be an easy way of documenting my posts in chronological order if for whatever reason I should have to. Also certain elements of my writing may make more sense if emoticons were usual however a friend once informed me they are unprofessional *sad face* (Ignore that relevant last emotion)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)