Why i cant take inFAMOUS seriously

Causality of Casualty

‘Petz’, ‘Horsez’, ‘Catz’, ‘Petz 2: Go 2 The Zoo.’ The undeniable truth is the casual gamer is taking over the market. But is this a bad thing? Or is it a blessing in disguise. This editorial provides an in-depth look at both sides, as well as the repercussions of re-vamping a creative market. The market is expanding. More people are playing games, more money goes to developers; the game industry is growing. Right?

Many insiders in the entertainment industry are aware of the potential harm an overabundance of poorly developed games being sold to an immature market can cause. The shelves for Nintendo’s popular Wii console are already being filled with no frills iterations and cheap imitations of what few would call “good” games.
The labour, effort and creativity that goes into developing simple titles, or rehashes with differently mapped controls, is not only damaging in its obvious dwarfing of games as a form of “digital art” but also isolating to an audience who is being marginalised due to their commitment and investment.
A Debasement of quality, met with the appraisal of a wider audience, only influences more developers to tack controls onto already licensed games or carefully place a ‘z’ at the end of a 60 minute power point presentation, saved to a DS cartridge. So the “plague” spreads, the shelves fill up with copies of copies, and lazy developers are rewarded with mountains of easily earned dollars.

Indeed blaming developers is a simple way to summarize the problem, but to understand a product, the process itself must be queried. Obvious inspirations such as money, is surely one of the foremost concepts considered by budding businesses. A fair incentive.
“Why drink from a withering well, when a seemingly endless, spring of water has just sprouted from the ground!”
Basically, consumers are supplying developers with a larger profit margin with considerably less expenditure and risk. And so rich is this spring that the directive of a decade spanning progress through quality in gaming, can be ignored for the easily satisfied hunger of a new market.
So with all signs pointing to a revamp of quality under the guise of the new sub genre of ‘casual’ gaming, where do other more committed video game players stand to uphold the tradition they grew up with? What will happen when each and every developer get coerced into creating sub-par games to stay competitive in a market that is at the same time being absorbed by corporate hounds; eager to eliminate competition and dominate the industry as easily as possible; and with as much revenue as well.
In this incredibly pessimistic case the positives of a possible change of production must be considered, if only to stay sane.
With the Nintendo Wii, we are seeing not necessarily a revamp of quality but a reconstruction of priority. With graphical saturation imminent, they have elected to begin a new design model, with a specific accentuation on unique game play. So it is the growing market in this case that is broadening the range of developers and lengthening the longevity of video games as an enjoyable form of entertainment. By broadening the way the race can be run, instead of just running as fast as possible in a singular direction.
Also many fantastic titles have been created since the conception of this new sub-genre, such as new Music simulators, revolutionary sport games, specific XBLA original titles and more.
What will become of the current issue, depends heavily on the movements of the big players in this specific industry, namely the developers and publishers. But this should not de-power you, the consumer. You still have a voice, you keep it in your wallets, you are each an entire economy and a force to be reckoned with, do not let wither what you can help fix. Support the developers who support you, rid yourself of terms like ‘hardcore’ and ‘casual’ instead support the medium as a whole, refuse anything below the already established.
This will indeed help gaming grow.

~ Michele
(complaining)

Exergame - Paperboy

Inspiration:
Paperboy on the Lynx




Gameplay:
Player uses bike pedals and a wiimote to deliver mail to people in the neighbourhood.
Players score a point (money) when they deliver a newspaper to a house.



An example of the exer-gaming interface utilized in 'Paper Boy'.


Players lose money when they either miss a house or throw papers into houses that don’t want paper. Red houses would like a paper, blue do not.

Additionally the player will gain points ($) for hitting various selected parts of estates including: (windows, cats, mailbox etc.)

The game takes place over 7 days (MON – SUN) with each day containing a different arrangement of houses, hills and angered mob – varying speeds and altering strategy.

0 dollars results in a loss and the day is reset

Addition challenges whilst playing include hills.
Hills increase the resistance of the pedals and players must exert themselves further to keep their speed consistent.





An artists render of the game in action (H.U.D included).
The HUD displays the players speed (in either Km/h or M/h), the amount of money available to the player and a position tracker lining the bottom of the image. The tracker allows the player to easily watch out for bullies and other antagonists from behind, whilst also see oncoming hills and ramps.

Challenges
You will be faced with obstacles including being chased by dogs and bullies. These characters serve as the impetus to deliver your mail quickly! Dogs can eat your papers and bullies can steal your money. Don’t let them catch you! (Both these things stop you from obtaining money and can end the game!)


Upgrades
Any points ($) players earn on any given day can be carried over into the next, this increases the players vitality, important to keep in mind as the levels become more difficult.

However, there is also an upgrade store. Before each day starts, players are give the option to spend their newly earned pocket money on upgrades and customizations each with their own special ability.

e.g
Bone- can be thrown at the dogs chasing you to distract them.
Helmet- can give you protection from the projectiles.
Sports Jersey- gives you limited bursts of agility (you can pedal less on hills!)


Multiplayer (Online)
In the online Multiplayer mode there are no opponents chasing you. Instead it is a race to get papers delivered to as many houses as you can before the other player/s do. If another player delivers to a house before you, that house will turn grey and you won’t be able to deliver to it.

There are a limited number of houses and the player with the most successful deliveries wins.


~Michele
(Maths & Physics for Artists - group project)
Design Document ~ Michele Iannello.
Character Customization ~ Leanne Lee & Amanda Bailey.
Animation ~ Adrienne Giuilano.
Art ~ Rhys Weatherburn, Lianne Lee, Amanda Bailey & Dom Atta.

Physicality in interactive media is incredibly difficult to define. Is it the physical reaction or the virtual reaction that governs what we call a physical game? The truth is the definition is governed by parameters and rules, which constantly change. Technology is an example of one of those rules. When you think about “gaming” when our grandparents where young a physical game could have been defined quite easily. The process was enacted physically, the calculations where done personally and the results where demonstrated literally. These days the term “physical gaming” has become skewed due to the increase in rules, which contradict the implied meaning of physicality morphing it into something entirely different. At this current time, by logical definition a physical game does not contrive input from anything that can’t be varied physically. This draws the line quite plainly between games you would see on the Wii and a similar game enjoyed on the Xbox or pc. The ‘Tiger Woods’ golf game is an example of a game that demonstrates across mediums, changes from physical to non-physical gameplay. On the Wii, a literal motion determines the input and the input calculated is varied dependent on your relevant individual strength. The same motion enacted out on a control pad on the Xbox, is not relevant because your strength is assumed, the button press acting as a proxy to a parallel real life activity. The latter version cannot be defined as a physical game because the input is not a literal variable; it is a pre-determined function that is derived from an assumption. This assumption removes the player enough for it to be considered “virtual”.

This hypothesis is all under the consideration that the term ”game” is already defined. Which is an entirely different beast, equally as hard to trap.

~Michele
(maths & physics for artists - tutorial)

Explosive Barrels

(Editorial)

In video game design the explosive barrel has become an integral part of the Action/ Adventure genre. The eternally convenient explosive barrel appears whenever it is needed and its spectacle will always attract large crowds of enemies.

The barrel is one of the most prominent video game motifs and sits firmly alongside the coin. Just as a player instantly recognizes the floating collectible and immediately assumes importance in said collectible. The barrel has become an instantly recognizable symbol of a puzzle solution or offensive set piece.

As a gaming trend "the barrel" is currently suffering from harsh and careless saturation. This is due to its transformation from a literal barrel into a symbol of effect. The barrel no longer has any real world relation and is currently failing to serve its initial purpose. Popular design includes the barrel into its puzzle inventory and uses it to both demonstrate and solve environmental problems, in a plausible and understandable way.

Due to this saturation, it now stands as a point of humor, annoyance and more important laziness.

Please leave a comment below if you too are sick of conveniently placed barrels, the trademark of lazy game design or inversely if you still care for those lovable, cylindrical trouble makers.


And just for the record....


To cause a barrel full of gas or petrol to explode 3 things need to occur. Primarily the barrel needs to be penetrated, there needs to be oxygen present (to burn) and there needs to be heat (to ignite the oxygen and burn the gas). If one of these elements isn't present, no explosion will occur.

- bullets made of lead, very rarely create sparks with steel.
- In order to penetrate the barrel it needs to be full of fuel/gas because of the increase in pressure.
- In order for it to burn it needs to be have enough oxygen in it to ignite.

So the elements that create an explosion need to both be present at the same time. Which given the weapon used is impossible. To actually explode a barrel you would need to use incendiary rounds.

Michele
(man that was pointless)

Ambient Occlusion

Ambient Occlusion is a video game and interactive media based weblog detailing the design trends, imagery and poetry of modern gaming. This space will contain insightful (not really) looks at upcoming and released titles in the form of Micro reviews and analysis' from an aspiring designers point of view. Special attention will be payed to breaking down the mechanics of video games, comparing them to others and illustrating whether or not they are effective. The blog will also work as a visual diary/folio of works and theories, including visual inspirations and appreciation.

Michele.