Games As A Service

A game as a service is a game that will continue to release free live content updates throughout the life cycle of the game, they also will create weekly/monthly events to keep the players interested and coming back to the game.

An example of a game as a service is Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege,

Ubisoft release 2-3 new operators and 1 map every “season” of the game and reset all player ranks which encourages players to return to the game and try to get a higher rank than last time. The new map and operators also offer a new way to play the game as every new operator will completely reshape the meta and how the game is played. An example of this is the most recent season introducing “Clash” the first ever defender to have access to a shield which allows her to block doorways and windows and provide mobile cover for her team. So far this has completely changed how the attacking team will approach a situation when they know the other team is using this character which makes the game a lot more fun to play as there is a constant change.

A way they make money from this is their yearly pass, these are typically £25 and will give you early access to all new characters and other bonuses displayed above.

Rainbow Six Siege was essentially revived due to these updates as upon release it was very basic and got very repetitive, ubisoft then started releasing all of the new seasons and all of the free new content updates and now the game is steadily growing in popularity and hosts E-Sports events with large cash prizes.

 

A game as a service will always have it’s pros and cons though,

The Pros are :

• A Constant stream of FREE new content
• Creates Diversity and encourages new play-styles
• Attracts more players

The Cons are:

• All the new content may be overwhelming to new players
• Bandwidth Caps
• Cosmetics can be purchased for REAL money.

I feel that this type of video game support will be around in the future as it not only makes the game developers and publishers more money but it allows fans to have more time with the game they have grown to know and love and prevents them having to give out another forty to fifty pounds for a whole new game, like a sequel, when they can just work on improving the original.

Video game publishers such as Ubisoft and Rare have already adopted this into their recent titles and its only a matter of time until other developers will follow suit.

Sea of thieves created by Rare, includes no micro transactions in the game and releases new content updates and player events on a regular schedule. I hope that this is how all games will be in the future as I feel that including micro transactions into your game creates an uneven field and rewards players who would rather use their credit card rather than actually playing the game.

 

The Uses and Gratifications Theory In Media

Diversion

Diversion acts as a way to distract the user from their real life struggles by diverting their attention to the form of media, this could be when someone is going through a rough patch in their lives and so turn to video games as an escape.

Personal Identity 

Media has an effect on Personal Identity as it could improve you as a person by making you more confident or knowledgeable, it is proven that gamers tend to have a better hand to eye co ordination than non gamers. The type of person you are will also play a role in determining your preferred genre of game, this being that you could let off steam in a game like GTA where you can break all the laws with no real life repercussion.

Personal Relationships

Media has an effect on Personal Identity as it acts as a way to boost ego when you reach a higher rank than your friends or get a better score etc.

You could go for 100% completion on a game where you want to find all of the hidden collectibles and unlock all of the achievements and proudly display this on your profile to show other players the work you put in to earning all of these.

Surveillance

Surveillance is a way of gathering information. This is done through media by Twitch Streams, YouTube Videos etc. This could also be reading a blog or magazine as a way to intake information about upcoming forms of media such as a movie trailer or a article about a video game leak which gives the reader exclusive information about an upcoming video game.

 

 

Weenies In Video-games and Real Life

What is a weenie?

A Weenie is a sort of reference point in a level that serves the purpose of navigation and draws you towards it.

Walt Disney used weenies in Disneyland and Disney world by placing the Disney Castle in the center of each park so that wherever you are, you will always know your way back.

Here is a layout of Disneyland Paris, you can clearly see each Weenie for each section of the park, they will usually be the first things you see when you look over to each area and will draw you in.

Subconscious directions

In video games like the last of us and Uncharted we are fed subconscious indicators which will direct us to our goal, they will usually be small indicators that we do not realize we have picked up on, this could be a small ray of light from a window or an arrow on a street sign. Where it blends into the environment we do not realize that these are guiding us to a location.

An example of this is the bridge in The Last Of Us.

Research into Sound, Visual and interactive media in games

Sound

Sounds in games are typicall recorded by foley artists to give a professional, crisp and quality result in the finished product.

What Is a Foley Artist?

A Foley Artist is a sound artist who creates their own sounds by using a variety of different resources and materials.

What do they do?

They make anything from footsteps to a car crashing through a wall. To achieve the sound of walking they will use the type of surface the game or film is using and make loud footstep sounds on it which can be synced up with the movie or game to make it seem real.

Pros of using Foley Artists as sound –

Gets the unique sound that the person wants.

Non copyrighted sounds, less risk.

Higher Quality –> Well made.

Gives the person greater control over how the sound comes out (They can choose exactly what they want it to sound like)

No external interruption (Cars, birds, ambient sounds etc)

Cons of using Foley Artists as sound –

More expensive than open source sounds, got to rent the equipment and pay the artists.

Takes longer to get the right sound, a variety of materials and resources are used for more complicated sounds.

How does creating sound effects for games differ from creating sound effects for film?

Creating sounds for games would be easier as they wouldn’t have to sound as realistic as it would in a film, In a film if someone is walking down a street it needs to sound like real pavement to trick the viewer into believing it is real.

Whereas, if a Foley Artist is making sounds for a game they can be a bit more free with their sounds designs.

 

How can audio be optimised for video games?

A variety of sample rates, bit depths and can be recorded in either mono or stereo, mono sounds are single channel sounds meaning you cant get things such as surround sound whereas with stereo its multiple channel sounds meaning you can get a 360degree sound so it could sound like things are all around you to give better immersion. Stereo sounds work better for videogames to give the player the feeling that they are really there and also as a powerful tool for competitive games where a player can listen for another players footsteps.

How has sound processing on video game platforms evolved over time?

In the early days of videogames, when they used arcade machines, the way to get music was to use digital means, where a specific computer chip would change electrical impulses from computer code into analog sound waves on the fly for output on a speaker, they were not of very good quality but were better than using cassettes as extreme usage would cause them to break meaning they wouldn’t work on arcade machines. It was all mono sounds. An example of this is Pac Mans famous song.

Around the year of 1980 videogames started to use sampled sounds, Rally – X was the first game to start this trend by using a digital to analogue converter (a system that converts a digital signal into an analog signal.) which produced sample tones instead of the original tone generator.

When frequency modulation synthesis was released this allowed the tones to be manipulated to have different sound characteristics, where before the tone generated by the chip was limited to the design of the chip itself. This gave the sound designers a lot more freedom to create unique sounds and give the game its own personality.

The third generation of game consoles used 8-Bit audio (the 8-bit era) came about when japan released the family computer which had up to five channel mono PSG audio.

With the release of this we saw many beloved gaming consoles released such as the master system and the atari 7800.

8-Bit themes were a large step forward for the gaming industry and gave us many theme tunes that are iconic to all gamers today, including the original Mario Bros theme and Space Invaders.

After the 8-Bit era better hardware allowed us to move up the 16-Bit processors and 16-Bit audio, The fourth generation of videogame consoles. Where we saw consoles such as the mega drive and genesis. Which were homes to games such as mortal Kombat and Sonic The Hedgehog. This went to 32-Bit and so on until we got to the 128-Bit sixth generation which had the Playstation 2 gaming console, a staple of every millennials childhood which boasted 48 hardware channels of ADPCM on SPU2 plus software-mixed definable, programmable channels with a sampling frequency of  44.1 kHz or 48 kHz.

 

Visual elements in games

Games use visual media to feed information to the player such as a red flashing screen to indicate that they are low on health or text that gives the player an instruction such as not enough ammo or the “Press E to interact”

Visual elements are a good way to give feedback to the player because it blends in with the game and helps improve the flow and dynamic of the game because the player will know what to do at any given time, an example of a visual element in a game is the HUD in call of duty,

We can see here the character is hurt, they have 22 bullets in their gun and they have just killed a player and received 100 points for doing so, the hud looks natural to the game and will help create a more casual feel as information is constantly being fed to the player.

 

Interactive media in games

Interactive media in games is whenever the player is in charge of the game, whether it be simply moving or during a quick-time event, all of gaming is interactive media.

Interactive media will always a have a response to your actions, if what you do is wrong in a game then the likely outcome will be that your character will die but if you do something right then you will progress further on into the level.

It is a good way to keep the player interested and feed them information whilst playing the game.

Sound In Games

Pentatonic Scales 

A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, this can be used to indicate success or failure within a videogame with a rising or descending pitch. E.G – Completing a Zombies Easter Egg Stage.

Non-Linear 

Non Linear sound is a sound that follows no set pattern, they are random and are used in horror games to give an unsettling atmosphere and keep the player reminded of the constant danger. E.G – Resident Evil 7

Adaptive Sound 

Music that changes based on what the players actions are in a game, whether an enemy is near or the player is safe. E.G – ARK Dinosaur Encounter

 

 

Game Media Theories

The Hypodermic Needle Theory – The theory that information is given off and directly taken in by the consumer, this isn’t as reliable because we don’t always consciously take on information.

Uses and Gratifications Theory – This is the theory that looks how the targets take on information and integrate them into their normal lives, subconsciously or consciously.

Receptions Theory – Reception Theory is the personal interpretation of a piece of given information and how they use the data.

 

Trends

Today in Game Theory we looked at popular trends in the gaming industry in the last 5 years so that we can compare to our own ideas to see what people will enjoy and make sure the ideas are not out of date.

I created a mind map to help to visualize this process.

Types Of Research

There are 4 main types of research: Primary and Secondary; Qualitative and Quantitative.

Primary research is research that you carry out yourself which involves gathering new data that has not been collected before. For example, surveys using questionnaires or interviews.

Secondary research is information that has been previously collected which can be obtained for your own use, e.g an online survey.

Qualitative research is research using words such as interviews and questionnaires; Quantitative research uses numbers such as graphs and charts.

An advantage of using primary research is that it is your own and it is new which represents latest trends.

Secondary research is cheaper but may be outdated or redundant. This means that it could be wrong.

Qualitative research is more in depth and gives you a better idea of consumer demands.

Quantitative is quicker to collect and gives you a general idea of consumer needs.

To utilize these methods of research I will see how other video game developers resolve certain issues and look at special features of their game and take “inspiration” from their ideas. I will also look at the game reviews to see what worked well and what people disliked about the game.

This would be qualitative and quantitative research because I can check % of positive reviews compared to negative and read what peoples feedback are then I will use their reviews to improve my own game.

Horror Games

What are the elements that make a horror game?

A horror game will typically be very dimly lit with only few light sources to give the environment a eerie feel and discomfort the user. It will be accompanied by a soundtrack that speeds up to indicate danger or will raise in volume.

Jump scares are also a key part of any horror game as it causes constant tension and stress. It will also make the player more afraid as they would not want to be jump scared again. Jump scares usually will be the enemy in your face screaming or making some type of sound.

 

This is an example from the game Resident Evil 7 which is a first person horror puzzle game. This is the first main enemy you encounter and one of the first jump scares in the game.

Resident Evil 7 is a very good horror game from my experience as it has very dark themes mostly relying on little light and sounds to navigate the old house. It also has a very eerie soundtrack which accompanies the game’s settings perfectly.

Like most horror games though after the first 15 minuets you get used to the jump scares and start to expect them.

Horror games tend to be successful because it gives a different feel to other video games where you feel genuine fear whilst playing even though you recognize it as a game. They also get very good publicity as many YouTubers will create content based from the games such as pewdiepie who gave life to games such as  “Amnesia: The Dark Descent”.

Video game publishers will also keep information in marketing materials slim so that the player will not have much of an idea what to expect. It will typically be some form of art or a small quote which is meant to leave the player curious

.

This is an example of the main art of Resident Evil 7.

Mind Map For My Game Ideas.

Today I was using Bubbl.us to create a mind map of my own game, I started off by creating sub lines of each main aspect of my game, ranging from the story to a loot system I would like to include.

The overall description of the game is –  “Zombies have taken over the world, you and a team of 3 will need to work together to defeat said zombies whilst fighting off another team in round based survival combat. You will have to use loot you obtain through killing zombies and level up to unlock your abilities, at the end of the wave based rounds both teams will fight to the death in “no mans land””

So far I have the main aspects noted but I still need to work on character designs such as costumes and their weapons. So far I have one weaker but faster character designed. I will also need to decide which art style I want to work on and currently I am interested in making it a realistic, gritty setting as if a war has just happened, this means there will be faded colours, ruins and lots of destruction.

I would like to develop on my level design as so far I only have basic concepts with no detail to them. I feel that this is important because without a level my game will be useless.

 Using a mind map has helped me to develop ideas because it allows me to break everything down into subsections and them work on them by branching them out to other ideas that I have had.

I will use this mind map during my development process as a checklist to tick off everything I wanted to include.