Wednesday 26 September 2012

Technology Issues - PG02-02 (Cycle 1) Game Genre / Storytelling (26 September 2012)

gamesindustry.biz
* Crowdfunding platform Gambitious

Team - flexible roles:
Artist
Narrator
Games Designer
Director

5 mins to pitch a game that is missing.

Give team a 20 mins presentation pitch
what game you would like to make.

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Genre
Narrative

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Think small
Indie game
4 weeks of working on game as a team

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Next week 3: Looking at Games and Popular Culture

Keep playing other games, look for originality, what is missing in the market, unique concept.

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Genre:
1.Puzzle Game

2.Board Game

3.Role playing Game

4.Rhythm Game

5.Military Turn Based Games

6.MMOG

7.Narrative Game

8.Interactive Fiction Game - played Zork


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DanceDance - which genre? Rhythm Game.

- Keep reading Henry Jenkins

- Look at Zeitgeist - spirit of time, looks at cultural word

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- Eliza - AI narrative, typing feedback - http://www.downloadgamesfree.com/eliza

- Detective/Storytelling Game

- Doom

- Myth - Island

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Melancholic about old times

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Zork, 1977, big on Apple

Arpanet

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1.Action Adventure Game, Zelda, N64

2.Interactive Fiction Game, Zork, Apple

3.Role playing Game, Dragon Age

4.MMOG, World of Warcraft.

5.Ultimate Reality Game, Final Fantasy.

6.Alternate Reality Game, World without Oil - social issues, moral issues, philosophy.
- changes thinking
- what is the purpose

7.Action Game, Doom, First person shooter / Quake

With doom and game, art of 'machinima' - movies with game platform.

8.Fighting Games, Street Fighter

9.Sport Games, Gran Turismo / Need for Speed / Football

10.SMUCK, R-Type.

11.Simulation Games, SIMS / SIM City / SecondLife / Habbo Hotel / Farmville

12.Real-time Strategy Games, EVE,

13.Military Turn Based Games, Empire Total War, Age of Empires

14.God-Games, World Turn Based Strategy Game, Black and White.

15.Puzzle Games - Tetris

16.Word Games

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Choose where the game fits -
Narrative,
Simluation
Action
Others

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How did Game Genre develop?
---------------------------------------------
1.Technology
- with a need to push technology
2.Culture
- some are developing through popular culture
3.Zeitgeist
4.Transmedia - other forms of media provide backbone for the game.
World Events

Within the Genre, what is the biggest market?
Depends on the platform.
Can you separate the genre into audiences?

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Pick a Digital Genre.
Rhythm Game

Move over from games to 3D
Adding texture to games
First person shooter - started

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Debates around video games to mimic real life war situations

What video games teach children

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Call of Duty - Games and Violence

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Look at Indie Games

Look at Educational Games

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Playstation, Little Big Planet - 8 year olds
Allows you to design levels, and people will test them.
User-contributed content

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Anyone can design a game!

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Design a game in 5 weeks

Karl - Character designer
Masses of Pies, incubator company at Ravensbourne
3D games
characters
software working with, 3
unity3D
Matt - Game Designer/UI - likes theory of fun, pressure/pain points
6 mini games, 50MB game download limit

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pitch to a crowd funding site

design a bit of the game, design a moodboard.

approaching brands - toy manufacturer. traditionally 2D.
convince them that they need digital.
thinking about the end user. - user journey.
market research. - profile of a typical user.

company was protective - about market research, signed NDA.

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UDK - 2d

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part 2

Games and Storytelling
- Henry Jenkins - Game Design as Narrative Architecture

Ludology - just game mechanics
Narrative - storytelling

How Storytelling work within games?

How to think about writing for games?

Nick Momfort - Characteristics of Games Studies

Look at game types:
- Bejewelled - puzzle type game
- Dectective story

Games are not films

Mouse Maze - a bit like a narrative

What is different to traditional storytelling?

Components of Game Narrative:
Inputs:
- Commands (in the world)
- diegetic or hypodiegetic (stories within stories)
- Directives - (about the program)
- extradiegetic

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Example -
Inputs - controls
Directives - clues, signs
Outputs - feedback

Outputs:
Replies - diegetic or hypodiegetic
Reports - extradiegetic

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Characters and Related Types:
Player(s)
NPC - not playing character
Other Person

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Game Spaces and Narrative Architecture:
Evocative Spaces
Enacting Stories
Broad Goals - for the space, new scenes
Localised Incidents - prince of persia, what can and cannot be done in the space

Embedded narratives

Games as an information space
discovered, structured,
and restructured by the player

Emergent narratives - World of Warcraft

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Assassin's Creed - based on an italian city, architectural world
Evocative space

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Borderlands - also evocative space.

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Games and Narrative Levels - Gonzalo Frasca

Level 1: representation and events (what happens)
Level 2: manipultation modes (what the player can do)
Level 3: goal rules (what the player must do to win)
Level 4: meta-rules (what player modifications to other three level are allowed)

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Constructing the Story - Joseph Cambell

The hero's Journey
Three parts to the journey:

- The Departure
- The Initiation
- The Return

Look at Zelda

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Vladimir Propp - Looks at Character Roles

Main Characters:
Protagonist (Hero)
Antagonist (Villain)
Dispatcher (who sends hero on the journey)
Donor (who will provide with items)
Helper
Person Sought-For
False Protagonist (False Hero)

Supporting Characters:

Family Members
Connectors

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Experience in storywriting?

Discussion: Propp's lists are easy to learn
- many are non-linear

Can you apply Propp consistenty if the hero is female?

Basic Screenplay Paradigm (Field)

Act 1
Act II
Act III

Lee Sheldon -

1. Linear Storytelling

2. Branching Stories - ie.Fable

3. Controlled Branching - open up, then narrow, open up, then narrow.

4. Web Stories

5. Modular Storytelling - no connections, have completed all states.

6. Modular Storytelling in Action - completion criteria

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Think about a philosopher - one sentence - find one.

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The Art of Computer Games Design - by Chris Crawford

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Michael

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Write up blog
Look for Reading List
Put together a concept for the game
Put together answers from the notes

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Evaluating NintendoDS to try out.

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Looking at 3D Game - end of the day, with Kieron, Peter and Britta.












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