Dragons Flying Backwards

With games getting so amazingly complex, glitches come natural. Having your console working with the internet, your game will never have to suffer permanent programming mistakes like they use to.
Skyrim is a fantastic game! But IT has glitches as well. Even when they fixed one problem another occurred.
Watch this video. Dragons are now flying backwards.

The Artist

In response to Bob's post.

Check out the trailer.

If you look at games like LA Noir I definitely see the artistry of "The Artist" showing up in video games. Over the last 10 years artists have had more and more creative input in the video game industry. The writing/dialogue has become much better. Voice over work has become more impressive and with technology improving the freedom to be more artistic visually is becoming endless.

Here's a screen shot of LA Noir.

Presenting

There was so much discussion on "Presentation" last time, I feel we should have had a whole lecture dedicated on that. Just a thought.

I mean the idea is only as good as the lecture.

I hope this next one will be better.

Team One Presentation

Dear Class,

For those of you who saw our Tam One dry-run presentation, any suggestions on how to make it better?

Big thanks on behalf of Team One,

Bob

The Artist

Dear Gang,

I recently saw the feature film, "The Artist," it's in B & W with no dialogue, spare a half a dozen at the end. The film is carried by the beauty of the images, performances, and a great musical score. It been well-received.

I'm probably crazy to ask, but does anyone see a place for this aesthetic approach in video game development?

Would this approach open up video game market to other demographics?

Best, Bob

Suggested Screenwriting Books

Dear Gang,

While those of us in the screenwriting program have libraries full of screenwriting books, I thought those of you on the animation side and elsewhere might enjoy some titles I have enjoyed:

From UCLA Faculty:

Essentials of Screenwriting by Richard Walter

Writing Screenplays that Sell the Ackerman Way by Hal Ackerman

Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434 by Lew Hunter

Former UCLA Faculty:

Re-write by Paul Chitlik (it's a great intro to basics, not only re-writing.)

Others:

Story by Robert McKee

Save the Cat by Blake Snyder

Writing for Emotional Impact by Karl Iglasias

Screenplay: Writing the Picture by Robin Russin and William Downs

Writing the Character Centered Screenplay by Andy Horton

Writing Screenplays that Sell by Michael Hague

While these books are not the only books out there, they are all excellent. I suggest that you go to Amazon and read what is said about them to see which is the best fit for your personal tastes/objectives. Likewise, I am happy to answer any questions you have on them.

Enjoy, Bob

Believable Characters

Ign.com posted an interesting article about characters and storytelling in modern gaming mentioning several games discussed in class:

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/121/1213415p1.html

There's a certain part of me that doesn't see the video game industry evolving much farther than it already has in terms of story. Games inevitably will improve, change, provide new semblances of gameplay--but there's a certain security blanket that Hollywood has adopted that video games seem to have taken on as well: the blockbuster, the hero caper, the art house, etc. Both platforms/medias have it. Sometimes a game slips through the cracks that blows us all away (an indie sleeper), but even the days of graphical explosions has diminished with the need to garner a wider market.

Gameplay and the ability to better immerse the player seems the way of the console/PC. The new Zelda game has garnered rave reviews and is said to be the future of motion controls. Rumors about the next generation Kinect having lip reading technology has sent the internet abuzz. Has storytelling reached a zenith when it comes to gaming, or are the new ways of telling the same story a way unto itself?

Transmedia and video games

Hey Gang, I was researching Jeff Gomez the CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, a transmedia company and thought it provided an interesting perspective and learning opportunity on the larger context of cross platform storytelling which includes video games. Enjoy.

http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2011/04/11/5-questions-with-jeff-gomez-ceo-starlight-runner-entertainment

Titles

Hey Gang, Does anyone have thoughts on what makes for a great game title? Simplicity? Irony? Vividness?

Principal Office reference images

Here are some images to help us create the principal's office with its judge's bench twist -- just one of the gameplay rooms in our school.

Beauty in simplicity

A lot of you might already know this game, but I was recently introduced to it by my friend and has been enjoying playing this game so much that I wanted to share it with you.
Minecraft


This game is a survival & creative game where you dig and build whatever you want. There are some creatures that come at you at night like zombies, skeltons and self-exploding creature called "creepers".

As you can see, the world is made up with 8bit blocks so the visual is very simple. The great thing is every time you start a journey, the game will generate a new world that is completely original, so no two players have a same world. The world can be as big as eight times the size of the earth. Eight times!!
The game play is very intuitive once you get into it, but it is hard until you get used to recipes of creating tools you need for different purposes. So if you are interested in playing, I highly recommended watching some of you-tube videos that teach some methods. Also here is a wiki page that has all the info about the game. Wiki

There are many things we can learn from a success of this game. For example, customizability(is there a word?) of this game is beyond imagination. People create not only their own castles but models from different films and games from scratch. There are even some people that created some simple forms of computers inside the game. Also, you can make your own textures for each materials so the look of the world could be different. There are no limitation to speak of.
While most games nowadays strive for hi-res images and pretty effects, this game has pretty much went back time. There is something calming about seeing 8-bit images. Even with this primitive graphics, I often find myself scared to death or amazed with the beauty.
You can play on servers with people or play offline and dive into your own world.

As we go into the final polish for our projects, this game might be a nice refresh and pure fun to take your mind off from the work.

Close Combat

The following is a link from a pretty intense boxing game, which was one of my childhood favorites- Mike Tyson's "Punch Out." Could give us some ideas about how characters could defend themselves once they've run out of bullets. Very simple, but I submit it as food for thought. I wasted countless ours of my childhood playing this game.


http://youtu.be/hu69QEH


Dorian

What is Winning?

In most games you follow the traditional story arc: introduction to gameplay/basics, multiple quests in ascending order of difficulty, reaching a tragic low point quickly followed by a final fight against the source of all evil (followed by credits). A game like Skyrim (and most of the Elder Scrolls games), however, has multiple avenues for "success." You can jump into the main quest and perform all of the actions desired of you--or you can ignore it entirely. You can explore the world and take quests as they come to you. Winning becomes leveling up to a certain point, defeating a Daedric god you would have no idea existed if you stuck to the main quest--you have an open world sandbox where winning isn't a one-path-solves-all. Morrowind (the third game in the series) can even be beaten in 11 minutes (you can find a playthrough on youtube) simply because you have the freedom to go wherever you want and create almost anything within the world.

Now, this argument leaves out sports games, racers, etc., but the gaming industry as a whole has adopted the Hollywood structure when it comes to constructing a majority of their games. As Joey said in class, it has become THE industry for storytelling. And yet, what is Skyrim in terms of film comparison? Does it have one?

Cliche' and Analysis

Hello All,

One of my favorite websites is Cracked.com. For gamers, I think it is an absolute must because it not only has massive amounts of funny articles concerning video games but also these articles often cut to real human truths concerning modern games.

Here's the link followed by some article-specific links you should definitely try.

http://www.cracked.com/

Strange trends in gaming.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-6-most-ominous-trends-in-video-games/

Laws of Gaming

http://www.cracked.com/article_16196_the-7-commandments-all-video-games-should-obey.html

Thanks,

JOey

EXODUS version1.5 -another side-

a total remake of the beta version - changed a lot, so try it out if you have time

probably gonna take around 30 min if you are familiar with flying games.

http://solid-jellyfish.com/exodus

Where do I have to go now?

Designing the interface certain things like guidance come up. As a group we've never discussed how the player guides themselves towards a chosen mission.

In Skyrim they make it difficult by turning the trail finding ability into a clairvoyance spell with a limited charge depending how powerful you are. At times it'll show you a path but you have to figure out how to follow it.

















In Fable they make it easy for you by having a glittery golden trail towards the chosen mission. In your preferences you can turn it off if it's annoying or you would like it more difficult.





















I don't think our character needs magic, but I do think that it would be neat if the path finding ability wasn't to straight forward.

So, how does she find her way?

Acting/ Directing in Video Games

Can anybody speak to the acting/directing of the cut scenes?

In all the cut scenes I see of video games, the directing doesn't seem very cinematic; there are a lot of gaps in action and in-organic dialogue.

 I understand there are limitations in video games and game play comes first, but in animation (which this technically is) there is normally complete control over performance.

Thoughts?

Let's Play...The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Hello Everyone!

I've posted a new walkthrough in the "Let's Play" section for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Amazing world. Check it out:

Who loves stealing shit?

Sly 4. That's all I have to say. Check out the game play with the developer commenting.

Click here.

Minor Character Design #2

Another one of the possessed children the main character saves. He had friends who were bullies and were willing to make him a scapegoat, so his greatest fear was being caught and sent to the principal. He is the shortest and fastest one.