Tuesday 13 December 2016

Unit 6: Critical approaches to creative media products

Unit 6: Critical approaches to creative media products


Task 1    


Title: DayZ

Genre: Multiplayer, Survival Horror, First Person Shooter, Sandbox

Selection of Content: Post Apocolyptic, Exploration

Construction of Content: Co Op and competitive multiplayer.

Narrative Conventions: No real story, make a story as you play

Codes and Conventions: Health, ammo, hunger and hydration levels, limited inventory space. cooperate with other players or fight against them

Target Demographic: Young adults



Title: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (Zombies)

Genre: First Person Shooter, Co Op multiplayer, survival horror

Selection of Content: Post Apocolyptic, Endless, Generally dark

Construction of Content: Gameplay driven, obscure story

Narrative Conventions: Survival, live as long as possible, Hidden story discovered through obscure secrets

Codes and Conventions: Round based, Regenerating Health, Perks, Ammo, No ending

Target Demographic: young adults to adults (18-30)


Title: Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Genre: First Person Shooter, Survival horror, Stealth

Selection of Content: Exploration Based, abandoned locations, invasions.

Construction of Content: Linear

Narrative Conventions: Alien Klowns have invaded Earth

Codes and Conventions: Health, ammo, melee combat, stealth

Target Demographic: Young adults to adults 16+ (Including fans of the original movie)

Task 2

Media Text: Media text is different forms of media that can be used as advertisements for the game such as posters, trailers and ads in a newspaper or magazine. The effectiveness of these ads depends on the type of advertisement and the location of the ad, for example with Call of Duty it is a big franchise so there would be a lot of advertisements in places where people are more likely to see them such as posters and trailers online and on TV. DayZ mainly relied on trailers to represent itself as it isn't as accessible as Call of Duty and has a smaller fanbase in general, most of which would be on the internet a lot which is a common place for ads, for My game if it was a bigger game that would be published by a big company I would use primarily trailers and posters ad there would be seen by a big amount of people.

Genre: Game genres are styles of games that vary from each other in terms of gameplay which creates different experiences for example a first person shooter is vastly different from a 2D platformer as one takes place in a first person point of view whilst the other is viewed from the side, they each have different objectives with 2D platformers it's usually to reach the end of the level whilst shooters will generally involve a specific objective such as getting more kills than the enemies or killing a specific enemy. The two example games I used as well as my own game are all shooters however Day Z can switch between first and third person and is also a sandbox. Black Ops 2 Zombies is a mix of shooter and survival horror whilst my game is a first person shooter with elements of stealth.

Selection of Content: The selection of content consists of the main assets in the game such as graphics, sounds, sequences and fonts. These 3 games all have a similar theme, being post apocolyptic. Call of Duty and DayZ both take place after the main damage has been done but my game will take place at the very beginning as the goal will be to stop the Klowns causing an apocolypse. The sounds of all of these games consist of eerie sounds to give more atmosphere such as zombie groans(or klown laughs in the case of my game), weather such as thunder or rain and wind blowing the trees around. In terms of graphics the games all have a photo realistic style to them to help add to the horror aspect as a cartoony style would degrade from that.

Construction of Content: This is the way the game is set out, for example DayZ is an online multiplayer game with a big open world to explore and no story to follow, you are essentially making up the story yourself. The Zombies mode in Call of Duty consists of an endless amount of waves of zombies to survive, this can b e done either solo or with up to 3 more players, there is a story but it isn't told through normal gameplay but is instead found through secrets in the map that are only hinted at by some very minor dialogue which is easily missed by most players however it is not needed to fully enjoy the game. My game will be fairly linear and will have the player simply move from point A to point B in one piece, the story will be told through cutscenes.

Codes and Conventions: These can be subgenres of games such as first and third person, they also include things such as the HUD (Heads Up Display) for example in Call of Duty Black Ops 2's Zombie mode the HUD is very minimalist with it only directly showing your points, ammo and the wave that you are on. Things such as health can only be determined by the amount of blood on the borders of your screen, the more blood visible, the lower your health is. In DayZ the HUD only shows what you have in your hands, the rest is within the inventory screen such as your ammo, hydration levels and hunger levels. when losing health the screen will turn black and white and eventually will go to a black screen when your character is dead or unconscious. The HUD in my game will be simple and easy to recognise, it will include a green health bar and an ammo counter.

Target Demographic: The target demographic for a game is the type of person or age group that the game is aimed at and will get the most enjoyment out of it. The target demographic for Day Z was young adults to adults (18+) whereas Call of Duty was seemingly aimed more at teenagers to adults (despite the age rating of 18+ many people younger than 18 are known to play the game and seem to be the majority of the playerbase). My game is aimed at mainly teenagers to young adults(16+) but fans of the original movie may also get some enjoyment from the game.







Friday 25 November 2016

Unit 69 - Assignment 1: Drawing concept art for computer games

                                       Unit 69 - Drawing concept art for computer games

Concept art shows the ideas people have for a game such as layouts of buildings or character designs, these will usually be based off of some descriptions given to the artist, once the design is finished changes can be made accordingly.

Examples:
The Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare concept art shown below is a first look at the main hub area of the campaign, as you can see it is not fully polished as it is just for demonstration but it shows enough to link it with the final design. For the design brief the artist was tasked with creating "an inter-orbital aircraft carrier that would function as a fully interactive player hub experience". This artwork and more can be found at http://conceptartworld.com/news/call-duty-infinite-warfare-concept-art-mike-hill/










Overwatch has many diverse characters that fit into its somewhat cartoon-like world which uses a cell shaded art style , some of which went through some very big changes during their concept art phase. One of these was the decision to split one character into two siblings, The original design for Genji had him use both a sword and a bow but due to how different his two weapons were and how they might affect gameplay, he was split into the newer Genji, still wearing the original helmet and using a sword and shurikens, and his brother Hanzo who took the bow from the original design.

Another set of major changes was to Pharah who went through different colour schemes, body types and even different genders. She was always depicted using a rocket launcher and being able to fly so the changes were to the character herself instead of anything gameplay related. As shown below the changes to her character were very obvious, she has had possibly one of the most different incarnations in the cast of characters
There were a quite a few stages of D.Va's design however most of the changes were to her mech as D.Va herself reached her final design in stage 3 whereas the mech took 5 stages to reach its final design. The early concept art shows the mech to look more humanoid than the final design which is designed to look similar to a rabbit.



The final designs for most of the Overwatch cast can be found at https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/media/


Below is some concept art for Sonic the Hedgehog, as you can see from this Sonic was originally a very cartoony looking rabbit, he then made the transition into a hedgehog, the first hedgehog design featured more sharp looking edges and an angry look on his face, at this point in time his name was Mr Needlemouse but as time progressed Sonic gained a more rounded look with less spines on his back and a slightly less serious face as he was being marketed to an american audience and this was more appealing to a wider age group as to attract a bigger audience, it was also at this time he was given the name Sonic.


Source: http://www.sonicretro.org/2016/06/never-before-seen-concept-art/

Below is concept art for Mega Blaziken from the Pokemon games, the concept art shows different aspects of the final design such as the feathers on the back of its head which give it a more streamlined appearance which fits the theme of speed which is a common trait of this Pokemon. at the edges of the picture you can see concept art of the individual limbs to get a better view of smaller details.There are also samples of patterns and colour schemes to the side.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_TbNczXAAARYar.png



Tuesday 11 October 2016

Analyzing 3D modelling, animation and environments


What are 3D models used for?

3D models are used in many different forms of media such as TV, Games, Movies etc, they can be used to create a character or object to place into a game environment and later can be animated, however they aren't only used for games as they can be used to 3D print objects in real life, create plans when creating new buildings or make animated videos which would be used for special effects such as explosions  and fire and characters. which could then be applied to a model of the body and limbs to create a character model to put inside a game or movie ready to be animated in order to enhance the quality and fluidity of the character. This only applies to 3D games/movies as 2D animations use sprites instead of models.




Flow chart of 3D modelling

Mesh Construction
One of the most popular pieces of 3D modelling software is Maya (other examples being Cinema 4D and AutoCAD)which is where the meshes will be made. the mesh is the collection of edges, vertices and faces to make the 3D model. where you start with a simple shape and slowly modify it to become the finished product as shown in the picture below where a box was modified bit by bit to look like a human head as seen with the wireframes, this called box modelling and usually consists of extruding faces of the shape outwards until it looks more like the object you are making, then smaller details are added such as the nose and mouth if making a face for example.
a box being made into a model of a human head





Image result for mesh construction









Geometric Theory
Geometric theory is the collection of all the components of a 3D model such as edges(lines connected to the vertices), vertices(corners of each face), polygons(the shapes containing the faces), surfaces(the shapes that make up the object and will have textures on them)and faces(the shapes that go around the edges), these all form to create an element(the finished object)


Shaders
Pixel and vertex shaders are both GPUs(Graphics Processing Unit) that can add shading to an environment in different ways. none of them are better than the other as they are just different styles of shading, vertex shades can be used to add cartoony silhouettes to the edges of the environment as seen in borderlands. Pixel shaders are used to create more realistic shaders by adding extra details such as facial hair to characters or adding more texture to objects using the shading. Generally most software can use both types of shading

vertex shading

pixel shaders
Graphics
Direct3D and OpenGL are APIs(Application Programming Interface) that are used to render 3D graphics in games. these APIs enable features such as mipmapping, HLSL shaders and spatial anti-aliasing which will improve the overall picture.The diagram below shows how Direct3D renders 3D graphics.


Constraints
Making and rendering 3D models can be a lengthy process and takes up lots of memory which will mean you should get an external hard drive when working with 3d models as you could easily run out of memory, your PC should also be fairly high end to be able to run these programs at a stable framerate

3D development Software
3D development software is what you can make 3D models in, examples are maya, 3D Studio Max, AutoCAD and lightwave. 3D models are usually saved in the following formats: .3DS, .B3D and .OBJ

3D Models in architecture
3D models can be used to create prototypes for buildings as you can recreate the plan without having to actually build anything, when the planning is


https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476882%28v=vs.85%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/832545/what-are-vertex-and-pixel-shaders

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct3D

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476882%28v=vs.85%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

https://yellowdog.co/2016/01/28/which-is-the-best-render-engine/

Wednesday 5 October 2016

Killer Klowns game brief


Level Design Idea.
Plot: A man/woman was abandoned by a taxi driver on the road, due to some issue with the road ahead. The character is given directions quickly before the driver drove away. The character (man/woman) then travels through a natural environment (Level 1). In this level you are introduced with combat, due to a wild animal wanting to kill you. Then finally you arrive at a village (Level 2) The character wants to find the reason on why most of the population of the village has left so suddenly. With t problems talking to the villagers due to them locking themselves in there homes. the character then sets of to the main square, which he finds a clown in centre of. The clown then fights you with some help of other clowns. When the clowns are killed one of the villagers shouts you over and explains. The person explains on the history of the village and the "Killer Clowns" and where they live. This then takes you to the "Killer Clown tent" (Level 3). The villager that most of population didn't leave and in fact have been taken. Your objective is to collect (save) them before they are killed. When all the villagers are safe the character/player has to fight the boss in which eventually killed all the clowns in the place.

Weapons: Mostly melee but the odd fire-arm
Guns are less likely to be found compared to the melee weapons and so you will have to explore the game more to find these weapons.

Genre: Third Person-Shooter (with some other styles involved in mid-game).
It also allows free-roam which you can explore the map in more depth.

Platform: This would be made primarily for PC, yet could work for other platforms such as the console or mobile device.

The Main Screen:
When in the main screen for the game it will have two options:
"Play"
"Chapter"
The title screen will have 3 original backgrounds relating to the level:
Level 1: Will have a peaceful background of a mountain side and a lake.
Level 2: Will have a village in the background with some clowns seen in the shadows.
Level 3: Will have a clown and a tent in the background.
These images will be taken when you "PrtScn" the level. The animations will be created individually.
The main title screen will be identical to the last level design with some miner tweaks.
A idea would be a clowns eye following the selected option (play/chapters) or for PC it would follow the mouse cursor.

Level 1.
This will be designed by: Me
This will be based in a natural environment, that is peaceful and untouched.
This level will be set in the morning.
Ideal objects created:
Rocks, water, path, trees, mountains, grass, cliffs etc.

Information: This level won't have any proper combat compared to the other levels as the characters are investigating the klown tent and they wouldn't have weapons going in, they will have to stealth their way past the klowns whilst exploring, if a player gets caught they will be chased until either the klown catches up and kills you or you lose them by finding a hiding spot, before escaping the player would have to find the room filled with all the human bodies which are encased in cocoons, the player would find their first weapon here and it would end with the player running away from a horde of klowns and out of the circus tent whilst avoiding obstacles and enemy projectiles that would slow them down.

Level 2.
This will be designed by: Luke Anderson
This will be based in a village that has little to no people in it, due to its stories of the "Killer Clowns"
This level will be set at mid-day. and have much vegetation due to many people not leaving there homes.
Ideal objects created:
House, rocks, grass, trees and other items related to the village etc,

Information: Level 2 is the second level and less places for the player to hide from the Klowns. The player will have the ability to find melee weapons easiest in this stage and there will ranged weapons scattered about the town. Their will be klowns in the street which you can sneak around but there will enough melee weapons to fight the klowns but not enough for you to beat all of them.
When you head to the police station to get weapons, a clown how is controlling Officer Mooney like a puppet will attack you as a boss. The boss can use: Officer Mooney's gun, his baton and his taser. To defeat the boss you have to attack the klown that is controlling Officer Mooney, you only need to attack the klown three times but he is using Officer Mooney as a shield so you can't attack him until he lets his guard down to taunt at you.



Level 3.
This will be designed by both of us
This will be based in the abandoned circus which no one dares to enter.
This will be set at night.
Most of the level will be set inside the tent, however the level will contain a outside environment.
Ideal objects created:
Clowns, tent, environment (objects), and simple puzzles.

Information:
Level 3 is the last level and has a much different game style in the game. In this level when you enter the tent the player will drop their gun and lose it. The player will be vulnerable to the killer clowns until the player finds a weapon of some sort. Having no weapon makes it difficult to kill the clowns which results into the player having to make up a strategy when avoiding the clowns. This makes the player go through the maze hoping they find all the collectables (survivors) before being found by a clown.
When all survivors are found a exit will be shown and which you can go through. When the player exits they have to fight a boss which cannot be damaged by bullets, yet can be damaged by the surroundings. The boss brings in a wave of clowns which you have to kill, after each wave is destroyed a item will glow that you can shoot, this will damage the boss (clown). The boss has 3 weak spots that results into having 3 waves, each wave gets increasingly hard.
When you kill the boss all the other clowns will be killed and all the items relating to clowns such as the tent would disappear. Then a small credits screen will appear, which would then take you to the main menu.

Tuesday 27 September 2016

Game Engines Assignment Unit 70

Game Engines
In this assignment I will research different open and closed game engines that are used to build the games that we are playing now and compare them.

What is a Game Engine?
A game engine is what runs the game and keeps the experience the same for all platforms regardless of the operating system used by each platform an example being a game released on Xbox, PlayStation and PC would all play roughly the same barring things such as controls, performance and quality of the graphics for example the Console port of a game may be locked at 30fps due to hardware limitations whilst the PC port of the game may run at 60fps and have a higher resolution as there are less restrictions on more powerful PCs, the reason this works is because the game engine acts as a way to "hide" the operating system which would normally prevent the game from working on all platforms. The game engine is where all the game assets will be located such as the physics engine(Such as the "Havok" engine), audio engine(Such as Miles Sound System), models, AI(Artificial Intelligence), code and textures. Some of these assets will be made outside the engine such as the models which could be made in programs such as "Maya" but will then be imported into the engine to be used in the game.


Open Game Engines
Open game engines such as "Unreal" and "Unity" can be used by anyone and are generally free to use. These are good engines to begin with as they are used often within the industry and are easy to access. Unity is well known for being the game engine used for a lot of mobile games however it can be used for other platforms too, the free version isn't quite as advanced as most popular engines but the paid versions have been used to make some very well received games such as "Thomas was alone" and "Temple Run". Unreal has been used for many popular games on Consoles and PC such as the "Borderlands"series of games and "Bioshock Infinite" as well as other diverse genres such as RPG's and stealth games.
Bioshock Infinite: Made in Unreal Engine

Image result for frostbite engine
Frostbite Engine Logo





















Closed Game Engines
Closed game engines are owned by a specific company and can only be used by that company such as Rockstar's "Rage" engine which is used in the "GTA" series and EA's "Frostbite" engine which is mainly used for the "Battlefield" games. As these engines are specific to big companies they are generally used by more experienced developers. Some of the closed game engines are built off of other game engines such as the "GoldSource" engine used by Valve to make games such as Team Fortress Classic, Counter-Strike, and Half-Life which is a modified version of the "Quake" engine Which then was modified further to create the "Source" engine which was used to make games such as Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2. A "Source 2" engine has since been made but currently only has one game released for it, "Dota 2".
Image result for battlefield4 screenshots
Battlefield 4: made in Frostbite Engine



Image result for Rage Engine
Rage Engine Logo














Notable examples of game engines

Cryengine was produced by Crytek, a German development team, Cryengine supported the PS3 and Xbox 360 and has since been updated up to Cryengine V which supports the latest generation of games consoles (PS4 and Xbox One) and has access to the DirectX 12 API allowing for more realistic 3D graphics , it is home to the very popular Far Cry series and the Crysis games. Cryengine was modified by many third party developers, one example being Cloud Imperium games who made Squadron 42 and Star Citizen using a modified version of the engine. The official build of Cryengine was also used to make some third party games under Crytek's licensing scheme such as Sniper:Ghost Warrior 2.
CryEngine Logo

Quake was produced by id software and was home to the game of the same name. The engine featured full 3D environments and models which were used to make multiplayer first person shooters and uses the Vérité 1000 graphics chip with OpenGL support coming later on it was later modified to make the Goldsource engine and later Source engine 1 & 2 were made. These were home to many famous valve games such as the Half-Life and Team Fortress games (which still have active fanbases to this day). The official Quake 2 engine was changed to be called the id tech 2 engine which led to id tech 3 which was later modified by Infinity Ward to create the IW engine which is still being used to this day to create the Call of Duty games . The Quake engine has been one of the most modified engines to date.
Quake logo

IW engine is a closed engine made by Infinity Ward and is home to the insanely popular Call of Duty series, it was built from the id tech 3 engine and supports the current and last generation of games starting with the Xbox360, PS3 ,Wii and PC then upgrading to the Xbox one, PS4 and Wii U, the engine was first used to make COD 2 and has been used in every COD game to date as it upgraded over time to create IW engine 5.0. The games haven't necessarily used the engines in order as they tend to use a modified version of the engine the previous entry in that series used for example, Black Ops 2 used a modified version of Black Ops 1's engine and Black Ops 3 used an even more modified version of Black Ops 2's engine. The engine supports DirectX 11 and HDR lighting.
IW logo

Unreal Engine is a game engine made by Epic Games and was originally the home to Unreal tournament in 1998. The engine is currently open and is a very popular choice for new developers and students. It was primarily used to make first person shooters but has been used to make many other game genres such as stealth games, RPG's and MMORPG's. In 2002 Unreal Engine 2 was released which added support for the Gamecube and Xbox, Epic only officially supported the Xbox and so the Gamecube and PS2 were left to Secret level to support, . Unreal Engine 3 was released in November of 2005 with support for Windows, Xbox 360 and the PS3 (and Android and IOS later in 2010). The first Console game to be released in Unreal 3 was "Gears of War". It wasn't until 2012 that Unreal 4 was released which offered support for the Xbox One, PS4, Windows, Mac, Linux, IOS, Android, SteamOS, HTML5 and a variety of VR systems. Currently Unreal engine 4 is the latest version but the game engine is still being updated to fit each new generation.

Image result for unreal engine
Unreal Engine Logo

Gamebryo was produced by Numerical design limited(in 1991)which then was merged into Emergent game technologies in 2004, the engine has been used by many different developers such as Bethesda and Rockstar Vancouver(which closed its doors in 2012 to merge with Rockstar Toronto) to create games such as the Fallout franchise, The Elder Scrolls franchise and Bully:Scholarship Edition. Gamebryo is currently on version 4.0 and has been updated to support each generation of games. The engine supports Windows DirectX 9, 10 and 11 as well as OpenGL.
Gamebryo logo



Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engine
Cryengine
https://www.cryengine.com/showcases
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryEngine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CryEngine_games
Quake
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_engine
IW Engine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IW_engine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IW_engine#Games
Unreal Engine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_Engine
https://www.unrealengine.com/what-is-unreal-engine-4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unreal_Engine_games
Gamebryo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamebryo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamebryo#Games


Tuesday 26 April 2016

10 Questions

10 Questions

So what did you think of the assignments?
The assignments were a fun and interesting experience as it gave me experience making a variety of games.

How would you rate the assignments in terms of difficulty?
The assignments were a mix of easy and hard, generally the ones that needed more code were harder

Which ones were easy? which ones were harder?
The maze game was fairly easy but the Space Invaders game was a little bit challenging as there was more code needed.

In the Space Invaders game, name one thing you learned during its development
I learned how to make more fleshed out enemies instead of moving objects that you can just stay away from

In the maze game, name one thing you learned during its development
I learned how to make interactive objects such as buttons which would make levels more interesting

Did you learn any maths during this experience?
I don't think I learned anything new that was maths related

Do you think you gained any maths when you did any puzzles for the maze game
No

How do you rate your maths
Decent

How hard did you find the maths during these assignments
The maths wasn't particularly challenging.

Do you think your opinion towards maths has changed?
Not really

Thursday 14 April 2016

Sound Video for assignment

BTEC Extended Diploma in Games Development
Unit 73 Sound for Computer Games

Assignment 2: Creating and applying sounds to a specific game

Tuesday 12 April 2016

Blogging about Space Invaders

Reason for choice

The reason I chose space invaders over the blackjack game was because I am not confident enough with my coding skills to be able to make a good blackjack game.


Sprites
For the sprites I tried to make them look as close to the original game as possible to give it a retro look, some parts of the game were changed however to make it a bit more unique



Player
This sprite is an exact lookalike of the original space invaders sprite however I made it a much higher resolution so that it would look sharper when enlarged  


Aliens
As with the player I made replicas of the original sprites, with this game I added bosses which are just enlarged aliens, for these I made higher quality sprites since they would be bigger and would look worse if they were just stretched sprites

Barriers
The barriers work slightly different from the original game as instead of using code I made these sprites to represent different levels of damage and then stacked them on top of each other so the fully fixed barrier is destroyed first and then the sprites get more damaged until there isn't anything left 


Bullets
I made different looking bullets for the player and enemy, the player has a straight line for a projectile whilst the enemies have a lightning bolt shaped bullet, the bullets can collide and cancel each other out in-game.



Spaceship
The spaceship in this game is used as a boss instead of a way to get extra points, I made the sprite a bigger version of the original sprite and used it as a boss in the final level



Objects
Player: inside this object I used a mix of code and the drag and drop options to give the player the ability to shoot and move. Most of the things required to make the game work are in this object.


The code to the left is what allows the player to fire bullets and the delay between firing as it creates a bullet object that will then rise. The code above makes the game restart once the player loses all their lives. I also included a drag and drop command to make a spark effect that makes a trail from the player to add a bit more visual flair to the game







The only other important stuff is in the bullet objects as it has to collide with the enemies and kill them which is a core element of the game, no code is required as I just had to set vertical speed and make it kill enemies and cancel out other bullets whilst also destroying itself when it connects to these objects




Gameplay















Thursday 25 February 2016

3 Games in one assignment

BrainBox
Design Brief: A GCSE grade C Maths game with at least 5 levels
Customer:15-16 year old students of any gender who are studying GCSE maths
Sprites:

BrainBox/Player (Spr_Player)

This is the main character for my game,BrainBox, it is a brain encased in the cockpit of a flying metallic cube. The original design looked very bland so I decided to add a screen with a smiley face onto the cube to give it more detail.








Goal/Fake Goal (spr_goal/spr_fakegoal)

This is what the player has to interact with to answer the question. In each level there is 1 real goal and 3 fake goals that will each have an answer next to them. The right answer will be placed next to the real goal and the fake goals will all have wrong answers beside them, touching the wrong answer will restart the current level. The real and fake goals look exactly the same so you will only be able to find the right goal by answering the question correctly.




QuestionBlock (spr_question)                                                                                                                  

This is how the player will be given the question, once the block is touched a message will pop up on the screen which will tell you the question that you must answer. I made the sprite very colourful so that it would stand out from everything else on screen which would make the player want to investigate it which would teach them about how it works.
laser(spr_laser)
This laser would act as a barrier which can kill the player if they make contact with it. it would be deactivated by a button, enemies would be able to pass through the laser


lasercannons(spr_lasercannon_up/spr_lasercannon_down)                                                                                                                               
These objects act as ends to the laser beam and are purely cosmetic. There is a version facing up and a version facing down



Rooms


This is the first room, the question is: what is the mean of 3,2,3? the correct answer is 2.7. There are two enemies in this room so that the player has time to think about the answer. for the background I made a grey square with warning signs placed at regular intervals, this represents the theme of my game which is set in a high tech prison that you must escape from                                                                                
Below is the second level, this level is harder than the first as it has 4 enemies instead of 2. The question is 5x0.5 and the answer is 2.5. For testing purposes I made each number on the keyboard teleport you to the corresponding level in order to skip more challenging levels when testing

The question in this room is what is the reciprocal of 3/4. the answer is 4/3. there are 4 enemies here to keep the difficulty hard but possible
this is the fourth room,the question is "what is the interior angle of an equilateral rectangle", the answer is 90 degrees and there are 4 enemies in the room 

This is the last of the main rooms, the question is (−6)−(−7), the answer is 1
this room acts as an ending to the game. there is a button in the middle of the room which will clear the laser barriers. You must then collect the trophy which will give the player a congratulatory message and then end the game



Interactive objects


Lasers and Buttons: These lasers block the player and enemies, if an enemy touches them they will stick to it until it is turned off, if the player touches it they die. To turn off the laser you must find and press a button as shown in the picture.



Question Boxes: when touched they make a text box appear, this can be used to give instructions or in this case, tell you the question you need to answer. the question box can be used an infinite amount of times.


Feedback
Kori:"The Game was fun to play and had some unique qualities within it. I do like the overall design and function of the game. I would recommend next time to make the rooms bigger with less space to move around (Maze game) and to show clearly the answers for the questions."




Tuesday 26 January 2016

Unit 73:P2 Understand the methods and principles of sound design and production

P2: Understand the methods and principles of sound design and production
Sound Formats

Exercise 1

People would use uncompressed files in order to get more quality however it takes up much more space which means it isn't a viable option for things such as Mp3 players or phones.

People use Lossy compression in order to reduce the file size which is has less quality but is a more viable option for Mp3 players or phones.

Audio Sampling
1)Resolution can constrain a file size by using more or less pixels to get varying levels of quality and file size. Bit Depth can constrain a file size by using more or less "bits" of information to increase or decrease the quality and file size.

2)Sample Rate: The number of audio samples carried per second by the audiofile.
   
Mono: Sound that is intended to be played through one speaker.
  
 Stereo: Sound that is intended to be played through two speakers which are usually for sounds that are supposed to be heard through either the left or right ear.


  Surround: When Sound is played through three or more speakers which can be used to make the sound seem more immersive for example in a film with surround sound you may hear a car that sounds like its behind you however its just due to the sound being played by speakers that are behind you.


Exercise 2:

Audio Limitations of Game Platforms

DSP(Digital Signal Processor):Can filter and compress the sound which limits the recording

RAM(Random Access Memory):RAM can limit the recording of sound by storing the info in a lossy format

File Format(Mp3, Wav, Aiff):This can limit the recording by using a lossy file format which has less quality

Audio Output(Mono,Stereo,Surround):This can limit the recording of sound if you use stereo or mono sound because it uses less channels.

PCM(Pulse Code Modulation): Can limit the recording of sound by compacting the information onto discs which compresses the information. takes a sample of an audio file which is higher quality
Audio Recording Systems


Multi Track Recording can be used to mix sounds and music tracks together.
Midi(Multi Instrument Digital Interface) can be used to replicate musical instruments digitally
DAT(Digital audio tape) can be used to record the sounds around you
Analogue is made from variations of air pressure
Software Plug-ins can be used to add a feature to a piece of software