Task 6

Lagging... Behind... Can't... Afford... Food... *Wheeze*

I have no choice but to invoke the mysterious ZANZIBAR ENERGY. Watch as I type eighteen times faster than the average person and shout japanese furiously, proclaiming hardcore incantations such as IKIMASHO and SAIKOU NO SUPER BLOG EDITING NO TOKI GA KITA.

And now, with this power, let's tackle this week's hulking, savage issue. It's a tough one, it's huge and looks it might pose a problem. It might get a bit Shadow of the Colossus in here. That's right, it's Game Design, which also means Gameplay.

Most people want to get something out of a game, that is, a feeling or experience, rather than something useful like money.

In order for us to actually interact with a game, there has to be some clever gubbins put in to allow us to. There has to be a system, there has to be an engine. When games started off, they were of course, 2D and pretty simple. The gameplay was basic but catchy, simple to get to grips with, then you could spend all your money on them at the arcade. This was fine, as it was the age of platform games and the like, from Pac-Man up to Mario in the mid 80s, then improvements for a few years afterwards.

However, as with anything, it's easy to get bored of the same thing over and over (Thoughts go out to Mike, my tutor at this point). People wanted to try something new as well, which is why 3D came about. I'm in the generation that generally says that Wolfenstein 3D was the first 3D-ish game, but it was in actual fact, Battlezone.

And in terms of draw distance, it's better than Oblivion!

It was based on Panther and Panzer, another tank simulator, but Battlezone gets points for being the first real polygon-based 3D game. No need to texture and map either, those were the days.

It was id software who really started 3D as a big thing, with their famous FPS games starting mainly from Wolfenstein 3D, then going onto Doom and so on. Other types of games were becoming apparent too, such as the real time strategy genre which game about thanks to Dune II. Also, one of my faves, the point-and-click adventures like Beneath a Steel Sky and of course the Monkey Island series. There was lots more, but I refuse to slip into boredom! I refuse sir!

Now recently in our course we've been told a lot about Art Design and Art Directors. The latter being the highest rank you can be while still being in a creative role. In other words it's more or less what we're all aiming for someday, but what is this art director thing? Well that's next week's task, so all will be explained then.

However, there's one important thing that an Art Director maintains, and that's the art design itself. When making a game, a company will have a whole team of different artists, all of which are individuals, have their own style and ideas on how things should look. If you let each rogue bandit artist do his own thing, you're going to have a game that looks like a mess, just like in the animation industry for example. Therefore it's very important to crack the creativity whip (Don't pretend you don't love it) and keep everybody working within the same guidelines and style. That's what art design's all about, keeping a game looking tidy with a style that doesn't change every 2 scenes.

Art direction's such a nice thing because it's dedicated to making the player feel like they're immersed in this make-believe world. It's all about making that world as atmospheric as possible, not necessarily in a believable way, but at least in a stylish way.

But wait! If this style is so important, who thinks it up? I believe it varies between companies and games. For example, if you take a game like the Metal Gear Solid series, it's mainly Hideo Kojima's vision, which he has worked with his artists to create ingame. Whether this power has come from his good ideas, or from others' respect towards him is something I'll have to look into. However, in other games such as The Elder Scrolls series, it's really a team effort, with a group of developers all moulding a world together. It's got to be easier doing the latter, unless the man with the plan can really convey his ideas. I think Mr. Kojima can. When he's not playing Pokemon.

Hideo Kojima using the force.

I'll play many games and be very happy with most of them, but what really appeals to me is when there's obviously a lot of thought and a lot of love gone into a setting. To be honest, it's mainly the games that were thought up by a single person that appeal to me the most. No game's going to be exclusively one person's vision, as there will always be more added by other people. Other people often have better ideas for different scenes, events and things of that nature. However, as I mentioned in that other Task, people can have really detailed games already in their heads, and it's not clever to dismiss these so easily. If we put our minds together, we make better games.

Originality is very important if you ask me!