James assignment 1

Assignment 1:Pre-production Techniques for the Creative Media Industries                                     29/10/2015                                                                                                                    Kyle Preston                                                        

What is pre-production?

Pre-production is the point where you think about how you will create a game idea and take into consideration your vision and the goals of your project as well as things hiring staff you also create the standards you expect from your staff. Production is the stage in games design in which you create the game itself when doing this you need to finish the game as quickly as possible as the more time it takes you the more profits you lose.

Finance

When making a game you have to consider financial issues whilst in production first you have to consider the cost of hardware and software as well as how you’re going to fund the game. My game will be made on the game maker software the version I have costs £150 and cost nothing to publish games from but you need and android module. To create my game I am using a school computer which doesn’t cost me any money but does cost the college itself to buy them and as the game doesn’t require funding I do not have to think about it but funding is a vital point you need to consider when making games at home as you will spend money on things like internet and electricity cost. You can get funding from places like kick starter.  

Materials

Materials like internet and electricity which you need to run the computers and its software but there are also costs for things like concept arts, storyboards and audio which may lead to cost of voice actor or actors depending on how many characters you have in the game. All of these are things you need to think about when making a game as you do not what to spend too much money making the game and not make a profit from the game. You can also buy artists to make your concept arts and storyboards for you and although this may cost more money it can help a lot in the long run.

Time constraints

You really have to think about time when making a game the longer it takes you to create the more profit you will lose things like deadlines are good things to think about. To judge what your deadline should be you also must talk about availability of equipment making games uses equipment like computers which will all need the software you use on the computers and can add to the cost of the game a lot and the longer you have the equipment the more money you will spend. You also have to take into consideration the availability of your staff as they also cost you money every day they are working for you.it is best to set a deadline that the game can be finished in but will not destroy your profits. There are also time scales for the legal side of things like copyright laws and other things.

Personnel

Personnel is a really big thing when making a game as you need to know how many people it takes to create your game. Staff can cost you a lot of money and you have to find the middle ground between the time it takes you to make the game and the amount of staff you need as they both tie into each other the more staff you have the faster your game gets finished which could end up costing you too much but if you have to little staff the longer it will take to make the game and could end up again costing you too much money.

Equipment and facilities  

Equipment is an essential when making a game as you need it to get your software as well as needing it to make the game itself this also ties in with staff as they are each going to need a computer to work with to help finish your game. A computer can cost about £600 if you want one that is relatively powerful and can run games easier than a standard laptop. You also must think about a facility to work in as you need some space for your co-workers. Facilities also cost money and you also have to decide whether you need to buy a property or rent a place out which could end up costing more later on. Availability of these things is a big subject as you even know how easy it could be to get the need thing s and the lowering of availability may cost you even more money than you what it to.

Contributors

Some games require other things like pictures from people and guns. Call of duty uses guns to model the guns in their game so they look as realistic as possible again this cost you even more money but makes your game far better and could make profits higher. Also you could hire actors for character voices which could make your game profits even higher but this is a choice you would have to make yourself. You can also hire people to create things like concept arts and story boards as well as people to make audio sound effects but again each of these cost money.

Codes of practice

Code of practice is something you must really think about as if you don’t it may end up costing you quite a bit of money as you may get sued for things like copyright, health and safety and insurance without these you can get sued for a lot of money so you have to organize all of the legal things.

My game
For my game I have took into consideration many of the things I have wrote about. I am using the school to work on my game this means I already have the software I need and the facilities. For my game it will just be me working on it which may take longer but means if I published it I would get more of the profits from it.I have also decided to make the game available to ages above 12 as the game main contain some gore. As I am making the game by myself all the sound and concept art will be produced by me. 

What is a brief

What is a brief

A brief is a piece of information given by a client to give you some thing to work of on the project you are doing. A brief can contain information on what type of game the client would like the game to be and possibly what art style they would like it as well as how many levels they would like it to be and may contain some idea's. Briefs also give you some space to be creative and come up with your own ideas for the game like character designs and levels. They may also contain a mood board which could have colours and wallpapers on it to give you an idea of the moods of the game.

After you are given a brief you still have to come up with your own ideas as the brief would not have been specific on some things so you may have to chose things like the genre and what the character looks like to do this you may do a lot of different things to come up with ideas like;Brainstorming,when you just write your ideas on a piece of paper and making your own mood board.

After you have created your game you are going to have to take into consideration legal issues  like copy right laws which could get bought up if your game is to much like another persons game which could lead to you losing lots of money. You may also have to take into consider the amount of gore, any possible things in the game that could be seen as racist as this could lead to being sued. You may also have to consider libel which is a a method of examination of your game and will try to find things that could be offensive to a person or people.     

Assignment 1: Researching Games

                                                                                                                                 Kyle Preston

Unit 22 and 72 Computer Games Design and Computer Games Design (Media)

Genres	Description	Examples
FPS (First Person Shooter)	First person shooter are a game genre in which you play from the eyes of your character. They are usually quite fast paced and contain lots of action also some gore depending on the game.	Battlefield 4: Battlefield is a realistic first person shooter game which has a vast multiplayer mode and a campaign as well. During the campaign you play as Recker and member of an elite task force named Tombstone. You get to play though many missions with a large array of different characters. The multiplayer mode has lots of unique maps and game mode and is just as high paced as the single player campaign Call of duty modern warfare 3   Call of duty is the most popular FPS game in the world. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is fast paced and fun to play it has a large single player campaign and a just as big multiplayer.
Fighting	Fighting games are games I which the aim is to beat up other people in large groups or just you fighting your enemy. They contain a lot of characters and some do have story modes as well as just fighting people.	Street fighter X Tekken : Street Fighter X Tekken is a fighting game that cross to of the most popular fighting games in history together to create one fighting game with a tag team style of gameplay. The games main story is about an object falling from space called Pandora’s Box and all the fighters from around the world trying to get their hands on the power that it gives them. The game has 52 playable characters including DLC. Blazblue chrono phantasma extend: This is blazblue a fighting game which is 2D with an anime style for all the characters. This game is very fast paced and contain large combo moves specials and even moves that destroy your opponent after their health drops below 25%.
RPG(Role Playing Game)	RPG games are games in which you play as a character that can be upgrade with new abilities weapons and armour they can be medieval themed or they can be shooters. They are more slow paced than a lot of other games as they contain looting and finding treasures and weapons	Dark souls 2: Dark souls 2 is a RPG that does not have a difficulty change this makes the game harder than most RPGs it also makes it more fast paced as well as there are more enemies for you to face more things for you to loot this makes the it a very good RPG. The games story is that you are a person with the curse of the undead and you must try and keep yourself from hollowing which means losing your soul. AS you try to break the curse you a told to travel to King Vendrick by an old lady. Final fantasy lighting returns:   This game is an RPG in which you play as lighting who is the saviour of the souls of the people on a planet about to be destroyed by chaos. The game is quite fast paced as you are on a timer through the entire game and have to save as many souls as you can until the timer runs out so you are should always doing a quest during the game.
Survival Horror	The survival horror genre is a fast paced genre that usually contains zombies, monsters or ghosts and you are challenged to survive the horrors that await you	Fatal Frame Maiden of Black Water: Fatal frame is a Survival Horror game that challenges you to survive against ghost with a camera that you can see them with. The game requires you to hide from ghosts that try to kill you. The story of the game is that you play as a girl with a power to touch objects and see their shadow (a ghost trapped with the object) she can also bring people back from the shadow world. A girl comes into the shop and ask her to find the girls friend who went into a forest that’s haunted. Resident evil 6 : This game is a game which requires you to kill an array of mutants and infected people resembling zombies infected by the c-virus invented by umbrella. Resident evil 6 is a fast paced game in which you have to fight your way through cities and zombies to reach your goal. The game is very mission based where you can play as 8 different characters that work in teams to make their way away from the c-virus.
Hack and slash	Hack and slash games are fast paced games in which you in many you use your hands and weapons to defeat a large amount of enemies. The games action is non-stop as there are always enemies around the corner	Devil may Cry 4 This is devil may cry a hack and slash in which you play as two characters with intertwining stories. Dante who has been in all of the games and Nero a new character to the game franchise. Nero, Dante’s nephew is working for a secret order that worship Sparda (Dante’s dad) as a god. Dante kills the high priest and Nero is told to hold him off. Dante loses the battle and leaves by telling Nero that the priest was a demon anyway. The game is very fast paced with a lot of enemies you have to fight along the way.
Platformer	Platformer games are simple games a lot of the time they are 2D and contain unique characters like Sonic or Mario	Crash bandicoot: Crash bandicoot is a game in which you play as crash a small strange little character on a quest to rid the world of neo cortex and evil doctor trying to take over the world. The game is in an exaggerated style with simple graphics and gameplay.

Good of gaming

Bad things about gaming

There are many good thing about gaming like the fact that it is fun to play games and that they allow you to play online with your friends which gets rid of the problem of being anti-social and means you can have more fun during gameplay.

There are many bad things about gaming as well like that if you play games for too long you may get headaches and tired. Sometimes video games can become very addictive sometimes too addictive. There have been many reports of people all over the world playing games so long that they have resulted in they becoming ill and some even dying. This has happened but only to people who have played over 30 hours of games in one big marathon. This is very extreme and not many people will play games for this long periods of time but they still have effects on people like sore eyes, sleepiness and mental effects on people of younger and older ages. You may also become social isolated which means that you don’t talk to people you just sit in your room playing games all day. Games cost money. Games cost a lot on money like some cost over 200 million All together with marketing cost and development cost that is a lot of money. Butt that’s not the only thing games use up they use time as well yours and my time that we could be doing something else with as a planet but many Asia we spend a lot of hours on gaming far far too many hours playing games.

 

Character sketch

  This is Bal one of my in playable characters. Her main weapon is a scythe which is almost like a boomerang as she can throw it across the battlefield and it will return to her no matter where she is. Bal’s story is that she was the daughter of the master of magic which then became her special power each character will have one. Bal’s farther trained her every day for 5 hours so she would be one of the world’s greatest fighters which helped her massively when the world was destroyed as she gained her own kingdom and city.

Ukai is the main character of the story as most of the game revolves around him and how he helps or fights the other characters in the game. He and Bal are on the same team but this does not happen until later in the story. Ukai controls the power of energy in which he uses to make large swords and other things to attack his enemies he is also the only character with a super mode which is reviled in the last level of the story mode against the boss Havel. Ukai is also one of the greatest fighters in the world and has the same privileges all the other best fighters have a kingdom and a city of his own. His weapon is a katana which he wields with great skill and power.  

                                                                                This is Havel the boss character in the game the other characters you fight are bosses but Havel is the game’s final boss and is the most powerful of all of them. Havel is the god of weapons and forged all the weapons the fighters use in the game but he is under the control of an evil alliance of fighters in which you beat but Havel is still summoned. He will also be a very large character with quite a large amount of health as he is armoured after he is defeated he will return to the sky and stay there forever.

concept arts

Concept arts

Concept arts are a big part of planning a game they are basically designs for different characters and weapons they go in to large detail of face and body type as well as what they are wearing. With weapons the go into even more detail to make the weapons look perfect adding weapon wear, scratches and shading. This is a concept art of shew he is a character from Fist of the north 2 he is be draw with a lot of detail with dirt and scars visible perfectly shaded to look almost like a real person

 

My second concept art is a background from dark souls the image goes into large detail with vines, dirt and change in lighting visible in the image the image was used in the game and look almost exactly the same as in the image

My final image of concept art is a weapon concept of the swords used by the orcs in War hammer a space based game which combines hack and slash and shooter games

 

Each sword has great detail with dirt and weapon wear easily visible on the image the image also shows that they focused on doing the handles and blades separately