Kingdom Hearts Review.

Kingdom Hearts Review

Prologue
Kingdom hearts is an JRPG game with a unique art style and surprisingly additive gameplay. The game beings with a simple tutorial with a very interesting mechanic. The game allows you to make a choice right before the tutorial which takes place on a well designed stained glass platform.It asks you to pick between three different items: A wand, a shield and a sword. Each of these determine which sort of abilities your more likely to obtain during the game itself and the weapon you will fight though the tutorial with.The sword increases the likelihood of getting offensive techniques, the shield does the same but for defensive and the wand for magical. I think this was a very useful feature in the game as it allows the player to play the game there own way instead of having to adjust there style to suit the game. After this the tutorial begins and teaches you the basic mechanics of the game like moving and combat. During this you are also introduced to the Heartless which are the main enemies of the whole game but you don't yet understand anything about them. You then are forced to fight the first boss in the game which begins as your shadow but slowly starts to grow and becomes a huge heartless with glowing yellow eyes and long tentacle like hair and is totally black. This boss is very powerful considering the fact that your in a tutorial which I feel is slightly irritating for the player as it can result in you dying quite a bit. The boss can go from fun to angering very quickly but on the other hand it also improves your skills. I'm not sure whether this is a good addition to the game or not. After this mission you spawn in at Destiny Island as a young teenager called Sora. It is a tranquil place with only a small population of six are tasked with finding some items on the island by another resident Kairi and are told the first section was a dream.Whilst doing this the game also teaches you how to jump and interact with objects like boxes and other things. There are then a few more basic task to do that can run on for to long but lead up to an turn of events during these you meet Riku Sora's best friend.All of this then ends in a fight with the Heartless in there first appearance in the world and the first time you understand the reality of Sora's dream.As the Heartless attack you you're forced to fight them off in large groups using a low damage wooden sword which can be quite a task whilst also trying to find an objective that is not even visible to you that can result in you fighting your way to the end of the island only to realise that you have to go to the other end instead. The lack of a mini-map during this part can be rather irritating but luckily it is a rather small island the only thing that slows you down is the Heartless.You realise Riku is your objective when you see him standing alone on a small island just off the edge of the main island. After you reach him you have some dialogue were Sora say you have to find Kairi but Riku begins talking about how the door has opened and that Kairi is coming with him to the outside world as he steps into the darkness he sinks before disappearing completely. This is when again the gigantic Heartless appears again and once more you have to fight him but this time light shines from Sora's hand and the Keyblade (the main weapon of the game) is there in place of the wooden sword. The fight again is difficult but is made slightly easier because of the Keyblade. The fight picks up and the island your on begins to fly and the Heartless becomes enraged and does more damage it also becomes slightly more relentless using more powerful attacks. Eventually the fight ends and a black hole is created in the sky that sucks Sora into it. The fight itself is fun and has clear stages that the boss goes though but I don't feel it has a satisfying ending instead your left with the fight being unresolved and Sora simply leaving the situation. In Conclusion the prologue does its job and teaches you the mechanics of the game very well whilst also managing to remain a challenge. I think it can last a little to long and the fetch quests during this time can be slightly annoying but its still a well done prologue.

Mechanics
The game itself has a lot of unique mechanics many of which are in different parts of the game. The most unique of which is the combat. It mixes both RPG type combat and Hack 'n' Slash this results in simple combat system that gives you the ability to use magic as well as special skills and summons. The game allows you to do this by a menu it the bottom left corner of the screen. Although this can be a little tricky to get the hang of at first but you eventually begin to understand it. You Select each of these with the X button meaning most of the combat is just you pressing X although and scroll though the options using the D-Pad. Trying to use this can be slow when trying to use spells as you are still being attacked and this can end up with you taking damage this is every problematic when you trying to heal. To counter this there is an options menu that allows you to lot of different things from changing your gear to setting up shortcuts for your spells.This is a very useful feature because you can cast spells far quicker than you can from the menu. The customisation menu allows you to change your Keyblade  and your items that each have different effects on things like defence and magic resistance. This is an decent feature that can really help you in battles as many of the bosses use magic attacks that rings,necklaces and other items can help protect you from different element types. They can also boost things like your attack power as well. Abilities are also one of the most important features in the game although they don't equip by themselves so you have to go into your menu quite a bit but you now also need to watch your AP. Your AP is the games way of making sure Sora cannot become to powerful using his abilities it also has to be that way because some abilities are linked to the same button for example the Square button can be used for both the dodge skill and the guard. Both of which can be very useful but the dodge is an easier skill to use as the guard resembles and works more like a parry meaning you have to time your press perfectly. The game also has a summoning feature which you can use in order to create very powerful Disney characters which each have different abilities that can be amazingly useful on the battlefield.

Characters

Sora: Sora is the main character of the game and this allows you to understand him better. He is a teenager that has a bright personality and a strong sense of justice. He is also very caring towards his friends. As the wielder of the Keyblade he is also very strong in battle.
Kairi: Kairi is one of Sora's friends on the island and serves as the princess in distress during the story as you fight your way though the game to find both her and Riku. Kairi has a playful personality and before the island was destroyed she wanted to go and she the rest of the world her self.
Riku: Riku is Sora's best friend and seems to have a calm chilled out personality that results in him always seeming confident in beating his foes which included Sora during the events of the first game. He has the ability to use a Keyblade as well near the end of the game.
Donald: Donald is the iconic Disney character. His personality remains the same as it normally is. He is a grand mage in service of the king and later a friend of Sora's. He can be a bit arrogant and gets irritated easily but he will always have Sora's back.
Goofy: Goofy is again a well known Disney character he can be as his name suggests rather goofy but somehow still see things other miss. He is a royal guard that also works for the king and uses a shield to fight and just like Donald he has Sora's back.

Plot twists
The story after the prologue has its fair share of plot twists but they don't start until your quite far into the game. This can make the beginning of the game feel slightly uneventful. The first twist comes in when you finish the one of the many worlds the game has to offer. The game revivals that the true enemies of the game are not the heartless but the Disney villains everybody hated as a child. After this another villain is introduced to us Riku this happens on captain hook's boat when Riku shows up for the first time after Density island we also find out that Kairi is also in the boat after this you fight Hook and Riku escapes. The next big twist is the princess's being kidnapped and the reason they are being used. To open the door into infinite darkness. Final twist that someone named Ansem is pulling the strings and is the one who what's to open the door and also takes over Riku who because of this gets a Keyblade that opens peoples hearts. The final results I'm the door open and the information that Sora has Kairis heart. Kairi awakes but King Micky and Riku get stuck in the other world and the game finishes.

Gameplay
The gameplay is a mix between an RPG and a Hack 'n' Slash game. The combat plays out in real time and every kill gets you EXP (Experience points) which lets you level up and gain skills that you can later use in combat like the dodge roll. Enemies usually spawn in groups of a few low level Heartless and one or two more powerful Heartless. Although this is normal the game also has a lot of bosses that give you far more EXP a lot of the EXP you gain will be from farming as you need money to buy items like Potions which are very handy although you can find potions and other items in chest scattered around the world. As well as combat the game has quite a few puzzles that you have to do which are key to proceeding though the worlds. Each puzzle is the perfect difficultly some of them leaving you stumped for a while. They even use the map layout itself to confuse the player. Moving between worlds results in a mini game. You control a spaceship and are tasked with flying though space whilst fighting off the heartless ships and not letting your HP 0. This gives you something to do whilst the game loads instead of watching a loading screen.

Level Design 
The games levels are spilt into different worlds all of which allow you to move freely around all of the areas but some of the doors may be  locked until after you complete a certain objective or find another way around and the game will let you walk though the door from that side unlocking it for later uses. Each world contains about 7 different sections that you have to work though without any sort of idea of where you have to go without finding the map of the area in each level. The levels are designed around Disney movies and each one tries very hard to recreate the worlds from the movies which I feel it does really well. Each world is beautifully designed and well thought out all the platforms will lead you to an item or a door. The look of each world fits perfectly into the game due to the art style. The game has chests for you to collect but because there are not many of them so when you do find one it feels special because of how rare they are.

Conclusion
In conclusion the game is very well balanced and the difficultly spikes are never to high. The maps are well designed and fun to explore but this is not to say the game has no issues for example the camera can get caught on objects and makes it very hard to focus on the enemy you're trying to kill. With all this said this game is still one of my personal favourites and it has a good yet sometimes confusing story that is quite enjoyable.

OO Design Assignment 2

OO Design Assignment 2 

There are many differences between the blue printing for Unreal and the coding and drag and drop systems of Game maker. They main one being the way you use the system. Unreal is a drag and drop system that allows you to search for the tabs that you need and then change certain values. I have used it to make two different pieces of code one being a Health bar for my character and the other being a piece that made my enemies move around the level randomly each of which I did from a tutorial but I found that unreal was fairly easy to use. The simple drag and drop system made it very easy to learn and the search interface works really well to. Although it is a drag and drop system it is nothing like the one in game maker. Game makers drag and drop is far easier to use and makes coding easy but has a few flaws like the fact that using this system collisions can break the game causing your character to get stuck in walls as well as this the drag and drop system has no way for you to do things like adding gravity meaning you have to use the other way of coding in game maker. The drag and drop system from unreal is better by far than that from Game maker but game maker also has its coding system which improves the amount of stuff you can do but is way more difficult compared to the others even when doing the code based of a tutorial it is still possible to miss the smallest detail and to have to scan though the whole piece again to find the mistake. As well as this it is rather hard to learn as you have to be able to right all the code down perfectly without a single mistake. I find that out of all of these my personal favourite is Unreal's drag and drop coding because it is relatively easy to understand and tutorials are easy to follow unlike that of Game makers coding system and it has high capability unlike that of the Game maker's drag and drop system.

Unit 6: Critical approaches to creative media products

Unit 6: Critical approaches to creative media products

I don't believe that video games effect people levels of violence. I made a survey and the evidence points to most of them playing FPS games as well as other categories not on the list. These can be some of the most violent leading you to run around maps shooting people without even giving it a second thought. We also asked if they played games competitively or casually. 47% of people played competitively and 53% played casually but even when playing casually 82% of people still got angry at the games they were playing. Some of these times did result in violence but only to objects like walls and controllers but most people will do this simply because they have had an argument so this can not really be used to say video games cause violence instead they just create anger  in people at times. We asked if there anger had carried on outside the game and the answers were mixed most people answered No there anger did not carry over to the outside world but quite a few people said that this does happen to them but if it had resulted in violence somebody would have said so and nobody mentioned any thing about the anger from a game resulting in them hurting someone or something so I have reason to believe that video game anger doesn't cause violence. I also watched a documentary researching this subject. The documentary started off by disusing violent videos games and how the media has portrayed these games bringing up Carmageddon. One guy pointed out that the characters in video games are not real and that people understand this. During an experiment done by professionals it was discovered that it increased aggression meaning they are more likely to act in a violent way. They also took the experiment to see whether they would react towards violent scenes. They found that the violent video game players didn't get as stressed about the video. They also think that is changes the way people think. There is evidence to support that there is actually a drop in violent crimes as gaming takes up are time with something else meaning you don't get into violent situations. A lot of the people feel that games have no effect on people. Another experiment was done to find out if a non aggressive game could make you more violent and it was found that frustration could be a factor in video games relation to violence. It was also found that a part of are brain that controls emotion is used when gaming but it doesn't have any relation to anger. Being a gamer myself I feel that the rage I experience has never led to violence. Although gaming can lead to anger I think that the anger does not lead to violence and saying this is a comment mainly used by the media to create stories. All the evidence points toward gaming reducing violence instead of causing it and improving skills of them playing it.

Unit 69: Drawing Concept art for Computer Games

Concept art is a very important piece of the game development process and is used to design everything from guns to characters. Concept art is mainly used in games but is also used in movies for effects and things like animated monsters for horror movies. Concept art can be done with mutiple different drawing tools but is mainly done with computers now. Concept art is used for making accurate models for characters and other objects for games and movies. You can even add the concept art into some of the programs to allow for you to make the models look as much like the concept art as you can.Character concept art is a massive part of a game as characters are one of the most important parts of a game. They need to be well designed or the whole game will suffer. Their design tells you what they are like as a person and gives you some idea of what they used to do in the case of Dragunov its easy to see he was a member of the special forces. Concept art is done in stages starting with a few quick sketches. Then adding detail to one of the sketches and finally making the final product from the chosen sketch.

Background concept art is also very important as it is needed to create environments and levels. The concept art is done in similar stages to that of the character concept art but the finished product is done with a very high amount of details. The background is then turned into a realistic image to use as a texture box for the game itself or to design the level itself using the drawings to reference lighting and other things. Background and level concepts are easily the most important part of a game without levels characters have no place to exists. This particular concept art is of a stage from the fighting game Tekken. The level feels like it was designed to be bright and fun but still keep the attention on the fighters using the circles.


Concept arts are so essential to the creation of a game that every game has a lot of people working on concept art before anyone starts work on the levels characters or cutscenes.

Applications of 3D modelling

3D models have a large amount of applications like films, games and even architecture. 3D models can be used to make a whole matter of things like characters and buildings.
               One of the first applications of 3D models was in the movie Toy Story which was the first fully 3D animated movie. Made by Disney it was very popular and was a massive a hit when it became available to the public in 1995. It is now considered to be a classic. The movie began to be worked on in 1991. Many of the 3D modelling software they used then where very poor compared to that of todays software but they still managed to create models better than that of Tekken 2 which also used 3D models. 3D models in movies have always been better than that of games as games probably have less time in production than movies do. Toy story used 3D models for everything including the trees and houses in the backgrounds and outside the windows..
                Games also use 3D models for alot of things like character models and certain objects most of which are used to add a sense of realism to the maps and most of the objects are things like book shelves and sofas. They may also make thing like tree as well.All of the objects and colour and realism to the world the developers are trying to create, The characters are the most important things made for games though as without the the game would be full of voices without bodies and large empty worlds with only you in them. The process of making a character can take a while but once done the worlds and sound effects you have created now all have meaning. 3D models in games have come a far way since some of there first uses and instead of having low polygon shape stuck together there are now complex shapes that are very close to looking like real people and continue evolving.
               3D models are also used for architecture. They use 3D modelling software to make maps of the buildings. This can be very helpful for the builders them selves as they have maps in both 2D and 3D and know exactly how the building is supposed to look. They now know where walls should go, where foundations should be laid and sizes of all the room just because of this model the project manger created. Autocad is the program most of them use it is owed by Autodesk and came out in 1982 and is used to create 3D models for many things like architects, project managers, engineers and graphical designers.
             To 3D model you also have to render and animated objects to do both of these there are mutiple techniques. The things rendering effects is things like lighting and realistic texture. Rendering also changes the shading of the objects as well and uses advanced techniques such as: scanline rendering, ray tracing, or radiosity  Animation is also something you have to consider when making 3D models. Animation can be very difficult but you can do quite a few things just using keyframes an moving certain pieces. But doing some movements can take some time and be quite difficult to get looking correctly. Animation works well with rendering as it can help make an animation far more realistic
             3D models can be very useful for many different things but are mainly used for making games characters and movie effects. Even though they are mainly games and movies they can also be very useful for lot of other jobs.

Assignment 1: Unit 70 Game engines

Game engine 

A game engine is the software that allows people to create, code and run games. The game engine is supported by the computers operating system and the operating system by the computers hardware. there are multiple game engines all offering different mechanics and performs levels

Frostbite Engine

The Frostbite engine was created by Electronic Arts(EA) and is most notably used for the Battlefield games which where created by EA Digital Illusions CE also know as DICE. The newest version of the engine is Frostbite 3 and was first used for Battlefield 4. The engine runs on three primary components FrostEd, Runtime and Back end services. FrostEd is a desktop program that allows the developers to create games in realtime workflow and runtime allows then to code the games.They also cover animation, audio and cinematics. The Frostbite engine is only used by EA and was update to run real time strategy games along with racing games FPS games and even sports games. The best thing about the Frostbite engine is its ability to add more detail and even destructible environments. The physics engine in this engine is brilliant and has amazing rag doll physics to watch as you take a rocket to the face. The rag doll system can be kinda over the top at times but adds a lot to the games.


Unity

The Unity Engine is a cross platform game engine mainly used to create mobile apps as well as PC games. A lot of games have been made using the unity including Firewatch, Kerbal space program and Hatotful boyfriend. The latest version of the Unity engine 5 and it included many different objects available for you to use as well as its own physics engine and a new lighting system. The Unity engine can work on 21 platforms including Wii U and Xbox as well as mobiles unity is one of the biggest game engines used today. Unity also has a top of the line physics engine which allows for designers to add a physics engine without having to programme it in themselves allowing for more time to work on things like graphics. Unity also can be used to make mutiple types of games ranging from first person shooters to racing games.

Unreal

The latest Unreal engine is Unreal 4 and was developed by Epic games Unreal 4 contains better graphics and new objects. The Unreal engine has changed quite a bit since the original which was first used for a game called Unreal when it came out in 1998. Unreal 2 came out in 2002 and completely redesigned the engine as well as adding a brand new level editor into the engine. The first game to come out using this engine was America's Army which just so happens to be a game made by the american government. Unreal 4 is the latest version is far more advanced. It came out in 2012 after being expected of 2008. They took many steps to make it far easier to change things like health and bullet damage using tools allowing many new people to use Unreal easier. Unreal also runs its own script but it is only compatible with unreal and no other engines

CryEngine

The CryEngine is a game engine developed by the German game company Crytek. Some games to use CryEngine are Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 and SNOW. CryEngine has multiple different versions all with their own upgrades. In the first version of CryEngine was used to make Far cry. After they updated it for CryEngine 1.2 it was improved with better graphics and 1.3 add a lighting component. The next version of the CryEngine was 2 and was used in Crysis and later and updated version was used for a DLC in the game. CryEngine 3 had even better graphics and was used to make Crysis 2. The CryEngine have many features like high quailty 3D water, an AI editing system, a time of day system and lighting systems.Tools are also provided for animation and scripting as well as object creation and graphics rendering.

Comparison 

Each of the Game engines I have wrote about each have there own pros and cons but the one big thing I have noticed Is that the engines available to everyone can be used across more platforms than the engines that can only be used by certain companies as well as being able to make lots of different types of game like platformers and space shooters. The Frostbite engine has its own qualities like breakable objects and walls as well as being able to make the environments far more detailed than that of the unreal and unity engines. In my opinion The unreal engine is still better than that of the Frostbite engine as it can do far more than the frostbite engine and still with brilliant graphics. CryEngine is also a engine that can only be used by one company and although it has multiple features it is not as detailed as frostbite and cannot make as much types of game as unreal making it slightly worse than both.

Information was gained from :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_(game_engine)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_Engine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryEngine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frostbite_(game_engine)

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