Reflection Wk 4 – Is that all there is?

Re: Reflection Wk 4 – Is that all there is?

In my opinion, Anthony is wrong on some many levels.

What he doesn’t seem to realize is that film, if he really wants to use it as an example, went through the same process in order to be considered art – It started as a minority (blue-collar) entertainment and it didn’t become a favorite of art critics for years. It’s not easy to just come up with a successful idea for a medium with very little academic research and theory. Everything has to be done by trial and error – a lengthy and expensive process that very few can afford.

Which brings me to the topics of indies – even in the film industry the major companies never cared much for innovation, and with reason: it just doesn’t pay! In the end, EVERY major innovation was brought about by indies or foreign cinema, and later adopted by the big companies – noir films, for example, were inspired by 1940′s German films.

He’s also wrong if he thinks David is not actually disagreeing with him. Jaffe is so right when says “shut the f*ck up and do it” – companies are not there to serve art, they are there to serve their shareholders and employees. If Anthony is really worried about the medium, he can open his favorite IDE and do something about. if we can take any hints from the evolution of film, is that any innovations will be up to individuals, not EA.

PS: I’ve read the article on Citizen Kane a few weeks ago, and this is another example – the movie is a masterpiece, and , even though it was produced by a big company (at the time), Orson Welles had complete creative control over the film, making this an example of “individual” innovation. The film, even though was critically acclaimed, was a financial disaster at the time, and almost bankrupted the studio, RKO.

Design idea wk 4 – Games for Mum

Re: Design idea wk 4 – Games for Mum

I call mine Worderoids (another Asteroids mod).

My mum actually like word games, so my idea involves a field of letters, instead of asteroids, where the player has to shoot letters in the right sequence to form words. The letters don’t wrap around the screen, instead they just fly off.

There would be a lot more letters flying around, and the player can only shoot what’s directly in front of him/ her, so he/ she would have to navigate around in order to get the desired ones.

Hitting a letter with the ship wouldn’t cause the ship the explode, obviously, as this would make it extremely challenging. They would simply bounce off, which could cause the player to miss that letter later on if it is needed to to form a word.

The challenge element would come from a timer, i.e., the player can only advance if a word is formed within the time limit.

Design Idea Wk 3 – Design a Toy

Re: Design Idea Wk 3 – Design a Toy

My toy is a game pad without an actual console or computer. You need at least two people to play – one controlling and one being controlled.

When you press a button or move the stick, the pad announces the corresponding action, so the controlled player knows what to do.

The onus of coming up with the gameplay falls mostly on the controlled player, although he will require some direction from the player with the control.

Reflection Week 3 – Emergence

Re: Reflection Week 3 – Emergence

Great presentation by Moriarty on the “discovery” type of fun, personally my main attraction to any form of narrative. At first I thought it to be extremely hard to design something like this however, since he uses the Paul-is-dead game as his example, but after watching the design tour and some consideration, I can see that dynamic in Gish – the player simply has to obey physics laws in order to finish the levels, without having to follow a pre-programmed pattern. In the process, he can create his own style of play with very basic controls.

Another example is Crayon Physics Deluxe, where you draw objects in order to push a ball to collect stars. It doesn’t matter what you draw, as long as your objects fall on right angle and direction.