The creation of a facebook application is quite a bit more involved than I thought. It is not just simply creating a game that would be fun to you, but actually creating a game that will keep making people come back and playing time after time. Incentives such as trophies and leaderboard rankings are something that I think will help my game work in the realm of facebook. So far, my Go Fish game is coming along quite nicely and I really do think it would be a successful facebook app.
This Christmas is clearly revolving around video games. Never have I seen so many commercials or print ads for games. It seems that every other second I see an ad for Rock Band or Assassin’s Creed and the amzing Mr. T ad for World of Warcraft. The video game industry is clearly going to capitalize on such an aggressive marking campaign and it will propel profits higher than ever before. There is a reason still cannot find a Wii anywhere in stores over a year after its release, the popularity of gaming is clearly at an all time high and shows no signs of slowing down.
The audio project ended up being a very interesting endeavor. The most difficult part was getting the sound to actually sync up with the video clips. It was quite hard to do in Adobe Flash, and it would have been much easier for me to use it in an audio editting program such as Audacity. But it was a fun project, and we’ll see if my attempt at being funny actually works.
Thanksgiving break exhausted all my resources for trying to fix up my Al Gore platform game. My main problem has been trying to get the Al Gore character sprite to look better than it does. The issue is that in order for it to fit properly inside the room, the image has to be greatly reduced in size from its original. This results in putting a detailed image into only a few pixels, which results in the image looking terrible. Every attempt at solving this problem has been futile. Every other aspect of the game runs smoothly. The enemies look much better than the character sprite when they were reduced in size and the backgrounds fit the mood we were trying to set inside the game. However, this problem with the main sprite is damaging to the overall game. It is unfortunate, but with the limited tools at our disposal and my overall lack of knowledge of graphic enhancement, this looks like it is as final as it is going to get.
The platformer tutorial does not add up to a very fun game. However, if you can get a decent concept, it can greatly increase the value of the gameplay.
For this game, the social issue we decided to tackle was global warming. And who better to be our hero than the Nobel Prize Winner himself, Al Gore. He has to battle nasty CO2 emissions and the elusive ManBearPig to save the earth from global warming. Can he do it??? While battling, Gore must also liberate the trees scattered around the now sparse forest land and make it to the exit with all the oxygen he possible can. It is the fight of his life, and the whole world hangs in the balance!!!
This is a very interesting ad campaign, which apparently, as I was told the other day, was devised by Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker. But besides that, it makes the contest seem like the person chosen will be saving the world with a soft drink. It will prevent the apocalypse and save all of humanity in the process. It is just like the plot of oh so many sci-fi epic games and fps. The idea that it is undemocratic to drink only what is made for us and not what we choose is also a pretty novel idea.
The games on the site further enhance this premise. There are seven different games designed to test the creator’s mettle in order to see if they are indeed “worthy” enough of being chosen for the drink. Again, a very different but well thought up twist for this contest. It is quite intriguing and I am looking forward to participating in this contest.
I believe that the sum total of my group’s machinima for “Raging Bull” came out pretty well. Once we cut down the actual video used and inserted more game clips, it seemed to flow better and genuinely seemed like a more finished product. However, there were many impediments along the way and things that made our machinima not quite as full as we wanted it to be.
One of the first problems is gaining complete control of a video game for the purposes of recording and editing gameplay. We were able to get a decent amount of control out of our game, Fight Night Round 3, but not the true level of control that we had initially sought out to achieve. We were unable to swing the camera around the ring freely, and forget about trying to capture clips of the boxers talking. This really made it difficult to get good shots to use that fit the mood of the scene.
Finding a video game source that would make a great movie scene was also trying. I didn’t want to take the easy way out and just record a bit of one of my games based on a movie, i.e. Reservoir Dogs or a Star Wars game. We tried Dead Rising to recreate a scene from Dawn of the Dead but realized that all of the memorable scenes in that game required multiple playable characters, whereas that game is single player only. Fight Night gave us the control of two characters for a scene comprised of mainly two characters which worked out well. Also, trying to control one of the boxers using a Guitar Hero III controller because I couldn’t find my second XBox controller makes things a bit harder too.
Synching up the audio to fit with the video was also a bit of a nuisance. Editing in Windows Movie Maker was a hassle since you cannot just cut out the parts you want, but rather you need to trim off the beginning or end of a clip. It would be much easier to just remove any bit of audio or video present in a scene. Again, the result came out fine, but after much work in the editing process and bits left in that we had to leave in whether we wanted to or not.
Blade Runner…what can I say that has not already said by critics since the true Director’s Cut release in the early 1990s? It is simply one of the best Science-Fiction movies ever filmed.
It is visually stunning, and one can easily see why the video game industry has been greatly influenced by this movie. The dreary world has been used for quite some time, but heavily influenced more recent titles. I see hints of this in games such as Final Fantasy VII, Halo and BioShock. Futuristic lands with oddball characters and androids a plenty. Also, the perpetual Coca-Cola advertising reminds me of the heavy advertising used in today’s games.
The whole idea of being in the future hunting down rogue androids is an amazing concept for a game. It oozes interactivity and choose your own adventure gameplay. Games such as Hitman and Star Wars:Bounty Hunter have utilized these elements fairly well. Here’s to hoping that they decide to make a true Blade Runner game where you can hunt down androids as you please.
All apologies for not being in class on Monday, and because of that, I will put my top 5 games of all time in my blog post for the week.
In no specific order:
1) Resident Evil 4 (GC/Wii)- So good I bought it twice. Graphically amazing for a last gen game. Totally revolutionized the Survival Horror genre with its gameplay. The addition of interactive cut-scenes is one that should be utilized more often. The Wii controls are fantastic.
2) Metal Gear Solid Series (PS/PS2)- Stealth/action at its best. However, it was the compelling story that is missing from most games that makes this on my top list. Memorable boss battles, characters that have depth and the game feels like a movie. Simply amazing.
3) Halo Series (Xbox/Xbox 360)- Revolutionized console multiplayer. I never owned an Xbox but have probably played Halo more than any other game due to 8 player system link.
4) Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out (NES)- If you have never played this, then you have missed out on one of the greatest sports titles of all time. Amazing characters (Soda Popinski being my fav), a lovable underdog (LITTLE MAC!!!) and the Dream Fight with Tyson. If you are short on nerves, you have no chance against the Virtual biter.
5) Final Fantasy VIII (PS)- Most FF fans liked this one least. However, it was my first ever RPG other than Pokemon. I loved it. Great characters, simple, yet fun battle system, and oh so many side quests. I simply love this game to death, especially for it opening my eyes to the world of RPGs.
So I finished watching Lost season 3 today.
finally caught up with the series by watching all 3 seasons over the summer. The one show I swore to myself I would never watch, but I got hooked and never looked back. And then I saw that they were making the show into a video game for all major consoles and the PC. And I immediately became worried. Why? For the same reason that I always get worried when any of my favoritetv shows or movies get made into a video game… creators always phone in the video game and bank on the media license.
This is a problem. When was the last time anyone made a great, if not even an enjoyable, movie/tv show spin-off game? There may only be a few in every console’s lifetime (Simpsons Hit and Run and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds are some of my guilty pleasure favs). Dating all the way back to ET: The Extraterrestrial for the Atari is the suckiness of licensed media video games. The industry has destroyed the amazing names of the Terminator, the Matrix, and even Reservoir Dogs. Why do companies feel like they do not have to impress the gamers out here who love these medias?
This is what truly scares me. When the Lost game comes out, I in undoubtedly play it and beat it because I am a fan of the show. However, it also undoubtedly will be a poor constructed game because the programmers will phone in the content and bank on the revenue from Lost franchise tag. And for all of us video game consumers out here, it willdisapoint as always.
