The Vickerage

Assets

2011-03-02T12:05:00.000-08:00

Right, I've sorted the lights out noww. Finished more or less now :D

2011-03-02T09:05:00.000-08:00

I've had to remake all of the lighting in the level because it was taking far too long to build the lighting at preview standard let alone production level. So instead of using the emissive channel in the light static meshes I just used bog standard lights.
I've also added an axe and a roque mallet in the level, along with something that is fast becoming a tradition in my scenes-the photos are all of me and my friends.
There is also music in the level from the film- Midnight the stars & you, it is in the background coming from one end of the level.

Mostly finished

2011-02-27T07:48:00.001-08:00

Lighting errors

2011-02-27T06:22:00.001-08:00

Right, all of the assets are finished now, I've imported all of them into the scene and I baked the production quality lightmap which took 6 bloody hours!

Now, why, oh why are there random blobs all over the floor?

There doesn't seem to be anything causing these shadows, and as for the Looney Tunes style round mark on the floor I haven't got a clue as to what's causing it! I'm gonna have to think about this one, and that might take a week in itself.

Typewriter etc

2011-02-25T06:24:00.000-08:00

Well apart from a glitch when my profile got an annoying virus, it's been business as usual. I've mostly made the assets for the scene now, just a few more and then it's on to the finishing touches :D

Pia, Pia, Piano

2011-02-16T03:59:00.001-08:00

The second time I had to make this bloody thing, I was almost finished making it yesterday and then it all went to hell and I lost it, so I started again last night and finished it just now.

The level overall is coming together now, there's only a few big assets left to put in and then I can tweak the lighting a bit more cos I'm still not happy with it.

Marty the Beardy Bison

2011-02-13T07:03:00.001-08:00

This is a Bison, his name is Marty, he is quite Beardy.
The end.

Asset Placement

2011-02-10T08:02:00.000-08:00

I've production rendered my scene cos someone wanted some more work for my demo reel, and included the assets I've made so far.
The lighting is still a little dodgy and some assets are missing like the piano/buffallo head and staircase railing, but you get the general idea.

MOOOOOOOOOSE!

2011-02-07T08:18:00.000-08:00

nuff said.

Update

2011-02-03T01:45:00.000-08:00

I've been ill lately and haven't done as much work as usual, but here's an update with a few more assets, I've turned off the indoor lighting for now as I noticed a few errors in the lighting and I've given up for the moment trying to fix them.

lighting, bastard lighting

2011-01-25T07:35:00.000-08:00

Right, well. It's been a while since I last posted but I haven't been resting on my laurels.
I've started getting some base lighting down on the level now, although I did make the outside environment and added snow etc too, and some curtains.
The lighting took forever to get right, I fiddled with the settings so much and had to wait to build the lighting for so bloody long!
In the end I used the emmisive texture on the interior lights and used a dominant directional light outsie, which wasn't bright enough so I had to also add more lights near the windows to give the impression that more light was bouncing around.

Chandolier

2011-01-17T08:32:00.000-08:00

I've started on the light fittings now, with the main chandoliers that hang in the main room, just need to do the lods and I can then move onto the baby chandoliers and the remaining lights :D

Fireplace

2011-01-13T04:42:00.000-08:00

I first made the fireplace as one whole model using a 2048x2048 size texture sheet, but then remembered that unreal renders 1024 tops so the model ended up looking pretty poor close up. Especially the rock walls, they looked particularly pixellated;

So in the end I split up the model, one with the main structure of the fireplace with the basket and the other containing the wooden logs and the dog grate, both using 1024 texture sheets

I think they ended up looking alright, the lighting as usual isn't sorted yet so I know they aren't properly lit yet but I'll get round to lighting the damn level once the assets are all in.

Dresser

2011-01-09T03:56:00.000-08:00

Bear Rug

2010-12-31T06:19:00.001-08:00

I don't know why it took so long to do this little furry bugger, perhaps I just couldn't be arsed or the fact that it was Christmas who knows. But it's done.
The bear rug from the film looked really shoddy and cheap so I decided to make one that looked a little more resembling of an actual bear and not a ferret that spent its childhood on a rack.

I couldn't resist

2010-12-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

I've been making a lot of headway with the bsp this past few days so I couldn't resist planting the assets I'd made so far into the scene to see how they looked :D

Two more tables and the BSP practically completed!

2010-12-21T05:00:00.000-08:00

BSP madness...well not madness just pictures

2010-12-19T05:36:00.000-08:00

I think the large tables need to be made a little longer and the rugs at either end in the alcoves need to be scaled down a tad, but the rugs can be resized in UDK the tables I can easily do in Max :D

ahoy! hoy! yet another coffee table

2010-12-15T11:16:00.000-08:00

I hadn't noticed this little beaut in the screenshots of the Shining but I just caught it as I was close to finishing all of the tables in the scene.
I have another table to do apparantly so after that then there are no more tables to make!
YAY!
apart from a pool table of course....
the assets should start getting more and more interesting now, I have a grand piano, a moose head and the fireplace to make yet...

2010-12-15T06:58:00.000-08:00

ANOTHER COFFEE TABLE...SORRY CAPS LOCK IS STUCK ON!

2010-12-13T10:20:00.000-08:00

yet another piece of boring furniture :D

2010-12-11T09:26:00.000-08:00

no doubt you're all getting bored of seeing mediocre furniture on my blog but to be honest, I'm not getting bored of making the stuff :D

Very crude screenshots

2010-12-10T13:13:00.000-08:00

I apologise for the poor quality of the screenshots but you get the general idea, here are the coffee tables and Desk that I've done today. I've also noticed that unreal places a wierd border around the objects with dynamic lighting or something, so I'll have to figure that out when I make the level.

Right, Back to work!

2010-12-10T03:43:00.000-08:00

Right, now all of the seating and rugs have been accounted for, I can make progress with the tables, which shouldn't take too long methinks. I've been a bit sloppy the past week and not done much work, but I promise I'll get cracking this week.
Maybe two assets a day who knows..

a few days off and now a table!

2010-12-07T12:28:00.001-08:00

more horrible 70's colours...this time, on a settee!

2010-12-01T05:18:00.000-08:00

Ooop

2010-11-27T09:41:00.001-08:00

I did try with the one asset a day thing, although I had a few days break to visit the job centre and various other distractions. But now I should be back on track for a few days.

I've made the last of the armchairs now, more curvy than the last lot. Now onto the settees, I think there's only one that needs some recolours, should be easy.

Fabric Chair and recolours

2010-11-23T07:41:00.000-08:00

I finished the LOD for the leather chair I was so proud of this morning and tweaked the texture to look a little more chocolatey. Then I made the rough fabric chairs that populate the lounge, also with the recolours.

Leather Bastarding ArmChair

2010-11-22T13:34:00.000-08:00

Well I struggled with this chair, I completed a model, then realised it looked a bit poo so I remade it with success!..although it uses a lot more tris, but I think it' worth it. I had previously struggled with the indentations on the chair on my fmp a while back but I seemed to have sorted it now.
I also like how the texture went as I thought it would be difficult to make the top look worn and saggy, but I think it works quite well... (SMUG MODE)

Hopefully I'll get the LOD's sorted tomorrow morning and make another armchair!
Laters

easy peasy

2010-11-20T04:31:00.000-08:00

I'm sticking to my guns with the whole 'one asset a day' malarkey, even managed to get this chair done before breakfast so I can spend the rest of my day watching the likes of Jeremy Kyle on daytime tv.

one asset for every day, keeps procrastination at bay.

2010-11-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

I've decided on a new strategy for my project, to complete an asset every day, no less. This would be for every working day obviously I might need a day off from watching daytime tv and being generally unemployed...which is a full day activity :S
So today, I finished the LODs for the last chair I made and then created another chair for the scene. I also drew up an asset list which is pretty daunting considering the number of assets, but recolours and resizes aside I should have it done in no time :D

and a chair!

2010-11-18T07:16:00.001-08:00

I also went ahead and created Jack's chair that is at his work desk, there are three of these in the level.

some more rugs....

2010-11-18T07:15:00.001-08:00

Rugs, Rugs, Rugs...and more Rugs.

2010-11-18T07:09:00.000-08:00

After my last post, I quickly realised that the shape of the room in udk was completely wrong. I've had this problem before and it will take too long to move things about so I think I'm gonna start again from scratch. After that disheartening blow I decided to move ahead making the assets so I started with something easy to get my creative juices flowing, here are the rugs that will be used:

the new UDK

2010-11-12T08:31:00.000-08:00

Right, the main building itself is pretty much complete at the moment, I've placed the basic textures to the walls and beams etc and apart from the painting above the fireplace its pretty much there. I was worried for a moment that I'd made everything a little too big again but after a few tweaks it seems to be right now.

As ever, ignore the lighting at the minute, I'm not even gonna bother playing around with lighting at this stage. I can sort it after everything is in place. After I've painted the fireplace I'll model the fireplace itself and the doors to place in the level. then on to the rugs and other assets!
Laters

Meanwhile...back in Gedling....

2010-11-09T03:13:00.000-08:00

So I've finished uni, graduated with a 2:1 and I'm still living at home unemployed....
Not quite sure how that happened, but hey ho, I have to keep myself busy. I have begun work on another large project that should be pretty good once completed.
I have decided to recreate the Colorado Lounge from the Shining;
I was thinking about doing another project and started thinking maybe I'd like to do a warehouse or a delapidated building or house, but then the cliche's started pouring in like barrels, crates etc so I thought I'd try something a little different. I enjoyed doing interiors, but I wanted something a little different from my fmp, something lighter, cleaner and more open.
Then I remembered one of my favourite films and books, the Shining. I initially decided to recreate a part of the hallway but after noticing how complicated and boring that would be I decided against it and then I remembered how interesting the Colorado Lounge was. It was based on the lounge at the Ahanee Hotel, in Yosemite National Park
I began getting as many reference pics as possible, from the internet and the dvd, and I stumbled across something....
http://www.collativelearning.com/the%20shining%20-%20chap%204.html
Apparantly modelling stuff from the set of the shining isn't going to be as easy as it sounds...
I discovered that the set was full of mazes and tricks to make it look complicated and confusing, like a labyrinth .
I finally managed to draw up a basic floor plan to guide me.
This is going to be tricky...

misc project

2010-01-20T09:35:00.000-08:00

I finished modelling this guy ages ago but I'm yet to rig him, I've been struggling with rigging so I'll get on it one day.

3rd Year; Rooftop Project

2010-01-20T08:31:00.001-08:00

My rooftop project was a little on the rushed side as I did a little amount of work when I had to return to Nottingham for a week or so. The end result isn't as perfect as I would have liked but I still think it does the job. The layout I had created had left me with a problem however, I couldn't find any particular place for final renders as each shot left certain parts of the scene out and I couldn't quite get a single shot that showed everything off.
I also feel I spent far too many tris on the side of the building, although the thought behind that decision was to make the level like a boss fight with a helicopter or something so the camera would constantly be on the side of the building panning around.
Anyways, it was fun making this scene and I expect I shall do some more one day. :D

3rd Year; Crab

2010-01-19T12:51:00.001-08:00

This is my crab project, I stuck to the photos as much as I could, I couldn't really be bothered to break the rules and go crazy with this one and change the brief like I did with the treasure chest.
If I were to make this again I'd probably devote more tris to the claws as they look a little blocky under close inspection.

3rd year stuff: Treasure chest

2010-01-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

Well here we have it, my treasure chest project;
I decided to make it look mossy and slimy as the original concept was not to my taste, I think this looks a little better and I was sick of all of the treasure chests looking the same.
I know the purpose of the project was to follow the brief but it also said to interpret it and make judgements on how to translate it into 3d and I thought it should be dirty and/or a little mossy as it would make sense. I see the treasure chest in two different environments, a wet slimy mossy cave or in a captains private cabin and I went for the former choice. so there......

treasure chest scene

2009-11-17T09:12:00.000-08:00

2009-11-16T13:29:00.000-08:00

Here's a few renders of my Treasure Chest project for my third year, this was the third time I'd modelled this bloody thing, I was never happy with the way the other two models looked so I did it again. After I had modelled it twice I was then unhappy with the texture but I was already fed up so I took a break and started the crab project. When I returned, I remodelled sections and redid the texture. I saw everyone else's texture and thought they all look a little too similar so I decided to change mine slightly. I stayed within the boundaries of the concept image only I made it look as if it had been underwater for some time, or in a damp cave or something like that. I think I got the hang of making mossy textures from our group project last year, so I did it again for this.

So there it is, I'll post the crab project up once I'm happy with it. The claws are annoying me it a little so it may be a while yet.
Laters

doing an impersonation of a helicopter by swinging his guitar round his neck!

2009-08-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd show you a pic of Springsteen I've been working on lately.
I was gonna do a few more versions of this with bright colours overlayed on top but I'm still playing around with the idea and haven't come up with any good results yet, who knows maybe I'll add some later on.
Me and a few friends saw Bruce Springsteen at Hard Rock Calling in Hyde park at the end of June and he completely blew us away! For a 60 year old he sure can move, he was running all over the place, throwing guitars across the stage and doing an impersonation of a helicopter by swinging his guitar round his neck!
Gotta give credit where credit is due, this man is a legend.
:D
Laters

Accordion Hero:Walter Ostanek

2009-08-14T04:23:00.000-07:00

I have just stumbled upon a stark realisation that has caused me to feel ever so slightly stressed..
I am going to fail my third year....no question about it.
Firstly, Me and Jason have purchased Guitar Hero:World Tour and Metallica. These merciless corporate money making tools of marketing will distract us till at least half way through the third year. The team behind GH could make any form of this game and moronic gamers like me will probably buy it along with every piece of cheap plastic, Early Learning centre hardware that goes along with it.
My guess for the next installment will be Accordion Hero:Walter Ostanek, just you watch.

Secondly, for the remainder of the year we will be distracted by a whole host of games Jason and Craig (his brother) have brought up. Around 20 or so Gamecube games, some of which are from America. Amongst these games from yesteryear, are Timesplitters 2 and 3, both of which are awesome games which have their own brand of cooky, cheesy charm, and are endlessly entertaining.
Then theres Ikaruga, a top-down, scrolling shooter.....with a difference. You and your enemies are either black or white, you can change your craft to either of which you choose, black does twice as much damage to white enemies and vice versa, although you become very vulnerable to your opposite colour. This adds a whole new dimension to a game, which lets face it, is almost impossible to complete. Yet for some strange reason the game is still entertaining even though I cannot get past level 2!
There are loads of other games, some of which I never played the first time round which I'm looking forward to playing, XIII, Second Sight etc. I'm also currently playing an old PC game of mine which I thorougly enjoy; Gangsters 2:Vendetta. This game is a quaint look at 1920's gangsters and is very enjoyable to play, like a cross between any rts game and Bugsy Malone. Each character has a funny Gangster nickname and a speciality, for example; Abe 'Louisiana' Caldbeck who is a bomber and getaway driver, simple. It basically follows Joseph Bane whos father was murdered, as he fights back at the criminal underworld across the state.
Thats all I can be bothered to write about now, those games are calling me so I'd better play them. I'll make another post about what little work I've done this summer next.
Laters,

A garish, fromage-filled Anchorman spin off

2009-08-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

Reading the last post back, a thought had occurred to me.

"Life on Mars" UK- an amazing tv show.

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH:

"Life on Mars" US- pathetic

As soon as I'd heard that those darn Yanks had remade Life on Mars, immediately, visions of a garish, fromage-filled Anchorman spin off filled my mind. Curious, I looked it up on Youtube, and my worst fears had been realised. Those poor Americans, I actually feel sorry for them. The trailer itself was so camp and frothy it made me angry that Britain is associated with America.
This is a clear example of how you can take something good and turn it into something abysmal. It's like handing over Shakespeare manuscripts to a chimp to be edited and re-envisioned, whilst several 'suits' watch over and make sure every other word is 'Coca Cola' or 'Microsoft'.
This isn't the first time its happened and it won't be the last. I believe we shouldn't give America our toys to play with anymore, they keep coming back broken.

Knocking bins and small children over with their flairs

2009-08-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

Oh boy it sure is swell weather we're having eh? I might just throw away my winter clothes and keep wearing bermuda shorts and hawaiian shirts for the rest of my days...Is what I would say if this wasn't England and if Summer hadn't buggered off to be replaced by grey skies and drizzle.
It's not all bad though, in the little spurt of good weather we did have I managed to cram in Bruce Springsteen at Hyde Park and a whole rock festival in Belgium called 'Rock Werchter' (pronounced Verkter), as well as catching up on some of the best televisual viewing of the past few years on DVD. I seem to be at least two years behind the tv listings now so I'm buying the DVDs of highly recommended tv shows that I missed the first time round.

First off, Life on Mars.
One slighty tipsy night strolling back from the pub quiz feeling uneducated and defeated, a friend recommended we watch it. I needed a pick-me-up and so I turned it on and was barely able to turn the damn thing off again! Straight away the story had me hooked and I just couldn't bare to stop watching, the characters, the setting, the car, absolutely everything was just mindblowingly awesome.
For those who don't know Life on Mars, the premise follows DCI Sam Tyler as he gets knocked over by a car and wakes up in 1973. He doesn't know whether he is in a coma, mad or actually back in time. He is then introduced to a colourful range of characters including the brilliant DCI Gene Hunt, Sam's superior, who somehow encapsulates the entire 70's in one man. Each character has a distinct personality and the whole two series is beautifully crafted and designed to keep you on your toes, as you can never tell what is real or not. Each episode solves a crime and is fresh and gripping, with no 'filler' episodes to taint the series.

Gene Hunt...bloomin' Brilliant Guv'nor.

The 70's throws lots of problems Sam's way as he is faced with the poorly educated policing techniques used in that decade, and the conflict between him and the other officers is very entertaining to watch. Don't for one second think that this is simple nostalgic malaize, the show very rarely feels like its been hacked together by two guys who thought "Weren't the 70's great!". It is very well thought out and thoroughly entertaining, and not a garishly bright coloured rehash made by people who couldn't actually remember the 70's. People who thought everyone dressed like pimps and rollerbladed everywhere knocking bins and small children over with their flairs. This show is a good representation of that decade, very realistic and most of all its very British too, gawd bless 'em.
The whole Life on Mars experience is visually astounding and the music that accompanies it is superb, peaking with David Bowie's 'Life on Mars'. Both series will leave you wanting a leather jacket just like Sam's, and a Ford Granada like Gene. Believe me when I say you must watch this series before you die.
I wish I was alive in 1973...

wip

2009-06-29T04:24:00.000-07:00

I've started working on another character model just to see if I can't do any better than my self portrait model. I used a character project of a cowboy I started in my first year and I'm gonna try and make the character based on that.
I've completed the model now and I just need to texture it,( after a lengthy uv unwrap of course)
I tried to keep the model as simple as possible and hopefully this will look a lot better when a texture is applied, making the texture will be very important in deciding whether this project goes well or looks like a crappy first year project, so finger's crossed.
laters

another portrait

2009-06-01T07:47:00.001-07:00

Done another quick portrait of my mummykins today.
I tried to do some other work but I kept getting frustrated with everything I started so I resorted to a portrait instead.

another misc portrait

2009-05-14T10:28:00.001-07:00

I've done a quick portrait of a friend of mine in photoshop, and I think I'm getting the hang of portraits now. Obviously I still have more to learn but I'm starting to enjoy painting more.

I enjoy painting quick portraits like these now, as long as I finish it on the same day I started then it still seems fresh and I don't tire of painting it. Most of my other paintings have become laborious after a while and I begin to regret starting them. Hopefully I should have a few more of these done by the end of the week. :D

Hunter S. Thompson

2009-04-29T07:47:00.001-07:00

For some strange reason I am drawing a lot this past few days.
Heres a quick pic of Hunter.
:D

A Search For The American Dream

2009-04-29T04:37:00.001-07:00

So, finally Spring and Summer have passed in the short week where Britain had sunshine for more than two minutes per day and the harbingers of winter are already at our doorstep.

The second year of my Game Art Design course has expired and I am now finding it hard to believe that the next time I return to the Fletcher tower (On an official teaching week) will be as a third year. I am literally quivering in my boots....well, slippers, as I write this. The end of year assessments went pretty much as expected and as usual the phrase “Must try harder” springs instantly to mind.

Anyways, as I’ve had so much time off and everybody else has been imprisoned in University for a little while longer I’ve returned to reading books for pleasure. The swill-infested corpse of television can no longer sustain my need for entertainment and there is only so much daytime television one person can take.

“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”

I saw the film adaptation of this quite some time ago now, at first I thought it was quirky and the actual plot line of the film eluded me well into the third or fourth viewing. What was the purpose of this crazy drug fuelled rampage? And was it true? I’d heard that it was originally a book and a few people had insisted that it was better than the film, so straight away (three years later) I bought the book and started reading.

First impressions....

I want to be a Journalist. Although my literacy skills are shite and I can’t really write without verging off into my rants and muddling up my meanings with convoluted sentences which seem to go on and on and on.....sorry, force of habit. If journalism is as interesting as this book makes out then I would have loved to be one.

The actual plot is very loose, “Raoul Duke” and his attorney “Dr. Gonzo” embark on a trip to Las Vegas in the 1970’s to write about the “Mint 400” race. They rent a red Convertible and load it with alcohol and drugs, which they start to consume almost straight away, causing them to slip into a drug fuelled stupor for the entirety of their stay. Needless to say havoc ensues. After the “Mint 400” story, Mr “Duke” is asked to attend and report on a drugs conference that hundreds of cops will also be attending. That’s the story in a nutshell but as I said before the actual plot is ‘loose’ to say the least. The duo were initially out to report on these events but “Raoul Duke” uses the trip to try and find the “American Dream” whether it be a physical place or an idealistic goal, There are several uses of metaphor and imagery to describe the state of 70’s America, in this case-the garish neon lights of Las Vegas are used as the pinnacle of American culture, a place where anything is possible and dreams come true.

This image is repeatedly shattered and distorted as Mr “Duke” stumbles through the underbelly of the garish neon beast known as “Las Vegas” and he discovers the futility of his quest. The American Dream has gone, and all is left is inadequacy and disappointment, commercialised, tacky tourism and gimmicks have replaced all that was good. This is the general theme of the book, and along with the efforts of the main protagonists trying to remain incognito the entire time, fuelled by drug-induced paranoia, it has a lot of humour too.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and reccommend it to everyone.

Nuff said.

misc stuff

2009-04-28T09:11:00.000-07:00

Firstly, heres a quick pic of good 'ol Patrick Bateman from "American Psycho". I started painting him after I got fed up with the results of my Phantom Ganon painting below. I was surprised with the results considering it was done pretty quick and that I also deviated from using the basic brushes in photoshop.

I started this pic of Phantom Ganon a couple of weeks ago and I left it to one side for a while, then I finished it off the other day but something just doesn't sit quite right with me. I think its just the pose he's in, or maybe the sillhouette turned out to be not as striking as I'd planned.
The more I worked into it the more I realised that I had to squash the pose to fit it all in and get a good level of detail in.
Also the background and foreground are hardly awe inspiring as I couldn't be arsed to even think about doing anything with it let alone plan it.
I think composition and sillhouettes will be my main areas to concentrate on now, I realise looking back on a lot of my work in the past that the poses and set up of most of my images seem to be flat and boring, with no dramatic effect whatsoever.
This I hope to change.
Laters

quick...ish digipaint.

2009-03-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a digipaint I've been working on this weekend, its of John Frusciante. I think I'm starting to get my own kind of style of digital painting now.

Stuff.

2009-03-27T13:16:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd make good on my commitment and do another blog post.
I've been busy with work for assessments this week and I have had a very bad cold which has hindered me slightly.
I've been working on the Land/sea/air yacht project and I have a final design for my project. Although I have come to the conclusion that it is very childish and a little poorly thought out. Basically I've stuck wings onto an aircraft carrier and made it into an airship aircraft carrier. I'll put some pics up at a later date but right now I can't bear to think about it.
Anyways, I've not done any speedpaints for a while and truth be told I haven't done much photoshop work either. So on Monday I wanted to draw something so I took an image of my favourite x-man-Wolverine- off the internet and tried to do an image based on it.

I still think the original one is better but I desperately needed to get a photoshop pic out of my system :P

No way you big spaztick, You're a MENTALIST!

2009-03-20T04:32:00.000-07:00

I know this will seem odd because I haven't blogged on here for a while but I'm thinking about blogging more lately. I also realise I've said that many times before and nothing has come of it.
But this time, hopefully, I will stick to it.

So, I've had this book on my shelf for years and years and never actually read it, I've seen the movie a few times and because we found it so hilariously dark I decided to bring it to Leicester and read it.
Bret Easton Ellis isn't an author I have read a lot about or even heard of since my brother bought the book eons ago. But he has a funny, twisted sense of humour which shows through the book. American Psycho, is about a narcissistic yuppie who covers his murderous tendancies by tediously maintaining his immaculate image as a Wall Street businessman.

The first thing I noticed about the book is the length and detail of chapters which just describe the different items and products Patrick Bateman has in his apartment, and also several chapters dedicated to his taste in music which describe the subtle artistry of various artists or bands. This, along with lengthy descriptions of what people are wearing and who they are by, emphasise his personality disorder to the reader. Then the author keeps suggesting to you that Patrick Bateman isn't purely a smug, self-righteous yuppie by throwing in hints of past grizzly murders in a nonchelaunt, indifferent way, which shows that he is trying to control himself but as the book progresses, his immaculate public persona starts to crack and he becomes more and more reckless in his endeavours.
Patrick is so obsessed by his image he becomes more and more twisted and bitter about the slightest thing, who has the better font on their business card, or who can get a reservation at Dorsia etc His public mask starts to eat away at his soul causing him to become more and more animalistic and psychotic, creating several panic-stricken close calls and all the while deteriorating his social skills.
His whole life becomes a blur as he drifts through emotionless, and even more deranged, until finally he starts to see things, hear things and even convince himself that he was followed several blocks by a street bench! Little hints start popping up contradicting his previous actions, causing him to question everything he has done. Did it really happen? Is he just going insane? and everytime he starts to confess people think he is joking or being sarcastic.
The tension builds and builds throughout the book as you are taken on a gory, gratouitous journey through Patrick's psyche, and as odd as it seems you can relate to certain aspects of his character....only certain aspects mind you.
The constant pressure of society demanding that you wear certain clothes, look a certain way, eat and drink at certain bars and even own certain products. I'm not sure who said it but I heard that "Fame is a mask you wear that eats away at the face beneath", the same can be said about public personas. I don't know about you but sometimes pressure to act the way society deems necessary takes its toll, sometimes in unseen ways.

Anyway, I'll leave you with this monologue in the ending chapters of the book which I found particularly poignant;
"...there is an idea of Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusiory, and though I can can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there. It is hard for me to make sense on any given level. Myself is fabricated, and aberration. I am a noncontingent human being. My personality is sketcy and unformed, my heartlessness goes deep and is persistent. My conscience, my pity, my hopes disapeared a long time ago if they ever did exhist. There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the viscious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it, I have now surpassed. I still, though, hold on to one single bleak truth: no one is safe, nothing is redeemed. Yet I am blameless. Each model of human behaviour must be assumed to have some validity. Is evil something you are? Or is it something you do? My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape. But even after admitting this-and I have, countless times, in just about every act I've commited- and coming face-to-face with these truths, there is no catharsis. I gain no deeper knowledge about myself, no new understanding can be extracted from my telling. There has been no reason for me to tell you any of this. This confession has meant nothing....."

American Psycho says a lot about society and its flaws and also a lot about the people who find themselves at the whims of society and peer pressure etc I can say a lot about the book but I think I'll leave it at that. If you decide to read the book and look past its gory, murderous mask then I think you will find it surprising and it will certaintly get you thinking.

The next post will be lighter I promise.
Laters :D

MAKE ANOTHER EXTREME G!......not you EA, someone else.

2009-01-03T05:23:00.000-08:00

1 bike...2 bikes(sort of) and now a third.
I was playing extreme G again and I got an idea to make another bike based on one of the designs.

Its more rushed than my other bikes but I just couldn't stop myself making it, then I got thinking....
Why hasn't anyone bothered to make another game like extreme G?
I loved the game since it first graced my N64 and I love the concept of the game too, although the games never had amazing popularity or fame, everyone I asked said they liked the game so I believe someone should make another one for this generation....as long as its not EA.

Laters

More bikes and stuff

2009-01-03T05:13:00.000-08:00

Just before Christmas began and I left my work behind for a couple of days, I got a really good idea and I was looking forward to doing some work. So all the while during Christmas I was actually dying to do work!
So when I got back after Christmas I got straight to work and re-textured my bike with a mad max vibe.(Mainly because of Jason's Mad Max-esque bus he did for his vehicle project)
So here they are.

Laters

Assessments are over! Woop!

2008-12-18T09:35:00.001-08:00

WOOHOO!
Assessments are over yet again...
I was worried that this year I would be graded even lower than last year due to my lack of 2D work which has been bugging me, but somehow I managed to scrape C's all round!

I think my 3D modelling has improved a lot since last year as I am far more economical with my tri count, and my 2D skills are improving with the help from speed painting as I am getting faster and faster.

So to celebrate me and a few chums went to the Western (the greatest pub in the land) had lunch and then played Smash Bros for a bit...

Here's the latest on my speed paints:

3-CAST

I went for a witch type woman casting some big spell.

4-STEALING

I was being boring so I just did some shifty looking burglar type guy about to steal....shoes or something I dunno...

5-CRUISING

The first thing that came to my head was Will Smith flying a jet so I went with it, unfortunately I lost the Will Smith element due to time constraints.

Laters

SPEED PAINTS!

2008-12-13T15:36:00.000-08:00

VISION

IMAGINATION

Me and my good buddy Jason Garlick (with the ginger hair) have decided that it would be in our best interests if we started speed painting again. I say again, I never speed painted in the first place so this is especially good for me.
We gave ourselves 30 minutes for these crazy masterpieces in the hope that it will improve our skills.
heres the first two so far. Vision was the first word and Imagination was provided by our very own Rhian Rees. :D
We're aiming to do at least one painting every day so hopefully there will be a lot more where these came from.

Laters

2008-12-10T09:23:00.001-08:00

I've finished the texture for my self portrait project now and I've added a few alphas for the hair to make it less blocky.

2008-12-09T10:08:00.000-08:00

I've finished my actual model of myself and I've uv'd the geometry.
This is a quick block colour texture for the model and it instantly looks better than I'd anticipated so I am happy with my work so far.
I did think that the face was very, very wrong but with the texture on it resembles me a lot more now.

THIS TEXTURE IS VERY BASIC AND USED ONLY TO SEE HOW I'M PROGRESSING.
Laters

Work progress.

2008-12-08T08:02:00.000-08:00

Here's a few more shots of my self portrait project.
I've finished the main torso and I've added my keys to my belt, at the minute they are straight on as this is easier to uv so after they've been uv'd then I'll rotate them into position.
I had a lot of trouble with the hands, especially the gap between the fingers which I spent quite a lot of time on just to get it looking alright.
I'll see how early I finish this project before I start to make my jacket on top of this. I still haven't started making the low poly version yet so I'd better get cracking.
I've also made a start on the head. Like the last few times I've modelled a head in 3DSMax it always looks alright from the profile view but from the front it always looks a little off. Maybe its because it looks too symetrical....I'll have to tinker with it once its welded together(I'm still using the symetry tool).

Yes I know I look evil......
Laters

Biker Mice From Mars.

2008-11-29T16:20:00.001-08:00

I finished my vehicle project finally.
Here's the renders with a funky spotlight.

My First Photo Shoot. By Tim Vickers.

2008-11-29T15:59:00.000-08:00

First off, it's 12:00 on a Saturday night and I have just got back from visiting Sainsbury's in my Bear Slippers..I have binged on Doritos, Chocolate Brownies and Dr Pepper.
I AM TIRED.

Someone has just reminded me that I haven't done a blog today, and I promised to do one per day.

So,

This week has been really, really hectic!
We've been in all week and have done loads of work which has really uplifted me and helped me with the course. Friday was an interesting day.... We had a photo shoot organised by a kind chap who let us use his photography studio for the morning to quickly get snaps for our Self Portrait project.
It was a really exciting time for me and I can see why people get into photography cos it is addictive!
Here's a few shots of me for my model.

At the minute I've made a basic body shape and I'm just starting to make the arms. It's very symetrycal now but when I weld them together I'm going to make a few adjustments to make it a little more realistic.

Laters

Work In Progress-3D

2008-11-27T15:12:00.000-08:00

Well at the minute I've mainly been working on 3D stuff.
We've been told that we should spend a certain number of hours on the varying aspects of our course but I seem to have forgotten this...yet again.
The 3d project I'm working on atm is our vehicle project.
Whilst I was a first year I had made an extreme-g bike type thing in my own spare time. Being young and naieve I had rushed the whole thing and forgotton about poly limits and went mental!
here is the result:Being a fan of Extreme G and films like Akira I love the idea of large bikes like this and I had to make a better model of this. I wanted to do something different this time though and I didn't want a racing bike. Instead I wanted a more industrial feel about it.

Its a similar design to my original bike only I wanted it to be a more industrial, off-road bike with dirt and scorch marks all over it. The tri count is a lot lower than my first model and at the minute I have most of the textures finished.
So there you have it...
See you tomorrow.
Laters

10 things I hate about blogs......

2008-11-27T15:10:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to go into why I hate blogs as you might have expected from the title but I hate the fact that I've neglected it for so long. I know I should have blogged more cos I do have stuff to talk about but for some reason I just haven't done anything on it.

So now I endeavour to blog at least once a day.....even if I do talk shite.

Laters

Why me?

2008-06-28T13:03:00.002-07:00

Like most people in the UK, I regularly recieve letters in the post saying that I'm the lucky winner of some raffle that I have never even heard of, and like most people in the UK I throw them away.
Then a few weeks back I recieved the mother of all junk mail.

A summons for jury duty.

I'm sure you can imagine my glee at recieving such a holy gift (!)

This is the one "lucky winner" junk letter that you cannot ignore unless you are one of the 'lucky' few who can use death as an excuse not to do it.

Despite my lack of enthusiasm towards the justice system I aim to be as ruthless and prejudice as possible when deciding my verdict on the guilty...
boy I'm really getting the hang of this justice malarkey, or maybe I've been reading too much Judge Dredd.........

I'm pretty sure I left my blog here somewhere....

2008-06-28T12:58:00.002-07:00

Today was a day like any other,
I'd been rudely awoken by my cat insisting on using my face as a scratching post, and I'd banged my leg on my way out of the room.
Then it hit me...

I'd suddenly realised that I had a blog and was expected to make regular posts.
This commitment was somewhat of a shambles by this point, as I'd not even considered my blog for at least three months.

However things will change... I promise to myself to keep posting stuff on here however insignificant and boring...Hey, what else is one supposed to do with a blog?

Laters,
Tim

WEEK 16: DIFFERENT STROKES; A look at gaming cultures...again

2008-04-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

GAMING CULTURES

hrmmm dejavu...
Right where was I?

Gaming Cultures,
Many, many different types of people enjoy video games for what they are, fun. And most people around the world can find someone to communicate with about video games. Its a good ice-breaker. Someone you felt you had no connection with could turn out to be similar to you in video game taste.

Its no wonder why the video game industry has thrived when almost everyone enjoys playing games. Technology has also helped the industry and its faithful following as it allows people to share experiences and create new ones over the Internet for example.

Internet cafe's and online tournaments further this connection between gamers as they compete online. People previously timid or unable to socialise or travel can make friends with and play with people from all over the world. Games like second life allow people to meet and party from the comfort of their own home.

There is no doubt that the gaming community is as big a market as movie goers or book readers, even bigger maybe. It is this fear of growing numbers I suspect that fuel debates about video games and their impact on society. Although I believe that the positive effects of a gaming community far outweigh the negative.

I have noticed that attitudes towards gamers have changed, things like the Wii have improved the image of gamers, showing that people can get together and play games for fun, something that has happened for a long time but has been hidden from the public eye for some reason.

Anyway, I'm done on this subject now.
Laters

WEEK 16: DIFFERENT STROKES; A look at gaming cultures

2008-04-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

GAMING CULTURE

Along with Nazi's and Morris dancers I get the feeling that gaming cultures are very badly advertised.

I must first point out that I cannot and will not talk about gaming cultures without pointing out that video games get slated by the press at the first opportunity.

Most uppety-media-types can't wait for a violent game rated 'R' or '18' to come out so they can climb aboard their high horse and charge upon the devil worshipping, bunch of future murdering crime syndicates that are gamers. Their main point being that games are damaging to our children, conveniently ignoring the ratings given to such "morally-damaging" games saying that they are violent, gory and sexually explicit. Its narrow-minded conservative morons like this that keep us from progressing as a species. just cos you missed out on video games, don't try and spoil them for the rest of us.

I would like to tell you a story, bear with me;
-------------------------
During my time serving at Morrisons in Nottingham as a checkout operator I had the misfortune of witnessing this ignorance first-hand. A middle-aged, conservative looking lady was shopping with her son who looked about 5. Towards the end of her shopping I scanned through "BIOSHOCK", a notably gory game rated 18.

I looked over at the hopeful child who was looking rather guilty and nervous. I recognised this look as I myself used to try and con my mother into unwittingly buying me stuff I knew she dissaproved of.

I knew the woman wasn't going to play the game and politely notified her that it was age restricted to which she snidely replied with 'do I look under 18?' so I let the ignorant bitch buy the game for her son.

Later that week, on another seemingly endless shift I spied the same woman complaining to a supervisor that someone had sold the game to her son and that she demanded action be taken otherwise she would never shop here again.
---------------------------

Its this sort of ignorant, retarded attitude towards games that really infuriate me! People complain about games when they take them out of context. Its the same as Blue Peter reviewing "The Departed" and then complaining about it because its gory.
GAMES HAVE RATINGS, DON'T IGNORE THEM YOU COMPLETE TOOLS!

And anyone who complains about video games influencing people to do bad things can sod off!
Anyone who kills someone and then says video games made me do it are mental. If I see someone I don't like, I might very well imagine what it would be like to unleash a Mortal Kombat style brutality finisher on them....but I don't. BECAUSE I'M NOT MENTAL!

*#cough#* sorry I seem to have been sidetracked.... I'll be back after a lie down.

Week 15: INDUSTRY STANDARD

2008-04-17T06:19:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make.
The deeper I fall into the rabbit hole that is Game Art Design, the more and more I get a cold shiver down my spine, a nagging feeling that I'm biting off more than I can chew.

As I understand it, the Video Game Industry is a thriving business which does noting but grow strong and become a large part of everyones life.
It hires plenty of people who all have a hard job to do to make the industry one of the fastest growing in the world....an innocent industry or a ruthless cut-throat industry.

Technology has improved and is spiralling out of control, and the game industry is not far behind using state of the art technology and game mechanics to improve the gaming experience. Thus increasing the importance of highly skilled employees and harsh deadlines.

Now.....on one hand, I am thrilled to be a part of this thriving, exciting new industry and want to work as a part of it. And on the other hand I am terrified that I don't have what it takes to compete in this dog eat dog world of video games where only the best of the best get to do their magic in video games.

Although I realise that many people have the same fears in any walk of life, I bet someone far away has the same fears about entering the shark infested waters of best buy tv sales.

I can do two things....
1) step up to the plate and raise my game; healthy competition inspires new ideas and great work.
or more likely;
2) Being a lazy sod, fade into the background as a result of paranoia and become a shivering mental wreck, unable to compete and eventually sign on at the local job centre.

.....I hate dole scum.....nuff said.

I'm a little unsure where I will eventually fit in the industry, whether I will be a specialized character modeller or a broader more utility modeller of levels or background objects.
I guess I still have time to figure out where I will fit in the industry. I won't mind being a work monkey as long as I can safely say I'm doing my part in the Game Industry.

Laters,

Week 11: the G.G.G.G.G, the Great Gamer's Guide to Good Gameplay

2008-04-17T05:49:00.000-07:00

As I feel ever so slightly rushed by the impending assessments that lurk beyond the weekend waiting to ensnare unfortunates like myself, I shall attempt very brief musings on the next few blogs.

Althought there are no promises as I may meander onto other tangents.

Due to the mere amount of times the word 'GAMEPLAY' (or GP for short) has been banded around in magazines and the Internet, I am led to believe that it simply means how the player will experience a video game.

Although definitions tend to be blurred depending on the point of the writer, much in the same way the word 'smurf' has many uses in the fictional cartoon of the same name, I now believe that 'GP' is merely used to pump up the writer's pompousity as it makes them sound like they know what they are talking about...the smurfing mothersmurfers!

Now that I'm thinking about the subject, I find myself asking;
"If a game has good 'GP'.....can I specifically describe what aspect of the 'GP' I find so enjoyable".

I can't answer. I'm not sure exactly what I find so enjoyable about some games.
For example, GTA San Andreas is renound for great 'GP' but I'm pretty sure that when people talk about the 'GP' they aren't talking about towing several vehicles over the edge of a cliff, which I spent most of my time doing.

Now I'm thinking more deeply about the subject I realise that I have fond memories of old games that I had played for different reasons than intended.

'Paintball mode grenade bowls'-Goldeneye
This is a game I used to play on Goldeney for the N64, with paintball mode turned on, you shoot/paint a floor target on one end of a corridor and then take it in turns to toss a grenade from the other end into the target area. Hours of fun.

Now I know that was not the intended purpose of the game but i still enjoy the game for the ability to do such things. Therefore I believe that 'GP' is dependant on the way you approach the game and why you play, and a good game must simply be fun to play to merit good 'gameplay'.
Clunky controls and awkward level design shatter the fun!
FACT.

I'm done here.....
Laters

Van...again

2008-04-17T05:30:00.000-07:00

Here's an update of the van I'd modelled in 3DS max, I thought it wasn't a bad effort but as soon as Heather saw it she soon picked fault with it to which I have tried to fix;

If you're wondering what it says on the back its;
"IF YOU THINK I'M DIRTY...
YOU SHOULD MEET THE WIFE"

shabba!

Geeeetaaaarrr!

2008-04-17T05:10:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post showing my guitar modelled in 3DS Max.

###SMUG MODE###

Bollogs!

2008-04-17T04:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry,
I'm going to apologise to whoever started reading my blogs when this whole fiasco began last September. I have somewhat slacked in my posts due to my lack of work ethic.

Although its slowly dawning on me that nobody has read this so actually, I'm just blogging to myself ....

therefore...

I don't need to apologise.

:P
Laters,
Tim

Assessmentilliationalisticness

2008-01-25T07:26:00.000-08:00

Assessments.

We all knew they were coming, and they day finally arrived last week. I apologise for the delay on writing about them but I'm a busy man.

I had done the bare minimum of work up until this point if I am brutally honest and my lackluster attitude and bone idolness had shown. I have very poor presentation skills and I lack confidence enough to outweigh my overall lack of commitment. For example, all of my sketchbook work included in the presentation (and lets face it pretty much all of my sketchbook work was in) was photographed terribly with a phone camera as I never got round to scanning in my work, and my poor preparation left me with a broken digital camera so I had no other choice.
I guess you could tell I was nervous on the day...

I had originally planned on bravely volunteering myself to be the first to present my work but as it turned out it wasn't to be. I then decided to wait until everyone was out for lunch and then load up my presentation so i was the first when everyone got back. All of the points which I had planned on making went out of the window when I actually started the presentation and I skimmed over the whole thing. Also I'd like to point out that the members of staff also didin't help as everytime I stopped talking and looked at them to see if they were paying attention they were busy scribbling down notes in syncronisation.

All in all I'm just glad its over now and I really need to do more work....

I'm half way through the van project now but its really annoying me. At first I was really struggling with the shape of the van, but then when I tried it at home it just seemed to work and I had a pretty decent shape to it. Now I'm trying to sort out the inside of the van which is proving difficult.

Week 10

2008-01-25T07:23:00.000-08:00

This week's blog task seems somewhat similar to the other week's blog task, Story and Character in Game Design... the other blog pretty much covered storytelling in computer games.

Computer games usually have two types of market;
There are the casual gamers who generally like games but won't spend more than a few hours at a time playing. These interesting creatures simply go for gameplay and fun value in computer games, In other words they get bored easily and need shiny new special effects and one button configurations to keep them occupied.

Then there are the hardcore gamers, we tend to like playing games for hours at a time and can learn difficult button combos and configurations that would turn mr casual gamer away. We prefer in depth games with vibrant characters and deep storylines rather than mindless button mashing mayhem. In a word...we are sad.

Games aimed at casual gamers don't really spend that much time designing well-rounded characters and an in-depth story, whereas "proper" computer games need these key elements to be successful. Character design is important, gamers become irritated by dull npcs who frequently get themselves into trouble and quickly become an annoyance, and would rather sacrifice them than go out of their way to save them.

Characters are slowly becoming more realistic and are changing decision making in games for the better. Mass Effect for example is an exciting game with interesting characters who respond and change according to how you play the game. At one point whilst playing I had to choose which character to save from impending death, and to be honest it was a tough decision. These kind of tough decisions make the gameplaying experience much more interactive and enjoyable.

Awesomeness

Game technology is also advancing the possibilities of character design. New training software is now advanced enough to show the slightest change in expression of a character. Portraying every possible medical symptom and ailment trainees now have to make snappy decisions on whom to attend to first. This is exciting as this could be used in the future for video games and I'm sure that will add more and more difficult decisions when you see the consequences of mindless violence in games.

I think that sums up the task….although I did miss out stuff about actual storytelling, character traits, backstories etc but who gives a flying feck!

Laters folks!

Week 9: Game Technology

2007-12-08T03:51:00.000-08:00

Well I'm stumped,
I only woke up about half an hour ago, my mind is fragile so if this blog seems a bit strange then I blame it on the fact that I am sleep deprived due to the amount of work that needs to be handed in next week.
Now thats out of the way...

("Game Technology".
As per usual I only read the title of the blog tasks and overlook most of the text underneath. I'm pretty sure it said something about user interfaces, joysticks and controllers somewhere, so I'm gonna roll with that. Even if it is probably wrong.)

Game Technology.
There was a time when Arcade machines ruled the land, when rows upon rows of giant, brightly coloured boxes would take our money in exchange for a few moments of gaming pleasure. As the common gamer had little or no experience with the game before playing it, the interface for that game had to be simple. Nothing more than a few buttons and a joystick. The premise was simple, the joystick moved whatever the gamer was playing in any direction and the three buttons were action buttons.
For home consoles joysticks were replaced by controllers, at first they had a D-Pad and three action buttons. As game consoles grew more powerful and more realistic games arose, the call for a more complex user interface was needed. That is why controllers for next gen games have at least twenty million buttons on the controller, each designated to several or more actions in game with at least 30 different button configurations.

Is this good?.. maybe. Gone are the days when you could repeatedly press the b button on streets of rage and watch your character kick the hell out of someone in a flamboyant and devastating way, now it seems you need to know several button combinations just to open a door.
I can understand that games now need more buttons as there are more things to do in games but has the demand for realism gone too far, sometimes complicated button combos are handy as they show how good you are if you are ever able to pull them off, whilst on the other hand when you play a game you don't want to spend ten minutes trying to do some completely mundane task in a game which previously required one button press.

It seems game developers are going insane, yes, things might be moving in the direction of realism but there is a limit as to how much realism gamers can take. Too much time is spent developing technology on a certain aspect of a game whilst important things like plot, character development, setting, items etc are overlooked. Its only a matter of time before a gamer has to memorise a button configuration for wiping their game character's behind in game.
The correct balance is needed, game mechanics should be a part of a game yes but you can't make a game based on one piece of game technology, because then they try and implement it everywhere they can in the game and it becomes tedious.
One example, 'Red Faction', they gave us the possibility of blowing stuff up, how many times in that game could you get past an obstacle by blowing a convenient hole in a demolishable wall that just happened to be next to a locked door..why not blow the door up instead?

Nuff said.
For I have spoken.

Week 8: Once Upon a Time in the Mushroom Kingdom - Storytelling in Games.

2007-11-23T02:19:00.000-08:00

Storytelling in games is hard to pin point, some people argue that the player makes the story and it is individual to them, I say they are retards. Most games to date try to make you think that your in control of your game characters' destiny but the only noticable different choice you get to make is wether or not you face the enemy with a different hat on.
Bioshock for example, whilst being a thorougly enjoyable game, I did feel that saving the little sisters just for a crappy little cinematic at the end wasn't really worth it, and as for playing through the game again just to see what happens when you don't save them....you can go to hell.
I'm not sure whether I like the idea of not being in control of the game's story or not, sometimes you like to be taken for a ride in a different world, you get a similar experience to reading a book or watching a movie. Sometimes thats all you want, too much choice can be bad, why would you want the responsibility of thousands of people's fate in your hands in a game when the whole point of playing a game is to delay your own real-life responsibilities. Most choices just dictate when you want to complete a game.

Saying that, some games have sucessfully incorporated elements of free will in games, but these still don't add up to much more than choosing when and in what order to do missions. Star Wars Jedi Knight:Jedi Academy was littered with moral choices from the off, which gave me the impression that you could go either way in the game. But these choices were nothing more than deciding whether or not to kill the cocky little fellow pupil who turned to the dark side. At this point in the game I thought that I should kill him because he was annoying and generally unlikeable, but then they might have decided to make the character that unlikable just to make the choice harder, somehow I doubted that. I couldn't care less, I couldn't care about the stupid little ponce, I couldn't care about the wise Jedi Master whispering in my ear telling me not to do it, and I couldn't care about the consequences. Luke Skywalker can go F£$* himself.

Therein lies the problem, whats the point in including moral choices in games when the player couldn't care less about the world they were in or the characters.

'When talking about games writing David Freeman says: "Emotioneering"™ is the term I created to describe a body of over 1000 techniques for making game emotionally immersive. That is, they evoke, in a player, a wide breadth and depth of emotions.

Techniques to get a player to identify with the character he plays;
Techniques to get a player to bond with an NPC (a Non-Player Character)
Techniques to give an NPC a quality of emotional depth, even if the NPC speaks just one line of dialogue.
Techniques to take the player on an emotional journey
and many others. Those are just a few categories of Emotioneering techniques. There are 30 others.'

I think these are the first few steps needed to make computer games more emotionally involving and entertaining, instead of merely playing a game or being taken on a journey, the player will be on their own journey and choices will be that more difficult considering the consequences. This will also inadvertantly increase the story telling potential in games and enable players to make their own stories in game.
Exciting stuff this games business..

Week 7: Raiders of the Lost Art - an introduction to Art Direction.

2007-11-23T01:36:00.000-08:00

Hrmmm, art direction.
This is another one of those puzzling parts of game development to which I think I know something about but I probably don't.
If push came to shove and I had to define art direction in games then I would have to say it was the process of designing the visual look of a game, setting the scene and characters and also the time the game is set. I think good art direction makes a game stand out compared to other games that try and jumble the look of the game, adding things just because they look cool and not thinking about practicalities or develpoments which end up looking, well.....pants.

A good example of Art Direction, for me at least would be the newly released Assassins Creed.
Whilst not having the most in-depth gameplay and story the game looks absolutely fabulous.
This I believe is all down to the good folks involved in art direction, who scoured all sources possible in order to accurately show the third crusade. They used historical references and original city plans to build accurate landscapes and city environments, each city has its own distinct feel about it depending on where the city is and who lives there, the whole game is chock-a-block full of little details you most probably won't even notice as your too busy climbing up a wall in order to evade some retarded guards who saw you punching a leper in Jerusalem.
Good art direction places the player right in the thick of it and enhances the illusion that they're not actually playing a game, whereas bad art direction keeps reminding the player that they are playing a game because abnormal and/or extremely 'wacky' elements stand out and look dodgy not to put too fine a point on it.

"Art direction is mostly responsible for the visual look and feel of the creative product"-wiki :D

Thats what I said!

Analyse Disc: Hrmmmm...

2007-11-23T01:32:00.000-08:00

I realise looking back over the blogs so far that I may have misinterpreted task 5's blog and completely missed the point. Being a good student I should go back and change it to what the course leaders originally wanted but you know what.....I won't.
I'm tired and I want to get these next few blogs over with so I can continue to play Mass Effect again and waste the rest of the week.
If you don't like it then tough...blame the game companies or Satan for releasing good games this month...or blame computer games in general, everyone else does.
TOUGH TITTY
Laters.
:D

Week Six: Game Design

2007-11-09T02:37:00.001-08:00

When I tell people what course I'm on at uni, they usually look at me with a degree of confusion and tend to laugh out loud. Then they ask what Game Design is, to which I look at them with a degree of confusion and tend to laugh out loud.
Truth be told I'm not exactly sure what game design is, I know what is involved in game design but I'm unsure about the purpose of game design and what it means to me or anyone else for that matter.

A definition of game design on good old Wiki states:

‘Game design is the process of designing the content, background and rules of a game. A document which describes a game's design used during development may also be called a design document. Professional game designers specialize in certain types of games, such as board games, card games or video games.’

Which didn't really clear things up for me, and our respected leader Mike threw in a confusing statement for us to ponder:

"FEAR is pretty much a repackaged version of PacMan"

This got me thinking, you can spend all of your time designing a game trying to make it revolutionary and brand-spanking new, but in the end of the day someone is bound to compare
to an older game, thus muting the desired effect.

After all, when recommending a game to someone, don't we all say things like "It's like Ocarina of Time....but with guns!" or "Think 'Mario 64' with better graphics and a lunatic killer as the main character!"

It is our only way of describing games, to use references of older games that the player might know, and if they don't know the game you compared it to then you go further back in time to an older game in the hope that they've played it, so in a way 'FEAR' is pretty much 'PacMan'. Its the same kind of game design, only one game has better graphics and gameplay....and FEAR isn't that bad either.

But thats my point, I think, in that long-winded contradicting paragraph, that game design doesn't really matter on the most part as each player takes different things out of a game when they play, each player gets a different experience. In many ways, without trying to sound pretentious its like art. Everyone translates art differently and some people like it and others don't, some see past glaring errors and rough edges to see the big pictures whereas others see it for what it is.

A perfect example is GTA San Andreas, me and my good chum had both played the game over and over until a point where we had both completed all of the missions. Then I showed him good side games to play, like connecting several tow trucks together and then proceeding to climb Mount Chiliad where I promptly drove the whole lot over the edge of the cliff. Was this an intended quest in the game? no! but it sure was fun. My friend didn't think so and thought I was crazy, but thats my point, games have different purposes to different people, we all look at games differently. Some see games as quests or objectives that must be overcome, others see it as fun, a pastime to experience freedom.

I'm not sure if I've discovered what game design is during this blog, but I don't really think it matters that much as we're all going to interprete a game differently anyway so who cares how its designed or why it was designed. That point is redundant. It depends who is playing these games.....

So there......

Week 5: Analyze disc

2007-11-07T06:01:00.000-08:00

When buying a game, I tend to look for the games that I have heard good things about, where do I hear these good things I hear you ask?
Game reviews
We all read game reviews from people we've never met, and we all trust their seemingly unbiased critical eye for games. Depending on how well a game has been marketed you may hear about a game long before it is released, and all of the hype that builds tends to end with severe disapointment. Whilst other games you hear nothing about until a friend recommends it, then you fall in love with the game and recommend it to everyone you see. It seems that game reviewers are liars, they try to be impartial and give us genuine advice on our next purchase, yet they rate every game 10/10, and on the box itself is a sticker with the name of a game reviewer or magazine stating "best game ever!", "If you only buy one game this year, make it this one!" or more commonly "buy me, buy me, buy me now!". How can we believe this nonsence, how can they actually convince us that they are being genuine.
they can't........they suck.

Very few game writers actually involve the reader or make them feel that this person knows what they are talking about. Rather than just being handed a large sum of money to say that a game is the best game ever made until the next best game ever comes out a week later, New Games Journalism uses a subjective approach to writing. Personally, I believe NGJ is the way forward, it seems more personal and genuine. NGJ generally tries to talk about games and how they fit into society today, without trying to use certain criteria for assigning marks based on graphics or design, it also manages to mock the industry and its market but in a way that makes it seem better off for it. After all you can't rely on someone who cannot make fun of themselves, people who take themselves too seriously should be shot.
Reviewers face enormous pressure, millions of people are waiting with baited breath to see if they should buy a particular game, waiting for the go ahead from a writer before speeding off to the shops and spending their wages on the likes of 'halo3'. We need to relieve them of this pressure and remember that they are only human after all, they might love a certain game and rave about it but it might just not be your cup of tea. Instead of being mindless sheep following the flock to the kebab house we should have our own opinion and think for ourselves.

RUMBLE PACK: TO THE FUTURE

2007-11-07T05:22:00.000-08:00

At last the next generation of video games have arrived, but is this a good thing?

I'm not so sure, the big companies producing games consoles seem to be more bothered about out doing each other than providing actual entertainment.

The Playstation 3 is a good example. Sony being the self proclaimed gods of computer entertainment thought it would be a good idea to create a games console so powerful that it would blow the other consoles out of the water.There was a flaw however, game developers found the Playstation format tricky and cumbersome to develop, and with all of the useless crap that is within the Playstation…it is an expensive piece of hardware to own. This left Playstation with crappy sales even in Japan resulting in a re-launch. The price has been lowered which has caused severe profit loss on each PS3 sold. A new ‘lighter’ PS3 has been developed which has been stripped of most hardware but is this too little too late for the Playstation?

The Xbox 360 on the other hand, apart from a few initial problems like console crashes has had large success so far. The system is relatively easy going and many big titles have been made for the Xbox 360, it seems Microsoft yet again have ended up taking over everything and will probably rule the games market as Playstation withers and dies. Even the design for the Xbox wasn’t an original idea, yet again some other company did the hard work and the evil Microsoft Empire just bought it cheap, blast those devils.

Nintendo didn’t even bother this time around, they knew that they wouldn’t be able to compete with the heavyweights and did something completely unexpected. They repackaged the Gamecube and changed the control system…clever. The Nintendo Wii is a perfect example of a fun games console, rather than trying to show off specs Nintendo went for actual entertainment and leisure. The Wii’s control system with nunchuks are amazing, providing hours of fun for the gamer and the person watching the gamer., and most importantly, its cheap.

I myself own an Xbox 360 and a Nintendo Wii, and under no circumstance would I consider owning a Playstation 3, simply because I have no faith in it. I see Dreamcast written all over it.

is this the face of tyranny in the future?

As for the future, it is uncertain, the Playstation could have been that much of a disaster that Sony never make any more consoles, Nintendo would never be able to compete with Microsoft and Microsoft will probably buy Nintendo. Then Nintendo will be working the fields for Microsoft until we all get fed up and demand the head of Bill Gates. During the uprising, Microsoft release gas emitted from all Microsoft products which are in every home, we all perish, Microsoft will live on. Any survivors will be sent to a Mars penal colony to work for Microsoft robots.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you….

Me, Myself and Computer Games. Part III

2007-11-03T07:57:00.000-07:00

PART III

During the reign of the N64 in our house, we eventually bought a Playstation. We played many good games like Road Rash Jailbreak which gave us that nostalgic feeling. The Playstation was soon exploited when we discovered we could play games for free, by tricking the Playstation into thinking that the disc tray was closed and using a cheats disc we could play copied games. Yes I know it was wrong but it gave us an opportunity to play foreign games that weren't released in the UK...and we were poor and couldn't afford many games

SONY PLAYSTATION (1999ish)

One of the few games we could afford though was the scary Resident Evil 2, This was the first game that gave me nightmares for years. In fact I still occasionally get resident evil type nightmares to this day, thats how much it affected me! It struck me as strange how we managed to buy this game as usually games even with the word 'evil' in the title were immedeately dismissed, and this game was particularly gory.

I'm still not sure how we managed to play this game secretly for so many years without our mother seeing it. I'm sure she wouldn't have approved its incredibly graphic depictions of the undead.

SONY PLAYSTATION 2 (2001ish)

We eventually bought the new PS2 along with Metal Gear Solid 2 and pretty soon we found a way to exploit this system just like its predecessor. It was dubbed the knife trick as it involved using a knife or sharp object to pry the disc tray open and swap the cheat disc with a foreign game. We used this mainly for the Winning Eleven series. The Playstation 2 was by far the most played console we had, with great games like GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas. There were many more games worth mentioning but these were the ones that annoyed my mother the most.

NINTENDO GAMECUBE (2003)

Ahh, the cute Nintendo Gamecube, this little folly was an extravagance as we already had a Playstation 2. I bought this merely for the Resident Evil remakes, Super Smash Bros Melee, Rogue Squadron and Zelda series.

And you thought the Playstation version was gory...

It is an exciting time now as the Next Generation of console games has arrived....what does the future hold for me I wonder...?

END OF BLOG

Me, Myself and Computer Games. Part Deux

2007-11-03T07:14:00.000-07:00

PART DEUX

Our beloved Nintendo Entertainment Sytsem had mysteriously disappeared around the time we had bought the Sega Megadrive II, and that was now beginning to fade, controllers were worn out and games were glitchy, the system crashed more and more often and one too many spilled drinks of cola began to take its toll. At one point I remember having three controllers, one of which you could not press up or B, the other you couldn't press start, up, left or a, and one didn't work full stop. This however didn't matter so much as you could only get to about the menu screen before the thing made an ungodly noise and froze. Something had to be done. The last time I remember seeing our once treasured Megadrive was outside in a soggy box, soaked through and covered in slug trails. It was a sad day...

But things were about to get interesting, new consoles were springing up everywhere, new technology and graphics possibilities left us bewildered as what to consider buying next. The choice was between a Nintendo 64 or Sony Playstation. In the end we chose the N64 due to my older brother convincing us it was better.

NINTENDO 64 (1998)

As per usual, our Father was the person who had started things rolling to getting us a new console. We had scrimped and saved every last penny we had, so we were still a long way off affording anything yet. Then we decided to save money and buy a second hand one, and similarly to our previous investments we purchased a shabby looking box held with celotape, but inside was the mighty N64, we rushed home before realising that we'd spent our money on a console but still had no games for it. Many long nights passed until our father brought back Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64. (Many games of that period had 64 in the title just to remind you that you were purchasing games for the N64)

As for the many good points of the Nintendo 64 it had a major flaw. At the back of the console where the aerial connected there was a small box adapter connecting it to the console. At first we took no notice of this strange appendage until our dear mother realised that if she removed it we could not play the console. Thus this has led me to believe that the only purpose of this piece of hardware was for parents to have leverage over their children. And so it began, the many hours we have searched high and low to see where our mother had hidden the item whilst she was out, not realising that it was in her handbag with her.

With this power surge our mother felt total control over us once again and limited us to an hour a day, and with three brothers that left us hardly enough time to start a game.

Several games were banned in our house, like goldeneye, turok, Mortal kombat and basically anything with guns, swords, fists, people etc. However we'd often sneak games in under the radar and play when our mother wasn't watching. Goldeneye in particular had given us many hours in which we'd kill each other using a variety of weapons, and Mortal Kombat let us release our tension by battering each other to death on screen.

Many of our friends had made different choices and had purhcased the Playstation and we felt a little less fortunate with our console, until we discovered the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.WARNING
THIS IS MY FAVOURITE GAME OF ALL TIME

I am proud to say that my N64 proudly sported this fashionable and snazzy console sticker.

For some strange reason my mother didn't mind us playing this game, even though it featured a small, sword-wielding child entering peoples houses at will and smashing pots. She also didn't mind us playing Rogue Squadron either, I asked her once why she let us play Rogue Squadron and not other games and she said that "You can shoot flying robots but you are never going to kill people under my roof!...." There was a long silence and I decided to leave it rather than correct her or laugh in her face.

That sums up my mother though, she is very ill-educated and I think she jus misunderstands games, I have lured her play some games before and she enjoyed them, I taught her how to drive on GTA Vice City and she laughed as she ran over countless pedestrians and exploded in a blazing wreck. This was a small victory for me as later that week in church a discussion came up about video game violence and GTA Vice City was mentioned specifically. My mother then told everyone proudly that "she would never let that game or any like it enter our house" to which we corrected in front of everyone "...but that is what you were playing the other day."

Tim...........1

Mother.....0

End of part deux

Me, Myself and Computer Games. Part I

2007-11-03T06:17:00.000-07:00

MY GAMING HISTORY

I'd like to take this opportunity to take a stroll down memory lane and look back on what consoles I have owned and what games I have wasted my best years on.

NES (1993ish)

First up is the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES for short. I remember the day this gem was introduced to my family, my dad came home with a bulky looking plastic bag and rumours were rife between me and my brothers as to the contents of this mysterious package. We were told to have an early night but we all decided to creep downstairs after we concluded that our father had brought us a games console at last. We entered the room to see our father sitting on the edge of his seat doing a rather good impression of a test chimpanzee whilst playing Super Mario Bros 3!

He then began to show us all of the wonderful moves he'd mastered whilst playing the game, things like jumping and running left and right, moves which me and my brothers quickly excelled at and put him to shame. My mother at this point was sceptical, and still is to this day believing that this new technology was evil and about to warp our innocent little minds. She then took it upon herself to limit our exposure to computer games, and has done ever since.

SEGA MEGADRIVE II (1995ish?)

The Sega megadrive II was a gift from heaven, Our beloved father yet again had veiled the day in secrecy, he had taken us with him on several errands and driven us around for a while before parking outside his house. He told us to get out and took us round the back of the car. The boot opened in a Goodfellas fashion and there amongst the petrol tanks and spare tires was a battered box with MEGADRIVE II plastered all over it, and in the corner there was a big picture of sonic and giant words reading "INCLUDING SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2"

As soon as it was out of the box it was set up and primed, we all waited in anticipation as the bright white screen shouted "SEGAAAAAAA!!!" at an incredible volume. The game that followed blew us away and we had to play it every waking hour... That was until our mother returned. Yet again our mother reminded us how evil video games were and scorned our father for buying yet another console for us to degenerate our minds with. There are way too many games to mention for the megadrive which we had played non-stop but a notable game was Road Rash.

This game, whilst proving thoroughly enjoyable and providing many hours of harmless fun and entertainment also fueled my mother's hatred for games. My mother yet again became the bad guy and severely limited our exposure. However this was limited as every visit to our father's house was an opportunity to play these so called "violent" games, hours were spent competing to see how far we could make our biker fly after hitting a tractor, this was but one of the many side games we created whilst playing video games.

A particular favourite game of mine was "General Chaos", This comical war game was a personal treasure of mine which my father also enjoyed. This game put you in control of an army as you marched on to the enemy's capital, you could choose from several units to control during each battle. My favourite units being the commandos who had the tagline "alone, outnumbered and loving every minute of it!" then you had to blast your way throught the small map until everyone was dead, simple

Streets of rage also provided consequence-free violent entertainment and Ultimate Soccer and FIFA 95 let us compete in sports with our father, who insisted on spending five minutes before each game sorting out tactics and formations which had no effect on the game whatsoever. FIFA 95 held a special cheat called curve ball, which gave the ball a supernatural curve and power boost which could score from anywhere on the field, this combined with the "No Fouls" option gave the game extended playability and countless special moments.

Thats the end of part I

Week 3.....and a half

2007-11-03T05:02:00.000-07:00

This section has a lot to cover so I will be brief in my analysis...and I do mean brief.

GAMES CRASH OF '77

In 1977, everyone was selling out, obsolete consoles and pong clones sold their systems at a loss to clear stock which created a very noticable dip in the market and eventually causing Fairchild and RCA to abandon games consoles. Atari and Magnovax held strong in the home console market and endured.

see, I told you it was brief.

SECOND GENERATION (1977-1983)

In earlier consoles, the code for one or more games was etched into microchips and the poor gamer could not add any additional games. Then some bright spark introduced cartridges which contained ROM chips with games on, this could be easily slotted into the console and the gamer could now play more games! A notable example of a console using this technique is the Atari VCS or more commonly known as the Atari 2600.

(1979 also saw the creation of Activision, formed from disgruntled former Atari programmers)

BORN IN THE 80'S

The computer gaming industry had a tough start in the 80's, it hit the ground running with one flip-flop on a floor of broken glass and lego. Many companies producing home computers went bankrupt and the US video game industry literally flopped.

Probably due to crappy games like this:The industry was revitalized by the mighty NES in 1985 which gave hope to those poor suckers who thought the industry was finished. This spurred on the Third generation of video games.

Also born in the 80's was handheld games, Nintendo's Game & Watch line began in 1980. Due to their success dozens of other game and toy companies made their own portable games.

THIRD GENERATION

The NES is a particular favourite of mine as it was my first ever console, although it had been out 2 years before I was born and I was about 5 when I got it, which led me to believe that when my father told me it was the newest fastest computer on the market, he may have been pulling my leg. It may have not been the newest and shinyist (if that is a word) console at that time but it brought new found joy to my humble home, when me and my brothers could pry my father away from it that is.

The third generation consoles introduced gamepads instead of joysticks, with D-pads and 2, thats right 2 or more action buttons! The NES brought us classics like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda and Metal Gear, however my first and only game for the NES was Super Mario Bros 3.

1990's

The video game industry was now becoming glossier and more respected..ish in the nineties. The industry became more business-like, and companies started to input more money and time into games in order to make more money. many game genres were being defined in this era such as the real-time strategy game Dune II, Command and Conquer and Starcraft. Alone in the Dark also planted the seeds for the Survival Horror genre which would eventually flourish with games like Resident Evil and Silent hill

PC games also flourished in this time with games like Age of Empires and First Person Shooters and also the first 3d accelerator card for PC, 3dfx released the Voodoo chipset.

RUN-DOWN

There were many other great new games and technologies being made during that time but this weeks blog is at serious risk of becoming Rick Waller-esque so I'm gonna quickly skip past the next few points. If you don't like that then tough.

-Arcades declined cos no-one wanted to leave their comfy homes and pay money to play crappy games,

-Handhelds became more popular with the Game Boy being released in 1989 although many crappier versions were made and faded away,

-Fourth Generation, this includes the SuperNES and the Megadrive both released in 1991.

-Fifth Generation, This includes the Sony Plastation and Nintendo 64, don't worry I'll talk about these more in another blog someday.

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!

Week Three:...and God saw that games were good.

2007-10-12T10:12:00.000-07:00

Video Games were catching on, People saw that there was money to be made in this new exciting industry where grown men had the opportunity to play games for a living.
Ralph Baer, head of Equipment and Design Division of defense contractor Sanders Associates, had a vision...a vision of video games being played on a television set!

Baer assembled his A-Team and produced a chase game using dots.....which chased other dots....doesn't really sound that good to me but Baer demonstrated his ideas and creations to several television companies and they were snapped up by Magnovax.

In 1972 the world was introduced to the "Magnovax Odyssy!"

Behold the mighty "Magnovax Odyssy"

The "Magnovax Odyssy" could play several games, like "chase the dots", "shoot the dots" or "dot tennis" and many more dot-related titles. The "Magnovax Odyssy" however had no colour, sound or power to produce anything more than black and white dots, and at $100 was a steep price to pay for a piece of poorly-marketed kack!

MEANWHILE...

Our friends at Atari hired their first game engineer and gave him the task of creating a ping pong game. The new game engineer came back with "Pong", a simple game in which the ball speed increased in long rallies to increase excitement! Atari intially tried to sell the game to other companies and after a demonstration in a bar which at one point stopped the game from working as too many coins were inserted, Atari decided to sell the game themselves.

"Pong"

"Pong" was hugely successful and sold thousands of units introducing arcade games to the public, Magnovax however saw similarities between "Pong" and thier tennis game and threatened to sue. A settlement was reached and Atari was allowed to produce "Pong" for a tiny fee to Magnovax.

During the early seventies Atari produced exciting games such as "Pong Doubles" (4 player), "Gotcha" (maze chase game), "Gran Trak 10" (Racing) and the first, first-person driving game "Night Driver". These were nothing compared to the later gem released by Atari called "Breakout", this simple game was a single player version of "Pong" with the paddle at the bottom of the screen, the aim being to bounce balls and destroy bricks at the top of the screen.

"Night Driver"

Plenty of pinball companies cloned these games but the only other notable rival arcade games company was "Midway", formally "Bally Manufacturing" which nearly bought "Pong" from Atari years earlier. Midways first big hit was in 1975 with "Gun Fight", the first Japanese-imported game, and then the submarine game "Sea Wolf" in 1976. 1976 also saw the introduction of the Japanese company "Sega" who had made the first boxing game called "Heavyweight Champ," and the first motorcycle racing game called "the Fonz"

Another first for 1976 was an anti-violence protest for games after the release of "Death Race" in which the player had to run over gremlins that resembled human stick figures. After initial success the arcade games industry had started to decline in late 1976.

BAN THIS FILTH! the gory depictions in 1976's "Death Race"

COULD THIS BE THE END OF VIDEO GAMES?...

Tim

Week Two:...and on the second day, God created Video Games

2007-10-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

Video Games,

Possibly the best waste of time ever concieved by man.

Men need things like video games to occupy their ever-wandering minds, Women play video games too but I doubt that they play with the same intensity and passion as men do. Apart from Pacman, in my experience women are quite obsessed with pacman whereas men generally don't think that it is that good a game. Anyway, back to the creation of video games, here I will discover the early history of the creation of video games.....by man.

But first a quick praise of Wikipedia which will probably be designated a separate blog post at some time, seeing as most of the information attained for these blogs will come from my friend Wiki.

Aparantly, 1948 was the year that the first idea for video games was concieved and patented by some geezer called "Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr" and "Estle Ray Mann" using a Cathode-Ray Tube. To be honest I'm quite dissapointed at that discovery as I played with a Cathode-Ray Tube in science at school and I didn't find it that fun. I can only assume that in 1948, vast quantaties of alcohol were consumed at the time and it appeared more fun that it actually was. The hot new games at the time were classics like "Checkers", "Tic-Tac_Toe" and something called "Nim".

I now officially thank God that I wasn't around at that time as these games sound shite, but still, games had to start somewhere.

In 1958 an Oscilloscope was used to create a game called "Tennis for Two" by "William Higinbotham", and was designed to entertain visitors to the Brookhaven National Laboratory at its annual visitors day. It only sounds fair that out of the most boring scenario, the most entertaining concepts can be concieved. So far these inventions hadn't had any impact on the industry or society whatsoever.

"Tennis for Two"

BUT THEN...

In 1961 a group of friends interested in science fiction novels and movies created "Spacewar!" A title which is a damn site more interesting than "Nim!" This game featured a wedge ship and a needle ship which fired torpedoes at each other until one ship was destroyed, these intense graphics pushed the MIT DEC PDP-1 mainframe computer to its limits! Phoar!

"Spacewar!"

"Spacewar!" was issued with each PDP computer sold and exposed university students to Video Games corrupting their innocent minds with the exciting new technology. In 1971, two Stanford University Students hooked up and PDP-11 with "Spacewar!" to a monitor and a coinslot and charged ten cents per game, why didn't anyone else think of that?

Two other concept-theiving individuals cloned "Spacewar!" on a new system and entered into a deal with a small coin-op company called "Nutting Associates", but complex controls and pages of instructions didn't translate very well to the mainstream audience and failed miserably. However, the pair continued in video games and established "Atari Inc" in 1972 and continued to make video games. And the rest, as they say....

....is history.

Tim

Week One:...First there was Blog.

2007-10-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

First off, I don't like blogs,
Blogs, to me, are a waste of the incredible power of the Internet. A vital tool in modern society which has become riddled with pointless past times and passing fads. When mankind reaches its pinnacle and looks back over its many creations, will the Internet be remembered for things like the "hamster dance"?
Unfortunately, that may be the case. Millions of people around the world are united with the Internet and are able to communicate freely, yet after all of this time being unable to do so, now we finally have the opportunity all we can say is things like "Hi, hows u? been gud? OMG, cya lol KK". There was a time when people took time to think of what to write in letters to far away friends, pondering those few written words which all had meaning and purpose. Now people can't even be bothered to finish words, as if their life was that busy they cannot even take a few extra seconds to add a few vowels here and there.
But I've gone off on a tangent and started ranting, I get worked up about these things as you will probably come to realise.
Getting back to blogs, these forums for people to voice their opinions and ideas to a mass audience seem like a breakthrough in modern society, the only downfall is that the people who are spouting these views are often people we wouldn't listen to if they stopped us in the street to start talking to us. So why should spend our precious minutes reading their nonsence verbal excrement on the Internet?
You're probably reading this now thinking that I'm a big hypacrit for making a blog just to talk about how much I hate them, and you're right. But I find myself ever increasingly falling into the same traps as everybody else succumbing to this new fad called the Internet. Even the word "blog" is a new creation purely for the Internet, not content with calling it a weblog, we have to now invent words to describe things as if you wouldn't know what the hell we were talking about otherwise. Yet again I find myself using the new terminology unconsciously, slowly turning into the very people I dispised only a few moments ago.
Perhaps thats the way of things, perhaps people have always had these views on new technology. Perhaps the last few generations disputed about the invention of the television, or even before that people thought the telephone was dumbing down the world and dragging mankind down with it. I'm sure I'll just get used to it and move on like everyone else, adapt and evolve, survival of the fittest and all that jazz. Don't even get me started on jazz.
Anyway before I go off on one again I'd better close by saying how I'll give it a go to see what happens but if I ever start to use too much Internet jargon then please put me out of my misery.

Until next time...
Tim