Multimedia Development Game Blog

  ( http://rosalindgardner.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/launch.jpg ) This week after a long semester of hard work, research and writing we finally finished up on our book chapters. We are now ready to launch our book which is a very good feeling. I have to say this wasn't an easy task to do however I learned lots of new things in the process. The topic I chose was the history of game consoles. I researched different articles every week relating to this topic and learned some very interesting things. I learned that the first ever game console was The Brown Box invented in 1967 by Ralph H. Baer. I also learned that Nintendo was founded by Fusajiro Fukada and that they used to be a card company. I had a lot of difficulty understanding these tasks. At first I was told that my chapter was too long so I had to cut it down which was very difficult as I was worried that I would end up cutting it too short but thankfully the last feedback I got told me that my chapter had improved and that a...

  Image of my chapter This week we finished off our book happy days. We had to make any final edits to our. chapter. I had to add my introduction and I also had to shorten my chapter. I looked through my chapter and took out any information that I felt was unnecessary just to make it shorter because at the beginning I thought it would have to be incredibly long but thankfully it didn't and I preferred that I had too much instead of too little because it's easier to cut things out as opposed to adding things. This turned out to be easier than I thought I was properly panicked at the beginning of the semester when we were told we had to write a book but it got easier as time went on. Next I will have to agree for my chapter to be in the book and I will also have to add the interactive game I made for my book to my chapter. I look forward to seeing the finished result of our book at the end of the semester. 

  Image of myself For this weeks reading task I had to create an author bio and talk about my chapter idea as well as my thoughts on how I'm doing with my chapter.  Author Bio My name is Eoin Harrington. I am a 22 year old creative digital media student in ITB. I am in 2nd year. I am hoping to get into filmmaking when I am finished college. I enjoy drawing, watching films and TV shows and listening to music. My favourite film is Pulp Fiction. I take lots of inspiration from Quentin Tarantino. My favourite TV show is The Sopranos and I like all sorts of music however my favourite genre would be pop punk as well as rap. Some of my favourite artists would include Green Day, Blink-182, Sum 41, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters and Eminem. I'm not much of a gamer but I do enjoy it. My favourite video games would be Grand Theft Auto and God Of War. Chapter Topic My chapter topic is the history of consoles. I chose this topic because I don't a lot about gaming so I decided to pi...

  Image of my check your understanding For this weeks reading tasks we had to once again review two other students work. These were the same two students who's work we reviewed two weeks ago. We also had to make changes based on our reviews. Last week I was told by my lecturer that my chapter was too long and that I had to cut it down. I'm still currently working on that however I have made some progress. The person who reviewed my work said that it was a really interesting topic and that I have done lots of research and he liked how I talked about each individual console however he said I could maybe add a little introduction which I will get around to. Despite these small criticisms I think I'm doing ok enough. Another thing we had to do this week was create an interactive game relating to your chapter topic using a website called H5P. I had never heard of H5P before and at first I found it quite confusing but I actually enjoyed doing it once I got the hang of it. I made ...

  ( https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CRR8pafaE8ZxyBTRjEGqy5wedlk=/0x0:2040x1360/1200x800/filters:focal(857x517:1183x843)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69525052/DSCF1179.0.0.jpg ) For this weeks reading task I just continued on with my book. The research for this book has actually proven to be easier than I thought now that we've actually started to see each others work. I was a bit worried about how I was doing with this module but after getting positive feedback last week I think I'm doing ok. This week I decided to talk about Microsoft, continuing on from my topic last week where I talked about the history of Xbox. The article I researched was called "Microsoft Corporation" by Brittanica. The article talked about the founding and formation of Microsoft. It also talked about how Microsoft entered the world of gaming and mobile phones with the release of the Xbox consoles as well as the HTC, Motorola, LG and Samsung. It also mentioned that Microsoft origin...

( https://tandartsdegroenehoek.nl/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Review.jpg ) For this weeks reading task we had to add our chapters from our book to the class Google Doc. We were then split into groups of three and these groups had to review each others work. The two people who I was asked to review talked about games effects on mental health and multiplayer evolution. The person who talked about games effects on mental health talked about both the positive and negative effects on mental health. He discusses how people often feel like video games are bad for your mental health and while he stated that can be true as they can cause you stress they can have a positive impact on your mental health for example when you win the game you are playing can really boost your mood. He mentions that playing Demon Souls can cause you stress however beating the final boss in Ghosts Of Tshunima after playing it over and over again or winning a match on FIFA can help lift your mood. He also mentions that...

  Image of the original Xbox For this weeks reading task I continued on with my book. My original plan was to add on a piece about Fusajiro Yamauchi, the founder of Nintendo after doing research on Nintendo last week however every article I found on him either didn't give enough information about his personal life or had too much information similar to what I read last week so I would have just been repeating myself. I read an article called "The History Of Xbox" by Gabe Gurwin. I was told I should aim more towards academic articles although I found it hard to find one on the history of Xbox on Google Scholar and believe it or not I just ended up being led to this one but I'm gonna try avoid non-academic articles from now on. As the weeks have been going on I'm starting to get more into these reading tasks and am finding them easier and slightly more enjoyable. I'm beginning to run a bit short of ideas although hopefully by next week I'll think of somethin...

  Image of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) For this weeks reading task I continued working on my book. This week I decided to talk about the history of Nintendo. I read an academic article called "The History Of Nintendo: The Company, Consoles And Games" by Laurie Takeda. After weeks of reading wikipedia and newspaper articles my lecturer told me I need to start reading academic ones so I decided to do that for this week. This article talked about how Nintendo first began as a playing cards company in 1889 which I never knew before. I also learned that Nintendo was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi and is now being ran by his son-in-law Minoru Arakawa. The article also talked about the origin of the company as well as the companies games and consoles. I also learned from this article that the first consoles Nintendo invented were the TV Game 6 and TV Game 15. I had never heard of these consoles before. I now feel like the book writing is going to get better after the feedb...

( https://www.gamespot.com/a/uploads/scale_super/1568/15683559/3133099-playstation.jpg ) For this weeks reading task we had to further analyse our topic. Since my topic is "The History Of Gaming Consoles" I decided that this week I was gonna base my research around the Playstation. First thing I did was I looked at an article on the history of Sony as they are the company that invented the Playstation. While I was reading this I discovered that the founder of Sony was Masaru Ibuka so I decided to research an article on him and add that information to my book as well as the history of Sony. I then looked up an article on the evolution of Playstation which included information on the history of each Playstation as well as their notable games. This book writing is starting too get a bit easier however I still am struggling in some areas with things such as review matrix's and referencing although I am learning lots of new information about the history of gaming throughout th...

Image of Ralph H. Baer, inventor of The Brown Box holding the object.  ( https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2014/12/08/ralph-baer-02_wide-5c1a8361ab88d5406b9b2e3fd3ea5b895240ff16.jpg ) For this weeks reading task we had to research information relating to our book topic. The topic I have gone with is The History Of Game Consoles. Each week I will be looking at the history of each console and how they have evolved since their release date. This week to get started I just went with a basic description of what a console is. I just used a Wikipedia page to start me off however I understand I can't do this every week.  After I defined what a console is I researched an article on the evolution of consoles. While doing this I learned about consoles that I never knew existed for example the first ever console to be invented The Brown Box. I also discovered a series of consoles called the Magnavox, the first invention being the Magnavox Odyssey. When I finished talking about the evolutio...

  ( https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/old-vintage-reading-book-s-story-time-as-people-go-pages-use-their-imagination-surreal-read-107209060.jpg ) For this weeks task I had to read two articles on storytelling in games.  For the whole semester we have mostly talked about the actual gameplay of a game but this week we focused on the importance of the games narrative. I believe that the storyline in a game is as important as everything because obviously if it has a good storyline you're gonna keep playing the game to find out what happens next. The first article was called "What Every Game Developer Needs To Know About Story" by John Sutherland.  The article talks about games being a form of art just like movies and plays. Exact quotes from the article were "games aren't movies" and "movies aren't plays" however the thing movies, games and plays have in common are that they are all a form of art and have had their addicts from the very beginning. Th...

Image from growth mindset reading For this weeks task I had to go back over everything I have been doing this semester for this module and write about it. I was asked to go back over the readings, the tutorials and project work. Throughout this semester we learned about game design as well as game theory. One of the earliest readings we did was called "What Is A Game?". Obviously before doing this reading when asked that question I would've just said a video game but after doing this reading I learned the literal definition of a game isn't necessarily a video game. It is literally any form of playing so when asked "what is a game" you can say Grand Theft Auto or you can say Tic-Tac-Toe and they're both correct answers. If it is something you can play it is a game. As well as learning about games we also learned about time management which is an issue many students face myself included and the readings offered very helpful tips. One specific reading that ...

  ( https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/pacman-game-action-icons-39279586.jpg ) For this weeks task we had to read two articles and watch a video on game fun. The first article was called "Gamification Design: What's Fun Got To Do With It". The article talked about the importance of making a game fun and how fun is on every game designers mind obviously because nobody would want to play a game if it wasn't fun. The article shows the favourite elements of gamification in the gaming design process which are narrative, rewards, competition, progress, feedback, challenge, collaboration, exploration and theme and the author mentions that he finds it strange that the word fun doesn't come up in this design process. The article also talks about the definitions of fun which obviously are enjoyment and amusement or light-hearted pleasure and entertainment but in the world of gaming it is defined as pleasurable engagement. The article also goes into the taxonomies of fun and de...

( https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEg2qRVOQwZph6ZRbE8PNUXSMzIKkZttcCFI-SWuFzLoLpOygvoRtjGyVstcgPDFsD5tnxoN-H5RKuBPah5IzQZTN3-56ifoSsDQQslgKjlzk1hqFIVWY_6zHvxlBmEnG0-wE4EDj3VcVuFTXpw9hUOPnOq1hRkejru8p7T7jWj6xP4jqf69MBOkTJZA-5Eb6C7K8-3Z9mi7pg= ) For this weeks task I had to read two articles and watch a video on game decisions. The first article was called "Building A Saving Princess App".  The article talks about how to build learning and fun into your applications. It also talks about the difference between games and apps and how games are usually good at saving princesses and how apps don't do it half as well.  Image from the article The image above is an example of a typical app. The article tells us that everything that needs to be done is already in the box and basically done for us and that it focuses on the user utilitarian tools to get things done.  The article also talks about the learning curve for apps and about how skills are a useful tool t...

Image from the first article For this weeks task I had to read two articles and watch a video on game design document, GDD for short. The first article was from another lecturers website and it was called "Communication And Game Design Documents" where he described a game design document. The article tells us that game design documents have a bad reputation in the games industry. It also tells us that there are multiple myths about game design documents for example design documents are magical tools for designers to communicate their ideas to their team provided they are formatted properly and are using the right concept template which is incorrect as different games require different documents and it is very rare that one template will fit all your game requirements. It also mentions that design documents have two purposes, memory aid and communication tool. Memory aid is writing down your game ideas as you come up with them so you remember them later on in the development s...

  ( https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/composite-image-woman-playing-video-game-against-white-background-blue-abstract-light-spot-design-111162150.jpg ) For this weeks task we had to do readings on game design MDA. MDA stands for mechanic dynamic aesthetic.  The first article I read was called MDA: A Formal Approach To Game Design And Game Research. The article talked about how games are designed by designers and teams of developers and they are consumed by players and how players purchase them use them and eventually cast them away like consumable goods. The article also talked about how games are different to other entertainment products such as movies. TV and books because their consumption is unpredictable. While we known what happens at the end of a TV show, a book and a movie when it is finished we don't know what happens at the end of a game when it is finished. The mechanics are the particular components of the game, the dynamics are the run-time behaviour of the mechanic...

( https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/card-board-game-elements-dice-ideal-background-website-magazines-card-board-game-elements-130373855.jpg ) For this week's task we were given four readings to do on game elements. Game elements are what is needed to make a game. The first reading we had to do was "What are the qualities of a game?'. The reading taught us about game definitions and recurring themes of a game. The recurring themes were rules, conflicts, goals, decision-making and an uncertain outcome. The reading also described games as activities, artificial/safe ordinary outdoor life, voluntary and a form of art to name a few things. The reading also told us about the atomic elements of a game. These atomic elements were players, objectives,  rules, resources and resource management, game state, information, sequencing, player interaction, theme and games as systems. The reading also talked about critical analysis.  It tells us that critical analysis isn't necessarily a...

( https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/pacman-ghosts-s-computer-game-icons-set-vector-colour-pixelated-retro-32825491.jpg ) What is a game A game is a form of art. It is a play activity with a set of rules that players are given and the player who follows the rules the best is usually the player that wins. Games date back to centuries ago. A game doesn't necessarily mean a video game. A game is simply just something that you can play with a set of rules so when someone says "let's play a game" that can mean Super Mario Bros, it can mean football or it can simply mean hide and go seek. A game will consist of rules, resources,  actions, a story and plenty of other elements. For our readings an example of a game given was 3 to 15. 3 to 15 is a game where 2 players have to collect 3 numbers from 1-9 that add up to 15. First you must write up the numbers 1-9 on a sheet of paper. Players then take it in turns choosing a number and then they cross that number out from the sheet s...