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Sorting Out the Genre Muddle (RP#4)

To build a Nintendo game, you had to have a Nintendo developers’ license, and they wouldn’t give one to just anybody. All the other console manufacturers followed suit.
Earnest Adams, Blogger, 2009.

If you have been gaming for as long as I have, then you would know when it comes to big companies such as Nintendo having to micromanage, label, and do business in a way where everything they make is exclusively from them just to put a big price tag on it then you’re just as annoyed with what video gaming has become now with the whole microtransactions. Just more ways to get you to spend your dollars on their products and you know what? I buy it. So it doesn’t even matter.

Fiction book genres are based on subject matter and to some extent, emotional tone. There are techno-thrillers, westerns, romance novels, mysteries, spy novels, historical fiction, and so on. The book’s setting plays a role in defining its genre.“
Earnest Adams, Blogger, 2009.

Absolutely. There is no way a book, a movie, or even a game could be successful without having a genre to fall under, whether one can relate to it or not, it needs to have all the elements that comprise epic storytelling in order to stimulate the consumer’s mind. That’s why games like “The Witcher”, its succession comes from the fact its novel had an established fanbase who were heavily invested in the story. It then branched out into tv show series, board games, and video games. The author, Andrzej Sapkowski, would have no involvement in the game’s developments but gave permission for polish game developer company CD Projekt Red to use his characters to create new storylines. The Witcher falls under the genre “fantasy action role-playing.”

A shooter is a shooter, whether it’s set in the Old West or on Mars or anyplace else. A player who enjoys shooters will probably enjoy one no matter where it’s set, if it’s well-made.“
Earnest Adams, Blogger, 2009.

His argument is that with books there are settings to set the tone or narrative of the literature you’re reading but that concept does not apply to gaming. And he’s correct. You can shoot people in any setting in gaming. GTAV, you’re in California shooting police, drug dealers, or pedestrians. In Destiny 2, you are traveling the solar system shooting aliens or other players (Guardians) in their PVP mode. In Red Dead Redemption, you are shooting your enemies in an old fashion cowboy western setting. As long as the location goes with the theme, doesn’t matter what the audience is doing, if its fun then it’s a win.

Video Game Timeline (RP#3)

(1940)
For the Westinghouse display at the World’s Fair, Edward U. Condon designs a computer
that plays the traditional game Nim in which players try to avoid picking up the last matchstick.
Tens of thousands of people play it, and the computer wins at least 90% of the games.”

I honestly never realized video games dated back that far. I did however I know that when going as far back as the 70s that gaming was more of coding, words, and not what you traditionally see nowadays. But 1940? That’s crazy. This basically is what started the pavement to what would become a billion-dollar industry.

(1977)
Atari releases the Video Computer System, more commonly known as Atari 2600.
Featuring a joystick, interchangeable cartridges, games in color, and switches for selecting games
and setting difficulty levels, it makes millions of Americans home video game players.“

This is what I remember as a very small little girl, my uncles playing with this ‘machine’ that I had no interest in. It just looked funny and by then not every single family that I knew had one. It wasn’t until my father bought me my first Nintendo in 1992 that I fell in love with something that would forever be a part of me.

(1996)
Lara Croft debuts as the star of Eidos’s adventure game Tomb Raider.
Players love her, but critics charge that she’s an example of sexism in video games.“

Personal Take: If you ever had a conversation with me about my all time favorite franchise in gaming you’d know it would be Tomb Raider. I had the first game back in 1996 on my Sega Saturn. Growing up my mother and I never got along but playing this game made her and I, for a moment, forget our tensions and just play the game. She loved seeing a female lead in gaming and I just loved that it made my mother nice to me. I would solve all the puzzles and mazes and she would do the scary boss fights for me. And it continued well into my teens with every Christmas my father bought me the new Tomb Raider installments because he hated watching us fight. We even went together to see the movie starring Angelina Jolie. We loved it.

Sexism in Gaming: I didn’t dismiss that part of the quote. I cannot tell you how many games there are where the men have reasonable armor and the women have their belly, chests, or thighs exposed with very little armor for protection. There’ even sexual suggestive games out there like “Catherine”. I guess it’s because the male species have dominated the gaming world for some time now but women, in recent years, have made a come up in numbers. And I have witness some games not over sexualizing the female characters like Destiny 2 and Call of Duty.

Background – Clouds

I wanted to do something simple but with personality so I created silly large clouds as the far back of the scene and regular moving clouds in the front. I had to go back and fix a layer that wasn’t transparent but it was easy to work around and adjust.

Apologies that the smaller clouds are harder to see but it’s there!

I tried to capture JR jumping to the next platform but sadly I miss calculated.

Designing with TileMaps/ HENI ABID

I have designed a basic tile set and auto tile set to use them in 2D platform game.

Joshua Young – User Interface Design Lab

Here is my Title Screen art. This is actually a pre made art that I hade for my character for a while. I didn’t expect to use it for a title screen. But this is how it looks without the buttons.

My control screen is a bit basic since it’s a platformer for now. So just the movement controls and item collecting controls work out for now.

Here is my Game Over Screen

Interface sounds – Gal Ben Baruch

here are some interface sounds not didn’t do a whole lot of sounds juts some essentials

Click

Cancel Click/back

Hover/next option

Win Game

Game Saved

Game Over

Joshua Young – NPC Lab

Here is my NPC, he is an Informant for the player as they play through out the game. There wasn’t much I could think of for an Idle, but I thought that since this person is more poker faced and stone faced, he should be tapping hs foot impatiently waiting for the player.

This is just a basic mouth moving talking animation.

These 5 portraits are the ones for the player and for the NPC. Since the NPC has an intense poker face I left him as is with just a regular talking one. As for the main character I gave them a few expressions going from a neutral expression, to a more confused looking one then a more angry one with his eyes closed.

My game rewards

MY game rewards are a heart that gives the player back a life and an apple they can collect

My sprite sheets

My Tilesets

The first tile set can be used for a 2d platformer with basic tiles

this tile set is for a simple auto tile setup for a 2d platformer

Obstacles and Enemies – Leighton Snyder

I felt bad about my character murdering a bunch of snakes, so I decided to do this lab.

Like I mentioned in my character design lab, the main character is shooting here way through the celestial planes of heaven or some such. So, I’ve made a low-tier enemy called Thrones, inspired by biblical descriptions of angels that guard god’s throne.