Now your playing with power

Nintendo's Commercial

Characters

Again regarding relations to games and experiences there was 1 particular link that stood out to me regarding characters. From Bruce Lee, we then have Marshal/Forest Law from the Tekken game series and also the fil KillBill, in which ALL wear a yellow jumpsuit, whilst in action.

Game Relations

For me personally, certain games that I have played, especially the earlier time, when I begin to think about them immediately my mind associates it with a particular experience, like music.
For example Double Dragon and Battletoads on the NES system, was a game I played during the times I used to stay in Swindon at my Godmothers house about 12 years ago. Fifa 99 reminds me of a time when I was still in school and it always reminds me of my Geography teacher, who also loved that particullar game.

Knowns, Known Unknowns and the Unknowns in Gaming - Week 3

Were were peresented with a range of subject areas regarding games. They were...

• Gaming experience is seamless
• Games and spaces
• Game time vs GMT
• History and memory gaming
• Gaming syntax
• Adversity in games
• Real world movement
  

Week 2 Workshop

During the week 2 workshop, we wer instructed to play about with the Processing software. This is something that I have used before and I am very familiar with so it was more just refreshing my Processing mind!

Our lecture showed gave us a simple code which was:
void setup(){
size(500,500);
frameRate(5);
println("helloworld");
}
void draw(){
background(255);
fill(0);
ellipse(mouseX,mouseY);
}

This gave us a box with a white background, that had a black circle positioned wherever the mouse was positioned.

We were also instructed to create our own environment, using lines to bring to the next lecture. Here's what I was able to come up with...


There wasnt any major difficulties, only the fact that you have to manually work out where exactly you want your lines to be placed as four X,Y points need to be declared (start and finish of line) and if you want to ensure the image is symmetrical you then have to do a bit of maths

Michael Chang - Manifest

Another resource introduced to us during the lecture. I had a chance to play around with the online version. its quite interesting, but at the same time simple. Her's some useful information...

Notes: The original project was intended to be used with the tablet. However the downloadable and online versions do not have this feature enabled.

Abstract: Drawing toy that produces parameterized organisms. Procedural animation allows the organisms to swim around in a virtual fluid environment interacting with each other.

Documentation: After a good critique from Golan Levin and Casey Reas, I've toned down my project to something more accomplishable within the three week period I was given.

The project now interprets strokes made from a tablet pen. When a stroke is completed (or closed into a loop) it manifests an organism based on stroke length, speed, and pressure. While not exactly gesture recognition, it was a quick and dirty solution to what otherwise might have been a nightmare to develop (gesture recognition).

Procedural animation drives all of the creatures, including the physics and kinematics. At the lowest level, physics runs everything from the fluid simulation, masses, and springs. One level higher and you get the autonomous motions of a creature such as articulation (moving the tail in opposition of the head).

At the highest structure you get the behavior level, the "AI" of the creature that drives them to go in particular directions, follow certain targets, and do certain things with their bodies. Everything is clamped down into a point of "interest", and the organism simply follows that. The behavior routine simply directs this "interest", and the rest of the body articulates itself. In addition, behaviors can change due to their orientation or distance between themselves and other organisms. I'll let you discover these behaviors yourself, since that's half the fun of this project.

Each creature is custom-built, meaning art and programming for each creature had to be construted individually.

The graphics are SVGs imported via a custom-built SVG importer I wrote for this project. It really sucks, so I didn't release it. You wouldn't want to use it anyway, it's really buggy. However, SVGs allowed me to draw interesting shapes that can connect to other shapes with code. Also, SVGs are a vector format so it allows me to zoom as far in or out as I want without losing resolution, keep file sizes down to a minimum, and it also allows me to do transforms and scales to them on the fly.

The art style drew inspiration from submerged microorganisms and presstube.

Future: Some things that I could improve include actually using gesture recognition to develop even more interesting shapes (try drawing a few loops to see what I mean). Writing a system that could morph in-between SVG would also be very awesome, as well as importing SVG with mutiple layers, or colors. I also learned a lot about behavior programming from this project. Writing behavior directly into the creature class became prohibitively difficult, so I should really think about a new way to do behavior programming seperate from creature articulation. Finally, I want to come up with a way to recycle the art more efficiently, so as to build a large library of creatures really quickly. Perhaps a creature-constructor interface? ...

Click here for internet applet of the work

Evolva - (Wiliam Latham)

Evolva is a third-person action game, released in 2000. The player leads a team of 4 "GenoHunters" exploring a planet; each of the GenoHunters can develop new abilities by incorporating and altering the DNA they've absorbed from the creatures they have killed. The GenoHunters will change their physical appearance (change colors, develop spikes or horns) based on the DNA they've used to mutate themselves. Your Genohunters can punch, jump, super jump, breath fire, vomit flammable liquids, shoot explosives, scramble enemies brains and spawn small alien offspring that injure enemies.

The game has 12 large, linear levels populated with alien insect-like creatures known as the "parasite guardians". There are different types of these alien creatures. In some of the levels there are "Bosses" at the end which your team of genohunters must defeat.

The game was praised by critics as very innovative, without any major criticisms, other than the high hardware requirements (for the time) and weak multiplayer support.

The Thing - (William Latham)

The Thing is a third person survival horror game, and sequel to John Carpenter's 1982 film The Thing. It was developed by Computer Artworks. PlayStation 2 version of this game was released in North America on August 19, 2002, and in Japan on February 27, 2003. ^[1]The Thing is set after the film's ending, when two United States military rescue teams, Alpha and Bravo, are dispatched by Colonel Whitley to investigate the loss of contact with U.S. Outpost 31. Alpha Team, headed by the unit's second-in-command, Captain Pierce, is dropped at the nearby Norwegian Outpost. Bravo Team, led by the unit's Commanding Officer, Captain Blake, is then dropped at the American research station. The player assumes the role of Captain Blake, and must learn how to coordinate and command his Bravo Team colleagues while investigating the ruins of Outpost 31 and locating clues and messages detailing the incident for players who are unfamiliar with the film. The mission supervisor, Colonel Whitely, will offer sporadic assistance and relay objectives via radio. This section serves as an in-game tutorial and training level and offers some insight into the events which transpired following the end of the movie.

During the player's investigation of the ruins of the Outpost, they will find the UFO from the film. They will also find the body of Childs, one of the survivors from the movie. Upon securing the facility, Blake is airlifted to the Norwegian research station to locate and reinforce Alpha Team after Whitely informs him that they have lost contact with the team. There Blake and his group encounter swarms of Things that slowly dwindle down his team as Blake rescues Colin and learns of a government conspiracy with Gen Inc in conducting experiments on the alien lifeforms before they began to infest the research facility. Blake learns that Whitely was behind it the whole time and even injected himself with a Cloud Virus B4 Strain. With a new group, Blake fights his way through numerous black ops and creatures before killing the transformed Colonel Whitley. The player has the assistance of a helicopter pilot, revealed to be R.J. MacReady, the hero from the original film.

Wiliam Latham - Week 2

Wiliam Latham is another artist introduced to us during the Week 2 lecture. This artist is related to our Experimental Gaming module as he developed software that was used in games such as:

• The Thing (2002)
• Evolva (2000)
  

Here's a brief biography on the artist:

From 1987 to 1994 he worked for IBM in their Advanced Computer Graphics and Visualisation Division at IBM Hursley near Winchester , and his Mutation work achieved world wide recognition at SIGGRAPH and other events and a number of IBM patents were published. He was co-author with Stephen Todd of the book “Evolutionary Art and Computers” published by Academic Press which is still recognised as a key work in this area. His organic artworks and films were shown worldwide in major touring exhibitions of the UK , Germany , Japan and Australia

William was CEO of computer games developer Computer Artworks Ltd from 1994 to 2003, hit games produced included The THING (Playstation2, Xbox and PC) which sold in excess of one million units world-wide, and was Number 1 hit in the UK and Germany . The Thing was published by Vivendi Universal in USA and Europe, and by Konami in Japan and the Far East . (The Thing game was the sequel to the cult John Carpenter Film The THING starring Kurt Russell).

He has a wealth of experience in games development and games business and has managed (and closed) contracts valued $200K to $5m with Microsoft, Nokia, Atari, Vivendi Universal, SCi, Sony SCEE and Virgin Interactive. He has direct experience in film rights negotiation, copyright issues, games negotiation, digital assets management and games technology development.

In 2004, recognising the ongoing increase in games budgets and increasing new investment from financial organisations outside the games industry William founded Games Audit Ltd. Games Audit Ltd is a project management and audit operation for the games industry and offers a wide range of services. Clients include Ingenious, Add Partners, IDGVE .

From 2005 to 2006 William Latham was Professor of Creative Technology at Leeds Metropolitan University and a Research Fellow of Goldsmiths College ( University of London ).

In 2007 William became full Professor of Computing at Goldsmiths. He continues to remain CEO of Games Audit.

William has an MA from The Royal College of Art and a BA from Oxford University

Paul B.Davis

Some interesting work from Paul B.Davis.

In my opinion, Mario is the face of games as a whole, and i find his work interesting because of the manipulation techniques used by Paul B.Davis on something that is so ancient in terms of the gamining world. To me Paul B.Davis's style is simplicity and now we see that like the Giant Joystick, were size has made it that much more interesting. Simplicity or a simple change in imagery has made the Marion game more interesting.
I like to play sports simulation games, especially football games, such as Fifa and Pro Evolution. For many years i've played both games and seen their development(from Fifa '96 to Fifa 10 and ISS Pro to Pro Evo 10) and to be honest, the game doesnt really change drastically (year by year), but when the next years game is due to be relaesed, the question on gamers hearts are "whats new?"

Click here for a video I found on Paul B.Davis

And Yet It Moves Wii Teaser

Another interesting resource:

And Yet It Moves

Giant Joystick - Mary Flanagan

Another resource introduced to use during the week 1 lecture, Mary Flanagan's "Giant Joystick"

Multiplayer Atari, using a giant joystick from artist Mary Flanagan... "Inviting users to play classic arcade games by collaboratively moving on and controlling a 9-foothigh joystick (modelled after the 1980 Atari 2600 one), Mary Flanagan highlights the spatial and social role of the interface. The joystick itself becomes a social sculpture and territory for inter-personal communication."

I found this interesting in a similar fashion as the "safety pin", as the exaggeration of size makes an ordinary object (or in the joysticks case outdated) a lot more interesting than it really is. The joystick can be used to play original Atari games, and i think the fact that the size changes the experience makes it that more exciting. You need 2 people to operate the machine, and no doubt, movement will be a lot more restrictive and will require a lot more energy to perform.

In relation to this, I saw some works by photographer Vincent Bousserez in the local newspaper and he photographs minature figures doing everyday "chores", but what makes them interesting is his innovation to these figure doing their chores on life size objects, such as sunglases, pie, toilet tissue and so on

Safety Pin - Claes Oldenberg

We were also introduce to this work entitled Safetuy pin which is from the De Young Museum.
I felt that this piece was quite interesting, the fact that they have taken an everyday, unnoticed item and turned it into an intersting piece of art. Questions arised instantly in my head abourt this piece:

• can the piece bend just like an ordinary pin?
• if possible, is there any pactical uses for the pin?

in relation to games, the theme of growth comes to mind. The game mario is probably the clearest example, where Mario is able to grow by a substancial amount in the Super mario series, when he powers up for a limited amount of time.

Stelarc

We was also introduced to another resource in the form of Stelarc.

Stelarc (born Stelios Arcadiou on June 19, 1946 in Limassol, Cyprus, to Greek Cypriot parents) is an Australian performance artist whose works focus heavily on futurism and extending the capabilities of the human body. As such, most of his pieces are centered around his concept that the human body is obsolete. Until 2007 he held the position of Principal Research Fellow in the Performance Arts Digital Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, England. He is currently a visiting Professor in the School of Arts at Brunel University, West London. He has two daughters, one of whom (Astra Stelarc) has continued in his footsteps as an artist. - Taken from Wikipedia

After viewing this artsist's work, it reminds me of the Terminator movie series, where natural human characteristics have been combined with technology to advance humans. Removing the disadvantages of being a human (i.e feeling pain)in a war like environment, but it also raised up other disadvantages being a robot. It also reminded me about a character in the Tekken game series, his name was Yoshimitsu.

1st and 3rd Person Shooters

We were also shown about the difference between a 1st person shooter and a 3rd person shooter.
Here are two examples of games that are based on a 1st person and 3r person format.

KILLZONE:
Killzone is a first-person shooter exclusive to the PlayStation 2 game console, developed by Netherlands-based Guerrilla Games and released on November 2, 2004 in North America. A sequel, Killzone: Liberation was released on the PlayStation Portable and another followup, Killzone 2 was released for the PlayStation 3 on February 27, 2009. The game is the first of the Killzone series.

GEARS OF WAR:
Gears of War is a 2006 third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was initially released as an exclusive title for the Xbox 360 in November in North America, Australia, and most of Europe and included a "Limited Collector's Edition" with added content and an art book titled Destroyed Beauty that detailed much of the game's back-story. Despite the initial statements of Xbox 360 exclusivity, a Microsoft Windows version of the game was developed in conjunction with People Can Fly and released a year later, featuring new content including additional campaign levels and a new multiplayer game mode.

The Slaughter of the holy innocents

This painting was also presented to us during the week 1 lecture. Initial thoughts of this image were of slight confusion. All I can see is soldiers taking the lives of babies despite the desperate attempts from their mothers. Some are wrestling with the soldiers, and others are already morning over their dead babies.
I had to do some further research in order to find out what it was really about, and found...
"The Holy Innocents are the children executed at Herod's order in Matthew 2:16-18 (cached). Some images of the Holy Innocents depict the slaughter alone (example), but often Herod is prominently featured giving the order, as at left. Indeed, one panel in Burgos puts him in the center, occupying a good half of the image. The Golden Legend's account also spends a good deal less time on the innocents than on Herod, his family, and his subsequent troubles."

From reading this vital piece of information, "The Holy Innocents" made a lot more sense to me, because being a Christian myself I read the context of this biblical story, which reads:
(Matthew 2:13-18)13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. 14 When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: 15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. 16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,
18 In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

This is the story of baby Jesus escaping death, because of his earthly father Joseph's obedience to a word from God, instructing him to flee to Egypt. King Herod knew of Jesus' power and wanted him killed, so to ensure this ordered all baby boys aged 2 and under to be killed who were in bethlehem. The bible as many prophecies that have yet to come to pass and many others that have come to pass especially regarding Jesus Christ. verse 18 shows us a prophecy fulfilled about great mourning for mothers morning for their children - which is portrayed in the image.
To relate this to games, there are themes that come to my mind

1. A theme of escape. (Baby Jesus escaping death). The game Abes Oddysee comes to mind, this is because the objective of the game is to escape death and rescue others of his kind.
   
2. Knowing the end from the beginning (the prophecy of Prophet Jeremiah). The Star Wars series comes to mind, as we experienced the movies at the end of the story, then many years later experienced the beginning of the whole story with the films and also the game series. So when playing the game simulation of the movie, we already knew the ending of the story from the beginning.

Ideal City - Piero Della Francesca(1420-92)

This image entitled "Ideal City" painted by Piero Della Francesca(1420-92), was presented to us during the lecture of week 1.
"Piero della Francesca’s Ideal City (c. 1470), in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino, Italy Piero della Francesca was one of the first painters to apply the perspective techniques of the architects Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti. Early perspective paintings often included a patterned pavement, as seen in this"

My instant thought of the image was that it is a very neat piece of work, especially in terms of its symmetry, which looks very accurate, but at the same time quite a polished look...

In relation to gaming, this sets the scene for an environment that can easily be used for a game. A first person shooter/adventure game comes to mind. The area looks mysterious in terms of its emptyness, but you could picture enemies (such as soldiers or zombies)hiding and lurking inbetween the buildings trying to kill you, whilst you also attempt to kill them in order to advance in the game.

Personal Thoughts

When i think about games, the first thing that comes to mind is Mario. For me Mario represents gaming and is by far the most popular and recognised gaming character of all time.
My first experience of Mario was on the Nintendo Entertainmen System (NES) many years ago, jumping into pipes and saving the princess.

heres a brief bio of the gaming legend...

Mario (マリオ) is a fictional character in his eponymous video game series, created by video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation. Though originally only appearing in platform games, starting with Donkey Kong, Mario currently appears in many video game genres, such as racing, puzzle, role-playing, fighting and sports games, and others.

Mario is depicted as a short, pudgy, Italian-American plumber who lives in the Mushroom Kingdom. He repeatedly stops Bowser's numerous plans to kidnap Princess Peach and subjugate the Mushroom Kingdom. He also has other enemies and rivals, including Donkey Kong and Wario. Since 1995, Mario has been voiced by Charles Martinet.^[1]

As Nintendo's mascot, Mario is one of the most famous characters in video game history,^[2] and his image is commonly associated with video games. Mario games, as a whole, have sold more than 201 million units, making the Mario series the best-selling video game series of all time.^[3] Outside platform games, he has appeared in video games of other genres, including the Mario Kart racing series, sports games, such as the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series, and role-playing games. Outside the original games, television shows, film and comics, he spawned a line of licensed merchandise. - TAKEN FROM WIKIPEDIA

Experimental Gaming 2 - Level 6 - Week 1

Going into the final year of postgraduate study, and Experimental Gaming is one of the required modules.

The first week's lecture was an introduction to the module, which consisted of a breakdown of what was required in order to pass the module...
Assessment 1 - Research Portfolio - 40% - due in Week 5
Assessment 2 - Games Mod - 60% - due in Week 14
We were told that in level 6, we have an increased freedom to specify our own programme of study.

Many resources were provided in relation to the module such as:

• "Ideal City" - Piero Della Francesca
• "The slaughter of the holy innocents" - Duccio Di Buoninsega
• "Safety Pin" - Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Brugen
• "Giant Joystic" - Mary Flanagan

... And many more!