Concept Art

Concept art is the base and key for the development for any project such as cars, games and many more, the main point of concept art is to show a visual representation of a design and idea of what the end product is going to look like. It also allows the investors, and anybody interested in the project/title what aspects of the end product will look like.

Concept art start is usually on a non digital media to begin with however with the ever popular growth of the digital age it is also known for concept art to be designed with computers. Concept art is usually drawn by concept artists; concept artists are individuals that design a character, item etc that does not yet exist. This includes (not limited to) film production, animation production, video game production, car production and many more.

Concept art allows the interpreter to address the technical issues that may occur, for example the characters. The concept artist has designed a character with too much detail and the limitations of the system cannot render them, or for other reasons the design has changed.

Concept art is known to have even existed as late the 1930’s by Disney Animation studios. Disney Animation would have used concept art for their characters in the popular cartoon Mickey Mouse.



Concept Art



In Game

Here is a concept drawing of how Zergling will appear like in the upcoming Starcraft 2 by Blizzard.

The example concept art I have given is drawn in a gothic style; dark, evil, metallic colours are a good way to show the futuristic look of how the characters nature is.

Included is a shot of how a Zergling would appear in the game and how concept art can reflect into the final product, and how different they can appear. Although the concept shot is very detailed; the in game shot is not very detailed, however the models are 3D.

A good way that video game companies promote their games is to publish their concept art online and sending them off to video game magazines. This allows fans to get an idea of the game will appear before it is released.

A good way artists can promote their work is by posting it online on sites such as www.conceptart.org the advantage of this is that artists can use these online websites to quickly show off there work to potential employers.

Touching off from the purpose for concept would be to project an image into the mind of others so they get an idea of what the finished product will look like, and make the project stand out.

Drawing styles can help engage a porject that have different target audiences an example of this is the Resident Evil series. The images and videos in Resident Evil are very dark and gory and would use a different drawing style compared to that of Super Mario Bros. series.

Contractual, legal and ethical obligations in the games industry.

The employment contract is the first type of contract. This sets out the terms and conditions of your employment, i.e. how you will both work together and what both parties (you and the company) will do for each other.

Employment contracts in the gaming industry are likely to include clauses about benefits (which would include royalties), confidentiality (preventing leaks to competitors), inventions (the company’s right to any game you develop whilst working for them), and not competing with the company during the time you are employed by them or for a period after your timed work there ends.

Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA), Disclosure Agreements, and Confidentiality Agreements are very similar. One party divulges (discloses) some confidential information such as a game plan, new technology or processes for producing games or a business deal that hasn't yet been publicly announced and has to tell this to the other party. The other party must agree to not disclose this information, otherwise legal damage and compensation must be paid for breaching the contract.

Research Evaluation

After analysing the data of my results I can say that:

Males tend to play more video games, 15-17 year olds play more games; however 18-21 play there fair share. Most people who taken the survey owned a PC and Xbox 360.

My survey also shows that every if not all gamers have an internet connection. Something I have found out is that the FPS genre is the most popular, slowly creeping up is the adventure/platform genre. This is what I feel what I am going to base my game on.

For my primary source of information I submitted surveys online and distributed them via the ever popular site ‘face book’ as I thought this was the most efficient way to get quick results. I also posted a link to the survey on popular website ‘neo win’ my surveys asked the user what they look for in games and why.

For my secondary source I used the Internet to find popular genres of games.

For my quantitive source I looked on the popular website vgchartz.com this website gives up-to-date sales figures for almost every game in the market. This gave me sales figures to source what people’s favourite games are.

For my qualitive source I took it upon myself to read some reviews about some of the games mentioned in my research techniques assignment. Reading these gave me inspiration to write about them.

The Games Industry Uncovered - Task 1B

Current Financial Issues

Current financial issues can trouble the games industry, such as the following key things:

Milestones

Milestones are important when keeping financial issues at bay; they keep everything in order and are essential to manage and control a project, and can be used to check how a project is progressing.

For example you are project manager for a games company. You employ around 60 employees, you are paying them by the hour. A company has come to you and asked for your services in producing a platform game by a deadline. You don’t set any milestones and your team have not used time effectively and failed to meet the deadline. This puts your team in jeopardy because not only does this possibly affect your payment from whoever asked for your services but it also gives you a bad reputation.

Business Models

A business model is nothing more than a representation of how a business makes (or intends to make) money. This can be affected by financial issues. Imagine you are an entrepreneur and you come up with an idea for a product nobody else has thought of, and you start a business with the help of investors. However, you have one constraint - you are short of money to advertise your product to a wide audience. This is an example of how financial problems can affect the business model.

Budgets

Budgeting is also important to keeping away from financial issues; this is because it allows you to control the amount of money you spend in certain areas. Imagine you are running a games company and you hire a team of developers, but you don’t budget correctly. This means you run out of money and are unable to complete the project.

Market trends

A market trend is tendency of a market to do something in a particular direction over a space of time, within the industry there are various different market trends including:

Products

There are marketing trends when it comes to the public buying in products, this can be things such as games. An example of this is with the latest Call of Duty; a current trend in the video game industry is a lust for First person shooters

National

National Trends are when a product is released and a specific country will have liking or disliking to it, example a game is released internationally and sells highly in just one country. Trends like this can indefinitely increase financial issues for games companies if this takes place.

International Trends

Much like national trends except on an international scale example a game is released internationally and most countries like a similar genre so the sales are okay. Just like national trends it can increase financial issues as well as aid them.

Industry Trends

Industry trends are a tendency to do something within a certain industry such as the games industry examples of these are:-

Original IP

These are games that have original ideas are used to produce a game; an example of this is Wet. What makes this original IP is that no other games company uses a character similar to her with her movement and game play.

Franchised IP

Franchised IP are games that use either licensed ideas or other ideas to produce a game this can also be based on merchandise and comics. An example of this the Halo series.

Film Industry Comparison

Sometimes games get turned into movies this can sometimes be very poor because of the transition between the two and vice versa.

Visual Style, Feedback Interface and Perspectives

Castlevania IV (SNES)

The game is about a legend that says every 100 years the forces of good and evil will meet and basically Simon Belmont is sent to save the world against the vampire Dracula

The game is set in 1691 and the theme is much like a dark dungeon.

The game features a life bar at the top of the screen (shown in a bar) to visualise how much health the player and enemy has.

The game will play an audible sound when a player is attacked or health is lost.

The game plays in both 2D and Scrolling perspectives.



Goldeneye (Nintendo 64)

The game is based on the mid-90’s blockbuster hit Goldeneye and followed the storyline from the action-based movie. James Bond teams up with the lone survivor of a destroyed Russian research centre to stop the hijacking of a nuclear space weapon by a fellow agent believed to be dead.

The game is set in 1995.

The game will display a life meter if and when a player has taken damage.

The game has support for the rumble pack expansion used on the N64; the controller will rumble if a player is shot at, or an explosion takes place.

The game will play an audible sound when a player is attacked or health is lost as well as this the main character James will breathe heavily if a lot of damage has been taken.

The game features First-person, 3D and Third-person perspectives.



Street Fighter The Movie (Saturn/Playstation)

The game is based on the movie of Street Fighter which in turn is based off the original Street Fighter video game series. Col. Guile and various other martial arts heroes fight against the tyranny of Dictator M. Bison.

The game is set in 1994.

Much like most fighting games the game will display a life meter to display if and when a player has knocked out or received damaged.

Most of the attacks used in the game have unique sounds to that player and move, to allow the player to distinguish which attack they have used. The game will also play a series audible sound when a player is attacked or health is lost.

The game features the Full motion video perspective; this is when a video is used as the game is played. In this case the fighters are videos of the original actors in the movie.



TwinBee (Arcade)

TwinBee is a vertical shoot'em up heavily influenced by Namco's Xevious. The ship can fire forward with a button, and drop bombs (with their tiny arms).

Unlike many games TwinBee didn’t really have a back-story until the game had become popular in Japan in the early 90’s which was introduced by Anime

Like many vertical shooters, the game displays a meter indicating how many life’s the player has left and displaying any enemies that fly in from the top of the screen

The game makes use of the Aerial perspective.

Visual Style, Feedback Interface and Perspectives

Castlevania IV (SNES)

Story:
The game is about a legend that says every 100 years the forces of good and evil will meet and basically Simon Belmont is sent to save the world against the vampire Dracula
Setting:
Dark Dungeon, 1691
Feedback interface:-
Visual:
The game features a life bar at the top of the screen (shown in a bar) to visualise how much health the player and enemy has.
Auditory:
The game will play an audible sound when a player is attacked or health is lost.
Perspectives:-
The game features both 2D and Scrolling perspectives

Goldeneye (Nintendo 64)

Setting:
The game is based on the mid-90’s blockbuster hit Goldeneye and followed the storyline from the action-based movie.
Story:
James Bond teams up with the lone survivor of a destroyed Russian research centre to stop the hijacking of a nuclear space weapon by a fellow agent believed to be dead. IMDb. (2009).
Setting:
1995
Feedback interface:-
Visual:
The game will display a life meter if and when a player has taken damaged.
Physical sensation:
The game has support for the rumble pack expansion used on the N64; the controller will rumble if a player is shot at, or an explosion takes place.
Auditory:
The game will play an audible sound when a player is attacked or health is lost as well as this the main character James will breathe heavily if a lot of damage has been taken.
Perspectives:-
The game features First-person, 3D and Third-person perspectives.

Street Fighter The Movie (Saturn/Playstation)

The game is based on the movie of Street Fighter which in turn is based off the original Street Fighter video game series.
Story:
Col. Guile and various other martial arts heroes fight against the tyranny of Dictator M. Bison and his cohorts. IMDb. (2009).
Setting:
1994
Feedback interface:-
Visual:
Much like most fighting games the game will display a life meter to display if and when a player has knocked out or received damaged.
Auditory:
Most of the attacks used in the game have unique sounds to that player and move, to allow the player to distinguish which attack they have used. The game will also play a series audible sound when a player is attacked or health is lost.
Perspectives:-
The game features the Full motion video perspective; this is when a video is used as the game is played. In this case the fighters are videos of the original actors in the movie.

TwinBee (Arcade)

Story:
TwinBee is a vertical shoot'em up heavily influenced by Namco's Xevious. The ship can fire forward with a button, and drop bombs (with their tiny arms). Hardcore Gaming 101. (2009).
Back-story:
Unlike many games TwinBee didn’t really have a back-story until the game had become popular in Japan in the early 90’s which was introduced by Anime
Feedback interface:-
Visual:
Like many vertical shooters, the game displays a meter indicating how many life’s the player has left and displaying any enemies that fly in from the top of the screen
Auditory:
Not much to say on this front because the few sounds the game makes are simple firing sounds from the either your artillery or the enemies.
Perspectives:-
The game features the Aerial perspective.

Legislation classification for the Nation

Legislation classification for the Nation

In the United Kingdom there are a few problems to do age ratings of games and people abiding them.

Children such as young as even 6 are able to play titles that are aimed to be played by 18 and over. I believe this is morally quite wrong and should be nipped in the bud now rather than later, Game ratings are there to be abided because it stops children from viewing inappropriate material.

Children are obtaining these materials by getting there parents to buy the products for them, usually because the parents are lead to believe the ratings on the boxes are 'difficulty' of the game.

I believe that the current system (PEGI) works however I think it could enforced with the aid of parents and retailers and this can be stopped taking a leap out of other examples of age restriction. Alcohol in the UK cannot be purchased by minors and requires ID to be purchased if the buyer looks under 21, however for this to work employees at game stores need to be trained to asked parents who they are purchased the game for (making sure it’s not for a minor)

If parents/people buying games for minors are found guilty they face up-to a £6000 fine and a possible 6 month jail sentence I think this information should also be easily found in shops and retailers. That way the number of people buying games for minors would dramatically decrease.

Here are a few tips for parents quoted from the PEGI website:

• Always look for the age classification on the package of a game or via the search engine on this website.

• Try to look for a summary or review of the game content or ideally play the game yourself first.

• Play video games with your children, watch over them when they play and talk about it. Explain why certain games are not suitable.

• Be aware that online games sometimes enable the download of extra software that can alter the game content and eventually the age classification of the game.

• Online games are usually played in virtual communities requiring players to interact with unknown fellow players. Tell your children not to give out personal details and report inappropriate behavior.