And so it has ended.

Alright kiddos, if we're going to do this lets do it right. I'm going to do this end of year thing, but its not going to be about my work. If you're interested, my work is going alright. I feel like I've improved and the teaching methods used on this course suit me pretty well. I feel like I've progressed a lot not only in my artistic skill but I also think I know what I want to do with myself after uni, so that's a pretty big deal I guess. But there has been so much more to this year than the game art course (which, again, has been fantastic). A lot has changed since I first came here, not only in my life but within me as a person. A awful lot has changed, in fact.

My dad's best friends are people he met at university, and so are mine. He always said this was because until university, you're discovering yourself. You're identifying who you are and more than anything you're developing. As your school friends grow and change, you will lose sight of the people you once knew. Maybe it takes some people a very long time to truly discover who they are, and I'm not for a minute suggesting that I'm done yet, but I think its started. Above all else, this is thanks to the people I have met since coming here. There are people here that I will never let go, not in memory or in communication. People who will be part of my life till the day I die, and that isn't something I take lightly. These are people who have affirmed their importance in my life faster than anyone I've ever known, and as I said, in the space of a year I have found lifelong friends. Earlier in 2013, I was in a bad way, and these people stood by me when everything else ebbed away. I came away from this confused and still trying to work out what this means for me as a person, but alongside all that confusion was a certainty. That these people I had found were still here. And that they certainly would be here tomorrow. They were and still are my salvation, and for that I am eternally grateful.

Its not only my fellow first years that have come to be my friends. It is with a strange mixture of happiness and sorrow that I say that many third-years have come to mean a lot to me, too. One of the single most fantastic things about this course is the relationship that we first years have with our third years, and the wealth of knowledge they share with us every day. They are our gurus and our inspiration; but beyond that, they are our friends. I wish them well on their journey into the wide world, and I'm sure I'll see them again soon.

To think that a year ago today, I knew nothing but their names, and had no idea how much they would come to mean to me, or the development that this place would bring out of me. It is a defining place in my life, just as this is a defining time. Sure, Leicester isn't the prettiest city in the world, nor the cleanest. But here some of the most important people in my life have been brought together and this is where they are. Over the next two years I have no doubt that these bonds will grow ever stronger, and form the kinds of ties that cannot be broken when we inevitably part ways once again.

What does a marine think of Spec Ops: The line?

Click here to find out!

Spec ops: the line is a game I haven't had the "pleasure" of playing through yet. From what I hear, its not an enjoyable experience. The game itself plays much like a standard third person shooter, but the game also exists to make a very strong anti-war message. Its brutal, and its ugly, and it ultimately makes you feel awful.


I can't wait to play it some more.

Owls in Towels reviews: Ravaged

Ravaged review by Owls In Towels INC

This time a more negative review! I don't tend to do these, because I don't buy games I don't like. But this weekend was a steam 'free weekend', giving me the chance to check out Ravaged.

Bradgate park

 

It's so beautiful outside.

Even more beautiful than Crysis maxed out with CUDDAT's TOD lighting mod.


We went to Bradgate park to do work. I appreciate not everyone's day turned out so, but I didn't do any work at all. The sun was up, I was so happy I could scream. There was no where else in the world I'd rather be. Into this its perfect, its all I ever wanted oh I almost can't believe that its for real...

The weather, it does stuff to you. It does stuff to your brain. When its like that, when its all warm and golden and new, I could not think of anything I'd less like to do than work. Is this laziness? Well yeah, probably. But its more than that. Its a fundamental piece of us, as animals, that we've buried away beneath shoes and shirts and the shackles of the world. On that day, on that morning, there was nothing more important than basking in the sun and, for what feels like the first time for a long while- living. Climbing up trees and burning ants and skimming stones and everything that actually matters. At that moment, the course, the work, university- all of it meant nothing. For as long as we were lying on the grass and the world was awake and glowing, we had everything we needed. Fresh water flowing through our toes, deer to hunt and oaks to scale. We would gallivant across this bright new world and die happy knowing we'd never have to wear socks again.

Now, I hope you can see that this post is written slightly tongue-in-cheek. But as I reflect on that day we spent in Bradgate park, and got away from the city for a little while, there was definitely something going on. A little connection with our ancestry and with the wider human race as a whole. They are few, but some people still live that way- hunting, climbing, basking. Some people don't have a sense of time in the way we do. Maybe they're happier than us, maybe they aren't- but its worth remembering they exist, and that worrying about car insurance and housing deposits isn't as natural and normal as we think. They are insular, these men and women in the forest. They probably don't give much thought to us, or the way in which our world works. Maybe that's for the best. I don't think they'd like it very much.

Elements of Game Design: Characters.

Some of the greatest stories ever told don't have characters. The only example I can think of is 2D Boy's absolutely fantastic "World Of Goo" game. With the exception of that absolute gem of a video-game, I find its really very difficult to tell a story without characters. Now, in a way, video-games share more in common with music than with films or books. Lets presume we are talking about fiction- books and films tend to tell stories. Video-games can also do this, but there are a lot of video games which dont tell stories. Whilst its fun to assume that Pacman is the tale of a crack-absorbed maniac (who fights through the dingy black corridors of his life, consuming dusty white stimulants wherever he finds him, occasionally bolstering up the courage to face the ghosts of his descent before inevitably succumbing to his inevitable death) the game exists more as an experience than anything else. Space invaders had a lose premise about invaders from space, but if you played that game for its story you need your brain lacquering. Just like music can tell stories (A long, long time ago... I can still remember how that music used to make me smile...) they can also exist entirely as an experience, (OPEN THE DOOR, GET ON THE FLOOR, EVERYBODY WALK THE DINOSAUR) and are therefore not dependent on characters to push their non-existent narratives.

But that is enough on why video-games don't need characters. Its time to talk about the games that do need characters, and how they manifest themselves in the medium. Lets start from the near-beginning of the medium as we now know it. Once upon a time there was a man, a woman and a monkey. The monkey stole away the woman, and the man had to rescue her. Her name was Pauline, and the man loved her very much (I think). His name was Jump Man (lol) and he was well known for his ability to jump over barrels. This was back on the old 80s arcade machines, and old Jump Man has come a long way. His design has changed slowly over time, and his videography now spans over 200 different games. Nowadays he can throw turtle shells, turn into a bee, throw fire from his hands, drive karts and play golf- he can even jump over barrels! We know him as Mario, the Italian plumber, and whether you like him or not, he is one of the mediums most recognizable characters. As a character, he is rather shallow. His motives are simple and he rarely has anything insightful to say, but that doesn't stop him succeeding as a character. He is iconic and unique, and as someone who has played as him for all my gaming life, there is something so "right" about jumping through obstacles as a stout Italian plumber.

But games characters continue to evolve. In some games, the characters are exactly what you'd expect from a film-character, well voice-acted and physically dramatic. Some subtle human characters like Sam Fisher of the Splinter Cell series are entirely believable entities, and technology has allowed developers to portray them with an almost life-like quality. Quantic Dream is a developer well known for this approach to their characters, filling their faces with polygons and motion-captured emotion. Its all very clever and very pretty to boot, but as we edge ever closer to realism, we run the risk of falling head-first into...


THE UNCANNY VALLEY

 


image links:

http://mydisguises.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/super-smash-bros-mario-1.jpg
http://www.gnomonschool.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/url9.jpg

reference links:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UncannyValley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario
http://kotaku.com/5657358/before-mario-before-jumpman-there-was-ossan
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/02/20/quantic-dream-shows-off-ps4-39-s-imprssive-emotional-fidelity.aspx