4.3

Video game reflection

The presentation was acceptable for a college project but had it been a true videogame pitch it was severally lacking. The issue was having a set time limit for a game that I could have spoken for hours on. The other issue was the fact that the audience didn’t seem very aware of just what an RTS was and were reluctant to really grasp the concepts behind it.

            The things that went well was the rules behind the game and I believe the audience was really given the skeleton of how every basic RTS goes. Unfortunately the game isn’t another basic RTS as that wouldn’t make it very different and wouldn’t really get anyone to get really interested in the game but I still felt I had to really point out the basics to get people to understand just what an RTS was.

            The thing that went over badly was the concept of 3 factions and how they varied so widely, this was in part to the audiences lack of knowledge as to what an RTS was and therefore the weight of how the three varied was lost on them.

           

4.2

super powers (required link)

4.1

Steven Hedges

Amanda

Brynnie

3.3 game review

Game. Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of The Patriots. Type 3rd person shooter/stealth.

3.2 movie review

Movie, Final Fantasy Advent Childern. Type CG animated. Genre  Fantasy. Action-Adventure. Important note* Movie is based of the Final Fantasy series, story and characters are of course from it.

blog post 3.1

I was originally drawn to this picture do to the mysterious nature of it. My altered one shifts the focus of the frame from the house to the man who gets set as the center of focus in the altered image. The house floating above a simple plane looked cool not to mention how it stood out by conflicting with the setlines. Another thing that was cool was how the whole picture had conflicting depth cues. In original picture both the house and the stranger cast a shadow, which points to where the sun is and the depth of an object. But the house casts a shadow toward the foreground while the stranger casts on facing the background this makes for visually affinitive lines but contrasting depth. If the lighting in the scene was normal then both shadows should be facing the same direction. In the original as well there are many conflicting lines, the horizon the clouds, the bird, the building in the distance and the man. But in my altered picture the lines are very basic. The man acts as a straight horizontal line sharing an affinity with the buildings in the background. Also the type of shot changed drastically with the zoom. It goes from an extreme wide shot, to get the city, man, and house into one shot to a wide shot of just the man. The other drastic shift in the picture is the difference between how visually intense they are. The original had the stark contrast of the white house with the rest of the slightly darker scene while the altered one actually lacks that same intensity as the lightest thing I n the frame is the sky far off in the distance. This does a great job of highlighting the man who in the original kind of blends with the city if one doesn’t look closely.

Blog post 2.4

Audio response

Blog post 2.3

My song for the second project.

My comments
Brynnie 
Steven
Kevin

2.2

Here is my video response

Blog post 2.1

 The original, by Skillet

 The cover by Cellofourte

For this blog I choose one of my absolute favorite songs. Monster by Skillet, a christen rock banc that has taken several steps away from the classical methods of normal christen music. The song uses a heavy base to try the beat and uses panning to create a strange feeling of movement. The song is very fast paced, a single guitar setting the high speed in the opening and can only be heard on the left. The rest of the band kicks in shortly after and for most of the song its very ordered but at exactly 2:16 in the first video the main singers voice is layer with his own voice but the timber has be altered make and animal like growl. It remains for the rest of the song and gives it a more animalistic and chaotic feeling. While the lyrics may not be cheerful they are emotional and really carry the singers fear of his internal beast.

            The covered version of this song is done by a smaller band known as Cello Forte. This band is purely strings with a light drum kit for base. The band played an identical version of monster using pure strings. They mimicked every aspect of the song from the style of the intro to the growl at 2:16 although to emulate it they simply layered the leads piece with an electric guitar.

            The songs are similar it a rather eerie way. Cello forte mimics it in everyway except that there are no vocals as and the primary instruments are strings. But other then that, the speed style rhythm is identical.  Hence Cello forte has a rather eerie feel to it especially after hearing the original. It’s just so unique to hear a powerful rock song transposed into a equally powerful string piece. One would have thought the strings couldn’t carry the same weight as the original could but the music disagrees. The use of the electric guitar was also clever as it mimicked the layering of the singers voice but with again using just stringed instruments.

            The contrast however is what makes the song really stand out. In the skillet version the song is heavy and the beat is intense and powerful. The cello version, due to the instrument is far softer and carries a equally powerful but far more graceful feel to it. It is also a bit softer as the instruments are more lyrical and cant really recreate the bite of the voices but at the same time they recreated every part of the song but with the gentle melody of the cellos rather than the power of an electric guitar. Although an electric guitar makes and appearance in the cello version it was more of the effect of creating the animalistic sounds that the first did by altering the lead singers voice. Another contrast is that while Skillets piece got chaotic and wild at the end of the song, the cello forte one maintained a level of

Me and Brynnie's soundscape, emotion was frustrating love
Soundscape

My critiques
Amanda
http://mediarox203.blogspot.com/2011/06/soundscape-project.html#comments
Kevin
http://kevin-mdiablog.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-soundscape.html#comments
Steven
http://sh269608.blogspot.com/2011/06/sound-scape-project-1.html#comments

Blog assignment 1.2

Mitch Ditkoff certain has some excellent points about creating new ideas. Many of which make natural sense and all can be countered and rebuffed. The first “being fascinated” with things, It makes sense, first something gets your attention than your own ideals shape it into your own idea. The next being “immersion”, devoting yourself to something to learn more about or to better understand it.  Next being “Tolerate ambiguity,” in other word being able to cope with a failed idea, one could argue it wasn’t a failure rather a learning experience.  The next one is one that has been drilling into every media major at OU, “make connections,” it’s obvious and vital for both career and idea creation.  The next one is a personal favorite “fantasize,” it’s rather simple; ideas spark from a fantasy and then get ironed out by rational thought. After that it’s the “find the right challenge”, in other words slows down and knows what you’re trying to solve before you try to solve it.  The one after that is a little harder to grasp “listening to your subconscious” but that’s the pain of the subconscious, it’s hidden and difficult to get too.  Leading to the next one  Is another favorite “take a break” this tip is exactly what it sounds like, often the solution becomes clear after a short time away from the problem.  Next is the  “notice and  challenge existing patterns and trends” it explains itself, breakthrough ideas aren’t called that if they follow the normal way of thinking. “Hang out with diverse groups of people” another one that pretty much explains itself, by expanding your social group you add a variety of opinion and thought process to influence your own to develop new ideas. “Brainstorm” this one actually isn’t what many believe it too be, its not just throwing ideas at each other but rather casual exchange of information which may bridge the gap between two people’s and develop the break through. The next one is rather tricky :”look for happy accidents” essentially a random happenstance that sparks the discover, this one is largely based on luck. “Use creative thinking methods” this one is rather vague, it is essentially thinking in a different way to try and spark the idea. Lastly is another favorite “suspend logic” in other words enter a state of mind where real logic need not apply, like watching a movie, reading a book, or playing a game.

Number five is a very personal favorite and one that I truly do get and understand. This is because I’m a day dreamer, it’s a curse but my mind wanders the moment I defocus off my topic. When this occurs I start thinking about so many little story ideas at such a rate that, on a good day, I can get a rough basic beginning middle and end in the brief span between when I lose focus and then get it sparked back into focuses. I’m not stroking my ego; I’m merely saying what my mind does. At the same time many of my little ideas die when I get shocked back into focus, but occasionally I get one that sticks and I start developing it more in my free time. So yes fantasizing is immensely powerful tactic in the creative process.

Number twelve, a happy accident sparking a true breakthrough strikes me as rather silly. It is pure luck that such an event comes out of the blue to miraculously solve your problem. I’m not saying that it’s not possible, history is filled with those geniuses who were already intelligent and had a stroke of luck point out the answer to them. But at the same time to list this as an actual way to get an idea just doesn’t seem right to me. Sure allow it but make it more of a foot note rather than an actual idea. Just because the actually likely hood of it happening is slim to none.

Number fourteen is another one I can understand and agree with. But it can also be a issue. Yes allowing oneself to turn off their logic is great and it leads to many potential ideas but still one best screen all the ideas that come out of it. I say this because after I watch and anime or movie or even when I finish a game, my randomly generated ideas tend to share similar traits with those that I had indulged in. I at one point was sharing an idea for a game when they pointed out that I sounded eerily familiar to an anime, it turns out that while I had never seen it my ideas nearly mirrored it. Again the point I try to make is that if are struck by a bolt of brilliance  while suspending your logic, you have to make sure you check it carefully to see  how original you are being.  

As for what I intend to do. I accept challenge fourteen, I will suspend my logic by suspending my logic. To do so I will watch various anime and play games and try to get my mind into those worlds clearing my own logic in the process.

Blog assignment 1.1

So the hard part was choosing who my inspiration was. An important note is that my inspiration is for the game but to save time and keep you entertained I will only post the trailers of the games. Rest assured that I have played them all the way though.  

Sly cooper trailer,

InFamous 2 gameplay video

1.   Sucker punch studios. This studio is responsible for the Sly Cooper series as well as the InFamous games. Both games are very entertaining in their own right, they share similar traits and if one plays both and looks closely you can see the similar themes. Contrast is used heavily in the InFamous series. In the game you can choice to be good or evil, the game progresses either way, but the contrast is if one is good then the main characters lighting is blue and his powers develops differently than if one chooses to be evil which results in red lighting and the same base powers develop differently again. The Sly games are better in the Tension to Release series. In that game the player plays each level which while building the overall story. Each stage has its own build and release at the end of the level. The player feels the release of finishing the level while they still want to finish the game.  Also the Sly series plays heavily on the Text and sub text area. The main romantic interest Sly and Carmelita are placed in opposite roles. Sly the thief and Carmelita the cop. The text suggests the standard banter but both address in private that it’s the closest thing they can do to romantic banter leading to the sub text being far different. This games have shown me the fact that a gamers freedom to choose is vital, Infamous. The Sly games have shown me how character interaction can make the game that much enjoyable for the player.

       Okami trailer (gameplay included)

2.      Hideki Kamiya. This man is the writer behind the game Okami. This game was a perfect example of a game being truly being art. The game is a uses Tension and Release very powerfully. About half way through the game the player beats a major boss and the tension I had felt of getting to that point was high and the battle was epic, when I personally beat it I leaned forward to turn off my console I discovered that the game wasn’t over, the release was nice but it instantly starts building back up the tension for the next major moment in the plot it continued and many hours later did I actually finish the game. It was a shock; it was like playing several games in one. The visuals of this game were also fantastic. It used contrast and affinity to really set the characters apart. Fellow gods (the good guys) have a visual affinity; they use a lot of white with red. Villains are far darker leading to a stark contrast, using black yellow and gray as their primary.  Lastly is the sheer activeness ness of the game, the player is always doing something, from traveling to combat to mini games, the player is always engaged with something. The game showed me that one showed me to strive to make a work of art, not just another game.

      Supreme commander trailer (mostly gameplay)

3.      Gas powered games. This is the company behind the game Supreme Commander. A RTS that was revolutionary in its design and ideals. The game was designed objectively one could easily see the size difference between the simple units in comparison to the larger ones. Also build times where realistic to each unit, some of the most powerful weapons in the game would take hours to fully develop. The game also used a powerful contrast idea. While many games like Supreme Commander make several factions often times the lines blur and after playing for too long they all start blending and feeling the same. Not in Supreme Commander, it goes to get lengths to make strikingly clear differences between each faction, even after hours of play each feel unique. The game uses a unique blend of active and didactic, the game can feel didactic at times since the long build time’s gives players time to sit on their hands, but the micro skirmishes that happen at a constant rate adds activeness to keep the player engaged so that they don’t lose interest.  This game really inspired me, it makes me want to outdo it, to be even greater then what I consider the greatest. The game also taught me the lesson of selling out, the company made a sequel, it was awful they took away every aspect that made it great for the sole purpose of changing the target audience.  I was the group the first game was aimed for, the new game was for younger kids making the design simpler and the visuals more cartoony