Conclusion

This is the end screen and as you can see this game didn't turn out well and this is because they choose wealth over their family and the better things in life. This is where you realise if you have lived your life right or you have messed it up by being greedy.

I think that our game has gone well and i am happy with the progress that we have made with the software and I am happy with the way we worked as a team but i thick that i have got a lot of improvement stat i could make because this game is only the bottom level of what we could be doing.

Their is a lot more that we could do with this software but we can take this as a learning curve and i hope that the meaning has got across and that the meaning has got power behind it for everyone to understand so that it impacts peoples lives.

Jonathan Cooper
P4

Review and improvements

In this screenshot from our game you get to see the good points that happen when you make a good choice instead of going to work as you see that your mate could of got in trouble if you'd hadn't gone to see him instead you went to work.

The game is full of these good points as well as bad points when you choose to go to work instead. As you can see from this game we have still left the graphics very basic as I think it makes the game flow nicely because you aren't looking at the nice graphics but at the same time i think this could have been a bit that we should have improved if we had of had more time then the aesthetics would have been improved to come in line with the meaning and narrative.

In tis screen you get to see that when you aren't at work you can enjoy the better things in life like xbox and talking to friends. 

I think that if we had more times we could of had a side game in the xbox so that it would be available to play. This would have made the story not as bulky but that you could of took a break from the story to play a 8 bit game.

I think though that this has gone rather well. 

Jonathan Cooper P4

Opening Screen & question time

So this is the opening screen and what you will be welcomed with when you start the game. As you can see we haven't went into big detail with our aesthetics but decided to leave it rather basic so that it doesn't take any real glory off the meaning because thats what we want people to see and realise is the important thing.

You start off life in his/your room as you get up and start life. We have made it clear on how to start the game by pressing D. We decided to make this a basic start as its a narrative story style game their isn't much play with it but you basically are following a story and clicking and oppressing buttons depending on what is happening.

This is the style of question that you are going to be brought with. You are going to get asked straight questions and this is where the narrative will change depending on the chooses that you make because this game is complexity up to you and the way you choose to live it meaning their is lots of outcomes. 

The game has been made this way to try and help you realise the important things in life and to help you realise what happens when you choose work over people.

Jonathan Cooper P4

September 11th

Their is a game called September 11th and  this game is where you control a missile and you can missile a town and kill terrorists but the bad thing is that if you kill too many civilians or civilians see it then they all turn out change to terrorists. So the thing about this game is that their is no real win stake with it because yes you kill some terrorists but when you do this you just double the amount that you kill.

Actually the best thing to do in this game is to do nothing and yes that means your not participating but by not participating it means that your making an active decision to not fight against terrorism but that you just don't want to make it worse because then they will fight back against you.

So with this game it does give you a weird kind of situation you can either fight and make it  worse or  leave it and still have terrorists. There is no real win stake with this game but that you must just make a decision. Really its just a game to help teach us all about terrorism and what the government is doing by fighting against it because really they are making it worse for themselves because by fighting they are making more and more people not like them and this is active when you look at the whole Israel problem because Britain has decided to back Israel and by doing this it means they are now hated by the other side. So really they are just doubling the hate that they already had.

Were if you look at other countries that don't do this it doesn't effect them because they don't choose sides they let them fight on.

So with this game i am going to learn about how to make active decisions and when it is right to make a decision and when to leave it. With our game we are going to make a controversial game where you can watch your life go by or you can be active and do something about it and stop working and have fun with your family and realise the good things in life.

Jonathan Cooper

K1 K2 K3

Planning & time management

Making this game has helped me in many ways and has helped me learn many key skills. The thing that it has helped me with most is helped me realise how to plan ahead and how to make a production within a time limit.

We have been set the task of making a game within so many weeks and the thing that we did first was get out a board and write down what everyones plans where and how they would play their part in the game. We decided that we would break down the workload so that no one would be stuck doing all the work because this isn't fair but we also disrupted the workload to do with the skills that we all had because we all knew who would be best at programming and who is better at drawing and sound. So we used our strengths and helped each other on our weaknesses so that we will not only mask a game but so that we will progress and get better in our weaknesses.

The things that I need to improve on our definitely our time management so that we don't leave everything to the last minute. I realised that me personally leave all the work to the last half which is obvious when we did our half way review because we realise that we had so much work to do but this is something we are going to work on and work on improving because this is something that will help us in the future when we are making our next productions.

Jonathan Cooper T1 T2 T3

Meaning!

With our game we decided that meaning was going to be the focus and this is because meaning is what gets the users involved with your game because this is what makes your game interesting. The thing that our game is going to be like is a side scroller game where you are the character and you use the arrow keys to go along and find out different things by interacting with objects and people.

The meaning behind our game is going to be the workaholic thought. What exactly is a workaholic? It basically in a nutshell is someone who spends their hole time running around trying to work to make money and yes their intentions could be right in that they want to provide for their family and bring in the money but the thing that they are loosing with this is that they are loosing the act of life with their family and are going to loose the vital things that happen when someone is growing up and then their family will be too old by the time that they are done working and have retired and will have lost the best years.

So in our game you will have to follow behind a workaholic and see what life is going to be like when you are them because you will realise by being him that you are going to not see your family and that you are going to realise the things that yes because you are a workaholic you se your family but you'll realise  the things that you take for granted.

So what I am trying to help people realise is that family is more important than money and that yes you need money but you don't need to work all your life to be happy because its your family that will make you happy.

Jonathan Cooper K1 K2

Reviewing half way through

We had to make a pro type half way through so that we could see how thing safe going and see if the game was going down the right path or if we needed to change certain things with our game. The thing about our game was that we tried to keep the balance between aesthetics, coding and meaning. This is because we wanted our game to be made in a certain way so that no part was stressed more than the meaning because the only thing that we wanted to show better than anything was the meaning.

Our pro type helped show us that we needed to show more meaning in the way that it had been done because at this point we had got some feedback and realised that with letting people play our game they still where a little lost in what had to be done so we realised that the narrative with our game had to be stressed even more so that our game flowed perfectly without loosing the user or player the whole way through.

The good points about our game was that we realised that our meaning was working and that the meaning was getting across, the aesthetics where good and sounds were being implemented perfectly.

The meaning for game is that we want people to realise that they cannot just live their life and work and want money because when you do this you will realise that you will loose your family and everything that their is about life around you because you have to realise that their is more to life than money and work because when you die you don't take your money with you so you better just love life with the people around you instead of being a 'workaholic'. So in our game you live the life or a workaholic and you realise how much life you loose through being this person instead of just living your life with your family. You can make decisions on whether you change or stay a workaholic.

Jonathan Cooper, P1, T1, T2

Knowing without reading the instructions

We find ourselves in this day and age doing without knowing this is because we as humans don't like to always know what is happening but that we wish to learn through doing. For example think last time you got something that was flat packed, was the first thing you did when getting this product to read the instructions for most men the answer is no. This is because we prefer to just go on ahead and work it out in our own way and own time. Their is many reasons why we do this and the main reason i can think of is that when you do this it'll give you some kind of sense of achievement this is because by doing and accomplishing without reading instructions means that you beat the system and the code and conventions that run along with this task. This is because the maker of this production has made it to be done ion a specific way but when we don't bother reading how its meant to be done and go on ahead and do it our own way and do it properly then we feel a sense of accomplishment.

So where i am going with this is because like a game we don't always like to have instructions we usually just press play and figure it out this is also because retie is a certain set of standard keys that are used in games that we could guess because we all know that arrows are usually move and space bar is jump. Although i think that with our game we will make sure that their is still instructions or make it clear what is to happen because like making a flat pack we have to have something to go back to when we get lost or something goes wrong.

So understanding how users play games has helped me realise that our game has to either have instructions or be clear in how it is to be played.

Jonathan  Cooper I3 K4

Darfur is dying

”I’m here to think about what I’m doing and why the designer created this particular set of interactions and what they might mean.” (Rohrer, J. 2009)

Their is many games that I have played but the one that still sticks in my mind with the deepest meaning behind it has to be Darfur is dying and this is because of the deep deep meaning behind it. This games pushes the boundaries of our minds and is actually testing our human instincts. It tests what we would do if we were in this game.

Basically Darfur is dying is a game where you have to get water for your town so that they don't all die and you are getting hunted by the militants to try and take you and either kill you or use you as a slave. You have to choose at the beginning of the game who is going to go get water for you but this is where your decisions matter. You can choose a young child who can run fast but can't carry as much water so you can get back and forth fast but you have to do more runs or you can be an adult but they can't run fast but can carry more. So you have to think would you rather send a child or an adult. So basically already you are making a big decision when you send a child to its possible death instead of sending a representation of you as an adult.

When a game has got a strong meaning the way that this one does it means that you can implement more than just a game into someones life but that you can actually teach them what is happening in these countries and the decisions that they have to make in day to day life. These are problems that we may not be aware of but they are very much real and a game is the best way to teach people and keep their attention because people prefer to play than to read. 

K2 K4 I2 Jonathan Cooper

Do games need a purpose

“Aha! Now we’re not talking about “interaction.” Now we’re talking about decision making – interaction with a purpose.”

What is the point in a agate without interaction having a purpose. Yes it is okay to do something pointless for a while but this isn't something that you are going to keep coming back to. The reason that we come back to things like this is because of the purpose in doing it. By going back you may be completing another level but if their wasn't this purpose or goal then their is no reason for you to even be doing this. 

Interaction in its most simple form is by interacting with a object. The reason behind doing this may have many meanings but the simple fact is that if you lift something or move something this is classed as a interaction. Even the simple fact of changing the state that the object was in before classes as an interaction.

So with our age the thing that I want to make sure an implement is the fact that our game will have meaning and that their will be this reason to come back and play our game because without this their is no reason for a game. 

Do games need to have a purpose to be good, the answer to this is no because look at all the mini games you get that you play pointlessly but the fact is that these are only small games and they aren't as successful as big games like Mario etc.

References:

Costikyan, GC, 2002. I Have No Words & I Must Design: Toward a Critical Vocabulary for Games. 1st ed. New York: Tampere University Press.

Jonathan Cooper K4 I1

Sound! More than just noise

Sound is more than you a noise in the background it isn't just to fill out the empty gaps where their is nothing happening but the fact is it has as big a part to play in gaming as the actual game. By changing the tempo of a song or sound then this can make the game change the feeling completely. For instance in games like Call of duty we notice that when their is a fight scene coming up the music will change to a high tempo. Their is also other things that happens in these games if the music goes low and very low tempo this can start to build a tension. 

This brings me onto my next point that sounds have meaning. The meaning that sound give us is the feeling that we have with the game and help us understand what is going to happen for instance in jaws when you hear the 'dun dun' kind of music you know that this means that a shark is coming even before  their has been any visual sign of a shark. 

Their is also another aspect of sound that is good and makes a good game. A game can even be rubbish but get well known for its sound. For example i bet if i asked to hum the Mario theme tune you could but if i asked you to hum a less popular game you couldn't even remember it. This is due to games like super Mario and Tetris having really catchy theme songs and this is a could technique to use in games and something I will try and implement in our game.

An aspect that I will have to learn for making this game is making a song from scratch and this is something that I will have research through tutorials and reading about it.

Jonathan Cooper K1 K2 K3

Gaming before we could walk!

“Like making music, telling stories, and creating images, playing games is part of what it means to be human. Games are perhaps the first designed interactive systems our species invented.” (Zimmerman 2013) 

Games are more than just a hobbie but that they are a way of life. We have been playing games since before we could even walk even as babes we are learning  the rules of play and what it means to be a participant in a game. 

Games are what make slide fun, what makes life normal and really what makes life worth while. Their is some many different form of game stat we may be playing a game and not even know but the thing is this isn't in the shape of an alternate reality game. The fact is that some games that we play are just a day to day life for us now. For example you may be walking down the street and missing cracks in the road, little things that have a goal and a win stake. 

The thing that I now have to think about with our game is that we have a good win stake and a good goal. Also what we need to make sure is that were have got rules, rules are what makes games work, yes games are made to be broken but at least it gives you a basis for a game.

Another side note that we could take from this thinking is that games and stories have a lot in common so we need to make sure that we lead the user through our game like you do a story so that the narrative follows smoothly and we don't loose the user throughout the way.

<http://ericzimmerman.com/files/texts/Manifesto_for_a_Ludic_Century.pdf> Date Accessed: 18/02/2014

Jonathan Cooper K1 K2

Meaning and design coincide!

"The etymology of design goes back to the Latin de + signare and means making something,
distinguishing it by a sign, giving it significance, designating its relation to other things, "[1]

Zimmermann is talking about how with design must come a meaning because he is saying that design must be distinguished with a meaning as this is what makes the game have feeling.

So if a game has good design with a sign it will make it distinguished and this is an important point when looking at designing a game. This is a point that I have been thinking about with our game as I want our game to have meaning, but the thing that I was having problems with was finding out how to show meaning through a game. So Eric Zimmermann is telling us how through design we can show meaning, by making a game distinguished with an appearance and relation with the design makes meaning.

So with our game I am going to try and make the appearance of it show the meaning as well as working the meaning into the mechanics. The meaning that were have been thinking about for our game is to make sure that you have got time for your family. 

To go into this thought deeper it really means that we are going to put the player into the shoes of a workaholic and show you how work can effect your life but more importantly how work can effect the relationship that you have between your family. This is because with too much work you can loose your family and loose that connection that you have with your family. 

Zimmerman has helped me with the problems that I have been thinking about how to put meaning into a game but with this it has got me thinking that the design has got a big part of how the meaning is worked into a game because before this I didn't think that this was a big part of the game but it is as this how sign and relation are shown through gameplay.


[1]Zimmerman, ES, 2004. Rules of Play. Game Design Fundamentals. 1st ed. Massachusetts: MIT Press .