How Games Have Become Big
Section A: Early Planning
Paragraph planning for market changes.
Section C: Personal Enquiry
Section A: Early Planning
 |
| (Original planning for the blog task) |
Original planning for two different subjects. (left picture shows planning for market changes, right one shows how art has changed.)
Intro:
Video game are often looked down on by a lot of people (especially parents) but if you look at them you see that there is actually crazy amount of design work and artistic skill that goes into creating these multi-media master pieces. The concept that goes into the worlds, the actual 3D models and sprites in game as well as things like the UI/UX and music all are art forms that are crafted to make the game an immersive enjoyable experience.
Para 1:
- When games were first created a lot of simple graphics were used so technical art wasn't used as much because the technology wasn't there.
- Used design instead so the better graphical designed game would look better and sell more.
- simple music in the games and addictive straight forward game play.
- eamples: Pong, Tetris, Pac-Man, Space Invaders... (Kieran Burke would say "simple and clean")
Para 2:
- Games got more powerful and more colours were being used. More detailed sprites and environments meant more complex characters could be created and amazing worlds.
- 3D still virtually non existent so use of shading and perspective could give the 2D environments a 3D effect. This pushed for more artists to become involved in the industry and inspired more future artists as they might see the art on the games they play and think I'll do that one day.
- The large market in the 80's when games like this were being made meant that alot of people were effected and in the UK home grown games made by bedroom coders meant lots of ideas were being thrown out.
- examples: Mario, Sonic, Mega Man and The Legend of Zelda
Para 3:
- When 3D games were created and more powerful graphical processors were put into computers newer kinds of video games could also be made and with these new mechanics new worlds could be created around them. Adventure games where characters explore full 3D environments.
- PS2 era
- These new games meant new art styles could be explored with crazy new designs. Stylized or hyper realistic? Light hearted or dark survival horror?
- These games also allow 3D artists to use sculpting to create their 3D models. This means many more kinds of Artists can be employed.
- Character designers, environment artists and concept artists all help to create these gaming experiences.
- examples: Jak and Daxter, Silent Hill, Crash Bandicoot
Para 4:
- Present day gaming industry. Massive AAA titles dominate hardcore market made with a high quality finish with teams of 100's of artists working together. These games of ten focus on tried and true art styles and make effective talented artists to create the worlds, characters and props of the games. Talented texture artists who know how to make efficient use of colour and lighting through diffuse, bump, specular maps etc. create hyper realistic 3D objects.
- Mobile games that focus of effective UX design to trap the audience into thier games make lots of money through micro-transactions.
- Indie games that often focus on art styles and strange design concepts because of lack of funding so they find new ways to attract an audience.
- examples: Apple Jack, Rayman Origins, Battlefield, Candy Crush.
Section B: Final Planning
Intro:
Video games are a massive Industry now and not just something associated with bedroom geeks. Larger numbers of people are playing games then ever before sometimes they don't even realise that they really are spending hours on what they usually consider a nerdy task as they desperately try to knock some pigs over by throwing some pissed off birds at them. Millions of new consumers are entering this ever expanding market which has been relentlessly growing for about 40 years now. Even though there was a crash in the 80's in never fully stopped it and it only really effected the American market.
Para 1:
- In the early days games were a bit of a novelty but because the technology was so new the old games took off and arcade machines became quite popular.
- Limited technology meant that designers had to think creatively about the games and make them in such a way that they can captivate an audience. Using catchy music and visuals could attract crowds around these arcade machines and keep that coins coming. This is part of the reason why games like Pac-Man and Asteroids are engrained in our memory as a culture. Show almost anyone a picture of Pac-Man and they will know what who he is even if they haven't ever played a video game.
- This early expanding market went on to influence many people, some who would grow up to make later generations of games so every old game would almost create a long term investment with everyone who enjoys it.
Para 2:
- As games grew new markets were springing up around the world. These new markets meant more people could make games and more people could buy these games and be inspired to further go on and make their own games.
- Cheap computers (fantastic example is the ZX spectrum) allowed normal people actually experience home computers and experience all the things it brings. This era also had massive support from the British government which really pushed for people to embrace computing and a generation of small game developers who would create new games in their bedroom and sell them on the street.
- Meanwhile in America the video game crash removed lots of popular games companies from the market.
Para 3:
- When the technology improved new consoles were made and the new big 3 companies rose to prominence. Sony's Playstation was the highest selling as Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's Gamecube trailed behind.
- Meanwhile mobile gaming is invented when Nintendo launch the Game Boy. Gaming is now mobile so it can always be on someone's mind as they walk around.
- New 3D graphics meant gaming was increasingly becoming more prominent in the technological world as complex games increase the amount of interest of professionals and consumers for the game industry.
Para 4:
- Smartphones mean that lots of people are now constantly connected to a gaming device. The mobile gaming industry is big business now.
- Powerful consoles with large consumers bases, run games with high quality graphics.
- The increased power and massive market mean more people are also making games and different types of games.
Section C: Personal Enquiry
Video games are sometimes thought of an obscure past time for teenagers or adults who live in the basement, but the fact is that the whole industry makes billions, has a massive consumer base and has hundreds of companies and publishers filled with talented people generating ideas and games all the time. Think about how gaming has grown from being virtually non-existence in the early 70's to being on consoles and PCs in nearly every household now, it's even in peoples pockets because of smartphones. This growth in the industry which has only existed for around 30 to 40 years is incredible and has been made by the fantastic games created by people inspired, pushing it forward by making the complex games we have today.
In the late 60's and early 70's computers were becoming smaller and faster and becoming strictly electrical instead of electro-mechanical. This meant more complex programs were being made and games were even being created. These games were originally created by scientists at universities with supercomputers but eventually they were making them cheaply enough and on a small enough computer for them to be coin operated machines called Arcade machines. One of the first games called Pong was created in 1972 and then a home console version was released in 1975. The coin operated machines became increasingly popular as the games sophistication increased and many people were attracted to the new form of entertainment which often had a competitive nature with scoreboards or point systems.Space Invaders was released in 1978, Asteroids and Lunar Lander were released by Atari in 1980 and Pac-Man by Namco during the same year. These games were massively popular the world over and are still famous today because of the fantastic game play and their strong design which made them so very memorable. Companies were starting to make large profits from these machines which were being played by an expanding market as more people got attracted to this growing industry, some of whom would become inspired and start learning to make their own games.
The next step on the road was when computers were now small and powerful enough but more importantly cheap enough to be bought by the public and used in the home. A particularly good example of this is the British ZX-spectrum which was originally sold for £125 and then reduced to £99. This allowed a much larger target market as more members of the public could actually afford these personal computers. It wasn't the first cheap personal computer as the ZX80 was released earlier by Clive Sinclair was also £99 pounds (but had technical problems and wasn't as wide selling). One of the fantastic things about this period of computing in Britain was that there were fantastic resources available to the public in educating themselves about computing. The BBC Micro by Acorn had a TV show which taught audience members how to code and the numerous computing magazines at the time allowed consumers to teach themselves how to code at home and as a result 1000's of hobbyists made a vast arrange of games and the successes of this made millions. This increase in talent made lots of games inspiring the next generations. These games and the developments they made would eventually lead some of these gamers to start making the next games in the evolution of gaming. This increase in the amount of games also added diversity to the medium as new genres were being created with platformer games no longer being the only kind of game. Better graphics meant that more colours and increased detail in the characters and objects were possible, this also opened up new jobs as artists could start helping creating these games.
Games continued to increase in sophistication with technology and the market continued to grow even if there were bumps along the way, as the market was swollen with many different computer and console systems. In America a gaming crash occurred in the early 80's but this cleared the market for a few companies to grow large and dominate the market. Sega and Nintendo were two of these, making high quality games that showed how impressive gaming was getting with these memorable games that live on like Sonic and Mario. A massive change occurred in the course of gaming history in 1989 when Nintendo brought out the Gameboy which was a portable game system capable of playing many cartridge games anywhere you went and suddenly gaming was not only in your house but in your pocket. The console was hugely popular and many other versions were released following years like the Gameboy Colour, Gameboy Advance, and Gameboy Advance SP. These early mobile gaming devices were the predecessors of the DS system still sold by Nintendo today. It is this idea that gaming can be on these small devices which is now the basis of mobile gaming on Smartphones and Tablets where addictive games like Angry Birds and Candy Crush are played by most of the people in the developed world.
The last point on our journey of how this market grew is how the technology continued and still continues to increase in power (using Moore's Law) and decrease in size. Games eventually became 3D and these 3D objects added new ways games could be made with artists, designers and programmers given chances to explore the medium in never before seen ways and still do today. Games with amazing stories, visuals and game play that are vastly different are being made. Games like Portal, Journey, Braid, Super Meat Boy, Rayman Origins, Bioshock, Call of Duty, Skyrim, Crackdown, DJ Hero and Apple Jack all make up part of the massive library of games now. Some are made by small indie companies and some are gigantic million dollar titles. The complexity in these games though makes it a serious medium like the film and music industries.
To end it all I want to make the point that this increase in the market will always have ups and downs but as the games are being released they are always helping to inspire new generations of artists, programmers, producers, designers and many other kinds of peoples to make what they want. Sometimes this involves making games, sometimes films, music, books, art or anything else that could be inspired by gaming and these people will always enjoy games and the experiences they have to offer. Its also inspirer me and now I'm learning how contribute to this industry at DMU.
References:
Time Magazine
http://content.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,2029221,00.html
Computer and video games history by Mary Bellis
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcomputer_videogames.htm
ZX spectrum Centre for computing history.
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/424/sinclair-zx-spectrum-48k/
Charlie Brooker: Videogames Chaned the World
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/charlie-brooker-videogames-changed-the-world
BBC Micro Men (Dramatization Film about Acorn and Sinclair made in 2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBxV6-zamM
Information on Moore's Law was taught to me during Dixons Retail training. (I'm a part-time shop assistant at Currys PC World)
Image references:
Pac Man arcade machine
http://www.arcade-museum.com/images/118/118124214334.jpg
BBC Micro TV show
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/6UfOIfuYJT8/hqdefault.jpg
Nintendo DS
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41XE082RSXL.jpg
Rayman Origins
http://playstationer.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/rayman-origins.jpg
Journey
http://blogs.loughboroughecho.net/onyourtravels/2013/06/13/journey%20509735311.jpg
In the late 60's and early 70's computers were becoming smaller and faster and becoming strictly electrical instead of electro-mechanical. This meant more complex programs were being made and games were even being created. These games were originally created by scientists at universities with supercomputers but eventually they were making them cheaply enough and on a small enough computer for them to be coin operated machines called Arcade machines. One of the first games called Pong was created in 1972 and then a home console version was released in 1975. The coin operated machines became increasingly popular as the games sophistication increased and many people were attracted to the new form of entertainment which often had a competitive nature with scoreboards or point systems.Space Invaders was released in 1978, Asteroids and Lunar Lander were released by Atari in 1980 and Pac-Man by Namco during the same year. These games were massively popular the world over and are still famous today because of the fantastic game play and their strong design which made them so very memorable. Companies were starting to make large profits from these machines which were being played by an expanding market as more people got attracted to this growing industry, some of whom would become inspired and start learning to make their own games.
(Pac Man was a very successful arcade game)
The next step on the road was when computers were now small and powerful enough but more importantly cheap enough to be bought by the public and used in the home. A particularly good example of this is the British ZX-spectrum which was originally sold for £125 and then reduced to £99. This allowed a much larger target market as more members of the public could actually afford these personal computers. It wasn't the first cheap personal computer as the ZX80 was released earlier by Clive Sinclair was also £99 pounds (but had technical problems and wasn't as wide selling). One of the fantastic things about this period of computing in Britain was that there were fantastic resources available to the public in educating themselves about computing. The BBC Micro by Acorn had a TV show which taught audience members how to code and the numerous computing magazines at the time allowed consumers to teach themselves how to code at home and as a result 1000's of hobbyists made a vast arrange of games and the successes of this made millions. This increase in talent made lots of games inspiring the next generations. These games and the developments they made would eventually lead some of these gamers to start making the next games in the evolution of gaming. This increase in the amount of games also added diversity to the medium as new genres were being created with platformer games no longer being the only kind of game. Better graphics meant that more colours and increased detail in the characters and objects were possible, this also opened up new jobs as artists could start helping creating these games.
(BBC Micro television show)
Games continued to increase in sophistication with technology and the market continued to grow even if there were bumps along the way, as the market was swollen with many different computer and console systems. In America a gaming crash occurred in the early 80's but this cleared the market for a few companies to grow large and dominate the market. Sega and Nintendo were two of these, making high quality games that showed how impressive gaming was getting with these memorable games that live on like Sonic and Mario. A massive change occurred in the course of gaming history in 1989 when Nintendo brought out the Gameboy which was a portable game system capable of playing many cartridge games anywhere you went and suddenly gaming was not only in your house but in your pocket. The console was hugely popular and many other versions were released following years like the Gameboy Colour, Gameboy Advance, and Gameboy Advance SP. These early mobile gaming devices were the predecessors of the DS system still sold by Nintendo today. It is this idea that gaming can be on these small devices which is now the basis of mobile gaming on Smartphones and Tablets where addictive games like Angry Birds and Candy Crush are played by most of the people in the developed world.
(The Nintendo DS is the Game Boy's spiritual successor)
The last point on our journey of how this market grew is how the technology continued and still continues to increase in power (using Moore's Law) and decrease in size. Games eventually became 3D and these 3D objects added new ways games could be made with artists, designers and programmers given chances to explore the medium in never before seen ways and still do today. Games with amazing stories, visuals and game play that are vastly different are being made. Games like Portal, Journey, Braid, Super Meat Boy, Rayman Origins, Bioshock, Call of Duty, Skyrim, Crackdown, DJ Hero and Apple Jack all make up part of the massive library of games now. Some are made by small indie companies and some are gigantic million dollar titles. The complexity in these games though makes it a serious medium like the film and music industries.
(Rayman Origins is one of my favourite games in the last 3 years)
(Journey is a very striking Indie game)
To end it all I want to make the point that this increase in the market will always have ups and downs but as the games are being released they are always helping to inspire new generations of artists, programmers, producers, designers and many other kinds of peoples to make what they want. Sometimes this involves making games, sometimes films, music, books, art or anything else that could be inspired by gaming and these people will always enjoy games and the experiences they have to offer. Its also inspirer me and now I'm learning how contribute to this industry at DMU.
References:
Time Magazine
http://content.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,2029221,00.html
Computer and video games history by Mary Bellis
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcomputer_videogames.htm
ZX spectrum Centre for computing history.
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/424/sinclair-zx-spectrum-48k/
Charlie Brooker: Videogames Chaned the World
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/charlie-brooker-videogames-changed-the-world
BBC Micro Men (Dramatization Film about Acorn and Sinclair made in 2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBxV6-zamM
Information on Moore's Law was taught to me during Dixons Retail training. (I'm a part-time shop assistant at Currys PC World)
Image references:
Pac Man arcade machine
http://www.arcade-museum.com/images/118/118124214334.jpg
BBC Micro TV show
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/6UfOIfuYJT8/hqdefault.jpg
Nintendo DS
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41XE082RSXL.jpg
Rayman Origins
http://playstationer.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/rayman-origins.jpg
Journey
http://blogs.loughboroughecho.net/onyourtravels/2013/06/13/journey%20509735311.jpg
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