Workshop Session with David Parlett

Last Thursday we had a workshop session with David Parlett, in this presentation we got allot of food for thought when it comes to race games with David asking questions like: what it is actually a race game?, what determines movement?, what is the goal of the game?, We were presented with many of the games we had covered in Eddies lectures games such as The Royal Game of Ur and Senet he had explained how many of these ancient games evolved in to the ones we know, he also covered games which i hadn't seen or played before, these being Liubo and Pachisi. He also went onto show us his own board game Hare and Tortoise which used a more unique movement mechanic rather than the normal dice, in which players had to pay carrots (the currency in the game) to move forward.

Visual Design For Board Games

For the second assignment we have to focus on the visual element for one of the iterations we wrote about in the first assignment, So this assignment does not fixate on the writing skills, more so on the ability for the person to create game pieces which accurately depict the time and place the board game is centered around. My Game uses Tablet as a foundation, it is from this i have chosen iterations which i feel to alter the game dynamics and mechanics to suit my thinking of how the game should play, Again though, this is something we have already discussed, and so as a setting my game takes place in the open seas, in Ship to Ship combat based on the chase of the German battleship Bismarck. I have then proceeded to use mood boards and reference images to help with creating game pieces which suit this scene. This involves pieces of wooden construction with tiny flags denoting which side they belong. I have also brought in extra mechanics and pieces such as the use of Sea-mines and Abandoned ships which act as extra obstacles for the players as well as added benefits.

The Music Behind Interstellar

I've done a few blogs on soundtracks within games now, and i find no better composer than Hans Zimmer in my opinion, he manages to create these crazy powerful emotions for both his work in cinema and games, Now soundtracks are one of the things are think are really important to a memorable game for me, that's why i find it so fascinating that when Interstellar came out it mixed two major interests of mine, great topic (Space and black holes) and great musical soundtrack, also the usual great actors,director so on and so on. But it was watching a behind the scenes clip of the making of the INTERSTELLAR Soundtrack which made me think about the lengths Hans goes to to create his pieces. It all started when director Christopher Nolan approached Hans, Nolan asked him for 1 day of his time and to produce what ever came to mind, Nolan gave him limited information about  genre and dialogue to allow free rein and creative process. It was only after this that Nolan had told Hans on the project, this close Father Daughter relationship, Temple church in London was set up as mobile recording studio, the Church organs played a heavy presence in the score (Played by Roger Sayer), with Nolan saying how they were used to create a sense of religiosity even though film isn't anything to do with religion, but more to represent humanity's attempt to portray the mystical and something beyond earth. The Organ is also something which stays true to revolving closely around this human relationship between Father and daughter as the organ can only make the sounds it makes with air and that it needs to breath, and with each note you hear the breath. The Film was amazing and best watched in IMAX screens where the sound is best felt.

Hans Zimmer - making of INTERSTELLAR Soundtrack:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_8t2VlwK4w

Games Britannia : Joystick Generation

This week saw us watch the third and final part of the Games Britannia mini series narrated by Benjamin Woolley. This part was very much based around the rise of video games consoles and the games which were developed in the following years. notably the games which had caused the most outrage. For example games like Carmageddon

which saw the players goal to complete races with bonuses awarded to running over as many people as possible. the game at the time was so controversial that it was censored, replacing humans with zombies and blood with oil slicks. In an attempt to gain attention to the game, the developers sought after an 18 certificate rating from the BBFC, something which wasent needed due to the fact the game included no video. This application however, was blocked and turned down, and it took a further year for the original game to be reinstated with the uncensored version available the public, not before it had gained world wide attention. Another game which to this day still causes people to blame violent video games on real world crimes is that of GTA. GTA was born up in Scotland by devs DMA Design in (Again) 1997, it allowed players to Free roam the map doing missions such as robbing banks and hits on drug barons. DMA took no liberties with the game allowing the player to be involved in reckless murders on police, civilians, car jackings. Not limiting the player as to what they could do was one of the many reasons the game became this hit with gamers, it is this formula that has made every GTA since a big success, and one of the biggest selling games, it is without it critics though, as some believe its just a murder simulator with there being many new additions of GTA 4 such as the ability to drink drive. Many times have RockStar been taken to court over the series from people like lawyer Jack Thompson and groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) whom have attempted to raise the game age required to play 18+ rather than the 17+ of some of the older games. I don't hold the view that from the actions of a very few amount of people that games such as GTA should be banned, for the 99% of us its just a game to play with your mates and it ends in that..

La decima vittima

The Film La decima vittima has to be one of the strangest films I've seen in a while, this had the effect of making the film generally quite funny, if not always intentional. this maybe due to the dubbing into English, as the original was in Italian. The basic plot of the film revolves around a game system in which victims must escape their assassins, various none important characters in the scene are killed in broad daylight since the game is within the confines of the law. this builds up to our main characters one of which is the victim (Marcello) and the assassin Ursula Andress. throughout the film they confront each other on many occasions in the attempt to successfully pull of the assassination. but since they spent so much time with each other they find the act of killing the other harder.

Iterating Ancient Games

Tweaking Ancient Games : Some of the oldest known games are still played while others are all but forgotten With some of those board games excavated like the royal game of Ur are over 4,500 years old, so it was about time they got some iterating, iterating games is a really good thing and it was what many tribes and people did to games who where not so familiar with the rule base, this created very localized versions of the game, but as games have rule sets attached to them this has diminished with the exception such as monopoly in which most family's have different rules for the bank and the free parking squares, this is not bad thing and is seen more as diversity in game play. something which we did with many of the older games, messing around with the amount of game pieces and enlarging the game board are all sure fire whys of swapping up the dynamics of the game, for good or bad.

British Museum : Ancient Board Games

There was allot of the Museum to do with  Ancient Board Games, we had started of the day with a specific tour of the these ancient games, including tafl the viking game, Chaupat, The Royal Game of Ur and many others. some of the games used dedicated wooden games table while some had been carved into the rock of town guard posts. in which guards would play a board game whilst working. It was really fascinating to look at some of these games and how they played, many of the games featured in he museum were the real original setup, while some were on loan to different museums around the world and had be replaced with copy's. The Museum like most days was extremely busy so we took leave and went round in smaller groups looking at the other exhibits. we had met up with another group later that day of whom had brought a tafl board game, we had then proceeded to play for several hours mixing up the game play mechanics, with for example the addition of extra players. Overall the day was interesting but very tiring.. but would definitely go again.