You hear about people wearing their heart on their sleeve, I wear my love of computer games on my t-shirts. Whilst teaching in Cambodia I got some t-shirts screen printed of the games I really like. Here are a few of the tops I got made.
Shadow of the Colossus
Metroid
Toon Link: Windwaker
Samus Aran from Metroid
Shadow of the Colossus
I got this Limbo inspired bag made in Cambodia... it lasted 5 years but finally has given up the ghost.
A close up of the boy figure on the bag.
I love video games and I also like taking photographs, so the idea of merging the two appealed to me. Over the past several months I have been taking characters from various video games and placing them in the real world and these are the results so far. It's a small portfolio but hopefully I'll add to it over time.
Today I was lucky enough to attend the EiS IT 16 Conference which had keynote speakers, hands-on workshops and a choice of electives. I had been fortunate enough to attend the BETT Show earlier this year but this was a chance for a more relaxed and calmer approach to computing rather than the rush to see everything in the intensity of the BETT weekend.
The Conference started off with a brief introductory message from the event organiser which was followed by a keynote speech by Tim Rylands, who went through a myriad of ways to engage pupils through the use of many (free) tools, apps and resources to engage them in the topic of animals , although any topic could use the resources shown. I came away full of ideas and inspired.
The next session I went to was my favourite; a hands-on session with the BBC Micro:Bit, the small easily programmable device which is being provided, free of charge, to every year 7 school pupil in England. The session only lasted 40 or so minutes but in that time I was able to easily programme the LED lights, create a simple animation and scroll a message to playfully insult a colleague.... wonderful!
After a short break I attended a session about coding and how to show progression in coding through the use of tools such as Kodable, Scratch Jr and Tickle on the iPad. This was an excellent session as it allowed me to think about our current practice at school and think about how we could use programmable robots and drones to help show pupils how coding works with real world examples
The second keynote looked at the strategies and practices of a variety of case-study schools in their implementation of mobile digital devices. It threw up a lot of questions but mostly spoke about how ownership of the object was important for the pupils to get out of it and also how mobile device use should be integrated into daily practice instead of sporadically.
The final elective I chose was with Tim Rylands again and concerned using video games to inspire games based learning. I found it interesting and satisfying going into this quick 30 minute session as I had been par of the Redbridge Gaming Network for several years and in that time we had used numerous games as a contextual hub for learning. On this website I have discussed and shown how I have used Endless Ocean, Limbo and numerous other games to get the children inspired to write. It was great to see one of the originators of the idea speak.
Overall the conference was a great event and even though I could be more verbose and thorough of my review, it is late and I am fasting tomorrow so I have kept this brief. If you get a chance to go, please do as it is well worth it... even just to network and share good practise.
The current generation of computing is extremely powerful and many of the triple A releases are geared towards realism. Now as a gamer I love the bloom and particle effects, 1080p and next generation graphics but sometimes all I crave is an art style that looks beyond mere graphic fidelity. Whilst a lot of games shoot for realism there are some games that instead tread a different path, one to do with economy of design. A distinctive art style may seem primitive when compared to the modern realism but as years go by and technology improves the games with the distinct art style are usually the ones that stand the test of time. Just think about the realism of some of the games from 2002 compared to Windwaker, which one looks the more impressive now? A good art direction and style can make some games timeless. Here are some of my favourite games with a distinct art style which I think stand the test of time, what do you think?
I think it's fair to say that the last decade was defined by one kind of game (no, not FPS's) but something much bigger than that- Indie games!
Indie games are games often from a singular vision, without funding, without a publisher and without the big marketing and PR. These small curiosities are often a response to current gaming trends and maybe even reflect on the type of technology their makers were brought up with rather than current technology. The result is a range of totally diverse games that appeals to all people. Not since the early 80's has there been such a boom time in game production, generations of developers who grew up with the technology and gaming now have access to make something themselves. The availability of resources and access to software has made the game making process more equitable.
At the moment indie gaming is where the talent pool is, it is this space that pushes boundaries and introduces us to new and innovative ways to look at game design. People may disagree with this but you only have to look at how hard Sony and Microsoft have been courting Indie developers to see how much the scene is regarded. As the current generation of computers has only just started there are few quality AAA titles, this is where Indie games have been picking up the slack. At this years E3 much of the excitement surrounded the Indie sphere, years ago this would have been unthinkable.
I have created a gallery below of some of the indie games of the last generation. I have played most but not all, but all of these come recommended by either me, Simon or our friends. Pick them up if you can as they offer an interesting break from the gaming norms.
With E3 over and the next generation of consoles imminent, the message being trotted out is that more photo-realistic games will lead to more emotional connections between players and the onscreen characters. Christoph Hartman, boss of 2K Games said
“To dramatically change the industry to where we can insert a whole range of emotions, I feel it will only happen when we reach the point that games are photorealistic; then we will have reached an endpoint and that might be the final console."
The theory that if the computer characters looks more realistic then more emotions will be elicited from the player is a fallacy in my opinion. Humans can elicit emotions through other means. Music, art and animation can all touch us individually. Take the claymation Frankenweenie which is a beautifully created animation that shows the relationship between a young boy and his dog. When the dog dies and the boy mourns his loss it really is touching. Even though the characters portrayed in the film are not photorealistic but merely clay models, I felt more of a connection to Victor (the young boy in Frankenweenie) than any number of 80’s action hero films starring real people. In part this was due to the well crafted characterization and storytelling but it was also due to the cinematography, music and dialogue.
Frankenweenie, a beautiful film which will make many a grown man cry... including this one!
Scott McCloud in his seminal work ‘Understanding Comics’ wrote about the ‘Power of Abstraction’. This is the idea that simplicity is great as you project yourself onto the character. To help you understand his concept look at the image below which simply outlines his idea.
Projecting ourselves according to Scott McCloud
In my opinion, photorealism in games is not important to elicit emotion; books can do it through description and illustrations, art through use of colour and composition. We don’t need the uncanny valley like Polar Express, but we need pathos and humanity like the dead colossi in Shadow of the Colossus or the mysterious figures in Journey. In my opinion there was more emotion in Toy Story 3 than in Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within because the characters were more relatable even though the Final Fantasy people looked more human!
Tom Hanks looked scary in the Polar Express, the uncanny valley strikes again!
For games great developers know that a great game begins with a great vision and the technology is only a means to achieving that vision, never an end in itself. Game technology can express a story without a game getting in the way, but through interaction games can add to a sense of involvement in the world.
Hidetaka Miyazaki, the Game Director at From Software has said that,
“The greatest tool for narrative is the world you create for it to exist in, a well designed world could tell its story in silence”.
Here are some of the worlds which I feel act as a great writing stimulus, have a look and see what you think:
