this is me so far. I'm just under triangle count and will probably fill it up with my glasses but until then i think i look pretty close.

i found modeling myself one of the hardest things i have ever had to do in max. it was like starting all over again. my reference was off and because of this it took about 4 attempts at my head to get something i was satisfied with.

please feel free to comment on anything.

sorry ive been buisy with drawing work :D
thanks for teh praise dude and as requested the low poly mesh. still not had time to finish the final tho D:
its only a jpg atm because blogger is a bit you know...naff! :x
i could defiantly take a few polys out but to be honest i couldn't be bothered. i just wanted to texture normal and specular it :D

prolly will finnish it soon once i get some free time. untill then...back on teh shelf it goes :O

I found the character designing project to be quite difficult at start as it was so broad a task. "design a character that is organic" so i took steps to narrow the project down a little. weather it was giving it a setting or just reverse engineering other organic characters to see what they have in common. eventually i created an idea with a back story thats pretty well detailed and explains the characters quite comfortably.

breaking boundaries

(creativity part1)
creativity? what is it? where is it and how can i get more of it?
creativity. highlighting the last video about Ken Robinson's views on creativity in schools being over looked and treated as second class subjects, granted creativity is defiantly being overlooked but there are still creative people out there that struggle against adversity to allow their views to be expressed, which is one of the many definitions for creativity "poiein" or "to make", in ancient greek times. this was the word that was used in place of somthing they didnt have "creativity" muses were thought to be the source of all poiein. in a place and a time where the word didnt even exist, the meaning and practice was still apparent everywhere.


creativity is boundaries that are broken and new ideas that are expressed. in schools today creativity is not entirely as wide spread as it should be but creativity can not be taught, a tutor can only give a pupil the space to be creative, not the tools.


(creativity part 2)

i was reading another blog recently and found that they made a comment that got me thinking. he explained that at the end of the day the science student could save lives but the dance student could only entertain. i found a link that explained there was a decision made between International Center of University for Peace and Brazilian Institute for Innovations in Public Health to create a day of urban peace in Toronto (http://www.schoolswithoutborders.com/SWB/Events/CreativityUnleashed.aspx) with the use of dance festivals, painting seminars, dancing and allot of other things that get the children out of the streets in an attempt to stop them from killing each other - the city of Toronto is one of the worst effected places for street crimes, much of which are murders - which leads me to my point, a dance student could have a part in saving lives, so could the arts student.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4AqFW3wbmo

Creativity is geared totally towards saving lives but it can be used to get children and adults alike to focus on something to express themselves.

(creativity part3)

as far as i can remember my start on the road to creativity began when i was about 9 or 10 and i found that i liked to break things and put them back together to make something else - mainly weapons to scare off my brother with - i once made a crossbow out of an umbrella that actually worked rather well. i really enjoyed just making things, thats sort of why i ended up doing stop motion animation as my college f.m.p. college was the biggest learning curve in creativity that i can remember as my tutor was brilliant. the way he taught was almost trickery, you didn't know he'd taught u anything until u actually got out of college and instinctively thought in a complete different way to when i entered his class on the very first day. if i didn't go to that college on that particular year (he quit his job at multimedia the next year) i wouldn't be here today and id probably be working in McDonald's right now!

(creativity part 4)

For we are God's own handiwork, (His workmanship)…that we might do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us…(Eph. 2:10).

this bible verse exposes the meaning that we are all created for a purpose and that until we find the meaning to our own existence we will always be left with the question "who am i and what am i doing with my life" in short creativity is thought to be a devine way of making people different (gods handy work) what if creativity was defined some other way by i non religious people? Would that make creativity nothing to do with got thus making us different some other way.
to the best of my knowledge world renound painter van Gogh suffered from a severe genetic disease called AIP (acute intermittent porphyria) this disease causes, psychoses, hallucinations, convulsions and paralysis. hallucinations and psychosis and the abuse of absynth wich contains a drug that causes people to see with a yellow hue (thought of as van goghs favourite color) are argued to be the cause or creation of some of van goghs "devine" paintings or creative outlets. but this is just theory. van gogh could also have been given more than his fair share of gods grace.

one day maybe creativity will be defined as an illness or gods greatness. but as far as i can tell, everyone could be very sick in their own way.

task to create and rig a character. i chose to create my own rather than take the offered alternative. its my first attempt at a character using max and mudbox in tandum. I decided to try out making a high poly mesh to normal map my low poly character. this is an example of how i managed to make my high poly into a noraml for my low poly. there are around 1.2million polys that make up this model with another 1.5 making the total character.



















this is the unfinished max version with normal. when the textures are finished the character will be more jester like than alien looking. the gray was just a base mesh color to see what the normal looked like but i may stick with it depending on how the other colors mix with it.

all in all I've had fun doing this project as it gave me chance to warm up my skills for the up coming 2nd year.

Currently the course has suited me brilliantly, I'm coming along with all aspects of it with no hindrance at the moment. I would like to have more outings such as conferences and the like, gathering peoples opinions and information off the net is second hand. It would be more beneficial to find current news about games and situations in games from people rather than the internet and news.

the games industry is such a vast area of expertise from animators to molders to artist. i would gain allot of insight into being able to do more non computer based learning such as modeling or workshops that link to our current project and with lectures that also reinforce our current projects too. doing more diverse art would be welcomes such as manipulating a landscape painting into 3d and putting it into a game engine.

looking at film and animation is a great idea as it would allow me to look more into creative story telling, as well as understanding some characterization and production workings.

i was talking to some friends and we agreed that understanding why we are doing something would help a great deal, almost as much as what and when.

Taking a peak a GDCs site showed me that many new game developments are under way with next gen hardware and software that allows for ultra fast rendering and level creation in almost a blink of an eye. games such as crysis show some lengths games developers go to create these next gen games.

Reading a magazine a few weeks back lead me to believe that the advancement in hardware for pcs would allow the main processor of a pc to take on multi threading with new heights and generate AI that is currently unheard of in games today. what if a character ran behind a tree that had randomly fallen (possible never to fall there again) and use it for cover, or decide that a stream was to cold to cross thus they would run the bank to find an warmer place to cross. this also allows for some graphical advancement as the processor will be doing the A.I. work but the GPU would be taking on the frame rates, giving the stunning view from atop the sky's.

As far as games like crysis and far cry go. they intended to give the character a little bit of freedom but not to much (oblivions quick jump) to involve the character in gorilla warfare, actually experience what it would be like to take on a load of bad guys in a jungle but still give boundaries for a character not to walk to far away from the story. this is all part of interactive story telling. many games such as final fantasy have emotional attachments to characters and working this in can also be a part of interactive story telling. If a strong dramatic point in the game is apparent, it could over shadow any minor more subtle points in the game.

Games often support a wide verity of tricks to fool the player into attachments and believability, to make the game a memorable experience. at the current state games are beginning to make use of graphics and careful story telling to make a game seem more real and immersive to the player but as it stands to date, games in general are still only trying, cracking that perfect balance is a step - in my opinion - that has yet to be taken.

Getting in to university was a big step for me and my family as most of my immediate family have never been. its a new concept to my parents and thus they are fearful - rightly so i suppose - but i knew from the outset what i wanted to do required an education from tutors with history in the field. this started my craving for higher education in some respect but also wanted to make my family proud, in some ways.

apart from changing the way i think university will hopefully bring me up to scratch with what i need to take a role in the industry. some of the skills id like to develop are my self motivation and confidence as well as my technical skills but as it stands learning at the pace i am currently
giving me so much understanding in all areas.

For as long as i can remember i have been playing games and drawing, now i have the chance to put my ideas and development to critique. One thing i have always found to be fundamental to teaching things fast isn't just being told how and when to do something but also told why i am doing it. This gives me a basis to learn from and makes me remember key things much faster.

As far as disciplining my mind goes, in college my tutor was a pretty intuitive person. he was an out-the-box thinker, if u will. he gave me an understanding into things some people may over look and thankfully these things are being reinforced now, proves it wasn't all for nothing and that im going to be expected to think differently.

At the end of the course I'm going to take on the games industry, i feel i will have the knowledge and skills to do this effectively.

creatus "to have grown" -wiki

creativity or Latin term creatus means "to have grown" (wiki) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollo_May Creativity according to psychologist Rollo may is the final and foremost stage of a person. although these stages are described as being somewhat erratic they can be considered a list of what people can go through in various stages of their lives. such as a child can be quite rebellious but so can a teenager. Creativity - "Creativity is not merely the innocent spontaneity of our youth and childhood; it must also be married to the passion of the adult human being, which is a passion to live beyond one's death." Rollo may. I perceive this as a description that a person creativity is driven to keep something of themselves alive even after they cease to exist. creativity would possible be a persons foremost understanding that they are not going to live forever and need to show their inner most feelings before they pass, they stand up and have one last final breath before reaching the finishing line. Probably why Rollo may puts creativity last. as it require most of the previous - innocence, rebellion, decision, ordinary, - be activated by a person. creativity is developed over time and put to practice with passionate accuracy when the time comes. creativity is a mixture of the motivation knowledge and thinking outside the box. thinking up new solutions and ideas as well as being able to adeptly solve puzzles or understand the in understandable. creativity in children and in adults can be vastly difference according to benchmarks, after all children are children first. creativity as a word means to have grown but does that mean that creativity has to be waited on until later years or can a young enthusiast show signs of creativity? creative thinking: knowledge creative wanting: motivation creative doing:skills all three key points can be shown in just about everything people do in their daily lives, people are creative in their own ways and in their own situations (age does not apply) wether it be drawing a pretty picture for a parent or designing a ground breaking sky scraper, creativity is a trait we all posses in some form.

"The Games Game"

Does it really matter if a company wants an art based student or a game art student. each type has its own place, downfalls and benefits as the game industry employees many people from different backgrounds, some of which are from animation, movie, and business backgrounds that in later life found a love for games. all walks of life get into the industry with different backgrounds in which some are totally unrelated to games but those of us that are just starting out with a small portfolio and no experience in the industry can gain this from the careful nurture of experienced people already in the industry.

there are always people there than can teach and there is always someone to learn. this basis gives a slightly opened door to the chosen path that people may chose to take as some people are stuck in this position;

"How on earth do you get game experience if you don't already have game experience? Isn't that a chicken-and-egg kinda problem?"

without some basis we are (relatively speaking of course) screwed. thats where higher education with the aid of knowledgable people come into play to give people like me a kick start when its well and truly needed, where as some people with art degrees have the skill, would this benefit them in a company that doesn't teach time management, game art history, game culture. its like jumping head first into something you thought you knew but ultimately wasn't.

a keen knowledge and drive for the industry was well as an arts background helps, sadly not all people posses god like powers, that allow them to be good at everything (although some do, damn them!)

if games centered educators decided to get up one day and quit. who would be left to teach the knowledge of old, you would find art graduates asking "whats a game culture?" and our link to games history would be lost to a select few that keep it to themselves.

at the end of the day many people have different talents weather it be in art or in games, different companies take on a diverse range of talents and skills to suite them and before long everyone will realize that games and art are fundamentally the same concept but expressed in different ways.

a slice of game history

How is sound used in games?
ever since the first games rolled in on us, sound has been apparent throughout as a medium or identity in wich people describe or remember games. many people can say they remember the mario tune and probebly humb it to. sounds can often be found to be more famous than the composer or even the game itself.

some audio can be an expression of the games visual style and intended mood such as silent hills "promise reprise" not to mention its overly aerie ambient sound effects. games can often be used a psychological tools to get a person to buy or play a game. almost as if someone is saying "coming over here and play this game"
if i am to be honest audio in games has scared me, made me cry, even made me hate a particular character. any form of audio in games has the ability to make you fight on(halo theme tune) my brother learnt the halo theme tune on his guitar just because its an uplifting i wanna kill some bad guys tune.
music can also conjure up an "i don't wanna know whats behind that door". feeling. (silent hill)

In the early 170s music was difficult to incorporate into games as they were cumbersome and quite delicate but a "more affordable method of having music in a video game was to use digital means, where a specific computer chip would change electrical impulses from computer code into analog sound waves on the fly for output on a speaker." similar in fact to the progression of soundtrack to final fantasy 1 through to 12. you ca just about notice the distinct difference in the tones. before long in games were able to take more channels of audio without aking up to much space thus allowing for vocals to be heard in video games and as to date composers are able to play with more than 250 channels of audio.
Akira Yamaoka: silent hill
Nobuo Uematsu: final fantasy
Yoko Shimomura: super Mario, parasite eve, legend of man, kingdom hearts.
jeremy and julian soule: prey
are just some of the major composers on games to date.
"good times" was the most influential songs of the time period and the song left the way for grand master flash's' "Adventures on the Wheels of Steel" and the Sugar hill Gang's single, "Rapper's Delight". it has been used by many hip hop and dance recordings since its release.

game engines

A game engine is a technology many are familiar with, it calculates graphics physics animation a.i. sound scripting etc. game engines are a fundamental piece of design, created to simplify a structure to a game for programmers, allowing the creation of a fantasy world. many game engines are used today and are some of the most recognizable aspects of a game, such as
Unreal Engine 3, Doom 3 engine, CryENGINE2, RenderWare, Gamebryo, Virtools Source engine
these engines are the more famous engines as they implement something different than the others, such as physics or graphical potential. game engines are also used as "game middle ware" as they can be reused on many platforms and in different games. a structure or scaffolding if you will.
This scaffolding can be either subtractive or additive, meaning, either the world is carved out of a giant mass inside of a game engine (subtractive) i.e. unreal engine, or a game is created in an empty space "void" out of an infinite space of nothingness(additive) i.e. half-life engine.
both styles of games have their advantages and disadvantages. most game creators carve a fake "void" out of the subtractive mass and enlarge it as they see fit.
buying into middle ware can often come with pricey consequences with your game. such as hidden liscences that take a few long late nights deciphering the legalese so not to be sued in later development. installing correct versions in the right place can be a disadvantage but finding that a new version has popped up and changed formats and or given more bugs can halt a game in its tracks for extended periods of time. to boot a middle ware game engine is usual designed for specific physics such as cry engine or half life engine. these specific engine characteristics may not even have been thought of in a game, also these features may have hidden the fact that the engine may not have something simpler such as a decent lighting effects.
where middle ware software has problems it also has advantages in its application for a cheap quick game release. its much faster to learn an existing engine than to create then learn one of your own (not to mention cheaper) many people would have used the existing game engine on multiple formats platforms and versions this would have allowed for many bugs to be found and eradicated (piece of mind) forums and other unofficial and official advice centers would have been established due to the engines reuses over the period of time since its release.
despite destructible worlds and amazing visual effects that are partly coming into place now with crysis and other leading games in development, games are also in the pipeline that will take on new ways of a.i. for example it has been released that quad core computers can now multi task to a point of total realism "if Gordon sat down to play chess with DR Kleiner, for example, a spare core would be dedicated to running a deep blue chess simulator to ensure they played a realistic game" pcgamer 2007 issue 107. these software advances through hardware development will be pushed to the limit with new physics applications too. to be first seen in the half life engine.

too much WoW!

since i can remember I've been an major fan of mmorpgs, well any game, through which i can actually interact with real people. this one aspect of an internet virtual environment (V.E.) part of the online gamers world is playing the game itself which is rather basic to online veterans but second to this is interaction with other avatars(players) from around the globe. part of gaming cultures is to compete with others in you niche', online games are a major example to this. whether they are fps rpg rts. they all take on some form of competition. most of these competitions take up serious amounts of people patience and time, I've clocked around 50 or so days in one such mmorpg.
as one gets to know his culture or niche he finds himself online more often that he should be, making invisible friends, maybe starting a complete fantasy life that takes up more than its fair share of a persons time. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/11/21/wow_lawsuit/

as far as gaming culture developed into many different niches, people still ignore and refuse to accept that gaming cultures are widely apparent and get to people in many different formats, such as forums, blogs, articles, games themselves, face to face chat, even if they don't wish to believe so. gaming cultures are what drive people to debate -key word- compete and argue over what they believe is to be true, whether it be games or any other medium. people take part in gaming cultures through the many formats to be more involved in their chosen culture. In truth gaming cultures have formed many derivatives and kind-of split games in different independent pieces, such as video game music (http://www.videogameslive.com/index.php?s=home) and commonly known retro games. everyone that is interested in the games industry knows of or is part of the games culture by default, but it is up to them to take it a step further to be more involved.

everyone that i call friend -that is interested in games- likes some form of game derivative and that is why the game industry will continue to interest all gamers and non gamers alike, who knows maybe in the future something new will come of game cultures. its a partly unexplored area of games and with every new game style or game development comes a new niche for people to take part in.

games industry

How is the industry doing? the games industry is pushing the boundaries of technology through ever increasing need for betting games that result in technology advancement and in short requires even more staff to produce a game title. this is forcing the game industry to grow exponentially but as the industry grows so do the team sizes and with it a larger budget is always needed, thus even with the reuse of common game engines for example "cry" (crysis, far cry) games developers are taking a page from smaller indie companies and marketing their games online to reduce overall prices. cutting out the middle man. this increases the royalties from an average of 20% to almost 100% as the publisher is taken out of the picture.

As the strain on the game industry begins to get worse many of the design team move around to find better job prospects in the game industry or even create their own smaller companies.
the increasing under recognition of talent in teh industry has also lead for staff members to just up and leave to create their own niche' in the games industry thus the cycle begins again.
currently the games staff movement isn't the only issue. game liscences also effect the games industry when developed for consoles as the publishers must secure multiple liscences in order to start a game and more licenses to distribute and advertise the game. in the future tha game industry is going to face a short fall as increased stress on development teams is costing far more than in the earlier years, as a result the industry will increase the prices of their hardware and software.

the Japanese industry is more a cultural niche' and will always be a need for games no matter the price but this is very much different in the western world as alot of people don't care for games and those that do may find themselves a little out of pocket to affort "next gen" titles

Psycho babble...

Game play? game play? play, game. What exactly is this thing?
And why is it important?
Does it exist as a definable set of rules?
Can it be designed into a game, or is it the random convergence of several interacting factors?
Is it even important?
I woke up to a new PC in the middle of December realizing the fact that i could play games simultaneously with my brother. the first game we chose was America's Army its a rather simple first person shooters for those that do not no of it. on arrival into the game i began to realize that the games graphics are somewhat dated and the animations cumbersome but my brother and me play this game blindly for some reason. could this be game play or do i just enjoy the sheer fun in, kill....competing with American gamers. It usually takes me a while to come down to earth and play a good ol' game that has anything short of beautiful graphics but i play AA just as much as i play for example battle field 2142.














i have a small explanation that may explain why i enjoy playing them both. where as battlefield you are part of a small army and can fight for your cause or run aimlessly into the wilderness if you so desire, AA each man counts for a larger percentage of the game. its almost possible for 1 man to fight for your teams survival against an entire 16 man squad and win. the 'Game Play' is involved in AA competes with battlefield and over shadows the graphics somewhat. this is why i beleive game play exists -even if some critics and game developers don't- and is a fundamental part of a games development, however AA may have been a complete accident as it was originally intended to train and test actual recruit's for the army, therefore it is possible that game developers did in fact overlook what hey were creating.

game play as a hole could be developed into a game through in built factors scattered throughout a game. such as development of team work to be a more necessary to accomplish a final goal

"A game should encourage player interaction. Players should not be so far apart that a player has to venture 3 or more turns in the same direction to reach another player, especially if it is a space game. In a strategy game, a player who sits back and does not get involved should not benefit while others fight it out. As well as gaining resources, one suggestion is that a player's units increase in strength with experience.

gameplay can be directly influenced by playing a game with more than one person for a shared goal but this is an example of only one factor that contributes to game play. there are more factors that make up game play such as, story, characterization, emotion, realism.

game play is i word i consider to be used when a player likes a game and when the game developers don't know really how they have done it, but some game developers use psychology and manipulation to add something more to their game, therefore is game play a psychological or a physical factor? ill think about this some more and try to give a definite answer

character or characterisation....?

Since i have been able to see stories cartoons and games fro what they are i find myself wondering what a character ould have looked like from the designers point of veiw if he/she didnt have a solid plotline for a character. basis for a character can change an image into a beleivable actor. for example condemned is played as if you are the character - 1st person - and you walk through the game encountering foes but without the characters plot - slightly diranged police officer - the game would be nothing more than a mindless first person beat em up.
a person can become attached to a certain character if the character is beleiveable and has characteristics that make he or she more realistic un like games such as oblivion in wich you create a random looking character than takes part in a scripted world with no real emotion or characteristics.
Games creators look for psychological floors in the gamers psychi to exploit to their will and build a character people can gather emotion from by playing that character in either a good or bad way. (villain or hero). when i played tomb raider for the first time all i could think about was breaking her legs, i couldnt help myself, that crunch sums up my favourite experiences of that game and maybe just maybe this was an intention on the designers part. go on you know you want to. let her fall!
As a keen game player waching a character fall to their death is only part of the fun i want to see them screaming and clawing to try and save them selves. wouldnt you be scared if you fell a thousand feet to your death? teh acting doesnt just stop at mindless script and occasional one liners, an indeapth character diologue and characterisation makes people more attune to liking or disliking a character. weather it be looks or acting, a character needs that somthing special or a an indeapth look that shows just a faint bit of emotion to bring them to life.
Depending on the game, a character doesnt have to rely on any script at all. acting and appearances says it all, tekken is a clear example of a game that doesnt require script just as tom and jerry doesnt in cartoons or laurel and hardy do on television.
I am a sheer fan of horror mysteries because i cant help but want to either be scared or be visualy challenged by an overload of different characters in different situations of suffering or iscolation. books to me cant just contain dialogue for character building or i get a little bit bored and disreguard the rest of the book, this is why i prefer stories in games as i can see here and almost touch a character while the character building takes place then get into the story wothout a hint of bordom. id much rather take a part in a story than read someone elses thoughts. Although, im not the sort to run off to the cinima if a book is fatter than the palm of my hand.
Reading a book to me is much like having a narrator (honestly now, do you like having someone talk through a movie) i prefer to see the story unfold without having to read what somone else is feeling, after all its my experience not theirs.

"if it aint broke don't fix it"

As a child the earliest user interface i used (that i can remember) is the ever so special keyboard. some peoplebeleive its complicated but its getting used to it just the same as other interfaces. user interfaces such as tv remotes and microwave keys that people use on a daily basis follow the same path even though they are not designed primerily for games but user interfaces doesnt have to stop at hand held objects. the pc operating system and mac operating systems were carfully developed to suite the markets need for a user interface. the mac interface is far superior in aesthetics and erganomics where as the pc is the most widly used thus does a user interface matter to us so much. after all we will get used to it in time and grow to love it. like the keyboard or pc OS.
Apple macs have the aesthetic qualities that most if not all other user interfaces do not have as it uses psychology to feel more user friendly - dragging rubbish into the bin at the bottom right, as if sweeping off the desctop - where as pcs just crash when we attempt to drag and drop somthing.
Ever since i can remember, having a control pad in my hand made me feel at home and in the future this wont change for me or the next generation because they are coming into a generation of key boards and mice but consoles will always be peoples first choice for games even if the pad is changed or removed.
In the future people will always be interacting with machines through some sort of user interface and at the moment the joypad and keyboard seem best suited for the job. "if it aint broke dont fix it".

WoW...pfft!

Aa strong storyline is what makes a game worth playing as well as nifty visuals but characterisation in that game is what keeps me hanging in to the bitter end. ive tried to create characters before and found it to be dificult without having some refrence or background and many people agree that this is a nesessity or key to teh door that is the story. the character must have links are deep roots to the story or other characters that do. a strong story requires other things. enclosed a character i created using a time period, background and genre.








I like to think im not a person playing a character but i am the character, creating that atmosphere can lead to a person feeling that part rather than just watching it. i enjoy a game to an extent that i try to play it as best as i can but i do understand that a game player does make the story happen through a sereis of events however the realisation of this all depends on the games designers choices from the get go. do u realise your playing a part before or after? does the game scare you to a point that you will never play it again or did u just play it for teh sheer need to complete the second in the sereis for example.
What is the point in living someone elses fantasy if you dont experience it the way he or she wanted you to experience it, just the way they have.
Many designers say they do agree that a story is essential then add some poor attempt at one towards the end but alot of games are designed to get you hooked such as MMORPGs. mo money for the creators but many popular games such as zelda or metal gear solid do have appealing story lines that make us want to play everyone of teh sereis and we damn sure gonna pay £50 to play these because we want to rather than need. games like call of duty or medal of honor take there place either from a major point in history or a sideline of that such event and thus we want to take part in the story or relive it. maybe its just for sheer fact of shooting germans. games like these have a story for those that wish to see it but also can be played by skipping every cut scene just the same.
To me a story is essential even if it is repetitive because all games by merit have to be at the most, slightly dissimilar in some way and i get the satisfaction from playing new characters in new situations with the occasional plot twist and great ending.

What does an Art Director do? Game artists are fundimentally the brain behind everyone working on a single project. their job requires them to solve problems related to everything and anything that a currnet game could and most definatly would face, weather that be photoshop or the 3Dgame engine specified to such things as what a characters shoe is going to look like, thus an art director will inherintly have to keep all his team in check and all on the same path or a so called game could end up looking some what, messy - in terms of visual style. as an art director i would personaly put forward my own ideas rather sneakily and maybe ad a few things into a game that would take my personal art style or cheaky ideas, not all that disimilar to John Romaro's coligues oddly placeing johns face in teh game, on the first Doom game.

Who are they responsible to? Art director - although quite a high status and resposible part of the games chain that it is, is below the first link in the chain, the Games designer, as in film the art director would be directly below the production designer or below editor in publishing. the art director can and most likly is a person brought from outside to express the ideas from the games designers to all the artists and creators of the games practical side. he would control the workings of all these and report back the games progress to the designers to make sure everything is going the correct way.

Do you think it's a creative role? Art director dips his paw in every part of the games pipline, from art to 3D engines, it is only as creative as the art director would like but there are limitations to an art directors use of creative expression as they are far removed from conscept design and art in general but they do over see these things and have their input just the same.


What qualities do you think youd need to develop if you want to become an Art Director in the future? To develope myself in the form of an art director i beleive experience is key to being able to handle the pressure of all the tasks that can quite easily be split in to several well payed jobs. people skills and maybe a million years in the industry will almost bring me up to scratch with the trials and tribulations of an art directors Daily! tasks. being able to keep an entire team - of up to more than 100 people on next gen games - on track and all following a specific style. making a game look feel and sound well would have to come a close second.

Reveiws are for people that want another persons oppinion

for arguments sake i am going to stick to games reveiwers and not reveiwers in general. reveiwers are given a game to play and evaluate on "their" experiences with the game. weather it be graphics game play or over all feelings, it is a personal take on somthng someone else has created. maybe the game designer wants this overcite maybe he doesnt but to be honest putting reveiws that are obviously going to be read by the masses you have to stick to what i like to call...RESTRAINT!...people are going to take every little word you say and twist it to fit their own personal veiw on a game, almost like a war in which a reveiwer takes the first shot and an apposing or agreing person takes the next shot as the reveiwer cowers in wait.

novice reveiwers tend to take their personal veiws to a point - a little like i am doing now - in which onlookers can take advantage of. the second link hilights a less animalistic take on clashes between points of veiw but the theory is there. what if i were to say "i dont like project gothem 3 because its linear and i dislike racing games to an extent in wich i wish to vomit" the reveiwer will almost certainly take that as a personal attack and feel non the better for personalising his words for the masses. some things should be let go.

game journelists also face the scrutiny of the much larger percentage of the games world, the recreational players. people have an over veiw of journelists and reveiwers but hey, we all buy these reveiws and in turn, even if we disagree immensly, we pay their wages through sales and they benifit from us doing so. their point has been portrayed and many of them are strong willed enough to take everythng we say about them, with a pinch of salt.

Ranking a game in its most basic sence seems almost heart breaking as many games that are left on teh shelf because of a bad reveiw have deeper graces that need adressing, but reveiws tend to reer towards "i like the graphics but...!!THE FRAME RATE IS A BIT SLUGGISH!!" ranking a game on its graphics and/or game play alone seems almost meaningless, what does this game have? what can it show for future development? games can be considered milestones and are a learning process for games companies. To put it simply, if i wanted a game to be changed in a certain way such as farcrys low contrasting lush green fowliage, i'd make a comment expressing that, rather than giving the game an 8 because it had good game play but the graphics made my eyes ache. looking at a game and giving it a score is pointless. looking at a game and giving your oppinion on its failiures and successes gives the developers and readers somthing to work from. hten maybe sales would be increasingly more perposfull.

ngj..

What other forms of games writing can you find?

games writing can take the form of ratings reveiws and general discussions and can also be found in many formats such as blogging, devotedURLs and even discussions through other games or chat rooms. writings from sites such as http://uk.ign.com/ are a basis for delivering games writings inside the games world. people can express their oppinion through message boards. articles in newspapers depicting games sales or game trials are common place in todays technological age. many games have also been made into movies or vise-versa such as "Final Fantasy" or "Resident Evil". games writing doesnt just stop at somes score out of 10 its mass marketed and put out there in many forms for us to see on a daily basis.

Both subjectivity and objectivity have there status and are regarded to be a necesity in writing. i feel that both types of writing deliver a persons point of veiw weather bias and straightforward or broad and discussed. if a person must express an oppinion on wich he or she cannot be shyed away then so be it but if a writer can openly agree to critisism and discuss to means then that is a course best suited to its perpose