Available Programs for my Production

I researched different programs available for each stage of my production progress, finding a small list for each of these as shown below, I will be researching the Pro's and Cons of each software, before deciding on one from each section to work with on my final piece.

Spriting Programs –

Graphics Gale - http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/

Cosmigo - http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php

Drawing and Editing Programs –

Easy Paint Tool Sai - http://sai.detstwo.com/sai/

Gimp - http://www.gimp.org/

Paint.NET - http://www.getpaint.net/

Animating Software -

Synfig Studio - http://www.synfig.org/cms/

Adobe Flash - http://www.adobe.com/products/flash.html

Pencil - http://www.pencil-animation.org/

Toon Boom - http://beta.toonboom.com/

TV Paint - http://www.tvpaint.com/v2/content/article/home/

Game Making Software –

Adventure Game Studio - http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/

Game Maker - http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/windows

RPG maker XP/VX - http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/product/rpg-maker-xp
Stencyl - http://www.stencyl.com/

Video Editing programs –

Windows Movie Maker -http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=34

Sony Vegas - http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials/vegaspro

Final Cut - http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/top-features/

After Effects - http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects.html

iMovie - http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/

Software Research Proposal

The Software I use during my production will be an important factor of creating my final products, so finding the right software to make these in will be something I will have to research.

As far as my final production goes, I will be making the box (packaging) for a new game (For PC, as decided by my survey monkey) along with two trailers (One showing game play and reactions, the other showing an animation and a small amount of game play, much like the Okami-den trailer) and a magazine advertisement for this game.

To do this I will need to use various programs, to get the most professional looking final product possible. When creating these pieces, I will need to find a game making software (To show footage, during one of my TV advertisements, sticking to conventions), a Video editing program will be needed to piece together both of my TV Advertisements and a type of image editing program, such as photoshop for the editing together of these pieces. I will also need a spriting program, to create sprited characters for my game.

Over the next few weeks, I will be researching various Game Making, Animation and Spriting programs, to determine which I think is most suitable for my final piece. Photoshop and Final Cut Pro will be used for the creation of my packaging and advertisement as I have used these programs previously  in AS and have experience with both of them.  

Useful Articles - Piracy in the video game industry

Illegal video game downloads 'Up nearly 20%'

PCGA 'PC game piracy is in decline'

Illegally downloading games is up 20% in five years

I found three more articles relevant to the industry I will be producing for, these, showing conflicting views on the market in terms of piracy.

The first article, found on DigitalSpy, compares the two below articles which argue whether PC game piracy is in decline or on the rise.

The BBC, reporting on the rise of piracy and the PCGA reporting that game piracy is infact in decline. The issue of PC game piracy is a big one in the industry, but I believe that with Digital Distribution and the ability to download 'demo's' of games, dominating the market at current, it will definitely fall in the future.

I think with the current economical climate, and with the 'at home', games and dvd's market doing so well, keeping an eye on the gaming industry and the introduction of new articles like this would be very useful thing for me to do and would greatly help both my understanding of the industry and may help influence my production.

Useful Article - New Technology

Download Distribution opening new doors for independent game developers

Whilst researching for my pre production, I stumbled across this article on Statesman.com, confirming my beliefs that Digital Distribution and handheld apps in the gaming industry are helping open doors for Independent game developers. 

The thing I found particularly interesting about this article is the statistics included in it, such as "11.2 million digital downloads of PC games were purchased online, according to technology research firm NPD Group. That's compared with 8.2 million "physical units purchased at retail" and this quote on the abundance of physical games "I think (packaged products) will always exist, until every last person is connected to the Internet," 

I think this article enforces my idea of having my game as a packaged, indie game, as well as advertising it to be offered through digital distribution. 

Designing my Characters

When designing my characters, I had to think carefully about the target audience my game was intended for. From the results of my questionaire, I had already decided that I wanted my game to be aimed at a neutral gender audience between the ages of 12 and 24 (Young gamers along with older ones that may appreciate the retro feel i'm going for) I wanted however, to keep my game to a 3+ or 7+ age rating, this was because that way I would be reaching the largest audience.

With these things in mind and with my Synopsis, I began sketching out character designs and concepts for both Wren and ZED900. I wanted both these characters to be quirky in some way and wanted Wren, the protagonist, to take the role of an unlikely hero, much like Mario and Donkey Kong, as earlier discussed.

Below is my design for Wren. I chose to give him a ginger afro, freckles and glasses to fit in with the unlikely hero theme, but also with the nerd persona I was looking to create.

(Click to see in full view)

I also gave Wren some other features such as specific items of clothing and books, this should help to enforce his character and make him more recognisable.

When it came to designing ZED900, it was a little more tricky for me to work with. I wanted ZED900 to be the comedy relief of my game, making him quirky and funny, but also look like an AI Bat, like I had originally planned.
After several sketches and design ideas, I finally came up with a design I liked. Several of my design sketches are below, along with my final Design, which I drew onto A3.

I am very happy with both the designs for these characters, I feel they work well with the idea I wanted to portray with my game, but they also look like unlikely heroes and are not characters you'd expect. I will now be looking into spriting and digitally drawing them, ready for my games trailers and cover.

New Technology and Impact on my Productions

When it comes to New technology, it will play a big part in the creation of my final piece. Not only has new technology dramatically effected the video game industry in general, it has also affected the way that advertisements, TV spots and game covers are presented.

Firstly, a comparison of how new technology has improved the look of video game packaging. Maxis, now owned by EA, and popular for it's simulation games created the renowned  'SimAnt' game in 1997. Technology was not as advanced then, therefore the packaging looks nothing like what their new games packaging looks like now. Spore, released 10 years later, in 2007 looks very different to this. Below is a comparison of the packaging for the two.

The quality of magazine advertisements has also improved significantly since this time, another comparison of two Maxis advertisements in the last 10 years is shown below.

The quality of magazine advertisements has obviously improved a lot in recent years, The newer advert is better edited and made, due to access to better and more powerful editing programs such as Photoshop and Indesign. 

Another very obvious way new technology has affected the production of game advertisements is in TV advertisements. 10 years ago, Video games were not popular enough and not enough people could afford them, for games companies to warrant advertising them on TV. There are no TV spot advertisements for SIMAnt because of this. 

The addition of new technologies puts me in a very good position with the production and advertising of my game as it is now easier than ever for indie developers to break into the industry. Internet advertising and digital distribution is very cheap and with Youtube available for free advertising of my trailer, my productions could become very accessible.

Editing programs such as Photoshop will also be incredibly helpful to me and with the games industry being one of the biggest and one of the fastest growing, I believe I am in a very good position. 

New Technology and Video game distribution

Before designing and creating my character, I decided to do a little research into distribution, something I have already touched on a little in my ‘Indie game and development’ blog post. I decided it would be a worthwhile choice to go a little more in depth on how video games are distributed and how new technology is helping to shape the industry. This research will be key when it comes to designing my final product
.

Distribution of video games has changed drastically in the last five years. These changes are revolutionising the gaming industry by allowing independent game developers as well as much larger ones to make profit and effectively get their games onto the market.

Digital distribution is one of the main aspects in which new technology is affecting the industry. In the past, games would have been transferred onto a cartridge or disk, packaged and then sold to stores. The cost of doing this meant that only developers with a publisher could reach the main market of gamers by selling their games on the high street at shops such as HMV or GAME.  For an indie game developer, this would be far too expensive and therefore it would not be viable for them to sell their games this way, and if they were to, it would be very small scale with not very many stores stocking them.

Digital Distribution such as itunes, Steam, Xbox Live Market Place, Nintendo Channels and the Playstation store have allowed indie developers such as Re-logic, Mojang and many others to distribute their games and become popular and established.

 Terraria, released in May of 2011 and developed by Re-Logic, and Minecraft, released in its Beta stages in 2009 and which is soon to be released in full are both very good examples of how digital distribution is slowly helping shape the industry.  Both of these games I have previously mentioned in my ‘Indie game and development’ blog post, due to their large scale popularity, even going on to overtake some commercial games.

Portable gaming is something that has become increasingly popular lately, iPhones and iPods are being used to host games such as Angry birds, this game has gone from success to success and is even producing a soft toy line now.

Following the brief, I will be producing my game as both a developer and publisher, releasing it to the market as a packaged disk, although, technically being an indie developer it would be more advisable for me to only distribute through Steam or another direct download website. Braid is a good example of an indie game that is both publishing through digital distribution, but also being distributed traditionally as a packaged disk. I think following the direction Braid has gone in would be the most advisable route for my game.

Next, I will be designing the main characters for my game, ZED900 and Wren. I will need to think carefully about character designs, making sure I meet my target audience.