Game Design : Writing a Character - Who are you?

This was another homework exercise for Game Design, probably the one I had the most fun with for sure. Basically we had to interview a character a create a character based on a certain year of history. We had to research on what happened in that time period and made sure this character behaved realistically to that history and also functioned as a real person. I'll start with the interview and let you see if she is believable before delving into her backstory and story arc by themselves. The interview is designed in a way just to see how the character acts and to convey information about the character themselves.

The Interview

Welcome! What is your name? Gender? Race? Religion? Age?

Hello, I am Miyuki Hayashi, I’m a 20 year old Japanese-American, Buddhist currently living at the dorm in Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.

So where were you originally born? What about your parents—where are they, and are they alive? When you were growing up, did you struggle, and if so, in what way?

I was born and raised in Richmond, Indiana. My parents were born in Japan and lived in Gifu for quite some time, but they moved shortly to Indiana before I was born. They always said they wanted to have a fresh start and wanted to experience the culture. I’ve spent my entire life in this city and it’s still my home despite all that’s happened. My parents have raised me well and they’ve taken care of me, I suppose they sort of sheltered me as well. They aren’t, or… weren’t short on money when I was growing up.

My father can be stubborn, strict and even somewhat reckless, but he always knows what to do to care of our family. He provides for us, spends time with both myself and my mother and he has taught me a lot of things over the years, and taught me to look after myself. I used to be a lot more shy when I was growing up but he’s definitely helped me get better at being extrovert. My mother has always been very caring and kind, she spoils me sometimes, more so then my father and she always find some way to brighten my day even when it’s bad. She’s usually smiling, she’s a really positive force in our family.  Together they knew how to raise me well and teach me the values I’ve needed to get through life.

Right now though, they’re in one of the internment camps inside the city, managing to survive through the harsh conditions in the camps. I’ve had to suffer alongside them for quite some time since the “war” started. At least until my father managed to get me enrolled in the only college that was accepting any Japanese-American applicants, Earlham College it was, and they were taking in students specifically to help us avoid internment. I know my father and mother are still surviving in the harsh conditions in there and a lot of the time I wish I could be there to support them… but I know my father nor my mother would ever want me back in there. They would want me stay here so that I could avoid all the pain. *Her eyes tear up a bit as she thinks on the memories*. For that I am eternally grateful to them both and to the college as well.

I am just checking, what year is it now?

Well the war I was talking about is World War II of course, it’s 1944 and I just heard the war was ending. Thank goodness it’s all over, maybe that means my family will be able to get out of the internment camps and get back to their proper jobs and home. I think they would both like me to continue enrolling in the college of course but as long as I know they are safe now, that’s all that really matters to me.

How would someone stereotype you at a glance?

Well, honestly where I live, they would just call me a ‘jap’. Most of them do anyways. I always get a glare from passers-by if they see my face. That goes for both students in the college and other people around. They don’t care about anything else but the fact I am of Japanese descendance. It automatically puts a target on my head. That’s the kind of stereotype I’ve had to face ever since the war started. It’s hard to tolerate, I try to shut it out, but it’s hard, especially when some people get vocal about it too. I’ve had to tolerate a lot more harassment then I am used to… *chokes up a bit*

I-I am sorry, forgive me, it’s just really hard sometimes. I know I am not the only one who has to go through this but it’s hard to find others to connect with sometimes. I am still thankful that my father taught me how to manage through this kind of abuse. Not everyone treats me like that but there are enough out there that just makes it really hard. I can’t really answer how someone would normally stereotype me very well, but I guess in the past, before all of this happened, I remember people would probably look at me as just, that shy looking Japanese girl.  They would have been some prejudice still but certainly nowhere near as much as what I get now.

Do you have a romantic partner? If so, whom?

That’s a little personal but I guess I don’t mind answering. It’ll make me feel better to get it off my chest. But please don’t publish this too widely There’s a boy a liked, I still do. His name is Richard. He’s an American, with some british descendance in him. We met in grade school actually and we even went to the same high school for quite some time. We were really good friends for a while and over time, we got to know each other a lot more and grew closer. Eventually, we both felt like we liked each enough to date.

But the attack on Pearl Harbor pretty much stopped any contact with each other. That’s when we started getting discriminated and his family immediately joined the bandwagon of people discriminating against us. I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere near him despite his protests and my own. There was just an immediate hatred towards us and it’s led to me being separated from him ever since. I’ve wrote letters to him, that’s the only way I can talk to him and even then, sometimes it takes a long time or even several letters to get to him because if his family ever sees the letters, they will just rip them apart right away and warn him not to write back to me. That’s what he told me in one of the letters he managed to get to me.

 He doesn’t care about his family’s hatred though, he still wants to write to me no matter what and I to him. I’ll try any way I can to keep in touch with him. Even though the war has ended now, I feel like things are still going to be difficult. I doubt his family will be alright with him seeing me or, it will take a long time for them to accept us at least. But I really hope with all my heart that they will see the error of their ways and let us see each other, publically and without hate, once again. I am sorry, I don’t mean to ramble like this, I just wanted to let it out and I feel better for doing that.

Who is your best friend and what is he/she/it like? How would your friend describe you?

Well I’ve already talked about my boyfriend but there’s been a good friend of mine ever since I got to the College, she’s really helped me out. Sylvia is one of those few people that isn’t judging me based on my race. I met her one day during the classes. Everyone in the classroom needed to get with another student to be partners in one of the activities. Most of the others immediately shunned me but she came towards me right away and gave me a really cheerful smile and asked me my name. That was the first time I saw her and she opened up to me even though I was a stranger and hated by everyone else. Even in the college, things weren’t easy with everyone else. Living conditions were better but the attitude towards me certainly wasn’t. I remember that smile being one of those first glimmers of hope I had to making friends in the university.

She was really sweet and kind, sort of like my mother. She was rather energetic and has always been, it sort of made me a little shy at first but it grew on me. I was just happy that someone else was talking to me so openly and being so accepting. She never once asked me anything relating to my culture or race, at least never in an offensive manner. She only asked if she was curious and always tried to be supportive in any way she could. I couldn’t have asked for a better friend to meet me during that tough time. I got to know more people thanks to her, she taught them to be more accepting as well.

As for her describing me? Well I guess she would say I can be kind of shy sometimes, though I feel like that’s because of the discrimination around. I guess I am somewhat shy around strangers but happy and energetic around others I think she would say. She also likes to call me a “Shining Star”, she says that because she thinks my smile is also really nice when I am really happy. Not that I really get many of those smiles nowadays given the conditions but it happens and she has never missed a moment mentioning it. I guess she’d also say I am selfless most of the time and I’d like to help others, which is true, at least between us and my other friends. If I try to help strangers occasionally some will accept me while others will immediately shun me. No matter which I might assume they do, I will always try to help in the hopes it might turn them around. She would also commend me for my courage and determination too, even during our first meeting. She knew the kind of things I had to go through since she’s observed it in other Japanese-Americans being treated harshly.

What is your economic situation? What have you done for work?

Well my father was decently wealthy, he’s a mechanical engineer, though due to the process of sending us to internment camps, he lost quite a bit of his money. We still have a good portion of our possessions, we just can’t get access to them from within the internment camp. That’s how he managed to get me enrolled into the college because he was able to arrange some funds for me to get in. As for work, I did help out my mother part time in her restaurant in the past but we obviously can’t do that now and we lost the restaurant. Right now I guess I would be a student in economics right now.

Would you steal? How do you feel about lying? Can you be trusted by your friends? Do you have any other vices?

I wouldn’t steal, I would never dream of it. Maybe I would if I had to survive and in the internment camps, conditions could be pretty bad. But no, my parents taught me never to steal and that would have meant steal from our fellow Japanese Americans. We had to stick together in there. Stealing is just something that doesn’t cross my mind normally. Lying? Again, I try not to lie. I usually never try to lie in fact, I just feel guilty about it, no matter how trivial it could be. Maybe among friends if it’s to joke around but even then I don’t normally do that, I still feel guilty even though it’s in good fun. I know that Sylvia trusts me with her life, she even said that herself though it felt a little weird that she said that. My other friends I mostly met through Sylvia as well and they’ve told me they trust me, I know most of them do, though a few are still a bit sceptical due to my race. They are slowly being tided over though thanks to Sylvia. I guess people trust me as a person but may not just because of my race, it’s sad really but I’ve tried my best to make sure they look over that fact.

Hmm, Vices… Well I wouldn’t really say I have any other vices that I would like to admit. This is getting a little personal, maybe if you told me some yourself I might be more comfortable sharing.

Alright, you don’t have to answer that. What makes you happy? What makes you sad?

What makes me happy? Nowadays, whenever I get to see or hear from Richard or my family makes me the most happy. Spending time with Sylvia and our friends is usually good fun to and really helps me to stay positive despite everything. My studies now help distract me from a lot of the hate out there and really help me feel more accomplished. That and a good book are the next best thing to make me happy in terms of material possessions. I think I’ve already really gone over what makes me sad but it’s the treatment of us, the whole internment camps, the hate, we are being judged based on the actions of a few. There used to be more minor things that made me sad, but really this overshadows everything else. This is really the only thing that matters as of now.

What is the one secret that no one must know about you?

Umm, do I really have to answer this question? It seems rather unnecessary…  I feel like I am being interrogated. You have to agree to tell me something in return if I do alright?

We have a deal, I will tell you afterwards.

Alright well I’ve always had the desire to shoot a gun. Not at someone, I would never want to hurt anyone, but I just want to see what it feels like. I doubt I would ever be given the chance and if someone heard that it probably wouldn’t really help my reputation right now in these circumstances. Please don’t tell anyone, I don’t want to put my family in any more trouble than it already is!

Are you afraid to die?

Well I guess that depends on the way I die. I do fear death, I really would love to live my life to the fullest. I would like to spend my time with everyone I love, but I guess if my time is to come, then so be it. I guess it’s just depending on the way I might die. I fear mostly dying not by those I love or in loneliness. Even if it was painful, as long as I was with them, I would bear it just to be with them one last time. If I can die near them, then I feel like I can be at peace. If I die alone or nowhere near them then that’s what I fear the most. I’ll die just hoping to see someone.

Do you have any phobias?

I do have a particular fear of spiders and snakes. The fact I hear they both can have dangerous venom in some species always make me cringe at a potential bite from them. Not to mention their movement and appearance frighten me! I always need to get someone to deal with them even if they aren’t dangerous ones, which they never are. It’s just the stories about the ones with venom scare me. I guess a more serious phobia for me is, what I heard about those camps in Germany. Concentration camps I think they were called? I heard a lot of people died in there, they used some sort of gas is the rumour. I’m scared what that must have been like for the people, I really hope they at least died peacefully.

Are you quick tempered or patient?

I am rather patient I would say. I’ll wait for long periods if need be, I’ve learned that from my mother and father, more so from my mother since I said my father could be quick tempered. But he usually tells me to be patient even though he can be quick to act sometimes, it’s kind of funny! I’m willing to wait though for a lot of things, but this kind of goes for making new friends sometimes as well. I mean be waiting too long for someone to come to me and I might never get that friend. I am lucky Sylvia wasn’t patient and decided to see me, or I might not be as happy as you see me now. Another thing I’d like to mention is that I probably would have gotten together with Richard earlier than I would have if I was less patient. But things could have ended up worse, I don’t really know but I guess I might be rambling a bit again. To answer your question I guess I would say I am patient.

That's all we have time for, thank you for your time answering our questions

Thank you, it’s been a pleasure!

Biography and Description

• Name : Miyuki Hayashi
• Birthplace: Richmond, Indiana, US
• Current Location: Richmond, Indiana, US at Earlham College
• Age: 20
• Religion: Buddhist
• Race: Japanese-American (Oriental appearance)
• Spoken Languages : English and Japanese
• Weight: 120 lbs
• Height: 5”6
• Eye color : Brown
• Hair Color : Black

Overview

Miyuki is a regular Japanese-American girl, living in Richmond, Indiana. However she becomes subject to the hate of the Japanese after the events of Pearl Harbor. She and her family are segregated and forced into internment camps where her ties to old friends are broken and disconnected. She is a sweet, somewhat shy girl who can be rather determined when she sets her mind to it. She can be rather emotional at times but tries not to let it get the best of her. She deeply cares for her family and friends and is always trying to be helpful for both them and even strangers. She isn’t a hero at all, she is just someone struggling through very difficult turmoil in one of the most shattering events in human history.

Strengths

Miyuki’s is a compassionate young woman who greatly cares for her family and those she loves. She has a very strong emotional attachment to them and a great loyalty towards them. She’s taken the kind and sweet traits of her mother and the determination of her father. Her kindness links with the fact she does not like to lie or steal, or doing anything morally wrong. She would never try to do the same discrimination to others that she is receiving, nor try to take revenge for what has been done to her. She always try to keep going, no matter how difficult it is, whether it be in discrimination, long distance relationships or even school work. She strives to do her best for her family to make them both happy, in turn making herself happy. Despite her shyness she has a strong will and strive to keep going despite all the harshness around her. Even though she is shy she can be very kind to everyone, even strangers. She will try to be kind despite their potential discrimination against her.

Weaknesses

She is normally rather shy, which can lead to difficulty making friends. Especially due to the discrimination this can become very difficult indeed. She can also be somewhat gullible, believing what most people say, sometimes she trusts people too much. This can lead to her being at the mercy of bullies or pranks on her during college. Her emotional attachment to her family could also lead to great emotional stress if anything bad happens to them. The same with her friends. This means if she loses them, if for some reason she doesn’t have good emotional support, it can lead to very bad consequences for her, mentally.

Personal History and Story Arc

Miyuki  was born and raised in Richmond, Indiana in the US to two loving Japanese parents. She had a rather normal childhood, attending public and high school (private school) and integrating with the community well enough. As a shy girl she never really had too many friends, most of them acquaintances but managed to keep some very strong friendships with a select few. She met her love, Richard in public school and eventually started dating him in high school. Due to the effects of World War II, specifically the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese in America were segregated and discriminated throughout the Country due to being at war with Japan. Immediate hatred sweltered in the community, causing great repercussion in relationships between the Hayashi family and the other families around. Many of Miyuki’s friends were not allowed to see her or joined in the discrimination against her. Only Richard stayed loyal to Miyuki throughout this turmoil. They frequently send letters to each other to try and keep in contact despite Richard’s family trying to prevent him from ever contacting her due to their automatic hatred of the Japanese.

Defining Moment 1: Eventually the family was forced into a internment camp where living conditions were rather poor and freedom was rather limited. Things got better over time but it was far from how they had lived just a year prior. Miyuki stayed with her family, trying to get by despite all the hate and the bad living conditions going on. Eventually her father managed to get her noticed to be enrolled in the Earlham College, where they were trying to take in Japanese-American students for them to avoid being sent to internment camps. She was very lucky, being accepted and moved out of the internment camp as her family’s wishes. Her family however had to stay behind but as long as their daughter had better living conditions, it was alright.

Even on College, she couldn’t escape the amount of discrimination all around. Students and others alike would frequently seek to make her life miserable in various ways. From ignoring, to insults, pranks, bullying, etc. There was no escaping the discrimination even there, however living conditions were better, which was what her family was hoping for her. Despite this, the whole experience of discrimination from the camps, being separated from her family now and with no support made it more difficult to go on. She suffered mentally from the discrimination and being unable to have anyone close to support her at the college save a few teachers.

Defining Moment 2: Eventually though, she meets a girl the same age as her named Sylvia. She is one of the people to approach her and try to get to know her. The two become great friends over time and Miyuki finally gains a friend that would help lead to further friendships with others. The two become best friends and it helps to give Miyuki confidence once more despite all the struggles she has faced. Meanwhile, she continues to send letters to her parents and Richard, the combination of these and support from her new friends allows her to slowly become happier and move towards her happiness before the events of the war started. 

Eventually the war is announced that it’s ended (Interview happens) and things look like they will slowly begin picking for her. She hopes her family can return to their home and gain their jobs back, while she continues to study in Earlham. She hopes things with Richard’s family will work out so they will be able to see each other once more without issues. A potential problem for that relationship however is the fact that she does not know that Sylvia is falling for her, another thing that is not normally accepted in society during this time.

Defining Moment 3: The time will come when Sylvia will let Miyuki know about her feelings and that’s when Miyuki will need to decide between her old love who she longs to see and her new best friend who’s helped her through all her troubles in the past year.  Both deal with issues that are currently taboo in the time period, both dealing with discrimination, one being racial and the other being sexual orientation.

Concluding Statements

Well I hope that I wrote a well rounded and believable character, it was definitely a blast to write though. If I was able to convey someone that might be somewhat believable then I have succeeded. Before I end this, here is an artist rendition (Anime style) of my character back in her private school days.

Game Design : The Common Uncommon - Everyday man game

Homework 7 - The Common Uncommon

The point of this homework was to choose a person with a common profession and then make an event happen that would change normal every day circumstances. From this a game pretty much had to be made, here is what I came up with.

Our Common Man

Bob is one of the city’s many electricians, working on maintenance and setting up of the various electrical outlets around the city. He gets rather decent pay for an electrician, not too much but not too little. Not the best job in the world but it pays enough to pay back the bills and save some extra money for future spending.

The inciting Moment – The Earthquake

He is working his shift as usual, until one day an earthquake hits the city. The damage it causes is quite severe and many of the power lines are knocked out. The city loses a fortune and they need to make the repairs to fix the power lines to restore electricity to all the homes and buildings in the area. You’re immediately put into overtime. Bob and other electricians now need to work as quickly as possible to restore the power lines back to normal.

Game – Earthquake Electrician

Goal of the game

Be the first one to be able to restore power to the city. You must gain a total of 25 (Can be changed) points first to be the winner. To be able to get these points, you need to solve puzzles, using parts you pick up every turn. Participation between 2 to 4 players to be the first!

Turn progression

You start off picking up 2 parts from the parts deck (more on that later)

You then roll a dice, if you get a 5 or 6 it means you can do two actions in a turn. If you don’t get a 6 then the dice roll does nothing

Actions

The two actions you choose from are picking up and use an event card right away or try to do a puzzle.  Event cards lead to potential bonuses or punishments to you and other players. Puzzles award points, your key to victory.

Puzzles

Puzzles are laid out in a 3 x 3 to a 6 x 6 grid. Whenever you choose to try a puzzle, you must roll the dice. This will determine the size of the grid. If you roll a 1 or 2, you will also get a 3 x 3 grid. Other a 3 represents 3 x 3, 4 = 4 x 4, 5 = 5x5, etc.

To solve the puzzle you must connect a beginning point, to an ending point. These will be randomly chosen as well, using the dice once again. Two rolls are performed for each point, one to represent the x axis and the other the y. If the value of the roll is greater than the size of the board, merely put it at the highest value. So for example, roll a 6 on a 4 x 4 for the x axis. Put the axis at the 4.

Now you will have to use the parts, connecting them together to form a chain leading from the beginning point, to the end point. You will have to use the parts that are available in your hand at the time. Do this and you will obtain points. Here is the list of grid to points…

• 3 x 3 = 4 points
• 4 x 4 = 6 points
• 5 x 5 = 8 points
• 6 x 6 = 12 points

There are also obstacles that are randomly generated, using the same way of rolling two dice to determine position. However if the roll is higher than the size of the board, then the obstacle will simply not exist in that case. Here is a list of bumber of obstacles to board size…

• 3 x 3 = 1 obstacle
• 4 x 4 = 2 obstacles
• 5 x 5 = 3 obstacles
• 6 x 6 = 4 obstacles

Important to note is that if you cannot solve a puzzle, then you will lose a portion of the parts equal to the dice roll you did to make the board. So a roll of 6, for a 6 x6, you will lose up to 6 parts if you cannot complete it. A roll of 1, for a 3 x 3 means you will lose 1 part.

However to counter this, you can ask for assistance from other players, they can use their parts to help solve the puzzle. You can negotiate with the player(s) how many points each will receive from completing the puzzle together. You can ask everyone to help but you will need to split it between all four players. Also if somehow those involved still cannot solve the puzzle, then they will all lose the same number of parts in the same way one player would.

Decks

There are two decks, the Parts Deck, and the Event Deck.

The parts deck contains the various pieces you will need to solve the puzzles, there are a variety of different parts you  can get, of various shapes. The shapes included are…

• Straight (Most common)
• Curve (Common)
• 4 way (Rare)
• 3 way (Uncommon)
• Double Straight (Rare)

The Events deck contains cards which provide various effects, some will help you, others will hinder your opponents and in the worst case, hinder you. Here is a list of the various event cards you can get...

• Foreign objects - Increase number of obstacles that can appear by + 1 permanently (Uncommon)
• Cleaner wires - Decrease number of obstacles that can appear – 1 permanently (uncommon)
• Car crash - lose half your parts (Rare)
• Scavenger – Pick up some spare parts (+ 2 parts) (Common)
• Super Scavenger – pick up a lot of parts (+ 3 parts) (Common)
• Selective scavenger – Pick up a spare part of your choice (Common)
• Theft – Take one part from each opponent (uncommon)
• Bumpy Roads – lose 2 parts (Uncommon)
• Tremor – All puzzles until your next turn will have a + 1 difficulty while still giving only the points of it’s normal difficulty  (Rare)
• Road block – Lose your next turn (Uncommon)
• Wiremaster – Your next  puzzle will yield 12 points no matter the difficulty  (Very Rare)
• Easy wire – an automatically solved puzzle for you (+4 points) (Uncommon)
• Persuasive – Force another player to help you solve your next puzzle (If they don’t solve it with you, you both lose parts) (Uncommon/Rare

Example of a 3 x 3 puzzle

Notes

• There are 5 parts used total here (2 straights, 1 four-way, 2 curve)
• Red is the start, blue is the end
• The beginning and end points can be started at any angle, it does not matter as long as there is a wire in there that connects to either edge
• The player will have received 4 points for completing this puzzle themselves

Game Design: Gaming 3 - Street Fighter X Tekken

Just last Tuesday, two of gaming’s greatest fighting franchises joined together to do battle in 2 on 2 tag team battles. This is Street Fighter X Tekken, combining both famous franchises using the Street Fighter 4 engine and gameplay taking place on a 2D plane such as Street Fighter 4. Tekken characters have been adapted to work into this system and many new fighting game system changes have taken place that makes this game quite a bit different than Street Fighter 4.

The game combines the tag team system of games such as Tekken Tag Tournament, where if even one of your 2 fighters go down, then you lose a round. The game is a mesh of many new and old systems that keeps the game fresh and interesting. Combo potential is massive in this game and many techniques involving the use of both partners in tag combos and switching can lead to some very interesting strategies. Other new systems such as the gem system are in place to allow more customization, allowing you to choose gems that will boost your stats temporarily during battle, activating based on certain conditions such as hitting an opponent 4 times.

I’ll probably do a full break down of the game on another week but I wanted to post some footage of the game for this week since I had managed to get some time online with it. A problem with the game currently however is that the online, though its relatively lagless, has some issues. Sound cuts out frequently online due to netcode which breaks the flow and immersion of online matches, though it’s not the worst. There is not too much lag present so at least it’s not bad lag and the sound cutting out. Thankfully I was hardly affected by the issues anyways so I could play online just fine.

My online ranked matches

Graphics in Games 10 : Realistic vs. Non Realistic Portrayal in games

In the newest generation of graphics, we now have the technology to portray extremely realistic characters. But both today and in the past, games did not always strive to portray realistic looking characters, sometimes preferring a more stylized look. There are a huge number of different stylized looks however and can vastly vary in terms of look and feel compared to realistic portrayals. Sometimes they can even try and combine the two together to try and give a unique look to the game. Today I would like to try and compare the two different styles and the benefits and cons of both.

Realistic 

vs

Stylized

Quick Definition

First off let’s just define how we might talk about realistic portrayal. There are a large number of games that have realistic lighting, effects, graphics and models, though perhaps the models have proportions that aren’t entirely correct. I will be ignoring the fact that their model’s proportions aren’t quite correct because the game in question shows all signs of otherwise trying to show a realistic environment and world. This doesn`t mean it has to be a real world setting of course, it just means it looks realistic .

Also to be fair, most games that have characters with very whack proportions in every single character(I am talking super giant heads) will most likely NOT be realistic and be aiming for stylized. If there are effects such as a cell shader that makes the entire world look more cartoonish even with properly proportioned models, then I would put it in Non-realistic portrayal. I think it will be obvious to tell when a game goes for realism and another goes for a more stylized look.

Realistic

Mass Effect has consistently shown great realistic visuals

There have always been games that strive to make it the next revolutionary step in graphics and try to showcase their games in tech demos. Today there are a lot more games that strive for this goal and many more succeed now to the increased technology we now possess. Games such as Crysis, Gears of War, Mass Effect, Call of Duty, Battle Field, Final Fantasy, Bayonetta, Tekken and so on, way too many to count, possess the strive to go for such realistic looking settings. Their use of lighting, particle effects, facial animation, and other effects give them a very jaw dropping look if done correctly. Like I said there are a ton of games out there that already try and use a realistic look now. There are just as many games that try to go for a more realistic look that try to portray a more unique style, perhaps more, I am not entirely sure there are way too many games being released.

Battlefield 3 provides some very realistic visuals

So what’s an advantage of going for realistic? Well there is personal preference out there, and there are many people out there who enjoy a more realistic looking setting. Some love developers going for the next generation of graphics and being awed by how real a game can look. Depending on the game in question, getting realistic graphics is pretty much necessary. Games such as BattleField, being a war simulator essentially and having a reputation to keep, needs to try and look as realistic as possible to cater to it’s fans.  Choosing a realistic setting in this case helps enhance the war simulation feel and enhance the overall experience of the game. I doubt the majority of fans would want to play the game looking all cell shaded with large headed characters (though there would of course be some that would).

Crysis has been a benchmark for PCs since 2007

With use of bump mapping, lightmapping, shadow mapping and other effects to show texture and lighting, realistic graphics become a great possibility and much easier to do in the past. There are some very cool effects to enhance the effect of scenes and make them look more realistic or enhanced and many easy to do. Techniques such as improving facial animation are also much greater than in the past, games such as L.A. Noire showing very great facial animation. However I can’t say this point here can only be a positive for realistic, it would be a positive point for unrealistic because they also rely on create effects to enhance the feel of their game. Basically, advancing technology helps both sides of the coin and can easily show massive improvements on both sides.

How L.A. Noire uses facial animation

Before we get into disadvantages, let’s look more into Non-Realistic so that we can compare the two more easily.

Non-Realistic

Bomberman`s rather cartoonish look

There are plenty of non-realistic games out there with plenty of stunning effects that look “realistic” but overall the feel of the game aims towards a non realistic look. Just take a look at Mario Galaxy, there are plenty of cool particle effects, but the overall lighting, style of the characters and more simplified texture looks and color palette make it go towards non-realistic. Speaking of Mario, a lot of Nintendo games go for this kind of look due to the cartoonish, happy go lucky nature of their characters and to appeal to a wider audience. Going for a realistic Mario might be a turn off for some younger children.

Continuing on this point, non-realistic lends itself to a much wider range of different styles. This allows you to appeal to different audiences in different ways. Again, going back to Mario, he needs a non-realistic look, he needs to provide a bright, happy, inviting environment with quirky looking characters that would never look right in a realistic fashion or simply couldn’t exist. Sure, seeing a realistic looking Bowser might be cool but it might scare some children. This is why non-realistic works, it provides the opportunity for looks that will truly appeal to certain audiences. Like any good cartoon, they stick with that certain style that gives their characters their unique feel. Trying to change it to a more realistic look can look weird and make fans sad.

Bomberman tried to take the more realistic approach and failed

Again like I said in the realistic section, improving effects, improving hardware have allowed greater effects in all games. No matter what style of game, improving technology will always enhance the feel of the game. Improving technology means easier and newer ways of calculating techniques such as cell shading, which makes the game look more cartoony, and with newer ways could mean more efficient ways. This means more opportunity to add other effects or just enhance the overall frame rate. Once again this can also apply on the realistic side too.

Dragon Ball Z games have always gone for a cell shaded look in order to look like the show

Comparison

So we saw some examples of what these both provide in terms of aesthetics but let’s talk about comparing them in a more technical manner. In this comparison, it’s to see which is overall easier to implement in a game since we already know the benefits of using either one. I will be awarding “points” to whoever I think has the advantage in each category. Let’s start with animation.

Animation

Uncharted has consistently had some great animations

We all know that realistic games would try and go for realistic looking animations, or at least try their best to. Really good examples of this might be Uncharted 1,2 and 3. Drake’s animations have a lot of very realistic qualities to them thanks to the techniques the developers used. But now the thing is a lot of effort MUST be made to make his animations look good. Being a high budget game by a well known studio, when they are aiming for realistic look they have to put a lot of effort into capturing and animating the character to look really good. Otherwise it would take players out the experience, because even with a realistic looking setting, if the characters don’t match then there will be a loss of immersion. I can say this, in a Call of Duty game, I always frown at how the characters run in a multiplayer match because despite the game going for realistic, they run so strange and it takes me out of the experience. This especially applies for facial animation in cutscene heavy games. A really bad facial animation system can lead to some very bad cases of loss of immersion.

Due to the lego style, a skeleton structure to match an entire human isn`t required to bring these characters to life

Meanwhile on the unrealistic end, even with a low budget studio aiming for a certain style, they have more lee way with their animations. This is because if they are aiming for a funny walk for a cartoonish character, it doesn’t need to have all the detail a normal human would require to walk normally. They can spend overall less resources to achieve the certain look because they didn’t define their animation to look like a human or a creature with certain weight. Granted they can still aim for it and they shouldn’t aim for bad animations either, but overall they can spend less resources to satisfy their needs compared to realistic games.

I think I have to give it to unrealistic games because there are many cases where less resources would be needed to make the animations work with a particular character and not lose immersion inside of the game.

Realistic 0 || Unrealistic 1.

Models and Textures

Batman Arkham City needed to make sure the detail on Batman and his various rivals had sufficient detail to represent the iconic characters

It’s a similar case for models and textures as it is for animation. Realistic, once again has to put much more effort into making sure the characters look realistic. Model proportions must strive to be correct (Though it’s still acceptable in some cases) but usually games striving for pure realism in their human characters will strive to try and get these. Texture quality is now getting higher standards by this generation and so realistic games must strive to try and match it lest they cause some disappointment. This means a lot of effort must be made to ensure some great looking textures onto the character and mapping it all out onto the character and creating those textures can be quite a task.

Tales of Vesperia uses a cell shaded style that doesn`t need as much detail in textures

On the other hand for unrealistic games, depending on the particular style, you could even lack textures based on the style you choose. A game with a cell shaded style like Tales of Vesperia means there is less need for textures on the game, because you can see its mostly solid color with some minor textures due to the nature of cell shading. That means less overall effort required to implement the textures for this particular game. For model proportions, less effort again in a lot of cases. Characters don’t need to follow a strict human form all the time and changing their proportions is not as big of a deal as it is for realistic. This can also lead to very simplistic characters such as Kirby who would overall need very little effort in terms of both model and animation compared to a realistic human.

Overall unrealistic models and textures would probably require less effort in many cases.

Realistic 0 ||  Unrealistic 2.

Lighting

God of War III had great lighting effects

In terms of lighting, a lot of new technology has emerged that makes realistic games look truly fantastic. But once again a lot more precise calculations will usually be required for realistic games. Games like God of War 3 had some very crazy good lighting, which is required to make the games look more realistic. Bump mapping requires good lighting in order to look good and realistic characters simply won’t look realistic without good lighting. This means this is essentially a massive requirement and a lot of effort must be made to make the lighting look good for a game. If you take a look at Mass Effect 2, there were some instances where, even though the lighting was good, it caused some problems.

Once again for unrealistic, it’s not always required to have the best lighting. Based on the type of game, if going for a simpler, cell shaded look then you won’t need as much lighting effects. Granted though, that the effects can be processed after some very high level lighting calculations, which essentially means it can still take a lot of effort. However this will vary depending on the game and the techniques used by the developers.

However like I said, realistic NEEDs good lighting in all cases or it will fail or look bad. Therefore I will have to give the point once again to unrealistic.

Realistic 0 || Unrealistic 3.

Particle Effects

This is where I might want to call a tie between the two, because unrealistic can go to lengths to make some very good particle effects just as much as realistic. Both of them can strive for amazing looking particle effects that look realistic. You can say that unrealistic can just go for ones that fit with their style and go for lower level particles and this is true. Realistic would probably have to try and go for the best in order to fit with their game and make the game look, well realistic. I don’t want to give this again to unrealistic because a lot of unrealistic games use a lot of great particle effects that take as much calculation as a realistic game, but on the other hand a realistic game needs to look real and needs to look good.

But I will just give the point to no one for this case to be nice.

Realistic 0 || Unrealistic 3

Conclusion of Comparison

So we can see that overall unrealistic and more stylized games are probably easier to implement in general and this should be true. A lot more effort is required to make games look like real life but that’s not to say a lot of effort isn’t put into the stylized games as well. They can require just as much effort. But the comparison shows that since a lot more effort is needed for a realistic look, it also means that a larger budget and more time would be required. This can be bad for indie developers (which is what I might be come) and smaller companies with a lower budget. We don’t have the resources to go for a realistic engine at times which means that overall, going for an unrealistic look can overall be more beneficial.

Skyward Sword went to a stylized look rather than realistic

Take a look at Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on the Wii. The Wii has never been a power house but Skyward Sword uses a painting like style to give it a unique feel, where as it’s predecessor, Twilight Princess went realistic. Also take a look at Windwaker with it’s cellshaded style aged better then Twilight Princess. I know I went over this point before in another post but I want to reinforce this. The unrealistic look that was 3 years older aged better than the realistic look that Twilight Princess went for. Also Skyward Sword pushed the Wii to the limit and used a style that took advantage of hardware limits. We have never seen a very realistic looking game on the Wii simply because it doesn’t have the power to do so. Going unrealistic helps us get over these disadvantages.

I hate repeating myself but Windwaker aged better than Twilight Princess did

I think it’s fair to say that overall there are currently more advantages for unrealistic looking games over realistic looking games, but I enjoy them both. I love both types of games and I hope to see both evolve and grow. But for low budget or low tech consoles then unrealistic is probably the best way to go.

Lan War 2012 Experience

I worked earlier in the week quite a bit to make for, one of my favourite experiences I had last year, UOIT’s Lan war, a 48 hour gaming event. Although I didn’t spend all my time there (since I don’t like pulling all nighters and there was still some work to be done), but all the time I spent was great, it was a ton of fun just to play with others and have good time with them. The part that was the most fun was the social interaction. I talked with a lot of people I hadn’t seen before, played with them and generally had a really fun time just because everyone was so friendly. This whole aspect ties into one of the lessons we learned in Game Design but I will talk about that later in the blog, I would rather focus on what actually happened.

Lanwar III promotional trailer

Day 1

So the event started at 10:00pm on Friday, March 9^th. It started off with a few tournaments, namely Starcraft 2 which was actually sponsored by E-Sports Canada. I didn’t participate however and mostly ended up playing a bit of League of Legends casually with people around and online. I didn’t stay long that night, and ended up going around 1 or 2 am to get some rest. Tomorrow would be the time where I spent more time since that was when the tournaments I was interested in partaking would be.

Day 2

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 was one of the tournaments held during LanWar

I returned Saturday morning and participated in the League of Legends 5 vs 5 tournament. I formed a team with various other people around including my fellow group member Mike. Our team was solid but we ended up losing our match we knocked us out early unfortunately. Shortly after I participated in the Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 tournament, unfortunately there weren’t too many people in the tournament but I took first place anyways. I don’t think I lost a single round in the tournament and ended up winning a fight stick for use with my fighting games. A very good prize in my opinion, already giving me the benefits of my $10 required to get into Lanwar. The price on these things can vary to fairly high prices and my stick seems fairly good so definitely well worth it.

My prize for winning UMvC3

Afterwards I played various other games, mostly fighting games. I brought my xbox, so I hooked it up and we played games such as Mortal Kombat, Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 and the newly released Street Fighter X Tekken. I also ended up playing Super Smash Brothers Melee and Brawl, as well as Mario Kart Wii. Most of the fun came from just the interactions with the other players, just generally having a good time even if we were winning or losing. Not taking the game seriously was the best way to make sure everyone had a good time. Other people ended up using my Xbox, playing Halo Reach and Call of Duty Black Ops, though I didn’t play with them. The great thing about Lanwar is how everyone will let each other use their gaming systems, and generally everyone is friendly and inviting so everyone really gets a chance to play. No one tried hogging a system, they always let someone else come in to play. That’s really most of what made the event so much fun.

Brawl was one of the tournaments held at midnight

Saturday night continued with the Super Smash Brothers Brawl tournament. In this tournament there were quite a few people, around 12 to 16 players. I easily got through the competition until I ran into another player who I believe is a high level tournament player. He knew a lot of techniques and skills that I had not fought before though seen in high level play before and he was able to knock me into the loser's bracket where I would have another chance to make it to the finals. I fought another player around my skill level in the loser's finals and I was able to defeat him and I made it to the finals to fight the high level player once again. I put up quite a good fight, though unfortunately not able to beat him. It was very intense but very fun to play and I am proud to fight a good, high level player as I generally don’t get to fight any. In the end I was 2^nd place for the Smash Brothers Brawl Tournament and I don’t believe there was a prize for 2^nd (not that I knew of at least). The night ended at 4 or 5 am in the morning, definitely past my bed time. I went right home after that and slept in for as long as I could.

Day 3

Next morning I spent most of my day working on various requirements for our game development game as well as any remaining homework I needed to complete. Once dinner time hit, I went back to Lan War for the concluding hours and participated in the final and most important tournament of Lan War, the King of Games tournament. This being Lan War 3, this is the third King of Game’s tournament as it is in every Lan War. I attended the first Lan war, taking the King of Games tournament but I did not attend the 2^nd Lan war so obviously I could not participate then.

The remaining players gathered for the King of Games tournament, playing the first game, Super Smash Bros (N64)

Basically what the King of Games tournament is players being put into a series of games from various genres. Fighting games, puzzle, platforming, you name it, it could be any game. There were around 24 players in the tournament because most had left already due to the 48 hours in the Lan War, its hard to keep everyone around. It started as 24, going into Super Smash Brothers on the N64. Players were separated into groups of 3, with the player with the lowest score in a timed match being kicked out. 

Bomberman 64, the next game in the tournament

This made it 16 players remaining, which then went to Bomberman on the N64, where players had to be the last one standing to win a round. Win 3 rounds and you would advance. At this point, groups were split into 4, so only 1 out of those 4 would advance. I managed to snag victory in Bomberman, moving to the next round and becoming part of the final four in the tournament.

Kirby's Avalanche was the third game

The next game was a puzzle game I had never heard of, Kirby’s Avalanche. I never even knew Kirby had a puzzle game, it was quite interesting. It was rather simple though and didn’t take too long to get the hang of, but I was never much of a puzzle game player anyways so I thought for sure I would lose. Thankfully I managed to win best 2 out of 3, going 2 to 1 and solidifying my place in the finals of the tournament.

The final game was Pokemon Stadium 2

Finally we went to the finals of the tournament and it was a 1 vs 1 match in Pokemon Stadium 2 on the N64. We had to choose our teams from a list of rental pokemon then face each other, picking 3 out of the 6 pokemon on our teams (For strategy purposes of course). It was very tense and the battle went back and forth a lot. I managed to get the first win, and then narrowly losing the 2^nd round. The third and final match that would declare the winner was very very close, it was literally one turn away on each side from knocking the other one out. My attack barely managed to do just enough damage to knock out his last pokemon. His pokemon was a water type and mine was a fire, so he could have killed me. The whole battle was very intense because there were a lot of misses and critical hits going on that kept changing the tide of the battle. It was definitely a battle worthy of the finals of a tournament and I managed to snag the title of King of Games at Lan War once again. That makes it my 2^nd time at Lan War and my 2^nd title, I seem to have won it every time. I wonder if I might have been able to get it at the 2^nd Lan War? This was probably the most exciting moment in Lan war for me just because it was so close, a complete blow out would not have been nearly as interesting.

My prize as King of Games for LanWar III

The remaining few that stayed for the end of LanWar III

Conclusion

Now that was my fantastic experience in Lan war and I am going to reinforce why. The Social aspect of it all. Playing with everyone else in person, seeing their reactions, laughing with them, it’s so much better than anything online can really do. I know this for sure, online can never really replace playing next to someone. So many classic games were played that either don’t work as well online, or don’t have online at all. Games like playing Bomberman again after who knows how many years was just so much fun because though most people didn’t really know what they were doing or were relying on their experiences in the past, even though we weren’t truly skilled, it was just so much fun because everyone was laughing and watching as the matches played out. It’s one thing to just play online with others and another to be around other people all sharing the experience in the same room. It makes me really appreciate all the gatherings around one console or gaming area that online cannot replicate (at least not currently). It’s something I have always and will probably always enjoy more than online play. Online I choose for convenience while playing in the same area is more for fun.

One final thing I want to say is talking about is that, in our game design lessons, it was pointed out that to have the most fun you need to find the right balance between difficulty and skill. The various fighting games I played on Saturday were fun because I played against some skilled opponents. Same for the Super Smash Bros tournament, that was a fun final match because even though I was defeated, it was a lot of fun to try and fight against someone at my/higher skill level. The games in the King of Games tournament were chosen in a way that most people don’t typically play them or haven’t played them, or games where there are luck factors that allow even some lower level people to match up, but still requiring skill to be able to win. Its what made all my matches fun, the Smash Bros match, the Bomberman match was close, the Kirby’s Avalanche match was close, and the Pokemon match was very very close. The most exciting moment in Lan War for me was that pokemon match just because it was very equal.

I just wanted to point out how these aspects I learned in Game Design are really apparent now and how they really translated to making my experience at Lan war amazing.